Author Archives: metamegan

Fancy Breakfast Friday

Last weeks FBF was a bit rushed because I had to hurry the kids out the door to school, drop off the dog, and head to the airport for a getaway weekend with the hubby.  We went to a dear friend’s wedding party in NYC.  We’ve never left the kids or been to NYC so I was a little stressed.  I prepared by doing nothing and planning to wing it.  It worked out!

Fancy Breakfast Friday consisted of yogurt parfaits – blueberry/yogurt/homemade granola repeat with bananas then strawberries.  I am working on perfecting my granola recipe so I will share that at a later date.  It’s weird to me that the markup on store bought granola is 700,000% so I should do a cost analysis along with my recipe to see if I am missing something.   Our favorite yogurt is brown cow vanilla cream top.

Fancy Breakfast Friday

Simply Colorado is a cookbook I received at my wedding shower, 18 years ago.  It appears to be available on amazon for $0.01 at this time, which is a steal.  My go-to pancake recipe is from this book, and I love it because it uses 100% whole wheat, but the pancakes are still very light and fluffy.  It calls for blueberries, which  I usually have in the freezer, and buttermilk, which I rarely have on hand.  When I do have buttermilk, I make these pancakes and they are amazing.  When I don’t have buttermilk, I add a splash of white vinegar to regular milk and let it sit for a minute.

Fancy Breakfast Friday 

Fancy Breakfast Friday is going strong 3 weeks in.  Last week’s breakfast was blueberry buckle with vanilla crumb with a side of breakfast sausage and an egg made to order.  I had to go overboard on the protein since I was basically serving cake for breakfast.  The recipe is from this cookbook:  Rustic Fruit Desserts.  I’ve also made the strawberry shortcake from that cookbook and it is amazing.  I had mixed results with the plum cake.

This recipe is actually for a cranberry buckle, and the reason I initially made it was to use up cranberries during the holidays, but the cranberries were just way way too tart.  Blueberries make this perfect.  It also calls fora 9×9 pan, which I don’t have.  So I did a lot of calculations lxwxh, a=piR2 etc to convert 9×9 to either 8×8 or 10″ round or 9″ round.  I think I determined the 10 inch round pan was the way to go last time, but this time, I used the 9″ round because I seem to have short term memory loss. It turned out perfect and delicious, but I had to cook it for a year and a half, checking every 5 minutes to see if it was done.

CU Technology Fail

  As an unemployed person, it is important for me to have goals.  My goal for September 10th was to get tickets to see Jane Goodall, and then later attend two back to school nights.  Also, go to the gym.  Maybe donate blood.  But really the tickets were the main thing.  Ok, back to school night was the main thing, but if you think attending back to school night at two schools with overlapping schedules is hard, you have no idea what I got into with the Jane Goodall tickets.

A couple weeks ago, I saw that tickets were going on sale on September 10th.  I set a meeting on my calendar with two reminders.  I made sure I was home from the gym (goal accomplished) and in front of the computer at 9:50 for the 10:00 am ticket sale.  (Tickets were free, but you could only get two – I talked Jane Goodall up and down at breakfast to make sure one kid would be really into in and one would feel like they weren’t missing out like the master mother that I am.)

So I was logged in and ready.  I started trying to buy my free tickets at 10:00.  I probably got about 50 error messages before I got through 2 times but the captcha thingy wasn’t accepted.  Then I started trying on my computer and my ipad at the same time.  Sometimes I could choose seats but then there was no “next” button.  Sometimes I got an “Okay” button but then the screen would crash.  I probably chose my seats 30 times only to have the screen time out, or get an error message, or be told the seats were no longer available.  I saw a message  on twitter and facebook that CU was having some technical difficultues after half an hour, but I kept trying until a full hour had passed.  I called the box office and got a message that they were closed.  

I can be determined, but after an hour I decided to try a different tactic.  I rode my bike to Macky and I asked if I could get tickets there at the box office. The guys I talked to said that they were using the same software and having the same problems.  A decision had been made to cancel the sale, and start again Friday at 10:00.  There was an older gentlemen there at the same time who mentioned that the experience had been very frustrating.  (Understatement.)  I asked who was gettting the tickets, since I kept losing the tickets in my cart.  The guy I talked to said, “No one has been able to get a ticket.  The tickets you saw grayed out when you tried to select them were reserved seats.”   He said there were 900 tickets that had been reserved since before the sale started. I left not really believing that because of how many times my seats had disappeared and I was wondering how many seats Macky even had if 900 were reserved.  (2052).

Alas, I’ll try again tomorrow, I thought, as I biked home.  I didn’t get far because my chain fell off and I spent the next hour and 45 minutes pushing my bike home, and then finally almost carrying the 700 lb albatross the last 4 blocks as the chain became wrapped around the back wheel.

