Buffalo Chicken Macaron and Cheese

I'm a hot mess in the kitchen. No joke. I can cook anything, anytime. However, I'm messy. My mom can't watch me cook without gasping about the gigantic mess I've made at least three times. She's right though, I'm a spiller. I splatter. The hand mixer becomes a weapon of mess destruction in my hands. Some how, the mess becomes a meal. I've discovered casseroles. Any meal baked in a dish with any kind of meat/noodle/veggie/cheese combo was strictly forbidden in my growing up home. Now that I am a single (for the next 46 weeks anyhow) parent, casseroles work nicely since it makes a lot and I can skip making a huge mess for at least two more nights with leftovers!

Not all of the ingredients to make Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

Chicken, celery, onions and garlic with the Frank's Red Hot Sauce on top...simmering

Amazing how butter, flour and dry mustard along with 2.5 cups of half and half and 4 cups of cheese along with another half cup of Frank's Red Hot Sauce can become the most amazing cheese sauce in the universe! Whenever I make a roux or bechamel, I always think first of my mom then of my great grandmother. I just feel like doing things the old fashioned way, instead of opening a can or bag puts a little extra lovin' in the dish you prepare. While I wear my cupcake apron (thanks Mom!) and whisk together that flour and butter, I feel like Donna Reed. My supposed chosen profession's unattainable ideal.

L to R, Top to Bottom:

My laptop, necessary for reading recipe! The cheese sauce. Then the chicken mixture and then the pan with macaroni and half of the chicken mixture. The lap top for recipes is awesome.

The pan, with the rest of the chicken and macaroni and cheese sauce poured on top. You can not imagine the amazing sounds macaroni makes when you pour thick creamy cheese sauce on top. Somewhere between angels blowing kisses and hundreds of delicious cheese bubbles sacrificing their very lives for your tastebuds!

With the butter and bread crumb topping. Of course. I think this recipe has seven tablespoons of butter, which is why you share it with friends!

What Food Network recipes can do to a perfectly clean kitchen in just two hours. Amazingly, my kitchen is clean again!


All baked and ready to eat!

My favorite thing to do is serve it up with blue cheese crumbles and a little more hot sauce! Everyone (five adults) had seconds, along with the two toddlers having one serving each and there are still leftovers!

It's so incredible. It's a TON of work, but I it is totally worth it!

Here is the recipe, if you want it.

Buffalo Chicken Mac N Cheese

And, of course this blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of Emmie:


Emmie wanted to "wear" her baby, so my friend Nicole folded her MobyWrap in half length wise and wrapped her up with her baby. Talk about precious! :)

Parade

The Whaling Days parade in our town is pretty docile...but when you add in a two year old, along with probably four pieces of parade candy...this is what you get:

Bummed the Navy band passed...

But wait, she hears music...

Is that an itch?

no...


It's a fever!


A dance fever!


I am not sure who taught her how to break dance...

but this chick can move!

She absolutely KILLS me. I love it. She loves parades, we go to every single one we can find within a decent driving distance. She does it up right, waving and shaking hands. It's awesome.

Getting Crafty!

First allow me to paint you a picture! Yay! You like pictures! Pictures make you happy, they tell stories and make things prettier. People buy pictures, take picture and use pictures to decorate their homes! Wheeeeee, pictures!

Having a two and a half year old is much like trying to put a leotard on a Tasmanian devil while your hands are covered in oven mitts that have been olive oiled.

Now, pretend you want to photograph said creature. You grab your camera. (Crap, you forgot to put the SD card in. Grab that out of your laptop and commence.) Take the lens cap off, get the settings correct and *click.* Review the screen, wait. Where is your Tasmanian Devil daughter? Okay. Reset. Coerce the darling thing back to the "set" and ask her to "Look at mommy's camera! Isn't it neat! Watch what's going to happen! I'm gonna take your picture!" *click* Oh great, her eyes are closed. Reset.

Picture painted? Yes. It's hard to take great photos of a two year old, but when you can capture your daughter in the sweetest of times it makes for great and amazing photographs you cherish forever. What? You want to see them? Oh, okay!

Because

Milestones are something most people on the younger side of fifty look forward to. They are something mother's count off among their mommy friends, proud of their children.

I've counted teeth, and how many words Emmie can say. I've spent hours pouring over studies and research about mental, emotional and physical milestones. When is she supposed to jump with two feet off the ground? How old is a toddler before they can reason?

Today (and a few days ago) a new milestone showed up.

Emmie now says "because" to connect two thoughts. These two thoughts don't make sense to me yet, but to her they do and I suppose for now that is all that matters.

"I like babies because boys and girls."

Now, I'm not going to break down the structure or grammar. She's saying because! She has two thoughts she wants to express in one sentence!

My baby is so amazing, so thoughtful, and so not a baby anymore.

My beautiful girl.

Little girls pretend their dolls are their babies.

Many young women contemplate the kind of mother they will become.

