I don’t feel like I get a ton of magazines, but there are a ton of magazines laying around my house. Usually, when I’m reading one, I rip out choice articles or recipes that catch my eye. Then, instead of deep sixing the mag, it ends up on the coffee table or in the gaping maw of the magazine basket next to the fireplace. Eventually, I’ll go through those mags that have made the cut. I’ll do a quick flip through to see if I’ve missed anything before I really and truly throw it away.

During one of my last purges, I came across an old copy of WonderTime magazine. Do they even print this anymore? SN: The better question is, am I getting charged for this ’cause I haven’t seen a new issue in a while.

A quick Google search and come to find out, it’s not in publication anymore. That’s a shame. I used to love this magazine! It was like Real Simple and Parents had a baby and voila! WonderTime. You can still check out some offerings online, but nothing beats the weight and heft of a well designed magazine.

Like most mags, they offered some recipes that were family friendly. In one issue, there was a contest called “Beat This”, where participants submitted what they considered to be their best recipe for a certain dish. Other readers were encouraged to beat it, basically prove that they had a better recipe than the one featured. I never did submit anything, but I guess in the back of my mind, I was going to see how good this woman’s lasagna really was — hence the saving of a now defunct magazine.

I went to the grocery yesterday for some odds and ends, and wouldn’t you know it, the ingredients for the lasagna ended up in my cart. I must be crazy because Craig is now doing Paleo and I’m pretty sure you can’t pick lasagna off a tree, dig it out of the ground, or spear with with a bow and arrow as it leaps across a grassy knoll. The girls? I predict that Morgan will give it a courtesy bite and Coever will opt out entirely in favor of salami and crackers. Thankfully, my dad is in town. He’s like Mikey from the Life cereal commercials.

I think it’s going to be pretty tasty. I made it last night and am going to cook up it tonight for supper. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

I ripped my copy of the recipe out of the issue of WonderTime, but you can find it here.
Buono appetito!

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef or ground turkey (or cooked chicken, Italian sausage, seafood, andouille, etc.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
26 to 28 ounces (about 3 cups) pasta sauce
Salt and pepper
r 2 tablespoons red wine (optional)
1 cup chicken stock
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons white wine (optional)
12 ounces (3 cups) freshly grated mozzarella
6 to 8 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 cups cooked, well-drained broccoli, spinach, peas, or other vegetables (optional)
1 cup (about 4 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan

Heat oven to 400. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Thoroughly cook the ground beef, garlic, and herbs in a large skillet, stirring frequently and breaking up the meat. Stir in pasta sauce and bring to a simmer for about 2 minutes. Season to taste and add the red wine, if using. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring chicken stock to a boil. Add cream cheese, turn heat to low, and whisk until smooth, about 6 minutes. Season to taste and add the white wine, if using.

Spoon half the meat sauce into the pan as evenly as possible. Sprinkle 1 cup grated mozzarella over the meat mixture. Top with 3 or 4 lasagna noodles. If using vegetables, toss them evenly over the noodles.

Pour the cream-cheese sauce over the noodles and cover with another cup of grated mozzarella. Arrange 3 or 4 lasagna noodles over the cheese, then spoon remaining meat mixture over noodles as evenly as possible. Top with the rest of the mozzarella and the grated Parmesan. Bake until brown and bubbling, 35 to 45 minutes. (You’ll need the longer cooking time if you have made and chilled the lasagna in advance.) Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes or it will be too gloppy to cut well. That would drive you crazy this late in the game.

IN: recipes ON: January 20, 2012 TAGS: baking, cooking, food, om nom nom, recipes BY: Hilary

Gimme, gimme, gimme

There are a couple of things that I have decided that I desperately need. Of course, I can’t find them anywhere.

1. Six years ago, Target had a line of pajamas, the name of which I totally forget. Among the designs were a pair of gray pajama bottoms with the Eiffel Tower stamped all over them in red. I wore them all.of.the.time, especially when I was out there pregnant with Morgan. I need those pajama bottoms or any drawstring pajama bottoms with the Eiffel Tower on them. Someone, please get on that.

