edit: I forgot that the drinking age was 21… not 13.

Thanks Beth… thanks for that friendly, but tragic reminder.

“My daddy pulled it out of my face!”

Don’t get me wrong, I am so lucky to be able to hang with my babygirl. She is so freaky cool - she has a llama named Schnitzel and speaks her own language. We we play games, she always gets to be the princess and I get to be the evil queen with nasty intent (woohoo!!). I get to do all kinds of fun things I never got to do as a kid - Shrinky Dinks, Sea Monkeys, and MouseTrap. Wow. We colored, played video games, watched all kinds of movies and cartoons, jumped rope, and on and on and on.

I think she was starting to get fed up with me. She shouted “HOORAY” Friday night when I reminded her she was back to school in a few days. Hooray indeed.

Enough with the bitching, here’s a cookie recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1 butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325°F. Throw it all into your mixer EXCEPT the powdered sugar. Beat at low speed, scrape that bowl, mixity-mix.

Here’s the key to these - they have to be bite-sized. NO BIGGER THAN 2 SMALL BITES! Why? Because these are so f’n light and crispy, they crumble under the slightest pressure. So - get an appropriate sized amount of dough and roll into a ball. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm. THEN LET THEM COOL COMPLETELY!!! and roll them again in more powdered sugar.

Each batch makes 60ish cookies. I had to make 5 batches of these for Christmas this year. They go that fast. Quick make them now!

This week is the last I have before Cat gets out for Christmas vacation.

The plan? Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Or should I put down another $20?

Tonight I visited Skateland for the first time in 26 years. It hadn’t changed a bit… I remembered the all girl skate, the backward skate, the lights-off skate, the hook-your-pinkie-finger-into-the-back-loop-of-your-junior-high-school-boyfriend’s-jeans skate and, of course, the hokey pokey.

Magic happened as Joan Jett started to sing about her love for rock and roll… 9 disco balls were hit with lights and the fog machines started to fog… 1982. Kinda like Xanadu, but without Gene Kelly.

I guess the walk away on this post - I still heart Xanadu and Roller Disco.

Cat: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could eat our dinner and have someone rub our feet at the same time?

Me: Like table midgets?

Cat: Exactly. All the best restaurants would have them, then we could eat our enchiladas and have foot rubs!!

Love her.

So this week I made stuffed peppers!! Not like those icky green pepper ones… yummy sweet red ones!! But I made it as healthy as I could. I figured if it totally sucked, we could go get enchiladas at Mission Burrito.

This makes 4 servings - each one 293 calories. So if you’re super hungry, no harm no foul in having 2 for dinner.

You need:
2 nice red bell peppers - get the ones that have four sections instead of three. You know what I mean… look at the bottom of the pepper. Do you see three or four bumps? Four? Good. Get two.
1 lb ground turkey.
1 bag of steamed brown rice.
1 small can Hunt’s tomato sauce with garlic/oregano (whatevs).
Some shredded Mozzarella cheese.

Slice the peppers from top to bottom. You want little boats that are stable when you put them on their side. Clean them and put the 4 halves to the side.
Brown the turkey. Steam the rice and mix the turkey/rice and tomato sauce together. Add anything like spices or whatever you want at this point. Spoon into the pepper halves. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Done. Easy. Tasty. Filling. And Healthy.

Yay!

He’s such a loving guy. He’s imprinted on all of us in unique ways. Catherine rescued him from the pound, carried him around as a fluff-ball. He put up with so much. And Cat can dish out a lot. Glenn is his buddy. Total buddy.

On the other hand, we have an odd relationship. Somehow I think he thinks I’m his mother. He’s taken to sleeping on my pillow right above my head. Or draped on my hip/back/face. The minute I flop down somewhere, he’s there within seconds to flop down on top of me. But the funniest thing he does is climb onto my shoulder and start to groom/lick my hair. I have to stop him because, frankly… that’s totally disgusting. And the noise it makes is worse than fingernails on chalkboard. Sometimes he gets carried away and starts to bite my scalp. Freaky. I’m like a cat-lady pirate.