Category: (it's all about the) food

Resolved!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

For 2012, I decided that I wanted to use more coupons when shopping, especially for food.
Okay, so I haven’t been using ANY coupons lately when food shopping.
It’s not my fault!!! I have the best of intentions!!!
I remove the circulars from the Sunday and sometimes Friday newspapers. I diligently cut out the ones for items I use and the ones that are for such good deals that whatever it is, it’s worth a try. I file them in the coupon organizer…or I would file them, if I could remember where I put it…so okay, I’ll just tuck them into an envelope for now, so I’ll have them when I go shopping. The envelope I shall tuck into my pocketbook, so I’ll have them when I shop. Or maybe I dropped the coupon envelope into the bag o’shopping bags that I keep in the care for food shopping(and other) purposes? Nope. Maybe it’s on my sun visor in the car? Hmmmm….where DID I put it?
Now, the restaurant ones, those I keep very good track of. They are all in my wallet. I think.

Well, for once I had (some of the) coupons I needed WHEN I needed them, and I saved $12.00 on stuff…wait for it…that I would have bought anyway!

Isn’t that really the key to successful couponing??

A very interesting book

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, books, family, friends

Breaking Bread: Recipes and Stories from Immigrant KitchensBreaking Bread: Recipes and Stories from Immigrant Kitchens by Lynne Christy Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was mostly interested in the story told by the immigrant from Italy, and I was not disappointed. The woman’s words were very compelling to me. She talked about the difference between growing up in Italian culture, as she did, and growing up in American culture. She talks about American society as linear, and Italian society as more disorganized, messy. She concludes that this affects our neurological development. The example is shopping in supermarkets here that are laid out neatly in lines, and shopping for food in the Italian outdoor markets that are like noisy mazes. She feels that she, who grew up in Italy, has had a great benefit to her cognition that her son, who is growing up here, has not. She longs to take him to Italy. It made me long to go there too. This chapter alone made the book completely wonderful and worth reading for me. It essentially gave me a perspective on growth and development that I had never thought of before. Check this book out. Find YOUR chapter.

View all my reviews

Mary Ann Esposito’s new book

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

Ciao Italia Family Classics: More than 200 Treasured Recipes from 3 Generations of Italian CooksCiao Italia Family Classics: More than 200 Treasured Recipes from 3 Generations of Italian Cooks by Mary Ann Esposito
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s by Mary Ann Esposito…what else do you really need to know? Well, here’s one thing: follow her on Facebook: she is quite generous with her tips and recipes!

View all my reviews

Not wasting my vacation

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, movies, restaurants, shopping, tweens, yoga

I think that it’s very important to get out of your rut–I mean, routine–on your vacation week. This is especially challenging, of course, if you are taking (yet another) staycation. Having part of your time off fall during the holidays can make it a little easier to break out…as in the  “Hel-lo? What day is it?” situation in which I found myself just after Christmas. Still, the gym on Tuesday and Thursday, food shopping on Saturday line up could definitely stand some tweaking.

Sunday: Christmas. ‘Nuf said.

Monday: Clean up the house, rest up from the holiday, dinner at Olive Garden. Happily, I found the $4 off dinner coupon prior to paying and then remembered to use it.

Tuesday: Friends came over to make home-made, authentic egg rolls. Last time we made chicken and shrimp. This year, to change it up some (hey, it is vacation!) we made a third version: spicy pork, which ended up being a hit.

Wednesday: Pirates game (a present for the fam) after dinner at Binga’s Wingas (a present for Dad).

Thursday: Friends day. Lunch with former colleague for our rescheduled gift exchange, then scrapbooking for the first time in a year and a half, with more friends. The understanding kind that are not shocked that, despite your good intentions, you did not remember to organize your stuff and print out the Christmas pictures to use that day. Hey, it’s all about friends, right? UPDATE: This event did not actually happen and will be rescheduled. Instead, I went to Kohl’s and bought some cute things on clearance. Yay!

Friday: Shopping at the mall with my tween with her gift cards. Got an $89.50 fur-lined hoodie at Aeropostle for $10!!!  This was followed by eating w/reckless disregard for the future at the Buffet of Gorging and Obscene Excess at the mall. Then we saw We Bought a Zoo at the movies. May I just say: Go. See. It. It was excellent. We both loved it. Movie watching was accompanied by popcorn and Peanut M+Ms (aka “the devil”).

Saturday: New Year’s Eve. Chinese buffet at East and Just Dance 3 on the Wii to work (some of ) it off. Yoga first thing in the morning.

