Marlene

Thanks Pan. I'm afraid I'm right at the beginning. This week, I'm studying the C major , D major, and F major scales, chords and inversions. Lesson is tonight and I believe I start using both hands to play at the same time. I'll be able to show my teacher just how uncoordinated I really am . Ryan has Saxophone lessons at the same time. Sometimes we are even learning the same song, so we can practice together. At such times, even the cats go and hide I'll be back in a bit to update everyone on this morning's breakfast routine, but first, I have to get the lad to school.

Oops. I fixed it. 3 cups not 3 pkgs

A brief respite after dinner. Not only does the lad have an Indian Village in a shoe box, he's expected to make a presentation on it tomorrow. Most of this evening was spent (painfully), listening to him memorize and do his presentation. Home from school, Ryan had a couple of quick snacks. I made Monkey bread today. Monkey bread can be made in any pan type. Today I made some in muffin tins and some in a small bread pan. The muffin like ones are easier to pack in his lunch. This particular bread was made with spelt flour, so that Ryan can share it with his other best friend at school who is allergic to wheat. When I use spelt flour, I use 1 ounce less water than the recipe calls for. Dinner consisted of Beef stroganoff I make my beef stroganoff without mushrooms due to my mushroom allergy and my family tends to prefer it over rice instead of the traditional egg noodles. Served with a Simple salad and I made a basic Balsamic Vinigrette and garlic dressing to go with it. I also had some crusty bread on hand to go with the Onion Confit that finally was ready this morning. The confit is much darker in colour than I anticipated, I think because of the beef demi glace that I added to it. There is no shortage of desserts in the house at the moment. There is still some chocolate babycake left, and a chocolate cake I made a few days ago. Don also decided to bring home half a dozen Krispy Kreme donoughts . Fotunately, I don't eat dessert. Guess which one Ryan chose? Ryan had milk, (he's still a milk monster) and I had the last glass of Amarone with mine. During the week, we almost never sit down together as a family to eat. Especially during this time of year, Don is just never going to make it home in time. I normally serve mine and Ryan's up, and sometimes (read most of the time), he can eat watching TV, provided his homework is done. The rule of the house is homework is done as soon as he gets home. Otherwise, I get grief after dinner if I try to get him to do it then . I usually put Don's in the oven to keep warm and he eats when he gets home. I have yet to finish my own "homework" of piano theory. For some reason, I decided a few months ago, that 44 was a good age to learn the piano . Things will be quiet now. Ryan goes to bed a nine and Don and I will read quietly for a while. Perhaps a port and a little stilton cheese will be in order a bit later.

It's been a fairly packed day. After my run, I did the laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, worked on the eCGI, practiced my piano, sliced the sirloins for dinner tonight and made monkey bread. Lunch was a fairly haphazard affair of leftover roast beef, and some cheddar cheese. I'm waiting for the monkey bread to come out of the oven, and then I'll go get the lad from school. Thus will begin the after school, "get your homework done, cook dinner" routine. Of course he'll need a snack first Edited to add: How special. I opened the oven door to take out the bread, and immediately the room filled with smoke, setting off the smoke detectors Some of the topping juice had spilled onto the oven floor, creating a ton of smoke inside the oven. The bread however, is lovely I guess cleaning my oven is on the list for tomorrow

I drank the occassional glass of red wine once I was into my second semester. I did check with the doctor first, and he said it would be fine as long as I wasn't planning on drinking a bottle every night

It depends on the guests. If we are entertaining clients, absolutely not. I can't afford to have a disaster during one of those events However, we have close friends who come for dinner a lot. They quite like being my guinea pig so I try out lots of stuff on them.

Yeah that would be great! Or you could just mail me a case

Wow, that's not very nice. The balanced Day timetable came into being for a couple of reasons. It allows for longer teaching periods . The amount of time wasted before and after recess getting coats, boots etc on/off was quite a lot. Also, kids were taking food out to the playground because they never had time to eat it in the school, and the playground was awash in litter. Now, the kids have 20 minutes to eat in their classrooms before they go outside and there's no garbage outside any more. Kids are actually eating, which helps them stay more alert throughout the day. It's particularly good for growing boys like Ryan, and for the younger children, who can't go that long without eating. The kids love the schedule. They say it feels like the day goes by faster. And high school kids here get spares - where they have time to eat if they want!

