A break from the long wordy posts

****7/14 update - I looked up the pork steak marinade (and made it to grill for dinner tomorrow); it's cumin, allspice, chile pepper, hot pepper sauce, oregano, orange juice, olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. So good).******

Father's Day barbecue:

Cold rice salad with artichoke hearts, green olives, curry, & green onions. So good, and even better the next day.

Grilled pork steaks marinated with something really good (but now I totally forgot what it was! I'll have to go check my cookbook).

Grilled shrimp marinated in a ginger lime marinade.

Heirloom tomato salad with fresh herbs Yum - deviled eggs.

4 bean salad, with purple onions and vinaigrette.

We've been trying to cook more at home and I've been having fun with some new recipes and my All-C.lad gril.l pan! I've had this pan for a few years, but for some reason have never used it - I pulled it out a week ago to grill some chicken and I am hooked! It works really well, and drains all the fat down the sides. I don't plan to turn the oven on again all summer!
Grilled asparagus, marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and onion salt

Grilled peaches, brushed with melted butter and brown sugar, to be served over ice cream

My dinner - lobster (I hadn't had any in about 3 years and really wanted one; Husband was nice enough to let me splurge), baked potato with cheese, boiled corn, grilled asparagus

Husbands dinner - steak (also done on the grill pan) and potato. He was in heaven. He did eventually eat some corn, but I think he was incredibly happy with just a plate of meat and potatoes.

J's dinner - he thought it was funny that I was taking pictures of our dinner, and really wanted me to take a picture of his plate also! He had veggie corn dogs, corn, cheese, blueberries (which he doesn't eat) and yogurt raisins.
This was our 4th of July brunch with friends - blueberry/strawberry french toast casserole with blueberry sauce and mixed fruit.

Yum

I'm not hungry.

I just ate lunch. And had a peppermint concrete for dessert.

But this?

This just came in the mail. Well, not really the mail. It came by truck. Along with five boxes of coffee mugs (work gifts), a box of books from my brother for our Christmas gifts, and a box of leapf.rog books that I ordered when they had a huge 70% off sale last week (8 leap pad books for $22!).

And I'm torn between wanting to dig right into all the goodies in the basket and wanting to just leave it be, because it looks so pretty with it's decorative bow and artfully arranged boxes.

Boxes of Godiva chocolate. And smoked salmon. And a little jar of olives. And I think I even see a wheel of cheese. And Lindt truffles.

I love Christmas.

And one more thing for today

The first part of this article really sounds odd . . . how does ri.ce "esc.ape"?

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/F9E99746BDD0DCE98625736B0077280E?OpenDocument

All of the recent food contamination and toy recalls is starting to make me concerned about what we eat and what J's playing with. I'm toying with the idea of starting our own garden - we don't really have a good space for it, and I tend to kill every plant I've ever had, but my parents were great gardeners and so I'm hoping it's in my genes somewhere and I just have to coax it out.

But rice? I can't grow rice. And hamburgers? I can't butcher my own cows! So even if I do start a garden, it's won't fix everything. And then there's things like this. I don't want to live in fear, but there is so much out there that goes wrong that sometimes I wished we had a little bubble with everything we needed inside.

[I had to go back and edit this to keep the phrase "ric.e es.cape" from showing up on a google search - I made the mistake of telling a "real-life" friend about the article and the phrase r.ice es.cape, and she was going to go look it up! So I didn't want this blog to pop up when she did!]

Tonight's the night!

Grey's Anatomy returns! I'm finally going to be getting laundry done around the house again, since the only way I can convince myself to fold laundry and put it away is to watch Grey's Anatomy while I do it. I managed to replace Grey's with Army Wives over most of the summer, but since Army Wives wrapped up about a month ago, I've had a huge stack of laundry just waiting on the return of something worth watching. Husband will be glad to have things back in his dresser and not have to go down to the laundry room and the piles of clean, but not folded and not put away, clothes.

In other news, I interviewed a new babysitter today - she's a pedi.atric nur.se, which is a great plus, and she works 3 12-hour shifts a week, leaving her with 2 weekdays open to babysit. My first impressions of her were pretty good, so I'm hoping her references check out and that she does well with J. I really need someone who can sit during the week, since I often have meetings, etc. at times other than when J is in his paren.ts da.y ou.t program.

Husband is working late tonight, so I'm going to indulge in my favorite, no-need-to-cook, meal: a totino's supreme frozen party pizza. It's about 1.5 million calories for this entire thing, and it has no nutritional value, but I eat and love it! Husband thinks they are disgusting, so I can't cook them when he's around or I have to listen to him criticize my $1 dinner.

calling Husband at work

J's napping right now, and although I am technically "working", I've also been reading the local news headlines. One in particular caught my eye - about a car that hit and critically injured some lunch time diners who were outside at a restaurant that I know Husband frequents for lunch. So just to make sure that it wasn't him that was hit, I called up to his office. He didn't answer his office phone, so I tried his cell, which he did answer but with a really irritated tone of voice. He rudely asked "what do you want" and when I proceeded to tell him why I was calling, he said "no, I'm obviously fine, I'm in my office and I have to go". And then hung up.

