Vogue

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think this one needs a little more explanation. Yesterday morning, Miles was in a spectacularly restless mood (probably something to do with the teeth that will never pop out) and was using my body as a jungle gym. Again. I, on the other hand, was feeling rather sloth and just wanted to stare blankly into the distance while Skyping with my mom, wolfing down breakfast, and chugging my morning coffee. The fact that I constantly have little hands, a nose, and sometimes an entire head groping around in my undershirt really doesn't phase me anymore. Miles has learned to use my zipper now, which makes life a lot more interesting (especially in public). It is for this reason that I walked around the house for about five hours with a pacifier stuck in my cleavage and had not a clue. Apparently, Miles unzipped my hoodie, stashed it in there, zipped me back up and went on with his baby business. I found it when getting ready to take a much needed shower.

The only good part of this story is that the grey hoodie pictured above is a cute pre-pregnancy sweatshirt that has replaced the size large maternity thing that I've been wearing around the house for the past six months -- silent cheer from Jesse who is thrilled, no doubt, that his wife is no longer wearing things that look like she borrowed them from a tubby hobo.

Which brings me to the real reason for today's post. Somehow I managed to get on the email list for Vogue patterns and quarterly, I'm updated on the new seasonal fashions and alerted to great sales. I went online this morning and thumbed through some of the Summer 2011 preview and found a few really cute patterns. It reminded me of the pact that Jesse and I made when I was pregnant -- we set aside funds for me to go out shopping for a few cute pieces to add to my wardrobe once I returned to a size that made me feel good. Well, I've been back to my pre-pregnancy weight for over four months now and still haven't done much about finding new things to wear. I have no solid reasons anymore for dressing like a slob.

I decided that rather than spend my funds on a new dress or two, I'd like to finally get a proper dress form so I can play around with dressmaking again. The duct tape form I made was great for deciding if I really wanted to tailor my own clothes, but it's heavy, clunky, and makes my pins sticky. Also, despite the fact that I actually weigh a bit less now than before Miles came along, my body shape has changed dramatically. Things are a little more curvy and a little less, ahem, perky. I think I'm going to do a little research online today to find the dress form that will work for me and maybe Vogue pattern V1086 could be a cute summertime dud. 

Kitchen Dance Party

On Wednesday afternoon while Jesse was at the allergist getting a new year's worth of antihistamine (marriage drugs), Miles and I headed into the kitchen to prepare some food for the week. I decided to make a giant batch of bolognese and prepped some mashed pears and steamed peas for Miles. I feel pretty lucky that he's so into green things. Of course that may change, but for now I'm going to take full advantage of his non-discriminating taste buds.

This week we've been dealing with Miles' teething woes. Poor little guy is having a rough bout with those two suckers on the bottom that are bulging and aching, but just won't come out. I try to keep him distracted during the day, but have resorted to giving him a good dose of ibuprofen at night, because it's just too much. He was getting a little fussy while I was cooking, so I set my iPod on shuffle and cranked up the volume. Gwen Stefani was one of the first artists to pop up and Miles smiled and immediately started bobbing to the music. I'm pretty sure Jesse is pretty bummed about his love of such pop nonsense, but our little kitchen dance party did the trick until it was time for bedtime relief. I'm thinking Miles' afternoons with dad will definitely include soul music appreciation dance parties.

Monday Monday

J and I had a pretty good weekend. The weather was decent for noticeable periods of time and we got to take a few walks outside during this time of year when the first daffodils spring to life, the birds begin to tweet, and J sneezes his way through eight boxes of tissues. Yes, the extra time in the great outdoors confirmed that J's cold was in fact compounded by his seasonal allergies. Let me rephrase, it's that time of year when I wake up one morning bleary-eyed, wringing my hands (after the sneezing, snorting, and snoring all night) and threaten to kick him out of the house if he doesn't go-to-the-damn-allergist-already. The doctor's office opens in one hour. I am counting the minutes. 

As for M, for the past few days, he has been noticeably less social. I think it's due in part to the fact that he's not been sleeping well from his stuffy nose, but also is working on popping out a tooth on the bottom. Poor little guy seems to be in a good deal of discomfort. That didn't stop him from exploring this weekend though at our friends' house. He took the time to explore all of their nooks, but liked the space under their sink the most.

Today, I'm feeling a bit like M, wishing that I had a nice cozy nook to crawl into. I was hoping Monday might shape up to be as productive as the weekend, but I've already hit a few roadblocks. I was up at 5am (for reasons I'm still not sure of) and found out that DEQ is closed. Seriously? On a Monday? Renewing our car registration was the major tasks for the day. In addition, the weather channel is predicting a 70% chance of rain and misery and as I type, M is bearing down to take the largest poo of his life in the nice fresh cloth diaper. Like I said, still hopeful that this Monday will turn out alright.

How is it Only Wednesday?

I'm starting to feel better, but my cold is still lingering. It's disrupted my sleep as well as Little's, so neither of us were at our best this morning. Actually, my son was being super annoying -- refusing to nap, eat, or do anything on his own and then squirmed and twisted when I tried cuddle. At one point I just sat him on the floor surrounded by all of his toys and let him have a good short cry. He finally got over it, crawled over to my leg and gnawed on my kneecap. I guess he was making amends. Then, the cycle started all over again. 

So, I decided that I needed to eat something more hearty than oatmeal for breakfast in order to deal with Crankster McGee. I hauled his highchair into the kitchen and gave him a spoon while he complained at the top of his lungs. Eventually, he realized that the spoon was really cool, especially when used to hit things. While Little was working out his frustration with a spoon, I made a giant pan of scrambled eggs for J and me, which provided the main protein for breakfast tacos (liberally sauced with sweet sweet Cholula). Black-eyed peas are a very non-traditional addition to tacos, but believe me, they tasted awesome. 

Once I finished breakfast, I fed Little a second round of solids while roasting a few sweet potatoes and some red bell peppers for his afternoon snack. What was on the menu for Sir Cranky Pants' breakfast? Steamed carrots mixed with pear, a dollop of oatmeal, and some cottage cheese. I normally wouldn't doll up carrots, but they were a pretty mediocre bag and quite honestly tasted like dirt -- I try not to feed him things that I wouldn't eat myself. Luckily, pear cures most food imperfections and he gobbled it up. After breakfast we played for a while, but a tumble onto the floor sent him into a downward spiral. It was finally nap time for real and he slept for an hour. Finally!

Let's hope this day is just an anomaly and tomorrow we'll both wake up refreshed.

Sick Days

J was pretty sick last week with a cold. Mid-week while still symptomless, I proclaimed smugly on Wednesday evening "wow, looks like we dodged that bullet" (see pictured smugness). Then BAM! Sore throat and stuffy nose followed by a fever last night that had me in bed sleeping approximately three seconds after Little went down for the night. Luckily, he only woke up once to eat and when he was bright-eyed at 6am, I was ready to face the day as well. The fever has run its course, but we're both still stuffy. Little is handling it very well, actually he's running (crawling) circles around me with all of his energy. It's kind of driving me nuts. He's also learned that mom's shirt and pants make lovely tissues. My wardrobe has turned into a collection of installation art pieces with a tiny master painter at the helm. 

Despite his cold, little developed a new trick yesterday: nearly cramming his entire pacifier, handle, nipple and plastic piece, in his mouth. If given a little more time, a quick twist would have securely wedged it between is palate and lower jaw. He was very proud of his (near) accomplishment and giggled when I gasped in horror at the thought of it getting stuck in there. I immediately removed the lot from his reach and, despite my cold, hopped in the car in search of a new brand that would be too big to fit in his mouth. For those of you who are wondering, bedtime without the pacifier would be a hellish nightmare that I'm not ready to approach at this time.

Sir Little is very particular about the shape -- the likes the angled orthodontic variety -- so my search wasn't easy. Soothies have been a joke for a while, MAMs make him gag, and I haven't bothered with any other of the shapes, because it seems that he's stuck on Nuk. I was pretty shocked to find that many companies, Nuk especially, make pacifiers in sizes with larger nipple to fit the mouth, but do not scale up the outside piece accordingly. Haven't they hung out with tenacious six-month-old babies who are determined to cram as many things in their mouths as possible? And with our son, as soon as he learns a trick, he masterfully practices his skills until perfected. I don't think I'm overreacting when I say that it's a serious industry oversight that shouldn't be taken lightly. 

Anyway, my friend Serena suggested a brand that her son likes and it seemed a little bigger than the ones that Little has been using. Little is still warming up to his new pacifiers, not that he has a choice in the matter, and I'm secretly hoping that he just decides he doesn't want them. Then, we won't have to worry about weaning later. Ha! Wishful thinking!

Fresh Cheese

I've been meaning to jump on the homemade yogurt bandwagon for a while. Since we go through gallons of yogurt every month, it seems like something I should at least try once. While researching how to make yogurt, fresh ricotta came up in a number of postings, as well as in my go-to cookbook for things like this, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I ambitiously purchased all the ingredients for yogurt and fresh cheese earlier this week, but never found the time to actually try it until today. Since the yogurt required a bit more attention, I decided to start out with the ricotta* first and move on to yogurt this weekend.

The recipe is incredibly simple: 1/2 gallon of milk, 1 quart buttermilk, and a couple pinches of salt. Bring milk to a slow boil, pour in buttermilk and stir until the curds separate from the whey. The whole thing was a bit like a science experiment, but in this case you end up with something tasty rather than a table full of suds or shattered beakers. And really, the hardest part is tending the boiling milk so it doesn't scorch. With that said, I made the fresh cheese while also entertaining/feeding Miles. In other words, you don't have to watch it that closely. 

After the curds separate, you dump the whole thing into a colander lined with a triple layer of cheese cloth. I was a little less than careful while pouring, so I managed to get splashes of curds all over my jacket. You then just gather up the cheesecloth ends and twist so the curds gather into a ball. It's pretty hot, so I had to run the ball under cold water until it was cool enough to handle. Then, just squeeze the crap out of it until a good deal of the liquid is gone. My technique for pressing was to twist the top and use my other hand to press from the bottom to keep the nice round shape. 

It took a few minutes, but eventually I felt that it was firm enough to let set. Basically, you just leave it tied up for an hour or so and it hardens a little more.

I've also read that you can use the reserved whey to make bread or soak grains. I'm going to look into this further since I have at least a half gallon of leftover from this project.

So the verdict? Well, the overall taste was sort of meh. I think it needs a lot more salt. Next time I'll probably put a tablespoon or two. The texture is pretty good though, resembling a sort of queso fresco that you'd buy at the grocery store. It can be cut in slices or crumbled. Mark Bittman suggests that you can take the fresh cheese and brine it, which is what I think I'll do with this batch since it's a little too bland to add much to a dish. You can also add a number of things to it before pressing, like pesto, roasted peppers, various herbs, or fresh ground black pepper. I'm definitely going to play around with the ingredients and perfect my technique techniques. It's a fun, quick project that has a lot of potential!

*What I made is actually not ricotta, which uses considerably less buttermilk. It's just termed fresh cheese, which apparently is also the recipe for cottage cheese -- you just let the curds stand in the cheesecloth rather than pressing them into a ball.

Hello Old Friend

Dear Nancy's, 

Crank up your production! After a six-month hiatus, we're back in the cottage cheese eating business. We may not go through three pounds a week like during my pregnancy, but Little is definitely a fan. Paired with carrots, pears, or just on it's own, cottage cheese was a hit.   

Love, 

Brasilliant & Little

Home Again

I think I'm still recovering from our two week vacation on the east coast, not because the trip was taxing, but getting back to normal life was quite a shock. I had a bunch of things I needed to accomplish right when we got home -- taxes, doctors appointments, expired car registration, work, etc. -- and it seemed as if the universe was plotting against me. The car battery died so hard that we had to have it taken out of the car and charged. Then, when I went to have the car tested at DEQ to get our expired registration renewed, I found out that the computer system was reset as a result of a dead battery and their monitors couldn't read our emissions. We have been charged with driving our car around town and logging some highway miles this weekend before I can take it back. Seriously, I could not wait for this week to end. I was not my best, but I think it might be behind me now. 

The one thing that didn't stress me out this week was Little. He's been awesome now that he's perfected crawling and climbing and general romping around. We straightened up the living room enough to let him roam while supervised and he thinks it's the coolest thing ever. J also set up a bit of an obstacle course in the play pen, so he's been practicing his maneuvering skills. His endless curiosity has been pretty amazing to experience, definitely a bright spot in this gloomy week. Also, the fact that he's been napping and sleeping like a champ doesn't hurt either. I looking forward to whipping up a few new foods for him to try this weekend and maybe making some frozen treats in a new ice pop tray that I got this week.