And also Rockford made me some popcorn

I wish the weekends would stop flying by so quickly. We had a nice one, full of soccer games, playing frisbee in the back yard and watching “Doctor Who.” (And crying at the end of “Doctor Who,” because I am a sap.) I also spent some time going through the pantry and freezer, and I found enough to make most all of our meals this week. Three cheers for this week’s small grocery bill!

Monday Velveeta Helper

Again! I know! I think I may be developing a problem.

Tuesday: BBQ chicken sandwiches

I found a bucket of Lloyd’s chicken barbecue in the back of the freezer. Now doesn’t that sound like the start to a delicious meal?

Wednesday: Baked rigatoni

I used the Food Network’s mix-and-match baked pasta recipe many, many times when I first found it, and then I lost it. But I found it again this weekend, so we’ll be having pepperoni rigatoni! It has a delightful ring to it, doesn’t it?

Thursday: Trinidadian Chicken Curry

Last week’s Pioneer Woman recipe was so good I decided to try another this week. This looks to be flavor-packed!

Friday: Pizza

Homeschooling with a mild case of scatterbrain

I usually try to take a few notes as we go about our days, to make it easier to remember what we did throughout the week. I didn’t do much of that this week, though, so let’s all assume there was something very exciting that I’m forgetting to share with you.

I’m not the only one who was a little out of sorts this week. Poppy’s piano teacher described her as “scattered” after her lesson yesterday. I know she’s tired from her ramped-up activities lately, and I suspect that has something to do with her difficulty focusing. I’m still thinking about what to do to help her with that.

My personal scatterbrainedness would be greatly improved by getting up at least an hour before the kids. Pete has the uncanny ability to wake up 15 minutes before my alarm goes off regardless of what time I set it for, though, so it seems unlikely that I’ll make that dream a reality.

Math

It was an entirely ordinary week in math, but it was the only thing I took a picture of this week so I felt compelled to mention it.

Reading

We’ve reached Chapter 24 of “Anne of Green Gables,” in which the schoolteacher is planning a concert for the community. Marilla doesn’t think much of the idea:

“But think of the worthy object,” pleaded Anne. “A flag will cultivate a spirit of patriotism, Marilla.”

“Fudge! There’s precious little patriotism in the thoughts of any of you. All you want is a good time.”

And Poppy doesn’t think much of Marilla’s attitude.

“But that’s what we all want!” she said. “Doesn’t Marilla understand that? Do you think she ever will?”

Later, after I told her that her dress was backwards, she informed me that that’s the way all the pretend girls in her school are wearing their dresses these days. Because it’s more fashionable.

I think I may be the Marilla to her Anne.

In other reading news:

  • Pete flew through books 7 and 8 of the Bob Books series. I think he’s getting a handle on this reading thing.
  • The kids are very excited about Monday, because it’s the first day of the Pizza Hut BookIt program. Nothing like personal pizzas to motivate a kid! Poppy’s challenge for October is to read 500 pages, and Pete’s challenge is to master two more Bob Books.

History

This week’s “Story of the World” chapter was about Augustine, monks and Christianity’s beginnings in Britain. Poppy did one of this week’s crafts a few weeks ago at co-op, so the only craft we did was making a cross necklace out of clay and twine. The crosses are just about dry this morning, so we’ll be painting them sometime this afternoon.

Extra credit

  • Pete scored his first-every goal in soccer last week! I expected him to strike a superhero pose afterward — as he had the previous week every time he kicked the ball — but he mostly just looked very surprised.

The Daring Bakers challenge resurrects a rather old point of contention

I often can’t remember exactly how old I am this year or which exit I need to take to get to my brother’s house. But I do remember the first time I heard of empanadas, something like 13 years ago. I remember because Rockford told me about them on the phone one evening, after a fellow intern on whom he still says he did not have a crush introduced him to them one day when they went out for lunch.

Jealousy is a powerful thing. Maybe if Rockford developed a crush on my shoes I could remember where I put them.

The only empanada that I knew of before this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was the small, handheld pastry version — like the Empanadas Mendocinas featured on From Argentina with Love — so I was surprised when I read through the recipe to find that I wouldn’t be making what I was already thinking of as homemade Hot Pockets. This recipe is for Empanada Gallega, which hails from Spain and, according to Wikipedia, is the great-granddad of the little empanadas I was expecting. This empanada is a big freeform pie that’s cut into slices to serve.

The host for the September challenge had a few suggestions for filling the empanada — salt cod and tuna were both suggested — but I decided to go my own way this time. I made a vegetarian version using black beans and plantain. The filling was tasty, but the bread on my empanada was much thicker than I’d originally envisioned. I think I could fix that by rolling the dough out thinner.

The finished product was kind of like a giant sandwich. Rockford thought it was great, but that may have been because it reminded him of the days when he got to have lunch with cute South American interns.


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