Welcome to my blog

Hello! Welcome to my blog!  This is my spot to talk about everything that is on my mind.  Whether it is the challenges of being a mother or my latest cooking endeavors, you'll find it all here.

Let me start out by introducing myself. I'm Wendy Breiding. I'm 30-something, happily married, and the proud mom of a beautiful daughter.  18 months ago, when I decided to quit my job to stay at home and raise my daughter, the world was shocked.  Until then, I was known as this super career girl.  I put myself through college at the University of Miami, graduating in 3 years with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Math.  I went into the workforce, but was called back my the University of Miami a year later to join their new Master's program.  My current employer did not appreciate me bettering myself and passed me up for a promotion because I was in school, and so I quit and worked on a grant for the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center.  A few months later, I was hired as the University of Miami's webmaster.

I got my Master's Degree in Communications while working at the University of Miami.  The web department at UM was just me when I started, but it quickly grew as the importance of the internet grew.  I went from being the webmaster to the Senior Manager of Web Development and Support.  I became well known for Content Management in Higher Education, traveling around the country speaking about its importance to other Universities.  I was also becoming well known in the journalism field, traveling the world speaking about newspapers using new technology and the internet.

I also decided to get another Master's degree in Computer Information Systems while there (it was free).

But, I was not happy in Miami.  I did not see any opportunity to move up in my career.  My boss was the Assistant Vice President for Planning & Institutional Research.  I obviously couldn't take her job. So, where was I to go.  So, I started looking elsewhere.

I was offered a job at Publix Super Markets as a Portal Administrator (definite step backwards), but they promised that the opportunities to move up were quick and easy at Publix, so I moved to Central Florida.  Sadly, the CIO retired shortly after my arrival and there was a huge reorganization at Publix I/S and my opportunities to move up were quickly taken away. I was there for 5 years, and had not returned to being a manager yet.  And, there was no sign that it was going to happen any time in the foreseeable future.

So, when my husband offered me the opportunity to spend my days hanging out with my beautiful baby girl, I could not pass it up.

So, here we are 18 months later, and I LOVE spending my days with her.  My life has completely changed.

I used to love to cook.  It was my stress-reliever from my life.  I would get home from a long day of work and go into the kitchen and create.  But, now, I don't have a long stressful day at work.  I don't have a reason to need to go into the kitchen and unwind.  I play with my daughter all day.

But, I don't have a lot of opportunity to outlet in my new life.  So, that's why we're here.  I have a lot of great stories about my amazing daughter, my goofy husband, my crazy dog, and just life in general.  But, I have no one to tell them to.  So, now I'm telling them to you.

So, why the name of the blog?  Well, I still love to cook.  It's just a bit different these days.  It's not creating great restaurant-quality dishes for my husband when he comes home from work.  Now, it's trying to create something edible while running between the kitchen and the living room to read stories, build towers, color, and keep my daughter happy.  It's trying not to burn tonight's dinner. It's trying to come up with something that my hubby won't complain about (since it's not as good as he's used to) that can be done quickly using as few pans as possible (since I HATE doing dishes and he stopped doing them for me when I became a SAHM).  I have lots of adventures to talk about in the kitchen.  And wine ... well, everything's better with wine.  And, now that I have finally stopped breastfeeding, I hope to start experimenting with some good wines and I plan to tell you about what I fine.  So, we're cooking, I'm Momma, and there is wine.

Borracho Chili

Ingredients

• 2 bottle Dogfish Head Raison d'etre or your favorite sweeter beer
• 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 large onion chopped
• 3 clove garlic minced
• 1/2 large bell pepper chopped
• 1 pound turkey sausage
• 1 pound ground turkey breast
• 1 cup Dry Pinto Beans
• 4 large tomatoes
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 ounce Unsweetened Chocolate finely chopped
• 1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce seeded and chopped (reserve 1/2 of the adobo sauce)

Directions

Soak beans overnight. Then, cook them as directed for about 2 hours.

Also, chop tomatoes.  Puree 2 of them and cook down into a sauce the other 2.

Saute onions and bell pepper with the olive oil (2 tbps) in a soup kettle.

