Memorial Day Weekend 2011

((**This Post will be long - fair warning**))

This year for Memorial Day weekend, I was blessed to have Lilly for the entire time.  Usually, Cait and I split up the weekends, but this time she was going away, and got the chance to spend some much overdue quality time with my muffin.  I picked her up from school Friday at 12:30 (yay for a half day!), stopped at the firehouse to drop off some things, and then headed home where her and I planned what promised to be an epic weekend.  EPIC indeed.  Friday night my sisters convinced their father (yeah, he's technically mine too but...that's another entry) to let them stay at my house for the night so Lilly, Dana, and Emily played for a bit while I braved Stop & Shop, on a Friday, at 5pm, on a holiday weekend.  I don't need to explain that any further do I?  Anyway, 13 hours later I came back home and served up a dinner of BBQ chicken, sweet corn on the cob, pasta salad, and iced tea.  So good.  Afterwards, I attempted a small campfire in our patio fire pit and we made s'mores.  Again, amazing!  Then, because Lilly has been bugging me about camping, we made a tent in the back yard.  I was sure we'd ultimately end up in the house at some point but the girls surprised me, and we made it all night.  Lilly woke up before anyone else (except me) and in a kind of joking manner asked, "Mama, do you think Daddy would have built a better tent?"

Now, truth be told, he totally would have.  I'm no girl scout, that's for certain, but I somehow had to make that moment about Lilly remembering Daddy...so I said, "Ya know Lil, I think that Daddy helped us make this one we're in right now.  I bet he even slept in here with you last night too.  Just to keep you safe out here."

Lilly half smiled, laid her head back down, and went back to sleep.  My answer must have worked for her...I just wonder what she was thinking about.....



Eatin' s'mores. 

 


Sleeping away out back.  Yes, unfortunately, I had to sleep out there with them. 

 

When everyone woke up, it was raining.  Not heavy rain, just a few drops, but the girls looked at me as if to say "WHAT THE HELL?".....I told them we'd go to Harkness for the day.  Luckily, by the time everyone was up, dressed, fed, and the cooler was packed, the sun had started to poke its head out.  Unfortunately, it forgot to head to Waterford because it was so foggy and cold there, we lasted all of an hour before packing back up and heading home where, guess what - the sun came out.  Jerk.  My sisters headed to their Dad's and Lilly and I came in and relaxed. 




Dana, Emily, and Lilly attempting wiffle ball.  Hysterical.

 

Sunday was a pretty calm day at our house.  Calm, but one of the best we've ALL had in a long time.  Lilly and I started off playing paddle ball in the front yard, which turned into wiffle ball, and then Gram joined in.  Here's the thing that makes this story GREAT - i SUCK at wiffle ball.  So does Lilly (my child is NOT an athlete).  My mother though, at 65 years of age, was AMAZING!  She was hitting the ball clear into the neighbor across the street's yard, catching everyone we managed to hit, until....I was "pitching" and she smacked it with bat beautifully sending the little white ball of fury STRAIGHT into my face.  Holy mother of God that hurt! It stung so bad I was near tears...laughing my ass off of course but MAN!  Never again are we playing wiffle ball with Gram unless we have more room!

After that, we decided to play a few round of Guess Who? on a blanket on the lawn, soaking up the remainder of that day's sunshine until dinner - hot dogs, corn on the cob (again...hey, it was on sale at Stop & Shop), and left over past salad.  For dessert, fruit pizza.

