STOCK!

Many people buy their stock at the store, and I used to be one of them, I admit. It's not that expensive, it's easy to open and dump, and you can buy it when it's on sale.  I lived like that for many years.

Fairly recently, I started to care where my food came from, how it was treated if it was an animal, and how it was grown if it was a plant. That's when I went back to my roots, and started making certain things from scratch, and stock is one of them. It's not hard, but I quit doing it years ago for the above mentioned reasons.

Let me start by saying that I only use organic, free range chicken. I know the family who raises them for me, I know what kind of treatment they get, what they're fed, and how many times a week their giant chicken house gets moved to clean grass. They eat bugs, grass, seeds, worms, and everything that chickens are supposed to eat. They taste AMAZING, and I think that $20 a chicken is completely worth it to feel good about serving them.  They also cook completely different than chicken-mill raised birds.  One of the things about chicken stock, is that after you get the bird in the pot, you bring it to a rapid boil, then turn it down to low, skim the foam (which is the marrow from the bones of the chicken) that comes to a greasy gray scum on the top of the water. If you don't skim it, or continue to boil the hell out of it, then your chicken's bone marrow will fuse with the water, and you will have a nasty, murky, gray-tinged looking broth. This trick is something I JUST LEARNED! So all you beginners, don't think that you cannot learn new things, even after you've been cooking for 30 years! This is the main reason why I always hated the broth I made! It tasted okay, but it looked gross. I was mortified to learn that all it took was patience! The first thing I noticed when using these organic birds, is that there is very little junk, and I usually only skim once.  I think it's because they're natural, they're not loaded full of chemicals, dyes, antibiotics, and drugs, and therefore they are very, very clean.

This is my chicken, right after I skimmed it and and added the veggies. Very clear and fragrant.

SO~~~
STEP ONE:  Plan stock making for a day when you aren't rushed. Then buy a good chicken, preferably organic, free range. Your end product will be so superior, that you won't regret it. Besides, when I show you everything you can do with one stewed chicken, the results will have you sold.

STEP TWO:  Invest in a good stock pan.  I bought a 20 quart stock pan about 10 years ago, and it's saved my bacon on many occasions. I believe I bought it at Walgreen's or Bi-Mart. I know I didn't pay more than $12 for it. It's a necessity when making stock, and it also is awesome at Thanksgiving time when you need to make mashed potatoes by the 20# sack :>) Put  your bird in the pot, and fill the pot up with COLD water until the bird is just submerged.

STEP THREE: Bring chicken to a rapid boil, then immediately reduce heat to a simmer. This means that the bubbles are just breaking the surface occasionally. This is SLOW. FYI: I put my bird in straight from the freezer, frozen solid (with that said, the farm where I buy my chickens leaves the necks attached, not wrapped in paper before they freeze them and stuff them in the cavity. They also don't put the organs in the cavity. See comments on that below.) In other words, if you're going to skip thawing it, then know what's in the cavity before you just throw it in the pan!

STEP FOUR: Skim off any foam that comes to the surface with a slotted spoon, and discard it.  Then add 1 peeled carrot, one peeled onion sliced in half, 2 stalks of celery, 1T of peppercorns, 1/2 a head of garlic, one large handful of fresh parsley, several sprigs of thyme (no need to pick off leaves, just throw them in the pot), and 1 T kosher salt.

I cooked it low and slow for about 5 hours, keeping an eye on the water level, and tasting occasionally to see if it needs more salt.

When it's done, just set it on the counter for a while, maybe 15 minutes. It should still be hot, but not boiling, so you don't burn yourself when you strain it.

STEP FIVE: Pull the chicken out, and place in a bowl.  It might come out in many, many pieces, and that's okay. Just pull out as much as you can with a big fork, and set aside.  The rest you'll get when you strain it.

