What a Week

And, I might add, it’s not even over.

There is no surer way to invite disaster than to go and make plans when the first grader is off of school. So, to celebrate having her back home, a whole bunch of us went and got sick. Fevers, chills, sniffly noses, coughs… The kids are mostly feeling better, but now I’m down and out and all I can think about is how much longer it will be until I can crawl back to bed. It makes for long days.

Doesn’t matter how I feel though, I still have meals to prepare. Time for Make-Your-Own Soup… That’s a fancy name for ramen noodles.

I have some ramen stashed away for days like these, a natural brand with less sodium and no scary names on the ingredients list. I try to assuage my mama guilt by getting the kids excited to “make their own” by adding a bit of extras: a thinly sliced omelette made with two eggs and sesame oil; a chopped up cucumber; shreds of basil; some edamame in pods. Sometimes I have bits of chicken, peanuts, or broccoli; this time we added some toasted sesame oil.

See that pyrex measuring cup? Yeah. That’s how we roll when Mama’s sick. It’s not all crystal and china ’round here… OK, fine. It’s never crystal and china here.

The edamame is great for nights like tonight, when the kids need something to keep them occupied, and I need to burn through some time. Oh, and it’s healthy. Guess that’s a win/win/win.

Here’s the craziest thing about these quick “make your own” meals we do; I’ve found no better way to get my kids to try new things than to let them spoon, or smear, or sprinkle it over something themselves. Who knew ramen could be the gateway drug to broccoli and basil?

I mean, seriously, this is what my son, that we call the walking talking cheerio, put in his bowl. And he ate it all. That’s BASIL people. It’s green!

Doesn’t look so bad for ramen noodle soup, right?

Busy… At Least I Thought I Was

I was _really_ hoping to have some pictures to go along with this post, but the camera’s battery is dead, and I can not for the life of me find the charger. I’m getting a little worried about that, since we’re leaving for vacation at 4 am on Saturday, that is, if Hanna doesn’t force us to evacuate–or not even visit–Hatteras Island, where we’re planning on spending the week.

Sigh.

But it was an incredibly busy day none-the-less. I baked six loaves of Ciabatta, I made a double recipe of Spuma do Tonno, pureed and strained a gallon of Creamy Tomato-Basil Soup, set nine pound of peaches in the crock pot for peach butter, and managed to keep the kitchen passably clean the entire time. Actually, now that I have it all listed, it doesn’t sound like that much. But it was. And I’m tired. And I still need to take one more pass at the kitchen before I’ll feel OK about going to bed. But, oh, I’m sitting now, and it’s so hard to even think about getting up.

Tomorrow: packing, packing packing… oh, that is after laundry, laundry, laundry. Hurricane be damned. I’ll stay in a Motel Six somewhere in Kentucky, but I’m going on vacation for a week, and I’m bringing my own food and I’ll have clean clothes!

Hopefully, fingers crossed, pictures tomorrow.