You know how when you have a really awesome dinner, you can’t wait for the leftovers the next day?

Or when you brought something in to work for lunch and are counting down the minutes ’till you can eat it?

This.

Is.

That.

The O’Malley clan loves us some avocados.

Like alot.  Alot.  Alot.  (See Exhibit 1.  Exhibit 2.  Exhibit 3.  And countless others.)

As long as we can keep ahead of the ripeness curve (and sometimes we get behind it), we can easily eat several a week.

In salads.

As homemade guacamole.

Diced up and drizzled with a little hot sauce, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and cracked black pepper.  (Nick’s favorite way)

In a toasted BLT, which reminds me of a little dive restaurant in Bermuda that The Ex and I discovered on our first cruise vacation.

Smooshed on a sandwich instead of a (less-healthy) different condiment.  (Which is usually my favorite way)

And so became the basis for this sandwich.

Last night, while I was heating up our dinner (leftovers), I quickly roasted some asparagus and sauteed a package of mushrooms.

Today, into my work tote went an avocado, the mushrooms and asparagus, and sourdough bread.

Once lunch time came around, I went to work.  Toasted the sourdough bread.  Smeared the pieces with half an avocado each.  Salt.  Pepper.  Added the warmed up asparagus and mushrooms.

I didn’t need to take a bite to know.

I knew.

So good.

So.very.good.

I restrained myself from eating the whole thing, only because I cut off a small slice to share with a co-worker.

Who came over moments later to tell me how much she liked it.  Even though she isn’t typically a fan of mushrooms.

And speaking of mushrooms?  A few years ago, there was a study of over 2000 women that found those who ate mushrooms regularly had a 50% lower chance of having breast cancer.  And when combined with green tea consumption (thank you, Panera, for my weekly fix), it brought the percentage up to 90%.  A 90% lower chance of having breast cancer?  Yes, please.  I’ll take mine with a side of avocado and asparagus.  (Studies since have also added that having a variety of mushrooms, and mostly cooked, ups your ante, so do that too.)

Toasted Roasted Vegetable Sandwich
Recipe courtesy of Cate O’Malley

sourdough bread
avocado, sliced in half and pitted
roasted asparagus (I put them on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted them at 400 for about 20-30 minutes)
sauteed sliced Portobello mushrooms (I like this variety because they’re a bit meatier than their counterparts)

Toast the sourdough bread.  Spread each slice with half of an avocado, smooshing it so it acts as a binder.

Top with warm asparagus and mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper.

Devour.

The first time I made this recipe was almost five years ago.

In a post I titled “Sweets for My Sweetie.”

(It was clearly before I learned about SEO-friendly post titling methods…)

It was for The Ex’s birthday.

And this time?

Last night, when The Ex joined us for dinner.

Some things change, and some things stay the same.

Of course I no longer refer to him as my sweetie.  Natch.

‘Cause that would be weird.

But we certainly get along well enough to break bread.

And I think it’s important for the kids to see that.

Which was only reinforced by the fact that they were having a friendly debate about who got to sit next to him.

It hasn’t always been an easy road, and there are still times when he frustrates me.  But when it comes to waving the white flag and peaceful dinner conversations, we’ve got that.

I’m a firm believer that it’s not the situation, it’s how you handle it that makes all the difference, and divorce is no exception.  I did (and still do) everything I can to keep the kids out of any challenging or not-so-peaceful conversations, and to keep things as civil as possible.  In the three years since we split up, I only raised my voice once while they were within earshot (but not right near us), and it was in the very beginning.  And interestingly enough, it was the only time I ever raised my voice since I’ve known him, some 16 years.

There is sometimes tongue biting.  Or swallowing of words.  Or just plain choosing my battles.  But isn’t it that way with everything?  Or it is how it is with me.  And everything.  Whether it’s raising kids or dealing with ex-spouses, I’ve always been big on choosing your battles.  And the older (and wiser, I hope), I get, the less I want to engage.

I either try to rise above it.  Drift away from a toxic person or conversation.  Or just don’t engage.

I just don’t have time for the pettiness.  No one does.  Not while there are children to raise.

So.  Dinner.

I made this pork chop recipe.  Which I rarely do.  And the flan.  And these mini cheesecakes.

Because I know The Ex likes them.

And I sent the leftovers home with him.

Because that’s the kind of ex-wife I am.

Or the kind I try to be.

Hey.  I’m human.  I have my moments too.

Whether you are entertaining an ex-spouse or a current boyfriend, or you just had a really bad Tuesday and want to curl up with a Tivo’d episode of The Bachelorette, make the flan.

It’s stupid simple.  And good for everything.  And anything.

