Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Shut Up and Eat - Day 3 - Easy Easy Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Look at me being all Suzy Homemaker, eh? Domestic Diva? Cookin' Queen? Anyhoo, yes, I made another one of @KathyBuckworth's recipes from "Shut Up and Eat".

Last night I made Easy Easy Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole. And the name does not mislead. It's frickin' easy. Rice, chicken, cream of chicken soup/water, top with onion soup mix. Cover with foil. Bake. Serve. Eat. Easy peasy. So, what was the verdict? Hubby and I liked it. (He's eating it again tonight, too. He took the leftovers to work.) The kids ate some of it. I'm going to try it again without the onion mixture. I know. We're a blaaaaand family.

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Shut Up and Eat - Day 2 - Ham & Cheese Cakes

In my previous post I talked about @KathyBuckworth's very funny, easily digestible, newest book "Shut Up and Eat".

The first night I made an easy dessert that made Mommy look like a hero. Pudding in a fancy cup topped with an Oreo. Who knew?

Last night I used the Fish Cakes recipe and subbed in ham and cheese. It's simply mashed potatoes, an egg, ham, cheese mushed into patties and coated with bread crumbs. Fry 'em up and..... yummy dinner.

I ate... um... a bunch of the cakes. The kids got to use their knives and forks to cut them up (they loved having an opportunity to use knives!) and dove in, too.

I think I put in a bit too much ham, but... Yay! Another hit.

Monday, 29 March 2010

Shut up and read... then laugh... then eat

Those of you who know me know I love Twitter. It has opened so many doors and given me the opportunity to get to know some GREAT people. One of those amazing people is Kathy Buckworth (simply @KathyBuckworth on Twitter.) She is now a five-time author and her latest serving is titled "Shut Up and Eat". The kids and I took a road-trip to Mississauga on Saturday to Chapters Square One to go to her book signing - and go to Taima Zone after.

I had met Kathy on a few occassions before and she's always funny and welcoming. I picked up a copy of her book - and of course, had her sign it. There were a few other Twitter people at the signing. I got to see @optimom Laurel, @MississaugaKids Anne and @sarahcasm Sarah - and she just happened to be there! She didn't realize the book signing was going on and had just dropped in - all the way from Ajax. Go figure me from Kitchener and her from Ajax would just bump into each other by pure happenstance in Mississauga. :)

Kathy's two youngest kids were also at the signing with her - and all the kids were very good the whole time, mine even helped at the end. And thanks to her daughter for drawing my name as the winner of the P&G gift pack including a pretty cool Swiffer Sweeper Vac.

All four of our kids had a great time helping her after the signing was over. She signed a bunch of copies of "Shut Up and Eat" and her previous book "The BlackBerry Diaries". Alex and Zach loved helping. :)

After the signing was over, Kathy and her kids headed over to Taima Zone, too. They'd heard the kids and I mention we were going there and thought that was a pretty good idea. So, Kathy and I got to chat a bit while our kids played and played. After she and her kids packed it in, I was on my own and got to sink my teeth into "Shut Up and Eat". (See what I did there? I made a funny.) I read half the book while I was there. It is broken down into easily digestible chunks (again with the funny) and is so hilarious I didn't want to put it down. It's a great combination of tales, anecdotes and recipes - recipes that are so easy even *I* can make them! AND it's nice to know I'm not the only who says "idiot" in her head a lot when referring to the husband. ;)

Last night I made my first dish from the book. OK, "dish" is stretching it. This is her easiest recipe. Actually they're all pretty simple, but this one? Pudding in a fancy cup. Oreo cookie. Done. I didn't have any parfait cups as the recipe called for, but my kids were pleased with the dessert nonetheless. Easy peasy and mom's a hero.

Didn't get a picture of Zach's quick enough!

Alexandria and Zachary's were made with butterscotch. And Mommy and Daddy's were made with chocolate. And I crushed up some Oreos for the bottom, too. Mmmm.

Tonight I'll be trying the Fish Cakes recipe - subbing in ham and cheese instead. In fact, I'm finishing this post while the patties cool in the fridge. Tuesday's going to the be the Easy, Easy, Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole. I feel all "Julie and Julia" here!

Saturday, 20 March 2010

24 Things Every* Child of the 80s Should Know

Lemme know if any of these stump you. Or add your own in the comments!

1)  You know how many sick days Ferris Bueller's day off brought his total to that semester.

2)  You know who was f#$%ing Tessa Campanelli.

