Winter Cooking

Well, the baby has (sometimes) been sleeping longer, and I've been spending most of my extra time in the kitchen. This past week's menu included waffles with ground flax seed mixed into the wet ingredients. I added it mostly to pretend that the waffles had some nutritional value, but it had an excellent side benefit- since flax seed (and water) is a substitute for egg, it made the waffles have a nice, light, "eggy" texture that was fun. I had a hard time remembering to take them out on time, though, so most of the leftovers will be a little dark by the time we toast them up.

I also made (Molly Weasley's- thanks K!) onion soup. Where has onion soup been all my life? The blurb in the cookbook said it "has long been a favorite recipe of the poor"- I generally consider myself well-versed in recipes of the poor, and onion soup had never even occurred to me! I made a few errors in the recipe- one of them being accidentally doubling it- so I was a little nervous how it would turn out, since I'd never made it. When I tasted it, I actually thought- "Oh! It tastes like onion soup mix!" How I never realized there was an actual onion soup behind onion soup mix gives me a good laugh.

I made hot dog rolls yesterday with my favorite "roll" recipe. I usually use all water, instead of milk, and sometimes olive oil instead of butter. Also, oatmeal instead of potato flakes. Fresh sauteed onions are better, per some of the comments, though last night I just added a few flakes- I didn't want too much onion flavor. I think I might be spoiled for life.

In an update to the pizza crust saga- in the latest efforts, I used our usual recipe, but heated our oven as hot as it would go (550- who knew?), made the pizzas as thin as I could, and poked them all over with a fork to try and prevent bubbles. I popped the ones that formed anyway- use a fork, NOT your hand in an oven mitt! I burned myself a few times from the steam. I pre-cooked the crusts and brought them to our church group to top and cook there, and was very pleased with the results. A, I bet they would have frozen great- but what to freeze them in? I suppose I could make them a little smaller and maybe they would fit in a gallon bag? And L, I'm gonna give your recipe a go, too, before I give up!

Tonight we're having beans with sage, and hopefully spinach artichoke dip. Tomorrow we're having mac & cheese and the rest of the hot dogs. We'll probably have chicken pot pie this weekend- and something else. Then, shopping day! Who knew I could write so much about food?

I think I hear the baby waking up- we're going to the big library to get some sleep books on how to get your baby to take longer naps! She can roll over now- sometimes. And, she gets really mad when she can't. Poor kiddo!

Winter

I had a Christmas retrospective post half written, but the video wouldn't load, and I didn't have enough witty commentary to fill the space. This, perhaps, is a good representation of how I feel about January. Too much white, not enough fun. Really, why don't we have Christmas on January 25th? Who's with me?

So, I'm waiting for spring. This is the time of year when I count down the days, the hours, the dark nights, and the cold minutes. By my reckoning, we have about another two months. I'll be happy with 35 and sunny, but 75 and flip flops would be even better. I did take the baby for a walk in the 18 degree weather the other day. It was sunny, and not windy, but still- that's desperation for you. I think she was comfy, but my face was cold. I didn't bring a scarf for myself.

In the meantime, I'm cooking. Yesterday we had roasted carrot soup and irish soda bread- quite an excellent combination. The day-old bread, toasted, really was as good as they said. I'm learning to make artisan bread in five minutes a day (not that I have the book), but I had to take a break or else we'd eat nothing but bread. Tomorrow we're having rice and beans in attempt to save our grocery budget from our Christmas excess. I learned to make fried rice that we actually enjoyed eating. We ordered take-out Chinese the other day, but it was disappointing- next time we'll save our money and get a 5 dollar footlong. I'm still on the quest for the perfect pizza crust. Tonight's was a dud, perhaps because I used all whole-wheat flour. Fortunately, E likes pizza in all its forms. I've been eating waffles from the freezer for breakfast, and attempting to remember to eat fruit with lunch. When I worked, I'd pack myself a healthy lunch and eat it without much thought. Now, I'll usually have a sandwich or leftovers, but then it feels like a waste of time to sit and eat fruit. Until I'm hungry later- usually too hungry for fruit!

Since the preceding paragraph was probably only of interest to my Dad, we'll move on to the main attraction- Baby H. This evening aside, she has been delightful. She still only naps for 30 or 40 minutes, which is not her most delightful attribute. Currently, though, she is displaying one of her better traits- going to bed and sleeping all through the evening. She is usually up twice (sometimes once!) in the night, and we can frequently convince her to sleep until 8, so no complaints here. Or, at least, they are usually limited to the afternoon when she wakes up too early from her third nap, and even then I limit them to immediate family. She smiles, laughs, is ticklish, loves to be naked, jumps and smiles in her jumper (thanks A!), likes her toys, tolerates increasing amounts of tummy time, eats like a champ, and has her Dad wrapped around her little finger. She likes to watch people & kids, so I try and get her out a couple times a week. This also wears her out and encourages good nap time behavior. I think she will be really confused when we start putting her in her car seat without her super-awesome-warm-cute hat (THANKS again, A!). But probably, if she knew spring was coming, she'd be ready for it, too.