Which means, of course, I'm now waiting for the other shoe to drop.
For the epicureans among you, that is an ice cream sandwich sundae, with real whipped cream topping and sprinkles. I'm trying to remember why I decided to make this for him.
Of course, I often ask myself that same question about other things I make.
I'm home this week while our nanny takes her vacation. Day one was yesterday, and I remember now why I went back to work. It's easier.
Plus side - it was nice that I did not have to scramble to get ready in the morning to make the bus for work. It was nice getting a run in at 6 am instead of at lunchtime or at 7:30 at night. It was nice taking a long leisurely shower.
Not so much fun - doing laundry, grocery shopping, scrubbing the bathroom, vacuuming, and taking the dog to the vet. I mean, I do all these things normally. But there's something about being at home that makes me feel like I need to be doing something all the time to feel useful. I remember feeling this way when I was home full time with the kids. If I wasn't busy all the time, I felt like I might as well be sitting on the couch watching soap operas and eating chocolate covered cherries. This is a perfect example of women being much harder on themselves than anyone else. We never give ourselves a break.
I digress. Really not fun - getting slammed with vet bill and then being told the dog needs hernia surgery. Hernia surgery!?!? Because he's been doing a lot of heavy lifting these days??
REALLY, REALLY fun... taking the kids to gymnastics. This was the first time I've ever gotten to do that since signing Jordan up for it in September. And I promised Mina this summer she'd get to go to. I was very excited to take her to her first class.
She charged right in there.
And Jordan bounced right back into the swing of things.
Isn't it all about balance?
And landing on your feet? (OMG, this dismount had my heart caught in my throat).
My dynamic duo.
Look at this kid. He just kills me.
Afterwards, we came home and I made dinner. Sloppy joes. The kids ate maybe three bites. The best part was Jordan's approach to it. He's still a picky eater, but he's more willing to try things these days. One approach we've worked on is using bread as a vehicle to hide the food. He's managed to eat things like scallops and steak and chicken if he can cut off little pieces and put it in bread. It's my compromise approach, since I refuse to cook two meals. What I eat, they eat.
Jordan decided he wasn't going to eat "sloppy joes." He wanted a "neat" joe. That meant, he took a teeny teaspoon of the meat filling, spread it gently..delicately... on his hamburger bun and covered it with the other half. He carefully ate a few teeny-tiny bites, with not a drop of any filling falling out.
How could it? It was barely visible beneath the bread.
I sighed. I remember so many of these meals when I was home with the kids. I would spend hours cooking meals, only to watch dinnertime unfold like a prolonged torture session from the Guantanamo.
I've managed to keep this kid ignorant of all things gun related for almost five years now. His father wiped out my longstanding efforts with just one stroke. Last weekend, Jordan attended a birthday party where he happily warmed up to these ball shooters, which, let's face it, look like high powered guns, to me. The guns are lined up along a platform on top of some climbing equipment, overlooking a pit on the floor. Opposite this platform is another row of guns. The game involves filling the gun full of rubber balls and firing at your opponent across the pit. I guess.
What may not have occurred to the designers of this game, or maybe it did (in which case they clearly did not have any legal staff on retainer) was that since the pit is the lowest part of the climbing equipment, it tends to be occupied by babies and other young uns too fearful or little to climb up to the platform. It may also be occupied by the sweet, shy types that are just content to watch the cute little rubber balls roll by on the floor.
Little do they realize that some of the older kids hovering just above them, may be more amused by using their little bodies as target practice. I know this because, although I was not at this particular birthday party, I attended a different birthday party at the same facility the week before with Mina. And I studiously kept her far away from both the guns and the pit (that sounds like some god awful James Paterson style book doesn't it?)
What I wish I had done for Jordan's birthday party but was just too lazy and exhausted to even attempt it - glorious hued dessert table.
Funniest facebook status update of the week, courtesy of Big T:
Who cries during American Idol auditions? Seriously, this baby needs to come OUT!! (baby is due very soon; and I'm so excited for them! And I get to be an aunt x2!)
