Tea Party

We had two girl scout meetings covering a tea party.  At the first meeting we made party hats, out of old paper grocer bags.  The idea behind this was “use resources Wisely.” 

Take a paper grocery bag, turn it in-side Out, carefully not to rip it.  Then you roll up the bottom (roll out, not under) about half way up.  Make the rolled part look like a brim.  We spray painted the bags pink, and then sprayed with hair glitter.  We did all the hats the same, to avoid arguments.  We even made some for ourselves.  My co-leader (Jessica)’s mom (Linda) made some bows for the hats out of ribbon.  Sorry, but I don’t know how to make the bows.  We got some fake flowers at Good Will, Feathers from the craft store, and some decorative sequence.  The girls got to tie a ribbon around the brim, and choose the bow, flowers, and feathers.  They glued on their choices with tacky glue.  We only had 2 bottles of glue, and in retrospect I would get more bottles of glue, and some kind of glue that bonded more quickly.  The girls got frustrated trying to hold their bows and flowers onto the hats.

At the next meeting was the tea party.  The girls, and me and Jessica, came dressed in fancy clothes.  We wore the hats.  We covered the table with cloth table clothes.  I had bought a few different tea sets at Goodwill, on half price day, for 25 cents a piece.  They were really nice.  Some of the mothers thought that I had brought in my own china!  I Don’t Own China!!!  We had little plastic side plates (like paper plates, only clear plastic).  All the cups had saucers. 

We made sweet tea, peanut butter and Jelly finger sandwiches.   (crust removed, cut in to quarter triangles).  Jessica had made heart shaped, decorated sugar cookies for the girls. They were so cute.  We also got cream puffs from Sam’s Club.  In addition to the sweet tea we served fruit punch, and Sunny D.

All the girls seemed to have a great time!  We taught them about etiquette, and the reasons we want to have good manners, and etiquette.  I don’t think anything sunk in.

The book I referenced was from An American Girl Library.  Oops!  A girl’s guide to manners. 

http://www.amazon.com/Manners-Guide-Girls-American-Library/dp/0439455189/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291062167&sr=8-2

The book was really neat, and had a lot of useful information in it.  Including what to do if you aren’t invited to a party, or what to do when meeting someone for the first time. 

The girls enjoyed the party, and I think they also enjoyed being waited on.  It was a huge success, and who knows, maybe someday they will all act like ladies!!

Stir-Fry Baby!!

What?!  Meatloaf Again??  I know how you feel!  But since my husband is from Mexico, it’s more like, What? Black beans and salsa again?  Meatloaf I miss, fried chicken I miss, Chili I miss.  It is difficult to have so many things that I remember loving as a child, that I don’t cook very often.  But I digress.

I don’t make the “American food” very often, JJ doesn’t care for it.  He’ll eat it, but he would prefer almost anything else.  I do make it sometimes, because that is my comfort food.  But we are both starting to feel burned out on what we have been eating.

I’ve heard of people having a “dinner Schedule.”  Wednesday is Taco Night!! Ole!!  I could never live like that.  I can see the appeal, never asking what’s for dinner?  Making a grocery list, (same one every week).  But I would be bored to tears!!  I love to eat (and it shows).  I love to try new foods, now more than ever.  I’ve even developed a love of Indian Food.  For the longest time, I couldn’t over come the fact that it looks like baby vomit.  Now, I don’t care!  It is delicious, and a nice change of pace.

So as you may know, I have 4 kids, and a full time job.  I have neither time, nor money to spare.  But I refuse to eat the blue box.  Yesterday, I made a wonderful discovery.  JJ had agreed, reluctantly to tuna fish sandwiches.  We both like tuna, but it is a common fail safe at our house. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the vegetable intake of my children.  Does salsa count, not if they don’t eat it.  I remember growing up, sitting down at the table for dinner every night.  To a real meal, home cooked by my dad.  (Was it every night?  I doubt it, but often enough that I remember it as every night). How did my dad do it?  Were we eating at 6:30?  7? I don’t think so, but that’s the situation now.  (SITUATION!!) 

So I am at Kroger, and I think, lets try a stir fry!  Some chicken, veggies, noodles and sauce Yum!  And I was right!  I picked up some green onion, cilantro, and I was trying to think about what is in a stir-fry.  As I was putting the mushrooms into my cart, I saw it!  The reason I love Kroger. KROGER!!  They had pre-cut, fresh vegetables, stir fry mix.  It had bell pepper, red onion, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, sugar peas.  Plenty enough for 2-3 people.  $3.40.  I grabbed two.  I kept the onion and cilantro.  Grabbed a package of fresh chicken, (on sale, what!? )  Headed over to the Asian isle, grabbed rice noodles ($4 for the box ARGH!), and some stir-fry sauce.  They had spicy Szechuan stir-fry sauce, but I was feeding the kiddos.  $4  OMG, Argh!!

Total bill, $23.40 (I also got a gallon of milk).

Got home, loved on the babies for a few minutes.  Put on a skillet with about 2 inches of water.  Put on a pot of water to boil, and a large skillet for the stir-fry.  Yeah, I have a wok.  It’s in the BASEMENT!!  Sliced up the chicken really thin, like you see at the restaurants.  Salt, and pepper, and in the hot oil.  Sizzle Sizzle, stir stir.  I dumped the veggies in the water skillet, just to cook them up a bit (I hate raw broccoli).  I boiled the rice noodles in the water for about 5 minutes.  I dumped the veggie in with the chicken, added the stir-fry sauce, let that go for a minute or two, then stirred in the noodles.  After I dished out the kids dinner, I added red pepper flakes.

It was GREAT!  So easy, so quick.  It was plenty for 4 adults to eat for dinner.   Next time, I will just buy linguini noodles, I didn’t see much of a difference in the rice noodles.  Needed ginger, and garlic. And I may throw a Thai chili in there to spice it up even more for my husband, and myself. 

I would also try to find a way to make it saucy, that was much lower in sodium.  Yikes, 24% per tablespoon in the stir-fry sauce.  Was it liquid salt?  (it didn’t taste salty though).  Happy stir-frying.