But I did find my kitchen!

Along with my new 2010 awakening – that I still cannot explain very well – has come my return to the kitchen.

It was necessary because I was getting terribly sick of hamburgers, tacos, pizza and spaghetti. Ok, so really I wasn’t getting sick of spaghetti… we make our own sauce every fall and it is mmm mmm mmm deliciouso! (Yes, I have been getting a little too much Dora though.) So maybe we could eat spaghetti every night and no one in the house would really balk, but truth be told I am starting to run low on the coveted frozen sauce and so we needed some other options.

In the summers I hardly ever cook. AB barbecues all the time. And while he has prided himself in the past at barbecuing all through the winter, this one has been a little more challenging. Everything is sopping freaking wet. Rain all the time. And it is really hard to barbecue with everything being wet.

AB has finally realized the virtues of my Ikea grill pan that he balked at me buying a few years ago. Truth be told I use it at least once a week and this winter so far, it has been more like 2-3 times a week. Apparently though it’s ok to use now that we have a gas stove because fire is involved. On the electric stove at the other house AB just called it cheating.

Gas stove – fire – grill pan ok.

My days at work lately have calmed to a dull roar enabling me to check a few recipe sites most days for a quick overview of anything delicious. And if it fits the right criteria for a weeknight dinner (under 45 minutes start to finish and reasonably kid friendly) then I print it up and run to the grocery store over lunch if need be. We are not only eating better this year so far, the kids are getting exposed to some different foods AND it is helpful on the budget since we aren’t saying, “let’s just order out” or “pick something up on the way home”.

So far this year we have had great success with:

Panko-Coated Chicken Schnitzel Make sure you put the chicken in a bag or cover it someway before pounding it to prevent flying raw chicken bits. (Weeknight meal)

Braised Chile-Spiced Short Ribs with Black Beans Delicious and holy cow rich. Weekend meal.

Roast Duck Breasts with Pomegranate-Chile Sauce So I just made the sauce, I had a whole duck to cook, so I did the duck using the recipe below.

Crisp Roast Duck The duck was amazing, even the kids liked it.

Lettuce Wraps with Ground Turkey filling Weeknight meal that IS going on the rotation.

Pork Chops – from AB’s newest BBQ cookbook. I swore I would never eat pork chops and he took this as a challenge and I have relented. I will only ever eat his pork chops.

Ham – I grew up a huge ham fan, but now give it an “eh”. Then a year or so ago we had ham at a friend’s house and I was renewed. It was delicious. And more over, the kids loved it. So I revisited ham in January as well. Now what to do with leftovers? I am thinking ham and bean soup... very soon.

And last but not least (that I recall right now) is Fusilli with Spicy Chicken Sausage, Tomato and Ricotta Cheese I actually didn’t care for this because the Aidell’s chicken sausauge I bought was too sweet, in my opinion. However, Hans really enjoyed it. If I made it again I would use a traditional sausage.

I ran to the grocery store today to fill in a few missing ingrediants for this week's dinner items:
Turkey Lettuce Wraps from above
Pioneer Woman's Italian Drip Beef
Pioneer Woman's Cajun Pasta
Jambalaya (from the Zatarains mix... hey I have to have it easy one night this week!)

Where did my TV go?

This afternoon I had a few minutes between meetings and took a look at a blog website. They had an interesting looking link about a modern family. So I clicked it. And became aware that this wasn’t about being a modern family, it was about a TV show called “Modern Family”. Looked interesting enough… kind of wish I would have known about it!

Something has happened here… my TV has gone missing.

Not OUR TV… nope that one is sitting in the TV alcove frequently connected to the Wii or playing some Dora episode.

MY TV. It’s gone. I am officially out of the TV loop.

I have one show I am watching right now, Big Love. I was so excited for Big Love to come back and was thankful for Facebook and friends for keeping me up to date on it. And I need to talk with friends about the show more. But one word crosses my brain with respect to Big Love this season… unimpressed.

I am trying to figure out why. Is it that the storyline just isn’t that great? Is it that it has been ages since the prior season aired and I just don’t remember the story so well. (Things I can blame on the producers and writers.) Or is it me? Am I just that far out of the loop with TV as a source of entertainment?

AB is recording Burn Notice and Heroes, neither of which he has had time to watch. Someday maybe.

