Corn cakes. Yum.

My nextdoor neighbor was just asking me for a good vegetarian recipe to cook for her niece so she wouldn't have to make veggie lasagna yet again. This is my go to veg recipe for non-vegetarian cooks. Fresh corn is worth the trouble, but frozen will do in a pinch.

Fresh Corn Cakes with Black Bean Relish

corn cakes
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup quick cooking polenta mix
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

relish
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
handful chopped cilantro (or basil)
1 avocado chopped
pint of grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 chopped red onion
1 chopped bell pepper
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
(you can add your fave Italian dressing 

1. In skillet, heat half of the oil over medium heat. Add the corn and onion, stir, cook 5 minutes until onion is tender. Remove from heat. Place half of mixture in food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer to bowl. Stir in buttermilk and egg.

2. In another bowl stir together polenta mix, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add polenta mixture to buttermilk mixture. Stir in remaining corn mixture until combined.

3. In large skillet heat remaining oil over medium heat. For each cake, pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet, spread batter if necessary. Cook over med heat about 2 minutes per side or until golden brown. Add more oil to skillet as needed. (If you're using a non non-stick pan, spray it first.)

4. Plate corn cakes and spoon black bean relish over them. Garnish with fresh cilantro (or basil).

Makes 10-12 cakes.

I have never gotten to the pouring the batter stage and not had to make adjustments. Often, I add more corn than I was supposed to, so I have to add more buttermilk to get the right consistency. But last time I added more buttermilk early on and ended up having to add more polenta mix to get the batter right for pouring. You want it thick enough that it doesn't run across the pan when you pour, but thin enough that it doesn't sit like cookie dough when you pour it in. Also, I often blend the whole corn/onion mixture because the kids like it better that way.

This is one of Hawthorne's favorite meals.

Mrs. Scovell

I live in the future. It's a very bad habit of mine. I realize it serves me well in many ways (and being prepared for whatever comes next because I've already thought about it for days—or years—on end can really be an asset), but it keeps me up at night more often than I'd like to admit. Planning, worrying, contemplating. And it leads to ridicules piles of magazine pages with details about how to get your teenager to talk to you, how to find the perfect bra, when to plant bulbs... for that "some day" when I might need that particular advice. I often remind myself that I need to live more in the moment. To stop multitasking and planning and fretting and just listen and enjoy and soak it all in. I had a very sad reminder today of how important that is.

Hawthorne's kindergarten teacher passed away last night after battling cancer for only 6 months. She was a neat person, and a wonderful teacher, and she still had so much life to live. She had only one more year of teaching until she retired, and I'm so sad for her and her family and even that last class of students who will never know her. She didn't have the experience of wrapping up a career and starting a new chapter in her life. And it breaks my heart. I wasn't prepared for her death—or my reaction to it.

She'll be remembered by so many who learned from her, taught by her side, and entrusted her with their children. I'll always be thankful that we were one of the families touched by her calling as a teacher.

Her death has reminded me how important it is not only to live in the moment but to love it. To appreciate what it is and to be present for it. (Always the teacher.)

Gooey goodness

I've been meaning to share this recipe with y'all for a while. We made it as a Thanksgiving appetizer. It was super yummy, and you can rationalize eating lots of it because of all the stuff in it that's good for you.

Hot Artichoke-Spinach Dip

Ingredients
kosher salt
1 10-oz bag fresh baby spinach
1 cup packed fresh basil
3/4 cup canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
6 ounces Neufchatel cream cheese
1 clove garlic, smashed
1/2 cup veggie broth
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained, squeezed dry, and finely chopped
1/4 cup grated parm cheese
3/4 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese
2 or 3 dashed Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper
cooking spray
veggies/crackers/pita chips... for serving

Directions
Preheat oven to 450. Bring pot of salted water to a boil and prepare a bowl of ice water. Stir the spinach and basil into the boiling water and cook until bright green, about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge in the ice water. Drain and squeeze dry, then roughly chop.

Puree the beans, cream cheese, garlic, and broth in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and fold in the spinach and basil, artichokes, parm, and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Add the Worcestershire, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste.

Mist a deep 1-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread the dip mixture in the dish and top with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella. Bake until golden and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm with chips...

Yummm.

Happy 2012!

A close friend told me the other day that she likes the number 2012—that it has a "nice balance and solidity" to it. I agree—it seems stable and strong, capable of supporting great things. Not that I have plans to accomplish monumental things. Mainly, I just want it to be a fun year. A year where we don't take ourselves too seriously. A year where my "(frustrated) perfectionism" doesn't get in the way.

Carter already has his page-long list of new year's resolutions. Mine are still in my head, which is not a good place for them, but I'm doing a decent job of implementing them nevertheless. I'm eating more protein, which I haven't been all that great about since I became a vegetarian a year and a half ago. (I think smoothies with whey powder are going to be the key.) I have my list of home projects to tackle, and I've vowed to take them one at a time rather than being overwhelmed by the list. When Hawthorne told me at 8:15 this morning (as we were putting on shoes to walk out the door to school) that he forgot to do his math homework, I didn't yell. I just grabbed the calculator and we whipped out a page of long division problems. (Don't worry, I'm not a terrible parent—he already knows how to do long division without me, and the consequence for him is that he now has to do his weekend homework on Friday afternoons.) And, our dinner menu for the week includes at least one thing that we don't eat all the time.

