Oh yeah, I have a blog.

A friend told me that she was sick of looking at my scrambled eggs. So, here you go. What's new with you? I am sure you heard about the "Dreaded Poison Ivy from Danger Island". Horrendous. Here's what else is new: work is pretty brutal. Dexter's super cute. Joel plays the Saxophone and Keys and looks good with a new hair cut. My living room floor is covered in train tracks. I like to make out with my Kindle 2. (It's an electronic READING device. Get your mind out of the gutter.) I like to read about my friends' running adventures on their Facebook status updates. Does this count as exercise? OK, I'm tired now. Have a good evening.

Recipe Attempt two: Are you sensing a theme?

I have now made the "Best Scrambled Eggs" recipe from HTCE several times. The basic theory is...cook at a low temperature, break up into small curds, be patient! The first time I made them Joel was a bit skeptical. The quote: "When I saw them on the plate I thought they were underdone, and I thought I usually liked them in bigger pieces, but I would eat this everyday if you made it for me." Much more positive feedback then with the Quiche, so thumbs up to this one. Here are some pics from our Sunny, Sunday Scramble. I've included the recipe at the bottom.


2 to 4 TBLSPNS butter
5 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tspn fresh tarragon (I used dill because that's what I had in the garden)
2 TBLSPNS cream

Place medium skillet over high heat for a minute. Add the butter and swirl it around in the pan. After the butter melts, but before it foams turn the heat to low.
Beat the eggs with the remaining ingredients and pour into the skillet. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. At first nothing will happen; after 10 minutes or so the eggs will begin to form curds. Do not lose patience: Keep stirring, breaking up the curds as they form, until the mixture is a mass of soft curds. This will take 30 minutes or more.

Recipe Attempt 1: Basic Quiche

When we were little my mom used to make Quiche Lorraine a lot. I was a very picky eater, but this was one of my faves. My mom used to work for Magic Chef in the early 80's so we had a microwave pretty early on. Her job involved creating microwave recipes and demonstrating them for people at department stores. I think we were guinea pigs, but I liked this particular Magic Chef recipe so no complaints here. (Though I am still skeptical of her claims of doing a whole Thanksgiving dinner in the microwave. C'mon mom, that's just disrespectful to the pilgrims.)

OK in How to Cook Everything (HTCE) Mark Bittman suggests you make a Quiche pie crust from scratch. That would probably taste better, but I am dipping my toes in right now, so I bought a Marie Callender ready made pie crust. I did follow MB's directions to poke several holes in it with a fork, cover it with tin foil and put some beans on the tin foil to weight it down. I followed his advice to use Gruyere, 2 cups cream, and 6 eggs, but then I added bacon because who doesn't luurrrve bacon? (Jen, but I think everyone else does). I also added some chives from my garden. So following the recipe in spirit anyway.

Final results? I liked it a lot. I made two and gave one to the neighbors who have a new baby. They seemed to like it. Joel didn't have seconds, which doesn't bode well for his enjoyment, but for a nice, easy, but not healthy recipe this one was pretty good. Plus it provided a trip down memory lane. I'll give it a B.

Start with two cups of ambition, mix with heaping tablespoons of self-deprication...

Lately I have begun to doubt my cooking ability. Here is the evidence piling up:
• When my in-laws come to visit, I always make Joel cook or we order carry out. I don’t trust myself to cook something disaster-free with an audience.
• Whenever I bring a dish to a party or a potluck, I always burn it or undercook it, or end up bringing fresh fruit. (This makes me look like healthy mom who wants healthy options, but really it is because I have a good set of knives and some access to good, fresh produce. Sneaky.)
• Mostly, we make a lot of EZ dinners. For example…frozen pastas with veggies from Trader Joe’s that you just throw in a skillet, turkey taco salad, hot dogs on the grill.

But I want to do better! I would like us to eat more healthfully, and I would like the satisfaction of feeding my family. (I don’t think I have fallen too victim to the “Cult of Domesticity,” but I think I will find this to be a rewarding quest.)

So here is the summer challenge I have given myself: I have had Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything sitting around my kitchen, barely cracked, for two years. I started reading and liked his opinions that the best foods are those that are fairly simple to make with close at hand, high-quality ingredients. Happily, Joel and I planted tomatoes and an herb garden this summer for the first time. This will give me easier access to those fresh ingredients.

