Fall, Food, and Pumpkin Tea

James just surprised me with a bag of Candy Corn Popcorn from Trader Joe's ("look, it's two of your favorite things!") and I now wish very much I did not know how delicious it is. Because it is delicious. I need to make the kids eat it all as an after school snack so I can save myself. I am trying to embrace the fact that I really have gone up a size since 1-2 years ago. I mean my old stuff fits (with the exception of the very unforgiving pants in the unforgiving beautiful old interview suit), but it's not as comfortable and doesn't look as good. I could stop eating everything delicious and drinking wine at night, but in my current mental state I just don't want to do that. America is ruled by a racist misogynist and my god I need my candy corn popcorn and glass of red wine. But it's a mental adjustment and I alternate between struggle and acceptance. I went to Old Navy today at lunch to buy a few new fall things and I will say, man does it feel good to put on jeans that don't rearrange my innards like an Old South corset. I now own these skinnies in the burnt gold, dark green, and pink colors. And some soft shirts and a burgundy vest to layer with them. It's a "chilly" 68 outside, we closed up the pool this morning, and I'm here for it: a new season, sub-90 temperatures, new clothes, fall colors, and my candy corn popcorn.

Until next year!

Oh and this tea.

I'm on my 3rd tin (each tin comes with 20 bags). It's perfect. It's not actually pumpkin-y, just the right amount of spicey and I love it with my whole tea-drinking-heart. I think I drink 5 cups a day. There's no caffeine so I'm pretty sure I can just pretend it's water and I do.

I drove Cora to school earlier this week and we had the following discussion:

Cora: Mommy, who will be my dad when I am big?
Me: Um, daddy. The dad you have now.
Cora: No, when I'm a MOM, who will be the dad with me?
Me: Oh! the person you decide to marry and have kids with.
Cora: but WHO?
Me: Well you'll have to meet them and decide later.
Cora: How about I just marry Papa?
Me: He's already married to Gigi.
Cora: [throws arms up in frustration because apparently all the good men are taken]

Upon arrival at school:
Cora: Mom, can you carry my lunchbox because I do not have 3 hands.
Me: Sure!
Cora: Why DON'T we have 3 hands? Why do we just have 2? Three could carry SO MANY more things Mom.

Truth.

Also, my action got approved by the Commission which was very exciting. You investigate cases for a long time; it's a big day when you reach the publicly disclosed finish line.

The day before the big meeting where I would make my recommendation we have a call with the two Directors of Enforcement and the case teams and management for every case that will be on the Calendar that week. I was item #13 on Wednesday's call and all of my management was traveling out of the office, so it was just me in my office on the call. I dutifully put it on mute and waited until my big moment. The discussion for case #12 wrapped up and I went to unmute and instead HUNG UP THE SPEAKERPHONE. A dial-tone greeted me just as I opened my mouth to introduce myself and a cuss word flew out instead. I frantically redialed the conference line and passcode, waited for case #14 to finish up and then interrupted my boss's boss's boss's boss to announce my moment of fail and endear/embarass myself to those listening. My part went well and at least I made people laugh. Oy.

That night I had another humorous conversation with Cora. She's very wise.

Cora, from the bathroom across the house: MOMMMMM! Can you come fix something?
Me, upon arrival: What’s wrong?
Cora: My tummy hurts, can you put cream on it?
Me (despite conditioning them that Aquaphor can fix anything): I don’t really think that will help.
Cora, resigned: Well I need a bandaid then.
Me: I don’t think that will work either.
Cora, knowingly: Because it will take too many to cover it all?

We've been trying to fit in some games between dinner and bed and belatedly introduced her to Memory. Claire has been killing it at memory since the age of 3 and she remains a worthy competitor. Cora caught on pretty quick and I see a lot of Memory games in our future (I must say, it really does help your memory; I get SO MUCH better at it in weeks when Claire requests it on a daily basis).

Landon has also been in around and in the mix, but the only evidence I have on my phone is a picture of this picture he got at school that used to hang in the hall for him being Wrangler of the Year last year. My little baby Landon.

Moving on to food! I have WEEKS of recipes for you. Three, to be exact, with lots of links and even more words. It's been a tasty few weeks, even without the candy-corn flavored popcorn.

Last Week
Sunday: My Mom's Chili served over Stove-Top Mac & Cheese with veggies. This is the greatest of fall food combinations.

Monday: Meatloaf (This remains one of my kids favorite meals; I mixed 1 lb. of organic ground beef with 1 lb. organic ground turkey and it was finally enough for our crew; I use the linked recipe for the seasoning mix and generally follow the directions, though I mix the remaining ketchup with equal part yellow mustard for the glaze on top and it is SO GOOD), mashed potatoes, roasted rainbow carrots (Cora will only eat the purple ones).