2. Speaking of the Eiffel Tower, I need it. Specifically, I need a replica. Preferably an 18 inch wire/mesh type that I can plunk down on this sideboard we have to complete a little Parisian theme we have going in the hallway. Two, three weeks ago, those things were all over HomeGoods, Marshalls and TJ Maxx? Today, all of those stores look ransacked and on the verge of collapse. Gotta love the post-holiday return and exchange crush.

3. Yoga pants. Really, this shouldn’t be so hard and yet, I am about to have an aneurysm because I can’t find any decent yoga pants. Part of the problem stems from the fact that I will not fork over my money to an establishment whose clerks and service providers do not acknowledge me in the store. Can I get a greeting? Can you help me find something without me having to chase you through the store only to have you evade me by popping into the Employee Only black hole of coffee-breaks and inventory rooms? Yes, I’m looking at you, Lululemon salesperson ::stinky side-eye::

4. A car that works. My car just up and decided to deflate the other day. I mean, I went outside and the back-end looked like it had been filled with bricks. The front end had it’s nose in the air like a trained seal. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Turns out the air suspension was blown or shot or whatever. Bottom line? It wasn’t working. So, it goes to the dealership and my sweet hubby brings home a rental car. I’m thinking something with four-doors, like a Honda Civic or a Ford Focus. Nope. I get this:

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Uh yeah, that would be a mini-van.

And I die.

Seriously? Oh, this thing is fully loaded with leather seats, two DVD players, the automatic rear sliding doors on each side and all manner of jingly bells and whistles. The girls consider this a serious upgrade and I’m sure there will be tears when it’s time to turn it in. As for me? I’m not trying to knock the folks out there who drive around in their Odysseys, Quests, and what not, but I’m just not that girl. There have been times when we’ve been up against a wall with respect to car options. We were pushing my dad’s old Lincoln Town Car there for a while (like driving your living room around town). But see, I’ve been an SUV driver for as long as I’ve had my license and an SUV is about as big as I want to go. Truth be told, if I had my way, I’d be sitting pretty in one of these:

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And I even like the color. . .(if you know that reference, give yourself 2 million cool points). Boo-hoo for me, I don’t think Mercedes makes this body style any more. Craig said he’d get me one for my 50th birthday. I had to specify that I meant the actual car that I could fit into and drive, not some Hot Wheels or Micro Machines knock-off. Gotta be specific.

I’ve got a serious case of the gimmes with no discernible end in sight. What’s a girl to do?

IN: ON: January 19, 2012 TAGS: random, sharing BY: Hilary

Thems the Rules

So, we told the girls pretty early on that Trip was going to be joining us in June. I debated for a while as when to break the news to them, but the decision was kind of made for me when I kept having to stop making breakfast to go hug the toilet bowl every morning. There’s really no creative way to re-direct the children from the sound of you horking up an offering to the porcelain gods.

In any event, once we explained to the girls that there was a baby on the way, you’d have thought they’d won the lottery. Coever was fist pumping and marching around the kitchen, while Morgan just laughed and giggled. Not a bad reaction. Everyone has said that I’ve got two great helpers on my hands, and the girls certainly seem willing to do their part.

Morgan has taken Coever under her wing as they prepare to transition into big sisterhood for the second and first time, respectively. Over the last couple of weeks, Morgan has been doling out little nuggets of sisterly advice for Coever to keep on file when the mantle of “Big Sister” falls onto her shoulders. Once, while the girls were picking up crayons off of the floor, I overheard Morgan say to Coever, “You’ll want to throw out pieces like that. You wouldn’t want the baby to put it in it’s mouth and choke and die.”

Coever studied the nub of crayon, shrugged her shoulders in a “Hmm, good point,” kind of way and tossed it in trash. Another time, Morgan saw Coever coming into the kitchen carrying a pair of scissors incorrectly. Quickly, she reprimanded her sister, saying, “You shouldn’t carry the scissors like that! The baby could carry the scissors like that and trip and poke themselves and die.”

I’m was seeing a pattern develop here, so I talked with Morgan about it. We decided she should come up with some rules for Coever on how to be a big sister, but more importantly, rules that don’t ultimately end with the untimely demise of Trip.

Without further ado, I give you the Big Sister Rules, according to Morgan, a four and a half year expert on the subject.