So imagine my surprise when I got home and read this on facebook:

“We apologize for the inconsistent communication regarding the Oct. 1 Jane Goodall event. The ticket vendor Vendini experienced technical difficulties during the time of ticket distribution. While the ticketing system was down, we discussed moving ticketing to the following day. Unfortunately, Vendini came back online and did not stop distributing tickets despite our instruction to do so.

Tickets for the Oct. 1 Jane Goodall event are sold out. Options are being explored to expand the audience for the event.”

Yes, i know that they decided to move the even to Coors, which seats a bunch more people.  No, I don’t know when tickets will go on sale.  Yes, I know I should just get a job, and that I should have asked Dave to pick me up in the car instead of walking home like a sweaty weirdo.

Fancy Breakfast Friday

We are starting a new little thing around here called “Fancy Breakfast Friday”  There is a little song that I like to sing when I think about Fancy Breakfast Friday and it goes like this:

Fancy Breakfast FRIDAY!
Fancy Breakfast FRIDAY!

Luke said we needed a Fancy Breakfast Friday playlist, so I’m not sure how well the song is working for everyone.

We had waffles and strawberries last week, from a fave cookbook – The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham.  I made the raised waffle – it contains yeast, and you mix most of it the night before and leave on the counter to rise.  Just add eggs and baking sode in the morning. I even subbed in some whole wheat flour and no one noticed.  SO good.

I wanted to see if this new tradition would “take” before I blogged about it.  So we’ll be a week behind here.  But I have big plans for FBF.

Snack Attack

  
Since school started, we have had a bunch of after school snack sessions like this,”Here’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk.  And a banana.  And a bowl of yogurt.  And I guess you can have a granola bar.”  And so on until dinner time.  We also need snacks for school, and during and after practice. So I started to research healthy and hearty snacks.  I spent so much time thinking and reading that by the time I got to baking, I only had 20 minutes before I had to leave to do pick up Jack.  In the 20 minutes I had,  I made “Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats.”  I used 75% of a bag of marshmallows (the goal here was to get rid of the marshmallows in some way other than opening the pantry, untying the bag, eating a marshmallow, closing the bag, putting the bag back, closing the pantry and then starting over again a couple minutes later.)  I used regular cheerios instead of rice krispies, and I threw in a blob of peanut butter and and I topped it with some m&ms.  (about 75% of an individual bag of m&ms.)  Thank goodness for the M&Ms because it turned out sort of… brown.  Tasty, but nothing to write to pinterest about.  The boys liked it.  I only got a little melted marshmallow in my hair.

Next up, I made a frankenstein version of these Peanut Butter Apple Bars.  Instead of a shredded apple, I put all the non mushy parts of all the fruit in the fruit bowl into the food processor and came out with a random amount of nectarine, apple, and peach.  I added extra oats because it seemed necessary.  And as a rule, I do not measure peanut butter because I am 100% sure I can eyeball 1/4 cup of PB.  These bars came out… ok.  A little dry, but I served them for breakfast with a bowl of yogurt, and they were eaten after school a bunch of times too.  Very hearty.

The problem with my obession with adding peanut butter to everything is that then Jack can’t take it to school because his classroom is peanut free.  Or is it nut free?  I may have just made another snack that can’t be taken to school.  Pictured above are the fresh from the oven Oatmeal, Walnut, Banana bars from this month’s O magazine.  As you can see, I #nailedit.  But we’ll have to see if this recipe is a hit or not – they have a tanginess from the cream cheese that may not be loved by certain boys.  And nuts are always risky. I hope they like it, because it took about  2 seconds to make.  I had picky eaters do the mixing while I measured/eyeballed the ingredients.

Another day, another z bar for snack.

Book Club

  

Since my last blog book club, I finished A Feast for Crows, the 4th Game of Thrones book.  Then I lovingly stroked the cover of book 5, but I couldn’t turn my back on my life and my family for another 1000 pages.  I also had a another swarm of library books come in so I read A God in Ruins next.  This is a companion book to Life after Life, which I loved loved loved.  I had mixed feelings about A God in Ruins.  I loved it, but at first it felt like it was jumping around in time too much and I didn’t trust that the the author had the timeline right.  I had to make a consious effort not to care about that.  But even so, it felt like I could see the wires behind the magic act.  But I loved to have more Teddy and Ursula.

Now I am reading Mislaid.  This started off as a book that I figured I would like, but couldn’t recommend to anyone because it’s “weird”.  But  there are a lot of great lines.  I’m about halfway through so I’ll let you know what I think when I finish it.  Goals for this week include finishing Mislaid and making my bed before Lucy takes her morning nap.