It truly has not been an intentional transition. And I can see how it has happened.

1. We got Tivo and relied on Tivo to watch our shows at some later, convenient time.

2. We fast forwarded through commercials and watched what we wanted to watch. Or as Skadi would put it, “me wants to watch wha-ever me wants”.

3. Slowly those TV shows we watched have gone by the wayside and we have ceased to replace them with new shows. A lot of this I blame on the fast-forward technology, I don’t even know what else is on, what the new shows are.

4. Another aspect is my kids… they don’t advertise new upcoming shows for mom and dad on Nickelodeon and PBS.

5. And last… the Wii. Our evenings with the kids where we do sit down together is usually split between a rousing game of 100-pin bowling, snowball fighting, the luge, figure skating (that only mommy wins) or Resort sports. Occasionally we will watch a DVD. DVD nights are usually Skadi’s choice, but one that she soon abandons in favor of dollies and her dollhouse. Leaving us with the decision to continue watching The Little Mermaid, or play Wii. Guess what we pick?

AB and I keep contemplating a new TV, one of the flat panel ones as opposed to having a CRT. But as I remind AB, this one works fine, we don’t hardly WATCH TV anymore and he usually throws in there "yeah and a new TV costs money". I am guessing sometime this year we will take the leap, but until then we are way behind the curve here and choosing to remain that way.

I am not one of those high and mighty, “we don’t watch TV” people. I can’t stand people like that. I like watching TV. My kids watch a little TV – Leif used to watch TV, but now his screen time is either computer (Webkinz or Star Wars games) or Wii. Skadi only cares to watch “Dowa” and I am hoping someday this goes by the wayside. Yes, Dora is great, but wow I am tired of her.

AB and I have even gone so far as to consider cutting the cable and going strictly to downloading when our current commitment is up. When I look at how little TV we watch and how much we pay I realize I could download the shows I want off Amazon for 99 cents each and save boatloads. If it weren't for that silly contract I signed last May...

There are a few shows I have heard about recently that I wish I was watching… "Glee". Probably mostly about a world I was not part of in high school, but it is strangely appealing. And this “Modern Family” show looks interesting too. I always like "Mythbusters" and here is also where I can poke my mom a little and mention that maybe I should catch "Ice Road Truckers" someday...

I am sure we will swing up and add a show when the new season of Survivor airs next week. So I can add one more show to my list then. And I can hope for another season of Top Chef sometime soon too.

What are you watching? Anything major I am missing?

Ignore, unless you cross stitch.

Ever since posting about cross stitching the bug has set in. I pulled out my Orange Tree pattern and swooned once again. I looked at all 19 pages of the pattern. I silently appreciated how there were 6 pages of thread information. Three pages with codes and stitch information and a separate three pages listing off numbers that I would need. Yes, these are 8.5 x 11 inch pages. Full pages.

Then just by coincidence when we cleaned the garage this past weekend (yes, you read right, we CLEANED the garage this weekend!), I ran across a big Rubbermaid tub that said “Cross Stitch” on it. AB hurried it upstairs and put it up high in the walk in closet in the guest room on the top shelf.

Then on Sunday I hurried upstairs while AB was at a birthday party with Skadi and pulled it down off that high shelf and lugged the thing downstairs again.

When I opened it I fell even deeper head over heels.

This particular box is box two of two. I had one box originally, but then AB’s grandmother did something fantastic about seven years ago. She packed up every little bit of her cross stitching stuff and shipped it to me.

Getting that box was like Christmas all over! She had boxes of threads, cute little scissors, many different sizes of needles and pages upon pages of patterns.

She was an avid cross stitcher. The main difference between she and I is that she worked on 22 and 24 count fabric mostly, while I tended towards the standard 14. What this means in lay terms is how many stitches are in an inch. I do the big old squares where I get 14 stitches in a linear inch, or 196 stitches in a square inch. Donna stepped it up a notch and walloped me with between 484 and 576 stitches in a square inch.

She did beautiful work with incredibly fine detail. I remember standing in her house outside Wasilla, Alaska astounded with the detail of her stitching. Someday I told myself.

While Leif played Wii the other day, and AB and Skadi were at a birthday party I went through her bin and pulled out cloth. I was looking for black for my Orange Tree pattern and found a perfectly square, taped off piece of black 22 count. It would be perfect. Almost like she had cut it and taped it specifically with my pattern in mind.

