girlfiend

A quick list before my mom gets here to help. Remember my mom’s help? Send xanax.

Vacuum and dust downstairs

remove clutter from areas to be occupied by guests

mop kitchen floor

fold and put away the three five clean loads of laundry.

Get to cooking:

1. green bean casserole. I’ve never in my life made a green bean casserole as it  sounds vile, but I found a recipe that uses real ingredients, not cream of mushroom soup. Iwouldn’t have considered it, but the green beans or whatever green veg always get cold as soon as I bring it to the table and no one ever eats them. So casserole. At least it will stay hot.  We’ll see how it goes.

2. Pies, chocolate pecan and pumpkin. The pie crust ingredients are chilling and the pumpkin pie fillings is made.

3. Brine the turkey

4. Possibly make a squash and potato casserole. My aunt is making the mashed potatoes and I don’t trust her to bring enough.

5. Caramelize onions for casserole. Perhaps this should be #1. I should reevaluate the order of this list.

The rolls are made, they need to thaw overnight and rise a little before I bake them tomorrow. I also have a mashed potato casserole I can bake frozen in case of a potato emergency tomorrow. I made cranberry sauce too.My mother in law is bringing the sweet potatoes.

We should bring sodas up from the basement and set the table for tomorrow to0.

I think that’s it. I’m probably forgetting a thousand things.

That my eyeball measurement of four heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder made my whole wheat chocolate chip mini muffins extra delicious. I know because I’ve already eaten four of them.

And the bread that has been rising on the counter hasn’t risen nearly as much as it should have.

When making macaroni and cheese, the New York Times quote, “When in doubt, add more cheese,” is right on target. I forgot to set aside the cheese for the topping last night so I just grated some more and threw it on. Best batch I’ve made in a while.

The currently roasting cumin and chili powder spiced sweet potatoes and onions smell pretty damn good.

Instead of the pretzels, crackers or apple slices I tend to bring to most of the Fiendling’s events, I made a batch of marshmallow pumpkin peeps. Yes, I brought sugar covered marshmallows with icing to preschool for their 10am party.

The baby’s evaluation went well, I guess, and he’s due to receive services.  We live in a nice (white!) part of the city so his case manager informed us that he should be assigned a speech therapist pretty quickly. In some parts of the city it takes weeks or months to find the appropriate (willing) therapist.

The Fiendling is still sleeping in my bed. It’s been weeks, and most nights he doesn’t even bother falling asleep in his own bed. As soon as we leave his room he walks down the stairs, announces he’s getting in our bed, tucks himself in and goes to sleep. If we move him back upstairs he comes back down. I’ve been sleeping okay with him in bed so it’s not too bothersome. I just wonder how long it will last.

We go through an insane amount of eggs. If I’m doing a lot of baking we can easily go through a carton of 18 in a week. Eggs used to languish in my refrigerator for months, so this is taking some getting used to.  Our every other week egg share is not enough.

I’m trying to sell our Joovy Caboose stroller on craigslist. I hate it. I seriously hate it. I’m sure that it’s a great stroller for some people, but we are outdoorsy people who walk all over the place and the Joovy is best for people who mostly walk in malls, museums and parking lots. It sucks for bumby sidewalks, gravel paths, and grass. Anyway, the stroller was barely used since I hated it and is in fantastic shape. I priced it at $90, which is less than what some people have listed and more than others. I’m in no hurry to get rid of it and I know it will sell eventually for either the price I’ve listed or $10 less. But, the emails, my god, the emails. No, I will not sell you the stroller for $40. No, I don’t need to go to a website to learn how to earn money so I don’t have to sell my stuff. No, you can’t “take it off my hands” for $70.  I looked at a Maclaren double that was listed for $120. It’s on the high end of the spectrum, but Maclarens are great, lightweight strollers. Turns out the woman was trying to sell a 10 year old stroller for $120. Seriously? The model isn’t even manufactured any more. I’m more than willing to pay a decent price for a used stroller in good shape, but this stroller was a decade old. Good luck with that.

In addition to stroller shopping we’re car shopping. Turns out our 1995 Corolla was far superior to the 2007 Corolla we bought to replace it. I’m sorry to say I just don’t love this car. I loved my 1986 Corolla more than this one. I hate car shopping, but we have to do it now while we can still get a good price for it.

