I thought I’d stick to breakfast foods for Saturday mornings.  It’s after noon, I know.  I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep—been a bit spacey all day.

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“Last week, Japanese scientists explaced… placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance summoned the help of Scotland’s local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.” —- Napoleon Dynamite

I couldn’t resist. I finally found the whole thing written down (I’ve been searching for it since I read Breaking Dawn), and it’s one of my favorite movie lines of all time.

A few years ago, I was watching the BYU channel, and saw a small lecture given by Chieko Okazaki.  She talked about raising families with love and respect.  Among her many ideas, the one that stood out was her simple set of rules she had in her home:  Be polite; be safe.  Just about every behavior falls into these two categories.  It was so brilliant, we have adopted these rules in our own home.

When a child misbehaves, the conversation often goes a bit like this, “What are the rules of our house?”

They mumble, “Being polite and safe.”

Then we ask, “Was it safe to hit your brother?”

“No.”

“Was it polite?”

“No.”

“What do you say?”

“Sorry.”

It’s very simple, and most of the time it helps us avoid further struggles and contention.

I found a better way to peel peaches.  Most recipes say to blanch them in boiling water for a minute, shock them in ice water, and pull off the skin.  This is messy and time consuming.  Rather than battle with a slippery orb of peach flesh and extra pots and bowls, simply slice each peach in half, twist, pull out the pit, and slice each half into fourths.  Take each wedge, and with a sharp paring knife, slice off the skin.  Much easier!

I used almond flour in this recipe because I think it adds a little something, but to be honest, last year, Super Target was selling bags of almond flour for $1.99.  I don’t think they meant to do this.  Anyway, I bought about six bags of it and now it’s all stored in my freezer.  I try to use it as much as I can.  Since then, Target has fixed the price, and now it’s about $13.00 a bag.  So, if you want to leave it out, just substitute with regular flour.  It’ll still be great.

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This was a recipe from my old blog, but I still like it.  Hope you will, too.

This dough makes about thirty large cookies, so I usually will bake a few immediately, and then scoop out the rest of the dough with a 2 tablespoon size scoop onto a cookie sheet and freeze them. Once they’re frozen, I put all the little scoops of dough in a freezer bag, and then we can have fresh cookies anytime (or little scoops of heavenly frozen cookie dough anytime, but don’t tell anyone!). Since they’re so big, the frozen centers need a chance to cook.  Don’t preheat the oven.  Just put the frozen scoops of dough on a cookie sheet, and place in a cool oven.  Turn the heat to 375 degrees, and let them cook for about 20 minutes.  All ovens preheat differently, so you’ll want to keep an eye on them. The recipe shows the normal, non-frozen baking instructions.

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Humilimom—as in humiliated mom.  That was me at Target two weeks ago.  My five-year-old—five-year-old!— threw a fit there, right after I had said good-bye to my well-put-together friend Danielle.  I was hoping she would not be privy to my child’s outburst of emotion, but she walked by during phase one of the tantrum.  When we arrived at the checkout line, we were in phase 2—the loudest phase, and there was Danielle, four check out lines down, with her three lovely daughters.
By this time, everyone could hear my daughter screaming. She sounded like Veruca Salt’s evil twin. I was far too embarrassed to make eye contact with anyone in the store who might have the I-would-never-let-my-kid-act-like-that face,  so I did something I’m not a fan of: I covered her mouth. She could breathe just fine, but the second she did, she got a bloody nose. Yes, people probably thought I hit her.
It would be painful for me to continue to tell the story of such a low point in my time as a mother. So, I’ll just tell you the car ride home turned into a lecture to all three of my children on the evils of becoming spoiled brats.
I finally saw Danielle on Sunday. She was out of town for a few weeks—enough time for our display to become a cloudy memory, and enough time for the red in my cheeks to fade. I apologized, and we had a laugh. I suppose all families have their moments—even if they aren’t as humiliating as mine was.

I wasn’t one of the lucky kids to go to Jerusalem for study abroad with my university, but a lot of my friends went and came back raving about the street food over there.  Falafel was one of their favorites.  My version is, I’m sure, far from authentic, but authentic would mean hauling out the vat of oil for deep frying, which is on my list of least favorite things to do.

I’m a bit funny when it comes to garlic.  If my husband or I eat it, kissing is out for a few days.  So if you want to omit the garlic, by all means, do so.  I included it in the recipe because it does add more depth of flavor, and is more traditional.

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Often, for birthday parties, I encourage my kids to give books as presents.  It may not put them in the top gift-giving rank in the eyes of most of their friends, but the kids who receive them will have them for years, and will most likely pass them down to their own children.  They may not remember who gave them the book, but it will outlive the Legos and the Polly Pockets. It will become a part of who they are.

This is a picture of my son’s E. B. White books (Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little 60th Anniversary Edition, The Trumpet of the Swan), but yesterday, while shopping for one of his friends, we found the whole set—hardcover!—at Borders in the discount section for only $10.00, marked down from $50.  Another wise shopping decision!

Best of luck finding the same deal at your Borders!

You’re probably sick of all these sweet things, but pancakes are such a Saturday morning kind of thing, I thought I’d post these today.

When I bought my waffle iron, Williams Sonoma had this citrus waffle recipe that was quite good.  I adapted their idea to pancakes to save time, and intensified the flavor by adding citrus juice and cinnamon to the syrup.

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Well, I was going to wait until I started getting a ton of comments before I put up a contest, but I thought this journal and gift bag, designed by Anne Taintor, were so funny, I didn’t want to wait.  The journal says what I think every woman wishes, and the gift bag says, “She had made yet another wise shopping decision!”  Look at the girl’s face—she’s so happy! This line of products is sold at Barnes and Noble (my second home).

Here’s how the contest works:  Since this is the first time I’m doing this, and I don’t have a lot of readers, I’m going to wait until I have comments from at least 25 different people.  So tell your friends, and when I have enough, I’ll pull names out of a hat.  That person will win both the journal and the gift bag.  So good luck, and be sure to tell your friends!