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CEiMB: Aromatic Beef Stew with Butternut Squash

2011-03-10T10:54:00.003-05:00

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Aromatic Beef Stew with Butternut Squash, hosted by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

I had to make just a few subs to make this dish vegetarian. I used a meat substitue that I haven't used before, from a company in NY that I order all sorts of un-meat stuff from. I wasn't crazy about it, which is a drag because I LOVED this stew. And I used veggie broth instead of beef, and forgot to add the sliced almonds, but other than that I made the recipe as written. Oh, and I didn't bother with the parsley. And I didn't have pepper flakes so I added a bit of cayenne. So, um, I guess not quite exactly as written. I will most definitely try it again with a different meat substitute that we like more -- I can see this one becoming a regular winter meal.

I did not take a picture because I made this in a frenzy after work last night and we were a little late getting dinner on the table, so it just got dished out (to Josh and me) and gobbled in a flash. Delma has gotten very good about trying new things, and actually asked me to give her some of this to try. She liked it, but not enough to ask for more than a taste. But still, good girl!

This was a great pick, thanks Kayte! Please visit Kayte's blog for the recipe.

I heart scones

2011-02-05T14:50:00.003-05:00

Back in December I saw Beth's post on Proper British Scones and printed out the recipe. The Hattonettes aren't into overly sweet breakfasts, and have tried scones before and liked them (though the slightly sweeter ones you get in coffee shops here in the US), so I really wanted to try these. Last weekend I finally did, and I am hooked. We all loved them. They really aren't sweet at all, and are delicious by themselves or with butter or with a little fancy jam. There's nothing we've tried on them that has not been delicious.

This morning I used a small heart cookie cutter to make some little cuties (the one in the pic has some Bonne Mama blueberry preserves in the middle, nom nom nom). We also have yet to try a shape that isn't completely delicious. Next time we will try flowers or stars, and I suspect that they, too, will be awesome.

CEiMB: Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce

2011-01-28T07:07:00.005-05:00

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce, hosted by Jessica of Learning to Love Vegetables.

This was so insanely simple and so yummy. I loved it. Definitely one of my favorite Ellie recipes. It makes a lot of sauce, and I knew the kids wouldn't try it, so I only mixed 2 servings of pasta with the sauce for our dinner last night and put the rest of the sauce in the freezer. I hope it will freeze well. Thanks for a really great pick, Jessica!

Baby Gifts

2011-01-24T21:59:00.002-05:00

A good friend and his wifey had their first wee babe a few months ago, and so I had to bust out some baby gifts. My old stand-by is burp cloths. My favorite way to do these is to buy those nice thick flannel cloth diapers, and just sew fabric to size, flip it inside out and topstitch all around. I always have some on-hand so I can sew some up in a pinch if I need a baby gift. Not complicated, but very cute. It's nice to feel somewhat fancy when someone is vomiting on you in public.

And I made a patchwork baby blanket, with minky on the back. Oh, minky is the worst to work with! Cripes, it's awful, but is is so lovely and cuddly-cozy, so, what are you gonna do?

I used a charm pack of Amy Butler stuff, and stamped on some linen squares. I picked an exerpt from favorite poem from one of our Mother Goose books. I think it's maybe called I Had a Little Nut Tree:

I skipped over water
I danced over sea
And all the birds in the air
Couldn't catch me

These blankets are great. They're cuddly for the babes, and they can be used for a play mat, and then kids can use them for baby dolls... I'm hoping wee Sylvia will love and use it for many years.

CEIMB: Walnut and Dried Cherry Bars

2011-01-16T07:05:00.000-05:00

Hey CEiMP-ers -- forgive me PLEASE for this late posting. This has pretty much been one of the worst weeks of my life. I was incredibly ill and have barely been able to move for days. Total nightmare. But the antibiotics are kicking in and I almost feel human again.

So! This past week was my turn to host over at Craving Ellie in my Belly. My pick was the Walnut and Dried Cherry Bars, on p. 40 of So Easy (recipe at end of post).

I did not love these. I see that a lot of people really did, so maybe I should try them again. They were a little too soft for me, I'd try baking them a little longer next time, and maybe try a different kind of preserves. I feel badly picking a recipe and then not digging it, but oh well, they can't all be keepers.

I'm looking forward to reading through everyone else's posts (when I can look at the computer for more than 2 minutes without feeling like puking! Bon apetit!).

Walnut and Dried Cherry Bars

Ingredients
1 cup quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or regular whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten to mix
1 egg white
3/4 cup chopped dried tart cherries
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
Cooking spray
1/4 cup "fruit only" apricot preserves

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, wheat germ, cinnamon and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the honey, applesauce, oil, egg and egg white until well combined. Stir in the oatmeal mixture until well combined. Add the dried cherries and walnuts.

Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out

clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Put the preserves in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as the bars come out of the oven, brush with the preserves. Cool completely and cut into 12 bars, about 4 by1 1/2 inches each.

Home Project

2011-01-10T20:52:00.003-05:00

I read Bonnie's post tonight: The Home Project. Go check it out, it's a great idea. It's easy to let time in a marriage just by so quickly, to take it for granted in these days of life with wee ones and all the craziness they bring. She plans to chronicle her marriage through photos, weekly, and I am thinking of playing along.

This is part of the mayhem on our bathroom counter right now as Josh packs for tomorrow's business trip that will keep him away from home for 5 days. HGe travels regularly, but the trips aren't usually this long. And on top of the general stress that comes along with him being away, Delma is sick, I am sick, and we are expecting a huge snow storm. Oy.

But, the glasses... After Josh and I got married, we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. When we were flying out, I looked over at him at one point and he had fallen asleep reading, with his glasses on. I took his glasses off of his face and carefully stashed them. And then I was struck with that one small act. That this man and I would be doing big things and also these smallest things for each other for the rest of our lives. That there's someone to take my glasses off of me when I fall asleep reading. For people who have grown up feeling attended to and cared for, this may be nothing. To me, it is everything.

CEIMB: Mushroom Barley Soup

2011-01-06T22:45:00.001-05:00

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Mushroom Barley Soup, hosted by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker.

The recipe as written is actually Beef Mushroom Barley Soup, but since we're veg I left out the beef. If I were going to make this again I'd replace the beef with a meat alternative or with beans, but this time around I just left it out altogether. It was good, it was hearty and satisfying. It was also super-easy to throw together. But it wasn't particularly exciting, probably because it was missing so much flavor that the beef would have provided.

I didn't take any pitures, because I made it so late the other night that it wasn't ready in time for dinner. So I just packed it up for lunches, and soup in a take-out container on my office desk does not make for an appealing photo.

Check out Jennifer's blog for the recipe.

CEIMB: White (Turkey) Chili

2010-12-30T20:04:00.005-05:00

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is White Turkey Chili, hosted by Leslie of Lethally Delicious.

As we're vegetarian, I replaced the turkey with TVP. I couldn't find poblano peppers, so since I wasn't sure what a good replacement would be, I just skipped the peppers altogether. And then when I was dishing it up tonight I forgot the sour cream. I liked this chili, and Josh liked it a lot. I think I'll like it more when I have it for lunch tomorrow and remember the sour cream.

For me, "real" chili is and always will be red with tomatos, since that's what I grew up on. But this really is a nice change from the norm, and came together quickly and easily (I chopped the onion and celery this morning so I could just throw it all together tonight). It would make a good winter weekend lunch, served up with some crusty bread. And hominy, hello? This was my first foray into the world of hominy and I would rate it a success.

Check out Leslie's blog for the recipe. In the timeless words of Yo Gabba Gabba, "Try it, you'll like it!" Thanks, for a great pick, Leslie!

Popover Morning

2010-12-25T08:56:00.003-05:00

Oh, these Hattonettes. They wake up ready to GO and it is exhausting. They do not appreciate my need to ease into my morning.

Exhibit A. Picture taken around 6:45 this morning, after getting up at 6:30 and making a bee-line for the Halloween face paints. Do the math.

So, there's that. And 2 minutes later she demanded I take it off, and I had to rub her face raw with baby wipes to get (most of) it off.

Then I decided it was a popover morning, and thankfully I had printed out the recipe from the Parents Magazine web site ages ago, because now the link to it is dead. I do not get a dozen, as the recipe says, but they sure are tasty. They are very eggy, much more-so than I recall from making them before, and the girls did not dig them. But at least they tried them, which made me happy. And of course the best part was using the sifter to make the sugar snow on them.

Sufganiyot!

2010-12-04T08:34:00.004-05:00

I decided to try my hand at sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), and picked Martha Stewart's Glittered Sufganiyot. They're little, the size of D&D Munchkins. I didn't end up using all of the dough, because I knew we would not eat a kajillion of them. And mine do NOT look like Martha's, but, I'm not going to lie, they are delicious.

I filled half of them with strawberry jam, and left the other half empty. I'm glad I finally had the guts to try this, it will be a great Hanukkah tradition now that I know how easy they are.

Handmade Hanukkah

2010-12-02T06:35:00.005-05:00

As usual, I went overboard on gifts for the girls. It's a good thing they're spread out over 8 nights. We mostly bought stuff, but I wanted to make sure to get some handmade gifts in, too.

Monogram pillows for the girls. I think they came out cute, the only think I don't like is that the spray adhesive I used to put the paper template onto the fabric when making the applique sort of stained the fabric and makes it look like there are wet spots. Oh well, we can live with that.

I made the pillow cases with an envelope closure, so I can easily take them off for washing and can swap them out when I eventually get off my butt and make them different covers for holidays. I used chenille for the back, and instead of just hemming it on the side that overlaps, I used pieces of the front fabric to bind it.

And I made them the set of Patty Young Potty Girls, and dresses for them.

I don't know if it's because I have a low-end machine or what, but I could NOT hem these dresses. The knit fabric with the tiny hem would literally just get sucked down into the machine by my feed dogs every time, no matter what I did. I could have tried the serger, but didn't bother. I just sewed them at the shoulders and up the sides and left all the hems unfinished. I'm sure after a while they'll get ratty looking though, so I'll have to figure something out.

The girls are really into their baby dolls these days, so I wasn't sure whether they'd be very impressed with these dolls. Well, they were, and the whole sharing situation got a bit hairy. But this year they're getting quite a few gifts that are for both of them together, so they'll just have to learn to deal with it.

I got each of the girls a gift to give to each other, baby doll-related paraphenalia, and they were very sweet about thanking each other and telling each other how much they liked their gifts. So precious. They are such good little sisters. Last week Delma did something to upset Mimi, and Mimi said, "Delma is not my friend!" Delly just shrugged it off and said, "Well, I'm always going to be your sister." Heart.

Hanukkah Sameach!

2010-12-01T20:20:00.003-05:00

First night of Hanukkah! It's been hard to get into the spirit of the wintery festivities when we just had Thanksgiving and some days it's still warm enough to be outside without a jacket. That freaking lunar calender is whack. Anyhoo! Hanukkah is here, ready or not.

We had a lovely first night, complete with light and music and gifts and good food and tantrums and unwillingness to share aforementioned gifts. Sigh.

Also since we interrupted a coloring session with dinner, there was lots of "Put down the crayons and eat your dinner." Again, sigh.

That there husband of mine is all about the latkes, we try different recipes every year. Tonight were some potato and onion ones with mustard seeds, and a batch of some apple and potato latkes. Both vegan (we're not vegan, it just worked out that way), and both DELISH. Of couse, I'm sure just about anything would be delicious if you fried it up and drowned it in sour cream and apple sauce.

Nom nom nom.

Happy Hanukkah!

30 Days of Happy: Day 16

2010-11-16T21:34:00.002-05:00

How the hell is it 9:30? Crap, I need some sleep. I wanted to start sewing together the sweet patchwork baby blanket I'm making, but the night got away from me. After the girls went to bed tonight I had some un-fun chores to do, and my time just got sucked into some black hole.

