Howdy Y'all!

Seth said to me awhile back that he rather missed Carolina Barbecue, so I looked up the recipe for the sauce and found a hushpuppy recipe that didn't involve buttermilk. I already had the canned potatoes from "the Place" and so this last Sunday I put some pork chops (gasp! blasphemy! for all you true Carolina guys) in the crock pot (I know! I know it's not authentic!!) with some pepper and onions. After church they were tenderly delicious. In one big flurry, we got the sauce made, microwaved the potatoes and green beans, and deep-fried the hushpuppies. Deep-frying on a whim, you say? Yes, and it came out REALLY WELL.

Here are the recipes for a heart-of-the-Rockies-Carolina-Barbecue-Feast:

Meat: pork something, grilled until tender, smoked until tender or crock-potted until tender.

Barbecue Sauce: Jack Daniels Old Time Cookbook Version 2 from homecooking.about.com

2 c. white vinegar
1 T. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. black pepper

We used this recipe because we already had all the stuff for it, except we used crushed red pepper instead of cayenne. We had the cayenne, too. I'm just saying. Also, open the windows while you're bringing it to a boil and simmering for 10 minutes because it is ZINGY.

Hush Puppies: from the cookbook River Road Recipes, published by the Junior League of Baton Rouge, from 1959 to 1969. Recipe from Mrs. Robert Bowlus.

1 c. cornmeal
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 c. flour
1 egg
3/4 c. milk
dash red pepper
chopped green onion tops
1 T. grated onion

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Beat egg, add milk, and add this to cornmeal mixture. Add onion and red pepper. Drop by spoonful in hot deep fat (375 F) and fry until brown. Should you like a lot of crust, these may be patted flat. This makes approximately two dozen. While there is a great deal of speculation as to the origin of hush puppies, there should be no speculation on the tastiness of these.

Except that I omitted the green onion tops and used onion powder for the grated onion. Next time I might double the baking powder because I think mine's not acting as well as it used to. Plus I scooped them out with the little mini P-Chef scoop and they came out SO CUTE and roundy.

So you get the hot pups and the pork-n-sauce on the table, get the canned potatoes and green beans out of the micro, put the white bread on the table, pop open some cole-slaw you got at "the Place" and chow! Too bad we don't drink sweet tea!

What Does It Mean?

So I just walked by Jules' room and she was in there, in classic Kid Mode, playing dolls. She was doing the voices and the different characters and everything. And it got me thinking.

They say that kids' play is practice for social situations and growing up. And it makes sense, to see Jules in there playing dolls and loving her little ones, and imagining her growing up and being a good mother from all her practice.

The question is this: if Jules practices for motherhood by playing with dolls, then what is Eric practicing for when he spends hour upon hour building legos and Bionicles? What adult-hood practice is he getting, building so many robot monsters? Is it problem-solving? Is it preparation for his intended career: inventor? Or is it just something to pass the time and should I just be grateful it's not video games?

What does it all mean?!

What Russell Did Just Now

Oh. My. Gracious. Russ has been having a hard time lately. I believe it's because he's just turned three, and his whole world has been so tumultuous lately and a lot of good reasons, but also I fear that it's because he's secretly insane and will later have serious mental problems.

Anyway, he was over at the couch playing Little People and then he got out this HotWheels car wash thing and he was getting SO FRUSTRATED because the slide/ramp WOULDN'T STAY UP. He was stampling his little feet and screaminating and I was like, What? What?! I want to HELP you!! And he ended up just running away in frustration. This always happens in movies and on tv, but we weren't allowed to do it in my family growing up. So I let him go, to see what would happen. And what happened was, he put himself to bed. I just went down there and he was snuggled up under his favorite green blanket, hugging onto his favorite stuffed animal, Humphrey the camel. And he was totally calm. He just needed to get away, DANG IT. And now that I just peeked in there again, he's fast asleep. He put himself in for a nap when things got too hard. He really is my kind of boy after all.

The sad part is, that I have to wake him up in like five minutes to go drop him and all the other children off at the cousins so I can go for my post-cancer Endocrinologist appointment and get my Synthroid dose adjusted.

To the Chunky Girl in New York

Dear Chunky Girl,

Remember that, in the summer of what? 1982? 83? when we were both enrolled in that free-ish summer program at Colton elementary school? and my two big brothers were there also, and my little sister? Remember that? Well, do you remember the time you brought your boom box and while we were waiting for the doors to open, you played "Beat It" by Michael Jackson? Remember that? That was awesome.

At the time I didn't realize the song was by the King of Pop. But I did realize that it sounded REALLY COOL. That bonging and bomb-dropping at the beginning of the song caught my interest so that forever after that I thought of you and how cool that song was that you played for us doofy little nerd kids.

Several years ago my awesome husband Seth got me the album "Thriller" for Christmas. And when I got my ipod I ripped it onto there. And I would hardly ever listen to it. And then a couple weeks ago I got a Jones SO STRONG to listen to it, that I had to start it up RIGHT THEN. Chunky Girl, I still LOVE THIS SONG. Also, Billie Jean and Wanna Be Startin' Something and Thriller. In fact, I just created a new playlist on my ipod called Super Dance Favorites just for these songs. Also I put in Boogie Shoes and Saturday Night Fever.

So, Thank You, Chunky Girl. You opened up a fabulous musical realm for me, even though I didn't really enter that realm until 25 years later. Nerd, remember? Here's hopin' you're still rockin' out, Chunky Girl in New York.

Rock On!
Elizabeth