Lime and Cilantro Chicken Kebabs and Mexican Corn Bake

The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.

Margaret Chase Smith

I haven’t thought about being popular since high school.

To be honest, I never really thought about it even then.

Ninja and my SIL thought about it a lot because their Dad was in the Air Force. They would move in the summer and from past experiences knew not to make friends with anybody on the street because once they got to school they could be in the wrong group.

When they told me about this I laughed. I was like, seriously? But to be fair, I never moved. I had the same friends since kindergarten and although I had many enemies LOL I was not in the “wrong” crowd. I dated the hockey player, was in charge of most every activity and although our group of girls could barely stand each other we were the it girls.

I never really thought about what being popular really meant. I still had it tough in high school even with the “right” friends. Girls hated that their boyfriends liked me… boys hated that I dumped them…

Without going into detail we had another eruption on our PAC last week. I don’t want to scare people away from joining their school PAC, don’t get me wrong, but who would’ve thought that joining the PAC would bring me right back to questioning popularity, just like in high school?

So, I sent an email responding to another executive’s email and although I didn’t think that it would cause offense, apparently it did.

I believe in honesty. I believe in saying what is right for the good of the group.

The email that came back to me and the rest of the executive was horrible. I was called some pretty awful things and I was devastated. For the entire night I sat there trying to think what I had done to make this woman feel that way because I never want to make people feel badly.

I’m not going to lie it’s been very hard to make friends here. Something I have never had a problem doing. This is a tight knit community and these women have been friends since they were kids. It’s hard to break into that, perhaps I just don’t fit in. I, of course sent an email back right away apologizing to her and the entire group. I did get a very nice apology from the lady, privately, even though her other email was a group email. GAWD this email/text thing is HARD!!!!!!

As I sat there that night doing my yoga a pit in my stomach grew and wouldn’t go away. All I kept on thinking is “Holy shit… maybe she just doesn’t like me. OMG I am totally not popular!”

BAHAHAHAHA

Or at least my opinion wasn’t lol

This morning, I was talking to a Mom at the grade 1 doors and she wanted to let me know of something that happened last week with HBear. Apparently a little girl was handing out birthday invitations, a little girl that HBear is friends with. She came to HBear’s birthday party in December.

Actually, it was really cute because this is a little girl that just moved to town and in December it was the beginning of the school year and HBear was very concerned that she wasn’t making friends so she insisted on inviting her to her birthday party which I thought was so nice.

So apparently this Mom saw this little girl handing out all of her birthday invitations to all the girls in a circle and HBear was the only one that didn’t get one.

When the Mom told me this my heart broke into 1000 pieces. HBear had never mentioned one thing to me.

I asked “what did she do?” And she said “she was so mature. The little girl said, I’m sorry I can only invite so many kids and HBear replied, I know. I’m only allowed to invite so many kids too and I get invited to a lot of parties so it’s good that other kids got invited to yours.” I am so proud of her for behaving this way but on the other hand why the EFF didn’t she get invited to this girl’s birthday party?

Oh my goodness my Mama Bear is coming out. I just can’t stand the thought that this is the first of so many disappointments in her life.

Last week when I was dropping HBear off in the morning I noticed 2 girls standing at the door waiting for the bell to ring and they were talking, no sorry, they were whispering about… actually the little girl that didn’t invite HBear to her party LOL. I watched HBear to see how she would handle it and she got protectively close to the little girl that they were whispering about. I said “Girls that’s not very nice we don’t talk about people and we don’t whisper in front of other people.” I hate to be that Mom but I also hate seeing six-year-old girls be mean girls.

I wish I could take a picture of all of them as they run happily out of class, take a picture of them to remind them in the next couple years that at one point nothing else mattered. I just want to remind them, at 1 point you were all friends. Before boys, clothes, gossip, lies, and PAC lol.

After school HBear showed me her report card. I was more than pleased to read 1 very important comment…

She is going to be OK 🙂

With that being said…

This weekend we did more work on the yard and a few random things 🙂

HBear PASSED Swim Kids 4!!!!

The other night I made Chicken kebabs and Mexican Corn.

So the chicken was amazeballs but the corn was very spicy for my tastes. The cumin was pretty powerful. Originally I put in a teaspoon and 1/5 but I definitely suggest maybe a teaspoon instead. It was VERY flavorful though and definitely a different take on your average corn side dish 🙂

Lime and Cilantro Chicken Kebabs

Adapted from Serious Eats

1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves

1/3 cup lime juice

1/3 cup oil

4 medium cloves garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes

9 mushrooms, peeled and halved

1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1 large white onion, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes and separated into 3-layer segments

Place cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, salt, cumin, and crushed red pepper in the jar of blender. Pureé until smooth.

Place chicken cubes in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour in marinade and seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Place in refrigerator and marinate for at least 1 and up to 5 hours.

Thread chicken onto skewers, alternating with pepper, mushrooms and onion squares.

Grill skewers until well browned on all sides and center of chicken registers 165°F on an instant read thermometer, 3-4 minutes per side.

Transfer skewers to platter and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mexican Corn Bake
Adapted from Eat 2 Gather

2 large cans niblet corn
1/3 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
the zest from 1/2 lime
juice from 1/2 a lime
1 tablespoon Epicure Salsa seasoning 1/2 teaspoon for garnish
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter, cold and sliced into thin pieces
6 ounces Feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Empty corn into a large baking dish.