Cold Rosemary Potatoes in EVOO

Exciting day today. Merritt and I headed off to do our usual errands. He has been quite the pill over the last week so I decided to not allow him to take a nap today... let's all see how that goes. Ha. Anyhow, we headed off around noon. This after making breakfast (he refused the oatmeal but was content with cereal, so whatever), showering and getting myself and a bouncy toddler ready to head out the door. I finally got my hair highlighted so I wouldn't look so "pale" as Josh pointed out to me. Hey, don't hate. I can appreciate some truth once in a while. He even told me to check out a particular picture of me. I was pale. He was right. That's what I love about a true friend. They will tell you that you look like shit in hopes that one day you will do the same for them.

So yes, highlights in the black hair to hopefully tone down the whitey-ness and pastey-like appearance I have been toting around. I like it. I am more of a chunky highlights with lots of hair drama type of girl anyway. So of course, I had to spend some extra time on the hair to see what I could do with it now that I have a new look. And I have to admit, I was inspired a bit, as I always am, by America's Next Top Model and their perfect makeover show for cycle 10. I love it. Watching little girls flip out over "short" hair. Waaa. Waaa. It's great. If I were able to have a supermodel give me advice on style of any sort, I would take it. Anyway, I am off track and you are starting to wonder what any of this has to do with cold rosemary potatoes, right? Right, so let's get to it. Merritt and I headed off. We needed TP, more natural toothpaste, some new soap that is a little less disgusting and some deodorant for mama that doesn't have carcinogens in it. Switching over to vegan-ism has taught me a lot about EVERYTHING I am putting into and on my body. I started looking at labels in my shower and just about everything has to go. Sad. But not so much. So Merr and I hit up Target first. He is so much fun and easy to entertain. I brought in an organic apple juice box for him and that kept him busy for the first 20 minutes of shopping. I tried on a couple swimsuits. Now that I am 20 pounds less than I have been any summer for the last 10... I figured I should get a hot swimsuit. Plus, I am on a budget which leads me more and more to want to purchase things I do not absolutely need. Fortunately for the budget, I was not convinced on any of the swimsuits. So we headed off to get our real necessities.

After finishing up we met up with my twin sister and her gaggle of children for a fun afternoon of screaming, arguing and breaking up fights with cookies (that would be me). I transferred Merritt's car seat into her mommy van and we were off. After a few stops for her, it was my turn for a break from the children. I ran into the Food Co-Op to grab some produce and somehow ended up standing in the chocolate isle for far too long. I passed it up which is rather shocking considering how much I have been craving chocolate lately. I headed outside after lingering a bit longer to ensure that I took advantage of my time away from the kiddos. Out to the van it was. Surprisingly for me, some cute hippie followed me out of the co-op to try to make small talk. Cute. But then I saw him eye the rock on my finger and he smiled and turned around. Have I mentioned that having someone want to make small talk with me or try to get my number... well that can keep a married girl smiling for months. I've still got it folks. That's right. Hot mom, wife and homemaker. Anyway... rosemary potatoes, I know.

We head off to get some lunch for Anna's screaming children and end up at a Mexican take-out place. You may have seen them on that show "Dirty Jobs" for turning their oil into bio-diesel, which, by-the-way, my husband did two times. I ran inside to grab a couple vegan burritos for me and Merr and somehow got suckered into paying for and picking up a shredded beef burrito for my brother in law. It really grossed me out and the smell permeated my beautiful bag of vegan goodness. Tragic. Then me and the sis and all the kids headed off to a park to enjoy our Mexican late lunch. Once we got to the park, the children who had been screaming about being SOOO hungry could care less about food. They wanted to chase each other and not listen to their mommies. It was about 45 degrees out but I was freezing. And the fact that I was wearing very adorable heels did not help my case as far as corralling children went. But we got them their outdoors time and a chance for me and Anna to scarf down two bags of take-out tortilla chips. It was good. The kids chased a couple squirrels and then we decided it was time to leave.

Somehow I ended up in Target again but this time Merritt was no angel. Remember, no nap? Right. It was about 4pm by now and he was not having anything to do with being good, listening to mommy, minding, NOT screaming. You know, typical I am about to melt down drama. For him and me. So Merritt and I got out of there as fast as we could before I lost it in the middle of Target and had some mom in her mom jeans glare at me like I am the scum of the earth.

