Things I'm digging about this mansard: It's a three story building. The mansard "strips" look like stringy rattails. The bizarre-o pom pom bushes.
In other news, I'm finding I have to up my game with cooking. I usually cook a decent dinner 3-4 nights a week. That isn't cutting it. At all. There aren't enough leftovers to feed all 6 of us. The older kids do that thing where they pace around the kitchen and say they're hungry and tell me we have no good cereal. The 4 yo is sick of PB&J. So I'm going to have to put something on the table about every night, even if it's a snack or quick bread, etc.
I tried two new recipes. Most new recipes for me have about a 50% chance of success. Some of the failures are just plain old nasty (Mexican meatloaf- barf- the dog wouldn't even eat it) and some are just "meh" meaning I'm not going to make them because no one gets excited about it.
I picked two winners this weekend: I made super easy calzones (gotta have a good rolling pin** for this one- click here) and the most awesome chicken noodle soup ever (must get thyself to Jay's for the pivotal ingredient, white miso, incredible depth of flavor and the kids loved the lasagna noodles- click here). Both will regulars in the dinner rotation here at Bad Mansard Central.
**About my rolling pin. If I ever needed to grab a kitchen tool for hand-to-hand combat, I'm taking my rolling pin. Granted, it's way more rolling pin than I will ever need. It's a little too heavy. I received it as a wedding gift 15 (!) years ago. It's a fancy Williams Sonoma 100% maple, made in America, ball bearing pin. It could do some serious damage. That said, I usually use my children's sil-pat "just like mommy" rolling pin for small baking jobs. It's an overpriced Pottery Barn Kids toy (although a pretty good one).
Wondering why so much Pottery Barn and William Sonoma? My mother in law and aunt in law work at Williams Sonoma. We've had some great Christmas presents over the years.
