Lifestyle
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Visiting the Outer Banks #OBX
If you were to look at the photographs from any given year of our vacations at the Outer Banks, you would find some version of this photo: Every year we rent chairs and umbrella from a local company. Every year, the chairs and umbrella look the same. I find comfort in this sameness, this constant in our trips. It is as dependable as the fact that, at some point in the trip, the skies will darken and the wind will churn up the surf, a signal of the rain to come, one child will get a sand rash from hurling their small bodies at the waves, the other will likely sunburn a body…
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Fourth of July Twinkie Cake
If you are a follower of a Paleo or whole foods lifestyle, look away. I’ll be back with a fun drink ice or post momentarily, but for now, I’d like to talk about a dessert that includes ingredients that do not fall on your super healthy shopping list. This is a FUN dessert with some fruit thrown in so it isn’t totally crazy: Twinkie cake. Let’s be honest, there are two kinds of people: the “Twinkie – YUM!” and the “there is nothing natural about that snack cake” people. And yes, while the ingredient list reads (to those who bother) like a college chemistry experiment, Twinkies are yummy. (Obviously,…
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Chocolate Eclair Dessert
Some foods can bring to mind a moment or a memory with the very first bite. My mother had such a recipe. It was a chocolate eclair dessert, and it seemed to me that it was really only ever made for special occasions – mostly holiday potlucks or family picnics. (Ok – I may have asked for it for my birthday instead of cake.) It was rare to see it during the winter, come to think of it. If she got a wild hair, we might come home to find it in the fridge – a visit home would become a special occasion – but that was more the exception than the…
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Sea World, Texas Style
We traveled to San Antonio for our Spring Break vacation. One of the top things on our to-do list was Sea World San Antonio. The morning had started out overcast and chilly, but we didn’t let it deter us! With confidence in the weatherman’s forecast, we headed out to the park. We found the best deal online at the SeaWorld website; we printed our tickets at home (including pre-paying the parking – you save $2) and we headed straight for the security check at the entrance. It appeared not everyone was as brave as us, and crowds were light and manageable. The best part about the cooler weather: there was no wait on…
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Oatmeal Carmelitas!
Some time back in the ’90s, I was the only female on an otherwise all-male trade execution desk for a major brokerage firm. I liked to bake but didn’t have roommates for a time, and I sure didn’t need to eat all that sugary goodness on my own, so I routinely brought my bounty into work to share. Basically, I was the desk mom. One day my boss, who was divorced, was bemoaning how much he missed a dessert his ex-wife would make. He would do ANYTHING to get another helping of this wonderful dessert. He said he would buy me cookbooks if I would only make this dessert. I’m slightly…
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Visiting San Antonio: The Alamo and More!
We spent our Spring Break exploring San Antonio. In my last post, I talked about the many attractions in the area around the Alamo. Our second day in San Antonio was all about the Alamo and other historical sites! My kids are really interested in history and I think presenting it interactively is always more fun than just reading it in a book (and I am a bookworm, so that is saying a lot!) One of the fourth grade teachers at the kidlings’ elementary school recommended that we watch the IMAX film “Alamo – The Price of Freedom” before we walked the actual site, particularly since the city now surrounds what…
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Visiting San Antonio: The Rainy Day Tourist Edition
When we woke up on our first morning of our spring break visit to San Antonio, it was to a steady rain – not the best for sightseeing, to be honest. Looking over the checklist of things everyone wanted to see and do, we quickly decided that it would be a good day for silliness and exploration, indoors. After a workout in the hotel gym by the menfolk, and a lazy breakfast we headed out to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum and the Texas Ranger museum. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, and if you told me “tons of taxidermy” I might have rolled my eyes, but it turned out to…
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Planning our Next Vacation Adventure
Happy snow day to all my Dallas* friends and sending warm wishes to the rest of the country as this cold blast heads east! (*Now that’s something I never thought I’df say, but I think our reputation from bringing awful weather everywhere persists.) My “What I’m Reading Wednesday” post did NOT make it up yesterday, mostly because I was too busy alternately trip planning and compulsively checking social media/the news/my weather app to determine if the kids would have school today. (They didn’t. Brrr.) However, the day wasn’t completely lost (as ill organized as it was). I did discover some great websites for vacation planning! I’m headed to San Antonio,…
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Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce
I’m lucky. My kidlings are tweens/teens now and are completely capable of entertaining themselves, so a snow day (or two) doesn’t seem to be the challenge that it once was when they were younger. We hang out in our PJs, they make their own snacks, and it’s all quite low-key if I can keep the squabbling to a minimum. Then and now, when we have a snow day, I tend to reach for comfort foods and well-loved slow cooker recipes, the kind that you put together in the morning with little fuss and with ingredients that I generally have in my pantry. This, my friends, is one of them, and…
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Exploring the Perot Museum
The countdown for all parents is on! You know…that countdown to when our wonderful, darling kids go back to school. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love having them home, and we have had a lot of fun over the past two weeks playing board games and hanging out once the unpacking was complete! But as more cold rain fell and the bickering amped up this morning, we knew that, despite the weather, it was time to get out of our pjs and out of the house. Thankfully, I had in hand four tickets to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, courtesy of a giveaway by Courtney from My Crazy Savings. It…
