Attempting normalcy

I had class tonight, so I was itchin’ to get my kitchen presentable for when the girls arrived. And somewhere, my mom is grinning from ear to ear right now because she managed to rub off on me after all.

I love giving reiki class, it’s so much fun! By the way, did I mention that Caroline said that one of reasons for her taking the course is because she likes me? She is now my favorite student. Don’t worry Amy, you can still strip her of that title. Baked goods always work. Just sayin’.

The rest of the day went by fast in reading decor blogs and envying others’ sense of style. I discovered I like shabby chic, as long as it’s more chic than shabby.

Also, I had a chance to use my other acquisition from the Dollar store trip the other day. It’s this:

And I used it to reassemble these:

Those are part of a necklace I gave Stephen when we first met, 1 year and 8 months ago. I brought it to him from Mexico and gave it to him as a present when I first came to visit him in Canada.

Here’s a picture of us in that first trip, necklace in sight:

Stephen had worn that necklace ever since I gave it too him, but a couple of months ago it broke. Please note that when fixing it I opted for the stretchy cord so that it’ll withstand his double chin manly, rugged, strong neck.

And of course, in this task I had the best helper ever.

Nothing like some forced child labor mother-daughter crafting time. Isn’t she cute? I even forgive her for running downstairs and telling daddy that mom is surprise-fixing his necklace. That little…

A family favorite

I debated whether I should name this post “favorite” or “favourite”. Turns out that all these years learning English, only to find out that here in Canada they use British English, not American. So they say colour, humour, centre, honour… you get the idea. Can I just reboot my mind and reprogram?

But oh well, the point of this post is to share what has become a favorite side dish in my family. It’s adapted from something my mom used to make. (Hi mom!)

Disclosure: This recipe is not for the faint of heart. And by that I mean those with high cholesterol levels. I can’t imagine it being overly healthy, but if you’re not the dieting kind then by all means, go ahead.

Socialist Potatoes

Why are they called that, you ask? Well, because you’ll treat the bottom ones like you treat the top ones. HA!

Ingredients

These ones:

Potatoes
Onion
Green pepper
Cheddar cheese (or cheese of your preference)
Butter (or margarine)
Black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, seasoned salt and garlic powder. All of these are to taste, and interchangeable as you choose. See how easy it is to cook with me? No strict rules.

The amount of potatoes, onion, green pepper, butter and cheese that you’ll use is also entirely up to you. Doesn’t that feel nice? You choose, my dear.

Place a layer of the cut potatoes at the bottom of your glass Pyrex, topped with some of the onion, pepper, butter, cheese and spice it up a bit. This is one rule that is unbreakable. The golden rule of food layering, if you must. We do this because I hate it when only the very top layer has all the cheese and good stuff. What about the bottom, I ask you?! Give the bottom potatoes some loo-oove. They deserve it too, you know.

This is what the bottom layer will look like:

And keep going, doing the same again. Layer, layer:

Until finally you’ll end up with something like this:

Mmmhmm, looks good already. But it’s not done yet! Pop it in the microwave for 12-15 minutes and Ta-daaaa! The perfect side dish for chicken, fish, steak. Anything, really.

And no matter how far down you go, aaaaaall the potatoes will have some cheesy goodness and seasoned flavor to them because you prepared the bottom ones as you would prepare the top ones. Equality in the kitchen. For the potatoes. Because they have their little heart too.

Day 8- Pretty things and not so pretty cold

Tuesday March 23, 2010

I decided I’ll stop counting the days gone by since we began our kitchen-painting endeavor, turned into what-the-hell-were-we-thinking experience. I’ve gotten tired of seeing the days go by and feel like we’re accomplishing so little. It’s particularly frustrating because my job is totally on hold.

Today is Tuesday, which means the hubs goes to work at the office. He usually works from home and goes into the office only once a week. Poor thing, I know. Since I’m still waiting for him to fix the stud-and-wall combo (which I most certainly won’t even attempt to fix myself) there wasn’t much for me to do, project wise.

So what’s a couple of girls to do with all this time in our hands? We went shopping, of course! The Dollar store is a 20-minute walk from our home and we were both pretty bored, so off we went. I love Dollar stores because they’re… well, cheap. Like me!

For Anna the best part is choosing her candy and paying for it herself. She still doesn’t get the tax part, though. “MooOooOom, but if it says it costs ONE dollar, how come at the cash register it ends up being mooOoOoreeee?”  I hear ya, my little grasshopper. I hear ya. Back in Mexico, where we’re from, things actually cost what they say they cost. Shocking, eh?