STEP SIX: Put a giant silver bowl in your sink. Get a metal strainer (I use one I bought at the Dollar Tree for $1, and it works GREAT.)  Pour the broth through the strainer, until strainer is about half full. Raise the strainer up over the bowl, and allow all liquid to run into larger bowl. Put chicken and vegetables that remain in with the other bowl of chicken until you're ready to deal with that.  Continue this process until all broth is strained through fine strainer.

This picture shows the vegetable broth, but you get the idea with the chicken.

STEP SEVEN: Let the broth cool a little more, and then ladle into freezer containers. I happen to love Ball Freezer Containers. They are reusable, you can write on them, they have a screw on top (very important) and they are so easy to pull out of the freezer and thaw in the microwave when you're ready to use. They're cheap, and you can get them at Bi-Mart or Wal-Mart in the canning/freezing section.

Let the stock cool on the counter completely, then put the lids on, mark them, and throw them in the freezer. These particular freezer jars are made to stack, which really works great in any of my three freezers.

STEP EIGHT: pick the chicken off the bones. If you've done it right, the meat will just slide right off, and this won't take you very long at all. Don't forget the neck, wings and drumsticks! Most organic chickens come with the necks intact, but yours might be inside the bird. I don't use the gizzards, (my farm doesn't include them at all, which is FINE with me!). I don't like the flavor they give to the stock. But the necks, wings and drumsticks are loaded with meat. Just pick the bones out and you won't regret the extra few minutes this takes for the big handful of meat you get.

BEEF STOCK

If you're wanting to make beef stock, it's pretty much the same as above, only go to the butcher and ask for beef bones. You'll have a bit more skimming to do, depending on where you buy your beef, but the process is really similar. I usually add a little Kitchen Bouquet to my beef stock. You can get this anywhere that sells spices, and it really makes your stock a nice color.

VEGETABLE STOCK

If you want vegetable stock, there are truly no rules! I love making vegetable stock, because it is a fabulous way to get rid of old vegetables that you forgot about. Start by thinking about how things would taste together. If you wouldn't roast them all and serve them as a side dish together, don't put them together for your stock.  Here's what I had today when I made stock: an onion, a few shallots, a yellow crookneck squash, a zucchini, a butternut squash, garlic, celery and a few wrinkly tomatoes. Throw all these veggies on a roasting pan (or cookie sheet) and roast at 400 degrees until they start to brown slightly and smell fragrant. You don't want them "done" but they should be starting to brown.

Here's what mine looked like before I threw them in the oven.  Once they start to smell good, then put them in a large kettle, and add at least 2 gallons of water.  Boil them with a bay leaf, some parsley, some oregano, Kosher salt, and a T of peppercorns. I like my vegetable stock to have a golden color, and my opinion is that if you use either a butternut or some other small savory squash, or a bunch of carrots, that you'll get that same golden finish. I wouldn't use both, because I think the flavors stay more pure if you use one or the other, but it's totally a matter of taste. One vegetable family that I don't use in my stock, is anything in the cabbage family, or the beet family. I find their flavors dominate the broth and ruin the dishes where I use vegetable broth. If you're really scared about what to put in vegetable broth, go to the store and read the ingredients on a commercially prepared broth, and use what they use. Also, be very careful about things like potatoes, yams and parsnips/turnips. They can turn your broth murky.

Here's what your broth should look like after simmering for about 3 hours:

Follow the same process as above for straining, packaging and freezing. There are a couple of options for the cooked vegetables.  One: you can compost them.

This is my compost bucket, and these went out onto the garden spot.

If you (like my vegetarian son, who came in and gave me a hard time about throwing all this goodness on the garden) want to be even more thrifty, then you can puree all these good vegetables up by running them through a Foley food mill. (This item is also something that I think is really necessary any kitchen, and is very inexpensive. I got mine at Bi-Mart.)  The cool thing about the Foley food mill is that it removes all the skins, seeds, etc, and leaves you with a nice creamy product. You could then add some milk or broth, and have yourself a nice soup base to which you could add pretty much anything. I had other things to do today, so I sent my cooked veggies back to Mother Earth, where they will fertilize next years garden.

