Bee Invasion at the Little Red Schoolhouse

By the time the second graders from Anna's class and another class whose teacher's name I don't know were done squirming on wooden benches listening to a naturalist give very brief history of the Little Red Schoolhouse the sun was out. My group of Anna, girl S and boy J and Lucy's Mom's group of three quickly blazed through the Nature Center and were ready for  hike.

Unfortunately, the gate to Black Oak Trail (aka the long trail)  was locked.  Apparently, road construction occurs in nature as well as on all our highways. So we hiked (aka the kids ran ahead and used their outside voices)  on the White Oak Trail (aka the trail not long enough to tucker out those kids). Sixty kids on two trails on a goregeous almost fall day.  From time to time, I was able to hold their attention with my limited and slighly embellished knowledge of Nature.  Other times I could have used an Advil--or two. Overall, I thought it was a great day for a hike, the kids enjoyed the Little Red Schoolhouse and I made plans to return for  long walk...by myself.

Before getting on the bus to go over to the picnic grove for lunch, we went into the Vistor Center for a pitstop.  A group was crowded around the help desk and one of the teachers was on the phone. A couple of boys had their shirts off, a couple of girls had ice packs.  My first thought was that someone must have fell on the trail and tripped the kids behind them causing a kid/wildlife trail pile up on the White Oak Trail. 

Nope.  A couple of the groups were at a small pond across from the beehives (the white boxy manmade kinds) and the scoop is a little swarm of bees came along and blamo! Parents and kids running willy-nilly swatting screaming and getting stung. Luckily no one was allergic, and all the stingees were troopers.  They dried their tears and everyone got on the buses and we headed over to the picnic for lunch.


The kids were starving, the sun was shining, and the picnic area was shaded.  The kids were skipping with joy.  Everyone sat down to tuck into lunch.  I brought a lunch for Anna and I to share.  We had yogurts and no spoons, carrots, crackers with cheese, and pretzels & cut up apples with caramel sauce.  The kids I was chapareoning had their lunches, J had some pringles and S had a cheese pizza lunchable.  S was just putting together her little pizza and J had eaten 1 pringle when the Bees Attacked!

Fresh on the heels of kids (and parents) getting bee stung--Bees descended everywhere.  You couldn't sit and eat. The poor kids who'd already been stung were crying, Anna was being over-the-top dramatic.  S tried leaving part of he food at the end of the table as an offering for the bees.   J packed his lunch up and ran around with other boys.  We loaded up the buses after a short lunch filled with bee-dodging and headed back to the school.  As Oragami Yoda would say: Comical it was.

Those kids won't forget that field trip.  Neither will the teachers.  Heck the bees might not forgot today for a while.

Emmylicious Cooking Day

For the last 1/2 hour I have been going through old blog posts trying to find my favourite soup recipe: Golden Winter Soup.  There has to be a way to search my blog w/o paging down all the posts right?  Well whatever that is, I don't know it.

So below you will find the recipe.  It's all made right now and so so good.  It's part of my Emmylicious cooking today.  Can you guess what show inspires Golden Winter Soup? 

Right! Game of Thrones.  "Winter is Coming"  for the Starks of Winterfell and Golden for the Lannisters of Casterly Rock!

Next I am making Cabbage Soup, that is a play on the required super thin figures actresses and actors have to keep in order to stay employable.  The recipe I found at all recipes required a bunch of stuff I didn't have like french onion soup mix, tomato juice, but I forged ahead anyway see below.

I also made Cabbage Rolls, why two cabbage dishes?  That is because 2 cabbages were included in our organic food delivery from Timber Creek Farms  !  I have no Emmy tie in for the Cabbage Rolls.  Wait, I am making one up right now. During Prohibition, cabbage rolls were a popular dish.  Boardwalk Empire on HBO is nominated for some Emmys!

Next up I am making Nana's Apple Cake.  Nana's Apple Cake is an ode to Mags Bennett on Justified--cake because I don't have any moonshine on hand to make Apple Pie Shots.

Lastly I am making Bountiful Corn Bread because it calls for creamed corn and I accidently purchased a can of Green Giant Creamed Corn instead of reg. corn when they were on sale last week at Jewel.  Corn bread matches the tone of my formerly fav. show True Blood which was ridiculously corny this season.