Much was gained as I found this super cute frame that will look amazing in our new kitchen. I’m not too crazy about the art itself, but that can be easily fixed.

The edges are just for protection, too; they’re not part of the frame. Mainly it was the color that drew me in. I love it.

On our walk back home it started raining. Oh rain, how I despise thee. Especially when you’re dripping down my neck giving me the shivers. Ugh. The one thing that kept us going was thinking that in no time we’d arrive at our cozy, toasty, warm home. And arrive we did! Only to discover that my wonderful husband forgot to replug the thermostat, and our house was at a freezing 14°C. *sigh*

This is what my thermostat looked like, disassembled and torn apart. Good thing that I’m like, super electronic-savvy and such and got it fixed in no time. Ha.

What about you? Has your husband ever left you in the cruelty of the Canadian cold to fend for yourself or something of the sort? Please share and let me know I’m not the only one.

Day 7- Must get out!

Monday March 22, 2010

Must. leave. house. NOW.

We’ve been stuck in the house working on the kitchen or too tired to move. I’m itchin’ to get out. Today is Monday and that means it’s Library day!

Every Monday we go to the library and hang out with other families from the homeschooling group. Usually, what we do is that I sit and forget I have a kid chat with the other moms while Anna runs around like an untamed wild animal plays with the kids and goes looking for books she wants to read. She’s become such a bookworm, I’m a proud mama. Seriously. You wouldn’t believe the amount of books she reads and how her vocabulary has grown.

We also enjoy going because while she gets to goof around, I get to…. goof around. The other moms in the group are such an amazing bunch. I’d almost describe them as crazy in a good way. You know, like free-spirited, liberal, eclectic, funny, wonderful crazy. Or maybe just crazy crazy. And I’m the normal one. HA.

Anyhoo, it’s always fun and today wasn’t the exception. When I arrived I got to meet a new mom that recently joined the group. She told us about herself and why she was now homeschooling her kid, plus she shared about a little hobby of hers; turns out that she’s a paranormal investigator! How freakin’ cool is that?! I’m not into he paranormal stuff much because I’m chickenshit I prefer not to think about ghosts and apparitions, but still. my new friend is a ghost buster. How many people can say that? Huh? Huh?

Today was also a sad day because Nicole, one of my friends from the group, and her family (of four kids!) are moving away. They travel every two months to new locations because of her husband’s work, and the time came for them to leave again. Don’t feel too bad for her, though. She’s headed to the Hamptons. I’m not jealous. Really.

I will always be grateful to Nicole because thanks to her and her brood I realized that never in a million years should I have four children. It’s INSANE! All four of hers are super cute, very polite and just plain awesome, but they’re just. too. many. They came over for a play date to our house a couple of weeks ago, and oh my gaaawwd was I ever tired afterward. It was exhausting and they were here for a few hours, can you imagine for 18 years? I don’t know how Nicole does it. Oh wait, I do. She has the patience of a saint. Pssh, patient and moving to the Hamptons. Darn you Nicole.

Oh, and since a busy day required an easy-to-make dinner, I’m giving you the recipe of what we had tonight. Enjoy!

Bacon-ey Spinach-ey Pasta

Ingredients:

Spinach (a bunch? a handful? a bowlful? I don’t measure amounts, as you can see)

Pasta (mmm…. maybe about 300 g?) I like the bigger “designs” for this recipe.

1 large can of diced tomatoes (or if you have fresh tomatoes, go for those. I prefer the real thing)

6 strips of bacon, cut into squares

Half an onion. Or a full one, if you love it. Chopped.

salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

In a saucepan cook the pasta as you usually do. While your pasta is cooking, in a large frying pan start cooking the bacon. I like it until right before it gets crunchy and hard, but that’s up to you. When it’s done add the chopped onion and the bunch of spinach, letting it wilt.  Once it does, pour the can of diced tomatoes (minus all the water), leaving it in the heat to simmer. Now is the time to add your salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Your pasta will be done shortly. Drain it, put it in a large bowl and pour the bacon-spinach-tomato combination in with it. Toss toss toss around ’til it’s all mixed and there you have it. Easy dinner. Yum.

And here’s a quick update on how the kitchen is going:

Stephen decided that wall had to be removed from the living room so that he could fix the unaligned stud:

Of course, that wasn’t destruction enough, so he figured he’d cut out some wall on the kitchen side as well:

But nope, still no good. That stud was stubborn. What was left to do was remove it altogether.

Where did the stud go?!

Ah, there it is. With my stud

He’s replaced the studs with new ones. I guess now –hopefully– he can patch up the wall without a problem. Keep your fingers crossed. Please.