>A Petite Recipe

>I’ve thought about posting a recipe each week, Scribbit style. When school is not in session I bake and cook a lot more, so I’ll have more to share very soon. As the garden grows, I’ll have recipes that deal in the fresh ingredients of my backyard, too.

There. That decision’s made. Every Tuesday, a recipe. Here goes:

When we got married, my MIL gave me this book so we could record our favorite family recipes all in one place. Husband and I have done that. The cover has fallen off, but the pages still contain Husband’s guacamole, Great-Grandma Frances’ German potato salad, and much, much more. On my way to finding something else, I came across this.

The young La Petite wrote this. She must have observed me or Husband writing in the family recipe collection and decided that she should do the same. It has all of her favorite letters from the early days (H, M, Q), and it’s grouped (sort of) like words. I don’t have a clear memory of watching her writing this little piece, but it is indeed priceless.

What does it make? No one knows, not even La Petite herself, but it probably tastes like chicken.

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>Aunt Deb’s Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

>Would you believe — I’m already picking rhubarb? And some of it’s actually the rich, dark red that makes it so, so sweet and flavorful.

Bottom Layer:

Place these ingredients into a greased and floured 9X13 pan.

3 cups cut up rhubarb
60 mini marshmallows (or enough to cover bottom of pan)
3/4 cup sugar

Cake Batter:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening or butter
2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 3/4 cup flour

Cream sugar and shortening (or butter). Add eggs and milk. Stir in baking powder and flour. Spread evenly over rhubarb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve upside down plain or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Mmmm…delicious.

And if you think I’m kidding about how yummy this cake can be, I must tell you that I freeze rhubarb, too. A taste of summer can be delicious in the middle of a cold, snowier-than-usual winter like 2007 and 2008 delivered. Frozen rhubarb works in this recipe and many others. My backyard produces many of these delicious red stalks: too many to use up in June, July, and August. Right now, it’s fresh. Next December? I’ll dig into the freezer and make this again.
Did I mention that I compost the leaves?
Never mind. Go eat!

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>Who put the wheels on my hollyhocks?

>Those vagabonds. Really. First the tulip and daylily traded places. Now there’s a hollyhock in the middle of the as-yet-unplanted garden plot. How does this happen? I blame the squirrels for the bulbs moving. But the stray hollyhock? Maybe a bunny or bird ate a seed and, er, dropped it there.

I transplanted it before spreading the compost. Here’s hoping it thrives in its new home.

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>The Ensemble

>Click- click- click- click- click
Heels.
Shuffle, shuffle, slip, pad, pad,
Tiptoe, tiptoe, bounce and flounce
Ballet flats. Mary Janes.
Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip
Flip flops.
Woooooooosh!
Cross trainers!

Pumps, slingbacks, high heels and low.
Walkers unused to the elevation wobble and lean,
Give in and walk through halls in their stockings or bare feet,
Donning the dressy shoes for the actual moments of their performances.
Ballet flats in more than black
Keep time with updated Mary Janes in shiny patent leather
Or plain but perfect matte finish.
Dresses, skirts, and at times casual but pretty capris
Accompanied by their footwear as their wearers are accompanied by the piano
Create an ensemble of like — or unlike — fashion.

This post was created and inspired by Scribbit’s Write Away Contest for May on the topic of (you guessed it) Shoes.

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>Blogging. Do you get it?

>Kathie Lee Gifford doesn’t get it. The Today Show’s Hota Kotb doesn’t really get it, either. Three well-known bloggers took some time out from BlogHer Business conference to sit down and talk about blogging for the Today Show. They were introduced as “mommy bloggers” — as in “Oh, no, not the mommies!” The feature was edited to make the women sound like they sit around all day chatting online and make a living doing it.

The lovely Mir was initially concerned about the final production making her look “like a dork” in public. After the feature aired, she was more concerned about the obnoxious “Tell me your secret!” emails that were the price of her 15 minutes of sound bite fame. No one editing the production realized that these women are the exception, not the rule, of the blogging world. They don’t make a living talking about diapers. They make a living as freelance writers; their clients are often online. Believe me, they work. How would I shop for Christmas and birthdays without Mir’s Wantnot?

Punditmom gets it and explains it well. Many women started blogs because they were not finding their voices and those like them in mainstream media sources. We may or may not be moms, and we may or may not blog about our children. We do, however, have a voice: a strong and ever-growing collective voice.

Jenn at Mommy Needs Coffee (I think she’s my doppelganger with a Texas twang) wrote about blogging for passion or products. If a blogger writes only for the products, the writing doesn’t stay fresh long. I don’t know anyone who subscribes to a feed reader or bookmarks a blog just to read paid posts or ads. It’s the personal nature of the blogosphere medium that makes it interesting and exciting.