So this interaction made me irritated! I don't call him at work all that often - maybe once a week, and then usually only late in the day (around 5:30) to find out when he'll be home for dinner if he hadn't told me already. Obviously, he only answered the phone because he may have though something was wrong and then was irritated when it was something he deemed as me being paranoid and not a real issue.

I would think he would be glad that I cared enough to make sure he hadn't been him that was eating there when the car hit the restaurant! Instead, I think he's thinking that I have nothing better to do than read the newspaper while he's working hard - so I've managed to just further perpetuate his ideas that I do nothing all day. Ugh.

On a more positive note, it finally got cold enough last week for a big pot of chili! I love winter food - stews, crockpot meals, chili, soups, etc. This batch turned out really good and we've been enjoying the leftovers. Here it is, with all the yummy toppings I love on chili (fritos, cheese, sour cream, and green onions):

The Bread Recipe

As I mentioned in the last post, J is a horrible eater. He's really picky, and has only about 10 foods that he'll eat on a regular basis. He gets really angry when you put new food on his tray and then often refuses to eat anything until you give him one of his three favorite foods - cereal bars, the Gerber animal cookies, or some of this bread. This is becoming a bit of an issue (he didn't gain any weight between his 12 and 15 month appointments) and I have been really grateful that he will actually eat these breads, because it's been a great way to get him to eat more fruits and vegetables.

My mother used to make chocolate zucchini bread for my brother when we were little and tell him it was just chocolate bread, because he refused all vegetables, and so the idea for this came from that. My mom also is a great baker, but tends to make things really healthy by taking out most of the sugar, replacing flour with whole wheat flour, and using applesauce instead of all the oil. So I followed her example and started with one of the quick bread recipes from my wonderful "Better Homes and Garden Cookbook", but modified it significantly (and doubled it) to make it more healthy. I also used a recipe from Cooks.com and from the Mississippi Favorite Sweet Potato Recipe pamphlet for ideas.

Here's the basic recipe I've been using, with comments for what I've been doing to modify it:

3 c. flour (I replace this with about 3/4 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat, and about 1 1/2 cups wheat germ; J likes the breads really moist and dense, and so cutting back on the flour and replacing some with wheat germ makes it like this; you can always add more flour or wheat germ later if it looks too wet)

2 c. sugar (I use only 1/2 cup - you don't miss it at all!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 beaten eggs

1 c. oil (sometimes I use all the oil, but I have also tried doing 1/2 c. oil and 1/2 c. applesauce - it needs some fat in the bread, so it doesn't work to replace it completely)

2-3 c. of the fruit or vegetable (*more on this below)

Flavorings - depending on which fruit or vegetable I use (*see below)

Sift dry ingredients together (including dry flavorings) in one bowl. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients(including any wet flavorings). Add the fruit or vegetable to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Slowly add the flour to the wet ingredients, stirring as you go until it is all blended. Pour batter into greased large loaf pans, filling about 3/4 full (makes appx. 2 pans). Bake at 350 degrees for appx. 1 hour (sometimes it has taken longer than this - check by inserting a knife through the middle; if the outside is getting too dark, and the inside still is too wet, cover the top with foil to keep from browning and continue to bake, checking every 10 mins).

We eat one loaf right away (I store in the fridge) and I wrap the other in foil and a ziploc then freeze. It can be defrosted in the fridge.

*Fruit and vegetables - with all the fruits and vegetables, I usually prepare about twice as much as I need, then after preparation, I freeze half in a ziploc for use at a later time - that way I don't have to prep twice. Right now I have bananas, strawberries, sweet potato, carrot, and zucchini all in the freezer waiting to be made into bread! I also never know how much of the fruit/vegetable to use to get 2-3 cups, so this way I can just do a whole bunch, measure out what I need, then measure and freeze the rest of it.

Banana - use ripe bananas and mash them up; I usually use 2-3 cups; doesn't really need anything else for flavor

Sweet potato - Scrub clean with a brush, pat dry and prick with a fork, microwave for 16 -18 minutes (4-6 potatoes) on high (100%). Cut in half and scoop out insides. Mash them up. For flavorings, add 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 tsp allspice (can also use pumpkin pie spice)

Strawberries - can use fresh or frozen. If fresh, clean, de-stem, then puree in blender or food processor (I used our hand blender). If frozen, defrost, then puree. For flavor, use about 1-2 tsp cinnamon

Zucchini - wash, finely shred with skins on (you could peel them if you don't want the skin; I used our food processor to shred); for flavorings, I used 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg (could also use pumpkin pie spice)

Carrot and pineapple - wash, peel, and finely shred the carrots (again, used the food processor for this); use a whole can of crushed pineapple, with some of the juice (I pureed more with the hand blender so that it was even less chunky; I had to add a little more flour/wheat germ to compensate for the added liquid). For flavorings, I used 2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp vanilla.

