Star Date 131019

I workout...then I cook dinner!!

In the land of the Homemaking Diva it is totally normal to start working out and get the energy to begin cooking four course meals and delicious pounds adding desserts every night for dinner. In my head I am a shapely star travelling work from home Homemaking Diva who dresses like I am 50's preschool teacher and cooks like she is a chef in an award winning restaurant. In real life I am a slightly overweight preschool teacher who works from home and is often too tired to cook....until now. 

I am working out everyday at the gym and I have dropped four pounds in the last two weeks. So I am realizing that with great energy comes great power and I am wanting to bake and cook and start looking in my cook books again to find awesome things to cook and present. I also want to throw a dinner party. So you can look out for the post of the dinner party I will be throwing and how that went. The most important part to remember about throwing a dinner party is that you do not have to be rich in order to throw such a thing and to have fun with your friends. 

Now I have discovered something called Flipbook on my new s3 phone (only my second smart phone ever). With flipbook I have been connected to some recipes that I would have never have thought to try if I had just looked through my cookbooks on my shelf or done a simple internet search. I am not sure what that says about search skills but it's the truth. 

So this week I decided to make a German Winter Stew which apparently came from the Oprah site. You are not allowed to judge my use of an Oprah recipe. http://www.oprah.com/food/German-Winter-Stew  This stew can me made in a crock pot but I decided to make it in my dutch oven. I took a HUGE pork shoulder and seasoned it with salt pepper, cumin, onion powder and garlic. This a bit different from what the site has posted for this recipe but I choose to do it with what I had already in the house verses trying to grab expensive ingredients. I also decided not to use cabbage in it because the family is very much against this idea and I did not want an entire revolt during dinner time. Their apathy to cabbage did not stop me from wanting to make this dish. So I decided to use spinach. 

I have to tell you the best place in which to obtain spinach is from the farmers markets in your area. I picked up a HUGE bag for less than two dollars, along with the apples to go into the stew. 

I cut the pork shoulder into bite size pieces and seared them in olive oil when that is done I added the onion, chicken broth and the cut up apples. This all cooks in the dutch oven for 3 hours. After which I add in the spinach and instead of cooking for another 45 I did it for another 10-15. The results were astounding. The family loved it and beside the fact that I forgot to make corn bread there were no complaints. 

   

The apples did not overwhelm the dish. Everything went together with none of the many parts of the dish overshadowing the other. I was not sure how the spinach would go over in the dish since it was made for cabbage and while Brussel Sprouts are a closer match to replace cabbage I had to find something that was not offensive to the family. Pairing this dish with corn bread lightly sweetened with brown sugar makes this a perfect dish for a chilly day. If you would like to make it the traditional way I have posted the link inside the blog you to see the recipe. Post links when you have made it to show me how yours differed from mines! 

With that I am out! 

Live Long and Be Creative 

Homemaking Diva   

Stardate......32013

To be or not to be....a housewife.....


http://www.teamjimmyjoe.com/2012/12/1950s-housewife-meme/

I am a work at home mom and housewife. I kinda stumbled onto this role in my life. How? Well I had all these grand plans when I was younger (like 5). I want to be the female G.I Joe (read: join the military), then I was going to retire at 20 years after becoming a world famous spy and become a kindergarten school teacher. You know because, everyone wants a trained killer to teach their child ABC's. In the end I went into the military for four years became known as the happiest little gate guard ever and got out at the end of my term because I was knocked up and felt like one of us should be here and stable since the other would deploy.

It is important for you to know that when I got out it was not ASSUMED that I would get out, it was made because I knew what I wanted to do when I got out of the military and the man....just didn't. Otherwise I would have stayed in and he would have gotten out and taken care of the boys. Which after nearly eight years of marriage and countless diapers I realize it worked out for the best because the man sometimes looks .....frightened when something random comes up with the boys. This is not because he is a man it is because it is NATURE. He is just not good with the crap the boys come up with day in and day out. That is not to say that he is horrible with them, just that I am better at it. This is also not because I am a woman. I didn't play with dolls, or play tea. I was a tomboy. Who liked to dress in pretty dresses. I climbed trees, beat up boys played with ninja turtles, had a he-man swords. I was a tom boy for the longest time. Perhaps I still am. I mean really who doesn't like a good action flick? Well not all girls are like me lol! But I do think that I was well prepared for the two boys I have and I am ready to do the baseball, football, soccer thing. If I had a girl I would have been ready to tom boy her the hell up and take her out there for sports too.

Why am I writing about this? Because I read an article called "The Feminist Housewife" is such Bullshit" So basically there is an article floating around that was written in New York magazine called "The Retro Wife" Where we are allowed to learn that they are breaking the mold on feminist and returning to the home...you know where we belong (rolling my eyes hard). Look you can like being a housewife if that is something that you truly wanted to do and be in life. But lets not continue to pass on the bullshit lie that men can't do the job we do just as well. Men can be excellent at staying at home. Some women are just not made to be stay at home wives. There is nothing wrong with that. What I take some real issue with is telling girls that they should have a career they can walk away from. WHAT THE EVER LOVING HELL?! Why would you tell them that?! Why?! "Yes darling get all the education you want but make sure you don't love your job too much cause it will make it hard to quit to be a SAHM when the time comes". That is some damn shitty advice.