I also have spent far too much time searching online for Snoopy stuffed animals, books, various accessories. Did you know it's like impossible to just find a cute, reasonably priced stuffed Snoopy? What gives? The girls have just discovered SNoopy this year and both love him. We pretend to cry like Snoopy, and it cracks them up. But, we are certainly well past his hay-day. I had a stuffed Snoopy when I was little, and they used to make outfits for him and stuff... But no more. Hmpf. The search continues.

30 Days of Happy: Day 15

2010-11-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Josh is out of town for a few days, so between the morning hustle, craziness at work, and the evening hustle, I am pooped. Tonight I decided to pull out the past few years' worth of MS Living and special supplemental issues. I don't have tons of people to do gifts for, but I really do need to buckle down and make a plan. Plus, Hanukkah is quite literally right around the corner, which is totally messing with my head. So many great recipes and projects, I need to narrow down the list.

Oy, my commitment to this NaBloPoMo is so lame. Oh well. Though I may not be reporting much here, and may not have an awful lot to show for myself, this idea of doing or focusing on something that makes me happy every day has been really good for me. It's forcing me out of my usual slump of just parking myself on the couch until bedtime every night. I'm still doing quite a bit of that, frankly, but I'm also a bit more alert and engaged at night, spending some time on projects etc. So maybe this month isn't shaping up to be a particularly successful month of blogging per se, but it is helping me personally. So, hurray! But, I still have another half a month to go. Stay tuned.

30 Days of Happy: Day 14

2010-11-14T20:34:00.003-05:00

Delly and I have been talking about making a gingerbread house, and I intended to make one from scratch, but then I saw pre-made Wilton houses for $9 and figured we could just do that. Delma is only interested in decorating it anyway, so who cares. And it was just staring at her this morning, taunting her with it's potential fun and mess, and she HAD to make it. So I was frosting a gingerbread house before 8 am. Oy. It did come out pretty cute, though.

30 Days of Happy: Day 13

2010-11-13T23:13:00.004-05:00

So, weird day today. I had to have my cat Blau put to sleep. She was 15 years old, a total whackadoo, and was a scrappy, feisty little bugger up to the end. RIP, Blau.

Josh is out playing a gig tonight, and I thankfully had made plans for myself. A good friend came over after dinner to hang out, have a beer and snackies and do some crafting. I got basically nothing done except figuring out the layout of a patchwork baby blanket I'm making. So, I guess that's better than nothing? And it was lovely having some nice chillaxing lady time, especially after the surreal day I had.

30 Days of Happy: Day 12

2010-11-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

Crazy work day, followed by frantic scrambling to pick up kids, clean house, get showered and dressed and prepare for dinner guests.

So, in place of my usual drivel, please amuse yourself by going to youtube and looking at videos of funny cats and dogs.

30 Days of Happy: CEIMB / Day 11

2010-11-11T17:03:00.003-05:00

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe was Whole-wheat Pasta Salad with Walnuts and Feta Cheese, hosted by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

I don't super-love whole wheat pasta, but I buy it in bulk at Costco and the kids thankfully never complain about it, so it's what we use most of the time these days. I made this when we had some friends over for lunch last weekend, and it was simple to throw together and tasted great. I will definitely make this one again, and I bet it would be even better if it were made in advance so the flavors had time to meld. Great pick, Kayte!

30 Days of Happy: Day 10

2010-11-10T21:56:00.002-05:00

Tonight I started work on a gift for a new little girly bundle of joy. It involves fabric stamping, patchwork, and most likely -- lordy, I can't believe I'm about to say this -- minky. That minky crap drives me batty, it is an absolute nightmare to sew and sends pounds of fluff into your eyes and nose in a most horrific fashion. But it makes for great baby gifty stuff, it really does. Send prayers.

30 Days of Happy: Day 9

2010-11-09T20:57:00.004-05:00

Tonight I took the girls out for their first Olive Garden experience. I had mentioned the breadsticks to Delma once, and she's been wanting to go there and see them for herself, these magical breadsticks. And she *loves* eating in restaurants, it's become this weird obsession with her, she begs and pleads and cries to go out to eat. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess should maybe be insulting? Though she does praise me for my pasta-boiling skills, so maybe I shouldn't read too much into it.

Anyway, the breadsticks were a hit. Mimi kept calling them "hot dogs" and they both left with half a breadstick clenched in their paws, carrying them like treasures.

Then we hit Michaels to score some Halloween stuff on sale. I got tons of cookie cutters for next to nothing. I also got some nice glittery paper to make a Hanukkah decoration.

And now I get to relax with this little treasure of my own, who arrived in the mail today.

Isn't she lovely? Little Girls, Big Style by the fab Craft Addict herself, Mary Abreu. I just thumbed through it and LOVE it. She has it brilliantly divided into 4 basic pieces: bodice top, peasant top, pants, and skirt. And then there are scads of variations on each piece for endless combos. And full-size patterns, to boot. Come on, what's not to love?

30 Days of Happy: Day 8

2010-11-08T21:15:00.004-05:00

I have been trying to get in the habit of picking up crafty stuff on sale after holidays, like all those different foam shape kits they always have at craft stores for making all sorts of random decorations and crap. They rarely result in things that we actually keep, but they're great time-killers in a pinch. I had a kit for making kajillions of foam Halloween finger puppets, which I forgot about until the other day. So yesterday afternoon Delma and I busted it out and made a bunch of them, then when Mimi woke up we made the witches scare the ghosts, and the ghosts scare the witches, and made them play hide and seek... I had 2 kids so that they could play together and I could sit on the couch reading books or checking email, but somehow I get roped into playing these games. Not fair! I paid my dues in many months of heartburn, and a lifetime of stretch marks, damn it. But I digress.

I tried to get Delma to let me make a third ghost, so that we could act out the Three Little Ghostesses poem, but she would not consent. And she was clearly in charge, so that was that.

Three little ghostesses
Sitting on postesses,
Eating buttered toastesses

Greasing their fistesses
Up to their wristesses.

Oh, what beastesses
To make such feastesses!

30 Days of Happy: Day 7

2010-11-07T21:33:00.004-05:00

This morning we had our Torah Tots program at our Temple. It was very cute, it was my turn to host the craft and the kids all made very cute (and VERY messy) projects.

Delma has been wanting to have a birthday party for her Bitty Baby (whose name is Bibby Baby), and wanted to invite her best friend Ryan. He was coming to Torah Tots today, so I invited his family to come over for lunch afterward. Mimi's best friend happens to be Ryan's little sister, so the kids all adore each other and get along great, and their parents have become good friends of ours. The kids had a blast playing, we all had fun, and Delma got to have her party.

She and Ryan blew out Bibby's candles together.

And here's Delly yelling goodbye out the window to our friends, while Mimi obsessively blows one of those damn birthday horns. You can also see part of our Torah Tots project in the window.

A good day. A good weekend. But I am so shot tonight that I totally bailed on the first day of Pillow Week. That's not a good start by any standard. We'll see if I can get it together tomorrow.

30 Days of Happy: Day 6

2010-11-06T23:54:00.000-04:00

Today was a doozy of a day, in a good way. No time to write much.

This morning I FINALLY used the spa gift that Josh gave me months ago for my 30th (ha!) birthday. I learned that:
1. Body scrubs are very, um, scrubby. Like, really scrubby.
2. The pumpkin facial is worth every penny.

So, after several hours of getting pampered and falling in and out of consciousness in a cozy, dimly-lit room, I had to go home to hustle and get some stuff done for tomorrow. I am hosting our Temple's Torah Tots program in the morning, and then we're having some friends over to have lunch and to have a birthday party for Delma's Bitty Baby. Much prep was required:
1. Drew Stars of David on over 20 pieces of construction paper
2. Started to cut some of them out, will leave that for the morning. Oy.
3. Cut up about 8 different colored sheets of tissue paper into tiny little bits
4. Baked chocolate chip cookies
5. Baked chocolate cookies with white chips
5. (That is a lot of cookies!)
6. Forgot to eat dinner
7. Washed and blew-dry hair and got made-up and dressed
8. Went to a Homebrew Beer Party

We have some friends who brew beer every year, and then have a party to share it all. This year there were 6 different beers, I tried 2 and they were both great. We had tons of fun, stayed way later than we planned to, and now I don't know what time it actually is with all this clock-setting nonsense. 'Night, y'all.

30 Days of Happy: Day 5

2010-11-05T21:26:00.002-04:00

I made challah today for tonight's Shabbat dinner. I don't make it every week, but I've been trying to as often as I can. We used to buy challah every week from a bakery in town that makes THE BEST challah (they actually are Italians who got the recipe from our former rabbi), and then the price started going up and up and when I started doing the math my inner cheapskate got into a bit of a twitch.

I love making our weekly challah for my family. I love being a mom who bakes, who makes. I work fulltime, I am no fabulous homemaker, I haven't made my kids' Halloween costumes. But my children don't think that cookies, cakes and brownies come from the supermarket or from a box, and when we sit down to Shabbat dinner and say our blessings, usually I have made our bread.

I want that to just be normal for them, I want them to grow up to be women who will feel compelled to make the same effort for their families, and it's my job to set that example. What things do you do for your families that you hope your children will do one day for theirs?

30 Days of Happy: CEIMB / Day 4

2010-11-04T21:06:00.003-04:00

Today is my dad's 73rd birthday. Man, that is freaking old. He comes over most Thursdays for pizza, so tonight was birthday pizza night. Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe was Mushroom, Onion and Basil Pizza. Perfect. So we ordered one pizza and I made a sad attempt at making this pizza.

The plan was to stop by the store after work to get needed ingredients, but it was cold and rainy and I'm a massive baby, so I just went home and figured I'd wing it. I made some sub-standard dough. I carmelized a sliced onion. I opened a can (yes, "can") of tomato sauce, I sauteed some kale from our CSA and I grabbed some shredded cheese from the freezer and made a pizza which was totally NOT the Ellie recipe. But it was not bad. Thanks for hosting, Joanne. The recipe looked great, it just wasn't in the cards for me today!

What else... I made a flourless chocolate cake which would have been awesome, but the pan I used was too small so it baked all jacked up. This was Mimi's face when she tasted it. Don't let that jerk fool you, she ended up polishing off the whole thing in about 2 minutes.

And here is what my dad's piece of cake looked like with the 7 little candles and the "3." The candles all barely fit on there.

Delly had fun after dinner playing with the little thingamajigs from our birthday ring (which I will talk more about soon, because I am so in love with that thing). The rooster was the "bad guy" but that's about as much as I could follow in the storyline there.

And this pic was just so cute. It pretty much sums up our world: A big ol' bottle of whisky, and Mimi stuffing a candle up Josh's nose. Good night!

30 Days of Happy: Day 3

2010-11-03T21:58:00.002-04:00

Oh, amd I supposed to be writing about something fun and happy-making that I did for myself today? Well, let's see...

I went to the library to get a book on Weaving, because I saw some really cool handwoven dishtowels on Etsy that made me think, Hey! I need another crafty hobby! So I tracked down a loom to borrow, and now it's in my house, and I have NO CLUE WHAT THE HELL TO DO WITH IT. So I found a book, which just made me realize that there is no way this is going to happen.

Then I decided to bake a flourless chocolate cake for my dad's birthday tomorrow. I tried out a Martha recipe, which OF COURSE required me to separate 6 eggs, which always makes me want to hurl. But I soldiered though, and then used a pan that's too small and I don't think it really baked right, and I just hope it's not a plate of poo when we slice into it tomorrow.

And then the final little Happy Heide thing I was going to do didn't happen because I don't have the right size Aida fabric to use for a cool x-stitch pattern I was going to bust out. Hmpf.

But I made the time and had the plans to do me-stuff, and I guess that's what counts? Or something.

30 Days of Happy: Day 2

2010-11-02T21:39:00.003-04:00

Today I made a huge committment. To Pillow Challenge Week. I will not be making a pillow a day (seriously??), but I can commit to spending some time each day on pillows. A long time ago a friend (Hi, Josefa!) told me that she was making a special pillow for her daughter for every holiday. Such a fabulous idea, no? I have been meaning to copy the idea for a long, long time.

So, this challenge will be the kick in the pants that I need. May as well start with Hanukkah pillows, considering it is LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY. Oy vay. Time to dig out my Hanukkah fabrics and maybe get some new stuff too.

Also! How cute is this little crafty idea for making a glittery menorah (actually Hanukkiah, I'll explain that to you Goys another day)? Gonna have to order some of these to get cracking on the holiday crafting. Glue and glitter, huzzah!

30 Days of Happy

2010-11-01T21:21:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I'm doing this, but I signed up for NaBloPoMo. G-d help me. A whole month of posting to my blog EVERY DAY, after having been such a monumental blogging slacker for the past, well, forever.

This is actually good timing for me, because I'm feeling like I have more physical and mental space lately to bust out and do more me-stuff. I've recently been going a bit hog-wild with craigslist and Freecycle and the clothing/shoes donation bins to clear up space in our house (not that anyone would notice, it's mostly been stored stuff that I'm getting rid of). And I've been organizing a bit to make my crafty corner in the family room more useable and less of an eye-sore, and to make more room for the girls to play. It's making me feel much lighter, and is motivating me to make more time to do things that make me feel good.

I hate to always sound like I'm complaining about Mimi, because I could seriously just explode from my uncontainable love for her, but she truly did bust our world right the hell up. She recently turned 2 and we (I) finally feel like we (especially I) can breathe. For so many months, most of my days have been consumed by the day-to-day crap, and by the end of the day, I am useless and can manage barely more than to drag my butt to the couch to watch TV and play Webkinz on my laptop. And while I really love having lazy-ass nights like that, I've been doing it way too much.

So. NaBloPoMo. I am committing to 30 Days of Happy. I will post about things I am doing, or thinking about, or reading about, that make me happy, so I can go to sleep at night knowing that I did more than just get through another day. I don't mean to make it all sound so dire, like I've been nothing but a sad lump for 2 years, that is just not the case. But I think I just need to make myself pay more attention to the little happy-making things in my days, feel more engaged, more consistently. Surely you know what I mean.

And now I am going to get into bed earlier than usual to read Kathy Griffin's _Book Club Selection_. I sure do loves me some Kathy, and I am loving this book so far. That seems like a good way to close Day 1 of Happy.

CEIMB: Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake

2010-09-30T22:02:00.002-04:00

Good grief, what a crazy week. I almost forgot to submit this post! Oh well, better late than really late!

My turn! So, my recipe choice for hosting Craving Ellie in my Belly this week was the Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake. Last time I hosted, I chose the Broccoli Cheddar Breakfast Bake. Both recipes are basically a strata-type recipe, tons of eggs over a hacked-up baguette, assemble the night before, soak overnight, bake in the morning. Are you noticing a trend? Hello, lazy breakfast lady.

I liked this recipe a lot. I don't know that I would make it just for our household, just for the hell of it, but it's a great brunch recipe for either hosting or for taking along as a guest. I made this a couple weeks ago for the Hattonette Birthday Brunch we had here with some of our family. I made the Broccoli Cheddar one again for the brunch too. It was great having them both, one sweet, one savory, both delicious. And please imagine, if you will, all the egg madness the night before, as I separated 8 eggs for EACH DISH. That is a LOT of disgusting gooey egg white nonsense (and a lot of wasted yolks, as I had no energy whatsoever to do anything with them). Blech. But as the (cough) transcendent homemaker that I am, I did it without complaint. Sort of. The point is, I did it.

So, did you Ellie groupies enjoy it?

Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake, from So Easy by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 whole-wheat baguette (about 18 inches long, 8 ounces), cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
8 large egg whites
2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Directions:
Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Arrange the bread in a single layer in the baking pan. Whisk together the eggs, egg whites, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan, spreading it around so the liquid saturates the bread. Scatter the blueberries evenly on top and sprinkle with the almonds and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Uncover the baking pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

Hello Cherry Garcia, my old friend

2010-09-28T20:45:00.004-04:00

I started to write a song tonight. It went nowhere fast. I'm thinking I'll hang onto my day job.

Hello Cherry Garcia, my old friend
I've come to chew on you again
Because the jerk-off cats are creeping
And the Hattonettes are sleeping
I just took out the garbage and did the dishes
(you'll pay, Josh Hatton)
Within the sound of Blau puking

Delma Turns Four

2010-08-27T08:28:00.005-04:00

Oh, Delly. My girl, you are 4 years old today. That may not blow your mind, but it certainly blows mine. You have turned my world upside-down and inside-out and sideways and back again. You made me a mother, you made me a mommy. You are named Delma because only another Delma could fill the hole in my heart, mend the part of me that broke when I lost my mom, your namesake. You fixed me, and then some. You have filled me to bursting with more love than I thought was possible.

Happy 4th Birthday, Rabbit!

CEiMB: Sloppy Joes

2010-08-12T19:53:00.003-04:00

Hi! Remember me? No? Well, yeah, so there's that. Anyhoo... I cooked! Actually I have been cooking and baking a bit lately. Not a ton, but a bit, and trying new recipes, but totally not having the energy to blog about it. Meh.

But! Hey, Sloppy Joes! This week's yummy Sloppy Joes pick for Craving Ellie in My Belly is from Chaya of Chaya's Comfy Food Blog.

Wait a second. I'm just watching last night's So You Think You Can Dance and that Lauren/Robbert dance routine with the pillow KILLED me. Holy crap. SO good!

OK, back to the Sloppy Joes... Loved this recipe! Delish. I halved the recipe, because I knew the Hattonettes wouldn't try it. They like their food unadulterated. No sauces. No stuff on their stuff or stuff touching their stuff. Sigh. Hopefully someday. But for now, for the most part the new recipes are for Josh and me. This recipe was very easy to cut, and I will make it again for sure. (Or maybe I should try a full batch and freezing leftovers?)

I used Morningstar Farms crumbles in place of the meat, which worked great. I don't know if that stuff would hold well in something like a meatloaf, but in this recipe it worked great. I used black-eyed peas for the beans. I didn't have any jalapeno or dry mustard, not sure how much of a difference it would make if I had used them. I'll try to remember to pick them up next time.

Thanks, Chaya, you picked a winner!

Angel Food Cake

2010-06-07T20:06:00.005-04:00

We went strawberry-picking yesterday morning. Our local pick-your-own just started up this past week, the berries were insanely bountiful, the sun was shining... It was just lovely. The girls ate them while we picked, and continued to eat piles of them in the car, starting before we even got out of the parking lot. They probably ate a few little spiders along with the berries, but whatever. (Also, very cute aside: Mimi's method of "picking" was to take berries out of my flat and go put them in Josh's.)

Strawberries don't keep very long so I wanted to make a shortcake or angel food cake to go with them. I decided on angel food cake, and figured I'd try baking one myself since they have like 2 ingredients in them (OK, 6) and I happened to have a lot of eggs in the fridge. I chose this recipe at random, I suspect they're all pretty much the same.

The one thing holding me back: separating the eggs. It grosses me out in such a big way. But I decided to pull up my big-girl pants and deal with the nauseating goo and glop, and I did it! I baked an angel food cake! From scratch!

The second-best part of making angel food cake is balancing it on a bottle while it's cooling.

The best part is eating it.

The cake came out great. I was surprised by how well it came out, by how "normal" it tasted -- meaning, how much it tasted like it came from boxed mix. :) If you ever feel the need for angel food, please bake it from scratch. Aside from separating TWELVE eggs (please don't make me talk about it anymore!), it seriously takes barely any more effort than making it from a box. It is so stupid-easy. And as I was wisely reminded by a pal on FB when I lamented the fact that I'd be SEPARATING A FREAKING DOZEN EGGS (OMG why will you guys not let me stop talking about this??), you can just always buy a carton of organic egg whites.

And also, am I the only person who thinks angel food cake sort of smells like wet dog? Anyhoo... Still delicious, wet dog and gross-out goo and all.

Happy(?) Birthday to Me

2010-06-04T08:59:00.002-04:00

So, I had a birthday last week. Unfortunately, it came right after a long weekend, which meant the girlies were all burnt-out and miserable, which in turn made Josh and me a bit burnt-out and miserable. Long weekends just don't work well around here, the first 2 days were fabulous and fun-filled, and on Day 3 they were ready to go back to school and get back into their routine. It always seems to go that way.

So when we went out for dinner on Memorial Day to celebrate with them (Mexican! And ice cream!), all hell broke loose. By the time my piece of chocolate cake showed up with a candle, Josh had already forcably removed Delma from the premisis and I was left at the table alone with Mimi who was being very bossy and demanding that I draw circles on her placemat. Saddest little birthday cake candle-blowing ever. And all the naughtiness meant we had to nix the trip to Ashley's for ice cream. Sigh.

Then the next day was my actual birthday... Josh asked Delma's teacher to have the girls make me a card, but she forgot. We got a sitter and went out for a fabulous dinner, which was so great, but the waiters were supposed to do some special birthday thing and they forgot. More sigh. And also the gift Josh got me showed up in the mail for me several days before my birthday in an unmarked package so I unwittingly opened it with the rest of that day's mail by myself, so, you know, very nice but anticlimactic.

Like I say every year: There's always next year!

CEIMB: SW Hash and Eggs

2010-04-29T21:20:00.002-04:00

This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Southwestern Hash and Eggs, hosted by It's Melissa's Kitchen. We made this recipe a few weeks ago, Josh and I actually had it for dinner one night. I have spared you the photographic evidence, because it was just some sad hash on a paper plate. It would have just made you feel bad.

So, this was good, but not great. It was very tomato-y. What's wrong with good ol' potatos and onions? Sure, throw in some beans if you want to get wacky and make it seem more like a main dish, maybe even pepper, but tomatos? It's just not my bag, baby. We liked it fine, I just wouldn't make it again. Hey, it was worth a shot!

CEimB: Grilled Zucchini yadda yadda yadda

2010-04-15T05:59:00.000-04:00

Hiya! So nice to be back into the Ellie groove. The past few weeks have been either too busy or the recipes were not easily vegetarianized, so I'm happy that the next few are more veg-friendly.

This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is the Grilled Zucchini Roll-Ups with Herbs and Cheese (I feel like I need a nap after saying that). This one was chosen by Liz of My Table Their Table. She has a very lovely blog, go visit her and say Hi.

These were super-simple and very tasty. I don't have a grill, so I put them under the broiler. And then I forgot that they were in the oven, so they got very broiled. I slopped them together while Mimi was screaming for Veggie Booty! and Delma was screaming for Yoghurt! and Ice Pops! and Fraggle Rock! So aesthetics were not a priority and these babies were not very pretty. But they sure were good. These would be great for a summer party. Thanks for a great pick, Liz!

Blog Party

2010-04-13T20:17:00.000-04:00

I'm joining the party! The 2010 Ultimate Blog Party. Horribly late, but still, I made it. Is anyone still here? Is any of the good booze still left, or is it all warm cans of Coors?

Hi! I'm Heide, a very unfocused and inconsistent blogger. I like to think that's the key to my charm. Maybe I'll blog every other day for a few weeks. Maybe I'll just post an Ellie Krieger recipe once a month. You just never know! I'm pretty awesomely mysterious like that.

I have 2 super-cute little girlies, 2 cats that I have trouble giving a shit about these days, and a husband who is a rock star and an infamous whiskey blogger. I work fulltime as a business analyst and I often spend entire weekends doing laundry.

I had beer for dinner and I popped a few Benadryl. So, there's that. Thanks for stopping by!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2010-04-12T20:57:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Sunday was my morning to get up with the Hattonettes while Josh slept in. It was a rough morning. The girlies were up early, they were tired and bored, fighting over gardening gloves, tripping over their own feet and bumping into things, they were both just sort of falling to pieces and making me nuts. So in the middle of it all I noticed our very ripe bananas and decided to make muffins, in some small, sad attempt to cling to sanity. My favorite muffins. I've made them several times, and each time I polish off the dozen in a few days, they are so flippin good.

