You call yourself Italian?

I am proud of my Italian heritage. In someways I am very Italian in others, not so much. I love pasta. I talk with my hands. I have an overwhelming desire to feed and mother everyone I come across.  

On the other hand, I don't drink coffee of any kind (latte, espresso, cappuccino me no likey). My cousins called me the hairless Ginny and....

I am not a big fan of pizza per say.  It is a little too bready for me and I never seem to get a take out pizza that has enough sauce on it for my taste. (I like a very saucy pizza!)  Often I am expecting one thing and receive a version I would not have anticipated. Burned broccoli on a white pizza. Sausage that looks more like rabbit pellets than sausage.  Crust burned on the bottom.  These are things that will ruin my night. 

This being said. I do enjoy making my own pizzas at home. I can control the ingredients and the sauce content.  I like a thin crispy crust but not burnt.  I also like to fool around with non traditional pizza ingredients on my pies.  BBQ chicken, Chicken Satay, Ruben, BLT.... 

One of my favorites is BBQ Chicken Pizza.  I love Sandra Lee's concept of semi homemade. Ingredients prepped for you by the store that you can then pull together to make your own dinner. 

On a recent trip to Florida I stocked up on Curly's Sauceless Pulled Chicken. I am not sure why but they stopped selling it up here by me.  I love to make myself little White BBQ pulled chicken sliders on King's Hawaiian Sweet rolls. But I digress.  I realized I had room in my cooler for more of the sauceless pulled chickens and sent my wonderful husband to Publix to get more.  HE came back with Curly's Pulled Barbecue Chicken. (I guess the universe was saying 9 packs of pulled sauceless chicken was enough!) No worries, I can use that too!  One of the things I can do with it is my yummy Almost Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza. It is a favorite in our house. A little bit pizza, a little bit bbq summer. 

Almost Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Crust

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheese pizza blend

1 container Curly's Pulled BBQ chicken

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Open Pizza crust and spread onto pizza stone or greased sheet pan.  Bake crust for 5-7 minutes until top is firm but not golden.  Remove from oven and spread BBQ sauce onto crust.  Next evenly spread BBQ Chicken onto crust in thin layer.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and then shredded pizza blend.  Return to oven for another 10-15 minutes watching so cheese does not form a hard crust but remains melty and bubbly. 

My Funny Gemini

Today we had my Beauty's birthday party. It thrills me to take a little peek into her social life.  I love to watch her with her friends.  In my eyes she is a true Gemini there is a duality to her that is so intriguing.

She is an incredibly social child. She has many friends and lots of acquaintances.  Much to the dismay of her father, she seems to be a magnet for little boys. It has been that way since nursery school. I wonder sometimes if it is because she does not talk, and there for does not talk back and is not bossy. Today at her party she had boys on either side of her at the theater four seats in each direction.  She was in her glory.

She is also a little person who needs her space. She has no problem entertaining herself and will sometimes even remove herself from a social situation for some alone time. I have no problem with that, in fact I have been known to do it myself. I love people and entertaining but there comes a time for me when that becomes overwhelming and I need to excuse myself for a moment.

I often joke about my delicate flower and her favorite movies and cartoon characters. They are not princesses... she had an extreme love for all things Avengers and Transformers.  On the other side of the coin, she does love horses and ponies. My Little Ponies and Horseland are a nice alternative to the Transformers Prime show that dominates our television.

Pink sparkly Christmas tree surrounded by Avengers

She has an affinity for technology and video games. Loud crashing racing games.  She also loves books. 

She loves to dress up. A twirly dress fills her with joy and pride.  On the other hand she has quite the collection of superhero t-shirts and has no problem getting dirty. (shudder) When asked what she wanted to be for halloween she chose... 

yes, Captain America. I asked her if she wanted me to make a tutu for her costume. She indignantly and quite clearly told me "Captain America does NOT wear a tutu".  (imagine that sentence spoke with a mouth full of marbles)
Just a couple years ago she was happy to be Pinkalicious. After that Penny from Bolt. In between I got to dress her as Hit Girl from Kick Ass.

As we come up on her tenth year I can't wait to see what my little Gemini has is store for me.  She is impulsive but set in routine.  She is dramatic and yet comedic. She is unique and yet just like every other third grader I know.

It is amazing to me that this bright, vivacious, social butterfly, as the doctors have repeatedly told me, never should have opened her eyes. She is a miracle on earth.

It's Kimsmas Day!

So I totally did not plan this but my 42nd post just so happens to be falling on my 42nd birthday.

Forty-two 

42

XVII 

Quarante-duex 

Cuarenta y dos 

I don't know how others feel about their birthdays but I love mine. I love it not in the way that I want the world to stop and celebrate with me. Ok, who am I kidding. I call my birthday Kimsmasday. And when Mother's Day falls on my birthday it is a Mother of a Kimsmasday! I don't mind aging. I freely tell people my age, much to my mother's dismay, mainly because I don't look my age. I love hearing how old people think I am and will kiss anyone on the mouth who guesses under 30.

So in order to celebrate my 42nd post on my 42nd year on earth, I thought I would post 42 things about me.  Think of it as a peek inside my brain.

1.  My favorite color is purple. 
2.  It was a good thing my favorite color is purple because it is the color of my sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma. 
3.  I have one sister who is younger than me. 
4. My sister and I live on the same block. 
5. I have 2 tattoos. 
6. I love to read, always have. 
7. I love to cook.
8. I am a terrible baker.
9. I read cookbooks like people read novels.
10. When my husband gave me my KitchenAid mixer for our first Valentine's Day after we were married, I kissed it. 
11. I have a degree in Social Work. 
12. I went to college in North Carolina.
13. If I could live anywhere in the world it would be in the South. 
14. I took sign language in college. 
15. My daughter is functionally non verbal and communicates with sign language and a communication device. (who knew?) 
16. I have a pathological need to return my cart to the cart corral. I NEVER leave it loose in the parking lot. Even in the rain.
17. I hate to get caught in the rain. 
18. My favorite Muppet is Pepe the King Prawn. 
19. I can't ever pass up Coal Miner's Daughter, Barefoot in the Park and Grease 2 when I come across them on television. 
20. If I had to choose between something sweet or something savory. I will always pick savory. 
21. Something sweet when eaten must always be followed by something savory. 
22. I love sushi. 
23. I hate spicy food. 
24. I am allergic to raw onions and strawberries. 
25. I love babies dressed in black. 
26. I also love skull prints especially on babies. 
27. I am very tactile. 
28. I won't eat Jell-o because of the texture. 
29. I won't eat bananas for the same reason but I love banana flavored food. 
30. Contrary to that, I love my Yonanas machine which makes ice cream out of frozen bananas. 
31. I don't eat foods that look like they need to shave. 
32. I only eat scrambled eggs I have cooked myself. 
33. My daughter is the greatest thing I have ever done. 
34. My biggest fear is losing my husband or my daughter. 
35. I have a one eyed Pekingnese named Leo. 
36. I have a love/hate relationship with my rescue dog, Brownie. 
37. I refuse to give up on him and return him to the shelter. 
38. I am a cynic at heart but my daughter has made me an optimist.
39. I make a mean gumbo. 
40. I love cartoons. 
41. I lost over 100 pounds. 
42. The last thing I do before I go to sleep at night is touch my husbands face.