Standing Ovation

I belong to this stroller exercise group for new moms called Baby Boot Camp. The basic idea is that you show up to a nearby park with your kid in a jogging stroller, and a trainer leads you and all of the other mommies through a workout while your kid gets to ride along. It's fun, and I've been going steadily since my own kidlet was 6 weeks old.

We do usually attract some curious stares from the other park-goers, and the occasional jeers from older kids who should know better. It's not everyday that you see a bunch of stroller-pushin' mammas doing high knees in synchrony down the park pathway. It's kind of like we have our own stroller version of a motorcycle gang. Except quieter. And with less leather.

Today, we were rounding a corner and we came upon a picnic area where a catered lunch was all set up and about 15+ women were milling around enjoying their event. When they saw us coming, they all scrunched up into a tight group by the path and starting clapping and cheering. We heard "Yay! "Go mommies!" "Woo-hoo!" as we ran by. We smiled and waved back, and then looked at our fellow Boot Campers like, "Now THAT has never happened before..."

I wish there were more opportunities in life for us to give each other standing ovations.

I Hate Safeway

We are fortunate enough to live in an area where we have a few options when it comes to grocery shopping. Safeway is by far the closest; literally a two minute drive. Albertsons is a bit farther down the road, maybe ten minutes, but recently a neverending road construction project has caused it to be fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on how fast those poor flagger people decide to turn their SLOW/STOP signs. And then there is Fred Meyer. Their motto is "you'll find it at Freddy's", and the problem is that I do. Usually at least nine or ten things that are NOT on the shopping list but that I decided I really MUST HAVE. So unless I'm feeling like being stuck in construction traffic with a screaming toddler, or going WAY over budget, I end up at Safeway.

Safeway apparently has employed a chimpanzee to punch in the stock orders for the week, because I have never had a completely successful shopping trip. There is always at least one thing that I need that they are out of, and it is never the same thing! I always go shopping on Friday morning, and if I knew that on Friday mornings they were likely to be out of milk, then I would just find a different day. But it is never consistent. And it's not like I'm some sort of closet gourmet and I'm looking for imported French cheese. I just need some broccoli.

Over the past few weeks, they have been out of: gallon-size 2% milk, teddy grahams, broccoli, Yoplait yogurt, black olives, bananas, sparkling water, tortillas, salad macaroni, and feta cheese. How can you call yourself a grocery store and not have any bananas? Or milk?

I hate Safeway. Safeway sucks.

My Mom's Macaroni Salad

It just wouldn't be a summer event without my mom's macaroni salad. Sibling wars have been fought over the leftovers, and more than once, my husband has made a pitiful attempt at covering up his midnight raid on a salad by smoothing out his spoon indentation and sprinkling more paprika over it. My brother's girlfriend recently renamed it "Crackaroni Salad" because of it's addictive qualities. It's just that good.

When I was getting ready to get married and move far away, I made sure to write down the recipe. It is somewhat unconventional:

1 box of little tube salad macaroni
1/2 red onion
2 celery stalks
1 can chopped olives
mayo
mustard
Lawry's seasoned salt
paprika

Boil and drain the macaroni. Chop the celery and onion and add to the macaroni with the olives. Sprinkle the seasoned salt over everything and mix in. Repeat two more times with the salt. Make a happy face with the mustard and mix in. Mix in mayo as needed. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle paprika over the top, and chill overnight.

Some notes:
*A "happy face of mustard" is exactly that. Squirt two eyes and a smiley mouth of mustard onto the mixture. Someday I will figure out how many tablespoons that is.
*One of my personal pitfalls is not adding enough seasoned salt. It always seems like I am dumping ALOT of salt onto the salad, but whenever I only do two rounds with the seasoned salt instead of three I end up having to add more and it's just not as good. So don't be stingy with the salt.
*The amount of mayo depends on your personal "goopiness" preference. I prefer a drier salad, but everybody else seems to like more mayo, so I usually use enough so that the macaroni clumps together.

Enjoy, and remember that it's perfectly normal not to be able to stop with second helpings (or thirds).