26 Days and Counting!

I have 26 days left till my due date! I'm ready anytime now. I thought I'd show off the nursery now that it's finally done (well mostly - 95% done, I'd say).

Here's some before pictures of the room that was our office (I'd just like to say that the "painter's tape blue" walls were done by the previous owners - not us).
Here are the "after" pictures. I think it turned out pretty well (it's a small room so I know it looks cluttered right now but the swing and bouncy seat will probably not stay in her bedroom).

My New Job

Today I begin my new job - full-time, stay-at-home mom. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. For the first time in almost 11 years, I am "unemployed." I'm definitely excited about being with Elaine and the new baby (when she gets here) full time.....I just hope I can handle it! Even the three days a week that I've been home for the last 2 years, I've still had work to do. Now I don't have to think about contracts or paying invoices or our department budget....just baby and toddler stuff. Hope I don't go crazy!

Trick-or-Treat

For Elaine's 3rd Halloween, she wanted to be Minnie Mouse. She had so much fun with Halloween this year.

Our neighbors went a little Halloween crazy this year. Elaine still talks about the "scary monsters" that she saw on Halloween. the picture doesn't really do it justice. They had the smoke machine going, the scary music, a "Lurch-ish" mannequin that took his head off and cackled when someone walked by, and our neighbor's son dressed up as a vampire or something scary and jumped out at the kids to give them candy (at least he did that with the older kids). But it still made a big impression on Elaine.

Here are a couple of pictures of her trick-or-treating at my parents' house. She pretty much refuses to look at or pose for the camera anymore so these are the best we can do....

Baby's Coming

Here's a picture taken today of "the belly." I'm 26-28 weeks, depending on who you believe (babycenter.com and my own calculations have me at 26 weeks, my pregnancy journal has me at 27 weeks, and today my dr. said I was at 28).


(Don't look at my face - the sun was right in my eyes and I'm very squinty - I think I could give Renee Zellweger a run for her money!)

Here's a typical conversation with a stranger/casual acquaintance.

Stranger: When's your baby due?
Me: December 1st.
Stranger: Oh! Are you having twins??
Me: No.
Stranger: Oh. Just one big baby, then!
Me: Um....I guess so.

(I'm not sure why people feel the need to say really stupid things to pregnant women, but they do.)

So I can't find pictures of me when I was at this stage with Elaine (D - if you have pictures from my baby shower, I'd love to compare them) but I don't think I'm THAT big - though I do think that I'm bigger than I was with Elaine at the same stage. But I certainly don't look like I'm carrying twins. However, from now on, if anyone else asks that question, the answer is "yes, I'm having twins."

Grill Recipe

One of the things I wanted to do this summer was learn how to grill. Well, I've done it once so far. But clearly I'm good at it!

I found this recipe for artichoke-stuffed chicken and it was amazing.

For the stuffing:
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 jar (7 oz) artichoke hearts
2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled
3 Tbsp minced sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed)
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

4 large boneless chicken breast halves (with skin)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saute pan, combine the olive oil, thyme and red pepper flakes. Set the pan over medium high heat to warm the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes. Drain, rinse and coarsely chop the artichoke hearts and add along with the garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Add the goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil. Mix to evenly distribute the ingredients and allow to cool.








Rinse the chicken breasts under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place each breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and, with a meat mallet, pound to flatten to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Place the breast, skin side down, and spread each one with a quarter of the stuffing. Fold the breasts in half over the stuffing and use toothpicks to skewer the sides closed (I used about 4 per breast). Brush or spray both sides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Grill the breasts over Direct Medium heat until the meat juices run clear and the cheese is melted, 8-12 minutes, turning once halfway through grilling time. Remove from the grill and carefully remove the toothpicks.

My tips:
Make sure you use real toothpicks. The second time I made this, I didn't have any and instead used large sandwich picks which did not work at all. The filling just wouldn't stay in.
If you can't find a 7 oz jar of artichoke hearts (as I couldn't), go slightly larger rather than smaller. The second time I made this, I used a 6 oz jar and it was not enough. Also chop the artichokes into fairly large chunks. They'll sort of slip out of the cheesy filling and into the gril if they're too small.

Riding a "Toot Toot"

Our friends, Martin, Becky and Lillie, were visiting over the 4th of July. Elaine loves trains - has books about trains and toy trains that she and grandpa play with - but she'd never seen a real train, let alone been on one. We decided to ride the Georgetown-Silverplume train with our friends. Elaine had the time of her life. It's two weeks later and she tells everyone she sees "Elaine ride toot-toot." Clearly, we'll be doing that again. Here a couple of pictures of Elaine and Lillie on the toot-toot.

Thank Heaven...

for little girls. We're having another girl! (I have no idea what exactly we're seeing in the 2nd picture but apparently....it's a girl.) Now we just have to come up with a name....
















This is a busy girl. I've been feeling a little movement (flutters mostly) for several weeks. Now she's kicking and turning around and just generally making her presence known....to me at least. Phil hasn't been able to feel her yet - but that's mostly because every time I tell him to feel for her either a) she stops moving immediately (which is what Elaine always did) or b) I start giggling because I'm ticklish and then he can't feel anything but me laughing and breathing. Oh well.

If she's busier than Elaine....we're in big trouble!

I'm Tired

Here's a look at my day so far (it's currently 1:45pm MDT).

6:30am - Elaine wakes up; Phil leaves for work
7:00am - I put on Baby Einstein "On the Go" so I can get showered/dressed, etc.
7:45am - I change Elaine's diaper and see red welts all over her body. I don't know what they are. I freak out.
8:00am - We watch the Wiggles so Elaine won't notice that I'm freaking out and therefore she won't.
8:30am - Call the pediatrician, schedule an appt. for 9am
9am - Elaine has hives and eczema and we don't know why. Probably a food allergy but we got prescriptions for 1) anti-itch cream for the eczema, 2) Zyrtec for the hives. But we're going to try Benadryl first for the hives and see if that helps.
9:30am - Walgreens to drop off her prescriptions and get the Benadryl, soap and lotion recommended by the dr.
9:45am - Home to get diaper bag, juice and water for Elaine
9:55am - Buy gas ($41!!)
10am - My (rushed) haircut
10:40am - On the road, across town to my dr. appt.
11:20am - 5 minutes late for my appt. Elaine is screaming because she's tired and hivey - and I brought in her water instead of her juice (bad mommy)
11:35am - Baby's heartbeat is about 150 bpm but my blood pressure is high (gee, I wonder why). Also I mention that I've had headaches for the last 3 weeks which my dr. thinks could be related to the high blood pressure (if today isn't a fluke) or could be allergies. So I, too, have a prescription for Zyrtec.
11:45am - Blood draw (which already freaks me out normally) while trying to hold and calm screaming/crying 21 month old child
11:55am - Lose ticket for parking lot.....but thankfully quickly find it again when I get to the car
12:50pm - Finally get to eat lunch - sitting in the Wendy's parking lot so Elaine stays asleep...because Phil has called to say that when he stopped by the house to get his cell phone (which he forgot this morning - so I wasn't able to reach him all morning) the construction crew was about to start paving in front of our house and I supposedly wouldn't be able to get into my house for at least an hour.
1pm - They haven't started paving yet, thankfully. But now Elaine's awake. So she has lunch and now I'm tired and want to nap....but guess who doesn't.
And my day's only 1/2 over.

Oh and Elaine has been running around for 2 days saying "Uncle Matt", "Denise" and "Becky". Thought you'd be happy to hear that.

Hope you're all having a marvelous day! Take a nap for me.....and maybe a quart of tequila.

My First Book Review

One of the things that I thought I could do in my blog was write about books that I've read (yes I do read books that aren't cookbooks). Unfortunately for you, it's been at least 17 years since I've written a book report. So this could be all over the place.

I should preface this by stating that since I got out of school I have read basically nothing but mysteries. It's my favorite genre and why should I read anything else if I don't have to? Within the mystery genre, there are several sub-genres (I don't know if that's an accurate term but since my university seems to think they gave me a degree in English - which they didn't - I'm going to go with it). My favorite sub-genres are Historical and Cozy:

• Historical should be fairly self-explanatory.
• Cozy is a light read where the sleuth is usually an amateur and the violence takes place behind the scenes. I also usually think of a cozy as taking place in a small town/village (for instance, the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie are classic examples of the cozy). Often cozies are centered on a theme - cats, dogs, tea, quilting, needlework, baking, etc.
  

Ok, enough of that. I was in the library last week picking up some books for my mom and I to read (she's a mystery freak too). I saw a book by an unknown-to-me author and loved the title so much that I just took it (well not "took" it - no stealing, checked it out). When I got home, I actually read the back of the book and found out that author also wrote The Princess Diaries and a number of other teeny-bopper books. So I was less enthused. Until I started reading it. So, here's the title and the back-of-book description. Then I tell you what I thought.

Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
'Heather Wells Rocks! Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two - and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

'The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls...and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen - not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives - even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

'But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.'

Ok, so it sounds far-fetched. But that's one of the fun things about cozy murder mysteries. It seems to be directed at a slightly younger audience (it takes place in a freshman dorm) which is fine but I can't relate to elevator surfing. I don't think kids did that when I was in college. And there are some annoying things like she refers to the fact that she works in a "dorm - excuse me, residence hall". Yeah, that happens about 50 times in this book. It gets old. But the thoughts Heather has - pretty normal. For example, Heather explains how she gets in her daily 60 minutes of exercise as recommended by the US government: a 10-minute walk to the sandwich shop, 10 minutes to her favorite boutique shop, 10 minutes to Dean & Deluca and so on (including trips back home/office) till you've gotten to 60 minutes. I totally do that!

The great American novel, it's not. And it's not definitely not my favorite series (I'll talk about those another time). But it's a fun read and I'm going to get the next book, Size 14 is Not Fat Either, when I go to the library again.

Rainier Cherry Pie

Here's another recipe from Pie. (I just love the name of the book - nothing fancy - just Pie.)

I had never heard of Rainier cherries before. Apparently they are a cross between a Bing and a Van cherry (I think that's right). They are white/yellow in color with a blush of red. They are big and sweet. Yum! Well, I was reading through Pie trying to decide what to make and this recipe sounded interesting. I ultimately decided on the Peaches and Cream Pie.....until I was at the grocery store and saw Rainier cherries! So I knew I had to make 2 pies.

The thing that intrigued me about this recipe - more than just the cherry variety - was the technique for the top crust. Grated pastry. I had to try it. So here's the recipe....thoughts at the end.

Two-Crust pie pastry (you could probably do this with a store-crust but I'm not really sure. I'd make the pastry for this one)
5 cups fresh Rainier cherries, stemmed and pitted
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
About 1 Tbsp coarse sugar or granulated sugar (for glaze)

1. If you haven't already, prepare the pastry. Shape the smaller ball (for the top crust) into a block rather than a disk. Refrigerate the larger half (for the bottom crust) till firm enough to roll, about 1 hour, and place the block in the freezer.
2. Roll the larger half of the pastry into a 13" circle. Place the pastry over a 9 1/2" deep dish pie pan. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and sculpt the edge into an upstanding ridge. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400.
3. In a large bowl, combine the cherries, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well, then set aside for 10 minutes to juice. Combine the remaining 2 Tbsp sugar and the cornstarch in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the fruit. Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell and smooth the top of the fruit with your hands or a spoon.
4. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the other half of the pastry over the top of the fruit, as if it were a block of cheese, covering the filling more or less evenly. Sprinkle the coarse sugar evenly over the pastry.
5. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and rotate the pan 180 degrees so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil-lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills. Continue to bake till the top is golden brown and the juices bubble thickly around the edge, 25-30 minutes.
6. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 2 hours before serving. Garnish with vanilla or peach ice cream.

Again, this was pretty easy to make. Until I got to the top crust. Oh my...it took forever to grate the pastry. It was incredibly messy (Elaine had pastry shreds in her hair) and it was difficult to get the pastry pieces to fall where they should (you've grated cheese, you know). At one point, I tried to grate it over a plate instead but the pastry, as it warmed from my hands and the grating, started clumping together so I couldn't really transfer it to the pie. You have to grate the pastry over the pie. Then it looked weird. It made for a very crunchy top crust which isn't usually something I look for in a pie crust.

Overall, this was a good pie. I think if I make it again, I'll do a traditional top crust. Partly because grating the pastry was a pain and partly because it was crunchy (and I'm very particular about my pie crust/pastry). The cherry filling was delicious though. Phil liked the pie ok. Not a traditional cherry pie, obviously. Phil disagrees with the author though about serving it with ice cream. Rainier cherries are so sweet that you don't need the ice cream (like you do with a traditional tart cherry pie).

Another strange looking pie, I think. But tasty!

Before baking:


After baking:

Peaches and Cream

Anyone who's known me for the last four or five years probably knows that I've become obsessed with pies. I don't really know why. I've always liked pie ok...but I truly preferred other desserts. But for some reason in the last few years pie has become my favorite dessert. Particularly fruit pies which is also weird for me.

I think part of this obsession is from Phil. He loves pie too - any kind of pie and probably loves pie more than me. He really likes peach pie and since I was a bad wife this year and didn't make him a birthday cake (sorry honey) I decided to make a peach pie a few days later.

I have a wonderful book called Pie by Ken Haedrich (same guy who did one of my other favorite cookbooks, Apple Pie Perfect). There were several peach pies but one that caught my attention first was Peaches and Cream pie. The description says that it tastes like peach ice cream. I had to try it. Also it was the only peach recipe that said frozen peaches worked well in it. Since the fresh peaches at my grocery store didn't seem ripe enough - or overly ripe - I decided to use frozen.

So here's the recipe. I'll give my thoughts at the end.

Single Crust pie pastry (I make my own but you could use store bought)
2 1/2 - 3 cups peeled, pitted and sliced ripe peaches or one 1-lb bag frozen sliced peaches, partially thawed
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Big pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1. If you haven't already, prepare the pastry and refrigerate till firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.
2. Roll out the pastry into a 13" circle. Place the pastry in a 9 1/2" deep dish pie pan. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it and sculpt the edge so it is more or less flush with the top of the pan. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. Distribute the peach slices evenly in the chilled shell. Combine the cream, confectioners' sugar, salt and vanilla in a medium-size bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly pour over the peaches. Use a fork, if necessary, to rearrange the peach slices evenly in the shell.
4. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the pie, then return it to the oven, placing it so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Bake until the filling is bubbly and the top is caramel-colored, 15-20 minutes. The filling will still be liquidy.
5. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

My crust was, as usual (if I may say so myself), perfect. I didn't make a super flaky crust for this one but it was delicious. I thought the pie was quite tasty. But it was NOT attractive at all. I expected it to be creamier (given the fact that it's a peaches and CREAM pie) but it wasn't. It didn't taste quite like peach ice cream to me but it was better than a plain peach pie, as far I'm concerned. Of course, I have to turn to the peach pie expert - Phil. He gave it "two thumbs up" for sweet peachy flavor. He thought the cream part was good and off-set the peaches very well.

I also expected (from reading the recipe) that there would be a caramely layer on top from the brown sugar. Instead the brown sugar immediately started melting into the pie as I was sprinkling it on (duh). When it came out of the oven, there were brown blotches on the pie where the sugar had settled. So instead of looking like a caramelized layer on top, it looked like I had overcooked the pie (which I hadn't).

So I think the pie gets good points for flavor (let's say 5 - I'm making up the scale now) but 0-1 for appearance.

Blah

So, obviously it's been over a month since I've posted anything. I've just been feeling blah lately. Like I have nothing to say and even if I did, no one would want to read about it. But I'm going to try to think of things to write about. Actually, I've done some baking this weekend so I will do a couple of recipe reviews. Maybe that'll get me started again....

Little Peanut

On Friday, I had my first OB appointment. I was 8 weeks and 5 days. Let me tell you that when you get to your second pregnancy, the dr. doesn't care so much about seeing you. I guess that's not really true. I have a wonderful dr. who I love and she's very excited for us. It's just that I remember when I got pregnant with Elaine I was immediately in seeing my doctor, having blood tests and ultrasounds, etc. This time when I called to say that I was pg, they told me I could come in when I was 8-9 weeks. Those 4 weeks between the first positive pregnancy test and the first doctor's appointment were the longest of my life.

The night before my appointment, I had horrible nightmares about finding out that a) I wasn't pregnant at all or b) that I was pregnant but there was no heartbeat. I never had these fears with Elaine - despite the fact that that was a high risk pregnancy from the beginning. So I was a bit of a basket-case all day on Friday until we got to the dr. The first thing my dr. said when we started the ultrasound was "You're definitely pregnant." That was the BEST thing she could have said. Then we saw the heartbeat and I knew everything was going to be ok. Once you see/hear a heartbeat the chances of miscarrige drop a lot! And today my dr. called to say all my bloodwork came back good. (And they took a LOT of blood! I'd take a picture of my enormous bruise but it's really disgusting and no one wants to see it, including me.)

But what you probably DO want to see, is this. My new little peanut (and s/he does look like a peanut).

Ok, Don't Drive

Well, as is typical with shows that I like, Drive has officially been canceled. I guess Denise was right to not get interested in the show. Oh well. I had enough TV shows as it was...

10,000 Chicken Recipes and Counting

Ok, so I've never counted how many chicken recipes I actually have but given my modest cookbook/magazine/card collection, I'm going to say that I'm the 1,000s for chicken recipes.

One of my more recent recipe acquisitions came from an unlikely (for me) source. I have always been mistrusting of food company's recipes (Kraft, Pillsbury, Campbells, etc). I don't know why. It makes sense that these people would have good recipes for their products but I just never try them. Somehow I ended up with a subscription to Kraft's magazine Food and Family (it's free and you can sign up for it and/or weekly emails on their website if you're interested: www.kraftfoods.com). This recipe appeared in two different issues, complete with comments from other consumers who all raved about it.

So, what the heck. I gave it a try. It is quite tasty and leftovers reheat pretty well. Since it's something I actually feel like eating now despite morning sickness, I figure that's a selling point for it too. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it. (D, this is already in your book.)

Buschetta Chicken Bake

1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (I don't like big chunks of tomato so I use petite diced tomatoes)
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more, if you really love garlic like I do)
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp dried basil (I don't ever measure - just sprinkle it on so the chicken is evenly sprinkled)1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (again, I don't measure this - just put on whatever looks good to you)
Preheat oven to 400. Place tomatoes in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water and garlic; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside.

Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish; sprinkle with the basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture.

Bake 30 min or until chicken is cooked through.
This recipe can also be found on the back of the Stove Top Stuffing box.

Drive, Baby

Today I need to tell you about a new TV show called, Drive. It premiered on Sunday with 2 episodes and followed with a 3rd episode on Monday night. All I knew about this show was what my husband told me - it's Nathan Fillion driving. What more do you need than Nathan (from Firefly and Buffy)?

"But what's the show about?" I asked.
"It's an illegal, cross-country road race," my husband replied.
Sounds...um....thrilling. I'm not remotely interested, except that it's Nathan Fillion.

We recorded all the 3 hours and watched them last night. First off, I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the producers/writers is Tim Minear who was behind some of my old favorites - Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Wonderfalls. I have to say that the show immediately captured my interest. It is action-packed with a good bit of mystery. There are a lot of characters to follow - a la Lost. But I think they do a good job of introducing the characters and explaining why they are involved in this race. Also the dialogue is pretty good (which I can't say of too many shows - even the ones I watch regularly) - complete with the sort of quips we've come to expect from Buffy and Angel.

Granted, we're only 3 episodes in but if the shows continues to be this good....well, I'll probably get completely absorbed in it right before it gets canceled. So I'm asking you to watch at least 1 episode and see if you don't get hooked. Maybe it won't get canceled if enough people watch..... maybe. Monday nights at 8/7 PM on Fox. Let me know what you think!

Better than......

My mother-in-law had a birthday last week and I was asked to bring birthday cake. I know that she likes chocolate cake so I decided to make her a Better Than Sex cake. I know what you're thinking - it probably is completely inappropriate to make this for my mother-in-law. But it's SO good. I decided not to announce the name of the cake but I told her privately....fortunately she has a good sense of humor and wasn't mortified that I would make this cake.

I have tried a couple of variations and they are all good. So here's the recipe - from my memory! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures....so you'll just have to make it yourself to see what it looks like.)

Better-Than-Sex Cake (or Better-Than-? or Better-Than-Almost-Anything....some of the name variations I've run across)

1 German chocolate cake mix (Betty Crocker's is my favorite)
water, oil, eggs to make cake (according to package directions)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar (16-17 oz.) caramel, butterscotch or fudge ice cream topping
3 cups sweetened whipped cream - or 1 pkg. Cool Whip, thawed
1 pkg. toffee bits

Make cake according to package directions for a 9x13 pan. When the cake is finished baking, remove from oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

Poke holes in the top of the cake (not all the way through) about 1/2" with the handle of a wooden spoon (or with a long fork). Pour the sweetened condensed milk over all and let the milk soak into the cake. When the milk has been absorbed, pour the caramel topping evenly over the whole cake. Let the topping settle in as well. When completely cooled, cover the cake and refrigerate it at least 2 hours or overnight.

Frost cake with sweetened whipped cream and sprinkle toffee bits over all.

You'll have to decide for yourself if it really is better than sex....All I will say is that it IS pretty damn good.


Hilda (my husband's late grandmother)'s secret to making perfectly sweetened whipped cream: Chill a metal bowl and the beaters until they are nice and cold. Pour your cream into the bowl. Pour granulated sugar into the center of the bowl. When you can see a small peak of sugar poking through the cream in the center of the bowl, you have enough. Beat on medium - medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.

My Brush with Fame

My friend, Shawn, loves me now. I enabled him to meet his dreamgirl - Giada De Laurentiis. I happened to get an email about her book signing at our local Sur La Table store. There was no way Shawn was going to pass this up. We got to meet her and she signed her new book - Everyday Pasta. Yum yum!

Watch out!

I may be biased but I think my 18-month-old daughter is the sweetest little girl ever. She has her moments of insanity...but then who doesn't?

Recently she has been working on doors. Yesterday morning we were both in my bedroom - she was playing while I was getting dressed and ready for the day. She decided at one point to close the bedroom door but continued to hold onto the door and so smashed her finger in the process. She began to cry so naturally I ran to the door, opened it and then picked her up and hugged her. I wanted to look at her finger and see if it was really hurt. She must have been afraid that I was going to touch the hurt part because she suddenly started flailing her arms about. Unfortunately, I was holding her close to my face - in order to get a good look at the supposedly smashed finger. In the midst of the flailing, one of her fingernails caught me - right in the eye.

At this point, I am proud to say that I actually did remain fairly calm. I gently set her down and ran to the bathroom mirror to see if I was injured. I didn't see an injury (yes, I could still see). But I was crying now because I was in lots of pain. So I put in some "tears" that I keep on hand. That didn't really help....but it started feeling a little better after an hour.

In the afternoon though, when it was still hurting me, my sister and husband insisted that I go to the eye doctor. (Though she will deny it, my sister told me that if my cornea was scratched I might go blind.) So I went to the doctor and lo and behold...my cornea had a big scratch from the upper left corner of my eye down to almost the center. No wonder it hurt!

So, let this be a lesson to all mothers/aunts/visitors of one year olds. Do NOT let them near your face.

Ancient Chinese Secret

Now that Denise is back from her honeymoon and I have talked to her, the world can now know that I'm pg! As far as I know my due date is December 1. I don't go to the doctor for another 3 weeks so I suppose that date can change.

I have consulted the Chinese Gender Chart (big surprise for those who know me). This says that I'm having a boy. I really want a boy but I'm trying not to get too excited...it could be wrong. But I have to wait until July to find out the gender from an ultrasound. I hope I can wait that long....

In the meantime, we are beginning to clear out the office and get our bedroom ready to house our home office. Then we can start on the new baby's room. It's going to be a busy year!

As legend would have it, the Chinese Gender Chart was buried in a royal tomb over 700 years ago. Recently discovered, the chart has been used to predict the gender of an unborn child based on the mother's age and month of conception. Simply find the age of the mother at the time of conception on the chart and then follow across to the month the baby was conceived to find the predicted gender. - Copied from ivillage.com

Salsa Revisited

Well I just tried the salsa recipe again. I'm getting closer. The flavor is much better - not so tomatoey - but it still seems to be missing something. Here's what I tried this time.

In a slow cooker, I put:
10 plum/Roma tomatoes
8 cloves garlic (inserted into slits cut into 8 of the tomatoes)
1 medium white onion
4 jalapenos
2 serranos

That cooked on high for about 3 hours. I let it cool for about 45 minutes. Then I added a lot of salt and at least 1/2 cup of cilantro (I didn't measure it out this time). I blended that with my immersion blender. Unforunately, I overdid it a bit and it's a little soupy now. But I think it will thicken up a bit as it cools. I finished it off with the juice from 1 lime and a little more salt. This tastes mild at first....but the heat hits you after the fact. So if you don't like hot salsa, I'd cut back on the peppers. Or take out the seeds, which I didn't do.

I also thought about cutting back on the number of tomatoes but I like the volume of salsa that it makes (about 4-5 cups) so I decided to stick with 10 tomatoes this time.

It was much better though than the first time. Still missing a flavor....I just don't know what. So if anyone else tries it out and comes up with a good combination, let me know. I'll keep working on it.

California Dreaming

I just got back from my wonderful vacation in California. 10 days is a long time to travel with an 18 month old but we all had a good time - aside from filthy motel rooms, a stolen credit card, a lost iPod and various lost sippy cups/toys. But my best friends got married and I think I made a new friend, Kelly. There were other good things that happened....but that's for another posting.

We spent a couple of days at Sequoia National Park. It was a nice time to be there - very few visitors. We didn't get to see everything because many of the roads were closed due to the snow. But it was beautiful up there and amazing to see the sequoia trees.

After that, we headed to LA for the wedding. It was so nice to spend time with my friend before her wedding. And I got to know her friend, Kelly, which was really fun. I was surprised at how many of our friends from Colorado went out to the wedding.

I know I have more to share our the vacation....but I'm too tired right at the moment. (On a completely unrelated topic.....I am trying the salsa recipe again this week with some variations so I'll let you know how it turns out.)

Reflections

My best friend is getting married next week (!!!) and is going to French Polynesia for her honeymoon. That's where I went on my honeymoon 6 years ago and right now it's all I can think about. I would HIGHLY recommend the islands for any vacation.

In order to prepare you, D, for what you're going to experience, here are my recollections of arriving in Papeete, Tahiti.

1. The international airport: This is the first time that I'd ever climbed down from that large an airplane. There is no jetway. The airport itself basically has no exterior walls. You walk through customs (little desks separated from each other by bamboo "walls") and then to the baggage claim. Again, no walls - just open air. (The domestic side of the Papeete airport is a whole other story....dirt floor, chickens running around....nothing like any airport I'd been in before.)

2. It was HUMID! We arrived around 7pm local time (after getting up about 4:30am MST and 7pm in Tahiti was 11pm for us) and it was still hot and humid.

3. The smell. Once we left the baggage claim and went outside to find transportation, the sweet smell of the tiare flower was everywhere. I can still remember the scent and I wish we had something like it here. Yes the tiare flower is related to the magnolia but for my money the smell just can't compare.

I'll stop there for now. I could go on for pages about how wonderful Tahiti was. The picture to the left is from Moorea - looking back at the island from our overwater bungalow at the hotel.

Good Intentions

When I wrote my first blog, I got all excited about it and had lots of ideas about what I could write. But write two postings in one day? I didn't want to seem pathetic. (Why I thought that was pathetic, I have no idea.) So as time went on and I didn't write anything, I couldn't think of anything to write.

Now that I've written my second blog posting, I am excited about this again and have lots of ideas. So I'm over the whole "pathetic" thing and I'm posting again today. Here's what I intend to write about on this blog (this is mostly so I won't forget and decide that I have nothing to say).

• My family - probably mostly my 17-month old daughter
• My life (past, present & future) and random thoughts
• Recipe reviews and possibly cookbook reviews
• Mysteries

So there you have it.

(By the way, I know the photo has nothing to do with this posting.....I just wanted to put it in.)

People love to say salsa

So one of the things that I thought I would do in my blog is to review recipes. I will be honest and admit that it wasn't my idea. But I after having two people (the only 2 people to read my blog: Hi Denise and Kelly!) ask me to do this, I think it's a good idea.

I LOVE to cook. Cook, roast, bake, braise (ok, maybe not braise since I've never done it but I had to think of another cooking verb), you name it. Since I like to do a variety of things in the kitchen, the reviews will be of anything and everything.

I hope that you will recognize the title of the posting...it is from Seinfeld. And while I am a big Seinfeld fan, I need to state now that Seinfeld is NOT the reason that my daughter is named Elaine.

But I digress. My first recipe review is "Slow Cooked Salsa." I LOVE Mexican food and I always think it would be so much cheaper to make my own salsa. But I never got around to trying it. I recently came across a recipe in a Taste of Home magazine and today I tried it.

First of all, it was extremely easy to make. No chopping involved. That's definitely my favorite thing about this recipe.

If you like a thick salsa, you won't like this. This is a thin, restaurant-style salsa. I happen to like that...but not everyone does.

I have two issues with this recipe. I guess my first one is really more an issue with my appliances than an issue with the recipe. My food processor is old and the seals just aren't there. So I knew I couldn't put the salsa ingredients in without having salsa all over my kitchen counter and floor and cabinets. I tried my best blender (I have 2) but it just couldn't tackle the whole tomatoes. So I grabbed my immersion blender which actually worked very well.

My other issue is with the flavor. Although I actually put in more garlic and onion than the recipe called for, the tomato flavor is overwhelming. It needs the bite of onion, garlic and jalapeno to balance it out. I think more of those ingredients next time will help quite a bit. I also found it needed a lot of salt. Of course my husband thinks that I could live on a salt lick (which he threatens to buy for me)...but really it was too bland for anyone.

As I said I will definitely make this again and keep trying to get the blend of flavors that I like. Here's the recipe as it appears in the magazine. I will note the small changes that I made. Enjoy!

Slow Cooked Salsa

10 plum tomatoes

2 garlic cloves (I used 4)

1 small onion, cut into wedges (I used a large onion)

2 jalapeno peppers

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1/2 tsp. salt, optional (I used a couple of teaspoons at least and it still really wasn't enough)

Cut a small slit in two tomatoes (or in my case 4); insert a garlic close into each slit. Place tomatoes and onion in a slow cooker. Cut stems off jalapenos; remove seeds for a milder salsa. Place in a slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or till vegetables are softened; cool. (I didn't let it cool first. Oops!)

In a blender or food processor (or with an immersion blender), combine tomato mixture, cilantro and salt. Cover and process till smooth. Refrigerate the leftovers.

The notation in the magazine says that you can cook this on low too. Assume that 1 hour on high is equal to 2 - 2 1/2 hours on low.

My first blog

At the urging of my dear friend, Denise, I am entering the 21st Century and creating my own blog. I have to admit I've never read a blog (until I read hers today) and I truly have nothing of interest to write. Which is why this is the "life of a Plain Jane." In fact, I used to be called Plain Jane at a sandwich shop in Denver.

Many years ago, I worked in downtown Denver and frequently visited a bagel sandwich shop. I never wanted anything on my bagel but turkey and cheese. Just plain. They all eventually knew my order and always greeted me as "Plain Jane."

That's pretty much how I view my life. I like my life but it's definitely not exciting. Just the life of a normal person - nothing glamorous. Just plain.

And this posting will be plain too....I don't have any pictures on this computer. Maybe my next one will have something...we'll see!