Is This Thing Still On?

Well, hello there. How are you? I've missed you all so!

Where I've been:

• some crappy stuff that was non-bloggable, yet brain consuming so that I couldnt blog about anything else.
• PTO craziness - meetings and happenings and planning galore...
• Informal interview RE teaching 8th grade pre-algebra at boys' school next year. Still dont know if I want to do that or not...lean towards yes, but not sure..
• having friends over for Cajun feast only to have a MAJOR plumbing disaster flood my kitchen with black sludge when they were on their way here from the burbs up north in DFW rush-hour hell. Had to tell them to turn around and go home.
• Plumbing fixed, had them come the next day.
• The day after that was cooking and cleaning for Turkey day.
• then, it was Turkey day and I the food and company were fabulous, but later that night i started to come down with something and so did Grant and Connor.
• next day, Grant and i were sick as dogs. Grant ended up with a z-pack and a nebulizer. i thought I could just kick it the natural way...ha ha ha ha ha.. it is now Tuesday and I'm crying uncle. headed to doctor to BEG for help and meds.
• My mom gets here tonight for our annual shopping and wrapping extravaganza. Have been making lists upon sub-lists, upon cross-referenced lists to prepare....
• Having more party fashion crises. Need personal, live in advice giver. What is with all the catalogues and the almost opaque tights with cocktail dresses and open-toed shoes???? Are colored stockings back in?? December nights roaming downtown are too cold for bare legs, right?

Okay, so much more to tell you, but the shutter installation people will be here any minute and i am still in my snowman jammies ... we'll talk more soon. i promise...I wont be gone so long this time! Hope you are all well...be ready to tell me all the things you and your kids have on your Christmas lists, mkay? I'm always looking for great ideas an deals!

Okay, since you asked.... **Edited to add 2 most embarrassing moments of the evening

I was not going to bore you with stories from "apple land," but some of you ASKED about it. AND some of you might need to plan your own events one day. So, here's the scoop. Everything was red and white gingham. The centerpieces were overflowing baskets of apples tied with gingham ribbon. The kids decorated their own paper apples that will later be transferred to a big bulletin board in the front hall of the school along with pictures from the dance. (the pictures do not look as cute as it did irl. AND I look awful because I was 1. EXHAUSTED and 2. had non-contagious allergen/viral pink eye!)

As you entered the building...we blocked off the first entrance to the gym with a "picture spot" made with apple trees made by sparkly, beaded apple sin ficus topiaries, potted flowers, apple garland, etc. there were also five apples to put your face in...so cute.


As you proceeded down the hallway to the entrance there were more than a hundred apples lining the walls. We sent home paper apples to the parents and had them secretly send them back to school. Then, the kids "found" their apples at the dance to see all the beautiful things their parents said about them. This one about the "fanny dance" was one of my favorites.




Then, inside the "foyer" we had snacks and crafts. The snacks were apple "nachos." the "chips" were apple slices and the "cheese" was caramel sauce (all served in a nacho tray of course). We had also planned to have little cups of green jelly beans to be the "jalapenos," but those didn't get purchased in time...We also had the popcorn machine running and lemonade. (probably should've been apple cider, eh?)





The kids danced the night away and these are two very, very very, tired girls. They need a nap and a long lunch at Bistro Louise followed by pedicures. (meet the illustrious Jennifer...) You know, WHAT was I thinking taking a picure with a girl 8 years my junior when I hadn't slept and HAD PINK EYE???? I didnt even have on real make-up...scared to irritate my eyes.

**Two most embarrassing moments of the evening:

1. I was busy refilling lemonade and realized that I was singing - I knew every single word to Miley Cyrus's 7 Things! Huh? How? I'm not 13!

2. Jennifer and I somehow ended up dancing the Macarena with the kids. I overheard a dad whisper, "OMG! What would it be like if those two WERE drinking?"

It's Tuesday, and That Means It Is Recipe Time

Well, I did not know what I wanted to "trade" today, but sometimes it pays to be late to the party because then several people go and unknowingly create a "theme" for me! Apparently, the theme is desserts, predominantly of the cake variety. Further, seeing as I am currently drowning in apple craziness (see post below) this particular cake seems to suit the occasion. And, it is pretty darn yummy and perfect for fall. If you know me well, then you know that, for me, Fall arrives as soon as it is Honeycrisp time at Central Market.

Autumn Apple Cake

Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour 11/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda 3 cups peeled, cored, chopped apples (about 2 1/2 apples)
1/2 tsp salt 1 cup chopped, toasted pecans (optional!)
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

PreHeat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 10-inch tube or bundt pan.
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
Beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. until pale.
Mix in flour mixture one third at a time. (Batter will be very thick!)
Mix in apples (and nuts if you want them)
Into the pan, smooth the top.
Bake for 55 min (check on it early, Ive had it be done at around 45 minutes before)
Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool completely before glazing.

Glaze:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter (Ive used salted - it was fine!)
1/3 cup milk

Bring all ingredients to a rapid boil in a small saucepan. Let boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and keep stirring (kind of vigorously) until all bubbles are gone. Spoon over cake.

