Table manners

Charlotte is an old pro at self-feeding - with her fingers. I'm introducing the concept of using a spoon to feed herself. I know she understands what to do.

 See? She put the spoon in the container all by herself, too. Sometimes she uses the wrong end, but the result is the same.

Apparently, though, it wasn't fast enough. Pretty soon after this picture, she got both hands in the action.

 This is how she let me know she was finished. Bib, spoon, and yogurt container, all on the floor. The cat enjoyed it, even if Charlotte didn't.

Motivation.

We all have different motivators. Some of us are motivated by the desire to do a good job. Others of us are motivated by food.


I'd say it's pretty obvious what her motivation is.

iPhone readers: click here.

Thanksgiving 2012

It's deer season up in New York, and for as long as I can remember, Matt has spent Thanksgiving week at his parents' so that he can go hunting. In years past, I've spent Thanksgiving with my family in DC, but we thought it'd be nice to spend it all together. So, Thanksgiving morning found me, Charlotte, and Gus in the car driving out to the Finger Lakes. 

She was great in the car - because I am so, so smart! We left at naptime. Genius here, folks. She slept for two hours, and was awake and annoyed for the final thirty minutes. Totally tolerable, though. 

Matt and I spent a few hours in a ground blind. I was so incredibly hopeful I was going to be his good luck charm. No dice. We did eventually see a few deer several hundred yards in the distance (I think. I mean, it's not like I had a measuring tape) but that was after the sun had officially set, signalling the end of the hunting day. We left Charlotte with Grandma, who managed to not only get her to sleep, but got her dressed once she woke up. 

Charlotte doesn't look it here, but she was beyond thrilled to be eating Thanksgiving foods. I swear, she got the stuffing in her mouth as fast as I could get it on the tray! 

And she figured out very quickly how to let us know she was all done. 

Not my child.

Clearly this is not my child. No child of mine would display such enthusiasm when presented with broccoli.

Charlotte eats breakfast

 Charlotte gets serious about eating her Cheerios.

I'll take a full serving of veg, please.

Our Unjust August healthy living/weightloss competition is going swimmingly. I'm really enjoying the extra push to get 3 servings of veggies in every day, but wow, do I get tired of plain old salad all the time. So, I am branching out into the "vegetable" categories of my cookbooks.

This is the beginning of my new favorite sandwich.

This is my new favorite sandwich. Grilled zucchini, red peppers, green peppers, onions, on a ciabatta roll with fresh pesto and some herbed chevre. I then make Matt grill the sandwiches. Last night we made SIX of them, and we feasted at dinner and again today at lunch.

Seriously, folks. Holy cow that is a fantastic sandwich.

It's what's for breakfast

A few weeks ago, upon realizing that Matt was eating hot oatmeal with peanut butter for breakfast four days a week (gag), I offered to make him some overnight oats. He seemed to like them, so I thought I'd give them a try.

Yuck.

I guess I just don't really care for oatmeal? I don't know exactly what I disliked, but they were narsty.

But I was a little jealous of his healthy breakfast. Plus, let's be honest - for the past year I've been almost exclusively eating Cheerios for breakfast, and I was ready for a change. So I got to looking around the internet, as one does, and found this recipe for breakfast cookies. I liked it because it didn't have eggs, flour, much sugar, and looked as though it could be eaten in the car. That last one was hugely important to me, because 3 days out of 5, I forget to eat breakfast in my rush to get out the door.

After talking about making them for the past week, I finally broke down and actually did it last night.

Verdict: tas-tee!

I modified the original recipe a fair amount, because I only had one banana. I combined the following in a large bowl:
1 mashed banana
~2/3 c unsweetened applesauce (mine was homemade and chunky)
2 c old fashioned oats
A generous handful of chopped walnuts
A slightly more-than-generous handful of Ghiradelli mini chocolate chips
An obscene amount of cinnamon (I shook that shaker til the batter was covered!)
~1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Then I scooped out 9 cookies onto a cookie sheet, and baked at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Next time, I'll probably reduce the applesauce to about 1/2 cup, and add a dash of salt.

I'm working from home today, so I didn't need a transportable breakfast, but I enjoyed my 2 cookies regardless!

A little brag.

I (try to) go grocery shopping once a week, on Mondays. I usually spend anywhere between $40 and $75 a week on this one trip, and let's be honest here - I usually go on Saturday, too, so we have food for the weekend.

Now that I'm working again and paying for childcare, my budget is just a bit more snug than it used to be. So I decided that this week, I'd shoot for having a minimal grocery list. I was a little more careful than usual in creating my menu plan, taking into account what I have growing in the garden and hiding in the pantry.

• Monday: hot dogs and broccoli slaw. 
• Tuesday: homemade taco pizza and homemade pepperoni pizza, and salad. 
• Wednesday: shredded bbq chicken, cornbread, salad.
• Thursday: Swiss chard fritatta and skillet potatoes
• Friday: Reuben sandwiches on the grill, and extra kraut on the side for a veggie.

We have fruits (apples and bananas and strawberries) and veggies (carrots and fresh peas) for snacks during the week. Lunches each day are leftovers, except for Friday when Matt treats himself. Breakfast is oatmeal for Matt and Cheerios for me.

Would you believe that I spent under $16 for our meals for the workweek?!

This astonishing feat was possible because I used a lot of home-grown or home-canned foods. With the exception of Monday, every dinner had home-grown produce. I have canned corned venison and canned sauerkraut for Friday. I made the pizza dough, and finished some venison taco meat I'd frozen last May (!).

This meal plan was also a good way to use up all the little odds and ends of stuff that we seem to always have laying around. Half a pack of hot dog buns, a couple mostly-empty bags of shredded cheese. I also finished a bottle of Worcestershire sauce while making the bbq chicken.

I am so, so proud of my mad meal planning and shopping skills, and I hope you are, too!

A visitor!

My very dear friend and Charlotte's surrogate Auntie Lottie came up from Brooklyn for a visit on Saturday. The three of us dared Albany's annual Tulip Fest, and had a blast. We mostly did a lot of Charlotte watching and a lot of people watching.

And we ate some fried pickles.

It was a great day.

Road trip!

We are taking our first road trip en famille this weekend, to go visit M's family in the Finger Lakes. Gus, Charlotte, M, me, and a whole lot of stuff will be squeezing into my not-so-big hatchback for the 2.5 hour drive. Here is everything we are taking:

What's astonishing is that really, the volume of stuff is no greater than it was before Charlotte. It's just different stuff.

I will admit, I'm a little nervous about the trip. The drive itself isn't a concern - she's a champ in the car. I'm more worried about how she'll react to having 15+ people around her during her fussy time. Hopefully she'll take a good couple naps in the morning to prepare herself!

As for me, I will have to go for a run tomorrow to prepare myself. I know that the weekend will be packed full of yummy food. I know that because I am bringing this cake:

Well, ok, I'm bringing the remainder of the 9x13 pan. I had to make sure it was ok! It's an applesauce cake from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love it so much that last year when I made applesauce, I froze it in the exact amounts needed to make the cake. Usually I would frost this bad boy with cream cheese frosting, but it's pretty good as a snack cake without the extra calories. And, let's be honest, I can't make cream cheese frosting because I eat half of it before it gets on the cake. So good!

A soupy mess

It's not 75 degrees in March anymore, but it's still super sunny and nice out (who ever thought DC Joie would think 44 degrees was nice out?). The second half of my strenuous hill walk, I was filled with anticipation - I was going to have such a good lunch.

It doesn't look like much, but this soup, which was supposed to be southwestern chicken tacos from the crockpot except I added broth when I shouldn't have, was absolutely delicious for dinner last night. Especially with some Tostitos on the side.

So imagine my sadness when I opened the bag of chips and this is all I found:

I mean, talk about your portion control!

And, in case you want a really delicious and stupidly simple recipe, here's how I made the soup (which can also be used, drained, as taco or quesadilla filling):

Place the following in a large-ish slow cooker

• frozen chicken breasts (I used 2, which is plenty for several meals)
• small bag frozen corn
• 2 cans black beans
• 1 can chicken broth (I used some brown turkey stock I made last year)
• 1 jar salsa (highly recommend Pace's Garlic & Lime Verde Restaurant Style)
• 1 packet Goya Sazon, sin achiote

Cook for 8 hours on low. Remove chicken and shred, then add back in.

