the crack

Kouing Amann. Ever heard of it? Tried it? If not, you should. It's seriously the best pastry EVER. People (some who read this blog) actually have sex dreams about it. Hence the surrogate title "crack" because (a) that's what it's like and (b) who can pronounce Kuoing Amann (queen ah-mahn, fyi, depending on what blog, wiki you look at). 

It's apparently the hot new thing in San Francisco, but here in Utah we've been addicted to the Crack for over five years. Since before Les Madeleines, our local "dealer," was on the Food Network. I was lucky enough to discover "crack" at Les Madeleines in Salt Lake City when their store was across the street from my little ad agency and my partner Barry and I would visit a few times a week for a sugar and caffeine fix. I'm still addicted, super proud Romina the chef is making a name for herself, and happy she's not across the street or I'd be a huge, huge individual.

Had one today. I make this noise when I eat "crack"...mmm, mmm, mmmmmm. It's kind of guttural and has a little passion to it, some decadence and indulgence, just like this dessert. It is ooey-gooey delicious-ness that is worth every single calorie (all 500 of them). And you will be addicted. Trust me.

happy birthday, nana

Nana with the grandkids and her fabulous birthday cake.

Leave it to my mom. She's 60-uh-something and for her birthday, no spa days or fancy dinners or expensive jewelry. Nope. Let's go camping! And, just because we're all busy, she'll even get all the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You gotta love her!

Marc and Papa working the grill

The guys barbecued some wonderful chicken, but seriously, how much do you think we eat?!

We got this Pili-Pili hot sauce at a full-on, hippie, green festival
they were having at the lake campground. This stuff is HOT.
Like burn-your-face-off hot. But delicious, and award winning.

Do not ask me about the bangs. It wasn't me.

My little princess. She digs in the dirt. Runs down the rocky dirt trails. Climbs up the slide and hangs with the boys at the playground. But she'll pick up a broom and start cleaning up the campsite, too. Because, you know, she can find all kinds of gross and dirty stuff to put in her pockets - or her mouth - by sweeping.

Tagg found this stick in the water and immediately dubbed it his "Jedi walking stick."
I didn't get it until he said it was like Yoda's. Duh.

You get a little spoiled by Lake Powell boating and camping. The beaches at Jordanelle - where the water is down a ton! - were insanely rocky and muddy and kind of gross. And the water was 10 or 15 degrees colder. Still super fun, but not...Powell. Needless to say, we did not spend a whole lot of time in the lake.

Besides cooking, cleaning, boating, playing, beaching and running around, we also managed to do a cool art project where we painted a bunch of sea shells, and some frames. We ran out of time to glue them to the frame but the shells alone were just cool. Note to self: the best paint for the sea shells is not washable. So when your kid wipes his hands on the baby's special blanket...not so good!

Me and my mom "camping" back in the day. No wonder I love getting all back to nature with my family.

I have to say that I love this trip with my family, and I'm so grateful to celebrate another birthday with my mom. We played cards, games we haven't played in years. Papa made Yoda and Dora shaped pancakes for the kids. We went to the beach, the playground, the hippie festival and introduced my parents to the Chow Truck, Best of all, we got to celebrate my amazing mother. The woman who made us crafty, taught us to love cooking, musicals, reading and basketball, and loves all of us - her grandkids most of all - with a heart so big and forgiving and patient and sweet and strong.

We love you and happy birthday, mom!

hypocrite

That’s me. I have been on this organic food kick since I watched Forks Over Knives. I try to buy organic, natural, healthy whenever possible. It’s expensive. It’s kind of a pain in the butt since the nearest Whole Foods is all the way across town. Sometimes it just doesn’t taste as good. But I’m doing my best because the thought of ingesting chemical-laden food just kind of grosses me out.

Here’s where the hypocrisy comes in…Diet Coke. Yes, the girl who is worried about hormone-infested chicken and ingredient lists that I can’t pronounce or spell is voluntarily drinking at least 12 ounces of …chemicals. Every day. Even after I read this article which says I’m basically drinking ammonia. They call it "caramel coloring" which sounds deee-lish but, really, it's AMMONIA. And yet I still cruise through the McDonald’s drive-through and grab a large Diet Coke (that’ll be one-oh-eight at the first window) nearly every day. Can I have a super-sized chemical, ammonia drink please? 

