While you were watching The Hunger Games

I'm not sure that I ever had it in me to see a midnight movie, but now that sleep is my most precious commodity, I certainly couldn't motivate myself to contribute to the opening weekend numbers for The Hunger Games. I'm still quite jealous of everyone who did see the movie and I will probably skip joyfully out of the house when I make my own plans to see the movie.

This weekend was nice and quiet and perfectly enjoyable. Bub had a t-ball game, which remains hilarious, and was then packed off to my parents house, where he has been begging to go, all by himself for some time.

I cashed in a massage gift certificate and was told that my awful posture is contributing to my never ending aches and pains. Well that, and my thirty pound baby, I'm sure. She showed me some stretches to help and my back muscles are sore in a satisfying way today.

We had some fun alone time with Bubette, which is rare. I have a lot of time with her while Bub is in school, but my husband rarely does, and it's even more rare that we both have her all to ourselves. She definitely appreciated our undivided attention.

We watched two movies (Moneyball and Friends with Benefits) and I painted my nails an unfortunately bright neon in a too dark room.





Bub is home sick from school today, on what I suspect is a bit of a grandparent hangover, but I'm not arguing with a perfectly good excuse to keep both kids in their pajamas all day today.



Oh, and I even had some free time to make some clips for Bubette.


I suppose they were easy, but they were also rather annoying to craft and my kitchen island is still covered with hot glue spidery pieces.

How was your weekend?

Eat This

In no particular order, a list of things I think you should make and eat, soon.

French Bread – Easy, delicious and again, SO SATISFYING. It’s a little more work as it require kneading, but this recipe lets your mixer do all of the hard work. And by work, I mean turning your mixer on for ten seconds every so often. I halved the recipe and only made one loaf. Also, I used bread flour because that’s all I had on hand.

Honey Sauced Chicken – This has been a hit with every single person in my family. I make it with chicken thighs, although I’m sure it would be almost as good with chicken breast. Here’s how I make it – I prep the marinade, and add it to a freezer bag with a pound of chicken thighs. I usually make two batches at once, because that takes zero extra effort. I defrost the night before I need it, and toss the entire thing into a pan. This is relatively little prep to begin with, but now it’s completely low maintenance.

Chocolate Chip Cookies – I know, there are a million recipes for the perfect cookies, but these are pretty good. The recipe makes four-five dozen so I usually bake half, and then freeze the rest. I scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet, pop them in the freezer and then transfer them to a freezer bag when they’re frozen through. Just as easy as break and bake bookies when the time comes, but with the smug satisfaction of made from scratch cookies.

Enchilada Lasagna – I’ve used several recipes for an enchilada casserole and never seem to add it to my permanent rotation. This one is great, and the tortilla chips could easy be substituted with corn tortillas. I tried this with non-dairy sour cream, but used regular dairy cream cheese and cheese. I’m considering attempting this completely dairy free so I can actually enjoy it, but I’m worried about a full family revolt.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – We go through so many bananas in this house, that we rarely have any left over, but when we do I love to make banana bread. These muffins are so, so good.

Now, I’m on the hunt for two things: 1. A great orzo salad recipe, and 2. A fun juice or punch or lemonade recipe for an Easter playdate. Your recommendations are welcome!

Memed

Saly recently tagged me in this meme, and I promised to participate. True to myself, it’s been a while, but here I go!

A picture of me!

I have no idea what to do with my face when I’m taking a picture of myself. I feel ridiculous smiling, so I end up making this weird face.

Eleven things  you might not know about me.

1. I wasn’t raised in a religious house, but I went to a Catholic university and was baptized Catholic while I was there. We now attend a non-denominational Christian church. A friend of mine calls these “power point churches.”

2.  I am currently addicted to oatmeal. I had never made oatmeal on the stove before, I guess because I assumed that it was hard. It isn’t. It is delicious with a healthy sprinkling of brown sugar.

3. I have been a stay at home mom for almost as long as I was employed post college. This makes me think some things about working and my “career” and retirement. I haven’t organized my thoughts on this, so I can’t really say much more.

4. My very first job was at Pottery Barn. Oh, how I didn’t appreciate the employee discount at age sixteen. From there I went to work at The White House, which is now White House/Black Market. We had to wear all white or neutral clothes, all the time. That wasn’t my best look, but it did introduce me to the disappearing magic of nude underthings.

5. My parents live near the  beach, and my kids and husband love the beach. I like the beach in theory, but I think I’m five or six years away from enjoying it again.

