Results for : chicken

When I was growing up, I never ate lunch in the school cafeteria. The first time I did eat in a school cafeteria was on my first day of college. It was pretty awful, and I had an even greater appreciation for the brown bag lunches that my Mom packed for me and my sisters every single morning.

In elementary school we walked home for lunch every day. But once we entered junior high, my sisters and I brought our lunch from home. Our mother would pack a sandwich, piece of fruit and a cookie and put them in the classic brown bag. Sometimes she would put a hard-boiled egg, left-over chicken, or anything else that was handy. Lunch was always predictable and reliable.

However, one day each year, our mother took a few liberties with our lunches. She had a great sense of humor, and loved a good joke. Every April Fool’s Day, the joke was on us. And in our lunch bags. Peanut butter sandwiches were laced with rubber bands. Two pieces of bread would hold a hand written note that said “April Fool’s!” On one occasion the note read, “This is not a piece of jumbo.” (Western Pennsylvania slang for bologna). One time the sandwich was a picture of a slice of jumbo. If there was an egg, we weren’t sure if it was hard-boiled or raw, until we cracked the shell.

She did it every year. We knew it was coming, although a few times we did forget about her favorite holiday. At least, until we opened our lunch bags. Oh, yes, it’s April Fool’s Day. I can imagine her at home, watching the clock so she knew which child was in lunch period, opening her special brown bag. As much as she loved her little joke, she would never let us go hungry. She always had an extra lunch for us sent with one of our friends. So, by the time we were in high school, our friends knew about Mom’s joke, and eagerly anticipated April Fool’s Day to see what she came up with this time.

So, on this April Fool’s Day, I celebrate my mother and her sense of humor. I raise a slice of bread slathered with peanut butter and laced with rubber bands to my mother’s memory. And to further honor her, I share with you the lessons I learned from her and those lunches. First of all, it’s important to have a sense of humor. It’s good for your health. It’s important to laugh often, and laugh hard. A good belly laugh is good for your spirit and has the added benefit of working your abs without doing crunches. It’s important to go along with a joke, even if you already know it’s coming, and you are on the receiving end. It’s even better to share the joke with friends. It teaches you not to take yourself too seriously.

One last thing…always have a back up plan, just in case your brown bag is full of rubber bands, raw eggs and April Fool’s. It’s good to be prepared for the unexpected.

Family vacations. You got to love them. They truly are the best of times and the worst of times. My husband and I went on a family vacation last week with my sister and her family. We rented a beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, just like we did last year. We had such a great vacation experience last time, we spent the entire year looking forward to going back. To make our vacation even more special, my sister and her fiance were going to get married on the beach in a small, private ceremony.

The first three days were great, even though it rained. Not the cleansing, refreshing kind of rain, but torrential, unrelenting sheets of rain. That was okay, because we were together, enjoying each others’ company. When we weren’t getting on each others’ nerves, that is. Eventually we got plenty of quality time on the beach in the pouring rain. After all, the whole point of going to a beach is to get wet, and we managed to do that quite well.

The rain finally stopped and the sun came out on the day of the wedding. The wedding that my husband and I nearly missed because we had to take their dog to the vet two hours before the ceremony. The closest vet was 45 minutes away, without traffic. Bless the vet and his wonderful staff; they knew we were on a tight schedule and they had us in and out in less than 30 minutes. That gave us plenty of time to wipe the dog drool off of us and shake off the dog hair before the ceremony.

We cooked a lot of our meals and ate in, which worked out great. Except for the end of the week, when we decided to make the chicken we had bought on the first day. Apparently, the chicken was less than fresh, and the menfolk drove the 45 minutes down the road (in the opposite direction of the vet’s office), to avoid the risk of salmonella poisoning. Dinner was saved! All we had to do was put it in the crock pot on low heat for a nice, home cooked meal after a day on the beach. Too bad we forgot to plug it in. Ah, well.

On the last day we went paddle boarding. It was a lot of hard work, but it sure was fun, and even very peaceful. As a matter of fact, it was so peaceful that we didn’t notice that we were slowly being swept out to sea. It took over 3 long hours to swim it in, dragging the boards behind us. I discovered I was in much better shape than I thought.                                                                                          

All things considered, we had a wonderful time. It was a fantastic family vacation, and full of the stuff that legends are made of. When we said our good byes and headed our separate ways, it was with some trepidation that my sister asked if we were up for joining them for vacation next year. I looked at her in amazement. I answered “Are you kidding? And miss out on all of this? No way!” I’m already looking forward to next year, and another great family vacation!

When I was growing up, I never ate lunch in the school cafeteria. The first time I did eat in a school cafeteria was on my first day of college. It was pretty awful, and I had an even greater appreciation for the brown bag lunches that my Mom packed for me and my sisters every single morning.

In elementary school we walked home for lunch every day. But once we entered junior high, my sisters and I brought our lunch from home. Our mother would pack a sandwich, piece of fruit and a cookie and put them in the classic brown bag. Sometimes she would put a hard-boiled egg, left-over chicken, or anything else that was handy. Lunch was always predictable and reliable.

However, one day each year, our mother took a few liberties with our lunches. She had a great sense of humor, and loved a good joke. Every April Fool’s Day, the joke was on us. And in our lunch bags. Peanut butter sandwiches were laced with rubber bands. Two pieces of bread would hold a hand written note that said “April Fool!” On one occasion the note read, “This is not a piece of jumbo.” (Western Pennsylvania slang for bologna). One time the sandwich was a picture of a slice of jumbo. If there was an egg, we weren’t sure if it was hard-boiled or raw, until we cracked the shell.

She did it every year. Every year we knew she would do it, although a few times we did forget about her favorite holiday. At least, until we opened our lunch bags. Oh, yes, it’s April Fool’s Day. I can imagine her at home, watching the clock so she knew which child was in lunch period, opening her special brown bag. As much as she loved her little joke, she would never let us go hungry. She always had an extra lunch for us sent with one of our friends. So, by the time we were in high school, our friends knew about Mom’s joke, and eagerly anticipated April Fool’s Day to see what she came up with this time.

So, on this April Fool’s Day, I celebrate my mother and her sense of humor. I raise a slice of bread slathered with peanut butter and laced with rubber bands to my mother’s memory. And to further honor her, I share with you the lessons I learned from her and those lunches. First of all, it’s important to have a sense of humor. It’s good for your health. It’s important to laugh often, and laugh hard. A good belly laugh is good for your spirit and has the added benefit of working your abs without doing crunches. It’s important to go along with a joke, even if you already know it’s coming, and you are on the receiving end. It’s even better to share the joke with friends. It teaches you not to take yourself too seriously.

One last thing….always have a back up plan, just in case your brown bag is full of rubber bands, raw eggs and April Fool’s. It’s good to be prepared for the unexpected.

Be healthy!
Cheryl Ilov, PT, GCFP