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.

Caramel Apple Cookies

Gowski ladies, these are the cookies I was talking about this weekend....

Caramel Apple Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2¾ cup old fashioned oats not quick-cooking oatmeal
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz caramel baking bits [I’ve never seen these in SLC but figure you could also cut up those square caramels]
2 cups granny smith apples

Directions

Step 1:In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Beat until combined.

Step 2:Measure oatmeal into a food processor, and pulse until ground finely. In a medium-sized bowl, stir the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until combined. Set aside.

Step 3:Peel and finely chop the apple.

Step 4:Using an electric mixer, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined. Stir in the caramel bits and apples. It is fun to save a few of each (the apple and the caramel) for dotting on top of the rolled cookie dough balls.

Step 5:Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. Roll the cookie dough into golf ball-sized balls. Bake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F, for 10-12 minutes. The sheet should be placed on the upper middle rack. Cool on the pan for 4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Note: Dough is best the day of. In time the apples add extra moisture to the dough, causing a wider spread on the baked cookies. Alternatively, you can pre-roll the dough into balls and freeze if you aren't using it all the first day. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet until solid, and then transfer to a labeled sealable freezer bag. Use within one month. Simply add an extra couple minutes to the baking time since the dough is frozen.

Forgot to mention....

The boys got haircuts last night, so all those curls in today's dandelion picture?  Well, they're gone.  But I promise, he's still cute. :)

Make a Wish!

 

Ok, I'll admit that my wish is for a trouble-free flight to NJ tonight.  We can't WAIT to see Pop, Jan, Aunt Christine & Uncle Doug, Aunt Steph and Uncle Doug, Caitlin, and Lloyd.  Billy has never met his nephew!  It will be a belated happy birthday for Jan and a happy 35th for Bill (on the 20th).  Only wish it were a longer trip!

Avenues Street Fair '09

Last Saturday was the Avenues Street Fair, an annual commnity fair in our neighborhood.  They pick a different East-West street each year (since the north-south streets are on hills), and there are typically 6-8 blocks of local shops, restaurants, food vendors, and music folks represented.  It's great!

We usually have a booth for Continuing Ed (my job), to get the word out to the community about our classes, so I had to go up at 8 am to help set it up.  Ever tried to rush a not-quite-2-year-old through a bowl of cereal? Just give up before you start.  Anyway, Freddy was helpful - in that he didn't get in the way - and when we finished, we caught up with a bunch of friends at the informal children's parade at 9. Trikes, strollers, and backpacks everywhere!  You can't tell from the photo below, but he had a good time dancing to the music, too.  I had to go back to work the booth for a 4-hour shift that afternoon, and had a sitter since Bill was out of town.  It was a good - long, busy day.

Friends

These two will both be big siblings soon - Freddy's friend Samantha's new little brother is due on her birthday the first week of October!  My friend Kelli came over with Samantha to hang out and rest our feet yesterday morning.  A few other friends hosted a fantastic wine and cheese tasting (catered by the local Italian deli, Caputos's) on Saturday night, and Kelli and I - despite not drinking the wine - were on our feet for too long.  So we rested and caught up while the kids played with playdough, fought over toys, and were generally really cute.

Missing Daddy

This is what happens when Daddy goes away...the sunglasses come out, the dancing starts, and Freddy goes pant-less.

 

Just kidding.  Freddy found "his" sunglasses in the car, and I did not put these on for him - he loves them. 

Just a normal Sunday morning in the Gowski household, although we will both be happy when Billy comes home late tonight from his hiking/camping/climbing trip with two friends up in the Wind River Range this weekend.  They left last Friday morning early, and we had a busy Friday and Saturday, followed by a nice mellow Sunday.  It rained a little this evening (for the first time in a while), and we sat on the front steps while Freddy ate his popsicle.  It was pretty idyllic.

 

p.s. - enjoy this funny long hair in these couple of photos.  Freddy gets a haircut on Wednesday!

 

Scary Sailing

Well, there are no photos attached with this post because we didn't pull out the camera one time.  I guess we could have captured the great sunset Sunday evening, but that was possibly the only good thing about our overnight sailing adventure Sunday-Monday.  The advance weather report had been a little dubious - possible showers Sunday morning with a cold front moving in - but the showers never happened, and the afternoon/evening forecast and radar were both clear.  Also, neither one was predicting any substantial wind....

