Responsible Adulthood? Nah... Let's Spend Irresponsibly!

In the last two days I've had two different friends post on Facebook about balancing their checkbooks, or that they finished the month a little more in the black than normal, etc. This has led to some interesting conversations about how even as adults we still look forward to spending our money irresponsibly and not necessarily on what it *should* be spent on.

My family spent more than I'd like to admit on visiting family, having get togethers at the house and other not actual "necessities" this month. When I spent two hours this morning balancing the checkbook and paying bills I was like "hmm.... maybe we'll be eating leftovers and not going out as much this month as we have the past couple months."

As these two threads (by two people who have never met and don't even know they each exist) progressed I was amused by some of the things that were posted. I think my favorite was:

A friend of mine just got into a fight with her husband last week because she found out that he hadn't paid some bills and they had more than enough money in the bank..his intelligent response was, "there's no way I'm wasting all of our hard-earned money on bills!"

To which the original poster of the thread responded:

it reminds me of Friends...



Chandler: Rent is (this much) per month Joey: That's *every* month? Chandler: Just the ones you... actually want to live here.
 
The post on the other friend's sight reflected not only these sentiments, but also how cash is becoming obsolete.
 
I never carry cash. I use my debit card for everything. So, I have to look online and see how much $$ I have.
 
To which that was responded by:
 
internet banking = my best friend. I think I've forgotten what cash looks like in real life. :)
 
Most of the comments were humorous to me; however a few made me stop and think about how different I am now than I was just a few years ago. I used to have my hair appointments scheduled every six weeks on the dot with at least 2 appointments in advance scheduled. Now, I just go whenever the whim hits me... after all, I don't see actual people every day so who cares? I've also went from a mandatory shopping trip at least every other week on my day off to I don't even know when the last time I bought myself something full price was.
 
I think it's mostly the kids' faults. They've slowly crushed my will to spend. Which the hubs delights in - but I still plot ways to escape and spend irresponsibly... There's birthdays and back to school shopping to be done over the next month... I bet I'll figure out a way to squeeze some nonsense for myself in there somewhere! Responsible adulthood is over-rated anyway, right?

Dinner Party Croatian Style

Saturday I hosted a dinner party with a great group of friends. We get together every other month and watch a movie, and prepare a meal based on a theme. We've done Julia Child (Julie & Julia - recipes from The Art of French Cooking) and Giada De Laurentiis (Under the Tuscan Sun - all Giada recipes). When it came for me to host I wanted to expose the group to Croatian food. Not a lot of people are familiar with it, and it is fabulous. There's not a Food Network chef (or any other one that I could think of off hand) we could dedicate the night to, but I have three Croatian cookbooks and knew it could be done.

I think the group was a little taken aback when I suggested it - but they humored me and followed the theme anyway. Croatian cooking reflects it's diverse geography and history. Croatia is in Eastern Europe, it has a rich culture and history as part of the Roman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as being part of former Yugoslavia. They do a lot of seafood - a large part of their geography is along the Adriatic coast, and then their continental cuisine is rich in lamb, chicken, pork and beef. Fresh produce plays a big part of their meals as well. Due to shellfish allergies (and the lack of availability of really fresh Sea Bass or Squid in a land locked stated 1/2 way across the world from Croatia) we did a more continental dinner - which is fitting as it would be more similar to what would be cooked in homes near the capital city of Zagreb - the region where the hubs' family lives.

OK - enough background... on to dinner! We started at noon. I thought this was a little early, but a lot of the dishes, while easy to prepare are time consuming. We had three appetizers, a soup, salad, main course and dessert. 

For the appetizer Leibe prepared a Swiss Cheese and Radish Dip (Umak od svicarskog sira i rotkvica)as well as a Roulade of Smoked Salmon (Rulada od dimlejenog lososa) and Colin made a Mushroom, Bacon and Pepper Dip (Umak od gljiva, slanine i paprike). Each of the appetizers was really good. I must admit - I hate radishes... so when I found out that one of the apps was going to feature them, I was a little hesitant. But, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was!

