Summer Stories (continued)

It is still technically summer, you know. Even if we’re in school and it doesn’t exactly feel that way based on our schedules. Fall doesn’t start for almost 3 weeks! And it certainly felt like summer this past weekend… 90+ degree days and high humidity. Ugh.

This past Saturday, SuperMan’s company had a party to celebrate their 65th anniversary. All employees were invited and they closed down the zoo and catered a big family party. We LOVE the zoo, so it was most definitely something we didn’t want to miss.

As I said, it was HOT. But we had a good time – we got to see the new baby gorilla (about 2 weeks old!)

Giraffes, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) (sorry, it just slipped out)

We enjoyed visiting with some of SuperMan’s work friends and their families, ate BBQ for dinner, rode the train, listened to some speeches, and said good night to the critters as we headed home from a very fun evening.

As we were heading home, SuperMan kept turning here and turning there — I had no idea where we were or were we were going. I never worry, though, because SuperMan has a homing beacon in his body somewhere and we always manage to find our way home. In no time, we were cruising past his current job site – a hulking building that takes up an entire city block –

It’s always fun to see where he is working and watch the transformation from a shell to a finished masterpiece. It’s especially fun when they do new construction and things start as a muddy hole in the ground and morph into a skyscraper. This is a restoration of a historic building and I’m happy to see they’re repurposing it and giving it new life. It will be fun to see how it develops in the next year.

I happened to ask SuperMan if we were close to “that donut place we used to stop at when we were down here somewhere that time” Luckily for me, I have a man who can read my mind and knows what those very vague statements mean and can turn them from a passing comment into reality. (which is one of the reasons why I call him SuperMan!)

And before I knew it, we pulled into heaven on earth –

*choirs of angels sing*

Yes, the light was on. It meant a mandatory stop.

The girls had never had fresh, hot donuts from Krispy Kreme so we absolutely, positively, had do share that experience with them. And I swear they taste even better if you eat them after 10PM (and have no calories).

We drove out of the parking lot with two dozen donuts and some milk and we were quickly diving in. From the moans and sighs in the back seat, I think the girls loved them as much as we did. SuperMan warned me to be careful, “You’re going to be in a sugar coma.” But I told him I’d be in a happy sugar coma, so it would be ok.

It was a late night but a very fun evening for all of us… family time is always the best time.

Menu Plan Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

This week I’m combining some tried and true favorites along with a few new recipes for our menu plan this week.

Monday: I’ve been craving Pasta Fagioli so I whipped up a batch – in spite of the fact that it is supposed to be 90 degrees today. I’m also making some homemade French bread – trying a new recipe out and will have salad to go along with the soup and bread.

Tuesday: I’ll be heading out for a ladies’ Bible study Tuesday night so I wanted to do something easy for SuperMan and the girls. I’ll be using up my last frozen Chicken Spaghetti from my freezer cooking day.

Wednesday: Trying out this new recipe – a one pot Santa Fe Chicken & Rice dinner. I’m thinking I may use chicken tenders cut into bite sized pieces to make this even faster and easier.

Thursday: dance night – which means run around like crazy night. We’ll either do leftovers or sandwiches.

Friday: Mexican – thinking I may make my Colorado Beef Burritos or Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas.

Saturday: homemade pizza night

Sunday: kitchen is closed – Mama gets a break.

We’re also talking about doing another freezer cooking day sometime soon. I need to come up with a menu – and figure out what we will do this month for our freezer meals. They sure have been nice to fall back on one or two nights a week.

What’re you planning for your family’s meals this week?

Check out some more ideas at orgjunkie.com.

“Mexican” rice

One of the local Mexican restaurants has the BEST rice.

I just love it –

and Little Bit eats it every time we go there and has loved it ever since she was a wee thing. Sometimes she will even ask for the rice as a side when we eat there. Which is amazing because the rice has… wait for it… VEGETABLES in it.

Shocking, I know.

It has the best flavor and we all gobble it up in spite of the vegetables.

So, one day when we were in there eating, I commented on how good the rice was and asked how they made it. I figured it was some super-secret recipe that they cooked slowly all day or some secret grandma’s recipe.

