OK all - I am taking the advice of some of you who gave me suggestions about my missing mojo. I have decided to revisit some of my favorite posts from the past that you may have missed. A new post will be up this weekend, but for now, I hope you enjoy the return of Alpha Mom vs Slacker Mom!

Barbeque Chicken Calzones

Alpha Mom - a modern mom who is confident and in control, a well informed decision-making multitasker. Hip, educated, technologically savvy, type A–personality mom.

I know that this is completely against all things good about the feminist movement, but I have always wanted to be like June Cleaver, or our modern day example, (minus all of the random murders, drug issues, etc) Bree Van de Camp. I would love to be the mom that always has linens on the table adorned with a beautiful centerpiece of fresh cut flowers from my garden in the middle. Having a plate of fresh from the oven cookies available whenever the little ones come in from playing in the picket fenced yard would be ideal. Having my home be in tip top shape, laundry never piling up, and my kitchen sink always shiny would be standard behavior for me. I would be the Alpha Mom… complete with the hip clothes, ever full PDA and a shining disposition.

I read an article in a small local magazine this week about the Alpha Mom and her opposite… the Slacker Mom. As much as I try to be like the Aplha Mom, I have discovered that my tendencies tend to be more Slacker Mom oriented. An example of this would be last nights dinner.

Alpha Mom - Alpha Mom would have looked at her menu for the week early on in the day, making notes of what meat needs to be thawed and what advanced preparations need to be made for dinner to be a complete success.

Slacker Mom - Slacker Mom remembers at 4:30pm that Calzones is on the menu. She completely forgot to start the bread dough and at this point, it is too late for it to rise and be ready by the 5:30pm dinner time. She looks in her fridge and realizes that there is no meat thawed, so she quickly takes some chicken out of the freezer, sticks it in the microwave and uses the handy defrost feature.

Alpha Mom - Alpha Mom would pull out her binder of organized recipes, or better yet…she would look on her PDA recipe program and pull up the perfect, tried and true Calzone recipe. After remembering that her recipe requires fresh Basil, Alpha Mom would put on her matching gardening gloves and head out to her bountiful herb garden in the backyard. She would clip some fresh Basil from her flourishing Basil plant and happily take it inside, ready to be added to the recipe.

Slacker Mom - Slacker Mom is in a rush and barely has time to look through recipes. She pulls up Recipezaar and pours through the Calzone recipes, hoping to find one that does not require a yeast based crust or store bought pizza crust. Once she finds a recipe that will work she notices it uses Basil. She looks at her barely thriving Basil plant and realizes that she does not have enough basil. She remembers that her neighbor is on vacation and that her Basil plant is like Alpha Mom’s…huge, bushy and flourishing. She crosses the street and sneaks into her fenced yard…snipping several Basil leaves off the plant and then returns home, pleased at her sleuthing abilities.

Alpha Mom - Alpha Mom doubles the recipe for her Calzones so that she can freeze some for her family. This way, her family can enjoy hot, fresh from the oven Calzones any time they wish.

Slacker Mom - Slacker Mom cannot think past 2 hours from now, let alone think about what her family can have for lunch a month down the road.

Alpha Mom - Alpha Mom has the kitchen back in order, her makeup and hair freshened up, and a smile on her face…ready to greet her loving husband at the door when he returns home. Dinner, complete with salad and fresh vegetables, will be hot and on the table by the time he comes downstairs after changing out of his work clothes.

Slacker Mom - Slacker Mom barely looks up when her husband comes home from his week long business trip. She and the kitchen are covered in flour and dough and dishes are everywhere. The kids are causing a commotion in the background, probably cutting each others hair or something, and the Calzones have yet to be baked.

Alpha Mom - Alpha Mom and her family enjoy a nice dinner outside on their patio…sipping lemonade, having intellectual conversation, and listening to brilliant little Timmy spouting off Fibonacci number sequences.

Slacker Mom - Dinner is served, outside on the deck. Calzones is it…no veggies, no salad…no intellectual conversation. In fact listening to the kids argue about who acted best while daddy was gone is the complete extent of the conversation.

I think you get the idea. I am definitely not the Alpha Mom. I am also not a complete slacker like I make myself out to be. I at least had a menu for the week. I did not give up and run out to McDonald’s for dinner. I was resourceful enough to know which neighbor to steal Basil from. I tried a new recipe, and it is one that will now be my standard Calzone recipe. If I was the Alpha Mom all the time, I wouldn’t have needed a recipe without the yeast based dough. Because I am not the Alpha Mom I discovered a Calzone recipe that has the most tender and delicious outer crust. The filling was a nice change from the typical Calzone and the reason why no intellectual conversation was heard at dinner time was because everyone was too busy stuffing their faces full of these delicious Calzone’s.

