Happy Birthday, Papa!

Hope you have a great day!
love,
Ginny, Bill and Freddy

Baby blue eyes

If he could, Freddy would plan only with phones, cell phones, and cameras. This makes taking photos of him hard - it's like when you hold a camera out to take a pic of yourself when no one else is around to take it. Unnecessary close-ups!

TREES

Let me say, for the record, that I am typically NOT that person who puts up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving - or the weekend after. I don't shop on black Friday and I like to keep my holidays separate and distinct from one another. Well, we're hosting a neighborhood 'progressive' holiday party next Saturday, and since we don't have much furniture, we decided that we ought to holiday-ify our house to make it feel like someone lives here. So we went tree shopping on Saturday and found a perfect tree at one of those temporary lots (the sign said they were from Kalispell, Montana, but who knows?)

Bill had visions of Freddy running up and down through the trees. Since he doesn't really run, yet (heck, he still walks with his hands up for balance at least half the time), that might have been a little optimistic. But he did have fun as long as the trees weren't right in his face. Too bad I had the camera on 'manual' and didn't know it - the photos are mostly out of focus.

The tree is up and lit, thanks to Billy's expert light-hanging, and hopefully I'll get around to putting ornaments on tonight after I try to settle on a holiday card. Freddy seems pretty interested but not yet destructive. We'll see what happens! I do love the holidays, especially 'cause it means I'm that much closer to a trip back to VA to see all the family. Miss you guys!

Weekend/vacation mornings are great

I took Freddy to the aquarium Friday morning with Julie (Charlie), Idie (Ellie and new baby Jack), and Shelby (Lucy). Despite the strangeness of going to an aquarium in, er, the DESERT, it's the perfect size for little guys, inexpensive (an annual pass is $15!), and has a nice little kid-friendly cafeteria for the end of the morning. The kiddos had a great time, and the mommas had fun catching up as we ran around after them.

You can tell Charlie and Freddy had a good time, right?

Turkey Day!

Well, we (reasonably) successfully hosted 14 adults and 7 kids for Thanksgiving this year, and it was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who brought dishes - we did not have one 'average' dish in the mix. I'm going to see if I can track down Eleni's stuffing recipe and stuffed french bread recipes. Everyone RAVED about Amber's lemon cheesecake (I didn't try it, as it's not my favorite, but cheesecake lovers thought it was fantastic). The turkey was perfectly cooked and carved thanks to the 2 Billys, and although they got testy here and there, none of the kids had major, unrecoverable meltdowns. I've attached Mel's sweet potato puree recipe here, for those who are interested.

RETRO ROCKET!

Asteriod ahead! Now THIS was worth the $25 on Craigs' List.

Madhouse Playgroup

Back on my birthday, I volunteered to host our regular Thursday-night playgroup. It was awesome! We had 10 or 12 kids, Julie brought a cake, and the kids seemed to have a great time. I can't wait until our third floor is ready to turn into a playroom (rather than the holding pen for stuff-that-has-no-home that it is now). Then, it'll be a GREAT playgroup spot! Thanks to all the ladies for helping me clean up at the end of the night, and to Julie for bringing the mini ice cream cones so the kids could eat flourless chocolate cake out of the cones. :)

More fun with make-believe

I love this pretend play! I know it'll just get more fun as he gets older, and this is pretty much the only thing he is playing at so far, but it's so fun AND lets me get some stuff done in the kitchen at the same time. Check out the video!

The BREAD MAKER...

A dream come true! Bill gave me the infamous Zoriushi (sp?) bread maker for my birthday. Even though I have only made 2 loaves of white bread so far (hey, I had to test the timer feature and quick-rise vs. regular yeast!), I am SO excited for the potential of this wonder machine. SO, for those of you who have bread maker recipes, please send them to me or post them here! Mom says I can use any bread recipe as long as it doesn't have more than about 4 cups of flour, so I can also try to improvise with regular bread recipes. Hooray!

