Confections and Messiahs

In Sunday School, they taught us that Jesus performed miracles- water into wine, walking on water and raising Lazarus from the dead to name the highlights.  Now, if you ask me, getting Lazarus to come out of that tomb alone is a huge miracle.  I can't even get my kids to come downstairs when I call them and Jesus casually sashayed up to Lazarus' tomb four days after he died, called his name and out he came.  Whoa...

I digress.

My intention here is to tell you about a miracle that was performed on Thursday.  You see, Noah had an expander placed in his mouth on Tuesday evening and has been in quite a bit of pain ever since. (side note- but funny nonetheless- when the dentist pulled out the expander, Noah took one look at it and proclaimed, "That looks like an instrument of medieval torture.") Because of his pain, he was unable to eat on Wednesday.  I sent a Carnation Instant Breakfast to school for lunch and we had to make him a protein shake for dinner. Thursday morning, he insisted he was still in too much pain and had another instant breakfast drink and asked for one in his lunchbox as well.

Thursday afternoon, I received an email from his teacher informing me that Noah was feeling better because he had just eaten a chocolate chip cookie.  Amazing.  When faced with a sweet, brown-sugar based treat, Noah was healed!

Healed!

By a chocolate chip cookie!

I asked Noah if Jesus made the cookies.  He looked at me half-confused and half-annoyed and said that his teacher made them.

I know the new Pope is considered a bit liberal but I doubt the Vatican will be receptive of my news that they have it all wrong and that there is a fourth grade teacher in England performing miracles...

...or that miracles are being handed out by chocolate chip cookies.

Not missing the opportunity to find the greater good in things, I am now left to ponder if chocolate chip cookies are holy.

If cookies are the new host then I am happy to report that I commune with God A LOT!

Like, I think I could be a holy figurehead I commune so much.

Saint Jennifer- High Priestess of Holy Confections.

And making things all about me.

Because the reality is, Noah was miraculously healed yesterday!

All hail the chocolate chip cookie!

Amen?

Air Force Families

The wonderful thing about the Air Force life is that goodbyes are not always goodbye- all too often, they are "see ya later".  No matter where the Air Force takes you,  you almost always cross paths with someone you have met before- or a friend of a friend.  It is a big ole family.

I was in New Jersey so long I went through three full cycles of friends that left me and then, finally, it was my turn to leave.  Although, I left behind a wonderful sweet friend (Karyn) that I miss dearly- I can only hope that the Air Force will bring us back together one day too.

I met Claudia when her husband was deployed with mine and we were both pregnant with our first children.  We soon formed a friendship and our boys were born only six weeks apart and were each others' first best friends.  My son was cranky, cried all the time and never slept.  Her son was happy, slept and a dream.  She was concerned I had post partum depression and finally talked me into going to a playgroup on base when Noah was almost a year old.  That is where I also met Amber, Catherine, Lucy, Jennifer, Becca, Sarah Jane and Marlana.  They had also just had their first children who were about a year younger than mine and Claudia's boys.  I only saw these ladies weekly at playgroup but remained close to Claudia, having playdates at the house with the boys and getting the whole families together at each others' houses for dinner, barbecues and just hanging out.

So, when Claudia's husband got orders the summer our boys were turning three, I was devastated.  The rest of my first cycle of friends had just left and Claudia was all I had left.  Claudia was neighbors with Amber and Amber was having a scrapbooking party.  I had no interest in scrapbooking but Claudia insisted I go to the party- she was trying to take care of me and insert me into a new friend group.  What a great friend- she was worried about me and didn't want to leave me friendless.  I started hanging out with the other ladies and gradually started scrapbooking.