If you, like me, aren’t the Bree Van de Camp of your block and need a recipe that does not require a lot of advance preparation, go with this slacker…these Barbecue Chicken Calzones will be a hit with your brilliant family.

Barbeque Chicken Calzones (Adapted from Recipezaar)

Dough

2 ½ - 3 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons fresh basil

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup butter , melted

2/3 cup warm water

6 teaspoons instant powdered milk 2 eggs

Filling

2 teaspoons margarine or butter

1 onion , diced

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts , cooked and diced

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 1/4 cups barbecue sauce

1. Combine 2 ½ cups flour, baking powder, sugar and basil.
2. Add milk powder to water and stir until disolved, add to dry mixture.
3. Add eggs and melted butter and mix well. Add more flour until dough is easy to work with. Not dry, but not super sticky.
4. Set aside while making the filling.
5. For the filling: Cook onions in butter over medium heat until onions are tender.
6. Add chicken and cook through.
7. Remove from heat and stir in barbeque sauce and cheese.
8. Divide dough into 8 pieces and roll out into 6 inch circles.
9. Place ½ cup of filling in each circle.
10. Fold dough in half and seal edges tightly.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until top begins to brown slightly.
12. Serve warm with extra barbeque sauce to dip in if desired.

The winner is…Shelley Steele of Shelley Does Marin! She won the Taste of Home Cookbook giveaway. Shelley, I’ll email you for your address and will send it out right away.

My heart is so heavy tonight and I just cannot seem to get past the emotions I am feeling. I tried to sleep but my tears won’t stop flowing and and the gut wrenching emotional pain is not letting up.

My 6 year old is the kind of boy I want with all of my heart to raise. He is the kid who when he pulls an opponents flag in flag football, he picks it up off the ground and hands it to the person he “tackled”. If one of his classmates forgets to bring an afternoon snack to school, he shares his snack with them. When his classmates are spending their reward tickets in their school store and one of them is short a bit of being able to get what they want, Jacob offers up some of his tickets to them. He is a kind and gentle boy with such a warm heart and I love him dearly for that. 

We had parent teacher conferences this week and it came to no surprise to us when Jacob’s teacher shared with us how quiet and shy he is in class. He is succeeding in all of the academic areas… reading beyond where he needs to be, scoring high in math, etc. He is, however, painfully shy at school. His Kindergarten teacher brought this to our attention last year and we knew before then that he was shy around adults. He is such a rule follower at school and does not want to take any chances with getting into trouble. At home and with our neighbors and family, we see a different boy. A boy who is outgoing, who laughs a lot and who likes being right there in the middle of the action. It is sometimes hard for me to believe that the boy the teachers talk about and the boy at home are even the same child. Jacob does love school, which I am so happy about. When we are out of school on breaks, he is often anxiously counting down the days until he gets to go back.

When we asked Jacob’s teacher about his friends and recess, she said “Jacob is such a nice kid. At recess he is what I would call kind of a tag-a-long… he isn’t aggressive like the other boys, but he always tries to fit in and do things with the other students.” The concerned mom in me said, “He is playing with other kids though, right? He isn’t a loner playing off in a corner by himself, is he?” She assured us he wasn’t and that he just wasn’t as aggressive about getting into the center of things as some of the other boys.

Today out of the blue I decided to ask Jacob this question… “Jacob, are you ever lonely at school?”. His response shocked me as he has never let on to feeling alone at school. “All the time. I am lonely every single day at both of my recesses. Some of the kids are mean to me and I hate going to recess.” I tried to get more out of him… he named a few names and indicated that part of it was because he isn’t any good at kickball, which is apparently has taken over tag, which was the popular thing to play at the beginning of the school year. My.Heart.Broke. Right then in there, I wanted to snatch him up in my arms and shelter him from this world we live in. I wanted to put a magic shield around him so that he never had to feel alone again. I wanted him to know that someday…hopefully soon… his kindness and warm heart will matter so much more to the world than his ability to play kickball. 

It is official…I hate recess now too. You can bet that each and every day, during those two periods in the day, my heart will be breaking all over again for my sweet boy and I will hope and pray that he is finding his way and is not feeling lonely.

