Like the Corners of My Mind

My SIL, Hannah, posts memories called "Flashback Friday" on her blog and she shares funny stories of what it was like for her growing up or milestones in her life. In tribute to her, and since I will probably forget to post this by Friday, I am sharing this memory of mine for those who read this blog to laugh at. I was reminded of this by reading Monica's post on food aversions and conversions and it made me remember the horror that was school lunch for me.

My mother was deeply against buying us hot lunch at school. She felt that $.85 a day was too pricey and that we could pack our lunches cheaper with food from home. Despite our protests and pleadings that all the other cool kids bought hot lunch, she insisted that we "brown bag" it or in our case "Playmate" it. For those of you who don't know what a Playmate is (other than the girl with bunny ears) it is a small personal cooler put out by the Igloo company. In the early 90s when I was forced to start Playmating it my mom bought us all matching "Little Playmates" which where even smaller versions of the Playmate cooler with fuschia and teal accents (as I said it was the early 90s). Playmate was such an ironic name for them since they were in no way a playmate and certainly did not attract them.

In our Little Playmate there was a Rubbermaid sandwich container, drink container and ice pack. There was also usually room to store an apple, pretzels or whatever other snack item we could scrounge up when we packed our lunch five minutes before the bus arrived. Since my first day of first grade my mother never packed my lunch. She claimed that she was teaching me to be self-sufficient, but really I think she wanted to sleep in a few more minutes. My first grade teacher actually brought this up at parent-teacher conference after she noticed some of my creative choices for lunches, but my mother stood by her decision and insisted that I continue Playmating it for myself.

During one school vacation over Christmas break, I forgot to empty my Playmate and the drink container stunk so much that it had to be thrown away. Instead of buying me a new drink container which were available at Wal-Mart and several other fine retailers, my mother wanted me to live with the consequence of my negligence and replaced the plastic Rubbermaid drink container with a Ball canning jar complete with metal lid. As cruel as I think this was at least my mother was consistent and made the other kids do the same when they ruined their drink container. Not only did the canning jar make the already bulky Playmate heavier it was difficult to casually drink out of a canning jar at the lunch table. I would usually drink the whole jar while the other kids were going through the hot lunch line so they wouldn't see me tipping back a 16-ounce glass jar when they were daintily sipping out of a milk carton.

The other logistical problem with the Playmate came on the bus ride to and from school. School bus seats are built to fit two sixty pound kids with normal backpacks and the aisles are only wide enough to walk single file. When you are a large kid to begin with and then are carrying a boxy cooler that weighs ten pounds getting seated on the bus becomes tricky. Most days my brother and I would suck it up and sit together with our Playmates instead of forcing another hot-lunch-child to be embarrassed with us.

Looking back on it I still laugh that my mom, being a middle school teacher herself, sent us to school with dorky Playmate coolers knowing we would be ridiculed. I guess she wanted us to get a tough skin early on to prepare us for real life. The funny thing is, as soon as I could get a job when I was fifteen, I used that money to buy hot lunch and never Playmated it again. Sorry for the really random post but when Monica asked for comments on food aversions I couldn't help but think of how much I really hate lunch food (sandwiches in particular) to this day.

Big Bang Theory

So, as some of you know, I got my hair cut into a Pageboy on Wednesday. I blame my urge to cut it mostly on Mad Men, which I have to say, if you are not watching it...you should be! If you have Comcast you can watch all the episodes for free on OnDemand. Okay, so enough of the Mad Men plug! My other beauty inspiration, as always, is Katie Holmes. I thought this cut would make me look more sophisticated, but so far I think it is just cute and vintage-y (which is always good). Mike thinks it looks like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction...and that's not the worst thing.

Special thank you goes out to Erika at SoHo Salon & Spa in Rye. She did a great job and was very easy to chat with. For anyone that is looking for a new stylist in NH, I highly recommend her services and the salon in general.

Here are a few pics...Mike trying to be "artsy" and put me in the "golden third" of the photo

From above

I was sick of the photo shoot at this point but I wanted to show a side view

The Times They Are a Changin'

I was late getting on the Crocs bandwagon. My old roomie, Jess, bought an imitation pair from Payless and I remember wondering why she would wear garden shoes out in public like they were regular shoes. Fast forward to Jess' wedding five months later. After getting blisters on my feet from the shoes I did bring, in desperation I bought my own pair of imitation Crocs at Payless intending only to wear them for the plane ride home and then give them to Mike to wear while mowing the lawn. Once I got used to wearing them I didn't want to take them off. Still, despite them being very comfortable, they were not the most attractive shoe to wear. Last summer when I was on the hunt for a muted metallic gold ballet flat, I bought the Crocs Prima style and was quite pleased with them until my feet started getting sweaty and the shoes would make a farting sound when I walked. Now the fashion problem was solved but now I had an even more embarrassing social problem -- faux flatulence. For the last month of my pregnancy they were pretty much the only shoes I could still wedge on my fat feet, so I swallowed my vanity because the comfort benefit was worth it. Now that we live at the camp, we still three pairs by the door for running out to the maintenance building or grabbing the mail. I usually just assess which pair is the least dirty and choose that one. Okay, now we're really sounding country.
Anyway, yesterday when I went shopping with my mom she announced that she was going to buy me a new pair of Crocs and she had read an article about a new high-heel version that we should check out. Usually my mom and I have very different opinions on what we look for in shoes. She buys shoes based on style, I buy based on fashion. When we first got to Macy's I saw the Croc heels and thought they were cute, but I really wanted them in black and they only had gold and bronze. Plus, you had to ask for your size instead of just shopping on the Croc wall and I wasn't sure I was completely in love with them. We then went to Journeys and I tried on the Sassari style there, but I still didn't love the gold and I thought there was too much material on them and I thought they would just make my feet sweaty. We tried a few more stores, but all in vain. Finally on the way out, I said, well let me just try on the Cyprus style because it only has two thin straps. Much like my first experience with Crocs I wondered how I had lived so long without them. These are the perfect blend of form and function and I highly recommend them to any woman who thought heels were always uncomfortable. These give you an extra 3-4" of height and feel like you are walking on flats!! I love them!! The funniest part of the whole experience was when I looked at the receipt they rang up as "Comfort Shoes"...I guess I am turning into a full-fledged SAHM now :)

