Mama Thursday (on Friday): Week 30 quickie

Busy, busy, busy.  Mama, Dada, and baby have all been busy with work and play and eating.

The other morning I looked down into Lily's eyes and she smiled back at me... with my smile.  It was a deeply surreal and poignent moment, like shock rubbed soft with the truest human connection one can have.

Mama Thursday: Week 29 - I Know Where the Time Is Going

She's almost seven months old.  I can't get enough of her.  And there is a very good reason for that.

On nights when Husband is at his night job and I have to pick Lily up we usually get home around 5:00.  Lily's last feeding is at 6:00 and she usually falls asleep while she's eating.  I have one hour to give her some solid food and play with her before she starts rubbing her eyes so hard she looks like a raccoon with a red mask.  One hour!  On weekends I try to cram as much baby bonding time as possible into those 48 hours.

This does not seem acceptable to me.

God bless America?

Foodblogging: Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce and Sauteed Spinach

It's been a long week.  I was so happy to come home to our Coborn's Delivers order.  After getting the baby off to bed I needed something easy to make for dinner.  I could have gone for spaghetti but I needed something nourishing to counter at least some of the stress of the day.  If you work in IT support you know what I'm talking about when I say that it was one of those days.

This meal was supposed to include butternut squash but I didn't get that into the oven fast enough.

Hey look -- pictures!

The sauteed spinch couldn't get much easier.  Put a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and add the spinach by the handful until it's all wilted.  Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.  If you're a rockstar you can saute garlic in the oil for a few seconds before adding the spinach.  I was lazy.  It's also nice to add a shake or two of crushed red pepper.

The brown butter sage sauce is easy but you have to be sure the butter doesn't burn while you're distracted by something.  Four tablespoons of butter goes into a pan over medium heat.

Let it sit there until the milk solids turn a golden brown.

Do this while your gnocchi cooks.  When they float to the top you can remove them with a slotted spoon or spider.

As soon as your butter has browned throw in 1-2 Tbsp of fresh minced sage.  It will foam up on you so don't be alarmed. 

Add your gnocchi to the pan, stir to coat, then crank up the heat and don't touch them until the bottoms get toasty brown.  Season with salt and pepper, but go easy on the salt at first if you used salted butter.  Top with shredded Parmesan.

 Yum!  Even though the plate looks lonely without the butternut squash.

Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

1 package gnocchi

4 Tbsp butter

1-2 Tbsp fresh sage, minced

salt and pepper, to taste

shredded Parmesan to garnish

Cook the gnocchi according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook butter in a wide pan over medium heat until milk solids turn golden brown.  Watch carefully and do not allow to burn.

Add sage and cook 1 minute.  Add cooked gnocchi, stir to coat, season with salt and pepper, then let them cook until browned on the bottom.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Sauteed Spinach

10 oz fresh spinach

2 tsp olive oil

1/8 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add spinach by the handful and stir, adding more as it wilts.  Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Mama Thursday: Week 28

I had a friend in elementary school (Hi, Missy!) whose mother was the most overprotective human being I had ever met.  My parents would roll their eyes or laugh when I told them about the things she would do.  In hindsight, a parenting style between the two extremes of her mom and my dad would have been great.  Now that Lily's here I completely understand the need to be overprotective.

I understand it, but I refuse to fall victim to it.

Unless you have a child you just can't fathom the sheer pervasiveness of the irrational fears that occupy your mind 24/7.  Irrational, as in, "If I turn my head to grab the towel while she's in the bathtub she'll drown!"  Or perhaps, "If I leave the room to pee she's going to fly out of her crib and eat all the diaper cream and be poisoned to death, even if I have the bathroom door open and she's within my sight the entire time and humans cannot as of yet fly on their own power."  Or my personal favorite, "The baby's going to choke on that dust particle."  These are the things that roll through your previously rational brain day and night.

I've done a pretty good job of not being the mom who pushes dad aside because only I can handle the baby and the proper and correct fashion.  I trust that he's going to buckle her into the car seat just fine, that he's not going to drop her when he's playing with her, and that he can the baby's laundry just as well as I can.  What's harder is getting past all those other underlying fears.

As she grows older I refuse to let the paranoia of the day prevent her from experiencing the joys of childhood, like playing outside.  Not every male is a childnapping pedofile.  Not every toy needs to have soft, rounded edges, and not every toy even needs to be a toy.  She will be encouraged to use the playground equipment beyond its intended purpose (Climb to the top of the monkeybars!  Run up the slides!  Jump off the swings!), swim in lakes, climb trees, and read books beyond her age level.

I swear the most I ever check on her to see if she's breathing at night is twice.

This last week Lily has tried all kinds of new foods.  She's been dealing with some teething issues and I found that she likes chewing on cold pickle spears.  We tried the Gerber 2nd stage organic green beans last night and she thought they were horrible -- and I have to agree.  They taste like actual dirt.  I only bought them because I haven't had a chance to go to the store and I've been holding off on buying a food mill.  I bought a cheap baby food mill at Target yesterday and made real green beans (from frozen) last night so we'll see what she thinks of those today.  The food mill came with one of those mesh feeder things and we got a picture from Grandma today showing her having a heck of a time gnawing on a frozen strawberry.

She's quite the champion sitter now but she prefers to be on her tummy.  She's still working on picking up small objects.  Giving her Cheerio-like food is funny because she tries to grab them in her fist and ends up pushing them around the highchair tray. 

Foodie Tuesday: Chicken Fantastik

After reading this article at Heavy Table I was all jazzed up to try my hand at Somali food.  I have a bunch of recipes in my library from all over Africa that I haven't mustered up the courage to try on Husband yet but none of them are Somali.  The relative simplicity of Somali food really appeals to me.  I decided to try Chicken Fantastik and Somali Rice (recipe at the first link) first.

I only used 1 pound of Morningstar Farms Chik'n Strips (whoops, I only bought one bag).  I compensated somewhat with cubes of additional zucchini.  It turned out fine, if a little soupy.

 The rice is absolutely heavenly.  The recipe makes a ton so I was able to put some in the freezer for later.  It has a warm, spicy fragrance that would pair well with simply sauteed vegetables or broiled fish with a tomato sauce.

The Chicken (Chik'n) Fantastik was a little scary to me at first because of the amount of cream involved.  This is not a low calorie dish.  I was worried about the lactose but the simmering time evidently took care of that for me.

The recipe at Showcase Minnesota fails to make clear that your chicken should be pre-cooked and that you need to add the chicken and veggies before the last 15 minute simmer.  I cut the Chik'n strips into thirds before tossing them in.

I'm fairly sure you're supposed to eat this with pita bread alongside the rice but I just served it over the rice since it was so soupy.  I ate this for lunch a few days last week and was very happy about it.

I did actually take a picture of it but my SD card decided to crap out on me before I was able to pull it off.

I like air

I'm feeling absolutely exhausted today because of some crazy dream I was having last night that appears to have spilled into the real world.

I was dreaming that I was in some kind of WOW-type game. I was in a watery area and kept diving underwater to collect some items (like a badass spear and some health-giving items that looked like blocks with hearts on them). I think I was literally holding my breath in real life because I kept running out of air and having to surface. Then a bizarre scene involving my mother-in-law that was rife with symbolism played out and my alarm went off. I have giant bags under my eyes today. These are the days I almost wish I had makeup that wasn't seven years old that I could wear. Now I'm freaking myself out and wondering if I have sleep apnea or something. It's probably just weird dreams brought on by the alfalfa tablets I've been taking.

Man, that was one badass spear.

Mama Thursday: Week 27

Lily has crossed over into full-on babbling.  She's mostly using vowel sounds but every now and again there's a B or P in there.  She's doing a lot less razzing, which was hilarious, but the babble is ridiculously adorable.

She has bitten me in the nipple a few times.  Not cool.  The worst part is that she always grins at me afterward.  I figure this is some sort of karmic retribution for past grievances and schadenfreude on my part.

I've been a bit stressed out lately and my milk production has been down.  I took some alfalfa last night (gotta find some fenugreek seeds today) and ended up having bizarre dreams about Husband beating me, a raccoon/dog combination, and my cat falling comically from a window complete with Wile E. Coyote sound effects.  I hope the dreams are only a temporary side effect.

One of the big reasons I'm stressed lately is because my company decided that everyone needed to work a 40 hour week regardless of location.  So now I have to leave 30 minutes later every day.  The traffic is that much worse when I get on the road to pick up Lily and by the time we get home it's 5:00.  She eats her solid food, maybe gets a bath, then takes her final nursing a little after 6:00.  One hour of quality baby time just isn't very satisfying.  Modern parenting really sucks.

