So Long, 2020

TASTY: Even though we just finished the December Teen Feed, it's not too early to start thinking about next month's menu.

We discussed a number of options and I think we've decided on asking people to bring their favorite casserole this month. Casseroles are filling, comfort food that should go over well on a cold January night.

I had initially thought we'd make hot dish, and we still might, but for fun, I Googled casserole recipes. I found a couple of articles with dozens of ideas, including All Recipes' "Casseroles for a Crowd" and Delish.com's "45+ Easy Dinner Casserole Recipes." 

Turns out. there are a WHOLE lot of casseroles we've never heard of ... like corn dog casserole. Apparently that's a thing. So, we just had to try it out last night, because it sounded to me like something the Teen Feed diners would love the sound of.  It's not gourmet, but it's pretty darn good, I have to admit. There were no complaints from anyone at MPA last night.

Tonight's experiment is Chicken Bacon Ranch Bubble-Up Bake (photo above). Broccoli, cheese, butter, bacon, chicken and biscuits, what's not to love (well, other than the fact that it's not exactly health food)?

Reviews were great for tonight's concoction. CJ proclaimed, "We should have casserole more often." Like, more often than two nights in a row, apparently. :)

GAMEY: This afternoon, the kids participated in their semi regular online game day. A number of different Internet-based games are played, but it seems like way more than any other, the group plays Among Us. CJ can tell you a bit more about it. 

"In 2018, PNW-based indie game development studio InnerSloth quietly released Among Us, an online party social deduction game. In Among Us, players are sorted into two groups: Crewmates and impostors. Crewmates' goal is to complete tasks in the game area and, when necessary, determine which players are the impostors. Meanwhile, impostors' goal is to kill the crewmates, either by (literally) backstabbing them, or sabotaging essential space travel supplies such as oxygen.

Upon Among Us' initial 2018 release, it didn't get very much attention. However, in 2020, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has forced millions of people to limit the amount of time they spend with other people, Among Us experienced a surge in popularity due to providing players with social interaction over long distances. Among Us' popularity can also be attributed to being accessible to those unfamiliar or inexperienced with video games, yet still offering a level of technicality and strategizing to more seasoned gamers. For example, crewmates serve themselves well by learning to identify common impostor tactics (such as crawling through vents or pretending to do tasks), while impostors serve themselves well by learning how to deceive and fool crewmates (for example, by memorizing common task locations, or sometimes even throwing another impostor under the bus to gain the crewmates' trust)."

Here's a link to a YouTube short pormo about the game: https://youtu.be/NSJ4cESNQfE, and below I'll try to embed the video, though that feature doesn't seem to work on Blogger any more.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NSJ4cESNQfE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

TESTY: We're still plugging away at figuring out college for the kids next year. To be in Running Start, Annabelle will have to pass a placement test. To that end, today she took a practice test for the math portion. Bellevue College uses the ALEKS test for math placement, so we used their website for an assessment. It gave us quite a list of things to review over the next couple of months, so that was helpful. Bellevue College also suggests taking final tests from some of their previous math classes as a tune up. So we'll be working on those, for sure. 

RECYCLED:  Boy, have we gotten good mileage out of the DIY advent calendar I purchased back in October. First, we used it for a countdown to the November election. In December, it was used as a traditional countdown to Christmas calendar, and today, I repurposed it for a countdown to the inauguration. 

Helping Homeless for the Holidays

PRETTY IN PINK: A busy Christmas weekend included a cake donation to Birthday Dreams.

We were told the 14 year-old spending her Christmas and birthday in a homeless shelter likes art and pink. So those two elements were combined to produce the cake above.

We always start off with a conceptual drawing. Often, the cake doesn't look like the drawing when we're done, but it's a starting point.

CJ baked three layers of vanilla cake on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Annabelle got busy with design elements. A palette, paint brush, paint tube and easel needed to be constructed out of homemade modeling chocolate. 

I filled and iced this cake, and then Annabelle air brushed it with a vibrant pink.

CJ installed a tidy row of 'pearls' around its base. 

We were really happy with how it all came together. It wasn't the biggest or most complicated cake we've ever done, but it was really pretty, at least to our eyes. (FYI, the birthday girl's name has been obscured or altered in all of our photos to preserve her anonymity.) 

I loved the way Annabelle's cupcake on 'canvas' turned out. And the palette was super cute, too.

BUENO BURRITOS:  The Christmas holiday definitely didn't spill over into Saturday, the day after Christmas, for us. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was a super busy day, readying a huge amount of food for our monthly Teen Feed service.

This month there was a bit of a monkey wrench. I was informed on the night of Christmas Eve eve that Teen Feed's location had been moved. And so, then I had just two days (Christmas Eve and Christmas day) to try to contact a dozen-plus volunteers and let them know about the change. That was fun ... not.

Most every morning I write a 'to do' list on a white board in our kitchen. Here was Saturday's.

On the list was making at least 20 enormous (like three pound) burritos. I had cooked the chicken, beans, and rice on Christmas day, so on the 26th, it was all about assembly. The kids and I got a production line going. First, CJ would toast a tortilla on a griddle. I'd pick that up and put about 3/4 cups of refried beans on. Annabelle would add a cup of Mexican rice, I'd drizzle on some enchilada sauce, and then I'd add two huge handfuls of seasoned, shredded chicken. CJ would sprinkle two handfuls of cheese on top, and the the hard part was rolling all of that into a nice, tight burrito. 

We got better at it as we went along. CJ also tore foil sheets that the burritos were then wrapped in.

Fortunately, I was able to chase down every volunteer and all of the food made it to the new Teen Feed location. We had asked for 80 burritos, and probably wound up with more than a hundred! (At home, the kids and I made 30 instead of 20, because we had the filling to do so. Others clearly did the same - made burritos until they couldn't make any more.)

In the to go bags there was also some fresh fruit, a box of nacho chips with salsa, sour cream, cheese dip, and jalapenos. 

For dessert, volunteers home baked cookies. One friend made vegan Mexican mocha snickerdoodles, which sounded delicious to me. She even wrote "Adios 2020" (the theme for our dinner) on each cookie envelope. 

All in all, a super busy weekend, but a great chance to help some young neighbors in need.