Wednesday, August 26, 2009

12 Things

12 Things I Have Learned:
12. For some reason, stores and restaurants in Tampa like to crank the air conditioners incredibly high. This makes it so that people with glasses fog up when they exit the stores… into the parking lots… BLIND!

11. In Georgia, it is typical to see people wave at you from their car when you are in a neighborhood of any kind. Not in Tampa.

10. No matter what kind of a house you have, it is a pain in the ass to clean it. But the bigger the house, the bigger pain it is to be had.

9. Trying to budget a household groceries is an enormous headache and pretty much a full time job! It is a job that my darling husband doesn’t get… at all.

8. Public school is NOT private school. When my 2nd grade son is doing the math work that my kindergartener daughter was doing over the summer, there is a serious problem.

7. Shopping of any sort is cheaper, faster and less stressful without my children. I think that is a painfully unfortunate reality.

6. When you have your own pool it is just as disappointing when it rains. But, you get more hand and face prints on the slider door from children watching for it to stop.

5. Laundry multiplies like bacteria if you leave it alone in a dark room for more than 24 hours.

4. My feelings are squashed a lot less if my children do not like their “take out” dinner as opposed to my cooking. Why on earth do we cook? Oh that is right, refer to #9.

3. Telling a child “no” today does not equate to “no” tomorrow in their brains. Repetition is part of every parent’s routine.

2. Even though I couldn’t wait for school to start, I missed my children more than I ever thought possible.

1. I never ever want to move or sell a home again.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Knead a little help...

I have been on a bread making kick lately. I first made a cardamom braid that was a sweet, Swedish bread I had never heard of. It was GREAT but far too large for our family. Next time I will break it into 2 loaves and give one to a neighbor. The second recipe I did was a challah bread for Shabbat dinner last week. It was amazing! I will never buy store bought challah again! I actually had Ed take a picture of it. I think I need my own camera…
In all my years of baking, home ec classes and bread making I never imagined bread you didn’t have to knead OR FEED! I for sure thought when I saw the recipe it was a typo so I did a little research and found it is true! I then found a second recipe that was completed in less than half the time suggested on the original recipe. Needless to say, I decided to do the second recipe as I was SURE the recipe would flop anyway. I added ¼ cup of chopped kalamata olives and a whole head of pre-roasted garlic cloves. Next time, I will not pre-roast the garlic, only use ½ a head, not use olives and toss in a handful of fresh chopped rosemary or sage.

If anyone has a tried and true recipe for a sourdough starter (I like a STRONG sour… raised in the SF bay area ;)) I would be glad to try it!

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Busy few days!

So, I moved to Tampa on Friday, July 17th. As I came down my new street, I could see the big red bow that my FIL placed above the porch to welcome us. I was so HAPPY to see my boys! The boy gave me a running, jumping hug and kiss, and Ed (who was working with the plumber) was able to break away for a moment to greet me and the girl. My in laws were also there to greet us! That night we had Pei Wei which is amazingly yummy!

The weekend was spent cleaning and prepping for our best friends to come and visit! We had a blast with them on Monday the 20th. I miss them tons… The rest of that week and following weekend was spent unpacking, cleaning, arranging and settling. Monday the 27th I woke at 5:30am to meet Ed’s friend from high school, Kim, to learn the ins and outs about a vegetable co-op. That was fun, but WAY too early for me! Wednesday the 29th I took the kids to a puppet production at the library called Micetronauts. They had a really good time! I also got them their own library cards and let them choose one book each to check out. Checking out a book earned them a coupon from the library for a free shake from Steak 'n Shake! HOW COOL!

The following day, Thursday the 30th, I took the kids to another library for a live play of Rumplestiltskin. It was a 25 minute drive to get there and as we got closer, the area started to remind me a lot of the area we left in Georgia. It seemed like there were many stay-at-home moms there and like the surrounding trees, yards and common areas, they seemed to be well manicured and taken care of! The area of the library that was showing the play only allowed for 80 people. They let all the children in first then whatever parents were left, they would squeeze in. Only 2 moms got in so you can imagine how packed this show was. I sat outside for the hour the play was going on and finished working on a knit scarf project. A woman was sitting across from me on a cell phone loudly discussing the details of a custody battle with what appeared to be her attorney. A gentle rain began to fall though the sky was still bright. Then it began to pour and oddly, the sky was STILL bright! It was really beautiful and had the obnoxious woman talking on her cell phone not been there, it would have been really peaceful. That evening we went out to Sushi Alive for their “Happy Hour”, sushi… not drinks. It wasn’t bad as far as sushi goes! That Friday, July 31st, we went to Longhorn. I was so disappointed after getting my steak, cutting into it and seeing it well done when I ordered it medium rare. I expected a warm red center as she described. When I sent it back the manager brought me out a steak that was cooked exactly how the first one was. He said he would cook another for me himself. I told him not to bother and let Ed eat the steak. After all, it would be free and I would hate to waste something free!

Saturday the 1st we went to Pei Wei for lunch, Jamba Juice for dessert, Bucs Heaven to prep for the evening and then Bucs training camp! We got to meet a few cheerleaders, hear the cannons fire and watch the players run around. WHAT A BLAST! Sunday we took the kids to Whole Foods where they got to join in a free cooking demo: sparkling lemonade, homemade hummus in pita bread and yogurt parfait! We got tenderloin steaks to cook for dinner that night. YUM! They were seriously fantastic. Monday I registered the kids for school, my MIL came over for dinner, took the kids home to spend the night THEN brought them back WITH lunch from Hungry Howie’s the next day! I had not had that since my days at Kinko's. How spoiled am I?!?!?

Coming up: Jennie Zuniga from high school is coming to visit me tomorrow. I haven’t seen her in 16 years! Uncle Greg comes to visit Friday-Sunday. I am EXCITED!