Friday, April 25, 2008

When the Cat's Away....

....the mice are at play. At our house that translates to "When Daddy's away, the family eats like crap! And it's fun!" Troy has been in Portland for most of this week, and since Stomper and I were recovering from our...issues...we didn't put much energy into eating well rounded meals. On Wednesday Stomper was having a kind of rough day, not playing well with his friend in the morning, not wanting to go to school, stuff like that. So as I was driving him to school I was trying to have some close time with him, talking about how he was doing, how he wanted to spend the afternoon, etc. I asked him if there was something special he wanted for dinner. He said, "I just want some fried bread." Mmmmm. Fried Bread. So after school we whipped up a batch of pizza dough then headed to the playground with friends. When we returned, the dough was soft and billowy and ready for frying. Now, in Utah, you people call this little golden pillows of fried dough "scones." My husband and I can't seem to get past our disagreement - I grew up in Colorado where we called them by their correct name, sopapillas. Scones are baked, not fried, and they're crumbly and delicious and to be eaten with a cup of tea. He won't let go of this. And neither will I. Anyway. We fried up the dough and that's what we had for dinner.



Then yesterday. Do you ever have a sort of Three-Stooges day with your kids? One kid whacks the other, you holler, the other kid grabs the first one, you clonk their heads together, everyone shouts...you know what I'm talking about? Our whole afternoon was like that. All three of us were DONE with each other. We're ready for daddy to come home. We did have plans to get out of the house, but due to various fits of temper, sobbing and violence, all plans got canceled. Finally I realized that my children might be in need of nutrition, and the thought of making food, well, I just didn't want to do it. Nor did I want to drive anywhere. Chinese it is! For the record, Sampan makes some pretty good Chinese food. And it ended up being a fun meal. I rigged up some chopsticks for the kids - you put a spacer (like a wad of plastic wrap) between the two sticks at one end, and wrap it up with a rubber band so it's like a spring. The kids actually managed pretty well. Most importantly it took a really long time for them to eat their dinner. By the time that was over it was practically bedtime!



7 comments:

Kelly said...

Umm... you can't show pictures of fried bread like that and not leave a recipe for cooking feeble-minded people like me who can't figure it out. So post it - email it to me at kelly@thinktankcc.com or something!

When my husband is out of town, we do pizza EVERY NIGHT!

Misty said...

Rachel, my dear friend ... I need scones (sopapillas - whatever) pretty darn soon. You are coming over and we're having scones for dinner at my house. Fried bread, baby!

Michelle said...

Mmmm...Troy might have to drag Rob down to Moab so we can have this for dinner! Glad to see you're feeling better.

Jodi said...

You are such an amazing mom. I learn so much reading your blog and it reminds me that I miss Sampan! All this food is making me hungry.

Kathleen said...

I had one of those 3 Stooges kind of days today! argh! MMM, can you come whip up some sopapillas for me? They look delish!

Windybrook Spinner said...

I love the kid-friendly chop sticks. Wow. Very inventive. I also love calling them "Three Stooges Days." Great name. We haven't had those as often as we used to, but that's probably because my children are so enamored with tv now. Blah. It gives me lots of needed down time at least--the unfortunate secret of how I get so much knitting and spinning done. Amen to the scones thing. I was wondering how that worked. Real scones are so the lovely British baked kind. Sopapillas is kind of a long name, though, and I'm not even sure how to say it. I can't make them right anyway, so I won't bother. Deep frying is definitely not my forte.

Gina said...

I laugh everytime I read your blog! I loved this post, because I was hollering a big Amen sister! When Bryon is out of town it's all I can do to get myself to boil some water for Rowan's Mac n' Cheese when normally I am opposed to "just add water" foods. I guess it is good we have husbands to feed.