Golden Winter Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 5 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled russet potato (about 12 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups sliced leek (about 2 medium)
• 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 12 ounces baguette, cut into 16 slices
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped chives
• Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Preparation

• Preheat broiler.
• Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add squash, potato, salt, and pepper to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Add leek; sauté 1 minute. Stir in broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender, stirring occasionally. Place half of potato mixture in a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining potato mixture. Stir in half-and-half. Cover and keep warm.
• Arrange bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet; sprinkle evenly with cheese. Broil bread slices 2 minutes or until golden. Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 8 bowls; top each serving with about 1 teaspoon chives. Serve 2 bread slices with each serving. Garnish with freshly ground black pepper, if desired.
• Wine note: This is one vegetable soup that can easily handle a lighter red wine. Stick with the French theme and look for bargains from Burgundy, like Louis Jadot Pinot Noir 2005 ($20). This wine has pretty red berry fruit, great balance, and gentle tannins that make it ideal for lower-fat dishes. The underlying earthy, leathery flavors bring out the rustic nuances of the potatoes and squash. —Jeffery Lindenmuth

Barbara Kafka, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2008

Original Recipe Yield15 servings

Ingredients

• 5 carrots, chopped
• 3 onions, chopped
• 2 (16 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, with liquid
• 1 large head cabbage, chopped
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can cut green beans, drained
• 2 quarts tomato juice
• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 10 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth

Directions

1. Place carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, green beans, peppers, and celery in a large pot. Add onion soup mix, tomato juice, beef broth, and enough water to cover vegetables. Simmer until vegetables are tender. May be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

Had one of those A Ha Moments

Of course Oprah has A Ha moments, I on the other hand, have D'Oh moments a la Homer Simpson. This afternoon in the middle of another day of feeling completely awful even after having taken allergy medicine, I thought, maybe I have a cold.  Maybe, my allergies aren't really this bad, maybe, just maybe, I am sick.  Wouldn't be the first time, this happens..usually around the time the kids go back to school. 
Oh Hell, I have a cold.  So now that I have, changed up my self-medication I feel much better. If you like to know about good deals and giveaways, like I do, you have to check out the site "Deal"icious Mom she has the scoop on lots of good stuff!  So I put a link to her page down on my page if you scrooollllll down.

Last night I watched the series premiere of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  I don't know if I am going to watch it this season. I find I can't relate to the RHOBH, which is strange because I've always felt that even though their lives were quite different than mine-I could easily relate to the other Real Housewives.  I've been watching the original housewives (Real Housewives of Orange County) since the first show.  I remember Bethanny before she was 'the' Skinny Girl (Real Housewives of New York).  I went on the crazy ride that was New Jersey the first season.  However when it comes to the RHOBH, something is missing. Are they too slick?  Are the other shows better at acting like they are not acting?  I don't know and the promo showing "Coming up this season..." gave me the feeling the RHOBH don't like each other either.  

The man will be super happy though, not suprisingly he doesn't care for any of the real housewives shows and I do have to catch him on a good day if I plan to watch it while he is in the room!

Storage Wars, on the other hand, is a show we can both agree on watching!  Who knew they could make a show about resale shops so interesting.  Everytime we watch it I start dreaming of my shop.

Trinkets & Treasured Tales.

That's my resale shop that also has new and used books and a small coffee shop where I have coffee shop drinks, yummy pastries and light lunch fare. We live either in a house on the same property or above the shop, and we have a great mountain & lake view.

Upgrades on Labor Day

I don't know if you can tell but, on my end here in the post editor, it's a whole new layout.  It's pretty nice.  How was your labor day?  Mine was a bit sucky.  High Weed Pollen.  Kids were pretty cranky too.  Lastly, it was one of those days where Patrick needed help with a project he should have done a couple days ago, so his deadline became mine.  This involved me nagging him to finish the project and lots of explaining why most of his questions I can't help with because they aren't questions about the project they are him asking me to do the project.  *sigh* homework on a holiday stinks!

Tom just got home a bit ago from taking Anna and Bryce with him up to the hospital to see his dad.  I was very suprised to learn that children are allow to visit at the hospital on Sundays and Holidays.  Who knew. 

Basically today was a very ho-hum kind of day.  The highlight of the day was using the new Tastefully Simple Tender Pot Roast Sauce to make a nice pot roast in the slow cooker.  Yum.  Would have been even yummier accompanied with some nice crusty bread and a glass of Merlot!  To bad for me, yesterday I decided to go back to using sparkpeople to track what I eat and so fun stuff like crusty bread is not in the 'calorie budget'.  Boooorrring Right?  I know! Just a funny kind of day. 

I am looking forward to my Tuesday, I'm going to go out and run even if the weed pollen is high and my office is almost back to usable space after serving as a resting area for potential garage sale items all summer!  Woo Hoo!

So what is everyone up to this fine day?

Right, I know if you are in Chicagoland, it did rain, and now it's dark so maybe not so much a fine day.  On the other hand, it's Saturday and many people had the day off.

Around here, we have Anna's friend spending the night and the boys had to spend an agonizing amount of time today w/o media.  I know right?  The horror, I made them read and go outside.  I am terrible. 
Hubs spent the early part of the day golfing and then he went up to the hospital to see his dad for several hours.  Now he is on the phone with his mom.  He is now officially part of that tween generation. What's that you say?  Tween Generation?  That is when you have kiddos at home and you are also dealing with parents as well as working full time. Woe is me, how can I whine about the man when he is working hard to help out his parents.  It's not fair I tell you!

