Bartons On Board

If you found yourself here, and/or you subscribed to my blog this is the last post for a while. I will still be posting as myself, but I'll be doing it over at BartonsOnBoard.com. If you know me, I think you'll love to check out the other link. It won't be all food and such, but I am sure it's going to come up from time to time. 

If you're reading this after Fall 2019, then no worries mate! I'm back and doing videos!

Homie Humor!

If you haven't realized it by now, I call my two boys "The Homies".
[Tytus is 6 and Ezra is 3 at the time of this post.]

Every now and then I let the boys go to breakfast with me before they go to school and I go to work. Usually the request is Dunkin Donuts where Tytus likes the croissant breakfast sandwich and Ezra a donut with sprinkles. Sheriff Dave (I know his name because I have run into him a few times now) offered Tytus a Sheriff badge the first time we met him. Dave walked up and handed the badge to Tytus (while Tytus was in mid-chew) and said, "I bet you'd love to have one of these wouldn't you?" to which Tytus looked un-impressed and said, "No!". AWKWARD! I laughed it off, gave Tytus the "eye" and told Dave "Thank you!".


Later on I explained to Tytus that Dave was like Chief Burns on the Transformer show Rescue Bots. I saw the "light" come on in Tytus eyes as he realized the significance of the badge. Later that morning he was showing all his friends in kindergarten his cool badge!

In a related funny story...

Ezra is not to be outdone when it comes to playing "Transformers"! He often tells me he can transform into "vehicle mode" in which a Transformer "robot" can transform back into their assigned scanned vehicle. Here we see Ezra after many squiggles, pops, and spitting sounds has transformed into his "vehicle mode"! Nice Ezra, Nice...I am trying to hold back laughter at this point as this is "serious business".

Wifey got Skills!

Add caption

My wifey bang'd out these cool Christmas tree cupcakes for Tytus party today at school!

(see full image)

#Win #Dadslife

Caramel Apples

Most kids (or parents for that matter) don't really want to tackle a whole caramel apple. I decided to do quarter of an apple size slices with Granny Smith apples. I bought my supplies (except Caramel and apples) at the dollar store. Cupcake liners help for easy serving and cleanup. I topped then with sprinkles, chocolate drizzle, and crushed skittles. (Things I had on hand leftover from another event.) These were sold at a fundraiser. Its easier to sell more of these at a much smaller price than a full coated apple. 

The Homies: Tytus Starts Kindergarten

Man! Time is flying by...

My oldest Homie Tytus just started k5! We don't even have tying shoelaces down to a science yet.

You've seen blogs, posts, and articles all over Facebook and social media...GET OFF THAT PHONE, TABLET, AND/OR IPAD or your going to miss your kids growing up!!! And you wonder how they got "that way" when you spend all your time hurrying on to the next thing and trying to rush "sleep time" along because you needed a break. (And sometimes we do!)

My boys are really sweet, loving, and then...you may unexpectedly get headbutted! Whining, crying, getting on your nerves and then...you realize they just need some "lovin'"! Its all in there.

The Homies: Ezra turns 3!

Recently my youngest homie Ezra turned 3. He's a big boy. I often laugh and describe him as if he was a minion that was magically turned into a real boy!

What is it that people say? "He's daddy's boy!" or "just like daddy". I suppose its because he's so "rough and tumble", stubborn, hard-headed, and built like a tank. Even though I would like to think its because he's so handsome and smart. He also has that blond almost white hair that still hasn't went away. I love it!

Before he had his own little birthday party in his pre-school room another little child did and they gave out party hats. Ezra loves those pointy dunce cap looking party hats! He tried to wear it to bath and to bed for two days! And that was after playing outside all afternoon with it on!

Sam's FOODIE Club

I noticed lately at my local Sam's Club it has really tried to draw in the "foodie" crowd. Sure it has the usual restaurant section and the home kitchen aisle BUT now they are really getting into it!

Wood Fired Oven. Cool, yet steep(price). I think we could make a bigger one with less money...a friend once found online where you could make one out of used or broken tombstones(recycling baby!)! -- Imagine pulling a delicious pizza out of it and seeing "Here lies Bro..." crusted into the bottom of it? HAHAHA 

Chocolate & Dulce De Leche Cake

Don't hate...I had some sweetened condensed milk to get rid of, OH, and some chocolate cake too!

