It’s been a while since I did a food-related post, so today I thought I’d take a trip back in time a share a couple recipes from my grandmother’s recipe tin. 

Geraldine was born in the 1910’s so most of these are classic 40’s/50’s style dishes and I just love flipping through them and giggling at the frequency with which canned fruit/vegetables/meat(!) pops up.  But I will spare you these and instead share something sweet with my sweeties.

So today we have (1) my absolute favorite cake recipe of all time – which was her’s.  Ugly Duckling Cake is so named because the finished product takes its name from the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale, resembling a scraggly baby swan.  And (2) peanut brittle, for which my grandmother was well-loved.

UGLY DUCKLING CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can (16 oz.) canned fruit cocktail in juice, undrained

2 1/2 cups shredded coconut

2 eggs

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk

• Combine cake mix, fruit cocktail, 1 cups coconut and eggs in a large mixing bowl.  Blend at medium speed 2 minutes.  Pour into greased 13×9 in. pan and sprinkle with brown sugar. 
• Bake at 325° for 45 minutes. 
• Bring butter, granulated sugar and milk to a boil in a small sauce pan.  Boil 2 minutes then remove from heat.  Add the rest of the coconut then spoon sauce over the hot, finished cake. 
• Cool and serve!

PEANUT BRITTLE

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup white Karo syrup

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups raw Spanish peanuts

1 teaspoon soda

• Cook sugar, Karo and water together to 238°. 
• Add peanuts and salt.  Cook to 300°. 
• Remove from heat.  Add soda and butter and mix. 
• Pour on a well-greased cookie sheet.  Once cool, break into pieces and enjoy!

[Tip:  You'll need a candy thermometer for this or you'll have trouble achieving the "brittle" aspect of the candy.]

Dear Husband:

Just when I think things are too awful to bear, you laugh and remind me that this bumpy road isn’t so much a curse as it is a challenge.

Even after all these years I cannot believe that you accept me as I am, with all my flaws and weaknesses.  On today of all days I was appropriately feeling like a big ol’ monster, but with a big squeezy hug and a chuckle you saved me from myself.

Consider a hypothetical situation:  It’s Friday night, Ang has gone out and I’m counting down the minutes until Ava goes to bed.

I COULD have gotten a babysitter and gone out with the gals, or at least have invited them over here for some wine and conversation.

But my preference is to be alone.  Maybe I’ll read some more of my latest great book, I Was Told There Would Be Cake, or I’ll watch some trashy TV nonreality programming.  And I’ll lovity-love it.

I used to be so social.  I used go out alot and have lots of friends and crave “doing stuff”, but now – and I don’t know when this transformation occurred – I’m constantly looking forward to when I’ll next be able to switch myself off.

Always the overanalytical-overthinker I’m thinking it means I’m depressed.  But maybe I’m just worn the f*** out.  I lack the ability to live purely positively in the moment, which means that no matter how pleasurable the moment is I’m always triangulating future possibilities and anticipating the next challenge and the google of ways that it might manifest itself.  It’s just bloody exhausting.

So I’m quite conflicted sitting here tonight and looking forward to time alone.  I know that I’ll enjoy it but I feel like I’ve thrown away another opportunity to do something meaningful for my psyche.

There’s the old idiom: variety is the spice of life.  Maybe if I stopped focusing so much on checking out as often as I can and instead tried some variety and challenge in my routine I’d feel better.

Any other armchair psychologists out there?  I’ll wait for your analysis while I allow myself to be hypnotized by the season finale of VH-1’s latest carwreak My Antonio.  God I feel pathetic…or would that be apathetic?

I took my daughter to Boo at the Zoo last night.  It’s a terrific fundraiser run by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo here in D.C. with sponsors and donors manning kiosks throughout the zoo, so that the kids can mix a little trick or treating with a little zoological learning along the way.  It is also a complete madhouse.

As with any event upon which a thousand or so children converge, mayhem reigns.  But most parents are experienced in this type of pediatric stampede.  And it’s an opportune time to impose a crash course on sharing, waiting turns and making friends with others.  You can treat it as a glass half full/glass half empty opportunity if you will.  And most parents do as well as the children…exercising appropriate social graces.

And so it is that I am always shocked and disappointed when I encounter graceless parents passing on graceless lessons to their children.  Among them: shoving your child ahead of others in a frenzy; shouting at them that they shouldn’t shout; teaching imperious entitlement by insisting that for whatever reason they deserve more; blaming unacceptable behaviors (e.g., pushing, hitting) on others’ unacceptable behavior.

It just makes me so sad to see these children who are so malleable being lead down the wrong path.  Don’t be afraid to discipline your child – you don’t have to be mean, just keep it simple and be firm.  And don’t lose your perspective – your child is always watching you and the others around you.  Be the example and treat them as you would like to be treated.  Having children or even just being around them is a priceless opportunity to shape a better person.

Redundancies can go suck on a fat ol’ tailpipe.  A tailpipe that would fail emissions testing 1,000,000 times over…and a diesel one at that.

And never underestimate the importance of contingency plans.  They’re your safety net while walking this economic tightrope.

And if you know me well you’ll also know that I always try to battle adversity with a bit of levity.

…but inside it’s not delightful!  What the hell am I going to do all winter?  I need free child activity ideas and I need them badly.

Local meteorologists have promised a 33% colder winter than last (although their accuracy average leaves me with sincere enough doubts that I would not be surprised in the slightest if it turned out to be downright tropical).  National meteorologists are saying practically the same.

