Mama Star

I am someone who loves to eat.  I’ve always been a huge fan of food.  In fact, I could finish eating a large dinner and still find the space for a fantastic dessert.  I could eat all day if I had the money and the time. Unfortunately, food has become quite expensive and we are on a budget just like the rest of the U.S. 

My favorite food for lunch or dinner is pizza, but my family and I can’t eat it every day.  In exchange, I love to try out quick and easy recipes (those that take less than 10 minutes) on my family.  My daughter can work up quite an appetite while playing outside.  Slaving over a hot stove on a 90 degree day is not an option.  Enter the tuna fish sandwich.  Tuna fish sandwiches are heart healthy, full of beneficial Omega-3’s, and wonderful on hot summer days.

Over the years, I’ve had some of the best tuna fish sandwiches ever, and I’ve also had some of the worst — both at home and at restaurants.  I never really understood or paid attention to why the tuna fish sandwich I ate one day was better than the one I ate on another day, but there were times when I took one bite and just knew this was a bad tasting tuna fish sandwich.  I never knew why.  Until a few months ago when I realized it’s the brand of tuna that makes the main difference and, then, it’s the ingredients added to the tuna salad that make the second difference in good taste vs. bad taste.

Today, I thought it would be fun to share with you my favorite and best tuna fish salad recipe.  I am also going to caution before you read further that I’m including the specific brand names of my ingredients for a reason.  I suggest strongly that you not substitute one brand name for another one.  It will make a difference.  In fact, there is only one optional ingredient in the list.

What you will need: 

• 5 oz. can of Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna in water
  
• Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
• Salt (a mix of Morton Kosher Salt and Morton Sea Salt)
• Ground Black Pepper
• Diced Onion (optional)
• Sliced Bread

Directions:

1. Open up your can of tuna and drain completely
2. Mix in several dollops of Miracle Whip, mix thoroughly
   (taste and make sure you have enough for your taste buds)
3. Sprinkle on salt mixture and ground pepper
   (again I recommend that you taste the salad to determine if there’s enough)
4. Fold in diced onion (this is optional because I know some people don’t like onions)
5. Mix well
   
6. Now, make your sandwich and enjoy.

Again, I would not change this recipe at all.  That means, don’t buy any other brand of tuna fish.  Always use white chunk tuna and not albacore, which tends to have a more fishy flavor.  I’ve experimented with this recipe over the years, using both Bumblebee and Starkist, and the results are not as magnificent.   I swear there is a better taste to Chicken of the Sea White Tuna in water (to me).  

You may also be wondering why I don’t use plain old table salt.  Well, let me tell you:  the flavorful mix of the Morton Kosher Salt and Morton Sea Salt cannot be duplicated with just plain table salt.   Morton Kosher Salt and Morton Sea Salt both add a wonderful flavor to this tuna fish recipe.  If I could describe it in words, I would. 

Anyway, you won’t be disappointed in this recipe if you follow it exactly.  Even my three year old loves this tuna fish which is a big deal.  If you try it and you like it, please drop me a note.

We have two large rhododendrons gracing each side of the steps leading up to our front porch. They have been green and bulky and not that attractive since we moved into this home.  These rhododendrons looked like shrubs. In fact, my fiance was thinking of digging them up at one point to replace them with pretty perennials, but something stopped him.  He had his hands full that weekend; what with all the landscaping he had scheduled for himself, digging up two ugly shrubs must have slipped his mind.

Then, last week, near the end of May, we were suddenly blessed with beautiful blooming large purple flowers. I am amazed and surprised (as well as relieved).

If you have never experienced these flowering plants when they’re in bloom, you’re missing out on a spectacular display. The rhododendron appears to be only a green, boring shrub for most of the year (hence my fiance’s initial desire to tear them out) but, upon blooming, you will enjoy these awesome large flowers that come in shades of purple, white or pink - depending on the quality you have. Being patient and waiting for their bloom time is key to enjoying this evergreen shrub.

Unfortunately, my research into the rhododendron says that its bloom time is short: only from May to June. Wow.  What a shame. I wish this was a longer period of time because once the flowers open and grace you with their presence, you just don’t want them to go away. I share their beauty every morning while sipping coffee.

I know the flowers will be gone soon.  We are in the month of June, as I write this.  For now, I love the sight of these rhododendrons.  I am also very thankful they weren’t hauled away with the trash two weeks ago.  In a month or so, when they go back to their green, ugly selves, I might begin to feel otherwise.  What the eye can’t see, the mind forgets.  So, to remind me, I’m taking lots of pictures!

