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.

2010: A Retrospective

From this:

To this:

Pretty in Pink

Pretty

petulant

baby

 is persuaded

to look pleasant

by patient

persuasion.

Thanksgiving Remembered

We probably have many things to be thankful for this year, but the main focus has definitely been on Baby H! We were really sad not to be able to celebrate with family back East, but we are starting to feel more settled here- we even had a tradition for Thanksgiving! We spent the day with the same friends we did last year, plus their family, with the addition of another family we know.

As Thanksgiving approached, I was dreading the reliving of my Thanksgiving mistake last year- the pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is easy to make, and I am a pretty adventurous cook. Last year I made two. I even used the pre-made crusts, so I figured it was pretty foolproof. I planned to serve one as dessert to some guests the day before Thanksgiving and bring the other to Thanksgiving dinner. However, we discovered as we had dessert with our guests, I had forgotten the sugar! This, apparently, is what happens when you talk on the phone while you make dessert, even one as easy as pie. We also discovered that in Tiny Town there is no place to buy eggs after dinner the day before Thanksgiving so you can re-make your pumpkin pie the next day. So, I made a (not very good) caramel sauce to take with the pie and sweeten it up. It turns out there was plenty of dessert, no one ate the pie, and life moved on.

I figured when we ended up spending Thanksgiving with the same group this year I might be relieved of all cooking duties. However, it turns out they remembered something I had totally forgotten- I showed up last year and made the gravy from the pan drippings. In fact, several people commented, upon hearing that E and I would return this year, "Oh good! R can make the gravy again!" Who knew?! So, I brought stuffing this year, and made the gravy. To tell you the truth, it wasn't my most resounding cooking success- but there was lots of it, which is important when there are 12 adults and too many kids to count. And, they all seemed happy that at least they didn't have to make it!

Selective memory. Something to be thankful for, indeed.

Saturday

I spent what felt like the whole day cooking. I'm pretty sure E feels like he spent the whole day doing dishes. Making good food from scratch, with no dishwasher, sometimes feels like a full time job. I did use canned beans, though, and nothing was bought with a coupon. We had chicken & onion "pizza" for lunch, and chili and salad for dinner, with garbanzo bean chocolate cake for dessert. I've been trying to avoid buying extra things (at the grocery store that is ACROSS THE STREET) and just make do with what we have- so I tried the flax seed substitute for an egg. And bitter chocolate squares for bittersweet chocolate chips. I can't tell you how it turned out, though, since I never had garbanzo bean chocolate cake before. It was all worth it to host our (gluten avoiding) friends for dinner- we don't host as much as we used to, living out here in Tiny Town, and we miss it.

Baby H spent a good part of the day napping or watching us cook- she looked pretty surprised at the food processor, though. She couldn't sleep while the party was going on- she wasn't really crying, but kept shouting from her cradle. I think she wanted to join in the conversation- she seemed content when I brought her out to suck her pacifier in her swaddle. Having her arms contained and a pacifier in her mouth is her favorite way to observe the party when she's tired. I wear her in the wrap a lot, too, especially when we're out. I can't believe she's three months old, today! How could she have gone from this:

to this:

in just three months?

Moving into a season of children has been fun & hard- we stay home a lot more, which isn't all bad. It's great for the budget. It's hard to feel like we can't stay up late with friends, talking- our guests had a 1 year old, and we all managed the controlled chaos until irreversible meltdowns were pending. But they came at five, so we got a chance to chat with them- new friends in a similar life circumstance. Turns out she and I share a secret blog-reading habit! So funny.

Tomorrow our church moves to it's new, farther (for us), closer (for everyone else) location. And we have to stop by the store (or two) because I refuse to shop with Baby H alone again before Thanksgiving. I still haven't recovered from the screaming incident last time. But I'm sure I will. After the crazed mobs are done shopping for the holiday of food.

Some recent events

I started reading The Joy Luck Club, but E threw it in the recycling because it made me cry. So, I'm still looking for something to read.

Baby H can put herself to sleep! Except she usually likes to suck her pacifier, and it falls out if she yawns. Pretty funny- and I really don't mind getting up every five or ten minutes to put it back in if it means eating dinner in relative peace. I'm still hoping she finds her thumb- she currently is convinced that she can fit her whole hand in her mouth if she tries hard enough. If her hand gets out of her swaddle, she won't sleep because she's trying so hard.

Speaking of the above accomplishment, Baby H has been a model baby lately. Except for the extreme crying fit she had in the car when we were 30 minutes from anywhere. I eventually stuck her back in her car seat, her screaming her little head off, and figured if she didn't stop I'd just drive down to the doctor's. She did, though. Sheesh.

I went to the gym after the baby was sleeping. It was awesome. It made me so hungry I ate three pieces of pumpkin bread, though.

Turns our Baby H (and I) had thrush. We're feeling better, and she doesn't scream when she takes her medicine any more. She still spits it out, but I'm just as happy as long is it swishes around in there for a second.

It's cold and dark here the past few days. Hello, winter! At least we found our slippers.

E and I are planning our first sans-baby date. We're hoping to see HP7!!!! That's what lures me away from my baby- Harry Potter.