No Food Today (or mail, for that matter!)

I know I promised two weeks ago that Thursdays would be dedicated to food musings, but it is now three weeks to the day that my family moves to France, and I just can't muster up the energy to look at a recipe. Right now, we're trying to eat through our cupboards, which makes for some mighty interesting meals. I feel a little like a culinary MacGyver...what can I make with peanut butter, arborio rice, two leftover Girl Scout Samoas, and a can of corn?

Anyways, our latest saga with the whole moving thing is this. I am trying to be organized and redirect all bills, mail, services, etc. to the appropriate places. I felt so proud of myself that I got online on Monday to put in the request to have our mail forwarded on to my parents. It specifically asked for a start date. July 3rd. Woohoo! Done.

Or so I thought. On Tuesday, we didn't get any mail, which is unusual, but has happened before. Yesterday, we didn't get any mail. At this point, I think to myself, uh-oh. So this morning, my husband, who is already fed up with federal agencies by now since tracking down paperwork for his visa has been a hassle, calls the post office. Sure enough, they didn't pay attention to the start date for the mail forward. So then my husband gets into a yelling match with the man in charge of making sure our mail gets to us. Now, we live in a small town, so during this whole conversation, I kept imagining this man deciding to hold our mail permanently. Grudges are big here. So I called back to apologize for a mess that wasn't even our fault. Apparently, we'll start getting mail again in a couple of days...

So much drama. That's what I get for trying to be proactive. This just proves to me that procrastination is the key to getting anything done right!

Wednesday Review on Hiatus...already

I had planned on starting a weekly review and a weekly recipe, and actually started posting those last week, but it turns out that I won't be able to write something up this week.

Jellybean turned two on Saturday, and since we live far away from family, we had lots of visitors in the last few days. We also found out that we have to drive up to Chicago tomorrow to apply for our visas for France, so I'll be out of commission for a few days.

I'll be back on Monday for sure...

Happy Birthday, Jellybean!

My daughter turns two tomorrow, so I thought I'd share her recent reaction to the typical birthday question.

Daddy: Jellybean, how old will you be on Saturday?

Jellybean (without looking up from her dinner): Two puppets.

Yes, we're as confused as you are.

Thursday's Fare

So, not only to I love to travel, I also love to cook. And I love to watch any and all cooking shows, especially Top Chef. I started this blog too late to comment on the entire run of the show (and I am so sad that it's almost over for the season!), but I thought that I'd make Thursdays a day on this blog for writing about food since it's the day after Top Chef airs.

Just a couple of quick notes about Top Chef:

1. I am so glad Spike is gone. He was such a jerk! He never really cooked all that well and he always tried to sabotage the other players, which never really worked out well for him.
2. Man, do I want a good steak after last night's show!

So back to food. I love to try out new recipes! Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. Last night I tried out a recipe that definitely works and is easy, easy, easy! I tried out the Food Network Kitchens' Skillet Cornbread Pudding with Ham and Pepperjack, and although I might omit the salt next time and perhaps add a little more sugar than a pinch, this dish was a hit and looked great on the table! (I served it in the skillet.) The recipe was very rustic, but was tasty enough to serve for all meals and all occasions. Okay, so maybe not all occasions, but you get my drift...

And my first attempt even looked like the professionally-taken picture! (This is the professionally-taken picture, not my version.)

Skillet Cornbread Pudding with Ham and Pepperjack

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cooked corn, fresh or thawed frozen
1 bunch scallions (white and green parts), sliced
1 (6-ounce) chunk Black Forest ham, diced (about 11⁄4 cups)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
4 ounces pepper jack cheese, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup packaged cornbread stuffing cubes ***
Pinch sugarPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the corn, scallions, ham, garlic, and chili powder. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the scallions are soft, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl and stir in the half-and-half, cheese, basil, salt, and pepper, to taste.

Pull the skillet from the heat. Stir the cornbread stuffing and sugar into the skillet. Pour the egg mixture over and stir gently to distribute all the ingredients evenly. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until lightly puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Serve warm.