I think I've achieved success. It took a long time, but it does look like confit this morning. A nice marmalade consistancy. The demi glace makes it a little darker I think than without, but I'll take some pics and post them later.

Ah, peace and quiet. The frantic Monday morning rush is over. A typical morning when we have Ryan goes something like this: Don gets up first (5: 00 a.m.) and gets the coffee started (good man ). He comes upstairs for his shower and wakes me up. I stumble downstairs and grab my first cup of coffee and read the paper for a couple of minutes. My eyes are almost open at this point. Go upstairs and give the first of several wake up calls to the lad. Ask lad what he would like for breakfast. Lad mumbles incoherently. I finally turn on the overhead light, lad grumbles. Ryan gets up to have his shower (he's taken to doing this lately. I can only wonder how long it will actually last ). I go downstairs to fix whatever he wants for breakfast, in this case, 2 blueberry muffins, (easy this morning). And start to pack his lunch. Ryan quite often gets junk for lunch. So don't shoot me. He's fairly partial to lunchables, especially the sub ones. I finally decided I might as well give him something he'll eat. I make sure he gets enough healthy stuff when he's at home. The school recently switched to something called a Balanced Day timetable, which means instead of 2 15 minute recesses and an hour lunch, they have 2 "nutrition breaks". One is 40 minutes long, the other 50 minutes. The first 20 minutes of each nutrition break is set aside for eating. Which means I have to pack a snack as well as a lunch. Today he got a sub lunchable, 2 apple juice boxes, 2 cheese sticks, a jello pudding, a Mrs. Field's cookie, a blueberry muffin and a fruit cup. He also belongs to the milk program at school so he'll get a carton of milk during the second break. He's asked for chili one night this week, and that is the one thing he will eat as a left over. He'll take some for lunch the next day. Don's breakfast normally consists of a Carnation Instant Breakfast, but he had a muffin this morning as well. I think I need to make more muffins today. So far, my breakfast has consisted of coffee and cigarettes . I run everyday for 30-45 minutes (2 1/2 - 3 miles). Once I've finished my run, I'll eat a piece of toast with peanut butter. (Breakfast is not my favourite meal. ). On days when I weight train, I'll come home and have a protein shake and a piece of toast right after training. Tonight's menu will be beef stroganoff and salad, so I must go slice the steaks into strips. Oh and the confit actually looks like confit this morning

Thre were leftovers in fact, most of which will become my lunches this week, as no one else in the family will touch a leftover. Not even a starving 11 1/2 year old boy Ryan is still in the habit of asking me for food, so I'm not in any danger (yet) of him eating all the dinner ingredients before I get to them. His best friend is 13 and is growing like a weed. Most weekends, this kid sleeps over at our house, because my son, is not a fan of sleeping at other people's houses. When David is here, I'll order the kids a large pizza, and an order of wings, plus garlic bread. I make monkey bread, and have a ton of fresh fruit available. It's usually gone before the night is over.

The Amarone was quite nice. I'm fairly partial to Amarone's and this one was good. I had thought I'd retrieved a '98 from the cellar, but it was a 2000 that I grabbed instead. Still, It ws quite drinkable. In fact, I drank most of it while watching the Oscars. Yes he did actually. Now that was an interesting conversation! Ryan: "Why are you taking pictures of food?" Me: "I'm doing a blog this week on food on the Internet" Ryan: "What's a blog?" Me: Short for web log. It's a for a food website I belong to. Ryan: Um, right. Are they friends? Me: "Sort of. It's a big site." Ryan: "Do you talk to them?" Me: "Sometimes. We usually just post comments on the boards" Ryan: "How come I'm not allowed to talk to people on the Internet" Me. "Just eat your dinner

Pics of tonight's dinner. I swear the food tastes better than it looks. I'm a lousy plater, and a worse photographer! Blueberry muffin with butter! the wines spit roasted prime rib roast beef, rare oven roasted potatoes broccoli and hollandaise sauce Chocolate babycake babycake with ganache filling

No Suzie. It's close, but I and Ryan's friend's mom, make it from fresh bread dough. I will make Monkey bread tomorrow. Granted, I do make the dough in my bread machine, but heck, it's better than refrigerated biscuts.