Okay enough with that sad tale. Since I am on a vacation, a self declared vacation, Tom picked up some Wendy's value menu food items for the kiddos and our sleepover guest and we are trying some chinese food tonight.  Something spicy.  Hopefully it is yummy. Today I had Artichoke & Spinach Dip , from Tastefully Simple, with Pretzel Crisps for lunch.  Two thumbs up on that lunch.  I would have had some watermelon, however all our watermelon was gone due to the kiddos! 

So along with the whole "I had to walk 2 miles to school" thing, recently Patrick was  giving me grief about tiny white seeds in watermelon and how that clearly showed that 'seedless' watermelons were not truly seedless.  I shook my head, he has no idea about what a true watermelon eating experience is at all! '

Now the kids are settling down and soon I will tell them to go to bed.  I know the boys are ready for sleep, they were up at the crack of dawn today, but I imagine it is too early to get Anna and her friend to settle in for the night.  Tomorrow I have no specific plans for the day time --wooo hooo!! The man is going to go golf and hopefully he will make it home in time that we will perhaps be able to go to the Naperville Last Fling!

Still waiting on my Chinese Food!

Labor Day Weekend.

Hola. 
Before I start typing my upbeat it's the last blast of summer little bloggy thing, can I complain for one moment?
Great thanks!
You know what is annoying?  Many things true.  Here is something I find annoying.  I've been devoting much time to going thru all the misc. stuff around our house and selling off what we don't use that has value left, swapping boxes of gently used stuff via thredup.com (click this and you'll go there w/my referrer code) as well as boxing up a good 3 cubic yards of misc. stuff for Purple Hearts.  Everyday people who live here, come home to beds that are made, swept floors and laundry that has been put away.  I am sure you can appreciate how lovely that is to come home and see, right?

Ah but what do I get but someone acting a bit huffy about a basket filled with laundry that isn't washed yet.  It's 8pm on Friday night--I'm on my labor day weekend break.

I think I'm going to run with that one. I'm on vaca til Tuesday!  Home Coordination Managers Unite!  We get the weekend off too!

Im done with my whining now--wait, I do have one pretty uncharacteristic thing to say--if you know me you know I highly prefer summer to winter and like to wear flip flops as long as possible.  Nevertheless, this little heat wave we've had around here the past few days has me watching the weather maps and counting down to the  precipitous drop in temps from high 90s to high 60s we have been promised.  Give me that cold snap.  I'll happily throw on a hooodie.  I suppose I would be complaining less about the heat if I had gone ahead and put on the air conditioning....(stop laughing! LOL)

Tomorrow afternoon Al Gore is coming over to give me an award for being super environmentally friendly.  Really, he is...it's because we've been line drying our laundry. And instead of buying new clothes from China for the kids for school, I did swaps via thredup.  And we only have one car instead of 2.  And I gathered up all the unused pencils the kids had all over the house from last year (christmas pencils, halloween pencils, and so on) sharpened those and sent them to school with those.  --funny how being environmentally friendly can be pretty close to the same as being frugal eh? But what has pushed us over the edge from being environmentally friendly to being AWARD Winning Super Environmentally Friendly with the Al Gore seal of approval is our backyard.

Our backyard is home to a very unique Natural Weed Species Refuge and Bug Sanctuary.  How did we achieve this one-of-a-kind landscape feature that balances our suburban aesthetic and forward-thinking?  Well I didn't plant the garden before we went to GA for a couple weeks (back when summer had just begun) because I didn't have anyone to come water while we were gone.  When we got back seemed too hot to start a garden, and the man only mows grass on a very as needed basis, so the garden became filled with native species of many plants AKA weeds.  So there you have it.  We are super green over here.

What's for eats this weekend? I don't know, but the man said something about burgers on the grill and that sounds like a job for me and the Tastefully Simple !!! The rest of the weekend I'll be reading A Dance with Dragons by George R R Martin.

Game of Thrones, Southside Chicago

Anna: ohhh it's hot in here.  It's so hot, it's a heat wave.
Me: It will cool off after tomorrow. What are our words?
Anna: Winter is coming, Go Bears!
Me;  Aye!  Winter is coming.

And speaking of Game of Thrones.  Thanks to the FB group Florish & Botts. for turning me on to this website!

In the Game of Food You Win or You Wash the dishes.... Inn at the Crossroads

Gratitude App

To the side is what I am reading now.  Im in the midst of the second book. 


On my dreadfully slow old iphone (it's 2 years old that's like 200 in cell phone years) I have an app called Gratitude.  The idea is you type 5 things you are grateful for each day and then as a result you are a happier person.  So I do it on and off, more off lately b/c it is taking too long IMO for apps to load on said old phone.

