Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ve been meaning to share this recipe for long enough now that I made it again tonight.  Sad, right? What’s even sadder is that I MADE it, but we didn’t actually get to EAT it.  This is what happens when you don’t get the chicken out to thaw earlier, and then you try and avoid your mid-size crockpot because you got it for your wedding in 1998 and it has no removable inner pot, making it a bear to wash.  (I may or may not have left it to soak on the floor of a student apartment with no counter space for SO long that a mouse drowned in it, but that’s another story.)  You instead use your smallest crockpot, and because the chicken is still mostly frozen it doesn’t squish down, and so the breasts on top aren’t done in time for dinner, and so you make waffles instead.

On the other hand, I now have this Crockpot BBQ Chicken in my fridge, just waiting for dinner tomorrow, and it’s awfully tasty.  (All of my kids devoured it the first time I tried it, and I was right there with them.)  I also have an actual pot of trimmed but still raw broccoli in my fridge, because I hadn’t started to cook it yet, and broccoli with waffles would be seriously weird.  (We had clementines instead.) I could say that the consequences of being lazy are the failure of one dinner plan, making a hasty back-up necessary; then again, I could point out that those same consequences are, essentially, unexpected waffles and an incredibly easy meal plan for tomorrow.  And really, what’s not to love about that?

(Disclaimer:  I realize that I switch from I to you to I again in these two paragraphs; I’m just over it.)

This year’s Pie Night was one for the record books, folks.  We had a record-breaking number of pies (18!), I made four for the first time, and TWO pies were finished ON PIE NIGHT.  (A Cream Puff Pie and a Biscoff Cookie Butter Cream Pie, to be exact.  We’ve never finished one before–having one more family than usual definitely made a difference.)  Here are OUR offerings for the night, in no particular order…

1)Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pudding Pie with Bananas.  My hubby picked this one (but of course, if you know us, you already guessed that).  He and I actually agreed on it–it was pretty good, but we would have preferred more chocolate and less peanut butter in the chocolate-and-peanut-butter layer.  And frankly, I would have preferred an Oreo crust, instead of the chocolate graham cracker one (since I could NOT find chocolate wafers at my grocery store).

2)Spiced Peach Pie.  I was underwhelmed by this one.  It was neither peachy enough nor spicy enough, and the cream cheese/butter/nutmeg layer–in my opinion–wanted a bit of sugar.  I wouldn’t make this again.

3)Strawberry Custard Pie.  I actually made this with raspberries and raspberry gelatin, and it was pretty good.  It would have been better with more raspberries, but mine had been in the fridge a bit long and some weren’t usable; it also would have been better with a homemade crust.  Lastly, the recipe called, essentially, for half a box of gelatin per pie; I would have preferred the flavor with the whole box, I think. (I like strong flavors.)  This one is worth revisiting.

4)Pineapple Pie with Coconut Cream.  I admit, I was a bit peeved that my daughter picked something that looked like a bit of a pain to make; it turned out, however, to be my favorite pie.  I tried my best to pick a pineapple that would be ripe–but not TOO ripe–at just the right time, and I lucked out.  It was a lovely one, and its beautiful freshness made a big difference.  The coconut cookie crust was delicious (I’d totally try it with the previous pie, actually) and the cheesecake layer made my mouth happy.  I didn’t love the coconut cream, I confess, but it would probably be different with fresh coconut milk.  (Since that’s not going to happen in Utah, I’d whip up some real cream and add a touch of coconut extract instead.)  This was a keeper.

And there you have it!  I wish I could remember all of the pies; all I can say is that it was an awfully good year.  What pies are YOU making for the holidays?

Dear Target:

Why does the Our Generation doll my daughter wants for Christmas have an online item number, an online price, and NO DISCERNIBLE WAY TO ORDER IT ONLINE?  Why is it also (apparently) not available ANYWHERE ALONG THE WASATCH FRONT?  It’s not like there aren’t, say, MORE CHILDREN HERE THAN PRETTY MUCH ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!

Seriously.  Any ideas are welcome at this point, because I am one frustrated parent.  All I want to do is spend money on something you purport to sell.  How does this not work for you?

Sincerely,

Irritated Mother of a 9-year-old girl

I honestly can’t remember why I had no dinner plan for today–maybe yesterday’s church party lulled me into complacency?  (Or maybe it was how many times I was up last night.)  Whatever the reason, at lunchtime today I still had no definite plan for dinner; thankfully, our favorite kind of breakfast sausage was on sale on Monday, and the package I’d grabbed was hanging out in the fridge.  (Yes, we did have breakfast for dinner at last night’s party, but that sausage was too spicy for my kids.  Completely different, right?  Hey, on the amount of sleep I got last night, it totally worked for me.)

So.  We had sausages, and we had fruit; all we needed was some sort of breakfast bread that was relatively low maintenance.  To Pinterest I went, and these Banana and Peanut Butter Muffins were the result.  And how were they?

Hmm.  They were crumbly, but I did substitute butter for the Country Crock and some wheat flour for some of the white; I’m not going to knock the recipe for something I may well have caused.  I was more ambivalent about the taste, actually.  They weren’t terribly sweet, and I didn’t think they were fabulous with butter; on the other hand, when I spread one with some Hershey’s chocolate almond spread? Mmmm.  (The kiddos didn’t see me, by the way.)  Adding the suggested chocolate chips would have been nice, but two of my kids have trouble sleeping when they have chocolate at dinnertime.

Bottom line?  Not necessarily a great dinner option, but for breakfast…with the chocolate spread…that’s possibly a different story.  If you like peanut butter–especially not-too-sweet peanut butter–they’re worth trying.  If you don’t?  Skip them.

It’s up to you.

As soon as I read the plot summary for Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, I mentioned it to my sister, because her twelve-year-old has her own saga of dental trauma involving her two front teeth.  Sadly, she’s still waiting for it at her library, while my oldest and I have both read it and are sending it back to ours.  (In fact, I picked up Telgemeier’s latest graphic novel at the library today.)  Happily (on the other hand), it’s my favorite–so far–of the graphic novels I picked up for genre report options for my newly-minted nine-year-old.

Here’s the thing.  Sunny Side Up was partly autobiographical, and it was good; it felt a bit younger, however, and the lesson it taught, while perfect for its audience, is one I learned long ago.  Smile is more of a straight autobiography, written less to teach and more to share experiences.  Both work for their target audiences; the latter, however, has more appeal for an adult reader.  I cringed at some of the twists and turns on poor Raina’s dental journey, and I cheered for her as she made changes in her life that had a lasting impact on her happiness and well-being.  Graphic novels will never be my thing, but I’m still glad I read this one.  It’s worth reading.