wildflowers and chocolate highs

I'm on a high...I got to see so many people that I love this weekend during my quick but much needed trip home. My great, great Aunt Stella came to town to visit my grandma while all the fellas went turkey hunting, so we ate lunch today before I left. My mom and I did a little shopping in Lake Charles while Mandi was in her ACT prep class (poor child), and I got to see all my brothers and sisters and my sweet niece.

Peyton has learned several new tricks since I saw her a month ago. She dances a lot now, and she crows when you have food or something she wants. Or maybe it's more of a hoot. Either way, she's entertaining. I took her for a walk this morning, and we watched the horses and picked wildflowers and japanese plums. She got so sticky from squeezing the plums that the wildflowers were stuck to her chubby little arms! I just love her to pieces :)

I'm also on a chocolate high at the moment. I love the chocolate high, it temporarily subdues minor annoyances like college basketball on my tv, unpacked suitcases, dirty dishes and thesis articles piled high on my coffee table. Bleh. Thank you chocolate high, I wish you could stick around longer.

My mom gave me an evil recipe while I was home. Evil as in delicious. It's a keeper. I made it tonight and split it with Alan - it's called Chocolate Mug Cake (because you make it in a coffee mug...genius).

So get your coffee mug out. Ready?

Add to the cup:
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Mix well. Then add:
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
Splash of vanilla extract

Mix again, then microwave for 2 - 2 and 1/2 minutes.

It's dangerously easy. I'm afraid I might be making it again soon.

Comfort Food

I bet a lot of you know a nutritionist who is annoyingly healthy (or claims to be) or rattles on about wheat germ and wheat bran and spinach. In fact, most of the people I went to school with in dietetics were like that.

Not this girl. My favorite professor taught me this: All foods fit. Meaning everything in moderation. And while I do try and lean on the healthier side most of the time, I definitely do not restrict any certain foods or ignore cravings. Who from Louisiana doesn't like to eat? If they don't, I'd like to see their birth certificate! We LOVE to eat down here! And I love it so much, I majored in it.

I like the concept of comfort food; food that reminds you of home, is nostalgic, makes you feel good, warms you. In one of my grad classes my teacher asked everyone to introduce themselves and name their comfort food. Some of the answers were homemade soup, chicken and dumplings, gumbo (me), chicken and rice...and macaroni and cheese!!

Who doesn't love mac & cheese?? I've been on a search for the perfect recipe, and I believe I've found it. It's a combination of a recipe from an old New Orleans cookbook my friend Kristin got me, a recipe from from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, and my own additions.

And I will share, because it's too yummy not to. Warning though: It ain't health food. But it IS so good.

The Perfect Macaroni & Cheese

- 3 and 1/2 to 4 cups elbow macaroni (cooked)
- 2 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons AP flour
- 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 8 oz velveeta, cubed (small)

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Add flour, mustard powder, garlic salt, and make a light roux.
3. Add cream and cheddar cheese, stir until melted.
4. Pour sauce over cooked pasta.
5. Add cubed velveeta and mix together.
6. Bake in a large casserole dish at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

This makes A LOT - it's enough to feed my family. FYI.

Tiny Mite

Most of you know that I am the oldest of five. Yesterday the baby turned 18.

18. Years. Old.

Her name is Mandi LeAnne, and we call her Tiny Mite. My dad named her that because she's been a little squirt since the day she got here! She's still part elf, I believe, she's barely 5'2 and weighs 100 pounds soakin' wet. We also called her Little Bit, and when she was a toddler and people would ask her name, she would say, "Little Bit Tiny Mite Mandi Harrington LeAnne" (just a little confused).

Mandi has brought sunshine into our family from day one! She's a clone of my mom, and was the happiest little kid in the world. She was always singing and smiling (we all used to listen outside the bathroom when she was taking a bath...she would sing the songs from Pocahontas). She is still a sweetheart. I'm not sure the child has a mean bone in her body. You know how most babies are terrified of Santa Clause? I know the rest of us were. Not baby Mandi! She wanted to pull his beard off and hug on him! She wasn't ever a shy baby, always walking up to people and reaching her arms out for hugs.

I think Mandi and I have a different bond, because I can remember feeding her baby food (bananas were her fave), rocking her to sleep, interpreting for her when she talked in her tiny minnie mouse voice to people, combing out her little cotton-blonde bed head when she woke up, and packing her around on my hip like I was her mama!

Now that she's older we have a much different relationship. Now I confide in her like I do my mom and Marli. We like to take shopping sprees...er...trips, eat Mexican food, talk about what all the other siblings are doing, watch tv on DVD marathons, forward each other dirty jokes on text messages, go to concerts, talk about weird medical stuff, play hooky from school/work...

