lest you be misguided by yesterday’s blissful notes on camp, i must add the following observation about traveling with small children:

vacations are not really vacations. they are simply the act of schlepping all of one’s stuff, one’s kids, their stuff, and all of the responsibilities related thereto, to an alternate location of one’s choice. kids still hit each other, wake up in the middle of the night, refuse to eat growing foods, and stack chairs in the kitchen in pursuit of chocolate. it’s just that on vacation, parents have the pleasure of looking at the mountains or the beach while they are dealing with the aforementioned issues.

however, july in montreat offers a bit of a vacation from the vacation in the form of “clubs,” a kids’ day camp that meets on weekdays from 8:30 to noon and 2:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon. this is the first year that both of my children have attended both morning and afternoon clubs, which officially makes july of 2011 the most time i’ve had away from my children since they were born. i was musing to my friend, anne, about how this absence was affecting  me, and she (the mother of two grown children and three grandchildren) summed it up well.

it’s all about energy. the more energy we have, the better parents we are. when we don’t have energy, we are simply muddling through.

having my children in other people’s care gave me more energy for the times that i was with them. for example, on the saturday when the bird tee-teed all over the dining table and the monkey promptly covered the rest of the table in glue, i reacted with an uncharacteristic sense of calm likened to that of the dalai lama.

when the bird spent thirteen solid days clamoring for his daddy, who was in memphis, i was able to laugh and not get my feelings hurt as i usually do.

the kids did eventually wear me down though. by the end of the trip, even with the added childcare, i was muddling through. the grand finale, marked by two sleepless nights hovered over a croup-plagued bird, returned me to my familiar listless state.

if only there were a couple of extra hours in the day for sleeping or a couple of extra parents in the household for trouble shooting! in the absence of these wish list items, i can offer you only this: my recipe for muddling through in style (adapted from design sponge):

summer elderflower cocktail

ingredients

• st. germain licour
• club soda
• lime
• mint
• gin

directions:

• muddle mint and juice from half of lime in the bottom of a low-ball glass.
• add ice and throw in the squeezed lime.
• add the desired amount of alcohol (about half st. germain and half gin).
• top with soda and stir.

you might want to purchase one of these.

every muddler needs a muddler.

last week’s pantry week was a huge success and a little too easy. our fridge and freezer are no longer avalanches waiting to happen but the pantry is another story. any minute there could be a chocolate-covered-blueberry rock slide in there. something has to be done!

so… this week is modified pantry week. the same rules apply with a couple exceptions:

• one farmers market trip is allowed so that we get enough veggies and don’t contract scurvy.
• i took a cue from my friend tiffany and gave certain pantry items “must use” status. then, i bought a few necessary groceries to make that possible. for example, we now have chicken broth, which was the missing ingredient in several of my most brilliant makeshift culinary schemes.

monday night we had sausage and chicken gumbo using this recipe from the best of cooking light. also, the monkey and i made these tasty glazed  pumpkin cookies.

last night we had chicken pot pie using this delicious recipe from edible memphis’  melissa peterson:

2 ready-made pie crusts

1 T veggie oil

6 chicken thighs

1.5 quarts water/chicken broth (i use much less)

2 carrots peeled and diced (substituted red bell pepper)

1/2 onion diced

2 ribs celery, diced

4 T all-purpose flour

4 T butter or veggie oil

1/4 c. milk

1/2 cup frozen peas (i used leftover lady peas)

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning (i used much more)

salt and pepper

1 egg beaten with 1 T water

2-3 T grated parmesan

in a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. brown chicken thighs, then carefully add water or broth. boil. reduce heat to a simmer. cover and cook till chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender, about 40 minutes.

remove thighs from broth and set aside to cool. add carrots, onion and celery to cooking liquid. simmer until veggies are soft, about 4 minutes. in a small saucepan, heat 4 T oil or butter. whisk in flour to make roux. add roux to veggies and broth. cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, whisking constantly. add milk.

remove skin from cooled chicken. pull meat from bones. shred and add to vegetable mixture. add poultry seasoning and season with salt and pepper. stir in frozen peas.

place bottom crust in 10″ pie plate. spoon in chicken mixture. place top crust and crimp edges. cut 3 vents into crust. brush with egg wash and sprinkle crust with parmesan cheese. bake at 350 until crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes. cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

tonight’s must-use items: black beans, red beans, and canned corn. any guesses?

