Bean is now big enough that she can sit at the bar comfortably on the bar stool to eat and rest her feet and toes on the side stool supports. This is her yesterday morning having Cheerios for breakfast still wearing her flannel pajamas...Love it!

This was dinner last night and boy, was it confirmed again to be a real winner! It's Smoky Pork Pappadelle and it's from one of our many but trusted Food & Wine annual cookbooks. You can find the recipe here.  

We've made it before and loved it just as much then as we do now. In fact, along with Chicken Sofrito (you can find that on the blog under Recipes, too, or click here) Smoky Pork Pappadelle has now joined the ranks as one of our go-to recipes for our dinner parties.  I think what helps make this particular recipe so sublime, is that the slow-cooked pork is cooked with Granny Smith apples and honey, then married with Marscapone cheese and smoked salt before serving over pappadelle noodles. A salad and glass (or two) of a fat and juicy red wine, and my friend, you have found bliss on a cold winters night!

Or, you could do like Bean did, and just inhale dinner, smearing the sauce all over your face in the process. The girl does enjoy her food...Sorry, no pictures of her messy little face, but a bath before bed was definitely on the agenda after dinner.

Lulu was in a snit when I picked her up from school one night last week. There was drama because I hadn't brought a snack for her to eat after picking her up, then she wanted a piece of gum and I said no. All the whining and complaining from her just leaving school had left her with my taking away her DS game privliges for the night AND watching any television that night. And this was before we'd even left the school parking lot.

I left her school with both girls crying in the car for wanting and because I didn't have any snacks with me.

"But momma..." Lulu cried, "I'm hungry and my stomach has zero food in it!"

The drive from her school to home is less than seven minutes. I told her, she'd live. I was sure of it.

"I want my daddy!" she wailed. "Daaaaaddddyyy...." she cried dramatically in the backseat. You would have thought I'd kidnapped her.

Wait a minute, I take that back. A seven minute drive home is eternity with two crying little girls in the backseat.

By the time we got home and got inside, a new set of complaints were launched upon me. Because she didn't have any portable video game privliges for the night or could watch any television, she was going to complain, complain, complain. Any suggestions of things for her to do in lieu of what she was banned from, was met with, "But that's so boring!" I did my best to ignore her while I tried to get dinner started, both girls underfoot in the kitchen.

Eddie got home fairly early that night, and I let him know that it had been a drama, momma-needs-a-drink inducing night so far. We were all in the kitchen and Lulu started complaining about why I wouldn't let her do something she wanted to do. Totally off the cuff but very matter-of-fact I replied, "Because I'm the meanest mommy ever."

She hadn't expected that answer.

"But momma..." she said very emotionally, "You said your were the nicest mommy ever!!!" and proceeded to start bawling in the kitchen.

All I could do was look at Eddie (while grabbing my much needed beer from the kegerator) who commented, "I thought she knew?"

"Must not have gotten the memo." I quipped back.

I think I need a shirt: Meanest Mommy, Ever!

The local wildlife returned to the scene of the crime at some point late at night or in the wee morning hours after their terrorizing us and the cat at the back door last night in their quest and demand for food.

You can see their muddy prints all over the back porch.

Actually, here is a better close-up...

We have a pest problem, of the masked variety.  Yes, we have raccoons...

These pictured above are not our raccoons, but they might as well be. We'd had a dinner party two weeks ago and prior to dinner, while hanging out in the kitchen, one of our guests exclaimed, "Oh, you have a raccoon at your door!" By the time I looked myself, I didn't see anything (and it was dark, anyways) so I flipped on our nifty new outdoor back door light and what do you know, but there was a very large, and very robust looking fella, going down the stairs towards the back yard.

Eeek!

He was very, very large.  We figured Maki's food bowl next to the back door was the draw. We'd had an incident with an opposom earlier in the fall, whom I'd caught noshing on her uneaten cat food one night while she slept ignorantly next to the kibble thief.

Since our dinner party, I'd made a point of only giving Maki enough food to eat at that time, so that there (hopefully) wouldn't be a draw to the door by unwanted interlopers.

That was until tonight.

I was in the kitchen, Bean was in bed asleep. Lulu was doing history reading with dad. I was looking at something in the kitchen when I heard what I thought was Maki (who is always at the back door begging for food, even when you've literally just filled her bowl). But it actually sounded like she was body slamming the door.

"That's weird..." I thought to myself, "She's never done that before. She must really want to get my attention for food tonight."  And that's when I turned to see a masked face staring in at me. And Maki, none too pleased, behind him.

Slight chaos ensued after that. Maki and the raccoon got into a bit of a scuffle at the door. She doesn't have claws in the front and raccoons are down right mean and nasty when it comes to food.  I called for Eddie, who came running in with Lulu behind. He was able to scare one off the porch at first, but then saw there was a second raccoon on the stairs (must have been backup or lookout, no?).

Of course, raccoons are not easily frightened. Eddie couldn't believe how bold they were and that they kept trying to come back up to the porch, even with the both of us flailing our arms at them and making loud noises in their direction.

I bet we put on quite a show, which wasn't our intention.

Finally, I grabbed Maki off the porch, and we put her in the basement for the night. And then fed her, free from the threat of thieves.

Something tells me that raccoon traps and a relocation service are going to be in our near future.

Last night Lulu's Camp Fire program had an Art Walk in the library for the parents. Lulu has been busy these last few months working diligently on her projects for it. I was so proud of her, she did such a great job! She was particularly proud of her ghost which she converted from a footprint.

She wrote out the description card all by herself. Excellent work, Lulu!

The artist, posing with a piece of her artwork...

I hope the pinch pot and the coiled bowls come home. I think they'd make a great holder for my earrings on the dresser!

Last night we had string beans for dinner. Bean loves string beans, so much in fact, she shoved one up her nose like an accordian.

Fortunately, she sat very still for Eddie while I worked my calm-mom-magic with the tweezers.

Disgusting, but it saved us a trip and money having to visit the ER.  I always did do well at the Milton Bradely game of Operation growing up!