Thursday was Cal’s 12th birthday.  Today he is having 4 buddies over for a sleepover.  He is outside making water balloons as we speak.  He is a cutie and will always be a needy, cuddly but wonderfully funny and ironic teddy bear.  I think Cal enjoys his birthday as much as anyone.  Loves being the center of attention in a sweet self-conscious kind of way.  And yes, in the last photo,  those are almost industrial grade fireworks being shot off the cake, inside the house.  It very much de rigueur for birthday cakes in Argentina.

I think Owen's zeal has more to do with the Yanks being on the brink of a World Series than Cal's Birthday, and clearly the dog is not impressed by either.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in Argentina.  Several years ago I wrote about the Argentine version in this post.  It was also GM’s birthday so while it was Mother’s Day,  I couldn’t expect GM to cook his own birthday dinner and make his own birthday cake.  Although I spent quite a bit of yesterday in the kitchen, I was not forgotten.  Georgie brought GM and I some really bad coffee in the morning, GM cut me flowers from the garden, GM’s mom brought me some goodies from Vermont and I was surprised with a beautiful new lens for my SLR.  Yeah!

I also received my favorite hand made cards for Mother’s Day.  These days George and Owen are the only senders.  Cal and Henry are entirely too cool and self involved to take the time to acknowledge their mom on Mother’s Day.  Or Henry’s case, he just really cant stand me.  So enjoy these sweet tokens of their love while they last, it wont be forever.

First up is Georgie’s Photo/Poem Gift

She made the frame with cardboard and flowers from clay and sprayed the whole thing gold

Found on the back is a sweet declaration of her love for me in Castellano

Owen in the other hand….

Once you unfolded it from its accordion pleats, you find a funny little man wishing me a Happy Mother's Day

Scatch that, the funny little man is apparently me!

I think the odds of anymore Mother’s Day cards from Owen are pretty small:(

Osa was not happy about the blog entry that featured photos of her son Tevez.  She demanded her own editorial with creative imput.  Here is the result.  It was a late night shoot on her bed/living room couch. Hope you enjoy it.

This past long weekend we had an asado.  It was a gorgeous spring/summer day and Georgie decided we needed brownies to go with our requisite ice cream.  We combed the internet for a new and interesting twist on brownies and found this recipe that called for peanut butter.  GM returned from his US trip last week with a 1.13 kilo container of Skippy so we are flush with peanut butter.  Our only modification was to throw some chocolate chips on top of the batter and cooking it less than the suggested time (again, we like it gooey).

Georgie likes to crack the eggs. Interesting technique, huh?

Georgie's favorite part

This is a post about swearing.  Hence there will  be swear words.  If they are offensive to you, it’s probably not a good idea to read on.  You have been warned.

As passionate as Argentines are about food, wine, futbol and family they really come up short when it comes to swearing. After you have lived here for a minute and have had your first encounter with Argentine driving, a good swear word or more would be handy. The reality is that while there are some creative curse expressions that Argentines use, there are not  that many swear words in Castellano that a woman would use to blow off steam.

I do swear.  Its how I express myself when I am frustrated or am adding emphasis to an adjective.  I didn’t grow up swearing.  As kids we weren’t allow to swear at home. Although I heard my father on occasion let one loose.  I became  fluent in swearing from sitting on an uspstairs trading desk for 8 years.  Almost twenty years later, while I was able to kick a 1+ pack a day tobacco addiction, swearing is a habit that I haven’t even tried (or want) to kick.  I find the word fuck indispensable when I need to make my point.  It is a potent word in my arsenal that I try not to use around my kids.

There really is no comparable word to fuck in Castellano.  If you watch an English language movie with Spanish subtitles they pretty much use the word maldición (a curse on you) for every English swear word including the F word.  They of course do have some fun words that you might be familiar with like  puta (whore), mierda (shit) and pendejo(asshole). But none of these expressions are used by women and usually are bantered about in the context of drunk buddies or sport fanatics, not really as a verbal assault. Not that any of that is a bad thing, but give me something to say to the asshole who almost kills me on the road everyday.

What is the typical shout out to a bad driver?   ¿Qué paso viejo(a)?  What happened old man (woman)?  That flaccid remark is cutting here because everyone, especially women, are desperately doing whatever they can do so as not to  get old. Calling someone viejo is as low as you can go with the insults.  How boring and unsatisfying.  So with no real meaningful Spanish equivalent  I have resorted to using an embellished version of fuck (and hopefully silently if I have spawn in the car).  It’s just going to have to do.

My kids were getting sick of oatmeal everything.  I always use whole wheat flour but I cant pretend that this week’s recipe is healthy.  Again,they are not processed and my nurturing energy has been baked into them, but they are chock full of  butter and sugar.

Regarding this week’s recipe.  Recipe is hyperbole.  Although there are numerous recipes on the internet for this bar, that is how I was inspired, it hardly warrants one.  It is a brownie chocolate chip cookie bar.  Its a brownie that has chocolate chip cookie dough cooked on top.  So make your favorite brownie recipe, bake it for about 10 minutes before slopping approximately 1/2 to 2/3 of a chocolate chip cookie recipe (make buttons and freeze the rest) on top of the semi cooked brownies.  Return it to the oven to finish cooking.  Probably between 30-45 minutes of baking at 350 in a 9×13 baking dish.  They are brookies or chip cookie brownies (we like them gooey), easy to make and require a glass of cold milk.

Cal is back:  Excellent but could have been better if the brownie was bigger.  I didnt get a really good taste but think it was  a 4 out of 5.

My sad reality.  I am trying to learn how to use my SLR.  I am taking some on line classes and unfortunately for my family I practice by taking pictures of them doing almost anything,the dogs, flowers, and food.  Food turns out  not to be naturally photogenic and is quite temperamental.  I was trying to photograph the brownies and the natural light was crap.  So the photo is not very sharp and doesn’t really do a good job of capturing its very tempting texture.  The photo is not great.

Henry likes to play with the camera and has a very natural instinctive relationship with it.  He screws around with the buttons, has a decent idea about how to use the creative mode settings but doesn’t seem burdened  by them, like me.  He came up with this concept.  He half closed a shade in his room and turn off all the lights, it was late afternoon so there is was some natural light. He left the camera shutter open for seconds and moved the camera around. They are pretty cool.

And thank  God someone is praying for Alan Colmes too.

Republicans are going to spontaneously combust one day soon: well said by Rachel Maddow and John Stewart.

I have never been a fan of Tom Friedman and I find the vehicle chosen for  this column kind of childish.  Obama doesn’t need any help writing speeches, Tom.

And a good gift that keeps on giving.  Another walk off by the Yankees, this time in the 11th.  Mark Teixiera does the honors but not before A-Rod ties it up in the bottom of the 9th to take it into extra innings.

I love me some lemon or any citrus based desserts best.  Key Lime Pie is my absolute favorite and its my go to recipe when I want to impress at an asado.  That recipe is for another time, today is the lemon bar recipe which will now be my go to lemon bar recipe.  I have paired Ina Garten’s lemon filling with a simplified and generic shortbread recipe that I made with a few modifications, see below.

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (this makes it nutty and interesting)
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature but cool

I pulsed the above in a food processor and slowly added the butter until crumbly.  I patted into a 9×13 pan and baked at 350 for 20 minutes or until the edges started to brown. Pour Ina’s filling onto the warm crust and return to the oven for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely, dust with powder sugar and cut.

I found some of  the crust recipes so overwrought.  Do not over think the crust.  You shouldn’t have to roll it out and the refrigerating the crust before baking is optional.  I forgot about lining the baking dish with baking paper and it turned out lovely, it’s a bit crumbly but melts in your mouth and is nutty and sweet.  The filling on the other hand, you could just hand me a spoon and I could eat an entire bowl full of this lip smacking tart filling all by itself, YUMMY.

There is no kid’s review on this baked good.  These bars are entirely too good to share with spawn.  Since they freeze beautifully, I have my very own stash.

Every night before I go to bed I have to check Owen’s blood sugar, he is a diabetic.  I then visit the other three.  I suppose I do it to check and make sure they are safe in their beds.  But I also like to remember them this way, totally relaxed and soft and peaceful.  It reminds me how much I love them and even though they spend much of their waking hours torturing me with perfectly age appropriate but still incredibly annoying behavior, I still love them more than anything.  It also reminds me that tomorrow I can try to be more patient, be more engaged, be more present when I am with them. My children are beautiful and when they sleep they are even more beautiful.

Now to the cruel part..taking these photos.  Henry would kill me if he saw this.  Georgie actually woke up to avoid the reading lamp I was trying to use for light.  Cal and Owen are use to my visits and lights being turned on, so they were none for the wiser.  Do you think doing this was cruel?

The weather is changing.  It feels like we have hit a threshold now where winter is has been permanently retired and spring  has begun to leave behind the cool mornings and dry air.  I can see it in the garden.  Those early blooms of spring are tired and new hardier blooms are on the way.