Over the next few years, these ladies became my best friends.  We spent many late nights at each other's houses scrapbooking, bouncing advice, fears and concerns about things like breastfeeding, potty training, biting, and other parenting issues as well as deployment frustrations off of each other. We relied on each other doing simple mundane things- like meeting each other at the post office so one could babysit the minivans in the parking lot while the other ran in to mail packages without kids, strollers and diaper bags. These were the ladies that surprised me with a baby shower when I was pregnant with Zoe because I wasn't going home to Texas to have one. These were also the ladies that quietly prayed after Zoe had her stroke and got together to make a "Welcome Home Zoe" sign and put it on my front door with balloons the day Zoe was released from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Lucy left first, then Marlana, then Jennifer followed by Catherine and finally Amber.  Sarah Jane's husband separated from the military and was still in the area, but we saw less and less of her as she adapted to civilian life and lived an hour away from the base.  Becca and I were left behind but Becca completed her schooling and got a full time job and we lost touch.

When we received orders last spring to England, I was ecstatic.  Catherine is in England, Jennifer is in Germany and Amber is in Italy.  We decided we MUST have a "Jersey Girl Reunion".  Alas, Jennifer's husband's job does not allow a lot of flexibility, so she was not able to participate.  Amber is leaving for her next assignment in June, so Catherine and I got together one cold, dreary day in February and booked plane tickets to Italy!  Our trip was this past weekend.

It was absolutely beautiful in northern Italy!  The weather was great, the scenery beautiful but the friendship was phenomenal.  It seemed as if time had never passed and was great to be together again.  That very same weekend, Becca (who has now moved on to another assignment somewhat close to Marlana- whose husband separated a few years ago and has moved to their forever home) and Marlana got together as well back in the US.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of our fabulous Italian weekend.  Don't worry, Jennifer, Catherine and I were already discussing tentative plans for Germany next year to see you!

Lake Barcis

 We hosted Flat Stanley for a family in Texas and I took him to Italy with me.  Here are my friend's boys holding Stanley at the Italian market.

 **snicker**  These were incense sticks for sale at the market- they had cannabis scented ones.  It made me laugh. (NO- I did NOT buy any).

 Pasta with curry sauce- oh my goodness, it was SO GOOD!

 Gorgazzo underwater cave

Stanley holding British money (a £5 note and a £1 coin)

Stanley holding Euro (for his Italian shopping needs- a 20 Euro note and a 1 Euro coin)

Stanley on the train to Venice

 Venice!!  (Venezia)

Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square)- it is not uncommon for this square to be ankle-deep in water. They even have floating sidewalks they put out when the water floods the square. This past fall, though, there were pictures circulating of the square waist-deep in water. 

The flooded square (this image is not mine- I got it from the internet- here)

 Bridge of Sighs

Grand Canal

This is my favorite photo I took all weekend:

 my lunch: gnocchi- yum!

 Stanley visiting the American base in Italy- I took a picture because look at the beautiful mountains towering over the base!

The church in Amber's town

The view out the window of our plane as we taxied away from the Venice airport, England-bound. 

Zoe's souvenir- a Carnivale mask (she loves cats) made in Italy

Noah's souvenir

I feel so fortunate to have friends literally all over the world!  It is somewhat comforting to know that wherever we may go next, chances are high, I will see a familiar face there!  I love my Air Force family!

Oh- and Claudia (whom I mentioned earlier in this post) has just messaged me in the past few weeks to tell me they will arrive in England this fall!   

More Conversations in Our House

Conversation last night: ( background- the British don't refrigerate their eggs. They are on the regular shelves in the grocery store and they keep them out at home.  Also, our British refrigerator is TINY and I have a hard time finding places to keep everything)




ME: I think we are going to start handling the eggs the British way and leaving them out.  They take up too much room in the fridge and I need that space.

DJ: Okay.... but...

ME: They don't even refrigerate them in the store.

DJ: I know it is fine, but they DO stay fresh longer in the fridge.

ME:  The date on the eggs I bought today is 20 May.  That is plenty of time to eat them.

DJ:  Well okay, but if they start hatching....

ME:  They are organic free range, so I guess that is possible...

ME: ... but you know what it means if they hatch?

DJ: baby chicks?

ME:  No!  BONUS- CHICKEN DINNER!


I know.. we're bad.