These are the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from Get it Ripe by Jae Steele. She's a vegan superstar. Even if you're not vegan, do yourself a favor and check out her blog for great recipes and information about general health, fasts and cleanses. She's pretty much a dynamo.

This recipe calls for spelt flour, which I never remember to buy, so I always use a combo of all-purpose and whole wheat flour. I also never remember to buy coconut oil (though I'm curious about it, so I really should put it on my shopping list) so I use whatever oil I have in the house that's good for baking. Usually I use fruit-sweetened dairy-free chocolate chips (I like to keep them in the house for a relatively not un-healthy addition to baked goods) like the recipe calls for, but I also have just used Nestle when that's all I have. You cannot skimp on the syrup, though, you need to use the real stuff -- but that should go without saying, why would you ever use the nasty fake stuff? And I always add tons of finely chopped pecans -- I add them to pretty much everything I bake.

Go make these STAT.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cups spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup softened non-hydrogenated coconut oil, or sunflower or olive oil (plus extra if using to coat pan)
2/3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375degF. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tray with paper liners or a light coating of oil.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add the banana, syrup and oil. Stir just until all flour is absorbed. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Portion the batter into muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes, until the tops are domed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Stores in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or in fridge for up to a week.

Makes 12 muffins.

quilting for the love of strangers

2010-03-04T06:57:00.000-05:00

Sadly, sometimes it's easier to be selfless and kind to strangers than to the people we know and love. It's this simple, pure, isolated little act, with little or no context, with no baggage or history. It just is what it is. Sometimes it's a random act of kindness, and sometimes it's not so random.

This is a very deliberate act. This is a very small thing I can do for a family experiencing something enormous. No one should have to watch their child die, certainly not a 2 year old child. I don't know them, I can't be a shoulder to cry on, I can't bring them a casserole to spare them the need to even think about what to make for dinner. But I can make one little quilt block that, combined with many more blocks, will give them something to wrap themselves in to remember her for the rest of their lives.

This is for Layla Grace, and for her family, and I wish it could be more. But it's something.

Read more about the project here.

soft around the edges

2010-03-01T22:42:00.002-05:00

I've never been a consistent blogger, and I've certainly never been a particularly good writer, but I do miss this space. Even more than wanting it for myself, I feel this obligation to capture moments for posterity, for my children. We didn't do baby books. We started one for Delma but it fizzled out very quickly. With Mimi we didn't even kid ourselves. I still haven't even put together my wedding album. Ugh. Growing up, my family didn't tend to sit around the dinner table reminiscing. My children will have that, but I also want them to have some sort of record, no matter how fragmented, to look back on and fill in some blanks.

But I owe my kids more than a collection of Facebook status updates and tweets about how they drive me crazy, and whose puke/pee/leaky poop greeted me when I awoke this morning. They do more than make me do laundry every damn day (and oh, how I do long for one glorious day without laundry) and send me screaming to the welcomed, controlled chaos of my job. They're also little slices of heaven, and if I could, I'd put caramel sauce on them and eat them up with a spoon. I feel to my core the truth of the famous exclamation "We'll eat you up, we love you so!"

It's not very edgy or amusing to gush about how beautiful and amazing your children are. But I'm going to try to do that more.

CEIMB: Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake

2010-02-24T20:15:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it's finally my turn to pick a recipe for Craving Ellie in my Belly! Whee! OK, so, I picked the Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake from Ellie's new book So Easy. The recipe is not available online, so I posted it here last week.

I was so pleased with this recipe. I love the idea of preparing the night before and just throwing it in the oven in the morning. I halved the recipe because I knew my girls wouldn't be into it (they're both very particular about textures), and baked it in a 9x9 dish and it came out great (though it could have used a bit more salt for my taste). The portion size is really generous too, Josh and I both felt like we got to eat a lot but didn't feel all overly stuffed.

However. I've realized that I do not like separating eggs. It seriously grosses me out. So, there's that. But aside from the mucousy gross-out factor of dealing with the eggs in here, it was a fantastic recipe and one I would certainly use if I ever return to that life of inviting people over for brunch. For now, I just can't keep the floors clean enough for that, so I'll just make it for Josh and me. I mean, look at that picture. I served it on a paper plate, for godness' sake. That's how we're rolling these days. I hope you all enjoyed the recipe too!

Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake Recipe

2010-02-16T19:27:00.004-05:00

Hey CEIMB-ers! I'm hosting on February 25, and my recipe is from So Easy and is not posted on the Food Network site, so for those of you in need, here it is:

Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake

2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced (abt 2 cups)
Cooking spray
1 whole-wheat baguette (abt 18 inches long, 8 oz.), cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
8 large egg whites
2 cups low-fat milk
1 10-oz package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 1/2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar (6 oz)
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until translucent and beginning to brown, abt 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the bread cubes in the dish. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, egg whites and milk until incorporated. Add the onions, broccoli, cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, spreading it around so the liquid saturates the bread. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Remove the plastic wrap and bake until the top forms a light brown crust, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 8 servings

CEIMB: Curried Chicken Salad

2010-02-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe was the Curried Chicken Salad, hosted by Sarah from Sarah's Kitchen Adventures.

Um, wow. I LOVED this salad. I'm too sleepy to construct full sentences, so here are some thoughts:

- Loved the curry and cilantro together.
- Would add more grapes next time.
- Liked it way way way better than that other Chicken Waldorf Salad we did a few months ago. I don't always love the creamy salads, but with all of the curry and cilantro in this one, the mayo-y taste was played way down.
- There's so little mayo in it that I wonder if really needs it at all? Will try with just non-fat Greek yogurt next time.
- More of a summer dish to me, would bring a bowl of this and some chips to the beach for am after-work beach picnic dinner.
- I just about doubled the almonds, and am glad I did. They would have practically disappeared otherwise.
- Definitely need the pita chips with them, for the added crunch and saltiness
- Predictably, my husband's palate is fundamentally flawed, and while he loved the salad, he did not love it with the chips. Weirdo.

CEIMB Wrap-up!

2010-01-28T22:37:00.000-05:00

This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe was the Emerald Stir-Fry with Beef, hosted by Alyssa's Two Bites. Check her super-cute blog for her version of the recipe.

I liked this recipe a lot, the sauce was easy and tasy. We used a meat alternative replacement for the beef, which was good, and I bet it would be good with tofu too. I did not take a picture because I totally overcooked the veggies, and it all took on the grayish green color instead of looking vibrant and bright green. It tasted good, but wasn't pretty. So, no photo. But thanks Alyssa, for picking a great recipe!

A few weeks ago we were having friends over for dinner on a Sunday, so I used it as an opportunity to whip out a bunch of upcoming CEIMB recipes, but then we went on vacation and I never got a chance to blog about them.

I made the Five Layer Mexican Dip and LOVED it! So delicious. This ended up being leftovers lunch for me for a couple days. I'd just scoop a bunch, slop it into a bowl and take it to work to eat with chips for lunch. Yum.

The Arugula, Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizza was fantastic too. I sliced it up and set it out as appetizers along with the layered dip, and oh my goodness, it was so good. I wish I'd used more goat cheese, I was just eyeballing it and I think I used less than the recipe called for, and it could have used a bit more. I also used whole wheat pits insteaf of tortillas, so the crust was a bit more substantial. Will have to try this one again, as it was so absurdly simple to throw together, and it was so delicious.

And for months I'd been wanting to make Macaroni and Four Cheeses. I love that it replaces a ton of the cheese with pureed squash and had high hopes for it. But honestly, I just did not love it. I think I would try it again using more cheese and less squash, because I do like the idea of sneaking some veggies in there, but I want my mac and cheese to be really cheesy. Or maybe I'll just use a more traditional recipe and add some squash to it. Suggestions??

Disney stole my heart

2010-01-27T08:29:00.004-05:00

I had the best vacation last week. The girls and I tagged along on Josh's annual trip to Orlando for work and got to take a little Disney vaca. I freaking love that place! They make it so easy to manage it all with wee ones in tow... Granted, it is NOT cheap -- we managed it because Josh was working, so his airfare and the hotel and some meals were all expensed, and he had even been comped some park tickets somehow, so that was a major score. So Disney rocked, and I'm dying to go back, but that wasn't what made my week the best in years.

Vacations since Delma was born 3.5 years ago have not been fun. They've pretty much all been major busts in one way or another, and though our family vacation last summer really was great, it was our first time away with Mimi added to the mix and it was tough for us. Mostly the problem has been our unrealistic expectations -- the fact of the matter is, vacationing with young children is not relaxing, and gone (for now) are the days of sipping fuity umbrella drinks and reading books by the pool. But it can still be great, it's just taken Josh and me a long time to adjust to our new reality and find a way to stop just seeing all the things we can't do right now, and embrace the things we can.

This trip was like a honeymoon with my girls. They're little, and they had their moments, but overall both of them did great with the flying, and all the schlepping, and the long days, and the sleeping in new strange places. They traveled like champs. And for me, this was my first time with the two of them when I had NOTHING else to think about. It was the three of us alone just about every day while Josh was working and I had absolutely nothing on my mind but being with them. No lingering thoughts of work, no nagging thoughts of laundry or dishes, nothing at all. It was fantastic, and we all really needed it. It gave me the opportunity to just be their mom and nothing else, and they loved it as much as I did.

Mimi is a challenging kid, and this was the first extended period of time when I didn't feel like I was just managing or handling her, but truly enjoying her. And I swear she started talking more just in the past week of us being together. She is a mommy's girl and she finally got the undivided time with me that she's been craving.

And even better yet, all that joy has stayed with us since we've come home. Our harried mornings and evenings are a little lighter, at least for me, and I feel like I've found a way to be more present when I'm with them. Life with kids has not been easy for me, it's been a long and rough transition. But I'm getting there. Disney really is magic. :)

CEIMB: Sweet & Spicy Peanut Soup

2010-01-07T08:17:00.000-05:00

I'm embarrassed by how long it's been since I've done a Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe cook-along post. I've made some of the recipes in my absence, but have neglected to muster up the energy to blog about them. But this week is hosted by my girl Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet, so I had to join in the fun.

Mary picked Sweet & Spicy Peanut Soup, which you can read more about on her blog. It was very easy to make. Only hitch is that there's lots of chopping, as this soup calls for lots of veggies (carrot, onion, sweet potato, red bell) that you cook up with stock and spices and and canned diced tomatos, all of which you then puree, then stir in some peanut butter and honey, and Voila! The actual cook time is quick, so I fell into my usual trap of thinking I'd whip this up for a quick dinner, and then realized I had gobs of chopping to do which slowed me down. I really need to learn to prep in advance for weeknight dinners. But the soup was tasty, and a nice change from the usual creamy pureed veggie soups.

This recipe called for scallion as garnish. I am not much of a garnish kind of gal, I generally can't be bothered and just pass on it. But this time, the first night we had it for dinner, I tossed in the scallion and was so glad I did. It really added some nice bite. We did skip it for the subsequent leftovers lunches and dinners, though. I probably should have chopped up some extra to toss into the leftovers too. Oh well, next time.

Also, there's cayenne pepper in it which made our noses run a lot. So, there's that.

It's nice to be back in the CEIMB groove. I missed you guys.

Back in the saddle? Maybe?

2010-01-06T20:56:00.001-05:00

Goodness, it's been a long time. I haven't been blogging, I haven't even been reading blogs. It's been three months since my last legit post. ?! I haven't done any sewing either. Oy vay.

I guess I just needed to go underground for a while to regroup, but truthfully I don't feel even remotely regrouped. Just underground. Most days I feel very cloudy and flustered. And it is finally really truly winter here in CT, which makes schlepping the girls around a total pain, forcing us to spend lots of time in the house driving each other crazy. But I need to start forcing myself into little bits of happy-time every day, no matter how brief. Writing, sewing projects, bread baking (just got this cool cookbook!), whatever, anything.

Stay tuned...

Walnuts? Really?

2009-12-01T11:18:00.004-05:00

All the cool tweeters are making these tweetclouds... Here's mine, with "walnuts" making it into the relevant words list. Odd.

words (ordered by most used):

night little house tonight getting meeting hope mimi cool josh love totally hanukkah walnuts morning

cloud:

Oompa giveaway!

