First Day of School

Ah, the first day of school. Katie, Gretchen, Erik and I were all excited for school to start, albeit for different reasons. The girls were ready to meet their teachers, see their friends and meet new ones and while they each admitted to being nervous, they couldn't wait to go. Erik and I were ready for them to be back in the routine of the school year.

Both girls were up by 6:30 this morning, before I even had a chance to shake their little shoulders. Katie rode the bus today from one side of Norwalk to the other to and we all stood in the garage/driveway waiting for the bus. I dropped off Gretchen at school, returned to my car and breathed a sigh of relief and stopped at Starbucks for a back to school treat.


Our big Kindergartener. No, she was not instructed to pose, she just did. It was chilly so her favorite sundress made friends with her favorite zip-up hooded sweatshirt. Gretchen had a great first day and said that she only cried once, when she bit her finger during lunch. She did not cry to her teacher about her bit finger, she found our neighbor, Donna the lunch lady instead.

Our big fourth grader. Once again, she was not instructed to pose, she just did, she always does. Just one of the many awesome things about Katie, she's always camera-ready. Katie had an awesome day and went on and on about how huge everything was at school - the lunchroom, the library, her locker. She went to bed saying that she couldn't wait to go back!

Recently, it dawned on me that some of my favorite restaurant meals are really quite easy to make at home. Example #1, Chicken Fried Rice. Make sure to have a timer on hand, I use the microwave above the stove. The recipe goes together pretty fast once all of the ingredients are lined up so at that point I kick everyone out of the kitchen until it’s time to wash their hands and set the table.

Just wait, those of you with younger children than mine, one day the clouds will open, the heavens will shine down on you and angels will sing when your children are old enough to set and clear the table, then rinse plates and load the dishwasher. It is truly a glorious moment in motherhood.

The original recipe was found on the website www.tastykitchen.com, and was called Garlic Fried Rice. I made the recipe and included all 6 cloves of garlic - yes, 6. My skin smelled like garlic the next day and as much as we loved the recipe, some changes were definitley in order! Feel free to add or substitute your favorite veggies, whatever you like. I'm making this for dinner tonight!

Chicken Fried Rice
serves 4-6

6 T. butter, divided
2 cloves minced garlic
1 t. lemon juice
3 cups cooked rice, chilled (that's 1 1/2 cups before you cook it!)
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 c. carrots, chopped, more to taste
1/2 c. other vegetable, chopped, more to taste
1 pre-cooked chicken breast, chopped into small pieces
2 eggs, beaten
2 T. soy sauce, more to taste
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt 2 T. of butter, add the minced garlic and lemon juice and set aside to let the flavors combine. Cook the rice as directed on the package and set aside or in the fridge to cool.

Chop the onion, carrots and other vegetable, chicken and place each ingredient in it's own bowl so it's easy to drop into the pan. The original recipe called for 1 cup of frozen peas and carrots which I never have on hand, tonight I'm using fresh carrots and broccoli so will steam them in the microwave until they are about half-cooked. Also, I like to pre-cook a couple chicken breasts and freeze them so they are ready for dinners like this - or bbq chicken pizza, or chicken salad, etc. You could easily substitute leftover roast, pork chop, ham, shrimp, whatever meat you have on hand, or use no meat and increase your vegetable amount. Finally, beat the eggs in a small bowl. Line up everything within reach of the stove, this goes together quickly.

In a large, non-stick skillet melt 4 T. of butter over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add vegetables and the butter-garlic-lemon mix and cook for about 3 minutes. Add meat and cook for 1 minute. Push all ingredients over to one side of the skillet and on the empty side add the eggs. Salt and pepper the eggs and scramble them until just set. Then move the rest of the ingredients back over and stir the eggs into the mixture.

Add the cold rice and the soy sauce, stir to combine and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds to nothing burns. Add green onions and stir, taste for seasonings and add more soy sauce, salt and pepper if needed.

We are learning lots on our trip to NYC, here are a few tidbits, I will probably have several more throughout the week.

- check the weather in advance, more than just the morning than you leave, you know, after you are all packed and ready to go, forecast was for low 80s until the morning we left when it quickly changed to 100s

- do not, I repeat do not, go into a restaurant that is not a well known chain and does not post it's prices outside the restaurant, prime example a $14 blt at Roxy Diner. Boo!

- do not believe the counter person at the Des Moines "International" Airport, Delta window, when they say, "hurry up, you'll miss your flight, I'll make sure your bag makes it". Ours made it alright, 14 hours after we did

- do think that just because you are the only two non-Caribbean or non-Hasidic Jews in the six block area, that you will get along just fine and only get random odd stares

- 100 degrees in NYC = 148 degree sidewalks

- eat at Dim Sum Go Go in Chinatown, be a little bit frightened, and come to terms with the fact that you are really bad at chopsticks when the waiter brings you a knife and fork

- waiters at Dim Sum Go Go believe that Chinese food in Iowa is served with potatoes and gravy

- residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant are more frightened that you are walking through your neighborhood than you are when you are while walking through their neighborhood - pushing the limits of your comfort zone can be good for your soul (so they say)

- walking from Manhattan, across the Brooklyn Bridge and to your rented apartment at 14 Virginia Place, Brooklyn is a really long walk, through the before-mentioned Bed-Stuy neighborhood

- tourists are really easy to spot, they are looking up at the massive buildings instead of watching where they are going

- museums take up multiple city blocks and take 4 hours to get through the first floor and absolutely worth the steep price of admission

- there is really good NY cheesecake (Lansky's Deli on the upper west side) and really bad NY cheesecake (some pizza place on the upper east side where the pizza was really great)

It seems impossible that June is almost halfway over. We wait and wait for summer to arrive and it goes by so fast that we barely have time to enjoy the warm sunshine. The girls will be spending a lot of quality time with Daddy this summer as his work schedule is flexible enough to not require day care. There are days that I wish that the tables were turned and I had the flexible schedule. Then there are days that the girls are acting like sisters and cannot stand to be around each other. Those are the days I happily skip off to work or class.

Here's hoping that the summer slows down a little and that we all have time to enjoy our friends and families, bbqs, smores, guacamole and salsa dinners, fireworks, cold beer, parades, fireflies, sun tea, garden fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, homemade ice cream, and picnics.

Rommel update

Here is a list of non-dog food items the 95 pound pup has eaten in the past 4 months or so. Rommel is quite adept at tearing open ziplocs, plastic sacks and tupperwear-style containers. The vet is convinced he's part German Shepard, based on his coloring, long nose and apparently he doesn't walk like a Lab. He's 47 inches long from the tip of his nose to the base of his tail and will be 1 at the end of July.


tomato
package of hot dog buns, minus the plastic
flarp -- pink stuff found in the Target dollar bins, minus the container
6 chocolate chip cookies
4 blueberry muffins, minus the ziploc
3 raw marinating pork chops
carpet - just a couple inches worth
2 pair of underwear, one at a time
protective cover from a wii remote


Here are a couple pictures of the big lug. Notice how he likes to hang out near the spot where he tore up the carpet.

Our girls' birthdays are two weeks apart and this year we are throwing a party. Unusual because there are 32 people in our combined families - yes, that's just grandparents, one great-grandma, siblings, spouses and grandkids - and the last few years we have just had the grandparents over for dinner. This year we were crazy enought to throw an actual party.

The girls are really excited, they see most of their cousins pretty routinely and it's always fun to get everyone together. We own a total of 10 chairs and a couch so the party will be at one of the city parks. I think this will work out well, plenty of space and the grandkids can play on the playground equipment. We have invited everyone for lunch and cake though we're not exactly sure what's on the menu. Katie & Gretchen picked out hula paper plates and napkins which I though was hilarious given their cake demands.

Two things are definitely set - one 2 layer devils food cake with a Batgirl symbol, and one 9x13 white cake with a Supergirl symbol. This fascination with comics is not my fault. I'm not really sure that I want to encourage it with the cakes but it appears that I have no choice - no flowers this year, no hot pink cupcakes, not even a green Incredible Hulk chocolate chip cake.

