Last week I said I’d tried to get my 3 Favorite chicken soup recipes posted in a day.  It’s been about five days and I’ve only managed to put two soups up in their entirety. Balinese Cram Cam has been delayed because I can get lazy, it requires a boatload of explanation …

No, better make it “Cookie of the Month”. Or Cookie of Whenever I Can Get Back Around to this Flimsy Notion.
 
And the inaugural cookie is…………Vienna Fingers!
 
Simple white cookies sandwiching a sweet white paste. I think I’d eaten them as a kid but the recall is fuzzy at best. It’s akin …

Gotta be the change in season – sleeping with windows open for the zippy autumn night chills; Jack back in preschool collecting germs to bring home them home like a disease vector; Elisa acquiring viruses from parent colleagues then kissing me goodnight with infected lips – which has given me …

Good skating class yesterday. Jack is getting more confident and he’s able to make little jumps, lift one blade off the ice while moving and he still shimmies backwards faster than the other kids. Now back to what a horrible little boy he is otherwise…

Just foolin’ – I wouldn’t want the discussion of discipline to suggest that it’s ever present in my head because our children are ferocious minions of Satan. It’s not that they’re bad kids in the least. Elisa and I have been pretty freaking lucky in the amount of compliments we get on the monkeys’ behavior in public. Until yesterday I could’ve claimed a perfect record for Elsie –then she had a toxic meltdown at the rink, over getting “blue” Doritos instead of “red”, and blew her streak to smithereens. Still, they’re good kids overall. But they are children and even the best ones have to mess up now and then. If a kid is not trying to give their parents headaches on a regular basis then he/she probably needs to get tested for autism.

From a “self-control” perspective I’ve been doing pretty damn well when it comes to disciplining the kids. Largely going with the game plan preferred by my wife I’ve intervened when the apes go nuts – sending them to their rooms, taking away toys of contention, denying activities or treats they’d been hoping for – and done it calmly. For the last half of this summer I’d been setting corrective courses without yelling or showing my inner wrath, simply ignoring their fits of crying protest until they subsided. Even though the tears and screaming seemed to go on forever I refused to get reactive. I could pat myself on the back for that.

But nothing in their behavior appeared to improve with this new course of action. Occasionally I had to remind them that I was asking them “nicely” to stop something and they’d ignore the request anyway. When I dealt with their transgressions in a cool, level-headed manner they’d still flip out when exiled to their rooms or to corner chairs removed from any fun stuff going on. And with the simple, lone stipulation that just chilling the fuck out would get them out of trouble either one of them could extend the tantrum from ten very long minutes up to half a freaking hour.

All this was exactly the same as when I tended to get testy with them – barking out my disapproval, bellowing out the terms of retribution and volcanically spewing out gibberish like a Viking berserker when they continued to scream and knock stuff over in their rooms. I had a brief return to that form yesterday morning.

 
They’re slow death from a happy tummy. A disease waiting for me to catch it, the bane of what little effort I put into the gym and the harbinger of ditching my regular clothes for muumuu’s and hospital johnnies.
 
They are mini corndogs.
 
Some cruel bastard came up with these intoxicating turdlets of deliciousness. I …

Between airport layovers and gas stops off I-80 I’ve spent about 5 collective hours in Chicago. I’ve seen the Lake Michigan, stood on the steps of the Field Museum and smoked outside O’Hare in a snow storm. But I never tasted an actual Chicago style hot dog.  I’ve seen the …

1 lb serrano or jalapeño chile peppers
1/3 cup olive oil
2 medium white or yellow onions,  sliced
1 head garlic, peeled
3 cups white vinegar
2 Tbsp Kosher salt or sea salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 sprigs of fresh marjoram or 1/4 teaspoon dried
4 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 Tsp …

Family Values and Christianity are front & center again in the presidential race. But I’ve been wondering how many folks really remember the story and message of Jesus Christ.  So here’s some help!
                                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hEwxglKD8
 

Oh fuckin’ lordy! I know I keep vowing to swerve this barge away from the polluted shoals of politics. I say it but I lie it, compulsively dragging a foot in the muck to see if submerged rocks tear my foot open. So let’s just say I keep my thoughts …