I'm going to try pumpkin bread this fall, and I think the next bread we do will be apple (using finely shredded peeled apples). I tried blueberry banana bread, but J didn't like the blueberries and picked them out. I may try it again down the road - for that I just used frozen defrosted blueberries, sprinkled with cornstarch to keep them from sinking in the bread, and added it to the banana mixture. I may also try an apple bran bread next - I'll let you know how that turns out!

If you try making the breads, let me know. I apologize that the recipe is so "unofficial" - I really have just been putting in whatever seems right and hopes it turns out ok! Good luck!

Three days

That's how long J's leftover birthday cake lasted in the deep freezer before I just had to have another slice. I don't know why I even bothered freezing it!

Yum, I love whipped cream frosting.

Catching up

I have not been on the computer much lately - most of what I've been doing for work this past week has been either in-person or on the phone, so I haven't been on for work. I also realized that I had a huge stack of library books that I'd already renewed as many times as I could that were due today, and I wanted to finish reading them! So I've spent most of my "free" time lately reading instead of sitting on the computer. I need to start catching up on everyone's blogs.

Dinner at Fudd.ruckers was so good. I completely stuffed myself, but it was worth it. Karen, I laughed at your comment! Anyone that has ever eaten with me at Fudd.ruckers has said the exact same thing, but then once they try a bite of the bun (they have these really good, homemade, toasted buns) with the melted cheese and pico on it, they start eating their burger the same way!

The best part about dinner though was that J. actually fed himself his dinner! We had gotten him a children's grilled chicken sandwich with fries, and he ate a few pieces of chicken, about half the bun, and 2 or 3 fries! I was so excited. We have had such a hard time trying to get him to feed himself anything other than crackers, goldfish, or cherrios, and so it was so nice to have him eat his food and not need babyfood. I told H. that we might have to eat at Fudd.rucker's every night.

I gave up (for now) working on my post about women working/staying at home. I'm going to finish it at some point, but it was making me too frustrated and fired up when writing it. I'm really trying to just enjoy the "here and now" and remind myself that all of this is just one phase in my life. I think it's helping that the weather is getting nicer - I have been so grateful lately to be able to have such flexibility in my schedule that I can take J. to the park during the day or go for a walk outside whenever we want. Yesterday, we were in Cl.ayton, the area of town where H. works, to run some errands, and I took. J. in the stroller and we walked down to H.'s office to say hi. As we were walking, and I was watching all the business men and women on the street, I realized that having the ability to be with J., outside on such a beautiful day, and in comfortable clothes and flipflops instead of work clothes, is totally worth putting my career on hold for a few years. I wouldn't do it any differently, but I do need to find a better way to balance working from home, getting everything done, taking care of J., taking care of H., taking care of myself, taking care of the house, etc. so that it doesn't stress me out so much. Any ideas?

yum

I drove by Fudd.rucker's today on my way to a lunch meeting, and the urge for a burger was so overwhelming that I thought about calling to cancel my meeting and eating at Fudd.rucker's instead! I have a long history with this restaurant - my family used to go there almost every Sunday after church for lunch (we'd alternate with a pizza place). If you've never been there before, the way it works is that you place your order at a counter, then they call you to pick up your food when it's ready. Then, they have this huge condiment bar with every thing you could possibly think of to top a burger/chicken sandwich/salad with.

I developed a very specific (and slightly odd) way of eating my lunch there - I get the same thing every time* - burger with fries - and I take the burger apart and put melted cheese (my favorite part - they have these big vats of hot, melted cheese) on both sides of the bun and then top it with pico de gallo. I then eat the bun/cheese/pico by itself. I then top my burger (just the meat, since I already ate the bun) with the hot cheese, more pico, tomato, lettuce, pickles, and A1 sauce and then eat that with a fork. My fries I dip in melted cheese and top with a little pico or I dip it just in A1 sauce.

Sometimes for dessert I'll get either a rice krispie treat or a cookie. So, so good.

Well, I ended up going on to my meeting, but I called H. and asked if he'd be up for going there for dinner. He's not a big fan of Fudd.rucker's, but is indulging me tonight! Yeah! So in less than two hours I will be eating a delicious burger and fries! I can't wait.