Boy were we in for a surprise!  We headed out of the marina around 4:30 or 5 pm on Sunday, hoping to see the hot air balloon launch from Antelope Island at 8 pm.  Sailed about 5 1/2 miles out and threw an anchor in a decent viewing spot.  It gets shallow near the island, so we were not very near shore but would have been pretty protected if the winds had been from the NW, N.

We got settled, had some dinner, and were enjoying a beautiful evening.  Freddy never falls asleep easily on the boat, so we started getting him settled in bed around 8:30 (I think he finally nodded off around 10).  At 10, the wind started to pick up..and pick up...and pick up...and the boat turned into a bucking bronco.  Seriously.  Billy watched the depthfinder to make sure our anchor didn't shift, and noted the highest winds around 24.5 knots.  Now this might not sound like much to you Virginia residents, but for our little lake, that's unheard of!  Plus, it was coming from the south, so we had no protection.  Neither of us slept - at all.  We debated pulling anchor and trying to head back in the dark, but nixed the idea for fear of Billy falling off while trying to pull anchor (not to mention that the return trip is not well lit and we could easily have run aground).  So we sucked it up.  I lost my dinner over the side at about 1 am.  It was awesome.  At least Freddy managed to sleep fairly well through the evening. 

The next morning, we expected it to be calm, as it usually is here in the morning, but the wind had shifted and there were actual whitecaps on the water!  Also something that NEVER happens on the lake here.  The salt content and "heavy water" keeps any swells usually very gentle without any breaking.  So we were still tossing and turning, and we decided to just pull anchor and get the heck back to the marina.

Just when you thought everything was going to be ok...I was at the helm while Billy was down below playing with Freddy, and I wasn't paying attention to the depth finder.  Mistake.  Turns out that huge reef that's to the left of the marina is bigger than I thought, and I misjudged how close we were to the real channel...and ran us aground on the reef.  Billy tried valiantly to sail/motor us off, but we stuck fast.  After about 40 minutes of trying, we decided to call for help...and no one answered the marina phone.  And I couldn't get through on the VHF radio.  LUCKILY, Billy had one bar left on his cell phone (mine was dead), and we finally called 911 when we couldn't get through to anyone.  Yikes!  There's a first for everything, I guess.  We finally heard back from the harbormaster, who said he'd be there in 15 to tow us off the reef and got there 40 min. later.  In the meanwhile, all the rocking finally got to Freddy and he lost his breakfast (twice), on our newly-recovered cushions.  Sweet.

So...luckily Dave the harbormaster was able to pull us off (with some ribbing, since we bought the boat from him and it 'broke his heart' to pull it off the reef).  We sailed/motored back in and got off the boat as fast as possible.  Amazingly, Freddy held it together (well, except for the throwing up) the entire time.  The same can't be said for his mother, but at least I can say I have learned some lessons!  The harbormaster said the front that moved in and stalled over the lake surprised everyone, so at least we know we couldn't have prevented it.  But we'll think twice about early September overnights in the future.

Here's to our next trip! :)

More sailing fun...

Wow - we have just had an awesome time this summer on the boat.  We're more or less over our guilt about not getting out more than once a week or so, and we're hoping that Freddy gets more used to it over time.  Next weekend is a big hot air balloon festival at Antelope Island (which you see in the background of a lot of our sailing photos), so when Billy returns from his conference in San Francisco, we're hoping to take the boat out and spend the night on Sunday evening.  Hopefully F will like watching the big balloons.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Fun with Narda/Rio's Farewell

We had a daycare going-away party for Freddy's good friend Rio at Julie's house not too long ago. Most of the daycare kids and their folks came, and so did Narda! Everyone had fun even though the kids had no idea what we were doing.



Narda still ended up on the floor playing with the kids.


And Bill had a good time pulling them around on the winter sled with the kids cracking up when they fell off. ;)

Big Helper

We got a new bench for our back "landing" (to hide all the small toys that have proliferated in our backyard). Freddy was a big helper when Daddy put it together! Clothes are not helpful, as you know.

Bran Muffins. Yes, Bran.

I've been on a quest to use everything in the pantry, fridge, and freezer (at least within reason), and have been pretty proud of my efforts so far! Last night was a good example - we had some bean/corn/ground beef mixture leftover from the previous night's burritos, a little cheddar cheese, and some corn tortillas that had been hanging around for months and months. So I made a layered casserole with those ingredients and an extra can of kidney beans and some rice cooked in chicken broth. YUM! Served it with a little plain coleslaw with raisins and toasted almonds (the cabbage needed to be used and the almonds were from a breakfast dish a few days before). Ok, so it's not complicated, but it used up lots of leftovers and was a good reminder for me that you can make a casserole out of just about anything.