Now I have a few more things to get a handle on. I need to tackle the kids' scrapbooks, which for Ainsley has never even been started! This of course means organizing a lot of family photos, and it's going to take some serious bravery to dive into that deep end. Last year I managed to replace a few pounds of fat with a few pounds of muscle, but now it's time to just lose some fat! We need a schedule for practicing piano when I can focus on it too because little miss doesn't like doing ANYTHING by herself. I need to take more photos to share with grandparents and someday with grandchildren. And I have to become a better bargain clothes shopper because there are three of us in this family who really like to have fun clothes (and take trips and eat out a lot and participate in fun after school activities) all the time.

Notice the biggie missing this year? No entry for "simplify life." It's been on my resolution list for years because it just seemed like paring down would make things easier. But I like having three types of shampoo, two face washes, and four bottles of shower gel lining the bath tub. I'm never going to quit buying lipstick. I will continue to make big volunteer commitments at the kids' school (that sometimes interfere with getting a good night's sleep) because someone has to do that stuff. I might get in the habit of writing all our appointments down, but I'll continue to forget to look at the calendar. I'll always have three baskets of papers on my desk that "need to be dealt with." ... So, life will just have to be a little messy and complicated. Maybe the line item is just to "be OK with messy and complicated."

So here's to a messy, complicated, and fun 2012! Cheers!

On our own.

To stick with our fairly new Thanksgiving tradition, we started our turkey day at the Tallahassee Turkey Trot. All four of us "ran" the 5K this year, and it was so much fun. Carter and Hawthorne went off and left me and Ains, but the girls held their own. Even with Ainsley's sniffles, we managed to cross the finish line in just 46 minutes! I was very impressed with her. I gave her a couple short piggy back rides to give her lungs a break when she started coughing, but otherwise she did a great job of skipping, jogging, and speed walking right along with me.

We ate lunch downtown at Shula's, Carter and the kids played football in the yard, and now we're wrapping up the day with pecan pie and UT football.

There are many times throughout the year that I hate being so far away from family, but I love that we've carved out our own little Thanksgiving traditions so far from home. And even though our friends still make fun of us for eating out, there's something quite nice about not having to do the dishes!

Happy Halloween

Wow, October was crazy busy, and it ended with a bang and way too much candy.

Our PTO Boosters fundraiser wrapped up with us bringing in several thousand over our goal of $16,500. That was very exciting for our little school of 498 families! And I gained two good friends and walking partners out of all those joint hours of working together. Now we've moved on to our Box Tops campaign, which isn't nearly as involved and time intensive. I get to continue my guest appearances on WDTS (the kids morning TV show at school), so maybe I'll maintain my celebrity status even though my reign as volunteer of the month has come to an end.

Granna Di and Pappa John got to see all kinds of shows when they were in town last week: me throwing a fit about our principal, Hawthorne center stage as Nemo in the 4th grade play, and Ainsley playing soccer in her last game of the year. I'm thinking my performance was the most animated!

Ains is the one in the pink sweater, of course.

Look at that speed!

HF is the one inside the giant fish cutout!

So handsome!

Then we celebrated Halloween with lots of parties, trick-or-treating, and way too much candy. I've already polished off all the Reese's and put a significant dent in the Twix. Not a good start to the season of fattening holiday food. Ack!

The weather man and the Indian princess. Sounds like a good children's book.

Post trick-or-treating treats and candy trading.
(Why do they bother. Mommy is the one who ends up eating it!)

 

Now, baby, it's cold outside. Time to start the holiday shopping and plan the holiday traveling. It all sounds so normal and un-"[d]ramatic" (to quote Ainsley). When I was visiting with an ex-colleague at a birthday party last night he said, "We sure do miss you, but you seem very happy without us." He's so right. Life is good.

Prrrrr.

Glitter!

I've been spending an insane number of hours working on the kids' school's fall fundraiser. There are many days, like yesterday, when I spend six hours straight working on signs and flyers and counting money and going to the bank just so they can make faces at me when I bring them bags of coins. Then once homework is done and the kids are in the shower, I'm back at it. Figuring out which classrooms we need to do targeted marketing in and what awareness strategies we haven't considered, writing listserv messages, and posting to the PTO Facebook page. There are days I love it and days that really just suck all the energy out of me. I do it because I think that as an at-home mom it's kind of my responsibility to step up and take on the big stuff at school. But also, I get a big kick out of all the glitter. This past week, there has been lots of glitter. The really tiny gold kind that gets on everything. It's in my hair, my car, my purse, my kitchen drawers, the cat's bed, the bathroom towels... And I love it! It's happy and sparkly and pretty. It's leftover from me making stars for a poster. It drives Carter crazy, so I clean up what I think is necessary and leave a little laying around that I don't think he'll notice too much.

Then there's the figurative glitter, which is just as fun. Last week had lots of glitter: I was awarded volunteer of the month, Hawthorne's class clapped for me every time I visited, I actually knew how to work all the math problems that kids needed help with in the computer lab, lots of the cute little bitty kids said, "Hey, PTO, I saw you on the morning announcements. When are you going to draw my name for a prize?" whenever they passed me on the sidewalk, I kicked ass in my exercise classes and on my Saturday morning walk, and my mammogram follow-up came back clear this time. No biopsy! Sparkly glitter everywhere. I love it!