We changed preschools, and holy schmoley did we change worlds. In the one week my daughter has been attending the new preschool, she’s received four birthday party invitations. Four.
Okay, great, except her birthday falls right in the middle of all these other birthdays, which means I had to scramble and organize a party! Tomorrow I’ll be filling out invites. Yowza.
And they seem to take these parties seriously. Okay mama, time to step up your game!
My daughter goes to preschool through the park district. Her class meets twice a week from 9:15-11:45 a.m. There is another preschool program (for slightly older kids) that meets from nine to noon. These programs run all school year, on the same days. Easy to predict, right?
The park district also runs programs for Seniors during the day. Not a problem.
Except today they scheduled the Seniors New Years Party (don’t even get me started on that silliness) to begin at noon. It’s a free party. Hooray! So, over 250 seniors signed up. They all drive themselves. The party is scheduled to start at noon, so they all arrive early to get signed in. Early as in they start arriving at 11 am and fill the entire parking lot, park illegally, fills all the side streets, etc.
Oh, and many of them (not all, but enough that my toddler and I almost got hit walking into the building) drive like IDIOTS!
I had to park 3 blocks away, in January in Chicago, to pick up my daughter from school.
The preschool director was so concerned about the safety of kids today, that she decided to shorten the preschool day and have the parents pick the kids up 15 minutes early. But the only notice of this was a sign on the classroom door this morning.
Would it be too much to ask that they schedule the adult party to start AFTER preschool lets out? It takes time to bundle these little kids up and get them out the door, buckled into the cars, and go. They could have arranged for the Seniors party to start at 1. Which would have given a nice buffer. But no.
Instead, it is scheduled to start at noon, which gives the 2 year old classroom 15 minutes to get out the door and parking lot before the party officially starts, and the 3-4 year olds no time at all.
Not that it mattered anyway because everyone arrived early for the party and was milling around in all of the hallways leaving no space to actually put the kids coats on, or look at their artwork that they made today, or any of the usual “pick up routine”.
Give me a break! A little prior planning isn’t too much to ask for!
I can’t wait to talk to the scheduling person for the park district tomorrow. She is of course busy today with the party.
Grrrr.
We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything was amazing. People got along. We discussed a lot of Charlie Sheen. Oh, and we drank an amazing amount of eggnog. We survived (with my cold, my survival was in question there for a bit), and wonder of wonders, as of 9:20 Friday morning, all of the dishes are done! I even have turkey stock cooling already.
So, a rundown.
Soup we had a soup course for the first time this year, mom made a delicious lobster bisque. I like this tradition!
Turkey I brined the bird overnight, stuffed a compound butter under the skin all over, and shoved an onion and an apple up the birds tush. Then I baked it at 350F for 3.5 hours. It was perfect. Moist, flavorful, delicious. I was wishing I made a bigger bird it was so good!
Mashed Potatoes Mom found a recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes, and I have to admit I was a bit wary, but they were delicious! Creamy, soft, not heavy at all. Very impressive.
Stuffing We had two stuffings, both made by my mom (is she amazing or what?) Oyster stuffing, with the words biggest oysters ever yum! I didn’t get a chance to try the cornbread stuffing, but it looked and smelled delicious.
Sweet Potatoes Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes, inspired by The Pioneer Woman. They weren’t pretty, but were mighty tasty. Those leftovers will be served as tonight’s side dish.
Ratatouille My sister was in charge of veggies this year, and her ratatouille was delicious. It was also beautiful until I scooped it out of the carefully layered pyrex pan to put it into a serving bowl. My bad. Ratatouille may be the perfect thanksgiving veggie. It’s colorful, satisfying, and way lighter than a casserole.
Carrots Just to add some variety (and even more color to our rainbow table), my brother in law made creamy carrots from the Julie Child school of thought. I know it’s hard to improve on simple carrots, but the addition of a ton of butter and heavy cream took these carrots from pedestrian to out of this world amazing. Those left overs are all mine. I packaged them up first and hid them in the back of my fridge. My lunch today is just going to be creamy carrots.
