Enjoy!

The chaos began about 8:15 last night, with a call from my brother:

“Is Colton still up? Why isn’t he in bed, yet?”

First, I’d like to point out that even on school nights, Colton is never in bed by 8:15. But I played along.

“He’s on spring break this week – burning the midnight oil.”

“Uh… you may want to  double check that.”

What did he meeeaaaan “double check that”?!?!?

It seemed my brother’s wife had been talking to a teacher at one of the district’s other schools, and the subject of spring break had come up.

“Spring break is next week,” he said.

How can that be? I’d planned for spring break to be this week for …. well… weeks, now. I had it in my smart phone calendar and everything. I’d wondered what we’d do all week, because Colton is a.) on crutches and b.) the weather forecast is calling for unseasonably cold temperatures. I’d planned to take him to see Rango today, and the first showing of Hop on Friday.

I’d looked forward to sleeping in. I’d looked forward to no homework, except for reading. I’d looked forward to a well-deserved break from what has been a really tough school year, quite frankly. And a change in spring break plans wasn’t going over well for me. I imagined how well it would go over for Colton.

Phase 2 found me calling Summer. Not that I don’t trust my brother or anything ( ). But this had all the makings of an April Fool’s Day joke coming a few days early. Except that Summer confirmed everything my brother had said: Spring break was still another week away.

This whole fiasco has me wondering what else I’ve mis-scheduled. And whether or not we could actually pull off an extra week of spring break…

-Liz

“Will we be eaten? Or tossed to the curb with all that shiny fake green grass?”

Which is where I make a confession. As much as I love boiled eggs and deviled eggs, I have a real problem eating them after they’ve been dyed for Easter. Oh, sure. I know the dye is OK to eat, but there’s something about seeing that cooked white turned every color of the rainbow that just doesn’t sit well with me. Am I alone on this?

Anyway, I digress. Because a refrigerator full of eggs is opportunity in the making! So many things to do with those boiled eggs. So few hours in the day… So instead of me grumbling about the yucky color on the egg whites, let’s operate on the waste-not,-want-not premise – at least for today. May I present…

Liz’s Top Seven ways to use boiled eggs

• Deviled – or dressed – eggs. Mom often asks me to bring dressed eggs for family dinners. Does that mean the other eggs are naked? Or is it a throw back to the old saying “dressed for dinner”? Anywho,  cut the eggs in half, remove the yolks, mix some mayo, a pinch of sugar, maybe a dash of mustard, salt, pepper and paprika with the egg yolks and fill the egg white halves. When I’m feeling really creative, I put the yolk mix in a plastic baggie, cut off a corner of the bag, and pipe the mixture into the egg whites. Clearly, that doesn’t happen very often, but it sure looks good when it does.
• Egg salad. As far as I’m concerned, this is another way of saying easy deviled eggs. While this one may be a given, I also think it is often overlooked as an easy use for boiled eggs. It can be as simple as chopping up the eggs and throwing in a little mayo, salt and pepper. Or you can kick it up a few notches with some tuna, olives, capers, onions or whatever floats  your boat. Can be eaten on bread or toast, or straight out of the bowl.
• Spinach salad. What better way to go healthy than by throwing chopped or sliced boiled eggs on a mound of fresh spinach? Add some onion, mushrooms, and crumbled bacon, and whip up a nice hot bacon dressing. Dinner is served.
• Cobb salad. If you’ve never eaten a cobb salad, here’s a pretty traditional recipe to check out.
• Potato salad. What is more American than a good potato salad? Boil a few potatoes, add some mayo, pickle relish, onion, salt and pepper and fold in a few chopped boiled eggs. Summer comfort food, if you ask me.
• Giblet gravy. A hands-down favorite of mine. Ladle over fried chicken, turkey, pork chops or mashed potatoes.
• Easy chicken-rice casserole, courtesy of Cooks.com:

• 3 c. cooked chicken
• 3 1/2 c. cooked rice loosely, tossed
• 2 c. diced celery
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 tbsp. chopped onion
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 c. mayonnaise
• 1/2 c. water
• 5 sliced hard-boiled eggs (optional)

Mix chicken, rice, celery, cream of chicken soup, onion and lemon juice. Add mayonnaise which has been mixed with water. Add hard-boiled eggs. Fold all together gently and place in 9 x 13 greased pan. Make the day ahead. Take out 1 hour before baking. Top with crushed barbecue or regular crushed potato chips.