Thanks for the memories

As I write this the Twins and Tigers are tied in the 12th inning of the 163rd game of the 2009 season -- the last regular season game in the Metrodome.

I was thinking of my first Twins game.  Must have been 1987 or 1988.  Is it just me or did the turf used to be a completely different and wholly unnatural color?  I remember the first time I stepped through the entrance to the seats.  The green of the turf was so green.  The baggie of the roof was so white.  The seats were so blue.  It was almost sensory overload.

I'll remember the malt cups with their wooden stick/spoon things.  I'll remember chocolate sundaes in plastic baseball caps.  I'll remember the way the announcer's voice would reverberate around the stadium.  I'll remember the smell of the concrete of the concourse.  I'll remember the Dome Dogs and Macho Nachos.

I'm not a football fan so i probably won't be seeing any more sporting events there.  I'll probably skate this winter when they open it up for Rollerdome and watch them set up the football field or monster truck rally or convention as I zoom by the doors.  None of that will be the same as a Twins game at the Dome.  And one day soon the whole thing will be torn down and all we'll have left are our memories.

Thanks for the memories, Metrodome.

Foodblogging: burger and burger

So far so good on the ground beef I served Husband for dinner last night.  I made Jucy Lucys with pepperjack cheese for him and portobello burgers for me.  It was the first time we used my homemade ketchup.  I really need to tweak that recipe because it's really sweet and needs white vinegar.  Otherwise it beats the pants off of any commercial ketchup.

When it came to my portobellos I was just winging it.  I brushed them with a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper (You want umami?  I got yer umami right 'ere.) and let them sit for about 15 minutes while I was putting together the rest of the meal.  They went in the broiler for about ten minutes (flipping after 5).  I put one on a kaiser roll with tomato, lettuce, and sauteed onions.  It was fabulous.  We had corn on the cob and sweet potato on the side like it was summer or something.

My second portobello made its reappearance as lunch straight up with leftover sweet potato and a slice of tomato.  I'm in veggie heaven.

I'm also in fiber heaven.  Holy crap.  (Literally.)

Why I'm No Longer Eating Bird or Mammal, Part 975

What you think you're eating isn't always what you're eating and there are no systems in place to stop E. coli.

I'm cooking portobello burgers for myself and ground beef burgers for Husband tonight.  I am having serious reservations about this.  Reservations?  No -- make that anxiety.

I think there is an old meat grinder in my parents' garage.  I want to go get that and start buying meat from our local butcher (Everett's) and grinding it myself for Husband.  But still -- you can't trust meat from anywhere because there are no systems in place to test for E. coli.

This one paragraph pretty much puts the nail in the coffin of me ever eating bird or mammal again:

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others. [Emphasis mine.]

Aw hell naw.

True love

Last week Husband came home from work bearing a gift for me.

What was this gift?

It was an off-brand Snuggie.

We both have a very strange sense of humor.

Foodblogging: Recognizing Your Limits

I know I'm sleep deprived.  I recognize this.  And yet I try to push myself when I know I shouldn't.

I wanted to make gumbo tonight for dinner but after discovering that it takes at least 2.5 hours I decided to prepare the ingredients and put it together tomorrow.

I have never, ever successfully made roux.  I've actually had it explode on the stove.  I'm 0 for 3.

Make that 0 for 4.  I found that one can make roux in the microwave.  How could even I screw that up?  Oh, I can.

So in my sleep deprived state my brain shut off temporarily and I forgot that boiling oil does, in fact, melt plastic.  I'm sure you already know where this is going.

So my favorite (real) Tupperware bowl is toast and there's roux splatters all over the floor that I can't be bothered to clean up right now since I'm feeling so defeated.

So what's for dinner then?  It actually turned out for the better.  I made up a box of Velveeta Brand Shells and Cheese^tm®© (you can't go generic with this stuff) but felt like I needed some actual nutrition this evening.  I had a container of pureed sweet potatoes that I had left over after freezing it in cubes for Lily.  I mixed it in with the VS&C and dumped in a bunch of Cajun seasoning since I'm obviously in the mood for Cajun -- and what do you know -- it's really good!  I'm not sure I'm going to eat plain VS&C ever again.

So learn from my mistake, kids.  Boiling oil and plastic aren't friends.

Mama Thursday: Sitting

Quick post because I'm exhusted.  Lily can sit up unassisted now for short periods of time.  It's only a matter of time before she's crawling.