Wordless Wednesday

Cheap Trick

There is one thing to be said about having a florist as a sister. After helping her complete all of the floral arrangements for my brother's recent wedding - I have a new appreciation for the artistry that goes into flower arranging. Let me tell you - you haven't lived until you have single handily "fluffed" 500 white carnations.

I love fresh flowers - I hate the price! I wish I lived in a better climate - where flowers grew wild and crazy, and I could wander through my garden with a little basket and cut fresh flowers daily. My house would be overflowing with Gerber's, lilies, mums and roses. However - the reality is - I live in a temperate climate where even bacteria has a difficult time thriving - and the only thing growing in my garden are dandelions.

The local grocery store has flowers - not great flowers - but it's the first thing I see when I walk through the doors pushing my daughters in that god-awful shopping cart shaped like a "car" but actually handles like a Winnebago with square wheels. I dig through the buckets - looking for something that looks half decent. Tulips are abound this spring - and cheap - so for $2.99 I grab a bunch and head home.

The "trick" is (according to my sister) is fresh water, cutting and "stripping". That's right - get naked! Well - get those flowers naked! Take off the leaves - ALL the leaves before cutting them and putting them in a vase. This is the secret that all florists don't want you to know! It may seem cruel - but so is moldy, slimy water. Besides - it's not the leaves we want to enjoy - it's the flowers. Leave the leaves for the trees. I stripped the tulips - cut them short and plunked them into a short vase. Simple, sweet and...cheap! And - then fun part about tulips is that they are the only cut flower that continues to grow (a fun floral fact I learned from my sister - oh yes - NOTHING is off limits when us two get chatting!)

So the next time hubby walks through the door with a grocery store bought cellophane wrapped arrangement of flowers (I won't ask the reason - it's none of my business really) - just remember to STRIP!

What's that green thing? Ewww!

So - I had a plan...clean out the fridge of all the 1/2 vegetables we had in the crisper and TRY and get my 4 year old to actually eat something for dinner other than a piece of dry bread. Solution - a butter knife and soft vegetables. My daughter had a blast cutting up green peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes for our impromptu sausage meatball spaghetti.



Watching her sudden interest in vegetables made me smile. Why did it take me so long to figure this out? After all - I'm smart, I have experience working with children - seriously - if it's really this easy - why not write a book and become a millionaire? I had visions of us all sitting down to a peaceful meal - without the typical screaming, whining and torture sounding moaning that occured during a family supper. "Why Mom"...my children would say over a forkful of veggies - "This meal is WONDERFUL - you are the best MOM ever!" I would smile back over my well deserved glass of Chianti and say "Really darling children...it was nothing!"


So - I then took the sausage out of the casing to make the meatballs (because how COOL are meatballs!) - fried them up, and we added all of the cut up veggies my daughter had prepared. Big pieces, eeny teeny pieces - it all went into the pan with some tomato sauce! Boiled up some noodles to serve with the sauce, and voila! One step closer to Suppertime Bliss! I can taste it!


I know - I know...we are all wishing for a happy ending. However - I will take my victories in whatever form they are presented to me. So - would you believe that my daughter actually ate some PLAIN NOODLES with her dry bread! Woo hoo! This victory is mine! (On a side note - she did eat several of the "raw" vegetables while cutting them up - so I'll take that small step in the prevention of scurvy, and give myself a mommy "pat on the back" for having my children survive another day!)

Happy cooking!!