09.29.06

Incredible story

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:46 am by Anne

I remember when the news first hit that a little boy was missing. It was hearbreaking. Since Em is almost two, I continuously played the scene over and over in my mind with her in place of the little missing boy, and for those days afterwards, the sadness stayed very fresh. It wasn’t getting any better. I prayed for the boy and covered my own children in kisses and shook my fist at the cruel world we live in, when late one night there was breaking news that he had been found.

It is depressing how these types of situations tend so often to go bad. How a real asshole who has no business even being alive has stolen a child, molested and then killed the child, and then left the broken body laying in a ditch someplace to be found later by a total stranger.

Finally there is a good story, a happy ending.

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09.28.06

Evil McEvil

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:07 pm by Anne

I just got this email:

***********************************************************************************
Hello Anne,
Thanks so much for contacting us regarding pumpkin spice syrup. Unfortunately, this particular syrup is not available for retail sale. This is a specially formulated and proprietary item. I’m sorry for any inconvienance this may cause you. I hope that your cravings can be satisfied when visiting our store locations. (So fuck off, just keep spending lots and lots of money at our store.)

Thank you again for contacting Starbucks, we really appreciate it.(You miserable hag)
Best Regards,
Daniel M.
Customer Relations Representative
Starbucks Coffee Company
***********************************************************************************

Okay buddy, can you not run spell check before you send an email off? I would appreciate it in the future. Oh yeah, and take a flying leap.

Poor pumpkin latte addiction. The Torani syrup came in the mail and while it is decent enough, it just isn’t the shiz in the same way that the real deal from starbuck’s is the shiz. Luckily, the caramel syrup I found at the grocery store is freaking awesome and so I don’t have to visit that shantyshop nearly as often because hello, a caramel latte is pretty dang excellent.

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09.27.06

deliverance

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:46 pm by Anne

Yesterday was a keeper. It should go down in the annals of our family history as particularly excellent. All except for that part when I decided to freeze the homemade chicken stock. The girls were running around playing, not paying much attention to me, so it seemed like the perfect time to pour the stock into freezer bags. Mistake number one.

Bags: check
Gigantic measuring cup: check
Biggest stock pot invented filled with chilled stock: check
Black sharpie: check

It was all there and after lining the measuring cup with a baggie, I got to pouring. The trouble started when I tried removing the baggie and realized by the tiny streams of broth spraying out the bottom that the baggie was defective. “Well shit.” I thought. A small mess was made as I poured it all back into the original container, but no big deal really, things happen, la-tee-dah.

I grab another bag, line the cup and start pouring again. This time the bag curled in on itself and I wound up pouring about 8 oz all over the counter as it splashed on the outside of the measuring cup. “Well, fuck!” i grimaced and reopened the bag to start pouring. Mistake number two because well, it happened again. Only worse this time. As a cold gush of broth rolled off the cup, ran off the butcher block, and spilled onto my feet below I decided that I had not chosen wisely. It was not the right time to freeze stock. It might never be the right time again. Obviously the planets were not in proper alignement, or I had pissed off the wrong gods, or that pesky surge of hormonal pregnant rage had ruined this small endeavor. I mean, Christ, the floor had just been mopped the day before and without thinking it though completely, before I could regain whatever semblance of a calm and civilized person lurking in the depths of my Id, I just tossed the baggie, the remainder of stock that hadn’t splashed all over the floor, and the giant stockpot all into the sink. Goodbye. We are done here. Bye bye!

Just to clean congealed poultry fat from everything and get that chicken soup smell out of the air, I had to mop with pinesol twice. TWICE. Shan did exactly the right thing by suggesting we go out for dinner last night because I was no longer in the mood to try out that fabulous chicken barley soup recipe. Sometimes he just gets it perfectly.

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09.25.06

115923035998528220

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:25 pm by Anne

voila (as I try to figure out this new version of picasa2. those asses.) 

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You may very well fall in love with me for this.

Posted in Recipes at 6:48 pm by Anne

I found the greatest chocolate chip cookie recipe ever in the world. Yes, it beats the good old Nestle Tollhouse rag, that singular wonder of old-timey ingenuity and goodness. The recipe I baked today came from one of my better cookbooks and is put out by Cook’s Illustrated. It is possible that you have seen it already, hell, you might even own it yourself but for those of you who don’t know about it, I am going to post the recipe. Luckily for me I found it on the internet already so I don’t have to spend hours hunting and pecking like I do. So without further ado (You can thank me later):

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Cook’s Illustrated)Thick and Chewy version

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-2 cup chocolate chips (semi or bittersweet)
I added a handful of crushed walnuts too because I luff them.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.
Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough�?s uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month�?shaped or not.).
Bake, reversing cookie sheets�? positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

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Halloween

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:31 am by Anne

So yeah, I am not one of those moms that spends a ton of money or time on Halloween costumes. I’m not going to debtors prison over a couple of Disney store mass-produced, utterly trite and overdone, characterget-ups. When did Halloween become over taken by Disney? I’m not as surprised that other holidays like Christmas, even birthdays has scads and scads of paraphernalia associated with that gi-normous consumer driven institution, but Halloween? Come on!

