Category: food

Eh…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay7 Comments
Usually, at this time of year i am knee deep in cookbooks and recipes, planning our Thanksgiving meal. For several years I hosted close to 30 (or over 30, one year) people in our small house. It was close knit and delicious. Last year we mixed things up a bit and decided to spend the week between Phoenix and New Mexico with family. I once again cooked, (smaller crowd) and we had a great time though the winter travel wasn’t at all ideal… 
This year, with the very real possibility of my sister and her family being up north, we’re entertaining the possibility of the four of us spending the day at one of our family’s favorite restaurants and then going to a movie. 
I kinda love it, actually… 
Since I got over my nearly three month affair with pneumonia, (Scandalous!) I’ve been trying out a lot of new recipes and just trying to cook and be creative more days in a week than not- so that part of Thanksgiving just isn’t interesting to me this year. 
What are your plans? Do you judge us for thinking or restauranting it? (nothing is certain, plans could change any moment.) 
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All American Me…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments

Good morning!
Not a horrible thing to start a morning off, is it? This night owl turned early morning riser, (not always by choice) has developed a theory… If more people woke up to things as stunningly beautiful as this, the world might be more filled with early a.m. smiles…

See?!?!? I am doing it! By this time, (when i poured my first cup of coffee) I had already washed my face, started a load of towels to hang on the line, and preheated my oven. I am sure you are reading this and going “wow, great, yay for you… now tell me sometime worthwhile…” 
Well, this is a HUGE accomplishment for me… 

But this helps… 
And between us, I guess i should fess up that it’s decaf. It isn’t even “real” coffee… but psychologically, the taste of coffee associates “morning” for me. And honestly, I am wide awake after I wash my face. Nothing feels as great as that! 
Which reminds me, remember when I was telling you that we here at Chez’ Wagner were in hot debate over a certain coffee pot purchase? Well, we decided, {FINALLY} over the weekend- and thanks to Amazon’s amazing prices- this baby arrived yesterday:
Happiness for the coffee drinkers (Amanda and I), for the tea drinkers (all of us), and for the cocoa drinkers (Chw and Gen)… 
This morning, at five thirty, there I was… Just sipping coffee, baking cinnamon bowls for my beautiful family to fill with yogurt, fresh granola and sliced strawberries. I was stirring juice and just happily content. Gen had about half an hour to sleep and Chw and Amanda were on their early morning bike ride. 
I felt so “all american”. So Suburban normal. 
Well, except for the fact that neither one of those are synonymous with “happily content”, but whatever… 
The older I get, the more I really do buy into the belief that it is the little things that matter most. The precious moments hidden under the throw rug of average times. The mornings. The evenings.
And there is no denying that it doesn’t get more American than an evening of this- 

except, I have to remind myself, for the whole happily content thing. And you know, that’s actually pretty sad. As was one of the movies Chw and I watched. (Biutiful) And it is wayyy too early for sadness… 
oh yeah, and P.S. those home canned pickles are remarkably awesome! :) {But probably NOT at 5:30 in the morning. I am not that great in the mornings.}

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On Monday Morning…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay3 Comments
I had the best sort of weekend, honestly…

On Saturday morning I had the privilege of going to a beautifully kind woman’s home and picking lavender. An entirely beautiful basket of it. 

Following the lavender adventure we made our way to the Farmer’s Market, where I picked up a great deal on baby potatoes (which Genny detests) and bananas (which Amanda detests.) I should have taken a picture of all of the bananas really, before i spent an hour and a half slicing them for the freezer… They were vividly beautiful, though i could go awhile without smelling fresh bananas i think! 
Saturday night Chw and I went to dinner and a movie… At dinner I posed the question to my facebook friends: does a grilled veggie burrito (which was amazingly fresh and delicious!) lose it’s healthy goodness when it is covered in queso blanco? Half way through the glorious goodness blanketed in white cheesy heaven, I realized I didn’t much care. Besides, it was date night… We could, between the two of us, choose to say- share an entire chocolate cake and it would be in the name of quality husband/wife time therefore it would be completely justifiable, right? 
But for the record, we didn’t. 
Anyway, after dinner we went to see Crazy Stupid Love. 
Heard of it? 
Wow… 
While this most certainly is not a family movie, it is defintely an amazing movie for married couples. Especially married couples, with children… I can’t even tell you how much i would recommend this film, or how much I loved it! 
Moving on… 
I am completely behind on B90… My Monday is going to look like catch up… 
I spent Sunday afternoon, in the 100 degree weather, canning pickles. They are my first pickles, ever… They are hamburger/sandwich slices. I’ll let you know… Not being much of a pickle person, and having a family who is incredibly picky about the pickles they’ll eat- it could be a big gamble.

