Wiener Winks! Who knew?

School lunches.

They can be a pain, a curse, a drag, the bane of a parent's life! In general, I like to play, prep and cook good food but the moment you do it through the perspective of a kid (picky or not), you just face a whole new world of challenges. That challenge gets bigger when you feel like a zombie at the crack of dawn, looking at the clock and trying to make that food to go on time. If you want your kid to eat it, it has to taste good and travel well. It can't look gross, oxidate, get bruised or leak by the time they eat it. It can't be boring but it can't be too new, or weird or touch other ingredients that would take the crispness away or make things wet. It can't shed crumbs on other items (apparently it's too hard to remove one from a carrot stick) and it shouldn't sweat (the cheese has been challenging). Of course that's all before you add your own requirements: It has to be reasonably healthy, include some variety, be safe to eat after it sat in a warm school for hours and most of all, it has to be affordable to repeat the same old routine 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 10 months a year… Multiply that by the number of kids you have to feed... Omg, am I really making 400 lunches a year!?? Okay, minus the holidays, PD days... Maybe 340. I need for someone to correct me on this. Oh and how could I forget the school's own demands: To be nut free and to include a "healthy" non sugary snack for the morning. As a parent, I can live with that one but sometimes all I want to do is slap a PBJ sandwich together and call it a day! 

Whoever beams about enjoying making them everyday is full of it!! That or they just started and are being idealistic newbies that will wake up soon enough. Or they're just not the kind of person I can relate to. Ok I'm being a bit harsh and ranting. I'm just struggling and venting. What I really want to talk about is Wiener Winks! It's where this whole frustration led me. When I looked through an online list of lunch ideas, someone mentioned those two funny words and I heard myself say: "Wiener Whaaat?" Not only I felt and sounded like this guy on the right (he and the movie Jaws gets quoted way too often in this house) but I honestly had to look it up.

I was baffled! I had no idea that such a concept officially existed. I mean I had a wiener in a slice of bread before when running out of buns or when feeling depressed (extra yummy when fried in bacon fat if really depressed). You know, the kind of food that says "I know you're hungry and you don't give a fuck right now but it's okay. Things will turn out. So go ahead, eat me! Tomorrow is another day." In my world (or in the dark side of my mind), hotdogs in a slice of bread say that to me. They said that a lot. Followed by shame. So the fact that it has an official happy sounding name and that it's easy to find on Google really, REALLY surprised me! I got curious then figured the girls would get a kick out of it so yesterday I made some. The twist with mine is that I used cocktail wieners.

Why? Well, when the weather gets cold or after the first snow, we enjoy fires in our wood stove and when the fire mellows down, sometimes we roast marshmallows with the girls. The last time we did, someone mentioned that it would be fun to do the same with hotdogs so I made a mental note of it. Long story short, when I went to the store to buy some, I was looking for regular sized hotdogs but there were cocktail versions on sale. Practical me thought it would be easier and faster to roast in our wood stove and lets face it, mini food is just cute! I knew the girls wouldn't resist. I thought it would be a fun thing to do around the holidays. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I stored two packs in the freezer and kept it secret. Then I totally forgot about it! That's pretty much it.





I must have felt a bit guilty though. You know, for puttering over cheap sandwich bread and cocktail wieners for dinner because as I went through the process, I found myself humming a song from Fred Eaglesmith called White Trash. It's a silly song (the lyrics are here if you're curious). I have nothing against Fred Eaglesmith (or Johnny Cash who gets mentioned in the song). They both tell great stories in songs and ballads and that one just happens to pop in my head whenever I give up on being classy which is more often than I'm willing to admit.



Okay so I'm the girl who never heard of wiener winks before and now that I tried some and show you my take, you realize that this looks nothing like what you expected or saw elsewhere online. I'm just full of it and crazy. I tried to do the classic way but the sneaky little cocktail wieners kept slipping out, it was not fun. Plus I was getting away from why I bought them in the first place. Mini food! I had to change the technique with the bread a bit. I cut each slice in half. I knew it would change the look but nobody cared and I was working with what I had. I also decided to do it in my cast iron pan for better control and as you can see we are out of toothpicks too! Bamboo skewers to the rescue! :)

I should mention that in our house it's rare to find processed sliced cheese which seems to be the standard choice for wiener winks. I'm always surprised at how expensive it is for what you get! The truth is, I wasn't raised on it so it's not something I would usually buy. If we're going to spend on cheese we go for medium or strong cheddar. It's common enough to be found at the pharmacy with eggs and bread on a milk run. We prefer white cheddar but sometimes the only option is orange (what I used in this picture). In this case, I grated the cheese for easy melting. Not a lot is required. About 4-5 good swipes of the brick of cheese on the grater seemed enough for one slice of bread.