Beyond memories of desserts I used to make for The Ex, it also reminds me a bit of my childhood.  My mom used to make a slightly similar version.  Although since she’s French, we called it Creme Caramel.  Same beast, different spots.

French.  Spanish.  White flags.

All neatly wrapped up in one little dessert.

Eat up.

Spanish Flan
Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.

PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 1 Hr

1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool.

Cate’s Notes: Only change I made was to poke holes in the aluminum foil and bake the dish in a water bath.

I am lion, hear me roar.

We ran into a local used book store and scored with these two ginormous wildlife volumes for the kids. Each page details a different animal, everything from their photos, habitats, and eating patterns to where they like to live. A buck a book. Easily kept the kids busy for two hours while I made dinner.

This might be the first time I have ever thrown away a drink without finishing it. Iced coffee from Wendy’s. Ick.

When he’s good, he’s really, really good. And when he’s bad…

Saturday night, we celebrated Mother’s Day here, with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, his mother, and my nieces. I kept it simple with salad, lasagna, roasted cauliflower, and an ice cream cake from our local dairy.

Excuse the crappy picture. When Nick saw that I was awake yesterday morning, he went downstairs on his own and made all three of us breakfast in bed. Completely on his own. Without prompting or suggestion. Just when I think he has frazzled my last nerve, he pulls out a Hail Mary and reminds me what an awesome kid he is. Not that I ever had any doubt.

Of course breakfast in bed isn’t complete without two cats and a dog as well.

At church yesterday, Madeline asked a million questions as usual. All related to what was going on during mass. We watched as a 9-year-old boy sat in front of us and played his Nintendo DSI during the entire mass. Which frustrated me to no end. I’m all for bringing a toy or something small to entertain a toddler or a baby. But a 9-year-old? Completely ridiculous. What is the point in even going?

Mother’s Day presents from the kids.

Jewelry box made by Nick at school.

Getting the three of us in the same frame, looking at the camera, smiling, eyes open, and three approvals takes about 37 snaps, give or take 10. I need to remember to capture these moments when I have someone else around to man the camera.

Happy Mother’s Day to all. Be back tomorrow with weekend photos.

Every morning this week, the kids have come downstairs and looked on the kitchen counter to see what was going to be sent in for their teachers and Teacher Appreciation Week.  I didn’t set out to send something in every day of this week, but it’s kind of worked out that way.  Once I got to Wednesday, I felt like I needed to do it the rest of the week, you know?

I had torn out a recipe from Woman’s Day magazine for chick pea burgers, and as I was going through the ingredient list to see if I had everything, I spied a small mention for Fudgy Brownies in the corner of the page.

If you’ve been a Sweetnicks reader for awhile, you know that we’re always on the look-out for a solid fudgy brownie recipe.  You know, the one that stops the search.  A quick scan of THAT ingredient list, and I actually had everything on hand.  In fact, I bet you might too.  Well, the bakers among you will.

Nick had a friend over and Madeline was busy “cleaning” her room.  Which basically means she finds a favorite toy or stuffed animal and takes a trip down memory lane.  And completely forgets that she was asked to find a path to her bed clean.  She usually surfaces an hour later, her room a bigger disaster than it was when she first started.  And that’s when we close the door and pretend it doesn’t exist.  At least until we see it again at bedtime.

When it comes to keeping her room neat, I’m having flashbacks to my teen self’s room.  It’s not pretty.  And my mom is saying something about I told you so.

So with three kids in the house, all magically entertaining themselves, and dinner already taken care of, I decided to make a quick batch of the brownies.

It took all of about 15 minutes before the batter was going into the oven.

The recipe said 18 minutes for baking.  And they were a bit off.  Well, at least by the O’Malley oven standards.  I think it ended up being an extra 10 or so minutes, so beware.

Even after that, they were still a bit too fudgy, but I didn’t want to bake them longer, for fear of overcooking them.  I ended up sticking them in the fridge for a bit, and that did the trick.

Later on.  Ok, before dinner.  I cut off a corner to give them a try.  You know, quality control and all that.  I can’t very well send a new recipe in to three teachers without having tried them myself first, right?

F-u-d-g-y to the nth degree.  Just the way we like them.

And hours later, they were bagged up and gone.

My biggest complaint about the recipe?  That it is for an 8×8 pan, so it doesn’t make a ton.

In a round-about way, that’s likely a good thing.

But Nick loves brownies, and he didn’t get to try these before they were gone, so we’ll be baking more up again tonight.  You know, to appease that healthy dose of Mom guilt I served myself.

If you need a quick sweet treat for your after-schoolers, or to finish up celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week, or if you just finished Day 10 of rain-wet-gloom-rinse-repeat with the rest of us, bake these.

When I had my first bite, it reminded me of Nick’s request last year for Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes as part of his birthday dinner.  These are totally perfect for that.  And, of course, countless other non-birthday, just because moments.