Now she's about to graduate and head off to school (Nursing!), and we all couldn't be more proud of her. I know I am blessed to have two sisters, and blessed even more so that they are my best friends!

"Sisters -- they share the agony and the exhilaration. As youngsters they may share popsicles, chewing gum, hair dryers and bedrooms. When they grow up, they share confidences, careers and children, and some even chat for hours every day."
- Roxanne Brown

"If your sister is in a tearing hurry to go out and cannot catch your eye, she's wearing your best sweater."
- Pam Brown (haha)

"A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost."
- Marion C. Garretty

"Chance made us Sisters, hearts made us friends."
-Unknown

Spring Fever

Well. I know I said I wasn't ready to let go of winter yet, but something magical happened today: I smelled the grass being cut outside my office window, and I got all giddy thinking about flowers, green grass, planting tomatoes, going fishing (er...boat riding), baseball, snowcones, walking at the park...Yeah. I tend to daydream at work a lot. Especially since two whole walls of my office are windows.

Then I came home today to find these sweet things in my yard. I'm sure they were there yesterday, but the sun made an appearance today and showed me what I've been missing. I love dogwoods and azaleas...I'm hoping that the presence of these will destract passersby from looking into our heinous flower beds.







Oh...not sure if anybody is into planting stuff like I am (nerd), but last year I had really good luck with grape tomatoes, sweet peppers, chocolate mint, cilantro, and basil. I mean, I can kill anything...but these not only survived, they survived all (!) season (!) long (!). I just used big planter pots and partial sun. They even went without water for several days (like I said...bonafide plant killer here). Some of the mint ended up growing on the lawn, and my dogs found it. At least they smelled sweet.

Happy March

Things that made me happy this past week:

- Another blast of cold weather (I'm not ready to let go of winter yet)
- A couple of cold, rainy days that gave Alan and me excuses to stay in and be lazy
- French toast and coffee on Sunday afternoon
- My first weekend of NOT being on call for work (!!!)
- Cold oranges...yummy
- Cuttin' up with the cafeteria ladies at the hospital
- The new U2 cd
- Dean Martin Variety Hour
- Planning two baby showers (Tiffany and Kimbo)
- Planning two vacations (the usual summer trip to Destin and ITALY for next spring!)
- Finding out from Mom that Peyton is trained like the dogs to run to my dad when they hear him open a candy wrapper
- Tazo refresh tea...so good
- Going out Friday night with my favorite co-worker, Flora, and a few other cool hospital folks
- Getting a movie in the mail - The Trouble With Angels (Amazon, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...)
- A patient calling me at my office and asking me to join her for lunch
- Another patient (my favorite one, a retired truck driver) stopping by my office to bring me some muscadine and plum jelly that he and his wife made

=)

Mar

March 5th (I'm a little late) was my sister Marli's birthday! I'm into doing family shout-outs lately, and there's pretty much a birthday per week from the last week of Feb til the first week of April. So be prepared.

Marli is Peyton's mommy, Nathaniel's wife and change-stealer, Mandi's clothes-stealer, Mom's make-up stealer, (hmm...I'm seeing a trend...), and my sister and BFF!! If you know her, you love her...unless you hurt someone she cares about, then I would probably sleep with one eye open.

A few things you should know about Mar:

- She is a famous heartbreaker in our hometown.

- She has a lot of names: Marli, Mar, Mar-mar...Mandi called her Larli when she was a baby. So Nathaniel calls her Lar. And Marli (little Marli) used to introduce herself to people as "Mawty Henton" (Marli Harrington). Haha!! How sweet!!

- She had a cute speech problem when she was little, and I had to translate what she said to other people, even to my parents.

- I think the high school had my mom on speed dial because she was always in trouble! Haha

- She is not afraid of anybody and will say WHATever to whomever!

- One time a guy punched my brother (whose jaw was wired shut at the time), and Marli broke a bottle over his head!

- My brothers were always afraid to arm-wrestle her because they knew she would probably beat them...

- We shared a room for a long time. And when Mandi came along she shared it too. Until we made her a new, "better" room in the closet.

- She was a finalist in Miss Hawaiian Tropic!

- She loves to shop for shoes and purses, and she also likes to frequent Sam's! Hahaha

- Speaking of Sam's...Marli and Nathaniel's freezer is always full of food from Sam's! I think they have bought everything in the freezer section at least once.

- Speaking of Sam's again, when we were kids and went to Sam's with the parents, if Mar went missing, we always knew where she was. In line at the food tasting booths...HAHAHAHHAAAA

- Her little girl adores her!!! When Marli is in the room Peyton doesn't notice anyone else.

- She likes to watch scary movies and freak herself out.

- She can eat you under the table. You don't even want to know how much she eats, if you found out, you'd just hate her for being so skinny.

- She can make anybody laugh!!

