Thank You, L-Fam!

Tonight my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over to feed us and hang out. I was experiencing technical camera issues, so I rely on Google Images to recapture the evening

Thanks again, guys!!!

Membership

Yesterday I used a Christmas gift card for Applebee's. Today I used the Christmas Sam's Club Membership Card from my bro and sil.

I activated the membership about a week after Christmas, I wasn't sure what we were in for when I first drove into the suburby parking lot, loading Jimmy into the hummer-sized jumbocart, but it's only Groundhog's Day and we've already been back 3 or 4 times to continue to get the dealz we need.

Some faves:



16 Boca Burgers for $8.88, the same amount would be at least $14 at the grocery store. And I llllluu-uuuuuv that Jimmy loves the Alexia Sweet Potato Fries, today I discovered a 64 oz bag (that's like, a half gallon of fries!) for $6.98. In the normal world, that half gallon o'fries would cost at least $15.

Also...



3 pounds of Mission Flour Tortillas for $3.98--that's a great deal compared to our local supermarket. And Stacy's Pita Chips bigbags and whole grain tortillas also come at great prices--saving $$ on better nutrition and fulfilling Jimmy's obsession with pallet movers is what makes me think we'll be renewing our membership in 2011. Thanks Mark and M!

Road Trip

Thanks to Christmas, my father, stepmother, proper scheduling, and a Christmas gift card, tonight we got to hop into the family 2-door for a dinner roadtrip to Applebee's.










Jimmy's Mac and Cheese


Hubby's Fish and Chips


My Spicy Shrimp Diovolo

I think we were the only people there with a camera, but we were also probably the only people there who get to eat out 6 times a year. It was a great treat, thanks Dad and Joan!

Holy Kraft!

I want to start selling Kraft its food back to them. Tonight I was eating some dinner and getting some reading done when the back of the Wheat Thins box was presenting me with all these "delicious snack" tips that I can enjoy for "about a dollar" all while it urged me into really considering the weeks-old question: Why Snackrifice?

First off, the back of the box offered what it called a nutritionally "wholesome combination" of Wheat Thins and Crystal Light...



...which is about as wholesome as Lady Gaga in a fish store. Secondly, through sales/coupons my limit on Wheat Thins or any other non-organic national brand cracker is $2 or less per box. There are nine servings of 16 crackers in a box, which at $2/box results in $0.22 per 16 crackers. By Kraft-Mathft, this makes a canister of Lemon Chemicals Light ring in at $24.96 [($1.00 minus $0.22 for 8oz glass, times 4 (for a quart) times 8 (for 8 qt canister).] The asterisk says that this is the national average price, do you think any of the good people at Kraft would buy a canister of headaches and cancer and heart failure for $25? Isn't that what is for?

WhySnackrifice.com helpfully offers other "no snackrificing!" combinations to explore and discover...all with good family values and all also for around a dollar. Why, there's Triscuits and Cheese, Ritz and Cheese, Ritz and Peanut Butter, and Wheat Thins and something new called "Hummus" (I think Ay-Rabs and Vegetarians and other terrorists eat that, I'm not sure, I've never had it it, but heck I'll try it if it helps send aid to Haiti!)

Aye yaye! I am seriously in the wrong racket if there are people out there getting paid to market crackers and cheese as a new concept. Me, I've got all kinds of ideas for fresh combos like Oatmeal + Brown Sugar. Coffee + Cream. Macaroni + Cheese!!! Kraft, call meeeee!!

32 Inches of Inspiration

After accessing my bank account this morning a sigh of dereliefium was enough to wake up everyone in the house, I finally got to read the digits of the first paycheck from my new part-time schedule, they came out better than what I was hoping. (I wasn't sure with all the deductions, whether they'd let me keep my weekend shift differential, etc.) I decided to celebrate with a round of TV-Inspired Items from Whole Foods.

First up was easy:



Earth's Best French Toast Sticks. Featuring every child's favorite licensed red character: Lightning McQueen. I mean Clifford. Um, Muno. Po. Spiderman?

Second item is the bad part, because it forces me to admit that I was watching the very, very redundantly redundant, repetitive repetitive non-loquacious, non-loquacious Ma-har-tha Stew-hew-art...but it was only a brief clip and it was sort of inspirational about:



Quinoa, for breakfast (I'd never thought of it for that!) and it got me thinking about getting this supergrain into the men of the house, using my own personal secret agent: Sugar.