***For some reason, I couldn't find unflavored packaged cornbread stuffing in our local grocery store. I know I've seen it there, but I think that maybe they only carry it during the "stuffing season." Instead, I bought a cheap box of cornbread mix, made it, cut it into cubes and then put them in the oven on a cookie sheet until they were dried out like croutons. Our store also had some pre-made corn bread, but I was too cheap to pay $4 for it when I could make it myself for about $1. This added some time to my prep, but it could be done the day before to save some time. It also made about twice as much as I actually needed, so I'll be saving the rest for the next time I make this.

Happy Eating!

reviews, food,
mommy, motherhood

Wednesday Review - Combi Helio Stroller

Today is my first review and I hope to review a product or website once a week...on Wednesday Review day! (I know, I know...I need a much better name than this, but my need to post something was much greater than my lack of title creativity today.)

We bought the Combi Helio EX stroller for our almost-2-year-old about 3 months ago in anticipation of needing a light-weight umbrella stroller that would hold a toddler for all of the walking we anticipate doing and for all of the public transportation we'll be needing to bring this stroller on while living in France.

I looked at a lot of different strollers (Graco, McLaren, other Combi models) and decided to buy this one because:

• It's lightweight.
• It has a strap to carry it by when folded.
• It has cupholders for my daughter.
• It has a bar across the front.
• It maneuvers pretty easily.
• The handles are tall enough for both my husband and I (5'9" and 6').
• It lays back all the way in case my daughter falls asleep.
• The canopy is large enough to shade my daughter.
• There are several little storage places for my stuff (including a decent sized basket underneath, but this is blocked by a bar that goes across the middle).
• The seat is removable and machine washable.
• It is wide and roomy for toddlers.
• My daughter cried when we tried to take her out of it at the store!
  

Cons so far:

• It's a little wobbly when I push it, but many umbrella strollers are by virtue of their construction.
  
• If you're looking for something you can push one-handed, this is not for you. It's not difficult to push at all, but it can be a little hard to steer one-handed.
  
• It's a little difficult to fold down when you first start to use it, but once you get used to it, it's fine.
• It's not made for off-roading. It gets stuck sometimes going over large cracks or on grass, but I don't plan on using it for these purposes, so not a big deal to me.
• The wheels look a little cheap, but so far we haven't had any problems with them.
  

So far, we've used it in our neighborhood here in the States and a little in Baltimore when visiting family. All in all this was a great mid-priced stroller and I'm looking forward to using it with my daughter in France!

reviews, travel,
mommy, motherhood
toddler

Sore Loser

So it has been 10 years since I've thrown a softball, but that all changed on Tuesday night at our local co-ed slow-pitch softball league (comprised of only four teams). And I'm a sore loser...literally.

But let me start at the beginning. My parents signed me up for Little League softball when I was in 4th grade because they thought I spent too much time inside reading, which I did. (If only I have this problem with my daughter!) It sounds insane that parents would want their child to read less, but I was the type of kid that would lock herself in her room as soon as she got home from school, come out for some nourishment, and then return to her room to finish the book she started that afternoon. The year my elementary school let us release balloons for reading (something like 1 balloon for each 100 pages read), everyone else had one or maybe five balloons. I had so many that three people had to carry mine.

So anyways, back to my recent softball game. I began the last paragraph to explain that I've played softball for a long time, and even umpired a little during my college years to make some money. So I know what I'm talking about and how to play, even if it has been a decade since I've done so. So imagine my surprise when I show up to my first game and I find that women in this league have completely different rules and even a different ball to play with than the men!

It started out by the umpire letting us know that the men would be using a regular size softball, but that the women would have to bat with a smaller softball. I groaned, and a man on my team actually had the gall to tell me that it was for our own good and that we could hit it farther. What I wanted to say and what I did say differed by this: "Go screw yourself!" and "But I've played with a regular size softball all my life; why change now?" So we played by alternating the balls for each batter (since our lineup had to be male, female, male, etc.).

