Happy Birthday, Mom!

The one cake that my Mom makes that is most memorable to me is an angel food cake. She has a lot of variations on the theme, but this one stands out the most to me:

1 angel food cake

1 pint heavy/whipping cream - whipped
1 cup raspberry jam

Fold jam into whipped cream and spread over prepared cake. You may want to freeze the cake so that the cream will adhere more readily. She made this cake many times, and sometimes would substitute chocolate syrup in place of the raspberry jam. The raspberry was my favorite though, so fluffy and creamy. She used to make something similar, but would break up the cake into pieces and use strawberry jell-o and cream, and frozen strawberries. Another good one was her Rocky Road Angel Food Cake. I could go on and on about the delicious things that came out of my Mother's kitchen. If you want to see one more easy, yummy recipe of my Mother's, go here. Happy Birthday, to you!

April Fool's

My one April Fool's trick is this:

2 scoops of vanilla yogurt
2 peach halves or apricots (canned work well)

Place yogurt on a plate and flatten a bit to resemble the egg white. Place the peach or apricot cut side down on the yogurt. There you have 2 fried eggs, sunny side up. Easy. That is the extent of my excitement over this holiday. Of course no one in this house is fooled by it anymore, but they love it and request it every year.

Easter Goods

Nothing says Easter to me more than these Coconut Nests. I look forward to their arrival on the shelves every year. In the past, I would just throw the jelly beans away, but now I can pawn them off on the kids and we're all happy. These nests and I go way back, we have history, so I would have to choose these over Cadbury mini eggs(as much as I love them) as my Easter treat of choice. Get them while you can!

Sterling Silver Bubble Wand

Who wouldn't love to get this sterling silver bubble wand in their Easter basket this year? At only $188, I am sure the Easter Bunny can deliver. Or at least I am sure he can come up with $30 for the pewter version. If you haven't received this catalog, make sure you check it out. I have too many favorites to choose from. Make sure you type in a hyphen between chasing and fireflies when searching for this website, something I can't quite figure out pops up otherwise.

Party Thaaang

Last night's edition of Party Thaaang was great, Senior Prom 2003. If you are not lucky enough to live in Rhode Island, then you are probably wondering, "What is Party Thaaang"? Party Thaaang (yes, there really are three a's in THAAANG) is a local cable program which features highlights from the lastest dance club scene, high school dances, proms, bars, etc. There is no plot, dialogue, or cast, just a bunch of people getting their groove on. My husband and I look forward to watching Party Thaaang every chance we get, in an attempt to better familiarize ourselves with the local culture. I guess there are more and more reasons for me to like living in Rhode Island everyday!

More good stuff

Don't miss the giveaway today at LoveBoxes. DesignMom's guest mom, Lindsey, has featured Love Boxes on today's post. See it here.

more notes to self

My friend, Kathryn reminded me that I too need to make a few notes to help me remember certain things. Today's note to self would be to check all pants pockets before placing them into the washer/dryer. You see, my son went on an adventure to Dave and Buster's on Saturday for a school function. He earned all of these tickets from playing video games and stuffed them into his pockets. He came home and announced that he was going to save them all and earn more tickets to win a really "great" prize! So me, being the brilliant Mother that I am, did not check said pockets (nor do I ever bother to check any pockets) before laundering them today. As I was pulling out ticket after ticket, and lint glob upon lint glob, I asked him, "Just how many tickets did you win on Saturday?" J: "129 Mom, why?" Me:"Oh, just curious..."

Do you know how much lint 129 tickets produces? I have yet to see the end of it. Three loads later and I am still pulling out tickets from the dryer, clothes, and lint trap and I haven't even folded the laundry yet. I know tickets aren't as bad as lipstick or gum, but how am I going to come up with 129 tickets??!!!

Giveaway City

Hey everyone, click on over to this site. My sister-in-law, Tiffany is having a great giveaway today and maybe something next week. Her boxes are hand painted with love, and you will LOVE the market bag in today's prize. It looks like there are a few other goodies to be had by the lucky winner. Get hopping.

Bombay Potatoes

My friend, Jamie Oliver gave me this recipe. It's really good as it is, but I've messed with it a bit, stealing the idea from a potato dish I had at Deepika's house. I think my recipe is WAY better than Jamie's because I use bacon. And we all know that EVERYTHING is better with bacon. Here you go:

6 potatoes, peeled, cubed -parboiled
6 slices bacon, cooked
1/2 t. ground mustard
1 t. chili powder
1 t. cumin
2 t. curry (or more)
1-2 t. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 scallions chopped
2-4 tomatoes, chopped
handful fresh cilantro, chopped

Boil the potatoes, but not completely, they will finish cooking in the next step. Watch them so that they do not cook all the way through otherwise they will get a bit mooshy (which isn't a bad thing). Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a pan. Remove cooked bacon to a towel or rack. In the same pan you used for the bacon(leave all of the bacon fat in there) add the scallions, ginger and spices, let cook over medium heat just for a few seconds, don't let burn. Now add the potatoes to finish cooking, stirring to get the potatoes covered with the spices. If you need more spices, then add more. Crumble the bacon into the potatoes. Add salt if needed. Once the potatoes are cooked through, turn off the heat and add the cilantro and tomatoes. I hope I haven't left anything out. If you don't trust my recipe, you can always make Jamie's.