Grilling, School Lunch, Bad Weather

Snack Break #DadLife

Teachers Christmas Banquet & Ratatouille

No. I haven't given up on blogging. It just slows down a lot while my actual work schedule speeds (and loads) up! Right around Thanksgiving, or November in general there are fundraisers, fundraiser meals, breaks, and then I have two Christmas banquets back to back in two weeks time!

The great thing about Teachers Christmas Banquet is the menu can be quite diverse. Probably because a week (or two) later a lot of our staff will be eating a Christmas Banquet somewhere else, or here at the church affiliated with Valley Fellowship Christian Academy. And its most likely going to be the "normal" fare...Ham, turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls. Yeah, pretty much everything I will be doing for our church banquet. So if your also going to have that at home, that's a lot of the same meal over and over again...Especially just after Thanksgiving.

Teachers Christmas Banquet Menu:

"Surf & Turf"

SURF
Appetizers:
Shrimp Cocktail
Smoked Salmon English Cucumber Cups
Jumbo Lump Crab & Tomato Medley

TURF
Dinner:
Petite Beef Tender - spice rubbed, seared, and finished in the oven...cut into medallions and served with house made Horseradish Sauce.
Chicken Roulade - stuffed with Brussels sprouts, hickory smoked bacon, Manchego & Mozzarella cheese. Topped with a light Cilantro Cream Sauce. (Don't worry, it's not strong)
Scalloped Potatoes - a classic, potatoes, cream, butter, salt & pepper...
Ratatouille - traditionally a French dish of stewed vegetables this will be on the lighter side, baked slow, essentially steaming the vegetables. Including: zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, and herbs. (I used Thomas Keller's idea of Confit Byaldi, you would know better as: Ratatouille's Ratatouille - from the movie of the same name)
Fresh Baked Dinner Rolls (from scratch)

Salad: keeping it simple, fresh mix of greens, balsamic vinaigrette...

Desserts: provided by parents.

I want to express this nicely...I don't think the majority of our staff is real adventurous when it comes to food so I usually have to take it slow with incorporating new things (to them) like ratatouille, manchego cheese, or using trendy ingredients like brussel sprouts (which people ate over 20 years ago and still claim to hate). Having all seafood appetizers was also risky. People who aren't to adventurous in food usually stick to shrimp if any seafood at all out of the three I picked to use. BUT I have to say I was very impressed by the amount of appetizers they ate and the rest of the meal went great! Most of the feedback was excellent on that ratatouille and the brussel sprouts was mostly mistaken for artichoke! LOL But I expected as much when we had a trial "taste" of the chicken.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to remember to take:

Jumbo Lump Crab & Tomato Medley
(has a guacamole base)

Shrimp Cocktail

Apparently I missed taking a picture of the smoked salmon English cucumber cups...?

Chicken Roulade - stuffed with Brussels sprouts, hickory smoked bacon, Manchego & Mozzarella cheese. Topped with a light Cilantro Cream Sauce.

Petite Beef Tender - spice rubbed, seared, and finished in the oven
(sorry not the clearest picture)

Scalloped Potatoes

Ratatouille Before cooking

Before cooking

Ratatouille After cooking

The whole meal had great feedback but I think most people were amazed with the ratatouille! They were struck by it visually, BUT later couldn't believe the vegetables it was made of and the amazing taste(s).

Its wonderful to be able to stretch people, or, get them out of their 'comfort zone' a little bit.

Small Bits And Favorites

Waffle Cornbread & Chili 

My wife made an excellent Turkey Chili with cornbread made in the waffle iron. We have often cooked many a weird things in the waffle iron (like a delicious montage of leftover tater-tots...Mmmm) BUT now there has been a cookbook and blog surfacing thru Facebook the last few months (or maybe more?)...WILL IT WAFFLE? -- Or check out some excellent post about waffling more food here SERIOUS EATS WAFFLING.

Free Cookbook 4$ a day

Good and Cheap is a collection of recipes for people with limited incomes, particularly those on a $4/day food stamps/EBT card budget. [click on picture it links to website with free PDF]

Pillowcase Salad Spinner

Once again I don't even have to make this stuff up! I could see this as being very useful at home for a big dinner party!