Last week I made two new recipes for Rio's going-away daycare party - both of them turned out great. The egg "muffins", in particular, were pretty easy and could definitely be prepped the night before. The guys LOVED them.

Baby Bran Muffin Recipe

These bran muffins are delicious hot out of the oven with a touch of butter and sprinkled with a few grains of salt. Also good cooled with a smear of cream cheese! Not nearly as dry and yucky as most healthy bran muffins are.

2 cups white whole wheat flour OR stone ground whole wheat flour VG note: I just used regular whole wheat
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons raw natural cane sugar OR brown sugar
2 cups full fat yogurt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup of add-ins of your choice - raisins, chopped dried fruit, nuts, etc (optional). VG note: I used raisins only.

Preheat oven to 425F degrees, racks in the middle.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, wheat bran, salt, baking soda and sugar.

Beat together the yogurt, egg, honey, and butter in a second larger bowl. Add the dry ingredients and fold in until everything comes together. Fold in any optional add-ins, raisins, nuts, and the like. Resist overmixing.

Either grease a mini-muffin tin with butter or line the tin with small muffin papers. Fill each 3/4 full. Bake 10 -15 minutes, until muffins are golden on top and cooked through. You can also make larger muffins in a standard size muffin pan with this batter, you just need to bake them about 5 minutes longer.

Makes about two dozen tiny bran muffins or one dozen larger ones. VG note: This recipe actually made about 4 dozen mini muffins for me!

Broccoli Cheddar and Sausage Egg Muffin Pull-A-Parts

6 Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits (from can, 8 count)
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

2 Cups cooked broccoli florets, cut up into small pieces (I steamed them for 4-5 min)
1/2+ Cup cooked sausage links, cut up (more if you want)

5 eggs
4 Tablespoons milk
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese (more if you want)

Cholulla hot sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Cut each biscuit into 8 triangles and place 5 into each muffin tin. Lightly sprinkle each biscuit cup with salt and pepper. You might have a biscuit left over. You could probably also make these as mini muffins or in those texas-sized muffin pans, but just adjust so you have enough filling to come about 2/3 up each muffin cup (higher for minis).

2. Sprinkle broccoli and sausage evenly over each biscuit filled muffin cup.

3. Place eggs, milk, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined. Pour evenly over each cup. With a fork make sure eggs get to the bottom and around each piece of biscuit. Top each with sprinkles of cheddar cheese and bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center of biscuits and cheese is golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from muffin cup. Remove and arrange onto serving plate. If you like it spicy serve with a nice hot sauce like Cholulla, it’s wonderful!! Pull them apart with your fingers or cut with a fork. Enjoy.

Sailing...

My friend Brooke just sent this photo from an evening sail we took with her and her husband Rob a few weeks ago...who knew the Great Salt Lake could be so beautiful? :)

Some more beach favorites

Ok, I promise this is the next-to-last post of beach pictures. Then on to what's going on now! We just had a going-away party for one of Freddy's best daycare friends (pictured earlier), Rio...who is moving to Berkeley next weekend. It's hard to watch, because you know the boys have no idea what's coming, but they are really going to miss each other. Hopefully we'll be able to see our friends Dana and Scott a few times a year so the boys can catch up. Will that be weird for them? Who knows? I guess life goes on.

Woke up to a real thunderstorm this morning! Now you east coasters are rolling your eyes, I know, but we don't get many here in the summer and it's easy to forget how nice it is to lie in bed and listen to the rain. Until a huge clap of thunder wakes your toddler up. Oh well....

The Fam, at the Beach

And here we are! I think we got everyone in here, and will do my best to inform those who don't know them. Standing: Gigi (formerly Grammy, but now that she's a great-grandmother, it's Gigi); Mom (now Grammy) & Scott; Meredith & Jack; Freddy, Billy & me; Mary & Erik. Kneeling/short: Ria, Megan, Helen & Billy; Alex & Ella (who belong to Mary & Erik)

This is also a nice shot of the siblings: Billy, Jack, me, and Mary (and unborn baby girl Gowski).