6. In more news that will probably have me kicked out of southern California, I far prefer colder weather. I think I was meant to live in the Bay Area.

6. I have never colored my hair, but I dream of being a brunette. I covet my daughter’s hair.

7. I like talk radio. It’s the sole reason I maintain my XM radio subscription – because I can access ridiculous talk radio all day long.

8. Speaking of talk radio, I really miss Rosie O’Donnell’s radio show, which she left to do her show on OWN. I hope her TV show is successful, but I also hope that she’ll come back to radio someday. Edited: Apparently I am behind the times and Rosie was cancelled earlier this week. I’m not all too surprised as it didn’t seem to be doing well, but now I hold great hope she’ll come back to radio. Come ON Sirius/XM, we don’t need replays of the Pet Psychic show in the morning!

9. I’m a cat person, and I really miss having cats. Other than my first two years in college, this is the first time IN MY LIFE that I haven’t had a cat in the house. I do enjoy the lack of a litter box, and that is the one thing keeping me from weepily begging my husband for another cat.

10. Someone finally bought the house next door to ours. They haven’t moved in, but they have been by the house a few times and I totally accosted them the other day. People in this neighborhood are NOT friendly, but I am determined to make this a fun place to live. I love my house, so all that is left is for me to love my neighbors. Fortunately, they were very friendly and their oldest will go to school with Bub next year, and their youngest is just a few months younger than Bubette.  I’ve got good a good feeling about them.

11. I am a homebody. I prefer my house – or another familiar, comfortable house – to pretty much anywhere. The exception to this rule would be meal time. I will gladly eat out as opposed to making my own dinner.

Now for Saly’s eleven questions for me.

1. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be, and why? Do they pay people to watch television and read books from the comfort of their couch? If I could find a way to do that, I would be golden. Honestly, I loved teaching, but I also love being at home with my kids, too.
2. What is your favorite flower? I just like big bunches of anything. Even that giant bunch of pink carnations that Carrie Bradshaw received on a long ago episode of Sex and the City was beautiful, although I would tell you that I don’t typically like carnations.
3. What is something you regret? Not forging a better relationship with my brother. It feels like now that we’re in our thirties, it’s too later to start.
4. You are in a frou frou coffee shop. What do you order? Well, I’m off caffeine now, but I really like a soy latte, or just a lightly sweetened iced coffee.
5. What is the best thing that you cook? Huh. I’m not so awesome in the kitchen, but I just made the most delicious french bread recently.
6. Where is your favorite place to vacation, and why?
7. What’s the weirdest thing in your refrigerator? Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream – a fairly decent substitute for the real thing, honestly.
8. Do you collect anything? The closest thing I have to a collection would be my Havaianas flip flops. It’s kind of an addiction.
9. You have an entire day alone with no plans. What would you do? A day is not enough! Truthfully I would order food in, catch up on my DVR, nap and read a book or the giant stack of magazines on my nightstand.
10. Who is your #1 celebrity crush? I don’t really have one. I used to ADORE David Eckstein, who apparently isn’t in baseball anymore. That crush sort of fell off the radar when he left the Angels.
11. How do you like your eggs? Mixed with a little milk, soaked into bread and turned into french toast.

Well, that was far more effort than I imagined it would be. I’m not tagging anyone because so many people have already done this, but I would love to see your own list of eleven things. Leave it in the comments, or post it yourself and leave me a link!

Crappy Day Presents

I recently participated in a Crappy Day Present exchange, hosted by the genius behind Doing My Best. The absolute truth is that I had SO MUCH FUN shopping for gifts to send to someone. It was fun to hunt down information about them, and fun to pick up things that I would like to throw in my cart at Target on a whim, but it was totally guilt free, because it was a GIFT.

I received a package from Reverse Travels, and I think we should all mount an internet campaign to get her to start blogging again, because the contents of this package tell me that she is an absolutely lovely person.

I wouldn’t say that I was having particularly crappy days to justify the opening of all of these gifts, but surviving the every day between 4:30 and 6:30 seemed like a perfectly reasonable excuse.

Pretty packages!

In those stripey bags were two kinds of beautifully decorated cookies. They looked handmade, but also too perfect to have been made by a human. They were also delicious!

Fun sticky notes! How did she know that office supplies are a major weakness of mine?

Socks! As I wear these Target socks all day long when I’m at home, these are perfect.

