Ho, ho, h .... hmm?

September 23. It's the Autumnal Equinox. The 266th day of the year. A Thursday (this year, at least). It's the day Nintendo was founded, and the anniversary of the Concordat of Worms. (Who knew?)

September 23, with 99 days remaining in the year, is not the day I expected to find a fully stocked Christmas section at the hardware store.

Maybe they are celebrating the anniversary of the Concordat of Worms. Maybe?

Pickles

Speaking of food ... let's talk pickles.

Yes, pickles. Dill, midgets, gherkins, bread and butter, kosher, spears ... pickles.

Are pickles a vegetable? They are made from cucumbers after all. Cucumbers are a vegetable. But then the cukes are soaked in ... in ... pickling stuff to make them into pickles. Does the pickling stuff negate the powers of the vegetable? Are the nutrients from the cucumber still in the pickle? Or does the pickling stuff totally neuter the nutrients?

Then, to really add insult to injury, the pickles can be fried which turn them into all sorts of yumminess. Mmmm! If they were categorized as a vegetable before, are they even less of a vegetable after being fried? Do we get ANY of our daily serving of vegetables by eating fried pickles? 

I ask these questions because we ate some last night. And then a few more for good measure. And they were good. Yummy good. And the Turkey argued that it counted toward his daily veggie intake. Who am I to argue? (As I eat another one. Mmm!)

Photo courtesy of Google images. Thanks!

Just peachy

I did a lot of cooking this weekend. Well, "cooking" might be too technical a term. Let's just say I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and other than tonight's scrumptious supper, it was more along the lines of "putting ingredients together" instead of "cooking."  Case in point:

It doesn't look like much all scrunched up in the dish like that, and my photographic equipment is less than ideal for this kind of shot, but trust me when I say these were super yummy. No oven, toaster, grill, or other kitchen-based heating device was ever used. It is simply fresh peach slices wrapped in prosciutto and fresh basil.

Here's the link to the original recipe and the photo that's so much better than what I could pull off.

As usual, I used the recipe only as a guide. Step 1 of slicing the peaches was a breeze and we definitely followed that one to the letter, but that's where the follow streak ended. The peaches were in a bowl when I realized there was no sherry in the house and cumin would be OK but, well, I just wasn't feeling the cumin love. So ... enter the liquor cabinet. A splash of Grand Marnier (maybe 2 tablespoons) and a quick shake of cayenne pepper, and we were off! I tossed the peaches to make sure they were all tinged with liquor and pepper, and then wrapped each with 1/3 of a slice of prosciutto and a fresh basil leaf. Voila!

And the taste? 

Ohmygoodness! YUMMY!

Super easy. Super yummy. Super fresh. Super fabulous.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

We are not morning people. No way, no how. 8:00am still seems brutally early, but somehow we manage to get the Turkey to school by 7:00am. Some mornings, though, we are greeted with a stunningly gorgeous sight that makes the early hour seem not so bad. Like today.

Lest you think these pictures were taken by the driver, please know that the Turkey picked up my cell phone and began snapping away while I drove. Those smudges on the photo are not from lens fingerprints but a dirty windshield. (Also known as a reminder to wash the car this weekend. Hear that, Turkey?)

Dirty car aside, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. 

5771

Happy New Year!

Public Schools were closed today for Rosh Hashanah. It's the start of 5771. I think. At least that's what someone told me today. I think. Maybe. Or maybe he got it wrong. Or maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Anyway, happy new year to those who are celebrating the beginning of what might be 5771!

Because schools were closed the Turkey decided to come to campus with me today and hang out with a friend. Said friend graduated high school in May and is now a freshman at Maryland. For blogging purposes I'll call her Chica. 

Holdthephone! HER? Did my fingers just type HER? The Turkey's hanging out with an older woman?

Yep. Older woman alert!

She's a really sweet girl, too. The two met this summer while they were both working at camp. It's a totally platonic relationship .... Oh wait. You're thinking, "Right. Platonic. What are you smokin'?" But this is the boy who won't date anyone unless they can hold a conversation about quantum physics (!) and wouldn't even THINK about liking anyone at camp because it was *wrong* to date someone you work with. Uh huh. This boy definitely didn't get his dating ideology from his mother! 

So today, on the first day of 5771, platonic friends Turkey and Chica got together at the student union, had lunch, and talked for three hours before the Turkey chivalrously walked Chica to class. Aww! Not only that, Chica had wanted a salad for lunch so Turkey, the boy who doesn't especially like salad, ordered one too. A chicken caesar, no less! I nearly fell out of my chair when he said that. Of course, he also said that Chica still has a boyfriend, but I say you never know. *wink*

May your year be off to a wonderful chicken caesar start. Happy 5771!

Labor Day

Are you ready for some football?!?!?!

This Labor Day I tackled my labor du jour -- mowing the grass -- before the fun. And I do mean F-U-N!