I sat there and contemplated the concept. Could I make those itty bitty, tiny little stitches?

Then well… I chickened out.

I decided to take my first step towards it by buying 18 count fabric instead of 14 this Saturday at Michaels.

Then I realized if I was going to Michaels to buy fabric, I should also have some idea which thread I am going to need. So last night I sat down with the three clear plastic thread holders and started pulling skeins out that correspond to the numbers on the list. I became a little concerned when I started noticing that some of the skeins had way old price tags on them. Fifteen cents a skein? Not to mention “price tags”… who uses those anymore!

Then it dawned on me that it has been seven years since she sent the bin and probably years before that since she has cross stitched. And concern filled my head. What if the colors have changed? What if number 319 is no longer Very Dark Pistachio Green (and for the record *I* have never seen pistachios that dark)?

I have done my best to push concern out of my head and to think about the positive side of not having to buy all new skeins, and doing a somewhat tribute to AB’s grandmother by using her materials for my next pattern.

Oh and yeah, this was the March goal, wasn’t it? And it is only February. Correct-a-mundo. It’s that bug thing. Bug has dug.

Not to mention that I do have the foreknowledge that it may take me a full month to prepare to start on the Orange Tree given the three pages of DMC numbers that need to be obtained, sorted and unrolled and rerolled onto bobbins. I have a need to approach my cross stitching in a very methodical manner. Everything must be just right so that when I sit down and start, I am ready to go.

Also, for the record? The pillowcase dress has not fallen off my radar either… I am looking for the perfect pillow case!

Let's see if you can figure it out...

Me: "What's your favorite thing for breakfast?"

Leif: "You know, it's round and has fruit inside."

Me: (Perplexed) "Sweedies?"

Leif: "No."

Me: "Blueberry pancakes?"

Leif: "No."

Me: "Muffins?"

Leif: (Increasingly more annoyed.) "NO!"

Me: "Round and has fruit inside, like pie?"

Leif: "NO!"

Me: "Ok, help me out, do I cook it?"

Leif: "Well umm, yeah, you make it."

Me: (Totally perplexed.) "Can you tell me more about it?"

Leif: "It is round, has fruit inside, it has salt on top and seeds inside."

Me: (Totally totally perplexed.) "Round, has fruit inside, salt on top and seeds inside... a bagel?"

Leif: "NO! You know this mom."

Me: "I am sorry honey, I don't. What kind of fruit?"

Leif: "Triangle fruit. The fruit is in triangles."

Me: "Leif I have no idea whatsoever. We eat this thing for breakfast?"

Leif: "Yes, all the time!"

(Thankfully the phone rang about this time... it is AB.)

Me: "What do we eat for breakfast that is round, has triangle shaped fruit inside, salt on top and seeds inside."

AB: "What? Round and triangle fruit for breakfast?"

Me: "Yes, round, triangle fruit, salt on top, seeds inside."

AB: "I have absolutely no idea."

----

I know what it is now that Leif showed me, but can you figure it out?

Skadi's hero

The other day we were driving along on our way to work/daycare/preschool when Skadi announces, “LOOK! There’s Uncle Andy next to us!”

It actually wasn’t. It was a guy who works with me, but I can see the resemblance in a way.

This was the start with Skadi’s concern/fretting/adoration over Uncle Andy – one of our good friends and the father of one of Leif’s best friends.

Skadi decided last week that she was going to change her name and “Uncle Andy” was one of the two options she had picked. The other option was simply adding her favorite baby’s name into her full name to become - Skadi Jeanne Annika C------. It actually flowed pretty well given the whole four names thing.

Nearly every morning in the car Skadi squeals either, “look it’s Uncle Andy!” as she points to some random car or she asks, “where is Uncle Andy?” as she looks in cars when we drive by. And it is a good morning when she sees him dropping Niranjana off. She walks down the hallway holding her head higher and with a smile after giving him five.

Uncle Andy is also serving as “Assistant Coach” on the older kids’ soccer team. We needed to drop off an order form the other night for a t-shirt for him. Skadi was very concerned with not taking the normal route home and I told her we were going to go get a t-shirt for Uncle Andy ordered. (She missed the “ordered” part.)