Candy. Of course.

More candy. Two of my favorites! My nightstand is a sad, sad place if there are no Hot Tamales to be found.

A super cute kitchen towel.

Now, we get to the two gifts that were just so touching, my words won’t do them justice. What you see here is a packet of bath salts and a Bazinga! pin. Can you connect these two items? The Bazinga pin is obviously a nod to my love of the Big Bang Theory and the bath salts? A perfect tie in to my personal favorite episode: The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis. I KNOW.

Finally, we have tea. Tea that I can actually drink because it’s decaffeinated.

And that, my friends, is how you do a Crappy Day present.

The Good

As promised, the post to make up for all of my whining yesterday.

Bub had his first T-Ball game last weekend, and I cried. I wasn’t openly weeping, but , there were definitely tears. From these kids in their entirely-too-big uniforms, to the coaches who are just so nice and kind-hearted, there was an awful lot for this mama to love. It was also entirely hilarious as several kids flat out refused to play, a few ran the bases backwards, most of them ran to their team bench - rather than running home - and six kids converged on every single ball batted, so the game resembles miniature football more often than baseball.

I braided my girl’s hair. I repeat, there’s a braid in my baby’s hair.

I registered Bub for kindergarten and at the same time started to notice how independent he’s getting. He dresses himself, zippers, buttons, shoes, socks and all, buckles himself into his car seat, remembers his lunch on school days and reminds me if we don’t have a sweatshirt. He wants to hold his thister’s hand and teach her things. “Mama! I taught my thister to say YES!” In my mind he’s still the three year old who started preschool a year and a half ago, but he’s not that kid even a little bit.

The very best Easter candy ever is on the shelves and I have to stop myself from buying every single bag at Target.

Our vacation planning, which was very much stalled, is moving forward nicely. We’ve gotten to the point of narrowing down babysitting availability with my parents, so it’s getting real. I was overwhelmed with the idea of picking some place to go, and then actually planning a trip, but thanks to Jonna, Jess and Cherie, I think we might actually travel like grown ups this summer.

Your turn! Although I’m always open to  hearing more whining.

Complaint Department

I have a good life, yes. I have very little reason to complain about little things, also  yes. Sometimes it’s not enough to tell myself that there are so many good things. Sometimes I just have to get the less good things out. I welcome you to do the same in the comments.

In no particular order:

*In the past several months Kiehl’s has discontinued my cleanser and moisturizer. While I wouldn’t say that I have AMAZING skin while using these products, they certainly keep my skin from completely losing it’s mind. I’m testing a few new things out, and my fingers are crossed, but I’m not overly optimistic yet.

*For the first time in eight years, there is security stationed outside of my bank. Today they told me they’ve been robbed twice recently, by the same person who has yet to be caught. He has a cutesy nickname (think The Wet Bandits from Home Alone) and a little research tells me he’s one of the ten most wanted bank robbers in Southern California.

*Gas was $4.45 today.

*At the gas station someone was smoking a cigarette directly next to the pump. Have I entered an alternate reality where gasoline mixed with fire does not equal bad news?

*We’ve started going to a new vet who is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. Our old vet was wonderful, and thorough and totally reasonably priced. I say that knowing that I once paid $500 to have a hairball removed from my cat’s throat. Sometimes pets are expensive, and I accept that. But this vet, HOO BOY. They won’t do more than one vaccination at once for fear of a reaction, when I’m certain that he’s received multiple vaccinations at once in the past. Also, they charge for an office visit ($60!) each time he needs a vaccine, and the vet does actually come and check him out, all the while I’m thinking that we were JUST HERE two weeks ago, REMEMBER? When you wouldn’t just give him two shots in the same visit? They are also painfully slow, and it isn’t because they’re busy. I have yet to be there when we weren’t the only people in the office. They’re new, and perhaps they just haven’t gotten their act together, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. I’m also lazy, and switching vets would require me to call them and ask them to send our records over to a new vet, which I would have to actually go and FIND MYSELF, and they won’t  be conveniently located just three minutes from my house.

*Draw Something, my beloved Draw Something, is starting to annoy me greatly. The word repeats are insane. As I have zero knowledge about app writing, I could be wrong, but shouldn’t there be a way to eliminate a word from my personal word bank once it’s been used? How can we make this happen? I mean, if my iPhone can tell me what song is playing in a restaurant, surely we can work on this flaw in an otherwise delightful game. (Pro tip: Drawing via iPad makes your drawings resemble something created in an insane asylum ever so slightly less.)