And just to be over-the-top decadent, I serve each slice with a bit of caramel sauce! (oh, and to be technical, a sauce is not REALLLLY a caramel sauce if it is made with brown sugar. Technically you have to brown white sugar to create caramel sauce. A sauce using brown sugar such as this one is really a butterscotch sauce...just trivia for you)

Caramel Sauce:
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream

Melt butter, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil while stirring with whisk. Remove from heat. whisk in cream and vanilla.
You wont use all of this sauce. you can keep it in the fridge to put on ice-cream, pound cake, or whatever. Soften it from the fridge either in the microwave, or set container in warm water.

AAWWWW, You Guys...You're the Best!

You guys....you are the best, really you are. It brought a literal mist to my eyes to get all the phone calls, email, and comments inquiring as to my whereabouts and well-being!

Unfortunately, I am still not really in the state-of-mind to blog. Just in a plain ol', old-fashioned funk. I have tried to work through said funk by writing about it, but it is so vague that there is nothing TO write. I just can't put my finger on what is causing it! Basically, it is everything and also nothing. Have you ever felt like that? I'm sure you have.

Also, I am short on time lately. Holy Hell! the PTO owns me. Maybe it is because the somewhat OCD part of me takes over and "good enough" is NEVER enough for me. And there is just ALWAYS another event to plan or group to organize or spreadsheet to create. Currently, I am entrenched in planning a Johnny Appleseed back-to-school family dance. The details, while interesting and adorable to me, would bore you to tears.

Lastly, the traveling husband has been home more than is typical lately. It has been nice, but he requires my time when he is here - hence, less time for blogging. (And Ill tell you a secret...I must be accustomed to his being gone so often, because he was starting to drive me Ca-razy and I was not too very sad to see him depart for a few days this morning!)

I'm still keeping up with all of you and your more-interesting-than-mine lives though! so, even if I'm not actually writing here, Ill at least try to be better about commenting. It just seems to require SO much energy...ugh, see what I mean? I am in such a funk that I think it takes too much energy to comment! WTH?

Oh, and, tonight is the first night that I've had to wait up for my suddenly-a-teenager to come home. He went to the high school football game with his friends and his friends' older siblings. I guess this is where IT starts!!!!!! EECK! Wasn't it just five minutes ago that I was tying green and gold ribbons onto my ponytail before a high school football game on a Friday night?

Trader Tuesdays - on Wednesday

From Twitter today:
LEEXXXX @yankeemb ummm.... all talk and no recipe action? consider your wrist slapped. ;) Hope nothing bad happened... you ok? about 15 hours ago from web in reply to yankeemb

Nothing Bad happend, just, well, PTO happened.

So sorry about the Trader Tuesday fellow recipe lovers! My excuse is that it was the first PTO meeting of the year (my first meeting as president)...enough said? It was ca-ray-zeee around here! I thought Id post when I made it home after meeting and getting kids to bed...hahaha...I am so naive.

AAANNNDDD, there is the little matter that I am embarrassed to publish my recipe for the week in light of the fact that 3 of the Tuesday Traders are real Louisianans, not just people from the near-to-Louisiana gulf coast like myself. However, I am too damn tired to think of a new one, so here is my Cheater's version of Red Beans and Rice. It is SUPER QUICK and EASY, yet is still my husband's favorite dinner. I make sure to get this on the stove simmering before he comes home if he is mad at or annoyed with me. The smell hits him in the garage before he even walks into the house. He walks in the door with a smile. (If Ive REALLY pissed him off, I pour a really cold Abita into a frosty mug when I hear the garage door go up signaling his arrival) The kids all love it too - the beans, not the beer.

Cheater's Red Beans and Rice

• 1 -2 cloves garlic (to your taste)
• 1 lb smoked sausage (or whatever kind you like - andouille, hot, whatever, but plain 'ol smoked sausage will do )
• 1 medium onion (or 1/2 large) ( I don't like it too onion-y)
• 3 cans light red kidney beans
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 tsp Creole Seasoning ( I use Tony's)
• 1 small bay leaf
• a few dashes Louisiana style hot sauce (Tabasco, Louisiana, Crystal (my favorite), or another)
• A bit of olive oil
  

Finely chop onion. Slice sausage. (I like to cut my round slices into halves or fourths - I like smaller pieces of sausage, but you can leave them bigger if you like).

Heat enough oil in dutch oven to sweat the onion. After the onions have been in for a minute or two, add in the sausage and brown the onion and sausage together. When close to browned, add in your garlic. Finish browning. Then, add in your chicken broth to your hot pan, being sure to scrape up any of that yummy brown goodness sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then add in your 3, undrained, cans of beans. Stir in your seasoning, hot sauce, and bay leaf. Bring close to, but not quite to a boil. Then simmer for about 30 minutes covered. Then simmer for about 30-45 minutes uncovered. This sounds like a long time, but it is basically hands off for all of that simmering time except for the very occasional stir of the pot.

