Spring Break Redux

We had a great Spring Break, week before this most recent one.  My grandmother took the train out from Oregon, and spent ten days with us, enjoying and entertaining her only great-grandson in the way only she can.  (My grandmother went back to school later in life to get a degree in early childhood development. Although my perspective on "later in life" has changed a bit; she wasn't much older than I am now when she did it!)  I took some time off from work, but we didn't really go on any adventures -- unless you count our first visit to the celebrated Sprinkles to buy some delicious cupcakes as an adventure.  But she and Juj played lots of games, and knowing my son, many had Calvinball rules, and knowing my grammy, she went right along with them!  I remember the magic of her undivided attention, and have no doubt Juj had a fabulous week.  He even told her that he hoped she could come back soon, the night before she left.

And then yesterday, Juj and I had a mini-Spring Break. No school for him because of parent-teacher conferences, and G-man is off at the annual UUCF Revival, so I took Friday off. We got the parent-teacher conference done nice and early -- the teachers said he's a great and very smart kid, although it would be nice if he focused a bit more at times; no new news there! -- and then went to the Museum, followed by 3-D Monsters vs. Aliens in IMAX, followed by dinner with Uncle Ron, and then picked up some early Avatar at Blockbuster. A good day all around!  And tonight, I believe we will hit the spring service auction at Horizon -- although Juj insists that he needs a green (afro) wig to support the night's 70's disco theme(?!); should be interesting trying to find that.

As for food, while Gram was here, Saturday we hit First Chinese BBQ with a big crowd and had leftovers for days.  I roasted a chicken for the first Sunday she was here, and then made a meal that used these recipes for inspiration the second Sunday:

• Green Salad with Fennel & Avocado
• Pasta Verde (served this hot without the vinaigrette; would've been better with it)
• Apricot Dijon Glazed Chicken (doubled the chicken but not the sauce, used fruit only jam with no added sugar, added curry powder; sticky but good and easy)
• Cherry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream (in addition to making this with frozen cherries instead of peaches, went the Splenda route and added sliced almonds on top; tasted pretty good but looked awful)

Blame it on the economy...and Twitter

Haven't posted for a month; gah! I never read anyone else's blog either, because I was reading blogs of folks I actually know (or at least have met a few times, except Pioneer Woman who's got a HUGE following, and A.McQ. but I feel like I've met her), and now I seem to spend my evening online time catching up on Twitter, and sometimes Facebook, or LinkedIn. And then I don't get around to any blogginess.

Work's been stressful, but the layoffs in our area are complete for the time being, so now I'm just back to working hard.

And I'm behind on menus! Rather than try to recreate the past month, I'll just go from this past Sunday, and try to stay more on top in the future. Last Sunday was one of our service auction offerings, so we had seven folks over for dinner - here's the description from the auction catalog:

Sunday dinner - Old School Guerrero-style, the way the Tias STILL do it. Start with a cocktail? Mojito? Margarita? Cuba Libre? Then get into it: Delicious rich chocolaty Chicken Mole, Arroz Mexicana, Frijoles, Guacamole, Home Made Flour Tortillas, Fresh tender Corn Tortillas from the tortilleria. Finish it off with hot coffee or "Chocolate Popular." To kick it up a notch how about Pastel Tres Leches for dessert? You've been looking a little thin, you need some hearty comida mexicana to build you up for the cold winter days. ¡Sabroso! ¡Hasta entonces!

The funny part is that this little gringa did most of the cooking (kudos to G-man for the cleaning and the homemade tortillas!), but, as the husband said I've "learned from the best!"