Hiding vegetables

Spencer loves these yogurts. Which is good, because these days he's a meat and cheese and bread kid. He'll eat any kind of meat I put in front of him, including lamb, pork (his favorite), chicken, beef, bacon, shrimp, fish ... you get the point. And cheeses please him, and lots of bread (not too big on rice or pasta, unless it's covered in cheese). But the only vegetable I can get him to eat regularly is soybeans, and I don't know if that counts.

But I wish if they were hiding vegetables in yogurt that he'll gobble up, why can't they figure out how to make Blueberry-Broccoli yogurt? Or Green bean and blackberry? Or black cherry and spinach? Squashes and sweet potatoes I'm sure I could fit somewhere into his diet in other ways.
PS - He will eat raw brussel sprout leaves, but I can't get him to touch them cooked. He doesn't understand that they're like candy.

PPS- My next mission is to add cauliflower to the mac & cheese and see if he'll go for it.

It's melting!

We had to get a stove guard a little over a month ago, not because of little hands but because said little hands are attached to great throwing arms and were throwing toys on the stove while I cooked.

The stove guard has not fared well against, um, the stove.

Any ideas on what to do? Are there better stove guards out there?

Autumn cometh

Last week was the first day of fall.

On the second day of fall, it decided to get cool. By cool, I mean highs in the 80s, low humidity. Days that make me wonder why I hate Florida so very much. It didn't last long, but we've been taking advantage of the outdoors anyhow. We rebricked the front porch, so we now in fact have a front porch. Spencer has enjoyed playing in the front yard, referreeing watching the older boys play football in the street and yelling "touchdown" at random intervals. "Ta-dow!" We opened the windows and turned off the a/c ... for a few hours.

It's marvelous. Of course, by the weekend it was back into the 90s, but there's still no humidity so it's bearable. We weeded the front flower bed and cut back the overgrowth in the middle of the palm trees so I can see if there are random children coming toward me when I back out of the driveway. This is not to say I'll stop, just that I'll know they're there.

I can't wait for more than 2 days in a row of the pretty weather.

Attn googlereaders: I'm back!

It's officially been (checks Wordpress) 41 days since I last posted. In that time, I've been doing all the same things I was previously doing, I just haven't been blogging about it.

I've been cooking.

I've been playing with Spencer.

I've been failing at learning to crochet and/or knit.

I've been forcing my hubby to get glasses and then admiring how cute he is in them.

I've been deciding whether to have another child in the near future.

I've been enjoying my time away from my blog, and to tell you the truth, I haven't missed it much. It's just been over the past week that I've noticed myself taking pictures of baked beans, or of Spencer, and thinking, "I should post that". So ... I'm posting them. My life was complete without my blog, but I think I'm ready to come back. Have you missed me? Will anyone read this? Have you missed this face?

Isn't it apparent already?

I can't seem to get it up enough to blog. I've been continuing to read a few select blogs every couple of days, but I think that my blogging days are done, for now. Don't count me out all together, but in the meantime, if you wish to keep in touch, I'm on Facebook. Leave a comment and I'll give you my info so you can find me :)

Any of my regular haunts -- I would definitely love to KIT! XOXO! And all that jazz! =)

Carrot Cake will be the death of me

My supervisor knows that I love carrot cake.

She also knows when my birthday is.

She also knows I'm on a diet.

I ate three.

Eating my way through Chicago

Ahh, food. I decided that after my vacation, I would go on a diet. A major, zero carb diet. I know it's not the healthiest diet to be on, but I just want something to jumpstart my weightloss which has been at a plateau for a couple months. I figure I'll do the low-carb thing for a little while and slowly add in the complex carbs.

Oh, thai noodles, how I'll miss thee.

And Garrett's popcornsicle ... I'll have to put you on hold ...

Serrano ham-wrapped asparagus, I think I'm allowed to keep you ...

Sushi, my love. Ahh, sushi ...

I don't know if I can give you up. Maybe I'll save you for a special occasion.

Holy Cow! Chips ... I wonder if I can duplicate you with turnips?

Holy Cow! burger ... I can eat you without a bun. I could eat two (okay, that's stretching it).

I never thought I would miss pizza. But Chicago pizza, how I'll miss thee. I'll just have to dream about you instead.

In the meantime, on vacation I enjoyed myself. We didn't go anywhere especially ... special, but we had some damn good meals. The Grill, 1492 Tapas, Timothy O'Toole's, Harry Carey's, Salude (wine bar), Gino's East, Cindy's Pizza, Garrett's Popcorn, Silver Spoon Thai, Hot Woks Cool Sushi, all the food at Taste of Chicago .... ahh, good stuff. I think I might be okay with my memories of carbs for now ... :) Excuse me, I need to hunt down some meat.

I'm back!

We got back in late Monday night, and while I had a wonderful time I'm thrilled to be home. I slept so wonderfully last night, in my own bed, until 8:30 this morning! And it's good to see my baby boy. I'm sure there are photos and blog posts to come from me, but for now I just wanted to say hi and leave you with this!

B-R-B

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go ...

Okay, well that's a lie. But Spencer's packed and ready to spend 5 (!!!!) days with Grandma and Grandpa, and everything's set for my brother to dog/housesit (frozen pizzas, ramen and pepsi are sufficiantly stocked), and, well, I'll pack after Spencer goes to bed. But in 12 hours, I'll be on a plane to Chicago to spend my 29th birthday in style ...

Toodles!

What a ham!

Little man loves making faces. He makes this face constantly.

It is usually accompanied by shaking and laughing. And hubby laughing so hard that it's hard to take video.

Here it is again -- such a ham! No surprise his favorite meat is pork.

Video game widow

This is probably a hypocritical post for me to write, but this is a sight I see ... often.

Maybe I'm just jealous because I want to play and instead I'm making breakfast, and cleaning, and watching the babe?

wanted: natural lighting for my food

I didn't know what to call this post. On the one hand, I made this delicious pasta with leeks, bacon and lemon. On the other hand, my gripe is that I have no real natural lighting in my house, and so any time I want decent pictures of food, it's carried outside to take on a flat surface.

Today's picture was taken on top of the doghouse.

Prior to today, I was a leek virgin. I've seen them used in recipes, I've seen them in the store but I've never had the guts to use them in anything or even order them in restaurants.

This ends now.

I made this pasta, and I am in love with the leek. I have popped my leek cherry. It was a memorable experience.
Leek Pasta

• 1 lb pasta (I used campanelle)


• 5 slices of raw bacon, chopped


• 3-4 leeks, well rinsed and cut in disks (just the white and light green parts)


• 1 tbs minced garlic


• salt and pepper


• the zest and juice of one lemon


• freshly grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

Bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to your preference (mine is slightly more done than al dente, personally). While pasta is cooking, in a large pan on medium high heat, add olive oil, leeks, bacon and a little salt. Stir to coat leeks, and cover. Stir occasionally. When bacon is almost fully cooked, add garlic.

When pasta is done, save 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain. Add pasta to leek mixture (once it's done to your taste, of course), along with the lemon juice and zest and pasta water. mix fully and serve hot , topped with cheese.

honey, you have mustard on your face

Spencer decided at 16 months that he liked to dip his chicken nuggets in anything he could reach. A few times it was sour cream and salsa, and then we decided to give him a container of honey mustard dressing to make his dips. He loved it. However, afterward he ended up with this on his face:

What the heck? I did a bunch of research -- was he allergic to honey? But this was more of a contact rash - it was only around his face where the honey mustard touched. All my research said that honey was used to get rid of rashes, not cause them. So it had to have been the mustard. Any ideas? It wasn't a homemade dressing, but a Beef O Brady's pre-packaged container. And it didn't bother him and went away after about an hour.

not too hot for lizard sex

And I have to tell you, when the female scurried off, I saw lizard dong. It was an odd sight to see.

privacy vs. the evil pepper

This is my back fence. See all the evil Brazilian pepper behind it? That's also our land. I'm tempted about once a week to go back there and chop down all that pain-in-the-ass pepper. However, I love my privacy and that stupid weed maintains my privacy between us and the road beyond the fence. Not that we'd really lose too much in the way of privacy, given that it's a dead-end road off a road that is not well traveled, and there are about 2 houses on the whole road.

But still! I like my privacy! So for now, the pepper will stay ... at least until I buy myself a chain saw.

happy father's day!