Nope.

The waitress sort of chuckled when I asked her for the recipe. She said, “rice, onions and peas.”

Wait, what?

That’s it?

I couldn’t believe it, so I came home and tried it out.

And guess what?

That’s it.

This is seriously good, seriously simple rice. It has become a standby in our house when we’re eating Latin-inspired foods. And best of all, it’s got VEGETABLES. And the KIDS WILL EAT IT!

*choirs of angels sing*

So, give it a try and let me know if your family loves it as much as ours does.

“Mexican” Rice

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups rice (I use basmati)
3 cups water (or whatever rice/water ratio your rice cooker calls for)
1/4 onion diced finely
1 cup peas (I’ve used frozen and canned (drained) successfully)

(optional: 1/3 cup finely diced carrots – I use my chopper to make them really finely diced)

Instructions:

Put all ingredients in your rice cooker and set it and forget it.

Fluff before serving.

Rice Cooker Buying Guide- BestBuy (bestbuy.com)

Summer Stories (part 2)

Continuing with my recap of the summer adventures, I thought I’d share with you some pictures from Little Bit’s 9th birthday party.

We vacillated for weeks on what we would do for her party. Traditionally, we have a pool party; but this year with monsoon-like rains every single day, we were unsure whether or not the weather would cooperate. We sent out invites with the warning that plans were subject to change and then we crossed our fingers and prayed for sunshine.

The day dawned hot and sunny and our hopes were up. I let everyone know that we’d meet at the pool and began to gather our supplies – cake, cups, etc. At party time, we were all set up and the weather was still holding out.

The guests arrived and we had a fabulous time – as part of our rainy weather backup plan, the girls and I had planned some “Minute to Win It” games so we took those with us to the pool and played them as well. We had such a great time – even the grown ups got in on the fun.

Here’s the whole gang –

We had such fun – even the guys – who ended up doing a little minor repair on the pool when the light fell out. Thank goodness one of them was an electrician and could get ‘er done.

Question: how many guys does it take to change a pool light bulb? hee hee

She had such a good time – I think everyone did – and the rain held out until right when it was time to leave. As we pulled into the driveway it started to rain.

What a perfect birthday!

It may be Tuesday, but it feels like Monday

I’ve got the Monday blues today.

We had a fantastic weekend – a quick, impromptu trip to North Carolina that included mountain stream swimming, pizza by the rapids and culminated in horseback riding on Labor Day. All in all it was a beautiful, perfect weekend.

We stayed in this sweet little cabin that was right on the banks of a mountain stream… I loved listening to the rushing water and was lulled to sleep at least once as I laid on the glider on the deck while SuperMan and the girls played in the creek.

The girls weren’t too sure about the rapids in the stream and it took them a little while to get comfortable with the rushing water, but once they did, they loved it.

I stayed clear of the 50 degree water – it was warm outside, but not hot enough to provide enough incentive to get me in that cold water!

Sunday night we drove along the Nantahala River and had pizza at this road-/river-side pizza joint I’d seen on Yelp. Little did I know when we set out to eat there that it was a really rustic place. Bear in mind, it was raining… not pouring, but a steady drizzle coming down.

SuperMan got out to “check the place out” and told us to come on in, so we did. And I got quite a surprise as I walked up and discovered that there were no chairs… and no tables … and virtually no walls! It was, essentially, a shack on the river with a covered deck that went out over the river. We persevered, though, because up there in the mountains your restaurant choices were limited and we figured at least we knew they were open!!

We ordered our pizza and settled in on the rustic deck benches to wait for it to be baked.

The pizza was good and the ambiance (bluegrass music, rushing water, rustic place) was so typically Smoky Mountains. I loved it.

Sunday was a lazy day, but Monday we were up bright and early and headed out for a surprise we had planned for the girls – horseback riding! Big Girl has only been riding a few times and never on a trail ride. Little Bit had only been on a horse once in a ring and never when she was “in charge” of the horse. I was excited and anxious for them – hopeful that they’d have a good time and not be scared.