What are you reading this week?

Planning Ahead For The Perseids

  
I’d like you to think that I must be the most organized amateur stargazer/parent-educater/camper out there, because I have spent the last week and a half planning ahead for next year’s Perseid  meteor shower.  It’s 50 weeks away people, haven’t you started planning?!?!  

What actually happened, was that part of the “Last Week At Home With Mom End of Summer Extravaganza” included a spontaneous mid week camping trip to see the meteor shower.  By spontaneous, I mean that I had the idea about a week in advance but I did not make a reservation, or any concrete plans, or even pack until 10 minutes before we left.  Would we even be able to see the meteor shower from our campsite, or if would we be surrounded by tall trees?  I figured with the lake there, we could find a spot on the south side of the lake for some sort of view.   Would we need a reservation in the middle of the week?  I was sure that there would be spots if we left right after Lukes’s doctors appointment at 11:30 am / piano lessons at 3:00 / short track races at 5:00.  Poor Jack competed in the end of short track season short track costume contest and managed not to die of heat exaustion only to be told that even though he was the only person there in a costume, the prizes wouldn’t be awarded until hours later.  (We were so relived to see a pic from later of an adult rider in a very elaborate and fancy costume.)  

We left immediately after short track and stopped for dinner in Nederland.  I told Jack he could pick out whatever breakfast cereal he wanted as a costume contest consolation prize, so after dinner and a trip the the grocery store  we were back on the road and headed for an 8:30 pm arrival time at Brainard Lake.  No campsites!!

No problem I thought, Camp Dick is right around here we’ll see if there are spots available there.  But instead, I started driving to Rainbow Lakes.  It was a long, narrow, bumpy, twisty road, and it was starting to get dark. Jack started to worry about cannibals because of a fantastic and true campfire story that I like to tell about the time we were almost eaten by cannibals.  Once we finally got to the sign that said, “Rainbow Lakes 1.8 miles” I remembered where we were and that we needed a high clearance vehicle to make it the rest of the way.  I know Dave loves me, but I also know that if I wreck the van, our relationship is over.  Still, I thought for a minute about whether we should keep going.  The giant lake in front of us , and the end of my marriage helped me decide to turn around.  Even though the boys offered to walk through the lake to check the depth, it didn’t seem like a good idea in the dark, with cannibals potentially lurking about.

We turned around and started driving back towards home, which, unfortunately was the opposite direction from Camp Dick.  I found a spot where my phone worked and pulled over to call Dave.  While I was talking to him a car pulled over and a guy got out with a giant flashlight and walked slowly over to us.  Slowly enough for Jack to let out a frenzied, “CANNIBAL,CANNIBAL, CANNIBAL!”  I rolled down the window and said, “We’re fine, thanks.”  And he said, with derision, “Then turn on your hazards.”  I thought that was weird because the reason I didn’t turn on my hazards was that I didn’t need anyone to come help me.  (I was in a pull out, way to the side, off the road.)  Anywho, I turned on my hazards and listened to Dave’s suggestions of where there was open camping in Nederland, and I was almost sold on the idea until he said, “Just don’t camp near any herion addicts.  Or, I guess, meth addicts would be worse.”

We had forgotten 3 things on this trip: Pillows, flashlights, and the dog.  We decided we could live without pillows, hoped maybe the flashlights were in there somewhere, and thought not having the dog was actually going to simplify things.  But then I wished she was there to protects us from the cannibals.

Long story short (too late) we went home. 

I woke the boys up at 3:00 am and we went to the park with a blanket and some smore’s goldfish and watched the meteor shower while we tried to stay warm and comfortable on the sidewalk.  

It’s an official “family memory now” but I think I can do a better job next year.

My Poor Deprived Children

The boys learned last week that one of their friends has an assigned night for cooking the family meal.  This piece of information was met with the wailing and gnashing of teeth and “whyyyy don’t you ever let us cook?”

I meanly cook dinner every night and never let them do it, like the evil mom that I am.  Dave helps.   I don’t know how to cook meat really, so Dave helps a lot.

But this week we have have been trying out some kid-cooked meals.  Last night Jack made homemade mac and cheese, a recipe adapted slightly from a Cook Smarts meal plan.  We had it with leftover grilled pork tenderloin and a salad.  So good.  It was a little complicated and I had to help a lot, but Jack did a pretty good job.  He said he was going to make buttered noodles for his meal so this was a step up.  And now he can make a roux.   (Not really.)  Luke made miso soup this evening, which we paired with grilled pork chops and cucumbers in an asian style dressing.  He thought his contribution was too easy, but he did it by himself while I was rollerblading up and down the street.  (A story for another day.)

So things are going well now that I am not selfishly hoarding all the cooking to myself.