What a good girl am I

I pulled out about 5 plums and did this. Except with plums instead of figs and oranges. I bought figs, but I had to eat them. Mmmmmmmmmm, figs.

I love love love Simply Recipes - since the author is only a couple of hours away from me, her recipes are always on track with what is seasonal and local for me. Super!

It's a killer week, actually. G is going up to Livermore almost every day for scheduled lab time on the big fancy chemical analyzing machines. I am coming into work at 7 so I can leave (theoretically) at 4 to pick up the short people. Yesterday I didn't get out until 4:45 (talking to professors about a new grant for a "cognitive sensorium" and visualization facility - cool stuff!) and it took me a full hour to pick everybody up because they were in 3 different places - A at the after school program, S at a friend's house (great new friend with an amazing mom with whom I am trying hard not to compare myself unfavorably) and the littles' team (K and Z) at their babysitter's house. Amazingly, we made it back in time for a snack before soccer practice. G got home in time to take the big boys, and I put dinner on - slow-cooked beef soft tacos with avocado. Not too dang bad.

Slow-cooked beef soft tacos

1 lb beef round, chunks for stew, trimmed of fat
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilies
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 bunch green onions (scallions, for you East Coasters), green and white parts, sliced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin

Plop them all in the Crock-Pot and cook it all day. Shred the beef with a fork. Serve on whole-grain tortillas with avocado chunks and salsa. Cheese and sour cream are of course delicious but entirely optional.

About the mom of the new friend. Here is a reminder for me not to be so psycho:

When a new person moves into the ward, she is actually a potential friend - not just someone with thinner thighs, more money, nicer kids and better housekeeping skills than me who homeschools her children and has great parenting ideas and the primary household rule of "we must have fun." Someone like this may not necessarily be out of my league as a girlfriend. In spite of all that.

Think positive, Mama. You make some awesome tacos.