My New Year's "Resolution"

Ok, so A) it is a little early for this and B) I generally shun resolutions, having broken so many in my life. But here goes:

52 New. My goal is going to be to try 52 new foods, one every week, in 2011. I'm going to aim to make many/most of them new fruits, vegetables, spices, or other non-processed foods that I can incorporate into family meals. It doesn't count if I don't KNOW I've eaten it before. :)

My inspiration? Comes from a couple places. This summer, I enviously listened as friends got their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes every week. They'd joke how hard some things were to recognize, or figure out what to do with. I thought that was pretty cool - after all, you've paid for it, so you'd darn well better figure out how to cook it, right?

More recently, I was at the grocery store, picking up fresh veggies to make a beef & vegetable soup. Can I say that I LOVE our Market Basket's produce department? It is big, diverse, and affordable. Mmm, I love you Market Basket. Anyway, I found myself drawn to the aisle with greens. My parents never did a lot of cooking with greens, aside from spinach. Generally from a can. (Please contain your jealousy). So aside from a nice mesculin salad mix, or watching them as a secret ingredient on Chopped, I've got very little experience. I knew SOME of them must go well in soup, but no idea which ones. I ended up choosing escarole and dandelion greens. As I was prepping the soup, I thought - I could do this. Something new every week. Expand my horizons in a culinary kind of way. So, that is what I shall aim to do. :)

Our Christmas Card

I'm really super happy with our Christmas card. Thank you Shutterfly. Now please get them here in a timely fashion, so I can in turn mail them before 2012 and the Mayans come for me.

Oh What Fun Christmas Card

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MIA

I suck at blogging, kinda. The truth?

PPD is kicking my ass. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. I get lazy with my meds and my brain turns to mush. I'm working on it. I'll get my umami back, no worries.

I won a blog giveaway!

I never win anything. Seriously. In elementary school, when it was sticker day at lunch I never ONCE found one on the bottom of my tray.

..Ok, I did win amazing Red Sox tickets from work once. And I won a spot to play on a charity softball game on Fenway Park's field. So I'll be quiet. But still!! I won something!!

More specifically, I won a super cute onesie given away by Mama of All Trades in conjunction with Etsy shop Morning Star Loft. Eeeeeeeeeee. So excited. Thanks, ladies!

The Wiggles

Last week, the Wiggles were in town, and we were lucky enough to take Pip. She was in Heaven - or, in Heaven once she recovered from the overwhelming noise and craziness that is a live performance with another several hundred people. I can't thank them enough for putting on such a great show. Two of the Wiggles actually came up into the audience. And not just into the audience. Like, up into the back-arse balcony where we were sitting. For a bunch of guys that have been doing this for 19 years, that's pretty commendable.

About, oh...7 years ago (eek), I was the Children's Lead at your friendly neighborhood bookstore. That meant, among other things, I was responsible for storytime twice a week. I remember having a Wiggles themed storytime and thinking "What the Sam Hill is this all about?" Oh, how I wish I'd had the psychic foresight to buy every Wiggles- themed item and store them in anticipation that my future spawn would appreciate them. You might laugh, but uhm... I did that with Olivia merchandise. This was well before the TV show, mind you, but the books were popular enough to spin off several items. And when those items were marked down marked down marked down, I bought them. Pretty fortuitous since Olivia now rocks Nick Jr, and Ms. P loves her.

On a Mommy-themed message board I used to frequent, people would turn their noses up at The Wiggles. I've seen people swear up and down they'll avoid them at all costs. Sympathetically pat others on the shoulder (virtually of course) because their kid likes them. Well, I am here to announce that I love the Wiggles. Mock me if you will. I'd choose Wiggles over Dora ANY day of the week. Or that God-awful Caillou - I have not yet met a parent who likes that whiny little French twerp. Maybe somewhere on a blog out in cyberspace, there is a mom right now pronouncing her love for him. She's obviously insane.

(And if you are a snooty mom whose child only gets 20 minutes of TV a week because TV poisons your brain and therefore your child doesn't know who an of these people even are - you and I would never, ever, ever be friends.)

Swedish Apple Pie

If I had to pick a dessert that embodied comfort food & my childhood, it would be Swedish Apple Pie. It is one of the easiest pies you could ever hope to make, and it is fragrant, delicious, warm, yummy goodness. Growing up in New England, naturally the fall meant lots and lots (and lots) of apples. This is a great way to use them up. My mom likes to say how you could get a call that company was coming in an hour, and have this pie warm and ready to serve by the time they got there.

She was clearly an over-achiever. I'm not sure how she pulled that off with three of us running around, but more power to her!

Some friends asked for suggestions on what to do with their apple surplus, and this was the first thing I thought of. Once I thought of it, naturally I had to make it. This meant going to the store for apples, as surplus I had none. That's ok! Price Chopper had Buy One, Get One Free bags. So, I decided to double the recipe and make it in a 9x13 pan. Smart move, since it is almost gone. Oops.

I also had the cutest helper in the world, my Ms. P!

Swedish Apple Pie

The Ingredients:
3/4 cup melted butter/margarine
1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 egg

pinch of salt

3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Apples, peeled & sliced

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)

The directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Fill a 9" pie plate about 3/4 full with apple slices. Combine the Tbsp of sugar and tsp cinnamon, and sprinkle over the top of the apples. In a bowl, mix the remaining ingredients, adding the nuts last. Pour the mixture over the apples, and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Mmmmmmmmmm. Don't you wish you could scoop a heap of vanilla ice cream on there and go to town?

I used both bags of apples - good thing, because P ate out as many apple slices as I put in, I think. I also realized that I put vanilla in the ingredients photo, and it isn't in the list. That's because I was feeling fancy, and put a drop or two in. A drop of almond extract would also work. But trust me, it doesn't need anything extra. It is fantastic all on its lonesome!

