Rites of Passage

What’s that by the door? Why, It’s SPIFFY MAN!

Anyone who thinks that boys don’t care as much as girls about going to real social dances, where they can actually dance with people who are not their own sistren, is just silly. In our circles, teens don’t start going to social dances until 14, and since The Boy’s friend turned 14 back in early winter, The Boy has been hatching plots with said Friend regarding how to go about this new experience.

The Eldest put her oar in, much as my mom recalls me putting my oar in when my brother approached a similar milestone. In The Boy’s case, being pretty business-savvy, he played upon her sense of horror at the thought of him actually using “compliments” such as “The red in your dress really brings out your zits!”, and he ended up making $5 by “allowing” Eldest to give him a few tutoring sessions in Appropriate Approaches And Other Niceties That Won’t Get You Killed By Your Sister and All Her Friends.

Why, yes, I do find the politics of West East Australia a fascinating contrast in dominant paradigms… Also: Bow Ties are COOL!

Of course, we had another challenge: The Spiffy Outfit.

My Boy is a Spiffy Dresser whenever he can make an excuse to do so. 99% of the time, Spiffy = Kilted, and he does look dashing in his kilts! But, the local social dances have a “thing” about kilts (I know, it’s silly, but–there it is.) Being quite a lovely fellow, he simply decided to approach the style issue as he does all costuming issues: what Spiffy items might he wear that would both fit the requested dress code, and express his own Sense of Splendiferousness?

My Boy is also Exceedingly Frugal, and Fully Man-Sized. So he trotted off to our favorite local resale shop, and found spiffy clothing for not a lot of cash. And Spiffiness was Accomplished.

Snazzy? Oh, yes! How YOU doin’?

The Eldest celebrated her brother’s Spiffy Accomplishment by using her new posing skills (acquired after a documentary and training session with friends who recently moved back to the States from China.) (To the I-Girls, we could not enjoy this Personal Photographic Attitude Success without you all!)

Posing for Peace!

A pack of kids went to the dance. A pack of kids came safely home. Girls of the Non-Sistren-Type were danced with. Nerd jokes were shared with other Bow-Tie-Clad awesome kids.

Anyone who doesn’t get to associate with teenagers in their homes is really missing out. These are really neat people, and I’m glad I get to know them!

Jaunting About the Interwebs

Posting today over at my friend’s place, on raising a family with partners of different flavors of faith:

NotMolly Away!

Blogging over at Real Intent this week, on matters of education and faith!

Ultra-Podge: Dollhouse (Playset) Binder Supreme!

A while back, I pinned an idea on Pinterest of a nifty playset background for dolls built inside a 3-ring binder. Living with six people in a very compact mid-20th century cottage (under 800 square feet, seriously), my little girls need their playthings to be pretty compact, too. Playscapes that store as compactly as a binder on a shelf make a lot of sense. We binderized our DVDs and music CDs years ago, and the space savings is tremendous. Why shouldn’t doll play be similarly compact?

(You can tell that this is my project rather than the Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal fellow’s project, because when he starts crafting, this sort of thing happens. It is not compact. Ever.)

Back in 2003-2004, every available married sister and sister-in-law provided my mother with a grandchild, all in one nine-month time stretch. My Spicy child has a the Boy cousin (early summer), Curly-girl cousin (early fall), her own Spicy self (just a bit ago), a Cousin Mini-girl two weeks later, and another Cousin Sweetie-girl two weeks after that.

In the little cluster of girlies-all-together, I found inspiration to make up one of the playsets for Cousin Mini, who holds deep adoration for a particular style of fashion doll and all things creepy-cute. (Around our cottage, we really like Ruby Gloom, so similar styles could work for our little girlies, too.) This is the result:

A Creepy-but-Cute Playscape with Accessories!

Menu Plans, and How To Get There, and Some Easy Ones

How’s that for a long and convoluted title?

