A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Chinese New Year / Fortune Cookies

Happy New Year! And welcome to the Year of the Snake. Snakes don’t have the best reputation, but we think they’re cool and they do help keep the rodent population under control.

If you were born under this sign, the Chinese calendar folks consider you to be thoughtful, artistic, and stylish. And you’re in good company: Jessica Chastain, Taylor Swift, Daniel Radcliffe, and Oprah Winfrey are snakes, too.

Our Chinese New Year plans were dampened by snow yesterday, but we did manage to make some fortune cookies. While I was handling the hot dough and slipping fortunes inside, I thought of the best fortune I ever got.

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Short Fiction

Ashley

The couple had seated themselves at their usual table in the corner of the patio. It was a popular spot thanks to a natural canopy of low-hanging branches, but Madeline and Ted always arrived early to beat the Saturday morning brunch crowd. Ashley brought them water and coffee, black for him and cream and sugar for her, and they smiled good morning. Since Ashley almost always got the outside section through outright begging, she was usually the one to wait on their table. “Did you have a good week?” Madeline asked. “Pretty good. I had finals.” “How’d you do?” Madeline asked. “Okay, I think,” Ashley said. “I’m just glad it’s over.” “I’m sure,” Madeline smiled. “Do you have plans for the summer?” Ashley shrugged. “I’ll be working here a lot. And I’m taking a couple classes. Trying to graduate on time.” “Our youngest is graduating next week, so we know the feeling,” Madeline said. [Read more…] about Short Fiction

Dutch Baby

We’ve been trying to eat less bread around here (well, I have, anyway) so breakfasts are mostly eggs and yogurt and Chex cereal. But some days you just need a Dutch baby. All that warm, puffed-up, buttery deliciousness can make a cold winter morning much more cozy.

And it’s always fun to see the look on a small child’s face when you tell her you’re having a Dutch Baby for breakfast. A what? I don’t know where the name originated, but one source suggests that Dutch might actually be from the German deutsch. Which is fine, although I like the image of boys and girls in pointed hats and wooden clogs tucking into these before heading out to skate the canals.

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What to Cook? / Food We Love

Here is a collection of my favorite recipes, the tried and true. Some appear on our table weekly, some just once or twice a year on special occasions, but none of them ever let me down. I’ll be adding more, so please check back if you need ideas!

Main Dishes
Aunt Karna’s Stuffed Shells
Neopolitan Casserole
Grandma Charlotte’s Pork Chops with Dressing

Side Dishes
Cauliflower with Browned Butter
Aunt Debbie’s Sweet Potato Casserole

Salads
Grandma Marilyn’s Cabbage Salad

Soups
Italian Potato Sausage Soup

Breakfast, Brunch and Brinner
Man Crepes from Mad Hungry
Dutch Baby

Desserts
Scandinavian Almond Cake
Red Velvet Cake with Sugared Cranberries
Grandma Marilyn’s Georgia Pecan Apple Bundt Cake
Cafe Latte Turtle Cake
Grandma’s Yum-Yum Bars

Candy
Sugared Pecans
Christina’s Turtle Candies

A Life in Mugs

This from a designer featured in a popular lifestyle magazine:

“Mismatched pieces wreak havoc. Unless you won the lotto while drinking from that old mug, don’t let sentimentality make you keep it. Any sort of ‘off’ dishware causes visual chaos, and every time you open the cupboard, something in the back of your brain is saying, ‘My life is a mess.’ There’s calm and comfort in an organized set.”

Huh.

I look at my cupboard. It is filled with mismatched pieces. If we’re being judged on this sort of visual chaos, then my life is a really big mess.

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