Category: Misc

I was babysitting for my cousin’s adorable 2-year old son today, so didn’t get much cooking done, even though it’s a “holiday”. I did manage to find this totally cool doll-maker website, though.

This is really fun. I might have to let Girl’s friends try it the next time they have a sleepover.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve given you any new recipes. It’s been an insane week and I haven’t been cooking much. Girl had a basketball tournament (3 games in one week), Hubby was out of town and we’re all still really tired and recovering from being sick. I did make some heart-shaped banana muffins for rhe kids for breakfast on Wednesday (also served them to basketball team, because it was my day to bring snack), but other than that and scrambled eggs at breakfast, the kitchen has been closed around here. Some friends invited us (minus Hubby, who was braving freezing weather in DC) to dinner on Valentine’s and served us GREAT Chicken Curry that I SHOULD have taken a photo of. It was DEEE-lish!

Hubby and I are going to a “Chinese New Year” cooking class tonight, so I’ll get back to cooking soon……

Thirteen Things about LARA 1. I am a total grammar geek (Hubby says Grammar Nazi). It drives me crazy when someone says that they’re doing “good”. I correct my children (gently) all the time – so much so that they don’t need much correcting anymore and have moved on to correcting others. Girl has taught her friends the difference between adjectives and adverbs and when it’s appropriate to use each. That’s what they discuss at the lunch table at school. I’m so proud. 2. Inclement weather both terrifies and excites me. I LOVE being safe at home during a blinding rainstorm or snowstorm or ice storm or tornado warning. I have a weather radio. I hate having to travel in bad weather, however. I am addicted to weather.com and check it every day before going out. Sometimes more than once. 3. My favorite TV shows are: “Top Chef” and “The Sopranos”. I also love just about anything on the History Channel. I just recently discovered “Lost” and am watching it as fast as I can on DVD so that I can catch up with the new season. I am very proud to say that I have never seen American Idol. I am absolutely uninterested. I also, although this is painfully embarassing to admit, love “Dog, The Bounty Hunter”. Also embarassing to admit is that our whole family loves to watch “America’s Funniest Videos” reruns together on Friday nights. We laugh our butts off. 4. I am an obsessive list-maker and organizational freak. A big dinner party or Thanksgiving Meal requires a 12-page document including menu, grocery list, RSVP lists, recipes and schedules of what goes in the oven when. I also put Post-It notes on my buffet table to show which dish will go where and I get the serving utensils out ahead of time. 5. I love running. And pushups. And crunches. And bicep curls. But mostly running. 6. I like designer sunglasses and expensive French scarves, but I buy lots of my other clothes from Target and Lands End. I also love eBay, but I don’t buy clothes there. 7. I love to play cards and board games. Especially Euchre. My car license plate is JJAKQ (the highest hand you can have in Euchre). Our three cats are named Ace, Jack and Queen. I love to play a game we call “I Doubt It” (more commonly known as “Bull***t”). Boy can win this game against anyone. Behind that angelic, blue-eyed, dimpled face is a very convincing bluffer. He may grow up to be a very successful con man…..or maybe he will someday win the World Poker Tour. Again, I’m so very proud. 8. I love gangster movies, the more violent the better: Scarface, Pulp Fiction. My all-time favorite movie EVER IN THE WORLD is GoodFellas. Ray Liotta…..(swoon). I also love Fletch and Animal House and total sleeper (featuring Rowdy Roddy Piper) called They Live. 9. I think old, bald guys are incredibly sexy: Ed Harris, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, Robert Duval, etc. Especially Robert Duval, even though he’s old enough to be my grandfather. Did you know that he can tango? 10. I love collecting dishes (different types of the same pattern) and can serve 12 people 7 courses without washing a single dish. I recently got bread and butter plates in my “everyday” pattern and was so excited that it was the first thing that I told Hubby when he returned from a week-long business trip – “Look, honey….bread plates!”. I did give him a welcome-home kiss first. I think. 11. I love 80s British Pop, especially Squeeze (also XTC, The Pistols, Buzzcocks, etc.). I think Danny Elfman is a genius and can sing every Oingo Boingo song by heart. I also love Sam Cooke and The Supremes. I feel VERY old when that AARP commercial comes on – the one with the Buzzcocks’ “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”. I need to find some NEW music to like. Lily Allen has some potential….. 12. I love downhill snow skiing. So fast that I could go tumbling down the mountain at any moment and break every bone in my body. 13. I try really hard to be an environmentalist and recycle everything that I possibly can (junk mail and paper, plastic containers, glass). I even take my hangers back to the dry cleaners and plastic bags (and the plastic wrap that comes on magazines and toilet paper, etc.) back to the grocery store……but I still feel guilty because I use plastic water bottles, plastic baggies and disposable milk boxes in my kids’ lunches and I drive an SUV (although it is a smallish SUV). Links to other Thursday Thirteens! (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) 1. http://www.richardpettinger.com/blog?category=thursday_thirteen

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….here are the other two.