I’m not going to hold myself up as any sort of a one to emulate on meal planning. I’m trying hard to get back into; I once was truly awesome at it, when we lived 45 miles from town. Living in town for the last 13 years has been my kryptonite. But, I’m determined, and stubborn goes a long, long way.

A request from a long-time friend spurred this particular post about menu plans. Thanks, AB! It’s a good reminder to myself about The Stubborn, and I need those. And I’m gearing up to grocery shopping next week, so getting a jump on it is goooood.

There are so, so, so many resources on-line and in “analog” (real, physical books!) that it actually gets a little overwhelming. It’s said that Eleanor Roosevelt had two six-month meal plans (one for each half of the year) that she swapped in and out the entire time the Roosevelts were in the White House. The appetites of our household are a little too variant for that to feel comfortable, but the sensible nature of having some regular items that just rotate through really does work. If I plan 21 different dinners, I can rotate a basic stock of ideas every three to four weeks, and everyone stays happy. It allows me to anticipate some seasonal sales and harvest, and maximize our food budget.

I like to get a running start by making a blanket plan with some wiggle room. Freezable and pantry-stable items make it all go faster. I don’t have to shop very often. I like that.

Extreme Food Nifty: Pork and Veg Potstickers

I really, really like potstickers. They’re an ideal way to consume Thai sweet chili sauce. They’re bite-size packets of juicy, savory flavor. They’re quick for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What I don’t like are production potstickers. There’s something added to most commercial varieties that just sets my intestinal flora on edge, and edgy flora are not something I appreciate a great deal. And besides, production potstickers are really expensive. Cheaper than getting takeout potstickers, sure, but still more expensive than making them at home.

Here’s the run-down:

• 1 pound plain ground pork (about $2.50 to $3.00; this run, I got 1.3 pounds for $2.83)
• 2 cups fine-shredded cabbage (I found a small head. It was 54c, and I used half. So, 27c total. The other half is going into coleslaw tomorrow.)
• 1 nice carrot (at 48c a pound, bulk, this works out to about 10c of carrot)
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger (18c for a knob of ginger, of which I used half, so 9 whole pennies’ worth.  You could also use the grated ginger that’s already jarred in the Asian section, which runs a bit more.)
• 1-2 green onions (maybe 10c)
• 1 tsp fresh smashed garlic (ditto with the ginger)
• 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce (which is a kitchen staple at our house, so no new expense there.)
• 1-2 tablespoons sesame oil (ditto)
• 120 noodle wrappers (square or round) from the refrigerated Asian section in produce (about $2.30 per 60-ct package here.)

So, quick bit of math: you can  make about 120 (Ten Dozen) potstickers at home for $7 total. If you’re using a coupon and buying them frozen, you’ll spend $4 on 24 potstickers. If you’re buying them at a restaurant, you’ll be paying $4 or more for about 4-6 potstickers. Making them at home? Really good monetary return. Tasty, tasty frugality.

The goodies. That half-potato looking thing is a bit of a knob of ginger (about 1″), scraped with a spoon to peel.

Big Cook, Feb 2013

After months of tragic and semi-starvation, it’s time to get back on the bandwagon with my menu planning and firm, unswerving budgeting. We like to keep things frugal around here, but we also like to eat really good food. You’ve heard the adage about Quick, Good, or Cheap: Pick Two? Well, it holds true with food as well. We’re going for Cheap and Good, so Quick is likely headed out the window. But, Big Cooking can save me a lot of time, so we’ll maybe get Not-Horribly-Slow, Good, and Cheap out of the deal, and that’s none too shabby.

What follows is a very, very long and detailed description of a lot of food. If you’re not in the mood, click away to Pinterest now. Or go read news or something. This is all food.

In the first Big Shop of the month (right on the first of the month… the Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal Fellow and I called it a date, because we left all the Minions at home cleaning out the fridge and it was just him, me, the soft glow off the produce at the grocery store, and 900 billion other people who apparently had similar ideas), we spent $325; today I spent another $15 on a good sale at my second favorite grocery store. And here’s what we’re doing/have done with that fundage this month: