Category Archives: food

I Haven’t Cooked For Days

family, food, friendship

Yes, it’s true.  It all started last week, when my kids headed back east with their grandparents for a little R&R.  Or a candy-laden, amusement-park–bowling alley–movie watching-kind of week.  Whatever.  My husband and I headed to the nearby ski hill that night because we enjoy skiing in July.  Nope, that’s not really why.  I’m not that crazy, people!  No, we headed north sans ski gear because in a moment of sheer genius, someone in charge of our local symphony decided years ago that people would pay good money to sit outside on the ski hill in the summer and listen to them play.  And, man, were they on the money.  We made the first trip ten years ago, and have only missed a couple of times.  We’ve even roped our friends into paying good money, too.

In our picnic basket this year:
  • a bottle of Palazzo della torre wine (which rocked, by the way)
  • prosciutto, kaseri cheese, and arugula sandwiches on rosemary ciabatta (made by me)
  • a motherload of grapes
  • english toffee cookies (not made by me)
  • red licorice, cheese & crackers, and pretzel nuggets for the masses
The evening ended with a beautiful display of fireworks set off at the top of the ski hill.  It was fan-tab-u-lous.
Since then, we’ve had nachos for dinner while watching the incredibly stupid, entirely inappropriate (kid-free here, folks!), yet also hilarious movie, Role Model; had lunch at two of our favorite outdoor haunts; enjoyed a 10PM meal at the bestest burger bar ever; and generally, not put a single thought into whether we need groceries.  It’s been quite lovely, albeit a bit pricey.  But hey, with just two of us, we can eat out twice as often, right?
Reality approaches.  Planned meals.  PB&J.  Ewww, Mom, do I have to eat this?
I sure do miss those boys.
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How to Throw a Jungle Party for Kids

