So this has pretty much been a week from hell and it's only Wednesday.

Of course, I knew it was going to be bad from about 6AM on Monday when the dog puked next to my bed.

In my life at this point, I have several things that I am most likely over-reacting to on a daily basis: fertility treatments, a dog with kidney failure, a bad budgeting experiment, a little bit of job uncertainty, and now a cat with a busted paw.

Oh, and that doesn't include the bonuses like the cable modem dying and my holiday preserves burning.

Yesterday my husband forwarded me an email thread between him and one of our neighbors who happens to be stationed in Iraq for a few months. Kudos to them for making me laugh yesterday after I stared at a dog with failing kidneys all day. It went a little something like this...

Husband: You have access to email on your "trip"

After my overwhelming success with the crockpot last week, I decided to venture out onto another limb of the old skool foodery tree: a casserole!

Today is the first day I voluntarily elected to use my crock pot - EVER!

This is a momentous day in history - mind you. I ABHORE crock pots as they bring back this repressed childhood memory of liquid smoke and stringy beef brisket "just like Mom used to make."

The crock pot of my childhood created the kind of dinner that left an odor in the house for days and days. There were three scent options: 1) Stuffed peppers 2) Pork and sauerkraut and 3) Beef brisket.