Sunday: New Year’s Day: Pajama day! Read stack of books and magazines that have been piling up. Went for a walk. More Wii. And…let the healthy eating begin!!!! Egg whites, soup, salad were on the menu. Really.

One of the best vacations ever. 🙂

Homemade eggrolls with friends

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, Marriage, quest for the best, relationships

Last spring (we finally agreed that it was in the spring; I thought it was in the summer) my husband and I got together with another couple of friends to make authentic homemade egg rolls. Our friends make them every 3 or 4 months at home, but were gracious enough to drive an hour and a half (in each direction) to come to our house and remind us how to make them too.

They arrived with some supplies in tow. This time we were better prepared with a borrowed Fry Daddy; last time we shared theirs. They also brought their Tupperware mixing bowl that is the size of a kiddie pool. It was almost big enough. I kicked myself one more time for selling my identical bowl at a yard sale years ago. Other nice to have equipment was the food processor that we bought last year for this occasion.

We took a field trip together to Hannaford’s for the produce: carrots, cabbage, onions (they were out of scallions) and the cellophane (I think) noodles. They brought the wrappers with them. Let me tell you that shredding all those vegetables, not to mention frying the egg rolls, makes one hell of a mess. Our friends cleaned up everything, including all the oil spatter from tandem frying in the Fry Daddy’s. It wasn’t pretty.

We made three varieties: chicken, shrimp, and an experiment: pork. My husband wondered what would happen if he mixed Ah-So Sauce with ground pork and stuffed them into the egg rolls. They turned out great! Next time we’ll drain them of some of the extra fluid prior to cooking because they turned out a little darker than the other egg rolls, but that did not affect the taste. 🙂

Here’s a slideshow of the fun:

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We can’t wait till spring so we can make them again! 🙂

Coffee or tea?

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, local fun

I love coffee.

I became a regular coffee drinker in college. My friend Diane and I would go to HoJo’s for late night breakfasts and bottomless cups of coffee. Because I drank it faster than the waitress could replenish the cream, I soon became a black coffee drinker. This worked well for us because then Di could have all of the creamers and I could have more of the straight coffee.

Life was good.

After I graduated from college (and from HoJo’s), I managed a restaurant for years so I had access to unlimited bottomless pots of black coffee, of which I took full advantage. I could make a fresh pot any time I wanted it and then just drink the first cup or two before the remainder was sold to customers, and then I could start another fresh pot. Repeat process.

Fast forward thirty (gasp!) years. I am still a black coffee drinker. I spent many of those years as a slave to Dunkin Donuts Medium Black French Vanilla. Too many. Currently my loyalties have shifted. I can enjoy a cup of whatever the local coffee shop is serving up, but I recently realized that I am now a slave to the Keurig. I can go through a half a dozen K-cups in a single day.

Today I tried an experiment: I started the day with a cup of Tulsi Tea instead of the coffee that I am usually sipping no later than 6am, often as early as 5:30am. To my surprise, the caffeine headache didn’t surface until 11:00am, so I had my first cup (Spicy Eggnog!) of coffee of the day then. I held out until 6pm before I had a second cup.

The great thing about Tulsi Tea is that it comes in many flavors, just like my beloved coffee. Maybe I’m on to something?

To be continued…

National Cupcake Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, quest for the best

I just got this in under the wire…I can’t believe that I didn’t know it was National Cupcake Day today! I must be pretty darned distracted to miss this. I’m not even in any position right now to bake or obtain a cupcake to consume, so I must celebrate vicariously through Thoughts of Cupcakes Past.

Look what Jen is serving up at her bakery, Somethin’ Sweet in Sanford~sweet snowman cupcakes! They are just the cutest things ever! Of course, all of the cupcakes and treats here are amazing, so I hope you were able to get over there to buy some cupcakes to celebrate today.

If  you missed the boat (or had to work) like me, consider tomorrow a “Do-Over”!  At your earliest possible convenience, buy or bake yourself (and your family, and your friends….) some cupcakes to celebrate the day. After all, cupcakes make any day just that much nicer.

Consider placing an order for lovely baked goods for Christmas while you are there. Jen will be open on Christmas Eve (morning only, 9AM-12N) for pick-ups and last minute impulse (the best k ind of) buys.

Enjoy!