2009-10-13T08:23:00.001-04:00

Check out this super-rad Oompa Toys $100 giveaway at I never grew up!

Chag Sameach!

2009-10-05T19:32:00.006-04:00

Tonight we finally got our little un-kosher make-shift sukkah decorated. We were at our temple on Friday to decorate the sukkah there, we had a rainy day on Saturday and then we were busy all day yesterday. Running out of time. I was tempted to just say screw it since Josh is going to be away later this week so we'll really only have a few nights to even use the sukkah.

But then I realized that there's never enough time, it's never easy, and we have to just do what we can to celebrate the holidays and make these traditions a part of our children's lives and memories. They won't know that the walls and roof aren't kosher. They won't remember that we ate in the sukkah 3 nights instead of 7.

They'll remember looking up at the sky through the leaves.

Saying Kiddush with Baby Bear.

Eating dinner and reading stories, all bundled up in the chilly evening, looking up at the lights and stars.

******
Editing to add a word about what we used for our sukkah.

We got one of those outdoor gazebos this summer, it has a metal frame, canvas roof and mosquito netting walls. For the sukkah, we took off the roof and put some branches over the top (we live in the woods, there is no shortage of branches and ferns etc). The walls are not kosher because they are not fastened tightly and will move in the wind. I think the roof is not kosher because it is not covered enough. But it's the thought that counts!

The paper star lanters are available HERE from moderntribe.com, and they are beautiful and worth every penny! Josh has become rather chatty with the owners over Twitter, they're great people running a great business!

CEIMB: New York Breakfast

2009-10-01T21:10:00.002-04:00

This week's recipe for Craving Ellie in my Belly is the New York Breakfast, hosted by Imafoodblog.

This was a nice little change of pace for breakfast for me. I do eat fish but our home is vegetarian, so I just had cream cheese, tomatos and scallion. It was not particularly exciting, but it was good. I'll spare you the sad picture that I took of my little breakfast on a paper towel in my dark kitchen.

Kol Nidre

2009-09-27T21:01:00.004-04:00

Josh is at Kol Nidre service, and I am at home minding the wee ones. Tomorrow I will be in services all day, fasting.

This is my first year of fasting and taking off from work to attend Yom Kippur services. I did not prepare at all mentally or physically. I have not been hydrating. I have not been making ammends. I am sleepwalking through it all. I wish I were really immersed in this holiday, really living it. But I'm doing the bare minimum, going through the motions, and it's the best I can do. It's better than nothing.

I am finally managing to regularly carve out time for myself in our home to do some things for myself and my family beyond the basics. I'm doing some cooking and baking and crafting. But I am just now seeing that I still have not mentally made space and time for myself. I'm not taking time to be quiet and reflective. And to be honest, I'm sort of afraid to. In these past few years of pregnancies fulfilled and pregnancies lost, and babies and toddlers, my body and mind have been in a constant state of fight-or-flight, always in survival mode. It's been so overwhelming. I think part of me is afraid that if I really get that quiet space, if I stop, everything from the past few years will catch up with me and I'll just fall to pieces.

I know that's not true, but that's how it feels. And I guess maybe in a small way, in feeling this fear and wanting to change it, I really am internalizing this holiest of days? It's all baby steps. And maybe, hopefully, next year I'll be just a bit farther ahead. Hopefully my head will be in it, and I'll spend Yom Kippur feeling more than just hungry.

CEIMB and BB

2009-09-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe was the Sweet & Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, hosted by Leslie of Lethally Delicious.

I love this recipe. The sweet comes from some tasty little carmelized red onions, and the spicy is from pepper jack cheese that's mixed with cheddar in the sandwich. The first time I made these several weeks ago, I was just winging it with the cheese and ended up using too much. They were good, but they really were too rich and cheesy. I made myself another one a week later, with less cheese, and it was much better.

Grilled Cheese is so simple and basic, and this is a great way to mix it up. If I were the kind of person to have houseguests, this would be great to have for lunch along with some soup when it's chilly out, to make something simple that seems a bit fancy. I don't do houseguests, though, so it'll just be Josh and me living it up on these little tasties this winter.

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This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe was Beatty's Chocolate Cake, hoted by Mary of Passionate Perseverance. This is a chocolate cake with a chocolate frosting.

Firstly, I have a hard time making cakes because it'll just go to waste around here. I'm more of a cupcake gal lately, since I can freeze some, eat some here at home with Josh and the girlies, and easily bring some into my office to feed the savages.

Secondly, I don't like the chocolate/chocolate combo, or vanilla/vanilla. I like choc cake/vanilla frosting, or vice versa. So. I decided to pass on the frosting, and instead I made the Fluffy White Frosting from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book.

These were so good. The cake was dark and rich, it has a whole cup of coffee in it (I used decaf), which really intensifies the chocolate flavor. And with the vanilla frosting, these cupcakes tasted like Devil Dogs. I didn't have buttermilk in the house, so I had to do the lemon juice/milk trick, which worked great. The batter was very runny, though, and also rose a TON in the oven, which was very surprising.

And pardon me while I get dorky, but I really liked that this recipe called for sifting the dry ingredients in the mixer, and adding the wet ingredients. It's usually the other way around, and when I dump in the dry ingredients, no matter how carefully, some always puffs up in a dust cloud. That didn't happen at all doing it this way. Or maybe I just usually have the mixer set too high and that's why I get little atomic clounds? Anyway.

I can see this recipe being my go-to for chocolate cake in the future. And as you can see, Delma enjoyed them. Yum!

Birthday Bean

2009-09-21T19:55:00.003-04:00

My baby turned one this weekend. My Beany. My little muffin. I'd like to tell you about how we celebrated our girl, how we showered her with love and attention, but... Not so much. We are SO birthdayed out, with the girlies' birthdays being just a few weeks apart. We had Delly's kid party, then her actual birthday, then a family party for both girls. Oy. By the time Mimi's day rolled around we were pretty much over it. We threw some new books (unwrapped) at her when she was getting fussy. We didn't even have her cupcakes til the day after her birthday, when we quickly tossed a dress on her and jammed a cupcake in her face to stage a photo op. Poor Bean. Good thing she's too little and squooshy-brained to know how how ripped off she was.

My baby, my love, my heart. Your life is a decision that Daddy and I made. I owe you so much more than I give you. I promise to be more patient with you, Beany. Happy Birthday.

Love, Mommy.

Shana Tova!

2009-09-18T21:47:00.002-04:00

It's Rosh Hashanah. Apple cake is cooling on the counter. And when we wake up tomorrow Mimi will be One Year Old. Wowza!

Wishing all my friends and family a Happy and Healthy New Year! XOXO

CEIMB: Mexican Tortilla Pizza

2009-09-17T09:26:00.001-04:00

This weeks Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is the Mexican Tortilla Pizza, chosen by Joanne over at Apple Crumbles. Check out her blog for her modifications to the recipe and lots of pictures.

This recipe was so good! I had put all of the ingredients for the dip together in a bowl the day before I was making this meal, but didn't have a chance to run them through the food proc. So they hung out in the fridge for a day, which ended up being a good thing -- I recommend letting this dip sit for a while in the fridge before serving, because the flavors had melded so well, the dip was so cilantro-y and lime-y. Just delicious.

We had this on Monday night, for our dinner playdate. It was a cinch to quickly whip up the dip and assemble. I had also chopped the extra cilantro the day before so I could just pull it out of the fridge and quickly sprinkle it on the baked pizzas before serving. I'm glad I had prepped a bit in advance, because the house was in a state of sheer mayhem with the kids running around and trashing the joint.

The kids ate mac and cheese and we moms ate this. It was delicious, I will absolutely make it again. I was going to add some cheese, even though the recipe doesn't call for it, but then I forgot and honestly didn't miss it at all. And here is the final yet-again-un-photogenic product: Still Life with Bear and Dinner on Paper Plate:

The only bummer is that I had a ton of cabbage leftover and no clue what to do with it. I should have looked for some recipes to use it up, but didn't and it all went to waste. Suggestions??

Wordless Wednesday (Now with 100% more Wednesday!)

2009-09-16T20:31:00.005-04:00

Delly reading a book to her baby bear, aka "Light Brown Bear" (very creative around here with the names), aka "Blueberry" (when we pressed her to give the bear a name), aka "Kitty" (last weekend all bears were named "Kitty" for a day).

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday!)

2009-09-15T07:04:00.001-04:00

dinner playdate

2009-09-14T21:22:00.002-04:00

Josh is out of town for a few nights, so we had a couple of Delly's little buddies (and their moms, since the kids can't drive) over for dinner and fun. And oh, they had fun.

Who's under these covers, with the lights out?

Oh hi, it's 3 toddlers in hysterics.

And babies want in on the action too.

Then Delly convinced the boys to play dress-up and pretend to get married.

Now the guests are gone, the girls are asleep, the lazy-hostess paper plates are tossed, and here is my dessert. More of the peaches I picked, all peeled and sliced and drowning in white wine since yesterday (a brilliant little idea I stole from Orangette).

Weekend wrap-up

2009-09-13T19:58:00.002-04:00

Highlights from our weekend:

*Clean house
*Got our family room a bit organized
*Fun with our family to celebrate the Hattonettes' birthdays
*I made a Pflaumkuchen for the family, using my dad's mom's recipe, straight from Deutschland
*Mimi walked! (And then today did not walk. Oh well.)
*Saw lots of friend at our temple's monthly holiday program for preschoolers
*Delma was greeted by all of her temple friends with big hugs, you'd think she was Madonna or something the way they all flocked to her when we arrived
*impromptu lunch date at our house with Delly's best buddy, they made sticker projects together
*I made applesauce!
*I peeled more peaches, drowned then in white wine and am looking forward to getting sloshed eating them tomorrow night
*I get to go curl up in bed with a good book (A Homemade Life) and a good husband

walking bean

2009-09-12T21:51:00.003-04:00

Mimi, our little Meemer Beaner, started walking today. She's taken a few steps here and there over the past week, but she hasn't really been too interested in it. It's been making us crazy that he hadn't started walking yet, because she is so steady on her feet when she's standing and cruising, her balance is amazing. And then this afternoon, while our family were here to celebrate Delma and Mimi's birthdays, the little thing just started walking around. It is so stinking cute. That's our big news for the day!

Kick Out the (Peach Melba) Jams!

2009-09-11T08:12:00.004-04:00

I made Peach Melba (1/2 peach, 1/2 raspberry) jam last night. It was so easy and I am so proud of myself. I feel like a pioneer.

My dad was over for dinner and I got jamming after we ate and put Delly to bed. He was going to leave right when I was cooking up the jam and was about to start jarring, and I said, "Don't you want to stay and see the magic happen?!?" He was all, magic? Pfeh. He grew up in a little town in Germany, stuff like making jam is so old hat to him. He is not easily impressed. But! I filled up a dozen jars and still had some left over so we put it into some little containers to be refrigerated instead of stored. And my dad got some. Score. And then he was won over by the magic of my jam. Or as "won over" as he ever is. I think he said something along the lines of "That's not too bad," which basically means it's super-awesome.

Next I want to try apple pumpkin butter.

CEIMB and Barefoot Bloggers

2009-09-10T21:25:00.000-04:00

So I joined another cooking blog group, Barefoot Bloggers. Hi, gang! Nice to be here. This is my first week, and the recipe is the Birthday Sheet Cake, chosen by Susy of Everyday Gourmet.

Like the name says, it's meant to be baked as a sheet cake. I didn't have a sheet cake pan, so I made cupcakes. Something about this recipe seemed very old-fashioned to me. Maybe it was the corn starch and corn syrup, I don't know. I felt like I was chaneling my inner 50's housewife. The cake was good, I liked the lemon in it (the batter smelled great). It tasted like a sugar cookie.