IN CONCLUSION

To recap: from one $20 chicken and a bunch of vegetables that I had sitting around on my counter, here's what I got:

One giant bowl of chicken, with which I made a dozen chicken enchiladas, with a 1/2 a gallon of leftover chicken enchilada filling for the next time I want to make them (see the bags of chicken at the bottom of the picture below.)  I just labeled it, and tossed it in the freezer. I also got and additional half a quart of dark chicken meat for the next time I make chicken noodle soup, which I threw in the freezer too.

Chicken Enchiladas, top and cheese enchiladas below

And the BROTH!!:

There's my additional chicken, below the chicken broth!

Veggie Broth!

So Yummy!! and good for you. PLUS, you know whats in it and where it came from! With organic stock running anywhere from $4-$6 a quart depending on where you shop, you can see that you've already saved yourself money by doing it this way. Plus, you've got at least three meals out of your chicken, depending on your family size.  All around, this is the smart way to cook and eat.

One last bit of advice, especially for my young married readers. If you only buy one cookbook this year, invest in "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters. It's full of very easy, basic items, that will save you money for the rest of your life, if you learn to master these techniques when you're first starting out. I cannot say enough about nice things about Alice. When you get some time, Google her, and you'll be amazed by all the good things she does with her life. In this day and age of health problems and disease, what we eat is, in my opinion, the difference between life and death. It DOES make a difference where it comes from, and how it's prepared! Bon Appetit!

Ten Years Later

So, many of you know that I'm from a long line of Mormon Pioneers, and that I was born and raised in the Mormon Church.  I've considered myself "out" of the church since 2000, when I officially told my bishop I was done. He proceeded to threaten, cajole and intimidate me, then tried for about six years to reactivate us by sending the latest brave soul to our door to tell us how lost we were. I politely told each and every person that we were fine, and to please just leave us alone.

A few years back, someone close to me that I knew resigned her membership in the church, and I've been wanting to do that since she did, but just never found the time to do it. Okay, maybe I was still deeply frightened of such a step, regardless of how much I profess to not believe in the church. But the idea continued to intrigue me, as I don't believe in or recognize the church leaders as having authority over me, and didn't want to endure the stigmatism of having a church court in order to leave the church.

I found this wonderfully supportive website: http://www.mormonnomore.com/, which gives support and instructions for how to resign your membership. Resigning sounds to me like it's a choice I made, rather than one made for me because I've sinned. Since I had no choice in the matter of being baptised when I was but eight years old, I did have a choice about how I was going to leave.

We (me and four of my five children) received our letters from the church last week letting us know that our resignations had been accepted, and that if we ever wanted to return, to contact our local church leaders. It was all very clean and very non-dramatic, just as the site promised, if the instructions were followed exactly. This process was dramatically different from other people I know who have left, who have been forced to go through a church court trial, and in the process have had their names slandered from the pulpit of the local ward house. It was truly a blessing to me to be able to finally cut the last connection. Leaving that last string attached, even though I haven't felt part of the church emotionally or physically for over 10 years, still bothered me, because I don't do anything half way, and this felt hypocritical to me to still be an official member. Almost like I was saying: "Well, I'm going to remain a member, in case it's all true, and I'm just temporarily messed up."  That wasn't the way I felt, so completing this final step was what I needed to do.

A very dear friend, who is one of my few remaining LDS friends from my "previous life" directed me to the blog of a true warrior. A woman and her family who live in a very active LDS area of Utah, and who had the courage to leave the church and follow their own path in life. She has written a letter to her family explaining her reasons for leaving the church, as well as her feelings during the process. And it is a process, I assure you!!  I'm linking to her blog here (which I hope is okay; she's a goddess in my eyes, as well as a fantastic writer), because this letter could have come straight out of my head.