In a skillet, brown the ground turkey and turkey sausage with olive oil (1 tbps). Drain the grease from the skillet and add the meat to the soup kettle.

Add all remaining ingredients except 1 beer. Simmer for 1 hour on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining beer. Simmer for another 35 minutes.

Best after a day or two in the fridge to allow flavors to blend. Remove the cloves as you find them.

Jade’s 1st Birthday Party

My beautiful daughter is turning 1 in a few short weeks, and we’re having her birthday party next weekend.  I am so nervous to do everything right since there are so many people judging everything I do around me.  We have so many people that want to celebrate her first birthday, so we had originally decided we were going to have 4 separate parties since there was no way we could fit everyone at our house.  Then, one day at the park, Jeremy noticed the pavilion at Warren Park and decided that if it wasn’t too expensive, we should rent that and have it there and just have 1.

So, we’re back up to 70ish people (if everyone comes).

I’ve got 2 cake molds and a 6″ round for her smash cake.  I think I’m going to do traditional vanilla for the cakes and an apple cake for Jade’s cake.

We decided on butterflies to be our theme for her party, so here’s what I”m thinking for snacks to serve:

• Butterfly bagels
• Caterpillar snacks
• Cheese ball and pita chips
• Butterfly salad
• Butterfly snacks
• Punch

Hopefully this will be enough and will not be too difficult to pull off. Hopefully Jade will love her cake and be a happy baby for me.

Butterfly Snacks

Ingredients

• 2 stalks celery
• 6 tablespoons cream cheese
• 12 large Pretzels
• 12 slivered almonds
• 18 raisins

Directions

1. Cut the celery into three equal parts.
2. Place one tablespoon cream cheese into each celery stalk.
3. Gently place one pretzel into the cream cheese on each side of the celery to form the wings (lengthwise).
4. Place the raisins at one end for the eyes, mouth and nose. Place the push the slivered almonds at the top of the raisins for antennae.

Rhyan’s Baby Shower

Well, it was a big success.  Everyone seemed to love the food at this baby shower.  We went with “baby” themed foods.  We had “baby” pizzas, “baby” quiches, “baby” shrimp dip, “baby” vegetables with dip, “baby” spanikopitas, and “baby” baked apples.

The apples were a huge hit.  Next time, we’re going to add goat cheese to some of them.  Also, we’re going to do some vegetarian quiches. And, I don’t think we’re doing the spanikopitas again.  They are just too much work and too stressful to do.  Even though they are so yummy.

Back from vacation

I have 2 more tests left on my catering certification.  I hope to finish by the end of September.  Next steps … figure out what it takes to make Slippers in the Kitchen official.  I’ve already got requests for pricing and ideas to cater a couple of lunches.  I’m very excited about the possibilities.  When I’m in the kitchen, I feel like I can do so much.  I just need the time to do things.  Now that Jade is about to crawl, I”m not sure how much time I will have.  We’ll see.

Busy prepping

I’ve been busy prepping for the big party on Sunday.  I’ve spent a lot of time planning for this one, so I hope that we have enough food (and not way too much).  So far, I’ve overshot the necessary amount on every part, which means, I don’t end up making as much money as I need to because I buy too much food.  I’m guessing that is going to be the same situation here, but we’ll see on Sunday.

We’re making 2 breads and buying 2 breads.  We’re making chicken salad, tuna salad, ham salad, waldorf salad, fruit salad, and we’re buying mixed greens for a green salad.  I’m also making a dip and we’re buying some pretzels to go along for an appetizer.  We’ve cut back to 2 tortes, since my sister-in-law is making a cake.  I still have about $40 worth of groceries left to buy, totalling about $200 for the food.  That leaves $50 for my time to do this event.  We will be spending about 20 hours total on planning, shopping, and cooking, so I’m worth about $2.50 an hour.  Not so good.

I’m still learning, and I would say my biggest area I need improving is figuring out the right amount of food to make.  I think with a few more parties under my belt I will do better.  I already improved.  The last party I spent every dime on food, so I’ve gotten a $2.50/hour raise!!!