Project Food Blog

I'm supposed to write a blog entry about why I should be the next food blog star. To be honest, I've been slacking pretty hard on food blogging over the past year, and I'm hoping that entering this contest will be a good way for me to get back into the swing of things.

When I first started this blog, it was way back in early 2007, and I was a single mom of an extremely picky eight-year-old son. My sister and her family had come to visit, and for dinner we ended up throwing together a bunch of stuff and calling it "Yum Yum Chicken Enchilada Casserole." I figured I'd create an online cookbook of sorts, chronicling my recipe successes and Table for Two was born. About a month later I started dating the man who would later become my husband, and I finally had an appreciative audience for my gastronomical experiments. Once my boyfriend/future husband and his daughter moved in, Table for Two actually became a table for four.

Over time, I started to get frustrated with meal planning - I'd try a new recipe from a cookbook, or come up with something original, and the kids grumbled. If it wasn't pizza or chicken nuggets, they didn't want to have anything to do with it. We decided to have the kids pitch in by making them each cook one dinner per month. We bought a couple of kid-friendly cookbooks, and at first they jumped in wholeheartedly. After cooking once or twice, though, they lost interest and it became just another chore.

For this FoodBuzz-sponsored contest, I plan on getting the kids excited again about cooking by making them the stars of my food blog. I'll chronicle their cooking successes and failures, and by extension, my successes and failures as a teacher. And maybe along the way I'll be able to recapture my enthusiasm for creative cooking, too.

Monthaversary

It's been a month since our wedding, and not much has changed in our day-to-day lives, except that I'm starting to use my new last name. I finally got the marriage certificate from the county last week and was able to go to Social Security & DMV and get my name changed, and although I don't have the new documents yet, I was able to change my bank accounts and am getting started on the long process of changing the name on all the bills.

I ordered a photo album from snapfish, and am eagerly awaiting that arrival, but the video arrived today! I've uploaded some highlights from the ceremony to youtube:

Sand Ceremony


Vows


Ring Exchange

Wedding photos!

Just wanted to drop in real quick to give y'all a link to the wedding photos. I keep getting more in, so there may be more added to the Flickr set , but I wanted to get something up fast for those who couldn't make it to the party.

Also, you might want to watch our first dance. :)

Enjoy!

Crazybusy

God, things have been so busy lately, I've barely had time to think. Quick recap here:

• Attended & helped organize a protest against Prop 8 in WC on the 15th
• Waged war on the pantry moths that had completely infested our dry goods cupboard; I think I've won but it may just be a lull in the battle
  
• Semi-regular dinner out with supervisor
• Fought off a cold
• Attended big Adobe conference in SF, 17th-19th (which entailed unfortunate late nights coupled with even more unfortunate early mornings in which I had to ride stupid BART into the city. Hello, two-hour commute!)
• Parent-teacher conference
• Thanksgiving dinner planning, including ordering the organic free-range turkey breast (even though it's just the four of us, and possibly Babydaddy, we will still have the requisite big turkey feast)
• Finished two sweaters (Sister's Christmas Present and my big green squishy Mmmmmalabrigo v-neck)
• Started a baby sweater
• Started and FINISHED a super-secret surprise Christmas present for someone (at least those long BART rides were good for something)
• Successfully kept myself from killing the kids so far (they're home a lot this month thanks to Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, staff in-service days and parent-teacher conferences)
• Finished most of my Christmas shopping
• Crazy busy with work stuff (being gone for three days at a conference does not help)

And this is just the last two weeks, mind you. AND, today is Mr Wonderful's birthday. Thankfully, he decided that what he really really wants for dinner is pizza and beer. I can totally deal with that. But what he wants for his present is to get his computer fixed. Ugh. The thing needs a new motherboard, if I remember correctly (it's been at least six months since it got fried), and probably a new processor and a couple of fans too. *sigh*

Things I still need to get done:

• Family picture for Christmas cards
• Order Christmas cards, and when they get here, address & send them out
• Thanksgiving
• Get paver stones to edge the patio (between cement patio & new sod)
• Finish baby sweater
• Sleep for fifteen years

On the plus side, I found out that you can order NyQuil-D through your neighborhood pharmacy. NyQuil-D is the original formulation of NyQuil, and contains the magical ingredients that knock you on your ass. I have ordered some and it should be ready to pick up along with my turkey tomorrow.