Since arriving home from his friend's house Ryan has eaten a blueberry muffin, a banana, had a large bottle of water, and is working on a fruit cup. He had Monkey Bread at his friend's as a snack. Dinner is still about an hour away. Our conversation has been thus: Ryan: "Mummy, I'm hungry" Me: "You're always hungry, what do you want?" Ryan" I don't know, what do we have?" Me: "Pick something healthy" Ryan: "How about this chocolate bar?" Me: "Um, that's not exactly healthy". Ryan" "It's got milk in it!" Me: "Nice try. Try again" How about a banana? A nice fresh blueberry muffin?" Ryan: "Naw" Me: I guess you're not hungry then" Ryan: "Can I have both?" Me: "Why not?" Rolling of eyes Ryan: " Can I have a pop?" Me: "No, pop doesn't go with bananas. Have milk or water" Ryan" Ok, I'll go get one of your bottles of water Heavy sigh comes from Mom. Don and I have been enjoying a couple of CC and cokes, while helping Ryan put his Social Studies project together. He now has a complete Haida village in a shoe box . It was a beautiful day here in Oakville. Temps were quite mild, enabling us to find our BBQ for the first time in months. We decided to celebrate by spit roasting our rolled prime rib tonight. It's turning away merrily on it's spit, the potatoes are in the oven roasting, and the brocolli and sauce are ready to roll. The house smells wonderful. The onion confit is burbling away in the crockpot, although by the looks of it, it's got a long way to go yet. Pics to follow after dinner.

It's incredible. And we've just started the whole pre teen/teen thing. Ryan is as tall as I am now, and the Dr. thinks he'll be 6'2 or 6'3" by the time he stops growing. This is the kid who can eat an entire dinner, plus dessert, and come back to me 10 minutes later, telling me he's hungry again.

If you're passing through Ontario, would you mind dropping off a case of Old Dutch BBQ?

Welcome to my "home" Jaymes! I run a Consulting business, that specializes in Facility Management. If you need offices built or renovated, office moves done, telephone systems installed etc. I'm your girl . I provide project managment for office projects, advice on ergonomics and Human Resources issues. I am a CFM, a CFMJ and I'm working on my HR designation. CFM stands for Certified Facility Manager, and CFMJ stands for Certified Facility Manager, Japan.

My demi glace is pretty thick too. I'm adding it for flavour not so much as to add liquid. The sherry idea came about when I figured if it didn't work this time, it would make a fine addition to French Onion soup I'm also using my newer crock pot this time around.

Ryan is getting more adventurous as he gets older. While he does love the standard kid fare, he also loves crab legs, steak, shrimp, and lobster bisque. As well as herring (something I can't stand ) The baby cakes are in the oven, and I've got blueberry and chocolate chip muffins ready to go. See basic muffin mix. I've also got a new onion confit starting in my crockpot see the Onion confit thread for more details. I've sent hubby to the grocery store while he drops the lad off at his friend's house (after much begging and promising that he'll finish his project when he gets home). I think I'll make brocoli with hollendaise for dinner instead of a ceasar salad.

Ok, second experiment time. I've just started some onion confit in the slow cooker. Here's what I'm doing this time: 6 lg onions, sliced 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup EVOO 3 T beef demi glace 3 T sherry I've started it on high with the lid on. Let the quest begin!