As I was sharing with my friend, none of my family who are still LDS have ever asked me any questions about my beliefs now, or the reasons why I left, save one of my sisters in law. I am more than happy to share, if people ask, and I'd rather you know why, than make your own assumptions. Read this open letter to Mormons, and if you still want my personal take on it, ask me and I'll tell you.

Angela's open Letter to Mormons: Angela's Blog: Wholehearted

Signed: extremely happy to be MormonNoMore
AKA: your same old friend Dayna

Pintrest, kind of like internet website picture porn.....

I've discovered Pintrest this week. If you've never been to it, give it a try at: http://www.pintrest.com
You have to wait for an invite if you want your own bulletin board, which kind of bugs, but they don't stop you from poking around in the mean time...

It's a blast! Lots of pictures, which lead to tons of different links, one of which I found this awesome pretzel recipe from A Cozy Kitchen:

                  Soft Pretzel Tots

.

Soft Pretzel Tots

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt or coarse Sea Salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 22-inch rope. Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces; using your two hands, one-by-one, roll them into circles. Place the balls (or tots) onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels tots into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel tot with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt (or coarse sea salt). Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

The winning Chili recipe!

I blogged in September about my chopping-hot-peppers-raw experience (go here) while making Cuisine at Home's Green Chicken Chili recipe. I took my own advice and roasted the peppers this time, and just took home first place at our winery club's first annual Chili cook-off! That's $50 worth of wine, thank you very much! Due to popular demand, here's the recipe:

Green Chicken Chili 

SOAK:
1 1/2 C dry great Northern beans
ADD:
4 C chopped tomatillos
4C roasted, seeded, diced Anaheim chilies (about 8 chilies)
2 C each diced onion and roasted, seeded jalapenos (about 5 chilies)
3T minced garlic
1T ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
4C chicken broth
STIR:
4C shredded rotisserie chicken
1/4 C masa harina
3T fresh lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
GARNISH:
lime wedges, sour cream, and chopped fresh cilantro

SOAK beans according to package directions; drain, then add to a 5-6 quart slow cooker.
ROAST: chilies on high broil, turning until crispy blackened skins appear. Remove to plastic sack, and sweat on the counter until cool. Remove blistered skins, and seeds. Chop.
ADD: tomatillos, Anaheim chilies, onion, Jalapenos, garlic, cumin, oregano, coriander and broth to the slow cooker. Cook chili on high-heat setting until beans are tender, about 4 1/2-5 1/2 hours. I've found this really depends on how old your beans are, and how they've been stored.
STIR: chicken and masa harina into chili; cook 30 minutes more. Stir in lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.
GARNISH each serving  with lime wedges, sour cream and cilantro.

From Sept 2011 Cuisine at Home

Redemption!

Last night's dinner was so redeeming after Can Can/Couldn't Couldn't night, that I just had to share the pictures!

So Easy Gazpacho

2 C freshly juiced tomato juice

4 med tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 C chopped cucumber

1/3 C finely chopped sweet onion

1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

1/4 C cider vinegar

1 t sugar

1 garlic clove, minced fine on micro plane grater

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours until chilled. Serve in 1/2 pint jars or decorative soup dishes, with sour dough bread on the side.

Roasted Butternut Linguine

4C cubed, peeled butternut squash

1 medium red onion, chopped

3T olive oil

1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 lb uncooked linguine

2C shredded kale

1T water or olive oil for steaming/pan frying kale

1T minced fresh sage

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit

Put squash, onions, olive oil and spices in a 1 qt zip lock bag. Shake until well coated. Turn out on baking sheet, and place in preheated oven. Bake 25 minutes or until squash is tender, turning to brown. Meantime, steam kale in fry pan with either water or olive oil until bright green and tender, but not limp. Set aside. Cook linguine per package directions, drain and place in large bowl. Top with squash mixture and kale. Toss to combine.

Both recipes from August/September 2010 Taste of Home Magazine
http://www.tasteofhome.com/

That Can Can that Couldn't Couldn't

I made a recipe last night from Taste of Home's annual "Shortcuts" issue (Aug/Sept 2011.) It was entitled "Nacho Beef Bake," and was supposed to be a short and sweet version of a taco salad type of thing.