Earth Day

New Jersey was pretty serious about recycling.  It was actually a law that you must recycle there- you could be fined if you were caught not recycling.  We had a large bucket-style bin in which we placed all cans, glass and plastics (numbered 1 and 2) and we also had a large lidded bin (like a garbage bin) for paper and cardboard.  Recyclables were collected every other week and garbage was collected twice a week, every week.  Also, it is worth it to note, that the garbage men would take whatever you had on the curb next to your bin.

In England, they are serious about recycling too, but it is different.  They are so serious about recycling that they inadvertently make it mandatory by only picking up your garbage every other week.  And, they will not take anything that does not fit into your garbage bin.  So, if you don't recycle, you will be overloaded with garbage.  We have a black garbage bin and a green recycle bin.  Plastics, paper, cardboard and cans can be placed in the green bins, but not glass.

  There is a separate large recycle container (dumpster) at the village hall for dumping glass.

Our recycle bins are picked up on alternating weeks with the garbage bin being picked up on the recycle off week.  We also have small gray bins- a really small one for under the sink...

 ...and a slightly larger (but still small) one for outside.

These gray bins require compostable liners and are for food waste.  I can put leftovers, vegetable peelings, bones, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags in them.  Once the small container under the sink starts filling up- or starts to smell foul- I can remove the bag and place it in the bin outside.

This gray bin is collected EVERY week.  It's brilliant, really.  I really like the concept of the kitchen waste caddy as it seems- without garbage disposals in the sinks- I dump out a lot of food.

Finally, even though this is not related to recycling it is still about conserving energy and therefore relevant, I wanted to talk about the wall outlets here in England.  In America, we were always being told to save energy by unplugging items from the wall while not in use.  It makes sense, and it helps, but, let's face it, I don't have time (or maybe I am too lazy) to go around unplugging everything every day when I leave the house.  It just isn't going to happen.  And that is why I LOVE the way England handles this.  Each outlet has a switch that can be turned off and on.

When you need to use that outlet, simply flip the switch to on and when you are done, flip it back off.  Again- brilliant!

And if this whole informational post bored you- here is a previous Earth Day post about the time Zoe locked me out of the house on recycle day.  She was two at the time.


Happy Earth Day!

Open Mic Night

So- since I have been terrible about writing lately, I figured I would open up the page to other contributions.  And it turns out, Noah wrote a great poem at school last week and Zoe just spent some time putting together a great little book earlier today.

First I will start with Zoe's work (Zoe is 5 and in kindergarten).  I will type her words and translate in parentheses.

Nobrs dod sop. (Numbers don't stop.)

Its fon to kat. (It's fun to count.)

I lik Nobrs. ( I like numbers.)

Doy yoy lik nbrs (Do you like numbers?)

3, 7

Som peBl dod no haw to kad (Some people don't know how to count.)

I like Nobrs 1 2 3 4 5 6 ( I like numbers. 1,2,3,4,5,6)

It's really cute- she even cut the little pages and taped them together in book format.

Now, on to Noah's contribution.  In class last week, his teacher asked them to write a poem about spring. (Noah is 9)

Spring Dream

Drip, Drip Drip

Can you spot the rain's tip?

Will it ever stop?

I sort of want to hop.

I'll be entertained by a bunny

as it hops around and acts funny.

I'll sling-shot myself off the swing

When I hit a cloud, I will cling.

I'll pull myself on the cloud

then I'll yell very loud.

When I came to the ground

you won't believe what I found.

"Hooray!", I cried

"The rain has stopped, everything has dried."

I woke up from my dream

and let out a little scream

I have not found the rain's tip

but still...

drip, drip drip.

A big thank you to Noah, 9 and Zoe, 5 for contributing to my blog and keeping it from falling into complete and utter derelict status.

A Taste of Home

As a Texan that has lived outside of the state of Texas almost fifteen years now, I often get homesick for certain foods.  If you have never been to Texas and had TexMex, then you will have no idea what I am talking about here, but it is an entirely different cuisine than authentic Mexican, although the two can be found side-by-side in many authentic family-ownded restaurants in Texas.

