And the Gold Medal for Extreme Grocery Shopping Goes to...

Lunch: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches and Chips
Dinner: Dirty Rice and Green Beans

I am soo tired and soo bored! I am also soo tired of being bored. Between Friday afternoon and Sunday, I probably spent 12-13 hours in the car. It all started Friday afternoon on the way home from work. Traffic is always bad on Friday afternoon, but it doesn’t generally start getting really bad until after 3:30. I got done with groceries early that day (extreme grocery shopping should totally be an Olympic sport) and got out of work around 2:30. I was excited because I thought I was totally going to get home early and bypass the worst of the traffic. Boy was I wrong! It took me nearly an extra hour to get home because of a baby bison on the interstate. No, I’m not kidding. Apparently the bison fell off of a truck and was hit by a car and caused a big pileup. All lanes of traffic were stopped until they could get the cars and the bison off the road. Then Saturday morning we got up early to head down to my hubby’s hometown. The 3 ½ hour drive to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere is quite possibly the longest and most boring drive in the world (unless, that is, you’re driving across Kansas, Wyoming or eastern Colorado). Then we had to turn around and make the trip back again the next day. When we got home Sunday, we had to get back in the car to take the dog up to Conyers to get him bathed. We normally just bathe him outside with the hose, but it was too cold and he desperately needed a bath after my mother-in-law’s drooly mongrel slobbered on him so much that his fur actually stood on end and was crunchy. Come to think of it, this has been a rather traumatic weekend for me and the dog.

So in other news, I think that extreme grocery shopping should totally be an Olympic sport. The event would consist of being given a very long list of groceries which you would then have to go and purchase (using the minimum of at least 2 stores), load and unload the groceries and get them put up. The event would be judged on time it took, how cheaply you were able to get the groceries and style points for how well the groceries were loaded on the carts. Points would be deducted for groceries that fell off the cart or out of the car and forgetting items. The event would require intense training, athleticism and concentration. I’m sure I would medal… possibly even get the platinum. (If you’ve been following the Olympics, you’d get that). Yesterday, I managed to get everything in record time and even came in 50 cents under budget. No mean feat considering the fact that they just docked $20 off my already stretched weekly budget. The question is. is it a summer or a winter sport?

Last tidbit of the day before I get to the recipe:
Here is today’s frat house news. One of the brother’s is sick. He came down hoping for sympathy. In a very sympathetic way, I crossed my fingers, hissed and told him to go away (hey, I don’t get sick days!). In other news, Sun Chips has a new biodegradable bag. The boys especially love cheddar Sun Chips, but they apparently hate the new biodegradable bag. One complained very loudly and persistently that the chip bag was too loud (yeah… I’ll get right on to fixing that). Lastly, hot ham and cheese sandwiches are apparently universally loved at the frat house. They are nothing more than slices of ham and American cheese stacked on toasted French bread, but the guys were gushing about them like it was a feat of sheer culinary genius.

Today’s Recipe:
Dirty Rice

Dirty Rice is great because it’s super cheap to make, easy to make in large quantities and generally very appealing to boys as it is little more than ham, hamburger, rice and Cajun spices. Add a quick salad and you’ve got a meal that children and grown children (guys) will love.

Dirty Rice
Serves 25

3 quarts Long Grain White Rice
1 ½ gallons Chicken Broth
20 cloves Garlic, minced
2 med Onions, diced
3 cups Green Bell Pepper, diced
3 cups Ham, diced
¼ cup Butter
1/8 cup Cajun Seasoning Mix (like Tony Chachere’s or Zatarains)
1/8 cup Tabasco Sauce
2 tbs Dried Thyme
4 Bay Leaves
6 pounds Ground Beef

Melt butter in a large sauté pan. Add onions, garlic, green pepper and ham. Sauté until onions are tender; add Cajun seasoning, tabasco sauce, dried thyme and bay leaves and remove from heat. In a large stock pot, add rice, stock and veggie mix. Stir together and bring to a boil. When rice mixture comes to a rapid boil, lower heat and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes.
In sauté pan, brown hamburger. Season hamburger lightly with salt and pepper. Drain cooked hamburger and add in to rice and veggies.