last night’s pantry week cuisine was a homemade, kid-made, pizza that included such oddities as meatloaf and lady peas.

i always have a stash of pizza dough in the freezer (see yesterday’s revelation that i am a food hoarder) thanks to this delicious recipe perfected by my friend, mary.

one side was “decorated” with pesto, basil, lady peas, onions, tomatoes, and an assortment of cheeses. the other side’s toppings were tomato sauce, meatloaf, pepperoni, and the same assortment of cheeses. andy was out of town, so he missed this curious culinary compilation. i invited my aunt over to partake in the weirdness, and the two of us ate all but one piece!  

pics of my pantry and fridge are coming soon. the shelves (in all of their grubby glory) are actually beginning to reveal themselves.

i don’t know whether to be delighted or embarrassed about how well we have eaten during pantry week. let’s face it. my name is mary allison, and i am a food hoarder.

last night’s entree was this double-cheese meatloaf  from cooking light. my lamb, ground beef, and sausage combination worked really well, as did my substitution of front-yard-basil for the called-for parsley. i didn’t get a chance to photograph the meal until it was almost gone, but as you can see, it disappeared fast.

along with the meatloaf, we had some farmers’ market lady peas (purchased saturday before we hatched the pantry week plan) and some broccoli that was nearing its date of expiration.

apparently, i am not the only person who is seeking better organization through eating. many of you have responded to our little pantry week experiment with your own versions of this challenge, and some of you have even sent me your favorite makeshift recipes. here is one that’s in keeping with the meatloaf theme:

elise’s makeshift meatloaf:

add crumbled crackers or oatmeal to hold leftover meat together. add one egg, some worcestershire sauce or ketchup, salt and pepper. put it in a loaf pan or dutch oven and cook at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.

tonight’s menu will feature a return of the lady peas in an unconventional fashion. any guesses where they will turn up?

what do spinach linguini, cherry tomatoes, turky kielbasa, leftover marinara sauce, and basil have in common?

they were all part of andy’s pantry week  pasta perfection.

last night’s chef would also like me to mention that he ran six miles on the greenline before he whipped up this tasty assemblage.

for those of you who have lost sleep pondering the fate of our seven cans of pumpkin, you’ll be interested to know that our supply is now down to six and a half cans. i used half a can yesterday to make these starbucks pumpkin scones.

the scones turned out okay, which is to say that my kids loved them. but then again, my kids also love dora gummies and ketchup-covered-quesadillas. i don’t think they taste as good as they look, perhaps because i used skim milk instead of whole milk and a combination of white and wheat flours.

i’m hoping to try a pumpkin soup before this little experiment is over, though i have not excavated the pantry to the point of uncovering any sort of broth, which would be necessary for such an undertaking.

thawing as i type are three more ingredients that are bound for pantry week promised land:

• half a pound of ground beef
• half a pound of ground lamb
• half a pound of ground sausage

what will come of them is anybody’s guess.

the first night of pantry week was so easy and delicious that i caught myself making grandiose pronouncements about adding seven more days to our challenge. time will tell.

i adapted a recipe i found in anne byrn’s dinner doctor, a valuable resource when it comes to making something out of nothing in the kitchen. let me enlighten those who are not yet aware that you can add two eggs, a cup of milk, and a half a cup of bisquick to anything in your fridge to make a pie. it’s genius.

our particular “impossible pie” included half a pound of leftover breakfast sausage (cooked), half an onion and a few cloves of garlic (sauteed), some leftover takeout spinach from pete and sam’s restaurant, mozzarella, and a sprinkling of feta cheese. here’s the formula in case you want to work your own version of bisquick magic:

• mist a 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray.
• layer 1 to 2 cups of leftover meats/veggies in the bottom of pan.
• cover with 1 cup of cheese.
• whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk, and half a cup of bisquick in a bowl and pour into pie pan.
• bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until pie is golden brown and firm to the touch.

as i type, andy is rummaging through the pantry planning tonight’s fare. at last count, we have seven cans of pumpkin in there. this could get really interesting, folks.