Boyfiend’s birthday was last week. I ended up baking a sourdough chocolate cake with fudge icing, but initially I wanted to make a red velvet cake. The idea using all of that food coloring bothered me so I found a recipe that uses beets instead. To test it out F and I made mini cupcakes. They were so good that the boys devoured them long before we even got to the part where we made the frosting ( I still hadn’t decided between a cooked frosting or a cream cheese frosting.) I give the beet cupcakes two enthusiastic thumbs up even though the reddish, purplish batter turned brown when it was baked.

My aunt gave me a stovetop cappuccino maker a while back.  The first time I used it the coffee overflowed and put out the burner. It was messy and irritating so I put it away and forgot about it. Yesterday I pulled it out and gave it another go. The first attempt was slightly disastrous- slightly because I caught the overflow before the mess was made. But I tried again and made a perfectly acceptable cappuccino. This morning it was a mess and I ended up drinking coffee flavored hot milk. I can’t decide if the pot is defective or if I am.

I’ve been knitting a lot. I’ve made a bunch of cute little baby skull hats and I’m making a cute striped pinwheel sweater right now. I should post pictures some time.

I’m taking a sewing class too. We haven’t actually started sewing yet since our last class was canceled because the instructor was sick, but I have high hopes that I may actually conquer the sewing machine.

So what’s up with you?

The night before was awful. F, who has insisted upon sleeping in our bed for the last several weeks (sneaking down in the middle of the night, or before we get into bed), was unable to fall asleep until 10.30, tossing and turning and keeping me awake. Thankfully the baby slept through the night, not awakening until just before 6 when I was able to nurse him and get him (and me) back to sleep for another hour, until F woke me up telling me he was ready to get dressed.  His loud demands for me to get out of bed right this minute woke the baby, so we all got up together.

F wanted pancakes for breakfast, and thanks to the ingenious spray can* I was able to make exactly two. Two pancakes that he did not eat. The baby ate two eggs with cheese. I ate one on a sandwich. F ate wheat thins.

I dropped F off at preschool and T and I headed back to the house. Freaking out over the morning’s guest I quickly folded 4 loads of laundry and vacuumed. T’s case manager, his service coordinator, was right on time.  It took an hour to schedule the multidisciplinary evaluation with the provider and go through the paperwork and description of Early Intervention. As soon as he left I loaded T back into the car to pick up F from preschool.

T fell asleep in the car. I left him in the car (window open, doors locked) and signed F out for the day. F, of course, wanted to play on the playground, so I let him while his brother slept. The baby woke up after about 45 minutes, sweaty from his nap in the car. He drank some water, ate some pretzels and played on the playground with the other kids for a while before we headed home.

I made farfalle with butter and cheese for lunch, which the baby ate and the Fiendling did not even though he was the one who requested it. While T ate I mixed the dough for two loaves of oatmeal bread and set them out to rise. I took pork and beef and chicken stock out of the freezer to defrost for dinner.

The baby was exhausted but he refused to take a nap. He played nicely with his brother while I started a load of laundry and sorted through some paperwork for my library meeting. I went out to the garden and cut some chives, thyme, and oregano for dinner. I scrubbed the thick dirt off of a pint of fingerling potatoes. I read The Way Back Home about thirty times, then read The Runaway Bunny about ten times.

I shaped the dough into loaves and put it in loaf pans for the second rise then looked through my cookbooks  for a meatloaf recipe that doesn’t use three eggs, because I only had three eggs and don’t get new eggs until CSA pickup on Thursday (I did not want to leave the baby without the option of an egg for breakfast.) I rediscovered my New York Times Cookbook, the first cookbook I ever bought for myself.  I decided that I need to refer to it more often, as it’s a classic and posted about it on Facebook before getting back to work. I used up all of the oatmeal in the bread and never have dried breadcrumbs in the house (unless they are panko, which I wouldn’t use in meatloaf) so I dug through the freezer looking for some bread heels. I found two and supplemented with a frozen hamburger bun and ground them into crumbs in the food processor.

While the oven preheated I mixed up the meatloaf, using only two eggs. I compromised on the oven temperature, figuring the bread would be fine baking at 350 instead of 375. It was. The baby, still exhausted, needed a snack. I made him half of a peanut butter and jelly with some sliced pear. I ate some pear too. B got home from work and took the boys for a little to drop off keys at his aunt’s office. While they were out I started the potatoes, cooking them on the stovetop in the chicken stock with garlic and thyme. (The recipe sounded good, but it wasn’t really, so I won’t link to it.) The site where I found the recipe had an ad for these Mummy Dogs. I think I may need to use some of my 10,000 pillsbury coupons and make them. I posted the recipe to facebook.