Bake at 375°F for 45 to 60 minutes. Don’t overcook.

Enjoy your boiled egg leftovers!

-Liz

It’s pretty easy to write optimistically from carb-laden bloat. Easy to imagine giving up something for Lent – especially pancakes. But yesterday was Fat Tuesday after all.

And while pancakes may seem an item I can give up for the next 40-some days, I must make a confession. I don’t like giving things up. Not by personal choice and not by force. But especially not by force.

So when it comes to Lent, I start with ideas of grandeur. I’ll give up meat on Friday. How hard can that be? I do it every year, declaring fish for dinner every Friday. But that’s a given for me. Enter the slacker.

To redeem myself, I’ve thought about things i could abstain from, but it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, quite frankly. (And for those of you who might jump on the it’s-not-supposed-to-be-fun bandwagon, get off my back okay?)

I have, as a slacker, decided to ad something to my list of things to accomplish over the next six or so weeks. I’ll be drinking more tea because I really am not a big fan of water. And with this tea thing, I’m agreeing to at least 32 ounces a day.

For you who say to the slacker, “Say it aint’ so! Tea isn’t the same as water!” I beg to differ. and add that you may want to see <”>this article.

Is’nt that a sacrifice? Take it as you will. It’s the best I’ve got. And for a slacker, I think it’s not half bad.
-Liz

How much fun are these adjustable denim KitchenKuffs!!

There are several statements that take place in our house over and over again:

• Pick up your dirty clothes
• Chew with your mouth closed
• Throw away your trash

And my all-time least favorite:

• Can someone come push up my sleeves?!?! PLEASE!?!?

Well, Kate, bar the door, those days are gone. May I present:

KitchenKuffs!!!

That’s right, people. It’s time to say goodbye to soggy sleeves!

The brainchild of Barbara Doran, KitchenKuffs mean you’ll never have suds-soaked cuffs (or anything else, for that matter) on your long-sleeved tops EVER AGAIN! I was so impressed when I first saw this product that I contacted Barbara. She gave me a pair of regular and a pair of adjustable KitchenKuffs to review for you guys. I’ve had ample opportunity to try them, and as far as I’m concerned, they are a must-have in every kitchen, bath, basement and garage. I’ve used them while cooking dinner, washing dishes, painting a bookcase and potting flowers. They go on with total ease, and stay right where you put them.

Here’s a video from Barbara showing the myriad of ways she’s put her KitchenKuffs to good use:

To me, this is true American ingenuity – entrepreneurship at its finest! The product has even caught the eye of Martha Stewart’s Dreamers into Doers, where Barbara was recently featured as Doer of the Week.

Shown here are the denim KitchenKuffs (adjustable) and the pepper pattern regular KitchenKuffs

I highly recommend that you pick up a pair and give them a try. They’re machine-washable cotton, made here in the USA, very affordable, and come in a variety of patterns in the regular and adjustable KitchenKuffs. I think these will make great gifts for teachers, gardeners, moms and sisters, dads and brothers – anyone who needs to “Keep their sleeves up!” And at a time when many families are pinching pennies more than ever, KitchenKuffs are a unique and thoughtful gift they’ll use time after time, without having to break the bank!

I love ‘em, Barbara – I know our readers will, too.

-Liz

Visit www.kitchenkuffs.com for a patterns, pricing and sizing.

Related articles

• Lining Up Yer Linens (alidoesit.wordpress.com)
• Interview with Barbara Doran – Inventor of the KitchenKuffs (theworkathomewoman.com)
• Raising a Foodie? (thedailymeal.com)

Maybe you’ve run into them. They’re the ones who hunt down every person who passes by their booth with a seemingly innocent, “May I ask you a question?”

Memorize this word, dear readers: No.

Because should you answer in the affirmative, or even acknowledge their presence, you’ll be sorry. Just ask my daughter Hannah.

She and one of her friends were spending the afternoon at the mall, with pockets full of birthday money and mall gift cards – a teenager’s paradise. All was well with the world.

Until they passed the kiosk from you know where and made eye contact with their new stalkers.

“Do you have acrylic nails?” they asked.

“No,” she answered.