3)  You know Smurfs living in mushrooms was questionable considering how tall they're supposed to be.

4)  You know what doesn't mean what he thinks it means.

5)  You know what Spike's real name was.

6)  You know who the lead singer of Twisted Sister is.

7)  You know the name of the Smurf's underwater rip-off cartoon.

8)  You know where you were when the Challenger exploded.

9)  You know which one you most identified with:  the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess or the criminal.

10)  You know his hands were not nestled between two pillows.

11)  You know who Cringer really was and you used the power of Greyskull.

12)  You know Goonies are good enough - and never die.

13)  You almost fainted when Gordie pulled a leech from... down.... there.

14)  You know Definition was an awesome game show before it was a hit song.

15)  You know why March was a very special month at McDonald's. Yum!

16)  You know Noheart was no match for the Care Bear Stare.

17)  You know Elizabeth was the brainy one who faithfully dated Todd, while Jessica was the wild one.

18)  You know ICONs had the biggest. trackball. ever.

19)  You know 1, 2 he's coming for you.... and couldn't sleep because of it.

20)  You know which one you had the crush on**:  Donnie, Danny, Jonathan, Joey or the ever-so-dreamy Jordan. (**or wanted to be.)

21)  You know you're good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like you.

22)  You know odometers don't roll back when you put a car in reverse.

23)  You looked forward to Uncle Traveling Matt's adventures just as much as Gobo did.

24)  You know what happens when you hit 88 miles per hour....

(*some of these you may not know unless you lived in Canada - or were obsessed with Canada - or were dating a Canadian)

Friday, 12 March 2010

New and improved address, same great blog

Ok. I think it's "great". That's because it's all about us and our pretty awesome kids. This blog was started in 2007 as a way to keep family and friends in the loop. As a way for the ones that are overseas or we only see once a year to hear about the little things that happen. A place to post pictures and videos.

Since then, more and more of "me" seeps in. Every once in a while something other than family stuff makes its way to the blog. I'm constantly inspired by the world around me and the other amazing bloggers out there.

The original address of this blog - monkeyngobo - was created because Alexandria's nickname is Monkey. She was born in the year of the monkey. When she was brand new, we would put our finger under her toes and she'd hang on like a little monkey. Incidently, the first hurricane of her birth year was Hurricane Alex. :)

The Gobo part is for Zachary. When Zach was still in my belly, Alex took to referring to him as Gobo (from The Fraggles.) Who knows why, but it stuck.. for a while anyway. Now it's very outdated, so I decided to change the blog's address to Our World from A to Z - same as the blog name.

So, here it is: http://www.ourworldfromatoz.ca/. The original address will still redirect here, too.

Thursday, 11 March 2010

The video of the pink carpet screening of Barbie: A Mermaid Tale

You can catch us a few times on the video. You can see me over Erica's left shoulder at the beginning. We're surfing on the boards a bit and make one more little appearance. It was such a fun event. Thanks Yummy Mummy Club!

My awesome date with Zachary

This past Tuesday Zachary and I had a mommy-son day and it was fantastic. Unfortunately I didn't remember to bring my camera that day, but here are some cute pics of him when we were at the museum a different time. And just some cute pics in general.

We started the day out by taking the bus downtown. It was out of necessity since my car was shimmying something fierce and the front passenger tire was dangerously close to blowing at any point. It has since been fixed.

I knew the bus would be a hit, though. He LOVED it! We sat right at the back and he watched out the window the whole time. "Mommy! We just went over train tracks!" Awesome :)

We walked a couple blocks to the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Zach walked in through the kids' doors, which he thought was so cool.

We went and hung up our coats and then headed toward the admissions counter. This my absolute favourite moment of the day: Zach was running full tilt toward the counter when he stopped, turned around, ran back at me full tilt JUST TO GIVE ME A SPONTANEOUS HIGH FIVE before turning back around and finishing his sprint to the counter. He was just so happy and so excited he was about to burst. I. just. melted.

He got choose where we went, what we played with, when we had snack. He was in his glory. We played at the Germs, Germs, Germs exhibit.

Went to the water table (always a favourite.)

Had a snack. Played downstairs for a bit. Then we went for a walk downtown for a while. Did I mention it was gorgeous outside?! We even took our coats off. We had a little bite at McDonald's downtown before heading back to the bus terminal to come home. About halfway home I told him he could lay his head down on my lap. I swear he was asleep before his head hit my leg! Bliss. I just want to freeze that whole day and replay it again and again. It was perfect.