Lost
March went zinging by in a whirl of wedding-dress-making and craft-show-creating. Two more new things in 2008. And now I’m working on a third – talking at a break out session for a one day mini-conference. It’s been a loooong time since I’ve talked in front of people. Now I feel like I’ve got to re-learn all that used to be so practiced. I’m not so sure that toddler talk will help Moms struggling with post-baby-body-blues. Not to mention I need to get my head into a topic that I struggle with too. From hip to hips.
Umm….Seems like I had a funny story. Oh yes. Little Miss Sunshine was telling me the other day that Jesus was in her heart tummy. It’s fun that she’s starting to talk about Jesus and beginning to grasp our faith, but at times it’s still far off. Like when Jesus was in her heart tummy? He was eating macaroni and cheese. I told her that I was quite sure Jesus loves macaroni and cheese. Who doesn’t?
And T-Rex. Yes, that boy has a most hilarious vocabulary for a 17-month-old. The other day he was standing on a stool reaching for the box of kleenex when I realized he was hollering, “tissue!! tissue!! tissue!!” He also likes “toothbrush, kiddos, good catch, don’t know,” and the stand by “MINE!” most often yelled at his sister.
And my find of the day today while making the rare trip to Target – t-shirts for the kids. A shirt with a T-Rex on it, and another shirt that says “Little Miss Sunshine.” I must dress them and take pictures. I found it rather funny.
Filed under LOL, Little Miss Sunshine, Random, T-Rex | Comment (0)
Marchocolate
For some reason as I was driving to JoAnn to help my wedding dress friend attempt to exchange one of the fabrics for her dress (a great story for another time), I couldn’t help thinking about Marchocolate.
In the town I grew up in, we had a legendary restaurant called Kewpie. Their logo and mascot was a Kewpie doll and they had the best hamburgers in town. “Hamburg pickle on top makes your heart go flippity flop.” (What that really is referring to is the heart attack you get because of all the grease, but that’s why we LOVED it, gimme grease!!) It was THE local hangout hamburger place, and I have so many memories of Kewpies. When my brother and I would be with one set of grandparents, Grandpa would regularly go out and come home with a bag full of Kewpies for dinner. We’d attack the bag like animals looking for our “special.” I remember regularly going to Kewpie with my other set of grandparents as well. In fact, that Grandpa loved Kewpie so much that at his funeral, his long-time neighbor put a couple coupons in Grandpa’s pocket, you know, in case he needs them in Heaven…or something.
The local urban legend is that Dave Thomas copied Kewpie when he started Wendy’s. I can see how that conspiracy would start, what with the square hamburgers and the frozen chocolate malts. I have no idea as to whether or not its true, but given the many, many bizarre conspiracies the locals have concocted over the years about my hometown, I really doubt it. (If the Russians would have bombed us during the Cold War, our little no-name town was in the top five places they’d hit!)
During February and March, Kewpie ran specials on pies. Maybe it was to drum up post holiday business or maybe just to help with the doldrum of winter, but to this day it’s Februcherry (obviously, cherry pie) and Marchocolate (chocolate silk pie). I have no idea what brought this memory up, but oh how I wanted a piece of chocolate silk pie. In fact, I dug through my pantry to see if I had any chocolate pudding to make a pie, but alas there was none. So instead, I reminisce about a childhood hamburger joint that holds so many family memories of loved ones long-gone. At least I still have the loving, greasy memories.
Filed under way back when | Tags: cherry pie, chocolate silk pie, grease, hamburgers, kewpie, lima, memories, ohio, pie, reminiscing | Comments (2)Wedding dress WOWs!
After my terrible nightmare last week, I cut out the muslin for my friend’s wedding dress and had it assembled in one evening. Then I had to wait. She was out of town and couldn’t come try it on until tonight. Fortunately, I haven’t had any more wedding dress nightmares in the mean time! And tonight, I should be able to dream happy wedding dress dreams because the dress fits her like…well a good dream!! I was amazed, absolutely amazed, and she was ecstatic. I have two very minor, minor adjustments to make to the pattern. So minor I can’t even describe it. She had so many concerns about the way she wanted to look in a dress, and this dress was the absolute perfect style for her. All her concerns vanished under the drape of the fabric. If you are ever concerned about getting a good fit in a dress (ladies that is!) pick one with princess seams.
I’ll cut out the actual dress this week and begin to construct it. Now I just need to pay close attention and say many prayers that I don’t do something silly like melt the fabric with my iron. Looow settings, looow iron settings, and a pressing cloth please!
This dress will definitely be added to my New Things in ’08 list. Let alone have I never really made a garment for anyone outside of my immediate family (toddlers and babies not included) I’ve certainly never tackled anything so important as a dress for a bride!
Filed under sewing, trying new things in 08 | Tags: bride, dreams, new things in '08, princess seams, sewing, wedding dress | Comments (2)New things in ’08: Once a month cooking
Early January my sister-in-law called me while she and her husband were cooking meals for the entire month of January. My mother-in-law had given her an old copy of the book Once A Month Cooking. I had heard of the concept before, not only from my mother-in-law, but I’m quite sure I heard the author’s interview on Focus on the Family way back when it was first published (while I was in elementary school). I never would have imagined that I could cook a month’s worth of food in one day. It sounded quite overwhelming, but my sister-in-law was excited. She said she’d send the book along after she had copied down the recipes she wanted.
When my birthday rolled around at the end of January, she sent me a new copy of the updated version of the book that she had found at a bookstore. I skimmed through the book reading the author’s process and instructions for cooking and freezing and then browsed the menu plans. I knew off the bat that the menu plans wouldn’t work for our family as-is. The toddlers still don’t like spicy, nor do they like a lot of things mixed together (like casseroles), and we aren’t meat and potatoes kind of people. But I saw a lot of recipes that looked good for our style of eating. I started bookmarking pages and then headed to the computer. I created a two-week menu for February and re-created her process of cooking (doing all like tasks at once, chopping all veggies, browning all meat, cooking all chicken, etc). In her menu plans, she has everything broken down in like tasks, and even a shopping list for the menus in the book. There are a few two-week menus as well as a good number of monthly menus. As I re-created my own menu, I worked to keep the system balanced so there were a few soups that were thrown in a pot and simmered on the stove or crockpot, a good number of items that just needed to be assembled and frozen (no cooking and my favorite!), and then a group of recipes that involved a bit of browning/sauteing then assembling. Her recipes are delicious, and if you know your way around the kitchen, this really isn’t as daunting as it may sound. Most of her recipes are very simple and she provides a list of guidelines for using your own recipes (like what can and can’t be frozen and for how long).
I had a lot of fun dancing around the kitchen, although I was ready to be done by the end. Having a freezer full of meals was so satisfying. My in-laws came to visit for a week that month and I spent almost ZERO time in the kitchen. We were able to enjoy our visit with minimal dishes and cleanup and just adding a salad to the pre-made, absolutely delicious meals. It was A.MA.ZING!!!!
For March I decided to give it a go again making even more meals. On Saturday, I cooked up 14 dishes which I figure will give us 20 meals since I doubled a couple of our favorites and some of the recipes made enough for our little family to eat over a couple days. Adding in pizza nights, the occasional salmon quesadilla, and salads and sides from our Veggie Co-op, my cooking is 90% done for the MONTH!
What I love about this process is it really helps us avoid the “I don’t feel like cooking, please pick up Chinese” tempation. Or the kids want Chick-fil-A and I’m tired and don’t feel hungry for what’s on the menu so I cave. Also, I watch a friend’s little girl 2 days a week until mid-April and on those nights, it’s tough to get dinner ready. Let’s not even mention the call to The Narrator “There’s nothing in the fridge can you please pick up something for dinner from the store on your way home?” He is….creative…and definitely a Dad!! But none of those issues matter now. Turn the oven on, pop it in. The hardest part is remembering to pull something out of the freezer the night before, or by 9 a.m. And for time management? I spent 7 hours in the kitchen instead of 1 hour every night for the next month.
Can you tell I’m in love with this? I actually enjoy cooking and meal prep again.  I have more time to play with the kiddos and no kids hanging on my legs at 4:30 while I try to rush a dinner together. I can enjoy the evenings with The Narrator instead of cleaning the kitchen!! Or maybe learn something else new in ’08! Yay for freezer meals.
Filed under Story Girl, trying new things in 08 | Tags: freezer meals, meal prep, once a month cooking, time savers | Comments (4)2008: the year for trying new things
Right before the holidays The Narrator and I ate at a Brazilian steak house for his company Christmas party. The restaurant had continuous table service. When you wanted to continue eating meat you turned your little round card to green. When you needed a break, you turned the card to red. All night long the servers came around with huge hunks of meat offering you slices of varying kinds of delicious. I admit, I ate more meat in that one meal than I will probably eat during all of 2008. But during that meal, I noticed something about myself. I wasn’t very adventurous. If I didn’t know what something was on the salad bar, I wouldn’t take it. And later I regretted not trying some new things. After all, I didn’t have anything to lose. We weren’t paying for this meal (thankfully!!!), and if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to eat it and could get something else.
So when the new year rolled around, I made a mini-resolution of sorts that so far has been a lot of fun. I decided to try as many new things as possible this year. Whether it’s simply ordering something different from a menu, trying a new driving route, or learning a new skill, 2008 is the year for new things and stretching my brain. Too often, we think that in order to have an adventurous life we have to travel to Tahiti and have an exotic vacation. I’m out to prove to myself that I can have mini-adventures all year long.
So far, as of March 1, I think I’m doing pretty well. I started out small. When we went to Red Lobster for my birthday (as we do every year, it’s pretty much the only time of year we eat there and that I get to eat shrimp!) I went straight for the shrimp. Shrimp is my favorite meat. Is shrimp a meat? Hmmm. Instead of going for the standard scampi and popcorn shrimp, I saw that they had 3 new kinds of shrimp on the menu, and believe you me I tried and loved them all! When I was at the sewing expo I ordered a bratwurst for lunch since I don’t get to eat those very often and the guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted sauerkraut on it. I immediately responded no, but then in the light of trying new things I said, “You know, yeah go ahead!!” I apparently said it with a little too much zeal because he looked at me really funny and quickly slopped some on the brat. I never used to like sauerkraut, I think it had something to do with the sour, but this time I was pleasantly surprised and so glad I ventured out!
A couple weeks ago, a friend told me about the vegetable co-op that she joined a few months ago which had a couple openings. This is a group of 12 families who buy fruits and vegetables in bulk getting them at a really great price. Each family pays $15 every two weeks for a 10 gallon tub full of food. Everyone takes a turn going to the market to make the purchases, so about 2-3 times a year each family goes and does the buying. I was excited to give this a try and today I picked up my first bucket of food. For $15 this week we got (estimating the pounds) a couple pounds of bananas, a pint of strawberries, 2-3 pounds of peaches, 1 cantelope, 1 1/2 pineapples, 1.5 pounds of grapes, 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bag of celery, 6 green peppers, 2-3 pounds of red potatoes, 2-3 pounds sweet potatoes, and 2-3 pounds onions. I was ecstatic. The timing was perfect because today I also did my once a month cooking (another new thing I’ll talk more about soon). After I finished all my cooking I looked over the big supply of fruits and veggies left and began to scour my Betty Crocker cookbook. I had no idea there were so many fun things you could make with green peppers and sweet potatoes. We will definitely be experimenting with some great side dishes this month (another benefit of cooking the main dishes all on one day). And The Narrator is thrilled because when someone else does the shopping we get a better variety – like cantelope. I never buy cantelope because I don’t like it (even though he does! Bad wife! But I’ll be giving it a shot again!) I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
If you hear about a vegetable co-op in your area, definitely look into it. Or maybe you could start one of your own with a group of friends. You need to locate a supplier for fruits and vegetables that gives discounts for buying in bulk. I’m curious to find out where this market is they purchase from. It’s in town and it opens at midnight and closes at 8 a.m. I’m thinking they must mostly supply restaurants and smaller farmers markets. I’ll go a few times with the other buyers before it’s our turn so I get a feel for it. And now, how about some sweet potato swirls?
Filed under Story Girl, trying new things in 08 | Comments (4)