I think I will have some challenges in my quest to be an average cook:
• Money is tighter than usual because of a very expensive car repair. I have to at least start with things I already have around the house.
• I think my oven cooks things unevenly. In my old apartment I used to make excellent chocolate chip cookies. I have not gotten a batch exactly right since we’ve lived here in this house. (Although the presence of a toddler might affect my patience and attention to detail as well.)
• I like to make excuses.

Finally, I don’t pretend this is a new idea. (Many blogs exist where an enterprising young writer tackles an entire cook book. I don’t plan to cook the entire cookbook, and I don’t have aspirations of a book deal or advertising revenue, I just want to learn to make a decent meal for my family when I try.) This is also not going to be a food blog because I am certainly not a foodie. I just aspire to be called a “decent cook” because right now I am more like an “excellent burner”. I am writing about it because, so far, I am having fun. It will be nice to read about the process later on. Please keep reading if you are so inclined, and let me know if you are brave enough to be a taster. I have two recipes to update you about coming soon. (They both involve eggs. Seemed like a good place to start.)

Once Upon A Dream

Dexter's been watching too much Sleeping Beauty lately.

The Monticello Railway Museum

Tomorrow

Hmm...
Will Dexter survive his weird mommy?

Weekend with the Michigan Grandparents

Dexter and I visited the Michigan grandparents this past weekend. First we stayed with Martha and David in Lowell. Dex could have spent the whole days throwing rocks in the water and saying "splash".



Then we visited Lon and Mary in EGR. Grandpa and Mimi showed him how to make scrambbled eggs.





We had so much fun that we made cupcakes yesterday too.

Annual green post...

We had much fun at the parade...

Until...we didn't anymore.

Rainy Weekend

Dex got his haircut and thought he looked like his dad, so I dressed him in a tie. He walked around saying, "I like daddy."

Valentine

Happy Valentine's from Dex

You'll find "Entertainment Weekly" atop my toilet

"Entertainment Weekly"
I have subscribing to EW since college. I can't let it go. I like to stay up on all those cable shows I am not watching and all those movies I don't get to see, but they actually have a nice, short book review section that isn't too pretentious.

"Parenting"
My cousin got me a subscription as a baby gift, and if you can get past all the ads, I actually like to read some of the articles and tips.

"Bitch"
The subtitle for that magazine is "A Feminist Response to Pop Culture". It reminds me of all those papers I wrote during my Women's Studies minor days.

Plinky...

I originally started Meander 3and a half years ago as a way to write more often. Then life intervened. I still would like to write more often, so sometimes I am going to cheat. Plinky is an online writing prompt generator. Sometimes I am going to steal their topic ideas and post them here. (See below.)

When I realized I was a grown-up

In small ways I realized I was an adult only when I had a child. I still have flashes of feeling so much like a kid though that I believe my home, child, and husband are all part of an elaborate game of house that little girl me is playing.

Hey There!

I am really reaching for posts so I am going to give you some lists:

In honor of the cold, top five ice cream flavors:
1. Neopalitin (Breyer's only.)
2. Rainbow cone
3. Butter Pecan
4. Vanilla Bean
5. Rainbow Sherbet
(None of that new-fangled crap for me.)


Favorite books that I read in 2008:
1. Black Swan Green (David Mitchell)
2. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
3. Everything else I read that wasn't part of the Twilight series


Top five playcount on my iPod:
Blue Danube Waltz (makes Dex stop crying)
We Are the Dinosaurs (another Dexter fave)
Breakable (Ingrid Michaelson)
Gray or Blue (Jaymay)
Sweet Thang (Rufus and Chaka Khan)

I cringe when people (including me) say:
LOL
LMFAO
24/7
touch base (or worse, touch bases)

I am not very talented at:
cooking
painting
drumming
clapping along in time to music
minding my own business

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's snowy and very cold here. I could sit here and make a bunch of excuses about why I haven't posted in so long, but you've heard them all before.
I guess it was easier to post when I had a baby who rarely slept, but didn't move around a whole lot. Now I am taking care of this little person. Oddly, he makes demands of my time. Imagine that!

Oh yeah, and Facebook is partially to blame as well.

This is the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick plant from Martha and David. I think it looks cool in all seasons, but my favorite is the winter.
I think the plant looks sort of how my brain feels. Which is why sometimes you'll ask me a question about what I am doing this weekend, or if I've seen your keys lying around and I'll respond with some crazy non sequitur like "Shop Vac!"

Dex and Lenny are still as cute as ever in a new season. Now they go to school together and so far, so good. They could have stayed out shoveling for hours but mom and dads got cold.



If you promise not to get sick of looking at pictures of my kid, I'll do a better job of giving you something to see.