kids

Kids in the Kitchen: Gazpacho

~ kimberly ~ 2 Comments

Yeah, I know. You wanted Underwear Rant #2. I figure I could do a week-long series on women’s underwear, which is scary. But for the weeks that I was down to one functional hand, the kids did a lot of cooking, and they deserve their time in the sun, er kitchen.

A few weeks ago we were going to try living wheat-free (don’t ask, there’s a blog coming that’s devoted to it). So while Snarky Daughter was getting her hair cut, I was putting together a shopping list of all sorts of healthy stuff. Woo-hoo! But it was about 1000 degrees outside and who really wants to cook in that? And then I remembered…a really awesome Californian restaurant from the 70s. You walked in and you had to stop and let your eyes adjust because it was so dark. Dark wood paneling, dark green booths, dark everything. Salesguys went there to close semiconductor chip deals and my mom would meet with big name editors there after work for a drink. People went there at lunch for a drink. I miss the 70s.

Anyway, when the Bay Area hit 105, the Velvet Turtle was the place to go because it was dark and cold. And they had the best gazpacho. They served it in individual servings in glass bowls packed in crushed ice. You could almost see ice crystals on the top of the soup.

Sitting in the hair salon, that’s what I remembered. Heaven on ice.

And it’s healthy, and it doesn’t have wheat, making it a better choice than a maple frosted doughnut or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. And did I mention how awesome ice cold soup would be when it’s 1000 degrees outside and the relative humidity is about 120%?

Snarky Daughter cooks Velvet Turtle Gazpacho
Snarky Daughter “cooking”

Also, you make it in a blender!

Here’s a link to the recipe, which some saint at the LA Times got the Velvet Turtle to give up back in 1981.

Read through it and there’s only one real problem: 1 tsp. seasoning blend. Undaunted, and refusing to believe that might be the key to the soup, we pressed on, assuming that 1 tsp of cumin (thereabouts) and some oregano were what they meant.

As usual, Snarky Daughter was only mildly excited about making dinner, but I was looking totally pitiful with my new, can’t move my thumb or wrist at all brace, so what was she really going to say? Well, she’s mine, so she could have said a lot, but what actually came out of her mouth was, “Uh, sure. I make it in the blender?”

So, this is totally a dump and blend thing. Soup in 20 minutes because you’re obliterating everything in the blender so it’s not like you have to carefully chop the veggies. Then we put it in the freezer for another 20 so it would be ice cold. And we served it with a couple of tortilla chips (corn-based, so I choose to believe they lack wheat), and presto! Summer Dinner!

Both kids and Snarky Roommate liked it. And I went back in time. I wonder what my dad drank when he ate this at the Turtle…

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Video Game Addict

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

I had a list of stuff to do this weekend. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. On my deathbed, I will be making a To Do list. Even as I’m writing this blog, I’m mentally coming up with stuff for today’s list. Take Advil is pretty high on that list. In fact, it was number one on the list when I was laying in bed, listening to the rain that is, in part, the reason for today’s migraine. But I digress…

There was a list. Unfortunately, like so many of us, my lists are usually made up of things like clean the bathroom and make a million dollars, and rarely have stuff on there like have fun with the kids. No biggie. The kids roll their eyes when there’s too much house stuff and not enough fun stuff, so it usually balances out. Because, while I make lists, I’m not the best at following them these days. I’m easily corruptible.

On Saturday the list could pretty much be broken down to: fix everything. I also have delusions of grandeur. Of course we can weed and mow five acres of grass and gardens, clean the house and lose 15 pounds in 8 hours! We started out pretty well. With three of us working in the garden, we managed to get 1.5 hours of weeding done in 30 minutes. We rock!

But in doing the weeding, lost in the weeds we found a mostly dead tomato plant and a watermelon plant that might have been a victim to some wild Round-Up spray earlier in the week. Add buy replacement plants to the list.

Heading inside, I took a shower. That was the downfall. If I’d stayed sweaty and nasty, there’s a chance — a slim chance — that I would have stayed on target. But while I was getting cleaned up, I remembered Scout Son’s desperate pleas to buy Risk Factions for the Xbox. Which required information from a more knowledgeable source (the guys at GameStop). And if I was hitting them up for knowledge after getting the plants, then I might as well trade in old games, have Scout Son show me what game he wants for his birthday, and you know, hit two yarn stores in my never-ending search for the perfect yarn for a blanket for me. Ha! New list. Better list. Much more fun list!

Hours later Scout Son and I return with xBox points in hand, answers in brain, and a plan: beat Snarky Daughter in Risk. SD didn’t look so happy about it, so I suggested that after that she could teach me how to play Epic Mickey. That made her day.

I’m not allowed to play video games. I love them. I fall into them and come out later wondering where June went. So, the idea that I wanted to play video games with them for hours was alien. First we did some of the icky cleaning found on the icky grown up list. Then I ordered pizza. And then I took over the world.

I’d be proud of beating everyone in Risk, but I followed that up with five hours of Disney characters kicking my butt. I limited myself to one hour on Sunday. And I got off the system after an hour and a half, which is better than when I picked up the book that morning for 20 minutes of reading and finished it three hours later.

Today I’m picking up the icky list again. After all, the kids leave for a week tonight and that means the game systems are all mine in the evenings. Wahahaha! Is knocking their high scores off of all the games a reasonable addition to the To Do list?

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End of School Brings…Sanity?

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

What is it about the end of the school year that makes everything crazy? Between proctoring exams, finals, and end of year parties and events that should not really affect me at all (after all, I graduated middle and high school back in the dark ages), work almost stops.
In the case of this blog, it did stop. But Snarky Daughter finished up school on Wednesday, and Scout Son is done next Friday, so oddly, peace will soon invade my life again. And I can’t wait.