Cranberry Sauce I kept it simple and just followed the recipe on the bag, adding a bit of orange juice, a cinnamon stick, and a pinch of aleppo pepper. So good. I wish I had some of the rolls left over to spread this on for breakfast!
Rolls Oh, cannot forget these! My sister made crescent rolls, from scratch. Sure beats the hell out of anything from Pillsbury!
I feel like I’m missing something from my rundown, because my table was groaning under the weight of all the food. It was all so good.
Wish you were here!
Well, I’m off to start tonight’s pot roast and get my Challah going. Shabbat waits for no-one this time of year!
Two year old (will be three next month) is missing out on her preschool’s Thanksgiving event today. She is instead sitting next to me on the sofa, still in her pajamas, watching Yo Gabba Gabba and sipping on a cup of lukewarm super sweet tea. She keeps saying “me no feel so well Mommy”. I ask her what doesn’t feel good, and she says “Evebyting” Poor dear. Her brother on the other hand feels fine and is running around like a crazy child.
When Mim does feel well enough to play, she’s building “castles” or setting up train tracks all over the living room. And as soon as she steps away to lay down and rest some more, her brother comes through like King Kong and destroys everything, which sets Mim off crying.
Oh, and did I mention it is thunderstorming, so I can’t even let the boy burn off some energy outside?
Luckily, the kids aren’t afraid of thunder, just of imaginary kitty cats, so we’ve got that small blessing. I just hope we all get over these colds soon. Thanksgiving is no fun in a sick house!
Who loves photo albums? You know I do! I bet you do too. Well, lucky for me, I got on a list. What kind of list? A blogger list! Somehow, Kodak found out about little old me and decided to give me a free photo album, and to give two of my readers free albums too! You lucky readers you.
For Halloween, Kodak made all sorts of amazing new halloween themed photo albums, and through the 11th, you can order one for your very own. Or you can hang on to your giftcard and do albums for holiday gifts, or for yourself of the year, or whatever. Don’t tell Kodak I said that though!
So now that you’re all hot and bothered for one of my two $50 Kodak gift cards, allow me to sweeten the deal! Now through the 11th, in addition to the really cool Halloween theme books, you can get 50 free Mommy Cards, and free prints if you order a medium or large size photo book. I’m over the moon here myself.
How do you get one of these amazing cards? It’s easy! Head on over to Kodak.com and take a look at the goodies. Then come back here and comment on what size book you like best, or what card design, or whatever. Basically, tell me what you would order if you were lucky enough to win one a gift card for free Kodak.com products. It’s that simple.
Somebody is going to win, actually, because Kodak and I are so generous, two somebodies will win. It might as well be you!
You have until the end of the day on Sunday, the 7th of November to enter my giveaway. It doesn’t give you much time, so hurry up and comment already!
I love cooking. I love setting an attractive table, and feeding people. I love having people over to the house, putting out snacks, fixing drinks, and entertaining. I love holidays once they actually are here and everyone is together and enjoying the holiday.
What I do not love is cleaning. In any form. I’m trying to do the Fly Lady thing, but instead of flying, I find I’m barely fluttering. I have toddlers who hide apples in the sofa cushions. I have a husband who says the dishes are done and what he means is that he loaded and ran the dishwasher, but anything that didn’t fit was left on the stove and in the sink.
But really, it’s my fault. Not theirs. I should be the one following my routines and getting my house clean so that I don’t have to do a pre-Shabbat freak out every week to get things presentable.
Instead, I’m blogging.
Did I mention I really hate cleaning?
I need a domestic. Oh well. Until I can hire one (probably half past never) I need to get up off my tush and get to work.
Little Man in the lobby
Today was Rosh Hashanah. Actually, it started last night, but that’s beside the point. My family attends (and helps organize) a very small, fairly organized free community service for the High Holidays. The service has been going on for something like 35 years, and it is free to everyone, we just ask for a small donation. Anyway, the same cantor has led services for the last 24 years, and the same man has read Torah for the last 17. They couldn’t do it anymore.
So this year, we hired a new cantor, and yours truly read Torah. I was so nervous that even though I knew the portion perfectly, I tripped over my tongue something awful once up there on the bima reading. I managed to pull it together, and made it through the portion, but my stress level was through the roof.
