Why Are You Acting So Cray Cray?

It’s not that I don’t want to blog every day.  It’s not that I don’t have some story about food or my family to share.  It’s just the convergence of ill-timed events that ultimately preclude my getting any time in front of my laptop.  Not that these aren’t good events, mind you, they just startle me out of my routine of cooking and writing.

Take this past Friday.  The second Friday of the month.  Every 2nd Saturday of the month, I host a Mommy Dinner.   You have to be a mommy or a step-mommy to be on my guest list.  This alone has caused dissent among the ranks, particularly Tina, who now claims she is going to have a party for “non-breeders only.”   I guess it doesn’t help that I post pics of the food on FB (and now probably on this blog).  The Friday before my dinner, I hire in a cleaning crew so I don’t have the additional to-do of cleaning up the house.

Friday was also a horse-theory day; Ken is in a riding certificate program which includes both riding lessons and a theory component; he’s tested in both areas every spring.  The classes are held monthly, but they are two hours on a Friday night.  That means a reincarnation of the beginning of the week with the rush to get dinner on the table so we can eat and head out to the activity du jour.

No problem.  I was going to try the Pioneer Woman’s Sour Cream Noodle Bake.  I bought the ingredients Friday morning.  What I didn’t count on was my house cleaners arriving two hours late at 4P which effectively eliminated my cooking (what’s the point of being underfoot in the kitchen when they are cleaning up your home?)  So no pics of a meal, no Friday blog…we went to Chipotle instead and my house was spotless.

Yesterday was Mommy Dinner Day, but coupled with the fact I had signed Ken up for an “Effective Study Skills” class through the school system.  (Recall I have previously confessed to being a Tiger Mom).  It’s a two hour class and I figured I could drop him off in Fairfax, a city about 20 minutes from our home, go shopping for my dinner fixings, swing back home to unload, then head back to Fairfax.  WRONG!  I learned there is a farmer’s market every Saturday in Fairfax which resulted in a 45 minute detour.  Yikes!

My mantra for the afternoon, post-grocery shopping, was “Make It Work.” (Believe it or not, Kurt and Ken are Project Runway fans).  And, of course, it did; my old catering mindset kicked into high gear.  However, no pictures of my cooking process (I was in catering Zen and the idea of photographing every step for several dishes was just not going to happen).  I followed a Hungarian theme:  Korozott (a cheese spread flavored with anchovies) with brown bread, goulash, Kurt’s homemade pappardelle, and creamed spinach.  I made a Dobos torte (12 layers of sponge cake sandwiched with a semi-sweet dark chocolate filling) for dessert.  We started the evening with Cosmopolitans, sipped a red Rhone with our meal and finished with Dirty Girl Scouts (think liquid Thin Mints), commingled with decaf tea or coffee.  It was a yummy evening with moms who rock (more on them another time).

I can, however, share pics of the leftovers which I attacked this morning directly from the fridge like my foodie idol Nigella.  Wish I could also show the good time we ladies had!

And I promise to post on the Sour Cream Noodle Bake tonight…