I realized after I left Texas that what I consider to be enchilada sauce is not what anyone else  (aside from the state of Texas) considers to be enchilada sauce.   The sauce we tend to have is more of a chili-gravy sauce and it is delicious.  I spent years looking for a good recipe for it with no luck.   When I was pregnant, I discovered that Amy's Organic Cheese Enchiladas include the chili gravy sauce.  It is a wonder I did not gain 80 pounds during that pregnancy.  But, alas, I was unable to recreate it for myself.  That is until a few months ago when I ran across a post by Homesick Texan.  The recipe seemed promising so I tried it.  Definitely worth a try if you are a misplaced Texan craving this sauce.  My husband does not do well with meals sans meat so I just added ground beef and made them beef and cheese enchiladas with the gravy sauce. Yummy!

Here is the recipe- copy/pasted directly from Homesick Texan's blog (note: I eliminated the oregano):

Chili Gravy (from Robb Walsh)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup lard or vegetable oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
1 teaspoon kosher salt 
1 teaspoon powdered garlic 
2 teaspoon ground cumin 
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chili power
2 cups beef broth, chicken broth or water

Method:
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, or until it makes a light brown roux.

Add the black pepper, salt, powdered garlic, ground cumin, dried oregano and chili powder and continue to cook for 1 minute, constantly stirring and blending ingredients. Add broth or water, mixing and stirring until the sauce thickens. Turn heat to low and let sauce simmer for 15 minutes. Add water to adjust the thickness. 

Yield: 2 cups

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cheese Enchiladas
Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
8 corn tortillas 
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (can make it with Velveeta for extra melting oomph and good ol' Tex-Mex authenticity)
1 medium onion, diced 
2 cups chili gravy

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450 and grease a large baking dish.

Pour the oil in a small skillet, and heat the tortillas one at a time. Keep them wrapped in a cloth until all 8 are heated.

Pour the oil in a small skillet, and heat the tortillas one at a time. Keep them wrapped in a cloth until all 8 are heated. Pour 1/2 cup of chili gravy in a baking pan.

Take a tortilla, put 1/4 cup of cheese and 1 tablespoon of onion in the center and roll it. Place rolled tortilla in baking dish, seam side down.
Continue with remaining tortillas.

Take remaining chili gravy, and pour it over the rolled tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese and onions on top. Bake for 10 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and cheese is melted.

Yield: 4 servings


So that was one recipe aside, but I still needed to find the Mexican rice you get alongside dishes like these in restaurants.  I tried several of those before landing on this one.  I made it the other night and it got rave reviews from the family.

Here it is copy/pasted from the recipe site (I edited it to show exactly how I made it):

2 cups white rice
3 cups water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 tablespoons oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon paprika 
1/2 tablespoon chili powder 
1/2 teaspoon cumin 
salt and pepper
Directions:

1
Heat water and boullion in separate pot or microwave to make broth.
2
In separate saucepan add oil and brown rice until rice is golden brown color on medium/high heat.
3
Add seasonings, garlic, and onion. Be sure to keep stirring rice so it does not burn.
4
Add broth & tomato sauce. Boil for a second, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 25 minutes.
5
Fluff and garnish with fresh cilantro if you like.

Another classic I think every Texan has a recipe is King Ranch Chicken.  It is a slightly spicy,  chicken-y, Mexican-ish sort of casserole.  Some put corn in it, but I only like corn by itself on a cob- for some reason corn mixed IN my food skeeves me.

King Ranch Chicken (recipe mine):

whole chicken, cooked and deboned 

approximately 1 Tbsp butter

1/2 onion, chopped

can cream of mushroom soup

can cream of chicken soup

can RoTel tomatoes (original flavor)

3/4c chicken broth

corn tortillas

grated cheddar

Cook chicken and pull the meat off the bone- set aside.

In a saucepan, saute chopped onion in butter until onion is soft.  Add soup, RoTel and chicken broth and stir to blend.  Simmer on low, covered for 5-10 minutes.

In a casserole dish, tear tortillas in 1/2, dip them in the soup mixture and layer the bottom of the casserole dish.  Sprinkle chicken on top, cover with a few spoonfuls of soup mixture, spread cheese over the top then repeat the process layering until full ending with cheese layer.