I'm sadly aware that some look burnt here, but they still tasted great! Unfortunately it's the only pictures I have. By the time I made the next batch of golden perfection, I couldn't bother to take more pics. I was busy with real life, eating and serving. Maybe next time.





Apparently I'm a DORK for taking pictures of my half eaten wiener wink but he still loves me!

I can't share a recipe for this but I can describe what I did. I simply spread butter on one side of the bread (whole wheat was all we had and kids didn't mind) then I cut it in half. I flipped the 2 pieces of bread over (it greased the counter a bit but I didn't care). I sprinkled a bit of cheese over the two pieces (about 4 swipes on the grater) and placed a little wiener on each piece of bread before folding them over. I had no toothpicks to keep them together but long bamboo skewers did the trick. I didn't even bother to cut them. I placed two a time in the hot pan (on medium heat). It was an experiment so I wasn't confident to do more on the first try. As they cooked I made more. Once it was golden on one side, I would pull out the bamboo skewers, turn the wiener winks over and stab them again with the skewers just long enough to hold the bread in place till it would get golden and crispy. It didn't take long for them to be ready. It sounds complicated but it really wasn't.

The girls and I enjoyed these. It was tasty and fun! A little goes a long way. I guess they're like a cross between a grilled cheese and a hotdog but we actually found that they tasted like pogos. Is that weird? Especially when dipped in ketchup (because in this house, we might be doing it wrong but we like to dip pogos in ketchup). They both ate 4 and polished their plates with a big glass of milk and half an apple. I was relieved and they were satisfied. 

Now I have a million questions. How many people actually knew this existed? Pigs in a blanket don't count. Is it an American thing or do Canadians eat it too? French Canadians? How does one pack it up to school? Did people really eat that at school often? How does it stay warm without being steamy? Or do kids eat it cold? Would it be safe sitting there for 3-4 hours before consumption? Living in Québec, our schools are overheated for 3/4 of the year so I'm not sure. I need answers because my girls did ask to try them for school lunch. My youngest had pizza day today (a freaking blissful break) but she's not the picky one. Guess what the other one brought to school though? ;) Fingers crossed!!

Have a marvelous, school lunch FREE weekend!! 

Putting me first

Earlier today...

Those raspberries should have been for my little Évangéline. Her older sister took some to school for lunch. Évangéline's class was having a cheese pizza that day and her sandwich box was already full of thick Lebanese cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives and cheese... Her favourite things. Considering that she also had a cherry yogourt and a full apple for snacks, I felt like she would enjoy the berries later when home.



Well maman never gets any and I've been fighting a cold for 2.5 weeks (I'm finally getting better), so I could use the little boost of vitamin. :) She doesn't know. What you don't know doesn't hurt right? Also I happened to have a bit of cream so here we go! Our little secret.

Thinking of me for a change. It's not so bad.

They were very good too! :)

Crafty moment

This little craft is certainly not related to the Holidays but holy crap it's cute!

A week ago, my youngest girl took a toilet paper roll and randomly asked me to help her make a bat. I keep the paper rolls out of the garbage to burn in the wood stove and occasionally keep some for crafts. I guess she saw one and remembered that we made little critters out of them before. Now why did this feline lover ask me for a bat when a cat would have been just as easy and less Halloween-ish so close to Christmas? No clue. I just went along with it.

I was sick and not feeling very crafty (or patient) but I knew this would be easy. She asked me how to bend the top for ears. I showed her that if you push down on the top edge of the roll it will bend on one side and then to repeat on the other side to create that crescent shape. We could have done the same at the bottom for cute stubby legs but she didn't care for that. She was ready to draw a face but struggled with the pencil's light lines so I allowed her to use our big Sharpie. I'm fully aware that with kids that can be lethal but she was good. Then she asked me to add lashes.



