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Happy Easter!

Easter1For the second year in a row, the kids spent the night before Easter at my parents’ house and the Easter bunny visited them there. He left them a couple eggs filled with candy and some new soccer clothes. Matt and I slept in a bit and then kicked butt getting ready for the day. I was asked to bring my Sweet Potato Spoon Bread and so I worked on making that and then put it in the oven while I had a quick run and a shower. It was in the middle of my shower when I realized I’d forgotten the eggs. It had already cooked 40 of 60 minutes and I wasn’t sure if I could save it, but I asked Matt to whip up the three required eggs and then I tempered them and mixed them in and let it cook another 30 minutes. We were late, but the dish was saved!

Easter2We had a lovely time with our extended family. Great eats, a cute new puppy, a fun egg hunt and good company.

We were all a bit tired after the day and went home for naps and dinner and housework.

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We Be Trippin’

disneyalaska

Sometime this summer we’re going to Alaska. Actually, we’re flying to Texas and then Vancouver and then we’re getting on a big boat and we’re going to Alaska. My inlaws have generously invited us on this adventure and everyone is looking forward to it. Big time. But it’s all that flying that gives me pause. We will be in transit to and from our boat for almost 12 hours on the front and back end of our trip and I’m sure it’s worth it, but all that flying makes me nervous because since we’re going to have transfers, I worry about the airlines losing our luggage. I always prefer to travel with just carry-on luggage if possible, but with the little ones, it hasn’t been possible for long time. But now that they are getting older, we’ve decided we’ll try it on this trip, so we made a rule: everyone gets one back pack and one rolling suitcase. Matt and I will also be carrying the kids’ booster seats (bases only – high-backs aren’t allowed for air travel).

rollingduffel

My mom knows my struggle against too many toys and too much junk around our house, so she is always on the lookout for good, useful things for the kids’ birthdays. So this time I pointed her to suitcases for the kids. They already have little weekender sized ones and Matt and i have full-sized carryon ones, but the kids don’t. After research, we decided on rolling duffels from LL Bean. They can squish easily and especially with the kids’ gear, that’s perfect. I also know they hold up well because their largest duffel has been safely shuttling our family’s ski-gear to and from the mountains for almost 6 years now. And it still looks awesome.

downjackets

These will travel well, but there is still the matter of space. We’ll be gone 10 days and in a wide variety of terrain. All the articles I’ve read on cruising in Alaska say the same thing – layers! It could be a problem because that can be a lot of clothes and can get bulky, but we have a few items in our wardrobes that are better than others. Matt and I both have great down jackets that we love to travel with because they’re very warm, but they’re also tiny! The kids, however, didn’t have these jackets and I didn’t really want to shell out $100/ea from Patagonia for them, especially when mine was $50 from Uniqlo, a Japanese sort of H&M that I’ve only ever seen in NYC. Though cheaper, it’s still very warm and has held up perfectly. I love the jacket and in fact, when I misplaced the original, I begged Ani to go get one for me since at the time they didn’t have an online shop. But now … they do! And I was able to get darling down jackets for my kiddos for the trip for only $25/ea. And they’re cute! And they’ll be here soon.

Now that I have two major hurdles out of the way, I’m turning my attention towards the rest of what goes in the suitcases and on our backs. More on that later.

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Spring Breakin’

4I always have such good intentions to post stuff while I’m on vacation and it so rarely works out. We’re busy of course, but there’s also the logistics aspects … like internet connection speed. It can be enough to make you scream. Home sweet home as far as that goes. Anyhow, we’ve been gone … this week is T’s spring break so we did a long weekend in the mountains to eek out some more ski season.

This time we invited another family to join us. They are good friends, some of our camping buddies, and it’s just nice and easy to be with them. Their kids play well with ours. Conversation flows and I’m wasn’t (too) embarrassed when Ben had a meltdown in the middle of Starbucks.

We skied as a family on Friday while we waited for our friends to join us. My sister actually joined us as well which is always fun. She and the dads skied on Saturday while the moms hung with the kids. We had a great time including the Starbucks trip. In the evening, we rode the gondolas to the top of the mountain and had a lovely dinner.

The next day our friends hung around through the afternoon and then moved on to another ski resort. We stayed the rest of the day and Kelly and I skied from early afternoon to close despite the fact that it was FREEZING.

Monday we met our friends at the other ski area. Ben went to lessons and we spent the day with the older kids doing “bumps and jumps.” The photo above is the kiddos shouting “moguls!!!” after their first big mogul run (the lift riders above cheered right with them).

Anyhow, since we were with our friends, most of the photos I took this weekend (and they were a good crop) involve our friends and their kids, which of course I don’t post publicly (the above is an exception since it’s super far away and tiny and the kiddo is wearing goggles and a helmet – i.e. it could be anyone, maybe even Justin Beiber), but there were a couple of goodies sans friends.

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Tabby catching snowflakes on her tongue.

2Ben immediately following his Starbucks meltdown. I was so proud of him – he got himself under control in record time. He is making awesome progress.