* almost every time. I went through about a 6 month period where I only ordered the chicken taco salad, but then I went back to my usual.

random thoughts

1. Speeding tickets.

I got a speeding ticket today for doing 42 in a 30, at the bottom of a hill. ugh. I saw the cop right as I came towards the end of the hill and he started pulling out. Fortunately, it was in a municipality that my husband's firm represents, and the last time I got a ticket in this area, the local prosecutor just tore it up. Not that it's any excuse for speeding, but it is nice not to get hit with the fine and points on my insurance! So I was very nice to the cop and didn't let it upset me as I knew that at the very least, it wouldn't go onto my insurance and best case scenario, I wouldn't have to deal with it at all. And I haven't gone over the limit the rest of the day today!

It is funny that I had only received 1 speeding ticket from the time I was 16 until I met my husband (when I was 24). Since being with him, I've gotten 4 tickets. Fortunately, all of them have either been cleared by the local prosecutor or I've had it reduced to a non-moving violation and only had to pay a small fine. I guess this is one of the benefits of having a husband that is in his line of work - kind of makes the 60-80 weeks worth it.

2. Unfinished prayers

I dated this guy in college/grad school for a few years who had gotten two women pregnant when he was in his 20s (he was 29-31 yrs during the time we dated; 8 years older than me). Both of the women had ab.0rti0ns. When I first found out about this, it was really upsetting because he was devastated by it. The first woman, he had begged her to get married and not to do it, and she decided that it was the best decision for her at the time and went forward with it, against his wishes. The second time, he reacted differently and encouraged the woman to go ahead with it since it seemed like the best thing for both of them. I had never though much about the effects of ab.0rti0n on the man, but in talking with him about it on the two occasions that he did talk about it and in seeing the pain he felt, it was obvious that both experiences were extremely upsetting to him. Anyway, the point of this is that every so often I get struck with thoughts of him and the two women and the ab.0rti0ns. And by "struck", my head is filled with thoughts of them and the memory of the pain on his face when he told me about this, and how one of the women called him on the anniversary in tears, and how the other women broke down after and told him that the doctor had told her it was twins after the ab.0rti0n. And the curious side of me wonders "why now?" "Why am I thinking of them (him, and both women) now?" The first few times this happened, it was days before I could get them out of my mind. I volunteered at a cri.sis preg.nancy cent.er for awhile because it felt like I needed to do something. And now the only thing I do when these thoughts come up is pray for him, for the first woman, and for the second woman. I don't know what I'm praying for - I don't even know if it has to do with the ab.0rti0ns, and I can only remember one of the women's names - but I feel like there has to be some reason why they are stuck in my head. They've all been in my thoughts today and I've been praying, so if you think of it, please say a prayer also.

3. Nostalgia

Food Network had a show last night that featured the city I lived in for college. It showed a lot of the restaurants I loved going to and miss eating at. It made me feel very nostalgic for being in that city (a city I always thought I'd end up settling in) and for the memories associated with eating at a lot of those places. So I started thinking about a conversation I had last year with friends about the best meal we've ever had. The common theme among our answers was that the meal didn't have as much to do with the food, although in all cases the food was good, but more with the people or event associated with the meal. So today I spent some time while driving around running errands (and getting speeding tickets) thinking about my favorite meals:
1. the biergarten in Germany with K.H. when the sun was going down and we sat and ate pasta and drank beer for hours in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen
2. the night at the coffee shop with J.C. when we were the only people there (since they hadn't actually opened for business yet!) and they let us stay and drink banana bread coffee (which was surprisingly good) for hours
3. on our honeymoon, when H. and I sat at the bar on the beach and drank buckets of Coronas and ate whatever the kitchen brought out for us
4. in Chicago with H. - dinner after we'd gotten engaged, our first anniversary dinner with the amazing hearts of palm salad
5. every time I get back to texas and get to go eat mexican at my favorite place (ok, so that's not just one meal, but a lot of meals!)

Sausage and pepper pasta

I made sausage and pepper pasta for dinner last night, and it turned out really well! I had some Italian Sausage links in the freezer that I needed to use, which formed the basis for coming up with this dinner. I tend to not cook from recipes, although I might look up a few for ideas, and so this dinner doesn't really have a hard-and-fast recipe to follow, but here's the general idea of what I did:

Cooked Italian Sausage (I used Hot Salsiccia links) according to package (which generally says to place in skillet with 1/2 cup of water over medium heat for 20 mins, turning halfway through). Drain water from skillet, and slice cooked sausage into rounds. Put back into skillet and brown up for a few minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.

Meanwhile, cook package of frozen pepper strips (green, red, and yellow from Trader Joe's - cheaper than buying three separate peppers!) in microwave for about 6 minutes to defrost and heat.

Add cooked peppers to meat in skillet, along with garlic and italian seasonings (oregano, thyme, etc., whatever you like) to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add one can of Italian-style tomatoes (drained), cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serve over pasta (I used spinach fettuccine) with fresh Parmesan.

It was really good! H. loved it, and it looked really pretty in the bowls with all the different colors.