Third, my favorite (and Wally's) Celebratory TV-Inspired Whole Food Item is:



The Chocolate Babka. I had never heard of a chocolate babka before or since one was featured on The Dinner Party episode of Seinfeld. Sometimes I miss the 90s. :::wistfulness:::

And that wraps up my 5-day weekend, back to work tomorrow. My new schedule is working out pretty well, Jimmy couldn't be happier. Whole Paycheck Foods appreciates it too! (I know, cheesy, I've used that strikethru "paycheck" joke before, but just in case...) In the meantime, may the tv be with you.

The EYE-nternet

My out-of-town visitor has come and gone, we ended up dining at the Green Elephant and several hours later found ourselves ordering last call at.....Blackstone's. So, yes, this morning's 8:45 eye doctor appointment came a little early (many thanks for the super-thorough ocular vessel exam, doc) but I am very excited that Dr. A gave me my prescription and his blessing to order a pair of new EIGHT DOLLAR INTERNET GLASSES!!

I'm following a a Facebook suggestion (thanks Mark B!) to give internet darling Zenni Optical a whirl, seeing as Jimmy's got several more glasses-breaking years left in him. Not sure how they'll look until they get here, wish me and my face luck!

Sticking to His V-Guns

My old college roomie/BFF Jeremy is home for the holidays and scheduled to pay us a visit tomorrow. He's gone a long way since leaving our apartment-above-a-bikeshop on Main St., Orono, he's lived all over the world, speaks all its languages, and presently holds a demanding, high-profile position teaching these languages in Budapest, Hungary. There're seven zillion things I can say about Jeremy, rest assured he's high on my list of favorite people.

Every few years I meet a new version of him. Sometimes he's a partier, sometimes he's a smoker, sometimes he's a teetotaler, sometimes he's an anti-tobacco activist, sometimes he's killed his tv, sometimes he's America's Next Top Model, sometimes he's a stressed-out advanced degree student, sometimes he's the kid I met (and glued myself to) as he was moving into my apartment 15 years ago. Thanks to Facebook we've kept in touch more frequently, so I know that this year I'm meeting a vegan, evidently he's been going vegan for a few years and has never been healthier or felt better. Tonight I'm researching some options as I'm hopeful (as in crossing my fingies really-really tight) that hubby can watch after Jimmy so Jeremy and I can catch up at one of those fancy non-Chuck E. Cheese restaurants. I've come up with:

Pepperclub My pre-Jimmy vegetarian-friendly go-to restaurant with lots of vegan options and uses locally farmed ingredients. Now that I eat fish I'm anxious to see how they do it.

Little Lad's Super-economical, plenticopious, and droolworthy vegan lunch buffet prepared under the guidance of, of course, the Seventh Day Adventists. A lunchtime fave from the dreamy days of yore of when I worked downtown... (siiiiiiigh....) (Oh well. Mallside has better parking...)

Gro Cafe In case he's gone macroborganic or something, too. (I sorta hope not...)

Green Elephant Vegetarian Bistro Chic, sleek, and there's vino. And good ratings!

Ok, now I'm getting hungry. Bring me the Vegan!

2009, A Year Of...

Facebook tonight is full of people commenting on 2009 being a great year, or a bad year, a healthy year, or a year of struggles. Happiness in early spring, only to meet year's end with a big bang of woe. A year of pride, a year of shame. I dunno, I never remember things by "year" like that. The shit I'm experiencing now is going to continue into...tomorrow, right. 2010, right. Every year is a year of moderate health and reasonable poverty, right. 2009 was just the same I guess, I don't really remember.

BUT....

I DO remember our annual NYE pre-Wally Leaves For Work buffet. Why, I even have photos!


Tomato and Olive Aspic


Aspic with Kickass-Kugel, Panettone, Nuts


Holiday Lutefisk!


Th'olthang

Stuffed and geared up for a new year of...idunno. Happy New Year!

Virginia Woolfin' It Down

One thing Wally and I will always have in common is that we are both movie lovers. We watch them, analyze them, internalize them, discuss them, and digest them the way most people do with books, and we know that you're supposed to do all that with books but...we're just movie people.