Yuk.  So I’m quitting…again. For the 50^th time. And wondering, what else do they put in there that is so damn addictivie?

mom's potato salad

My mom’s potato salad is legendary. I just whipped up a batch for our trip to the Lake. Can you tell this recipe has been used a few times? In case my little index card finally becomes illegible, and because it’s almost criminal not to share this recipe with the world, here’s the recipe. Best. Potato. Salad. Ever. 

Mom's Potato Salad

2 1/2 cups sliced, peeled, cooked potatoes (we usually double, triple or quadruple the potatoes and then adjust the rest of the recipe accordingly. I'm not good at doing math or fractions or I would have done that for you. Sorry.)

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp pickle juice 

1/2 cup chopped onion (cut them big if people want to pick them out, small if they don't want to know they're there or use the dried stuff in you don't have fresh...it all works but don't leave it out!)

1/2 cup sliced celery (diced if you have lazy veggie eaters like me who will pick out the big stuff but not the small stuff)

1/4 chopped dill pickles (I think the cheap kind are better than the fancy Valassic stuff but either will work. If you get the sandwich slices, they're easier to cut. Or use one of those choppers from Pampered Chef. Shut up...I'm lazy.)

1 1/2 tsp celery seed

3/4 cup mayonnaisse (doesn't seem to matter if you use low fat, olive oil based, whatever...but I think less is more with this recipe. And it's not just calories, it tastes better with a little less.)

4 hard boiled eggs, sliced (I usually do more because I like hard boiled eggs)

2 tbsp Natures Seasoning (best spice EVER. If you haven't tried it, you should. We use it by the case.)

Salt and pepper to taste (I usually find that it's best to let it set for 4 - 8 hours stir it again and then taste and adjust. The flavors really develop over time and if you try to re-season too early you can quickly end up overdoing something.)

how does your garden grow?

Tagg and I started a gardening project in the spring, nurturing little seeds into tender green sprouts. It’s a bit of an experiment, and I’ve learned that I was not born with a green thumb. Thanks to my iPad and Google, however, the kids and I have managed to create quite the organic garden. Our tomatoes and zucchini are out of control. 

Sloane likes to eat them straight off the vine and has been known to lick spilled tomato juice right off the table. No sign of pumpkins yet, but Tagg’s corn is 6’ high and actually seems to be growing real ears of corn, which is hilarious considering we just threw the seeds in the dirt and wrote those off. Now we have corn. 

We’ve even managed to grow potatoes. I really did have to look that one up on the internet. I had absolutely no idea how potatoes grew!

How does one potato become many,
and then become potato salad? Good question!
Check out Potato2008 (a real live web site) for the answers.

I got a text message from Tagg’s baby daddy, Paulie, not long after we started our little gardening project. It’s a picture of his hand holding some cayenne peppers, and a lovely garden. He had seen my post and decided that he and his girlfriend would plant a garden too so it was like we were doing it together. Every time I pluck a tomato off the vine I think of him doing the same thing a thousand miles away. Pretty cute.

Things I’ve learned about gardening.

• I like it. Nurturing little seeds into vibrant, robust plants and then harvesting your own fruits and vegetables is very satisfying.
• It’s hard to garden organically. Snails, grasshoppers, whatever is eating those little holes in my Swiss Chard, the fact that my tomatoes are significantly smaller and ripening later than my dad’s MiracleGro tomatoes…these things all tempt me to run to Home Depot and buy some chemical corrector. I continue to resist! Trying eggshells and beer to get rid of the snails, ladybugs for the aphids, and patience for the rest.

For Sloane, tomato = apple.

•  Kids really will eat fruits and vegetables if they grow them. Tagg, who’s been on a no-veggie kick lately, has eaten zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and yellow squash. I’m already planning next year’s garden with this in mind. And I have a hard time keeping Sloane from picking things right off the vines.

• I have to learn how to bake, and fast. One zucchini equals about 1-2 cups of shredded zucchini. And I have about twenty zucchini. So far. Yikes. I’ve already made chocolate-zucchini muffins, cheesy herb zucchini bread, regular zucchini bread, zucchini tomato salad, lemon zucchini sauté salad, and grilled zucchini. Rumor has it you can shred and freeze it. I need to look into that. And if anyone needs a zucchini or ten, let me know.



Big, sneaky zucchini bastards
with cute little maters.

• Zucchini are sneaky bastards. You're supposed to harvest them when they're smallish and normal sized. But they hide. If you miss that window, look out. One day, BAM!! There's an enormous, gigantor zucchini in the garden. And the big ones are only apparently only good for baking. And phallic jokes.