Hits and Misses

Not much time today...I'm busy letting my house deteriorate into squalor while I prepare for my first solo gig!!! I'm scheduled to be the featured live music at the Tea Bar in Fort Lee on Friday night, December 17. (Where have you seen the name of that establishment? On my LIST, astute reader!!) You will note that December 17th is less than two weeks away. Yikes yikes yikes. I am both very excited about and seriously terrified of this impending event. More to come on that later, I'm sure.

So I'm spending time at the piano today, but before I forget, I want to catch up on the events of the last few days.

After Tire-palooza the other night I didn't feel like returning to the ordinariness of mac and cheese, so I suggested that we try something new. I whipped up the necessary frenzy of enthusiasm to get cooperation from my troops, and we grabbed a recipe I'd been looking at and ran to the grocery store. I made Thai mini meatballs (ground pork, fresh ginger, lime, grated carrots) with peanut sauce.

These were not a hit.

The meatballs were ok. Not nearly as flavorful as I expected, but not bad either. I ended up using "meatball mix" (beef, pork, and veal) instead of straight-up ground pork b/c the ground pork looked SCARY. Like, gray weirdness. Seriously, do people really buy packages of meat that look like they've been under someone's couch for weeks? Why leave them out there at all? Maybe actual pork that doesn't cause eyebrow-raising would have improved the recipe. I don't know.

The bigger problem was that the bottled sauce we got was too spicy for my little ones. That is to say, it had detectable spiciness, which in any amount will send my children into gasping, dramatic paroxysms of despair. I therefore tried to make my own peanut sauce. This effort did not go well.

In the end, they ate...mac and cheese.

BUT, I didn't specify that I needed 40 new GOOD recipes. "Meh" recipes qualify, darn it.

Today's went a little better. We had an "All-Church Lunch" (needs renaming--any ideas?) after the morning service, and the gimmick this month was crock pots full of soup. After much deliberation I went with a potato soup that was pretty simple and didn't look like it would require the last-minute stir-ins that many slow-cooker soups do. I put it in the pot before bed and awoke to warm, savory smells...and boiled-over soup all over my kitchen counters. It took me a good 45 minutes to clean up and de-crust the crock pot. Also, it seemed a little bit bland (just a little), so I added some scallions and crisped up a half-pound of bacon to crumble and throw in.

Once it all came together, it turned out pretty good. Halfway through the lunch I remembered that I had brought cheddar cheese, sour cream, and more scallions for toppings. By all reports they were favorably received...especially the sour cream...but I think it was really the bacon that made the soup a hit. So there you go.

Lessons learned:

• The crock pot should not be brimful before it starts doing its thing.
  
• Eight crock pots of soup lined up next to each other smell really nice.
  
• Bacon makes you popular.

Lastly, we managed to do another craft: leaf rubbings. My kids didn't even know what leaf rubbings were, which makes me feel like I've failed as a parent in some capacity, but they LOVED doing them.




Joy caught on quickly and made some really pretty stuff. Will enjoyed it, too...

...and even got up this morning and tried it again on his own before breakfast.

Jack didn't quite get it but had a lot of fun...

...until he decided he'd rather put on sunglasses and do a strange, tai chi-like dance. To each his own.
I'm not posting pics of my own leaf-rubbing creations, but they were awesome.

OK, everyone's hungry again, and the piano's still calling, so I'm going to run...