In other news, we have finally invested in a baby gate at the top of the stairs, but I guess it's time to fix the latch on the trash cabinet. Freddy has decided that things like disposable casserole pans (even unused) are really trash after all.

Comfort Food

Sorry, gentle readers...a weekend went by without me taking new photos, so this will be a rather boring entry. Oh well. We had a great weekend, though - the weather was beautiful! We took a hike on Saturday with our neighbor's dog, Ruby (who is almost the best dog I know other than Luther, Julie & Greg's golden retriever). I learned that one should never visit Costco the Saturday before Thanksgiving, even for cheap PJs. The Utes beat BYU, securing a likely spot in a good bowl game. I survived a terrible sore throat. Freddy slept well and was 'happy Freddy' most of the weekend. We took Freddy to one of the community pools on Sunday morning (for the first time) with Greg and Charlie, and he loved it! The water was really warm, and once he got used to the noise from the fountains and echo-y room, he had a blast. Fell asleep on the way home, and didn't wake up during the transfer from car to crib, thereby skipping lunch. And Bill won his Sunday night hockey game.

I made the same casserole three times - once for us, once for our friend Idie who has a 2-week-old baby boy, Jack, and once for Julie who is due in about 2 weeks with baby Will. It's pretty basic - one of those 'how to use what you have in the fridge for an easy weeknight meal' kinds of things, but here it is, for anyone who needs an easy comfort food recipe. I should say that my other favorite chicken and rice casserole is the Chinese Chicken Casserole from Southern Living (thanks to my mom and sister for introducing me to that one!). I usually add extra mushrooms and black pepper, and sometimes some cayenne:

Creamy Chicken-and-Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 (6.9-ounce) package one-third-less-salt chicken-flavored rice-and-vermicelli mix with chicken broth and herbs
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2 1/4 cups hot water
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 1/2 pounds skinned, boned chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup presliced fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 cup nonfat sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can reduced-fat, reduced-sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1/4 cup crushed multigrain crackers (about 6 crackers)
• 1 tablespoon margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds (I usually skip these, for some reason)
  

Cook rice mix in a large nonstick skillet according to package directions, using 1 tablespoon margarine and 2 1/4 cups hot water. Remove mixture from skillet; set aside. Wipe skillet with a paper towel.

Coat the skillet with cooking spray, and place over high heat until hot. Add chicken, mushrooms, and garlic powder; sauté 6 minutes or until chicken loses its pink color. Combine rice mixture, chicken mixture, sour cream, pepper, and soup in a bowl; stir well. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Combine cracker crumbs, margarine, and poppy seeds; stir well, and sprinkle over chicken mixture. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Make-Ahead Tips: You can assemble the casserole ahead of time, omitting the cracker-crumb mixture; cover and chill in the refrigerator or freeze (thaw frozen casserole overnight in refrigerator). Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes; top with cracker-crumb mixture, and bake as directed.

Kisses

Yesterday morning, when I dropped Freddy off at Narda's house (daycare), she did her usual "kisses for mommy" as I was leaving. Usually, if he's willing, Freddy's 'kiss' = extending his forehead in your general direction for a sort of cuddle/head-bump. But yesterday, he actually kissed me right on the lips! So cute. And then, he put his hand on his mouth and blew me a big one. This is why people have more kids, right? 'Cause it made my morning.

Toys, schmoys.

Apparently Freddy now knows how to stir, mix, and taste. Why hasn't he been cooking dinner, I wonder? I do try to walk him through each step when I'm making something (now I'm adding the cinnamon, cracking the shells and adding the eggs, mixing it all together...), so maybe he's figuring it out! For about 20 minutes, he sat on that baking sheet and stirred imaginary things in two different containers, occasionally raising the spoon to taste whatever fabulous dish made of air he was whipping up. It was cute AND allowed me to do the dishes. Gotta love it! When can you start involving kids in the kitchen ... and expect some kind of decent result? Maybe I should leave well enough alone if he's happy with pretend food.


