Cookies!

Thursday and Friday were cookie day in my classroom. It's the annual sweet reward I give students for enduring my nonsense all year long. This year's cookie assortment was an impressive array. We had toffee bars, peppermint chocolate chip cookies, molasses spice cookies, brandied cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and rocky road fudge.

I had been baking a batch or two most every night of the past week, leading up to the excess at the end of the week. My homeroom takes the record for most cookies consumed --- nearly 3 dozen --- in the shortest amount of time (less than 15 minutes). Yesterday, for the last period of the day, my American Government class got cookies and we played Apples to Apples.
There is still another week of classes and next week I return to my regular programming of lessons and assignments. But we'll all be a little more festive as we prepare for the upcoming break.

Cookie day is one of my favorite holiday traditions because it reminds me that it's the small pleasures and treats that make December special.

Violated

Most every morning when I come downstairs, a little stuffed bear dressed as Santa can be found lying under the Christmas tree, a forlorn ornament snatched from the tree by the cats in the overnight hours.
I think that Tiger is the most likely culprit for this assault on the tree and I'm amused by the ordinary regularity of the crime.

I imagine that the stuffed bear is less amused by the nightly assault.

Home Improvement Day 3: Success!

On Sunday, the task at hand was grouting. I'd chosen a grout that is close to the color of the tile. The old grout had a number of problems; the most significant among them was its light color. It was impossible to keep pristine or even clean-ish. I live with an 8 year old boy and I wouldn't say that careful aim is always a high priority. That grout like to kill me.

So the new grout is darker and blends in with the tiles. It won't improve anyone's aim, but it will cover a multitude of sins. I had mis-estimated the amount of grout we'd need to complete the room and that necessitated an emergency grout run to Lowe's. But within the hour after my return, T had the room grouted. Then came the tricky part: she had to wait several hours for the grout to set before re-installing the toilet. We would be wiping up the excess grout and cleaning the surface but that doesn't really take all that long in a 5x5 room. What to do?
Normal people would spend their downtime laying about watching football and barking orders for cold beer and nachos.

I say this with the greatest respect for her endless energy: T is not normal. So instead of down time, we had project time. A new curtain rod was installed in JT's playroom. At some point (I have no idea where I'd gone off to) T vaccumed underneath the furnace in my basement (eeek!). Then T hauled out her leaf blower and organized the rest of the leaves in the backyard. JT did some leaf pile jumping and then helped me to fill the bags. Not to be outdone by T's work ethic, I recruited the boy to help me plant the rest of my fall bulbs and then hang up the outdoor Christmas lights.
The trash piled in the front yard was testament to a weekend of hard work.
Once indoors, I made a little celebration supper and enjoyed our last meal with the toilet in the dining room. Reinstallation of the toilet was a little trickier than we liked, but once the plumbing was up to speed (i.e. a person with actual skill tightened the valve attaching the toilet to the water supply) it was all good. The door was re-hung with a minimum of profanity, all of it coming from my mouth. I was even allowed to use the drill (with no adverse affects on the project).

I couldn't be happier with the results. I'm like a kid with a new toy, happily standing in my bathroom and admiring the new floor.

Thanks, T. I owe you one.

Home Improvement Day 2: Beware the Cats

On Saturday morning, I lay in bed second-guessing my decision not to carve my initials in the new floor before it cured hard and fast. I came downstairs to find that the cats had not been so reluctant to mark their territory.
JT and I were horrified, like parents of a couple of very difficult teenagers. While the guilty parties retreated to the attic playroom for a stern lecture from JT, T assured me that we could work around this snafu. And work was her strong suit that day. As I struggled to fully awaken, she set up the wet saw for tile cutting on the back deck.
The day's task was laying the tile. With precision and speed, that's exactly what T did.


Not to appear indolent, JT and I hauled the Christmas tree indoors and started to decorate. That was the theme of Saturday: holidays and heavy equipment. By the evening, there was a lovely Christmas tree in the living room.
In the bathroom, the new tiles lay affixed to the floor, awaiting Sunday's festival of grouting. Things were starting to come together.

A Good Time on a Friday Night

The first day of my home improvement weekend featured the greatest amount of destruction. Because nothing says "have a relaxing weekend" like tearing stuff apart and filling the living room with equipment and Christmas decorations.
In must be noted that when my friend T sets her mind to fixing up your hovel of a home, she means business. While I got supper to the table on Friday night, she unloaded supplies into the house. Then, she and JT fired up her compressor to use the air gun to nail up my indigent cabinet kickplates. And presto, a problem I've been living with for years was magically fixed. Ten minutes into home improvement weekend, and we were off to an impressive start.
After that appetizer, a little destruction was on the menu. The bathroom door was removed from the hinges to enable a little more breathing space in the tiny room. That kind of job is always more fun if the screws are stripped, as were the screws holding my door. The toilet was pulled out and carried to the dining room, where the throne would spend the better part of the weekend as the butt of many jokes.
The tile was torn up, revealing a rather corroded floor underneath, including barely recognizable lino that last saw daylight circa 1960, I'd guess. The worst part of the corrosion featured some black ants who were less than delighted to see us. The feeling was mutual. Bug spray and bleach were deployed to aid in 1) their demise and 2) ensure mildew removal. The old tile was hauled to the trash bin. That work completed, we headed to Lowe's to contemplate some new sub-floor materials.
The new sub-floor would be a combination of heavy mesh metal nailed to the floor and finished with Mega Bond mortar. And no December trip to Lowe's is complete without securing a Christmas tree, so we did that as well. Upon our return, T played with the sheet of metal in the living room.
Her next challenge: nailing the mesh into the bathroom floor.
JT and I secured the Christmas tree in its stand and left it on the front porch to shake out (not to mention taunt the cats).
By the end of the evening, the new floor was in place, providing a nice even surface to affix tile the next morning. While the floor was still wet, T encouraged me to carve my initials in. I deferred, but that's a story for tomorrow.

The Ultimate Weekend Update: Home Improvement

When JT was in kindergarten and 1st grade, Monday morning would feature an activity called Weekend Update. In a journal with space for pictures and words, JT would report about his weekend activities. On our Monday morning drive to school, we'd review the weekend's activities so that he would have something to write about. It was always easier to write and illustrate the Weekend Update if we'd had a busy weekend.

Sadly, Weekend Update is gone. And that's a shame because this Monday would have been the best Weekend Update ever, thanks to my friend T, a veritable whirlwind of home improvement. I'm not exactly a slacker when it comes to home repair projects, but compared to T, I'm practically a sloth.

The primary task for the weekend: repair and restoration of the downstairs powder room, a 5 x 5 room off the kitchen and pantry in the back of the house. Some of the floor tiles had broken and crumbled loose. The grout was impossible to keep clean. There was reason to believe that the floor beneath could use a little repair. And my attempts at repair were both unsightly and ineffective. Pictured below is the bathroom in it's "before" state, with sample replacement tiles against the back wall:
Things look much better now. And that will be the story of this week, as I chronicle the ultimate Weekend Update. Tomorrow: nothing decorates the dining room quite as nicely as placing your toilet next to the supper table.

Disappointment

Earlier this week, JT had a homework assignment that required him to solve some math problems in order to find the answer to a riddle.

The question part of the riddle read: "How is a T-Rex like an explosion?"

Though he has a good enough work ethic, JT is never an overly-enthusiastic homework scholar. But this assignment caught his interest such that he was actually eager to find the answer.

He quickly solved the puzzle. The answer to that age-old question, "How is a T-Rex like an explosion?" He's full of dino-might.

JT read the answer, looked at me, and said evenly, "Well that was disappointing."

Indeed.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Bad Parenting Edition

The backstory: A few weeks ago, JT and I were driving and another driver cut me off. Seconds later, I blew by the cut-off artist and offered him a non-verbal demonstration of my sentiments. JT apparently took note, as I learned one morning this week.

Mama (speaking to the slow driver in front of me): Move it, lady, that light isn't going to get any greener.

Seconds later, the driver turned right. I followed and now we were side by side, waiting for the next light to turn green so we could head off our separate ways. We were now side-by-side with the slow driver.

JT: Mama, should I show my finger to that lady?

And I look in the rear-view mirror, to find JT carefully arranging his fingers for a little sign-language presentation of his own. I hastened to put a damper on his symbolic speech efforts.

Classy. My son and I are obviously classy.

Last Supper

My raving about the many virtues of chilaquiles led to a discussion with my bother-in-law Uncle M, who is married to the Sassafras Sister. The topic? What would you eat for your last meal on earth?

Uncle M had an immediate response to the question: A can of Spaghetti-O's, heated and with a hot dog sliced in. He'll have the O's with a grilled cheese sandwich made with sourdough bread. He intends to dip the sandwich into the O's.

To each his own, I think, though props to Uncle M for the sourdough grilled cheese, as that's also a house favorite around here.

As for me, I'm eating chilaquiles before I go to the great beyond. I will enjoy them with a Coke. JT has weighed in with a request for his Mama's guacamole tacos (good answer son, especially diplomatic with the Santa-season drawing near).

What's on your table for your last meal on earth?

Food Nirvana: Chilaquiles

I am a regular reader of Simply Recipes, a recipe website maintained by a woman named Elise who lives in Sacramento, California. One of the reasons I like the site is that Elise writes fairly often about locally grown food. And in her case, local is the central valley of California, where I grew up. So Simply Recipes is a taste of home for me, way out here in New Jersey.

Among the site's many virtues is the collection of Mexican and Tex-Mex recipes. Each and every one of them is excellent and you should hop on over there and fire up the stove to make them. Now.

Today I would like to take a moment for some special reverence for Elise's chilaquiles recipe. As soon as she posted the recipe I knew that I would be making it. And that's what I did last night.

Every once in a while, I read an interview where an individual is asked what the menu for their last night on earth would be and the answer is some nonsense about steak and lobster. But it always makes me pause, because I've never really had an answer to that question.

But now I know the answer: chilaquiles. I basically followed Elise's recipe and made the red chile sauce, substituting 4 dried anaheim peppers for the anchos because 1) I wanted a milder pepper in case I could induce JT to give it a try (go ahead and laugh.....that's what he did when I suggested it) ; and 2) I love anaheim peppers, not to mention 3) my Wegmans (a very reliable source of Mexican ingredients) was out of dried anchos. I used a combination of mild cheddar and monterey jack cheese instead of the cotija, because that's what I was in the mood to eat. I kept some El Pato by my side in case a little more heat was necessary.

I served the chilaquiles with lettuce, cilantro, red onion, and avocado, some refried beans, and a poached egg.
Heaven on a plate. Seriously, heaven. Go make yourself some chilaquiles. Not only will you thank me, now you'll know what to serve for your last night on earth.