You’d think without a day job that I’d have plenty of time to do, well everything. And to a certain extent, that’s been true. I just haven’t focused all my attention on writing. I’ve stripped wallpaper, painted SD’s new room, and as of this weekend, finished moving her in. Phew.

I’ve cleaned closets, looked for work, started learning HTML and am working my way through a wordpress.org class. I’m back to learning Italian.

And I’ve successfully gained 6 pounds. I’m so proud. Now, to be fair, I gained most, if not all, of those pounds while I was on medication after I smashed my hand. And I’m back on some of it since I slipped and threw my back out again. Woo-hoo!

But the pounds have to Go. Away. Now.

That sounds so easy. I mean, I’ve lost weight before. Today I weigh what I weighed the day before I had SD. And a pound less that what I weighed the day I brought SS home from the hospital. What can I say. He craved Cheetos and Twix bars for nine months. It was not pretty.

But when I lost baby weight, I wasn’t injured. And the fact is, I have a life-long injury, so my days of playing racquetball and lifting 15,000 pounds on weight machines a couple of times a week in order to stay fit are gone. No running. No high-impact anything. Zumba? My chiropractor and physical therapist both burst out laughing and started planning early retirements.

But I can walk. And according to the Prevention Walk of Weight program, I can lose weight walking. Of course, that program doesn’t say anything about cake. And I like cake. As a source of frosting, which I’m pretty sure is one of the food groups.

Here’s what I know from the few years that I was working out and learned that muscle feels different than fat. I feel better when I work out. I’m happier. In theory I eat less, although I haven’t seen that in the past few weeks. But I can dream. I can walk. And if I can do both of those, I can probably cross a few more things off my To Do list. Like organize my new office space. Or write a book.

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Kids in the Kitchen: Linguine with Aspragus and Pine Nuts

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

I am blessed. My kids will eat weird stuff. Dim Sum. Curry. Asparagus. No, they weren’t born this way. I’m one of those uptight parents who thinks if you take a kid to an ethnic restaurant, they should eat ethnic food. That does not mean chicken nuggets.

Linguine with Asparagus and Pine Nuts
Linguine with Asparagus and Pine Nuts

So this week I reminded them they liked weird food. Specifically asparagus. Yes, I know it looks like trees. I don’t care. I wanted real food. Tasty food. Cooked by someone else food. I tasked the kids with making Linguine with Asparagus and Pine Nuts from Real Simple Magazine.

This came in part from Scout Son announcing a few weeks ago that he couldn’t make mac and cheese from a box. Sadly, he’s right. What he makes is a congealed, starchy mess. So, pasta training was necessary, but I’m not eating mac and cheese with powdered cheese. Unless I’m exhausted or hormonal and it’s the only thing in the house. But nobody’s judged by what they eat on those days.

Armed with a paring knife, Snarky Daughter began cutting 1-inch pieces of asparagus, and Scout Son and I discussed the proper way to cook pasta. Problem number one: don’t add the pasta until the water is boiling. Somebody likes to add the pasta when the first thought of a bubble appears on the bottom of the pan. Problem number two: add some salt to the water and, problem number three, stir the pasta when you toss it in the pot so it doesn’t stick.

With some awesome al dente pasta (not a congealed mess), garlic, pine nuts and asparagus, we sat down thirty minutes later to a fantastic meal, and the knowledge that I will be sending two kids out into the world with cooking skills. The only question now is who’s going to cook one night a week when they both move out?

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Sickness Strikes

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Sick kid home today. Allergy shots this afternoon. Linux training this evening. Working out somewhere in there. Really the best part of today is the sick kid because it means I’m off the hook for making dinner. Who wants to smell spaghetti sauce when they have a stomach bug?

Yes, that’s right. I’m taking one for the team here and offering to not cook for the rest of us so that Snarky Daughter won’t smell anything that would set her stomach off. Am I a good mom, or what? OK, really there are times when I’m the worst mom around. Those times tend to be when people are sick.

It’s not that I don’t want to be that mom. The take-your-temperature-give-you-warm-ginger-ale mom. I do. But really? Come on. Someone has to go to the day job and said someone cannot be getting sick herself, because she does not get paid time off. Not complaining, I knew that when I took the job, and it’s not like I was getting time off when I worked from home.

So when a child texts me at work to inform me they don’t feel well and do they have to go to band, my response is no, go to your room. Don’t come out until you feel better. Do. Not. Share. Your. Germs. I’ll push food under the door.

I was better about it when they were little, but they’re teenagers now (or close enough), so they know that if they need me to stay home, they have to say, please stay home. And they have to be prepared for me to say, OK, I’m going to run to the office and get my computer so I can work from home. Because there’s nothing I can do. I can – and really do – give hugs and check temperatures and offer medicine. Or at least tell them how often they can take it while I’m at work. And I don’t take the vanpool on those days so if there is a problem, I can get home. But Snarky Daughter is three years from moving out, so it’s time for her to figure some of this out on her own. And she has. She turned green at the idea of the pink stuff and begged not to have to take it. Can’t blame her there.

Her bug is great news for Scout Son because it means he can spend some uninterrupted time on their computer. After we disinfect it. After all, I do not believe for one minute that she’s spent the day in bed without the laptop and Harry Potter fanfic. I’m tired, not stupid.

Also, he has announced he will be working on improving his grilled cheese sandwich skills. Good for him! See, this is a learning experience for him. I’m being a good mom!

Update on the Car Saga: I’m sitting at the dealership waiting for the car. It was not a simple fix. We’ll see if they got it right this time. Fingers crossed.

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