I washed dishes. The boys came home as the bread came out of the oven. The temperature did not affect it. B’s aunt loaded F up with an envelope of candy. We shared a box of Dots while I washed and chopped a bunch of swiss chard. B came in the kitchen with the baby and asked what was for dinner, looking at the pot with the potatoes, which looked clearly like potatoes to me, but then again I am not a man. I told him they were potatoes. He seemed to think that was okay.

He went upstairs to change out of his work clothes. F and I shared another box of Dots. I washed more dishes. The meatloaf came out of the oven and I drained the fat. I sauteed the chard in some olive oil. B came back into the kitchen and said, “Meatloaf! Oh, you were joking with me. I love you.” I realized immediately that he asked what I was cooking for dinner, not because he didn’t recognize the potatoes, but because he was hoping for something more. But I played along like I had been joking with him. I washed a few more dishes. We sat down to eat.

F ate cold, leftover noodles and swiss chard. The baby ate cold, leftover noodles and meatloaf. B and I did not eat cold, leftover noodles. We did eat the rest of the meal I prepared.

I gathered my bags and went to my library meeting. We made a little less than $500 on the bus trip we ran in September. It was the first bus trip in the two years since I’ve been the treasurer of the organization that we did not lose money. It was our last trip. No one in the group has any interest in organizing. The children’s librarian, goodhearted as she is, seems to think our funds should be spent on providing her with candy to distribute to the children at events. The executive committee feels we should be distributing books to the children at events. She has decided to ask the local markets for donations.

The meeting ended and I went to Starbucks for my weekly knitting group. I realized that I’d forgotten my wallet. I ran into a woman who had attended the group once before. She told me no one else was there and bought me a coffee. We chatted about schools and our kids while I knitted and she made jewelry.  I walked home and checked my email to learn the group had been canceled for the evening.  B was cleaning up. I washed more dishes. I dicked around online for an hour. I brushed my teeth and went to bed where F was asleep on my pillow again. I read for a while even though the book I’m reading sucks.  I fell asleep.

I woke up to the sound of the baby crying. It was 11.30. B was in bed next to me reading. He asked, “Do you want me to go in there?” I had to go to the bathroom so I got up and rocked the baby back to sleep. For future reference, if your wife is asleep in bed and you are awake reading while the baby cries there is no need to ask if she wants you to go in there. The answer is yes. In fact, if your wife is sleeping and you are awake you should get up before she wakes up to get the baby back to sleep and tell her about it in the morning.

*I had a coupon and the store had a promotion where they came with a free carton of 18 eggs. I couldn’t resist.

While I’m not completely yuppie/hippie/organic, I am particular about food. All of our milk is organic and our eggs and meat are organic, grass fed, and raised locally. None of our meat comes from a supermarket. In the late spring, summer and fall 95% of our fruits and vegetables are locally grown and organic, either from our CSA, our garden or the farmer’s market.

With other foods I’m not too choosy. I buy potato chips and snack crackers and breakfast cereals based on what’s on sale, and unless it’s a good sale I don’t bother buying any processed organic foods, because, really, what’s the point? Have you compared the ingredients of Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese to a regular box of macaroni cheese? It’s the same thing, only pricier. When it comes to breakfast cereal I prefer the non-organic brands because they tend to be fortified.  I know that it’s not really necessary, or even preferable to get one’s vitamins and minerals from breakfast cereal, but with a kid who barely eats I’ll take nutrition where I can get it. My one rule about the foods in the middle aisles of the grocery store is that I won’t buy any packaged, processed foods that contain food coloring or high fructose corn syrup.

F has gotten used to the routine. He knows that I read the circulars, cut coupons and make lists before going to the grocery store. He also knows that if he asks for something, chances are I’ll say no unless it’s on sale and I have a coupon. I have to. Buying grass fed, locally raised, organic meat is expensive. He’s not getting a four dollar box of yogurt burst cheerios when the plain kind are on sale for two dollars and I have a coupon that will get me the box for fifty cents. He also knows that he’s not getting candy, fruit snacks or popsicles with food coloring. (Keep in mind these food coloring rules went out the window when I was bribing him with treats for the potty. Airheads were a big incentive in convincing him that the toilet was his friend, not his enemy.) I don’t mind spending a little extra for the popsicles that are made with fruit, and unfortunately the kid just doesn’t get fruit snacks unless he’s at someone else’s house. And the poor kid loves fruit snacks. He begs for fruit snacks. He ogles vending machines and stalks other children at the playground, hoping they’ll share.

