Posts Tagged ‘holiday’

Happy Popcorn Easter!

My mom sends the BEST packages. Granted, they don’t come as frequently as they used to, since I guess she assumes that now that I’m Making It On My Own I can buy my own giant Mr. Potato Head or demonic singing hamster robot. They are even more exciting now because of their rarity! And the fact that Rachel is marginally less likely to throw them from a third story window through annoyance (or bloodlust?). This weekend I got a popcorn egg decorating kit! I assume for the lesser known holiday of Popcorn Easter, when a giant, sentient corn ear travels to houses at night and leaves popcorn eggs for all the children.

In case you are behind the times, a popcorn egg is just like a popcorn ball, but egg shaped!

Between hardboiled eggs and Cadburry Cream eggs on the Egg Tastiness Spectrum

The kit came with a bunch of different candies and marshmallows, and a tube of white “chocolate flavored candy glue” to attach them to the egg. It also had instructions that stated (among other things) that you would need “scissors and creativity!!” Megan insisted that reading the instructions was totally necessary but I was filled with the spirit of POPCORN EASTER ADVENTURE and paid her no heed.

Me, paying Megan no heed! Later she bit me in punishment.

Unfortunately, Steven, with characteristic and annoying artistry, clearly made the best popcorn egg person:

He's happy because he's made of smashed tootsie roll and popcorn!

After softening up the green tootsie roll, I twisted it in strands to give my guy greasy looking hair! Also, his mouth was made of pink Good N’Plenty pieces.

The owl napkin holder does not approve

Megan decided not to compete with Steven’s face making skills and did a pattern instead:

So ready for Popcorn Easter right now!

Unfortunately, the colorful sprinkled pieces ended up tasting like death inside:

The popcorn eggs themselves tasted delicious! Way better than the candy we had used to decorate them. I can say that this was, without a doubt, the best Popcorn Easter ever! Thanks, Mom Ladd.

Thanksgiving Reborn! Like a tasty Phoenix!

I suspect there are more people than you’d think who dislike most or all traditional Thanksgiving food. My personal opinions are:

Turkey: Bland and uninteresting
Gravy: Incredibly suspect and not to be trusted
Cranberry Sauce: Just give up and be JELLO already
Mashed potatoes: Acceptable
Stuffing/Dressing: Good. Or, I guess I should say, the variation of it my family makes is good. The kind that comes from a box that Steven likes tastes like eating instant grits before cooking them.
Green bean casserole: Why would you want to adulterate perfectly good green beans?
Sweet potato casserole: Too sweet unless it is literally just marshmallows on top of a sweet potato. None of this brown sugar/melted butter nonsense.

And the thing is, I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks most Thanksgiving food is just kind of eh, at best. And still almost everyone eats the same thing every year, just because it’s “tradition”. Lame.

If you’ve ever heard me rant about weddings at all (and anyone who asks me anything like “Have you set a date yet?”, hears my entire speech of righteousness), you know that I hate doing things just for tradition’s sake. Somehow as a child I got the impression that once I became an adult, no one was going to tell me what to do ever again. Obviously, this is untrue, and I admit that I need to follow orders at work and school. But I’m not going to let society push me around if I don’t have to. Which is why I have always vowed that once I became master of my own Thanksgiving, things would change. The menu would be replaced with my six favorite foods, the things I was thankful for. That menu would look like this:

Spaghetti
Homemade bread
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Fried Rice
Broccoli and cheese
Chocolate mousse

And it would be the BEST Thanksgiving ever! For me. This year, I realized that this dream could become a REALITY. Even though I am not having Thanksgiving alone, I realized I could become master of my own Thanksgiving by being on the ball and forcing everyone to agree to make their one favorite food instead of the usual nonsense. And it worked! So far the menu looks like this:

Spaghetti (Me)
Chicken fingers (Steven)
Meatloaf (Thomas)
Some kind of pie (Mom Ladd)
Some kind of vegetable thing (Dad)

Don’t look now, Charlie Brown, but it’s going to be the best Thanksgiving ever, because I’m going to willingly eat every dish on the table!

What foods would you bring to Thanksgiving 2.0?

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