I'm Back!

Well, almost... We're wrapping up one week of unfettered joy and fun on the lake. Vacations are a rare thing for us. We visited NOLA last Christmas, but I think before that we last took a week off together when Maddie was born. Need to remember this amazing stress-reliever called "vacation pay".

I'm looking at a beautifully calm Lake Ontario right now that is just calling for me to go swimming. But before I do, here are a few of my favorite vacation moments.













































See? Joy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Red Letter Day

Oh, what a humdinger today was. It was not per se a bad day. But it was certainly riddled with weird occurances.

Today was my first day of teaching a summer camp course at my school. While I love teaching this class, it does certainly complicate my life by making our schedule a little long. I work my regular day and then teach two hour and a half (each) classes, which basically means that I work a normal work day for most of you, my loyal readers.  But for me? Particularly during summer (again my nice relaxed, catch-up season)? Recipe for stress.

So I really got myself together. I planned everything down to the smallest detail -- had the car packed the night before with all my supplies, lunch packed, clothes laid out.  Life had other plans.

When I got up, Rob told me he had had to go to work at 5 am and had parked the car by the side of the building. And oh by the way, here's some cash for gas.  Sounds pretty good, right?

Nope, my car was pinned in by two illegal parkers and one very long car parked entirely too close to me. After 10 minutes of attempting to back out into our one-way driveway, I had to switch to an Austin Powers-esque 30-point turn going against traffic and back up to finally get out the drive 20 minutes later.

Oh, and yes, the gas tank empty light was on. But now I was too late to stop for gas, particularly when I had to go inside and pay cash for it.

So I waited until after work, at which point I coasted into a gas station -- even leaving my a/c off and putting my windows up to cut down on wind resistance. Made it on a wing and a prayer folks. Wing and a prayer.

After work Maddie and I went to -- as she calls it -- "shopping Wegmans" (or as my iphone likes to call it "shopping Wetlands"). By this time it's 5 o'clock and I stock up on all the food I need for my class plus stuff for tacos so we can have a nice easy dinner when we get home from the mobbed and excrutiatingly slow grocery store. We get home at 6, unpack the car, and realize that I didn't buy any tortillas. Yikes! No dinner. Unload the car and back we go on our second trip to the Wetlands.

Here comes the big one... ready? Until this point, I did pretty well. I even managed to throw dinner on the table in under 5 minutes (cold steak tacos anyone?) and take Maddie for a nice walk to the park and still get back in time for bedtime. Get Maddie in her jammies, read her some stories, sing her a song. She's ready to go to sleep -- just one last potty break. And that's when it happens.

I dropped her in the toilet. Yup! I was thinking about what I needed to do for my class tomorrow, not paying attention. Forgot to put on the potty seat and just thought it was there, so I put her on just like it was there and let go. Poor Maddie fell right in up to the armpits. Oh, there were tears. Many tears. She said she bumped her back and that she was scared. And surprisingly she all of a sudden didn't have to go potty any more. I am so hoping there won't be any regression here.

Roasted Purple Potatoes

Ok, here goes the last salt heavy recipe that you will receive from me. And please note in the picture above you can see my little salt jar peeking into the photo as if to say, "No, please! Don't leave me behind!" Ah, salt...

But alas, I've decided to try giving up salt and coffee for a bit.  I actually grew up without either of these two lovely, beautiful things. My mom never drank coffee. I picked that one up senior year of college in an attempt to study in coffeehouses and get better grades (or a husband, checkity check.) She also never used salt on anything except eggs. I really didn't use salt until I was living on my own and cooking up a storm.

I've decided that salt and coffee probably aren't doing me any good at the moment. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only part of my body that is better for them is my tastebuds. So I'm detoxing and giving them up... for now.

In the meantime, I made this lovely version of hash browns tonight -- secretly in an attempt to make Maddie like potatoes. She did not.

Roasted Purple Potatoes with a Frittata "Sandwich" and
Blistered Tomatoes

Roasted Purple Potatoes:

1. Chop up a blend of fingerling potatoes which include purple ones (obviously!)  and soak them in water for about 15 minutes. I like to dice my potatoes rather small so that I don't spend a ton of time cooking them.

2. Drain thoroughly! Remember that part about how I was cooking up a storm? Well, I know stuff and then I do stupid things anyway. Like drip a bit of water in a pan of oil. Did you know that can actually start a fire? Things that went through my head tonight: We should really by a fire extinguisher. Hmmm, maybe storing cereal boxes on top of the fridge is not a good idea. Huh, so this is what Grandpa Mac felt like. Oh, look it self-extinguished. Phew.

3. Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and heat on medium. While heating, dice half of a purple onion.

4. Gradually add your DRAINED and maybe even patted dry potatoes to the frying pan. Douse them with a whole lot of salt -- I used a big pinch (it's my last salty meal!) and cover them, stirring occasionally until you can puncture them with a fork. My small diced potatoes took about 10 minutes.

5. Add purple onion and fry without the lid for about 5 more minutes, turning frequently, until potatoes are crispy and onion is cooked through. Top with fresh herbs -- I used scallion greens -- and serve.

***If you've given up salt or coffee and have words of wisdom or encouragement, I'd love to hear them.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Catching Up with Randomness

I have been a sporadic blogger at best this summer, but I am happy to say that my internet is fixed. Hooray! It is so nice to use my laptop to write again, and my connection is even faster than before.  Most of my technology problems are taken care of. My email hacker has been destroyed, but my over-full hard drive still remains.

There are a bunch of random things going on in my life right now. It's a very busy time for me at work. Usually the summer is my catch-up and warm-up season, but this year it seems to be a hectic mess (Ironic, since summer is also our clean-up season). I took one day off this week and returned to a fever pitch of desperate requests from my co-workers as though I had been gone for ages. Learn to live without me folks, because in two weeks I'm going on vacation.

I'm teaching two classes next week and am starting to do all my prep work and supply shopping. Plus I'm tutoring for the rest of the summer. Super fun times! And I'm throwing a baby shower for this lovely lady. And we have family visiting from near and far and of course, Rob's birthday to look forward to.  It's going to be a wild and crazy summer, followed by an even busier fall.

Somehow in the midst of all that, I've made a personal commitment to give up salt and coffee. Wow, I actually just started to type crazy instead of coffee. No kidding. Guess my subconscious is trying to tell me something. My plan is to start detoxing and see how my body reacts. I may ease back into both of these great loves of my life, but I feel like maybe I need to know that I can do it. I was fully committed to this plan until this morning when I started thinking about homemade salsa.... Hmmm.... We shall see.