Now the research starts, finding a good picture of each symbol, figuring out how the heck to map them out on the cakes. Batgirl seems pretty straightforward, Supergirl, not so much. I did just learn something from www.wilton.com - for black frosting start with chocolate frosting so you use less of the icing coloring and don't get a gross aftertaste. I'll make sure to post pictures of the finished product, even if they don't turn out that great.

Something has been not right with the universe lately. Natural and man-made disasters seem to pop up on a weekly basis. Maybe one more earthquake or volcanic eruption will provide a jump start to get everything back on track. Maybe this spring rain we have had more than enough of lately will wash everything clean, let us all start anew.

If there is anything to learn from the local, national, and family events of late it is that we should all be taking a little more time, making a little more effort. Slow down. Reflect. Spend meaningful time with your children, your spouses, your family and friends. Those e-mails and the stack of research will be there waiting for me at work tomorrow – they are tragedy proof.

Before going to bed at night I wander around the house, look out the windows, check the locks, fold the last of the laundry, set the coffee pot for the morning, give it all a good once-over before turning out the lights. Somehow I stopped walking into the girls’ rooms to check on them before going to bed, started to just peek in from the doorways. I’m not sure why, maybe I felt too busy, didn’t want to bother them, thought they were too grown up.

Don’t get me wrong, we have an elaborate bed-time ritual complete with face washing, teeth brushing, hair brushing, bed straightening, room pick-up, closing curtains, lights off, lamps on, one book to Gretchen, a quick chat with Katie, a hug and kiss from both.

This is the routine for them, checking on the girls before I went to bed was just for me. I know they are in their beds, I can see them from the doorway; see them when I reach in to turn off the lamp. At some point I got out of the habit of reaching out to touch them, brush the hair from their faces, pick up the bear that lost its spot on the bed, take in the beauty of a sleeping child.

A couple of nights ago I broke the habit of not and walked into Katie’s room to check on her, brushed the hair back from her face with my hand and pulled the blankets up a bit. Gretchen was hanging halfway off of on her bed. I picked up her tiny sleeping body and put her back in the middle of the bed, pulling up the blankets, tucking her in again. How did I ever make it through the night without checking on them?

Recent recipe discussion with my Mother

Sitting down at my parent's dinner table.

Me: "When I make this it never turns out right."
Mom: "You must not be following the recipe."
Me: "Well no, because the recipe calls for diced tomatoes and I know that you use sauce and it calls for the rice to be added and cooked in the sauce not separately like you do since Dad won't eat rice."
Mom: "It doesn't call for diced tomatoes."
Me: "Yeah, I just read it the other night, I swear it says diced tomatoes, and green peppers and onions. It was really chunky when I made it."
Mom: "I'm sure it says sauce."

At this point, Mom gets up from the table mid-meal to retreive her copy of the same old cookbook we all have to reveiw for my obvious errors.

Mom: "Well, I guess it does call for diced tomatoes. ... And, well I don't add much for green peppers 'cause your Dad doesn't really like them in this, and well I switched from onions to the dehydrated ones 'cause you don't like onions. ... Oh, and I always made 'this recipe' with 2 pounds of ground beef 'cause there were so many of us."

Western Hash from the cookbook v. how Mom really makes it
1 pound ground beef v. 2 pounds ground beef (used to be 2 pounds when the kids all lived at home, now it's usually 1)
3 1/2 c. tomatoes v. 12-16 oz. Hunt's tomato sauce
1 c. chopped pepper v. 1/4 c. very finely chopped green pepper
1/2. chopped onion v. 2 T. dried minced onion
1/2 c. uncooked rice v. 2 cups rice cooked separately and one baked potato for Dad
The last four ingredients are actually the same: 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. basil, dash pepper, 1/2 pound Velveeta. And the directions - brown beef, drain fat, add rest of ingredients execept cheese and simmer for 25 minutes, top with cheese and heat until melted. Serve on top of rice or baked potato.

Mom: "Well I guess I have made a few changes over the years."
Me: "Yeah, I guess so."

We could have similar discussions on lasagne, meatballs, vegetable beef soup, spaghetti sauce, and numerous other recipes.