Work in progress

A number of fellow bloggers are re-capping their weeks in their last posts. I am going to take that idea and re-cap my day, so far:

9:00am - Get on the road to drop big monkey off at Russian School. Little monkey comes on errand with me.
9:30am - Farmers market for regular fruits and vegetables and food for the party.
11:00am - Drop off Asian pears and apples for good friend (and grab coffee and hard boiled egg while there).
12:00pm - Get home, shower and transform in to presentable human being
1:15pm - Get back to Russian school for New Years concert (Russians celebrate New Years with Santa, not Christmas, and it's not a religious holiday. I will blog about this next week).
2:00pm - Almost make the husband get in to a fist fight with some punk-ass 18 year old kids (I may have told them to shut the fuck up and husband only heard them tell me I was rude).
3:00pm - Leave kids at Russian School with in-laws and pick up friend. Go to Costco and Russian store for food stuffs for the party tomorrow. Eat my way through Costco and Russian store samples.
6:00pm - Get mani/pedi.
8:00pm - Start cooking items that can be prepped ahead of time.
10:00pm - Other friend picks me up for quick Bed, Bath and Beyond run.
10:45pm - Blogging
11:00pm - Am about to wrap Hanukkah gifts for tomorrow's party. Am about to throw mail in some random drawer and put out dishes to be used tomorrow.

The food is a work in progress, as am I. Even though nothing is difficult, it all still takes time. But this is the stuff that gets me going. I love to cook and entertain.

Here's the little monkey and her dad:



Here's the big monkey telling Santa a poem:

Here's the brisket going in to the oven for it's initial 6 hour bake (out of 9 total hours):

Here's the matzoh balls going in to the refrigerator to rest (and yes, these are made from scratch, not from a mix):

I'll be back tomorrow with recipes and the pictures of everything cooked!

Kids Birthday Parties

Kids love birthday parties! And so do I actually. Somehow, in two hours, the kids are able to pack in about 4 hours worth of fun.

This one was at a Bowling Alley. The monkeys' had a really good time and the little monkey bowled better than most everyone else. Including the big monkey! And oh was the big monkey upset. How dare the little one do better than the big one????? It didn't help that the big ones' friends were all amazed by how well the little one was doing and were happy for her, and proud of her.

So, what does the big monkey say???? "THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!."

Hearing those words are like nails screeching on a blackboard to me. Not fair? There are children starving in Ethiopia...my parents couldn't even afford to buy me a cabbage patch doll...I can't go in to Neiman Marcus and buy whatever I want...those are the things that are REALLY unfair!!

Green eyed monster, anyone? It's amazing how sisters can love each other and want to kick each others ass at the same time ;)

After a while all was forgiven - the perfect meal was served. Pizza, french fries (according to my friend, these were french fries on crack, because they really were that good!), vegetable platter and cupcakes and dots (the ice cream). What more can children ask for???

The perfect birthday party.

I'm a dork

I had an hour to kill after work, before I met a good friend for sushi (I haven't eaten "real" sushi/sashimi in what feels like months). We have a children's Birthday Party to go to, for the big monkey's friend tomorrow and I still needed to buy a gift. So, off to Barnes and Nobles I went.

According to another friend, I have almost a Birthday party a week. She's exaggerating, but sometimes it does feel that way.

I have decided that 6-8 year old girls have random taste in clothes (I never know if the cute Hannah Montana shirt is going to be well received or not), have way too many toys and don't want educational things (except my freak monkeys, who love to receive workbooks as gifts). So, I've settled on Chapter books and other books. Most kids this age are just discovering the joy of books and the worlds that the stories open up! I ended up getting her Paula Deen's My First Cookbook and a kit with Apron, wooden spoon and utensils. Her family likes to cook - hopefully she'll like it.

While there, I HAD to look around for myself - books are my biggest weakness. I could easily spend $100/month at Barnes and Noble!

I was SOOOO excited - two books I was waiting for came out this month!
Heather Graham - Deadly Gift, book 3 of The Flynn Brothers Trilogy
Nora Roberts - The Pagan Stone, book 3 of The Sign of Seven Trilogy

I walked out of the book store absolutely giddy with anticipation! I love getting back to the characters I have grown fond of. I can't wait to get a couple of hours to my self so that I can read!

Yes, I'm a dork, but a happy dork :)

And the sushi was, hands down, the best I have had in a very long time!