Adventures in cooking

HotMommy was a Super Suppers addict for ages, but with skyrocketing gas prices this summer, I decided to sign up for Menus4Moms and do my own weeknight meals. Menus4Moms.com sends you weekly menus, recipes, and most importantly...groceries lists for under $100 a week!

I've been on a quest for years for the perfect mac and cheese recipe. We've tried Paula's, Southern Living, you name it, but until Menus4Moms I was never able to nail it. The Béchamel sauce is the secret to it. It was a hit at pool night and I'm taking it to book club this week.

Here is the recipe:

Macaroni and Cheese

* 2 tbsp cornstarch
* 1 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp dry mustard
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 2-1/2 cups milk
* 2 tbsp butter
* 2 cups (8 oz) shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
* 8 oz Mueller's Medium Shells (this is adaptation - the original recipe calls for elbows), cooked 5 minutes and drained

In medium saucepan combine corn starch, salt, dry mustard and pepper; stir in milk. Add margarine. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in 1-3/4 cups (425 ml) cheese until melted. Add pasta. Pour into greased 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle with reserved cheese. Bake uncovered in 375 degree oven 25 minutes or until lightly browned. This can be prepared ahead of time and kept refrigerated until you are ready to bake. Add 5-7 minutes to the cooking time if cold.

Here is what I have to say about the Real Housewives of Atlanta....

based on it's preview tonight.

Atlanta may be about new money to YOU, but Atlanta is NOT about new money to anyone who's opinion matters. Yes, that makes me a bitch, but all I have to say about that is, "you're in my prayers y'all."

Next point: Your houses are tacky McMansions. If it's on less than ten acres, it's not an estate - it's just a big yard. And if your house is attached to another house...it's not even a McMansion. It's a condo or townhouse.

Bless your over-reaching hearts, if you have to work so hard to look like it....you ARE NOT IT. Kind of like that quasi-countess from New York. Even if she does have nice manners and plays tennis well. In Atlanta, you're just good for a donation. Heck, my family had the largest single family owned farm in Alpharetta and my grandfather was president of an institutional Buckhead business, but I don't have the gall to claim to be Atlanta society. There are standards and these housewives clearly don't cut it.

Bravo, maybe you should document the real thing. Or did the ones you approached first realize how tacky it is to be on a reality show? Must have...I can't think of any quality people that would appear on this show.

I do understand the groups in Orange County, New York, and Atlanta you've shown until now are very "good tv." But not good society. Not even nouveau riche - just nouveau unimportant.

Yes, I feel bitchy tonight.

Walker Texas Punkinhead

She took a step! Her very first independent step.

She was cruising along the edge of the sofa, reached her little Punkinhead hand out to hand me a ball, and when I didn't stretch out my arm to get it, she let go and took a step toward me! No fear or freak out from her or anything. I'm sure full on walking is coming any day now.

What a precocious Punkinhead we have!

The Punkinhead does an awesome Sean Penn impersonation

Just for fun. It's good to know she'll fit in with the Hollywood teens fleeing from the paps. 'Cause she's my LiLo and I'm her Dina! What, I don't seem like a stage mom?


Give me your camera now! I want that film!


LiLo on a Saturday night impersonation thrown in for free...


There's the pretty smile we all know and love! (yes, that is sweet potatoes on her face. Deal with it - she got a bath just after!)

Punkinhead Parade

Our HOA puts on a parade for the 4th. Punkinhead invited her gang over to watch from our front yard since our house was on the parade route this year. So much fun!


Shakes your maracas! Or just one.


Again, so lucky to have a handsome hubby and pretty Punkin.


A neighbor asked if they were triplets. My response should have been, "No, but we all share a husband!" That would have started some neighborly gossip!!!!


This is as good as it gets when posing 3 babies!


Yes, I look concerned about my snow cone. No, Punkinhead doesn't look concerned about ANYTHING!

Nicole Kidman names her baby girl Sunday

I had a cat named Sunday as a child. Because we found him in the church parking lot on a Sunday. Other than that, I'm not going to comment on celebrity child names.

Mmmmm, goldfish crackers

One of the biggest benefits of being a mom is the unlikely, unexpected special moments that I wish could last always. That's so cliched isn't it? Anyway, here's today's moment.

Punkinhead discovered a love of goldfish cheddar crackers at VBS this year, and me, lazy mom that I am, just remembered today at Target to get that GIANT pour carton of them for her.

I filled up her snack cup when I got home, handed it off to her, and collapsed from errand-induced heat exhaustion into the armchair.

Suddenly she made a howler monkey noise and when I glanced down at her, she was so delighted by what she found in her cup the glee was just plastered across her face.

She then proceeded to stuff as many as she could into her mouth, chew them, and then opened her mouth to show me the yummy goodness inside. See-food Mommy, get it?

A little sadness in my heart

If you don't know already, HotMommy was adopted when she was six months old. Before Buzzkill and I knew we were pregnant with Punkinhead (but were in the planning phase), I sent a letter to my birthmother asking for medical information so that we'd have as much knowledge as we could about possible complications, genetic diseases, etc. If you want to read more about it, I blogged about it on my old Myspace blog back in '06.

The trail

So, the sadness thing. My head understands that she's not willing to provide me that information, but every day before the mail comes, my heart leaps a little and I wonder, "Maybe today I'll get something."

I wonder when my heart will give up the hope?