I liked Mir’s comment that blogging is cheaper than therapy. It’s the reason I started reading blogs and writing my own. I continue because I enjoy it. Getting the occasional free book to review and winning a prize now and then are bonuses.

To read a summary of Mir’s experience and to view the clip, check out The Business of Mommyblogging on BlogHer. It’s worth it. You’ll get it.

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>What’s your return policy?

>It isn’t wordless, so it’s not Wordless Wednesday. It’s definitely not an illustration of dedication and unconditional love, familial or otherwise, so it’s not a Love Thursday. I see this sign every time I take La Petite grocery shopping, and I finally had to take out my cell phone and snap a picture. Taken literally, it just doesn’t work. Come to think of it, the sign doesn’t really click in the figurative sense, either.

I still think it’s crying out for a caption. But maybe, just maybe, the label stands on its own. Perhaps I should say it parks in its own…never mind.

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>That’s My Bag

>It’s the end of the solo-ensemble festival season, and I cleaned out my Judge’s Bag last night. This is the bag I pack in February and leave packed until early May. On those early Saturday mornings, I just pick up my bag and hit the road, knowing I will have everything I need when I get there. A quick stop for Jo to Go coffee, and I’m on the road.

I took out:

  • Twelve sharpened pencils (with assorted logos of music stores and universities)
  • One pen (with a University logo on it)
  • One lip gloss
  • One sample sized tube of hand lotion
  • One small bottle of hand sanitizer
  • One package of peppermint Tic Tacs
  • A handful of cough drops
  • A small package of hearing aid batteries
  • A reusable manila envelope, 9 x 12 size

These will get redistributed between my purse, the medicine cabinet, and my desk at school. The pencils will probably end up with students who need them.

But the bag is not empty. For next year, I left:

  • Two empty folders (from music stores)
  • The binder containing my Adjudicators’ Handbook
  • Two thank you notes, one from a student and one from a parent group
  • My Master Adjudicator name tag
  • My name stamp for “signing” 40-50 ratings forms every festival
  • And one pen and one pencil to get me started next winter.

And in other “bag” news, I knew there was a good reason I didn’t buy a new purse when my other one broke. Check out the MOMocrats! I may bake cookies, but I don’t stay home and have teas.

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>Footwear, footwear

>Shoes!! Scribbit’s latest Write-Away contest, the one for May, has a great topic: Shoes. Being one of the female persuasion who has always enjoyed the quest for footwear, I knew I’d have a few posts in my archives on the topic. The question will be: which one is the most appropriate for the contest?

Green Bay Packer fans must have the right shoes.

We called it Mort, short for Morton’s Neuroma. It’s healed nicely, thank you, but it did mean limiting my shoe selection.

The perfect location for some Mother-daughter bonding.

Maintaining the rainbow collection

Procuring the rainbow collection — oops, I entered that one in Scribbit’s contest last August. The topic then was “Collections.”

Hmm. Shoes. I can think of something, I’m sure. I am Mama; hear me roar!

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>simple pleasures when away from home

>A student once gave me a card on the last day of school that said, “There are three great things about being a teacher: June, July, and August.” And this was a good kid, a young man who has kept in touch and is now in law school! In a school like mine, however, we deal with a lot of emotionally charged issues because of the wide variety of families and the transient nature of the neighborhood. Yesterday was a staff development day that involved planning for next year, and I came out of it exhausted rather than refreshed. I will feel better when I see my class today, but I’ll still be happy when I send home their report cards and move them along to the next grade level.

When we take our family vacation (an actual vacation! With a road trip! The first in four years!), I’m looking forward to some simple pleasures. Being finished with schoolwork will feel great, especially after the rush to finish the year-end paperwork. Not having to wash dishes or sheets will be nice, of course, but there are other little tidbits that make me happy.

Reading a newspaper in every city we visit
Attempting the crossword puzzles in each newspaper
Reading a few books for pleasure without having to “make time” for them
Taking pictures in various states along the way to use in my social studies lessons
Picking up a few new coffee mugs for my collection
Listening to Husband and Amigo bond in the front seat while I read or nap in the back
Exchanging emails with new friends, running into others

Posting the travails of our travels — eventually. I might not have pictures until we get home.

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>Blue skies, smilin’ at me

>


Photos taken on the way to visit La Petite Friday night after the major storm blew through. The rainbow was fading so fast I just grabbed my cell phone camera and hoped for the best. I missed the tornado(s), the hail, and the worst of the rain, thank goodness. I had to take a different route than planned because of a washed out bridge, but otherwise all was well. And in case you were wondering, the campus now has heat and hot water. 🙂

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