Soda free since . . . March 11, 2008.

Have I mentioned that I had soda last week? I hadn't had any since December 30 and I was hoping to go the entire year. But my long drive home in the blizzard at night on Tuesday warranted some caffeinated goodness to keep me alert. Too bad it didn't keep me alert enough to pay attention to where my blackberry was. By the way, I went back to the exit where I lost the blasted thing and was not able to find it. But I did manage to get lots of annoyed stares . . . as if their elbows were inexplicably frozen in a way that prevented them from veering around me and instead had to stop and honk to show their frustration that I kept them from driving on one fluid path all the way down the exit ramp. It turns out, in fact, that their elbows were not frozen.

Anyway, I decided that I'd let myself drink it for the rest of the week (and that was good because it was a stressful week) and I'll start again Tuesday with the no soda thing.

After a stressful week, a fun weekend was exactly what we needed . . . and it's exactly what we had. On Friday night, we took dinner to Chad and Cristi and sat around talking with them and Maria for a while. It was so good to get out of the house!

On Saturday morning I went shopping . . . BY MYSELF! No baby in the cart, no stroller to push or carseat to buckle. It was just me. Saturday afternoon, I worked on my paper and in the evening, Kyle and I caught up on American Idol and Lost. On Sunday, after Jack's baptism, our families came over and we shared a meal. The dinner was a lot different than things I normally do, but it all turned out really good. My mom and Kyle's mom brought several dishes and Kyle's grandma brought a chocolate cake. I made barbecue pulled pork and asian pulled chicken sandwiches (recipe below), oven fries (recipe below), and fruit pizza.

Kyle and I have this week "off." I put "off" in quotation marks because I'm heading to camp when I'm done here to get some things done before I come home and work on my paper. The rough draft is due on Friday.

Asian pulled chicken
2 - 2 1/2 lbs chicken boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup stir fry sauce
1 packet stir fry seasoning.

Put the chicken in a crock pot. Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and serve on buns with coleslaw mix and pineapple on top.

Oven Fries
Potatoes (1 to 1 1/2 per person), sliced into 8 - 10 wedges each
*Dried Oregano
Grill seasoning
*Dried Thyme
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 550 degrees. In a bowl, drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and add the oregano, grill seasoning and thyme to taste. Oh, salt and pepper too. Spread them on a cookie sheet in an even layer. Every fry should be touching the pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. These are so, so good. But I don't recommend making them for 15 people at one time . . . way too much hassle.

*I prefer the dried herbs rather than the fresh ones for this dish.