P.S. - this is what I was making:

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

(Makes 2 loaves)

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Freddy's fun game...

Here, Dad - have some cheese (or whatever)! Just kidding! I'm going to eat it, ha ha ha..... And yes, we do still feed our kid right off the counter. One day we'll start using plates and bowls. :)

Who Knew You Could Make a Meal in a Rice Cooker?

Bill and I made this last week, and I forgot to post the recipe (courtesy of my friend Melanie who found it in the New York Times, I think). It was easy other than occasionally having to click the rice cooker from warm back to on when it thought it was finished cooking (like during the saute step). I skipped the chili pepper b/c I didnt' have one, but I would recommend adding a little cayenne or something if you don't have a pepper. I served it with unsalted cashews (not fried as below), raisins, and plain yogurt. YUM.

Rice Cooker Chicken Biriyani with Saffron Cream

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 cup plain yogurt, preferably whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon mild chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1 onion cut into chunks

1 2-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 fresh green chili pepper such as jalapeño or serrano, stemmed

3 tablespoons canola oil or ghee (clarified butter)

1 1/2 cups basmati rice, rinsed

6 cloves

6 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

3 cups chicken broth (use low-sodium if canned) mixed with 1/4 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch saffron threads mixed with 2 tablespoons heavy cream

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro, more for garnish

3 tablespoons chopped mint

1 lime

FOR OPTIONAL GARNISHES:

Oil for frying

1 onion, thinly sliced

Big handful cashews

Big handful raisins

1. Cut chicken into bite-size chunks: 6 to 8 pieces from each thigh. In a bowl, mix yogurt and powdered spices. Add chicken, mix well to coat, and set aside.

2. In a food processor, purée onion, ginger, garlic and chili pepper together. Set aside.

3. In a rice cooker, heat oil in cooking bowl on ''cook.'' When hot, add onion paste and cook, uncovered, until some liquid has evaporated and paste begins to brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

4. Add rice and whole spices and stir well. Smooth top and arrange marinated chicken pieces over surface.

5. Gently pour in broth and salt. Cover and let cook until rice is tender and chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes depending on cooker.

6. When done (or when cooker switches to ''warm'' function), add saffron cream and mix, making sure to scrape and scoop up bottom layer of rice. Sprinkle chopped cilantro and mint on top and re-cover. Let steam 5 minutes more.

7. If making garnishes, heat 1 inch oil in a pot until rippling. Add onion and cook, separating rings, until golden brown. Lift out and drain. Add cashews and raisins to same oil and cook until cashews are golden brown. Lift out and drain.

8. Just before serving, squeeze lime over biriyani and mix very well, fluffing lightly. Scoop onto serving platter and garnish with chopped cilantro and fried onions, cashews and raisins.

Note: Lacking a rice cooker, biriyani can also be made in a heavy round pot with at least a 3-quart capacity. After adding broth in Step 5, raise heat to bring mixture to a simmer, then immediately reduce heat to very low. For Step 6, turn heat off.

Wintertime

I think I must like hats and gloves more than Freddy.

He'll tolerate coats, but forget anything that velcros or ties under his chin (or for that matter, anything on his head), and gloves are cool for only about 5 seconds. This blue hat stayed on until we actually went outside. Figures. I have a pair with a string that runs up through the sleeves, but they're still too big. I guess he'll figure it out when his fingers turn purple from the cold, maybe?

Had a great night away on Saturday at the Sundance resort - they're having special between-season specials right now - and we left Freddy overnight with Stephanie, one of our great babysitters (she actually cleans up!!). The sitter cost more than the room, but it was totally worth it to act like grown-ups for a while. We made a fire in our little room, had a great dinner, and read the paper leisurely over a fabulous brunch. Our first night together away from Freddy! We missed him, though, and it was heartwarming to see how happy he was to see us when we got back. Then he promptly had a terrible night's sleep (more teeth, maybe?), and there we were, back to real life again. :)

My best purchase ever

This simple little $5 ball is the best investment I've ever made. Freddy asks for it when he wakes up, wants it constantly in view while he's eating or reading a book, and never gets tired of it. Sweet! P.S. - it's made by crocodile creek, and I got it on diapers.com.

YUM

Yummy new things:

Just found the King Arthur Flour blog...

And their website gets me thinking about holiday baking. Hmmm. When to start? Going to be a busy season.

Flourless (?) Chocolate Cake:
Made by my friend Julie for my birthday/playgroup last night. The kids had fun stuffing it into mini ice cream cones (without the ice cream). There's only a little bit ground into the cream-colored carpet in the office, and it was worth it for the YUM factor.

I don't have Julie's recipe, but here's a recipe I tried once that turned out well:

The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
Even though the cake may not look done, pull it from the oven when an instant-read thermometer registers 140 degrees. (Make sure not to let tip of thermometer hit the bottom of the pan.) It will continue to firm up as it cools. If you use a 9-inch springform pan instead of the preferred 8-inch, reduce the baking time to 18 to 20 minutes.

Ingredients
8 large eggs, cold
1 pound bittersweet chocolate or semisweet choc., coarsely chopped
½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into ½-inch chunks
¼ cup strong coffee or liqueur
Confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder for decoration

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.

Cupcakes:
Now, I'm not typically a big cake fan. I like the german chocolate cake Mom used to make for my birthday cakes, and I do like the flourless version above, but I don't really like cheesecake and wouldn't select a cake off a dessert menu. However, Brandon (my new PR guy at work) gave me two spectacular cupcakes for my b-day yesterday. He got them from Minis Cupcakes - I got "breakfast at tiffany's" (the blue one) and "the diva" (not sure if I should be worried that he chose this one). Check them out, below - how beautiful are they? They each came in a beautiful little box with the name of the cupcake on a cute label. Note to self - give these to other people. They're pretty! It almost doesn't matter whether they taste good (they do).



My staff must know I like to cook (and eat). Lacy gave me a beautiful pie dish with a lid shaped like the top of a pumpkin, and Ben gave me a gift certificate to cold stone creamery. JUST when I thought I was starting to get pretty good about what I'm eating..... Well, the pie dish will actually benefit people coming to my house for Thanksgiving, not necessarily just me, right?
xoxo

Balls, balls everywhere

Freddy's favorite word: ball. Now, to be honest, he actually says something more like "ma-baw", which I interpret as "my ball". As soon as he wakes up in the morning, that's what he says, and by golly, he would take the hard rubber balls to bed if he could. His absolute favorite is a blue ball with green polka-dots made by crocodile creek. The best $5 I ever spent, no doubt about it. He was in heaven at the Cannizzaro's house - these balls actually belong to their dog, but since Oscar was at the kennel while his house was invaded by children and soon-to-be in-laws, Freddy had them all to himself. Ha!

Snow!

The snow flew here in Utah for a few days late last week. In typical fashion, when we woke up to a blue-sky day here Saturday morning, I said "what do you want to do today?" to my dear husband. He said "I thought maybe we could go up to Alta and do some skinning." (for those who don't know what that means, 'skinning' is hiking up a mountain on your skis with climbing 'skins' on the bottom, then taking them off at the top and skiing down). I said "but it's such a beautiful day!". He said "exactly." :) I was thinking we should take advantage of the beautiful weather to take a hike in the valley before everything's covered with snow, but he's right - the only time to get the little guy out in the big mountains is when it's warm and the skies are blue, so we loaded up and headed up to Alta, which isn't open yet - although Snowbird opened on Friday! Mommy is not quite in good enough shape to keep up with Daddy, but she tried...and Freddy was a pretty good sport.

Halloween, a little late

A week and a half ago, we went to "Boo at the Zoo" with our friends Julie and Charlie. Just now uploaded the photos, and there are some cute ones! Charlie fell asleep on Julie's shoulders on the way to the car - it was adorable. Thanks to Julie for loaning Freddy the teddy bear costume. Isn't he tough??