Pre-Christmas Festivities!

I made about 10 dozen cookies for the holidays. I rarely ever bake, so this was a big undertaking for me. The plan was for the kids to help out, but they could not have been less interested. When given the choice of playing video games, playing in the snow, or helping mom bake cookies, the first two win out every time.

We always host our families on Christmas Eve and that requires me to cook my ass off. I like to save my energy for "the big show" in the days preceding Christmas Eve, and that means that we order pizza so that I don't have to cook or clean. This pie is from Flyer's.

Here's Ian at his first grade class Winter party. As is typical at public schools, the Winter party is non-specific to any holiday or religious event (as it should be). I had a great time helping out and hanging out with the kids.

I also joined Connor's third grade class for their party. Oddly enough, theirs was Christmas specific. The teacher even read a book about Christmas and the Christ child's birthday. I've been to half a dozen Winter parties at the kids' school and this is the first one that was specific to Christmas. Looks like someone's teacher decided to pull a Sara Palin and go rogue... The kids didn't seem to notice the non-secular nature of the party and had a great time.

Going forward, I am boycotting Barley's food but not their beer - 4.23.2009

Snack time - baby carrots. I love baby carrots. They would have been better dipped in hummus but I didn't have any on hand.


Lunch time - Ian and I went to Barley's in Grandview for lunch specifically so that we could pick up a jug of Scottish Ale for Tony. FYI - They sell their draft beers to go in glass jugs that keep the beer fresh for 48 hours. I'm not a big beer drinker but I love the occasional Scottish ale. I've never had a great meal at Barley's but I've never had a bad one either... Until today. I ordered french onion soup. I've had it there before and it's always been great. This could have been great but apparently the cook was too lazy to actually put this under the broiler. The soup was warm, the crutons were still crunchy (gross), the cheese was barely melted.


Mashed potatoes are one of my yop 15 foods and I love the red-skin variety. Barley's serves buttermilk redskins and they are usually good. These were okay, but not really warm. And why the hell is a side of mashed potatoes being served on a lettuce leaf? Really, I have no probably with my potatoes actually touching my plate. I would actually prefer it that way.


Ian got chicken fingers and fries. I usually love Barley's fries. Funny thing is that their fries taste like ass when they are served at room temperature.


At least I had fun with my dining companion, even though the food sucked.


We ordered Flyer's pizza for dinner. I love Flyer's. It's dependably good and it has the "mom and pop" taste that I oh so love. We got cheese pizza and breadsticks covered in provolone.


Tony ordered an Italian sub and commented that he liked the container that it was delivered in. I guess he's getting sick of my hasseling him on this blog because he agreed that I could photograph the food but not him. Tony is a punk-ass.

Conducting and Experiment, Thursday - 4.16.2009

On Thursday morning I decided to test the theory that cast iron is supposed to be non-stick. I use my cast iron skillet quite often but always season it with a little bit of olive oil first. To test the non-stickness of my skillet, I decided to fry and egg in the skillet without any oil.


This started off well enough, and i was able to flip the egg without breaking the yolk but it took a lot of effort to get it unstuck from the pan.


Here's what the pan looked like after the egg was removed. My cast iron skillet is clearly not non-stick.


My egg sandwich turned out great though - one fried egg with a slice of american cheese on a multi-grain english muffin.


Late lunch/early dinner with Connor while Ian was in speech therapy. It was a nice day so we decided to sit outside.


Connor had two baked potatoes with cheese, a few chicken nuggets, and a small frosty from Wendy's.

Ian is attending a summer reading program at this school this summer, and Thursday was the introduction meeting for the parents and kids. The school was kind enough to provide Flyer's pizza for dinner and Ian was kind enough to make a really weird face when I took his picture.