The Next Big Thing

January 4, 2011

After an almost two-week break from work and school, we are back to real life over in Fordeville.  And it sucks.

I don’t think I have Seasonal Mood Disorder or anything that severe, but this first week back to work after the holidays is really a downer.

No more grazing in the kitchen at all hours for Christmas treats and that occasional mid-afternoon glass of wine.  No more pajamas until 10:00 (or later).  No more disregarding my Blackberry, as its red light now blinks with increasing frequency and impatience (“Stop eating Christmas leftovers and answer me!”).  No more bad daytime TV (and, wow, is it bad).  No more Starbucks holiday cups (sniff).

But, on the bright side:  No more holiday madness.  No more blizzard, yet.  And no more leftover ham.  I’m hammed out, big time.  Ham, be gone.

I always have my eye on the next big (or even medium) thing to look forward to.  For us, it’s a warm weather getaway — our first vacation with all four of us.  We are getting our planning finalized and hope to hit that “Book it” button this week.  So, if all goes well, I will be blogging from a beach in early March.  You know, because one always has a free hand or two when supervising toddlers near bodies of water.  While they throw sand and spill my beachy, umbrella-laden vacation cocktails.

Perhaps I’ll call in a guest blogger while I handle the water-side supervision.

Hm.  All this beach talk is making me think about buying a bathing suit and now I’m feeling slightly traumatized (see “ham leftovers,” “wine” and “holiday grazing”).  But, other than that, let’s get it booked.

What about you guys?  What’s your next big (or medium) thing?

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Filed Under: Food & Drink, Holidays, Places Near and Far 10 Comments

The Name Game

January 2, 2011

I am thinking of doing something rash and crazy to kick off 2011.  No, I have not decided to embrace prime numbers.   But I am going to get my own domain name and get out from under the WordPress URL.  They will still host me but I want to lose the clunky website address.

No problem, right?  Instead of http://fordeville.wordpress.com, you would simply go to www.fordeville.com.  How easy and freeing.

Go ahead, type in the latter to test it out.

Did you go?  No, really — do it.

Yeah.  You see my problem.  I don’t want to sell discount auto parts in Brazil.  No offense to the fine proprietors of The Other Fordeville, or La Otra Fordeville.  Urgh.  And they went ahead and bought both the .com and .net.  And, at the risk of stating the obvious, we all know I’m no respectable .org. 

So I need a new name.  Can you help me?

I want to stay true to Fordeville in some respect — here are some initial ideas:

Or should I cut Fordeville loose altogether and start with something fresh?  I don’t know about that — it would have to be pretty compelling but I’m open to suggestions.  This is worse than naming  my kids. 

I’m no marketing powerhouse.  Clearly.  I’m lucky I got this far with posting shit that six people read from time to time.  But, I know that some of you have a certain branding Je Ne Sais Quoi (or, as our Fordeville Brazil branch may say, “Eu não sei o quê”) — let’s dust it off for the good of my itty blog.  Help a girl out. 

To inspire you, let me share some of GoDaddy.com’s suggestions after they confirmed for me that the Fordeville Brazil guys essentially own me.  My two favorites were www.freefordeville.com (as in, no charge, or I’m being held in a Cambodian prison?) and, for no intuitive reason whatsoever, www.fordehomewarranty.com.  WTF?  I’m now in the sales business, apparently.  Let me get that widget up and running on the site asap, homeowners, so you don’t miss out on the January special.

So, look, I know you can do better.  And here’s your chance to knock that “do good for others” resolution off your list way early in the year.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have no prize to give you for a winning suggestion, other than my gratitude and, if you consider my meager readership to be public recognition, even better.  I may be able to land you an internship at the Fordeville Auto Parts place in Brazil too, but no promises.

Thanks, guys.  Let me see what you’ve got.

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Filed Under: Blogging Cluelessness 18 Comments

Off to a Good Start

January 1, 2011

For the first Fordeville breakfast of 2011, we done good.  Two words: Monkey Bread. 

(For foodie blogs and multi-course New Year’s Day brunch ideas, see Google.) 

Anyway, this is Year Two in what I am determined to make an ongoing and gooey New Year’s Day tradition (you know, for the kids…).  I don’t normally bake up a diabetic trigger cake for breakfast, so we’ll put this under the special and rare occasion category.  It’s also not bad for a hangover. I don’t happen to have one this year but, you know, it’s always good to be prepared for such a predicament on New Year’s Day.

Monkey bread is super easy. And super good for you (I’m absolutely lying). If you’ve never participated in the corruption of crescent rolls like this, you’re missing out (no lie).

Even if it does look kind of like a human brain. 

And, yeah, that’s a rubber wine stopper left over from last night in the back of the photo.  And an Elmo book.  Add in the monkey bread and we’ve got the trifecta of domesticated bliss.

So, if you haven’t gone on a diet for 2011, here’s the recipe.

  • Pre-heat oven to 350.
  • Spray a bundt pan with Pam (Am I the only one who has that Big Fat Greek Wedding moment whenever a bundt pan is introduced into conversation?).
  • Mix in a large ziploc bag:  1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
  • In a small saucepan, stir together over low flame:  1 stick butter (told you it was good for you),  1 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla.
  • Cut in quarters:  Four cans of refrigerated biscuits.
  • Place the cut biscuit pieces in the ziploc bag and shake with sugar and cinnamon until fully blended.  This is the part the kids love.  Just make sure that bag is sealed.  (Aside: I’m told that raisins or nuts can be added to the bag but it’s not my thing.  I try to sneak in semi-sweet chocolate chips sometimes for that extra non-healthy punch, but P protests.  Just saying, worth thinking about.)
  • Arrange cut biscuits in the bundt pan.
  • Heat butter, sugar and vanilla until just bubbling.  Pour over biscuits.  Bake 30 minutes.  When done invert immediately onto raised sided dish.
  • Go jogging.  Far and fast.
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Filed Under: Family, Food & Drink, Holidays 4 Comments
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