[source for this post can be found on the bibliography page listed on the sidebar to your right.]

one afternoon last week, when i opened the pantry to get the kids a snack, i was bombarded with an avalanche of chocolate chips, tea bags, pretzels, granola bars, and miscellaneous packets of bakers yeast.

and then, this morning, as i was reaching into the fridge for the creamer, i was met with a hailstorm of blueberries.

hazards such as these can only mean one thing: it is time for a pantry week in our house.

for the next seven days, there will be no meal-planning or food purchasing (apart from a few kid staples, and of course, coffee). andy and i will take turns coming up with creative concoctions with the vast array of random food items crammed into the far corners of our kitchen. so get ready for the cheese-toast pizzas, the bizarre quiche-like entrees, and the breakfast pasta dishes. i’ll be posting about our makeshift meals… the good, the bad, and the ugly.

and now for an update on elvis, the webkinz mountain goat:

elvis lives, despite my best efforts to off him. the plush real-life elvis is quite at home with the monkey and enjoys frequent outings to the park and to his grandparents’ house.

elvis’ web persona is still living the high life in his room with his wet bar, area rug, and cactus. after consulting with some experts (middle schoolers), i learned that the best way to contribute to the demise of a webkinz is to play with it regularly but not to feed it. i have been employing this strategy lately and have even refrained from feeding elvis the jar of pickles i received yesterday just for logging in. however, so far he seems no worse for the wear. suggestions? shouldn’t he at least be getting sick enough to merit a trip to “dr. quack?”

stay tuned…

i added a week’s worth of meals, recipes, and grocery items to my weekly meal plans page located on the sidebar to your right. click on over there for a little of this

and that

back in my pre-kid days, i remember feeling completely baffled by some of the time-saving measures taken by a friend, who was working outside of the home, parenting, and pursuing her masters degree. every sunday, for example, she would pour her preschool son’s milk into 14 little containers so as to shave milliseconds from her weekday lunch and dinner prep time. this struck me as the same mentality employed by olympic swimmers, who shave their whole bodies for a swifter glide through the water. i wondered why my friend was making parenting into an olympic sport.

but now that i am a parent, i have a new perspective. i find myself strategizing about how to cut corners. i have yet to fill my fridge with tiny little milk containers but i no longer question my friend’s time-saving practices. as a mom, an employee, and a student, she was triathlete. her life was necessarily one of high stakes and high structure, and if i saw her again, i’d give her a gold medal.

i have been training for my own event over here, and the good news is that my personal record times will not be adversely affected by my ambivalence toward shaving. i’ve been trying to streamline the meal planning and grocery shopping processes that have historically usurped much of my valuable weekend family time.

my friend sarah mentioned in passing several years ago that she has a weekly grocery list on her computer with all of the staples her family needs for a week. i have recently borrowed this idea, and now i simply print up my own such list (diapers, applesauce, milk, detergent, et cetera) before heading to the grocery.

i am also now following my friend tiffany’s lead, and i have compiled several weekly meal plans that work well for our family. so, for example, if sunday morning rolls around and i would rather watch paint dry than spend time planing our meals for the week (which is often the case), i can simply pull out a previously compiled list of tried-and-true dinners complete with its corresponding pre-compiled list of needed grocery items, and i’m good to go. tiffany’s weekly meal plans are seasonal and make use of many fresh ingredients. i guess this is what makes her an olympian and myself just an olympic hopeful.

i would love to hear about the tactics you use to simplify your life. if you are interested in my weekly meal plans, i’ll be posting them soon. just click on the “weekly meal plans” heading located on the sidebar to your right.

[thanks to http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35584821/ns/today-today_in_vancouver/ for the olympic curling image.]

some of you might have felt a little sorry for me when you read “host a make-your-own-pizza night” on my fantasy to do list. “poor mary allison,” you must have thought. “while everybody else is fantasizing about world travel, lottery money, and fame, this poor, unimaginative girl is dreaming of pizza!”

well, last night, andy and i hosted a make-your-own-pizza night, and i am here to tell you that it was indeed worthy of fantasy, thanks to the recipe for home-made crust, perfected and given to me by my friend, mary.

mary’s recipe was simple and incredibly delicious, and the good news is that she’s given me permission to share it!

thanks to mary for putting in the hard work of perfecting the process so that morons like me can have first-time success. i’m off to eat the leftovers for lunch. yum!