Jenyfer Matthews

I am happy to report that the only thing injured in the process of reducing the port bottle down to pretty green glass dust were several plastic bags and my rolling pin. Even several layers of thick plastic bags are not enough to protect a wooden rolling pin from shards of glass. (The top edge of my hammer was much more effective) On one hand, I don’t use the rolling pin that much. On the other hand, I guess I’ll have to get a new one since it’s newly gauged surface won’t work as well on dough (darn it!) – unless scar-faced gingerbread men are acceptable!

I just hope that in the end, my pottery projects come out as I envision.

On another topic, housing is provided with my husband’s job and a while back we requested to be moved to a larger apartment. I’ve loved the one we are currently in for the nearly four years we lived here, however we’ve outgrown the space and the children really need their own rooms. The housing department called us on Thursday to say they had a place for us and could we move on Tuesday? My initial reaction was um…no! I’ve gotten pretty good at moving, but I’m not THAT good! The movers I called yesterday for a quote on moving our large furniture items gave me such a good quote on moving everything that I decided in the interest of my stress levels and the remaining disks in my back to let them! They also suggested they could move us on Tuesday and since they are also responsible for the packing, Tuesday it is! Fortunately, our new place is only a few blocks away so things don’t have to be packed quite as carefully as they would if we were moving countries, but it’s still a big job.

Bigger still will be the job of cleaning / sorting / unpacking on the other end!

I also wanted to report that I did try a new recipe over the weekend (February – check!) I made shrimp chowder, using a fish chowder recipe from my Jane Brody cookbook. The only things I changed were I substituted shrimp for fish, I omitted the white wine, and I added a can of corn. It was amusing how much the frozen “cooking shrimp” I bought shrunk in the process though – in the end they were so small they could have been sea monkeys! The chowder was a hit – very tasty – and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I suspect the rest of this week we’ll be eating sandwiches and pizza however!

I rarely make resolutions – why bother? I know I’ll never keep them and most of the vices I have I don’t really mind!

But when everyone else starts talking about what they are going to do, my own wheels start to turn. And it’s not as if there isn’t room for improvement in my life. So here goes – my goal for the new year is to try at least one new recipe a month. I’m posting it here to keep me honest

Doesn’t sound like much, I admit but I’m kind of excited all the same. Since I’m the one at home, I’m responsible for the bulk of meal preparation in our home. And when our schedule gets busy I admit that I get into menu ruts. I thought about one new recipe a week but that seemed like a goal doomed to fail early. A month seems totally doable – and if I get really inspired there’s nothing to stop me from trying new recipes more often.

I’m happy to say that I already tried January’s recipe this week: Lentil Walnut Burgers, from The New Moosewood Cookbook. It probably doesn’t sound all that appealing to the non-vegetarians out there, but it appealed to me on several levels. I had all the ingredients, the instructions didn’t look too daunting, and both walnuts and flaxseed are things that my husband has been trying to work into his diet to deal with high triglyceride levels.

I normally follow the instructions on a recipe the first go round before I start to mess with it, unless it says something silly like the garlic is optional. (garlic = yum) These burgers were very good – they had a nice texture and flavor and everyone in the family enjoyed them, even my son who isn’t the most adventurous eater. The only thing I might do differently next time is add a bit more salt, but that’s just me. Also, I’d take the time to cut up a fresh tomato.

Overall rating: definitely will make this one again!

My inlaws are in town this weekend for a quick visit before going on to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen showing off my skills as the hostess with the mostest. I’ll be cooking for five adults and two small children (with adult appetites). I have several meals in mind, including Hearty Potato Soup (aka as “soup with nothing in it” by my son since it is pureed) with asparagus and beer bread followed by strawberry pie for dessert, vegetable lasagna with garlic bread and salad followed by chocolate cake, and vegetarian chili with corn bread followed by cheesecake for dessert.

(Never do I regret not having a dishwasher more than when I have dinner guests!)

It’s not totally altruism that is inspiring me to go all out – it’s also timing. Next weekend I leave on my trip to Thailand so I’ll be away when my inlaws come back through on their way home. Feeding them well now will ensure that I will truly be missed by all the week I’m away.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

The children go back to school on Sunday (fingers crossed we’ll have no more flu-closure nonsense). The holidays passed much more quickly and peacefully than I expected, but does it make me a Bad Mommy that I’m really looking forward to their first day back??

