The Final Countdown

Well, here we go!  Two weeks until d-day (or at least due-date, which may or may not mean anything...).  Here's a photo of Bill and I from two weeks ago at a lovely cocktail/baby welcoming party that our friends and neighbors Larkyn and Billy hosted for us.  We had  a great time, and I won't comment as to whether my belly has gotten bigger since that day. :)

Keep your fingers crossed that she stays put until Mom arrives on December 5!

Love to you all...

Hockey

Bill has been playing Sunday night hockey for a year or so now (some of you might recognize those green shorts, above), and although usually the games are too late for Freddy to attend, there was an early one last week. Turns out it's hard for a 2-year-old to sit still for 3 whole periods. How strange! :) Freddy actually made it through most of the game, although it took a lot of distraction. By the end of the game, he was shouting "go Sharks" and "oh, shoot" along with the rest of us.

Birthday Boy!

As most of you know, Freddy turned 2 on Oct 21.  Hard to believe he's grown so much since our little 7-pound jaundiced boy in the photo above, taken at the hospital in Baltimore.  Or compared to the one-year-old who started crying when we sang Happy Birthday at his birthday last year (and didn't eat his cake).  Granted, putting the whole cake in front of him might have been a little overwhelming:

Since he was in the middle of a bout of swine flu during hsi birthday this year, we skipped his actual birth "day" and waited until the weekend to open family gifts - which worked great, because by that point he was feeling so cooped up that we were all about to go crazy.  All the thoughtful, fun gifts were (and still are) a great distraction!  He's having an awesome time with the puzzles, blocks, trucks, books, musical instruments, ice cream toy, etc.  And so are we!  It's so fun to see him at the age where he has a little more patience to work things out, and yet is still so easily entertained and surprised by things like hearing himself play a harmonica.  This next year will be another exciting one, and we're hoping F tolerates his new baby sister.  Narda says he's totally indifferent to the babies at her house, which I guess is better than his being aggressive or overly "helpful" with them. ;)  We'll see!  Either way, it's bound to be a great year.  We had a great party on Halloween to kick it off - see the slideshow, below (if you are reading this by e-mail, you might have to click through to gowskis.blogspot.com.

Happy (belated) Halloween

Halloween was a bit more of a festival occasion for Freddy this year compared to last.  Grammy made him an adorable clown costume (although a wig and red nose were just not happening this year).  Everyone asked if I made it and I just laughed. ;)  Maybe one day. Anyway, we extended Halloween a bit.  I guess that's what happens when you have a toddler, right?  Halloween parties everywhere?  He got to wear his costume (which he loved) to a "Night at the Garden" at the local community garden, to daycare where they trick-or-treated around the different rooms in Narda's house, to Music Class, and to his birthday party Halloween night.  We had a 3-way party for Freddy and two of his buddies who also have late October birthdays.

Night at the Garden didn't go so well - it might have been a little too spooky for him at this age:

But trick-or-treating - even in the dark - went over well, probably because there was candy involved. :)

Birthday photos to come next, I promise!

New Recipe and More Fall

Last Saturday, Freddy helped me carve one of our 3 pumpkins.  He was amazed to see the seeds inside, and after we took out all the guts, he wanted to put the seeds back in the pumpkin.  I guess I should just be happy he didn't want to use the carving knife.  He loved seeing the pumpkin all lit up, and also eating the roasted, salted seeds!  I always expect pumpkins to provide tons and tons of seeds, but we ate them all in a day or two.   Oh, and - that is actually my stomach.

I've been trying to be more organized about my meal planning lately, both with the goal of cleaning out the pantry/freezer of things that traveled from Salt Lake to Baltimore and back again - a year ago (like that huge bag of red lentils).  So while this is far from a food blog - no photos and not very regular - I may post the occasional not-too-tricky recipe for your cooking enjoyment.  Well, for those of you who cook, at least.  I made this one last night, and Billy and I both thought it was REALLY good.  It does involve buying almond butter, which I like anyway on PB&Js and toast.  You could PROBABLY use peanut butter, but I'm not sure how it would taste.

By the way, it seems weird to use fettucini here, doesn't it?  But it works...although I think you could sub in rice, rice noodles, or any asian noodles (udon, etc.). This says it feeds 4, but I would say 2-3 based on how much we ate. :)

Noodles with Roast Pork and Almond Sauce
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups)
. 1/2  teaspoon  canola or veg oil
. 1/2  pound  pork tenderloin, trimmed
. 1/2  teaspoon  salt, divided
. 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
. 8  ounces  uncooked fettuccine
. 1/4  cup  almond butter
. 2 1/2  tablespoons  low-sodium soy sauce
. 2  tablespoons  rice vinegar
. 1  tablespoon  minced peeled fresh ginger
. 1 1/2  teaspoons  chili garlic sauce
. 1  cup  thinly sliced green onions
. 1/3  cup  finely chopped fresh mint
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Drizzle oil in an ovenproof skillet. [we just used a pyrex] Sprinkle pork with 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper; place pork in pan. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Turn pork over, and bake an additional 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°. Place pork on a cutting board; let stand 10 minutes. Shred pork into small pieces. [if you can't shred it reasonably easily w/2 forks, maybe cook a little longer - but don't overcook!]
3. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 2 tablespoons pasta water; keep pasta warm.
4. Combine almond butter, 2 tablespoons pasta water, remaining salt, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and chili garlic sauce. [note: the pasta water is critical for making the sauce liquid-y enough to coat everything. if you forget and toss your pasta water, try just using 2T of really hot water] 
Divide pasta evenly among 4 bowls; top evenly with sauce, pork, onions, and mint.

Happy, Healthy Fall!

Well, we're back!  After way too long of a break from the blog - which included a trip to New Jersey, a long bout of H1N1 (for Freddy, not me), a lot of trips by Bill, and just a generally busy month or so - I'm back and hoping to catch you up on photos from the last month or so.  Everyone in the house is 100% healthy now (knock on wood!), and we have about 5 weeks until the arrival of Freddy's little sister.

Just one to start things back off - we forgot after last fall how hard it is to stay on top of our leaf-raking.  The two big sycamores and one HUGE box elder tree in our front yard seem to shed leaves endlessly.  We've raked several bags up the last two weekends and it hardly looks like the trees have dropped a leaf!  Freddy has been a "big helper" with his little rake...in that he doesn't like the look of leaf piles and would rather toss them up in the air and all around than help us pile them up. :)  Luckily, the weather has been great and it's actually pretty cute.