A summer cold

Last week Mr Wonderful came down with a nasty summer cold. I thought I'd escaped it, but apparently I wasn't so lucky...I started feeling it while I was driving home on Sunday, after dropping Rugrat off at summer camp. I just hope that he doesn't come down with it - what a disappointment it would be (not to mention a waste of money) if he had to come home early from camp!

As much as I hate being sick, at least I'm getting this cold thing out of the way while the kids are both gone (Tomboy's at her mom's this week) and before we head down for our vacation in Palm Springs next week. And I'm feeling much better today; yesterday was miserable but I got 10 hours of sleep the last two nights (thank you, NyQuil!) and have been drinking lots of liquids, so I'm feeling a bit better today. We'll see...it does tend to get worse as the day goes on, so I may be prematurely optimistic here, but I'm not as "out of it" today.

I know I've been lagging on posting here. That happens when I feel like I need to do a recap of something, and then I keep putting it off, and thinking that I can't blog about anything else until that is done. I'm talking about the camping trip we went on at the end of June, of course.

It was really very nice, and would have been ideal if it weren't for the damn mosquitoes. Rugrat got bitten so many times on his face that he looked like a boxer who'd just done ten rounds; his eye was swollen almost shut on the ride home. But other than the bugs, it was great. We spent a lot of time at the river nearby; I'd brought a huge inner tube (meant for pulling along behind a boat, so it was very sturdy) and we spent some lovely hours just floating in the water. Niece, of course, was absolutely ecstatic to be in the water - she's always been drawn to water, and would live her entire life in the water if she could. Mr Wonderful took Rugrat fishing for a little while, and I sat on the beach chatting with Sister and Brother-In-Law, knitting my cushy green v-neck sweater. You may think that wool and knitting needles are not appropriate for the beach, but hey, it's my vacation. I get to relax however I want. :)

And the food was glorious. I'd pre-made some Ribollita and some Mexican Chicken Chili before we left, and we also had hot dogs, eggs and bacon, biscuits, tacos, sandwich fixin's and snacks, plus lots of beer and soft drinks and water. Sister brought deviled eggs...mmmm....and they made us chicken-pineapple kabobs one night that were fantastic! Sister & BIL had gotten a really cool new camp stove; one side is a grill, the other is a regular burner, and it was very handy.

The best of the pictures of the camping trip are up on Flickr, if you're interested.

Oh, and let me leave you with this little snippet of conversation, overheard about 10 minutes after Sister & her family showed up:

Cousin: You suck!
Rugrat: No, you suck!
Cousin: We both suck!
Rugrat: Yeah, we both suck!

Overenthusiastic

Apparently my skin is a leeetle bit overenthusiastic when it comes to healing. I went to the dermatologist this morning for what I hoped would be my final checkup, and she wasn't happy with my scar, because it's all puffy (Dad's comment yesterday: "I just thought it was a zit!" Nice.). So I'm going back next month for dermabrasion, to grind that puppy down. Ouch.

On the plus side, we had a lovely Father's Day yesterday. Babydaddy came over for dinner last night, as did my Dad. (Dad & Stepmom are up here visiting, because Stepmom's father just passed away. Very sad, but on the other hand, it was a nice surprise to be able to spend Father's Day with my dad.) Dad got to check out my scar firsthand and take pictures of Rugrat tearing around the court on his bicycle. I got to check on Dad's Thank-You Socks, to make sure they're turning out to be an appropriate size (so far, so good!). Then Mr Wonderful BBQed some steaks, and I sauteed some yummy local white corn (freshly cut off the cob!) and put together some tasty fruit & yogurt parfaits for dessert.

Oh yeah, and Dad & I tossed back a few glasses of scotch. Mmmm...Glenmorangie. There's just nothing quite as cool as (legally) drinking with your dad.

Growing up

Rugrat's last day of school is today. The end of third grade!

He's been really impressing me lately. First of all, he hasn't lost his housekey yet. He's been working hard on his goals - remembering to bring all his stuff home from school, taking care of his responsibilities at home (homework, cleaning his lizard's cage at Babydaddy's house, etc). He's walked to school several times by himself (Babydaddy followed him the first couple of times just to be sure). And....he finally learned how to ride his bike.

I've tried a few times to teach him to ride his bike, but he was very resistant to even trying. However, I made this a prerequisite to him being able to be a latchkey kid next school year; I'd rather have him be able to ride his bike to/from school than just walk. So a few weeks ago, Mr Wonderful took him out in our court and taught him how to ride. It took him less than 20 minutes before Rugrat was riding his bike completely solo (including starting off and stopping without falling over). I was absolutely flabbergasted. It helps that Mr Wonderful is a lot stronger than I am, and that learning to ride the bike felt more secure and less wobbly while he was holding the back of the seat. But I think Rugrat was finally just ready to learn. Now, of course, he LOVES riding his bike. He couldn't see what the big deal was before, but once he learned how to do it, he couldn't believe how fun it was. And I had nearly given up on him ever learning to ride a bike, so when I saw him take off for the first time, completely on his own, I almost started crying. My little munchkin is growing up!

This is such a golden age of childhood, and it makes me especially excited about our upcoming camping trip. I've taken Rugrat camping before, but only once, for a single night, and it was a few years ago. I think this is going to be one of those vacations that he remembers for the rest of his life. We'll have three adjoining campsites: my sister & her family, my cousin & her son, and Mr Wonderful, Rugrat and I (unfortunately, Tomboy is not able to join us this time). It'll be five days of getting dirty, hiking, swimming in a river, fishing, and playing with his two cousins that are just about the same age as him. I've gotten a separate tent just for the boys to sleep in, and I really think they're going to have a blast. S'mores around the campfire at night, hot cocoa with marshmallows in the mornings, and long summer days playing in the woods and the river with his favorite cousins. What could be better for a nine-year-old boy?

Snow trip!

We took the kids to the snow this weekend. I'd been promising Rugrat that we'd go up to the snow, and when our plans to visit Mr Wonderful's sister this past weekend fell through, we decided to head up for an impromptu Tahoe trip instead.

This trip was all about the kids. We drove up Saturday morning without any real plan (where to stay, what exactly to do) other than "play in the snow." We found a cheap hotel room right after we got into town, and then headed out immediately to find a good hill to slide down on the orange disk we'd brought. Instead, we ended up going to Hansen's Tube & Saucer park, where for $20, Mr Wonderful and the kids slid down a couple of exciting snow slides (much like waterslides) in innertubes. Afterwards, we went out for pizza at Lake Tahoe Pizza Co., which was right across the street from our hotel. The food was great - their combo pizza had a layer of sauteed mushrooms underneath the cheese that was really fantastic.

After dinner, we went to Harrah's and I got $20 in tokens and let the kids play in the arcade for about an hour and a half. Finally, we went back to the hotel and crashed out. I can't really recommend the hotel (Apex) as Mr Wonderful and I were freezing all night, having decided to sleep with our respective kids in order to keep the peace, but at least the kids slept well.

The next morning we went to the Red Hut Waffle House and OMG. BEST. BREAKFAST. EVER! Really, all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Even the coffee was good. If you ever stay the night in South Lake Tahoe, be sure to check it out. It's on the lake side of the main drag, an unassuming little hole in the wall, and there will probably be a wait (we waited about 20 mins) but the wait is WORTH IT. They specialize in waffles (which Rugrat & Mr Wonderful both had) but we also had fantastic biscuits & gravy, perfectly cooked eggs (and I'm darn picky about my eggs) and the best bacon I've ever had in a restaurant. It was cooked slowly until perfectly crisp, and they were nice thick slices.

After that "righteous gut-packing" (™ Mr Wonderful), we headed back home, stopping for an hour in Strawberry, where the kids got to make good use of the orange disk, as well as the pink disk and the tie-dye sled we bought at KMart in Tahoe. I even went down the hill once! Everyone had a blast here, even Rugrat (who didn't much like sliding down the big hills, but made a fabulous snowchicken; kind of like a snowman, except...it's a chicken). More pictures are up on Flickr, of course. On our way home we stopped at the Silverfork Cafe. We'd stopped there on our way up, to grab some lunch and hit the bathroom, and their food was fantastic. Mr Wonderful and I split a steak taco (very large, with "two" tacos in the order that actually stretched to more like FOUR) on the way to Tahoe, and on the way home we decided to try the shrimp version. It was heavenly, and that tiny little cafe will be our official pitstop every time we hit Tahoe now.

25 things

I could write a wrap-up of the Stitches West conference I went to on Saturday, but I can sum it up in one word: Malabrigo. Malabrigo Silky (half silk, half merino, in lustrous Burgundy), Malabrigo Merino Worsted (a sweater's worth in Olive!), Malabrigo Lace (lovely cobwebby baby-soft dark blue/green Vaa), and best of all, a FREE skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn, not yet released for public purchase (or even mentioned on their official website!), in the most amazing blue/green/purple colorway. I am so drooling over this stuff, y'all. I went to the Malabrigo booth and asked the vendor when the sock yarn was going to be released, and when I mentioned that I was a member of the Malabrigo Junkies group on Ravelry, he pulled out a FREE skein, all for me! Big enough for a pair of socks! Superwash merino! The colorway doesn't even have a name yet, it's just called "Test Sample" but ooooooh, all the glorious jade, turquoise, sapphire, and amethyst colors....

Anyhoo, that's not what I wanted to write about. What I really wanted to write about is a meme I saw on Keckler's blog, The Grub Report, which is really just a list: 25 things I never get tired of.

So, without further ado, here's my 25, in no particular order:

1. Spring bulbs, pushing up through the cold gray days
2. The smell of the earth when it rains for the first time after a long dry spell
3. Fresh salty sea breeze on my face
4. Cowgirl Creamery cheese
5. Mr Wonderful's whistling. He is a master whistler. He whistles along with songs, or just when he's walking or driving or whatever, and can do these amazing Disney-animated-bird trilling noises.
6. Throwing a bunch of stuff together randomly and coming up with a great new meal that everyone in the family enjoys
7. The smell of lilacs
8. Rugrat, falling asleep while leaning up against me, going all boneless and limp, and drooling just a little bit
   
9. The "aha!" moment, when a puzzling programming issue at work suddenly becomes clear
10. A buttery, melt-in-your-mouth filet mignon from Ruth's Chris Steak House
11. That moment when you just finish a wonderful book
12. The smell of a wood fire, especially when you're camping
13. Right after the cleaning ladies leave, when the house is perfectly clean (before the kids get here and mess it all up again...)
14. Hot buttered popcorn at the movie theater; I can't seem to watch a movie in the theater without it
15. Climbing into bed every night with Mr Wonderful
16. Exploring a new city, especially if it's somewhere that requires the use of a passport
    
17. Walking through the redwoods
18. Finishing a knitting project
19. Heirloom tomatoes, still warm from the sun, with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper
20. Road trip!
21. Dancing with friends at a club until we're exhausted and dripping sweat
22. Hearing a great new song on the radio
    
23. Sleeping until I wake up naturally, without an alarm clock
24. Getting a pedicure: it's a fairly cheap indulgence, and it lasts for a month!
    
25. Kisses
    

Six months

Last night as I was laying in bed, chatting with Mr Wonderful, I realized that it was my six-month anniversary. Yes, it's really and truly been six months since I had a cigarette. I am so proud!

Oh, and I'm knitting a hat, with stranded two-color knitting. I wanted to test the stranded two-color knitting on a small project before I did it on Rugrat's Spider-man sweater, which is coming along so slowly (thanks to size 5 needles and teeny tiny yarn) that by the time I finish it he'll probably be too big to wear it. Heh. The big brown & orange sweater I started last year is still unfinished, because I goofed up one of the shoulders pretty badly and I'm not sure how to fix it. I may just rip it all back anyway, because the yarn is nice but the sweater is pretty much sized for a linebacker, and I could use that yarn for a much nicer project.

The custom furniture project with Babydaddy is coming along, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd hoped. I was sick all weekend, so I didn't get a chance to do any work on it (I have a few of the pieces here now and I need to putty, sand, prime & paint them). And this coming weekend we have the kids, so we're talking about a trip to San Francisco on Saturday, and then on Sunday I've got a book club meeting...although they haven't sent out details on where that's being held so maybe it's not still on. Things are getting even more hectic around here. In fact, I just looked at my calendar, and I think we have stuff going on every single weekend from Halloween to Christmas. Not necessarily meaning that we have events scheduled, but between holidays and vacation and weekends with the kids, the only weekend I've got "off" is Dec 8-9, and I'm hosting a holiday party for the book club on the 9th. So I guess I better get my Christmas shopping done soon, huh?

And one final note: Sars over at Tomato Nation is rocking the house with her Donors Choose Challenge. Over $27,000 raised in less than TWO DAYS. That is unbelievable.

Old Skool

I found an old friend on myspace a couple weeks ago - a guy I haven't talked to in ten years. Turns out he lives only half an hour away from me, and also has an 8-yr-old child. We've talked on the phone a couple times but haven't yet gotten together; it will be interesting to see him after all this time. He was a really great friend to me back when I was young and stupid and in a very self-destructive phase, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him again.

I found the high-end yarn shop in WC this weekend, and spent a good hour and a half in there, browsing the gorgeous yarns and finally settling on some skeins of lovely brown and olive-green wool to knit my first sweater. I also got a set of double-pointed needles and a circular needle, and I'm off & running on the project. I hope it turns out OK; this is my first non-scarf project so I'm hoping I don't screw it up too badly. It's about an inch long right now, so I figure I might be done with it by next Christmas. Heh. Unless, of course, it goes the way of my counted cross-stitch project (the stocking that will probably not be finished until my first grandchild is born).

Rugrat is losing teeth left, right & center. He's almost got more gaps than teeth, these days. Doesn't do much to help his babyish pronunciation either. ;-) He's doing well in karate though, and currently is the only one in his class (gold belt), so he's getting some great one-on-one attention with the instructors. He'll be moving up to orange belt in about another week, so we're enjoying the individual instruction while it lasts.

And mom is coming to visit this weekend! Yay! Which means I seriously need to clean the house. Boo!

Zippity doo dah

Dad & stepmom came over on Saturday for my birthday. I ran off to a seminar at the library on starting your own small business, and while I was gone, they started changing the switches and electrical outlets in the house. I don't mean that they started rewiring them so as to completely confound me, but that they switched the actual switches and outlets from nasty almond to a lovely, clean white. So...whee! I have all new outlets & switches, including GFCIs in the kitchen & bath (which were not there before, despite the violated building codes). Bitchin' birthday present, even if dad nearly gave himself a heart attack doing it all in one day. Seriously, I was hollerin' at him to TAKE A FRIGGIN BREAK ALREADY by the time he started on the upstairs rooms. He was turning purple and huffin' and puffin' every time he had to get back up off the floor.

I also got a fabulous birthday dinner of boeuf bourgignon and garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach with pine nuts and sultanas (golden raisins). And dessert: creme brulee. Who can resist that? In addition, I marinated myself in pinot noir and a good snort of that fabulous $200 scotch. Amazingly enough, I was NOT hung over the next day (may have something to do with the fact that I basically passed out at 9 PM and slept TWELVE HOURS).

And now I am 32. I was thinking the other day about how I could be on that old television show Thirtysomething now.

Haircut tonight! Will celebrate with something a little different - very long bangs (or very short layers) and at least four inches off the ends. My hair has gotten unwieldy, y'all. The last time I actually styled my hair (blow dry, curling iron, etc.) it took forever. I have at least four inches of incredibly dry ends that resemble straw. AND I woke up in the middle of the night a few times with my hair wrapped around my neck and trying to strangle me. I don't want my hair to be so long that it's strangling me. Seriously. And when I'm not laying down, the hair occasionally will wrap under my armpit and my head gets yanked to the side. That's just too long.

Our growing family

Our family is about to grow! We're adopting a wonderful Staffordshire Terrier this weekend. Her name is Ginger, and she's just the sweetest thing ever. She doesn't bark, she doesn't make any noise at all...and she would just kiss you to death, if you gave her the chance. She loves to lay on her back and have you rub her belly. :-)

The only thing that worries me is that she is SO strong. I'm going to take her to an obedience class, more for MY benefit than hers. She's a great dog, but since I've never had one before, I need to learn how to handle her when walking & so on - right now she pretty much just drags me along. LOL

Anyway, Rugrat met her tonight and it was hilarious. The rescue woman brought Ginger to the park, and Rugrat was giggling madly pretty much the whole time. He wanted Ginger to kiss him, so he'd get close to her, but as soon as she'd move towards him to kiss him, Rugrat would run away. He's a bit skittish around dogs (so was I, for MANY years) but towards the end of the visit he got more comfortable with Ginger and let her kiss him a few times.

Anyway, wish us luck! I'm really excited and so happy to have her join our family. :-)