We do!

People often ask me what it’s like to celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas abroad. We manage just fine, I think. I suppose it really boils down to what your expectations of the day are more than anything else.

When we lived in the United Arab Emirates, the weekend was Thursday / Friday so Thanksgiving was never an issue – we always had the day off! The weekend in Egypt however is Friday / Saturday so there have been times when the children actually had to go to school on Thanksgiving. As it happens, this year Thanksgiving coincides with a Muslim holiday so EVERYONE in Egypt has a long weekend.

As my husband and children are vegetarian, we don’t cook a turkey, though they are available. I saw some giant frozen Butterball turkeys at the store the other day. Just thinking how much fossil fuel energy that turkey must have consumed to travel to all the way to Cairo is staggering, frankly. And I wouldn’t want to think about how many times it might have thawed just a bit on the way! But if you are really into your turkey, it is still probably worth the money. A neighbor of mine bought a local turkey one year and in the end was very disappointed. Turns out, the shop had sold her a rooster! They compensated her by giving her a Butterball after the fact, but that didn’t make up for the fact that they ruined her holiday meal.

On a normal day, I’m a one-pot meal kind of cook. On Thanksgiving, I go all out (for me, anyway!). I make a pumpkin pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, a veggie (this year, steamed broccoli), and a lieu of a turkey we have lentil loaf. It’s a meal we all enjoy and since we only make it on the holidays, it’s all the more special.

There’s no Macy’s Day parade or football to watch, but the children don’t mind because Thanksgiving is when I finally lift the ban on watching Christmas movies

Whatever your plans for the holiday, I hope you have a great weekend.

I was thinking about it the other day and I not only eat seasonally, but I cook seasonally. When the weather turns hot I don’t want to bake anything or even think about eating a steaming bowl of soup. I want light, easy food that is also going to keep me cool.

Yesterday, inspired by the bounty of fresh tomatoes in the shops, I made a big pot of gazpacho. Today I bought some fresh cilantro so I can make some salsa to go with bean burritos. Not sure what the rest of the week holds, because in addition to the weather, I’m trying not to buy too much food since we are leaving for our summer vacation next week. No point in stocking up the cupboards for the ants. The menu might become sort of strange as we draw nearer to our departure date and are trying to finish up a bit of this and a bit of that.

What do you like to eat when the weather is hot? I could use a little inspiration…

A watched pot never boils – but walk away and you’d be surprised by how fast the water boils off! My poor tea kettle…it’ll never be the same…

I enjoy working at the library, but of course when I am there a whole lot of stuff is not getting done here at home. Also, I know that there are a few things I’m going to be busy doing at the school later in the week (more on that later) so I got busy doing things bright and early this morning.

You just never know when the phone might ring and it will be the library asking me to come in and substitute.

So this morning, in addition to all the usual things like dishes and laundry, I’ve been busy. It’s only 10AM and I’ve already made a batch of salsa and two pillow cases. The salsa will accompany dinner tonight (baked burritos) and the pillowcases are part of a Valentine’s present for my children (Scooby Doo for my son and a soccer ball print for my daughter). Even though it’s a week away, I feel better having them done now because you just never know what will come up.

What have you been up to lately? Any special plans for Valentine’s Day? I’ll be attempting to make truffles for my honey later in the week. Stay tuned for how that comes out!

Some people make their resolutions in the New Year. My husband works for a university so the rhythm of our home more closely follows the academic calendar. This is the time of year I get the urge to do a “spring clean”, make lifestyle changes, and generally just start anew.

One of the leaves that regularly gets turned over at this time of year is the resolution to Eat Better. It’s no wonder coming off a summer of indulging in all of our favorite treats. More meal planning, less fat, more protein – all the usual stuff. And stir fries.

One meal my husband keeps trying to convince me is the solution to all our meal woes is stir fries. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Asian stir fry – when it is delivered to my home in a tidy cardboard carton. It’s creating it myself that I’m not so enthusiastic about.

Hubby argues that it doesn’t have to complicated, that the problem is we try to put in too many ingredients. We just need to focus on simplicity. I know from past experience he’s wrong, but sometimes it’s just too much trouble to argue. So we made stir fry last night.

