Pinterest Bitches

http://bitchinsisters.wordpress.com/

A few hours after I wrote my "I'm out of time" post, a friend of mine sent me this link from Bitchin Sisters.

It's about moms who have the time to make cute little gifts for their kids's first day at school.

My kids aren't even in school yet and I already know what they're getting for the first day. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown bag. Okay, that's not true. I will go buy them some cool lunch box, but you get the point.

The Bitchin Sisters blog is awesome if you want to check it out.

PS: The boy's birthday is in a few days and I will be attempting to make a cake with dumb Twinkie Minions. It will not look like this:

http://cakecentral.com/

It's Official, I'm Out of Time

When I first started this blog, I needed a distraction. I love to write and I love to cook, so there you go. But now I have too many distractions. They're called my 4-year-old and my 2-year-old.

Let's face it, the days of being able to flip though a cooking magazine and then spend an hour at the market finding some ridiculous ingredients are over. Instead I spend 10 minutes at the park trying to get the two kids to look at the camera at the same time.

Yep, photo fail.

Cooking is beginning to fail for me too. I still love it, I just don't have the time. Yes, I still have saffron in my spice cabinet. But I also have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the pantry. Guess which gets used more often.

Not that any of this is a bad thing. Lives change, priorities changes, people change. I still love to cook, and I still subscribe to those cooking magazines. But cooking those special dishes will be reserved for birthdays and holidays. Not every days.

As for this blog, I want to... What? Your brother did what? He put it where?

Never mind, I'm out of time.

The First Fresh Peas

This blog is a lot about firsts. First pesto. First grilled pizza. First fresh peas.

Sure I've had fresh peas in restaurants. Probably in some fancy shmancy place. But I've never bought fresh, still in a pod, peas. 

I didn't even mean to buy them this time. I was at the farmers market this morning and thought I was buying sugar snap peas (yes, seriously). I didn't realize my mistake until I got home and tried to "snap" into one. A few minutes later I found myself shelling peas on the kitchen counter. 

Now, before you think I'm out of touch, remember I grew up in the southwest. Peas came in two varieties, canned or frozen. 

So here I am with my shelled peas, and I figure this should be pretty easy. So of course I consult Google. The first website used canned peas. Gross. The second, third an fourth site explained how to turn fresh peas into a tart, sauce and some other dish fit for brunch at the Palace of Versailles. 

Finally, I found what I was looking for: Toss peas in boiling water for 1 minute and toss with salt and butter. 

Perfection. And another first is finished. 

Seattle: Year Three

The view of Seattle from the West Seattle Bridge

Today I was talking to a friend about my contract and realized we would be in Seattle until at least 2016. That seems so strange. We arrived two years ago with one kid. Now we have two. By 2016 both will be in school. One will be in second grade.

Not that being in Seattle in 2016 will be a bad thing. It's just strange. Strange to grow roots in a city we never imagined living in. Strange to see Orcas in the water near our house when I grew up in the desert chasing lizards. Strange that this may be the place my kids call home.

As we begin our third year in Seattle we can't wait to ride ferries, go to Friday Harbor, visit Leavenworth for the first time, sit on rooftop decks, cheer on the Mariners, and be the 12th man.

Do we feel like locals? Not quite.

Will we by 2016? Definitely.

So strange.

Peeling a Pomegranate

When I was a kid I ruined more than one white t-shirt by sitting out in the backyard and eating pomegranates like corn on the cob. By the time it was over, I looked like I had just slaughtered a small goat.

Years later, when pink stained fingers weren't cool anymore, I gave up on pomegranates. They weren't worth the time or effort. Luckily for all of us Al Gore invented the world wide web, and I learned that getting to those little pomegranate seeds wasn't hard at all - You just need a bowl of water:

First cut open your pomegranate. Don't worry about not cutting a few seeds. There are hundreds of them.
I like to cut my pomegranates into quarters. 

Next, put the pomegranate pieces into a large bowl of water and start pulling the seeds off the white stuff. Yes it's pith.  I had to look it up. The seeds will fall to the bottom and the "pith" will float to the top.

When your finished use a slotted spoon to scoop off the white stuff. I mean pith. 

Then dump your pomegranate seeds into a strainer and rinse the rest of the pith off. I don't have a picture of this because my sink is full of dirty dishes.

And there you have it. A wonderful bowl of non-messy pomegranate seeds to enjoy while wearing a white t-shirt.