So I was sitting down to write the second edition of What I’m Readin’ Wednesday (hopefully I’ll post it by the end of the week), and I got a text from the BFF asking if I cared to join her at A#1 Pro Top Nails for a pedi.  We’ve hit a rough patch, and when the goin’ gets rough in our world, the tough get their toes done.

 I may have also stopped on the way home for one of these, too.  Good times.

to wish my husbeast, The Big Boo, a very Happy Fourth Anniversary!  Love, love, love you, Boo!

Graduation 2005

Welcome to the first edition of What I’m Readin’ Wednesday.  Each week I’ll review a catalog or magazine that’s arrived in the mail.   I may also lament the loss of some of my favorite magazines.  We’ll see what happens.

This week, I’m looking at the latest Penzeys Spices catalog– Early Summer 2009 edition.  This may seem a little odd.  Who reads catalogs?  But for those who have never experienced the Penzeys catalog, I say “get thee over to their website and sign up for it.”  Now.  I’ll wait.

Their catalog has always been a favorite for many reasons.  The first is that they offer many spices at reasonable prices.  A cooking nerd like me gets all geeked up reading the descriptions of the spices.  There is usually at least one recipe that I end up trying, and very few have turned out to be misses.  The photography is cool, too.  It looks like real people took the photos.  I don’t mean that it looks unprofessional, but the food isn’t over stylized.  It looks like something I’d serve.  It’s also obvious that the Penzeys folks (led by Bill Penzey) love real cooks.  They preach the gospel of home cooks who show their love and appreciation for their family and friends by preparing good food to share with them.  For all these reasons, I have always enjoyed reading the Penzeys catalog.

I enjoyed it so much that I subscribed to their magazine, Penzeys One, when it first came out.  (I have all the issues and a lapel pin to prove I was an early subscriber.)  Somewhere along the way, I missed the part in the last issue about ceasing publication.  (Probably because I was so excited about the story about Groundhog Day.)  As I was thumbing through the Early Summer 2009 catalog last night, I thought “Why are there so many One-like stories and recipes in this?”.  The answer is that the “new” catalog is a mix of magazine and catalog, and there’s a lot to love.

Let’s take a closer look:

Penzeys Early Summer 2009

Doesn’t that salad look delicious?  It’s Steak Salad, which features Penzeys new Freshly Ground Pepper (coupon for a free small bottle included!) and is shared by Sally K. Field of Maine.  We learn on page 27 that she and her husband, Dave, spend warm summer days sailing off the coast of Hampden, Maine.  She does lots of cooking on their Flybridge Trawler, which has a teeny boat kitchen.

It’s rhubarb season here in the Midwest, and soon the strawberries will be coming on full force.  No worries– Iona Keppler shares her Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch:

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch

Iona lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa, where the World’s Largest Strawberry, a 15-foot fiberglass sculpture, sits on a post in front of City Hall.  She and her husband, Frank, have eight grandchildren.  Seriously, can you go wrong with a recipe for strawberry rhubarb crunch from a grandma who lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa?

One more:

Fresh Fruit Parfait

I want to say that I’ve met Bartolo Drago from Hopewell, New Jersey, before in the pages of One, but I could be wrong.  He’s a bocce tournament hostin’ and s’mores cookin’ fool who shares his recipe for Fresh Fruit Parfait on page 49.  Heaven in a parfait glass right there.  For reals– I started googling “how to grow fresh mint” after I read this recipe.

And I haven’t even mentioned the Cinnamon Sensations, Salad Days, Tastes of Strawberries, and Vanilla Treats in this issue.  So much good stuff to try from people who could live next door to you… from a company that truly seems to love its products.  Although I will miss the longer stories in One, I am so pleased with this new format in the catalog and am anxious to share some of the next issue in a future installment of What I’m Readin’ Wednesday.

As most people know, the Bitty Boo is my stepson.  I’ve had him since he was 3 1/2, and the only way strangers might suspect he’s my stepson is when he calls me “Jill” instead of “Mom.”  Although, I guess we could be all hip like that, but we’re not.

Being a stepmom is an interesting challenge.  When asked, I tell people it’s all the work of being a “real” mom without any of the glory or recognition.  But it also has its advantages.  As I tell Bitty, everybody has a mom but not everybody has a Jill.  He’s a great kid, and we make it work.

But it doesn’t make Mother’s Day any easier.  As expected, Bitty spends Mother’s Day with his mother, which is exactly where he should be.  But it doesn’t mean that I don’t miss getting the Mother’s Day Daddy and Me Breakfast in Bed and the handmade-at-school ‘prise presented to me on the second Sunday of May.  In the three Mother’s Days we’ve had together, the fellas haven’t really acknowledged it… I think because they didn’t really know what to do and also because Bitty was convinced that there was a Stepmother’s Day celebrated on another day.