Aside from the fact that even though it was my day off, and unless I'm deathly ill I usually cook on my day off, my family had already broken out the macaroni and cheese from a box before I got home with the ingredients for my tasty casserole. This alone was enough to start a squabble between me and Mike.

Me: "What are you guys doing?"

Mike: "Eating mac and cheese."

Me: "Is it not obvious by the stack of ingredients sitting on the counter next to the stove, that I am making dinner tonight?"

Mike: "We didn't get a text."

Me:  "It's MY DAY OFF. If you want to know what's for dinner, you can text me!" (I say as I remember that sick as a dog I still cooked dinner last week!!)

This was met by stony stares as he and Bayley stuffed their mouths with nasty boxed Kraft. (Sidebar: I have no control over what my husband buys and puts in my pantry. Talking until I'm blue in the face about organics has done nothing to change his shopping  habits and his fucking coupon clipping, which, in my opinion, is only a scheme to get the most completely unhealthy shit imaginable on the plates of Americans.)

On that note, yes, I realize that taking short cuts is usually a bad thing, but I've subscribed to TOH for 14 years, and have yet to try a recipe from the magazine that I didn't like. As I will describe, there always has to be a first time!!

So, in an attempt to make a dish that my vegetarian children could eat, instead of me saying: "Gee, guys, don't know what you're going to eat tonight," as I did with last week's Hungarian Goulash, I made the dish with those veggie crumbles that look like already cooked ground beef. I used whole wheat noodles, and low salt canned tomatoes. However, there isn't much choice when the list calls for nacho cheese soup, which I admit I used. I also used store bought salsa and ranch dressing, when I usually make those from scratch as well. All of this is leading up to a collective groan from my readers, because I'm wincing as I write it myself.... disaster is brewing, for sure!

The casserole/salad thingie that I made, sure looked pretty, but even after my first bite I could tell this recipe was going to get a failing grade from me. I am the furthest thing from a salt-a-holic. Mike loves salt, and perhaps if he hadn't gorged himself on boxed mac and cheese last night, he would have loved this recipe. My mouth was burning from too much salt almost from bite #1!  Between the green olives, canned tomatoes, canned soup, canned salsa, bottled ranch and crunched up Doritos on the top, it was the worst conglomeration of SALT I've ever tasted! It was horrible!!

Pretty, but horrible tasting!

I shudder to admit that I used to think nothing of a meal created from canned foods. I bought what was on sale by the CASELOAD when the kids were little, and used it to create meals that were filling and cheap. I think that eating the way we've been eating for the past few years, organic, fresh, and local, has totally spoiled me to ever eat this way again! It was a good reminder for me that if a recipe has more than one canned item in it, I'm probably not going to like it!

Now tonight's recipe (which was what I was going to make originally last night, and should have!) is butternut squash linguine.  Fresh butternut squash, fresh red onion, and fresh chard, roasted and tossed lightly with herbs, EVOO and cooked linguine. I'll do fresh tomato gazpacho to go with it. Now we're talking!

And that's what we call Karma, Baby!

Have you seen this cartoon, floating around Facebook?

The members of Westboro Baptist Church have bugged me from the first time they picketed a fallen soldier's funeral. The narrow mindedness of people like this boggles my mind, and makes me an even bigger believer in Karma, what goes around comes around, energy swapping, call it whatever you want.  I simply cannot believe that the forces that rule this planet wouldn't want to suck these idiots into the nearest black hole!

If you are a Christian, and believe in God and Jesus, then you are probably familiar with the Bible. Most Christians I know believe that book to be the word of God, and use it as a measuring stick in their daily lives. Most of my good Christian friends are as appalled by the WBC as I am, and abhor the kinds of "Christlike" behavior that they exhibit.