I dipped the cupcakes into the frosting because it was runny, so they were very smooth and pretty. But I did not really care for the frosting. It wasn't sweet enough for me, it pretty much just tasted like semi-sweet chocolate chips. Some like that, but I don't really care for it. I froze half of the cupcakes to use this coming weekend, so I wish I'd halved the frosting recipe instead of having so much left over that I tossed. I definitely won't use the frosting recipe again, but I would probably try the cake again.

And in 2 weeks, the next BB recipe is another cake! Oh, it's so tough being forced to make more cake. Poor me. :)

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This week's Craving Ellie in my Belly is Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. It's hosted by Pamela of Cookies with Boys, check out her blog for the recipe and her review of the recipe.

LOVED IT. I've never made anything BBQ-y before. The recipe was so easy, and so good. I used this "Shredded Chicken" meat alternative, and it made such a nice little lunch for us when we had a friend visiting last weekend. It ended up sitting on the stove for quite a while because I started cooking too early, so it cooked down a lot and got really thick. It was delicious. I will absolutely make it again.

I am not posting the picture I took of this sandwich. Josh saw it and said "It looks like poop." I said, "It's a sandwich. You can see the lettuce and the bread!" He said, "It looks like someone put poop on lettuce and bread." So, there you have it.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-09T11:24:00.002-04:00

OK, maybe not entirely wordless. Sorry! Please note the pink blur on top of the girl on the left. That is a water balloon that Delma threw (with obvious glee) and that made a direct hit on the top of Danielle's head. So much for "No Throwing!" Danielle, by the way, was not hurt. Just soaked.

Mommy's girl

2009-09-08T11:01:00.004-04:00

Delma was never a mommy-baby. I often tell people that she has been a fiercely independent person from the day she was born. She wasn't a cuddler. I think maybe only a handful of times in her entire infancy was she so cozy in my or Josh's arms that she drifted off to sleep while we held her. She's always needed her personal space. She rarely showed any preference for one of us over the other, and when she did start to it was almost always a preference for Josh. She very much became a Daddy's Girl.

Mimi, however, has been a totally different story. She is a squooshy little cuddle-bug. She loves to be held. She'll rest her head on your shoulder, she is inconsolable if she's in the mood for a cuddle and you need to put her down to pee or something. She is ALL ABOUT mommy, which makes me feel like a rock star but also sucks the life out of me. Seriously, if it were physically possible and I let her, she would crawl right back into me. It's no wonder my labor had to be induced after I was 9 days late -- that girl never would have budged on her own.

After Mimi was born and Josh had to take over Delly-duty so much more so that I could nurse and care for Mimi, it wasn't that hard on Delly. It wasn't tough for her to spend a bit less time with me, she didn't much notice my absence. But. Something has happened in the past month... Mimi has finally become a bit of a threat, now that she's on the verge of walking and is sharp as a tack and into everything. Now she's all about me too, and has become a little Mommy's Girl.

Our family dynamic has totally changed. Delma begs for me. Josh feels rejected and bummed out. Mimi makes a bee-line right for me when she sees Delma getting up in my grill and literally climbs all over me to get in on the mommy pig-pile action. Oy. I'm not going to lie, the adoration doesn't suck. But man is it exhausting.

head case

2009-09-07T20:49:00.002-04:00

Today was overall a lovely day. I got a chance to do all sorts of make-me-happy things: raspberry picking with the family, Indian lunch, peach picking on my own... At home later in the day I got to do some baking and made dinner. Mimi was in a good mood, was was being so funny and had me laughing out loud. Delly was sweet and cuddly, hopped into the bath with me this morning and was a funny little nut as usual. But she didn't nap and was rough during and after dinner, and pushed us past our limits.

What's hardest for me with parenting, what makes me craziest, is how immediately influenced I am by Delma and her moods and behavior. It's like I'm a raw nerve, I have no reserves to buffer me, and (most, though not all, days) all it takes is her freaking out to reduce me to a disastrous puddle. I lose my temper, I behave horribly. It makes me feel like an insane person. And then everything is fine and all is forgiven, but at the end of the day it leaves me tapped out and exhausted.

I can already see how it will be better. Now that Mimi is bigger, and Josh and I actually get some breathing room on occasion and have the space to feel like ourselves again and not just solely parents, we get the opportunity to build up that reserve so badly needed. But it's slow going. And in the meantime, well, I guess ending every day -- no matter how awful -- with hugs and kisses and I Love Yous is a success.

Peaches and Raspberries and Jam, Oh my!

2009-09-06T21:12:00.002-04:00

Our local farm market had a fruit jamming and canning class last week, but didn't anticipate the throngs of people who would want to take the class. So they scheduled 4 additional classes... I called about 30 minutes after registration began and got one of the few spots left.

Tonight I peeled fresh, ripe, local peaches, and canned them. I helped make peach and peach melba jam. I learned how absurdly easy it is, and I can't wait to try it myself at home. The only thing on my to-do list for tomorrow is to go pick peaches and raspberries and jam the shiznit out of those babies. Stay tuned!

Me and my girl

2009-09-05T21:28:00.002-04:00

Today was a beautiful day, and we came up with the grand idea of going to the cute little near-by zoo. But then there was an errand that needed running, and Josh and I decided to each take a kid and get our stuff taken care of. Josh and Mimi to the Apple Store, and Delma and me to the zoo.

This was something we hadn't really prepared ourselves for before Baby #2: the whole Divide and Conquor situation. When there was just Delly, we were a solid little family unit doing everything together. Josh and I could both focus our attention on the one babe, and we could spend our free time together as we always had pre-kid. Then, when Mimi came onto the scene, it was all different. Josh had to take over Delly-duty much more so I could tend to Mimi. It's made for some strange, unexpected (by us ignorant dum-asses) dynamics. It's meant Josh couldn't spend as much time with Mimi as a baby as he did with Delly, and didn't get to bond with her the same way. It's meant I haven't been able to spend as much quality time with Delly as I'd like. It's meant that as a couple Josh and I have been separated more often during our free time than we'd ever been. It's been weird.

So, it was nice to get a nice chunk of the day alone with my Del today. At the zoo, I pushed my (empty) stroller and Delly pushed her little stuffed baby bear in her doll stroller. Side by side. It was so sweet, I think it was just what both she and I needed.

season's harvest

2009-09-04T20:41:00.000-04:00

Our sad little attempt at a garden this year was SUCH a bust. Parsley died, peppers, cauliflower and brussels sprout all got chomped beyond recognition my slugs, and the radishes turned into ant condos. Zucchini did OK, but with our dashed spirits was a bit neglected and only produced a few edibles.

We have a patio tomato plant that did nothing forever, then all of a sudden had a few little yummers show up.

The second I saw them I grabbed them, hacked 'em up and turned them into a salad.

They were good. I wish there had been far more of them.

CEiMB: Waldorf Chicken Wraps

2009-09-03T12:20:00.004-04:00

This week's Craving Ellien in my Belly recipe is Waldorf Chicken Wraps, hosted by Jessica over at Johnstone's Vin Blanc.

For the "chicken" I chopped up a bunch of these veg chicken drumsticks, which are so insanely good they make me swoon. There's a Chinese restaurant up in West Hartford called China Pan (or as we call it, China Pants, and also we don't just say the name, we sing it to the old SpiderMan theme song tune: "China Pants, China Pants, does whatever a China can...") that has an A-MA-ZING selection of vegetarian and vegan meat and seafood alternative product dishes. One of our favorites is the Vegetarian Drumsticks, which the owner basically told me they invented, and I believed him after I spent a ton of time online trying to track them down to buy but never did find them. Dump them in duck sauce and prepare yourself for a little plate full of heaven.

And then recently I found out Veat had been discontinued, and somewhere in some discussion thread someone mentioned this company in NYC that sells great meat alternative stuff that's just as good as Veat. I checked it out, and lo and behold! Our drumsticks. These are literally the EXACT product that the dude at China Pants carries, along with a bunch of other things on his menu, like vegan citrus spare ribs (drool...), prawns, duck, etc. I have ordered from them twice so far and am just thrilled that I found them!

Um, what were we talking about? Right, these Waldorf thingamajigs. Simple recipe, and they were very tasty. Josh loved them. I did not love them, but I did like them a lot. I don't think I'd add them to our dinner recipes rotation, but they would be great to whip up for pot-lucks and picnics and whatever. If you're a chicken salad type of person, you'll dig this recipe.

purses

2009-09-02T20:56:00.003-04:00

These are some bags I made a while ago, using Sarah's Pleated Purse Pattern.

I made this one for myself first.

It came together really easily, so I decided to use the same pattern for a bag for my partner in our crafty club. For this one I used an Amy Butler charm pack to patchwork the outside panels, with coordinating fabric for the lining and handles.

This is such a great pattern! It was good for me to learn how to put in a magnetic snap, too. On the first bag I made for myself I did a quick-and-dirty job with the snap, and it really isn't sturdy enough to just grab and pull the snap apart by the fabric. I did it correctly for the next one and it made a huge difference. Not sure how it's holding up, I should ask my pally.

Life in 3D

2009-09-01T21:38:00.000-04:00

Oh hi! Were you stopping by expecting to see a Craving Ellie in my Belly post or something? Yeah, not so much. The past 2 have been very meaty, and things at home have been rather hectic, so... you know... This week I'll be back in the saddle, I promise! Also, I signed up for September NaBloPoMo, to kick myself in the blogging-pants. We'll see how that works out...

The biggest news at Chez Zero is that my big baby girl Delma turned 3. Oy. We have celebrated primarily with rousing, enthusiastic tantrums and time-outs. And also jumping around in a new purple leotard and eating purple cupcakes.

Delly had a gymnastics party with her little friends this past weekend, it was really great. Thankfully the day wasn't very hot, so it didn't smell too badly like a litter box in the gym. The big kids who work there did a good job of keeping the little kids herded (reminded me of that commercial about herding cats), and the littles all had a ton o' fun. They also did not like sharing toys and at least half were crying at one time or another, but that's life in a room full of preschoolers!

And Delly made out like a bandit in the gift department, lots of crafty stuff and dress-up stuff. And her first Barbie, which I am particularly excited about.

This really has been a tough couple of weeks for Delly. The lead-up to her birthday, with all of the excitement and anticipation... And she's officially moved now into the pre-school room at daycare, which is great for her because most of her friends have moved over already in the past few months and now they're all together again. But she's leaving a teacher whom she loves very much and that has been hard. Big changes for a little girl, and it's taking its toll on us all. I'm assuming that we will all survive this. Fingers crossed.

CEIMB: Triple Chocolate Cookies

2009-08-13T07:22:00.004-04:00

I had to cheat a bit on this weeks Craving Ellie in my Belly, because it's not a dish that can be easily vegetarianized, so I hit the archives and decided to bake up the Triple Chocolate Cookies. Um, hello? Yum.

I did add the optional salt, and am wondering if I accidentally added more than the 1/4 tsp called for, because the one I ate actually tasted salty. I thought it was great, though, like salted chocolate. So good. Also, as usual for me, so not photogenic. Piles of poo on a plate. Dig in!

CEimB: Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-08-05T20:55:00.003-04:00

This week's CEiMB was chosen by Leanne over at Enjoying my Favorite Things. Oh Leanne, God bless you for picking the Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting. I am a BIG fan of carrot cake and of cream cheese and of lemons. So, I was all about this. I thought that 1/2 tsp of lemon zest just sounded like a cruel tease so I multiplied that by about a kajillion. My dad was over last night and we all dug in when these babies were frosted. My dad said, "I'm with Mae West on this one: Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess." He may have gotten the quote wrong but I couldn't aggree more with the sentiment. The frosting came out very lemony but really not overpowering or too much. Super-extra-special-delicious. And though grating carrots is admittedly not a favorite pastime of mine, this makes a small batch so it's not a ton of work, and other than that the recipe comes together in no time. I will make these again and again and again.

Our camera had a dead battery so my iPhone had to pinch-hit last night. Not a great photo, but at least it is photographic evidence that I made these, so no one can accuse me of lying.

Oh and also, I had no cupcake papers so these guys were just freestyling in the muffin tin. I checked them after 18 minutes and they were done. They probably would have been even better if I'd taken them out a minute or two earlier. Do the papers add to baking time?? Enquiring minds want to know.