Skadi: “YAY! Get a shirt for Uncle Andy!”

NM: “Well we are ordering it.”

Skadi: “Get him a soccer shirt!”

(We order it and leave the YMCA.)

Skadi: “Where is the shirt?”

NM: “I ordered it. We will get it later.”

Skadi: “Ok. But he might want it right now. He might want us to take it to him tonight!”

(The next night on the drive home.)

Skadi: “We have to go get Uncle Andy’s shirt!”

NM: “It’s not ready yet honey.”

Skadi: “Oh. When it is ready can we wrap it in a package and put a bow on it for Uncle Andy?”

I think there may be a bit of a crush on there… but Auntie Melissa is standing firm and Skadi has to go through her first.

Hypochondriac post #1

I mentioned the other day (after reading a book about Asperger's) that I suspect myself as having a gradient of Aspergers. And no, I am not normally a hypochondriac. And mild Aspergers, not like Jerry on Boston Legal. And not to the extent that John Elder does in the book "Look Me In The Eye". But AB agrees, I easily fall on that spectrum.

When I was in grad school I took one of those “help a fellow grad student out in this field and take this test” things. Afterwards she told me I had Aspergers. At the time I went “what? I don’t have Autism”, and I laughed and went on with my day thinking, "wow, wonder if she ever gets her degree!". I will admit though that this has always lingered in the back of my head. Moreso now that Leif’s teacher has been mentioning Aspergian traits. I just finished reading “Look Me In The Eye” by John Elder Robison and spent many evenings nodding my head. In some chapters I laughed and thought “ok, that’s out there, WAY out there”. Other chapters I wasn’t quite sure what was wrong with the stories he was telling, they sounded normal and a bit comforting.

I have been trying to figure out how to blog about this and have finally decided to just jump in with a series of posts hitting on traits of people with Aspergers and how or why, I see myself and Leif.

One of the weirder chapters I could relate to was Robison’s on naming things or people. The other night after reading that chapter I poured out my soul to AB. I had not talked to anyone about this before, but I have this problem and not only that, but I suspect from a few of Leif’s slip ups – that he also has this problem.

When I see a person, not everyone by far, just random people I know for some reason, I have to think before I say their name. And often, it is just easier for me to avoid saying their name. Because it does NOT fit and even becomes difficult for me to form my mouth and say their name. Want to see me squirm? Have me introduce one of these random people to you. I can usually come up with a name quickly, but the question is whether it is the right name.

The worst is when I slip up. In high school I dated a guy for about two months. He was a nice guy, but I cannot for the life of me remember his name. After 20 years this might make sense. But truth? I couldn’t remember his name when we dated. He was Keith to me. He fit the name Keith. And I slipped up enough in our short dating stint that he was sure I had another boyfriend named Keith. And I didn’t even know anyone named Keith. Explain this one to a new boyfriend… I couldn’t. This was back when I forgot to think hard about something before I opened my mouth - something I try to do, but not always successfully.

Another one? When I first started at the lab I worked with a specialist. He was introduced to me, but I knew his name just looking at him before he was introduced to me. It was Cookie. Yes, Cookie is a very odd name for a man my parent’s age. And amazingly enough it rhymed with his real name, Charlie. Panic comes over me when I see Cookie around the campus because I have to rack my brain to get the guy’s real name so that I can do what I have learned to do and say, “Hi Charlie, how are you?” Thank goodness I don’t work with the guy anymore. Though with most people put me in an instance where I get to know them better and my tendency fades and their name comes more naturally to me.

Calling animals by “The Cat” or “The Dog”. No problem. I do this (not sure if this one is weird or not.) Your pets names? Oh, I would have to think a lot about that. Leif is big on this one. He loves his cat, Lucky, and has declared himself a cat person. He isn’t terribly fond of our dogs but he goes to bed every night with “Cat” on him. “Cat” likes to lay on Leif in bed, which is kind of humorous since “Cat” is also about 19 lbs and Leif is just over twice that. As Leif is falling asleep and his eyes are fluttering he will ask me to “put Cat next to me and make sure he doesn’t leave, I want him here”. Leif knows his name is Lucky, but more often than not, he’s “Cat” to Leif.

