TWOsday – September 20th, 2011
20th September 2011 | dinner, everyday life, TWOsday | 0 comments
Simple. Two things I love.
#1. CRIMINAL MINDS.
I absolutely CANNOT WAIT for the new season of Criminal Minds to start. They are my faves.
#2. ENCHANTED.
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ~G.K. Chesterton.
I cannot imagine anybody NOT loving this movie. Let’s discuss the best part of the movie, the part where they are dancing and Jon McLaughlin is singing. and then McDreamy {he gets to keep that title because he is the absolute perfect Prince Charming, am I right???} starts singing quietly while he is dancing, and butterflies fly all around your insides because earlier he said he doesn’t sing or dance. Oh man. And her clothes! and her hair! All I want is hair like Giselle’s. and dresses like hers too, while we’re at it. I wish I was a real-life Disney Princess.
So hey in addition to Tuesdays being TWOsdays, it’s also the day I’ve agreed to make dinner for my family. and I know you want to know what I made.
I’ve tried finding cookbooks, but I can’t find any with enough pictures. and I wish that was a joke, but it’s not. So I’m reduced to blog recipes. Which is alright with me. Tonight I made crispy chicken with creamy italian sauce and bowtie pasta. Say that 5 times fast. The recipe is from Jamie Cooks It Up.
In case you were wondering, I’m not necessarily the best cook in the world but i’m trying. I’d probably be better if I had an apron.
For some reason making dinner tonight seemed to take forever. From start to finish it was an hour and a half. I think I’m just slow.
I admire people who can take step-by-step pictures of cooking in a strategic way. They somehow make cooking look really awesome and magical. My pictures just look like I am about to make recipe flashcards. Oh well.
So in addition to the chicken and the pasta, we had asparagus just like the last time I made dinner.. and just like that picture. We would have had it regardless of the picture, because I love asparagus like you would never believe.
The end result:
and what’s dinner without dessert? Luckily I had a recipe for frozen bananas hanging around on pinterest, so I went ahead and made those.
Remember how I said that I wish I was a real-life Disney Princess?
Here’s one {there’s plenty of them!} reason why I am nothing like a real-life Disney Princess.
My mom needed to get gas and asked me to go with her. So I grabbed some flip flops and went to the gas station wearing this.
…I know, right? I am pretty classy. I wish I could say that I just sat in the car, but I actually went in the gas station and got hot chocolate.. because did you know that gas station hot chocolate is pretty delicious?
Sorry about the mess of my bathroom. It was on my list of things to do today, but instead I spent about 3 hours playing the piano. Priorities, I guess. Also, tomorrow I am starting a challenge. You know, another one of those blog prompting challenges that I like starting but never finish? One of those. 
ps this is going on my Christmas list… if I can hold out that long:
Family style.
11th September 2011 | dinner, everyday life | 0 comments
Today I made dinner for my family. Of course I found the recipe on pinterest, where else? Chicken Satay, but skewerless because we already went to the store about 4 times before realizing we didn’t have any, and asparagus.
Steps 1-4. Mix a strange series of ingredients together. Soy sauce and peanut butter? Brown sugar and rice vinegar? Stare at bowl. Stir ingredients. Marinate.
Which turns into:
Dinner.
We’ve all got the lives we’ve lived up to today, and they’re all different. We’ve all been a part of some things and missed out on others. I never learned how to ride a bike or do a somersault.
So many of the things I missed out on are mostly because of my only-childness. Like family meals. I love being around families who sit and have meals together. It’s one of the things I love the most about the Birksfam. Eating dinner together. We never did that in my house.
I was at daycare into the evening and often was picked up from daycare to be taken straight to dance or piano lessons. McDonalds it was.
We inherit a lot from our families, but not just in things we acquire from them. We inherit a lot in what we desire because of them. So I have a small list.
- I want to really know my children, beyond the convenience of family relations. Even if they grow up to hate me, I want to know their quirks and their tastes in things. I want to listen and understand them.
- I want to have an open house, where friends and family and visitors and friends of friends can come and stay, even if it’s just on a couch. Maryann Covert is my hero of hospitality.
- I want traditions, traditions beyond me putting olives on my fingers every Thanksgiving regardless of age. Traditions that are unique and meaningful and can’t even be exampled now because they have to organically develop.
- and I want to have family meals. Jesus often ate with people, and I want a family that can gather together and eat and laugh and share, just like in commercials and in tv shows. I guess no matter how old I get, I’ll never really let go of my mental image of what a surviving family looks like.
So that’s that.
The other day I got to have dinner with one of my fave families of all time: the Markhams. I would take an evening with these boys over most anything else you could offer me.
