erin go bragh

i'm not irish.  like, not even a little bit.  shocking, huh?

however, that little tidbit doesn't stop me from celebrating st. patrick's day in my own little way.  no, green beer has no part in it whatsoever.  but like last year, i did put a little green food coloring in the bean's milk.  and in her scrambled eggs, along with some pureed green veggies.

looks odd, huh?  she ate that shit up, though, and still asked for more.  heh.  i wonder if it turned her poop green.

aaaaaanyway.  for her class party, i made some fun little goody bags to hand out to her friends.

and then i followed these instructions to twist her hair up into a 3-leaf clover of sorts.  this isn't a great picture (nor did i do a stellar job, i suppose), but you can see it...right?

such a little ham, this kid.  and yes, i sure did manage to squeeze another use out of that little skirt i made for her last year.

a fun craft involving green paint and little handprints kicked off the party.

the kids got to kick back and relax for a while as their classmates each got a turn with that green paint.

then i got to play leprechaun and run around campus hiding little clues with gold coins - some plastic, some chocolate.

they had a blast finding treasure for each other.

after some party snacks (which involved a "pot of gold" - yellow jello in a black cup, plus cookies and green grapes), it was time for the weekly treasure box.  for some reason, she thought this was a great prize to spend her tickets on.  oy vey.

hope your st. patrick's day was as fun as ours!

another day, another 'do

going to see my favorite hairstylist rochelle is always such an ego boost. she's such a sweetheart - she greets you with a big hug and a smile, and she always has something nice to say, which is fabulous when you've just walked in looking like total shit. gotta love walking around as the "before" picture.

i was so glad to finally get in to have my hair did last night. my hair was completely out of control - no shape whatsoever, and impossible to style. i still wasn't 100% sure of what i wanted to do with it, aside from not wanting bangs and no shorter than chin-length. i was really digging katie holmes' style from her recent spread in glamour magazine (i think the last one is from last year's in style):

but i wasn't sure i could pull it off, let alone find the patience for the daily styling that 'do would take. i was convinced that my face shape wasn't going to work at all.

as i always do, i had visual aids with me - i printed pictures of styles i liked to give rochelle some ideas as to what i was going for. and as she always does, she complimented me on my hair, told me that the shape of my face could pull off any style, and i settled back and let her do her magic. i gave her my two requirements, told her i was thinking of sticking to a basic-ish bob shape, but with an edge. i wanted some choppy layers, razored ends, something different from my usual look.

"no problem!" she said, and then we spent the next hour and a half laughing and catching up as she snipped and blow dried and flat ironed and snipped some more. it'd been quite a long time since i'd seen her last, as i'd cheated on her once or twice last year. heh. luckily, she's not the kind of stylist who takes it personally. yay!

and when she was done, i looked at the floor and was pretty surprised at the amount of hair that she'd managed to chop off. holy shit! i didn't even know i HAD that much hair to cut. heh. but i was stoked. i really liked it! of course, my next thought was the same as that of every woman who's just seen her awesome new 'do in the mirror while the stylist twirls her around in the chair: am i going to be able to recreate this myself at home? shit.

and as predicted, i'm at home trying to get the look back after washing the gobs of product out of my hair and failing miserably. i'm thinking i may need to return and pick up at least one of the many sprays she used to create her masterpiece. oy.

oh, i forgot to post this yesterday! for st. patty's day dessert, i made chocolate chip cookies. and i got the bright idea to put some green dye in the dough. check out this fantastic shade of green:

too bad i didn't consider the fact that the cookies would brown as they baked. they ended up looking like dirt and grass.

ah, well. they tasted good. that's what counts anyway, right?

and last night's dinner was a big ol' pan of classic comfort food: tuna noodle casserole. the teen doesn't do fish, so i only make this when she isn't home. the hub and i dig this shit.

okay, enough babbling. i've got a hairstyle to do.

eat your greens!

even though i haven't done much shopping in quite a while (*tear*), i still get a shitton of catalogs in the mail almost every freaking day. i guess it's a good thing we live in a place the size of a thimble, with no room to put shit away in, because i shouldn't be buying anything anyway.

in the last williams-sonoma catalog i got, i flipped through the pages, oohing and aahing at all the fun kitchen stuff in there. and then i turned a page and saw this:
i'm totally drooling all over myself again just at the sight of it. cute little puffy pancakes, filled with chocolate, drizzled with even more chocolate, and served with a dollop of sweet whipped cream. and this is breakfast. niiiiice. i tossed that catalog in the recycle bin and forgot all about it until i was browsing on amazon, and found a cheaper version of the puff pancake pan. um, with free shipping. sold!

yesterday, i decided to give it a shot. i googled for recipes and learned that they're actually called æbleskivers, a dutch treat typically served at christmas breakfast. they can be sweet - filled with chocolate, jam, cream cheese, or savory - stuffed with cheese, veggies, bacon. i picked a simple recipe from the williams-sonoma website and busted out the nutella to use as my filling.

i put little dabs of butter in each well:

filled them with batter, and then dropped in a tablespoonful of nutella:

flipping them over was a little tricky, but with the nonstick surface (and that lovely coating of butter), i got the hang of it after the first couple of tries.

when they were a nice shade of golden brown, i put them on a plate and sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.

these are so much fun, and really yummy. hopefully, my next attempts won't be as misshapen. i can't wait till the teen gets home so i can try out a lemon mascarpone-stuffed version! well, and maybe one with bacon bits too. gotta have the right balance of sweet and salty, right? heh.

i'd gone to costco and picked up a 2-pound bag of asparagus. inexplicably, i LOVE asparagus. i don't know what it is about it, but it's my very favorite vegetable. and corner bakery used to serve a really delicious cream of asparagus soup, but they haven't offered it in a couple of years. so i decided to make my own, and went with this recipe.

it was surprisingly easy, and with a few tweaks here and there, i ended up with a pot simmering on the stove that was chock-full of creamy asparagus-y goodness.

i served it with my favorite spinach salad, and it made for a really yummy dinner. i guess i could've saved it for st. patty's day, since everything's such a lovely shade of green, but i refuse to serve anything but corned beef and cabbage on this holiday.

ah, how i love to cook.