My Seussical Life for 2007 March

(2) Wed Mar 21 2007 10:14 West Coast Breeze: I'm visiting my cousins, Susie and John, and their precious new baby beet (aka Maggie Sue) in Costa Mesa, CA. I'm enjoying the pace here, the quiet and focused energy. After all, what more important tasks do we all have but eat, sleep, cuddle? I'll neglect to include poop in that list, though there is a lot of that going on, too. My mom is kindly tending my boys (Dave included, since he is trying to keep up with his agressive dissertation timeline), so I can tend John and Susie. Maggie doesn't need much tending from me since her new parents are doing such a superb job.

I'm loving all the uninterrupted cooking time, too. Here is a recipe for coconut french toast. I made this yesterday for breakfast. It's from Susie's recipe collection. It is really great. I substituted coconut milk for the milk. You can imagine the delish. We won't mention the added saturated fat. We're nursing here. I also made half a batch. We don't need 14 french toasts!

Coconut French Toast

12 eggs

1 1/4 cup milk

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

12 slices bread, preferably day old bread

1 7 oz. pack flaked coconut

In a large bowl (a square pyrex dish worked well for me), beat eggs. Then add milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. add bread, a couple slices at a time. Let soak for 1 minute on each side. Coat both sides with coconut. Place on well greased baking sheets. Bake at 475 for 5 minutes per side, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with syrup, fresh raspberries, diced mango and whipped cream for a tropical treat.

(6) Mon Mar 26 2007 16:24 Reports: After the boys spent a week with "Moppie" and "Poppie," my parents had lots of tales to share. Here are the most quotable two:

While Atticus and Samuel were helping clean the pool, a june beetle crawled onto Atticus's foot. He watched it with curiosity. Samuel noticed the bug and came over to observe as well. After a moment, Samuel bent over and pinched the bug between his thumb and index finger, giving the little bug a complete squish. Poppie noticed and encouraged, "Hey, Samuel, why don't you eat that?" To which he replied, "Ewww, Poppie, it's already dead!"

After dinner one day, a 7.5 months pregnant family member remarked that she was completely stuffed. Samuel looked at her stomach with very wide eyes and stared in disbelief for about half a minute. After noticing this glance, the soon-to-be mommie said, "Samuel, there is a baby in my tummy." His look changed from one of disbelief to one of curiosity and he said, "It is a good thing boys don't have babies, because they would really want to use their tummies as a punching bag."