When you are ready, cook up some long grain rice. Serve beans over rice. I usually serve this up with some crusty French bread and a spinach salad. Leftovers are great and my boys love to take them for lunch at school. (consider this link to be additional kitchen help to make up for my tardiness in Tuesday trading!)

Okay, I'm off to do more PTO work and iron shirts for the fugliest formal uniform in the history of uniforms. (hate thursdays!) Once I get a little more caught up (when the hell is that going to be?*%$#!?#!) I plan to start a new series of posts. I was looking through my recent posts and archives and noticed that I sound a little too "perfect mommy - muffiaish" OOOH NO! Not so! So, I'm going to post some installments of "Greater Moments in Parenting" and some installments of "Lesser Moments in Parenting." You all have to promise to not call CPS though, okay?

Truer Words Never Spoken

A friend of Connor's came to pick him up to take him to his class's Back-to-School party tonight. His mother is very nice and she is fascinated by the pilot marriage lifestyle. She is constantly (like to the point of being annoying) telling me how she "could not do it!" she "doesn't know HOW I do it!" and that I am her "hero" and "amazing!" It is all very sweet. Really, it is. I'm not gonna say that I don't like the praise. I usually respond that,"Well, I've never known anything different." Today, she was gushing more than usual after a week of PTO craziness. She only saw the results. She didn't see the behind-the-scenes pictures of my house going to hell in a hand basket, or the laundry piling up higher than Mount McKinley, or the amount of fast food crap my children ate during the insanity that was my week. She once again said, " I just don't know how you do all that you do!"

Connor looked up at her and said, "Sometimes she just doesn't."

That, my friends, is EXACTLY HOW I do it...Sometimes I just DON'T.

Misjudged and Underestimated - AGAIN!

Admittedly, and thankfully, I look a bit young for my age, and look too young to have 13 yr old child. Also admittedly, I am younger than the average mom of a 13 yr old 7th grader. However, I do NOT look like a teen bride. I have to cover gray hair for heaven's sake!

I really thought that back when I turned 30 people would start to take me seriously. People would stop saying stupid things like, "what were you, like FIFTEEN when you had your first?" I thought that being able to answer the inevitable, "How old ARE you?" question with an answer that the did not start with twenty, but rather the more respectable thirtysomething would buy me a little respect. Au contrar, Mufrair!!! (No, I do NOT know how to spell that - phonetically is all I got!)

I am now well on my way out of my early thirties and into my mid thirties, and yet...We are "mentoring" a new family at our school. They are older, late-in-life parents. They have been polite, but cool and stand-offish with me while I have been trying to befriend them and to help them with their transition to Texas and to our school. Today, all of a sudden, she called me. She was friendly and gracious. She was complimenting how organized, informative, and efficient the New Parent Orientation was last night. She even remarked that I "looked very professional" and that I was "organized and well informed." While this was very complimentary, her tone revealed her surprise at all she was saying. Once again, she, like many others before her, had assumed I was a bumble-headed young thing incapable of all the things she had seen. It was as if she expected any event that I was in charge of would be a complete disaster and that I wouldn't even know how to dress myself appropriately to speak in front of 75 new parents! And, you know what else? I wonder if she noticed that the lovely Jennifer is a good deal younger than I! Yes, we two young bumble heads who enjoy discussing cute shoes and lipstick shades are capable of all kinds of grown-up activities!

AARGH! This should not frustrate me this much, but it does. At what age will this age bias cease? When will I no longer have to PROVE to people I am not an idiot. Or, is it not the age factor at all? (though I'm sure that it is because people come right out and say it!) Is it because I am not gainfully employed outside of the home?

Surely some of you have experienced similar things, right? People who assume you are not a serious or smart person because you read InStyle or Cosmo during your study breaks? Or you like to wear makeup and cute clothes instead of sweats or pajamas to college classes? Did this happen when you young professionals were just starting your careers?

Friend Unexpected

Remember this? and this? Well, I was wrong. Jennifer, Madame Vice President of the PTO, is far more than I had hoped. Y'all (YES! I SAID Y'ALL!), she is so awesome that I broke one of my cardinal rules...I sent her the link to the blog!!...a real-life person...a link to the blog...She is THAT cool!

Hi Jennifer - Love ya!

Grounded

I am keeping up with all of your posts. I just can't seem to get any of my own written. I am mired in remodeling and, mostly, PTO back-to-school crazy. I knew it was going to be A LOT of work, but it is even more than I feared. Can't even catch my breath. This could seriously be a paid position. They say it gets a little easier once school actually starts. For now, though, I'm just trying to keep my ahead of above water with all the PTO crap so that I can yell at the electricians.

It feels like I am stuck in my room, gazing through my window, seeing all my friends playing outside without me.

I'll be back. I'll let you know how I survive my first foray back into public speaking in 10 years.

Go visit Tracy and check out her advice, as well as ideas from her commenters, on how you can VERY EASILY help out less fortunate students start the new school year with pride and promise! Go. Now!