Souvenir

A souvenir (from French, for a remembrance or memory), memento, keepsake or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it.

 -Wikipedia

Also known as "kitsch" and "the crap you bring the empty suitcase along for". And yes, I did that on the trip back to the US. I filled my empty suitcase with Amish peanut butter and French's Fried Onions. But my normal go-to souvenir wasn't necessary this last trip....because I don't need visual, physical reminders of home (reminders I have in abundance in my brain. *cue 'awwww')...

See, I collect magnets. Or rather, I attempt to do so of the places I have visited. I have magnets from Durham, Edinburgh, London, Pisa and Venice (bribed Roo to bring them to me), Munich and Whitby. And I'm starting tea towels now. So far: Durham, Whitby, and Kiddo's school. I hungrily eyed the London Underground/2012 Olympics tea towel at Heathrow while waiting for the connecting flight, but in the end... paying nearly $20 for a piece of fabric with the purpose of getting it dirty made almost no sense. The smidgen of sense it did make in my head was screaming at me to "GET IT NOW! WHO KNOWS WHEN YOU'LL BE BACK!!! IT'S THE OLYMPICS!! THEY ONLY HAVE THEM ONCE EVERY TWO YEARS!!!"

So my one concession to obvious kitsch is the magnets. They serve no other purpose than to decorate my fridge. Maybe the tea towels are a weird attempt to rationalize the magnets.

There. A confession. I'm catharticized now. And coming soon, I shall have a new magnet for my fridge...a Parisian magnet. Maybe a tea towel if les Galeries Lafayette has one...but I doubt it because it's the fucking les Galeries Lafayette! 

Yeah. Going to Paris all by myself, mais avec mon ami, Chloe. Je veux acheter beaucoup bon marche bouteilles de vin rouge dans un cafe pres de la Seine.

Here's hoping that Elisabeth Smith can help me with my pronounciation; it's colonial at best. I'm so glad I'm going with a native. I've been told that where I'm staying has a view of the Tower Eiffel. Is that important?


What is your go-to souvenir that you've maybe started/created a mini-collection? Pictures? Snow-globes or T-Shirts? Phone numbers?

Cheesy Spinach Treats

Do you remember the kid magazine, Highlights? Or the lite version, High Five? You'd see them in doctors' offices usually unless you had a subscription. And if you do remember them, you'll recall that there's a parent/child kitchen activity in every one (be sure to collect them all). Every so often, Kiddo receives one in the mail courtesy of a relative's continuous and annually renewing generosity. We used to read them with her, but she's gotten so stellar at reading on her own over the past year that I'd forgotten about the kitchen activities. That is...until the other day.

Non-interesting story less boring, and what's more, to the point: Kiddo and I made the Cheesy Spinach Treats tonight from the Highlights magazine. Why not? Kiddo will occasionally eat baby spinach leaves and sometimes cheese and eggs. I was thinking positively about the endeavor. Because, you know, get kids to cook with you in the kitchen  and they'll want to eat what they make, right? Sure. I had her read the recipe and tell me what to do too! She liked that a lot.

So here's what you need if you want to make Cheesy Spinach Treats:

Vegetable oil spray

4 cups baby spinach

Olive oil

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

Salt

Pepper 

Cheese

Here's how you do it:
Heat your oven to 350. None of that preheat shit. It's either heating or not heating, there is no other state of being for an oven. Tear 4 cups of baby spinach into small pieces.

or use a pizza cutter. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

 Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and saute the spinach for about 4 minutes (until wilted). Remove from heat and cool.

Whisk 2 eggs until the yolks and whites are mixed. Add 2 cups of sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Stir well.

Add the cooked spinach and 1 cup of your favorite grated cheese.

Looks like Charleston's Spinach Dip, yum!

Fill 12 muffin cups with the mixture. Top with grated cheese.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Wait 5 minutes before removing the spinach treat from the muffin tray. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Little quiches!