1. Alice Water's spicy cauliflower soup. OMG, so good. Divided it up into tupperware mini containers and brought it in for lunch this week.
2. Spinach and fennel salad. (4 points) You can find the recipe here, courtesy of Greenlitebites.
I made it to accompany the turkey and brie panini (7 points) I had for dinner tonight. Recipe here. Thanks Cooking Light, for actually providing a recipe I could realistically make in under 45 minutes. But only because I used a panini press instead of baking it in the oven.
Coming home from work, running out to get ingredients to cook, making dinner, then putting kids to bed is tiring. Recipes need to come together instantly. Because seriously, by the time I get home, I am so ravenous, I would be content to just scoop peanut butter out of the Jiffy jar and call it a night.
This year, we were lucky to celebrate Thanksgiving with Grandma H hosting in the Poconos.
What a great way to celebrate!
Eating!
Isn't that what the holiday is about?
Not really. It's about family, of course. This year, with family scattered all over, our group was smaller.
Family's what you got through the good times ...
.... and the bad .
And through family pic gone awry too.
Of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit excited about the food. I brought along some spicy jalapeno cornbread, courtesy of Suvir Saran. I just love this recipe. But any recipe that begins with a stick of butter and a cast iron skillet should probably be saved for special occasions.
In our case however, I made it twice. That's because my better half forgot to bring it with us when we packed up for Grandma's house. It's so simple to make though I could do it from memory. But thanks to the internet, I didn't have to! Click here for the recipe.
I also made plain (yawn) cornbread for the kids.
Grandma's Cooking Light turkey with herbs. This thing smelled so good roasting away all morning.
I also tried something new this year - "Joan's pear tart," courtesy of Recipezaar. Click here for details. This came out pretty good, but since I'm not a huge cream cheese fan, I only had a little piece. I modified the recipe by using fresh pears to garnish - since that was my whole reason for making this thing. I needed to get rid of a bunch of pears before we left the house. The thought of coming home to rotting pears just skeeved me out. I could just picture me trying to pic them up and throw them out after their pear flesh got all overripe and mushy. ((shudder))
Worrying about using all the fresh produce in the house before a long weekend is the kind of obsessive-compulsiveness that gets me into trouble. Worrying about this kind of crap is the reason why I lose sight of the big picture and allowed Monkey Sr. the all important task of making sure the food was properly packed. Hence, the second batch of cornbread.
Now, dear Joan calls this thing a tart, but I think it's supposed to be a torte. Any real bakers out there can correct me on this one. The recipe itself even calls for a torte pan, which of course I don't own. I just used a pie pan and made a little extra dough. I did like the dough. It has crushed, carmelized pecans in it.
Voila! My dinner plate. The green stuff is another tried and true recipe - spinach with parsnips, courtesy of Food & Wine magazine. I could eat a whole plate of these. They are that good. And Grandma also made a delicious and very traditional sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. One guess as to who was all over that. The marshmallows, that is.
Cheers!
Done guessing? Yep, there he is. Jordan -marshmallow connoisseur.
First comes turkey. Then comes ...........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Gwahhh...
No rest for the weary.
The kids were remarkably well behaved. I wish I could say the same for the wildlife. Grandma's house seems to be a hub for all things furry and horned. No, not my kids.
Right outside, we witnessed two young deer testing out their antlers.
While inside, Grandma kept our young 'uns occupied with other things.
Like preparing cookies.
Their creations.
She practices this cuteness pose at every opportunity. Don't encourage her.
Now, we get to the good part. This Thanksgiving weekend was also the first time we decided to let the kids have an overnight visit without us. With Grandma's blessing, we left them to her care, while Jeff and I spent the night at a nearby hotel. En route, we did a little Black Friday Outlet Shopping at the Crossings.
Where did we stay that night? Take a look at the flag. Now think back dear readers of a certain generation. Do you remember the jingle like I do? Are you humming it right now? "Beautiful..Mount Airy Lodge..."
A refresher...