So imagine my surprise when I came home this evening to find:

My first Mother's Day card!

 I realize that I’m acting like a 5 year-old with her first Easy Bake Oven, but this card is so dear to me for several reasons, including: Bitty picked it out by himself; it’s pink; it’s sparkly; it says “Jill”; and he signed it “Pman” (one of the many nicknames I’ve given him).  I’m also going to enjoy chowing down on my favorite treat, chocolate covered peanuts.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers– “real” and step!

Find Starstruck Cat Design in May’s Out of the Box Sampler.  There will be twenty-five boxes that include a 4 oz. Starstruck Cat handpoured soy wax candle plus a special offer.  Will your box be one?

Monsters v. Aliens

at IMAX

in 3-D

P.S. I am thankful for camera phones.

So the other night Big Boo and I were enjoying a Netflix (Bones, season 3), which is our current favorite way to watch TV.  At a certain point, he hopped up and asked if I needed anything.  (We tend to go through a lot of Coke Zero in the evening.)  So, I paused the show.  After what seemed like an eternity, I asked him if he was going to be back anytime soon (I was anxious to finish watching the episode).  He mumbled something, and then I started hearing a lot of rattling around in the kitchen, which made me nervous.  I asked him if everything was OK, and he mumbled something else.  In a couple of more minutes, he came back in the living room and presented a small plate of cheese and sausage and a bowl of crackers.  That, in itself, is nothing to dedicate a post to… but the presentation was beautiful.  Boo had arranged the sausage in the middle of the plate and placed the slices of cheese around the outside of the plate.  And the crackers weren’t just thrown in the bowl.  They were arranged in a very neat way, too.

He completely took me by surprise.  He was so pleased with himself, and I was tickled because eventhough he pokes fun when I say “You eat with your eyes first” and at all the serving pieces I’ve collected, he gets it.  And he gets me.  Which really is what having a great partner is all about.

January 2, 2009, huh?  I’ve been on vacation since right before Christmas, so I’ve kind of lost track of the days.  Isn’t that a wonderful feeling– being on vacation and not having to live by the Outlook calendar?  I’ve felt almost sinful, but it’s been great to take a little break and spend some time at home.  I am, afterall, a true homebody at heart.  Even when I was a kid.  I once called my mom from a slumber party, held directly across the street from my house, and asked to come home.  There’s your Jill Fun Fact of the day.

I always love ringing in the new year– such a great opportunity to start fresh.  Here’s what we’ve been talking about focusing on in 2009:

1. Health– Big Boo and I have recommitted ourselves to living healthier this year.  I know, such a cliche.  But truly, we’ve both put on some weight that NEEDS to come off, and we would like to have more energy.  The only place I’ve ever found more energy is through cutting out the snacks and moving around more.  We started yesterday with a short walk around the neighborhood.  We’ll continue to work on this.  And I had a KILLER migraine yesterday, which came out of nowhere.  I felt like somebody shot me through the back of my head.  It brought tears to my eyes, and I thought I might be sick.  It also ruined my plans for the rest of the day.  This is something else I need to get better under control.
2. Starstruck Cat Design– Since taking the new job in July, the poor Cat has been quite neglected.  It actually started earlier… I was SO disappointed with the outcome of the Hoosier Hills show in June, and I just couldn’t seem to pick myself up and try again.  And then I became quite busy at my day job.  Last week, I got notice that the Atlanta Mercantile is moving locations and reinventing itself, so on Tuesday, we headed up to pick up the rest of my stock.  It was the serious kick in the ass I needed to realize that there is only one person for whom a profitable, sustainable Cat is a dream, and that’s me.  If I don’t attend to it, nobody else will.  I have rededicated myself to working on it on a daily basis.  No more neglected Cat.
3. Maintain the status quo at Jill’s No Kill Cat Shelter– Five cats, three people.  We don’t need anymore four-legged kids around here.

Big Boo has been on vacation, too.  We got to spend Christmas through the afternoon of December 30 with Pman, and it was SO MUCH FUN.  We did a whole lot of nothing, but we did it together.  What else could a girl wish for?  My hope for 2009?  That we all make strides toward finding and nurturing the joy in our lives.

The cold/flu bug has hit Casa de Carnell quite hard.  Pman was home from school yesterday, as was I.  He’s gone back to school today, but his dad and I are home.  TWO DAYS unexpectedly home from work makes me feel disconnected.  A little more rest, and I should be good to go.