For wings, I didn't look far. The house was cluttered with things all over the place and I spotted a pile of mixed papers on top of a pile of laundry on top of a chair. Yup! On top of that paper pile were wrapping paper scraps from a birthday party we just had for my oldest. Perfect! Sometimes clutter has perks. The paper was sweet and a bit random with it's pattern. Just like my little one's request. She wasn't convinced though and wanted plain paper. "But that's too hard to find!" I said. I tried to sell her on my idea. I bent the paper in half cut a shape that resembled a bat's wing, opened it to show the 2 wings and propped them behind the bat with a little "Taddaa!" It was love at first sight. The paper made it look whimsical and more fun. All it needed was a bit of tape in the back and a second "Taddaa!" (this time with a confident smile). Maybe we'll add a little red hat to show that we are aware of the season.



I swear she played with that thing for hours! Worth the few minutes I spent on it. She made it flap it's wings (wrapping paper beats cardboard for that) and she propped it all over the place. I took a pic of her "new pet" propped on the lamp and next thing I know she wanted to pose next to it. It went on for a bit...  :)







*Update* Thanks to the red glossy cover of a tiny notepad, a felt snowball from a long lost ornament and lots of tape, we have a Christmas bat! I didn't tell her. I'm going to see how long it takes for her to find out! ;) If she finds it offensive, the hat is easy to remove. I'm having way too much fun with this and isn't that the point?

Stop and smell the hibiscus!

Last Sunday, a pleasant and unexpected surprise occurred. I was feeling more tired than usual after putting the girls down. Marc usually covers this part after dinner while I clean up or take a moment on facecrack. I then go up and do the easy part (tuck them in, sing 2 songs and kiss them goodnight). It works for us. That particular Sunday was rough on the husband so I took over. I'll say this. Our kids really get wired and hyper as they get tired. We see the early signs around 5h00pm and things decline fast from there. By 6h00, we call it "the pumpkin hour". If I can manage to get dinner on the table before that, great! A blessing. The truth is, it rarely happens. We usually grind our teeth and count the minutes till bedtime. We're not bad parents, it's just that phase we're in. Right?

It doesn't matter who puts them down or if we do it together, getting the girls ready for bed is the equivalent of herding cats! The "get undressed and put on you PJs" followed by the "brush your teeth" routine is just so mind numbing. Every. Freaking. Night. That's 2920 nights of practice with our 8 year old!! Yet she and her sister always act as if it's their first time! It's like Groundhog Day again, and again, and again! So we repeat, raise the voice, physically guide them, remind them of what's going on, rinse and repeat till they stop straying or goof off and end up between bedsheets.

I don't know where his expression comes from but Marc usually confirms the accomplished mission by saying: "The girls are planted!" Like I said, I usually leave this to him. He has stronger nerves and Seargeant Bé (that's me), isn't pretty.

Back to Sunday, I'm getting to the point here. The girls were hyper and us adults were drained. It was still sounding like a zoo when I left their bedroom as I dragged my feet into mine. My plan was to resist the bed, recover for a minute, change into cocooning clothes, maybe grab a book and escape into a world of deep ocean, ragged island, secret passages and pirate treasure. Unfortunately, an annoying voice inside my head was nagging about the messy bathroom, piled up laundry, neglected dishes... You know the drill. I was sensing the pressure. Tension was rising. I just sat in my chair in a corner of our room (the only uncluttered one at the time), with my eyes closed and took a moment before deciding on my next move. I should specify that this corner, when tidy, is like my personal oasis. When sitting there I'm surrounded by plants that don't fit anywhere else, there is also a vintage pole lamp, a bit of artwork, a side table and lots of books. A cozy nook!

So there I was, zoning out, eyes still shut. When I opened my eyes, to my surprise, this beautiful red flower was staring at me right in the face and somehow went unnoticed! It came from my hibiscus who had seen better days during the summer. A gift from my father.

Stunned, I just sat there and stared at the beautiful bloom for a while. I even smiled. How could I not? My hibiscus was recovering from a bug infestation, it had lost so many leaves since the indoor transition and was slowly healing in our room. This flower was far from subtle. Not only it was repaying me for the care I gave, it was a sign (as clear as daylight), telling me to chill the fuck out (pardon my French). I studied it in the low light and eventually felt relaxed. From there I moved on to more comfortable clothes, went downstairs to join my husband on a cluttered couch and watched what we considered a fun flick before heading to bed. I guess that was my moment to stop and smell the roses. To enjoy what I had (quiet time with my guy) instead of stressing over obligations and building resentment. Plenty of time for that later! I just hope my tree reminds me more often.

Also, hibiscus don't smell but they sure are pretty! Here it is in it's full bloom the morning after. Such a gift! :)