1The kids and our skis in the wagon headed back to the car after a looooong and awesome day and Matt pulling them in his scary black stormtrooper costume.

It was fun! And now back to the grind!

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I Like Big Words and I Cannot Lie

I may be a stickler for grammar, spelling and using the “right” word (their, there, they’re) and I abhor misuse of “proper” language – stop trying to make “funner” happen – but I love a good, clever word or play on words or a new term. In fact, I coined one the other day.

Temporal Dysmorphia – this is where you have a distorted perception of the amount of time available to you and/or the amount of time something takes. I suffer from temporal dysmorphia in that I always think I can cram something else into my day. I can’t. I need to learn that. I am, however, excellent at getting a lot done during a day. A really surprising amount, actually. I think that’s where it comes from.

Matt suffers from temporal dysmorphia in that he always is freaked out about how long things are going to take. He recently said it took 3 hours to cook our go-to chili recipe. It has minimal prep time (since we dice things up in the food processor) and two 30-min cook sequences. You could maybe say it takes an hour 15 but 3? Nope. I on the other hand am a bit overly optimistic about how long things take (which is undoubtedly related to thinking I can cram more into my day).

Other bully words I’ve heard lately:

Voluntold – where you are involuntarily volunteered for an assignment

Omnishambles – the British word of the year (2012), which is basically a much more polite (British) form of clusterf*ck

Eurogeddon – the runner up for the word of the year, which is probably self-explanatory

Sarchasm – a delightful hybrid between sarcasm and chasm, indicating that awkward moment when you’re being sarcastic and the other person just doesn’t get it

Travelator – what IKEA for some unknown (possibly European) reason calls a moving sidewalk and very charming

Raccoony – how your face looks after spring skiing (i.e. when you get a reverse-raccoon face from goggle tan lines)

 

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The Elusive 30 Minute Meal

benwithmitts

I’ve seen a couple of discussions on the interwebs lately about whether a homecooked meal in 30 minutes is possible. Many people cited the fact that when a recipe claims it will take 30 minutes, inevitably it takes more and I’ve noticed this phenomenon too. However, I will also say that without a doubt, there are some recipes that I can make start to finish, no prep done ahead in 30 minutes or less. Here are my favorites:

  • Hamburger Mac ‘n’ Cheese – this is just an upscaled version of Hamburger Helper. You brown meat, add spices, milk and pasta and top with cheese. Usually when we do this, we cook up some crack broccoli in the oven. Since the main dish is so simple, I can quickly prep the broccoli and get it in.
  • Loaded Potato Soup – This is an easy one too. The big “time” suck is cooking the potatoes and cauliflower. You just do both in the microwave while you bake the bacon for around 13 minutes. You can also fry it if that’s more you’re deal. Once the veggies are cooked, all you have to do is top them with milk and chicken broth and then use the immersion blender.
  • Pizza Quesadillas – tortillas, butter, cheese, “toppings” and marinara to dip. We make them in the George Foreman, but a skillet is good too.
  • BBQ Chicken Burritos – we tend to use canned chicken for this, but even with fresh, 30 minutes will do ya.
  • Spaghetti – Put the pasta water on the stove right away. Brown the meat, cook the veggies (zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms – I buy presliced mushrooms and quickly dispatch the others while the meat browns), add the sauce and warm.
  • Stirfry – I speed this one up by having the rice cooker going right away and the vegetables (we use frozen stirfry mix) in the microwave. I heat a little oil, cook the meat, add the (mostly cooked) vegetables to fully warm and sauce it up.
  • Sloppy Joes – Use the food processor to chop your veggies all together. Cook them, add meat and seasoning and while it simmers, toast the buns.
  • Eggs + Muffins – I slam a batch of muffins together and get them in the oven right away. Then it’s just a few minutes to make some tasty eggs (with bacon!) to go with them.
  • Burritos – can of beans, brown and season some meat, layer it with toppings on a tortilla or ….
  • Breakfast burritos – this relies on having a few pans going at once, but if you can do that, you’re golden. Brown chorizo in one pan and cook hashbrowns in another. While the chorizo is cooking, beat the eggs. When it’s done, you just wipe out the pan and cook them up. Pile everything on tortillas with cheese and salsa.
  • Paninis – much like a quesadilla, but using bread. We cook these on the george foreman too. Meat, cheese, veggies, pressed and toasty warm.

This is the (partial) list of stuff from 0 to dinner. The list of stuff you can accomplish with a little planning ahead or a crockpot … about 10x this one. And I’m still not talking tons of prep. Just a few veggies or a marinade. It really can be done!

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The Many Faces of Ben

SelfPortraitsByBenYesterday, Matt and I went on a rare shopping trip just the two of us. While we were out, I glanced at my email on my phone and saw a message from iCloud, letting me know that my storage was just about full. After that note, it said, “What this means …” and I said to Matt, “I can tell you what this means. It means Ben got on my iPad this afternoon and took about a bazillion photos of himself.”

