Senior Moment Saturday

March 20, 2011 at 5:18 pm (Musings)

Last (last) Saturday I woke up to sunshine and the delight of knowing three wonderful friends were coming over for brunch. I had a stress-free morning ahead. I keep my house very neat and it was clean enough for friends who don’t look past your heart to ogle and judge your dust.

I had exactly two tasks to complete between 8am and the gathering at 11am. One task was to make my impossibly easy Cheese Danish (thank you Nancy Goss!), so that it would be warm from the oven at just the right time. The other task was to make a pot of coffee.

I am providing the Cheese Danish recipe because it is the easiest, most delicious brunch item I have ever come across.

2 pkg Crescent Rolls (8 rolls per pkg)
roll out one full package into 9×13 greased pan (glass is best)
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese softened
1 egg separated (save white)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix together in a blender or mixer until fully blended. Smooth over bottom layer of crescent rolls.
Roll out 2nd pack of crescent rolls and place over cream cheese mixture. Brush top with beaten egg white.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
 

I enjoyed the wonderful sound of thwop thwop as I banged the crescent roll package against the edge of the counter – and smiled at the extremely satisfying pop! as the dough was freed from its straight jacket.

I pulled the rolls apart and pressed them into the base of the greased dish. About that time I noticed the faint smell of garlic or onion. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it must have been because Lyryn had heated her calzones for Family Dinner in our oven on Wednesday night.

I continued on with the beating of the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla into a beautiful white swirl of deliciousness. I managed to refrain from licking the beaters. Okay - okay! So maybe I did happen to lick the spatula. But not the beaters! I am making progress…

I put the completed dish into the oven and proceeded to prepare the coffee, using twelve servings of water and coffee grounds. Then I went upstairs to change clothes.

When I returned to the kitchen it looked to me like the coffee maker had exploded. Sizzling water and coffee grounds covered the counter. I had no clue what had happened and assumed the coffee maker was broken.

I pulled the Danish from the oven and again caught a strong whiff of garlic, but pushed the thought aside as my friends began to arrive. Janice came first. She doesn’t drink coffee so the lack of it was no concern to her.

Margie arrived next. When I informed her that there had been a coffee calamity, her expression resembled a deer caught in the headlights. What should we do, what should we do??? MUST HAVE COFFEE!!!!

Margie decided to investigate, approaching my coffee maker with caution. She opened it, only to discover that there was no filter in sight. “Kris, did you put a filter in here?” Well… umm… obviously not.

In my defense, the coffee maker had come with a built-in filter. Unfortunately, one time the coffee grounds had been forgotten and sat so long that the filter became moldy beyond repair. So whenever I need to use the coffee maker I use a paper filter. But not this time!

We laughed and laughed about my senior moment and the ensuing mess it created. Margie took charge of the coffee maker, rinsing it out, doing a trial run through the filter (sans coffee grounds). She is serious about her morning coffee and was going to get it one way or another.

The cheese Danish was cooling on the stove by now, and Margie popped her cream-cheese-filled French toast into the already-warm oven. Kim arrived and we all sat down at the dining room table with our full plates of delicious looking food. But there was still a weird scent of garlic in the air. The others began to notice it as well.

Our first bites of cheese Danish produced a collective look of perplexity. It tasted like garlic! Margie asked if there was salt in the recipe. She suggested that I might have used garlic salt by accident. I insisted that there is no salt in the recipe! She looked doubtful.

Attila had gone out to do errands and when he arrived back he caught us mid-mystery-garlic-discussion. “Uh…. it is probably in the crescent rolls.” I ran to the trash and pulled out the cover of the package – Garlic Butter Crescent rolls! Who knew they even existed?

As most of you know, I do not cook. And I do food shopping under duress, using a very specific list that I NEVER stray from. I had come home the night before (from a twelve-hour day at work) at 9:30pm, and was too exhausted to function. I still needed the cream cheese and crescent rolls, so Attila volunteered to do a Wal-mart run. He is the night owl. He purchased the rolls without even reading the label since he was not aware they made garlic butter-flavored rolls either!

The moral to the story is this: Only let your husband do the food shopping if 1) he reads labels or 2) you want to live a life that always contains the element of surprise.

I will take the element of surprise over accuracy any day. It is so much more amusing.

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Burgers With Brent

March 2, 2011 at 12:43 pm (Family)

Nearly a year ago it was Brent’s turn for his dinner out alone with his parental units. As he approached our booth at Chili’s I remember thinking that this was an adult man joining us. He was no longer the little boy who spent his childhood entertaining us with his quirky goofball personality.

I also remember thinking that in spite of his paint-and-spackle-covered work clothes, his blond hair, striking blue eyes, and confident stride made one forget his humble attire.

When Brent was a little boy he worked summers helping Attila with his handyman jobs. That first summer (when Brent was eleven) his “wages” consisted of lunch from Wawa – a big thrill indeed. He was perfectly happy with the arrangement!

Summer after summer, Brent continued to apprentice with Attila. Eventually he did get paid in actual US dollars. He also developed his father’s knack for fixing things and creating something out of nothing.

We used to video each child about once a year, repeating the same questions every time. This resulted in a wide array of answers depending on the age and mood of the child. One year, when Brent was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he soberly told the camera that he wanted to be “a carpenter, a comedian, or a bus boy.”  Now he makes his living as the owner of Balla Custom Services, so he clearly “nailed” the carpenter part.

While Brent’s comedic silliness has been somewhat subdued by the realities of adulthood, he assures us that he still lets loose with extreme wackiness when at home with his beautiful wife. Lucky Tara! And his dream of becoming a bus boy? Well, we will just have to ask Tara how often he clears the dinner table.

Brent was never a big reader. He was more of a do-er. He attacks all activities with explosive enthusiasm. Some of his pursuits have included high school drama, singing, work camps, making music videos and short films, building a waterfall and pond in our back yard, organizing huge yard sales that brought in a surprising amount of cash, house renovations, college (he is three credits short of an Associate Degree) and building his own business. His passions are eclectic and tend to be very creative.

Brent is one of those people who is not afraid to make a fool of himself.

And sometimes, he can be a real superhero.

He knows how to get in and out of tight spaces!

As Brent became a young adult he was convicted that in order to press  into the heart of God, he had to commit daily to delving into His word. At 5am you will find Brent reading his Bible and doing devotions.

Brent will turn 27 this April. I am so proud of the man he has become. In our last Christmas letter (2008!) he joked that he was homeless at the time. In a fairly short period of time he had gone from living in a rented house, to living in his grandmother’s basement, to living in his sister’s attic - all before getting married in December of that year. Sounds  more like home-more than home-less to me!

In the winter of 2009-2010, Brent’s company managed to remain quite busy despite the stunted economy. He was able to offer employment to more than ten people (including four family members) who had no other job at the time. His company is currently booked through June 2011.

Brent’s faith, persistence, committment, and willingness to grow in the Lord, are an encouragement to others. Tara walks by his side – loving wife, best friend, and partner in silliness. Oh how we love them both!

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