RTT: Kale Chips, Skorts and "A Dingo Ate My Baby"

 Helloooooo Tuuuuuuuuuesday!!!

Well, summer has finally been achieved here in the City of Angels. It has been hot and sunny all week. A little TOO hot and sunny for our little house with no air conditioning. Jimmy has this rigid method of keeping the house cool which involves strict times of day when certain windows must be opened and other windows must be closed and fans must be aimed in various directions. It's all very confusing, but amazingly works. So before Jimmy makes me run around and open all the windows, I'll try to get down a few...

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I went crazy for Kale Chips the other day. I can't get over how good they are. I mean this sincerely. Absolutely addictive. I made a batch in the morning, and ate the entire bowl before the end of the day. I highly recommend giving it a try, it's super easy to make. And kale is one of those superfoods packed with all sorts of wily nutrition - one cup of kale only has 36 calories, it provides 192% of the daily value of Vitamin A, and 90% of your daily value of Vitamin C. And it's tasty too!

Here's Jan's recipe for Kale Chips.

 

To make up for the fact that I totally stole this picture from Jan, please go to her site for the recipe!

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For a while now, I have been harboring a snotty, judgemental, jealous grudge against the mommies at Jude's school who run around wearing their cute little tennis skirts all the time. I mean all the time, whether they've been playing tennis or not. Showing off their cute little bodies and their cute little legs. But I am hereby eating crow. The other day I bought myself a little black tennis skirt (a skort - don't you love that?) and it is now, officially, my summer uniform. It's all I wear. I am a complete tennis skort convert. I am worshiping at the altar of skort. This thing is SO comfy and easy. It's like sweat pants only cooler and...cuter. I think I'm going to have to go buy more, more, more skorts.

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Did y'all hear this? A dingo really did eat her baby! Remember how back in 1980, Australian mom, Lindy Chamberlain, claimed that a dingo had taken her baby? She ended up being prosecuted for murder, and served some time in prison before she was finally released. And they made the Meryl Streep movie A Cry in the Dark about it. Though you might remember it more from this...

 

 

Well, after more than 30 years, they finally reopened the case and brought in a bunch of new scientific dingo experts and they ruled that a dingo did, in fact, eat her baby. I'm not so sure about Elaine's friend's fiance.

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 Jude this morning...

 

You think he's ready for a haircut? Much?

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Does flying cross-country with your children make you want to go all Shatner on them and leap out the Emergency Exit? I've got just the thing for you. Nanny in the Clouds. It's a site that matches harried parents with nannies who happen to already be booked on the flight you're taking. You just check in on their website, and hope you get lucky and find a kindly nanny-type who is headed your way. Or you could, at considerably more expense, purchase the ticket for the nanny yourself. I have to say that when I was a much younger woman, I would have loved the idea of making some cash doing a little babysitting while I was on a long and boring flight. Not a bad deal all around.

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Made this for dinner the other night. Huge thumbs up from Jimmy. A great, easy summer pasta...

Arugula Pesto Pasta

12 oz whole wheat or regular penne pasta (I recommend the whole wheat)

1 pkg. Sweet Basil Pesto Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe's (or the closest thing you can find to that if you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby), sliced

1 cup homemade basil pesto (recipe below) or if you are a wimp, pesto purchased from the store

1/2 a bag arugula

shredded or grated Parmesan for garnish

Boil the pasta according to package instructions. While pasta is boiling, pan fry the sausage until nicely browned. When pasta is cooked, drain it well and immediately toss it with the pesto. Add the warm sausage slices and the arugula. Heat from the pasta will slightly wilt the arugula. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. YUM!

Homemade Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts

3 medium garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

salt and pepper

Dump the basil, nuts and garlic in a food processor, and pulse until it's mixed up. Then turn the food processor on and slowly add the olive oil in a stream until it's all pureed and consolidated. Add the Parmesan and salt and pepper.

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Alright, it's time to go open the windows on the west side of the house and turn up the windows. Please visit Stacy for more random fun.

 

Comments

[suzicate]

Don't you just hate it when you make fun of someone for doing/wearing something and then in fact, you take up the habit? I think it's happened to us all!
here's my spin for this week http://suzicate.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/the-joke-is-on-me/

[Allstarme.wordpress.com]

That's interesting about the dingo; I remember that being a joke and now - wow - it's true! Crazy. Anyway, happy Tuesday!

[VandyJ]

If we are home, we have a method of opening and closing windows too. If we aren't they all get shut before we leave the house. It must be done or the heat creeps in and it hits like 85 in the house. It's hard to cool off the house after that.

I always know that it's time for Turbo to get a hair cut when we practically have to soak his head to get the bed head under control.

[Arnebya]

I will admit the kale chips have gotten me. I've tried two store-bought brands, one much better than the other. I keep saying I'm going to try to make them myself. My issue is I am a salt-a-holic. Nothing good can come from it.

I think that I too am a skort/tennis skirt snob. Hm. Perhaps I should look into my irritation. But perhaps not.

Have you opened the correct windows yet? Carlos does that. "Close those blinds! Don't you know the sun sits on this side of the house at 2:42?" I am shameful and cannot be taught.

[Stacy Uncorked]

Before we realized we were sucking all the humidity into the house (thereby making all the wood surfaces suffer - not to mention irritatingly damp) we used to use a whole house fan directed out of one of the windows in the attic. It worked well until we started having way too many heat+humid days and had to give up on the wind tunnel mode. That and we prefer to sleep with the bedroom door closed at night in case the kids might be sleep walking. Or something. ;) For the whole house fan to be truly effective, we'd have to pick and choose which windows to have open, and leave the back door open at night for the not-so-much-cooler air to help cool things down. But when it doesn't get below the upper 70's at night, it wasn't very effective - so we got window units for the 'important' rooms (bedrooms and living room). But everywhere else in the house you run into walls of heat. It probably doesn't help being a 3-story house, though. I can't wait to move back to the West Coast so we don't have to deal with this crap any more. :)

I wish I had the legs to sport a cute skort - but alas, my Swenson Thunder Thighs make it prohibitive. ;)

I remember reading they reopened the case after all these years and proved the dingo did eat the baby. Crazy!

Haircut time for sure! ;)

Heat and Sleep, Ice Cream Fun, Compliment, BlogHer ’12 and I’m With Stupid – RTT Rebel

[Jan's Sushi Bar]

It must be a "husband" thing, this opening/closing windows/shades at a certain time of day, because Beloved will do it too. And we have central AC.

And thank you for the linky love! Aren't those kale chips gooood? Even The Young One will eat them...of course, he might eat your left foot these days, too.

[kate]

I am a skort fan too--my favorite one is from lululemon and it feels like silk on. It has peppy little pleats in the back. Worth the $$. Your boy's hair reminds me of my son's right now. It's quite long and he has taken to wearing a terry cloth headband 24/7. Bjorn Borg?

[Ducky]

I have heard amazing things about Kale chips. I suppose this means I must make a trip to the market. I need a new snack...I really would like chocolate but kale is probably the better choice. :D

I can not even fathom not having air conditioner. Of course we are sitting at around 110 without the heat index so likely the entire family would be dead if we didn't have air. This heat tends to make a body a tad cranky if you can imagine.