You may have seen it on ESPN (or maybe not) but Maryland played Navy today for the first time in five years. It was quite a spectacle! So as not to give either team an unfair field advantage, the game was played at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Normally, it is home to the Ravens so there was a multitude of purple present. Heck, even the soap in the bathrooms was purple! Purple carpets. Purple seats. Purple printed menus. Purple banners. Purple signs. Did I mention purple soap? Purple, purple, purple!

Oops. I got sidetracked by the purple. Where was I? Oh, yeah...

It was an utterly gorgeous day in Baltimore. 80 degrees with very low humidity -- almost unheard of in these here parts!

 Terps warming up and the stands starting to fill.

The 30 companies that make up the Brigade of Midshipmen take the field for the National Anthem. They spanned the ENTIRE field. It was quite a spectacle. 

The Navy band was the last to arrive -- you can see them coming on to the field in the far right -- and they filled-in the end zone.

Terp fans decked in red in the purple seats, with the Brigade still on the field. See them on the jumbo-tron?

Bet you were starting to think we were just there for the pomp and circumstance and not really the game, huh? The game was actually really good. The basketball players were .... what? ... they weren't playing basketball? ... Hee hee! Got you! I totally knew they were playing rugby. :-)

Seriously. The FOOTBALL game was good. Lots of action, some good fumbles and not-so-good plays, and the right amount of Maryland scoring for us to leave as very happy campers. I took the picture above from our seats which were awesome -- first row of the second level, and right on the 45 yard line. Scha-weet!

 The Mighty Sound of Maryland takes the field at half-time for their usual pre-game show. Although the timing was a little backwards -- pre-game at halftime -- the band sounded and looked good for their first appearance of the season. The mega huge Maryland flag is always my favorite part of the show so I just HAD to get a picture. Heck, I get a picture of the flag EVERY time so don't be shocked if it makes an encore appearance some time this season. Hee hee!

Final score: 14-17 Maryland! Yay!

Up next: back to school and work. Boo! 

Sweet! Sixteen!

It was 1994 and the Friday before Labor Day that I began a journey called parenthood.  This year, on the Thursday before Labor Day I began another journey -- teaching a teenager to drive. EEK! 

Rewinding just a smidge, let me say that Thursday was the Turkey's 16th birthday. For weeks, and even months, I had been fostering the notion that I was dead set against letting him drive any time soon. Heck, I would have been delighted if the Turkey moved to a bustling metropolis and neglected to get a driver's license until, oh, some time around the responsible age of 29. Just sayin'.

So I am not sure what possessed me to let him get his learner's permit on the anniversary of his birth, but I did. Not only that, but I planned it as a big, huge, mongo birthday surprise for the Turkey.

I picked him up from school on Thursday with an iced caramel latte in hand (his fave) and as we were leaving the school nonchalantly said, "our first stop is home where you'll need to change your shirt and shave, because you don't want to look like Shaggy in your driver's license photo." The Turkey nearly fell out of the car he was so surprised! Heck, so was I! It took him a moment to recover, to be able to speak, to be able to breathe, much less smile and acknowledge his glee. And glee it was!

Here he is taking the test. The final score was ... drum roll, please ... 20/20! Hooray!

He had passed the test, signed the forms, and we were waiting for the license to print. This is one seriously happy Turkey!

Success!

As we left the MVA the Turkey said his face hurt from smiling so much. Aw! He was super surprised. JUST the birthday I had hoped for! But the surprises were far from done ...

This was his first time behind the wheel. We found an empty parking lot and I coached him through the first 20 minutes of parking lot driving. It was simple stuff -- getting the feel for the car, how to put it in gear, operating the pedals, wipers, lights, turn signals, etc. He did well. I did well. We all did well.

Next up: dinner with the fam. The Turkey regaled everyone with the tale of getting his license. We laughed. We talked. We laughed some more. We ate. Then the Turkey opened his presents which included a check for Driver's Ed. Yowser! He was super surprised at this because I had told him the Driver's Ed schedules weren't compatible with his school schedule. Liar, liar, pants on fire! Again, more broad smiles from the Turkey and more comments about his face hurting.

After the surprise check for Driver's Ed, his next present was a new touch screen phone. It just so happened that the phone is manufactured by Virgin Mobile and, naturally, their logo appears prominently on the packaging. See:

This elicited many comments from the assembled, resulting in my sister becoming embarrassed and turning the same shade as the Turkey's shirt. It was priceless! Needless to say, the phone is now referred to as "The Virgin." Hee hee! :o)

But wait ... there's still more! After dinner the Turkey had the choice of flying or driving. This was a rough choice for him, but he finally settled on driving. We headed to a somewhat empty parking lot, put him behind the wheel again, and talked him through some moves for about 30 minutes. He also got a new book and a video game that he had been "needing." (Really, he had been begging me for it most of the summer.)

After a late night, a happy sleep, and seven hours of school the next day, it was the Turkey's chance to celebrate his birthday with his friends. And where would 16-year-old boys want to go?

Hooters! As the Turkey said, "Two of my favorite things: chicken and breasts!" I just shook my head and paid the tab.

So that was it. A 2-day feast of surprises marking the 16th anniversary of the Turkey's birth. He still says his cheeks are sore, which I take as a great success. Yay!