Where have we been?

Santa came and left a note, along with too many presents. Our toy to square footage ratio is a little out of whack. Time for Santa to come back for some gift taking.

Jonathan waited until the day after Christmas to be naughty. Who said traveling with a toddler was fun? Oh, that's right, nobody.

It was all worth it though because once we arrived in Louisville, Uncle Aaron entertained the kids while Mommy and Daddy drowned their stress in a bottle of wine.

Joanna and Ryan were in Louisville for the holidays, which is one of the main reasons we planned the trip. I hadn't seen their son since he was 6 weeks old. It was really surreal having our children play together because Joanna and I became friends when we were my daughter's age. Could they look any different? A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead walked into a bar...

 While in Louisville, there were snow flurries. Lil and Jonathan ran outside and danced in circles cheering and squealing with joy. Joanna's son lives in NYC and wasn't nearly as impressed as my southern munchkins.

More to come.

A foodie with bum taste buds

Thankfully, my family has so far managed to avoid the rapidly spreading swine flu. Taking the kids to get their H1N1 vaccine was a hoot, let me tell you. I damaged my rotator cuff trying to physically restrain my five-year-old. She's freakishly strong, and I either need to start working out for next year's encore or I'll have to hire a bouncer.

We did recently have a house guest, one that wasn't invited and stayed entirely too long. It all started when Jonathan was teething (or so I thought). He was incredibly ornery, drooling like a camel, and barely touching his food. Days later, little bumps appeared around his mouth, a result of the drooling, I assumed. Then, Lillian started complaining about her tongue hurting. She thought she had bitten it, but the pain grew worse, as did the whining. I finally checked her tongue and this is what I found:

BLISTERS!!!!! My tongue started to hurt just looking at them. No, wait, my tongue had blisters on it too!!!! I'm never sharing food with these germy kids again. While we never developed the characteristic blisters on our hands and feet, we were diagnosed with an enterovirus, much like hand, foot, and mouth disease. Since Jonathan is the youngest and hasn't had much exposure to enteroviruses, he had the most severe symptoms. Lil was more tired and crabby than usual, but she felt alright otherwise. Adults have been exposed to many of these viruses, so their symptoms are generally mild. Often times, we show no symptoms at all. I just had a very sore tongue.

What was even worse than listening to Lilly whine that her tongue was going to fall off, was that food tasted like moldy drywall and coffee like pond water laced with furniture polish. Even after the blisters disappeared, I was left with a metallic taste in my mouth for days. I didn't cook for a week. The only meal that brought me any pleasure at all was soba noodles in a miso broth with sauted carrots, zucchini, and red peppers.

My tendency toward hypochondria led me to google 'taste loss' and I read all sorts of tragic tales about poor souls with permanently damaged taste buds. Thankfully, my taste buds are happy and healthy once again. Last night, I baked homemade bread and made cabbage with white bean soup.
QUIZ: What's better than the aroma of freshly baked bread and soup simmering on the stove? ANSWER: Tasting it.

Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man's world.

Lately I've been spending money like a madwoman. I'm usually quite thrifty and not much of a consumer, but occasionally I go on these spending sprees like a desperate housewife. It's my husband's fault, really, because he made a comment about how nice it would be to have a comfortable reading chair. I proceeded to sell the Hitchcock table and benches we were storing in our living room, purchase new curtains, a mission style rocking chair, an antique mahogany desk, and a Morris chair from LLBean. Once you get started, it's hard to stop. I still need a chair for the desk and an area rug. Of course, now the room needs to be painted too. The good news is I purchased the curtains for 1/2 price at JCPenney, the rocking chair for $85 on craiglist, and desk for $130, but I paid full price for the LLBean chair. I sold the Hitchcock furniture for $900 and purchased all the above items with that money. I'm afraid the box (I mean, cave) is here to stay.

"But that is not all! Oh, no, that is not all," said the Cat In The Hat. I've purchased autumn clothes for Lillian, new clothes for myself (a reward for losing the baby weight and insurance to not gain it back), and Christmas presents for both kids. I purchased many of these things on etsy.com, which makes me feel slightly less guilty. Alan painted the kids' room with No-VOC paint ($$$) and now that the walls are so beautiful I've purchased artwork to hang. The artwork needs frames. It's a vicious cycle, but I'm having fun.

Grilled vegetable salad with sweet poppyseed dressing

This recipe was OUT OF THIS WORLD!! I forgot how sweet and delicious grilled vegetables can be, especially eggplant and fresh corn. I found this scrumptious recipe on author Cynthia Lair's website Cookus Interruptus. She wrote a wonderful cookbook entitled Feeding the Whole Family, which gives smart tips on feeding your entire family the same dish, even babies as young as 6 months old. I DREAM about her yummy Emerald City Salad and have yet to be disappointed by one of her recipes. I highly recommend her Fried Brown Rice, Edamame Tofu Salad, Lemon Tahini Sauce, Rosemary Red Soup, Asian Noodle Salad, and French Lentils with sage. The only change I made to this recipe was adding grilled corn and serving it with smoked salmon. It was so fabulous!

