I have been teasing my daughter about hiding her Christmas gifts in brilliant places—right under her nose. It’s driving her nuts. To me, that’s half the fun! Next Friday I will arrange a scavenger hunt so she can discover one of her gifts. She will be beyond thrilled. I’m working on clues for her this weekend. I’m not horribly bothered that she’ll be using her gift before Christmas. It’s something she wants, and she’ll be busy and happy while I’m at work. 🙂
Author Archives: ramblingsofaperforatedmind
Quiet Christmas…and a Book!
School is winding down for Christmas vacation. My students have been counting the days. So have I, actually. I can’t wait to come home and be able to stay home and do nothing! I really am looking forward to just curling up with a good book and a blanket. The dogs and cats will snuggle with me, of course.
All I really want for Christmas is some quiet time. I quit putting up a tree years ago. Ysabela is old enough to be fine with that. Santa doesn’t come here, but she knows to ask me for things she wants. That’s also fine.
I have found myself checking my classroom for neat books to read. I was thinking of reading Como agua para chocolate again. It’s a wonderful book I read in college. This week in class, I assigned topics (people) for biographies. One of my students was lucky enough (?) to have Laura Esquivel, so I shared some information about the book. Once the student found a website with a summary of each chapter, she read the whole thing! Did I get mad that she read an English summary? No. I was just super happy that she wanted to learn about the novel at all. The recipes grabbed her attention, and she was a goner! 🙂 That’s the kind of book I want for Christmas!
Punchbowl Cake
1 box of yellow cake mix (no pudding!)
1 16-oz. bag of strawberries
1 large tub of cool whip
1 16-oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 large box of vanilla pudding
1 bag of strawberry pie jell
cherries and/or shredded chocolate bar (topping)
punchbowl
Mix pie jell and strawberries, let set for 30 minutes. Make cake according to directions, let it cool. Prepare pudding as directed. Break cake in half, put one piece in the bottom of the punchbowl and cover with pudding. In layers, add half the can of pineapple, half the strawberry mixture and cool whip. Add cake and repeat. The bowl should be full. Top with cherries or a shredded chocolate bar.
Navidad…One Dish at a Time
Are you looking forward to “eating your way through” the Christmas holiday? Do you have any favorite Christmas meals? What about special desserts? I know I sure have some favorites! When I was a kid, my mom made chocolate-covered cherries from scratch. I remember counting the days until they had been in the closet three weeks; that’s how long it took for the syrup to form on the inside. I focus on chocolate, so another great dessert is what Mom called Martha Washington balls. (Here in Nebraska they are called elephant balls. It makes for some interesting conversations!) Basically, peanut butter balls are dipped in melted chocolate. Simply amazing! Don’t even get me started on the homemade eclairs! I lurked in the kitchen hoping to snag the first one. Punchbowl cake is another favorite of ours. In case you’re wondering about the cake, I’ll post the recipe in the next few days. It’s decorative and tasty!
A main meal treat when I was a kid was Aunt Ottie’s cordon bleu chicken. It is labor intense, however. Mom fixed spiral-cut ham with a mustard glaze that is to die for! There are so many “foodie” memories….I don’t know about you, but baked macaroni and cheese has always been one of my favorite comfort foods; Mom always cooked her noodles, put them in a baking dish and poured in a mixture of milk, flour (to thicken it) and sugar. Chicken in Mom’s barbecue sauce is a winner, too. Sorry if this is making you hungry….
Once we moved to Mexico, our family traditions changed a bit. Mom wasn’t close enough to cook for us, so we had to make do. Ysabela and I loved the tres leches cake. For those of you who have never heard of it, that means three milk cake. It’s what some call a “wet cake.”
In Seye (a small village outside of Merida), the neighbor’s family gathered to make tamales. I’m so glad they invited us over! Tamales quickly became one of my favorite dishes ever. An unexpected treat was what they called “sandwichon.” That means a big sandwich. Bread was sliced lengthwise, the crusts were cut off and layers of ham, cheese and sauce were added. There are recipes online for those who really want to know. I looked one up today to share with my students.
I guess the point is that no matter where you live, there’s always something to anticipate for the holidays. Maybe it’s a quiet meal at home with family and comfort food; maybe it’s a house full of extended family, friends and movies. Some people I know simply enjoy the time off from work and make no plans at all. Whatever your way is, enjoy it to the max!
Meals To Go
Ysabela has eaten chili two days in a row! It’s amazing because this is a kid who does not like leftovers. She even added a few more beans to it. I didn’t see that coming….
I am a bit ahead of the game for tomorrow. I made us each a sandwich to take to school. For me, that sandwich will keep crankiness at bay since I normally don’t eat breakfast or lunch. My plan is to have “breakfast” right after my first class since I have a break. After all, that plan worked for me today. I made some breakfast burritos last night and had two left over for today. I am already planning much better! 🙂
Warped Tour
My daughter is nuts about the coming Warped Tour concerts. I signed up for concert alerts and fan club tickets sale information and discovered that the closest concert to us is in Denver. To Ysabela’s delight, five bands she likes confirmed their participation today. More announcements will be coming on Wednesdays for the next few weeks. Being the super mom I am, I even signed her up to get updates. As you might imagine, she was thrilled.