“Good,” they said. I imagine they were cackling with delight as they grabbed her hand and began shining one of her nails with their “magic” buffer pad.

Within seconds, they revealed her nail that looked as if it had about 20 coats of super shine on it.

Then, they went in for the kill, and began writing up a receipt for the cost of the item, adding how they “usually charge $40 for the nail kit,” but for her, they’d knock off 10 bucks.

Next thing my daughter knew, she had a brand new nail kit, which included a buffer pad, cuticle oil and a bar of soap. She also had a receipt that carried the words, “All sales are FINAL. No exchanges or refunds.”

Of course, Hannah was crushed – mad at herself for being sucked into their evil little scheme, and mad at them for taking half her cash. Granted, it was a learning experience for her, albeit a bit pricey. It was also an eye opener for us both.

I called the mall after she arrived home, practically in tears over the whole episode. Apparently, they get hundreds of calls complaining about this kiosk on a regular basis. And for whatever reasons, no one does anything about their “business practices.”

I mentioned the incident to my neighbors, and the husband admitted to having fallen prey, as well. In fact, he’d purchased four (yes, four…) kits one day.

“She was hot!” was the only defense he could muster.

Men…

Anywho, since that day, we’ve developed a tried and true system for avoiding the nail girl plague. For the benefit of you, our readers, and your loved ones, here are the Top 10 ways to just say no:

1. Hold your cell phone to your ear and pretend to be carrying on a conversation.
2. Talk non-stop to the person you are with.
3. If you are shopping alone, grab the nearest shopper and start a conversation with them.
4. If the above methods fail, send a text message. Even if you run head first into another shopper, it’ll be better than getting sucked in by the nail stalkers.
5. Focus on the stores on the exterior walls as you walk, pretending to be interested.
6. Duck into one of these stores, wait for the stalker to reel in another unsuspecting shopper, then make your get-away.
7. Pretend like you don’t hear them (one of my favorites, which shouts, “You don’t exist, evil nail people.”
8. Know the kiosk locations (in our mall, there are at least two such kiosks, and strategically map out your store-to-store plan to avoid running into them
9. Don’t go to the mall.
10. Look them in the eye when they say, “May I ask you a question?” Just say, “No” – and whatever you do, keep walking!

-Liz

Sometimes, even that ritual visit to see Santa gets put off until the last minute. So this year, I figured I’d be one step ahead and actually plan the day for our visit. We headed to Lexington Green before 9 a.m. on Saturday. The plan was simple: I’d pick up a few things from the bookstore, and by the time we were done there, Santa would be arriving, Colton would divulge his wishlist, and we’d be outta there before millions of other Lexingtonians were even awake. (OK, so there are a million people in Lexington, but that’s hardly the point. Any city that has to put up “Caution: High accident risk. Do Not Block Intersections” signs in this area lends the appearance of having at least a million people in the vicinity of the mall.

Just so we’re clear, the Santa at Lexington Green is not your average run-of-the-mill, typical mall Santa with a fake beard and suit stuffed with a pillow. Oh, no. He’s the real deal. You can even pull on his beard. If ever there was a Santa who more closely resembled Miracle on 34th Street, I would be shocked.

My scheduling was working without a glitch, and by 10 a.m., we were walking toward Santa’s temporary headquarters.

“Here we are!” I said to Colton. “Ready to go see Santa.”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“What?!? What do you mean, ‘you’re good’? We’re here to see Santa! Christmas is a week from today!”

“No thanks,” he said, while peeking in to try to catch a glimpse of the old man. Santa’s “organizer” overheard the conversation and tried to help out, while getting the first of the GOOD little boys and girls – the ones who WANTED to talk to Santa, lined up for their turn.

“Are you kidding me, Colton?? You aren’t going to talk to Santa?”

“Nah – maybe tomorrow. Besides, I don’t really want toys like the little kids. I want cool things, like a bluetooth for the PS3.”

“So you don’t think Santa makes those too?!?!”

“Yeah, it’s just that I’d rather come back tomorrow.”

I wondered if he really meant that. Or if, in a dark stroke of fate, it meant he deemed himself too old for the Santa stuff. To hear him talk about it, he’s the last true believer. But how can that be if he doesn’t want to go see him? Is the age of innocence over and gone? Never to return??