Dear Twitter, I Love You

2009-07-30T09:33:00.002-04:00

When I first started tweeting, it was just a sort of experiment to see what all the hoop-lah was about. I'm on the Faceplace all the time, I can update my status as my day progresses, many of my close friends check in there throughout the day and it's a fun place to be. Isn't that enough?

Twitter at first just seemed to be a place for people to spew out every little thing they think and do all day long, in 140-character snipets, and it seemed absurd. But then I started following a lot of my favorite bloggers, and suddenly there was all of this added context for the posts I was reading. I felt like I was getting the inside scoop, hearing about the puppies nipping their ankles and the kids screaming as they wrote blog posts that I would then go read, and it added a whole new layer of richness to the experience. I'd follow designers waiting for the mail to see samples of fabric or sewing patterns that I'd then buy, or authors slogging through work on books that I'd go on to read. I'm right there with them, and all of the little daily trials and tribulations and joys become part of this larger, more organic web of context and sharing and experience.

Blog posts can be very personal, and often very off-the-cuff, but there is understandably quite a bit of editing behind the scenes. Good bloggers write with focus and edit well, while still allowing for their own personality and style to shine through. Over in Twitter-land, though, no one asks for focus or editing. Just spit it out and move on, typos be damned (or even required, to squeeze your thought into 140 char). And I can tweavesdrop on exchanges between other people, often very funny people, which is very appealing to my voyeuristic tendencies.

I've been hooked for a while. But then last weekend I had this very small, but wonderful experience. We were having a dinner on Saturday night with a few friends from our temple, all of our kids, and the family of our brand-new rabbi. We would be doing the Havdalah ceremony (to non-Jews: Havdalah is the weekly observence of the end of the Sabbath, or Shabbat, or Shabbos, at sunset on Saturday). That afternoon, my friend who was hosting the dinner texted me and asked if I had a Havdalah candle that I could bring. I texted back that no I did not, and I also didn't have the box of spices we'd need. And she was all hello? Box of spices? And we both panicked.

And then I thought: Twitter can help me! I follow several rabbis, rabbinical students and knowledgeable Jews. I sent out a plea for help from my phone as I was out running errands, and within minutes I had the info I needed for what the necessities for the ceremony were, what we could use that we already had at home, and we were all set. (Thanks again @heidihoover and @imachai!!!) Jews save the day!

I called my friend and gave her the scoop, and told her I'd heard it from "my rabbi friends on Twitter." I might have felt a little bit like I was very cool and fancy. And she might have chuckled mockingly a little bit. And that summed up why I love Twitter, the immediacy of connecting with all of these people all over the world. It's like IMing with scads of people simultaneously. It makes me happy.

CEiMB: Baked Onion Rings

2009-07-23T10:37:00.002-04:00

This week's CEiMB recipe is Ellie's Oven Baked Onion Rings, chosen by Meet Me in the Kitchen.

When I was working on these, Josh came home to find us in the kitchen, me furiously dipping and coating my onion rings while Mimi sat on the floor at my feet howling and Delma stood next to me screaming over and over and over MOMMY I NEED LIPGLOSS. So, you know, I didn't really take much care in the assembly of this dish. I was very quick and sloppy in throwing them together, and it shows. Goodness, that photo looks unappetizing. I'm sorry you have to even look at it. The onion rings, however were very very good.

These ugly yummy babies came out a wee bit spicy for me. I would try them again with different herbs, maybe Italian seasoning or something. Also -- man, those baked potato chips were good! I am officially hooked.

Onion rings that aren't all greasy and fried and bad for you. Thanks, Ellie!

CEiMB: Aromatic Noodles with Lime-Peanut Sauce

2009-07-16T21:03:00.005-04:00

I didn't think I'd be able to cook along with the Craving Ellie in My Belly crew this week. We've had a heck of a week. But this recipe was so quick to throw together that even I, with my sinus infection causing throbbing pain in my head and neck, and with my needy baby with her ear infection, and with my crazy toddler and her I WANT TO COLOR WITH CHALK I NEED WATER THE BABY IS TOUCHING MY PUPPY PAPER, and with my husband stumbling around like he's about to keel over because our house has been consumed by like one huge atomic germ, could manage to pull it off. It's that easy.

I didn't have fresh ginger, so I used this ginger/garlic paste sort of stuff that I had in the fridge. When I blended up the sauce I thought I had totally blown it with that uncalled-for garlic, but once it was on the spaghetti it tasted just fine. And I didn't have red pepper flakes so I used cayenne pepper, but I used a little less than the recipe called for because Josh said that cayenne is hotter than the red pepper flakes. What else... Oh, I used broccoli, green beans and baby peas. Some people have talked about adding edamame or other things to get some protein into this dish, but peas actually have quite a bit of protein. I think. Or did I just unintentionally make that up? I really do think I've read that in some reliable source somewhere. Also I didn't think I was going to dig the whole wheat pasta, but I used some by Bionaturae from the overpriced health food joint and it was GREAT.

All in all, a fast and very tasty meal. I will definitely make this again. You can see the recipe here or at the blog of our host this week, Supplicious.

CEimB

2009-07-09T07:14:00.002-04:00

For this week's Craving Ellie in my Belly, Lonely Sidecar picked the Lobster or Shrimp Roll. They look so freakin good. I am a huge fan of lobster, despite being a mostly vegetarian. I do eat seafood outside the house but never prepare it at home. So I had to skip this week's recipe.

But I really wanted to try the gazpacho that everyone made a few weeks ago, so I whipped up the White Gazpacho with Grapes and Toasted Almonds.

Good God. It flew together in no time and was absolutely delish. I didn't get it entirely smooth so it still had some nice texture. I will definitely use this recipe again, it would be great when having dinner guests because it is so stupidly easy but seems very unusual and fancy. I'm a big fan of fancy deception.

Also please admire that rad trifle bowl that rarely sees any action. We got these from Crate and Barrel with a wedding gift certificate, it's a set of nice heavy Polish glass bowls, a big mama one and I think four of these smaller ones. They're lovely and I've never used them as actual serving bowls for some reason. Add that to my to-do list: Use pretty bowls for something either than staging food photos or storing dead batteries.

CEimB: Breakfast Cookies

2009-07-02T06:06:00.000-04:00

This is my first week participating in Craving Ellie in my Belly. Hi, gang! What's for Supper? is hosting this week, serving up the Breakfast Cookies. I'm so happy this was my first recipe, because I've actually been looking for a good breakfast cookie recipe. Delma eats her breakfast at daycare every morning, so we try to send her easy-to-pack stuff that's relatively healthy. Packing 2 meals plus snacks every day is a lot, especially since we try to keep it pretty simple and we don't want her to get bored with all the repeats of meals. Like when we make a box of Annie's, and then she has mac 'n cheese (with lots of frozen wee peas tossed in to make us feel like she's eating something healthy!) for lunch for 3 days...

So, breakfast cookies. Easy to pack, chock full of stuff I feel good about her eating. I didn't have time to try to stage a photo that would make some big lumpy cookies look lovely. They taste great, though -- not very sweet at all, lots of good stuff that will have you picking at your teeth for ages after eating one of these bad boys.

We only had a sad bag of basically walnut crumbs left, so I used half walnut and half pecan, toasted and then chopped into oblivion. I usually leave nuts in cookies or muffins sort of chunky, but I wasn't even paying attention tonight when I was pounding on that chopper (that sounds dirty), and they ended up practically powder. That's fine, though. And we also didn't have any bran or other flake cereal in the house, so I used Grape Nuts. Oh, and I didn't have pastry flour, so I just used regular whole wheat and all-purpose. I have no clue how that may have changed the final outcome.

This is a great, super-easy recipe and lends itself to countless variations. I'll definitely try with dried cranberries, and with some fruit-sweetened chocolate chips. Yum!

Craving Ellie in my Belly

2009-07-01T14:26:00.002-04:00

So, I decided to join the Craving Ellie in my Belly group. I really want to try new recipes on a regular basis, and this will force me to do it. I picked a great week to start, too -- Breakfast Cookies!

Posting is each Thursday, and I have the night to myself for a bit tonight while Josh is out at band practice, so it looks like Delly will have a fresh-baked cookie for breakfast tomorrow!

struggling

2009-06-17T20:45:00.002-04:00

I'm struggling a lot lately. There really is nothing particularly rough happening, Josh and I are great, my job is going well, I have been finding little bits of time to do some sewing and play with the bread maker, Delma is becoming a very fun little buddy, and Mimi is finally becoming enjoyable and engaging. But. Our days are long, both girls are up before 6 every day. Mimi is still very time- and energy-consuming. Delma is a toddler, 'nuff said. Our house is in a constant state of disorder, which totally messes with my sense of calm and stability. I am in the worst shape of my life and can't (don't) find time to exercise. At the end of the day I have no energy to blog. The weekends are fun but are filled with errands and go too fast. We don't have a dishwasher, so, oh those dishes. And don't even get me started about the laundry.

I'm pretty much feeling like a hamster on a wheel. It's all just basic life stuff, I know, and it's not stuff that's going to go away. But I just feel like we can't stay on top of things, let alone ever get ahead. The daily grind is sort of beating me down. I'm looking forward to Mimi getting a bit older and us having some more breathing room in our days. I want more joy, I want to create more magic in our world for my girls. I want to create beautiful little adventures and projects and memories.

I need to make a pledge to my family and to myself, to make it happen. I need to make the time, even in small bitty doses, to do things for myself like exercise and sew and write. I need to do more than just *manage* my children, I need to do more to enjoy them. I need to make some joy and magic. Or at least try.

Happy Burfday to me

2009-06-03T09:05:00.004-04:00

So, I'm 37. My birthday ended with Delma housing a cupcake (that she frosted and then decorated by herself with almost an entire bottle of star sprinkles), a Lindt dark chocolate truffle (that I only gave her because I thought for sure she'd hate it and spit it out), and most of my piece of chocolate cake (that I was too busy chatting with my dad to notice she was inhaling). She then spent over and hour and a half past bedtime singing and hooting and chatting to herself in bed before finally passing out. That girl can really rock.

Delly has a habit of saying "my" instead of "I." Like, "1,2,3 here my come!" Or, "Oooh, my like that!" In honor of her unique grammar and rock star lifestyle, Josh doctored a photo of Delly as a b-day gift for me:

Perfect. 37, here my come!

smockety

2009-05-28T09:38:00.002-04:00

Delma has developed a bit of an obsession with pockets. She likes to hold little things, like rocks or beads, and since she is not allowed to carry her own little things around in school, or have little choking hazzards around Mimi, she has realized that pockets are the perfect solution. She can fill them up with rocks, beads, barrettes, hair ties, etc, and have all her little treasures close by without getting into trouble. But not all of her pants/shorts/skirts have pockets, so I whipped up a smocket using Alicia's tutorial. Now if Delly is wearing something without pockets, but needs to stash some little treasures, we can toss this on her over her clothes.

I squared off the ends of the straps and put snaps on instead of tying them. I used a nice cotton/linen blend from jcarolinecreative.com that hides schmutz and cat hair very well and can just go in the washer and dryer.

Here's a close-up of the pocket, which was a total late-night hack job. It's really bad. But it works, so there you go. Plus it has mushrooms. "Mommy, I like mushrooms!"

I have some little tops similar to this shape that I made for D when she was a babe, and that Mimi will wear this summer, and am very glad to have found this pattern for larger sizes. So easy to modify it, make it completely reversible (leave off the pocket), make it longer or shorter, etc. Love it.

big day

2009-05-27T12:53:00.002-04:00

Delly hit a major milestone this weekend when she pooped on the potty for the first time. We were beyond thrilled. Josh and I both got tears in our eyes, and while Delly sat on the toilet, grinning from ear to ear and practically bursting with pride, we sang the Shehecheyanu. Josh said, "It's a red-letter day! May 23rd, mark the calendar!"