What's in your fridge?

I just got home from the Farmer's Market and am mourning the loss of the bounty of summer. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to root vegetables and soup, but will miss the endless supply of melons and mangoes. The good news is, my beloved comice pear will make her return in a couple of months. Also, the leaves are about to change and sweaters will soon come out of the closet. Woo hoo!!

This is what's on the menu this week at our house.
Monday: Grilled vegetable salad with smoked salmon. Tuesday: Roasted brussels sprouts, bison, mushrooms & onions with raw alfredo sauce & PBu, inspired by Heather Eats Almond Butter. Wednesday: Edamame tofu salad with sesame chili dressing. Thursday: Raw zucchini noodles, basil, carrots, tomatoes & alfredo sauce and sweet potato french fries. Friday: We usually eat out on fridays, but Alan has to work, so I'll probably make whole wheat breakfast wraps with eggs, salsa, cheese, and organic italian sausage. Saturday: Vegetable chickpea curry with brown rice, with raita yogurt sauce.

Yes, I cleaned my fridge first and here's what's in it:

top shelf - mustard, pickles, ghee, jerk chicken spice, apple butter, white miso, green curry, walnuts, peanuts, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, raspberries.

2nd shelf - chock full o nuts coffee, 1/2 & 1/2, Banilla yogurt, plain yogurt, yogurt tubes, salsa, sour cream, cottage cheese, almond milk,

middle shelf - eggs, saflower oil, yo baby yogurt, applesauce, organic green grapes, pineapple, marinara, left-over black bean zucchini quesadilla mixture, tiramisu.

cheese drawer - tofu, smoked salmon, dates, feta cheese, whole grain wraps.

shelf - spinach, bison, organic italian sausages.

produce drawers - carrots, potato, corn, eggplant, okra, cucumber, basil, boston lettuce, red pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, portobellas, dill, brussels sprouts, lemons, cilantro, sugar snap peas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, minneolos, apples, limes, ginger.

other treats from the F. Mkt - plums, peaches, bananas, kiwi, chickpeas, onions, soba noodles, dark chocolate, date coconut rolls, edamame, frozen peaches, poppy seeds, cherry tomatoes.

What's in YOUR fridge? What are YOU eating this week? What's your new favorite food discovery?

10 years ago today

I made the best move of my life and married my sweet hubby, Alan. He is so kind, so generous, and makes me laugh every day. He also makes some beautiful babies, if I do say so myself :-)
Happy Anniversary, babe.

For the love of peanut butter

I have a hard time keeping the fridge stocked with peanut butter. I've had a passion for nut butters for as long as I can remember. My husband, Alan, often makes "poor man's dessert," which is a mixture of peanut butter and maple syrup or honey. Apples cut into little boats with peanut butter on top was a breakfast staple growing up, and I still eat almond butter with pink lady apples at least 3 times a week. I sometimes add a scoop to my green smoothies and always put some on my oatmeal.

As a child, I couldn't understand why my mom kept our peanut butter in the fridge while other families kept theirs on a shelf and enjoyed it at room temperature. Their peanut butter didn't have oil floating on the top, thanks to hydrogenated fats. My mom knew about hydrogenated fats before hydrogenated fats were uncool. We were also the only family I knew who ate whole grain bread. I don't mean soft wheat bread from the grocery store, I'm talking grainy, brown, frozen bread full of seeds. Thanks to whole grain bread and natural peanut butter, my brother says his lunch was never stolen in middle school.

I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately and kept hearing about PBu. It's a delicious concoction invented by Emily at Curly Top. It's so good there are no words to describe it, so I won't even try. Just buy yourself some natural peanut butter and plain almond milk and mix them together. Emily recommends 1 cup of pb and 2 cups of almond milk, but I like mine a little thicker. Try 1 cup of peanut butter mixed with 1 cup of almond milk and then thin it out if you'd like it thinner. You have to stir, stir, stir for a long time, until the two become one. If you're allergic to peanuts, try it with almond butter. I don't think it needs any sweetener, but add some if you'd like. Cinnamon works well too. You can use PBu on anything - oat bran, toast, salad, ice cream, you name it! It's heavenly!! It's much lower in fat than straight peanut butter, but it tastes just as decadent.

The blog I keep returning to again and again is Heather Eats Almond Butter. In fact, Heather was the first person I noticed using PBu in her recipes. She lost over 100 pounds ten years ago eating a healthy diet. She's beautiful and witty and has learned over the years which foods make her body happy. She and her husband created a recipe they call Marinutta, which is a combination of marinara sauce, peanut butter, and ground flax seeds. AMAZING! We ate ours with some roasted brussels sprouts, ground bison, carrots, onions, and mushrooms. Heather eats hers on broccoli.

Man, I love food. Like Julia Child, I'd rather go food shopping than dress shopping any day.