Now, three year olds need lots of stimulation in order to be tired enough to take that precious afternoon nap that begets a shaft of sanity sunlight to a parent’s life.  But even if I enrolled Ava in 3 or so weekly programs, that only gives us 5 or 6 hours of entertainment for the week.  What to do, oh what to do?

Thank goodness we have the fortune of living in a government-centric city where most museums are free.  This morning we spent 3.5 hours roaming the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum.  It was terrific to be out of the house, feeling like I was advancing my child’s understanding of the world, and even learning a little something myself.  Ava ran her little legs (and mouth) like the Roadrunner and touched everything in sight – we even found a discovery room where everything is hands-on and learning-oriented.  But mortification snapped me out of my reverie spent coloring a psychedelicly colorful bird, as Ava was busy making sweet music by knocking an alligator and a cat skull together.  She agrees that learning is fun!

If you have kids – what do you do for fun when the weather is rotten?  Those skulls can only take so much crackin’…the museum’s that is, not our childrens’.

Ava:  What you doing Momma??

Me:  “work”  [typitty, type, type]

Ava:  No Mommy.  You have to play castle now.

Me:  Just as soon as I finish this email we can play, OK?

Ava:  No Mommy!  You play castle now or you fall down the stairs and get a bad booboo.  OKaaaaaY???

Me:  **blink, blink**

I’ve thrown in the towel.  I’ve caved.  I’ve borrowed Twilight from my local library.  At least I can still say that I’ve not read any Harry Potter books.

Honestly, I don’t know from whence my aversion stems.  Really!  I don’t fancy myself some highfalutin intellectual, but let’s note how self-conscious I was entering the Young Adult section at the library – rife with vampire, medieval lore and other fantasy.  My youth was spent reading the Brontes, the Anne of Green Gables series and Ayn Rand.  I dabbled a bit in the choose-your-own-adventure series and Stephen King but otherwise skirted the fantasy genre.

But you can’t call me close-minded.  I enjoyed most of the Harry Potter movies and the mass hysteria that is accompanying the releases of the Twilight movies either indicates mass appeal (and worthy of a dabble if only for curiosity’s sake) or a mass popularity trend (a compelling adolescent phenomena in which all we adults participated, be honest!).  So I’m falling down the rabbit hole and cracking open the first Twilight book tonight.  See you on the other side!

*  And thanks to Mel at What Am I Doing In Mexico? for suggesting Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch.  It sounds intriguing!  And I better read it soon because I have discovered rumors that it is being adapted for the big screen – a surefire way to ruin a good book – with a few exceptions.

I’m suffering from an acute case of apathy my dears, brought on by the depression of returning to the daily grind following a fabulous week visiting home in RI and a blowout wedding in coastal CT.  And compounded by 3 – count them, 3! – colds back to back.  Oh boohoo, I’m such a whiner.   So lacking any motivation I’ll just dribble out some thoughts and call that a post.

• I might be getting a Blackberry Storm soon and am inappropriately excited about it, considering my Hausfrau status.  But look at me!  I’ll be all hip and modern and connected.  So very on-the-cusp of things!  Got any suggestions for good applications?

• Current greatest source of anxiety is a potential move to the NYC area.  Will we/won’t we?  Long Island/New Jersey?  Love it/hate it?
• Got a new haircut!  I had the stylist go all choppy-choppy on me and went from long  and tapered, to above the shoulders and blunt and wispy.  It’s amazing how a simple change like this has made me feel so much more stylish.  And it only cost $40 in RI!  I’d have paid at least $75 here in DC.  Sweet.
• Ava needs a haircut.  Her ringlets actually work themselves into dreadlocks multiple times per day.
• I made Ava a simple castle out of a cardboard box and decorated it with crayon drawings.  The look of pure excitement on her face almost made me cry.  Just goes to show that plain old boxes are indeed some of the best toys on earth.
• Ang ripped out our tomato plants the other morning.  I have about 15 lbs. of green tomatoes now though…let me know if you have any ideas for them other than fried green tomatoes.  I sure don’t.  Well – anti-squirrel munitions…
• If there is a God he will bless me with the power to finish this “Eat, Pray, Love” book.  If I wanted to sit in on her therapy, she should have invited me.  I feel duped.  I thought I could gloss over her self-discovery and glean some entertaining travel anecdotes.  Don’t hold your breath.  Please give me some suggestions for something light and entertaining to follow this book.  I need a mental vacation.

Yesterday at the library (of ALL places!), Ava was busy crawling into small spaces on the lower shelves and dubbing them her “nests” and she bumped her head.  She wasn’t hurt per se, but it did elicit a response.  To be clear, this came from her – not me.

“Oh, fuck.”

**GASP!!**

As she had just said it quietly, almost under her breath, I ignored it.  Perhaps more due to the paralysis of not knowing exactly whether it would be better to draw attention to the fact that she had discovered a word that DEFINITELY gets attention, or to pretend that she had said nothing at all and would therefore never repeat it.

I’m not pointing any fingers in this tiny household of mine, and I’m no innocent either, but I fully expect her to repeat this word in the not-too-distant future.  But I’m still paralyzed by how I should handle it.  I’m thinking that I should be firm and clear:

“What the fuck did you say?  We don’t fucking say things like that.  Say it again and you’ll be in big fucking trouble young lady!  Shit.”