Parumpapumpum... in March

It's been a while since the last post, and I found a half-finished one from the holidays in my edit box so I'm including it here at the end for prosperity's sake.

In the meantime, here's a bulleted list of what's been happening at the HH the past 3 months:

• Finn: registered for Kindergarten (!!!!), obsessed with robots and mad scientists, learning to write ABC's and counting pretty well. Loves to "invent" things. We've been on a Wizard of Oz kick there for a while, but not the movie version. Finn prefers the more grisly version where the Tin Man slings an axe around.

• Eli: slowly coming out of the Terrible Three's. Getting less moody and much more talkative. Has a toy sword collection. Loves any and all kinds of super heroes. Eli can be a bit of a brute when it comes to his brother, very much The Heavy. He went to the dentist for the first time in February and loved it because he got to choose a ninja sword out of the toy chest.

• Hotwheel Hubs: Poor guy... working hard to keep his head above water. We went to NOLA a few weeks ago for a long weekend without the Beastie Boys and it was great. Thank goodness for Grandparents!

• BookMama: Also working during the day, still trying to get scrimmage eligible at roller derby practice, doing various and sundry volunteer work in her (infinite) amount of spare time.

This post started sometime in mid-December...

We've been listening to a lot Christmas music in the mornings on the way to school in hopes of Finn & Eli learning their songs for the school play next week. I threw in some other fun songs to help mix it up, and I think we've heard to this one about 3,429,016 times:

This year, Eli is a Drummer Boy, and Finn is one of the Wise Men, specifically the one with the gold. (He is NOT the one with the "frankenstein".) The only version of Little Drummer Boy we had was the Bowie/Bing version and it always makes me weepy and nostalgic for some reason that I'm not quite sure about, except that I get weepy and nostalgic about just about everything lately.

Finn has really nailed "Away in the Manger" and, unlike his parents, he has a pretty good singing voice. He would much rather be singing "I Don't Want a Hippoptamus for Christmas". Over and over and over.

An Oldie but Goodie

(I initially posted this last November, but the house is currently filled with the smell of cornbread, and the dressing process is well underway. I hope you take some time to count your blessings this weekend - I know I am.)

The Story of Papa Loyd's Famous Cornbread Dressing

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I've always loved to cook and see family. We're the kind that stays, eats some more, and stays, naps a little, and stays, talk a lot, watch some football, stays a bit longer, and eventually waddle our way back to our cars with heaping plates of leftovers for the next day.

I thought I would share with you the killer cornbread dressing recipe from my Grandfather. I love to make it every year in his memory, in the very big silver "dressing bowl" he taught me to prepare it in.

The year before Papa Loyd died he was still stubbornly insisting on hosting Christmas Day dinner at his house like we always did. I went over to help with the preparations and brought my video camera to try and capture the infamous dressing recipe on tape. I let him boss me around and call all the shots - watching that video makes me laugh as I cry.

Me & Papa Loyd circa 1979

Papa Loyd's Holiday Dressing & Giblet Gravy

Note: no shortcuts allowed. No broth instead of homemade stock. No store bought cornbread. I've tried the shortcuts and they just. don't. work. It's not the same.

1 hen (not chicken)

2-3 onions, finely chopped

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

2 large pones cornbread (if you don't know what a pone is you have no business making this recipe)

1/4 butter

2 TBS yellow mustard

2 TBS ketchup

2 TBS Italian seasoning

1/2 to 2/3 cup fresh sage, finely chopped (reduce amount if dried)

3 slices bread, torn up into small pieces

1 (8 oz.) can oysters, drained & chopped

3 TBS jarred pimento, finely chopped

salt & pepper to taste

The day before: cook cornbread & cool completely. Crumble both pones.

Day of Thanksgiving:

Remove giblets from hen and set aside.

Rinse hen and place in stockpot & cover with water, about 8 cups. Simmer covered until done, reserving broth. De-bone hen & reserve meat.

Preheat oven 350 degrees

In large saucepan melt butter & add onion, celery, and bell pepper. Add all the broth from hen, cover and simmer 10 minutes.

In BIG ("dressing") bowl, combine crumbled cornbread, torn bread pieces, & the broth mix until it reaches spaghetti sauce consistency. If mix is too soupy, add more bread pieces.

Add all the remaining ingredients & mix well.

Pour mixture into a large roasting pan. Bake 1 hour until golden.

Serve hot with giblet gravy & hen meat on the side.

GIBLET GRAVY:

Finely chop hen giblets.

Simmer 3 cups chicken broth on stovetop. Add flour a little at a time, stirring constantly until a smooth, thin rue is formed. Add chopped giblets, blend well, and simmer.

Salt, pepper, and otherwise season to taste, can add one or two sliced boiled eggs to gravy if you want to be extra-Southern.

Yields: enough for a crowd of at least 10-15.

Eliot Loyd is Papa Loyd's namesake.
I see his spirit in that boy every day.

Hot Wheel Hacienda indeed...

... here's a bit about my latest venture.

I know, I know. I haven't posted since September, and now I'm like that boy that dumped you in middle school who was slobbering all over you one minute and snubbing you the next (Jerk.)

I suck.

But work was killing me and I had the Huge Event and Finn was having a rough time at school and we were worried and I would just come home and collapse in a heap from exhaustion and frustration. And the dog ate my homework. And I had car trouble. Satisfied?

Somewhere in between all that we all went to the beach with my parents, Hotwheel Hubs went back to school, I started up with the local roller derby team, Finn played a whole soccer season, we celebrated our 10th anniversary in NYC, I got swine flu, Finn evened out at school, and Halloween happened:

Eli was Samurai Jack and Finn was a Robot. Best. Halloween. EVAH!

That should catch you up with me, but I've missed YOU! I hope to catch up visiting your worlds and trying to catch up.

... AND I wanted to show an email my Dad just sent me... I couldn't believe it and have never been more thankful that I don't have a bayou running through my backyard.

From: Uncle Mike
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 7:31 AM
To: The Fam
Subject: Hog Gator

I thought you all would like to see the size of this gator. I would not want to be in any soccer field with a gator like this!
1000lb + GATOR Shot in Houma, La. The larger female got away but was seen crossing Field 4...

AAAHHHHHHHHH!

You know those Cajuns... putting him in the cooler to make some awesome gator soup. Many, many bowls.

Check out that pinky finger and those nails!

The craziest part is THE FEMALE GOT AWAY. Eeeek!!

Send the Gypsies

Dear Boys,

If you are reading this, then I assume we've all survived - at least until you've learned to read. Consider this a retrospective entry that details the growth your parents have experienced while raising you in your third and fourth years.

Retrospective #1

You are driving your Dad and I bleepity-bleep CRAZY.

Introspective #1

What's with the brotherly fighting all the time? And when I say all the time, I mean every 15-30 minutes, around the clock, except for nine hours you are sleeping?

Introspective #2
How can it be that daycare has called us TWICE in less than a week to pick Finn up for kicking and/or hitting? Is an expelled preschooler in our near future?

Retrospective #2

Never again will I think "My kid won't be like that" or "That's a questionable parenting decision". It's clear now that no parent knows what they're doing. If they say they do, they're lying.

Introspective #3

Where's the justice? Even if we do ALL the right things - read to you, cuddle you, feed you good & healthy food, give you occasional tough love, allow occasional candy (but not too much candy), make sure you get enough sleep, be compassionate (but not too compassionate), be consistent (but not overly so), yaddayaddayadda... you will STILL go through rough patches.

Rough enough to cause our entire days/weeks/(gulp)months to come crashing to a screetching halt with worry over if we're doing the right thing to get you through it. Or if we're just pushing you farther down the wrong track.

Somebody needs to invent a Parenting Magic 8 Ball. NOW please.

Along with a gift certificate to Great Spirits.

Every Little Thing... Is Gonna Be Alright

Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley should write ME a check... almost every night they are each invoked during our bedtime ritual. 

Finn is a Buffett guy; quintessential beach baby and pirate connoisseur. We started incorporating the song when he moved to a "big boy bed" because Eli needed the crib. We chose it because Caleb knew all the words. 

Number of times we have sung "A Pirate Looks at 40":

• 5 times a week on average
  
• 52 weeks a year = 260
  
• for 3 years = 780 times! 

Eli is a little more chill and a lot less melancholy. He's only recently began asking for a song at night, but his taste is good - Bob Marley is his DOC. How indicative of his future character is this? Only time will tell, but hubs and I are more than a little worried. We've referred to Eli's Matthew-McConaughey-esque demeanor before... 

I remember being very pregnant in the heat of summertime and stressed to the max about work or some other odd hormonal thing. Driving in to the office that morning I stuffed this CD into my car's dashboard and cranked it up. The impact was almost instantaneous - I could literally feel the tension drain away...

How could you NOT?  

Here's to stress-free summers and steel drums. 

I hope you have both. 

Veggie Tales

The veggies are in! The veggies are in! 

This year we're growing zucchini, crookneck squash, Roma & heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno & sorrento peppers, okra, cantaloupe, and a whole helluvalot of herbs. I wanted to grow stuff we actually eat, and now I'm running out of recipes... especially with the squash. I've fried and sauteed them, I've made zucchini bread, and tonight I took it to the next level and they got stuffed. 

Lo and behold... it turned out pretty good. So good I wanted to share it here, because if I don't I'll forget what I did and never get it right again. 

STUFFED SUMMER SQUASH BOATS

(Because if you call it "boats" little boys will eat it.)

Feeds 4 with some leftovers. 

2 medium-large sized zucchini

2 medium-large sized yellow squash

1/2 cup finely chopped vidalia onion

1 large tomato (or 2-3 Romas)

1/2 lb. ground pork OR 1 package Healthy Choice smoked sausage, chopped finely

1 tsp minced garlic

(optional) 1 TBS chopped fresh basil 

(optional) 2 sorrento peppers, chopped finely

1 cup prepared couscous or brown rice

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

METHOD

Preheat oven to 375. 

Boil whole squash & zucchini in a large pot of water until tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from water.

Slice squash lengthwise into halves. Scoop out seeds & pulp, leaving the squash shells - reserve pulp & seeds in a bowl for later. 

Spray skillet with cooking spray and saute meat with onion, garlic, and sorrento peppers and cook until brown. Season meat with salt & pepper. Add squash pulp to the meat mixture and simmer on low. Remove from heat.

Add in your couscous or rice, chopped tomato, and Parmesan cheese. Mix well. 

Spray a 9x13 glass dish and arrange squash halves in it. Fill the boats with stuffing mixture until they are heaping. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. 

Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until brown. 

Devour the squash boats & go blog about how fantastic they were.