Queen (left) and Jack (right).

This is the drawback of setting the table too early (at least at our house).

Ace, waiting to be served.

This is so funny! Type “your name needs” into Google, complete with the quotes and see what you get for your top ten. Apparently, someone out there thinks that I am very much more athletic than I am, but am in need of a makeover…..I suppose that’s what I get for having the same name as an action video game character!

Lara needs a haircut.
Lara needs new breasts.
LARA needs an interactive way to teach kids about different foods, animals, and common household items.
Lara needs anger management therapy.
Lara needs to get a life and start dating someone her own age.
Lara needs to use stealth just as much as she does combat maneuvers and jumps.
Lara needs to let her hair down and dance to Donna Summer’s disco hits.
Lara needs another 86 runs to become the first player to reach 1000 runs for the 2004 calendar year.
Lara needs the paintings because a note in Von Croy’s pocket led her to believe that they would help prove her innocence.
Lara needs to get to Shanghai?

My handsome Boy was crucifer at school last week.

While we were on our ski trip, Austin had a major ice storm, and this is what we came home to:

We have returned from a great ski trip and have started cooking again. More at-home recipes soon, but first an update from the trip:

A photo of Girl (on the left) and Boy (on the right, in the cool dreadlock-ed helmet cover), on our annual ski trip. We had a great trip. This was at the top of “Elk Camp” lift, right before going down the “Sandy Park” run – one of our favorites.

We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Artisan one night (http://www.stonebridgeinn.com/images/StonebridgeInn_ArtisanMenu.pdf).

WOW WOW WOW! This place is SO good! We ate here last year, as well. My dad loved the Duck with Drunken Cherries so much that we went back two nights in a row and he ordered it again! Boy and Girl even enjoyed their meals, although they were pretty tired out after a day on the mountain and fell asleep by the beautiful fireplace. I had the Crispy Calamari over Mizuna Greens for an appetizer and it was delicious, then had the Scallops for an entree. They were served over pasta in a creamy sauce that had JUST enough spice.

My scallops…..mmmmmm.

We also had dinner at Lynn Britt Cabin (http://www.aspensnowmass.com/onmountain/dining/default.cfm?id=1386).
It was lots of fun (we rode a snowcat up the mountain to the cabin) and the food was good (Chicken Breast with Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing and Poblano Gravy….Mmmmmmm…..), but ouch – it was pricey!

Me and my dad looking, in shock, at the bill (over $800 for 6 people, 2 of them children).

All 4 of us (me, Hubby, Boy and Girl), at Lynn Britt Cabin

A nice photo of my ‘rents

Sorry, no entries for a while, guys. Boy has been sick (has missed this whole week of school and tomorrow’s not looking good either) and we are leaving for a ski vacation on Friday, so I won’t be cooking anything for a while. We’ll be back next Wednesday and I’ll be ready to get cooking again. I already have some good-looking recipes picked out that I want to try.The town where we ski does have some great restaurants, though, so maybe I’ll sneak a photo or two, if I can, and let you know what kind of yummies we’re snacking on apres-ski.

Quick tip:
We used to LOVE eating at Panera (www.panerabread.com) when we lived in Northern Virginia (for those of you that don’t know, locals add the “Northern” for a reason), but when we moved back to Texas, they didn’t have them here. Well, we just got one in our neighborhood and we are thrilled. (If only we could get a Noodles & Company here now!) Panera is a great, quick, kid-friendly (and pretty healthy option) for busy nights. Their soups, served in a sourdough bread bowl, are SO yummy. All four of us LOVE the Black Bean Soup. Well, today they just came out with new “Peanut Butter Banana Crunch” bagels. Mmmmmmm……. Boy and Hubby are SO happy – two of their favorites together. Girl hates peanut butter AND bananas, so she just ignored them, but they are SO good. I like to buy different flavors of bagels: cinn. raisin (Girl’s fave), blueberry, asiago, spinach, etc, cut them in half, put the halves in a sandwich baggie and then put all of the little individual bagel-baggies in a LARGE Ziploc in the freezer. This is a tip that I got from my BF (in NoVa), Eileen. On busy mornings, the kids can pull out half a bagel by themselves and throw it in the toaster and I am free to pour myself another cup of coffee (my 5:30 am boot camp class started up again this week – ugh!). Anyway, I highly recommend trying Panera out if you haven’t been before and I VERY highly recommend the PBB Crunch bagels.