Then one of our male batters walked. When he got to first, the umpire informed him that he actually got to go to second base because teams in the past had walked male batters so that they could pitch to the "weaker" women batters only. I thought that was ridiculous until our next batter, a woman, was given the choice to bat or walk to first. Apparently, the defense gets doubly penalized when a man walks.

The final straw was when one of our best female players tried to make it to third base from first, but was thrown out when the left fielder threw the ball to third and the third baseman tagged her out. Jami started to walk off the field, but the umpire told her she was safe. Why? Because women can't be thrown out by being tagged when thrown from the outfield.

What the hell kind of game is this??? Not what I remembered from when I was 11 years old, that's for sure!

And to top it all off, we lost by one in the last inning and I can barely walk because, apparently, after 10 years of retirement, my body has rebelled.

sports, sexism,
softball, coed softball
reading, childhood,

French Visa Merry-Go-Round

As I mentioned before, my husband and I will be moving to France in July for about a year. He is directing a study abroad program there, and my employer was nice enough to give me leave so that I could go with him. (We do work for the same organization, so they did have something to lose by not letting me go.) We've been in the "process" of applying for visas since January, and we're not much closer to getting it finished. It turns out that we have two very different processes to go through since he'll be earning money and I won't.

His has to originate in France, and so far they've been very picky, indeed. Everything, and I mean all 20 documents, had to be translated into French. He speaks French, so not a huge deal, but very time consuming. We finally got all of the paperwork in in the middle of April, but hadn't heard anything by last week about the status of his application. A contact of ours in France contacted them, and they let her know that he was missing a document from the Social Security Administration that only our employer can request. This can take from 4-6 weeks! This document was not listed as a necessary document, but there it is. So we wait.

My daughter (who will be two at the end of May) and I have to apply for visitors visas, which require documents such as letters from our employers stating our wages (even though I won't be working and my daughter won't be working for a good dozen years or so), FBI background checks (which was impossible to do for our daughter because apparently two year olds don't have ridges on their fingers big enough to process), and a letter from my bank proving my income (do banks even do that???). This is just the tip of the iceberg, and to top it all off, we have to translate everything into French (and provide two copies of each document).

Ugh. I have most of my daughter's and my documents all together, but we can't go until June 6th to Chicago to apply. The French won't let you turn in a copy before you go to make sure you got it right and they require you to show up in person. You also have to apply in your region's consulate, even if there is a closer one in another region. We actually live about 7 hours driving time from Chicago, so this is a major undertaking.

All of this bureaucracy stresses me out, and I just want to tell the French, "We're good people and we won't take your citizens' resources and I promise we'll leave when we say we're going to. Just let us in!" But instead we wait...

mommy, kids,
travel, blogging
french visa, expat,
moving, relocating

New Beginnings

Three years ago, I started a blog on blogger. I kept it up until I had my daughter, but then found that I just didn't have the time or the desire to write posts there. My husband and I created a new blog just for her, and we've kept it up for two years now, but it is mostly so that family far away can see her grow up and because I'm the worst scrap booker ever.

I created a new, anonymous blog over a year ago on another blog hosting site, but just haven’t been able to keep it up. I haven’t had time and I just haven’t had the energy to come up with topics to write about. I am trying to commit myself to writing again, especially now that I have a big trip coming up. My family will be moving to Strasbourg, France on July 3rd. We’ll be documenting the move with a blog meant for family members, but I want a space where I can document things other than our personal growth. Traveling with a small child (2 years old) will be exciting, but difficult. I want a space where I can write honestly about living abroad and not working for the first time in my life. I also want a space where I can review items that we find absolutely necessary for a trip like this. I already have a couple of things in mind that we’ve been "testing" already to see if it’s worth the space in our 6 suitcases for 3 people.

So hold on to your horses…here I come!

mommy, kids,
travel, blogging