We picked just a few ingredients. Broccoli, asparagus, and an onion. And a few shrimp because if it’s only vegetables then hubby is hungry again immediately. I made a garlic sauce and got the veggies washed ahead of time and then made the rice while hubby cut up the veggies and got out the wok.

The cooking part was quick, I’ll give him that. And the sauce was tasty. But that meal used up two cutting boards, two saucepans and a wok and it there wasn’t even enough for the children to have any, even if they’d wanted it. I ended up having to make (homemade) mac-n-cheese for them with a side of steamed broccoli (three more pots).

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t have a dishwasher? I *am* the dishwasher! Whatever time was saved in actual cooking was definitely consumed in the cleanup.

I am going to quietly rotate stir-fries out of the lineup…

One of the things I think is an important part of motherhood is teaching your children the skills they will need to be independent, well-adjusted, functional adults one day. You know, little things like how to do laundry and basic cooking skills. My daughter is only just shy of 8 and my son is 5 but you can never start too early with these things – especially since they still think this stuff is fun.

(And if I get a little cheap domestic help during the course of their training, who can blame me? They are legal citizens and besides — I MADE them.)

I recently started paying my daughter to do a few simple things : make her bed in the morning, put her dirty clothes in the hamper and put her shoes away. Some may call the allowance she earns a bribe, but I prefer to think of it as part two of the life lesson – money management. With the pittance she makes she’s getting a bonus lesson of delayed gratification in the process.

She should be thanking me for all this wisdom.

My son has more of an affinity for the kitchen. I think it’s all the buttons and knobs and potential for noise. What is it about men and gadgets? Even at his tender age, he’s mastered the microwave and likes to turn the knob on the food processor (with proper supervision of course!).

One lesson that has been difficult for the little man to grasp is that he doesn’t actually need to take a new cup every time he wants a drink of water. I’ve tried to explain to him that he can simply keep the same cup and use it again and he looks at me in puzzlement and says, “huh?” Maybe if I told him he could store it in the microwave between uses it would sink in better?

Neither one of them can seem to remember to flush the toilet consistently either, but I digress…

The other lesson my son found a bit above his head was making ice. What is it about ice that confounds so many people? It’s a simple recipe : fill tray with water and put in freezer. I’m going to keep working on that one though. Honestly, how many of you out there wish your mother-in-law had driven that (or any of these) lesson(s) home?

Stop by over the weekend and say hello to fellow author Candace Sams, here with an excerpt of her book Satyr. I’m going to sneak away on Saturday to embark on my summer “vacation” (truly, I won’t get any rest until school starts again!), but never fear! I’ll be popping in from time to time and the Friday Features will continue all summer.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I spent much of yesterday reading and cooking. Not such a bad way to spend a day really.

I’ve been reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – another book I’d heard too much about to think that I’d actually like it. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t just like it – I loved it. I’m biased though – not only is it written in first person but it’s about travel and has a happy ending besides – all things I love in a book. I finished it last night and promptly ordered my own copy. It’s a keeper.

When I could tear myself away from reading, I got busy cooking. Earlier in the week I’d purchases a bunch of celery because my daughter mentioned that she liked to eat celery sticks. I’m not such a big fan of celery myself but when a child asks for celery, how can I to say no? However, there is a limit to how many celery sticks a child will eat (1) so I was left with a bunch of celery.

Celery is cheap enough, but here I will admit to being neurotic about wasting food. Who knows? Maybe I lived a former life in the Depression. But I was determined not to let that celery go to waste. So I made cream of celery soup. All those leafy tops looked like seaweed in the pot as they cooked but it wasn’t half bad when it was all pureed. I won’t go so far as to say I loved it – it is still celery after all.

Today, I’m getting back to work. I have a self-imposed deadline to finish my WIP. I want to be done by the beginning of June. It’s a doable deadline and I’m sure that I’ll make that. Part of that deadline includes writing a synopsis though and that part I dread. What is it about writing a synopsis? Having already written an entire novel, you’d think writing up a few page summary would be a cake walk. All I can say is that it’s not.

But once again my character Aurora – who insisted on dictating her story through me is also now making noises about writing her own synopsis. I think I’m going to let her have a go. If she can do it, more power to her.