We also got to end the weekend with a house full of really awesome people, good food and conversation. It’s the best way to close any day, if you ask me…

And this morning I made my 5:30 wake up with ease (a good wake up song on the alarm clock helps!). Today is a bit of an emotional hiccup for me, as it marks a sad anniversary which carries a lot of guilt for me- but I try not to be too reflective. I could use extra happiness and love today, that’s for sure… 

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A little post vacay nostalgia… Sort of…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments
I finally feel like recovery from California, (and the EVIL stomach virus of the vacation) is a possibility… I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you some souvenirs that I brought home. 
 gifts for the girls, of course…
 For the husband’s yummy saturday morning pancakes…
 Stocked up! yum! 
 Amanda’s favorite…

 For me. I’m selfish… 
 our little luxury of the trip… 
 the BEST cocoa, in my opinion. 
 DOUBLE YUM!!!
 hello, necessity… 
 the BEST Soy Sauce on the market…
 *swoon*
 Chw’s… 
 Eat your heart out, chips ahoy! 
 Gen…
 Nana…
 DIVINE snackability…
 I LOVE these silly fig bars… 
 hard to read, from the dumb flash, but these are Gorgonzola crackers, and let me just say: OH MY GOSH, these are FANTASTC! Amazing with cheese, amazing with hummus… just GOOD yumminess… 
 Pasta, gnocchi and more pasta… 
 i am selfish here and won’t share. this is my FAVORITE Salad dressing ever- turned on to it by a good, kind and generous friend!
 Chw’s… 
 Our hard working freezer bag which, in a cooler full of ice, did it’s job AWESOMELY Well for those 7 hours! 
 BEST Biryani I’ve ever had! 
 YUM!!! 
Even yummier… 
So bored yet? I’m sorry… i just love (and miss) Trader Joe’s so much. Everything you saw here, we bought multiple amounts of… We had a ridiculous amount of food, which filled up the back of my SUV and we only spent $178. It’s ridiculous… The things we got would last us 4-6 months… 
I am hoping to go back to TJ’s early in the fall to stock up on soups and a few more things. (LOVE their soups!) 
Are you a TJ’s shopper??? What are your favorite Trader Joe’s things? 
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Whipped…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments
While summer is this gloriously wonderful and sunshine filled (usually, anyway) time of laughter and happiness- every year I am reminded of how much summer kind of gets on my nerves a little.
And I mean, just a little… 
My routine is destroyed. It’s sad… 
The very idea of sticking to a meal plan feels about as feasible as swimming to Hawaii for a picnic. 
The laundry seems to pile up doubly fast, and the structured time to do it seems to have gone on vacation. 
And then, then there is the long Summer “To Do list” which seems impossible to complete.
As it is, school starts in less than a month…

Less than a month! 
For this “used to be” homeschooling mom, transitioning into a very early school morning schedule- I am already feeling that familiar chest constricting feeling of anxiety attacking me. 
So, even though I’m feeling completely exhausted and whipped by the crazy (but glorious) chaos of summer, I’m making a move to be pro-active. 
I am baby stepping my way to becoming that wife and mother who is up every day, before anyone else. {For those of you who already live this life- bless me, for those of you laughing hysterically- you’ll see!} This week I’ve started waking up at 5:30, every morning. My hope is to establish a routine for myself so that by the first day of next month, I’ll be mentally alert enough to start waking Gen, at the time she’ll need to be up to ready herself for school, and having home cooked breakfasts every morning. 
Well, it’s a lovely goal anyway… (she says, as she currently wakes around 9 and still only offers bagels or muffins with fruit for the morning meal… *sigh*)
I am optimistic that by this time next month I will be the morning person whom I have spent 35 years hoping I would be, and that, ala’ June Cleaver- my family will be happy, well adjusted, well fed and beautiful model citizens inspiring the world for generations to come. (but really over all, I’m being pretty realistic, don’t you think?) 
Any words of wisdom or advice? (PLEASE don’t say coffee… I’ve NEVER been a regular daily coffee drinker, but I am already having a mental romance with this guy, while also day dreaming of the possibilities of having this man in my life.) 
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