Bake covered at 350F for 35-40 minutes.  Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Another "home recipe" I love to make, although not Tex Mex and more southern than Texan is chicken and dumplings.  I get compliments on this dish, so I thought I would share this recipe as well.

Chicken and Dumplings

Melt about 2 Tbsp butter in a stock pot and saute 2 stalks of celery (chopped) and 1/2 onion (also chopped) until onion is browning- then add enough water to the pot to boil the chicken and drop in 3 bouillon cubes, salt and pepper.  I usually buy a fryer already cut up and boil about 30 minutes until it is done.

Remove chicken to side to cool but keep broth simmering.

In a bowl, mix 2 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking powder.

Measure 1/4 c shortening and cut/blend the shortening into the flour.  Now, here is where you can use a pastry blender if you have one ( here is what I am talking about).  I have never owned one, though, and I just plop the shortening into the flour and use two butter knives, cutting in a criss-cross pattern and blending until the shortening is cut into the flour and blended well.

Slowly add approximately 1 cup of cold water, mixing with a fork, until you have a sticky, moist dough.

Spread flour on a flat surface and turn 1/2 of your dough out onto the flour and knead the flour into it until it is no longer sticky.  Flour your rolling pin and roll it out to about 1/8- 1/4 inch thick depending on how thick you like your dumplings.  Use one of the butter knives to cut lines down and across the dough so you have square dumplings.  Drop the dumplings in the boiling broth one-by-one waiting until they surface.

Repeat above step with second half of dough.

Pull chicken off of the bone and add back into pot with dumplings and broth, cover and cook about 10 minutes.  Taste broth and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Of course, if you are IN the state of Texas, disregard this and just go get yourself some good authentic TexMex at your local restaurant. If you are needing some chicken and dumplings, get your momma or your grandma to show you how to make it.  If, however, you find yourself outside of the state and craving these things, then, by all means, try my recipes.  

Enjoy.

Fun in the Fens

The thing about air force bases is that they are usually located in rural farmland.  They need room to land the planes.  So, it is not surprising that we are located in a rural, farming section of England.  We are surrounded by farmland and pig and chicken farms in an area called "the fens".

The fens were a vast area of marshy land with rivers and lakes.  You can read the entire history of the fens including their drainage here.  Essentially, some wealthy businessmen, decided to undertake draining the fens starting in the 1630's.  The "black gold" discussed in the linked article is the peat soil.  The businessmen wanted to drain the fens so that soil could be used for farming.  The term "black gold" is no exaggeration.  The soil is extremely fertile here and I was just driving through an area yesterday where a farmer was tilling his field and noticed that the soil is black.

So- to recap- they drained the fens and now the area is used for farming and raising livestock.  Our village is very small and surrounded by farmland. This translates to the fact that on any given day, when you walk out of our door, you are hit with either the smell of the beets being made into sugar at the nearby British Sugar factory or the smell of poop. Manure, fertilizer, pig farm, chicken farm, the geese behind my house, the pigeons that sit in abundance on the power lines around our house.  All poop.

This past weekend, we were headed home and were struck by the smell of poop.  Now, the different types of farms have different smells.  This was not the usual smell of pig farm poop that I have grown accustomed to.

 I wrinkled my nose and DJ said, "That is that chicken farm right there. I don't know WHY they put a chicken farm RIGHT THERE but when I ride through here on my bike, that smell absolutely envelopes me and threatens to strangle me it is so awful."

"Well, I didn't think it was pig poo, I guess I never noticed the chicken farm right there."

"Oh yeah- it's there alright."

**slight pause and then DJ again**

"Hey kids, do you want to play a game?"

"YES!!!"

"Fun in the Fens!  Part One: Identify that smell!!"

**me, laughing while the kids look confused**

"Yes, that's a great game!  We can call that portion 'Whose Poo are You?'  The next category will be 'Farm Road Obstacle Course: Dodge the Tractors and Pheasants!' "

The kids went back to ignoring us- not in the least bit amused by our antics.

Hey- don't judge- there is no 3G and barely a cell signal out here.  We have to find ways to entertain ourselves.  If we come up with any other categories, I will be sure and let you know.