catnip and coffee

I’ve finally taken a photo of my namesake. (Or am I its namesake? Or does it work both ways? I could Google it but I don’t really care.)

Anyway, The catnip is up and looking quite healthy and lovely:

George doesn’t get particularly excited about the catnip until it’s dried. He’s so weird.

Yeah, whatever George, you are too.

I also took new photo of my forsythia which is FINALLY blooming. (I will be sure to back up all of my images this time.)

Isn’t it pretty! It’s just so freaking cheerful!

I couldn’t decide which image I liked best so here’s another view:

Now click on it the image to make it bigger and then look in the upper left corner. Do you see something? That’s the boy’s tree house. (The tree house we have not yet let him go up into yet. I’m paranoid, what can I say, he’s only five, and it’s really high up.)

Back to the photo. I didn’t know when I snapped the picture that the tree house would be visible but now that I see I just like how it gives some secret dimension to it, like an I Spy book or a Bev Doolittle painting. Or am I just weird too? (Don’t answer that!!)

Okay. Here’s a gratuitous pansy shot:

I don’t usually spend much money on annuals, but I was seriously pining for some color in my front yard last week. Spring in New England is tough on a blogger - I look at all these other blogs from all over the country that have had Full! Blooming! Gardens! for weeks now. It’s not freaking fair! So my pansies made me happy. Look at it, don’t you just want to slurp that big refreshing drop of water right off it?! No? Really? hmm, nevermind….

Moving on. Now that we’ve had some nice rain over the last few days I also have a small leaf purple rhododendron in full bloom. I just love this bush tree. Someone knew what they were doing when they picked out this one. It’s about seven feet tall, I can see it out my front picture window, and it’s just gorgeous. The blossoms are so delicate and smell glorious. Thanks previous homeowners!

Before I moved here, I’d never seen a Rhododendron quite like it. It’s not a typical one, that has the larger leaves and big flowers, nor is it quite an azalea with the tiny leaves. It’s weird. Like me George.

I have a secret.

Well, it’s not really secret, but I only learned it a few years or so ago, and I’m going to share it with you.

For awhile now, every time I bake something, most notably brownies, I get rave reviews, and requests for more. Frankly, I don’t think I’m that much of a baker. I find a recipe I like and I stick to it. My chocolate chip cookies are always tollhouse. My oatmeal cookies are off the quaker oats container top, my cakes are always box mixes.

My brownie recipe is taken from the back of the box of unsweetened hersey’s baking chocolate. (Which I might add I’m having trouble finding in my local grocery stores lately so I’m glad I photocopied it long ago. Do they not make it anymore?) Anyway, the only difference between mine and the printed recipe are that I underbake them a bit, I sometimes add chocolate chips too, and I use REAL VANILLA.

Real, homemade, vanilla.

Did you know you can make your own vanilla? and if you do it will completely change your baked goods forever. For the better.

Here’s what you do. You go to a health food store and you buy whole vanilla beans (maybe three or so.) Second you go to the liquor store and you buy some vodka. (Maybe a quart? Doesn’t really matter. If I made a whole gallon I’d probably put in 10 beans.) You take them home and swig a shot you take a sharp knife and cut a slit all the way down each vanilla bean. You put your beans in the bottle of vodka. You DATE THE BOTTLE with a marker. Put it in some high cupboard for a few months and forget about it. I like to wait at least six months, but some people say you can start using it within a few weeks. I beg to differ.

When it’s ready you can start using it the exact same way you would store bought vanilla. But I warn you, make enough that you don’t ever have to use the artificial stuff again, because you will disappoint everyone in your life if you give them brownies any other way, ever. When you start getting low, just make another quart gallon. Right now would be a great time to start a batch that you can later re-bottle in something cute and give away as presents for the holidays. Just be sure when you put some in a fresh, smaller bottle, at least one of the beans goes with it.

ps. I learned all this from my mom! I’m pretty sure her first batch was made in a 30 year old bottle of vodka they had hanging around the house. It was awesome.

pps. I’ve started a batch in a small bottle of clear rum instead. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

I promised myself I wouldn’t blog today until I was showered, the boy was fed and dressed, and the kitchen was actually clean. Done. (Well, really I promised that to myself yesterday. Did you notice I didn’t post yesterday??)

I’ve been working this thing over in my mind last few days, and now I think it’s time to spew it up before it festers. You know how that is, right? I know you do, some of you have admitted it before!

So I went to a bridal shower for a cousin on Sunday. I sat at a table with a few other cousins and one of my sisters. These are cousins I only see at weddings and showers and anniversary parties, but when we do get together we always have lots of laughs. This occasion was no different.