Why does parenting have to leave us feeling so raw? I am certain that the pain he feels, I feel ten fold. I can only hope that he does not feel it as strong as I am feeling it. 

I know that this isn’t my family blog and I typically reserve this type of post for that blog, but for now they are being combined until my mojo returns! I appreciate you listening… I feel better having had the opportunity to get my thoughts out there.

With that, I will leave you with a recipe. A recipe that is so simple… I could only wish that life were the same.

Garlic Shrimp Pasta (from Recipezaar)

30 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 6 -8

I am trying… desperately trying. It seems that many of the things I usually love to do… blogging, photography, cooking, reading, etc. are hidden somewhere among a mass of things that stress me out. Those activities that I deeply love to do are falling into the same categories as cleaning my house, paying the bills and shaving my legs. Things that I have to do but that just don’t make me jump for joy.

I am finding great happiness in my kids right now, which I am thankful for, but I need more than that. I need to feel productive and I want to BE productive, but the part of me who has the energy to produce just isn’t coming forward right now. She is hidden… sleeping in a deep coma apparently hidden until the day when this pregnancy isn’t knocking me down every time I feel like I can stand up.

This past Monday, I did find a smidgen of energy and decided to use it to please my husband. Not what you think people… I baked him an apple pie. He has been so good through all of this and I appreciate his love so much. No matter what, he always seems to pick up the pieces that I let fall and he does it without a bit of resentment. I felt like the one day I had some energy and the desire to cook something, it would only be appropriate to make him one of his favorite desserts.

As most of you know, I am pretty much a stick to the recipe kind of cook. One of the exceptions to that is when I make apple pie. I go off of one of my favorite recipes and then rarely measure. My apple pies are a scoop of this, a scoop of that and usually filled with more sugar than should be allowed! I always combine brown sugar with white sugar because I like the caramel taste the brown sugar adds when mixed with the apples. Gone by noon the day after I made it, and only eaten by one person in our house, I would say that this pie was much appreciated and quite a success!

Kentucky Apple Festival Apple Pie

SERVES 6

Crust

Image courtesy of TasteofHome.com

Whitney, Stacy and Cathy… today is your lucky day! The Random Number Generator selected you all as the three winners for the Pizza Hut gift certificates. Soon you will have the chance to try their new Tuscani Pasta and an order of breadsticks. Congratulations to you and thanks to everyone for participating. A special thanks to Pizza Hut for this great opportunity!

I have to apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. We recently found out that I am…. Surprise!… expecting baby number 4. I have been incredibly sick with this pregnancy and just haven’t had a whole lot of energy to cook. It is hard to write a food blog when you aren’t cooking! Anyway, I promise that things will be back to normal soon and appreciate you all hanging in there. I am slowly but surely starting to get my mojo back, at least a couple of days a week. Cooking supper and then being able to eat it these days is a monumental milestone. I can’t wait for this all to pass.

In the meantime, I have a cookbook to give away! I have multiple copies of The Taste of Home Cookbook and would love to give one to you. This is one huge cookbook full of recipes from trusted home cooks, like you and me. If you like Taste of Home magazine, I promise you will love this cookbook. To enter to win, please leave a comment after this post telling me what your number one favorite cooking magazine is. All entries must have a valid email address. Comments can be left up to midnight CST on Monday, October 27th and the random drawing will take place the next day. Thanks and good luck!

Photo courtesy of PizzaHut.com

I grew up living in the country and all of my friends lived in town. I remember always being jealous of the folks in town because they could have Pizza Hut delivered to their homes. We lived too far out, so if we wanted pizza, we either had to go all the way into town to eat at the Pizza Hut restaurant, have dad bring some home after work, or make our own at home.

One of the silly big thrills for me when I left home for college was living in a town where you could have food delivered straight to your door! Pizza, Chinese, Sub Sandwiches… a whole new world of delivery options were available to me. It was quite an exciting thing for this small town country girl!

I now live in a Kansas City suburb, and we really don’t have many delivery options besides pizza. With the delivery options available, my family prefers Pizza Hut.

The other day, a representative from Pizza Hut contacted me about trying out their new Tuscani Pasta. She wanted to have some delivered to my family for dinner and also wanted to give three of my readers the opportunity to win gift certificates of their own to give the new Tuscani Pasta a try. I haven’t been feeling well at all the last couple of weeks (hence my lack of blogging…sorry!) and my husband has been traveling. The thought of having something delivered to my house besides pizza thrilled me, and I readily accepted.

