Food Friday

You know those weeks where you’ve had eleventy thousand million things going on and part of it is your own fault for thinking you are Wonder Woman and can get everything done NO PROBLEM but then you die from exhaustion and stress because HOW AM I EVER GOING TO DO IT ALL and then you write excessive run on sentences on your blog?!?  Yep, that’s been my week. 

Here are some highlights:

*Watching no more than 30 seconds of the Olympics and that was only when I was passing by a TV with it on.  Call me UnAmerican, call me a t*errorist but I just don’t, can’t, won’t get into them.  I’ve never enjoyed them.  I think it’s all that athleticism and dedication and spandex that makes me highly uncomfortable.  Also, how come people only care about badminton or ping pong or synchronized swimming once every four years?  If it were really that awesome wouldn’t it be like the NBA or the NFL and have it’s own league and network and franchise and stuff?  That’s what I thought.  Let the lynching begin. I can take it.  Actually, please wait til Monday to begin lynching I’m kind of in a fragile state right now.

*Helping make 8 million pancakes for the employees at my work.  8 million is a low estimate, it was probably more like 800 10 million.  I will probably never cook or eat another pancake ever EVER in my life.  My apologies to my pancake loving family but you’re on your own.  I can STILL smell pancakes.  Yuck. 

*Preparing for a garage sale of epic proportions with my friend Trisha, my in town dwelling friend whom I connived into having a garage sale with me so we could have it at her house…..in town.  Garage sales just don’t do so well in the country.  The number of totes filled with baby, toddler, and outgrown kids clothes I’m contributing to the garage sale is embarrassing.  Why do I have such an emotional attachment to an outfit that Dakota wore to church ONE TIME when she was 3 months old?!?  It doesn’t help that I’ve been known to be kind of a shopaholic a BARGAIN shopaholic but a shopaholic nonetheless.  Garage sales are fine in theory but actually executing one?  Holy cow it’s a lot of work.  I am so looking forward to Saturday at 4pm when Trisha and I take our earnings and head to town to get our toes done and eat sushi.  When times are dark in the attic filled with totes that is the shining light that gets me thru.  Wish me luck.

*Tried this coconut oil trick on my hair.  Except I didn’t have a shower cap so I went ghetto and tied a plastic grocery bag around my head instead.  I was a hot mess.  But 30 minutes later (I didn’t do the blow drying thing) I was a hot mess with super soft, shiny hair.  And I smelled like a beach so win win.  A BEACH people, QUIT CALLING ME NAMES!

*Also tried the sock bun thing for luscious, gorgeous, just stepped out of a salon waves.  Except when I anxiously took the sock bun out the next morning expecting beautiful waves to cascade down my shoulders this is what I looked like.

Apparently, it’s best if you’re going for the waves thing, to not put the sock bun in wet hair, you should do it with dry hair and then spritz it damp.  I did not follow instructions and put it straight in the sock bun immediately following a shower, then I slept on it, and then I scared the dogs with my giant, frizzy hair. 

But the good news?  I got the sock bun part figured out and love how big and beautiful my bun (BUN as in singular NOT buns, geesh people!)  looks.  Here’s how I did it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I13J7ArHTkM  I will attempt the sock bun waves another time, I’m not giving up yet.  In the meantime, I’ll keep rocking the straight up sock bun.  So next time you see me, I may have a sock in my hair. 

So yeah, good times..

But you know what makes a bad week better? 

THIS cheese-a-ball.

This cheeseball recipe has been a family staple of ours for as long as I can remember.  My mom made this cheese-a-ball for every graduation party, every wedding, every Christmas Eve, family get together, Home Interior or Tupperware party.  It’s a family legacy.  Some families have yachts and lake houses and Harvard degrees as part of their legacies but we have this cheese-a-ball.  We win.  It’s so simple yet so good and for me it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside because it’s a part of so many of my family’s memories.  Make it a part of your memories.  I just went all Hallmark card over a cheese-a-ball, send help.

I’m almost embarrassed to post this because 1) doesn’t everyone already have this recipe? And 2) it’s so ridiculously simple and not even an actual recipe.  Or maybe it is but that’s not how we do it.  Do it to your tastes but here are the basics.  Go forth and make cheese-a-ball filled memories.

Dried Beef Cheese-a-ball (must be said with an Italian accent and hand motions ex:  “Pizzzzza Pie!”)

2 8 oz cream cheese (you can use reduced fat but this is not the time or the place to use fat free), softened

1 jar dried beef (this can be found by the Spam and tuna in a cute little jar.  Also just buy 2 jars of it while you’re there you may want more dried beef in your cheese-a-ball), chopped finely, reserve some to roll cheese-a-ball in

3-4 green onions, just the bottoms minced

1 t. Worcestershire sauce (more or less to taste)

This is super hard so pay close attention.  Combine everything into a bowl.  Mix well until the beef and the green onions are somewhat evenly distributed throughout the cream cheese.  Take a bite.  Does it need more onion?  More W sauce?  You don’t want either to overpower the other or the beef, you want all 4 ingredients to blend in perfect culinary harmony.  Perfection is when it’s beefy, creamy, a little salty, and a little oniony.  I should totally be a food critic no? I mean, oniony?  Come on, literary genius.  Get it into as close to a ball shape as you can.  Stick it in the fridge to chill for a bit.  Once it’s chilled it’ll be easier to form it into a pretty ball with your hands without a ton sticking to your hands but if it does stick to your hands it's perfectly acceptable to lick it off.  Roll in reserved dried beef.  Eat with crackers or your finger, I’ve been there, I understand. 

Have a great weekend! Here’s hoping I survive!