However. I committed two of the worst sins of mommyhood.

Do you know what those are? Don’t we all?

First, I asked a married, childless woman when she’s gonna have a baby. <<hides in shame>> Oh, yes I did.

Second, I regaled a poor pregnant woman with horrors of childbirth. <<blushing furiously>> Yes, I did that too.

Well, okay, to defend myself about the first. I’ve had the baby conversation with that particular cousin before, and not always of my doing. (I think?) I just shouldn’t have said anything in front of the rest of the table. No wait. I shouldn’t have said it at all! I did take my opportunity to apologize later, in the car, and we had a long discussion about that sort of thing. (We went to the event together.) She was genuinely sweet about it, and we had a great time otherwise, and discovered a mutual love of gardening. But dang, it’s still just hanging over my head.

The thing is, I was married for seven years before we had a baby. People asked me the “when” question quite often for all those years. I was never really offended, but my reason for at least the first 5 years - we will when we have a house - was always countered with “if you wait until your financially ready, you’ll never do it.” That’s what always annoyed me, because I didn’t believe it was true. I felt like it was irresponsible of me to have a baby when I was young and in debt. If we had had an accidental baby, that would have been one thing, we would have dealt with it and we would have been okay. But to plan on a child, when I knew I could not afford it, just didn’t seem right. Not only that, but since I’ve had one child, there have been multitudes of queries about when I’ll have another. Um. Never. Someday I’ll tell you about that.

I’m digressing, as usual. My point is, everyone has their own reasons for not having a baby, and I am well aware of that - yet I asked anyway! It was one of those time when my mouth worked before my brain had a chance to stop it. Foot in mouth disease. Today I resolve to never try to never do that again.

In defense of faux pas #2, <sigh> all I can say is, I wasn’t the only one, and I didn’t start it. Hmm, not a great excuse huh? This dumbass totally jumped on the bandwagon! That poor thing. She was a little pale at one point, so I did try to stop it, but she kept saying “It’s okay, I need to know these things!”

Actually, we didn’t say anything horrific, really, I swear. I kept back the really bad stuff! Heh. I only tried to impart my only good advice to any new mom to-be, however she becomes a mom: nothing ever goes as planned, so better not to plan too much and you won’t be disappointed. I learned that the hard way myself. Read my birth story and you’ll know what I mean.

In any case, I did apologize to her later as well, knowing we had gone too far. I now resolve to find a chance, before September, to have another conversation with her about all the good things about being a mom!

Phew. I feel better. Thanks for letting me get that out. So, you do have any etiquette blunder regrets you need to get out? Sing it sisters!

It’s more than a little irritating when you wake up at 3:30 am from a nice “snuggling with the kitty” kind of sleep because said kitty has just forcefully thrown himself off the bed and has begun horking up something on your bedroom carpet.

Then when you come back with paper towels to clean it up, you first, step in the hork dribbles in the hall, second, realize there’s no way you can clean it properly in the middle of the night and third, you cannot possibly go back to bed with the hork remnants 2 feet away. Gag.

Not only do you have to go in search of a new place to sleep but now so does dh after you’ve awakened him, blinded him with the light, and made him aware of the smell. Heh. I just can’t suffer alone now can I?

So should I be grateful to dear George that he didn’t puke on the bed, or annoyed at him for eating mice and grass and all those things that make him vomitous in the first place? Both I think.

But could you stay mad at this face?

Well, I’ve gardening so much lately that my time for cooking has been very limited and my meal creativity has been sorely lacking. One day last week I was wandering the grocery aisles looking for inspiration and found some very nice large white mushrooms and in the meat department there was some fresh chicken breakfast sausage on sale. Hmmm. Any idea where I’m going with this?

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to put it all together, but when I got home I remembered I had a package of cream cheese and some garlicy/cheesy dip mix from tastefully simple (but any flavor dip mix would work!) I mixed up the dry dip mix with the cream cheese (room temp for ease in mixing) in a large bowl, and stuck it in the fridge to meld the flavors.

Preheat your oven to about 325.

Next, wash and dry the mushrooms well. I usually fill a bowl with cold water and a good splash of vinegar and let them soak for a minute to get all the dirt off. When they’re dry, you can snap off the stems and set them aside for soup or something. Sometimes, not enough snaps off so I just take a knife or a small spoon and scrape out a little more. You want lots of room for the filling. If any of the mushrooms crack a bit - no worries - use them anyway!

