Fashion Epiphany

This entry has nothing to do with cooking, Rachel Ray, or weight loss... mostly because I haven't thought of any of those things for the last couple of days. Instead, yesterday, after track practice (about 5 pm... rush hour) I had to drive Kyle to Lenox Square in search of seersucker shorts to wear to the dance at school that was beginning at 8 pm. Suddenly, he is tired of me picking out all his clothes !! And khaki cargo shorts are so, well, yesterday. No luck with the seersucker, but he did get some green shorts, a pale yellow Ralph Lauren polo, some madras patchwork shorts from Brooks Brothers, and some seersucker looking shorts from Banana Republic. We made it home in time for a quick dinner (the ultimate under 30 minute dinner... spaghetti and sauce from a jar), a shower, and back in the car. He showed up fashionably late about 8:25.

If you want to check out where Laura will be going at the end of May, go to www.greatwalltour2006.com. It's pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

I'm Back

I'm back from Richmond and had a great time visiting and reconnecting with my old friends. We saw the Blandford church in Petersburg, had great food, and great conversation.

I saw my first entire Rachel Ray episode, and I think the menu she made is in RR2 (haven't checked yet). She did a bit of cutting corners, and who knows who else comes in to help during the commercials. Tonight Kyle and I had the Cheddar and Macaroni and the peas. Pretty good comfort food, though Kyle, the gourmet, says he likes Kraft better. I did get the whole thing made in 30 minutes, but that was without making the apple crisp.

Still cooking

Well, things are still cooking here. I've had to jump around in the RR2 cookbook, but that's my primary source. It seems like the make your own takeout section is the most useful for my family. This week it was the Philly cheesesteaks (not right without mayo according the Roland), and the 5-spice beef and pepper stir fry (that I made with broccoli and cashews instead of peppers and almonds). I'm averaging about 45 minutes if I make the whole menu, though last night, with the stir fry, that's all I made and it came in under 30 minutes.

This weekend, I'm flying up the Richmond, VA to meet up with some Maryland girlfriends. Our little group started as a church women's group we called the "Get Away Group" because we all had small children, and Saturday mornings were a good time to leave the kids with dad and "get away". Most of our kids are grown up and out of the house now, and we are really "getting away" even if it's only for two days and one night. Should be fun though, as I've never been to Richmond (except to drive through).

Favorites

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm still cooking. I did manage to be a vegetarian the whole time Roland and Kyle were out of town, but they like meat too much. I've made several more Rachel recipes... only one menu took me 30 minutes. That was the Spanish beef and rice and a salad. The rest took at least 45 minutes. The more chopping and ingredients, the longer the recipe takes. Friday I made the super sloppy joes, but I have a great Southern Living sloppy joe recipe in the 1982 collection. It's a favorite of the whole family, so I'll stick with that in the future.

Today was family yard work day. We had an estimate from a lawn care company that seemed so expensive (for a spring cleanup) that I decided we could do it ourselves. We have several places in the back yard to dump leaves and debris, so I got a tarp, got the kids to go along with being paid, and we all worked. I"ll be sore tomorrow. Laura and Kyle worked until after lunch, and then Kyle had to go to the library for a research project. I've never seen him so eager to do homework.

We found a great bbq place tonight... Williamson Bros. in Marietta. Since we've been in Atlanta about 7 months, we've been trying to find our favorite restaurants. So far, our fav Mexican is Taxco. This bbq place might make the list, and we will definitely go back. Favorite subs... any Jersey Mike location. That's all that have made the list so far.

Laura goes back to school tomorrow after a fun spring break... Florida and then time with her famously fun (and favorite) family ;-).

Veggin' Out

Rachel Ray is on hiatus for me this week. Roland and Kyle are on vacation (spring break), so I've decided to go vegetarian, maybe for all of Lent. I'll see how it goes this week. So far so good. The excitement for my week will be... jury duty. Yes, folks. Got my Georgia driver's license last July, registered to vote here, and a mere 7 months later I got my summons. Got my iPod charging... I'm ready for MARTA, and hours of sitting around. But I am, of course, doing my civic duty.

Watching the Oscars. Great speech by George Clooney. And Reese's dress is gorgeous. I filled out the Oscar ballot in the AJC, and so far I'm 2 for 3. Go me.

Dress for Success

In a previous post I mentioned volunteering at Dress for Success (www.dressforsuccess.org) in Atlanta. It has over 75 affiliates worldwide, so it's really everywhere! And today was fun. I'm a "personal shopper" which means that I help the clients find appropriate interview-wear (suits, blazers, skirts, etc.). The one really hard part is that many of the clients are plus-size, yet there are not as many donations in those sizes. SO, if you are a random reader who has a lot of suits and needs to clean out your closet, and happen to see this, look up your local affiliate, and donate a suit, shoes, handbags, and help women down on their luck look fantastic and, more importantly, feel great, in their interviews. AND if you are plus size, even better.

Oh, besides plus size clothing, big size shoes (in good condition) are always needed.