Because You Should Make Them, Too

Chow Mein Noodle Bird Nests

For mint eggs:
Half this recipe unless you plan to make a LOT of nests. This yields enough dough for 50+ small eggs.

1/3 cup soft butter

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. mint extract

3 1/2 cups (1 lb.) sifted confectioner's sugar

blue food coloring

Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl. Stir until blended, then knead into stiff dough. For robin's eggs, add a few drops of blue food coloring and knead until color is smooth. (I used 3 drops, which gives a pale blue shade). Cover and refrigerate for 30 min.

For nests:
Double this recipe if you plan to use all of the candy mixture

2 bags butterscotch chips

4-5 cups (approx.) chow mein noodles

Melt butterscotch chips in microwave by heating in 30-40 second increments on high, then stirring, until completely melted. Stir in noodles.

Use a large table spoon to drop clumps of noodles onto cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Pinch off small bits of mint dough and roll into egg shape, placing in middle of nest. Allow butterscotch to harden back up before serving. Refrigerate completed nests for later.

Yay!

Time Travel

Little known fact: My mom was my kindergarten teacher.

One of my favorite memories (it's a 27-year-old memory so you know it's good) is the time she made these cool little bird nests with my class. Late last night, sitting on my porch swing in the rain, I decided that making edible bird nests was a project Cable and Parker should enjoy today.

I could just imagine the taste of butterscotch, chow mein noodles, and sweet, minty robin eggs... But it was 1983 the last time I'd actually laid eyes on those little wonders. Calling home at midnight to ask my Mom to dig through the dozen possible locations where the recipe might be stashed wasn't really an option. Such are the predicaments for which Google was invented, right?

Despite the apparent 5,143 variations of this project that have sprung up over the past two decades, it was no trouble finding the basic melt, mix and drop instructions for the nests. But for the eggs, these all had lame stuff like peanuts or jelly beans. Thankfully, I have great Google karma, and it only took three tries to find the exact recipe for the little mint candy eggs. Yes! We're in business! (And, assumably, Mom slept undisturbed until her alarm went off for church).

So we made the bird nests today, and it's been like going back in time. They are exactly like the ones I made in kindergarten! Cable and Parker, who initially wanted nothing to do with this idea when it was first presented this morning, ended up loving the actual process and have even decided to give nests -- ahem, excuse me -- "boooord nest-is" to a few of their favorite people.

Thanks Mom.

When they weren't nibbling it, Cable and Parker (in the sink) kneaded the candy mixture.

Finished nests.
(Note for the observant: This is how often they change clothes in a day.)

SNOW

Puke Times Two

Please pardon the brief adjustment to our title.

Slowly, But Surely

After 72 straight hours of the latest stomach virus, Parker is finally starting to come around. Thank goodness we're on a long weekend now, because he's still barely eating, gets upset when he has to walk, and only stays awake for a couple hours at a time.

Phenergan, a good night's sleep, and the best pediatrician in Memphis have my utmost appreciation.

Cable

My Cable Guy.

What Makes a Rainbow?

Last week marked the 100th day of school this year, and to help celebrate, the boys had an assignment: Find 100 of something at home and bring them to school.

One parent I talked to said her son's class (at another school) was instructed to collect their 100 items and sew them to a T-shirt!?!?! And, of course, her son chose 100 Legos, so she spent unspeakable numbers of evening hours toiling over that little project.

Can I get a "Well thank God the boys don't go to THAT school!" ???

On the night we got to work, the three of us started looking around the house for possibilties. It was then that I realized, 'Hmm. We don't have one hundred of anything around here.' I can attribute this quandry to at least two causes:

1) From what I see in the checkout line, my level of consumerism is well below average.

2) While I have endless stuff that needs to be thrown away, or put somewhere reasonable, it's all different things. I don't save a lot of one variety of crap (with the exception of Target bags). I say "crap" meaning twist ties, hotel toiletries, plastic milk jug rings, old toothbrushes, etc. This is legitimately surprising, seeing as how at least three generations of women before me saved or are currently saving each of those commodities and more. And yes, absolutely, I regret not following their Waste Not, Want Not examples every time I have a bag of frozen corn I can't secure or a cat I can't entertain. "If I'd only stashed away the past 11 years' worth of elastic pantyhose tops and and ziplocs, I could've fashioned a tourniquet to save your arm, and had a sealed storage bag to transport your other body parts to the ER when that dangerously bored cat mauled you for fun!"

Yep, we really had to think outside the box on this one, since clothing in sizes 4-5T, pieces of spaghetti, bills needing to be filed, items in need of fixing, overdraft notices, and excuses for not paying child support (even in bundles of a hundred) probably wouldn't be that impressive to Cable and Parker's classmates.

Lincoln Logs and blocks were certainly good possibilities, but neither of the boys seemed really sold on those. So I pondered the resources available to us, which is how we decided to raid my stash of card stock I use to make cards. Brainstorming led me to the rainbow idea, and when I presented it to Cable and Parker, they both (to my surprise) were really into it.

So after supper on Thursday night, we learned about the color spectrum and ole' ROY G. BIV while I cut squares of the colors and the boys glued them into arcs to make their rainbows. We stopped periodically to tally up, and after re-counting each one twice for good measure, they each had a rainbow made of exactly 100 pieces of color (and woke up happy the next morning)!

Go ahead and count. It's all there.