Today I’m a Dad?

I’m doing something a little different today. I’m appearing as a Guest Contributor at DadsRT. Dads Round Table is basically an online parenting magazine featuring a Dad’s perspective.

Why am I writing there? Because they’re doing a series on raising the Dads of tomorrow, from a Mom’s point of view. They know Jen and asked her to recommend Moms who are parenting boys and might be willing to offer their perspective. She was kind enough to think of me.

DadsRT allowed me access to their site, let me set up my own profile and gravatar, and submit the post myself.

The piece I wrote for them is called “It’s a Boy”, and I’m really proud of it. I hope you’ll click on this link and take the time to read it: It's a Boy: Raising Tomorrow's Dads. And if you like it, please leave me some comment love over there.

Thank you.

Winds of Change

Today’s post is a collaboration between my friend Sarah, who blogs at The Momisodes and I.

Sarah and I generally have very little in common. We’re living different lives, are at different stages in our lives in very different parts of the country. And yet, we have a lot in common right now.

The winds of change are blowing in both of our directions.

So Sarah and I are both writing about it, on our own blogs and in our own way. And we’re both offering recipes; me because I’m still here baking in my tornado, and Sarah because they’re an integral part of what’s changed for her.

Sarah’s made choices, but the changes coming to my life are more organic. The implications will not just affect me, but also my baking and my blogging.

My blog was born of my baking to relieve the stresses in my life, and to feed the hordes of teenagers who tend to hang around to see what’ll come out of the oven.

And although my first choice of name for this blog was taken and, unable to choose amongst my other choices I let my son do it, I love the one he chose. Because the whole imagery of a tornado is uncannily appropriate to what I’m doing here and why.

A tornado is a rapidly whirling cone of wind that extends down from a cloud to the surface of the earth. It can destroy everything in its path or it can jump, demolishing one house and leaving the next untouched.
*Sometimes, when living in a tornado, we need to find a way not to let it destroy everything in its path. I’ve found baking. Then I got lucky enough to find blogging.

A tornado builds. It starts with a thunderstorm.
*Everyone has thunderstorms of one sort or another in their lives.
But sometimes these storms become supercells, and that’s when you need to watch out. Because tornadoes are the most violent of storms.
*There’s a thunderstorm on my horizon. And I can feel it building.

Every tornado has its own shape and color. They start off almost colorless, until they collect debris, and then take on their ominous shade.
*We all have our own stressors. They collect debris and color our lives.

My older son leaves for college in 4 short months. Well, that is if he ever gets around to signing up for his dorm and orientation. But if he does those things and goes, there will probably be less contention for me to deal with.  But there will also be a level of loss. I fight with him non-stop. But thinking about it, I miss him already.

Half of the people I bake for won’t be around much. One of the reasons I write will not physically be in my everyday life.

Chocolate Mint Pie

You can hear a tornado coming. They roar.
*And there’s a roar filling my ears right now. Because the winds of change are coming. And I’m not sure how it will affect the baking. And I’m not sure how it will affect the blogging. I just don’t know what color this tornado will take on.

Be sure to check out Sarah’s Winds of change post at The Momisodes, along with her recipe for Turkey Meat Loaf. Yum.

Chocolate Mint Pie
                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP sugar
1 Chocolate Pie Crust (9 inch)
1 can Evaporated Mile
1 package instant Vanilla pudding mix (3.4 oz)
1/4 cup Creme de Menthe 

Directions:
*Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks hold. Sprinkle the 2 TBSP sugar over it and continue to beat until stiff peaks hold.
*Wisk the Evaporated Milk, pudding mix and Creme de Menthe until completely combined. Gently fold in about 3/4 of the whipped cream. Put the mixture into the pie crust.
*Pipe or spoon the remaining whipped cream onto the pie.
*Refrigerate until set before serving and store the leftovers in the refrigerator.

Enough is no longer Enough

I’ve gone through different stages in my life when it comes to cooking. When I lived in my very first apartment, it was just to eat. So I’d boil the hell out of vegetables, over cook noodles, it was a disaster. And I didn’t care. Places to go, things to do.

When I first got married, cooking became fun for me. I wasn’t working so I had more time to think about it, plan, shop, experiment. That was the time that I enjoyed cooking the most.

And one of the things that I loved about cooking (and baking) is that I had so many of my Mom’s recipes to start with. Most I made “as is”. But as I became more comfortable with ingredients and processes, I changed many too.

But now, thanks to the attempts to get more money from consumers while providing them with less product, many of my old recipes from my Mom need to be reworked. Because so many of those recipes called for a can of this or a package of that. But if a can used to be 16 ounces, and then 15 1/2 ounces and now is 15 ounces (next I’ll need a magnifying glass to see it), what does that do to the integrity of the recipe? I won’t be buying 2 cans just for another ounce, so you can cross that genius marketing tactic off of your list.

And that got me thinking about some other items I’ve seen on the shelves lately that are, in my opinion, a thinly veiled attempt at pick pocketing:

*Aerated chocolate: I thought this was a joke but it turns out it’s not. They’ve taken chocolate bars, replaced some of the chocolate with air and sell them at the same price as the original chocolate bars. This makes sense to who? Just for the record: aerating is for my lawn.

*Boxes of snack cakes where the cakes are wrapped in twos: So your kid opens the little cellophane packet and there’s two cakes in there. What to do? Either the kid’s gonna eat both or blood’s about to spill trying to get that second one out of their tightly clenched fist to wrap up for another time. Pass.

*10 calorie sodas: I drink a lot of soda and I don’t drink the full sugar ones. I have my favorite diet sodas and I stick to those. So now you want me to try, not your new product but yet another version of the exact same sodas, just with more calories added back in. Like that’s gonna happen.

*New family sized packets: I used to buy packets of, well, pretty much anything that looked interesting to make as a side dish and it would feed the family. Lately those packets have gotten smaller and smaller. Now the companies have “introduced” family sized packets. Basically they’re about the size that the now miniscule packets used to be, but guess what? They’re almost double the price. Umm . . . no.

*Shampoo: deceit at an even higher level. Have you looked inside your shampoo bottle lately? I made that mistake. I thought that just because the size of the bottle hadn’t changed that I was getting the same amount. Think again. The bottle’s the same size but it’s only 3/4 full.  Check the number of ounces listed on the bottom of the bottle, if you can read it.

Then there’s make-up, laundry detergent . . .

It all gives new meaning to that old potato chip commercial “bet you can’t eat just one”. Of course now we actually can eat just one. That's all they’re putting in the bag.

So that’s my rant about how far your money is no longer getting you. Back to reconfiguring all of my recipes, thank you very much.

Chicken Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce

This post was also published to Mamapedia as Pay More Not Less.

Chicken Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce
                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

 Printable Recipe
 

Ingredients:
2 TBSP oil
1 zucchini cut in half lengthwise, then sliced
1/2# mushrooms 
2 cloves garlic, minces
1/2 onion, chopped
garlic powder
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
salt
pepper
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/3 cup heavy cream
parsley
1# boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1# Mostacchioli, cooked al dente

Directions:
*Heat oil in pan at medium heat. When hot, add zucchini, mushroms, garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is soft. Remove to a plate.
*Add chicken to the pan. Sprinkle with garlic powder and saute until chicken is cooked through. Add the veggies back in.
*Add the canned tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and the Italian Seasoning. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 10 minutes.
*Turn down the heat to low and add the heavy cream. Once completely incorporated, add the mostacchioli. Stir until all ingredients are warm. Sprinkle with parsley.