2007 June « leta joy

State Hospital

June 29, 2007 at 8:42 am · Filed under arwyn dae

Bubby has been putting in a lot of work hours lately, so yesterday I decided that we needed some quiet family time and thought we should go on a picnic. I made this unilateral decision without consulting my husband or the weather forecast. I mentioned it to my child in desperation to stop the screaming that was threatening to burst my eardrums while in the car earlier in the day, so then we HAD to go lest we risk an evening of sobbing and endless cries of “I wanna go on a pick-a-nick!” Way to think that one through, Mom.

I didn’t want to spend my afternoon cooking, so we made a stop at KFC and then looked for a spot not too far from home as the skies were turning a definite shade of gray. Even though we didn’t have a picnic basket (the horror!) Arwyn was appeased with a quilt that I threw in the car as our picnic blanket, and had to take along one of her blankets, as well as the small plastic Bert and Ernie that she has carried with her everywhere the past few days.

Before it started raining, we got to feed bread to the ducks, fish and turtles swimming around in the pond. After a while, Arwyn decided that the ducks weren’t that interested in the bread anyway, so she would just eat the bread herself. Arwyn made fast friends with (and broke bread with) another little girl her age that was there with her grandma.

I realized as I was composing this post that she had pink lemonade and white Wonder bread for supper last night. Awesome.

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Basement Love

June 28, 2007 at 3:01 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

A previous occupant of our house is now a local artist. I assume the graffiti in the basement belongs to this artist, though I really have no way of knowing this. She really liked hearts. They are painted on the cement block walls, the chimney, the stairs. We are getting our basement waterproofed in 17 days (not that I’m counting or anything) and I’m not sure what will become of the artwork. It has now been documented, just in case.

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Saturday Morning Tagsales

June 27, 2007 at 3:20 pm · Filed under thrifty

Last Saturday morning I got up early against my will to forage for good deals at the neighborhood yard sales. It was worth it.

1. thermos, 2. orange crush, 3. mug, 4. green tub, 5. candy man, 6. bunny, 7. blue hawaiian, 8. blue bag, 9. hot pot, 10. grease, 11. books, 12. bo peep, 13. orange crush

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Shameless Self Promotion

June 27, 2007 at 3:08 pm · Filed under leta joy

New post up at shut up and read.

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Walk of Shame

June 26, 2007 at 2:00 pm · Filed under arwyn dae

Oh, yes, its going to be one of those types of parenting days. The kind where you have doubts about taking your offspring to a public place, but decide to go to the library anyway to share your private parenting pain with the rest of the world. The kind where you leave story time 15 minutes into it because the little anti-christ that used to be your sweet child isn’t listening to a single word you or the librarian is saying. The kind where you do the walk of shame through the gargantuan library, down the stairs into the parking garage as every person in the place stares at you carrying your screaming child with tears and snot streaming everywhere while you stare fixedly ahead and try not to scream yourself.

The guy getting out of his van next to us in the parking garage did a double take because he could hear her screaming from inside our closed car and, from the sound of things, probably thought I was beating the crap out of her. I have to say I kept my cool, even though I think I could actually feel my blood boiling through my veins as I listened to sobbing and tortured cries of “Library!” the entire drive home. Its an early nap time kind of day.

At least it didn’t involve poop.

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(Not My) iHusband

June 25, 2007 at 7:31 pm · Filed under babes in blogland

iMollie’s hubby made a video to enter a contest involving the Transformers movie and ebay. He’s in the top five! He’s the guy on the far right with the cue cards. Go here to vote! You’ll be entered to win $1,000 just for voting. Go now!

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Zucchini and Chocolate??

June 25, 2007 at 4:09 pm · Filed under cookin' it up, recipes

What better way to satisfy that craving kicking you in the pants for chocolate than with something that has a big dose of a vegetable in it? And you can’t even taste it! It tastes good and its GOOD FOR YOU!! Your kids will even eat it (and your veggie-averse hubby, too). Heck, the dog might even eat it. I didn’t test this theory because we don’t have a dog. Dogs the world over are howling at the moon in thanks and praise.