Mothers sigh heavily in one moment, and smile with tears in their eyes the next.

Grandmothers reflect back on the times they had with their children.

---

Every mother has had a moment during her child's life where she had two different thoughts at the same time.

I CAN'T TAKE YOU ANYMORE and not one person could explain to me how much love I would have for you before you were born.

Being a single mother, sucks. It sucks even more because I'm not really a single mother.

I have a husband. A husband who is currently "serving our country" sitting on a ship. A ship that is in dry dock, in another state. Yes, he can drive home in a few hours, however their duty schedule prevents that from happening more than once a month. 

And, as if this wasn't enough. 

Pretty soon, he'll be so far away the flight is more than 18 hours, not including layovers/delays/connections.

Strip away my needs. My need for intimacy, touch and laughter. All of which Paul gives me in spades.

Cut back the extra help he is in chores, like dishes and laundry, mowing the lawn and walking the dog.

Peel away the fact that I am the sole provider for our daughter, kissing every boo boo, nursing every illness and deciding when enough is enough and it's hospital time. 

It's overwhelming at best.

All I can do is take each day, one step at a time. One action at a time.

Every morning, we say good morning and how are you? Did you sleep well? (me)

The answer is always "How are you? I want to bring my blanket." (her)

Every night we stand at the window to the left of our front door and say good night to the day.

"Good night day! We will see you tomorrow, and it will be a great day! Good night trees, cars, grass and birds."

Always said in a whisper.

She already misses her daddy, so much that randomly every day she says "Daddy has to work." 

I agree with her, and she moves on.

Some days, she asks to call his phone and we always do. I'm certain she wants to do it to hear his voice, even if it is just "Paul S*****" that gets played when you reach his voice mail.

62 ingredients

I have never in my life cooked a meal that had 62 ingredients.

Why, oh why on earth is it okay/normal/acceptable for schools to be serving pizza with 62 ingredients to elementary aged children. On Jamie Oliver's new television show "Food Revolution" his cameras pan to six year old children eating (probably) the same pizza for breakfast. 

I'm outraged.

I understand the draw of pizza. Every kid likes it and it reheats well. I remember a time when pizza was a treat. Growing up in my household most pizzas were either on boboli crusts or bagels with fresh mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes, made at home. Delivered pizza was a treat saved for slumber parties, the rare friday night we didn't go out as a family or if mom was sick. Even then, it was usually take and bake pizza. (True story eh mom?)

 http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

The link above is an amazing look at real school lunches. "Mrs. Q" (not her real initial) has chosen to eat the lunches served by her school for an entire school year. (Brave Soul)

Mrs. Q is unveiling a very serious problem with our school lunch programs. This food is barely edible by an adult's standards. I realize these kids aren't paying money for this food, but it is costing them dearly.

This could be the only meal for some kids, shouldn't it be as nutritious and fortified as it possibly can be? Shouldn't we be putting all our money and effort into meals that feed our children both physically and mentally? Don't they deserve to feel taken care of, and cared for? Slapping a plastic-y looking cheese sandwich on a tray with broccoli that has been cooked within an inch of it's life (probably devoid of all nutrition it may have once tried to provide) is not serving a child lunch.

I literally remember my school cafeteria lady's name. Theresa. She was tiny, she was Filipino and you didn't mess with her on Chicken Nugget day. I think she would probably appreciate that I remember her. I remember she would always keep a secret tray of nuggets for those of us that volunteered to help serve lunch. Yeah, those were the days. Fifth and sixth graders taken out of class (GASP!) a full fifteen minutes before lunch time, to help get lunch out to their peers. We served our friends. They ate their food, usually all of it. Then we got to eat together in the cafeteria with Theresa. It was a huge honor, bestowed only upon the students whose teachers trusted them to be responsible enough to get the job done.

Do we really have so little faith in our children? Do we put such a small amount of stock in them that we have to result to these novelty foods just to get them their daily nutrition?

On Jamie Oliver's show, he showed some 8-9 year olds how to break down a chicken to get all the real meat off the bones. Then, he took the bones, the cartilage and all the yucky parts and put them in a blender. (I don't recall if he added anything else.) Then, he cut it in to a patty shape and breaded it. A few minutes in the hot oil and it was golden brown. He then asked the kids if they would eat it, even though MOMENTS before they had all been saying "Ew! Yuck! That looks nasty!"

Guess what? They all raised their hands in favor of eating the disgusting offal patty. He had the presence of mind not to serve them chicken bone shards and kidneys.

Oh the frustration.

I'm at a point in my parenthood that I have to figure out how Emmie needs to be educated. This school lunch deal is going to be a big check on the home schooling side of the debate. (Along with all the other lameness that is public schools like 40:1 ratios, no books, violence, teacher and student apathy etc.)

This was exhausting.

My interpretation of 'red'

We really need this camera bag...that way I can continue to document the curliest red hair ever created. That's why I'm entering the contest! :)