We arrived at the stables and they were both a little intimidated by the horses and the prospect of essentially being on their own to guide the horse along the trail. I knew they’d be ok – most trail ride horses are content to follow the one in front of it and the gentleman who owned the stables did a great job encouraging without “going there” and letting the girls chicken out.

We had a great ride – up the ridge to see some awesome views and then back down through winding the trees and across a few tiny little brooks. Even managed to canter a little bit.

We headed home after our ride and meandered back down from the Smokies to our little foothill, filled with happy memories and making plans to do it all again soon.

Upon arriving home, we made a very sad discovery – we found that our sweet Gracie cat was no longer with us. So, after unloading the car, poor SuperMan had to dig her grave and comfort three heartbroken girls.

Our hearts are heavy this morning. We really missed our Gracie girl as we got ready for the day. Normally, she’s following me step-for-step around the house and climbing on the girls, meowing and demanding attention. This morning there were no demands only silent remembrance.

Gracie was thirteen, a rescue that I saved from rush hour traffic one morning (while pregnant with Big Girl) and while demanding and obnoxious she was my constant companion. My house is too quiet today and I’m really missing her.

So, while we had a great weekend, I’ve got the blues today.

Rest well, my sweet girl. I’ll see you on the Rainbow Bridge one day.

So then this happened…

So, we made a little trip to see the podiatrist today…

Somewhere we didn’t think we would be going anytime soon.

But, my Big Girl’s foot has been bothering her the past few weeks and we decided to play it safe and get it checked out. (You may recall she had surgery last fall on the same foot.) She’s been in a lot of pain and her foot was swelling so we wanted to be sure nothing serious was going on.

Sigh.

So, we saw the doctor. He checked her out and thinks that two things are going on: 1- she’s had a growth spurt and maybe her ligaments/tendons have not stretched as fast as her bones have grown and 2-she’s overdone it with going from “zero to sixty” in the past few weeks starting school, dance, etc. again.

So then this got pulled out:

And then this happened:

And now my baby is in a boot again for three more weeks.

Sigh.

We’re hoping the preliminary diagnosis is right and that there’s nothing else going on. Not ready to go down the same trail we went last year.

I want my girl to run and dance and spin and leap.

Not wear a boot.

So, we’ll tough this out and hope and pray that this rest for her foot does the trick.

So, that’s where we spent our Monday.

What about you?

Summer Stories (part 1)

I thought I’d share with you some of the adventures the girls and I had this summer while I was on my blogging break –

One of which was a trip to Savannah to spend a week with Mom. While we were there we went to Georgia Southern University and visited the museum of natural history they have there. The museum focuses on local cultural and natural history and the showcase exhibit includes a mosasaur. (yeah, I’d never heard of it either)

Isn’t he ugly? Those teeth!

Apparently, way, way, way, way back (like 78 million way backs) in time most of Georgia from Macon eastward was under water. Scientists are finding evidence of all sorts of prehistoric sea life in South Georgia. It was really interesting to see the fossils, including a prehistoric whale.

Someone didn’t want to be a mosasaur’s lunch!

They also had exhibits about the Civil War there as well.

It was a small museum, and we went through it pretty quickly, but it was a nice day trip and the girls and I learned new things. We went with my mom and her friend Anne, who has become a special adopted grandma to the girls and I this past year.

After we toured the museum we had lunch at a quaint restaurant (the Beaver House Inn) that featured home-style Southern cooking. We told my brother about it and he fondly remembers eating there in his college days with his buddies. They loved the “all you can eat” aspect and the home cooking. I’m sure the restaurant didn’t know what hit them when a bunch of hungry college boys showed up to get their fill of home cooking!

All in all it was a great day…

I’ll share more of our adventures with you in the coming weeks.

Just some “simple poetry” (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

menu planning at the next level

Many of my close friends are teachers. As we neared the beginning of school I started to think about how crazy our lives were about to become with schedules, homework and after-school activities. And then I thought about my friends… the teachers who spend their days devoted to other people’s kids and often find themselves at the end of the day with tired bodies, hungry families and no plans for dinner.

And so I decided to start a new tradition this year.

We did a cooking day. A monster, stock the freezer, cook until you drop kind of day.

Planning & Preparation

After I suggested the idea, one of my sweet friends helped me to put together our menu of dinners and to complete all the shopping for our cooking day. We picked five dinners we thought would be winners and made a spreadsheet (I’m that kind of gal) with the menu, the recipes, and the grocery list of all the items on the recipes we’d need to buy.

We planned for one meal per recipe per family, included things like disposable casserole pans and freezer bags to make the storing even easier. We sorted further into which stores we were going to purchase items from, planning to go to our local warehouse store, Aldi (for the bargains) and then finishing up whatever we couldn’t get at those two places at the grocery store.

And then we planned a massive shopping trip. It was a rainy day when my friend Cindy and I headed out with the girls in tow and our shopping list and grocery bags at the ready. We started at Aldi and got as much there as we could, finishing up at our local grocery store. (in a side note, I was amazed at the bargains we found at Aldi. They’ve got my business in the future, for sure)

That afternoon, Cindy took the chickens (8 of them!) and roasted them at her house. I took the sausage and hamburger meat and got it prepped at my house. That left us down to assembly and minimal cooking for the next day when the rest of the crew joined us to work.

I also decided to go ahead and make the batch of spaghetti sauce that we were planning to freeze for each family. That’s the most sauce I’ve ever made in my life, but it turned out soooo good.

I couldn’t help but think of my grandma (who taught me to make this sauce) and wondered if she was looking down on me and smiling at my massive cooking project.

Cooking & Assembly

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and I was wondering what in the heck I’d been thinking with this cockamamie scheme to do a massive cooking day. I sure hoped the promises I’d made to my friends worked out and that everyone was happy with the results of our work.

I sorted all of our groceries on the counter with each recipe, writing the basic measurements for the recipe and assembly instructions on a piece of paper with each pile of ingredients. I was hopeful we could just move from one recipe to the next and follow those cheat sheets to do the assembly.

Once Cindy and Kim arrived, we tackled the most time-intensive recipe first (chicken spaghetti) and moved on from there. The kids got in the game, too, helping with assembly and packaging also.

I was surprised at how smoothly it went – and how much fun we had. We worked hard, for sure, but there were a lot of laughs, a lot of fun and we loved spending time together.

Here’s our finished spread of food. The kids were pretty proud of themselves for helping us (and we were so appreciative) We ended up with EIGHT meals per family (after our original estimate of five) because some of the recipes cooked up larger portions (11×13 pans) and we split them into two smaller casserole dishes.

The exciting part was that we ended up with a per-meal cost of about $8. So, around $60 per family for everyone to eat healthy and happy for the first month of school.

In addition, we’ve all been thoroughly enjoying our dinners. My friends have been reporting in when they’ve used a dinner and we’ve all agreed it was well worth the time and effort to do this. It’s been so nice to pull one of the dinners out of the freezer at the end of a busy day and know that your family is going to eat some good food and you don’t have to kill yourself to provide it.

So, I am pretty sure we’ll be doing it again. I’ll keep you posted on what we decide to do in September. Here’s our menu for August’s dinners:

Meatloaf (we made “mini” meatloaf/meatballs so they would cook faster)
Chicken Spaghetti
Spaghetti sauce
Sausage Rice Casserole
Chicken pot pie

Oh, and one other thing – we had enough food left over that we were able to sit down together and have BBQ chicken sandwiches for lunch! A well-deserved lunch to celebrate our hard work.

What I’m wondering

Now that school is back in session, I’m spending a little bit of time sitting in my car… in carpool, waiting for dance class, etc. And that time is usually spent catching up on reading. Reading my current book of choice or reading one of the magazines I subscribe to.

I love magazines. I love the glossy, sleek pages. I love the streamlined design, the catchy fonts and colorful titles and the glorious photography. The latent graphic designer in me is in heaven when I find a well laid-out magazine.

Some of my current favorites are Family Circle, Real Simple and Taste of Home. They give me ideas for taking care of my family and usually provide some general entertainment when I’m stuck in car rider line. My guilty pleasure that I read when I travel is Vanity Fair. I like the fact that the articles are long (and interesting) and get me through long flights when I can’t read on my e-reader.

But one of my pet peeves, since I have an e-reader, is that, should I want to read my magazine on my e-reader, I’d have to pay for a completely different subscription in addition to my paper magazine subscription. Way back when I used to subscribe to the Martha Stewart family of magazines, I got access to the electronic magazine included in my paper subscription. It was a great perk that spoiled me utterly.

I admit, I love, love, love reading a paper magazine. More so than the electronic version. I love sliding those glossy pages along each other as I peruse the pages and read the articles. I love being able to read them in carpool line or at the pool without worry of wear and tear and water damage. I love being able to tear out the one page with a recipe, or an article, that I want to share or save, without having to keep the whole darn thing when I’m finished.

What I don’t love is that they are big and bulky to carry around… which leads me to wishing I could read them on an e-reader. I have tried. Lord knows, I’ve tried. For several magazines I tried electronic versions, thinking I would drop the paper completely and read them only on the e-reader. But it just wasn’t the same. It seems sterile. And I don’t get the same “feel” as I’m flipping through the pages. Some of them are hard to read because the font size is so small – or you have to use the “article view” which totally ruins the “read the words and look at the picture at the same time” vibe you get with a paper magazine.

But it is nice having six months of magazines on my e-reader to peruse or review a recipe at will. And that is why I wish I had access to all my magazine subscriptions on my e-reader… AND my paper magazines, too.

What?

I can’t have it all?

Apparently not.

While some magazines, like Martha Stewart, offer complimentary access to their electronic version of their magazines to subscribers, most I’ve found do not. And this is really too bad. The way I see it, I’ve already paid the premium for them to print and ship the magazine to me. (paper subscriptions are a lot more than e-versions) I don’t think it costs them any more effort, hassle or money to provide me access to download the e-version to the same issue.

What do you think?

Are you an e-reader gal? Or are you paper only?

Do you do like me and waffle between the two?

I guess, at some point, I’ll make the cut over to electronic-only. But I am not sure when. Even though I have an e-reader (multiple, actually) I still love holding a real BOOK in my hands. Even though I use an electronic calendar, I still love writing things down in my PLANNER. There is just something about the tactile sensation of these activities.

I’m in a quandary – and the publishers would make my life so much easier if they’d just let me have my cake and eat it too, so to speak.

What do you think?

Tablet editions of magazines are no quick cure for the industry (guardian.co.uk)
Digital Magazines Pros and Cons (illucidation.com)

Just some “simple poetry”

My Big Girl came home from school today and asked me to type up some homework for her…

As I was typing it, I was just overwhelmed …

You see, she had to write a poem about herself …

And it just about brought me to tears.

So, I thought, rather than the post I’d planned for today, I would share this with you.

My sweet girl’s poetry.

She’s rather blase about the poem. Said it was just some “simple poetry.” But it touched me.

Her introspection, her perspective, and an insight into how she sees herself.

I love it.

I hope you do, too.

I am from salty beaches, from Southern home cooking.
I am from mossy trees and blue jeans.
I’m from beautiful flowers, from the historic city.
I’m from pine trees.
I am from hot summers and chilly winters.

I’m from yes ma’ams and no sirs.
I am from y’all and bless your heart.
I’m from home-made bread to intelligence.
I am from a family as sweet as candy.
I’m from heavenly cooked food.
I’m from a prayer before you eat to a prayer before I sleep.
I am from the positives and the happies, from Lois and Rob.

I’m from great home cooking.
I’m from the organizing of my mom, from the neatness of my grandma.
I am from the positivity of my dad to the thoughtfulness of my grandpa.
I’m from the living room shelves filled with billions of memories.
I am those memories.
I am from hopes and dreams.
I am those hopes and dreams –

I am a Southern child.

Share this:

Share this:

“Mexican” Rice

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Related articles

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Related articles

Share this:

Planning & Preparation

Cooking & Assembly

Share this:

Related articles

Share this:

Share this: