Know Thyself

I found this recipe for Baked Butternut Squash & Gouda Tortellini.

It looked so yummy. I immediately thought to myself, "I want to make that."

I don't cook as much as I used to. For one, food is expensive. At least good food is expensive. Also, it takes time to cook. Time is something I don't have. Boys are in bed at 8pm. I get home from work a little after 5pm. Squeeze in to those three hours some karate, homework, baths, and any quality time I spend with the boys that day, and what's left is about five minutes. Not long enough to make a five course meal.

I promise myself one recipe a week. One night a week I can try something new, or make something "fancy" that takes more than fifteen minutes.

This past week it was the butternut squash tortellini.

I started cooking and I had all the optimism in the world.

This brings me to my point... there is a huge difference between wanting to COOK something, and just wanting to EAT it.

I overcooked the squash. I almost missed the vegetable stock entirely. I didn't measure the cheese. I almost forgot the onion. Halfway through the process Nick walked in and crumpled his face up. "You know nobody's going to EAT that, right?"

I made it anyway.

I made huge mess that I needed to clean up. The end result was a completely different color than the picture. I still ate it, mind you. The boys refused, but I didn't really think they would, anyway.

Like I said, a huge different between wanting to COOK it, to actually slice, roast, sautee, puree, etc. and just wanting to order it off of the menu. "That looks good!" I say to myself. "I want to make that!"

But I don't want to make it. I don't want to actually make it at all. I want to eat it. I want to order it. I want to enjoy it, and I want to not slave over it and struggle with it and have it come out with half the ingredients and the wrong color.

I felt like I learned something about myself. It's not that I don't like to cook. Under the right circumstances, I do. When it's not so stressful. When I have adventurous tasters. When I have time and don't feel rushed. THEN I like to cook. Not when I have 40 minutes for a recipe that says it takes 40 minutes (it lies) and the kitchen just got clean.

I will never cook again, I say.

24 hours later I'm flipping through Facebook and run across this: White Beans With Kale. I'm not even 100% sure what polenta is.

And I thought - Wow. I want to make this.

Guess Who?

Remember last year, when Nicholas did his Biography report and had to create his person out of a 2-liter bottle? Remember this:

Well, the good thing about having Nick and Nate in back to back grades is that we are prepared for the biggest assignments. I knew Nate was going to have to collect rocks. And I knew he was going to have to create his own bottle person.

Here he is:

No, it's not Einstein. Yes, the hair can trick you, but obviously this is Benjamin Franklin. See the kite?

His hair is just standing on end (I am informed) because of the electricity running through his body. Also, the lightning seems to be stuck to his back.

Nate was very proud of Bottle Ben Franklin. We hope he will get along with Bottle J.K. Rowling, who is still hanging around from last year. (Yes, I know it looks like George Washington. It's not.)

Slideshow

OK, so for a little while now I've been all talk and nothing to show for it. Blah blah blah... show us some photos, Kathleen, or we're hanging up on you.

Fine.

Here's the catch: I don't have any new photos of the boys. I'm sorry, but when I'm with them we seem to be either doing stuff, or rushing to get somewhere, and when we're not doing those two things we're either eating or hanging out watching Dr. Who.

I do, however, happen grab my camera every once and awhile to capture other things. Such as...

These cookies I made:

This birthday cake I made for Andrew. Taste the rainbow!:

My broken oven:

The snow that snowed:

Some of my favorite Christmas Ornaments hanging on our tree:

Nibble Nibble, Little Mouse...

This year I was going to make my own gingerbread house.

Usually we purchase the pre-fab ones from the supermarket, and I just let the boys have at it with icing and the stale enclosed candies, but this year I was going to make my own, and it was going to be bigger and cooler.

What made me decide this was a logical and doable task, you might wonder? Well, when I was a kid, Linda made one that kind of resembled our house, and it was awesome! Not so great that we didn't destroy it by prying the licorice tiles off the roof.

Also, last year I saw this video of the Downton Abbey House being created out of gingerbread, and I was filled with a kind of.... I don't know. Longing. Jealousy. Need to create something that didn't fall apart in three minutes.

So last week I purchased our usual pre-fab gingerbread house for the boys to decorate. I figured I was dealing with enough and would wait until I had a little more... a little less... I would wait a couple more years.

Here she is. This year I got additional candy for the boys to use. I hope you enjoy the photos, because the house no longer looks like this. She is naked. And it's not just because of the boys. Those chocolate roof tiles were tempting.

Best Pen Ever

I don't usually plug products on this blog, but occasionally I run across something that is so exciting I can't help myself.

So, I use Sharpie fine tip markers to label my boys' things. I'm talking clothing, jackets, things like that.

But there are some things that don't take the Sharpies. I mean, things that are dark. Like karate sparring gear, or lunch thermoses, or even lunch boxes.

So I got this:

It's a white-out pen. I know this isn't a new product, but it's newly re-discovered by me, so Whoo-hoo! Official Mommy plug. And it's so much less expensive than those personalized pre-printed labels. 

Also, did I mention that the printer-fairy sent me a new printer? Thank You, Printer Fairy!

Minecraft

I don't know what it does, but my kids are obsessed.

You won't let us play on the computer?

Fine. We'll build them out of paper.

Taking a Vote

OK, so for Mothers' Day I got a 5lb. bag of caramels.

I love caramels, but eating 5lbs. is NOT a good idea for any one person. Not even if she shares. Not even if she decides to try and eat just one caramel per day until they are gone. Which would bring us into February 2014.

So.

I've decided to make things with them. Things with caramel. I'm taking a vote. What do you think of these?

Salty Caramel Oat Bars

Samoa Bark

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

I've made these before but they were so good Caramel Stuffed Krispie Treats


I really really could us your opinions here. And yes, I also found apple caramel tarts and things like that. And yes, if you have other ides, let me know, just remember that I have actual caramels to use up and can't be bothered making sauces from sugar because even though I can do it that actually isn't the point to this exercise.

I kind of feel like making all four of these and then having a taste test, but I would need to know 20 people who would like to participate. Because I can't eat all that myself.

Pardon Our Appearance

And by "Our Appearance" I really mean "The lack of Blog Posts On This Blog." I actually like the look it has right now, and until I get irritated or board by it, I refuse to apologize for that.

Masks - April 2013

 I did, however, mean to post a few things ahead of time before I left for New York. Yet I did not.

For this, we are truly sorry.

Masks - April 2013

More Andy Art

I usually clean the house on Wednesdays, when Andy is at school.

Only this past Wednesday Nate has his school concert a 10am, then Nick had his at 1pm, and in between we had to grab Andy and grab lunch and find someplace to park since they placed the 'temporary' classroom portables on one of the parking lots and built the kindergarten wing on the other parking lot and have twenty remaining parking spots for the parents of the 500 students in first and second grade.

What was I talking about?

Oh, yes, cleaning the house.

So I had to clean the house on Thursday instead. Which ment that Andy was left to entertain himself. Which he did with my computer and the photo booth app. He was kind enough to leave a bunch of photos on my desktop. Like this one.

Andy's Computer Creation - April 2013

And then, and then.... this video. Which apparently he took while running to use the restroom, yelling all the while so we didn't miss anything.

Biography

Nick has to do a biography project for school.

The second phase of the project was to build a "bottle person" of the subject. Here is Nick's bottle person. Can you guess who his subject is?

Nick's Biography Project Bottle Person - 2013

No, not George Washington. Think. This is Nicholas we're talking about.

You are correct! Nick chose to do his project on J.K. Rowling. And yes, I did explain that she was an author, and not actually a student or teacher at Hogwarts, but Nick still chose the robes.

The first part of the project was to gather information on the subject. I went to the library and got out a book on J.K. Rowling, one which was written just before the Half Blood Price was printed. I skimmed it, leafing over the pages, and suggested to Nick that he read it. He looked at the cover and glanced at some of the photographs, then asked if we could look her up online.

So we looked her up online. I tried explaining that the internet is full of information and not all of it is correct. "You should make sure you find your information in two or three places if you're going to write about it," I said.

"Whatever," Nick said.

So I read Nick what we found online.

I could go into detail here about filling out the sheet of paper and the interactions that followed, but I won't. Instead, I'll just say that I now know a lot about J.K. Rowling. I know more than Nick, apparently, who doesn't seem to have retained any of the information he wrote down on his biography sheet.

Which is really too bad, because phase 3 of this biography project is an oral report. He has to stand in front of the class and talk about this person and what this person did. He also has to chose how to present using a trifold poster, a poem or song, a powerpoint presentation, a quilt, a timeline, or a trading card. Nick is choosing the trading card.

FYI, he also has to dress up as this person when he gives his presentation.

Now, I know Nick has spent hours dressed up as Harry Potter. He actually still wears the glasses around for looks, like other people wear hats or shoes. When I told his he had to dress as J.K. Rowling he had a moment of "No Way!" but the next time I brought it up he mentioned getting a wig. So... I'll take pictures.

Pop Tart Cat (internet Pt. 1)

A few weeks ago, Nick asked me to look something up on the internet.

"Could you look up Nyan Cat?" he asked me.

I rolled my eyes - his friend down the street is allowed to bring his DS on the school bus, and every morning they watch videos and play games while my innocent son has his mind infested with all sorts of information this other kid has picked up from his four older brothers and sisters.

So I typed in "NION CAT" and a bunch of links pop up for Nyan Cat.

Most lead to this video right here. If you watch it for 20 seconds, you've got the gist of it. Nothing else happens. There is no surprise ending, no change os music, animation, background, anything. Just the same thing for 3 minutes and 37 seconds.

"He kind of looks like a pop tart," I said. I didn't realize this cat was also known as "Pop Tart Cat."


Anyway, Nick has begun making things out of paper. I'll turn around and suddenly the kitchen table (and floor) is full of little bits of shredded paper and glue and markers. Nick will hold up a bunch of paper and say "I made a book!" or "I made a pig!" or "Look at my new cell phone!" and then the next fifteen minutes he spends telling me how it works. Then I ask him to clean up the mess and he forgets how to speak English and suddenly remembers something he left in the bathroom upstairs.



The other day he went to school and I walked into the living room to find this:

Nick's Cat March 2013

What is this? I go to take a closer look. Yup. It's a cat. Nick's very own Pop Tart Cat. Complete with legs and a tail.

Nick's Cat March 2013

But I don't need to worry. Nick has taken care of him and fed him before he left for school.

Nick's Cat March 2013

Needless to say I left him there.

Jack 'O Lantern

As of right now, we have two pumpkins carved. One is still waiting for it's artist to create something outstanding.

When I was a kid, we got pumpkins, someone handed us a knife, and we cut out shapes to make scary faces. At least that's what I remember.

These days, they sell kits with stencils to make fancy lit lanterns. The boys want to make these, of course. So much more fun than triangle eyes. But they can't exactly handle the knives.

So I end up getting to do the bulk of the handywork, after the boys have poked holes in various locations.

But that's OK. The boys are proud, and the lanterns are cool.

Project Idea

I haven't quilted in a long time.

The thing about quilting is, it takes a long time.

I don't have a long time. And I don't have a consistant time. By the time I figure out where I left off in a projrct, I'm ready for bed, or to pick up the kids, or something.

I also have a lot of fabric, which I usually purchase by the fat quarter, or find by cutting up  old clothing items.

Recently, I inherited my Aunt Betty's fabric stash. She had a lot of fabric, and what's more, she had yards and yards of some of it.

It's been sitting in the guest room, piled up in boxes until I can get my act together and find a quick sewing project.

But the other day, I found a use for some of it.

Ta Da!

In case you can't make out what it is, it's a number of tents, or forts, in the boys' bedroom. They loved it. I'm keeping it in mind for the long winter days ahead.

Nathan's Egg

And I shall call him Eggy, and he shall be mine!

Andy Decorating Eggs

Happy Easter

 We segregate our eggs - ones for hiding, and ones for just looking at because they are not hard boiled and will make a huge mess if they break. Next year I'm going to try actually blowing the eggs out. The  psanky (decorated with wax) not the regular kid ones. I'm still not very good at it, and it does get rather tedious, especially when you're trying to help the boys, who need help with the wax and the open flame. But I just think they look so much better.

Regardless, Easter is not all about the eggs. It's also about chocolate and going to church in fancy hats and listening to that song they sing every year! Resurrection and religion aside, I also feel Easter is about the real beginning of Spring. A resurrection of nature, if you will.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

St. Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day means Projects. School projects. It means digging up shoe boxes and the red and white paints. It means searching for the right heart stickers and the right design for the cards you give your school friends. It means writing your name twenty times. It means searching the stores for heart shaped boxes of chocolate they put out the day after Christmas, but that seems to all but have disappeared five days before the actual holiday in favor of chocolate eggs. It means buying all the white and red icing for the sugar cookies you have to bring to the Kindergarten party, and going to three different supermarkets to find the right brand of strawberry ice cream requested for the allergy-prone first grade class.

But mostly it's just telling people you love them.

Superbowl

 I wasn't going to post this morning, but sometimes things happen that make certain posts better for certain days. Even if I don't like football. 

When I was a kid, I don't think we ever integrated sports into school. I mean, we might have PLAYED all kinds of different sports, which is great and in my opinion, the best way to integrate sports into a curriculum. But we never mentioned sporting events, except for perhaps the Olympics, because they only took place once every 4 years. (This was before the Olympic people changed it to once ever two years, confusing everything and making it less special.)

But we live in New England. We take our sports very seriously. Even when all the teams were chronic losers who never won, people were devoted to their teams to the point of obsession. And the winning hasn't let that change.

Which is why I can't let Andy wear that Yankee's sweatshirt out of the house EVER, because he might get beat up. Sorry, Mom, he's real cute in it, and he'll wear it when we're in New York. Or France.

But the point of this post is that even the schools are into sports. Friday was "Team Day" and everyone, kids, teachers, volunteering parents, were wearing their Patriots gear. Rub on tattoos adorned little kindergarten faces. Oversized jerseys tripped them up. Both Nick and Nate brought home football word searches, drawings, and craft projects.

Good Luck, Giants. We've got Game.

The Day Before Christmas

I forgot to post yesterday. The day just got away from me. But I do have a lot to say. A LOT!

First of all, we decorated a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train. These pre-fab things are more complicated than they look. I always have the worst time getting the things to actually stand up. I had to use a box inside the house and alphabet blocks for the trains. One got stuck in the train. You can kind of see it in the picture if you look. Also, this is the first year that, after constructing the frames, I let the boys decorate all by themselves. Thoughts?

This year I made the boys buy their own presents. Not the ones they GET, the ones they give. So you may be getting some... er... pretty odd things. They did most of their shopping at the Church Holiday Sale, where the Youth Group set up tables of donate items, sell them for very reasonable prices, and the proceeds go to something... heat relief or hunger or something. I donated a basket full of items. Half of these items my kids purchased back.

Many of the gifts are already under the tree. These are gifts from my sister Emily and gifts the boys are giving. It reminds me of being a kid - days before Christmas it looks like Santa has already been here.

Finally, I heard a new holiday song yesterday. It's The 12 Days of Christmas. I KNOW! How awful. There are only 3 billion versions of this song. But this one is different. First off, it's The Boston Pops, and it's just so very different. I tried to find it on iTunes, but I couldn't. The version there was this boring John Williams one. This is a new one. It's really funny! Especially if you're a music lover. I had to go to the BSO site and download it, but maybe there's a different way to give it a listen.

I'll post tomorrow to give an official Merry Christmas, but just in case you won't check in.... Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Cookies

Every year I decide to make Christmas cookies.

Now, I am not actually Martha Stewart, or a cray person. When I was in high school, Larissa and I would make platters of cookies for people as gifts for the holidays, and every single years the madeleins had me in tears. I do not have the patience or the time for complicated projects. Instead, I go simple. Sugar cookies. Made by my favorite Dough Boy.

You would think that, since all I have to do is roll out the dough and bake it, the cookies would be simple. This is what I think. Every Single Year.

And for awhile, the cookies actually DO look fabulous. We have all sorts of cookie cutters, and I use them all. We have hearts and stars and snowflakes, trains and candy canes, Santas and trees. The first sheet of cookies is a wonder!

Until I put them in the oven.

Because THIS is when the cookies decide to puff up to three times their original size. That first sheet of cookies went from intricate and delicate designs to... well, to blobs of cookies. Everything looked like a blob.



This put me in a difficult position yesterday, when I was making a few cookies to give as gifts. Complicated cookies can look messy because they are complicated and require time and effort. Dough Boy sugar cookies are not allowed to look messy. They must look nice.

I managed to separate out a few cookies that looked like flowers, and a few gingerbread men that looked more or less like... obese gingerbread men. And instead of stories last night, I sat the boys down at the kitchen table and opened a little cookie-decorating sweatshop. For one half-hour the boys dabbed sugar icing on cookies with paintbrushes and poured sprinkles on a few sugary cookie-men victims. They look just fine, and now I am happy to give them away as tokens of thanks.