Look what I found!

Now you can buy the mix here. You provide the butter, eggs, and milk and they provide the rest plus those cute little dots that adorn the tops of their cupcakes. The recipe for the cream cheese frosting is on the can, so make sure you have all the ingredients ready. In the store you can buy an extra special gift set that includes a single cupcake case for a cupcake on the go. Wouldn't that make a great little something for the cupcake lover in your life?

Milka...mmm...

This is one really good bar of chocolate. I could really go for one right now, but they are not so accessible in my world. Sometimes around Easter I have found Milka Truffle Eggs at CVS or Target, but they don't really do it for me. If I get desperate I may have to order it here. Maybe we should write letters, e-mails, phone calls, etc. to petition the Milka makers to sell their chocolate in our local stores.

2006 Rocked!

My eldest son was given this assignment in school:

It was a very good year because...

His response:

"I made new friends. It also was a good year because I got good presents for Christmas. One thing I got was some tasty cheese spray[in my stocking]. These are reasons why 2006 was a good year."

And to think I fretted and worried that he would be disappointed over not getting a Nintendo DS last year!

Why was 2006 a good year for you?

School Lunch

I hate making lunch in the morning for my kids to take to school. I don't so much hate actually preparing the food, I just hate thinking about what to pack EVERY STINKING DAY OF THE WEEK! It gets awfully old making turkey sandwiches for one and a bagel with cream cheese for the other, day in and day out (since PB&J won't even get a sideways glance) not to mention packing additional sides, drink, and a mid-morning snack. I know they tire of the same old same old as well and if I should run out of supplies I simply dig from the bottom of the barrel and at the end of the day, with looks of disgrace on their faces, I am met with,"Mom! What DID you pack in my lunch today??!!" Enter the Thermal Snack Jar, my life saver. My brilliant sister-in-law, mother of 6, food preparer extordinaire, told me about these gems sometime ago. This was it! The answer to all of my problems! I heat up a can of soup, and lunch is done. I throw in a little of last night's dinner and voila! I put in some cold milk, add cereal to a separate bag and bam! (Sorry for that annoying Emeril reference, it's just so exciting!) Macaroni and cheese, spagetti, hot oatmeal, the possibilites are endless. I now dread the morning lunch-making assembly line no more.

The Red Balloon

Do you remember this? I have been searching for books that I haven't read to my kids yet and remembered how much I loved this one as a kid. I recall viewing the film in elementary school more than once and loving that too. There are hardly any words in the film, except Pascal calling, "ballon, ballon" a few times. I love the story of his friend, the balloon and its loyalty. The revolt of the balloons in the end of the story is especially exciting.

Not even this

Can you believe she doesn't even like this one? Of course she doesn't, I like it, therefore she does not. Maybe if I told her I hated it?? Should I get it and make her wear it, or do I risk scarring her for life, (as my husband says he is from being made to wear pink pants as a lad) and years of therapy??!!
Sigh. I know we can find a compromise out there somewhere. Maybe you have a girly girl who would wear this, then I can live vicariously through you for a bit.

Girly Girl

What little girl would not want to wear this ultra pouffy, pink, pretty, precious ballerina skirt?? I'll tell you who wouldn't want to wear it...MY little girl, that's who. I've been shoppping for Easter dresses and have had a difficult time finding something for my once- girly- girl- gone- all- too-cool-teenager on me! It doesn't help when a catalog like this comes to my door, either! If only they made a green or brown corduroy version of her everyday pants into a dress, then maybe she'd be happy!

Swiss Chard

This is the vegetable of the day. I should make it a point to highlight a certain vegetable weekly in this blog, but there are not many vegetables that excite me that much. I love vegetables, don't get me wrong. When prepared the right way, there are not many vegetables that I won't eat. It's just that I don't dream about them. Swiss chard, however, excites me enough to blog about it. I love this stuff. It's very good for you, a lot like spinach, but doesn't leave your mouth as chalky as spinach does. When we had that spinach scare, I used swiss chard as a substitute for most things requiring spinach. It's really pretty to look at too with those colorful stalks. I like to cook it this way:

A little olive oil to a heated pan
A clove of garlic, chopped
Chop up the stems and add to oil first. Saute a bit, then add the chopped up leaves. Saute until wilted sufficiently. Add salt and pepper. Yum-o! You can also add some balsamic vinegar to the pan to add a little zing.