homemaking

What is SPAM good for? Well, it may be an acquired taste, but before "spam" became an online nuisance, it was a food. Remember? And while some snooty foodies will heap ridicule upon those of us lowbrow commoners who consider SPAM a legitimate ingredient, I have to say to anyone who is judging SPAM by its reputation alone, "Try it. You might like it." Seriously! For example, here is a photo of some delicious fried rice I made the other day. Maybe I'll call it SPAM Rice Royale, or something else that sounds tempting and exotic. See the lovely, tender onions and green peppers? The authentic leftover steamed Japanese white rice? Notice the beautifully browned SPAM cubes? That's the secret! The SPAM must be diced and browned, so that at least two sides of the cubes are carmelized and a bit crisp. That's what makes this such a tasty treat! Additionally, I sprinkle the rice with a little bit of seasoned salt, garlic powder, fresh ground pepper, and a splash of Kikkoman shoyu (soy sauce). And if it were up to me, I'd also add some carrots and frozen peas, but Hubby doesn't eat those. And since I'm so nice, I usually leave them out. And there you have it. GeekMom's SPAM Rice Royale. For the record, Hubby is a picky eater, and he had seconds for dinner, and took the rest to work for lunch the next day. Try it. You might like it!

It's just the way I was brought up. When we were kids, Mom made us sit down after Christmas or birthdays and write thank you notes. By hand. We hated it, and it took forever! It's not that we wanted to be perceived as ungrateful or rude (Mom explained that's what people would think), but writing notes was so boring compared to playing with our new stuff. Now that it's so quick and easy to send a digitized message, whether by e-mail, IM, text, fax, e-card, or whatever, I find it even more important to do thank-yous the old-fashioned way. I love getting personal notes -- thank you or otherwise -- in my real mailbox. Every time I walk out to get the mail, I have a little flutter of hope that there might actually be something "real" among the junk. Most of the time it's just bills, credit card offers, and advertisements. Even though this is normal, it's still a bit disappointing. When something personal is hidden between the boring business envelopes, I get so excited! Aren't you the same way? Which is why I always try to send handwritten thank you notes, and I'm trying to get my kids in the habit of doing the same. It's a battle, because they say it takes forever, and it's boring... But I explain that people love getting a nice note in the mail, and it shows an appreciation for thoughtfulness on both sides of the stamp.

The most frequently asked question in our home is, "What's that smell?" The other day, there was such a smell coming from the laundry room that I actually closed the door between the laundry room and the kitchen, and opened the other side of the laundry room to the garage to air it out a bit. You know it's bad when the garage smells better than the laundry room! Having avoided doing laundry for a few days, I decided to brave the stink, for the sake of clean underwear. I started to run a load of clothes, and as the water filled the basin, the smell was putrid. Worse than dirty diapers. More like rotting roadkill. Not wanting to make a grisly discovery myself, I asked my husband to take a look inside the machine. I was sure there would be something dead at the bottom of the barrel. Dutifully, he removed the wet stuff from the full washer one article at a time. When he got down to the bottom, he found the offending article. "Honey, what's this?" I peeked around the corner and saw him holding up dripping wet a Blue's Clues beach towel with big, brown splotches. My mind was jogged back to a major chocolate milk spill earlier in the week. "I think it's chocolate milk," I said. (See, it's not as bad as you thought it would be.) But it sure did stink! I had grabbed the big towel to help mop things up. When I finished, I tossed the towel into the washer and forgot about it. Oooh-whee! In case you're wondering how to remove the smell of spoiled chocolate milk from a towel, I used Tide and chlorine bleach. That almost worked. A subsequent wash with Tide and Borax did the trick.