The Best Butter Cookies. Ever.

So as my friends and family know, I am a huge fan of cookies. I love making them. I love watching people eat my cookies and of course, I love eating them myself. Usually in the summer I am on hiatus from making cookies because of the heat. This past Sunday, the weather was rainy and cool and I was bored at my parents' house waiting for them to get home. I starting browsing through the pantry and my mother's cookbooks trying to find something to make. I came across this recipe in The Taste of Home Award Winning Recipes. It only had six ingredients which made it a very appealing choice and the assembly seemed easy. My mom and I made them for the fam on Sunday night and they were delicious!!! I am making them again tonight at my house and I am already putting them on the make-in-a-hurry list. Hope you like...

Swedish Butter Cookies (courtesy of Taste of Home)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
confectioners' sugar

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add syrup; mix well. Sift together flour and baking soda in a separate bowl; gradually add to creamed mixture. Divide dough into eight portions. Roll each portion into a 9-in. log with your hands (they will look like Play-Doh snakes) Place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 300° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into 1-inch slices with a pizza cutter. Remove to wire racks to cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Where have you been all this time?

So I haven't posted pictures in a while of Carter since we can't seem to find the battery charger for our camera. Our good friends, the Camerons, were kind enough to take some photos of Carter and our friends the Sargents and post them on their blog. So that will have to do for now. I need to become better at blogging. I am an avid blog stalker. Thanks to my SIL, Hannah, I now have Google Reader checking all my blogs for me and I am very excited when someone updates. Since admitting this to Ariane who gave me a hard time for not updating in so long I realize, I need to be blogging more. Hopefully Mike and I can find our charger to post some pics too (I always think posts are more interesting with photos).

At your request Ariane, here is the recipe for the brownies I made Sunday (courtesy of Martha):

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate
5 large eggs
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, optional (I used coffee flavored Postum)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

1. Preheat the oven to 400, with rack in the center position.
2. Generously butter a 9 x 13 pan with butter.
3. In a double boiler or Pyrex bowl over a saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate together. Mix with a rubber spatula until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar and espresso powder (optional) together at a high speed.
5. Lower the speed and add in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla, then slowly add in the sifted flour. Mix just until incorporated--do not overmix.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips and toasted walnuts.
7. Pour into the buttered 9 x 13 pan and bake until edges are dry, but the center still soft (about 30 minutes).

Great Performances?

For those who read my blog you may wonder why I even took the time to post this. It has been a while since I have updated the blog, and it has not been for lack of interesting things happening here at the camp. However, tonight I was trying to veg out and watch something that would help me get to sleep. I turned the TV on to PBS in hopes of Part II of the Harry Truman biography I was watching yesterday (yes I know I am a dork). Instead of a fascinating look at possibly our most reluctant president, I instead had the misfortune of seeing "Great Performances" South Pacific with Reba McEntire and Alec Baldwin. Apart from neither one of them being especially skilled at singing in musical theatre style, the cast is presenting the entire show on stage at Carnegie hall ON BOOK. How is this a great performance? Even high school students are capable of performing this material by memory. Let me be clear -- I usually LOVE the Great Performances series and other stage productions performed at Carnegie hall in an "In Concert" format. Some of my favorites include Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Putting it Together, and Candide. Candide is probably the best I have seen in this style for talent (Kristin Chenoweth, Patti Lupone) material (Bernstein!) and originality of staging. But I have never seen "actors" perform on book and have it be recorded for distribution. Presumably, the audience payed a hefty price for a performance at Carnegie hall only to arrive and see the entire cast unprepared for their arrival. I am still watching this in disbelief. Has anyone else seen this or others like it? Do you think it is ok and/or entertaining?

Johnny Jump Up

Before I had Carter I swore I would not be one of those parents that runs out to buy every gadget and activity station for their baby. First there was the bouncy chair, then the Bumbo, then the stand up activity bouncer, then the swing and now, the Johnny Jump Up. I think what I like most about it is that is actually something that was around when I was a baby and it keeps him occupied while I make dinner and I can still see him. It also doesn't take up very much space and it is not in shockingly bright colors. Plus, look at that face...who could say no to that?
To see more pics of my little man, check out our Flickr page.