Jeff and I stayed one night, treated ourselves to a nice dinner, some video gambling, and some R&R. Since Oscar also stayed at Grandma's house, we had one full night without anyone snoring, waking up and demanding an escort to the bathroom, or other such baby nonsense. That, my friend, is worth any price. We had blackout shades, people. Can you get any more luxurious than that? Waking up in the morning to silence and darkness at any hour your body just naturally felt like awakening? I'm salivating just thinking about it.
The next day, we returned - refreshed and rejuvenated. We all took a trip over to a nearby town, called Jim Thorpe. Nestled within its picturesque little boutiques, we enjoyed a miniature train display.
It's true what they say...
the devil's in the details. Look at the miniature photographer in this one.
Lit up, it was breathtaking.
And some window shopping afterwards got the kids all excited.
They had fun. We had fun. What more could you ask for? Sounds like the perfect holiday weekend to me!
Is it about the turkey then? I'll let you decide.
No, you fool! It's about the turkey cookies! Geesh.... come on, people.
Heading to Colorado tomorrow - solo! I'm going to visit my brother, Osman and my sister-in-law, Dallice. Just a weekend trip, but I've been looking forward to it for years in the making. I was trying to think of the last time I've seen the both of them together. It's been too long.
I've never been out there before. This shall be a adventure.
The kids shall be well cared for by Monkey, Sr. and Grandma H. When I told them I'd be going away tomorrow, they reacted as follows:
Mina - "I'm going on a trip with you too, Mama. I go with you."
Jordan - "Dad is going to stay to keep an eye on us, right?"
Not sure what to make of that. I was so giddy with excitement today as I thought about a weekend off, I almost forgot something. As I put Jordan to bed tonight, and sang yet another chorus of "My Baby," I looked down at him and felt this wave of yearning. To hug him, to give him a kiss, to brush that piece of hair out of his eyes. Of course I'm going to miss them.
How could I not? They are diabolitos, but they're all mine.
Jordan's art is getting ever-more interesting. Today they did some "I" penmanship. Take a look at how he illustrated the letter "I."
"I" is for Ipod.
Oh, Brave New World.
While Jordan busied himself in the classroom, I worked my own magic in the kitchen. Temps hit the high 80's today and our kitchen was a humid, muggy mess. Don't you HATE cooking in the summer? Just the thought of it makes me want to pull out my sushi menu and pick up the phone. I need to put Daruma on the speed dial already so I can stop reaching up on the high shelf for the take-out menu file.
But, thanks to the beauty of Costco, dinner was just a few minutes away.
Spinach and Mozzarella ravioli.
Tossed in some of this, steamed.
With some marinated artichoke hearts, some roasted red pepper, and some parmigiana-reggiano cheese, it became this.
And this is why, among other reasons, why I love running. For weeks now, despite erratic eating patterns, my weight has managed to stay stable. A few runs a week, throw in some hills and some sweat, and I can eat a bowl of this without feeling too guilty. July 4th is the "big" race, and after that, I need to find something new to train for or this spot on the couch is going to become even deeper.
On the topic of running, I'm so into this book - "Born to Run." It's about this tribe of indigenous Mexicans living in the Copper Canyons who've perfected the art of ultramarathons. Don't know what that is? I didn't either till I started reading. Think NYC Marathon doubled, add some more miles, some heat, night, trails, and a crazy sense of pushing your body beyond known human limits - and there ya go.
These people are crazy, but it's an amazing read.
Well, we all have our own hobbies. Jordan and Mina have rediscovered the building block set (it had to be removed for awhile.) And they've taken to creating fantastic little stories of their own, using the blocks as props and toys as characters.
Here, Cinderella and Snow White are taking a nap/having a sleepover. Cinderella got the "big bed" and Snow White got the "trundle bed."
Not to be outdone, Jordan created the same for his spacemen. Only he went one better -
He designed an escape ladder so the astronauts on top could get off without disturbing the ones below.
Those astronauts, by the way, are cake topper decorations I used for Jordan's 3rd birthday party. I can never throw anything away.