I call Hayden for some moral support and he says we need to drive 45 minutes away to get a part for his truck that he is trading for a Mustang tomorrow. Yay! Just what I need, 45 minutes in a car with an unhappy toddler who has not had a nap. Woo hoo! So I grabbed more vegan cookies and we were off. Our happy little family. About 35 minutes into it, Merritt could no longer hold his head up and his eyes were rolling open and closed. It was really funny. Hayden decided to take advantage of the fact that I didn't want to go inside the auto parts store to strike up a 30 minute conversation with a stranger about Porsche's. It was fun. For him.

Just as he barreled his way back into the car (and after 3 harassing text/picture messages of my bored face), Merritt woke up. And once he wakes up from a late nap, he is even worse, usually, then he was before he woke up. But we were all hungry so we decided to hit up some chain Italian restaurant (and NOT olive garden). We waited for 20 minutes. Hayden asked about 5 minutes into it if their pasta had egg in it. We still didn't have an answer until just before we were seated. Yup, eggs in the pasta. Now you are getting the rosemary potatoes, right?

Our waitress bounces over... a skinny blonde 20ish girl. She takes our drink orders and Hayden starts in on his questions. Now for those of you who have ever gone to a restaurant with Hayden, you know what this can be like. Pure agony. However, now that we are vegan, it's even lengthier and more frustrating for everyone involved. The waitress was confused (shocker) about what vegan meant and even said maybe we could just try the pecan chicken dish without cheese. Yum! Her vegetarian server friend overheard that she had a vegan table (wonder how, I bet she wasn't complaining about us) and he came up with some meal ideas for us. Then the manager came over with an ingredient book to make sure we were happy and confident in our orders. We ended up ordering the bread without butter smothered on it for a starter... then green salads with red pepper balsamic vinaigrette and for the main dish... roasted rosemary potatoes that are then finished in a frying pan with EVOO. Sounded ok. My cooking is far better but we are over an hour from home, so any food will do at this point. Or so I think.

Our bread comes out and it is heavenly. We all dig in and almost completely finished 2 loaves. Then salads and they are great too. Our waitress still didn't seem too impressed by us, especially between Merritt's coughing fits from all his running around earlier combined with his massive fit at bedtime last night that left his voice hoarse and his little cough sounding awful.

Then comes the main dish. Some other gal brought it over to us. It looked really great. Lots of potatoes and I could smell the rosemary right when she set it in front of me. Yum. I dig in. First potato, cold. Second potato, cold. Third potato I dug to the bottom of the dish... it was even colder! At this point I am not too happy but I don't want to be the angry vegan who asked all the questions and then complains about cold food. So I choke down a few more. And just as my stomach starts to turn the manager comes back over to check on us. "How is everything" she asks... Hayden and I looked at each other and chuckled. This as our waitress starts our direction, too. I said "I hate to say this, but the potatoes are cold." The waitress made eye contact with me, rolled her bratty little eyes, turned and darted away from our table. She was whispering to someone else at the computer across the room. The manager called her back over, not impressed with the antics. Our options, sending the potatoes that smelled really good back to be warmed up... aka spit in. Or boxing them up and bringing them home. At this point Merritt is in critical melt down mode and the waitress is pissing me off... so we decide with the latter. The waitress threw the to-go box on the table along with the bill and walked away without saying anything. I put our card in and filled the box while trying to convince Merritt to not "swim" on the seat toward the gentleman next to us. Somewhere in the midst of this she took the bill and my card, again, without saying anything. When she brought it back she put it on the table and said "thanks." and walked away. I was so impressed. More and more by the minute, actually. Now, I like to think of myself as a good tipper. I almost always give 20% and if it is really great service, even more. I wanted to write in the tip part something snotty like "don't be a brat". Instead I let Hayden pay the tip. He was nice and left 20%. We left. So much fun. I don't mind being different or having people judge me. I am used to that. But when it comes to downright snottiness, I get really pissy. I clicked my way out as loudly as I could in my heels and we left.

Merritt made it about 30 minutes before he passed out around 9pm. We had a long day. By the time we got home he was still out. He stayed asleep as I carried him to the house, changed him into his pajamas and rearranged his bedspread. I am hoping tonight will be the night that the stupid train doesn't honk 14 times as it is passing our house at 3 am... and that we will all get a good, restful night's sleep. Here's to hoping that I won't wake up tired in the morning. And I would also like to say that from now on, I guess we'll be eating ethnic food if we are out of town... or at a restaurant that we know can accommodate us easily. So... to everyone as Hayden sits next to me and eats the cold rosemary potatoes that now smell disgusting... Good night!