birthday cakes, birthdays, food
As you may know, I’m not a big fan of the commercial party for kids.  I understand the appeal of the Sponge Bob et. al, parties—kids like the shows and the theme is ready-made.  Hit the party store and you’ll be hard pressed not to find napkins, plates and goody bags pre-printed with the logo du jour.  But something about the commercialization of children’s birthday parties rubs me the wrong way.  So we typically go with a general theme, and build from there, although I do confess to throwing a Superhero party one year, complete with a Batman Cake (I used black icing & made the bat signal in yellow – it looked very cool but what a mess those kids were!).  I also made capes for all of the kids, and by “made” I mean I cut the shape out of black fabric, attached some ribbon to tie them on, and called it good.  (The capes had names on them like Super Sam and Mighty Matthew, which sounds totally lame but the kids loooooved their personalized superhero gear.  They’re kids, remember?)
But, generally speaking, we skip a Sponge Bob party in favor of an Under the Sea party. Or we have a party with a Race Car cake.  Or, you might recall, we’ve had a  Pirate Party with this awesome Pirate Ship cake. 
This year, we went wild with a jungle theme.
Now, by wild, I mean that I wasn’t really planning a party and was caught by surprise when my youngest wanted one.  So I threw this together quickly, and cheaply, and as usual, the kids didn’t know the difference.  I love that.  So if you’re up for a Bungle in the Jungle with kids, here are a few ideas:
  1. Start with the cake.  Nothing screams Birthday Party quite like a Jungle Cake.  You can order it or make it, but I say make this one—it’s so easy.  Nothing creative, really, other than the fancy placement of jungle animals around the kingdom.  It was sort of fun, actually; channeling the inner child and all that, I suppose.
  1. Throw in some vine. I’ve been blogging long enough now to know that lots of you are very creative.  In that case, you will scoff at my party décor.  You will take this idea and run so far with it that your home or yard or garage will actually resemble Africa.  But party décor is not my forte, so I don’t mind, go ahead and scoff.  Improve on the idea-I’m all for it as long as I don’t have to do it, too.  Simply open up some paper grocery bags, cut them into strips, and twist the strips into vines.  I got fancy at the end and had my kids cut out green leaf shapes from construction paper, to add that authentic jungle feel.  Improve away, creative types.
  1. Find some Jungle Fabric.  For a quick and easy decoration, hit your local fabric store for an inexpensive tablecloth to help set the mood.  I scored this one for about $5 – and I cut a piece off the end to use as the blindfold for Pin the Leaf on the Vine (more on that, later).
  1. Indulge in a tatt.  Yes, my friends, I’m advocating tattoos, here.  And, guaranteed, this will be the only kind I will ever cheer for.  When kids arrive at the party, have them choose a couple of tatts from a jungle-themed assortment:  we had lions, tigers, monkeys, snakes—they loved choosing and showing off their new body art. 
  1. Pin the Leaf on the Vine.  This is the kind of game that drives my husband crazy, and I do them at every kid party anyway.  It’s the same old game, with a brand-new name.  For this one, simply pre-make a few leaves per child, with their name printed on the leaf.  Add a blindfold, a few spins, and they’re off to try to “pin” (double-sided tape) the leaf onto the vines (that you have already taped onto the door/wall/whatever).  I wasn’t sure about this one, but the kids were cracking up.  And, cheating, I’m pretty sure.
  1. Lion, Lion, Hyena.  Yep, you got it.  Another game by a different name.  This is Duck Duck Goose with one variation:  when we were finished playing Pin the Leaf on the Vine, I folded the blindfold, and tied a knot in the end to make a lion’s tail.  The child who was “it” tucked the end into their pocket and when he yelled Hyena, the child he tapped had to try to pull the tail out of his pocket as they ran around the circle of kids.  They could’ve played this the entire time.  It added to the fun that the “big kids” joined in (my 10 & 12 year old, and a friend)—how cool was it to catch the tail when one of them was “it”?!
  1. Jungle Charades.  My older son found cartoon pictures of jungle animals online & printed them out for us.  We folded them, then the kids chose animals to act out.  Well, that was the idea.  We had the game ready but I forgot all about it.  And they were busy with the Jungle Cave.  You try it, though.  It sounds fun.
  1. Jungle Cave.  This one proves the theory that all kids need for entertainment is an empty box.  We got a couple of washer/dryer boxes from Home Depot and a couple of large boxes from a furniture store, taped them together, added some branches (what luck that our neighbor was pruning that day!) and called it the jungle cave.  If I were the more creative type, I could’ve added fabric inside, or hanging vines, or other scary nuances, but I’m not and they never noticed.  If you are, though, knock yourself out.  They had a blast with the cave.
  1. The Great Peanut Hunt.  Obviously, this only works if none of the kids (or their siblings!) have a peanut allergy.  In that case, you could probably use those orange peanut-shaped candies, but since they’re not wrapped…gross!  I’m not sure it would be worth the time to individually wrap them.  I’m sure you could find something else.  At any rate, my older boys ran around before the party, hiding peanuts (in the shell) around the jungle cave, play set, and backyard.  The kids were elephants, and all of the elephants received a paper lunchbag with their name on it.  Then they ran around like wild monkeys trying to find as many peanuts as they could.  Mayhem ensued.
  1. Coconut War.  This game exists solely because my son wanted water balloons at his party.  Since I have two older sons—and one of their friends—who were willing to play the lions, it worked.  The little kids, or monkeys, stood on our 2nd story deck beaming water balloons at the lions, who ran around in the yard below.  We couldn’t have made enough water balloons! 
  1. Party Favors.  I’m not very fond of the Goody Bag concept, and usually skip it in favor of handing out one of those huge twirly lollipops and a helium balloon as kids head out the door.  This time, though, I decided to buy plastic jungle cups & write the kids’ names on them with a Sharpie.  I filled them with bubbles, a candy necklace, a twirly straw, a couple of take-home tattoos, and a few jungle animals.  (You can see them in the photo above, with the cake & jungle fabric.) Next year:  the return of the large, twirly, lollipop!
Supply List:
    • cake, icing, & animals for the top
    • jungle fabric for tablecloth, blindfold, and lion’s tail
    • jungle tattoos
    • large furniture boxes or washer/dryer boxes (free at furn stores or Home Depot-just ask)
    • branches to decorate jungle cave
    • duct tape to hold cave together
    • lots of paper grocery bags, woven into vines
    • green construction paper for leaves – to decorate vines & to use in Pin the Leaf on the Vine game
    • paper lunchbags w/ kids’ names, for the Great Peanut Hunt
    • peanuts in shell (or substitute)
    • papers with jungle animal names (or cartoon pictures) on them, for Jungle Charades
    • water balloons
    • party favors of your choice; mine:  jungle cup, bubbles, candy necklace, jungle tattoos, plastic jungle animals
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Colleges Dump the Cafeteria Tray

food, NY Times

Huh.  So they’re doing away with the cafeteria tray.

I’m trying to imagine it.  As a mother, and former waitress, I have an amazing ability to carry it all in one trip:  load me up with several plates, cups, napkins, and a plate of hot wings, no problem.  

But as a college kid, I hadn’t been a waitress yet.  I couldn’t even carry the tray with one hand – I had the double grip going, one firmly on each side.  
Now I find out that if only I hadn’t used the tray, I’d have kept my svelte high school figure and staved off the freshman 15.  It wasn’t the all-night, any-night kegs in the fraternities. 

It wasn’t the seconds on any (or every) dessert in the cafeteria.

It definitely wasn’t eating pizza at midnight several nights a week.  



It’s all right here, in yesterday’s NY Times article. 
Hmmm….  So what’s my excuse, now?
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