Parmigiana di Melanzane Arrosto Pizze... oh così bene! Or so I heard...

(Roasted Eggplant Parmesan Pizza... oh so good!)

A woman on the run... wait, no. Back that up. A woman on the GO! Yes, that's much better. Wouldn't want any of you to think The Homemaker was going to show up some time on America's Most Wanted! So, yes, back to being on the run, GO.

The Girl is doing Color Guard (and pretty fab at it, if I do say so my Homemaker self!) and is there from 830a-430p. While she was off twirling flags and dancing her heart out, I doowopped over to YFC for my daily delight. I heart that place. Yes, that WAS my FB status yesterday! After working in an unusually extremely quiet office (now THAT part I didn't much like - I'm more of a hub-bub kinda girl) I headed back to the school to pick up The Girl so I could race home, prep dinner, explain step-by-step instructions to The Girl so she can go out into the world and be able to feed herself something more than drive thru...

ALERT: insert complete bunny trail here...

(When did THAT happen, by the by? Drive "thru"... Was "through" stripped of its prepositional title? Of course I had to go in search, but bottom line, "thru" won out by a sign... A dollar sign... Less letters to print on the other kind of sign. But I also found this from Grammar Girl's website which I thought was hysterical enough to merit a SOL: snort out loud:
"Wow. So in some informal instances it appears that it is OK to use thru; but I think I'd be remiss if I actually told you to go ahead and use it. My impression is that using the spelling t-h-r-u is kind of equivalent to dotting your i's with little hearts: people will know what you mean, but they'll think you aren't a very serious person. I would definitely stick with the more formal and widely accepted spelling: t-h-r-o-u-g-h." from Grammar Girl's website.")

Back on track, what was I saying? Oh, right, pizza. I decided to create a new recipe: Roasted Eggplant Parmesan Pizza! I took the Ichiban eggplants from our garden, peeled MOST of the skin away and left pretty little purple stripes, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices, tossed with sea salt and EVOO:

 

I laid them out on a Pampered Chef baking stone and roasted them for about 15 minutes, turning over once, at 450* and this is what the little dandies looked like:

 

As The Girl sat patiently and watched me lay out the rest of the ingredients:

I had her write down these instructions: 1) schmeer the zhuzhed pizza sauce (add a small can of tomato paste to the packet of pizza sauce that comes with the Boboli) over the thawed Boboli pizza crust, 2) spread some shredded mozz over the sauce, 3) lay out the roasted eggplant, 4) sprinkle the chopped up fresh basil and oregano from the kitchen garden over the eggplant, 5) top with fresh parmesan, 6) bake for 8-10 minutes... So THIS is the pic The Girl took of the masterpiece!

I mean, com'on!  That is ONE SEXY PIZZA, RIIIGGGHHT?  (and you all know The Homemaker doesn't throw around the sexy card lightly!)

So there I was at 8:03pm, listening to others speak, watching Cap'n Jack wilting with hunger and both of us are thinking of that scrumptious new recipe just waiting for us at home! We get home and the pizza stone is EMPTY.

I asked The Girl, "there ARE leftovers, right?"  "Oh yeah, in the fridge!"  I was so relieved!  Until... I see... TWO measly little pieces of pizza... sitting there... by themselves... not even leftover roasted eggplant leftovers to nibble... Of course I gifted Cap'n Jack with both pieces... Hello!  He is a grown man!  TWO little pieces?  

I had grapes.  (Right now I hear in my own personal internal movieland-world-of-a-brain the line from Dirty Dancing, "I carried a watermelon." But instead, see Baby in your mind's eye, looking awkward and irritated saying, "I had grapes?")

The Girl and MamaMia were in SO. MUCH. TROUBLE.
REALLY?! (that's another blog, but so flipping appropriate here.)  Anyhoo, I know I told some of you out there in RealLifeLand that I would purge the emotion and not bring it up again.  I fully intended to stick to that, until I came across these beautiful pics of that artwork called my new recipe.  Hopefully I will be able to duplicate it this coming weekend... AND EAT THE WHOLE THING MYSELF!

The HomeMuchier

The Homemaker has deemed today "Much More Muchier Me Day"! I WENT BACK TO PLATINUM SPIKEY BLONDE! Well, since you all haven't necessarily SEEN my mugshot, you will have to trust that the last year has been sort of a Disney-soccer-mom-helmet-head kind of year... But today I am a Muchier Me!

The fun part was greeting Que Sera Sera at the front door with the new 'do! And did we have some fun today! I am almost done scrapping my wedding photos from SIXTEEN YEARS AGO (this coming December) and having a blast reminiscing. These are the two 2 page layouts I completed...

All day we nibbled on the num-nums QSS so kindly brought along to share and I kept well-hydrated with my new fav: cucumber water! What? You want the recipe? Well, okay, it's a doozy... 1 glass, fill with ice, slice cucumber, place 4-5 slices on top of ice in glass, add water! TA-DA! It is so stinkin' awesome!

Anyhoo, just wanted to pop in and say Hey! Have a fab Saturday Night!
~Much More Muchier Me, The HomeMuchier

LIST? I don't need no stinkin' list!

Well, my pre-chemo brain didn't need no stinkin' list, but post-menopause brain is relieved when I have one!

Tonight we have two new friends coming over for dinner! I love it when company comes to town! So I dragged The Girl to work today do we could shop for a special wedding this weekend... Oh how I love going to weddings! And so rather than drive all the way home, she was the lucky winner of "A Day At Work With Mom!" (and the crowd goes wild!) The Girl? Mmmm, not so much. Nonetheless, off we went to YFC, then to lunch at LaBoulangerie in Fig Garden Village, a bit of wedding and early Christmas shopping (shhh, Cap'n Jack already has gifts under the tree!) and then, joy-of-all-joys, WINCO! You'd think I was making The Girl run lapse in the sweltering sun while wearing a thermal snowsuit complete with mittens, dragging a fully smoldering BBQ pit behind and jumping through a hoop on fire. I so could have made the trip miserable for her... I could have gone aisle by aisle, reviewing each familiar catagory of food to verify, "Let's see, do we need a bottle of sparkling apple cider this week? Do We have a back-up jar of mayo already in the pantry?" But no...

The Homemaker came prepared, LIST IN HAND! The Girl should thank her lucky stars we didn't rely on
the failing memory banks! We were in, through and outta that grocery store quicker than you can
say "paper or plastic?"!


(And I only had to send her back to the first aisle once for an item I forgot even though it was on that blasted list!)

Suitcases Schmootfaces! I want a TOWER!

Good morning alarm. Good morning light. Good morning pillow. Good morning bright. Good morning yawn. Good morning sweet. Good morning room. Good morning feet.

This is what I realized I wake to every day... And yes indeedy I do consider myself blessed...

I think I may have already shared the story of that framed photo, but I'll share again in case one of my 12 friends that follow the blog are out of the loop... That is a photo Cap'n Jack took of The Homemaker teaching our Girl the fine art of chasing seagulls.  It was a glorious New Years Eve Day in 2003.  God blessed me with that moment and Cap'n Jack blessed me with the memory.

A day before I took this pic, the decor was a bit different.  I had a suitcase propping up the pic rather than the breakfast in bed table.  Which got me to thinking.  So I went through the house yesterday and realized something...

Hi, I'm The Homemaker and I have a suitcase fetish.

I had also broken a major decor rule that I have tried years to abide by and it just flat snuck up on me... I had suitcases strewn throughout the entire Homestead!  WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?  I was thinking THESE ARE STINKIN' CUTE!  That's what I was thinking!  But alas, once one discovers one's own weakness, it is one's own responsibility to fix it.  Suitcases Schmootfaces!  I WANT A TOWER!

Yes, that is the crown molding you see at the top of the photo.  Yes, that does mean I have a tower.

A TOWER O' SUITCASES!

Ahhh, my day is complete.  ;)

And The Homemaker says... PEACE OUT!

Welcome to the Disneyland birthday party weekend!

Let the celebrating commence!

What an amazing place, Residence Inn Marriott Maingate! Our room is nearby the front so we were able to see Disney's Nighttime Fireworks Spectacular... Perfectly timed at our arrival...
Mickey 8:•) had it all planned!

What better way to start a vacation than with S'MORES?!

(HIDDEN MICKEY ALERT!)

So we are settled in, the girls are already asleep & now The Homemaker is going to do some home-away-from-home tidying up... Heavenly Father, thank You for this time with The Girl, her ZBFF and Cap'n Jack, MY Cap'n Jack, not Mr. Disney's version. And all God's mouseketeers and The Homemaker say Amen.

GadZukesLasagna - NOT!

A shining example of why one should not panic that there isn't enough squash!


MamaMia grabbed the zukes we harvested the other day and she promptly steamed the daylights outta those little buggers (her fav way to eat them). Oooh I was hoppin' mad because I had my own plans... GadZukesLasagna! Layer marinara, pasta, ricotta, zukes, repeat. Well, in light of said prior usage, I figured "just elbow marinara, thanks".

Cap'n Jack went out to water and came back in with another round o' harvest dontchaknow!  Rather than let those, too, suffer a sauna death at the hands of MamaMia, I snatched them up & rightly stuffed 'em with a mix of Italian panko breadcrumbs and some Apocalyptic Parmesan "cheese"!

Okay, okay, barely one step up from the sauna-steam-beyond-recognition method simply by crossing over into Preserv-O-Matic cheese products, but hey, at least we can eat them with a fork and not a straw!

Heavenly Father, thank You for providing this day, the bounty of our kitchen garden... and Apocalyptic Cheese.

Humbly, The Homemaker and all God's children say, Amen.

boun·ty [boun-tee] –noun

1.a premium or reward

2.a generous gift.

3.generosity in giving.

I say, D) all of the above!  Oh my word had I known what a joy this little garden endeavor, no wait... adventure!  Garden ADVENTURE!  If I had know what a joy it was going to be, I so would have put my sweet Cap'n Jack to work much sooner!  Tomorrow night we shall have squash pasta bake!  It's a bit of a spin on lasagna, so I'm certain with all those yummy pasta carbs on board it is sure to be a hit.  ;)  Okay, have I rambled long enough to keep you in suspense, waiting for a glimpse of the first of our harvesting efforts?  

TA-DA! 

I mean, really!  How stinkin' cute is that little basket o' bounty I ax ya?!?!  ;)  Heavenly Father, I thank You sincerely for the wonderful gift of these little miracles.  I planted seeds and little sprouts and the next thing I know, You have given me vegetables.  You are amazing.  I love You.  Amen.