A Little Diversity

If you were to take all of Alexis' besties and put them in a room together, you'd find yourself so very confused. There isn't a pattern. She hangs out with people who like all of the same things that she does, but she also hangs out with people who have nothing in common with her. Some are older, some are younger, some are practically her clone, and some are exactly her opposite.

It's magnificent, if I'm being honest. It's especially magnificent because Alexis is SO VERY basic white girl. Left to her own devices, she'd spend her days rocking Ugg's and leggings while sipping a Starbucks and walking around downtown Pittsburgh texting people from an iPhone. 

The city holds her heart and she very much so appreciates the finer things in life.

And yet, she went to a monster truck thing. Go back to the beginning and it all makes sense -- a very awesome friend invited her to join some redneck shenanigans. The friend part trumps the part where it wasn't really an event that she would normally enjoy. And HOOBOY did the whole thing mess with her head.

Prior to the event, Alexis was in a big hurry to go home and change clothes. "This wasn't my best work," was her explanation for why her usual uniform of leggings and a lace shirt wasn't acceptable. There was some back and forth about whether or not she really needed to create even more dirty laundry. Which, for what it's worth, I won. I pointed out that any cute boys that might be at the show would be cute boys who like monster trucks. Did it matter if she was dressed her best?

Her answer was no. LOLZ.

So off the city girl went to an event that was decidedly out of her comfort zone. But, she did it with an awesome person, so of course it was fun. When she returned home, she spent half an hour telling me how great it was and so fun and ZOMG! It was like, the best! Like, totally awesome, mom! Never before has something so redneck been described with some many "likes." Like, cool!

She continued on and on forever (worth noting, I grew up in North Dakota where a night at a monster truck thing was about as exciting as life could get so I know waaaaaaay more than necessary about such shows). She used all of the words as she begged to go to another one and blah, blah, blah.

I briefly wondered if my born-to-be-in-the-city girl had turned a corner. We're talking about a girl who has never been happier than she was the first time she stood in Times Square surrounded by strangers. That girl, THAT girl ... that girl seemed far away.

Until the following day.

"Mom, we need to go to the ballet or something. I need some balance."

Yep. That's my girl.

Want Pretty

I have a rule that says that all rules are null and void if the weather is nice. Forget the cooking and cleaning, we're going to the playground, people.

Obviously, I've been enforcing that rule A LOT the past few months. I feel like we're going to end up with the most miserable of springs here eventually. When it happens? I'm going to need to basically demo the kitchen because I'm not keeping up on the cleaning at all.

No. Really. Just look at the vast amount of cat hair that has collected between the glass on the oven door. It's downright amazing.

In my quest to continue letting enough fur to create a whole other cat collect, we did the quickest of runs to Target this weekend before running outside to play. The goal was to grab enough groceries to survive for a few days as well as the makeup and hair stuff that Alexis needed for dance a week ago. It's possible that the makeup and hair stuff is making me crazy, so I had been putting it off waaaaaay longer than was even remotely reasonable. I'm sure I will write all about that eventually.

ANYWAY.

We ran into Target, dashed through the hair aisle looking for a certain type of pointy stabby thing, and then dashed through the cheese aisle because cheese. Mila and I can live off of cheese for a few days. Screw the rest of them. They can fend for themselves if they don't like the cheese diet. As we darted through the store, Mila kept chanting, "Want pretty."

"Want pretty."

Over and over again, Mila kept saying that she wanted "pretty."

WTF.

Last time I checked, Target sells pretty, oh ... THE WHOLE DAMN STORE IS PRETTY. ALL OF IT. 

I had no idea what she wanted. I ended up walking around all over the store with her saying, "Do you want that? Is that pretty? What's pretty? I get it, you want pretty. Do you have another word? Is it this? WHAT DO YOU WANT, CHILD?"

I'm not good at dealing with the broken record stage of communication. Obviously. The girl wanted "pretty" and I couldn't buy her an entire Target store, so I kept trying and trying to figure out what she was saying. She was becoming increasingly impatient with my stupidity until I decided to retrace our steps and see if she was referring to something she had seen when we first got into the store.

Cheese isn't "pretty," by the way. I learned that very quickly when I Mila ripped my head off, chewed it up, and spit it into the personal care section of the store. The good news about her spitting it in that direction is that when I went to retrieve it, a very excited shriek fell out of Mila's face. "PRETTY!" she squealed.

The ridiculous flower in her hair. She wanted a ponytail on top of her head and she wanted a pretty little flower to finish off the look.

She's been wearing "pretty" for three days now.

So that's a thing. A very confusing, I definitely blame Alexis and her giant bows, thing.

Pizza Puffs (with ALL of the Cheese)

Somehow the laziest version of parenting has us packing Mila's lunch every day. It's a weird little loop, but, yes. Lazy. The lazy is why I'm always looking for things to make for her that will travel well.

Pizza Puffs!

I've been meaning to make tiny fist-sized pizzas for the Tiny Human for a while and finally got around to figuring out a recipe that is meatless and that maximized the cheese. Because cheese. Cheese is Mila's love language.

So is dip. If she could dip cheese in cheese and call it lunch, she totally would. While I didn't go quite that far, I did let her dip her Pizza Puffs in pizza sauce and that was enough for her to double-fist them. Repeatedly.

I imagine grown-ups would as well. These make a great appetizer, or pair them with salad for a pretty fabulous meal. (I know it's a fabulous meal because it's exactly what we had for dinner tonight.)

Pizza Puffs (makes 24 mini puffs)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (divided) (alternately -- use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan)
Pizza sauce 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Find a mini muffin pan that will bake 24 at a time and spray non-stick spray all over that thing. Now spray a little more non-stick spray because cheese. Cheese sticks.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, oregano, salt, and basil. Whisk lightly to mix.

3. Add the milk and egg. Use a fork to mix everything up really well.

4. Stir in 1 cup of shredded cheese.

5. Place a little bit of the mixture into each of the muffin cup spots. 

6. Top each one with about a teaspoon of cheese. It's not worth actually measuring it -- just use up the remaining 1 cup of cheese that you have sitting there.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

8. As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, use a butter knife to score around the side of each puff and pry it out of the muffin pan.

9. Serve with pizza sauce. 

10. All forms of pizza are excellent forms of pizza, no?