The lamb pie we served at our Christmas party was inspired by the movie The Hours (which is also a book, but) from how when back in the day we'd repeatedly and randomly quote the way that Virginia Woolf's maid says "I chose a lamb pie..." I hadn't watched the movie since before Jimmy was born, I stuck it in yesterday and while watching it I remembered that several years ago I baked Wally a birthday cake also inspired by the movie--it was a chocolate cake decorated with this crazy blue-color frosting:


Blue Birthday Cake Sorta-Seen Here

As I was watched the movie yesterday I couldn't help gain some interest in "The Crab Thing"--a dish that the Meryl Streep character makes in hopes to cheer up the Ed Harris character who was known to like it. The dish is pretty vague in the movie so I looked it up and was happy to discover the Chicago Sun Times was similarly inspired:

The crab thing

March 19, 2003

(Inspired by "The Hours")

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

3 tablespoons shallots

1 tablespoon butter

3/4 cup fish stock, preferably homemade

1 tablespoon orange juice

1/4 cup white wine

1 tablespoon Armagnac or Cognac

1/2 cup whipping cream

Salt (French sea salt such as sel

marin) and white pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon mace

1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley,

finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon,

finely chopped

3/4 pound Dungeness crabmeat (cooked)

1 (1-1/2-pound) Dungeness crab, cleaned, cooked and cracked by fishmonger

Saute shallots in butter for 3 minutes. Do not brown. Add stock. Bring to medium boil; reduce by half.

Add orange juice, wine and Armagnac or Cognac. Reduce again by half. Add cream; thicken until sauce coats back of a spoon. Turn off fire. Add salt, pepper, mace and herbs.

Place crabmeat in serving dish. Pour hot sauce over crabmeat. Garnish with cracked crab. Serve with pasta.

...but a little more complicated than I was bargaining for.

A regoogle brought me to another recipe, this one inspired by the book version of The Hours where the recipe's creator specified "The Crab Thing" as a crab casserole. Interesting... The recipe can be found in The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp.

The Ed Harris character never gets to taste The Crab Thing, I wonder will Wally and I ever get around to having some? Kickasserole time? Only time will tell... In the meantime, I thoroughly recommend renting The Hours, it is a MASTERPIECE!!! And that's even forgetting all the eatin' parts! Though, it helps to watch Mrs. Dalloway first. Or...if you prefer, you could actually read Virginia Woolf's version if you haven't already. <=]

'Twis the Night After Christmas

It was a Magical Christmas for 2009. A brief relay:



After opening Christmas morning pressies with Uncle Mark and Aunt M, we had a relaxing baba with, you guessed it, the FUTURE PRESIDENT.



After that I opened an email from, you guessed it, the CURRENT PRESIDENT. "A Historic Vote" it was titled, and evidently was part of a group email as the Boston Globe reports on how Obama calls the Senate vote "historic", but for me the Christmas Magic is that I have a president who doesn't put the word "an" in front of a noun that starts with consonant, and that Anne Heche might be completing her civic and patriotic duties, like I insisted she must. Thanks, Anne! Merry Christmas!

Then, food.


Hickory Smoked Duck, Lamb Pie (a la The Hours), and My Good Cranberry Jello (it's not Christmas without my good cranberry jello--but I'm the only one who seems to think so!)


Figgy Pudding


Munchies


Salmon Mousse


Timpano, a la Big Night


Bûche de Noël with Meringue Mushrooms


The Bottom of the Glögg

And visitors, and gifts!




Jimmy's Grampy made him this stool


...they also brought the singing snowfamily that Jimmy's been playing with all day. "DONG! Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Treee......



DONG!"

Possibly the biggest piece of Christmas Magic:

My father got them to remove the extra A from this kickasserole dish! Amazing! And quite the crowd pleezer, even for those (many) at the party who don't read this blog. I can't wait to fill it with bonafide kickasseroles though I must admit, it puts on the pressure! :practice:practice:practice:

Today, the 26th I'd like to wish my Aunt Betty a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We spent the day chillaxing and I asked the Magic 8 Ball "Could there be anything cuter than this?"





And it said:


I rechecked, and got a little spooked when it said:



Why, yes that was Figgy Pudding that Jimmy was eating on his new Thomas stool, how did Magic 8 Ball know that? Another shake:



Ok, that was enough. Magic ball gone now (and without any figgy pudding.) I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Now it's on to New Year's and then: months and months of winter! Yaaaaay.