Today I went to BJs to stock up on flour, coffee, and impulse buys. We passed the fruit snack aisle, and lo and behold I saw a box of BJs brand fruit snacks that were advertised as having no artificial flavors or colors. Sure enough, upon closer inspection the fruit snacks fit the bill. They were made with regular corn syrup, not the high fructose kind, fruit juice, a few other random, inoffensive ingredients, and they had no food coloring. I bought the box. When we got home, F noticed the giant box of fruit snacks and asked if they were okay. I told him they were, and assured him that they didn’t have any food coloring. He ran to B and said, “Dada! I have fruit snacks without artificial colors!” Later in the afternoon he batted his eyes at me, tilted his head toward the floor, looked up through his eyelashes at me and asked, “Mommy, what can I have for a snack? Maybe something without artificial colors?” Sometimes three-year-olds aren’t that bad.

The house is pretty well organized. I’ve been doing my best to keep things picked up and in their proper places so it won’t be too much of a mess when I actually go into labor. Things have been dusted in the past week and I’ve been vacuuming fairly regularly. The kitchen is cleaned daily so that’s not an issue and I’ve been on top of the laundry. The bathroom, while certainly not as clean as I’d like, is clean enough to not be too much of an embarrassment. My bedroom is a wreck, but I blame that on Boyfiend since all of his clean, folded laundry is sitting on top of an old trunk we moved out of the storage room upstairs. If he’d put his shit away (just a subtle hint) it wouldn’t look quite so bad in there.

I really need a cleaning service. It would really improve the quality of my life. Instead of hiring a service I ordered another dyson.

I’ve been cooking like crazy so I won’t have to worry about eating well later.  I’ve made a bunch of dinners and some one-handed breakfasts. In the freezer I have:

• 1 9”x 13” pan of eggplant parmesan
• 3/4 of a large baked ziti in three portions
• 2 8-cup containers vegetable soup
• 1 3-quart and 1 4-cup container of beef stew
• 1 9″x13″ pan of rotini with goat cheese, spinach and red pepper sauce divided into individual servings
• 6 bean and sausage enchiladas (1 dinner and leftovers if Boyfiend doesn’t gorge himself)
• 1 tray (3 meals) chicken enchiladas
• 2 8-cup containers of chicken soup
• half a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough
• 6 cranberry muffins
• 6 strawberry mango muffins
• 18 blueberry pancakes

I’ve also got a bunch of chocolate ricotta muffins I baked tonight that still need to be wrapped and frozen. Tomorrow or Friday I’ll probably end up baking a few loaves of zucchini bread with the last of my freezer stash from last year’s CSA.

The next meat delivery from the farm is scheduled for my due date and I ordered plenty of beef so Boyfiend could cook dinner (burgers and steaks, of course) with confidence. Shortly after my due date is the start of my CSA for the summer,  so I won’t have to worry too much about grocery shopping for a while.

Now I just want this baby out.

I’m lazy and double posting from my food blog.

Last night I picked up the turkey, did the grocery shopping and spent a good three and half hours in the kitchen accomplishing… Well, I don’t even know what I accomplished. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot.

I cleaned out the refrigerator and discarded all of the expired condiments. We somehow had a fridge full of salad dressings I’d never buy since I make all of my own. I guess my mother-in-law must have brought them here for some meal or another and forgotten them. I also discarded an ancient jar of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is one of those things I won’t touch unless I’ve made it myself (well, I’ll eat some restaurant aioli, but only sometimes.)

So the refrigerator is cleaned out, the shelves are clean (except for the two drawers that I just didn’t have the energy to deal with) and some of the prep work is done.  I still need to figure out how to make the green beans and I haven’t decided if I want to make multigrain dinner rolls or buttermilk biscuits. I bought the stuff for both. I was pleased to see that the turkey (unlike the chickens I’ve bought from the farm) was pretty well cleaned. The giblets and neck were actually detached and stuffed inside the cavity and I didn’t have to scrape out any nasty, gooey innards. Nothing like fresh from the farm animal goo.