This was Spencer and Daddy sometime around Father's day last year. Happy Father's day to all the dads out there! Spencer taught himself to take his diaper off today, so we awoke to a bare baby ... thankfully no accidents were had, but I guess maybe we'll start thinking about getting a potty a little earlier than planned. Hubby meant to take two Tylenol cold pills and accidentally took two Benadryll pills (doseage: one) so after a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon, he is knocked out on the couch. Poor baby!

cleaning out the fridge

When I start having anxiety attacks, sometimes the best thing for me is to keep my mind off of it. Such was Friday, when my attacks that have been going on for a week came to a head and I was pale, clammy, shaky and a bit hysterical at work. By the time I got home I was doing a little better except that I was back to not breathing well, so I decided to clean out the refrigerator. I really didn't think the fridge was that bad, but when I got into it I realized there was leftover PW's meatloaf from last time Becky came to visit (I think 6 weeks ago, amazingly nothing growing on it). And there were numerous other things, including a lot of veggies that were okay but obviously not going to last long.

So this morning I made "clean-out-the-fridge" breakfast casserole:

Black Forest Ham (from the Omelet Muffins), green onions, zucchini, tomato and mushrooms

Mozzarella slices, mixed Italian cheese (I don't usually buy pre-shredded cheese, or sliced cheese for that matter. I tend to forget them).

Yummy Casserole

Not the prettiest cut, but it was very good. Also used: 9 eggs (3 whole eggs and 6 whites), garlic powder, salt and pepper. So clean out you fridge, and as long as all you have isn't mustard and Jack Daniels, you might have a delicious breakfast casserole!

Deconstructed Omelet muffins

I was flipping through my RR magazine, and saw these in an advertisement for Cabot cheese. I don't usually have Cabot cheese on hand (for cheddar and the like I usually just get the generic), and I didn't have egg substitute because, well, I like real eggs. But they looked like something tasty to take to a brunch potluck of the like, so I thought I'd try my hand at them with ingredients that I'm likely to have. I like to think of them as more like deconstructed omelet cupcakes or muffins than ham-egg-cheese cups. Better name, yes?

Deconstructed Omelet Muffins

• 6 slices Black Forest Ham


• 4 eggs


• 2 Tbs milk


• 1 cup shredded cheese


• 1 1/2 slices of bread


• chives


• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 6 cupcake tins (1/2 a regular muffin sheet) with cooking spray.

Scramble eggs and milk. Place 1 slice of ham in each tin - edges will stick out the top. Rip your 1 1/2 slices of bread into 6 pieces total, put one piece in the bottom of each, then pour eggs evenly among all. Salt and pepper to your taste, and put a pinch of cheese on top.

Cook approximately 15 minutes. Use a small spatula to remove from muffin tins. Garnish with chives.

Serves approximately 4-6

what I'm reading

I've had my fill of chick lit these days, and am currently reading all of Carl Hiaasen's books. What I love about Hiaasen is that even though all his novels have similarities, e.g. loner man who has been burned on love, woman who thought she was happy in the relationship that she was in before she met said loner man, environmental extremism ... they're all just so dissimilar beyond that.

Carl Hiassen has been with the Miami Herald since 1976 and doing investigative journalism since 1979. His novels are considered "environmental thrillers". What are environmental thrillers? Quite simply, very unique.

I started with Skinny Dip, Striptease (which I didn't realize the 1996 movie with Demi Moore was based on and will now have to see, boobs and all), Sick Puppy, Stormy Weather, and now I'm reading Native Tongue. I also read Hoot, his first children's book, years ago and didn't even realize it was a kid's book until I was done. It was that good.

sums up last night

little fry and the potatoes

We don't often keep potatoes in the house. Nothing against them, but in the carb world, I'd much rather have my bread and my pasta then potatoes. We mash turnips, or parsnips, or cauliflower instead.

I bought a bag of potatoes this week to make ... aww, heck. I don't even remember what I was making ***update! I remember! I made steak kabobs with this fantastic cilantro dipping sauce! I have to remember to post about that later! -- I digress, and will now continue ... But Spencer's not used to me having potatoes in the bottom bin in my kitchen. He thinks they are his personal toys. I keep finding them in random places:

and he's enjoying rolling them across my kitchen floor:

Well, potatoes are certainly cheaper than all those other toys I've got him. I guess I'll have to pick up a bag of potatoes once a month or so to keep him entertained!

just breathe

I've been having anxiety attacks since I was in high school. I used to be convinced that there was something seriously wrong with me. My mom took me to the hospital once because I couldn't breathe and my lips were turning blue. My doctor prescribed me Xanax -- yeah, I can tell you that did nothing. I know people that swear by it, but it was like sugar pills for me.

Anyhow, I have no idea what brings them on. My ex used to watch me as I fell asleep because he was always worried I had an apnea problem (and I thought I had an apnea problem; still not entirely convinced all my problems are anxiety-related). All of a sudden it will just be hard to take a full breath. It feels like I can't fill my lungs. I've been tested, and I am getting 100% fill, but it just doesn't feel like it. I'm not satisfied. This will go for several days and then I'll just be fine again. In the meantime, I just think about my breathing all the time, and concentrate on getting the air in.

Today it started on my way out of work. I'm not particularly stressed at work lately; I haven't had any need to go out of town since the end of May, I'm caught up (shh, don't tell anyone). Home is good too -- Spencer is being particularly adorable and seems to be keeping the tantrums to a minimum. He's learning new things every day - so fun! And the only thing that's not great is that I seem to be getting sick constantly over the last couple weeks. However, I felt better today than I have in awhile.

So I've been like this for 7 hours or so. We went for an 11.5 mile bike ride and I still had problems (otherwise we probably would have kept riding). I hate this, bah!

Nair wears short shorts

Has anyone tried Nair? I have never tried it, until tonight. I bought some of this Nair for sensitive skin a few weeks ago and finally got around to trying it. Jury's still out. I followed the direction, and now my legs are kind of itchy, and a little blotchy and bumpy. I put some lotion on them and it's no help. I'm hoping it's just a little irritated and will go away. My legs are nicely smooth, except for a couple random hairs that it neglected. I might just shave the suckers off.

Does anyone know why my legs are itchy and blotchy? And what might get that to go away? And if Nair for the shower might be any better?

wash 'em or wipe 'em?

What did you think I was talking about?

I've always heard that you shouldn't wash mushrooms; you should wipe the dirt off. This seems smart, except sometimes it seems that there's a bit of dirt stuck up there in the gills that doesn't want to come out that way. I usually take the easy way out of this decision -- I buy them pre-sliced. Hey, they're the same price, and I use so many that they don't usually go bad (well, this happens in spells -- sometimes they seem to be going bad as fast as I buy them, and sometimes I'm running out). This time the whole mushrooms were on sale, so I bought some and sliced them up to put on a pizza with sage sausage, tomatoes and a bunch of cheese. Yum! I'm not a big pizza fan, but I love to make it!

Spencer gives Scotty a run for his money

My husband has this cousin who could hold his own in any eating competition. If he couldn't eat as much as anyone, he certainly can eat it faster than anyone. His favorite meal is ribs -- for his birthday every year, we can be sure to be hitting a local barbeque place so he can have a rack of ribs. He'll then gladly inhale them before anyone else gets their food, and then sit contented, sipping his Coke and listening to his iPod.

Spencer had his first ribs tonight at Courtside Grill. He loved them. Loved them. Inhaled them. He ate three of five, and then ate all the mac & cheese that came with it (he loves his fork and will even eat broccoli if he can stab it with the fork). I think when Spencer gets a little older he'll challenge Scotty to a duel of the ribs. To the death!

Berries galore

Ahh, I love when berries are in season. I can get local berries at my regular grocer, and they're relatively cheap! Unlike most people, I never really enjoy the flavor of frozen berries so I have to get my fill while they're cheap, plentiful, and available. Yum!

**disclosure, that's regular ol' Cool Whip on top. I know I should whip my own, but it's fat-free and I haven't figured out how to whip skim milk.

bacardi melon commercial

Grab some melons ... I couldn't resist the new bacardi melon commercial ... it made me giggle :)

In the same vein, friendship style

A friend and I have been talking about her signing up for Facebook, which is (unfortunately) a huge part of my life. I spend far too much time on there, but I love that I actually talk to people that I went to high school with. They have kids, I have kids, we bond. I didn't find the same closeness with Myspace. I'm actually in the process of phasing out myspace if I can get a few stubborn friends to switch, but that's a whole other post.