You can thank me later.

And now for Day 4 of Teacher Appreciation Week.  I took a completely different route.

Inspired by a picture I saw Tammy Mitchell’s photography web site, we stopped at the grocery store yesterday to pick up the supplies to put this together.

Plastic rulers – 0.59/each

A box of “fruit by the foot” – $2.00/each (get it?  ruler?  fruit by the foot?)

Ribbon – scraps from home

Card – made at home

Tammy has printables for the card linked on her site, but they weren’t working at the time, so I took matters into my own hands.  Using a clip art ruler image I found online, I made little cards in Word, printed them out on card stock, cut them out, and affixed them to the top of the package.

Now to figure out what I’m doing for the last day…

Fast Fudgy Brownies
Recipes courtesy of Woman’s Day magazine

4 tablespoons butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over medium heat. Off heat, whisk sugar, then eggs, vanilla, and salt. Stir in flour. Scrape into parchment lined 8-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 until springy in center, 18 minutes (mine needed more). Let cool, then cut into squares, Makes 9.

As Geneen Roth noted in her latest book, Lost and Found, James Grant once said, “Insofar as there is a lesson in history, it’s that human beings are not good with large sums of money, anything over $136.”

And ain’t that the truth?  Just reference any “Lottery Winners Go Bankrupt” story that People magazine has run over their publication history.  Or MC Hammer’s story after his U Can’t Touch This fame.

This newest book from the NY Times best-selling author goes into how she and her husband lost money with Bernie Madoff, to the tune of nearly a million dollars.  But beyond any “woe is me” tale, it’s a candid, introspective and realistic look into her own personal relationship with money.

Not a self-help book, and not a tips-for-financial-success tome, rather, it’s a call to examine our own relationship with money, how spending is sometimes to fill a void or deficit in other areas of life, how and why we spend what we do, and how it can’t possibly fix holes without other work being done first.  Given Roth’s own issues with food, it’s not that much of a leap.

The book is a quick read, albeit a much heavier topic than your average bring-to-the-beach title, and doesn’t pull any punches in terms of revealing personal details of Roth’s own financial troubles (both before the Madoff debacle, during, and after).  That said, don’t read this book expecting a panacea for your own financial woes or answers to your questions.  It is one woman’s story of money lost, hope gained, and the journey she took along the way, and she tells it (along with her other books on relationships with food, and the workshops she teaches) merely in an attempt to help others.

Have you read this book already?  Then come over and join the discussion already underway over at BlogHer.

Hungry for more book reviews?
A Bad Case of Stripes
Fault in Our Stars
Diary of a Mad Fat Girl
The Rules of Inheritance
The Weird Sisters

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

The scene.

Saturday afternoon.

A little over a week ago.

One of Madeline’s soccer coaches, who happens to be a friend of ours, shouts over.

“Hey, Madeline, tell your Mom to give back her sunglasses.  The 80s are over.”

To which I say.

Dude.  The 80s were good.

Hello?

Bon Jovi.

Beverly Hills, 90210.

NKOTB.

Wham!  Or more specifically George Michael from his “Faith” years.

Atari.

Trivial Pursuit.

Boom boxes.

The Beastie Boys.

ET and Top Gun.

Flashdance, Footloose, and The Breakfast Club.

On a completely separate, but related, footnote, we had a family night movie night recently and watched the new version of Footloose.  ‘Twas ok, but the original was heaps better.

21 Jump Street.  The Facts of Life.  Diff’rent Strokes.  Family Ties.

Pac-Man.  Donkey Kong.  Tetris.  Super Mario Bros.  Nick doesn’t understand how I even know about Super Mario Bros. Please, I know.

Rainbow Bright.  Strawberry Shortcake.  The Smurfs.

John Cusack.

Need I say more?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

My favorite kind of sunglasses are the ones where you can’t see me roll my eyes.

Perfection.

And a whopping $5 at Five Below?  Even better.

Mostly because I lose sunglasses way.too.frequently. to pay more than $5-10 a pair.

I am currently on the look-out for a similar pair, but a non-mirrored version.

So the soccer coach has been warned.

If YOU happen to have an aviator-style pair of sunglasses.

Or cop glasses.

Or a mirrored version.

I’m with you.

The 80s?  Embrace it.

*And the term “sunnies” to refer to sunglasses?  Can’t stand it.  Mostly because it sounds like we have become too lazy to pronounce that extra syllable that the word sunglasses brings.  Take that, fashion bloggers.

*And in a somber moment, I sadly have not been able to wear sunglasses since a week ago Saturday, because it has been grey and wet and rainy and downright chilly every day since.  I do believe this is Day 9 and I was over it around Day 3.  So was my basement.