The next day, Lilly was going to host a lemonade stand.  Naturally, I had to make some sort of baked good to go along with it, so I made Lemonade Cookies.  These were so good, I made 4 batches.  We woke up Monday morning to rain....if looks could kill, I'd have died 4 times over.  Luckily, the rain was a quick passing shower and by noon, the kids were set up with pink lemonade, regular lemonade, and lemonade cookies.  Lilly, Dana, and Em started it off but soon Austin came over to join them.  The story with Austin is long and complicated but rounds off to his mom dies about 2 months after Todd passed away and so he and Lilly, although worlds apart as far as upbringing, are very close in terms of understanding each other's emotions.  I never lost a parent, so really, I don't get it fully, but watching a 8 year-old and a 10 year-old talk about what happens after mom or dad died brings you to a whole different place.  In any event, he got all kinds of excited at lunch - all I made was hot dogs, mac & cheese, carrots with ranch dip, and apple slices with peanut butter. He shouted, "Screw McDonald's!  This lunch rocks!"  Can you tell how many homemade meals he's had?  Sad really.  Again, I digress.  After about two and a half hours, they all kinda got bored and so they packed it up.  After taking the money it cost to buy supplies out, they were left, with $10.  Lilly decided to put it all in the bank and put it toward a donation to Alex's Lemonade Stand when we do a bigger sale in July.  Such a good kid. So giving.

Finally, we finished off the weekend with a little cook-out at Beth and Erik's place.  Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and of course fruit pizza!  We all sat around chatting about our embarrassing moments in life, work horror stories, vacations, high school.  It was a ton of fun.  Oh, and in the middle of it Baxter got away and led everyone on a chase before being captured and tethered on the dog run.  A s'more for the road and we headed home.

All in all, one of the best long weekends we've had in a very long time and very much deserved!

Yummy Summer Treats

Since Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, I've been celebrating with fresh produce creations.  Some of the many tasty treats on my menu have been strawberry peach parfaits, fruit pizza, strawberry fruit pops (just like the yummy ones from Edy's), and black bean and corn salsa with fresh tomatoes.  My favorite creation was the fruit pizza....I'm probably going make this my signature "going to a cook-out, need to bring a dish" dish.

Fruit Pizza.  A-Maz-Ing!

Tonight we're doing Cuban Tacos with fresh salsa on the side....gonna be fantastic!

My Garden of...Weeds....????

So you've all seen the posts on Facebook showing my ridiculous garden.  It was born, if you will, when the lovely City of Norwich decided we had to hook into the city sewage.  They dug up our yard, poured in some disgusting fill, and we decided rather than seeding the lawn, we'd put in a garden bed.  It started off in a small circle and over the years grew a little here and a little there and so it came to be.  The last two years the poor thing has been HEAVILY neglected.  Not really our fault, life got in the way but, the beautiful flowers I planted were being overtaken by KILLER WEEDS!  They grow underground in massive root systems and then suddenly sprout up and cover the ground.  I learned today they are  called horse nettle. 



Horse nettle in a natural setting...looking relatively harmless.



Horse nettle's method of punishment to those who try to destroy it.



The mess that *was* my front yard.



And so I began, a little here and a little there, pulling and digging at the weeds that overtook my yard and garden.  Today, I am proud to report that with the help of a few members of my fire department and some shady connections.....er...ahh...I mean, ummm......well, people who know people in a manner I care not to know about, I finished the front yard garden #1. 





Front view.



Now, I have absolutely no idea really what I planted other than a few obvious plants.  There are two different varieties of Iris, some lilies (of course), and Hastas...that's all I know.  The white flowers were "re-appropriated" out of a garden that was about to be destroyed...the purple things I thought were fun...oh and there are 2 spikes...in front of the larger variety of iris (on the left hand side of the picture) there are two flowers I planted several years ago...I don't remember what they are.  Oh, there's a really tall one stalked flower with a big purple bulbly looking thing on it.....not sure what that is.  And my mom has a.....???? planted BEHIND the iris that blooms after the iris are done blooming.  I guess I should look into what's planted here huh???