Well, that was therapeutic. Tomorrow I promise to come back with all of the things that are really great right now. Until then, join me in whining, won’t you?

Date Nights: 2 and 3 of 12

I had written all about our February date night, and then completely neglected to publish it, so I’ll roll the recaps of the past two dates into one. Let’s face it, the recapping is purely for the purpose of actually remembering that we did these things come December, when I’m sure I got cheated out of a date night.

February’s date night was brought to us courtesy of my brother, who bought everyone tickets to see Ovo by Cirque du Soleil for Christmas. The bonus was that this was the weekend before Valentine’s Day, so I could pretend like we had actual plans other than ravioli and cupcakes.

Because my parents hate to drive in LA, we took a limo. It was… crowded, but at least we weren’t dealing with traffic.

We had dinner at The Ivy at the Shore, which was good. I had a very good blood orange bellini and talked so much that I don’t remember my dinner. Let’s hear it for not having to cut up anyone’s food! They served mashed cauliflower with my steak, which I found odd. I like cauliflower, so that was fine, but anyone who likes to pretend that this is an acceptable substitute for mashed potatoes has clearly lost their mind.

After dinner we walked to the show. Last summer we saw Iris at the Kodak Theater, which we all really liked, but I think Ovo was even better. I’m a fan of the Cirque shows. I think the Vegas shows are the best, and if you’re going to see one show ever, I would recommend “O” at the Bellagio any day. Ovo was held in a tent in the parking lot of the Santa Monica pier and I felt mildly claustrophobic as I was touching both my mother and my husband through the duration of the show, but fortunately the show totally held my attention enough that I was distracted from our close quarters.

We didn’t make it home to relieve our babysitter – my sainted friend, and her equally saintly sister – until after midnight. I think it took me a full week to recover from the loss of sleep.

Which brings us to March. After two late nights, and two Sunday mornings where we would have paid our children in ponies and bars of gold to sleep for an extra thirty minutes, a daytime date sounded like the perfect thing. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was coming over for Bub’s t-ball game and she offered to stay with the kids after the game. So, at the very date-like hour of 10:30am, we were off.

We shopped. I bought these shorts, but what I really wanted were these shoes. I bought this shirt, too, and when I picked it up, my husband raised an eyebrow and asked if I didn’t already have something like that. I mean… he might have a point.

We had lunch, and looked at hotels and bed and breakfasts for our summer vacation. (Maine! I think. More on this, soon.)

And then we went to Target, which isn’t as sad as it sounds. We needed groceries, but also picked up Easter gifts. Bub’s basket is completely taken care of, and I had to stop my husband from buying more. It’s possible he’s reliving his childhood through our son, but there are worse things than a dad who’s charmed by the Target toy aisle.

We also restocked our candy counter, which was probably the highlight of the day.

We came home to one napping child, and one thoroughly exhausted from the constant attention of a grandparent, so the day was a win all the way around.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

UPDATED BELOW!
I’ve long been lactose intolerant, but until lately I could always handle a bit of dairy. Frozen yogurt was a long time friend, that never, EVER, made me sick, but recently even my beloved frozen  yogurt has forsaken me. I tried a few dairy free ice cream options from the grocery store and was thoroughly unimpressed. So, I set out to try to make my own.
First of all, I discovered that even dairy-free ice cream recipes call for raw eggs. Perhaps this is the norm, but I was uncomfortable with this. Ultimately, it appears that what I need is a vegan recipe, although the vegan distinction is unimportant to me, it may be helpful to you.

A little internet research told me that coconut milk will yield the creamiest results of the non-dairy milk options, so that’s what I started with. Coconut milk smells heavenly straight out of the box, so that was promising.

Ingredients
4 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar*
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. cornstarch**
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine all of the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips,  in a blender*** and add to your chilled ice cream maker. Follow the instructions for your particular model. I have the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid blender, and the directions state very clearly that the mixer needs to be running BEFORE adding the ice cream mix to the bowl. Once the mix thickens a bit, add your chocolate chips. Allow the ice cream maker to run until you achieve your desired consistency.**** For me, that meant about 20 minutes, and then chill in the freezer for an additional 30 minutes to firm up.

* I suppose you could use a sugar substitute here, but most make me very, very sick, so I won’t be attempting a sugar-free recipe.

