A Lenten Special

I'm back!  After a long hiatus I am going to try to update more frequently--rather than every few months or so.  I'm sure you know how it goes...new projects, new schedules, new activites...it can consume all of your time and then some. 

So anyway...we have started the Lenten season.  C decided to give up her iPod.  No more gaming or dancing for her for 40 days.  Good choice!  Much to my relief, my almost 12 y/o Pey decided to give up eyeliner.  Hmmm...does a 6th grader really need to wear eyeliner?  Nonetheless, I am thankful for her sacrifice as well.  K's plans include the generic "losing weight" while I decided I wanted to try something different.  Yes--this farm-raised, mid-western girl is giving up beef for Lent.  What this really means is that our ENTIRE family is giving up beef for Lent.  We're only a few days into it, but so far so good.  What are you giving up?

The Casual Spectator

The last few months we have attended a lot of sporting events--mostly volleyball.  It never fails, that we have one in the bunch who is not so excited to attend.  Wherever we go we always need to make sure that she has plenty of room to stretch out.



Cameron cheering on Matthew during baseball season.
I think we've seen this photo before...



Soaking up some rays at soccer.

Cameron actively watching the VB game at Gretna.

Fending off the paparazzi while rooting for Peyton.

  

Taking a breather during the final set of the most exciting match of the day!

Go Big Red

The boys are off to the game this evening.  The weather forecast has been all over the board this week so you just never know.  Hopefully it will only sprinkle a little and not rain buckets all over the Husker faithful. 

Since my last update, I can (proudly?) say I haven't cooked a meal since the wok fiasco.  I need to get back in the groove, but it's going to be very busy this week at work (ahem...excuses) so I might make my reappearance as Chef Essie next week.  Until then I'll probably call on my main men--Jimmy John and Little Caesar--for some assistance.  Hmm...Peyton did just finish a Foods & Nutrition class at school.  Maybe she has a few tricks up her sleeve.  I remember her saying something about banana smoothies.

Back to the fans, we sent them off with a couple of GBR cheers to Lincoln. 

I love Dad's expression...typical WTH!?! with a slight smirk.

Burning Down The House

I wish I was referring to the Talking Heads song from a long time ago.  But I'm not...

Because I've had such limited success in the kitchen lately, Kris said he would take over cooking duties.  I told him that would be fine, but he couldn't make anything that was overly processed or came from a can such as Manwich, Hamburger Helper, or frozen pizzas, plus the meal had to include either fresh or frozen vegetables.  After I thought about it for a second, I exempted spaghetti sauce and told him that would be a safe ingredient. 

For tonight's meal Kris quickly suggested Home HuHot.  I love HuHot!  "Home HuHot?" you ask.  A long time ago when the girls were younger I asked them what they wanted for dinner.  Peyton loudly said, "Home Subway!"  Cameron echoed "Home Sub-boy" in her two-year-old voice because she couldn't say "Subway" correctly.  I always thought it was funny that Peyton didn't just say "Sandwiches!" rather than Home Subway.  It's cute how children's minds work.  Anyway, we've had Home Subway before with great success...I know all of you are probably thinking you'd have to be an idiot to not have a great outcome with Home Subway...but Home HuHot?  That's a bit trickier. 

Since I don't have a big grill table in my house like the restaurant, I went out to buy a wok.  Again, please keep in mind Kris was the one who suggested this.  His exact words were, "I've been watching a lot of the Food Network lately so I can take care of this."  The plan was he was going to mow the lawn while I was out buying the wok and taking Peyton to volleyball practice.  Upon my return he was going to cook the meal.

When I arrived home with wok in hand and Peyton fresh from volleyball practice, Kris still hadn't mowed the lawn.  He told me to go ahead and cook it while he mowed.  So I chopped veggies, prepped the shrimp and chicken, and created the sauces.  I was on a roll.  I even googled how to cook with a wok and found some sage advice from Rachael Ray.

So the kids were in the kitchen picking out their ingredients for their individual meals and I started to heat up the wok.  Rachael said to heat the wok and wait until you could see smoke coming off the wok before adding the oil.  Well, the wok was a smokin' so I added some oil.  Shortly thereafter there were flames, flames, and more flames!  Peyton screamed, Cameron ran to get the fire extinguisher, and I stood there thinking there was no way this was happening to me.  A million thoughts were racing through my mind..."I hadn't even started cooking anything yet and I have a fire?"  "Kris is going to kill me!"  "Why aren't the fire alarms going off?"  "This is a grease fire.  How to I extinguish a grease fire?"  "Kris is going to kill me!"  "Where is the lid?  I need to cut off the oxygen.  This wok didn't come with a lid!"  "Kris is going to kill me!"  Finally I pulled a cookie sheet out of the cupboard and covered the fire in the wok. 

