Nachos

I really did not know that Italian beef sandwiches were regional, so sorry for the confusion yesterday! They are basically a sandwich of roast beef seasoned with Italian seasonings, sliced very thin, which is then soaked in juice/gravy. If you check out Allrecipes (or your favorite recipe website) you can easily find a recipe (or Google it). I do not make my own (too much work), so we use Papa Charlie's Italian Beef which can be found in the frozen foods section of your grocery store. A true Chicago beef sandwich is served plain or with sweet peppers (which is roasted green peppers) or hot peppers (giardinera or sport peppers), also dry or juicy on french bread (juicy is when they put the meat in the bread and then dip the whole thing in the juices). Do not start adding cheese or onions because then you are getting into Philly Cheesesteak territory. Around here Portillo's and Al's Beef are considered to have the best Italian beef sandwiches. (My fave is Portillo's.)

Today is my birthday! I am 37 - ugh, I feel it. I am still not feeling well and considered calling in sick to playground duty today, but I went anyway. It was very cold and very windy. The other mom called in sick so I was the only one there (good thing I didn't call in). The kids seemed crazier than usual, which could have been my perception, but by the end of the half hour I was frozen and my throat hurt from yelling "Stand up! You cannot lay on the ground!", "Are you bleeding? No? Then you are fine, go back to playing", "Stop touching each other!", "Drop the wood chips!", and "We only go down the slides on our bottoms!". On top of all that one of the second graders kept following me around, trying to tell me all about how she went to the museum and saw the movie about Amelia Erhart and blah, blah, blah-blah. I'm sure she is a very sweet girl, but I wanted to put duct tape on her mouth. Do you think it's possible that she was sent by the other kids to distract me so they could get into mischief? Are second graders that conniving? I seriously considered having a glass of wine before lunch.

For dinner tonight we are having nachos. I love this meal! I'd like to thank Krista's Kitchen again for the original recipe. I know I would never have attempted to make these without her recipe. If you haven't checked out her blog, please go now! You won't be sorry, she has great meals.

Happy eating!