The menu:
roasted butternut squash and garlic bisque
turkey
extra stuffing (aunt bea)*
mashed potatoes (aunt bea)*
cranberry sauce (aunt bea)*
roasted potatoes (I have close to five pounds. Will people eat two kinds of white potatoes?)
candied sweet potatoes
green beans
balsamic glazed carrots
rolls or biscuits
cheesecake (mom)
apple pie
chocolate chip oatmeal pecan cookies

*I wanted to tell her no when she offered because I have 5 lbs of potatoes left over from the CSA and I make awesome mashed potatoes, but I didn’t want to offend. So she’s bringing stuff that would be easy for me to make. I’ll just try and be thankful that it’s three fewer items I have to worry about.

Completed prep:
Butternut squash and veggies roasted and pureed
Stock made for soup and stuffing
Onions and celery chopped for stuffing and gravy
Turkey ready to be brined
Giblets removed and liver discarded
Green beans trimmed
Sweet potatoes scrubbed
Refrigerator cleaned
Cookies baked

Today
1.    Prepare brine
2.    start bread dough? Biscuit dough?
3.    make pie dough
4.    make sweet potatoes
5.    blanch green beans
6.    cut herbs from the garden: thyme, chives, rosemary
7.    clean up
8.    bake bread
9.    make herb butter for turkey

Thursday:
1.    rinse and dry turkey
2.    make stuffing
3.    stuff turkey,  and start roasting
4.    start gravy
5.    assemble pie
6.    make carrots
7.    reheat sweet potatoes and bread
8.    finish green beans

I know I’m missing plenty from the lists. I have to set the table at some point and get all of my serving dishes labeled and ready to go. I don’t know if I’ll do that today or tomorrow though.

And I must go to water aerobics. I need a good splash with the old ladies.

Last night’s dinner was awesome.

Brisket

Honey Mustard Chicken

Green beans

Roasted Cauliflower

Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad

Braised Carrots and Onions

Challah

I also made Baba Ganoush and fresh tomato bruschetta for appetizers with crackers and bread and served pesto I’d made and froze last summer.
For dessert my aunt brought chocolate cake and key lime pie from Trader Joe’s, Mix brought schnecken and rugalach, and my mom brought chocolate covered strawberries

We dipped apples in honey for sweet year, drank lots of wine and Manhattans, and there were as many Catholics as Jews (if not more, I haven’t officially done a count) in attendance. I love when holidays are good and not surrounded by insanity.

Even though I worked all day while my mother babysat things worked out well. I did almost all of the cooking the day before so I only had to reheat. Mix came over to help me set up so I wouldn’t have to deal with my mother solo. Boyfiend made it home from work early so he could help keep me and my mother separate. It’s not that I don’t love her. It’s just that she’s crazy. Really, really crazy.
I overheard bits of a conversation from upstairs where Mix said he bought an alarm system for a new house. My mom said it was stupid. Mix told her he got an insurance discount. She told Boyfiend we should get an alarm system for our house.

My aunt told me how amazing it was that I worked all day, cooked enough food for 15 people, set up the house and had a wonderful little boy. She said she didn’t know how I did it. My mother responded that I couldn’t have done it without her. I didn’t reply that my mother wiped down all of the dishes with a dirty, greasy rag and Boyfiend and I had to clean them all over again. I also didn’t mention that when my mom told me she’d vacuum what she really meant was that she’d sprinkle baking soda on the rug so I could vacuum when I got home from work.

More crazy, you ask? After the second time I came home and saw him drinking an entire bottle of undiluted juice I asked her not to give the Fiendling juice at all. He’s underweight and needs to drink water or drinks that at least contain fat and calcium like the yogurt drinks I specifically bought. She bought him juice boxes and HID THEM FROM ME!  Way to drive me fucking crazy.

Enough about my mother. It was a great night.

Happy 5768. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

There is currently a watermelon in my refrigerator that is not absorbing the vodka I would like it to absorb. I tried The Naked Chef’s recipe first and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere so I tried this one which didn’t seem to be going anywhere either. So I cut a bigger hole in the top, encompassing the two holes I’d previously cut and the vodka is currently sitting there.

I want to drink it with a straw but I will refrain from doing so (at least until tomorrow morning) so I can see if any of the vodka eventually gets absorbed.

Any words of wisdom from professional vodka watermelon makers?