Well, maybe for him (although I’m holding out hope). As for me, I’m headed to Lexington Green to get a couple of last minute requests to Pere Noel. I’m no fool… Santa’s Coming!

Anywho, this week, I wanted to bring you super simple project to adorn the Thanksgiving table. Not sure what else to call them, so we’ll just call them Veggie Candles.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Desired number of candles

• Green beans (about a half-pound per candle)

• One bunch asparagus (that will do one candle, as well)
• Rubber bands
• Ribbon of choice

Making the candles:

• Wrap rubber band around candle
• Slip the veggies under the band. You can cut the veggies to same height for uniformity if you want.
• Tie with ribbon

And we’re done. Talk about an easy way to bring the harvest to the table! Not to mention a sure fire way to serve waxed green beans I’m JOKING!

Kate and I hope you enjoy this project – and that your creative juices are starting to flow. Because next Friday, our 2nd Annual Craftdown to Christmas returns! And it’s not too early to send us your favorite crafts, recipes and homemade gift ideas! Just leave your ideas as a comment or email lizandkate@live.com!! We’d love to see the photos, too! We’ll be waiting…

My how things change. This year, a host of stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Theories are aplenty – perhaps it’s because lots of people want to beat the Black Friday crowds, or maybe stores are trying to generate the additional sales. Or maybe we’ve just lost touch of Thanksgiving all together.

Is it that difficult to stay clear of the stores for one day? That difficult to stay at home, eat some turkey, watch some football and chill?

I realize the movie theaters and bowling alleys are usually open Thursday. And I really don’t have as big a problem with that, because I’ve done the family movie and family bowling on Thanksgiving. But that seems different from going shopping. Why is that, I wonder?

Let’s face it – if you’re that desperate to shop on Thanksgiving, there’s really no need to leave your home. Just jump on the internet and shop until your heart’s content.

It just seems as if we continue to fall even deeper into the consumerism trap, further away from our values and closer to the total annihilation of the family. So I’m curious. What will you be doing on Thanksgiving? How will you spend the day?

Is Thanksgiving a day of gratitude and blessings? Or just another day of the year?

-Liz

President Truman with the 1947 turkey, who wasn't lucky enough to be pardoned.

Yep, this is it – the day of days for the gobblers out there. The day when one lucky bird gets the ultimate gift: a pardon. Meanwhile an estimated 45 million will be landing on our dining room tables. For that, I am thankful.

Anywho, the presidential pardon will be given today. This whole pardoning thing began in 1989 with the elder George Bush, and has continued since. And two turkeys are pardoned, not one. (Think of it like the Miss America contest or something – if the winner can’t fulfill her duties, the alternate takes over…).

-Liz

It’s really a great craft for kids – and requires a relatively short list of supplies.  Chances are,  you already have everything you need on hand.

What you’ll need:

• One paper grocery bag
• One small paper bag
• Old newspaper for stuffing bags
• Duct tape or other wide tape
• Glue (whatever you have on hand)
• Scissors
• Construction paper in colors of choice

Instructions:

1. Begin by stuffing the large (body) and small (head) grocery bags with wadded up newspaper. You can gather the bag as you stuff to get a feel of how full you’d like the turkey.

2. Once the turkey is “stuffed” to your likings, insert the open end of the small bag into the open end of the large bag. Using duct tape or other wide tape, secure the two bags together.

3. Now that the body and head are ready, get out the scissors and construction paper, and cut out feathers (as many as you’d like), eyes (I used a large yellow circle and a small black circle), bow tie, feet, beak, and gobbler (not pictured as I forgot it until I began assembly

4. Assemble the feathers onto the back side of the body. As I was creating this, I realized the easiest way to do this is by gluing the feathers onto an oval-shaped piece of paper. Then you can glue the oval onto the bag. Trust me on this one.  Allow glue to dry a bit if using white glue, and attach feathers to back of turkey. In the future, I may be tempted to use a hot glue gun for this project – watch out for the little ones if you go this route!

5. Lay turkey on its backside. Glue on eyes, beak, gobbler and bow tie. Once these parts have dried, turn right side up. Tilt turkey-lurkey back and glue on feet.

6. Done! Ours now holds a special spot on the fireplace hearth. Trust me, it’s an attention-getter!

I think you’ll really like this project. And start to finish is less than an hour! So what are you waiting for?!? Go make a turkey!!

-Liz