If you're more a believer in Karma or energy, as I am, I can't believe that these people aren't going to be shocked as hell when they wake up in their next life as a starving orphan in Darfur. Because if I were in charge of Karma, that's where I'd send them: to learn one hell of a lesson in humility after the shitty things they did in this life. Only the most narrow-minded people could picket the funeral of fallen American soldiers, who took a bullet protecting this country. Only the most narrow-minded people could think that God only loves you if you're a white, Christian, heterosexual ultra-conservative.

The only conclusion I can draw here, is that these types of people came from hideously abusive homes where hate and fear were fostered. That's the only way I can wrap my mind around the kind of energy it takes to maintain this level of hatred for fellow human beings and call it Christianity.

I say let Karma do it's job. Let them see what it feels like to walk 20 miles round trip every day to get water and wood to cook 1 cup of gruel to feed a family of six. Let them fear the bands of rapists who regularly defile and disfigure innocent women and young girls for sport. Let them see what it feels like to have your husband disown you because you became an unwitting victim of said sport. Let them see what it feels like as a man, the head of a family, to repeatedly stand in line for days on end, hoping for work to support his starving kids. Let them watch their children die of AIDS or starvation. Let them experience grief unparalleled in this universe when their sons or daughters are beaten to death or bullied to the point of suicide for being gay. I say bring on the worst, Universe, and let them remember everything they did and said to persecute innocent people with their hatred, while they are in the living hell of Karma.

Too Old

So, my normally sweet husband was unnecessarily cruel to me last night. I mean, REALLY cruel!

I am sitting there watching the season premiere of Private Practice, where an old favorite hottie of mine has joined the cast. Enter Dr. Jake Reilly (aka: Benjamin Bratt) as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery's latest love interest. She met him last season in the produce aisle, they shared a kiss without exchanging names, and that was the last I thought I'd ever see of Mr. Bratt.  This season, we find Addison forging ahead with her dream to have a baby, even though the producers seem to have forgotten that this series started 4 years ago with Addison's visit to her friends in LA to see if she could have a baby then. Her friend Naomi told her four years ago that she had like *one* egg left to her name. Of course, the magic of TV land will probably produce that single egg and fertilize it with the sperm of some studly donor. Only the best for Addison Forbes Montgomery!!

At any rate, she's laying there, up in stirrups waiting for her "fertility doctor" to show up, and of course who should walk in but Mr. Pineapple, from the previous season. After a bunch of shuffling, snuffling, clothes tugging awkwardness from Addison, Mr. Hott, er, I mean, Bratt, takes her hands in his and says: "Addison, I'm going to give you a baby."  <faint>

So.... to the TV, I said: "Oh good god, Benjamin, you could give me a baby any day!!" to which my husband replied: "Yeah, a retarded baby, maybe, since you're 45 going on.... you know...." (He knows this upcoming birthday has me bugged....)

Okay, so I didn't know whether to cry or smack the shit out of him at this point!! I mean, people have babies all the damn time in their 40's!! My sister's mother in law did it at age 47, so SEE!! Where does he get off telling me I'm too old to have a baby?? I could do it if I wanted to!

Me: "Well, I certainly wouldn't be having another baby with you, asshole."

Mike: "Duh, I'm fixed. Why am I an asshole?"

Me: "You heard me. That was just plain rude, and mean. I cannot believe that you said I was OLD!"

Mike: "I didn't say you were old, I said you were almost...."

Me: "DON'T SAY IT!! Don't you say the number out loud!"

Mike: "But honey, I didn't say you were old!"

Me: "You said my eggs were retarded!  That's the same as saying I'm old and shouldn't procreate, even with Benjamin Bratt!"

Mike: (looks incredulous) <sigh> "I didn't say you were old."

Me: "I am going to bed, where you should probably not begin to think you are getting any sex tonight."

I went to bed alone, where I dreamed about Benjamin Bratt and his millions of viable sperm. To hell with my husband, and sliding down the hill towards fiddy next month. I could have a baby with a hottie if I wanted to.....