the great mom pop culture escape

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Creamy Braised Parsnips w Sage

Oh, how I miss you, Everyday Food magazine...
Creamy Braised Parsnips with Sage came out lovely. Just haven't had a lot of parsnips this year which is too bad. Had a hard time finding them for this recipe for several weeks. Worth it though!

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Big Kid Day at the Museum of Fine Arts

Last Monday, the big kids had a random day off of school. They don't get a February vacation, rather they get a Monday/Tuesday in March. They lost the Tuesday for Hurricane Sandy day off, so I took off Monday and brought the kids to the MFA in Boston. Shelagh had been studying Rome and Rory has been studying Ancient Egypt. He also is reading The Red Pyramid, which is about a "magical" family and their tie to Ancient Egypt and Gods and all that. He loves history anyway, but is TOTALLY into Egypt right now. I thought it was a good time to get him to the Museum.

I have to say that the part of the museum I enjoy the least is the part we ended up spending most time in. But, it was awesome. The mummies, the weapons, the hieroglyphics...they both enjoyed it a lot and Rory especially. We also spent a good amount of time looking at old timey musical instruments and coins. Again, my least favorite usually, but fun with them.

At 3 hours, we had hit the limit (and that's including lunch break with a brief "begging parent treat" to keep them going), but we had time before we had to get back home so we dropped by Joe's office and walked into the North End for Joe to grab a late lunch and then we all sat at Caffe Vittorio and had gelato and cappuccino. Fantastic, sunny, enjoyable day. We missed Kelly (who was at school and pissed to be excluded), but it was nice to be with the big kids and doing something easy and mellow. The museum was pretty empty on a random Monday and the weather was beautiful.

Great day!

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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Moves & Outfit

Not sure which I enjoyed more...the dance moves or the outfit she came downstairs in for bed!

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Monday, March 18, 2013

Happy St Patricks Day

Happy St Patrick's Day!
Kids got to wear green over their uniforms on Friday

The silly headband was worth it for all the faces and moves and jumping around it prompted Kelly to do.

Good morning! We spent Sunday cleaning up tossed chairs and upside down pictures from the mischeivous Leprechaun and eating our green food, which totally pissed off Kelly by the way. We went into Boston to see some Irish Dancers and since they didn't show we spent the time walking around cold and windy (but sunny!) Boston, taking turns dealing with cranky children (not Shelagh) and ended up at the Sail Loft eating Fish and Chips, Chowder, and Shrimp (not enough Shrimp in Shelagh's opinion). Ended up with a mediocre Corned Beef and Cabbage at home. I've made it a million times, but again, Trader Joe's meat is just not any good. Chicken is fine and pork chops are good, but the beef - in all forms - is just bland and never cooks up well. I guess it could be me, but I'm just going to continue to blame them.

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Pasta Carbonara

Have always wanted to and never made Pasta Carbonara. Saw it in Saveur magazine, along with a "next day" type recipe to make it into a Spaghetti Pie, and decided to give it a whirl. Super easy and everyone liked it (I had them at "bacon") although no leftovers for the 2nd recipe.