At that point, my toddlers were done with services. We lasted long enough to hear my sister blow shofar (the first portion), and then my kids and I high tailed it home.
It’s a good thing too as I barely managed to get the sleeping 1 year old into his crib before my migraine hit full force and I ran to the washroom and lost my breakfast.
Princess in the lobby
I managed to take a pill and curl up with my 2 year old on the sofa, where my family found me when they all arrived for Rosh Hashanah dinner (served around 2 pm).
My mom and sister saw the situation, and stepped in to save the day. All the food was already cooked, but the table wasn’t set, nothing was heated up, or even organized. They did it all. My sister’s soup and rice pilaf were excellent. Mom’s salad was delicious. My chickens reheated just fine, and everything came together like clockwork while I lay practically comatose.
I pulled myself together enough to eat, and then they all sent me to bed.
They cleared the table, entertained my children, and just made everything so easy for me!
I can’t thank them enough.
My new year got off to a rocky start, but with family like this, I know that whatever life throws our way, we’ll be okay.
L’Shana Tova Tikatevu to you and yours. I hope that the new year brings you blessings, peace, and happiness.
Lots of people have been asking me for my challah recipe recently. I’ve tried countless recipes over the years, and honestly this is the easiest and tastiest one I’ve ever found. My family likes it so much they have me make the challah every week. Homemade is better than any store bought, from a grocery, bakery, or wherever. My recipe is based on Recipezaar’s “The Best Bread Machine Challah”, which in turn is based on Susie Fishbein’s Kosher By Design – Picture-perfect food for the Holidays and every day
My recipe calls for a bread machine, if you don’t have one (and I didn’t for the longest time), you can use your stand mixer with a dough hook. If you don’t have one of those, you’ll have to knead by hand. I’m assuming that you already know the basics of bread baking. 
Add the first 7 ingredients to your bread machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or in the order given combine them in a large bowl. If using a bread machine, set it to the “dough” cycle and walk away until it is done. Otherwise, use your mixer’s dough hook and allow to rise once then punch down before moving on to the next step. If kneading by hand, knead everything until well combined, allow to rise for 1 hour, then punch down and knead again.
Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured board and divide in half. Set one portion aside. Divide into 4 equal portions and roll them out into snakes. On a Silpat
pad or parchment paper lined cookie sheet, braid the 4 snakes together. Repeat with the second portion. Cover with a dish towel and allow to rise for 35 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350F. Brush the risen loaves with beaten egg, and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
Immediately remove loaves to a cooling rack. Let them cool at least 20 minutes or you will burn your mouth!!! (It’s difficult, I know).
Celebrate Shabbat!
Asher is trying so hard to walk, but he’s not quite there yet. Which explains one of the reasons he really loves it when my dad comes over.
Watching the little dude steal my dad’s walker, thereby trapping my dad on the sofa makes me laugh, every single time.
Passover is this week! Lots and lots of food, and some fun challenges ahead.
Sunday: Cooking all day to prepare for the seders and then dinner out with my husband and my parents. We’ve even hired a babysitter!
Monday: 1st Seder. Matza, horseradish, charoset, parsley, hard boiled eggs with salt water, gefilte fish, chopped liver, chicken soup with matza balls, prime rib, parsleyed new potatoes, roasted asparagus, sponge cake, strawberries, and did I mention the 4 glasses of wine?
Tuesday: 2nd Seder. Matza, horseradish, charoset, parsley, hard boiled eggs with salt water, gefilte fish, chopped liver, chicken soup with matza balls, herb roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, broccoli, tiramatza and again, 4 glasses of wine
Wednesday: SnB night for me, husband gets to feed the kidlets leftovers. Don’t worry, there should be plenty
Thursday: Lake trout with lemon and parsley, mashed potatoes, salad with homemade dressing, matza
Shabbat: No challah this week, matza instead, and my sister is making Shabbat dinner. We’ll end with a vanilla cheesecake (almond crust) in honor of my dad’s birthday!
Saturday: Probably leftovers again, because there should still be plenty. If not, then grilled steaks, artichokes, and matza.
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