Swiss Cheese and Radish Dip
Umak od svicarskog sira i rotkvica

Roulade of Smoked Salmon
Rulada od dimlejenog lososa

Mushroom, Bacon and Pepper Dip
Umak od gljiva, slanine i paprike

Next was our soup. Caroline prepared an amazing Peasant-Style Vegetable Soup (Seoska juha od povraca) of pureed potatoes, leeks and carrots garnished with spinach.

Peasant-Style Vegetable Soup
Seoska juha od povraca

Caroline's soup had a great flavor. With everything pureed together it was smooth and the baby loved the left overs! This is a soup that can be used either as we had it - a prelude to a meal - or it could easily stand on it's own as a meal itself during a crisp fall day. Couple it with a heart bread and you have yourself a meal!

Course three was Joanne's Spinach, Pear and Pomegranate Salad with toasted walnuts and feta. Since pomegranate is hard to find this time of year, she substituted dried cranberries. The contrast of flavors and textures in this salad was really good - and I will say, I'd like to eat just the walnuts (toasted in olive oil) as a snack anytime!

Main course time came around and it was my turn. In selecting items, I wanted something different - that you wouldn't have every day, but still reflected meals the hubs would have back home. He tells stories of how they would frequently roast meat over a spit outside. Well, I wasn't going to build a spit in the backyard; however, slow roasted lamb is something not a lot of people cook and I thought it would be a treat to make for the group. The recipe I chose was Leg of Lamb Banovina Style (Banovacki janjeci but) which is leg of lamb seasoned by inserting slices of bacon, rosemary and garlic into small slits in the meat and then roasted at medium heat for about 2.5 hours. You serve it with a gravy and it suggested a potato side dish. Which I did Potatoes Braised with Spinach (Krumpir sa spinatom). Both of these recipes were from either the region he is from, or a neighboring region. I had him look at them in the cookbook and he said that yes, that would be something they would occasionally make there. So I was sure to be authentic!

Somehow I neglected to take a picture of our dessert, but let me tell you it was excellent! Kirsten treated us to a Hazelnut Cream Cake (Krem torta od ljesnjaka) and I brewed some Turkish Coffee (Turska kava) , we enjoyed dessert while watching our movie Harrison's Flowers -  about an American photojournalist who goes missing during the war in the early 1990's.

Of course, what dinner party isn't complete without wine? Croatian wine is hard to come by here, unless you order it from the internet and pay more for shipping than you do for the wine. I did, however, luck out and find a store in town that could get some Croatian red wine. We had this with our salad and main course. And, I bought some Cockta (a Croatian drink similar to Coca-Cola), which we made Bambus with. Bambus is a mix of part Cockta and part red wine. It sounds weird - but it's very good.

Hopefully by eating the food and watching the movie they learned a little more about that area of the world. And what it brings to the table!

The Lost Art of the Letter

I admit it, one of my TV shows is Family Jewels with Gene Simmons. I am not a KISS fan, but I am a Gene fan. Once you get past the fire eating, demon of death he's actually a pretty nice guy. I digress.

I watched an episode the other day (it was on demand, so probably a rerun from I don't know when) that really made me think about what a toll cyberspace has taken on our lives. Sure it's great for instant news on Lindsey Lohan's drunken escapades, and we can find out what's going on halfway around the world with us in the click of a button, but what about our ability to communicate?

In the episode I'm referring to Shannon (G's wife err... long time girlfriend of 20+ years and mother of his children) buys a writing desk and finds a stack of love letters inside. She goes on a quest to find the woman they are written to and return them to her. She finds the lady in a retirement home and returns the letter. The lady isn't really excited about the letters, but she tells Shannon that her favorite picture was with these letters, or maybe in a hat box somewhere... Shannon sets off on a needle in the haystack hunt for the picture.

She finds the buyer of the hatbox, and low and behold - there's the picture hidden inside in a little compartment! She returns the picture to the lady amid many tears from everyone around - see playmates and rock stars can be compassionate! We find out why the lady wasn't excited over the letters - her son is there and explains he's a prop master on movie sets and he wrote the letters using his parents names, addresses and a few true details to make them seem authentic on set. The desk Shannon bought was in some movie @ one point, and then he kept it for his mom - forgetting the letters were in there (who knew such detail went into a set, I mean those letters were probably never actually shot on camera).