So world, you can thank me. I am turning out men who will be able to wash clothes, cook, clean and nurture children should the need arise. You know why? Because mommy has a damn career and they are fully capable of learning to clean up the space we all share together. When they become men with their own families their significant others will love me because my boys will be able to share in all household tasks and never ask their wife to give up her career just to honor the timely traditions of gender roles.

Maybe I have been doing things all wrong..maybe I should have become a man because then my ambition would be seen as a positive and not as a weird trait in a woman that should only care about being the black Martha Stewart. Sigh but sadly cause I have a vagina I want to be a successful business woman, mother and teacher AND the black Martha Stewart because I need society to love me.

That last bit is a lie. I want to be the black Martha cause I want her money.

Live Long and be a fembot

Stardate....32012

I Cooked ALL the Food

So I failed in my attempt to blog everyday but I don't think you should hold that against me in anyway because I was busy. My Simcity is taking up a lot of my time lately....I kid I kid! Actually working has been at the front of my agenda. I have so many things to do that by the time I am able to sit and write the blog it is time for bed. So today I will post the two recipes I tried. I would also like to talk about awkward moments. So I have these awkward moments when I am either in a new place or I am in an old place around people who do not usually speak to me but we do the same activity. This moment is something that I like to call.

Ignoreabitch. 

What this moment entails is me saying hi or smiling and no one saying hi back, but saying Hi to the other people that are in the room. The other version of this would be having a funny conversation with the people around me but when I put in a comment not acknowledging I have said anything.

So I have come up with a plan to combat this sense of awkwardness. Because really who likes to feel like they are being ignored or that they are not wanted right? 

1. Burp and fart loudly. No one can ignore you then! But the down fall would be that they also would not want to be around you because of the stench. 

2. Do handstands. Because Gabby has shown us that in order for be to gain acceptance in the world I need to be a gymnast. 

3. Go up to them and hug them. This may also be awkward and could result either in sexual harassment or a restraining order. 

These are just a few of the ideas that popped into my head. I know what you are thinking. I could just find people who like me. Well I am socially awkward so I have to take human contact outside of the computer where I can get it. And if it is while I am sitting around a bunch of people who do not get me then so be it! Actually what this really ensures is that I will do something totally random for attention and cement by status and the weird little black girl :). Look out for that post in the near future. 

Ok so I made Hummus Sandwiches for work. The class loved them I did not try one so I am still unsure of the taste but I naturally love hummus so I will attempt to make them again. I also made mini apple pies with the class and I will be making them with Superheroes 1 and 2 today. I got this recipe from the curriculum I order for work. It was super easy and super cute. Most of the kids LOVED them. I think the other kids were not pleased with the fact that they were square instead of round but the fact that it was fun to make something made the whole thing worthwhile. 

Hummus and Cumber Sandwich

Mini Apple Pies (Going into the oven) 

Mini Apple Pies 

When I made the Apple pies all I used was refrigerated biscuits, apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin spice because we were out of nutmeg. I used a square pan because I like that pan a lot and I won it during a roller derby bout. Now the recipe I posted below is a little different from the one I got. The oven is on 375 for 20 minutes. Also I did not have the kids do the strips because that would have taken too long and they were reaching max with the attention span already. They still smelled great and were a ton of fun to do! 

For diner last night I found an awesome recipe for Super Garlic Chicken. Seriously it was SUPER GARLIC. But it was delicious. I left it in the crock pot for about 6 hours and it was tender, juicy and falling off the bone. We had mac and cheese and string beans with bacon and Hawaiian rolls. Dinner was off the CHAIN!

  

Super Garlic Chicken

For this recipe I did not have fresh garlic and I had no ability to ride out and get some. So instead I used minced garlic. I was also lazy and poured everything over it and under it while it was in the crockpot in stead of doing it exactly as it said in the directions. In my defense I was tired after 630 am derby practice. lol It still came out wonderful but if you happen to follow the directions please post it or send me a picture to feature in my next post! 

Another thing that I would like to do sometime soon is to create a totally awesome wardrobe for the costumes I have at work for the kids. I found something on pintrest that I think would be kinda of cool to do once I have some cash again.  All it really takes is a dresser, wall paper and paint and maybe a piece of wood and some hooks. I am loving this project and I will be adding this on to the things I do as soon as I get some free time. 

Alright well I have to go and finish coughing up a lung and working on the house and being the queen of my castle. Please PLEASE comment. How am I to do know I am reaching the masses with my writing if you do not leave me comments? You know it's how we measure if we are really liked and all :). 

Sites of note:

Mini Apple Pie

Hummus Sandwich 

Super Garlic Chicken

Costume Storage

Thank you for listening and I look forward to posting again super soon! 

Live Long and Stay awkward. 

Capt. Domestic Diva