Tuesday: Honey-Chipotle BBQ Pulled Pork. This was AMAZING. I just did the rub on the pork tenderloins (I used 2) and cooked it as directed. It shredded so easily and was so delicious I didn't want to add a sauce. We ate it with Parmesan orzo and mixed frozen veggies (that I dumped in the cooked orzo with some butter and parm).

Wednesday: Ramen Stir Fry. I made this up and it was delish and super fast. I cooked ground turkey with onion and garlic, then added shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, and cauliflower rice (all pre-shredded/riced in bags from TJ's), cooked them for a few minutes with a mix of soy sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, and sesame oil (I just dumped some together in a measuring cup, tasted it, and poured it in). I cooked 3 packets of Ramen noodles (flavoring packets thrown out) separately, drained them, and added them at the end, mixing it all together. The kids loved it ("it's NOODLES?!").

Thursday: Pulled Pork Enchiladas. I had a meeting for our school's 5th grade trip that required me to get margaritas with my mamas afterward, so the night before I rolled up the leftover pulled pork with shredded cheese and black beans into tortillas, filled a 9x13 tray, topped them with shredded cheese (except Landon's, OBVIOUSLY), and James baked them for about 20 mins at 375. There's a refrigerated Mexican rice we really like that steams up in the microwave with avocado and refried black beans on the side. I heard it was delicious.

Friday: DATE NIGHT. Balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts. And other stuff, but mostly those.

Saturday: Friend's 40th Birthday Party!. There was chili and many other delicious things. She taught me the sorority girl pose that makes your arm look skinny.

This Week
Sunday: Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon, Spiced Applesauce Cake. The Beef Bourguignon was very good, but frankly required too much prep to result in anything other than a mind-blowing meal. My mind was not blown, but it was great to smell it cooking all day with the rain and gloom. Since dinner was effectively done by 10 a.m. I made one of my favorite cakes. It's foolproof and amazing and I highly recommend it.

Monday: Beef Tacos, Mexican Rice, beans, all the toppings. Your traditional old ground beef + seasoning taco night. This time I made double-decker tacos with a layer of refried black beans on a flour tortillas wrapped around a crunchy taco and it blew the kids minds. Highly recommend.

Tuesday: Pumpkin Pasta. I made this up from a Trader Joe's sample: TJ's Harvest Autumnal Creamy Pasta Sauce + TJ's fresh Sweet Potato ribbons + organic ground turkey (from Costco; like pretty much every other meat I've mentioned so far, I love their freezer packs of organic chicken breasts, ground beef, ground turkey, and bison). Cook the turkey, add the sauce and sweet potato, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add in the cooked pasta (I used whole wheat penne), toss, serve. SO GOOD. Super fast and super easy.

Wednesday: Jambalaya, biscuits. A long-time family favorite.

Thursday: Crock Pot Creamy Chicken Enchilada Chili. Foolproof, always reserved for a Thursday night when I teach barre, the kids swim, James coaches late, and most of the fresh produce is depleted from the fridge. (I do use half the amount of cream cheese and it's perfect for us).

Friday: Chili Pizza . Another TJ sample I'm going to try to replicate: pizza crust + chili (really cooked down so it's not liquid, or just use a can of it; it's Friday and life should be easy), topped with cheddar cheese and baked. Raw veggies on the side.

Saturday: Cauliflower & Potato Soup. I haven't made this yet but it looks delicious!

Sunday: Bison Bolognese. Ditto.

Cora's unicorn likes to watch the rain

Next Week
Monday: Veggie enchiladas, Mexican rice. I made this up a few weeks ago when the meat I was going to use in my dinner looked off: Dice up zucchini, squash, and onion. Saute with shredded carrot, black beans, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper until veggies are cooked, but not soggy. Roll into tortillas with shredded cheese and bake 20ish minutes at 375. We loved them!

Tuesday: Bolognese leftovers From Sunday, I'll be at a PTA Board Meeting and then celebrating a friend's birthday afterward.

Wednesday: Southwestern Quinoa Salad. Quinoa, black beans, tomato, corn, avocado, cilantro, topped with a swirl of BBQ and/or Ranch. Served with chips.

Thursday: Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce, Sausage, and Spinach. Mine won't be spicy, but a friend made this recently and raved.

Friday: Pesto Pizza Rolls. I made these a year ago and totally forgot how amazing they were until a facebook memory reminded me. And Landon even likes them bc "there isn't too much cheese."

I'm off to make my mom's pumpkin bread. It's basically a cake, but it's delicious and it's Landon's favorite baked good of all time. Plus, it makes the kitchen smell amazing. Happy fall to you all!