Why My Family Is Grateful I Am Not Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner

Simply? Because I am not good at it.

I’m good at smaller endeavors, but not the big picture kind of meals. Something always gets lost in translation, and the possibility of inadvertent poisoning goes up 70%.

Scientific fact.

Many, many moons ago, I tried to make a Thanksgiving turkey. I, like Chris, neglected to completely thaw the turkey and probably made several people sick that night. Then there was the time I tried it again, only to have forgotten to take out the plastic pouch with the gizzards and stuff in there. For the record, melted plastic chicken doesn’t smell very good either.

It was after that I only made Rock Cornish Game Hens for holiday meals. It wasn’t long after that I divorced, remarried, and found someone who not only enjoys cooking a big Thanksgiving turkey, but does a bang up job of it, too.

Just doing my part to save the world, one holiday at a time…

Valuable Lessons Learned

I promised my husband I wouldn’t embarrass him on my blog about something he did last night that kept him up until 2am. So I won’t, but I WILL say that the title of this post pretty much says it all.

Betcha won’t do that again, right, honey?

I loves ya.

The Post in Which I Tell You What I Made For Dinner

Pasta With Butter and Bouillon Juices

I used this pasta I got from World Market. It held the au jus really well. Don’t forget to add some sea salt to your water. It makes a HUGE difference.

While your pasta is cooking, melt 4 tbsp. butter in a saucepan and add 2 tsp. olive oil and 4 peeled garlic cloves crushed with the flat of a knife. When the butter starts fizzing, throw in some rosemary sprigs (I used dried, sorry Nigella). When the cloves of garlic turn brown, remove them and crumble in about half a meat or chicken bouillon cube (I used the pre-crumbled jar kind). Turn in the pan, and add another pat of butter. Then add 1 tbsp white wine or vermouth (I added Riesling; more importantly, this Riesling and 1 tbsp water. In another minute, after stirring it around, add another pat of butter.

One your pasta is cooked (mine cooked for about 10 minutes), drain the pasta, saving a cupful of the water. Toss the pasta in the sauce (I just poured it over the pasta once I returned it to the pot it cooked in) and grate some Parmesan cheese over the pasta and eat.

Serves 4.

I also made a Caesar salad but instead of the included dressing, I used this Asiago Caesar one.

It was perfect and delicious, and a nice change for my boys who eat pasta with cheese only; no sauce.

Mangia!

He Really Is Polite, Honest…

Scamp: Where’s Spiff?

Me: He’s having “guy time” with his friends. He’ll be back tomorrow.

Scamp: I want to go have guy time too.

Me: Okay, well you and Daddy can go have guy time too.

Dad: Why doesn’t mommy join us?

Scamp: Mommy’s not a guy, so she can’t come. Go away, mommy.

A Question, and Mamma Needs A NAP!

I’m sending this question out there, and I’m hoping for some replies, simply because I am at a loss. Before I send the teenager away from my home with a big stick and all the clothes and food a bandanna will hold on the end of it; please help me with this question:

Are teenagers just naturally defiant and forgetful immediately after you ask them to do something, or is this also an Aspergian trait kicked up several notches due to hormonal changes?

Please help before I sell child to highest/lowest/free bidder. Gracias.

It’s been awhile since I have been a teenager, so I forget.

Last day of school before I have a week off. So. Freakin’. Amped. Bring on Boston!!

Because I’m All Kinds of Timely and Current

(Also titled: yes, apparently I AM running a month behind!)

G’morning, everyone! I have to be to work in less than an hour, and Scamp is sleeping still in his bed. I suppose I should call in and give up hope I’m going to work today, huh?

So, October 15th was Blog Action Day, and I actually DID do something. On the advice of Whoorl, I decided to clean up my act and switch over to healthier methods to clean my home. I suffer from a multitude of allergies, and I’m always trying to keep them at bay while living in a house with miles and miles of carpet. I know, I should remove it, but I’m not ready to part with it yet. Concrete floors belong in urban lofts, not necessarily suburban homes. I have a plan, and hopefully soon I will have hardwood or laminate flooring. I have to be patient.

I chose to go with the Method:home brand of cleaners. I have been a fan of the plug-in air scents for awhile now, and I have used some of the products off and on for a few years. This time, I went whole hog and bought their detox kit to kick start my new resolution. I’m pretty pleased so far.

all purpose cleaner: french lavender – I find myself using this ALL THE TIME. It’s not an overpowering scent, but it sticks around just long enough to remind you where you have cleaned on countertops that hide dirt.

tub + tile spray – I spray this after every time I use the shower. Now if I could just train the others who use the shower to do the same thing, I’d be golden.

wood for good furniture polish – You know that mung that is a wooden table where people sit all the time? That dark stuff that you think you will have to scrape to get off? This delicious smelling stuff TOOK IT RIGHT UP like it was nothing. Before I would never let the Kindergartener help me with cleaning and dusting because I was concerned with the chemicals. Now, I let him. Yay for child labor!

microfiber cloth: wood for good – Use this with the polish. Works much better than a paper towel. Trust me on this.

hand wash: sea minerals – My sister from Rainbow who we have family (and yes, you are family, so there!) dinners with each week LOVES the smell of this. Truthfully? So do I.

25 oz omop all floor cleaner: lemon ginger – I was hesitant to try this, simply because I didn’t purchase the O mop to go with it, but I thought it would still be good on my tile floors. It is. Once the laminate or wood floors magically appear in my home, I WILL get the O mop and use it liberally. It’s THAT good.

25 oz dish soap: pink grapefruit – Smells nice, and fruity, but not in an overpowering way. Cleans like nobody’s business. We have a winner!

Honestly? I do feel like I breathe better in my house. I like the light smells that tell me I have cleaned; but most of all I LOVE the fact that now I feel better about allowing the kids to help me with household chores.

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy the extra help I now get in the boys’ bathroom now that I have these babies next to the toilet. Nothing teaches boys how to aim better than having to wipe up those spills yourself. I have noticed quite the improvement, thankyouverymuch.

So, thank you Whoorl, for the kick in the behind. Apparently, I needed it!

An Interesting Conundrum – What Would You Do?

Heard on the radio this morning:

A man went to a strip club for a “business meeting”. While there, one of the dancers comes over to perform a table dance. When the dancer turns around, he notices instantly that it is his neighbor’s daughter! She recognizes him, and begs him not to tell her father.

If you were him, what would YOU do?

Why Reading To A Child Is SO IMPORTANT!

This week in class, we are discussing wishes. All kinds of wishes, some of which may or may not be discussed without the children present. To wit:

• I wish Brad Pitt would walk in here right now and whisk me away*.
• I wish we could have celebrated Veteran’s Day on Friday, thus giving us a longer holiday break.
• I wish Panera delivered.
• I wish the kids would stop trying to kill each other and call it “playing”.

The kids, however, have other ideas. See below:

• I wish we could have McDonald’s EVERY DAY for lunch!!
• I wish we had a waterslide at school!
• I wish we had a Transformers Center!!
• I wish we had a Princess Palace!!!
• I wish Optimus Prime would come to our school!

So because we are discussing wishes, I have been reading a book called Ten Wishing Stars. The kids LOVE it, and ask me to read it as one of the books I read each day. (I read at least 4 short books each day to the kids. They seem to like my mad reading skills.) Today was no exception. So I read it, and we had a great time.

The Scholastic Book Fair just so happens to be at our school right now, and one of our students brought money in to spend at the book fair. One of the other Teaching Assistants in our class took him down to the library to check out the goods. The rest of us stayed behind for Centers.

They returned a short time later, and he ran up to me with a big smile. He gave me a hug and said “Miss S, look what I got!!!” From behind his little back, he brought out this:
Can I just say how chuffed I am? He totally made my day!!! He could have ended up with ANY OTHER book, but instead, he bought the one I had just read to him a short while ago. How awesome is THAT?

Wicked awesome, I think.

*For the record, this was not my wish. This one belongs to someone else, okay honey?

Recipe: Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas, Made by Me

From the kitchen of Shash:

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas
• 2 Sweet potatoes, medium sized
• 1 box of Vegetable broth or stock (I used stock)
• 1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed (the rinsing is important so as to avoid gas)
• 1 onion (I used Vidalia), chopped small
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• handful of mexican cheese (I used Sargento’s 5 cheese Mexican)
• 1 small can black olives, optional
• salsa or pico de gallo (store bought is fine, I used Tostito’s mild)
• cilantro, to taste
• salt
• pepper

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Start by peeling the sweet potatoes and then chopping them into small cubes. Place in small stockpot and add vegetable stock until the potato pieces are covered. Cover, and cook on med high for about 15 minutes.
• Drain in colander, but put the stockpot under the colander after you drain, some of the juices will go back into pot, along with the pieces from your colander. Mash or stir potatoes until slightly smooth with a few lumps. Set aside.
• In a skillet, saute the onion and the garlic in a splash of olive oil until the onion is clear. Add to the sweet potato mixture.
• Add salt and pepper and a bit of cilantro to the mixture. Add the rinsed, drained black beans. Stir.
• Set on a warm burner for a few minutes.
• Place one tortilla on a baking sheet, add the sweet potato mixture, add the cheese to taste (I happen to have been a mouse in a former life, so I like lots of cheese), and add the olives. Place another tortilla on top, and bake in oven until you see the mixture ooze out from between the tortillas. Flip it once to have even crispiness of the tortillas, and then remove.
• Place on a cutting board, slice into fourths, put your salsa on the side for dippin’ and enjoy!

Store the leftover mixture in the freezer in a freezer bag for quick meals on a busy night. Delicious!!!!

A shout-out to Bite My Cookie, whos Devil’s Lunchbox @ W+K blog gave me the idea to make this. Her Crackadamias are TO DIE FOR!!!

Shash’s BookShelf Mondays- Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress

I know, I know, deep down inside I’m just a geek. ‘Tis true. Although, one holdout I had was never playing Dungeons & Dragons. (Read here to see how well that worked out!) I have now been married to two men who played that game in their youth, and carried it into their adulthoods. The first husband (wasband?) played on weekends, and I would do our laundry at myriad people’s houses while he got his D&D on. (Imagine that introduction, won’t you? Hi, I’m Shash, I don’t know you, but can I do my laundry in your washer and dryer? I can laugh about it now, but then? Not so funny.)

When The Hubby and I first got married, he had actually given up playing and sold just about all of his D&D equipment. He was kind of heartbroken, especially since it turns out he sold some of it to my ex-husband. Whoops!

After several years passed, he started getting the itch to play again. This time, he wasn’t going to be alone. He hatched a plot to get me involved, and to his amazement (and mine!) it worked! So I began to play, and the rest as they say, is history.

This book was written by Shelly Mazzanoble who works at Wizards of the Coast, the headquarters for D&D, if you will. According to her, people have been known to come to work dressed as characters of Star Wars and then make copies. Can you imagine, Darth Vader making copies? She can and she did. Once a week, she and a few of her co-workers/friends gather in a conference room and become characters in a long-running campaign. This is her story and her viewpoints on taking a very girly-girl and turning her into a 134-year-old sorceress one night a week. It also explains, in girl-speak that we understand, how to play this game and like it. Then she goes on to explain how we can bring other women into the D&D fold and make it fun. Shelly is able to make the game seem chic, and fun, and something that women would surprisingly find to be a great game night, not unlike many women who play bunko. I can truly attest since I play both games rather regularly, D&D is WAY more fun that bunko.

But I digress.

If you know anybody who loves someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft (Jenn?), or Magic the Gathering; this book is a great read. It’s a must buy for ANYONE who knows someone who ever played D&D. Read this book. You might just realize you have more geek in you than you thought.

Embrace your inner geek. It needs love too.