What's a Guy to Do?

For the first time in more years than I can remember, I'm an empty nester.  My kids tracked out from school on Friday, so that night, my wife took them to New England to stay with her parents for the week.  Tomorrow night, she'll return by herself so that we can enjoy some peace and quiet (and some good food) by ourselves to celebrate out tenth anniversary.  But in the meantime, I've got no responsibilities!  So, I ask "What's a Guy to Do?" Should I drink myself into oblivion?  Should I eat McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts for every meal?  Can I sleeping until 11am and go to sleep at three in the morning?

No to all of the above!  It's 7:42am on Sunday and I've already been up for an hour, let the dog out, cleaned up a bit, and now I'm writing a blog post.  After almost eight years of steady wake up calls from screaming babies, then crawling toddlers, and now demanding children, it's pretty much a certainty that this body isn't ever going to sleep late again.

So I'm up, but I should be vegging on the couch, right?  Well, yet again, after all this time paying bills, mowing lawns, grocery shopping, and simply cleaning up behind everyone else in this house, I'm prepared to face the facts that I'm a doer.  If I'm not getting stuff done, I'm thinking about getting stuff done.  So, as they say in these parts, let's just get 'er done.

The good news is that while much of what I've been doing is chores, I'm also focusing this weekend on two of my three passions, while my other passion (my kids) goes lobster fishing.  I was supposed to play golf last night at an outdoor par three course under the lights, but the summer of rain was prevalent once again, so that didn't happen.  But it did give me time to watch Argo, which I had been dying to see.  Good choice by the way.  And it gave me more time to cook up creamed corn for the first time, alongside a stuffed burger I picked up at Whole Foods.

Here's the recipe for the corn (single serving), which was rich and delicious:

Cut off the kernels from two raw ears of corn.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on medium-high heat, then add kernels and 1/2 tablespoon of flour.  Cook for five minutes, stirring frequently.  Whisk in 1 cup of milk and a few tablespoons of cream cheese.  Simmer on a low boil for 10 minutes, stirring often until it's thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I also added a few dashes of Habanero hot sauce.

I'm going to pause here for about 12 hours and finish writing the rest of this post tonight, after I've cooked up a few more delicious meals.  See you soon...

And I'm back.  Did you miss me?  Ok, so today was a cooking and dish washing fest.  I started off by making hash browns using red potatoes and a chili pepper from our garden topped with two sunny-side up eggs and bacon, all cooked, of course, in the bacon fat.

While I had that cooking, I made a batch of tomato sauce with balsamic vinegar using several pints of freshly picked cherry tomatoes, also from our garden.  

Then, once I had chowed down on my breakfast, I baked up two Amish cinnamon breads from a starter my wife had gotten from one of her co-workers a few weeks back.  This is actually the second round of breads we've made, so we'll see if mine comes out as good as my wife's did.  After all that, I took a break to let my pruney hands recover from all the dishes I had to wash.  Thank goodness we have a super wide, deep sink!

I had a small lunch so I'd be plenty hungry for the dinner I planned.  Since my wife is not a fan of mushrooms and I love them, I decided I needed to honor the Great Fungus.  As a treat, I picked up some Chanterelles from Whole Foods.  At $30 a pound, a few would do, about $3 worth.  I also picked up some Crimini mushrooms.  I also planned on fully testing my abilities by making fresh pasta rags, but after mowing and all those dang dishes in the morning, I decided on packaged pasta.  The pasta making will just have to wait for another day.  To go with the pasta, a wild mushroom cream sauce and pan- seared chicken.  Here's how I made it:

I started by pan-searing some chicken breasts in a cast-iron skillet and then finished them in the oven.  When they were done, I sliced them into bite-sized pieces.  In the same pan, back on the stove top, I sautéed some prosciutto to render some of the fat out, and after a few minutes, add some butter, garlic and red pepper flakes.  When the butter melted, I added the sliced mushrooms and some fresh thyme from the garden and cooked for about three minutes.  Then I added about a cup of heavy cream and simmered it down for about five minutes.  Lastly, I added in the cooked pasta and chicken and tossed it through to soak up the sauce.  I plated it up and topped it with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Beautiful wild mushrooms

Prosciutto rendering down

Mushroom and prosciutto simmering in the cream

The final glorious product!

Now I find my belly full and my mind satisfied after a wonderful and relaxing day in the kitchen.  So where did the sports come in to my weekend?  I've got a 7:56am tee time tomorrow with a good buddy.  A great way to top off my home alone weekend!

Why Do People Insist on Lighting Fireworks?

After a short hiatus from my blog writing, I'm back and inspired tonight.  So far, I have shied  away from taking strong stances on controversial issues in my previous posts.  But tonight, I'm a little fired up and feel the need to voice my frustration.

I've just come from the annual July 4th neighborhood block party.  We all had a great time, until about an hour ago.  That's when I had to make a pretty immediate exit with the girls.  Now, the party is still going strong, but I'm sitting in my home office with my kids upstairs doing their best to fall asleep amidst the loud bangs of fireworks coming from up the block.  Several dozen adults with kids ranging in age from two to eighteen all sitting around watching a few of the guys setting up and igniting a wide variety of fireworks purchased just over the border.  It's just another part of the annual tradition, and a tradition that thousands, if not millions, of people around the country partake in. 

And just as lighting the fireworks is a tradition, so is the thousands of ambulance rides to the hospital that follow each year.  Heck, why don't we just grab our guns and have a wild wild west shootout like we're John Wayne.  Ok, so maybe that's a little over the top, but the fact is, everyone's heard of the dangers, and yet everyone continues to do it.  In 2011, 4 people died and 9,600 were treated in emergency rooms for fireworks injuries.

And worst of all tonight was the challenge of trying to teach my two daughters why we don't want them playing with fireworks and sparklers, while watching their friends play with them with the acceptance of their parents.  I'm not sure what was worse, convincing my kids they are too dangerous to play with, or trying to explain that they shouldn't worry about their friends getting hurt.  What a catch-22.

In the end, once the fireworks started, the loud noise was too much for either of them to handle and we headed home crying and with hands over the ears.  So I don't think the desire was there anymore to be a part of the action.  But it made me really think about the best ways to teach my kids right from wrong when there are so many examples of people they trust doing that same wrong all around us.  Tonight it was the fireworks.  Tomorrow I'm sure it will be something else.  I guess this is what it's going to be like now that they've reached the age of being able to understand these types of issues.

Raleigh Fireworks

Let me conclude by saying that I love my neighborhood and all of my friends, and this post is in no way meant to reflect poorly on those involved or to act in specific judgment of them.  I've written several other posts about how wonderful these folks are and how I trust them like family.  But it is meant to ask the general question "Why Do People Insist on Lighting Fireworks?".  After all, so much can go wrong.  Tomorrow there are fireworks in downtown Raleigh run by professionals.  Let them do what they do best, and let us do what we do best...watch.

I know I rarely get many comments on my posts, but I'd love this one to be different.  Please share your personal experiences with fireworks or your thoughts on this topic.  I'd also love to hear how you tackle this types of issues with your kids and teach them to be strong in making good choices when others may not.