- She is a true middle child, marches to her own drummer...I think there's more than a drummer in that head though...maybe an army of drummers.

- I'm pretty sure her favorite food is Sushi. She ate so much sushi while she was pregnant, we all thought Pey would come out Japanese!

- Don't let the sushi fool you, she will knock out some Taco Bell in a second.

- Marli has always cut and dyed her own hair. She is a natural auburn/brown color, but died it platinum blonde since like junior high. Right before her prom she accidentally dyed it easter egg pink/lavender, and to fix it, she dyed it black. I got a voicemail from her screeching that she looked like Kelly Osbourne. Turns out she looked fabulous...she went off and won prom queen!

- She might be a little crazy, but aren't we all?

- She is a good mom and a loyal sister. And she has a heart of gold!!

More than Boiled Shrimp

Like most people in the deep south, I'm a real fan of seafood. I like it nearly any way possible: fried shrimp, seafood gumbo(!), blue crabs, crawfish, softshell crab, shrimp poboys, even the occasional oyster on the half shell. Hungry yet? In any case, because I fear I'm bordering Bubba Gump territory, I'll tell you that my favorite is boiled shrimp. And with me, there's always a reason beyond the food itself. I have a pretty vivid memory (either that or a huge imagination). Probably both. Either way, I remember detail in plenty, down to smells, sights, feelings.

One memory I believe is responsible for my boiled shrimp preference is one that originated in Mobile, Alabama, somewhere off Government Street (don't remember which street). I spent many a summer visiting my dad's family there. They all lived relatively close to each other, so everyone would get together, and it would just be a loud, crazy, incredible time. My dad's uncle Sammy was the clown of the lot, always pantsing my brothers and pinching us and pulling quarters out of our ears. He was a barber and a scuba diver. He was good at ordering Chinese food, wore fishing shirts and topsiders without socks, had a conniving pirate's grin, and he loved us little ones.

He always tried to convince me and one of my siblings to stay the night with him and my Aunt Linda down the street and leave the grown-ups to boring stuff. Since all the little kids were afraid of him (most likely due to the ghost stories he told), Ben and I were usually the brave ones. This particular time he gave us two dollars each as incentive to come stay with him. I counted it a bargain, because we would have stowed away in his car anyhow. Never a dull moment with him; how can a 10 and 8year old turn that down?

So this time, Aunt Linda took us to their house, and Sammy picked up dinner: enough boiled shrimp for the whole neighborhood. We rolled out newspapers on the countertops and pushed up sleeves. They turned on the radio and set out paper bags for the shells. He made sure we knew how to peel them right. We had lemons and melted butter (although I don't remember using them). Our noses were running and fingers burning (which is appropriate, I think). My brother and I ate until we were sick and then there were still more. I remember laughing so hard my face hurt (not sure at what) and I think my brother fell off the bar stool at one point. We were covered in everything that comes with eating boiled shrimp, and we got hosed off outside like animals afterwards! Then we came in wrapped in big beach towels and ate huge bowls of vanilla ice cream (how?) while my aunt and uncle had coffee and a cigarette.

The next day Sammy took me to Bayou La Batre ("Bah'la Batry") where the shrimp boats go under a big bridge and get christened by a priest, and we ate biscuits with one of the boat owners (captains?).

He died on the day of my wedding rehearsal dinner, but nobody told me until after my wedding (maybe a good idea in retrospect). I was sad my pawpaw lost his brother and my daddy lost his uncle, but just as sad that I lost my great Uncle Sammy. BUT, lucky for me, I have days like the one in this post saved on some weird, colorful file in my brain, Also, lucky for me that my dad happens to make some killer boiled shrimp - that taste pretty close to the ones we ate that night!

Aunt Blanche's Pound Cake

I made this a while back and promised a recipe. It was Aunt Blanche's recipe, who wasn't really an aunt, but sure fit the bill for one. She was one of my mom's favorite people in the world. And as far as pound cake goes, this is the best in existence (bold, I know). I do have some people who can confirm that statement, though - several little old ladies from my hospital who tried it (and you know they are the true authority on this sort of thing).

It's sweet - but not too much so, and gets that sugary-buttery-brown color on the top when it's done. It makes me think of sweet antique aprons, magnolia trees, a little white house, a sleepy little town, and bird-bath fountains. Now it's possible this cake won't give you the same thoughts (as those all remind me of Aunt Blanche). But it might conjure up thoughts of bakeries, grandmas, and bold, dark coffee - which I recommend sipping while eating this cake!

Aunt Blanche’s Pound Cake

• 2 sticks margarine
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon soda
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup buttermilk

1. Cream margarine and sugar
2. Add vanilla and eggs, beat well
3. Add soda
4. Alternately add flour and buttermilk while mixing in between
5. Pour into greased Bundt pan
6. Bake at 300 for 1 hour
7. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes