tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310471172024-03-14T08:55:57.027-04:00winkerOn a never-ending quest to make things slightly less awful.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-30287541936026050372017-07-05T12:52:00.001-04:002017-07-05T12:52:21.833-04:00How Bad Could it Be?When I was a relatively new cook, I made Salade Niçoise for the first time. I think it took me about six hours, what with all the blanching, poaching, peeling, pitting, seeding, chopping, washing and whisking that the recipe called for. It was delicious, but I was a little stunned by how labor intensive it was. So, in the interests of science, the next week, I made the easiest possible version-- just to see how different it would be. I substituted canned tuna for poached salmon, iceberg lettuce for the mesclun mix, canned pitted black olives for the niçoise olives, and bottled dressing for homemade vinaigrette. It was easy, quick and cheap, and tasted like it too. There had to be a middle way. That canned tuna was a step too far, and homemade dressing is the best bang for the buck around.<br />
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In the years since then, I've continued my research (also known as "How bad could it be?"). There are some things that I have learned are worth the time and effort, and some things that are not.<br />
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Chicken thighs, being flavorful and fatty, can withstand all sorts of poor treatment. If you get the boneless skinless ones, they need no prep at all. Straight from the package to the crock pot with some curry paste and a can of coconut milk, they make a respectable chicken curry. Right onto the grill with no marinading or rubbing or other manhandling, they make a tasty Grilled Protein Item that can be applied however you like (salad, sandwich, pasta, taco, quesadilla).<br />
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Frozen broccoli can be dumped onto a cookie sheet and thrown right into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees, and when you find yourself thinking, "Oh crap, I forgot about the broccoli!" it will likely be perfectly done, with some slightly crispy brown edges, and ready for a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. The same is true of green beans, according to one of my trusty sisters-in-law, but I haven't yet tried that one myself.<br />
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I've tried short cuts that haven't worked out, like dumping a bag of frozen berries into a puff-pastry-lined baking dish (too thick, too cold, too heavy, sad waste of both items), but generally my cooking has gotten simpler, faster, and better over time. How bad could it be?<br />
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When I make Salade Nicoise now, I use prepared white anchovies, pitted, jarred kalamatas, frozen haricots verts (blanched and cooled) and homemade vinaigrette. It's pretty easy, fairly quick, moderately cheap, and very delicious. Win.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-60003090744567202542014-08-01T21:03:00.002-04:002014-08-01T21:03:43.454-04:00The Days These Days: Six Years OldShe still wakes up early. Our official deal is that she has to be quiet until at least 5:40. Her dad helped her write out the numbers on a slip of paper and they taped it up near her digital clock, but still, my daily alarm clock is a plaintive call, "Is it 5:40 yet?" I have no idea what time this happens, because that cry means one thing to me: roll over and go back to sleep for another hour.<br />
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But sometime around then, Cleo does get up, gets herself dressed, and makes her bed. The arrangement is that she makes her bed every day but Sunday, when she gets the day off. Many weeks, she forgets it's Sunday and makes her bed anyway. I try not to reveal how charming and amazing I find all of this. I can't remember making my bed until (maybe) college, and probably not even then. I was a slovenly child.<br />
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Once her bed is made and she's dressed (current rules: colorful, stretchy, not too tight, no jeans, no "floppy" pant-legs or sleeves, and never, ever anything corduroy), she often goes upstairs to her dad's office, where he's been working since four. He does this so that he can get some work done early, which lets him quit earlier for family time. He knows how charming and amazing I find all of this. She sometimes draws with him up there, or plays with his collection of plastic monsters. She loves being with him At Work.<br />
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At some point, they come downstairs and make breakfast. These days, it's oatmeal or rice and eggs or sometimes eggs and toast, which she swears up and down she will eat if he cooks it, and then eats only her favorite fify-five percent of: the liquid yolk, the buttery middle of the toast, a few thin scraps of white from around the edges. By the time I show up, it'll be a congealing yellow disk next to a crescent moon of nibbled crust.<br />
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Once his breakfast is eaten and hers is being picked at more and more slowly, he makes me a coffee and brings it to me in bed. I'm somewhere between partly and mostly awake, and the coffee finishes the job.<br />
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I come downstairs a bit before seven and have my ritual First Hug of the Day. Cleo is no longer the endurance snuggler she used to be, but she's still attached to regular brief check-ins, and her absolute favorite thing is the Silly Snuggle, wherein I tickle her, throw her around, and make goofy noises while she laughs hysterically. If it were up to her, we'd do that for a solid hour every morning. Poor thing gets ten minutes every couple days.<br />
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I eat my breakfast, which often involves her leavings, and then call her over for a hairdo. Her hair is getting longer (shoulder-length now, with irritatingly nose-length bangs). Her choices include the side/top braid, the side/top ponytail, two bunches, one ponytail, or just two barrettes. She generally picks whichever hair style takes the least brushing, while I encourage her toward something that will stay in for longer than forty minutes, depending on the day's activities.<br />
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These days are summer days, which this year means swim lessons. She has a balance of caution and bravery that's served her very well on the playground (cartwheels, monkey bars, rope-climbing), but when it comes to the water, her cautious side wins every time. She would happily swim all day as long as she never had to get wet above her neck, and at least one foot was always safely on solid ground. She's making glacial progress. But certainly better than nothing, and definitely better than me-- I was of the one-foot-on-the bottom school until I was at least eight.<br />
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Often, if the day is hot and one or all of us is wiped out, someone will suggest Quiet Time after lunch, which is the vestigial nap time. If it's a weekday, Cleo can have an hour with an audio book in her room, and listens fairly enthusiastically to Pippi Longstocking, Wind in the Willows, Noisy Village, Beatrix Potter, Rabbit Hill, Mrs Piggle-Wiggle or Little House in the Big Woods while she draws or colors. Her vocabulary has really blossomed, thanks to this. Some recent requests for definitions: searchingly, wild-eyed, philodendron, and heedless (I admit it: I am a big nerd and I love this). On the weekend, she can have a (cue dramatic music) Video Quiet Time! This means an hour of Daniel Tiger, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, or Peppa Pig on the iPad. Not so vocabulary-enriching, but so fun! What a treat!<br />
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Cleo recently came home from a play date with the news that, "Sophia is allowed to watch videos Whenever. She. Wants!" A visit to another friend's house resulted in the update, "There were advertisements between all the videos!" Also known as commercial television. I guess she'd never seen it. She can work a touch-screen like a boss, however.<br />
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The evening routine is well-established and calm these days, which is a lovely thing to be able to say. We eat dinner at 5:30, and start upstairs at 6:30 for tooth-brushing and a story. Her dad does the brushing and I do the reading. This summer, we've finished two big chapter books that I loved as a little girl-- A Little Princess and A Secret Garden. I love watching her desperate and passionate involvement in the stories, and it's pretty easy for her to talk me into "just a little extra reading tonight!" This sometimes calls for careful handling if I know a particularly traumatic or thrilling event is coming up. We did a lot of extra day-time reading when Sarah Crewe's father died. By bedtime, we had throughly discussed all the ramifications and possibilities and we were safely into reading about charming sparrows and their enjoyment of crumbs.<br />
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Our current book is Mary Poppins. I love introducing her to books I loved as a kid, but I realize these stories skew very Privileged British. I may have to do a little broadening research.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-13177988399778942132014-07-31T22:10:00.000-04:002014-07-31T22:14:48.078-04:00Pickled Vegetable ManifestoIn my twenties, I learned a lot about cooking, and I gradually acquired a good collection of kitchen tools. I tried things, I bought stuff, and I read a lot about the hows and whys and whats of cooking, which means I spent a lot of time learning about other people's priorities in the kitchen. I bought (and almost never used) a mandoline, a food mill, a mortar and pestle, some excellent cake pans and a garlic press. I also bought (and still adore) an immersion blender, a sturdy whisk and a couple of great knives.<br />
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In my thirties, I've spent more time learning about my own priorities in the kitchen. Am I the kind of cook that needs the tools to bake every possible dessert? I am not. My realistic annual baking output is fifteen batches of muffins, twelve dozen cookies, three pies, and something less than one whole cake. I clearly do not need to own any cake-specific tools. I like to be able to make <i>a</i> nice dessert. I do not need to be able to make <i>all</i> the nice desserts. I only make piecrust a few times a year, I kind of like to hand-slice cabbage for coleslaw, and my immersion blender makes excellent pesto. And so I have happily given away my poor, unappreciated food processor and I'm about to de-aquisition my mandoline. The waffle iron has gone back to the thrift store from whence it came, and if I ever change my mind, I know where to go to get another one.<br />
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I must admit, however, that this has not been a completely efficient process. I got rid of my sushi-rolling mat about a month before I realized that homemade sushi has quite a lot going for it (tasty, cheap, flexible, exciting, healthy). But three dollars for a new sushi mat seemed like a reasonable price to pay for cleared-out cabinets and a spring in my step.<br />
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I want the tools I do keep to be both useful and also actually used. One of my favorite recent additions is a handsome set of nesting enamel baking dishes. I have roasted chicken, baked casseroles, served grilled fish, made brownies, and tossed salads in them. They're pretty, sturdy and easy to wash and store. I have three favorite pans that do almost everything I need to do on the stovetop (and two junior auxiliary pans that I keep around for very particular reasons: frying dumplings, and cooking a single scrambled egg).<br />
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I've been applying this cold-eyed realism to cooking, too. Which sounds like a terrible idea, I know, but bear with me. I'm just after the best ratio between kitchen-hours spent and tasty meals produced.<br />
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So, when I cook, I try to make not only the meal at hand, but also a few incidental meal starters, accompaniments, or add-ins that I will be delighted to find the next time I open the fridge at 4:30 in an inquisitive and hopeful way.<br />
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In that spirit, here are some flexible pickled vegetables that are culturally non-specific, so you can make a big batch and eat them with scandinavian-style sandwiches, alongside Indian curry, tossed into a salad, layered in a sandwich, or tucked into a burrito. So efficient (also, good).<br />
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Universal Pickled Vegetables<br />
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6 tablespoons white vinegar (as culturally neutral as you can get)<br />
3 tablespoons water (okay, maybe water is even more neutral)<br />
1 teaspoon sea salt (a fairly global commodity)<br />
2 tablespoons sugar (ditto)<br />
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1 large cucumber, thinly sliced (peeled and seeded only if skin and seeds are tough)<br />
1 sweet white onion, thinly sliced<br />
1 carrot, julienned or grated (I use <a href="http://www.chefsresource.com/peeler-trio-set-messermeister.html" target="_blank">this julienne carrot peeler</a> all the time)<br />
1 lemon, both zest and juice (or more-- the lemon is so good)<br />
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Mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Toss the cucumber, onion, carrot, lemon zest, and lemon juice into the bowl as you prep them. Mix well and refrigerate for at least six hours.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-42895764076062734602014-07-13T22:42:00.000-04:002014-07-13T22:42:52.308-04:00Set Phasers to Maximum Geek (or Advanced Freezer Management)<div>
Last night, scraping the bottom of the fridge for dinner, I came up with a winner: Pea Frittata with Mint and Feta, with toast. I won't report the whole recipe here because it's fairly self-explanatory, but it got me thinking about Freezer Management and how helpful a well-stocked freezer can be. I tend to go in phases with my freezer inventory, and I'm forever forgetting and then re-discovering clever freezer strategies, so I figure it's high time to write some things down for myself (and you! everything is for you, dear reader).</div>
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There are a lot of time-saving freezer tips out there, most of which involve freezing completed (or almost-completed) dishes. The most extreme of these is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once-a-month_cooking">Once a Month Cooking</a>, or OAMC to its hard-core fans. These dedicated individuals cook twenty or thirty dinners in a day or two, load up the freezer, and then only have to thaw and cook for the rest of the month. This works well for some people, but it sounds kind of dreary to me, not to mention the freezer space it must require. My freezer philosophy borrows from the good old <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/124h2c22y-1bh/wolfram-blog-minimum-inventory-maximum-diversity">Minimum Inventory, Maximum Diversity</a>, which I learned about in design school. The theory is that a few well-designed parts can be combined in multiple ways, resulting in many different products. So, ideally, anything that's given a spot in my freezer's Permanent Collection should have the potential to be a part of lots of different meals. I can cook according to whim, season, weather and pantry. The other main theory behind my freezer inventory is The Sale. If there's a good deal on some kind of meat, I stock up in a big way, and eventually end up with a diverse collection of meal-starters. Here are the ingredients and methods that have served me the best over the years:<br />
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Plastic tubs</div>
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I generally avoid plastics and food these days, but the freezer is one place where the utility of plastic outweighs my fear of it. Tapered plastic tubs (like you get yogurt or sour cream or takeout soup in) are great, mainly because of their shape. The truncated cone is made for the freezer. Being larger at the opening and smaller at the base, it can release frozen food without a lot of tedious thawing. Just run the tub under warm water to loosen things up, then squeeze out the block of whatever-it-is and proceed. This makes frozen food nearly as useful as fresh food for last-minute cooking. The only other thing you need is good labels: tape and a sharpie works for me.</div>
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Cookie sheet and waxed paper</div>
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Freezing things separately and then, once they're frozen, putting them all together in a plastic freezer bag makes them easier to use than freezing stuff in one huge lump that has to be thawed all at once. The cookie sheet is self-explanatory, and the waxed paper (a double layer) keeps the stuff from freezing to the sheet. This works well for gobs of cookie dough, fresh sausages, berries, single-serving lumps of pureed vegetables, and other things that will be used in small amounts or specific units.</div>
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Chicken Bombs</div>
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Chopped, cooked chicken packed tightly into plastic tubs, with chicken broth poured over to keep out the freezer burn. A chicken bomb can be turned into soup or curry or chicken pot pie or tacos or quesadillas or chicken salad or any other dish you can think of that uses cooked chicken. And you're clever, so you can think of a lot.</div>
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Homemade Chicken Broth</div>
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The trick here is to cook the broth down to quadruple strength (or even more). Let it cool and solidify in the fridge in one of those handy tubs, then pop out the chicken jello (mmm!). Since it's homemade and super-condensed, it'll be very firm. Cut it into hunks and freeze the hunks on a (waxed-papered) cookie sheet, and then into a freezer bag. This saves a lot of freezer space, and means you can use it either diluted for soup or a little, full-strength, for a sauce. Or, if you have more freezer room than time, freeze the broth regular strength in a plastic tub.</div>
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Curry (or Stew)</div>
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Most of the time and effort of curry and stew is in the browning of the meat and onions and the long simmering. The vegetables are quicker and easier to cook, and I'm likely to have some things on hand that can go into a curry at the last minute (including frozen vegetables). So I've started making a big batch of meat-and-onions-only curry, enough for four or five dinners. This saves space in the freezer, and I can prep vegetables (and/or clean out the fridge) while the chunk of frozen curry heats up on the stove. Just remember to divide and freeze it in one-family-dinner-sized portions.</div>
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Sausages</div>
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Individually frozen on a cookie sheet, then bagged. I generally make soup with sausages, but they're flexible too. The trick is in the individual freezing, and the fact that sausages are pre-seasoned, pre-cleaned, pre-portioned meat.</div>
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Really Good Bread</div>
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Our local bakery sells large chewy, rustic rolls that are just the right size for two people. I freeze five or six at a time, and use them one by one. It does help to thaw them for a couple hours first, and then here's the trick: preheat the oven to 400, run the bread under water briefly (just to wet the outside) and then bake for 10 minutes. The crust will be restored to its just-baked glory, and you'll have what seems like freshly baked excellent bread for dinner.</div>
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The Good Frozen Vegetables<br />
There are some truly terrible frozen vegetables that will make you feel as though meal-replacement drinks are a good idea. But persevere! At least in our area, there's one particular brand of broccoli that is really excellent, a different brand of green beans, almost any brand of corn, and ditto peas. Frozen kale and collards are a huge time-saver over fresh, and perfectly delicious in the right preparation (well-cooked, well-chopped). I've never had good frozen peppers, onions, or asparagus, and despite seeing frozen artichoke hearts in several recipes, I've never seen them in a store. Good frozen vegetables are a life-saver. They're just as nutritious as fresh (sometimes more so), often cheaper, and keep for months rather than days, so they're much less likely to turn into expensive sludge in the bottom of the fridge.</div>
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Popsicles<br />
In the warmer months, any leftover fruit, odd ends of juices, the last inch of ice cream, leftover whipped cream, and any browning bananas often get blended together and frozen (along with a couple big spoonfuls of yogurt) in popsicle molds. The only caveats are: don't mix your purple fruits and your orange fruits (no one likes a brown fruit popsicle), and chocolate syrup doesn't freeze unless it's mixed in.<br />
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Summer Freezer/Winter Freezer<br />
Turnover is an important part of freezer management, and I use the change of seasons to help me remember. My summer freezer is for popsicles, quick-cooking vegetables, ice packs for picnics, and the pinnacle of delicious and practical food-gineering: the ice cream sandwich (no bowls! no spoons! single serving!). My winter freezer is for broth, soups, stews and chili. As the weather turns, I try to plan some meals to use up the freezer stash and make room for some fresh stuff. Freezer-as-time-machine only works for so long, before freezer burn catches up with you.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-85919865189328657962013-02-23T18:42:00.000-05:002013-02-23T18:54:43.894-05:00Salmon Curry with VegetablesThis gets full marks in all the important categories: tasty, quick, frugal, healthy, and sustainable. The only hurdle, for people unfamiliar with canned salmon, is the horrific sight that confronts you when you open the can. There is slimy skin, there is mysterious orange oil floating on top of a grey liquid that smells of cheap cat food, and there are bones that look like they'd be more comfortable in a natural history museum. But persevere! Canned salmon is generally (always?) wild caught from sustainable fisheries, it's full of healthy fats, and those creepy bones are soft enough to eat. Just crush them between your fingers and throw them into the mix. They're a great source of calcium. The omega-3-full orange oil should get used too, so don't pour off the liquid. It mixes right into the curry sauce.<br />
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Salmon Curry with Vegetables<br />
serves three or four<br />
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4 cloves garlic, minced<br />
1 tablespoon minced ginger<br />
1 tablespoon oil<br />
2 tsp curry powder<br />
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1 15-oz can coconut milk<br />
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1 tablespoon fish sauce (or more to taste)<br />
1 tablespoon lime juice (or more to taste)<br />
2 tsp sugar<br />
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1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped (2 or 3 cups)<br />
one red pepper, chopped<br />
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one bunch of scallions, chopped<br />
1 7-oz can red salmon (skin chopped up, bones squished into bonemush, flesh gently flaked)<br />
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Heat your largest frying pan. Fry the garlic and ginger in the oil. Once it's soft and fragrant, add the curry powder and let it toast in the oil for a few minutes, until it's a little darker. Stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar.<br />
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Let it reduce a little bit while you prep the vegetables. Once you're practically ready to eat, heat the sauce to a wild boil, and toss in the asparagus. Once it's heated through, toss in the red pepper. Once that's hot, stir in the salmon and scallions. Serve with rice.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-75126060461540235502013-02-23T13:52:00.004-05:002013-02-23T13:52:39.874-05:00Going Out For Lunch! Or, Fish CakesStep One: Give up eating meat for Lent (fish is okay).<br />
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Step Two: Find yourself (with spouse and child) downtown at lunchtime, chilly and peckish.<br />
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Step Three: Try to find a place that is open, has some food that includes a pescatarian option, and is willing and able to cook and sell this food.<br />
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Step Four: Give up on Step Three. For extra credit, avoid familial squabbles!<br />
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Step Five: Take the bus home and make fish cakes for lunch.<br />
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Easy Fish Cakes<br />
1/2 lb mild white fish, cooked and flaked<br />
1/3 cup panko<br />
2 teaspoons fish sauce<br />
1 egg<br />
1/4 tsp garlic powder<br />
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Combine, form into small cakes, and fry in a little oil until golden brown. Eat with leftover sauteed greens, avocado slices, and peanut sauce. Vow to never again eat restaurant food.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-79592213008806991032013-02-01T14:47:00.003-05:002013-02-01T14:49:59.377-05:00Noisy Village DumplingsCleo likes to listen to audio books when she's sick. Well, she likes to listen to one audio book: Astrid Lindgren's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Children-Noisy-Village-Astrid-Lindgren/dp/014032609X">The Children of Noisy Village</a>. After listening to the whole two-hour book as many times as she's had a cold this winter (so, so many times), I suggested a few other options.<br />
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No. Noisy Village or nothing. So, by now, I could probably recite the whole thing from memory. Let's see... "My name is Lisa, and I am nine years old. I am a girl, which you can tell by my name." I could go on. I will not. It's a sweet story, about six Swedish children growing up in the countryside and their antics and accomplishments.<br />
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In one chapter, there's a dramatic snow storm, through which the children must walk home from school. They struggle through the snow, get rescued in a horse-drawn sleigh, and go home for hot beef broth and dumplings. This inspired Cleo's first book-induced food craving. She requested it for dinner, with great enthusiasm and shining eyes, and (with the help of the internet, the freezer and the pantry) we were eating it a couple hours later.<br />
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I guess Swedish dumplings are usually potato-based, but I was limited to flour-and-egg dumplings, so I tracked down and adapted this recipe. I doubt there's anything Swedish about it, but it was delicious, frugal, easy, and a great parent-child kitchen project (especially if you use a plastic pizza wheel to cut the dough). They're like thick, chewy, tender noodles. I have no idea how they are the next day, since we inhaled them.<br />
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Flat Dumplings for Soup<br />
serves two or three<br />
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1.25 cups white whole wheat flour, plus extra for rolling out<br />
1/2 tsp salt<br />
2 eggs<br />
4 tablespoons oil<br />
3 tablespoons water<br />
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In a big bowl, beat together eggs, oil, water, and salt. Add the flour and mix to make a sticky dough. Chill one hour (next time, I'm skipping this step, just in the interests of research). Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Meanwhile, sprinkle a large cutting board with flour. Dust the dough with flour, and divide it in two. Using half the dough at a time, gently spread/stretch/roll the dough out on the cutting board to about 1/8" thick. Cut the dough into little pieces-- ours were about 1/4" by an inch or two. Variations in size seemingly had no effect on quality, so put down your ruler and go nuts with the pizza wheel. Gently slide the dumplings off the board and into the boiling water, and cover. Boil 8-10 minutes, then scoop out the finished dumplings. Repeat with the other half of the dough. I held the finished dumplings in ice water until the soup was ready for them, and that worked well. Next time, I might skip that step (again, research/laziness).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-63532210061737056142013-01-28T22:50:00.002-05:002013-01-28T22:50:25.835-05:00The Days These Days: Four and a HalfAnother year, another blog post. How do I maintain this punishing schedule of constant updates? Yes. Well. Hello, there.<br />
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I realized the other day, after wondering to myself what had happened to my blog, that parenting used to be physically grueling. It's manual labor, caring for infants and toddlers, and so much of what you do is repetitive, exhausting, unrelenting, and tedious. There's profound sweetness and love in there too, of course, but it doesn't require that much of the talky/write-y parts of the brain. It's about half sheer physical work and half heady, all-consuming love. While I was doing that kind of parenting, my verbal brain was looking for an outlet. My dear stalwart husband got all the paranoid hypothetical questions about child development (or lack thereof), my cadre of mom-friends got all the commiserating about input and output (ahem), but I had all these sentences and paragraphs growing up in my brain that had nowhere else to go. When I sat down to write in those days, it was like turning on a tap. The water pressure was there, waiting. Or maybe it was more like weeding a garden. It was ready to be picked, to be yanked out and bagged up, to be said and spelled and written.<br />
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Parenting a four year old, though, exercises every bit of my verbal brain. Life is conversation, conjecture, evaluation, and an endless series of what-ifs. At the end of the day, when everyone but me is sleeping, what I most want is to Not Talk. To finally stop expressing myself. To absorb a little frivolous information from the internet, to read a tiny little bit of some neglected novel, to drink a whole cup of tea while it's still hot, and then to go to sleep. This is not a recipe for frequent blog updates.<br />
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So, in the interests of better-late-than-never, or maybe better-done-than-perfect, here's where we are these days.<br />
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4:00 The Dada of the House gets up and goes upstairs to his office. He does this so that he can get some work done at an hour when no one will call him, no one will have a dentist appointment, no client will have a crisis, and no one will need any forts built out of the couch cushions. He likes it, he says, and it works out really well. The hardest part, apparently, is going to bed early enough. The second hardest part is getting up at four AM. Other than that, it's great. I sleep through all this quite soundly.<br />
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5:15 Cleo wakes up. She has been instructed to snuggle with her guys (large rabbit, small rabbit, clown, giraffe, fox, turtle), close her eyes, and try to get back to sleep. This usually works.<br />
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5:45 Cleo wakes up again and plays quietly until it's officially morning at 6:30. Today it was explained to her that "playing quietly" (already established: not knocking down block towers or jumping off the bed) should not include a jaunty version of London Bridge is Falling Down over and over for forty minutes. The gleeful phrase "take the key and lock 'im up" is now seared into my subconscious. That will be what they find me humming in my wheelchair in the nursing home.<br />
<br />
6:30 Cleo and Dada head downstairs for breakfast-- it's usually rice and eggs, oatmeal, or homemade granola these days. After a few rounds of domestic diplomacy, it was determined that he would handle breakfast, pack a school lunch when necessary, and generally do all AM feeding and cleaning while I would sleep in and stumble out of bed in time to heave myself and Cleo into the car for the trip to preschool. In exchange for this, I do both drop-off and pick-up every school day. We arrived at this arrangement after we realized that my idea of hell was packing school lunches twice a week and his idea of hell was driving to school and back, ever. A sweet deal for everyone, I think. But these things are always up for negotiation. Next year, School Bus. Gasp.<br />
<br />
7:40 I get out of bed, dress with at least one eye open, and then we head to the car. Cleo runs laps around the car while I unlock my door, poke the main unlock button, close my door, and open her door. Between my slowness and her fleetness of foot, she generally manages three or four laps. She's been up for two hours. I've been up for two minutes. During the drive, we discuss traffic laws, whether or not anyone around us is speeding, which intersections are tricky intersections, the weather forecast, the chances they will play outside at school, whether today is Library, Music or Gym, and the state of the sky as we drive over the bridge. We often agree that it is beautiful.<br />
<br />
8:00 We arrive at preschool along with everyone else, a small, dusty hatchback in a herd of glossy, muscular SUVs. I forfeit the game of slow-motion parking lot rugby, and park on the street. We walk in, and it melts my mother heart that Cleo still chooses to hold my hand and walk with me, rather than running ahead. She stows her gear (snow pants, boots, library book, lunch, sweater) and gallops off to play. Her world this year is more gendered than she's been used to, with The Girls and The Boys really dividing themselves into little gangs. We hear a few tiny little bits about how she's navigating this. "Cleo's the only girl who will play Star Wars!" and "Cleo's the funniest person I know!" and "I hate girls. Except Cleo." All quotes from boys in her class, reported by their parents. She's also starting to get more interested in clothes and "beautiful" things (where beautiful=pink or purple or embellished with flowers), but it's clear that she's investigating that almost anthropologically. If left to her own devices, she will pick very colorful clothes and toys, with no thought to matching or conventional girliness. When she's tuning in to other people and social environments, she will request or admire pink/purple/sparkly things. It's hard to know how to support both her individuality and her very human desire to fit in with what she sees around her. My main strategy is to not take her shopping with me if possible, so that I can buy colorful, fun clothes for her that don't strictly adhere to the conventional feminine aesthetic, and she can weigh in on what she wants to wear from those choices. And the less "Daddy's Little Princess" clothing she sees, the better. Oof. It's only eight AM, and we're already into gender roles and aesthetics.<br />
<br />
Better done than perfect did I say? I'm going to wrap this up so it doesn't linger in "Drafts" for six months.<br />
<br />
1:00 School Pick Up, come home, see Dada, snack.<br />
<br />
2:00 Snack, a little playing, naptime. Yes! She is still napping. At an age when almost all of her age-mates have stopped napping, she still totally zonks out for a solid hour or two in the middle of the day. Occasionally I gripe about how this cramps our style socially, but Cleo's beloved babysitter, who has her finger on the pulse of four year olds across the city, advised that we keep it up as long as possible. Her tales of afternoon woe and malfeasance among the napless were sobering. So, yes, Cleo still naps. We will wean her off of it right before kindergarten next fall, if necessary.<br />
<br />
5:00 I get home, Cleo's dear Dada goes back to his office to complete his fourteen hour workday (with "breaks" for meals and childcare). Man, I'm impressed with that guy. He always responds to my statements to that effect by saying that he's only trying to be the man I deserve. He's overshooting the mark by quite a bit, I think. Cleo and I have an hour and a half to make dinner, play, read books, and possibly enter into video negotiations. Two smiley faces on the chart equals two 12-minute episodes of Busytown Mysteries. The latest development: cleaning up the whole living room (toy central) completely independently without being asked earns an unprecedented three smiley faces.<br />
<br />
6:30 Dinner. Cleo remains a good eater, especially if I've been a hardass and not let her snack on demand in the hour before we sit down. For support, I channel my dear grandmother, who would sweetly tell her four daughters that of course they could have a snack before dinner-- there are some lovely celery and carrot sticks all ready in the fridge. In Cleo's case, I give her a choice of apple slices or carrot sticks, which is usually met with a grumpy, "I changed my mind. I don't want a snack" and a little stomping, before she forgets why she was grumpy and goes back to skipping.<br />
<br />
7:30 Bedtime routine: Dada brushes teeth, then I step in for pajamas, story, song, and negotiations. These usually end by 8:15 at the latest, and she chats and sings to herself for a little while before nodding off. She's been in a twin bed for a while now, and is all done with night time diapers, accidents, falling out of bed, and pacifiers (cold turkey, with notice, on her fourth birthday). The only thing that gets us up at night anymore is the very occasional bloody nose or throw up, and that could happen to anyone. It seemed to take forever while we were living through it, but now it feels like middle-of-the-night parenting was just another phase we got through.<br />
<br />
10:50 (right now) Holy moley. It is late. Good night.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-22046724320496207292012-04-05T15:32:00.001-04:002012-04-05T15:34:06.166-04:00SpringtimeI have to confess: I've been giddily over-shopping for Cleo's Easter basket. There are multiple bunnies, many grams of high-fructose corn syrup, and shreds of blue excelsior that are destined to live forever in the fibers of our dining room rug. There are also two new dresses, and even a matching dress for Baby Cousin who we're not seeing until May. Even after a mild winter, there's something that happens in my brain when spring comes and Easter gets close: "Eeeeeee! Little girls in white tights! Colored eggs! Those insanely cute mini daffodils!"<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>I need to do a little deep breathing. And then I need to put away all the groceries in the world, that are currently waiting for me on the kitchen floor (lamb! asparagus! dozens of eggs! heavy cream!). Happy Spring, everyone.<br />
<div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-20950830476193127612011-11-01T15:44:00.001-04:002011-11-01T15:44:50.472-04:00Happy HalloweenCleo went as a lamb. I was mutton dressed as lamb. Okay, a mama sheep. Very close.<br />
<br />
This afternoon, as I was singing her to sleep for her nap, we had this exchange:<br />
<br />
Cleo: "Next Howlaween, I want to dress up as Dark Vader, okay?"<br />
Me: "Um, sure, sweetie. That's fine" (pause) "Do you know someone who dressed up as Darth Vader this year?"<br />
Cleo, breathily, impressed: "Ian!"<br />
<br />
So, there you go. Innocent lamb one minute, wooed by the dark side (boys!) the next. Babyhood is quite definitely over.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-22582606515130973642011-02-04T21:51:00.000-05:002011-02-04T21:51:29.682-05:00This One's For You, Sprout<a href="http://muslimhippie.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One of my dear sisters-in-law</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> has just managed to leave her beloved Egypt (with her husband, mother and two small children). Her fortitude, resourcefulness, and bravery are remarkable, and her fellow Egyptians who are fighting for their freedom are just as impressive. If you live in the US, please take a moment to urge the White House to keep up the pressure on Mubarak to step down immediately. Here are phone numbers:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Comments: 202-456-1111<br />
Switchboard: 202-456-1414<br />
FAX: 202-456-2461</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.dropstonefarms.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Another of my dear sisters-in-law</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> is outdoing even </span><a href="http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Great Kingsolver</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> in finding ways to eat locally, sustainably, and deliciously. They're making their own cured meat! From their own lovingly-raised animals! And what are you doing this week?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And my </span><a href="http://chouchouminou.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">third dear sister-in-law</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> is not only getting her PhD in General Awesomeness and Smartitude (or something like that), she's making a brand new human being. Inside her very own body! From scratch! It's mind-blowing. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Which brings me to my two points today. One: I am related to amazing women. Two: I have a lot of opinions about baby gear. My pregnant sister-in-law just asked for some advice in the gear and stuff department, and I figured a blog response, with its linkable links and searchable terms, might be the most convenient way to reply. So, for you, dear mother-to-be of my niece or nephew Sprout, are my best gear tips:</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><a href="http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ergo Baby Carrier</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. We started using this as soon as Cleo could hold her head up, and she's still comfy in it at age two and a half. It's flexible, adjustable, comfortable, and sturdy. However, for the first few months, we only used...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The </span><a href="http://www.mobywrap.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Moby Wrap</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. I LOVED the Moby wrap. For the whole first year, I could wrap Cleo up snugly next to me-- we used three or four different positions as she got bigger and stronger and heavier. When she was small and slept a lot, I could actually work with her in there! I adored it, and so did Cleo. But not all kids like being that confined. I wouldn't buy it until after the baby's born, so you can tell if Sprout is a "wrap-me-upper" or a "don't-fence-me-inner"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.diapers.com/product/productdetail.aspx?productid=18480"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Aden and Anais swaddling blankets</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. Cleo loved being swaddled, and it calmed her right down. These blankets are thin, soft, and very big. We loved them and used them constantly. I feel like I could still swaddle a newborn in my sleep. And will do so if asked!</span><br />
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</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.diapers.com/product/productdetail.aspx?productid=70269"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Nosefrida</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><a href="http://www.drugstore.com/qxp11605/little_noses/saline_spraydrops_non_medicated.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">saline spray</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. Cleo doesn't exactly liked being squirted up the nose and then hoovered out, but it sure helps with stuffiness. Way better than the bulb syringes.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/BABYBJ%C3%96RN-BabySitter-Balance-Air-White/dp/B001HX4D4I"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Baby Bjorn bouncer</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. She slept in this at night for the first few months, when she wasn't in our bed or her cradle. I have a clear memory of hanging one arm off the side of the bed, so I could bounce her as I "slept." We liked this one, but there are lots of baby bouncers and there's no need to spend this much. The major benefit of this one is it's foldability and non-cutesy style. I also hear raves about battery-powered baby swings, but we never got one.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A travel bed/bassinet/moses basket. </span><a href="http://www.albeebaby.com/orbit-baby-bassinet-cradle-in-black-slate.html?utm_source=Google_Products&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=GoogleProducts"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This one</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> is fantastic-- lightweight, folds down to travel, can have rocker-legs or sit flat on the floor, has a sunshade, and the handle folds down. Ours was a gift from the grandparents that Sprout and Cleo have in common, and is yours if you want it!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/BABYBJ%C3%96RN-Travel-Crib-Light-Blue/dp/B000XDYLEK"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Baby Bjorn travel bed</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. When Sprout's a little bigger, this is the travel bed to get. It's like a pack-and-play except lighter, simpler, more compact, less dumb and more good in every way. And we have used both. There's one you can test drive at the grandparents' house. </span><br />
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</span> <br />
<a href="http://winkerwanker.blogspot.com/2008/04/month-six-more-bonus-material.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The great stroller issue</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">... We started out with a </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Trend-Single-Snap-Stroller/dp/B000BMKEVC"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">snap-n-go</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, which is a frame that you just plop the infant car seat into. It worked great, and was way cheaper than the infant carrier conversion kit that </span><a href="http://www.diapers.com/product/productdetail.aspx?productid=14672&site=CI&cm_mmc=cse-_-googlebase-_-strollers-_-VH-031&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=VH-031"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">our fancy stroller</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> was made for. Speaking of the fancy stroller, I love it. It has gotten a beating over the last two and a half years, and I'm only now starting to wish we'd treated it nicer (we tend to leave it out on the porch, and the sliding mechanism is getting a little sticky). The only drawbacks are that there's not much cargo space, and it's so not a one-handed fold/unfold. But I love that it stands alone while folded, and its maneuverability and ability to handle rough terrain are awesome. It's also compact and lightweight for how big and sturdy it is.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://Diapers.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Diapers.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. If you use disposable diapers, this is a great way to get them. Free quick shipping and good prices. Or look into the </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/subscribe-and-save/details/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Amazon Subscribe and Save</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> program, where the diapers are slightly cheaper, and you sign up for regular deliveries.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/TKO-Anti-Burst-Fitness-Ball/dp/B000FH2W54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296846443&sr=8-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">exercise/yoga/pilates ball</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. This saved our lives. We loved it so much, we traveled with one. If Cleo was overtired, it never failed for us hold her tight, bounce really hard, sing really loud, and just outlast her. It also makes a good footstool to use with...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stork-Craft-Glider-Ottoman-Natural/dp/B000EGEX2G"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">glider</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. They are big, ugly, and expensive. But if you ever end up holding Sprout during naps, it will make you cry tears of gratitude if you can put your feet up, lay your head back, and snooze a little too. We used our (hideous, hand-me-down, four-babies-and-counting) glider with strategically placed small pillows to make everyone really comfortable and secure. Most gliders can either rock or be locked in position. That was a nice feature, since you could lock it in a semi-reclined position, for maximum parental comfort. And yes, I'm sure someone at the AAP is getting hives since I talked about nodding off in a chair while holding a child. It worked for us. I do not guarantee that it's a sensible idea for anyone else.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.diapers.com/product/productdetail.aspx?productid=8156"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sleep sacks</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and a </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Soleus-Air-HM2-15R-32-Micathermic-Heater/dp/B000HVY2QA/ref=sr_1_42?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1296872665&sr=1-42"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">space heater</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. We keep our house cold at night, but we want the good old baby to be warm. What to do? She's not exactly a pro at keeping a blanket on, so once she graduated from swaddling (six months? eight?), we moved on to the sleep sack. She did recently discover how to unzip it, and also how to unsnap all four thousand snaps on her pajamas. The adorable/pathetic result of this is that when we checked on her before going to bed ourselves, we found her huddled in the corner of her crib, sound asleep, naked except for her diaper. Poor kid. I picked her up, re-pajama-ed her, and put her back down. She barely woke up. The next night, we told her that we had a special new way to put on her sleepy suit! Backwards! How funny! Works great.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">An infant nail clipper is not necessary. You can just bite 'em off until you're comfortable using grownup clippers, and you can be much more precise and gentle with your teeth than with a fiddly little tool.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If Sprout uses a pacifier, you might want a night time p</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wubbanub-Plush-Pacifier-Mango-Monkey/dp/B0031W38YO"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">acifier retention device</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. We made our own by securely sewing </span><a href="http://www.drugstore.com:80/qxp82290/playtex/pacifier_binky_comfort_flex_soft_shield_0_24_months.htm?fromsrch=playtex+pacifier"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">one of these pacifiers</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> to the hand of </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cozies-Ivory-North-American-Bear/dp/B001B8DQ42"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">one of these bunnies</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><br />
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</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Nile-Organic-Cotton-Wipes/dp/B001O2AJKE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Cotton flannel wipes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. When I thought we were going to do cloth diapers, we got a supply of these. We ending up going with disposable diapers, but those wipes have been great for spit ups, highchair wipe downs, hand wipes, face wipes, nose blows, etc. They're sturdy, soft, washable, and plentiful. We probably put a dozen in every load of hot white laundry we do. So 12 or 18 wipes should do it, if you want to always be able to grab one.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <br />
<a href="http://www.seekairun.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=SMLR&keywords=View%20All"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">See Kai Run shoes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. These are expensive, but awesome. Cheap kids shoes are a terrible thing: stiff, slippery, crappy, pinchy, bad (one exception: we found some comfy Ugg-style winter boots at Target). Scrimp on the baby clothes, where there are lots of great ways and places to save. But go for the good stuff with shoes. My advice is to let the grandparents and aunts and uncles know that shoes are an excellent gift and here's the size we need right now. </span><a href="http://www.seekairun.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=MONICA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">These shoes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> were Cleo's first. Sigh.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GQ2P78/ref=asc_df_B001GQ2P781417942?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B001GQ2P78"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">white noise machine</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. We only started using this later, maybe around a year or eighteen months, but it really helped Cleo keep sleeping once she was asleep.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Childrens-Alarm-Clock-Nightlight/dp/B002RNKOM2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Green Light</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">! Again, a bigger-kid item, but it has saved us from the horror of waking up every morning at 4:15. You set the clock so it lights up at the appointed wake-up time, and explain the the little dear that morning does not begin until that light comes on. Before that, it's time for sleeping.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playtex-Gripper-Spout-Pack-Colors/dp/B001ULCJFM/ref=sr_1_21?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1296844468&sr=1-21"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sippy cups</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. These are for older kids, obviously, but learn from us: pick one kind of inexpensive and widely available cup, and stick to that. Otherwise, you'll have an avalanche of mismatched plastic and silicon parts threatening to engulf your kitchen and you can never find the right damn part when you need it. Most are BPA-free now, and if you don't put them in the dishwasher and you replace them when they start to look worn, I think the health risks of plastic are pretty well minimized. We like the kind linked above since they don't leak, and they only have three parts, unlike </span></span><a href="http://www.greenfeet.com/itemdesc.asp?kw=Born-Free-BPA-Free-Sippy-Cup&ic=9201-01030-0000&utm_source=google-base&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Born-Free-BPA-Free-S&utm_content=9201-01030-0000&gdftrk=gdfV22398_a_7c1438_a_7c6036_a_7c9201_d_01030_d_0000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">some</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> that have up to seven parts per cup. </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-38152293151885021212010-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:002010-12-30T15:07:16.107-05:00Christmas Wrap-Up, Brought to You by Christmas Smack-Down<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Christmas Smack-Down is called walking pneumonia (or, as they like to call it these days, "atypical pneumonia" which, as my dad helpfully pointed out, is only appropriate). The good news is that I feel pretty well, as long as I don't do anything helpful or productive. Stairs, more than a few minutes of brisk walking, and a little feeble snow-sweeping have all sent me to my bed in the last few days.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The even better news is that I get enough down time to write a blog post! Oh boy! And so I'm going to commit to the immortal brain that is the internet all the things I want to remember for next year's holidays. So, Christmas Wrap-Up:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1) Singing and candlelight are a magical combination. We lit the advent wreath every Sunday evening, and sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The lyrics can be found </span><a href="http://www.carols.org.uk/o_come_come_emmanuel.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. This lovely practice has led to a certain two-year-old wandering around, mutter-singing "an' ranson cappive I-i-isra-rew" in a husky alto. Here's a sweet, if not strictly traditional, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UGaDcQcFKk"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rendition by Sufjan Stevens</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (who is blessed among singer-songwriters for producing Christmas music that everyone in our house likes to listen to).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2) I have discovered </span><a href="http://66.147.242.155/~smellsl2/2010/09/cassoulet-style-italian-sausages-and-white-beans/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Easiest Recipe in the World</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (That Can Still Be Served to Guests). It's a delicious roasted sausage/bean/tomato concoction, and it's even easier if you use canned tomatoes, frozen chopped onions and dried garlic bits (heretical? I don't care. A good dinner in four minutes worth of work trumps that kind of heresy). The next day, if you have leftovers, chop up the sausage and dump everything in a pot with a bag of frozen chopped kale and some chicken broth, and you get a super hearty and tasty soup.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3) Silver glitter-glue on brown paper makes elegant giftwrap. It takes a while to dry, so make big sheets of it right before you go to bed so you can monopolize the whole dinner table and maybe some of the kitchen counters. Just draw swirly lines and patterns with the glue bottle, and it'll leave a lovely raised glittery line.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4) Salt dough is a great kid activity, and if you're all crafty and fairly anal, you can make some surprisingly refined ornaments to keep or give away. Here are a couple </span><a href="http://evencleveland.blogspot.com/2010/12/working-on-stamped-salt-dough-ornaments.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">beautiful</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.katyelliott.com/blog/2009/11/diy-salt-dough-ornaments.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">examples</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of what's possible. For the little kids, of course, it's all about squishing and rolling and mashing and poking and just enough tiny little licks to establish that it tastes pretty bad, just like Mama said.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5) I can't cook whole poultry to save my life. Somehow, every single time, I manage to turn out a bird that's overcooked on top and still bloody on the bottom. Between those unappealing strata, there's always a thin band of perfectly cooked meat, but it's awfully hard to carve around. So, that will be my next kitchen challenge to master. And until I've done it, I'm not cooking another whole bird on a holiday. Next year, I'll make a hearty beef stew sometime in November and stash it in the freezer. On Christmas day, I'll heat it up, add some fresh vegetables, and we'll eat it with hot <a href="http://www.sevenstarsbakery.com/index.html">rolls</a>, <a href="http://www.vermontcreamery.com/cultured-butter/">extra-good butter</a>, and a pie for dessert. <a href="http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/07/anne-dimocks-straight-up-perfect.html">Rhubarb</a>, if we see some in the store. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">6) Kids and icing are a classic combination. If you're decorating cookies with people less than a yard tall, Cheerios are a nice option along with (or instead of) sprinkles, colored sugars, and candies. The dry, savory crunch is actually a tasty combination with all that sugar. Other dry cereal would work too, of course. We might tackle <a href="http://joepastry.com/index.php?title=making_a_gingerbread_house_3_home_improv&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">gingerbread houses</a> next year, and I can just see a roof thatched with Corn Chex. Royal icing is my adhesive of choice, although I noticed <a href="http://bupbilla.blogspot.com/2010/12/cookies-for-christmas.html">this recipe</a> the other day, that looks like it might be a little tastier, what with the presence of actual butter.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7) Gingerbread makes extra-pretty decorated cookies. I used a recipe from my Great-Aunt Issy, which is spicy and easy. I made a double batch, which made enough for a cookie swap, an open studio party, four Christmas packages, and a good stash left over for the household. There are still two left, and they get better with a little age on them, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to bake them in late November next year.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gingersnaps</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(from Church Recipe Book, Lennoxville, Quebec)</span><br />
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<div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup shortening, butter or clear bacon fat</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup molasses</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 cups flour</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tsp. salt</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tsp. [baking] soda</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 cup brown sugar</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 egg</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 tsp. baking powder</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 tsp. ginger</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tsp. cinnamon</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Method:</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Boil together molasses, brown sugar, and shortening. Cool and add beaten egg and dry ingredients. CHILL OVERNIGHT. Roll out 1/4 inch thick on generously floured board. Use small amounts of dough, keeping remainder of dough in fridge. Cut in desired shapes, place on ungreased pan and bake in moderate oven (325-350) for 10 minutes. </span></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">[I learned that when "chill overnight" is in all caps, it means that it looks like cake batter when you first make it, and you'll be sure you've screwed it up. Fear not. As long as it's cold, it's nice and easy to handle, and is very hard to overwork since there's so little liquid in the dough to toughen the gluten (thanks to <a href="http://joepastry.com/index.php?title=making_gingerbread_dough&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">Joe Pastry</a> for that geeky tip), so it's another good parent/kid project.]</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8) Don't worry about finding a parking place for church on Christmas Eve. The church is packed, but the rest of downtown is deserted. Do remember quarters for the meter and some care packages with sandwiches and warm socks, because the only people still downtown are Parking Enforcement and the homeless.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">9) I have a wonderful family and delightful friends. Cheers, all. Merry Christmas.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-73850893326672533732010-12-02T11:33:00.000-05:002010-12-02T11:33:24.051-05:00The days these days: two and a half years oldCleo wakes up at 5:30, sometimes even six. This is much better than 4:30, and it's all thanks to one of those ridiculous gadgets that Parents These Days rely on, and without which generations of children grew and thrived. It is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Childrens-Alarm-Clock-Nightlight/dp/B002RNKOM2">this silly thing</a>, and it has saved us. Saved Cleo from being a tired, out-of-sortsy kid, and saved her parents from being grouchy about experiencing hours of pre-dawn darkness (mostly experienced by her dad, it must be said, but if Dada ain't happy, ain't nobody happy).<br />
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So now, the first thing we hear most days is, "The green light is green! Mama! Dada! The green light is green! It's morning!" And so we begin. The morning routine is what it's been for a while: oatmeal, milk, waking Mama at seven o'clock, and sending Dada off to work in the attic at 7:30.<br />
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Once the urgent items (clothing, food, etc) have been taken care of, the first question is, "What day to is?" Which means, in toddler-ese, "What day is it and how shall we amuse ourselves?" Monday is Mama and Cleo Day, Tuesday and Thursday are school days, Wednesday is Dada and Cleo go to the library, and Friday is usually Have Someone Over Day.<br />
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Her friends and their parents are an endless source of fascination. She declares several times a day. "I'm named [some friend], you're named [that friend's mother]." Or she'll pick up a rock and declare that it is named Layla (always, always Layla). And she and her dad make up collaborative stories, usually featuring people we know in some kind of conflict or peril. The themes of these stories ebb and flow, persist and change, until they're nearly incomprehensible to people who haven't seen the whole evolution.<br />
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"Once upon a time, there was a..."<br />
"A little girl named Hazel, and she was crying!"<br />
"Why was she crying?"<br />
"Because monkeys stole her mama!"<br />
"And what did Hazel do?"<br />
"Pauline was there!"<br />
"Did Pauline help her find her mama?"<br />
"Yes! And they had pacifiers!"<br />
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And so on. Some other recurring themes this month are bears who live in caves, the macaroni monster, brushing one's teeth, eating one's clothes, the monkey-catching kit, robot mechanics who fix garbage trucks, frogs who are experts in animal sounds, going to the doctor's office, and a honeybee who can't buzz.<br />
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She has an insatiable appetite for this, and as soon as one story is all wrapped up, she says, "Tell me anonner 'tory!" This can get tedious sometimes, but the power of a story to immediately captivate and distract her is a useful tool.<br />
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Another thing she loves is going for walks. At any hour of the day-- dark, light, or raining, she'll ask to go for "a yiddle walk" Sometimes she walks happily, but other times we'll get ten feet down the sidewalk, and she'll stop, turn, throw her arms in the air, and say dramatically, "Carry me!" I think her perfect day would be to be carried around the neighborhood, being told story after story after story, with stops at the bakery, the toy store, and the library just to break things up a bit. One new attraction of the library is the bathroom, which is a thrilling destination for a recently potty-trained girl. Part of the appeal there is the automatic flush, which is the height of excitement. Every time we use an unfamiliar public bathroom, it gets the question, "Does it fush automatit-yee?" and there's a moment of disappointment if the answer is no.<br />
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Meals are always good for some entertainment, too. Luckily, she still likes sitting in her high chair and watching me cook. There are a few things she can do to help, like stir, grind pepper, dump measuring cups into mixing bowls, and poke the egg yolks with a fork before the serious scrambling begins (sometimes I think she requests eggs for breakfast just because she looks forward to the yolk-poking). She's a good eater, and has recently been parroting our food policy back to us<br />
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"I don't want it!"<br />
"Well, you don't have to eat anything you don't want to eat, but..."<br />
"...but dat's what's for dinner"<br />
"Exactly right"<br />
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And three minutes later, if I carefully don't pay too much attention to what she's doing, she'll usually be munching happily. The only consistent refusals tend to be texture-related: big pieces of cooked onion, cooked mushrooms, fresh chopped herbs, and any kind of greens, cooked or raw. She has enjoyed lemon slices, raw onions, spicy Indian lime pickle, stinky goat cheese, and kim chee. I know this is the age that many kids start resisting foods, so I'm trying to stay grateful and happy for each good meal, and hope I won't despair if she takes a turn for the pickier. The result of all this cheerful eating (or maybe the cause) is that she's grown like a weed. I was so used to having a baby who was slight and small, hovering around the tenth percentile for height and weight. But now, she's beautifully average! I was so surprised the first time I realized that she was bigger than some of her peers. And she's so sturdy, with strong, fast arms and legs (that get a lot of exercise doing laps around the kitchen island).<br />
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In the last few months, I've noticed that the baby that used to live with us is now really, really gone. Cleo is a kid with a developed personality, preferences, habits, and interests. Sometimes I miss my cuddly little baby, but I'm loving this kid who I can hold hands and have a chat with as we walk down the street. In some ways it's harder now, in more ways it's easier, but mostly it's impossible to completely realize that this is a short, fleeting stage too, and before long we'll be on to a whole new kid yet again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-74203391285760039452010-11-04T21:07:00.000-04:002010-11-04T21:07:08.260-04:00Potty Training<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day One</span><br />
<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">This is going to be easy! She's a genius, she'll get it right away. I bet there won't be any more accidents after... oh. Well, by this evening she'll have it down for sure.</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day Two</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">You know, she's always been so stalwart in the face of minor scrapes and bumps. You think there's a correlation between a high pain threshold and having trouble identifying that uncomfortable "I have to pee" feeling? You think she'll be in diapers forever? I mean, she's a genius and all, that's clear, but maybe she'll just be the first incontinent nobel laureate. </div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day Three</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">That book said we'd be going on outings by now. This is taking forever. </div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day Four</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Hey, this isn't so bad. No accidents yet today! And maybe by next week we'll be able to expand the potty proximity radius enough that we can go for a short walk.</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day Five</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Those kids still in diapers are a bunch of chumps. I mean, sure, it must be nice to leave the house for longer than half an hour, but she's so accomplished! She's doing great!</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Day Six</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">I can't believe it's only been a week. I can't believe I thought she'd never get it. By next week, I bet we'll be ready for an impromptu weekend road trip! Or we would be, if we were those people. Maybe a nice impromptu weekend Dry Pants Festival at home instead. Sounds good. But I'm not giving any speeches in front of a Mission Accomplished banner yet. Give it a little while.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-12263525129467571402010-09-28T20:41:00.000-04:002013-01-28T20:44:17.943-05:00The Days These Days: Retro Style<br />
<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">
This is from September, 2010, when Cleo was two. She's now four and a half, and I barely remember most of these details. I suppose that's why we write things down. Using Computer Magic, I have backdated this to appear as if it were posted then, so that it can assume its proper position in the timeline. I do hope this won't make the space/time continuum go all wibbly wobbly.</div>
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5:00 am. She wakes up and lets us know what she'd like: "Mama come in here, please!" "I want a bottle of milk in my bed!" "Turn on the light!" and then finally, "I want my bunny pacifier! ...There it is!" and then silence. She dozes off again, or just lies there quietly, and then tries again...</div>
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6:00 am. The requests resume, which, if more phonetically spelled, would go like this: "Mama come in heah pease! I wanna bodda' o mowk i' my bed! Tun onnda yite! I wan' my bunny pacifiah! ...Dere da is!" One of us goes in there, opens the curtain, turns on the light, brings her some milk, and she's happy. Sometimes she likes to have her milk in her bed, other days she asks to have "a yiddle cuddle in da chair" We ask her if she had dreams, and she always says yes. These days they're apparently all about bridges and Grandma and Grandpa.</div>
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7:00 am. Breakfast. The popular menus include oatmeal, toast with peanut butter, and scrambled eggs. A couple times a week we go to the local bakery for breakfast, and if asked to choose between toast and yogurt, she'll either say, "Bofe!" or, "I wanna past-a-ree!" She's always interested in the other people there (although she clams right up if one actually talks to her), and will ask, "What's dat nice lady's named? Where she goin'?" And she happily identifies vehicles as they drive by: "Dere's a [fiah tuck; schoo' bus, hiccup tuck, cmemen' mixah, tankah tuck, city bus, etc].</div>
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8:00 am. Two days a week, it's time for a morning at "school" She's still transitioning to her new classroom (her last teacher was magically wonderful, and her current one is merely adequate), but as long as we're peppy and chatty all way to school, she's fairly happy to stay there, and very happy when we pick her up after lunch. They do things like make muffins, paint, plant seeds, and do collages. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to see the crowd control techniques that must be employed for those activities.</div>
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12:00-2:00 pm She. Sleeps! I have a kid who sleeps on her own, in her own bed for more than half an hour at a time! It's a miracle. Her nap is anywhere from an hour and 15 minutes to two hours long. For a while, she was sleeping almost three hours, but she was also waking up at 4:00 am again, so we realized a re-distribution was in order. Now we get her up whenever she stirs after the hour mark, and things have gotten back into a manageable pattern.</div>
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2:00-4:00 Dada time! Park-going, fort-building, snack-having fun time. She likes to build with blocks, and if it's an enclosure, it's either a library, a bathtub, or a fort, if it's a line it's a train, if it's a stack it's a tower, and if it's a messy heap it's a parade. Don't ask me to explain toddler logic. The only response necessary is, "What a nice [library/bathtub/fort/train/<wbr></wbr>tower/parade]!" </div>
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4:00-6:00 Mama time! We generally see friends and/or make dinner. One extremely useful toddler wrangling tip that I use a lot: The Choice. It's touted in all the parenting books and websites: "give your toddler the illusion of control by allowing them to make choices" and it sounds like very correct parenting. But what I didn't realize is, it's also incredibly effective parenting! It works like a charm! I feel like I'm getting away with something! "Cleo, would you like to go down the steps by yourself, or shall we hold hands?" When what you mean is, get down the stairs already, and quit dawdling. </div>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">6pm: She hears footsteps coming downstairs and bellows, "Dada! You wanna go fo' a yiddle walk?" And then he arrives in the kitchen, distributes hello kisses, and off they go around the block, looking for worms and cats and sticks and vehicles of note.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-59246644328886119332010-09-04T11:17:00.006-04:002010-09-08T21:49:17.952-04:00Bulk Chicken, Master Recipe<div>This recipe is the pinnacle of my career as a lazy/cheap/picky home cook. It is tasty, fairly cheap for a meat dish, and unbelievably easy given how nice it looks and tastes. Like most recipes, it could be endlessly varied and changed, so let me draw back the curtain and show you the reasoning behind the recipe, and invite you to do your own tinkering. Here's what makes the difference for me: </div><div><br /></div><div><b>1) Boneless chicken thighs</b>. Cheap and tasty, yes, but here are their oft-overlooked Special Features: They are both Fatty and Thin. </div><div>Fatty means that (unlike chicken breasts) they're good even if they get a little overcooked (a bonus both to busy cooks and to cooks who get freaked out by salmonella). </div><div>Thin means that they will both thaw quickly and cook quickly. If you really get intimate with a boneless skinless chicken thigh, you'll see that it's relatively uniform in thickness once you open it up, and that that thickness is less than an inch. When you lay them out flat in a preheated roasting pan, those suckers can cook through in fifteen minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>1) A dryish marinade</b>. Browning is the friend of flavor, but liquid is the enemy of browning. I'm not interested in doing a lot of tedious patting-dry of marinated raw meat, so I kept the wet ingredients down to one: balsamic vinegar, since it's so intense, you don't need much to do the job. Everywhere else, I went for flavorful but dry. I used salt instead of soy sauce, tomato paste instead of canned or sauce, and dried herbs and pepper flakes. With the addition of olives and olive oil, I hit all my marinade bases (salt, acid, sugar, spice, oil), with no extra liquid that would get in the way of browning.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>2) Oven browning</b>. When I think of baked chicken, I don't usually think caramelized and delicious. I tend to think soft and pale. But that's not necessarily true. If you use a hot oven and a heavy pre-heated roasting pan, and leave a generous amount of room between thinnish pieces of meat, the liquid that the meat gives off during cooking will have a chance to reduce and caramelize, resulting in the sticky brown residue that is the sign of a delicious meal to come.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>3) Double tomato</b>. The tomato paste will get a little browned in the oven, along with the chicken juices and the rest of the marinade. This is a good start. The real trick is in getting that delicious brown goop off the pan and onto the dinner plates with a minimum of fuss and trouble. Here you go: canned tomatoes. They're wet enough to deglaze the brown bits, and they add their own oomph to the sauce when they mingle with the olives, garlic, and herbs. The ones I recommend are Muir Glen Fire Roasted (and when you say BPA, I put my fingers in my ears and say lalalalalafire-roasted. I don't use them often, but when I do, I use these). The tomatoes also pretty up the chicken nicely. I can't be bothered to flip the chicken as it cooks, so only one side gets brown. But it doesn't matter how pale and gnarly the chicken is when it's camouflaged under a little pile of olive-and-herb-flecked tomato. You could, of course substitute many different liquids and vegetables (or liquidy vegetables) for the canned tomatoes.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>4) Vast quantities</b>. Chicken thighs can often be bought at a good price if you go for the huge packages, and this recipe works well for that. All the ingredients freeze and thaw well, and there's not a whole lot of chopping or prepping involved (chop garlic and olives, assemble marinade, mix with chicken). Just freeze the raw chicken in dinner-sized batches (this recipe makes about twelve servings, and I usually freeze it in three two-pound batches). Making this one huge recipe is easier than many single-meal recipes I make, and it gets me three almost-done dinners. Yay. </div><div>One freezer tip: if you use big gallon-sized plastic bags and press out the air before you seal them up, you can flatten the chicken and spread it out. If you then lay the flattened bags down in the freezer, they'll freeze like big tiles, and be easier to stack in the freezer and way quicker to thaw when it comes time.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>5) Completely optional ingredients</b>. I like olives. I like garlic. As established, I like those fire-roasted canned tomatoes. The good news to those of you who are not me is: the success of this dish rests on none of these ingredients. Tinker! Tamper! Adjust! And let me know what you discover.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Tomato and Olive Roasted Chicken Thighs</b></div>1/2 cup finely minced garlic (this chicken cooks very quickly-- practically pulverize the garlic, or you'll end up with crunchy hunks of raw garlic. Sorry, unwitting recipe-testers!)<div>3/4 cup olive oil</div><div>1/4 cup balsamic vinegar</div><div>1 cup roughly chopped kalamata olives (1 10-oz jar pitted olives)</div><div>1 tsp salt</div><div>1 tsp red pepper flakes</div><div>2 tbsp tomato paste</div><div>1 tbsp dried oregano</div><div>6 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs</div><div><br /></div><div>3 cans fire-roasted canned tomatoes</div><div><br /></div><div>Mix garlic, oil, vinegar, olives, salt, pepper flakes, tomato paste, oregano, and chicken. Let it marinate for an hour or a day (or freeze for later use as outlined above). The directions below are for one quarter to one third of this recipe. To cook it all at once, your best best is to do it in several batches, so that the chicken doesn't get over-crowded in the pan. On the other hand, if you're cooking for twelve, do what you can do and good luck to you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, with a heavy roasting pan or large skillet in the oven to heat as well. Lay one and a half to two pounds of the chicken pieces flat in the hot pan, and bake 20 minutes. Leave enough space around the chicken so that the juices can brown. After twenty minutes in the oven, remove chicken from pan and set aside in a bowl. Deglaze roasting pan with one can of tomatoes. Cook down until thick. Add any accumulated chicken juices to sauce. Put chicken pieces back into hot sauce to heat through, and serve when ready. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-72221555407460010392010-08-30T20:31:00.001-04:002010-08-30T20:31:47.004-04:00Equal Parts Shrimp and Spinach (read on! really!)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; ">The latest contestant in the Quickest, Healthiest, Easiest Dinner is this:<div><br /></div><div>Shrimp Saag</div><div><br /></div><div>1 teaspoon olive oil</div><div>3 cloves garlic, finely chopped</div><div>1 teaspoon ginger, finely chopped</div><div>1 small onion, finely chopped</div><div>1 teaspoon curry powder (or to taste)</div><div>1 pound frozen spinach</div><div>1/2 cup milk or cream</div><div>1 pound shell-on frozen shrimp</div><div>salt to taste</div><div>1 tablespoon butter (optional)</div><div><br /></div><div>First, start the rice cooker. Then, dump the frozen shrimp in a big bowl of cold water to thaw. In a medium lidded saucepan, saute the garlic, ginger, and onion in olive oil until golden and fragrant. Add the curry powder and let it toast for a few seconds, then dump in the whole bag of frozen spinach and the milk or cream and put the lid on. Bring to a simmer. While that's heating, drain and peel the shrimp and set them aside. Puree the hot spinach mixture (an immersion blender works great here), and add the peeled shrimp. Cook until they're pink and curled, and then taste. Add more curry or some salt if you like, and if it tastes a little meager, stir in some butter.</div><div><br /></div><div>The shrimp can, of course, be substituted for at will: leftover meat, canned chickpeas, paneer (where do you get paneer, anyway?), etc.</div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-75428715483667514052010-07-07T10:43:00.003-04:002010-07-07T10:56:22.817-04:00Heat WaveA comb made of ice. That's what I need. Can't you imagine it? A re-usable plastic handle, a comb-shaped ice mold for the freezer, and an improvement (quicker! colder!) on the tedious two-step process of running your head under the faucet and then combing your hair.<div><br /></div><div>Until that product comes out of R&D, I'll be running ice cubes over my head, which is surprisingly effective (soak your hairline first, work back from there). However, it's only appropriate for fellow heat-wave sufferers who have reached the point that cooling trumps all other considerations, namely, don't let's look like freaks.<br /><div><br /></div><div>This heat doesn't keep Cleo from wanting to run around outside wearing a fleece jacket. I'm not sure what her goal was with that idea, so I suggested instead that she play naked in the wading pool in the shade, and that was an acceptable alternative. So yesterday, she had an hour-long intensive course in fluid dynamics while I sipped my iced coffee with my feet in cold water. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-7858399493519129642010-06-08T13:38:00.002-04:002010-06-08T14:03:17.230-04:00Vietnamese Salad<div>Cabbage is cheap, long-lasting, full of good vitamins and fiber, and can be delicious, but it suffers from an image problem. It never looks very available in the market-- it's so pale and hard and undelicious looking and once you've smelled overcooked cabbage, it's hard to forget it. Luckily, it's pretty easy to overcome. Here's last night's dinner.</div><div><br /></div><div>Vietnamese Salad</div><div><br /></div>1/3 cup fish sauce<div>1/4 cup sugar (white or brown)</div><div>2 teaspoons roughly chopped ginger</div><div>1 garlic clove, roughly chopped</div><div>1 teaspoon chili-garlic paste (or some fresh chilies)</div><div>juice of one lime</div><div><br /></div><div>one small cabbage, thinly sliced</div><div>one red pepper, thinly sliced</div><div>two carrots, julienned</div><div>three scallions, sliced</div><div>one handful basil, chopped</div><div>one handful mint, chopped</div><div>3/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped</div><div><br /></div><div>Heat fish sauce and sugar together and stir until sugar dissolves. Add ginger, garlic, chili paste, and lime juice. It will smell awful, but persevere. Blend until garlic and ginger are pretty well pulverized. Mix cabbage, peppers, basil, mint and dressing together. Scatter roasted peanuts over each serving.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had this with rice noodles and roasted salmon. Delicious and quick.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-28796196525442041952010-05-03T12:38:00.007-04:002010-05-03T20:31:19.192-04:00Baby of the Month is... Mae!<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I'm in the part of my life when there are a lot of new babies around. A couple times a year, I'll get the emailed photo of a red-faced little loaf of bread and a mother with the classic thousand-yard stare (softened by a sheen of pride and love). I have not yet forgotten what it felt like to be that woman, so my second thought (after "Oh, yay!") is, "They must be exhausted! I should bring them some food!" </span></span></span><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sometimes I get my act together and do it, but other times I'm just stymied by indecision. What's the right thing to bring? If I don't know them well enough to have their dietary preferences memorized, I'm stumped, and don't feel like I should interrupt their newborn bliss/exhaustion with annoying questions about food. The other factor is that new-baby-time doesn't often coincide with regular-meals time. So I want to bring something that can be eaten right out of the fridge, warmed up or not. And also delicious. And I'm busy these days, so easy is also good. Now maybe you can see how it happens that these babies are often walking around before I can make up my mind about what I should bring their poor parents for dinner.<br /><br />Well, I finally have a fairly good solution. And I'm immortalizing it here so that I won't forget. It's Peanut-Sesame Noodles with Vegetables. It's vegan, so it takes care of vegetarian, dairy-free, kosher, halal, no red meat, no pork, no shellfish, and lots of other strictures. The only people who can't eat it are people who can't have gluten, people who can't have peanuts, and people who don't like delicious food. I generally deliver it in several containers (noodles, veg, and sauce) so people can always eat the parts they want and not the parts they don't.<br /><br />And it's delicious, as implied above. For years, I tried to figure out a good peanut-sesame sauce, and they were always too gloopy. And once mixed with cooked pasta, they became both gloopy and sticky. Bleah. But this one cracks the code. The answer? Water. Duh. The sauce is adapted from <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/peanut-sesame-noodles/">Smitten Kitchen's recipe here</a>.<br /><br />Welcome Home Noodles<br /><br />vegetables:<br />red peppers<br />steamed zucchini<br />steamed carrots<br />steamed green beans<br /><br />topping/garnish:<br />fresh basil, mint, bean sprouts, scallions<br /><br />sauce:<br />1/2 cup natural peanut butter<br />1/4 cup soy sauce<br />1/2 cup warm water<br />1 tablespoon minced ginger<br />1 clove garlic, minced<br />2 tablespoons rice vinegar<br />2 tablespoons sesame oil<br />1 tablespoon honey<br />1 good squirt sriracha sauce<br /><br />noodles:<br />KaMe brand "plain chinese noodles" or similar wheat noodles<br /><br />Combine all the sauce ingredients and give them a good whiz with an immersion blender, if you have one (and do-- have one, I mean. They're awesome). Let the sauce sit while you cook the noodles and prep the vegetables. </span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">About those vegetables: </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You could obviously use almost anything, and this is a great recipe for seasonal adaptation. If you're pressed for time, go through the salad bar at the grocery store, and get all the credit for about half the work.<br /><br />About the noodles:<br />The package I had said to cook them for five minutes, but they would have been way too soggy if I had. I ended up boiling them for two or two and a half minutes and they were great. The key is to taste frequently. Soggy=bad. The next trick is to rinse the cooked noodles very well with cold water. This washes all the loose starch off the noodles, the stuff that will turn things into a sticky mess later if it's still hanging around making trouble. So, rinse! Immersing and swishing the noodles in several changes of clean cold water is the best way, but a nice long shower in the colander is better than nothing, and quite a bit quicker. Once they're rinsed, let them drain well, even going so far (if you have time) as to spread them out on a clean kitchen towel for a while, so that they don't sit in that water, absorb it, and sog right up. After they're washed and dried, toss them with a little sesame oil so they don't stick together, and put them in a container (if this is a meal for delivery).<br /><br />About containers:<br />We've just made the switch to all-glass in our house, and I think it's a good thing to do for the health of families and planets both, but I still think new-baby dinners are an excellent application for disposable plastic containers. If the new family can just pitch (or rinse and re-use) the things and move on to the next urgent item, everyone's happy. We had someone's lidded casserole dish for eight months after Cleo was born, until she mentioned it to me and I blushed, dug it up, and gave it back. Oops.<br /><br />Pack up the noodles, sauce, vegetables, and garnish in their own containers, and drop the dinner off with the new family with my heartfelt congratulations and commiseration. If they're having a particularly hard time, include take-out chopsticks, plastic forks, and paper plates and napkins.<br /><br />PS: Fonts are now fixed! And some grammar and stuff. Thanks, in-house team!</span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-67646366469157245792010-04-05T11:23:00.004-04:002010-04-05T20:08:10.157-04:00Easter<div>We celebrated Easter by strewing a dozen colored eggs over the back yard and then pointing them out to Cleo and her best friend Levi. They humored us and collected them cooperatively, but didn't understand why exactly these balls were funny shaped and not at all bouncy. Then we had some snacks and ran around the yard and that was Easter.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's nice that we've had a couple of years to really nail down our various holiday traditions before Cleo starts noticing, because we don't really have a default plan. We come from different traditions, but we do agree that it's important to mark holidays and festivals as a family. We just have to settle the particulars. Luckily, we also agree on some general values: celebratory meals = good; candy-crazed kids = less good; a sense of gratitude and loving-kindness = good; a sense of entitlement and materalism = less good; homemade decorations = good; lots of plastic junk that has to be stored somewhere 11 months of the year = less good. So we've been keeping our ears perked up for holiday celebrations that fit into our style. For future Easters, I think we may incorporate some of these ideas:</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://mayamade.blogspot.com/2009/04/guest-post-grandma-bunny.html">bunny treats</a><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/04/tinkering-with-tradition.html">civilized egg hunt</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Easter, everyone!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-45504992065467801212010-02-26T09:55:00.003-05:002010-02-27T07:24:29.950-05:00The Days These Days: Nineteen Months OldCleo wakes up at 4:15. I wish there were some other, less brutal way to say that, but let's just stick to the plain truth. We've tried earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, ignoring her, bringing her into bed with us (and all of these things with a reasonable degree of consistency, in their turn). But it seems like the hard-wired alarm clock in her head will not be reprogrammed. Our current strategy is to let her think about the day to come until five o'clock (which she does by alternately crying, sitting quietly, and calling Mama-Mama-Mama Dada-Dada-Dada). It's a combination of denial and resolve. It's not really getting us anything but another 45 minutes of dozing.<div><br /></div><div>At five, her dear, dearest Dada gets up and they start the day. I am happily unaware of what exactly goes on between five and seven, although I know it involves dishes and oatmeal and honey.</div><div>"Why do we put honey on our oatmeal?"</div><div>"Ummy!"</div><div>"That's right! Because it's yummy!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Then they come upstairs. The first thing I'm aware of is Cleo saying, "Uppa dairs!" And the answering, "Yep, up the stairs! Let's go get Mama!" And then the feet come running down the hall and the door gets pushed open. They've been practicing saying, "Good morning, Mama!" It's going well, but this morning, she came in and he said, "What were we going to say to Mama?" And she said, very proudly, "Mo', pease!" So I told her how nice it is to say please, and how she's such a polite little girl, and also good morning.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then I have half an hour to put myself together for the day and have breakfast, and Cleo has half an hour to alternately play and ask for bites of my oatmeal. This girl is made of oatmeal. She likes it not only the Dada way (milk, butter, honey) but also plain, and even the Mama way (butter, salt and pepper).</div><div><br /></div><div>Then we all brush our teeth together. This is a relatively new part of the routine, partly because we're lazy and partly because she still only has four teeth, and why stress about brushing what's largely still theoretical. She's into it. It took some cajoling and a few days of whole-family-tooth-brushing before she came around, but now she asks to "Buss teef" whenever she catches a glimpse of the Elmo toothbrush (a helpful item in the campaign for dental hygiene).</div><div><br /></div><div>Then we kiss good old Dada goodbye and he goes upstairs to work ("Uppa dairs! Uppa Dada!" She's working it out.) We often go to the grocery store at this point in the day, because although it's mid-morning in Cleoland, the store is just opening and it's nice and empty. There are usually just enough people that we can have some nice chats and lots of waving. If it's Tuesday or Thursday, there are four and a half hours of school to be had, and Cleo is loving it. Her teachers are delightful, and have that toddler magic all figured out. In other words, they know it's very important that Elmo get his diaper changed, and that we pile all the babies up in the crib so that they can have a nap. It's a wonderful feeling to have some time to myself while I know that Cleo's enjoying herself in a warm, friendly place with people she likes. </div><div><br /></div><div>After school, it's naptime. These days, that means a bottle of milk (guk), a book (guk), and a pacifier (bab-doot). Hey, we can understand her. Usually. She sleeps for an hour, then wakes up and cries, and then one of us (weekdays=me, weekends=him) will sit in the glider in her room and hold her and she'll sleep another hour. This routine is under the same heading as morning wake-up time: Not Ideal/Not Insufferable, It's Been Worse/It'll Get Better. Since she doesn't seem to mind a dimly-lit room, we can either read or doze as we hold her, and there are much worse things than a quiet hour with a sweet sleeping baby.</div><div><br /></div><div>Afternoons, we often get together with other kids and parents. Yesterday, I told her we were going to see Jane, Max, and Ella* and she said, "And cheese!" As it happened, she was right. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm running out of time (father-daughter music class ends in five minutes), so here's the rest of the day, shorthand: </div><div>Dinner: a struggle. </div><div>Bedtime: easy. </div><div>This kid: the darling of my heart.</div><div><br /></div><div>*not their real names</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-41538590444397304482010-02-22T17:20:00.003-05:002010-02-22T17:29:10.532-05:00Context is everything.Pea ha papah! <div>Mo pea ha papah!</div><div>More peas and pasta?</div><div>[Emphatic nod]</div><div>Would you like more fish paste?</div><div>No hih pase. Pea ha papah.</div><div>Okay, here you go.</div><div>Otay!</div><div>[eats by the fistful]</div><div>ooooh noooo! papah!</div><div>[sound of pasta hitting the floor]</div><div>I take it you're done?</div><div>Ou'!</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-74060503571191412652010-01-17T14:50:00.002-05:002010-01-17T15:13:10.918-05:00Peasant Food, Times TwoIt's cold and grey and I'd much rather be rolling around on the floor with Cleo, so I've been making a lot of one-pot hearties. While good and filling and very leftoverable, food like this can sometimes get a little stodgy. So here are two adaptable recipes that welcome the addition of some fresh (or fresh-ish) vegetables.<div> </div><div>Red Lentil Dal</div><div><br /></div><div>one cup red lentils (actually a gorgeous orange, which fades to a sad putty during cooking)</div><div>2 or 3 cups water</div><div><br /></div><div>1 tablespoon oil or ghee (or more)</div><div>1 tablespoon curry powder (or more)</div><div><br /></div><div>subject to taste and availability:</div><div>minced garlic</div><div>minced ginger</div><div>chopped garlic</div><div>zucchini</div><div>green beans</div><div>tomatoes</div><div>peas</div><div>carrots</div><div>cilantro</div><div>salt</div><div><br /></div><div>Bring the lentils and water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. While they cook, saute the onions in the oil. Once they're soft and browning, add the ginger and garlic. Once they're also soft and browning, add the curry powder. Stir briefly (you don't want to burn the curry powder, but you do want to warm and toast it in the oil), and then add the mixture to the cooking lentils. If the lentils seem too dry, add more hot water. It they seem too soupy, leave the lid off and let it cook down. Aim for an oatmeal-like consistency, and cook long enough that the lentils totally fall apart into brown sludge. It'll be ugly, but tasty and digestible. While the lentils simmer, assess your vegetable options. Add raw vegetables now, so that they can cook. Leftover cooked vegetables can be added at the end, along with fresh tomatoes and cilantro if you have them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pasta Fagioli (sort of)</div><div><br /></div><div>2 italian sausages</div><div>1/2 cup tiny pasta</div><div>1 can garbanzo or other beans</div><div>miscellaneous vegetables</div><div>1 pint grape tomatoes</div><div>fresh basil</div><div>grated parmesan</div><div>black pepper</div><div>olive oil </div><div>lemon juice</div><div><br /></div><div>Simmer the sausages and beans in water to cover. Once the sausages are cooked, chop them up and add them back in to the pot. Add the pasta and any raw vegetables you want to use, along with more water if necessary. Once the pasta is done, add any cooked veg you have, and heat throughly. Just before serving, mix in cheese, fresh tomatoes, and basil. You probably won't need to add salt, because of the cheese, sausages, and beans, but taste it and see. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice on each serving.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31047117.post-54902260590697086712009-11-02T11:59:00.003-05:002009-11-02T12:33:02.054-05:00Happiness, Aisle SixI try to be a good person. I try to make the world a better place. But all my previous efforts in this area are looking pretty paltry lately. <div><br /></div><div>In terms of people-made-happy versus time-and-effort-expended, nothing I've ever done has been as effective as taking Cleo to the grocery store. Even on days like today, when she has a runny nose and is wearing a mishmashy sort of outfit, color-wise, she can be depended on to delight at least seven separate people in the course of a twenty-minute visit to the grocery store. She wiggles with delight as I put her in the cart, and proceeds to point and wave excitedly at all the people we pass. She loves identifying all the foods, even if she's more enthusiastic than accurate. Any round fruit or vegetable between three and six inches in diameter is an "App-puh!", any white, yellow, or orange hunks are "cheeeee!", and any boxes that show beige-ish, squarish foods are "kack-uhrs!" Another shopper who appears at the end of the aisle is hooted and waved at like a long-lost friend, and many people get called Da-da (a mark of seriously high esteem). If a fellow shopper has app-uhs, cheeeee, or kack-uhrs in her cart, Cleo lets her know that they have a lot in common, and shall we have a chat about it, perhaps over a little snack?</div><div><br /></div><div>I've seen people go from surly and harried to completely charmed and at ease within seconds. Some people are immune to the charms of a loud, slightly grubby baby screeching at them (can you imagine?) but most people walk away in better moods than they approached in. I like to imagine those people leaving the store, being more patient drivers, nicer to their co-workers, more likely to give to charity... Well, maybe I'm reaching. But I do sometimes think of Cleo as the butterfly that starts a hurricane, only with goodwill. So I don't feel bad these days if I forget something at the store and have to go back the next day. Every little bit helps, and the extra gas is just the cost of doing business as a milkman of human kindness.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3