I found out that there is “reverse day care” at the concerts for parents who need to rest. They will have a tent set up with air conditioning, beverages and misting fans. A complimentary parent admission is also included for minors attending the show. That’s pretty cool if you ask me.
What Ysabela doesn’t know (and since she doesn’t read my blog I can say this) is that I already have her an early Christmas gift—a ticket to the Denver concert! If you hear a scream around Christmas time, it will be her. 🙂
Mexican Food
After a dentist appointment this morning, my daughter and I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The food was pretty good, the service was fast and friendly, but I couldn’t help thinking that I have the skills to fix things like that at home. One reason we went was because it’s nice to have a meal we don’t have to fix once in a while. It’s also a treat to head out of town sometimes. Maybe it’s because our town is so far away from everything.
In light of yesterday’s post, I was disappointed in myself for spending the money to eat out. I have decided I’m going to try to make some Mexican food for us in the next week or so. I lived in Mexico for five years, and I know how to cook, so it shouldn’t be that difficult. If I get stuck, I can always ask my friend Laurie to give me some tips. She ran a Mexican restaurant back in the day. That’s how things get added to my list!
Grocery Shopping
Every time I head to the store, I silently vow to spend less than the month before. Every month I am disappointed in myself. I never mind spending money on food, but I do hate spending on the wrong things. My plan is to cook as much as possible. No more microwave stuff unless I have to be out of town and my daughter will have to fend for herself. We are both picky eaters, so meal planning can be a huge challenge.
Last month I bought a lot more “cooking” items, and we ate better meals that filled us up. I made a choice to focus on meats we like, and Bela has tried some new foods! Yea!!!!! I have a few more recipes that I am sure she likes instead of wasting money buying things she might eat. I enjoy making (and eating!) breakfast burritos, especially for supper. I saw a friend’s post on Facebook about bacon pancakes. They were a hit with my Bela. My friend Stacey gave me a simple chili recipe that Bela ate at her house. Success! Another success happened in the store this evening. Ysabela saw the stew meat in the cart and licked her chops. That’s a good sign! I figure I’ll add some potatoes and stuff to it in a crock pot, and we’ll have stew for a change. Bela is more of a carnivore than I am; I usually pick out the potatoes! (Now you know!)
Anyway, we’ll see how smart I can shop in the coming months. I am committed to saving money and eating better for less. (Thank you, Lisa, for sending us the coupons!)
My Aching Feet!
Saturday for the presentation I was wearing Ysabela’s black boots. I only have brown ones, so I wanted a pair to match my black pants. If you remember, Nick was at our presentation. Nick and I both smoke, and we needed a pack, so we walked all around to find a store. By the time we found one that sold cigarettes, we had walked the lower section of the River Walk. Ysabela’s boots were killing my old feet, but Nick still managed to convince me to walk to the Alamo. I’m glad I got to see everything. If I hadn’t gone, I would have regretted it once I got home.
Nick is such a gentleman. He helped take pictures and let me rest when I thought my feet would fall off! If I had been thinking, I would have brought my tennis shoes for the afternoon; I just didn’t figure I’d walk for what seemed like a hundred miles after the presentation!
Nick and I made it to the Alamo!
Lovely!
Simply Amazing
I attended several sessions at the ACTFL conference, and I learned quite a bit. The most stressful part was practicing Friday night for the presentation Carolina had put together. Basically all I had to do was explain my own assignments while they were on the screen. I didn’t really feel that prepared, though. My biggest fear was that I would somehow embarrass Carolina after all her hard work. (I was also feeling a bit guilty about snoring so much the night before and disturbing her beauty sleep.)
We ran through the presentation (quickly) at the hotel, but we still needed to add a bit more, so we decided we’d go in early the next morning to have one last practice session before 10. Alas, it was not to be. We hustled (due to a light rain) to the convention center, found our room…and discovered there were a few people already waiting for the session to begin! Practice was not possible at that point, so we just gave each other a look and hoped for the best. We paced and chatted until almost 10. Nick, another of Carolina’s tech class students, was there to support us. It was awesome to see a friendly face in the front row. He was also sweet enough to take some pictures for us. (Thank you, Nick!)
Carolina was ready to present.
In spite of talking to a full house (Carolina stopped counting at 60.), my nervousness disappeared once the Prezi started and I had to explain my work. Once I got into it, I was fine. I looked around the room and saw smiling faces; some people were even taking pictures of the screen as Carolina and I clicked through the Prezi! It was amazing. (Just to give you an idea, there were about 6000 teachers there. One lady commented that she counted 65 sessions offered in one time slot, so there were plenty of places for people to go.)
My nerves were under control.
When we were done, Nick spoke for a couple of minutes about what he learned in the Spanish Web 2.0 class with Carolina. He went from teaching Spanish to being an ESU technology person! Carolina concluded the session, and her business cards disappeared like candy at Halloween. I didn’t think I would need any, but what I had with me went fast as well. It was so nice to be able to chat with the attendees. One fellow named Martin said he came to the conference specifically for our session! The title was Analysis of “Cajas de carton” and “Senderos fronterizos” Using Web 2.0. Martin had been teaching those books for the last five years.
Carolina thought it all went quite well, and I agree. She even suggested that I submit a proposal of my own for next year’s conference. I’m not sure I’m ready for that, but I’m thinking about it.
Ramblings of a Perforated Mind 