I [heart] Avocados!!!

I mean, seriously, how can you see this and not want to gobble up every bite all by yourself?

I love homemade guacamole, too, but just can't bring myself to buy that pre-made stuff in the store. Too onion-y and I can taste the preservatives in it. Fortunately, we can get avocados pretty cheap at a little mom & pop store in town so I can make my own. And lately, they've been so ripe and lovely, I actually ate half of one like an apple the other day - with a sprinkle of salt and lime. =D

I've been haunting the Williams-Sonoma website recently in search of something - anything - for CS Dad for Father's Day. He's the cook in our house and he takes a very bare-bones-Alton-Brown-no-unitaskers attitude about kitchen items. (Except for juicers and rice cookers. Let us never speak of those little fiascoes again. ;))

Anyway, you haunt Williams-Sonoma long enough and you're bound to find something even those who can't cook (like me!!!) could make use of. These are my current faves:

Molcajete:

Just in case you want to make your guac in a mortar and pestle carved out of lava rock like the Aztecs did. (I somehow doubt the Aztecs were making guac and chips - KWIM? ;))

Or how about this handy little jobby?

Four-in-One Avocado Tool:

 WANT!!!

Anyway, I'm still laid up here with a broken foot, so this is about as exciting as my day gets - ripe avocados. =D CS Dad took a few pics of my roses that FINALLY began blooming the last few days. Wouldn't you know they'd bloom during the one week when it's rained nearly every day and I can't get around out there in my cast? ;) 

Stay dry!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

Word of the Week Wednesday - Recovery

This week's Word of the Week is "recovery".

From Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: re·cov·ery
Pronunciation: \ri-ˈkə-və-rē, -ˈkəv-rē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural re·cov·er·ies
Date: 15th century
1 : the act, process, or an instance of recovering; especially : an economic upturn (as after a depression)
2 : the process of combating a disorder (as alcoholism) or a real or perceived problem


You may be asking - "Why is "recovery" the word of the week?"
 
Recovery is the word of the week because that's what I've been doing for the last month!
 
On April 18th, I suffered a nasty fall down a little more than half a flight of stairs - broke my left foot, banged up my right leg and knee severely, and ripped the skin off of my foot and several toes. Last night (one month to the day after my accident), the last of the scabs finally peeled off - showing new, pink, healthy skin underneath - and I'm getting around a bit without the aircast/boot now, so I can see the end of my recovery in sight! Sadly, my feet are in desperate need of a pedi and I'm just not flexible enough yet to manage that. My toenails are ridiculously long. I could catch fish with these talons. :p Ugh.
 
I have pictures. =D Unfortunately, they're way too bloody-gory to show you. So, here's this picture I cropped my niece out of to show you how I've been geting around for the last month. Yes, I'm still in the boot. I'll be in it until June 7th, at least. (I did take it off and hobble around a bit without it the last few days, but I'm paying for it now. :p)
 

 
My right leg is so ugly and atrophied from the dang boot!
 
So, what have y'all been up to without me the last month or so? =D
 
Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

Cyberschooler Lunch - Orange-Honey-Glazed Chicken

Today's midday meal for Spawn consists of an amalgam of leftovers from the previous few dinners: CS Dad's amazing Orange-Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumsticks, jasmine rice (from Yellow Thai Curry Night! Yum!), steamed spinach with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, 2 pineapple rings, a frozen Scooby-Doo Go-Gurt for dessert, and a Pixar Cars cup of watered-down pineapple orange juice with ice. I know it looks a little sparse, but it's on a full size adult dinner plate because all the kids plates are in the bottom of the kitchen sink right now. ;) This is actually a little more than Spawn would usually eat, but he had a check-up with his pediatrician yesterday and his weight gain is stagnating again even though he's grown nearly another inch since January. Prescription: more frequent smoothies and milkshakes! Doc Phil wants to see a little more fat in Spawn's diet, too, so that's something for us to work on this month and next.

There's no recipe for the drumsticks, but I watched CS Dad make the marinade. (Ordinarily, I'm not allowed in the kitchen during the cooking process, much less without my helmet. ;)) Orange blossom honey, a smokey local wildflower honey, clover honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, and ketchup. He offered me a taste and I suggested a little acid, maybe some OJ. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Orange-honey-tastic. =D

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

What's for School Lunch?

Anybody else school lunch-crazed thanks to Jamie Oliver's new show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution"? I'm lovin' it! (No, the irony that "I'm lovin' it!" is McD's slogan is not lost on me. ;)) We watched it on the big screen at my BFF's place last Friday and by the end of the second hour, all four of us parents were hooked. Have you signed Jamie's petition to improve school food, include cooking skills in elementary education programs, and increase funding for healh and food education?

My BFF is sending her son to a public school this fall that uses Aramark foods, so I've been doing some research and I'm not loving what I'm hearing about Aramark...like not disclosing ingredients...?!?! :o Spawn has to avoid red and yellow dye due to his ADHD, but companies like Aramark are not required by the USDA to disclose the entire contents due to the need to keep proprietary recipes a secret because some other company might steal them?!?! Honestly, who's going to steal a recipe for a food item sold in a school cafeteria? :p Bizarre reasoning if you ask me. :p And parents should KNOW what their kids are eating at school!!!

I find it fascinating what kids all around the world are eating for lunch. The USA school lunches tend to be the saddest, grossest, most nutritionally deficient, and wasteful and I wonder why when so many schools are funded by gov't programs to provide balanced meals. Why can't those meals be delicious as well as healthy? Who decided pizza constitutes two different servings of grains? And what child needs two servings of grains in one meal? We know too many carbs aren't good for small children. Those guidelines were set in 1973, for goodness sake! It's time for the lunch program to catch up! 

"Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet." Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery. Forget what you packed or planned for lunch today. Tomorrow is a fresh start. What can you do to make your child's school lunch better? Do you pack, buy, or eat at home? How about your own lunch at work or home? Do you pick and graze or plan lunch daily? What works for you and how can you improve on it?

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

Happy Birthday to CS Dad!

Monday was CS Dad's big 38th birthday! We were understandably proccupied celebrating, so here's to you, belatedly, honey!

If I were a better baker, I'd have made you a lovely Steal Your Face or Dancing Bear cake like this one. ;) Count your blessings and consider it a gift that I didn't bake you anything and saved you a trip to the ER in the process. =D

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom and Devoted, Loving Wife (Mwahaha! CS Dad is waiting for the other shoe to drop as we speak. Paranoid, Tater? ;))