May 23, 2009. The 30th anniversary of my mother's death. Delma Elizabeth, for whom our own little Delma is named. It was a very bittersweet moment when I realized what day it was and what it meant.

Delly is finally figuring out what the relationships are in our family, that her grandparents are also Josh's and my parents. She likes to ask us about it. She and I were talking about it in the car one afternoon last week, and I was quizzing her. I asked, "Who is my daddy?" "Opi!" Then she paused and asked for the first time, "Who's your mom?"

It knocked the wind out of me, though I've been waiting for that question for some time now. It took me a moment to recover, and Delma was staring at me in the rearview mirror. Finally I answered, "My mom died."

"Why she died?" She was watching me like a hawk.

"I don't know why, honey."

The tone had become very somber, and Delma wasn't comfortable. Out of nowhere, in true Delma fashion, she started spazzing out, laughing and flailing her arms and wagging her tongue, and lightened the mood. She is most excellent at providing comic relief.

I don't know what she understands about death. She knows that flowers die and that bugs die. What that means in her squooshy little brain, and how that translates to people... Who knows. And I'm certainly not going to press the issue. But we are entering a new era, our first baby is not a baby anymore, and the questions are only going to get tougher. I just hope she always feels safe enough to ask.

baby blanket

2009-05-12T19:45:00.001-04:00

Here's an atrocious shot of a baby blanket I made last week. A friend is preggo with her second child, she has a son at home and is now expecting a girl. Is it just me or does it seem like when someone already has a son, and then they have a daughter, they go completely bonkers for the girly stuff?? I think I would. All I have to say is Thank God I had daughters, or else I'd be raising some baby trannies.

So, the blanket. Some Michael Miller Disco Dots on the front, and Minky Chemnille on the back. Such a totally simple project, but it was SUCH a bitch to make. Took three tries, because of the minky... It's slippery, so I had to pin that thing like crazy before sewing, but also the machine grabs it differently than the cotton and was pulling it all over the place. Sewing the width-wise sides was actually pretty easy, but the length-wise sides (going along with the ribbing) sucked. It was just a torturous process, and one I'm not likely to repeat anytime soon. BUT -- the finished product came out pretty cute. As long as you ignore the fact that when you fold it it's totally not squared. And also it left my house, like everything leaves my house, with a fine coating of cat hair.

And then to prove that it passes stringent approval process of the Baby Council of America for Promotion of Cuddly Items, I let Mimi have at it. And then Delly wanted in on the photo action. This resulted in exactly ZERO decent photos of the blanket, but oh well. At least it left my floor a little cleaner.

wedding crafts

2009-05-07T09:47:00.003-04:00

Last month my fab gal-pal Moira tied the knot. Not only were Josh, Delma, Mimi and I luck enough to attend the joyous event, but Moira also asked me to help add some hand-crafted bits.

I helped make the cupcakes, which were topped with sweet little images of vintage seed packets.

And I made two ring pillows, one for each of her sons to carry. I knocked off ideas from some that I found on Etsy... just little satin pillows with a bird's nest glued on top, some moss glued inside to fill it a bit, and some little plastic eggs glued it. And orange ribbons glued to the pillow, poking out from under the nest. OMG, the wonders of the glue gun! The one thing I did which worked out very well and I'm pleased with myself for figuring out, was to sew a button to the middle of the pillow -- to squoosh the middle in and make it nice and sturdy and flat for the nest to sit on. They came out quite cute, if'n I do say so myself!

yet another blog to read

2009-05-06T09:09:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Christina, I have a new blog to follow: What Not To Crochet.

And Rainn Wilson Tweeted yesterday about another hilarious blog: This is Photobomb.

sprung

2009-04-24T15:05:00.003-04:00

Spring has sprung. Last fall I meant to go crazy planting tons more daffodil bulbs, but then that kid Mimi showed up and all hell broke loose and it just didn't happen. But we do have a bunch blooming out there, and this is one of my favorite places to put cut daffodils. I have 3 of these little glass vases with suction cups on them, I think I bought them in Paris in the super-hip gay part of town. I love them. By "them" I mean the little vases. Though I do very much love the daffodils and the gays too.

switched at birth

2009-04-16T20:51:00.002-04:00

Tonight Mimi was sitting on a blanket, happily gnawing on a toy. Delma did something that made Josh and me explode into a massive fit of laughter. Delly started laughing. After a moment we noticed a strange noise. We looked down and Mimi was bright red, sobbing, tears streaming down her face. I picked her up, but it was so absurd that it made us just laugh harder, and that made her cry harder. And Delly was imploring, "What's wrong with Mimi?!" We couldn't answer her, beyond the obvious that Mimi had been scared and confused by our loud and sudden laughter.

I know there's nothing particularly remarkable about that. But come on. In this house? We laugh A LOT. Loudly. And Delma is 2 and energetic and makes noise. And this baby is as jumpy and easily spooked as a cat. Weirdo.

Somewhere out there is a baby who smiles and laughs and wonders why she's stuck in a family full of people who always look like deer caught in the headlights. And we have that family's baby.

Prison on Mars and Venus

2009-04-16T12:10:00.002-04:00

The other night Josh and I were watching something on TV where someone was in prison. I don't even remember what show it was. It clearly left quite an impression.

Josh said, "That's my worst nightmare." He meant jail, that the idea of being in prison was absolutely terrifying to him.

I could not relate. At all. All I could think was how awesome it sounded. You get a full night's sleep every night. Someone cooks your meals, you have time to exercise every day. People earn degrees while in prison. I could read books. I seriously think it sounds great. Aside, of course, from the fact that I couldn't see my family. But really, the sleeping and reading make it seem like a worthwhile trade-off.

And then Josh was all Hello? They rape and stab each other in prison. I guess that's true, but I can't stop thinking about what a lovely and refreshing break from reality prison would be. A girl can dream, can't she?

Son, your mother is a remarkable woman

2009-04-15T22:16:00.002-04:00

Found this cartoon through Bible Belt Balabusta. Love it!

To lawn, or not to lawn?

2009-04-14T08:09:00.003-04:00

It is like feast or famine lately with my job. Some days I'm trolling around looking for work to do, and then weeks like this one come along when I am absolutely pummeled with more than I could possibly get done. But being busy makes me happy and makes me feel actually productive and involved (imagine that!) and makes me -- wait for it -- like my job very much. Just in time for my organization to announce the latest in a constant succession of realignments, in which my neck is on the chopping block. Awesome.

And what's the best thing to do when you might lose your job? Why, spend $$ of course! We desperately need a professional to turn our blob of moss, boulders and critter holes big enough to break a leg in, into an honest-to-goodness lawn that we can feel safe letting Delma play on. Plus, after I get laid off I'll have plenty of time to enjoy it.

nice news coverage

2009-04-13T20:42:00.000-04:00

This is a nice story that ran on the front page of the New Haven Register. It's about an Iraqi family that my synagogue, Temple Beth Tikvah, is sponsoring. Very cool.

slight improvement

2009-04-12T21:07:00.003-04:00

Today was a marked improvement over yesterday. Delly got to stomp in some muddy puddles (a la Peppa Pig) at Chatfield Hollow. That girl digs puddles.

The minute we put the girls to bed, Josh literally walked straight from their room to the kitchen to whip us up some killer margaritas. We just sat on the couch, getting loopy and watching TV, shell-shocked after a rough couple of days.

Before I had kids I never ever ever could have even imagined that going to work on Monday morning would be a welcomed relief. Oy freaking vay.

Oh, these girls.

Baaaaaaad Day

2009-04-11T20:05:00.002-04:00

Today was so awful. I can't remember the last time I had a day as bad as today. There were some breaks from misery, but, it was just a bad day. Mimi was a wreck literally from the minute she woke up this morning, and since it was my morning to get up with the girls while Josh slept in a little, I was with a crying, fussing baby since 5:45am. I had a whole post written about the day, but really the details don't matter. Thankfully the day ended on a high note, but still, by the time the girls went to bed I was a deflated mess.

In an effort to go to bed thinking happy thoughts instead of wretched ones, here are some of the evening's highlights:

Delma was sucking down a chocolate shake in the car while I drove around to get us out of the house and to get Mimi to take an extra nap before dinner... Delly was so in love with that shake, after a few mintes she stopped drinking and looked at me and gushed "Thank you, Mommy." Oh, my bursting heart.

After dinner Mimi tried finger foods for the first time. Banana. She had a few bites and chewed well -- but she was more interested in grabbing and playing with it than eating it, which was fine since it kept her amused for a while.

Then Mimi took a bath without her infant seat for the first time. She had a total blast, splashing water and chewing on bath toys. She didn't even come close to slipping, she's such a sturdy thing. Delma loved hanging out with us and "helping" me. She kept asking, "How you doing down there, Mims? You having fun in your bath?" (But when she says "your bath," it sounds like "you baff." So cute.)

Now it's me and a beer on the couch, watching Supernanny. I'm just too spent to do any fun crafting, which is such a waste of a free night (Josh is out at a gig). Oh well.

Tomorrow is a new day, etc etc. Serenity Now!

the girls

2009-04-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

Josh had the day off yesterday. Daycare was closed. I had to work, though, so my crew had a Daddy/Girly day. I'm not used to being away from the girls all day unless they're at daycare. I kept getting distracted at work, wondering what they were doing and how they were doing. Of course they were just fine and having fun.

Bowling for Plagues

2009-04-09T19:12:00.005-04:00

Here is our 10 Plagues bowling set for big Passover fun.

They're pretty much the cutest, happiest little ol' plagues you could ever hope to meet.

Happy Passover!

2009-04-08T21:32:00.002-04:00

We had a seder tonight. It was us and our good friends Greg and Adrienne and their son Fletcher. He's two months younger than Delly, and she adores him. She calls him her "favorite boy." Our seder involved us mostly chasing toddlers around and keeping Mimi happy. It was a lot of fun, and of course we didn't take a single picture. Argh.

Josh made a delicious matzo lasagna, but mostly I just ate matzo with charoset and horseradish. And of course all the wine. I hope by the time the girls are old enough to have a clue, Josh and I will have our acts together to throw a real seder. We tried hard to do it for real tonight while making it as casual and as quick and kid-friendly as possible. We were really winging it.

I need to start reaching out to our Jewish friends to get real advice/info/tips on how to do the legit Jewish mom and holiday thing. I want to get it right.

pulling up her own damn pants!

2009-04-07T20:21:00.000-04:00

Delma has always been a very independent girl, even as an infant. But for all her wanting to do things herself, on her own terms, there are some areas where she's been very passive, like in getting dressed. She has shown no interest in taking her own clothes on or off (except her socks, since Josh taught her to look for "treasures" between her toes. Hmpf.).

But all of a sudden, since she started potty training this week she's stopped fighting any encouragement to do other things herself, like pull up her pants etc. She want's pull-ups, she flips if we try to put a regular diaper on her. She happily climbs up into her booster seat in the car herself.

She talks a lot about how Mimi is "just a little baby," with the clear and unspoken contrast being that she herself is not a baby. Something has clicked in the past week or 2, and all of a sudden she's ready to grow up a little bit more. And it's made me want to baby her a little bit more. I'm happy to see her getting more comfortable with being a big girl, and I think it's good for her to fight for it a bit instead of us just handing it right over to her.

potty

2009-04-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

Last night Delly said she wanted to start using the potty like a big girl. We've been talking about it with her a lot, trying to talk it up and make her interested, and it finally started to work. So we talked about her telling her teachers herself in the morning that she wanted to use the potty, to make sure that she was thinking about it and that this was her decision (sort of).

So they officially started today, parking her butt on the potty every half-hour, and she peed once! She was so excited and proud of herself. So now we're on board at home too, and though she does NOT like being taken away from playing or watching Dora to go sit on the potty, once she's there she's fine.

I think she finally gets it, and is ready. FINALLY. Having two kids in diapers really blows, and despite all the hassle and mess of potty training, we're thrilled. Now I'm just hoping Mimi will be one of those crazy kids that potty trains by 18 months. That would rock.

But first things first. This girl is getting bigger and bigger, right in front of our eyes. Wow.