Anyhow, so when said friend joined Myspace, a girl we knew friend-requested her, and she declined. I didn't think much of it, but when we discussed her signing up for Facebook I made the offhanded remark that I knew she was picky in accepting friend requests people from high school. To this she replied that she wasn't except for this one girl. I then realized she was continuing to harbor a grudge against this girl for something that happened in high school. Now, I'm sure that what happened to them was traumatic to a teenager, but would you hold a grudge against someone for something that happened 11 years ago?

The reason I bring up this story, it to say that I am terrible at holding grudges. I value friendships too much to let much get in the way. It also happens that I tend to get taken advantage of, but I've always been this way. My best friend and I had a falling out that happened around the time of my wedding, and we didn't talk for over a year and it was miserable for me. I still thought about her all the time, dreamed about her, and finally I crawled back to her (even though I can say with full conviction that I had nothing to do with what happened). I can't say we're anywhere near the friends that we used to be, but I also can't let her go. I'm truly glad that we've made some effort to reconcile.

What about you? Do you harbor old grudges? Do you get trampled as a friend?

Say cheese!

My cheesy child has learned how to "say cheese". Bring on the silly grins.

If you look above his left eye you'll see the road rash he got yesterday. My cousin graduated high school yesterday, and we drove 45 minutes to get there only to find out that the school moved graduation inside, so immediate family only was allowed in the auditorium. We sat outside for 2 1/2 hours waiting for all to come outside. The boy was surprisingly good, running back and forth the whole night, but about 20 minutes before everyone came out, he tripped and bounced his forehead on the concrete. I heard his head hit the ground; it was a terrible sound. He wailed a bit, but oddly there was very little swelling and all that's left today is an area about the size of a quarter that looks like road rash without the torn skin -- speckled red (I'm sure it will bruise in the next couple days). I was so proud that all his bumps had gone away, and he goes and gives himself a doozy. It could have been worse. He doesn't seem to mind it.

unplugged (sort of)

There was a time I was addicted to all social networking sites. I had my blog, MySpace, my MySpace blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube ... you name it, I was plugged in. I spent far too much time on all these sites. I have decided to pare down these obsessions, and last week I officially deleted my MS account. Hurrah! I don't miss it at all. I also turned off all my updates on Twitter. The only reason I didn't delete my account there all together is that the main use of it for me is to put pictures in my FB status updates through Twitpic. And I do.

So I'm down to Facebook and my blog. I'm not about to give either up. But I do feel freed by dropping all that excess networking weight. Now to update my FB status update to say that I'm going to bed.

Nite nite!

Summer bliss

I know that people are polarized about cilantro. To some, it is divine. To some I've heard it tastes like soap. Those poor, poor people. To me, cilantro is the freshest taste of summer - impossibly yummy.

Guacamole

• 5 soft Haas avacados


• 2 1/2 limes


• 1 tsp salt


• 3/4 cup onion, diced


• lots and lots of cilantro (maybe 1/4 cup or so)


• 3 roma tomatoes, diced


• 1 1/2 heaping tsp minced garlic


• a couple shakes of cayenne pepper

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate for at least an hour for best flavor.

*if serving with salted tortilla chips, watch the salt in the guacamole. you may want to put less in.

not much going on, but isn't this the cutest 15-month old ever?

Today is the first day in over a week that it's not raining. Last night the sun came out long enough for us to play out front of the house while the hubby mowed the lawn (yay, no more jungle!). Hopefully there will a bit of sun today -- I wouldn't mind the rain every night from 9pm to 4am. Can we work with that?
Anyhow, I haven't done much cooking this week -- Chicken chili on Friday, hubby made peanut chicken on Wednesday (anyone know of a really good Thai peanut sauce? I'm obsessed with this peanut sauce at a Thai restaurant I went to with Autumn while in NYC, but I haven't found anything to compare in the store) ... I digress; and I don't even remember what we ate earlier in the week. It obviously wasn't memorable. Anyhow, here are pictures from playing yesterday -- I know I'm biased, but my child is so freaking adorable =)