Number five sums it up nicely, I think.

IN: ON: January 17, 2012 TAGS: my girls BY: Hilary

Friday Randomness

I must be having some DWTS withdrawal or something. I heard this Prince song today and immediately thought, “They should totally do a tango to this song!” Then I looked around to make sure I hadn’t said that out loud.
Fun fact for you: This song was released in 1986 (feeling old, much?). It still gets fingers poppin’ and toes tappin’. In the video, Prince sports tight pants and high heels with such panache, I’m sure there are quite a few females out there taking copious notes. XOXO and Happy Friday, y’all.

IN: ON: January 13, 2012 TAGS: random BY: Hilary

Word Girl

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The thing with reading quite a bit is that you pick up a number of new words for your vocabulary. What I find even more interesting is that once you come across a new word, then you see it everywhere. In the last four or five books I’ve read, the following words have appeared several times.

meme (n) – an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.
As a matter of fact, I saw this word again today while reading an article about the “Sh*t Girls say. . .” phenomenon that has exploded all over YouTube. Weirdly enough, every time I see the word meme, in my head I always say meem. Now I have doomed myself to say it incorrectly, especially when I’m trying to impress someone with my wordiness.

peripatetic (n) – pedestrian, traveller
Really? This seems like a gratuitous use of an inflated synonym. Just say pedestrian, or someone having a walk-about. Especially when you use the word in such a way that there aren’t any context clues to help me figure out and then I get all douchey by whipping out my iPhone to look it up on my dictionary app. Yes, use of the iPhone that is unrelated to making phone calls, sending emails, checking your position on the GPS, or entertaining your child while you get the grocery shopping done leans towards douche-baggery. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

scrofulous (adj) – having a diseased, run-down appearance; morally contaminated; affected with scrofula.
*head slap* Of course that’s what it means! I think I read this word first in “The Witch’s Daughter” by Paula Brackston. The story takes place in England, so I figured scrofulous was a British word that had an American counterpart. You know like the way the Brits say “boot” instead of “trunk” or “crisps instead of “chips” or “Kate Middleton” instead of “Girl, eat a damn sandwich and step away from the eyeliner”.

I’ve gone 33 years and not once ever heard or seen the word scrofulous before. Then *poof* at least twice in two different books over the course of a week. Say it out loud, just once. “Scrofulous”. The prefix (if it can be called that) scrof- reminds me of how people describe how voraciously they’ve been eating. You know, “Oh man, I was so hungry. When I finally ate, I was like scrof, scrof, scrof. . .”

And yes, I’m laughing at myself, by myself, for typing that sentence.

Scrof, scrof, scrof is like Om, nom, nom but only if you are so hungry you’re about to gnaw on your own forearm. I’ve been that hungry before. All decorum goes out the window.

So, I’m wondering what word or words I’ll come across next. I’m about a quarter of the way through “A Clash of Kings” and haven’t seen any of the aforementioned words. Of course, this book is teetering on 900 pages, so there’s still time. I did read a post at PIWTPITT where the author describes Donald Trump as a megalomaniac. Not my first time at the rodeo with that word, but haven’t seen it in a while. Such an awesome word. “Megalo-” is kind of melodious when taken on it’s own. Megalo, megalo, megalo. . .like some word an old curmudgeon (ooh, curmudgeon!) would say to himself repeatedly as he contemplated a chess move while worrying a pawn in his scrofulous fingers.

See what I did there? Now, how to work all three into one sentence. . .

IN: ON: January 10, 2012 TAGS: books, sharing, thoughts BY: Hilary

Busy As A . . .

For some reason, I have really been into bees lately. More specifically, the bee motif. I’ve been stung enough to know that these little winged creatures are best admired from a distance or when they’re serving as inspiration for a crafty project. There is just something about Apis Melifea that makes a really striking theme. Several years ago, Restoration Hardware featured embroidered bees on a number of there bath towels and linen sets. We scored a king size duvet and sham in a champagne color with white bees emblazoned on it.

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I love this set and am loathe to part with it even though the sun has pretty much faded it into a ombre facsimile of what it once was. SN: What drives me nuts is that this is such a popular set and yet, RH discontinued it and has no plans of bring it back. Believe me, I’ve checked in the stores. Numerous times. Had I known that it would be discontinued, would I have at least closed the curtains to protect it from fading? Maybe a couple of times, but this is a girl who throws hand wash only items in a laundry bag on the gentle cycle and crosses her fingers.

Anywhoodle, I’m really into bees and am thinking that’s going to be the theme for #3. Morgan had giraffes, Coever had. . .um. . .oh yeah, pickles and ice cream, so it’s only fair that Trip (short for Triple) has his/her own banner. Thankfully, there is quite a bit of bee stuff out there; of course, most of what I’m looking at is with me in mind. I mean, I’m the Queen Bee around here. . .(sorry, I couldn’t resist).

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IN: ON: January 9, 2012 TAGS: home, pinterest, sharing BY: Hilary

Bookworm

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So, I had every intention of jumpstarting 2012 with some posts: a Monday message, a few recipes, a couple of funny tidbits about the girls and what they’ve been up to. And then, on the last day of the Christmas Break 2011, I cracked open the first of George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice, the first book being. . . “A Game of Thrones.”

And cut to me still sitting on the sofa, turning pages.
I didn’t check my email.
I didn’t get on Pinterest.
I didn’t get on Facebook.
I didn’t watch TV.
I may have fed the family a time or two, but mostly, I read.
And I read.
And I read.

Seriously, it’s not like I didn’t watch the HBO series with the rest of the world. The entire first book is exactly what I saw Sunday after Sunday. And yet, I still couldn’t put it down. Craig had warned me; he and his brother had read the books way before the show came out, but they had returned to them just as the series was starting. Keep in mind, these books top off at about 900 + pages in paperback. We’re talking door-stops here, and yet both of them just burned right through it. So, I picked up my copy of book one and that was all she wrote. I couldn’t.stop.reading it.

I finished the first book yesterday and busied myself with some long overdue chores just so I wouldn’t inhale the second book. Given our book-wormish tendencies, I didn’t doubt we had the entire series somewhere upstairs on a shelf. I had seen the last two books, most recently released, come into the house via Amazon not that long ago. I even remember chastising Craig, gently imploring him to take his time reading it because the next book wasn’t going to be released for a while (he didn’t listen, but I can’t say that I blame him; a good book is a good book). Anyway, I folded clothes. I put laundry away. I cleaned up the Christmas ~~crap~~ decor and stored it in the attic. I straightened up the playroom (don’t even get me started on that disaster). I did everything I could think of to keep myself from bee-lining to the office and ripping the book of the shelf. When I had finally put in enough work, I went straight for shelf only to find, it wasn’t book 2 at all. It was book 3. What the what?

Remember all those boxes left-over from the great office clean-up? Yeah, I went rooting through those looking for the book. It was ridiculous; “A Clash of Kings” became my Holy Grail for the afternoon; I had to find it. I even texted Craig at work like, “Stop fooling around. Where’s the book?” His response?

“Are you kidding me? You finished Game of Thrones already?”

Uh, yeah.

So, no “Clash of Kings” in the house. What to do? What to do? I got online and checked the public library. Success! They had one copy on the shelf. Now, I knew I could put a hold on a book via on the online system, but I needed that book. As in right now (yes, I am totally outing myself on how crazy I am). I called the library and asked how soon I could get the book if I placed an online hold. The lovely librarian explained that the online hold would have go through a cycle, blah, blah, blah, or he could just pull it for me now if it was available and I could pick it up later on.

Ka-ching! I know what our after-school activity was going to be!

Between securing the book and right now as I type this, I haven’t had a chance to crack into yet. You know, there was homework to be done, kids to feed, the usual. Plus, I was feeling kind of badly that everyone else on my blog-roll has updated their blogs with Happy New Year/Back to the Blog/Did You Miss Me type posts. I had nothing say since I’d been so absorbed in Winterfell, King’s Landing, Riverrun, and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms.

Whoa. . . I really just said that. Next I’ll be going to Toys ‘R Us for my very own Dungeons and Dragons playset.

IN: ON: January 5, 2012 TAGS: books, winter BY: Hilary

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