Matt just laughed. Self portraitry seems to be one of Ben’s favorite activities on our devices. The photos above I found after he’d had my Android phone for a few ticks and managed to take 35 photos of himself in about 2 minutes. I’m not saying I’d frame many of them, but a nice compilation of them just sums up so beautifully what he is like at this age: Abso-freaking-lutely adorable.

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And then it was Sunday

skis
my skis taking a well-earned break

I haven’t been home enough lately.

Friday morning, a little less than a week since I returned,  I headed off again for the mountains, this time for a girls’ ski trip with some of my besties. Me and the other Jess (Jess²) skied all day, minus about a 20 min break for lunch. Then we met up with the newly arrived, went out for dinner and came back for a relaxing evening in the condo. Saturday was more skiing, the viewing of a teeny bikini contest (on skis), dinner and a fun night dancing at an Irish bar. We came home this morning in semi-nasty conditions with a little extra sun on our faces and our batteries fully recharged.

It was great to see Matt and the kids. They had a wonderful time without me, broke all the rules (y’know the ones about changing clothes, showering and eating nutritious things). We spent most of the afternoon at a swimming birthday party. It was the first time the kids had been in the pool since they started lessons and it was amazing to see how much their confidence has grown.

After naps, my parents brought over corned beef and cabbage. My dad makes the best and the kids were very appreciative of his efforts, begging to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Just like that, the weekend is done. Now back to the grind for another four days until … spring break!

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Thank You Note Transfers

6The other day I saw this awesome process for making packing-tape transfers from photo copies. I love anything like this – simple enough to do with kiddos AND all the supplies right at hand. Plus, we had a project to take on – thank you notes from Tabby’s birthday party. Game on!

Supplies

  • packing tape – we used Target’s Up and Up brand because it’s what we had around and it worked wonderfully
  • photo copies or laser print-outs of whatever you want to transfer
  • scissors
  • a shallow basin of water
  • spray adhesive (we didn’t need this, but depending on your tape, you might)
  • thank you note or other object to embellish

Method

We started out by coloring our thank-you notes. We take full pages of cardstock and cut them in half length-wise and then fold them. We’ve embellished these in 100 different ways for thank you notes and cards. I bought a box of envelopes just for these and it’s been a great system. Anyhow, I told Tabby to color the fronts of the cards with bold blocks of color. We used markers, but I think colored pencil or crayon would be a nice effect.

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Next you place packing tape over the part of the copy that you want to use. I made crowded pages of different fonts of text reading “Thank You! Gracias! Vielen Dank! Thanks” etc. as well as photo-strip style pics of Tabby. Once you place the packing tape over it, you need to burnish it by rubbing a blunt something over the top … the handle of your scissors or the lid of a marker, whatever. This will bind the thermal ink to the tape.

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Next you cut out the strip that you want to use and put it in the water.

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Then it’s a process of removing the paper from the strip by rubbing it off. It’s not hard, just a little tedious.

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The more paper you get off, the better it looks so do it well! Then if there’s enough sticky left, you can apply the tape right away and if not, you can apply the spray adhesive to it. You can trim it too, of course, to fit whatever you’re doing.

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And … voila! Pretty custom thank you notes or whatever! Such a fun, easy process. Photos work awesome too. Why don’t they teach this kind of stuff in art class??

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Crockpot Green Curry Chicken

greencurryThere is little I like better than coming home from work and having dinner waiting. And if it’s healthy, delicious food that the whole family likes? Purrrrfect. This meal really hits the sweet spot for us. I adapted theoriginal recipe comes from this post and it has quickly become a family favorite, especially for Miss Tabby, the impetus of this whole project.

Crockpot Green Curry Chicken

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 medium onions roughly chopped
  • one head of garlic, minced
  • 2 15 oz cans lite coconut milk
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 4 oz green curry paste (we use Thai kitchen)
  • 1/4 C brown sugar
  • 2 t salt
  • 1 t black pepper
  • 2 T cornstarch
  • 32 oz frozen stirfry vegetables
  • rice to serve if desired

Directions

This is a great spot to use the food processor if you’re so inclined. I take both onions, quarter them and toss them in the food processor with the cloves of garlic and pulse a few times. That makes prep pretty darn quick. Otherwise, chop, mince like normal.

Place the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot and throw the salt and pepper on it. Mix it up a bit. Then mix up the coconut milk, lime juice, curry paste, and brown sugar and pour it over the chicken. Cook on high for 4-5 hours.

About 30 minutes before you want to eat, stir in the frozen veggies. Also, this is a great time to start your rice!  Then mix the cornstarch with about 2 T water and then mix that into the curry. Continue to cook until the vegetables are warmed and the sauce thickens.

Serve yummy veggies and meat over a little rice. Mmmmmm

 

This has a little kick to it, kind of on the back side, but it’s not really spicy (i.e. both kids like it). You could definitely spice it up with some thai chiles if desired. In any case, it is