See? Stupidly easy. And it's a total freezer/pantry meal that literally requires no preparation.

Taco pizza.

Charlotte is going through a fussy stage, so today I've been wearing her so that she'll sleep. I sat down to my lunch of (super delicious homemade taco) pizza and thought, man, it'd be funny if I blogged about how I never realized what a messy eater I was until I started eating and baby wearing.

And then I looked down.

True story.

Decisions, decisions.

M. brought home a large tub of Nutella last week, reason 48,348 I love him.

I really, really want to bake something with it, but am so incredibly torn on what to make! I asked him if I should do a nutella pound cake or cookies. His response? Yes. To an either-or question. Cute, mister. So I'm still stumped as to what to bake. I googled "Nutella recipe" and came across a fantastic site: www.nutelladay.com

Reason 1 it's fantastic: it celebrates World Nutella Day (February 5). I have now decided I would like my daughter to be born on this day. What better way to commemorate her birth than with a jarful spoonful of Nutella? Plus, it would give me an automatic theme for future birthday cakes. I hereby claim Feb. 5 as my day in the pool we have going on when she'll actually be born. FYI, Feb. 11, 12, and 14 are taken.

Reason 2 it's fantastic: 27 breakfast recipes that incorporate Nutella; 43 Nutella brownie recipes; too many cookie recipes to count; etc. There's even a category for savory and pizza recipes, for crying out loud!

This has not made my decision any easier.

A debt of gratitude.

The past nine months have been pretty low-key when it comes to wacky food cravings. In the beginning, I wanted Cheerios, and lots of 'em. I didn't want sweets, which was completely unlike me. And I legit craved veggies and cold foods. There was a two week period where I really, really wanted Roy Rogers fried chicken. Now that I'm counting down the days (cough 15 cough), my imagination has started to get the better of me.

An actual thought that ran through my head while driving home from work on Friday:
"I want ice cream. Vanilla ice cream. With, hmmm, chocolate-covered potato chips or pretzels, and salted caramel."

Figuring that the chances of such a concoction actually existing were slim, I stopped at our local Stewart's to see what they offered. They carry their own ice cream, and have some very delicious flavors. Nothing came close to my vision of perfection, though, so I continued my quest at the grocery store.

The ice cream aisle there is a beautiful thing. So many different kinds! So many different price points! I started at one end and worked my way down, feeling more and more hopeless as I approached the last section. I skimmed the pint-size cartons of Ben and Jerry's, knowing in my heart of hearts that this very specific craving would go unsatisfied, and I'd have to make do with something like Peanut Butter Cup Explosion (delicious, but not on point). And then, I swear to you, the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah was piped over the sound system in Hannaford and a magical amber spotlight appeared over a pint of...

Ben and Jerry's Late Night Snack. Vanilla bean ice cream, fudge covered potato chip clusters, and a salty caramel swirl.

Seriously, thank you, Ben and Jerry, for fulfilling a pregnancy craving that I thought for sure could never be fulfilled.

On homemade 'gourmet' food

Sometimes, restaurants elevate simple dishes to higher planes than are typically achieved at home. Sandwiches, to me, are included in this list of foods. Mostly the sandwiches I make look like this:

1 slice bread, lettuce (optional), 2 slices cheese, 3 slices lunch meat, butter, 1 slice bread.





Definitely not gourmet. Cheap, but not particularly appetizing. Sometimes these sandwiches are made better by heating, either in the toaster or in a skillet. Those are usually pretty tasty. Still, it's no wonder I rarely have sandwiches!

Recently, I embarked upon a quest to improve my sandwiches. It started with building a better quesadilla. Using a Burger's Smokehouse Hickory Smoked Turkey Breast (seriously, one of the best Christmas gifts ever) as a base, I added some brie and spinach. The spinach was a lame attempt to add a vegetable, but it worked out well. My friend gifted us some raspberry jalapeno jelly, which made a really delectable foil to the smoky/salty flavors. Those were some damn fine quesadillas.

A week later, I had some bread that needed using, and a sudden urge to have a grilled cheese. So, fighting the urge to simply slap some sharp American cheese between two slices of white Italian, I re-created the quesadilla as a sandwich.

Tell me that doesn't look more gourmet than my usual sandwich. I owe a shout-out to my mother, who taught me how to achieve the perfect golden brown color on grilled cheese sandwiches. Thanks, mom! And yes, that is the dog's hairy face in the lower left. I'm not the only one who thought it smelled good.

For me, I think the secret to a pseudo-gourmet meal, one that makes me feel like I'm eating takeout, is to include condiments that I wouldn't usually use on a sandwich. Sprouts, for example, or that raspberry jalapeno jelly.  This year I'm going to try to actually consume some of the pickles and jams I make, instead of just admiring them on the shelf. Adding them to simple meals seems like the only way I'll achieve this goal.

But I need help - what other easy changes can I make so that my usual meals seem a little more UNusual?

Pounti auvergnat

My post-undergrad time in France was spent in a region called the Auvergne (more specifically, Cantal). It's very rural, and the regional foodscape was filled with hearty, stick-to-the-ribs meals. The better to fuel a day spent on the farm! Or, in my case, taking 3 hour walks every day I wasn't working.

I lived with a host family, and they 100% brought me into the fold. We had Sunday dinner at Tata Nenette's every week - my host mother's aunt, who had to be at least 80. Tata Nenette was, like all the women in that family, an amazing cook. It was at her table that I first tasted pounti. Roughly translated from fr.wikipedia.org:

This dish is a perfect example of a single country food that melds sweet and salty, and is great for brown-bag meals eaten far from home. It is a pate or terrine that combines a batter of flour, eggs, and milk with swiss chard, bits of pork, and prunes. It's traditionally eaten cold or lightly pan-fried in slices, accompanied by a salad. It can also be eaten as a side dish with roast chicken.

Thanks to pregnancy, prunes started holding a special appeal for me last week. I'd never eaten them out of hand, though, and was nervous to try them. I did know I liked pounti, and it seemed like an excellent thing to take for lunch. I looked for recipes in my multiple French cook books, and struck out, so I turned to Google. Quelle surprise! Over at Chocolate and Zucchini, I found a promising recipe. I combined it with others that I found online, and created my masterpiece.

Only it wasn't so masterful. It smelled FANTASTIC coming out of the oven, but it did not unmold well, which really causes me to feel like a complete failure in the kitchen. I hate when things stick to the pan (this post brought to you by Pam cooking spray. I wish). It did taste good, though. But I found there were several things that I will be changing the next time I make it... I'll post my recipe once I finalize it.

 It's short because I don't have a proper terrine, so I made it in a loaf pan. Also because the bottom inch stuck to the pan. And yes, those are extra prunes on the side. I made M. try it, and he said he thought it needed more onion, but mostly liked it.

Overall, my pounti cantalou is tasty and filled with fiber (which, after all, was the point), but there's room for improvement. Specifically:

• more chard
• less meat
• higher temp for shorter time

Still, it was well worth the effort, and I'm looking forward to making it again.

Thanksmas recap

1. I'm never not spatchcocking a turkey again. So moist! So fast! It did garner a lot of comments about where I acquired a roadkill turkey, though...Also note that his ankles are hanging off the cookie sheet. I made him little leg warmers out of foil to try to prevent turkey grease from dripping onto the bottom of my oven. One was successful, one was not. At least now I can enjoy the fragrant scent of roast turkey every time I turn on the oven.

 2. The andouille dressing was fantastic. I deviated from the recipe somewhat, because I felt the proportions were off for what I had in mind. What you see below was only slightly more than the recipe called for in terms of add-ins, so I put in half again as much cornbread as required. Rave reviews.

3. I really, really love having other people bring food. Thanks for the help, girls!

4. We played a most excellent game called Smart Ass. Heartily recommend for trivia-minded and non-trivia-minded folk alike.