When we moved into our new home a few months ago, we also brought along a brand new puppy, a Japanese Chin. We named her Zoey. She’s very cute and very quiet, which is something I immediately found endearing about her. She was three months old at the time and only 4 lbs.

Now, let’s fast forward to today, June 3, 2009.

Zoey and I now have what I call a “love-hate” relationship.  She’s only slowing learning how important it is to potty outside. This is, of course, the hardest part of owning a new puppy.  I understand that.  However, she’s not making it easy for me. Because Zoey’s personality is that of a Japanese Chin (quiet, reserved, and very cat-like), she always fails to let me know when she needs to go outside. I could be looking right at her and without one noise or whimper to tell me what she needs to do, she’ll squat in the hallway.  Or, I’ll bring her in from outside, and she’ll decide that 10 minutes after stepping on the carpet, she wants to pop a squat.  Didn’t you just go outside, you silly fool?  Of course, you’d think that because she’s cat-like, that means she’d be very clean. No. In fact, Zoey doesn’t seem to care when she poops or pees in her crate. She will do so, and then step all over it, sit in it, and act like nothing is wrong. She has had so many shampoo baths that I’m surprised her hair isn’t falling out.

But, she is a sweet puppy, and so we’re still working with her. We are now two months into the process. I’m not sure how long it’s supposed to take with puppies because I usually adopt older dogs. In fact, this is my first puppy in years.

When I purchased her, I also purchased a crate to use inside and a pen to use outside. I could not let her roam free in our yard. Although we have a privacy fence around the front and side of our yard, and a metal fence along the back, there are certain spots near the driveway where the panels do not touch the ground. She snuck out one time when we were in the front yard talking to neighbors, and we didn’t notice until about 15 minutes later. Our home is on a busy street. This is no place for a puppy to be running free. Needless to say, the pen is to keep her contained (and safe) when she’s outside.

Zoey is very good about going potty in her pen outside. And, when she goes potty in the proper area, she is rewarded with a puppy biscuit. Unfortunately, Zoey is also very good about going potty in her crate. Every night, in fact. She is not rewarded for this.

I have read all the puppy training websites out there, and all of them say the same thing: reward and praise your puppy for going potty outside. I have tried that, but it doesn’t seem to be working with Zoey. I am hoping that with age, she’ll gain wisdom. That she’ll finally realize how gross it actually is to sleep on a soiled and smelly puppy bed, to have her hair matted to her butt with poo, or to smell otherwise foul. If not, Zoey and I are destined to keep traveling down this road of frustration together.

In the meantime, I have cut off her food and water in the early evening and her last trip outside to go potty is around 10:00 p.m. I am not going to accept failure…or, I’m going to trade in her cute, yet smelly and poo-matted behind, for an older housetrained dog.

I’ve been working on putting together a blog to complement my maternity, nursing and baby boutique for quite some time now.  Unfortunately, I’ve been through a few different blog platforms, been distracted by family issues and long distance moves, and just can’t seem to get it right.  My research into the proper blog platform has finally ended here at Today.

My goal is to work on this blog at least every day.  If I can’t do that, I hope to dedicate my time on a weekly basis.  My hope is to deliver something fun, fresh and different here.  My initial desire was to bring the pregnant fashion world that exists on the outside world into my blog.  Unfortunately, I’m not much of a fashion writer.  Instead I enjoy writing about things that I know more about:  my life, my kids, my friends and family (i.e., the immediate world around me).

I don’t know if I can accomplish all I’ve set out to do, but I will do my best.  I do lack the time I need and lack a support system so this could be a challenge.  My personal time is considerably hindered by two young tots under the age of three, whom I love dearly, but they can really drain this mom of her creativity and inclination to sit down and write a good blog post.  My son is only 14 months old and he begs to be held most of the time he’s awake.  If I could type without two hands or hide in an office where he can’t see me, this wouldn’t be a problem. My poor son just doesn’t understand it when mommy works at her computer. 

On the bright side, the two of them are starting to entertain each other.  As my son gets older, my daughter finds that she doesn’t mind playing with him.  She still doesn’t share her toys as much as I wish she did, but she’s maturing at a fast rate.  Just the other day I saw her take a toy she wanted from him, but hand him something else to replace what she took (a tactic her dad and I did with her when she was the same age — i.e., “give back mommy’s remote control”).

Currently, I write during the increments of time (sometimes quick 15 minute intervals and sometimes hours) when they play together or sleep. Hopefully, my goal to create a good blog - a blog that’s not just another blog in the line of other mommy blogs - succeeds here at Today.

Please stay tuned.