I give you the Chocolate Zucchini Mini-Muffins. My cooking notes: I used buttermilk (not yogurt) because that’s what I had. I used one medium-sized zucchini (all I had). I don’t know if it was 2 1/4 cups worth. I also added a handful (or three) of mini-chocolate chips to the batter. I thought the juice from one orange was too much for the icing. My icing was kind of runny and I didn’t want to add a ton more powdered sugar to it. I would suggest cutting the OJ in half. Also this recipe produces a buttload (this word isn’t listed in wikipedia. go figure) of muffins. I made 24 regular sized, plus 32 minis. I didn’t ice the minis and the icing was just enough for the 24 regular ones.

I sent a container to work with Bubby, I gave some to my in-laws and … we ate the rest. Arwyn has devoured the minis. I don’t even feel guilty for giving her sugar and chocolate because there is ZUCCHINI in them. How the hell else would she even touch one little finger to a zucchini?!!

A hearty thumbs up for the Choco-Zucc mini-muffs. 5 out of 5 fruits.

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Chow Time

June 22, 2007 at 3:58 pm · Filed under cookin' it up, recipes

Supper last night was salad (lettuce from the farmer’s market, tomatoes, Newman’s honey mustard dressing and fake bacon bits)

and pepperoni pizza potato skins.

I got this recipe from weight watchers, and I’m not a paying member or anything, so I think its ok to share. Of course, I can’t find it on their site right now, so here it is:

Pepperoni Pizza Potato Skins

1 spray cooking spray

2 large potatoes, baked, cooled completely, quartered lengthwise (I zapped mine in the microwave and they were still kind of hot when I assembled the skins.)

1/3 cup pizza sauce

2 oz pepperoni, finely chopped

1/3 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/8 tsp dried oregano

1. Preheat oven to 425º F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Slice top half or two-thirds of potato flesh off each potato wedge. Reserve potato flesh for soup or mashed potatoes, if desired. Spoon about 2 tsp of pizza sauce over each potato wedge; sprinkle wedges with pepperoni and then with cheese.

3. Carefully place potato skins on prepared baking sheet (I put them on the sheet first and then sprinkled the toppings on.) Bake until cheese melts and potatoes are hot, about 6-8 minutes. Season to taste with oregano, red pepper flakes or garlic. Yields 2 potato skins per serving. Makes 4 servings. 4 points per serving.

I served these with (low-fat) sour cream and I thought they were really good. Arwyn even ate one without me forcing her to. I give it a 5 out of 5 fruits, especially considering it is a weight watchers recipe. Not that they don’t have some good recipes, but come on, its still “diet food”.

In an effort to de-clutter, I’m in the process of getting my recipes on the computer and I use a program called Yum to organize them. There are a few changes I would like to see in it, but overall I like it better than programs I’ve used in the past (such as bigoven), and also its freeware, so I really can’t complain too much. I just saw this and might explore it a bit. Ok, really I haven’t made much of an effort to get my old recipes on the computer. I really just use it for new ones I collect so I don’t have bits of pages torn from magazines all over the house. But I should be doing that, along with a few hundred other things. Ahem.

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Great American Passtime

June 21, 2007 at 3:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Last Saturday night we went to an Evansville Otters baseball game. I am a lifelong lover of baseball, but I only paid attention to about 2.5 seconds of the game. I do know that they won. Its hard to be attentive to the sport when you are in such sparkling company. Oh, and when you tailgated before the game for a couple of hours and just carried that party vibe right on into the ballgame.

Juju showing off her fish lip impression. Props out to Juju, yet again, for coming to stay with us for 5 days and helping with the birthday party prep and clean up. You’re one of a kind. Big fat juicy fish lip smooches.

Cheap beer and Cracker Jacks are required at baseball games, aren’t they? If they aren’t, they should be. Thanks, guys, for the grillin’ and the laughs. It sure was fun.

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Leftovers

June 19, 2007 at 4:08 pm · Filed under cookin' it up, recipes

Pro of ice cream themed birthday party: leftover cake and ice cream.

Con of ice cream themed birthday party: leftover cake and ice cream!

My I-survived-another-day-of-parenthood-and-Arwyn-is-finally-in-bed treat: a bowl of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. This is one of the greatest concoctions known to (wo)mankind.

Choco-Cream

Ingredients:

chocolate cake (NO icing!!)

vanilla ice cream (the cheaper the better)

Directions:

1. Mash up cake with a fork in a bowl. Add just the right amount of ice cream to blend nicely with the cake and stir. Ice cream should be barely soft, but not melting.

2. Eat and enjoy thoroughly. Say “Mmmmmm” after every bite.

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