Here is what I have down for today:
1. That the kids are too old for 'The Wiggles"  (This one is a result of hearing an ad on the radio for an upcoming Wiggles show in Chicagoland--so glad the wiggles is no longer part of my daily life!)
2. That our air conditioning works, it wasn't working until about July 10 when Tom was able to get it fixed.
3. Bryce is washing the dishes and I only had to tell him it was his turn to wash them once.
4. Aldi sells a variety of their brand of philly swirl italian ice-y products and they are $1.89 a box
5. We are going swimming in a friends pool today

What's for dinner?
Tom defrosted a skirt steak, so I took in and rubbed it with Tastefully Simple Garlic Pepper Seasoning, Fiesta Party Dip MIx and Roasted Garlic Infused Oil covered it and stuck it in the fridge to be grilled later and then served with corn tortillas, Tastefully Simple Corn & Black Bean Salsa, and corn. Should be delish!

Back from Vacation!

Well we got back on Friday from our trip down to the fantastically goregous and very laid back Lake Chatuge area of Northern Georgia/Western No. Carolina. 

One highlight of the trip was the amazing Shrimp and Grits I had at The Ridges Resort and other highlights would be the kids playing 24 /7 with their cousins. Bryce jumping off a diving board and swimming sans life jacket, the fantastic cooking of my bro, SIL and her awesome mom.

And the big highlight of the trip my brother adopting his step son. Woo Hoo!  Congrats to the whole gang! 

The kids in historic and artsy Berea, KY whilst Tom was on a conference call for work.

I wish this was the view from back yard!

Sunset ahhhh

Patrick and Uncle J at Anna Ruby Falls

A pic of one of the falls at Anna Ruby Falls

Tom make a new friend.

While we were gone Tom's dad was hospitalized and since we've gotten home, Tom has been at the hospital or talking to his dad or his brothers and other family members non-stop.  He is giving his dad a peptalk right now on doing his breathing treatments and concentrating on getting better and getting out of the hospital.  He is a very good son.

Hopefully when he gets off the phone, he'll enjoy a new recipe I found in Real Simple magazine yesterday. It's Spiced Chicken Salad with Plums and Chickpeas  now the recipe calls for Garam masala.  Garam masala is a seasoning blend typically composed of black pepper, cadamon, cumin, nutmeg, etc.  I didn't have any of that on hand but I though it was the perfect time to pull out my Tastefully Simple's Flavors of India Seasoning and it worked really nicely!.

Restaurant.com: 80% Off Certificates ($2 for $25)

Restaurant.com: 80% Off Certificates ($2 for $25)  A link from a blog I follow called the discount queens.

The other day I found a recipe in the Fresh Summertime Fun Booklet from Jewel and I have to say it was quite good.  I splurged on a big package of Fresh Express Tender Ruby Reds Salad which was on sale for $3.99 which seems pricey IMO, but like I said splurge.  Anywho so that was my mixed greens in the recipe below, which was really good.

Tarragon Chicken Salad
Ingredients
1 cup Dannon All Natural Plain Yogurt. 
* I had a coupon for Yoplait Greek Yogurt so I used that and I have to say if you are going to try this recipe, get the greek yogurt.  It rocks and has lots of protein.
1 tsp. dry tarragon, I didn't have dry so I used some fresh minced tarragon like 1 tbsp
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard.  I used Gulden's   yep that's right I had a coupon so the other week I paid 35 cents for it. 
3 cups of cooked diced chicken
2/3 cup mined celery --I had used all the celery a couple days before so I had to skip this ingredient.
2/3 cup scallions--I didn't have any scallions so I sub'd 2 tbsp of dry Onion Onion from Tastefully Simple
1 1/4 cups halved cherry tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste (didn't use)
6 cups of the aforementioned Fresh Express salad.

Directions
1. In a bowl combine yogurt, tarragon and mustard.  Let stand for 10 min. 
2. To the yogurt mix add chix, celery, scallions, tomatoes and seasoning (skip the scallions and seasoning and use Onion Onion I say) to taste. Let stand for 15-20 minutes.
3. Serve over mixed greens.

Super good and healthy.  Pairs well with a glass of Savingnon Blanc (sp?).

***Today Anna took purple eyeshadow and put it all around her right eye.  Said she wanted to make a black eye. 

Me: Why did you  want to make it look like you have a black eye?
Anna: Cause I wanted to.
Me: But why did you want to?
Anna: So Dad would think I had a black eye.
Me: Oh.
Anna: Then he would think the brothers did it and they'd be in big trouble. I like when they get in trouble.
Me: hmmm how to respond.  That's not very nice Anna.
Bryce: Anna that's not very nice.  Now move it's my turn to play the game.