Holy smoke!  What. A. Mess.  If you were driving through the neighborhood and saw smoke rolling out of a tan house, why, yes, it was my house, thank you very much. 

Thankfully my upper cupboard didn't catch on fire, but the house was smoky for a very long time.  When Kris stepped in the house he said he thought it smelled like HuHot, but quickly asked why in the world it was so smoky.  I told him I thought it would have been better if we had just gone to the restaurant this evening instead of cooking at home.

Curse you, Rachael Ray!
I take that back. I'll still go to your website and watch your show. There may be hope for me yet.

Kitchen = 1 Susan = 0

Better Than Crack...Brownies

September truly flew by this year.  With school in full force and work busier than ever, I've been trying to plan our meals a little better rather than relying on the great chefs of the Big O! to feed my family.  I'm truly hit or miss when it comes to cooking.  This week Kris asked, begged, pleaded that I start following the recipes.  When I make something, I'll {generally} measure the ingredients in addition to substituting an item or two.  I don't know what it is, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "Oh, this would be so much better with garlic salt." or "I love cinnamon, I should add four times as much because it is so yummy."  I stumbled upon a recipe called Better Than Crack Brownies--of course I had to try it.  Sometimes I like to try things just because of the name.  I mean, come on, doesn't it only make sense?  Meatloaf...blah, blech, something Alice used to make for the Brady kids.  Now, chicken Florentine...exotic, interesting, I've got to try it!  Don't even get me started on Better Than Sex cake.  I must say it's interesting how our culture has changed...Better Than Sex?  Better Than Crack?  Lord, knows what will be next.

Below you'll see some of my hits and misses...wait, that's probably more like one hit and several misses.  You be the judge.

Banana muffins - I've usually never had a problem with these, but this time they turned out concave??? 
Oh, yes...I only had one egg.  Apparently eggs are very important in a baking recipe.

Half pineapple/half pepperoni homemade pizza...not too great.

I felt I redeemed myself with this homemade pizza gem...fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, veggies, etc.
 "Delicious!" I declared. 
"Disgusting!" according to my family.

Better Than Crack Brownies...brownie base, peanuts, peanut butter cups,
topped with a peanut buttery, chocolate rice krisipie topping. 

Man Hands

Yes, my name is Essie Why, and I have "man hands."  The Urban Dictionary defines "man hands" as a way to describe a woman's hands when they are "less than feminine" or large and very masculine. 

I recently moved to a new building at work and wanted to take a quick break.  I went to the vending machine to buy a pop and return to my office to finish up some projects.  I should have stopped right there.  I don't really like bottled or canned pop--I'm a fountain pop kind of girl--but sometimes you just need to get away from your desk and get your mind off work.  Anyway--this building only sells bottles and the Diet Coke I wanted was on the very top shelf of the machine.  As soon as I pressed the button to purchase the pop, it "free-falls" for what seemed like five stories before coming to rest in the bottom of the machine.  While I'm reaching my man hand in to retrieve the pop I'm thinking I'm going to need to let that sit for awhile before I spray my coworkers like it's Game 7 of the NBA championship and I'm on the winning team.  Quickly my mind caught up with my body and wondered why my hand seemed to be stuck in the machine.  After what seemed like a five minute struggle (which probably really only lasted ten seconds) my claw was freed and I had my Diet Coke in hand.  Sweet success!

Of course I had to google "man hands" and found that I am not alone. 

Fergie has man hands like me!

So does Uma!

Tina's are fake and thank goodness mine are not like that.
It looks like she has a long-sleeved sweater on too.  Blechh!

There's No Such Thing As Too Much Hand Sanitizer

Once again (just like everyone else on this planet), we had a busy, yet fun-filled weekend.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous so it's been nice to spend some time outside.  We borrowed an idea from the cousins and decided to head to the zoo today.  Although I've purchased a zoo pass every year we've lived here, I personally had not gone to the zoo for a couple of years.  If you haven't been to the Henry Doorly Zoo lately--run, don't walk--you need to visit it!  It is truly world-class.  Even though it was jam-packed with holiday visitors, we still had a good time. 

One of the kids' favorite exhibits is the "budgie experience".  I'm not a bird lover by any stretch of the imagination so it takes a lot for me to muster up the courage to step inside.  Ick--birds swooping all around you--not my cup of tea.  Inside the "cage" (which is about the size of my family room), 50 kids are trying to feed about 500 birds with a birdseed "stick".  This is happening while you also have children who have apparently been fed ice cream, candy and pop before entering the cage who are running around stirring the birds up.  Thankfully no birds landed on me during my time in the cage and you can bet I was all over the hand sanitizer like a crazed Kate Gosselin after we exited the cage and after we visited the petting zoo and after we saw the butterfly pavilion and...  Here are a few highlights from today.

Kris' best impression of Ozzy Osborne???