The End of the World

Several years ago, someone very wise and very near to me said, "Carrie, stop freaking out.  It's not like its the end of the world.  Something good will come out of this.  There's always something 'earth shattering' before something really good.  That's what helps us appreciate the 'really good'."  I hope he was right because if he wasn't, I can't even threaten him anymore...jerk.  In any event, in the last year there have been more 'earth shattering bads' than there have been 'really goods'.  The most recent, my separation from the Gap.  Who would've thought that would happen?  I sure as hell didn't.  I can't say publicly why I left...and either can they...but it was enough that I was so stressed I spent an evening vomiting and then a whole other day 'stress pooping' - gross right?  Well, I wasn't too stressed because I knew he told me something really good would come out of it.  After 4 years of hearing "Why don't you do something with your degree?" it looks like I finally am.  I applied for a position YESTERDAY as a research assistant in the production of transgenic corn.  What the what???  I'm going to be part of a team of scientists who take the DNA from corn, mess with it a little, put it back in, and then grow BIGGER corn for feed.  Part of sustainable agriculture project...this is phase 3 of like 15.  So, not only do I ave a job now, I have a GREAT job now that looks to promise at least 25 years of continued employment, growth, and education.  Sweet.  In other news, the world was supposed to end today according to this link.  Obviously, I'm writing this now so it didn't end........so if someone predicts 'earth shattereing' and it doesn't come true, is there still a 'really good' to follow?  Or does that not happen either??????

Love and Basil

So, as all of you know, I was accepting to culinary school back in April.  I was supposed to start on May 2nd, but that gave me a month to find ans secure funding.  YEAH RIGHT!  So, I postponed my start date to the end of August.  Then, I vigorously began searching for grants, scholarships, low-interest loans so that I could actually pay for culinary school.  Well, because I already have a BS in Biology, the US government said NO WAY to any federal grant money.  So, that left me applying for, and being denied, private grants.  Also, unless I am a high school senior, part of a minority group, or a veteran, finding scholarships is difficult - now I know there are scholarships out there FOR EVERYTHING...the thing is you have to read the fine print.  A lot of them are not applicable if you are attending a TRADE SCHOOL.  Post-secondary education is considered wither a Masters program or PhD program.  Last I checked, there weren't many Masters of Cookies degrees out there (although, I'd totally love to walk across a stage and receive a diploma from the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  Just sayin'). 

I look for jobs here and there but I'll be honest, I've been slacking.  Most of the cooking jobs, even low man on the totem pole cooking jobs, are either looking for someone with experience already or the hours aren't conducive to having children.  And, let's face it, I decided I wanted to do something I love AND spend more quality time with Lilly.  If the new job doesn't allow that then its not a good match.

Monday, Caity forwarded me a job posting for "Baker" in Niantic, with a phone number.  Job requirement: must be a good baker.  That's it.  No "experience", no cooking school, no nada - you just had to be good.  Well, not to toot my own horn but I'm good.  (TOOT TOOT!) So, I called them up, told them I was interested, and they said, "Well, come one down and bring us a sample of your work."  I asked if they were looking for breakfast type pastries or cake like goods, they said muffins, danish, etc....so that's what they got.



Blueberry cream cheese pastry.



Chocolate chunk scones and coffee cake muffins.

I'm still waiting to hear back but the lady I spoke to seemed very impressed.  Apparently everyone else who applied brought A MUFFIN, A SCONE.....

So, the day before, Lilly was all excited that I would be baking all night that she started making up her own recipes.  She was determined to create something.  She came up with confetti cake batter mixed in one bowl, brownies mixed in another bowl, and then poured, simultaneously into the baking pan to create a confetti cake brownie.  When it's done, top it with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, a cherry and sprinkles.  And then she says, (cutest thing EVER), "But Mama, don't forget the secret ingredients....."  "What's that I ask?"

"Love....and basil."

I love her.

