Project Project Gutenberg: E and F

This bread pudding is what makes my life as a recipe blogger so difficult:  it is absolutely delicious, but there’s no way to give you the recipe.  This is what happened:  Little Sunshine was sick yesterday, and Joan has joined her on the H1N1 trolley today.   They are just sick enough to want coddling, without [...]

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Summer

Voila our hammock–a summertime necessity for me.  It’s a fabulous hammock, which will hold me and Tuxedo Boy at the same time, or Little Sunshine and a stack of library books, or me all by myself. 
The thing about hammocks is that they make cloudwatching, treetop gazing, and involuntary napping practically compulsory.   We’ve had great clouds this summer–cumulus [...]

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Anniversary

Our wedding anniversary is this week, and how nice for us that we’re still married–at least in California.  (Mr. President, if you’re just dying to defend marriage, why not consider defending mine?  For a change, you know.) We’ve got a dinner date, which I’m really looking forward to.
Fun things we’ve been doing:  making our own yogurt [...]

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Dirt Cupcakes

I belong to the YWCA–a splendid organization with a fabulous mission (Eliminating racism.  Empowering women.)  I don’t get to every meeting, but I was there last week, when our co-chair told a new member that my cupcakes are are so good that she’d eat one made of dirt if I gave it to her.
Well, I can take [...]

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Chilly Musings

I’ve been surprised to discover this winter that I’m a demon with a snowshovel.  That’s right.  I keep the sidewalks clear around here, and I do it with a certain innate talent.  I’m not a superhero, like  William Macy.   But I’m good.  I’m consistent.  And I get the job done.
Until I look at the neighbors’ [...]

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Little Sunshine’s new winter ensemble

Little Sunshine has outgrown her winter coat from 4 years ago–both physically and spiritually.  A trip to the Ross Dress for Less revealed her hitherto hidden talent for ferreting out high-end fashion.  We traded down from Calvin Klein (a bargain at $130 marked down from $300) to this very elegant Kenneth Cole pea coat.  But [...]

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My Bread Lament

Recently, Tuxedo Boy helped me make the weekly grocery list.  (Yes, okay, I do the menu/shopping list/only go once a week thing.  I’m pitiful that way.  If I could swing it, I’d always do my laundry on Mondays, too.)
Anyway, he was helping me out, and he had just one request for a special treat:  “Could we [...]

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Where did the summer go?

So while I wasn’t winning Iron Cupcake (our lovely winner was Bakerella), the summer got away from me.   Work, school, homework, housework, a nibble of interest from a publisher for the first four chapters of a historical romance that I haven’t finished yet, play dates, a sudden and unexpected longing to become a player of the French [...]

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Dollar Store Score!

I’m a gigantic fan of Lunch in a Box.  Biggie is a really gifted cook, and incredibly generous with her tips and tricks.  Moreover, her Bug will eat all kinds of interesting foods which my children would never, never try, so her bento are lovely, inventive, and full of remarkable food combinations.  All hail Biggie!
Recently, [...]

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Little Sunshine Saves the Planet

Little Sunshine is extremely environmentally conscious, and it’s thanks to her prompting that I (sometimes) remember to take my own grocery bags to WinCo.  She and Tuxedo Boy have really gotten into shopping lately–they’re helping plan the meals, which means that Monday is spaghetti-in-front-of-the-tv (Bones and House!) night, and Friday night is pizza night.  They [...]

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