Oh, Cape Cod...

When I need my soul refreshed, I head East over the Bourne to the land of Cod. We are blessed to have a place to stay for free when we do make our way down, and believe me - I take advantage when I can.

So that is where I was this past weekend. I was dragging my feet on going, to be honest, even though we picked this date with friends as we packed up from our last excursion over Labor Day Weekend. The thought of traveling with a toddler and an infant can get very daunting. Particularly when you haven't gotten a solid night's sleep since sometime in the first trimester. I didn't want to disrupt sleep schedules. Didn't want to risk a car sick toddler. Didn't want to lose a weekend of housework - which is the only time I can get serious housework done. I tend to get overwhelmed and bury my head in the sand and stick to my comfort zone.

I'm very happy I recognized that fact, and pushed myself to go. Good friends, happy babies, yummy food, scary movies (once the kids were asleep, of course). I gained two pounds, but whatever. The health-train can start renewed this week. You just can't do Chinese food 'healthy'. It isn't fun.

Anyway, it isn't about us at the end of the day. It is about creating as many of these memories & moments as we can...

Stock - The Finished Product

I woke up this morning with a house that smelled like comfort and yummy. A little weird for a breakfast smell, but that's ok. I let the stock keep cooking until about noon, so about 20 hours total cooking time. This is what it looked like when I took off the lid.

Okay, so I don't know if that looks appetizing to you. But it does to me. Next step - strain into a large bowl and let cool. Finally, I divided it into 2 cup servings, which I put into ziploc baggies. Lay them on a cookie sheet so they can freeze (somewhat) flat, and voila! 12 cups of recipe-ready chicken stock.

I swear...

Once this package of Oreos is gone, I'm never buying them again.

Really.

Chicken Stock!

Recently, I tackled a culinary task that had been daunting me - roasting a chicken. I'd gotten by til now on boneless skinless breasts and $5 rotisserie chickens from the grocery store. However, this year will be my first cooking THE Turkey. Eek. I figured I needed to have at least handled a raw bird before November.

I brined it. It turned out awesome. *Pats self on back*.

In an attempt at domesticity and frugality, I am making chicken stock from the carcass (wow, that's an unappetizing word) in my crockpot. It is easy, and it makes your house smell soooo good. It does, however, take quite a while. Which meant I had to squeeze it in between other crock pot meals. Yeah, it gets a lot of use. :)

I borrowed the recipe from my wunderkid soul sister over at http://mama-of-all-trades.blogspot.com/ . I modified it a bit - mostly because I didn't have red wine vinegar or celery salt. I'll let it chill on low overnight, til noon-ish.

At which point it will get the boot, because I have some Lazy Golumbkis to make!

Cilantro

Oh, Cilantro. How did it take me so long to truly appreciate you and your wonderousness?

We're talking about an herb that is used in ethnic cuisines continents and oceans apart - Latin American, Indian & South Asian, and Chinese cooking all makes use of cilantro. We're also talking about an herb that is also another herb - coriander. (Tangent - Coriander is the finishing touch on my favorite Thai appetizer, Paradise Beef. Mmm. Thai.)

Dinner this evening was low-key: Taco night. I like to buy ground beef in bulk if it goes on sale, then brown it and freeze it in bags in one pound-ish increments. I browned some earlier today, and so had some in the fridge ready to throw into some recipe. I was hoping to try a new slow cooker recipe, but alas - the girls dictated that was not to be. Tomorrow is another day!

I had some cilantro in the fridge from a salsa adventure last week (an attempt to use up the 8 zillion tomatoes from the garden). I heated some oil, and threw cilantro in before adding the meat. Mmmmmmm. I also took some sprigs to the table to wrap in the tacos themselves. Mmmm. Whole wheat wraps, sour cream, cheddar cheese, lettuce, garden tomatoes, and cilantro. Yum.

Starting Out...

It has been..well, a long time since I touched my first blog. I created that to keep my family, particularly those out of state/overseas, updated on our baby and her astounding cuteness. I got lazy pretty quickly once those far flung relatives joined Facebook. 'Tis far easier to share a billion pictures - which is what I'd take in a day, I think - over the FB. So, it was left by the wayside, though I'm happy to have it as a time capsule of that period.

This blog is the culmination of a few things. I've been cooking a lot, lately. And I'm being inspired a lot by some of the amazing food/cooking blogs that are floating around out here in cyberland. I've also given birth to another baby, and am officially in the worst shape of my life. I know something has to change. Something's got to give. But it doesn't have to be yummy food, right?

Here's the thing. I've always struggled with my weight. Some of it is genetic. Some of it is my deep love for salami and extra cheese pizza. Whatever. But I don't buy into the Oprah-esque philosophy of "I eat to fill a void" or "I eat for comfort". Ummm..I eat because it is delicious. I like food. I like that I like food. Food makes me happy because food is nummy. Leading up to my wedding, and in the year following, I lost over 90 pounds. I did it by counting calories, playing tennis, and not beating myself up or denying myself something I really wanted.

I gained it all back between my two pregnancies, and guess what? It's a lot harder to take off and play two hours of tennis now. And by 'a lot harder' I mean 'Hahahahahahaha...what did you say again?'. My body chemistry is different. My body is different. It's a whole new world. But I know it can be done, because I've done it. All journeys start with a single step, and all that. So, let's get this show on the road!

This is a cooking blog that married a weight loss blog and had little tasty babies. Some things will be healthy. Some recipes will require two packages of cream cheese. Because life should not be lived in extremes, but dancing somewhere in the middle, laughing its fool head off.

(Also, this blog might go on tangents about Mad Men. Sorry.)