CurrentMom

The Incredible, Edible Egg -- Easy Frittata

Meal Monday

Remember that old jingle when the egg industry was trying to rehabilitate the image of the much maligned egg? If not, you're much younger than I am! I believe the egg is considered a very healthy source of protein these days and if you watch cholesterol, just use two egg whites to one yolk. I think you need at least some yolks to add depth and flavor to whatever you're making.

Herbal Bumper Crop -- When Life Gives you Oregano, Make Flavored Olive Oil!

Meal Monday

There's a definite nip in the air and to me that means sweaters, hot apple cider, homework and test stress for the kids (and their parents) and some work in the yard.

This year, I planted my herbs in pots on the patio and they actually did very well. So well, in fact, that I'm left with a bit of a bumper crop. I hate waste and doubt I have the green thumb required to keep the plants alive inside until next spring. What to do?

Homage to Amelia Bedelia: Lemon Meringue Pie with a Chocolate Crust

Meal Monday

Remember Amelia Bedelia? The children's book housekeeper character created by Peggy Parish who was absurdly literal? She was always doing things such as dusting the furniture (with talcum powder) and dressing the chicken (in clothes). Somehow, Amelia always managed to save the day, and very often -- or at least in my recollection -- she salvaged her job by baking a lemon meringue pie.

Sports Mom

Truth Thursday (a little bit late) 

So, my daughter made the high school JV (that’s Junior Varsity, for those of you, like me, who didn’t know) field hockey team. Yay.  And she wants to try out for lacrosse in the spring. Yay.

What I didn’t know was that there is practice every day, and that the after school activities bus leaves much earlier than practice is over. And that there are many additional responsibilities for parents than just showing up at games – there’s the pasta dinner before the season opener, there are list serves to be managed, fundraising to be done, calls to be made, sheds to be built (to house the girls’ gear) and at least 10 other volunteer responsibilities on the sheet that was passed around at the parent meeting at the beginning of the season. 

Sheesh.  I got through my son’s four years of high school by visiting the school about 10 times. I’ve been there 10 times plus in the first week and a half for my daughter’s launch. 

Different kids, different needs.

I went to a high school that had no sports teams. It was the 1970s, and my school, a bit of a hippie experiment in education, was non-competitive. I took ballet and modern dance as my gym credits. There were sports, certainly, and I have a memory of one of my good friends walking around the halls in her “gym leader” uniform, although I don’t know what a gym leader was, since I never once set foot in the gym (really.)

But I have a good friend today who was a high school and college athlete, and she and her daughters have been beacons for my daughter for years.  My daughter has skimmed being really athletic, and while having played on some teams – soccer and basketball – had never really found her niche.

Until now.  She really, really likes field hockey and lacrosse. She comes home from practice starving, because she’s working so hard every day. She delightedly showed me the beginning of her “six pack” the other day. And she is getting to know a wonderful group of girls who are tightly knit and who work together as a team.

Apples, apples and more apples -- Traditional Apple Pudding

Meal Monday

I love the fall. The crisp, clear weather is refreshing (at least here in New England) and it's all about new beginnings. One of our favorite family traditions has been to go apple picking every year. We have great pictures of our two children as infants on our backs, as toddlers, as youngsters, eating fruit right off the trees.

Now that they're both teenagers, they prefer buying apples to picking them themselves (sigh). But I still love visiting the orchards. All of this leads to a surfeit of apples which we can't eat fast enough to avoid some spoilage.