Happy Mother's Day Recipe

It wouldn't be Mother's Day in the Midwest (at least in our family) without the first pickins of rhubarb or a warm rhubarb crisp cooling on the counter.















Binny and I harvested the first of the rhubarb and made 2 big casserole dishes of strawberry rhubarb crisp. One for my mother-in-law (The same woman who has lost over 50 pounds since she started her diet a few months ago. Really though besides the one stick of butter and of course the sugar in this recipe, it's pretty healthy.) and one for us. I will make more for the rest of the Grandmas as we see them over the next few weeks.

The recipe is very simple and since I don't really measure ingredients this is just a rough guide.

1. clean and rough chop rhubarb and strawberries and toss into a baking pan. Make sure you fill the pan to the top with fruit as it will shrink during the baking process.



2. Add about 1/2 cup of sugar and a few tablespoons of corn starch to the fruit. The sugar for sweetness and the corn starch to thicken the sauce. Then toss to coat evenly.



3. The topping- 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup oats, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 stick of softened butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together with a fork until all of the butter is worked into the dry ingredients. Cover the fruit with the topping and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 min to an hour depending on the size of your dish.

My husband and his family insist in eating this warm with vanilla ice cream, but I like it plain at room temperature.

Happy Mother's Day to all, and especially to all of the moms in my life! Since I rarely get sentimental, I thought a recipe would be the best way to celebrate a gushy, mushy, emotional, mom-centered holiday. Enjoy!

Oh Crap Mother's Day Is This Weekend

I have been thinking of something to post for Mother's Day but haven't come up with anything yet. I still have 2 days right? Oh and I recently found out that my Grandparents occasionally catch my blog now that they are staying with my mom for the summer. The other night I called them to see how their flight was, and one of the first things my 91 year old grandfather told me was that he just saw me on the TV. At first I was a bit confused (I don't think I've been arrested recently) then I realized that he was talking about my Mother's laptop and my blog. Does that mean I need to clean up my language??? Anyhow, by Sunday I have to think of something to post here because I didn't send any cards or flowers this year. Sorry Mom and Grandma. Money has been a little tight but more so I hate the whole card thing. Squeeze my big shopping cart through the card aisle with all of the other children in Target trying to find the perfect card for Mom or Grandma or step-mom, or Mother-in-law or Grandmother-in-law. Forget it, the kids make something and we call it good. Maybe a glass of champagne when we see you all at the end of the month.

For now check out this video made by Ann of Anns' Rants and 2 other Wisconsin Blogger Moms. Funny stuff!

So It's Valentine's Day

I really don't consider this day an actual holiday, same goes for Sweetest day and Mother's day. Not that I don't think it's great to celebrate the ones you love, but really is a dozen of the crappiest discount roses at jacked up prices really the point?

That said, I should mention that Hubby and I got engaged on V-day 8 years ago. Not because he's real romantic or sweet or even knew it was Valentine's Day. We were both home (living in sin, mind you) and decided to go out for dinner with the rest of the "once a year I really like my partner crowd." After dinner, Hubby (boyfriend at the time) suggested we go look at rings. We had been discussing marriage for a while and were living together, so marriage was obviously the next step. We went to the jewelery shop and looked at a few rings, and he being the indecisive one asked me which one I wanted. I picked out a variety of rings and tried them on (with very shaky hands) and we both decided on a most beautiful engagement/wedding band set. I originally thought I wanted a 1k solitaire but when I saw my teeny tiny (1/4 carat tw.) ring, I knew it was the one. The sales woman couldn't believe her eyes. Apparently she'd never witnessed such a mellow engagement. The ring needed to be sized, so I had to wear it on my middle finger until we sent it off to be cut apart and made smaller to fit my little ring finger, and still it didn't fit so I had to use one of those cheesy ring guards until we got married (six months later) and had the whole thing sized and soldered together. Once we got home he got down on one knee, proposed and slipped the ring on my finger. That was our only extravagant V-day celebration, although we do usually have a nice dinner at home along with a bottle of champagne, not unlike most weekends, or the 2 times we had sex (Mae and Binny).

Now that we have kids, we do celebrate by helping the kids make valentines for their class, but we do it as a fun, family project. The kids usually make their own valentines, but this year Grandma N found these cute little V-day gift bags that we used instead. And I'll have you notice there is not a picture of Hannah Montana on them. Score one for us!
Hope you all get lucky tonight!!!

PS. That's not all, and if I can't tell the Internet, who can I tell? I was so mad today because this morning the crazy farmer called and needed someone to milk the cows tonight and hubby said "Oh sure, I'll send Ali." Well obviously that was the wrong response,as I was just there last night and HATE THAT DAMN PLACE WITH A PURPLE PASSION. I suggested he go and of course he came up with a million excuses not to. As I was huffily getting dressed in my shit-soiled gear, he said "honey, would you like me to go, or stay home and make you a romantic dinner." Well, long story short, he's there and I'm at home preparing dinner for when he gets home.

He really does love me.

Oh, and if you haven't already done so, please vote for me in the Hair Of The Blog Contest. Voting ends Sunday night.

Valentine Fun

Binny and I made chocolate covered strawberries this morning to give as Valentine gifts to her teachers today at the class Valentine party. Her teacher has been out for over a month recovering from surgery, so Binny wanted to do something special for her on her first day back. Tonight will be a repeat strawberry dipping session with Mae as her Valentine's Day party is tomorrow and also the celebration of the 100th day of school. I've never heard of such a celebration, but whatever sounds like a fun day to me.

Seal of approval

And a chocolate covered strawberry dance

I just had to share this too. Mae checked out an interesting book from the school library. I didn't think that Jane and her pals were still in the Elementary schools teaching budding readers. This Valentine edition dates back to 1956.

check out the teacher's outfit. She's dressed like she should be serving drinks on an airplane, not constructing valentines out of paper and paste. And that teeny tiny hourglass waist? Come on, did women in the 50s really look like that?

Some things never go out of style... or do they? This book was discarded (as noted by the stamp on page 1) by the local public library, but then donated to the school. Lucky for us.