** I read that arrowroot, instead of cornstarch, leads to a creamier consistency, but I haven’t the faintest idea where to find arrowroot.

*** This was an annoying, but necessary extra step. I was bothered that I had to get out a separate appliance, but your ingredients WILL NOT combine if you don’t use a blender (or a food processor, I suppose.)

**** This is not a creamy ice-cream like consistency,  unfortunately. Again, the arrowroot may result in a creamier consistency if you can find it. Also, I saw several references to using full-fat coconut milk. The coconut milk I found at Trader Joe’s wasn’t labeled full-fat, or low-fat, so truthfully, I don’t know what I was using.

Now, this isn’t a replacement for Baskin Robbins. (Let’s have a moment of silence for the perfection of their mint-chocolate chip that I shall never enjoy again.) However, for someone who has been missing ice cream as a dessert option, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
If you freeze the ice cream for a while it will be quite hard, and it won’t make pretty scoops of ice cream into a bowl. I think the next time I make this, I’ll freeze it in individual, single-serve, Tupperware containers. 

UPDATES!
1. I did use individual containers, and that was the way to go if you’re not planning on eating all of this at once.
2. I finally figured out how to describe this – it’s like a chocolate sorbet. So if you go into this expecting that sort of consistency, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
3. I tried making this with chocolate syrup rather than cocoa powder. I tried for two reasons: I wanted to avoid using the blender, which is necessary for getting the cocoa powder to combine, and I wanted a better chocolate flavor. This worked, HOWEVER, I failed to take into account the fact that the chocolate syrup is sweetened, so I should have adjusted the amount of sugar I added. Also, chocolate syrup contains milk, so the recipe is no longer dairy free if you go this route.

Little Things Lately

This morning I loaded up the kids and took them to Angel stadium, so I could pick up baseball tickets for my husband. I anticipated a crowd, but I did not anticipate a crowd that merited wristbands and a several hour wait. After nearly three hours, we came home, ticketless. Last year I went on the first day of ticket sales, and there were maybe three other people there. This year people had chairs, blankets and picnic lunches. Good grief, Albert Pujols.

***

I’m on my second batch of Catherine Newman’s 5-minute bread, and I love it so. It’s easy, the dough keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, and each batch makes three loaves of bread. It’s so satisfying to watch the dough rising on the counter in the afternoon, and to be able to serve fresh bread with dinner. I’ve made it with half whole wheat and half white flour, and also with 100% white flour. I’ll let you guess which I enjoyed more. The wheat version was good, but definitely wheat-y.

***

My house, you guys, is so, so clean. From the girl who has made a lifetime of annoying parents, roommates and a spouse with my lackluster  housekeeping skills, this is saying something. I really want to be able to tell you that I’m doing it all with baking soda and vinegar, but that just isn’t true. I’ve tried, but I’ve yet to find something that will actually clean my shower without simultaneously killing many brain cells with the fumes. I have switched to as many environmentally friendly cleaners as possible, but my shower, with it’s floor of one inch white tiles, remains a chemical filled mystery. I’ve also embraced the Magic Eraser as the cleaner of all things that appear uncleanable. My stove? Microwave? Soap-scummy shower door? ALL SPARKLING with relatively little effort.

***

A post I wrote about sleep last year was run by Daily Buzz Moms today, and I had my very own It Gets Better moment. I honestly don’t remember those days, when the pre-nap ritual took up to an hour and was so filled with angst. I don’t want to say too much about Bubette’s sleeping situation for fear that it will all fall apart, but things are going well. She takes one, rather long, nap, and sleeps 11-12 hours at night with relatively little to do before getting into bed. In fact, she waves and says “bye bye” when we leave the room, and my husband even taught her to say “peace,” as we’re leaving. We leave the lights on, but dimmed, in the kids’ rooms when they go to sleep, and then turn them off before we go to sleep. The other night I popped into her room about 45 minutes after putting her in bed and she was still awake, but laying down, “reading” a book, and I very nearly died from the cuteness. She’s a mini-me!

***

About five minutes after someone mentioned a new app, Draw Something, on Twitter, I had it downloaded and had ten games going. I’m addicted, but I’ve played so much that I keep getting repeats of the same words. If you’re playing I’m mamabub, and you could be treated to artistic gems like this:

Come on and feed my newest obsession! It’s available for both iPhones and Android devices, so we can all play. (Other current game obsessions include Where’s My Water and Scramble with Friends (I’m themamabub there because someone had already claimed my name.)