The Two-Week Menu

Melinda and I started something new this month. We sat down, came up with 10 dinner ideas and wrote them down on post-its. Then Melinda created a template in Word and we put one sticky note meal on each weekday (weekends are for spontaneity and restaurants).

We then made a list of ingredients we'd need and headed out to the grocery store. Now we had 2 weeks' worth of ingredients and a flexible list of menus! This way, if we don't want the spaghetti that's on Tuesday's spot, we can switch it out with something later. No more, "What do you want to eat? I dunno, what do you wanna eat? I dunno," in the evenings!

Meals have been easy to make and we've had a blast making them together.

Booklahver's Tips for Adults: Sno Cones

I love Sno Cones. Love them. I usually only get around to having one per season but I have noticed that the stands are open now so that means I get a "spring" cone and a "summer" cone. Or really, it means I get to have multiple cones because I see that stand and think "AH!!! SNO CONE!! WANT ONE!!"

So, I have some tips for buying the perfect Sno Cone. These rules do not apply to kids because kids have a much higher tolerance for sweets than adults.

1) Always buy the smallest cone. Anything larger than a "regular", "small" or "junior" is going to be too much. I had a Sno Cone this weekend (a "regular") that was too big. And that was the smallest one. I say get the smallest because too much of a good thing is too much and you might not be able to have multiple cones if you burn yourself out on a gargantuan at the beginning of Sno Cone season.

2) Only get one flavor. I've tried two at once, half and half. It was like half raspberry, half tiger's blood or something like that. Maybe coconut was involved?? I just remember it was way too sweet and I didn't enjoy eating it after the first half.

3) Always get a straw with your spoon. I did not have a straw this weekend so I was forced to spoon all the melted bits or drink them like drinking a regular drink. A straw would have been so much better.

4) If you see a Sno Cone like this: run away. Do not purchase this Sno Cone. I purchased one like this in DC in July (JULY!!!) and it was hard as a rock. I then tried to squeeze the bottom to break up the ice and it promptly squirted out of the paper cone and ended up on the sidewalk. Oh yeah, many people laughed. It was not a good experience. Since this was my only Sno Cone outside of Texas, I don't know if it was an isolated crappy cone or a routine crappy Sno Cone from the North. I imagine that it was isolated.

5) The perfect Sno Cone looks like this: Again, this one is probably too big and is missing it's spoon and straw. However, it is one flavor and the ice is of slushie-like consistency so that it is probably not too hard.

Now you are ready to seek your perfect Sno Cone. If you live in Texas, any shack with a list of 50 flavors should do. I recommend any berry flavors. I do not recommend "pickle" or "wedding cake". I've never had these flavors but I just can't imagine that they taste good. It's like getting wedding cake ice cream: if I want cake, I'll get cake. I want my ice cream to taste like ice cream, preferably with peaches in it. But that's for another day~