MPM--Yes, Less than 100

Welcome back! Yes, dear reliable commenter, it's less than 100 days to Christmas. Now it is less than 90. I would say "I'm behind," but that's silly. I'm just not as ahead as I meant to be.

We had a great filet of fall weekend, with my niece and her husband visiting from DC, soccer, football, a memorial walk, lots of family, lots of crisp air and jeans and outside time. And glory be, baseball is almost over. I'm giddy. (I love baseball but with a Phils obsessed husband, it goes on TOO LONG.)

This week is a busy one but it's really just on-schedule. I am pleased to have a normal, settled week. The cello is fixed and ready to go; the sports seasons are underway and doing fine, the language classes started and things are humming. So dinners:

Monday: it must be fall, I'm obsessed with my crockpot. I'm trying two new crockpot chicken recipes in 2 weeks here. I will try this one this week, for a whole chicken. On the side: this awesome and easy zucchini recipe from Smitten Kitchen. How did I go all summer without this? I ate it weekly last summer.

Tuesday: Oh, I'm so happy it's the Lego Build. That takes care of one extra night of cooking (or not cooking).

Wednesday: Leftover spaghetti and meatballs from the weekend. For kicks I might make zucchini tots to go with it. I have SO much zucchini to use this week. (Or freeze. I keep forgetting that's an option too.)

Thursday: Taco Tuesday on Thursday. Happy about that.

Friday: Fall Fest, and the start of The Weekend That Never Ends (TM) (so named by my husband, since we have an amazingly great weekend but boy howdy is it jam packed). At least they will serve pizza for dinner at Fall Fest so that's settled at least.

I tried to get out of our rut and tried a new recipe--crock pot buffalo chicken wraps. They were a qualified success. Mr. Picky actually ate some lettuce, which was a small miracle. He didn't like it, but he ate it, and I wanted to weep with joy. The real problem: I only had generic hot sauce, because I don't use that much of it. But the comments suggest, and I believe, that it is better with a brand name (in particular, Frank's), so I'll try that next time. I was also out of blue cheese dressing, so I took advantage of the opportunity to try the accompanying recipe. This was also a qualified success; I don't think I let the flavors mix long enough, I only had regular mayo, and I forgot the garlic powder. I haven't run the numbers against some of my usual favorite bleu cheese dressings to see if there is enough of a calorie difference to get past it. And honestly--I've had worse from a bottle, though I have also had better. Lastly, if you make it--don't chop the onion that small. I will do onion chunks next time--it was too hard to chase the onion away from the chicken (and it wasn't tasty).

But now I'm obsessed with pulled chicken. What can I do with it beyond tacos and BBQ?

Yay me: this marks my one-year anniversary of my job. I don't know if that means I can still call it a "new" job anymore but while on the one hand, the re-entry is bumpy, I love love love the work and the people and I am so so grateful for it. It does make things like finding kitchen mojo time difficult but really? A small price to pay. Now if I could just find my Blackberry, I'd be in business.

Hoping your fall is full of things you love. Go check out I'm an Organizing Junkie! for some amazing menu plans!