And the verdict?

Shitty. Absolutely shitty. Where the fuck does Highlights get off calling these pieces of snot, "treats"? Kiddo took one look at them and was all "nope nope nope nope nope". Mommy was not as clever. The smell and taste of these fuckers transported Mommy back to her 2nd grade elementary cafeteria in the OKC School District and remembering not being allowed to go out and play with all the other kids since she didn't eat her cooked spinach slop. Mommy still has evil thoughts about that mustachioed woman.

I just don't know what went wrong! There was a lot of steam that escaped when I opened the oven door and quite a bit of liquid at the bottom of each muffin tincup when I took out the shit. So, no...don't make these... unless you can make it better than this. Or unless you like that shitty flavor. Then, you should and you should also gloat to me about it. I hate you preemptively and curse your mustache.

New find!

For a first attempt at Fluttershy, it ain't half bad.

Was introduced by reddit, natch. This is a great website called http://sketch.odopod.com

You create drawings and can save them if you make an account. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Don't forget to visit my Illustrations and Doodles page for more, because you know, who doesn't like amateur art?

My favorite pictures from my trip back to the Lower 48

Back in England. No. No culture shock either way. It was good to go home and it is good to be back. Maybe more to follow up later.

The following you are about to see were taken by me with my Samsung SII Galaxy phone. Therefore, I ask that you criticize lightly. These are my favorites. It's weird what you gravitate towards.

First pony ride at the Columbus zoo

After swimming, obviously.

She got some good acoustics in my mom's courtyard.

I absolutely love this one. I have more like it.

Duck Fat Fries with Truffle Oil from Mutt's Hot Dog Stand in OKC. Best $5.75 someone's ever spent on me.

While waiting for a live band performance ( a family friend) I saw these two girls and thought they were beautiful. Totally not what you think OKC can have. If anyone knows these girls, tell them that they are beautiful and not in a creeper kind of way.

Decompression

So the oven got sorted. It didn't take very long either, a nice surprise. It was only a week and a half of no oven. Could've been worse.

Right now I'm back in Oklahoma and I'm having a ball! Soaking up sun and excessive heat, I am a traveling black hole of happiness.

It feels good being in 100+ degree heat. I know that sounds odd, but I was never unhappy when it was hot outside. Most of my miserable times that ever occurred happened when it was cold. That association is something I've only recently identified. Honestly,  no one in the correct state of mind would do this to their child, but... fuck it. I needed the heat. Especially since I had no oven for over a week; now I have it for three. Makes sense in my head.

Love you realhard. See you next month.

So this happened...

That's my oven's door, or what used to be my oven's inner glass panel. Isn't it nice that we're renting? No. It isn't. And you know why it isn't? Because the landlord/rental company behave like tossers. I'm estimating that this will not be fixed come September. Let's hazard, oh say, NEVER.

More hate and vitriol? I don't have the energy. If this were 1941, I'd not give a shit about the blitz, I'm that tired of this shit. And I'm really all about helping people if that tells you anything. /nosarcasmatall

If we owned this place, I'd have a new oven today. But no, apparently we must have a specialist come out and measure for a new glass panel.

I don't think so, Tim. I don't think that's how it's going to play out. I think the people in the office are going to sit around and do jack shit even if they get called daily by my irate ass.

Looking on the bright side, because that's my fatal character flaw, I've got a working microwave, toaster, stove, and slow cooker. But I'm still pissed.

Continuing with my fatal character flaw, a happier note: I saw Russian Hat Man! But instead of the Russian Hat, he was wearing a sky blue military beret...because summer.

Who are you?

I'd like to know who the Russian(s) is(are) who keep visiting this blog. I'm curious, because you know, I like to know everything.

Show yersel'! (obligatory Argus Filch clips: http://youtu.be/6k_B5gwAfds )

Coming soon to a theater near you...

Great stuff! It's got the girl from Modern Family!


 

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