Adventures in Cooking

 I cooked cauliflower for the first time tonight. Growing up I cannot remember a single time my Mom made cauliflower and Dan detests the vegetable, so I've never had a desire to attempt a cauliflower concoction.

Well, since joining a CSA I've been cooking and eating some vegetables that I've never considered before and with very good results. We've had kale, beets and now cauliflower. Dan had one piece and said it was okay which was very encouraging, considering the mere mention of eating cauliflower would cause him to gag. Daniel, who is not a big veggie lover also said it was okay, and Sammy and I really liked it.

I used a recipe called Cauliflower Poppers I found on Pinterest. The only changes I made were I mixed the cauliflower with a little olive oil and because I was out of chili pepper I sprinkled on some Cajun seasoning and red pepper flakes. I would definitely use this recipe again if we get more cauliflower in our CSA box.

We also had some left over chili that I made yesterday. I used a new recipe, Spicy Chili, that was really good. I used ground turkey meat instead of beef and added some black beans too. It was very soup like, so I have renamed it Spicy Chili Soup. It was perfect for the cold rainy day we had yesterday. I love finding good new recipes.

 

A whole lotta beef...

 Tonight I will be cooking up more ground beef than I have probably cooked in my whole life. Although that's not saying much since I rarely cook beef (I am more of a chicken, turkey and seafood girl). Why so much beef? Well, I am helping out with our church's Winter Shelter program and cooking dinner for the guests and the volunteers and decided to do a taco bar meal. Easy and yummy. I've never cooked for this many people (about 20-25), so I hope we don't run out of food. Wish me luck!

 

Things that make Daniel giddy...

One of Daniel's favorite stores is Staples. I had to get some stuff at Staples yesterday and took Daniel with me and he was giddy with excitement as he perused the assortment of pens, paper and various office supplies. He is a funny kid I'll tell ya. He really liked this open/closed sign and thought it would look nice hanging by his bed. He decided to save the $6.00 and attempt to make one instead.

I'm thinking that a Staples gift card might make a good present for his upcoming birthday.

Mother's Day

So thankful to be the mother of these two boys.

Home Bound

I am going on day four of being couped up inside the house with a feverish boy.

It hasn't helped that we've been having beautiful warm days.

At least I can work in the garden.

It started on Monday morning with Sammy.

A bad headache and an almost 104 fever.

Poor little guy was miserable.

Tuesday his temp was down, but he was still not feeling great.

Wednesday back to his chipper self.

This morning I was glad he could go back to school.

Then Daniel came down stairs crying that he had a headache.

Yep, it was the fever.

So Sammy when off to school and Daniel stayed home.

Another gorgeous day today too.

Hopefully by the weekend Daniel will be back to his old self.

We'll have to see about Dan and I.

A Cub Scout Hike

Yesterday afternoon some of my cub scouts and I went on an adventure. Some of the boys (they don't all go to the same school) had this week off for Spring Break, and I wanted to do something out of the ordinary to break our routine, so I decided to push them a bit and have them hike up a mountain. To be more precise, Cowles Mountain, the highest point in the city of San Diego.

We got to the trail head just before 4pm, with some threatening clouds in the sky, and some threatening looks from the parents. Totally kidding on the second part of that. One thing that has been great about cub scouts from the very beginning three years ago has been the friendship with the other parents. They have been great, supportive, helpful, willing to put up with some of my crazy ideas (like take their little angels up a 'mountain').

Four scouts were with us, Cameron, Daniel, David and Malachi, and a fellow parent, Dave, was going up with me. The boys haven't seen each other all week, so there was much to share on the way up. Dave and I were amazed at the unending conversation between the boys. Suzy later asked what they talked about. I have no idea, but it never stopped. Never is too strong a word, the only time it stopped was when one of them biffed it trying to scramble up a steep part. I tried upping the pace to see if I could tire the conversation out of them, no go. All the way up, all the way down.

There was one more situation where it got quiet, both times we crossed the first bridge (going up and going down) the boys all were eerily quiet, probably because every other hiker we saw had mentioned the rattlesnake seen near the bridge. I was disappointed that we didn't actually see (or hear) the aforementioned rattlesnake, but the boys sure loved the drama. Cameron's first thing he said to his dad when we got down was, 'I am so glad that i'm alive!'. His dad gave me a bit of a look, and then got the story in a rush.

I had a great time with the boys, and seeing their happy faces at the top of the mountain is one of the main reasons why. They had some boyish confidence at the bottom, trusting that us adults wouldn't push them past what they could take. However, when we would point up and say that's where we were going they seemed rather doubtful. When they at last turned the final corner and saw that we were at the top, it was one of those moments as a parent that you cherish, happiness.

UPS!

For those of you whom work in a small business you will know what that sounds like. A man or woman enters your location, calls out in a loud, questioning voice, 'UPS'. There is a nuance to the call. A practiced office worker can tell a lot about the mood of the driver just by the sound of his/her (I throw the /her in there but in reality I can recall only a short two or three month period in the last fourteen years when our UPS guy was actually a UPS girl) call. The place I work, RCK Controls, has changed locations twice in its history and once since I have been around, call it Fall of '97. In all that time we have had, to my admittedly shaky memory, four, maybe five, regular UPS guys.

A big chunk of my time working here I was the closest person to the door, so I was most often the person that responded to the call. For a multitude of reasons I felt like I should treat the UPS guys with a lot of respect, and try to get to know them a little bit. These are the guys who bring everything to us, from our new computers, to the Christmas presents for our much loved families. Be nice to the guys who bring you birthday presents for your wife.

Last week the people who are normally the first line of response for the UPS! guy in our office were off for lunch. I, being all the way down the hall, was the first responder to the call. When our guy (do they even have names?!?!) made it to my office I signed the pad, exchanged greetings, and as he was leaving he said something that struck me as bizarre,

'So, what's all for sale?'

My quick-witted response, 'Uh, what?'

'I saw the sign, it said, 'Everything for sale.''

Me, again, with the snappy repartee, 'Sign?'

My brain was spinning and the UPS! guy was growing tired with the game. I searched for anything possible, and that is when I went into my default mode, if I am confused, blame it on my kids.... Got it!

'Oh', I said, 'You mean a sign in the window at home!'

'Yeah, it looks like you guys are having a pretty good sale.'

'Yeah, I think you're right, come by and talk to the boys to see what they'll charge you for some Legos.'

'OK, see you later.'

'Have a good one, bud.'

About three weeks ago Daniel and Sammy had a garage sale. If I recall it was raining pretty good, so the foot traffic was lower than normal in our cul-de-sac, but that didn't deter them. A bunch of toys (I think they even tried to sell some of my scrap wood, they were very excited when I gave them permission) were laid out, signs made, all the things you need to make a little side cash. Unsurprisingly nothing was sold. I think that they may have seen two humans during those three hours on a Saturday afternoon that didn't live under our roof. But, it occupied them nicely for an afternoon, and they didn't burn anything down (that I know of, remember the rain?), so it was a win all around. Unfortunately not all the signs were removed. In our studio window, clearly a prominent position for advertising in the neighborhood, was in bold print,



San Diego being the small town that it is, my home UPS! guy is also my work UPS! guy, so when he saw the opportunity to get a good deal he jumped at it. If you are looking for some cheap stuff, come on by. The boys would be happy to sell you some scrap wood or mostly fine army men. Forget Craiglist or Ebay, come see the Walls boys, they would be happy to hook you up.