Oh, it just gets better

Let me set the scene:

Mother of the year, takes her two wonderful sons to a cooking class.
Food was delicious and not tooo hard to make
so realistic mother of the year agrees to make food at home.
Hard working father pays for large grocery bill
due to quality ingredients needed for French and Greek food.

First, the loving mother of the year and chef son make Sundried Tomato and Basil Hummus
Verdict: Not as good as the Cooking Goddess'
Humble mother of year calls Cooking Goddess for advice
Salt
sons with a death wish won't try improved version

Next, ever so patient mother of year and son who is walking a thin line
make Chicken Fricassee
Chicken is cooking
time to add stock and white wine
yes, I did go to the store and for the first time in my entire life buy wine
that would be a WHOLE 'nother post
So, non-alcoholic mother of the year measures stock and then pulls out bottle of wine
crap
it's not a screw top
scrambling mother of the year instructs side kick son to google
how to open a wine bottle
(ok seriously of all the things I thought I'd never say to one of my children
this has to be at the top of the list)
first cork screw (attached to cheap can opener)
breaks
mother of the year now getting desperate sends pirate son
to hunt for another cork screw...(we have to have one somewhere don't we?)
cabela's multi tool...no
generic multi tool...no
last hope...swiss army knife in back of father of the year's night stand...SCORE!
eventually mother of the year and chef son open wine bottle
and continue cooking what had dang well better be the most delicious
and appreciated dinner this year!

family of the year sits down to dinner
verdict: Not as good as the Cooking Goddesses
son who deserves to go to bed with no dinner says
"It must be her pans and her plates 'cause she didn't even make the food, the class did."
older and wiser son says
"we just need to wait a month before we cook any of her food"

done!

Pictures by Zac (aka chef, side kick, walker of thin line etc)

boys.....

My new motto is...you can't fight 'em so find the humor and share it!

Early this morning Will had to have an upper g. i.

It wasn't too bad but he didn't enjoy
the two glasses of barium
or "pop rock stuff".

We were driving home, his stomach killing him, telling us about
how "gross" (read cool) it was to see the inside of him and how weird it was/is to feel it moving through him.

Zac said something about farting.
To which Will replied: "I can't fart."
Yup, I fell for it...
"Why?", I ask
....wait for it....

"'cause I got junk in my trunk."

boys...ya just never know what's gonna come out.
(I so had to say it...forgive me)

I love today...

It's Saturday, it's cool, it's sunny and we're all home today...

Twelve, 12 лет старых, Yes, 12 years old today!!!

I don't know how it happened. I can watch the home movies, look through the scrapbooks, close my eyes and spend hours remembering, but I still can't tell you how our little Antoshka became big, twelve year old Will. I could go on and on but since I have tears streaming down my face I'd better stop...plus it's easy to embarrass my darling Will and he hates it when I get all emotional. So Happy, Happy Birthday My Sweet William!!!

What REALLY Matters...at least according to Zac!

For nearly two years we planned this great last big family vacation before our angel daughter heads off to college. Two weeks together....beach, Philly, family....we're all looking forward to it. Kids count down our departure. We spend 3 days in Philly, do all the historical stuff, tour the city, get to see where grandparents and great grandparents lived. We spend a week at the beach with family we only get to see every other year, lots of cousins, boardwalk full of yummy food, rides etc. Spend three days with grandparent the boys adore. We go to Lancaster and see the Amish. Again, lots of yummy food. Boys were fascinated with their way of life. We stop and talk to an Amish farmer. He invites them in to see the barn and them milking cows. There's a big family party for Gary's mom. They all have a great time. Don't want to come home. We'd been home a few days when a family friend asks Zac how the vacation was...on a scale of 1-10. He gave it a 7! I used all my strength, self control and fear of prision to show him what I thought of this rating or burst out with a "Are you freakin' kiddin' ME! 7!"

Jump to last night. We have a yard full of brown shirted aliens...scout campout! Mind you it's beyond hot and humid here. No one in their right mind leaves the ac for long. It started at 1pm, but 1:15 everyone looked like they'd just gotten out of a pool...a stinky, gross pool, but dripping and drenched. They hike around, catch more bugs than I want to ever know about...all of which are currently residing in my freezer....scoutmaster's bright idea....something about insuring their dead, not just hibernating....ok that works for me, but I'm not going near that big white bug coffin. After dinner Gary made them a yummy dutch oven oatmeal cake etc, etc. About 9pm Zac pops inside for something and I ask...so on a scale of 1-10 how this? 8! He give it an dag gum 8!

I spent about $10 on food and didn't have to leave home...next time they mention going on vacation I'm gonna go buy some marshmallows and call the scoutmaster.

ps You may have noticed the lack of pictures. I sent the camera out with dear husband...who I'm going to refer to from now on as BB. Did BB take even one picture....stinker!

Unexpected Orange Matters!

While my dear spouse watched the short version of today's Tour de France stage I was "blog jogging" (my sister and blog inspiration calls it that...I hope I'm using the term properly) and came upon my new favorite blog (beside my sister's, daughter's, son's etc). .

Orange has special significance to our family...it's Nathan's favorite color. I was in heaven....great ideas, love her voice, lots and lots of orange and THEN I found my new favorite website.
Holy Cow Batman it's a twofer! Quick back story. We adopted our three sons from Russia when they were 2, 2.5 and 3. No, we weren't crazy, No, it wasn't a spur of the moment decision and Yes, we would do it again in a heart beat...just gotten happy drugs sooner and cherished each moment more) None of boys spoke English and we didn't speak Russian. We tried to learn basic words and phrases in Russian, some of which we still use today. Our Russian resources are limited but we do what we can...and now we have a whole new resource . Hey, for those of you non-bilingual families, you can teach your children how to make the sound of a horse in four or five languages...that 'll put all those "my child is a genius at 9 months" parents in their places. I'm not sure how my soon to be sixth graders are going to use their soon to be new found knowledge to their advantage, but maybe there's scholarship potential in it for my soon to be college student. Orange and Out! ps This post is dedicated to my brilliant daughter who taught me how to import pictures and make them a link. Love ya Angel.

This isn't a cooking blog

My new favorite person in the world, who is also a professional chef, has worked a miracle. We'll call her the Cooking Goddess. On Thursday the C.G. gave her first cooking class. We made Fetucci Alfredo. It is one of my ever so very picky seventeen yr old daughter's favorites...so I dragged her to the class with me. Not only did she enjoy it...she made it for us for dinner tonight...all by herself...and she cleaned up after. This is the child that used to cook with me all the time when she was little, but in the last few year has become an expert at whinning, complaining and feigning helplessness to get out of doing nearly everything in the kitchen. Don't even get me started on our dishwasher issues. There wasn't much left over, but I can still taste it calling me for a little bedtime snack. I'd share with you if I could...ok that's a lie, but I would give you the recipe. It's a good thing she had a friend over or I would have licked the plate! Oh, and who is the mother of those boys that look like little piggies shoveling the pasta in their snouts? Someone teach them some manners

Scouting Matters

Zac and Will went on their first boy scout camping trip. They went to Uchee Creek Campground down on Fort Benning. They got to do all kinds of things and worked on numerous merit badges. Such as a five mile hike, swimming, cooking their own meal, canoing, making a fire on their own, and boating. I slept over on Friday night and left Saturday morning. They came home late Saturday afternoon. As you can see they were ready to go and were wore out upon return. They're ready to go again!!!!!! Gary