Yogurt and Sass

So all of you who have read any of my blog posts or even Facebook status updates know that Lilly, no matter how much I love her, can be a royal pain in the you-know-what.  Most of the time, she's this sweet, caring, give the shirt off her back little girl who just wants to love and be loved.  Sometimes, however, she's......well......a sassy little witch.  (SMH)

So let's get the whole story as to why this is important.  On Sunday, I realized we were out of peanut butter and since Lilly pretty much only eats peanut butter sandwiches for lunch at school, this meant we had to run to the store to buy some.  NBD, off to ShopRite we go, grab some peanut butter and other such things, and home again.  Monday, she was ridiculous in the morning: put her shirt on inside out, socks were all smooshed in her shoes which were untied, hair not brushed.....just a hot mess.  Anyway, I packed her a peanut butter sandwich, strawberries, fruit snacks, yogurt, and 2 chocolate chip cookies.  Now, the rule in our house(s) is that if you come home with a practically full lunch box, you either eat what's left for dinner, or tomorrow that's what you bring to school again.  Also, if something new is presented to you, you must at least try it and decide whether or not you like it.  Well, when Lilly came home from school Monday, all that was missing were the fruit snacks and cookies.  So needless to say, the rest were dinner for her.  WEEEELLLLLL....this just pissed her right the hell off.  Screaming and crying and carrying on about how she hated that yogurt (new flavor BTW) and it was disgusting and blah blah blah...she was sent to her room TWICE to pull herself together and both times.......EPIC FAILURE. 

So round three I went to get her and all I said was, "Lilly, I just want you to try the yogurt.  That's all.  Just try it." Well, if that little girl didn't look me SQUARE IN THE FACE and say, "I don't care what you want.  I don't want to try it so I'm not gonna. {insert giggle here}."

(dramatic pause to let you GASP outloud.................................) Were she an adult speaking like that to me, I'd have probably punched her.  No worries though, I took a deep breath, gathered my anger in a neat little ball of fire in the pit of my stomach, and walked outside.  About 10 minutes later, with a lowered blood pressure, I went to Lilly's door and said the following in the coolest, calmest, scariest Mom voice I have ever used: I want you to get up, go to the table, and eat your dinner.  You will eat every last bite of your sandwich, your strawberries, and your yogurt.  When you're done, I'm going to give you another yogurt.  And should you ever speak to me like you just did, ever, EVER again, the Lord as my witness, I will make your punishment so severe that you will never utter another word to me other than yes ma'am and no ma'am for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

A little harsh? Maybe. Did it get the point across? Sure the hell did.

So she walks to the table, sits down, takes a bite of the yogurt and says with ALL KINDS OF EXCITEMENT, "Mama! This tastes like Rita's!"....................................Lord help me....

Until next time.

The Cake Lady can Kiss my

CAKE!  So, this Thursday marks Kristle and Tim's last days at the Gap, store #2316.  Together, they're embarking on a great journey to Boston.  To celebrate their time spent at our store, I thought originally to host a BBQ...but time being what it is, there just wasn't any that we could ALL pencil in.  So my next thought was to bring in food, pot luck style, but really, it would be expensive and the food would go bad before we ate it all....so it hit me - CAKE!  Who doesn't love cake?  Kristle had asked me to make cupcakes...and so I did. 

I created the coolest cakes for the occasion combining cake AND a BBQ.  Fried chicken, potato salad, veggie platter, and of course, ants on a log.



Lemon flavored Jell-O with frozen lemonade infused for "sparkle" and lemon rings.



Fried chicken cupcakes.  Lemon flavored cupcakes with a donut hole on top, frosted with vanilla frosting and topped with graham cracker crumbs and a white chocolate "bone".

Ants on a log....piped with black frosting on a log cake.  Chocolate pound cake smothered with whipped peanut butter frosting and rolled into the log.  Frosted with chocolate frosting.  Topped with meringue mushrooms.



Ambrosia disguised as potato salad. 



Vegetable platter: confetti cake covered with white fondant.  Green white chocolate lettuce leaves (yes, I made them), orange fondant baby carrots, red fondant cherry tomatoes with piped stems, white chocolate cucumber rings (I used a sand dollar candy mold), and airhead candy broccoli and cauliflower stems with fondant tops.

This was, by far, my personal best in the confectionery department.  I am working on a few more little projects but this one needed to be uploaded first.