Christmas Music and other minutiae

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Holidays, quest for the best, relationships

Since I’m feeling all Christmas-y at the moment, and since (more importantly) I have a huge leg up on my Christmas shopping (and wrapping) this year, I decided to write a little more about Christmas.  Here are some random thoughts:

  1. When I was wrapping up the gifts I’d bought so far this year, I had the presence of mind (for once) to get out the Christmas CD’s and play a little mood music. My favorite is the one that my son made for my husband for his birthday last year, “Alternative Christmas Songs“. Best. Christmas. CD. EVER. Consider breaking out your own Christmas music this year…you know, before Christmas is over.
  2. Nothing beats a cup of mulled cider while you’re wrapping, unless it’s a cup of hot chocolate with tons of whipped cream crammed into the cup. If it’s evening and you’re done driving for the day, consider putting a shot of Amaretto in your hot chocolate…yay!
  3. What to buy? For me, this year is (essentially) a Gift Card Christmas. Yep; I gave the issue of gifting enormous thought and then decided that most people want either a) money or b) the equivalent thereof. How do I know this? Scientific research. Everyone that I asked said they wanted either money or a gift card to (fill in the blank). Be honest. That’s what you really want too, right?
  4. FOR YOUR KIDS:  Apart from the gift card strategy, which I am applying to (almost) all of the people for whom I am shopping, I have a sort of a formula that I use for buying for my two kids. After all: gift cards under the tree, even if it’s several hundred dollars worth (note to husband: It’s not! It’s not!) doesn’t look very impressive or generate much excitement on Christmas morn. Here’s my basic formula for the kids: a book, a new set of pajama’s, a new outfit, a game (for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, or whatever they have). 
  5. I like to have one joint gift for the kids to open on Christmas Eve, sort of a family gift, like tickets to an event, or a game that everyone (hopefully) will like. 🙂

Also this year: I am trying to just use what I have already for gift bags and wrapping paper. I have a roll of pink Santa paper that I bought to wrap my daughter’s presents and blue Santa paper to (you guessed it!) wrap my son’s years ago. Using this eliminates the need for name tags.

Making Gingerbread Houses

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, tweens

I admit it: prior to yesterday I was a Gingerbread House Virgin. Through twenty-plus years of motherhood, I’d managed to avoid ever baking, never mind decorating, a gingerbread house. The desire just was not there. I couldn’t have been less interested.

Then something incredible happened: I wanted to make one.  Something shifted inside me and I really wanted to do it…and then…

I got lucky.

🙂

Tip: do it for the first time with someone who knows what they are doing!

Okay, enough double entendre. My friend Kristen (see her blog here) is a fabulous baker and she invited my daughter and me to be part of her (tenth, I think) annual ritual of baking and decorating a Gingerbread House with her son, something I’d never done with my own son in his childhood (but hey, we did make dozens—dozens!–of Christmas cookies over the years! Just sayin’.).

Our jobs were to bring something flat to put the house on the day prior, and to buy some candy to contribute to the stash of building supplies.
Oh, and to show up. 🙂

The end result? Amazing. The ideas the kids came up with were so creative–it was just wonderful to watch their minds working. Plus, my friend and I got to chat virtually uninterrupted for at least an hour.

This is definitely an activity I would like to do again next year.

The irony? My son was making his first Gingerbread House at the same time at his girlfriend’s house with her family. Go figure.

Watch the slideshow that follows to see what we used for materials. 🙂

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a garage?…NO! It’s a barn!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, chicks, quest for the best, raising chickens

This is the little structure that could. It started out life as a garage, a two-car garage to be specific. It lived its quiet, two-car garage life for 15 years. Then we bought the house that it was cohabitating with, and then…everything changed.

It started slowly…First, Bill didn’t want to sacrifice the entire garage, and also didn’t want to sacrifice more of the yard for a barn, so a compromise is reached over time, after much perusing of chicken coop plans and barn layouts and reference books and internet research.

Next, he got his ideas down on paper and reworked it all until he was satisfied with the logistics of it. Then he found someone that was willing and able to work with him to make the plan become a reality. And finally, the biggest miracle of it all, is the person actually showed up and did the work he had agreed to do when he agreed to do it!

Mindboggling in the construction world, isn’t it?

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The cupola was added after much back-and-forthing about whether the weathervane should be a chicken (which we have) or a llama (which we wish we had but don’t have now). We even took a poll right here on kwrites to get your input. We settled on the llama, because llamas are talented guarders of chickens.

Most recently, the barn door was added to the front of the garage and the transformation is (I think!) complete. Well, for now.

Where I saw a garage,  Bill saw a barn…and now it is a barn.

Cool, huh? 🙂