Line a cookie sheet with foil and put your mushrooms on hole side up. Bake for 10-15 minutes. When you pull them out of the oven you will notice they are full of water. You need to get rid of all the liquid. I just use a paper towel and dip them in each individually until the liquid is soaked up. You can do your initial cooking with the mushrooms upside down so they drain better, but then you’ll have to flip them when they’re super hot and delicate (and slippery!) - and that’s not so easy!

While the mushrooms are baking you can start the sausage.

The sausage was the loose kind without the casings, but it you only have the kind with the casings just strip the meat out and throw the casing away before you cook them. I just throw the sausage in a frying pan and drain off the fat when it’s done. Make sure you break up the meat pretty fine while you’re cooking. You don’t want huge chunks.

Take your dip out of the fridge and dump the hot (drained) sausage into it and mix all together. The heat from the sausage will make it really easy to work with.

Now you just need to put a heap of stuffing in the mushrooms! I also put a bit of provolone on the very top of each one for a nice bit of melty goodness.

Stick the pan back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so - use your judgement - if the cheese is nicely melted and maybe even a little browned on top - they’re ready. Honestly, there’s no rules on this one - just whenever it seems hot enough.

These mushrooms were super yummy, made a nice meal, and it gave me lots of ideas on variations:

If I were to use hot italian sausage I would probably use plain cream cheese (no extra seasonings.)

If I used sundried tomato and basil chicken sausage (my favorite!) I would add some italian seasonings to the cream cheese.

Any good melting cheese on the top would work - mozzarella, white american, whatever, I just happened to have provolone on hand. Also, using sliced cheese is easier than shredded on this - it won’t fall off the top.

If I made this for company I might use the smaller button mushrooms for bite size portions, and I would put a bit of parsley, rosemary or basil leaf etc. on top for a pretty effect. By the way, neither dh or the boy would try this one - but that meant more for me!

Ingredient list:

• 2 or 3 packs of fresh large white button mushrooms (depending on the size of the packs err on the side of more mushrooms - you’ll be surprised how far a lb of meat will go)
• 1 lb or so fresh sausage, any flavor, sans casings
• 1 package cream cheese (I’m sure the light kind would work well too)
• 1 package dry dip mix (garlic or ranch or italian, the variations are endless, mmm maybe pesto!)
• a couple slices of cheese (again - whatever you have on hand!)

That’s it! So easy!

Everyone, I’d like to introduce my nephew Nate, a newly graduated Airman in the Air Force! I’d post one of his super freaking cute baby pictures but he probably learned how to kill with his pinky finger, or something like that, while he was in basic, and I’m just not willing to risk it. No really, it’s because I don’t have any of him that don’t also include me and there’s NO WAY I’m posting evidence of my big 80’s 90’s hair. (Okay, I still have big hair, but whatever.)

Anyway, he just moved to Pensacola but doesn’t have off base privileges yet and so he’s been bored all week, waiting for his next round of classes to start. He’s so bored he’s shopping online on his cellphone because he doesn’t even have his computer yet. Yesterday his ennui was soooo bad I risked my secret identity and sent him my blog to read. Heh. You just know a 20 year old man (dang - just saying that makes me feel really old) is just going love reading about his auntie’s life of motherhood and gardening. I haven’t heard from him since this message last night: “LOL your blog lolol.” I’m pretty sure he’s laughing at me not with me, eh Nate? Hmm, I may have sent him into a glassy eyed stupor with my writing.

So now, everyone wave hi, and leave a comment for Nate! I’ll make sure he comes back to read them!!!

I have a great day today! I neglected everything all day in order for my boy and I to have a playdate with my sister and her boy! I just love days like that, unplanned and just perfect. (Thank you dear, for coming to visit us!) Not only that, but she brought me plants! And helped me plant them! What could be better

I’ve spent this evening working on my other website, the one for work. Meh. It’s hard. I want it to be perfect and I want to fuss with it, but, because of the platform it’s on there are a number of things I don’t know how to do myself. It’s a bit frustrating. DH, aka my own personal technogeek, will have time this weekend to work on it, but in the meantime, dang….I just want to get it done!! Sorry honey! Mostly it’s because I’m excited about it, and I think it’s really starting to come together the way I envisioned. It promise to reveal it here first just as soon as it’s ready to launch!

ps. I finished a book last night! I won’t, however, tell you what it was, cause I’m embarrassed, but I did finish it! Now I’ll start on something a little more worthy. heh. (if you believe that….)

Can you guess what it is?! It’s shopping for summer clothes of course! I just spent almost the entire day trudging driving from one store to another, dragging my poor kid along for the very hot drive. First, let me just what happened to SPRING? We went from snow storms to 80 degrees in 2 weeks!!

