Friesencold

#1 – Chick-fil-A is coming to Aurora (the town next to us)!

#2 – Cash is now 9 months old.

Here’s his 9-month picture in his carseat.

#3 – I’ve made it 9 months breastfeeding. Only 3 months to go! I checked this morning and I have about 120 ounces of breastmilk stored in the freezer, which means Cash will get to have breastmilk beyond his first year, OR we will get to go on a trip! For my 9-month reward for myself, I bought a box of notecards with poppies on them. I love ‘em.

#4 – We just discovered Rosemary Wells at the library. I never knew about Max and Ruby. We got Max’s Dragon Shirt, Max’s Chocolate Chicken, Max’s Bunny Business, and Max Counts His Chickens. Those are some funny books. I told Bauer when we went to the library that day that we could not get Clifford, Berenstain Bears, Froggy, Little Critter, or Curious George. But it’s not like there isn’t plenty else to choose from.

Other books we got besides the Max ones are:
Rosemary Wells’ Shy Charles, McDuff Moves In, McDuff and the Baby, and McDuff’s Wild Romp
Martin Waddell’s Farmer Duck, Hi Harry!, and Mimi and the Picnic
Byron Barton’s Trucks and Trains (this is by far Bauer’s favorite of the mix)
John Wallace’s Tiny Rabbit
Eve Bunting’s No Nap and Our Library
Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Spoon
Bernard Waber’s Do You See a Mouse?

We were mostly on the W row.

Here’s Bauer reading Trains to his friend Brooke yesterday.

#5 – My sister sent me the cutest little handmade blue cloth bird ever. And a card with this quote on front:

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. -Henry David Thoreau

And now for Bauer and Cash’s excitement.

I think I’ve mentioned that Bauer is always excited for me to take a picture of him holding Munchie like this. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that we call Cash Munchie.

Cash is excited about his super-cool giraffe Sophie that Gigi gave him when we stayed at her house. Read about Sophie here.

On the other hand, Cash is not too excited about being in his pack-n-play at the moment. That’s Munchie making his Scrunchie face.

P.S. I’m excited about what we had for lunch today and I plan to post that recipe soon.

This is gonna be good…

We saw lots of different family members on our recent trip to NC. I am going to see if TJ can make a new photo album with more pictures from the trip but here are some to get us started:

Gigi (my mom) with Cash

Granddaddy (my dad) with both boys

Mary-Ma (my grandmother) with Cash

Granddaddy Lambert (my grandfather) with Bauer

Aunt Kathryn (my dad's sister) with Cash

Aunt Suzy (my mom's sister) with me and Cash

Chase (my 1st cousin, Aunt Suzy's son) with Bauer

Chase with Cash

This recipe is, once again, from my favorite little food magazine, Everyday Food. Subscribe already!

I can proudly say I have learned to like beets. I hated beets growing up, and thankfully my parents did not force us to eat them. I hated even the smell of them. But as I’ve grown up and become “queen of all things vegetable” as my sister recently called me, I have added beets to my repertoire. This is the first time I’ve cooked with beets. No, I take that back. I made a roasted vegetable and quinoa salad with beets, or should I say a beet. But this is the first time I’ve really handled beets in the capacity that this recipe calls for. And it really wasn’t bad at all.

Let me stop and mention here that TJ is very fond of beets. And even Bauer, by day two, when he got to eat the leftovers cold as he prefers most all of his food, was saying “ummm, I like it.”

The colors in this dish are fabulous and it is well worth the effort to cook the black beans from dried (instead of canned) and to cook the rice the old-fashioned, time-consuming way (as opposed to that dry Minute rice). TJ’s comment as he began eating on Tuesday night was that he felt like this was something he could have ordered from Rock Bottom, which is one of his favorite restaurants around here. I think we have a winner, folks.

A few notes on my adaptations of this recipe: I omitted the cilantro, as neither TJ nor I like cilantro very much. I’m sure using cilantro would give the recipe more flavor. We found the final product to be a tad bland, but the texture of the homemade black beans and of the rice made up for the bit of blandness. Nothing that a little salt and pepper at the table, or some avocado chunks, couldn’t fix. Of course, I also omitted the cheese. I used less oil than called for and am thinking next time I’ll just use olive oil. The rice I fixed was organic short grain brown rice, which took 40 minutes to cook and 5-10 minutes to sit and absorb the remaining water.

Recipe 14: Brazilian Black Beans

3 medium beets, scrubbed and trimmed
1 bag (1 pound) dried black beans, rinsed
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 T vegetable oil
1 scallion, thinly sliced, plus more for serving
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
cooked rice, for serving
lime wedges and shredded cheddar, for serving

1. In a 6-quart Dutch oven or other heavy pot, combine beets, beans, and enough water to cover; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook until beets are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour (add more water to cover, if needed).

2. Transfer beets to a bowl; when cool enough to handle, peel and dice. Continue to cook beans until tender, about 1 hour more; pour off any excess liquid. (Tip: I saved some of the cooking water in a jar in the fridge so that when I re-heated the leftover beans on the stovetop, I could add some of that liquid instead of water which would dilute the taste even more.)

3. Finely chop garlic, and sprinkle with salt. Using a knife, press a flat side of blade back and forth across garlic to make a paste. In a small skillet, heat oil over medium; add garlic paste, scallion, and cilantro. Cook, stirring frequently, until scallion has softened.