But the whole time you're watching this show you are thinking these are real letters between real people. There have been books released about love letters between John & Abigail Adams, Ronald & Nancy Reagan, and many other famous people who corresponded when they were apart. The point to my blog today is that these things don't exist as much now that the Internet is taken over.

A deep heartfelt 3 page love letter has been replaced (many times) with a quick email or text saying Luv U, TTYL, etc. It's becoming rare that we even receive hand written letters or anything other than a signature inside a card at birthdays and holidays.

So, this is my long rant warning everyone that this year I'm going to be one of THOSE PEOPLE. You know, the ones where you roll your eyes because when you get their holiday card every detail of their lives are documented. Ha ha... well, maybe I won't document everything, but I do think I'll include a letter to most people giving them the scoop on what they missed out on this year. My living tribute to the lost art of the letter.

Travel Horror Stories

Admit it, you have one... we all do. A friend of mine recently travelled to Europe. Upon her way back she was screened at London's Heathrow Airport. Apparently, answering the questions honestly can get you in a bit of a security snafu. You see, they had packed their bags, but then checked them into their cruiseline's cargo hold. So when asked if her bags had been out of her possession at all, she said yes. Enter the land of security shut down and intense questioning. Add to this that she was traveling with 3 kids under the age of 12 and you can only imagine the chaos that ensued.

Whilst laughing at her Facebook post today, I couldn't help but think back on a few of my travel oddities. You know, that little black cloud that follows me around - it doesn't take vacation, even when I do. Sure none of mine are nearly as entertaining as hers, but I thought I'd share:

*Take for example my honeymoon. Following a lovely wedding the hubs and I were off to beautiful, sunny Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Little did we know we were arriving the first day of monsoon season.  Yes, you read that correctly. Gazing out of the windows of our plane I knew we were off to a lush tropical paradise, complete with sparkly water and sandy beaches. We arrived and it wasn't exactly what I had pictured, but I was still excited to explore around. Down to the dining room we go... we are told we cannot sit on the patio - because those big, grey clouds in the distance were headed our way. Fantastic seafood dinner, everything going great. Then the storm hit. Just as we were leaving. We waded through water waist deep to get to our stairwell. A cactus - yes, an actual cactus - floated by along the way. In the morning when we headed to the beach, we discovered a wasteland. You see, the monsoons wash out all the dried riverbeds right onto the beach. Just a quick dip in the ocean and you were covered with unimaginable filth. Note to self: do not go to the beach in P.V. during the first two weeks of July. We spent about 10 days there... the beaches were finally clean on day 9. Lovely.

*Example two comes a few years later. I am terrified of flying. It usually takes some sort of anxiety meds and/or a couple glasses of wine for me to fly. I had neither when we went to Disney World in 2004. I'd flown to Disney a couple times without incident. But for some reason, this particular trip I didn't fare too well. On the way home, looking out at the Gulf of Mexico between Orlando and New Orleans I freaked. I had a massive panic attack and was convinced I was traveling in the metal death trap. We were not scheduled to get off the plane when we stopped in the Big Easy... but I did. Our short flight home turned into a long drive in an overpriced rental. The hubs will never let me live that one down.

*Then there was the trip to Croatia in 2006. It was relatively uneventful. We flew on frequent flier miles, so our options on flights were limited to whatever they had for points. We had a 10 hour layover at JFK. The kids handled this ok. They surprisingly slept in the airport. But, when we went to check through security we had a lovely surprise. Apparently, middle child was flagged to be randomly searched. Umm... he was 3.5. What, you think the Mickey Mouse backpack he had filled with stuffed animals, books and dinosaurs was suspicious? We were actually accused for a few minutes of changing the information and trying to pass him off as the hubs. Umm... we gave you the birth dates upon booking. We have all the proper documentation. The security guard was baffled. She'd never heard of them having to search a toddler before. But, policy is policy. So before we knew it I was ushered over to a room to the side and my little boy was being asked to hold his arms and legs out while they patted him down. Another guard took every item out of his backpack one at a time, inspected the items, and then returned them. During the process a very solemn J looks at the guard and very seriously says, "I not dangerous. I Jonathan." A quote we will forever tease him with.

So those were the three stories that I could quickly remember. There are plenty of other ridiculous tales I could report, but in the interest of time and space I won't bore you. I would; however, love to hear your most interesting travel story!