Would you like to know what's been playing in my head since I finally got rid of the Japanese Fit's Gum Commercial that had been on repeat for the last week and a half?
Are you sure?...Watch and listen at your own risk, and then you can search the real news interview that prompted this auto-tuned parody. Don't do it. You'll only regret it.
2. Meal Planning
My friend, Sara, sent me this link about using Google Calendar for meal planning. So simple, yet so brilliant. Enter your meals on your Google Cal, you can add links to the recipes in the description box, and then set them to repeat at whatever frequency you desire.
For example, this week was the "week of Ham." Glazed whole ham with mashed potatoes and this delish snap pea salad from Chef John Besh (the snap peas are chopped! Brilliant!) on Sunday. Ham and Bean Soup with two varieties of Beer-Batter Bread: Cheddar and Jalapeno or Gouda and Bacon, on Tuesday. Then Ham on Pretzel Bun sandwiches in the lunchboxes for a few days and "Buh-bye ham." So last night I made a staple dinner around here, Creamy Skillet Penne with Italian Sausage and Broccoli. I'm setting the Trifecta of Ham to repeat annually, but the pasta dish will reappear every six weeks or more.
3. John Besh
Speaking of John Besh, I had seen the southern chef on Top Chef and other such shows. He has an engaging personality and his specialty is all things N'awlins. My mom knows somebody who knows somebody, and for Christmas she gave the Chef a personalized autographed copy of Besh's latest cookbook, My Family Table, A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking.
His open-ended recipes are perfect for the creative cook, such as Risotto of Almost Anything, Cream of Any Vegetable Soup, and Simple Meat Ragout for Any Pasta. Like every cookbook, this one is loaded with mouth-watering photographs. From the dedication,
to the references to his Catholic faith, Sunday Mass attendance, and family life with wife and four sons, My Family Table has lots of thoughtful text as well....It is also for the thousands of parents and children, brothers and sisters, separated from their families in defense of our nation, dining on Meals Ready to Eat so far from those they love...
4. More Meal Planning
I'm super intrigued by Dwija's adventures in slow-cooking and advanced prep meal planning.
5. One More Recipe
Everyone has those classic Christmas cookie recipes that they loved as a child, that only Mom knows how to make. Since we're still baking our way through the Christmas season (Candlemas is the end, dontcha know.), I had Lucy make Cornflake Nougat Bars this week.
Imagine Rice Krispy Treats, but with cornflakes instead of Rice Krispies and covered with a thick coating of semi-sweet chocolate. I don't know why I can't stop eating them. It's probably because they are gluten-free (I think) and double as a breakfast food as well as a snack. This recipe shows them dyed green and made into little wreaths. My mom used to make holly clusters decorated with red hots, but then she stopped using food coloring. Chocolate covered squares are way better.
I can stop eating them now, because they are all gone. :(
6. Baby J
God love her. She names everything after the people in her family. Ev.er.y.thing. For example, she has a shape puzzle. Peter is the brown parallelogram, Edmund is the red and blue trapezoid. I'm a yellow triangle. Susan is the purple octagon.
She was terrified of baths for a few weeks. And then I got her these bath trinkets. One is Susan and the other is Lucy.
She cannot make a "k" sound. She loves "buhts" (books), the color "peent," and her "pitty peent tote" (pretty pink coat). Tonight, since the home crowd is down two, and we're out of ham, we went out for burgers and shakes. But she doesn't say "shake." She says something else completely and we shamelessly tried to make it say it over and over again. She got frustrated and started calling her shake, "moo."
Also, she got a haircut. No more Bozo side wisps. She asked for the Julia Patton boy-bob.
7. Skating Partay!
Edmund is having his 2nd annual class (just the boys) birthday/skating party. Do I really have to make goody bags for 10 year-olds? I'm thinking about buying boxes of candy bars from Costco's and letting them each take one for the road. But then I think they get waaaay too much candy at school, and I will have already fed the cupcakes and cocoa. Any ideas floating around the blogosphere? Bueller?
Bueller?
Or I will have to take Baby J to (cue horror movie music) more than one store, and hit our local Dollar Tree to see what kind of tchotchkes they have for big kids who are still small enough to want goody bags.
Thinking about the feast of the conversion of St. Paul and his faith journey from avid persecutioner to martyr/defender of the faith, and Jen Fulwiler and hers, I am filled with hopefulness about the pro-life cause in our country.
Woo Hoo! The Pope tweeted about the March for Life!
Catch more Jen here.
I love your birthday party! I really enjoy doing parties at home, and planning the games, etc... A few thoughts on goody bags, and keep in mind I'm a geek squared. (My parents were also geeks.)
ReplyDelete1. My Target has basic one size fits all gloves, 3 for $1 on clearance. Lots of solid colors, very manly. Since you're going skating it fits the theme and serves a purpose. I've never seen a house that couldn't have an extra pair of gloves.
2. Gum is a highly desired item in my house, mostly because I won't let the little ones have it. Being old enough is a big deal, and having your own pack that you don't have to share is cooler than chocolate. A pack of Trident can be stuck in the gloves so you don't have to buy a bag and it also helps between brushings! (Do I sound like a commercial yet?)
3. I've been known to give out word seach, sodoku, or crossword puzzle books as a take home prize. You can get them for a buck at the dollar store and they're fairly easy levels.
Clearly, I was never the cool kid, but strangely enough, my kids' friends seem to like the novelty of our parties. Good luck!
I'd thought of doing t-shirts - my son was having a jungle theme party and I'd thought of making little iron on thingys that read "I got wild at (insert name here) party. I think I stole this idea from one of my daughter's friend's parties. It was another of my delusions of more time than I actually have to do such things, but I still consider it every year. At my son's party this past year (10th) I loaded up on hackey sacks, puzzles, etc. from the party store.
ReplyDeleteCaught the Pope's tweet today, too. So cool!
Just say no to goodie bags. I didn't do anything for the boys' parties last year and many moms thanked me. Huge expense for a bunch of junk that goes in the trash and clutters up your car.
ReplyDelete