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I’m not ambitious enough to try all seven; two is more my speed. And one came straight from a can.

The menu: baccala, stuffed artichokes, poor man’s pizza, pasta with primavera sauce, meatballs, antipasta with carrots, celery, olives, bread, anchovies, roasted peppers, and cheese. For dessert, fruit bowl and cookie tray. Apparently I can’t cook for four so we have been eating leftovers all week.

The schedule: (I forgot to include “soak the cod” and almost blew the baccala):

11:00 prep and soak artichokes

11:30 make pizza dough

11:45 cook cod (~30 min.)

11:50 stuff artichokes

12:15 cook artichokes (2.5 hours)
[Nate sprinkled his own yogurt for lunch]

12:30 make baccala

12:40 - 2:30 random tasks: cookie tray, fruit bowl, set table, make antipasta
[Nate made the cookie tray]

2:45 artichokes out of oven

2:50 sauce on, pasta water on

3:00 cook pizzas (20 min. each)

3:30 cook pasta

4:00 eat! (Okay, we really ate around 4:30, but I was close.)

[Van loved the pizza] [Nate gave the feast the thumbs up]

catbird :: Dec.26.2007 :: cat rants, house stuff :: Comments Off

Oooooh yeah… Finally, I can get it January 1 (well, on the 2nd, I guess) and find out what I can eat. And if I was as cool as John, I could get it for just $9.99 and read it on my Kindle.

catbird :: Dec.25.2007 :: cat rants :: Comments Off

1. Cookie negotiations start at dawn.

2. Could Van’s bout of insomnia have been anything else but sugar o.d.?

3. Two words: cookie smugglers.

4. Nate thinks if the cookie has raisins, it’s growing food.

5. Van learned how to climb up on the dining room chairs. His motivation: the cookie tray.

6. Part of every day is spent spinning in circles.

7. Van had green sugar hands for an entire day.

8. I thought it was separation anxiety, but it turned out Van just wanted another cookie.

9. My sofa is smeared with chocolate.

10. “Mommy, that gingerbread man is asking me to eat him.”

catbird :: Dec.21.2007 :: mommyhood :: Comments Off

Last weekend, Nate wrapped gifts for his friends. With kids, I don’t believe there is such a thing as waste when it comes to art supplies, which is why I don’t even flinch when Nate uses gobs of glue and two foot pieces of tape. We’re always rewarded with fabulous and creative creations. This project was no exception. I don’t believe anyone has ever received such uniquely wrapped gifts:

catbird :: Dec.19.2007 :: mommyhood :: Comments Off

Your “It’s like preschool on TV” tagline is ridiculous. Passive TV watching, even with “educational” segments, is nothing like preschool. At preschool, kids run around, play, imagine, interact, and learn by doing, not stare at a screen that tells them what a hexagon is. Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true.

catbird :: Dec.08.2007 :: cat rants, mommyhood :: Comments Off

At Thanksgiving, Moose A. Moose showed us the Turkey factory farm, then yesterday, he introduced a segment about a chicken farm with a barn the size of two football fields and and farmer happily shoveling sawdust for the “special delivery” of thousands of chicks. I turned off each segment before they could describe the “happy” life these birds will have, living inside, over crowded and never seeing sun or feeling grass under their feet for the few weeks they have to live.

Hey Noggin, what’s up with that?

catbird :: Dec.08.2007 :: cat rants, mommyhood :: Comments Off