Halloween isn’t meant to be cute and sweetly colored. Halloween is a night to scare the shit out of people. It is a way to overcome our human fear of the darker side by emulating it if only for an instant.

I remember being 3 or 4 and my Dad, who became known as ‘The Mad Scientist’ to my big brother’s friends, came up with my costume. He soaked a dozen cotton calls in this green slime and somehow adhered each one to my face so that it looked like I was contagious with some frightening, clime-pustule, disease that effed up my skin. It delighted the college kids throwing a party own the street and I remember this white dude with an actual afro invited me in to show everyone. (It was the 70’s) Now that part scared me a little but soon enough I was on my way, with Mom, collecting candy again. By the time I had gotten home again, tired and dirty but with a full pillowcase (yes I said pillowcase) of goods, the whole removal process took another painful hour but I loved every minute of it. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I’ve brought out the pumpkin votives and the Halloween decor. Admittedly when you become a mom, you have those things and those things make me happy. Lily is still caught up in the princess horseshit and has already announced that she will be Cinderella this year for Halloween. fine. We have two outfits she received as birthday presents last year that will fit the bill for costuming. and Emma? Emma will sport her hand-me down Snow White outfit because I refuse to cave in and puchase a costume that would in effect BE FOR ME anyway. Come on. If I want to dress up, I’ll dress up without living vicariously through my urchins. I do entirely too much of that already as it is. Why ruin Halloween too?

Addendum:

Lily just mentioned that she would like to be one of the 12 Dancing Princesses now for All Hallow’s Eve. ( GAG! ) Can I cobble something together or not? That is the question. My other question is how in the HELL did I wind up with such a priss? I am so confused.

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09.22.06

It is the devil.

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:25 am by Anne

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again with the sickness…

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:13 am by Anne

So now Lily has a fever which means I can’t go to the gym or really, do anything I had planned today. And I had been doing really well at the gym lately even! I’d vamped up cardio to 45 mins. and today would have made it the 4th time this week! 4 times people! If I could manage 4 times a week imagine how much smaller my maternity ass might be!

But now i will just stay home and eat candy corn. because I am addicted to it. Not the cheap-assed artificial honey flavored candy corn, not the gourmet real honey infused candy corn, good gracious not the foul candy corn flavored pumpkins either…they are too big and the flavor doesn’t disperse nearly so well in the mouth, and finally not any of the chocolate tipped creepy ones either. I am talking about the old timey Brachs variety that we all grew up snarfing at Halloween. Although latey, I’ve found if I eat too many, I get a tingling in the back of my throat and want to cough my appendix out. Coincidence? I prefer not to think about it.

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09.20.06

therapy

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:20 am by Anne

The only way to make a growly stomach tolerable at 3AM is to get up at 5:30 and crank out a batch of these: dried blueberry scones made with a bit of whole wheat flour and lavishly sprinkled with turbinado sugar. All I needed was an espresso machine and that dam punkin spice syrup and it would have been a perfect morning. This was close enough. 

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yakkity-smackity

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:34 am by Anne

Oh Emma. Preschool was a repeat of last time, maybe worse, i don’t know. I dropped her off as she turned into a wellspring of grief and I picked her up a little early to find her still crying! Since it was about 15 minutes before school let out, I stayed around a little to talk with her teachers. I asked if they had any suggestions for getting her used to the class. the super sweet teacher thinks it is just going to take a little time for Em to adjust. The other teacher, who is more abrupt and less how do you say pleasant, had a few ideas:
1) try and get Emma into a playgroup with one or two of the other classmates during the week so that she will recognize them at school.
2) try rewarding her with treats for not crying.
3) talk up school alot in a positive way before heading over.

I think the first one might work okay, kind of, except that I would be there for playgroup and wouldn’t that be a wrench in the works if she is so anxious when I am not there?
The 2nd one is a bit iffy. I just don’t think Emma has the wherewithall to be impressed with bribery. She is still eating dirt for crissakes. What does she know about more structured give and take?
And we do the third one already. In fact , she and Lily both were clapping and shrieking about going to school this last time.

Then the teacher said the one thing no one wants to hear, at least no Mother of two who thoroughly enjoys the 5 hours of alone time once a week, “Well, it is a little early to say this, but maybe she just isn’t ready for school yet.”

oh mah gah. head is exploding.

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