One of the very obvious ones from an early age that I blogged about years ago was hearts. Leif still calls hearts “eskimos”. This started long before I suspect he had much of an idea what an Eskimo was, which still perplexes me – because believe me, I know what a cookie is. His teacher at the time found it cute and novel, though a bit perplexing. His current teacher? She calls it Aspergers. Leif has learned that hearts are called hearts, but 9 times out of 10 if you put a heart in front of him he will start with “eski – err, I mean heart”.

And other kids in Leif's class? Until he gets to know them well he doesn't use their name, they are "the kid that knocked his front teeth out" or "that one kid" or "the boy whose dad is a police officer". Is this the same thing? I am not sure.

Looking ahead

Awhile back… ok, years ago… Vargasgirl got me into cross stitching. It had always struck me as an old lady type of thing to do. But when I saw the things she was making and the options for patterns out there, I quickly became interested. They weren’t all cutesy scroll country kischey things! There were some really nice contemporary patterns out there.

I started in slow, became hooked and then quickly had more patterns on my hard drive then I knew what to do with.

I started on Chat Noir.

Then I had Leif. And Chat Noir went on the shelf.

I have this great desire to get back to crafting of some type.

Two areas constantly pull at my heart. Sewing and cross stitching.

I want to make my daughter a pillowcase dress before she grows too big and laughs at me for even suggesting she wear a pillowcase.

And have you even seen those summer dress patterns out there? I am way too sure that the fabric for those dresses are even cuter. But I wouldn’t know since I am not allowed in fabric stores. Self imposed ban and all.

I foresee my February goal getting my house to a point where I need to stop for awhile because the next step would entail large sums of money that I am not envisioning having at that point. Additionally I envision March being a busy month with it being our 10th anniversary month and Skadi’s birthday.

I am thinking I am going to take a side trip for the month of March and explore a personal goal…
Start sewing…

Or tackle The Orange Tree…

February Goals Defined

It’s been decided!

The February goal will be the kitchen.

The main thing here is to get pull out spice racks in the narrow cabinet next to the stove. It is the perfect location for a spice cabinet, but the design doesn’t work – it is deep, tall and difficult to organize. The pull outs should work wonders in organizing one of our most used cabinets in the kitchen.

My plan isn’t to stop there. Lately I have been feeling as though my kitchen isn’t organized as well as it could be. I don’t like to change things around at all. I like to get items in a place that works and leave them. This is a major difference between myself and my mom, who is always changing things around. I blogged about this at some point, but I can't seem to find it right now... Anyways, suffice it to say that right now, things aren’t working where they are.

I have a lazy Susan in a convenient place, but that is nearly unused. I have bowls I use regularly in a high cabinet. AB’s BBQ utensils (and he has a lot of them) are in a drawer that isn’t really big enough. And the Aluminum foil/Saran Wrap/Wax Paper/Baggies drawer is just way too little. Then there is the desk (that I really wish was a countertop – but that wish will just remain) needs to be organized and also needs a chair (shh… don’t tell AB this one, he needn’t know I have hopes of purchasing something else in the kitchen during this month since the pull outs are expensive enough!) and the cabinets above it organized. This should fit well also with the season – tax time – as I have our routine tax receipts in one of the cubbies up there.

The plan has been set and will be put into motion!

Skadi says:

“I want to do wha-ever me wants to do.”

Or

“I want to pick wha-ever me wants.”

Or

"I want to eats wha-ever me wants to eat."

Or

“I want to pick panties wha-ever me wants to wear.”

(You get the idea.)

Leif = “WEIFER!”

To Freya as she has ahold of her fur so she can’t escape: “You no eat my toys, you hear me? I said you no eat my toys!”

Anything she likes:

“Oh it’s so beeeeauuuutiful!”

And

“Oh it’s so WOOOnderful!”

When she says something she thinks is funny she says to herself (and to us):
"That's a good one!"

When Leif said, "Skadi...", this morning she responded with, "call me Beaner".

Skadi and her best friend were sent to the office for not listening the other day. Apparently the entire time they sat in the office they giggled. One would look at the other and they would giggle. Then they would be told not to look at each other and this would last for about 30 seconds before one girl would give in and look at the other, and the giggling would start all over. I could hardly not giggle myself as the teacher is telling me this with a stern face. I mean, what did they expect as they sat the girls next to each other in the office? What makes me not smile about this is knowing that Skadi’s best friend is most likely moving in a few months.