Pizza Hut delivered their Premium Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese Tuscani Pasta to my house this past Friday along with an order of their garlic breadsticks. I half expected the pasta to be dry, but the Pizza Hut Premium Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese arrived and it was creamy, cheesey and full of flavor. The serving was extremely generous… we were able to have 2 1/2 meals out of this one order of pasta! The whole family loved it and it was such a welcome change from our normal delivery options.

Pizza Hut would like to offer three of my readers gift certificates for their own order of Tuscani Pasta and breadsticks. To be considered, please leave a comment after this post telling me what your favorite delivery food is. Earn an extra chance to win by making a comment with a link back to this post on Twitter and leave an additional comment on this post notifying me of your Tweet. For another extra chance to win, post about this giveaway on your blog, then leave an additional comment on this post linking back to your post. The giveaway will end on Monday, October 20th at 11pm CST, the random drawing will take place and winners will be announced on Tuesday. Thanks and good luck!

Baked Apples from Apples and Butter

Adopt-a-Blogger 2 is quickly approaching the end of its first month. I hope that all of you are enjoying the relationships you are building and are learning a lot from each other!

When this round of Adopt-a-Blogger started, I gave you all a brief introduction to my adoptee, but I think it is high time that Jessica from Apples and Butter gets a formal introduction from me. Jessica has a beautiful blog. She is a great writer and is a pro at food photography! I can’t believe how good her pictures are considering she has only been blogging for four months. I asked Jessica a few questions so that we could all get to know her better. At the end of the interview, I have a challenge for all of my readers, so please check it out and leave your feedback in the comments section on this post.

Without further ado, please welcome Jessica from Apples and Butter to the food blogging community!

If you had to describe your blog in one paragraph, how would you describe it?

Apples and Butter is about finding the balance between healthy cooking (an apple a day keeps the doctor away) and rich foods (butter). I’ve done both extremes of the spectrum – cooking all rich foods, or trying to be healthy all the time – and neither one left me very satisfied. So, here I am, trying to find balance. At the end of the day, I hope Apples and Butter is really just about good food and beautiful food photography.

When and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in June of 2008. I have wanted to start a food blog for years and after taking some pictures in my garden one day and making food from some of the same things I had photographed, I thought – you know what? Today is the day. I’m starting a blog. It was planned for years, yet very spontaneous at the same time.

Is there anything about the blogging world that frustrates you?

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the technology side of it. While I consider myself pretty tech savvy, I’m a long way away from learning how to write html and work on the design of my site. In that sense, I’m still really limited.

Shrimp Stir Fry from Apples and Butter

What have you enjoyed best about blogging?

I have really enjoyed how consistently Apples and Butter has kept me cooking. I love nothing more than being in the kitchen, but with my busy life, sometimes a whole week would go by without my making much more than a quick weeknight meal. Apples and Butter has given me a reason to put in the extra effort and I have been so much happier as a result. I also have enjoyed getting to know some of the other food bloggers out there who are as obsessed with food as I am!

Do you have any other hobbies? If so, what are they?

Cooking is absolutely my main hobby. It’s what my friends know me for. It’s why I bring my own knives with me on vacation - so I can cook in the downtime. It’s why when my family gets together, the first question is always – what’s on the menu?

What are some of your favorite websites?

Smitten Kitchen

Dine and Dish

The Leftover Queen

Life Lightly Salted

If you knew someone who had been blogging for less time than you, what advice would you offer them?

Dive right on in! The food blogging community is a great place with a ton of people waiting to read your stuff and compare recipes. Just know that to get the love you have to give the love! Make sure and visit lots of sights to let people know what you think of their cooking.

What are three things you hope to get out of the Adopt a Blogger program?

Kristen has an amazing site with a beautiful design and clearly a large audience. I am really excited to hear some of her tips on growing Apples and Butter and making it look like a beautiful and professional site!

Kristen here again. Isn’t she great? I’m so excited to be her Adopt-a-Blogger mama! Now, this is where you all come in. Jessica has a ton of really great recipes on her site. I want you to go take a look at what she has to offer (and please leave her a comment to say hi!), and then come back here and in the comment section of this post choose what one recipe of hers should be the first one that I make? The recipe with the highest number of “votes” will be the first Apples and Butter recipe I feature on Dine & Dish.