Note: this is not pudding.
Happy Monday! I swear, I “write” this blog every day in my head, it’s just so hard to find actual time to type! I have so much to say, but I figure I’ll start out by sharing what I’ve been up to lately:
Geekery:
GeekCraft Expo, the handmade geeky craft fair I’m involved with, has been exploding all over the place. We announced the dates for our Portland show—
NOTE: I just have to say, almost as soon as I sat down to write this post, I was interrupted by my now-three-year-old daughter who told me she had to go to the bathroom. This is also why I can never write anymore! For those keeping potty training score at home: number one, 95%, number two, .01%. Pray for me.
Back to GeekCraft! Our Portland show will be Mother’s Day Weekend, May 12-13, and we’re moving to the Oregon Convention Center! This is a big move up for us that will allow us to grow the show (more geekiness!) and provide a world-class experience for exhibitors and attendees. Exhibitor applications are here!
I’ve also been doing some freelance PR for Dynamite Entertainment, publisher of such comics as The Boys, Nancy Drew, John Wick, Doc Savage, and more! If you’re a Doc Savage fan, Dynamite has a great “Build a Bundle” deal over at Groupees for the next couple of days: you can get 39 digital comics for $4.99, or 95% off the cover price, plus you can save 70% off rare Alex Ross variant comics!
Artist Alex Ross: still awesome.
Kids Stuff
We went to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA this weekend—courtesy of a book-in-advance coupon I used a year ago (I’m a planner). This was our third time there, and it is surprisingly fun for parents, although it helps that Sid and Sarah love it sooo much. I’ll go into detail in a separate, future post, but my three main tips to save money at Great Wolf Lodge are: 1) book in advance (they usually have a promo code on site to use if you book at least 60 days in advance), 2) book for one night, but get there early to enjoy the pool and lodge the day of and day after your stay, and 3) bring cereal and fruit to eat breakfast in your room. We splurged on the breakfast buffet last year (with two adults, our two kids, and Sid’s two friends) and it was expensive, and the boys were mostly excited about the sugar cereal anyway.
In other kid business, I need advice! We’re making our annual trek to Massachusetts in March, and I need ideas: what toys/activities/games can I bring to keep a three-year-old entertained on a six-hour flight?!? Help!
Cooking
But Elisabeth, the title of this blog post mentions pudding! Where’s the pudding?!? So I’ve been fascinated by this cookbook, Wildly Affordable Organic—so much so that I actually bought it after checking it out at the library. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this book before. Although I don’t really do the organic part (I am cheap), and it’s a vegetarian cookbook (we do eat meat), I love that it has seasonal menu plans, a monthly shopping lists, and cooking plans where you do the heavy lifting—say, cook five pounds of beans, two loaves of bread, pasta sauce, dessert—on the weekend, so weekly cooking is easy. But also! The recipes are weirdly addictive, especially the chocolate and vanilla pudding recipes. Pudding, which I haven’t eaten since I was a kid, and almost never from scratch! Turns out pudding is stupid easy to make, and if you make it from scratch (and place parchment right on the surface to keep a skin from forming), it tastes just like the canned pudding I loved as a kid! Memories! But also: pudding is good.
Other recipes I’ve recently made (and loved):
Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese: this is a lot of work (butterflying pork loin was so fun!), but definitely worth it. I roasted it instead of putting it in a Crock Pot because it was faster.
Panna Cotta: aka, Italian pudding. It’s my little joke (not really a joke) that I hate chewing, this is further evidence. It was delightful!
Cream Cheese Olive Roll-Ups: I made these to bring to Great Wolf Lodge because I had most of the ingredients on hand, although I substituted sundried tomatoes for green olives.
Basic Pancakes: Is this a glamorous recipe? No, it is not. Is it easy and damn delicious? Yes. Listen, Martha Stewart knows what she’s doing, and we eat these at least once a week.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Rabbit Hole
So, I read Alison Arngrim’s Confessions of a Prairie Bitch and it was fabulous. Alison is the actress who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Her life was insane (in ways both good and bad) and now she’s an AIDS activist and standup comedian who defends survivors of incest. She’s hilarious and an amazing person and I wish we could be best friends. Read it!
However. This sent me down a nutty rabbit hole. Not only did I then get Melissa Gilbert’s Prairie Tale (juicy and scandalous, but it was kind of sad that she thought then-husband Bruce Boxleitner was a healthy choice when it was so clear he was not. I hope her new husband Timothy Busfield is better) and then discover the hilarious and fast-paced Little House on the Podcast show by Kim Reed, but I got a little obsessed with Michael Landon (?!?) which led to the discovery that Highway to Heaven is on Netflix. I started watching it thinking it would be hilarious to see Michael Landon cast himself as an actual agent of God and weirdly touching to see him and Victor French (Mr. Edwards!) team up again, but it is legitimately pretty terrible and Landon was lucky it was pre-peak TV. I am still going to watch it all.
So far Michael Landon, angel, has solved elder abuse/neglect, alcoholism, the grief of losing your husband and young son tragically, and racism!
Oh, and I’m re-reading The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. When I commit to a rabbit hole, I go all the way. Don’t even get me started on road tripping to Missouri, because it. Is. Happening. Someday.
So. What’s up with you? Post your updates and comments below!
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