Sunday morning: Last night marked the end of a week of my other personality- Super Wife. We attended a very formal event, dining on a horrendous chicken dinner . This morning, we are recovering from too much wine, and too little food. No matter. Sundays are for lazy breakfasts, baking and relaxing. Breakfasts during the week can be a rather frantic affair, but Sunday is a bacon and egg kind of day or pancakes, if the lad has had a friend sleep over. On the weekends, my husband is generally designated the offical breakfast cook. As I type, the smell of frying bacon is wafting towards my office. We'll have bacon and eggs, toast, hash browns and my usual gallon of coffee. After that, the eating machine known as the Ry-guy will arrive and begin his week of grazing. Today is baking day. Now that I have my wonderful KA mixer, I'll be making Chocolate Babycakes to go with our dinner this evening. I'm also planning a Ceasar Salad, so I've got to make the dressing, bacon bits and croutons to go with it. In between, I'll make sure the lad has his Social Studies project done, the rest of his homework done, watch him practice his Saxophone and drive him over to his friend's house for a couple of hours. Thus begins the mad rush. Must dash, breakfast is almost ready (and I'm out of coffee)

So, everyone, welcome to Canada. I’ll be driving the food bus this week. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Marlene, and I manage the Recipe Archive here on eGullet and I am this semester's Manager for the outstanding eGCI I guess now is a good time to tell you that I really have a split personality. One week I’m Super Mom/Business Woman/Volunteer/Wife and the next week, I’m Super Hostess/Wife/Business Woman/Volunteer. The two personalities have very different eating habits. Why is that, you may ask? My ex husband and I share joint custody of our 11 year old son, Ryan, or Ry-guy or "the lad" as we tend to call him. We each have him for a week at a time, with Sunday being the change over day. During my week with Ryan, I'm Mom, and I cook - a lot. When Ry returns to his Dad's, I step into the nearest telephone booth and become Super Hostess - wife of a senior parter in an Accounting firm - and I seldom cook. We either eat out, entertain, or during Audit Season (as in now), I become an Audit Widow, and almost always eat alone during the week. Both weeks, I run my business and do a lot of volunteer work. During my food blog week, I'll be Super Mom, so I'll be cooking this week. Ry-guy is due to arrive at noon today. What you'll get from me this week, is lots of home cooking. I'll try to take some pics along the way and post them, and I'll provide links to any of the recipes from the archive that I use. If I haven't posted a link to a recipe, it's because it doesn't meet the criteria for being in the archive (meaning it isn't mine), but if you're interested in something, I'll be happy to PM the recipe to you. I'm afraid I don't have gsquared's ability to plate. I come from a family, where everything was put in serving bowls or on platters and passed around the table, and I still do that in my own home. This will be an interesting challenge. When I first found out I was tagged for the next blog, I immediately started planning my menu for the week. Which is something I never do. The standing joke in my house is "What's for dinner tomorrow Mom?" Ryan asks me that question every night when he goes to bed, and every night I say "I don't know". I very seldom plan ahead what we are going to eat, so to be consistant, I'll continue that this week. I'll be surprising myself as much as everyone else here So welcome to my little world everyone. I invite you to sit back, relax and be part of my family for a week!

Muffins- Basic mix Given to me by a girlfriend. Posted with permission. 1-3/4 c sifted flour 2-1/2 tsp baking powder 2 T sugar 3/4 tsp salt 1 well beaten egg 3/4 c milk 1/3 c shortening Pre heat oven to 400. Sift together dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Combine the egg and milk. Melt shortening and add to egg mixture. Pour all at once into dry ingredients. Stir quickly only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Drop batter by tablespoon into greased muffing pan. Fill 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. For Blueberry muffins, reduce milk to 1/2 cup and add 3/4 cups fresh blueberries to the dry mix. For raisin,nut, date or chocolate chip, ad 1/2 cups of desired addition and stir quickly into batter. Keywords: Side, Snack, Breakfast ( RG874 )

Muffins- Basic mix Given to me by a girlfriend. Posted with permission. 1-3/4 c sifted flour 2-1/2 tsp baking powder 2 T sugar 3/4 tsp salt 1 well beaten egg 3/4 c milk 1/3 c shortening Pre heat oven to 400. Sift together dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Combine the egg and milk. Melt shortening and add to egg mixture. Pour all at once into dry ingredients. Stir quickly only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Drop batter by tablespoon into greased muffing pan. Fill 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. For Blueberry muffins, reduce milk to 1/2 cup and add 3/4 cups fresh blueberries to the dry mix. For raisin,nut, date or chocolate chip, ad 1/2 cups of desired addition and stir quickly into batter. Keywords: Side, Snack, Breakfast ( RG874 )