Monthly Archives: November 2013

Bandwagons, National Blog Posting Month

A cinquain is a five-lined poem, and I wrote one.

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comics by Drew

I hadn’t heard of the cinquain before I decided to write some poems for NaBloPoMo. It’s a poetry form developed by a lady named Adelaide Crapsey — I know — who was a fan of Japanese poetry forms such as haiku. You can see that influence in the cinquain, which is a five-line poem consisting of 22 syllables (two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the fourth and two in the last line).

I like a good firmly structured poem, don’t you? And so here it is, my first-ever attempt at a cinquain. I hope Ms. Crapsey would enjoy it.

This Is

Football.
Saturday night.
He’s on the couch, and I’m
online; it’s the closest we’ve been
all week.

Bandwagons

Hello 35

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The kids and I got a nice early start yesterday, and we actually made good use of it by doing all of their schoolwork before co-op. Then I spent a few hours talking oven pancakes and My Little Pony with a shrewdness of homeschoolers, and after co-op Rockford met me at home to hang out with the kids for a bit while I went to DMV to renew my drivers license.

Poppy had “Nutcracker” rehearsal yesterday evening, so I got to open my presents — new shoes! unicorn socks! record-album coasters! — early. After Poppy’s rehearsal, we met some friends at Firehouse Subs so I could get my free birthday brisket sandwich.

I wrote a song about the brisket sandwich. It goes like this: “Brisket sandwich, you are the tastiest.” That’s all I’ve got so far.

And then we went back home, where my friend Carrie presented me with the Best Carrot Cake Ever, which she made with lots and lots of cream cheese frosting.

It really wasn’t nice of me to share this picture.

It was a tasty, tasty birthday.

Bandwagons, menu plan Monday, partner campaign, recipes

Two-thirds of last week’s eMeals recipes were great

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Disclaimer: eMeals.com has provided Nichole with a free subscription in exchange for a review. Nichole’s opinions remain her own, and she remains very opinionated about food.

Last week we tried a couple of eMeals recipes, and only one of them — a pasta with a pumpkin-sausage sauce — was a flop. To be fair, that’s not something I would normally even consider trying. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t fit our preferred flavor profile at all. It smelled amazing while it was cooking, though. I was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t as delicious as it smelled.

The Sweet and Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken, however, was a big hit. Poppy said it tasted like “something a cowboy would eat,” which must’ve been a compliment because she ate it without complaint. None of the rest of us had trouble with it, either.

Sweet and Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
Author: eMeals.com
Ingredients
  • 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 6 slices natural uncured bacon
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons honey
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder. Wrap 1 slice bacon around each piece of chicken; secure with wooden toothpicks.
  3. Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat; brown chicken, in batches, 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
  4. Arrange chicken in the skillet, and bake 15 minutes or until chicken is done and bacon is crisp.
  5. Drizzle with honey during last 5 minutes of baking.

We also tried the Chicken Tikka Masala — which Pete thought was called “Chicken Chicken Masala” — and it received high marks, too. I couldn’t find garam masala at the store, so I found an “easy garam masala” recipe and mixed up my own. Super simple, and it was way less expensive than buying it because I already had all of the spices involved.

This week we have a couple birthdays, so we’re once again not doing the full week of eMeals recipes. I’d hate to have a pumpkin pasta scenario on my birthday. So we’re going with things we already know on the birthdays and eMeals the rest of the week!

Monday: ???
Today’s my birthday, and I think we’re going out. I haven’t decided where I’d like to go. Possibly to Firehouse Subs, because I am hopelessly devoted to their brisket & cheddar sandwich.

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie
I love a good chicken pot pie, and I’m really hoping that the eMeals version is just that. There are biscuits involved instead of a crust, though, so we’ll see.

Wednesday: ???
A friend asked us last week if we wanted to go out for dinner this Wednesday, but I haven’t heard back from him to confirm. So we might be going out again. But maybe not.

Thursday: Cheeseburgers
Me: Hey Pete, what would you like for your birthday dinner?
Pete: Hmmm, I don’t know. Probably cheeseburgers.

And so cheeseburgers it is!