Anyway, have you seen the crap they call clothes in the stores right now? I’m sorry but I didn’t look good in maternity clothes when I was pregnant! Why the heck would I want to wear them now? Stupid empire waists. They don’t even look good on the mannequins! Hello, anyone listening??

Really, it’s no wonder I’m stuck in a rut of t-shirts and jeans, and apparently I won’t be changing that anytime soon…blech.

I just tried to write a post about why I don’t read as many books as I used to. The basic premise was that I just don’t have the same attention span since I’ve been a mother as I did when I was younger. Problem is, I got bored writing it. See? Lack of focus! <Sigh.> Anyway. I’ve really been trying hard to read more books. (As opposed to all the other brainless crap I do.) I’ve got a stack waiting for me to dive it. Let’s just see if I can unplug more often so I can.

Maybe that’ll be my Earth Day pledge. Turn off the TV, put the computer to sleep, and pick up a novel.

I am honored to be tagged by Schmutzie for the “7 random weird things about me meme” that’s been going around the blogosphere in a few different forms. Most everyone did it looong before I even had a blog and in my stalking surfing I’ve giggled at many of them, but frankly Schmutzie’s post really was the weirdest! I’m not sure I can live up to that but I’ll give it a try…

7 Random/Weird Things About Me

1. Whenever I let my kid watch Power Rangers, I always watch it with him, under the pretense that, you know, you should monitor your kid’s view habits. But secretly, I love those shows. I actually get into the story lines, and if an episode doesn’t record for some reason, I search it out on you tube so we can catch up. For the record, Dinothunder is the best season.

2. I am completely addicted to salmon cream cheese. No, not like good lox and bagels kind of thing. But the salmon flavored philly brand stuff. The fake stuff. I’ll eat it on bagels, crackers, as a dip for chips, you name it. Lucky for my arteries there is only one store within decent driving distance that sells it, and I only let myself go there once a month or so or I would want it every. single. day. I know, ewww.

3. I read trashy romance novels, a lot. I just can’t help it. I go through phases with other genres, but I keep going back to romance. Once in awhile I read an O book club book, just so if someone asks me what I’ve been reading I have something decent to say. It’s not like I’m gonna tell anyone I own almost every Nora Roberts book ever written. Except I just did didn’t I?

4. I hate hate hate the Birthday Song. I hate singing it, and I hate having it sung to me. I always have. I’ve very rarely ever told anyone that, and I’ve never done so in front of my son. For the last three out of his only five little years he’s begged me me not to let anyone sing it to him. I now hate that I’ve somehow passed this on to my kid.

5. I have a terrible blog crush on Wil Wheaton. Yes, that Wil Wheaton. Which leads me to admit my love for scifi. I grew up on all things Star Trek, Star Wars, Tolkien, etc. My book scifi love is and always will be Raymond Feist, (long live Pug!) My tv scifi love is forever reserved for Stargate SG1, (and Daniel Jackson baby!) and I am embarrassingly sad at it’s demise.

6. I am hopelessly in love with the internet. You couldn’t tell could you? It’s my down time after the boy goes to bed, and where I go for my break in the middle of the day. You already know I blog surf, but you don’t really know the extent of it - can we say about 50 rss feeds? You also don’t know I am obsessed with keeping up with Twitter, though I rarely post cause I don’t know what to say. I constantly refresh my Facebook scrabulous page to see if it’s my turn on any of my games. I feel completely inadequate on Linkedin cause apparently only a few of my friends actually know what that is. I go to Rachel Ray’s website regularly to sign up for giveaways - cause I just know I’m gonna win something one of these days! I haven’t read a real newspaper in ages cause I get all my news online. Every little thing I do for work is done on the www, so there I have no choice, but frankly, I have more fun doing my job than anyone really should. The list could go one, but I’m sure you already stopped reading…

7. I swore to myself if I ever started a blog I would never do a meme. But it was actually more flattering to be tagged than you might think. So here I am. And having more fun than I expected!

So reading back through these, it occurs to me that I’m not so much weird, as I am a dork. I’ve actually known that ever since I was on the math team in high school (#8?) but seeing all this in writing - it’s a little painful!

I’m supposed to tag like 5 people or something, but I don’t really know 5 bloggers well enough to do that, (I’m a little shy that way) so I tag SouthernGirlinNH because I adore her, and I would tag the awesome Kristen but I know she’s done this one before, (but you can do it again if you want to!) and I tag any of my real life friends who want to get on board and start a blog (so I can read as much about you as you read about me!)

Hey, at least get on Facebook, would you? So I can beat you at scrabble!