4. Stir scallion mixture into beans; cook over medium until flavors have blended, about 5 minutes. Serve beans and beets over rice, topped with scallion and cheddar, with lime wedges alongside. (Tip: If you want the beets warm, add them to the pot of beans near the very end, or keep the diced beets warm in the oven while the beans and rice are finishing cooking.)

You can make this dish up to 3 days ahead; add the toppings just before serving. Serves 6.

We got our garden planted on Monday afternoon. TJ and Bauer did all the work. Cash and I just watched.

We bought 3 tomato plants at The Green Earth Fair, and our avid-gardener friends Tom and Hannah have offered to give us 2 of their heirloom tomato plants. Bauer is holding the extra spot for now.

This was Bauer’s first attempt at “thumbs up” to planting our garden!

And this was after a little instruction on how to do it.

I give thumbs up to my new Ergo Baby Carrier. My friend Hannah told all about her use of the Ergo carrier on her blog a while back and I was inspired to try one. I was really feeling the need for a way to haul Cash around this spring and summer now that we want to be outside more. I feel bad making him sit in the carseat carrier in the stroller all the time and it’s hard to just carry him on my hip because my hands aren’t free to do other things. The Ergo seems like it’s going to be great.

Cash likes it too!

Cash also likes his hand-me-down Jeep walker from Bauer. And Bauer?

He must be quite the entertainer for how big that smile on Cash’s face is.

This morning Cash woke up at 5:30, which I’m used to by now. That has been his usual wake-up time for several weeks now. So that was no thing.

I was able to go out for a long early morning walk and I listened to a lot of John Mayer while I walked. I loved being out there so early and walking to my heart’s content. I knew TJ and Bauer were up to some kind of little project so they were happy to have me gone and Cash, being the early riser that he is, was already back in his crib for his morning nap by 6:45.

I was gone walking for 45 minutes and when I came home, this is what I got:

Wanna see the close-up?

This is an apple dad, orange mom (with sprouts for hair), and kiwi kids sitting on a pineapple couch with marshmallow pillows, over a bed of Dove dark chocolate pieces. TJ got the idea to make this creation with Bauer after reading a book by Cynthia Rylant a long time ago. It was one of her books in the Henry and Mudge series, which we get from the library sometimes and which Bauer really enjoys. There was a Mother’s Day book about Henry and Henry’s dog Mudge and Henry’s father making something very similar to what you see above for Henry’s mother for Mother’s Day. Without me knowing, TJ had photocopied several of the pages from the book so that he and Bauer could recreate this for me for Mother’s Day. They did an amazing job! It was Bauer’s idea to put Kiwi Cash down on the floor since all he wants to do now is crawl around everywhere and pull up on everything.

TJ also got me these 3 cool vases that I had spotted recently in a Crate & Barrel catalog. I am excited about having small fresh flowers on our table this spring and summer, especially once the farmers market opens next door.

TJ also picked the funniest Mother’s Day card ever. The front says, “Motherhood. Oh yeah….”  with a mom from the 50s sitting in her lawn chair eating her bon-bon while dipping her feet in the side of her little boy’s plastic pool while he sits right by her feet eating a sucker or something. The mom’s book lies open on the top of an upside down blue bucket that is right beside the garden hose that they used to fill up the pool. The mom’s shoes are kicked off to the side, she has her bathing suit straps pulled down so she can get some sun on her shoulders, and she is wearing a red bandana on her head (and those retro-cool dark frumpy sunshades to boot).

The inside says, “Living the dream, baby.”

TJ and I laughed and laughed.

We also had the boys dedicated at church this morning. There were many families (I think they said 41 kids total) who participated in the Child Dedications this Mother’s Day weekend. By having Bauer and Cash dedicated, TJ and I were making a public commitment to strive to raise our boys the way God would want us to raise them, to teach them about Jesus, to show them the Way by how we live our lives, to pray for them, and to allow our church family to help us in our job as parents.

This is a picture of Bauer and me before the dedications this morning.

And this is a picture of our family after church.

Also after church, we sat outside for a while at some tables and talked to our good friends Jeff and Jaime and their kids Branton and Callie. Cash had his bottle and Bauer got to sit beside his buddy Branton. The moms talked and the dads talked. That was fun.

Then we came home for lunch, which was takeout from Chipotle. Now both boys are sleeping, TJ is watching golf and looking at the paper and I’m enjoying writing on the blog.

That’s all for now.

Yum! This was a great salad. I pulled this recipe from my favorite little magazine, Everyday Food. I followed the recipe as it was listed, except I cut the olive oil in half. I decided to bake some polenta slices to go along with the salad and it turned out to be a good combination. I ate my polenta on the side, while TJ actually broke his into pieces in his salad.

Recipe 13: Red-Leaf Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

2 organic sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium red onion, quartered (I cut the onion smaller)
1 T extra-virgin olive oil (down from 2T)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 package (10 oz) frozen cut green beans, thawed
1/3 cup walnuts
1 6oz container organic plain low-fat yogurt
2 T white-wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, crushed through a garlic press
1 head (10 oz) red-leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

1. Take green beans out of freezer first thing in the morning so they can thaw before dinner.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, toss sweet potatoes and onion with olive oil; season with salt and pepper.
3. Place vegetables onto a rimmed baking sheet (I line mine with foil and lightly spray it with cooking spray to help avoid sticking). Roast until sweet potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Add green beans and walnuts to sheet; toss. Roast until green beans are tender, 5-10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, vinegar, and garlic; season dressing with salt and pepper.
6. Top lettuce with roasted vegetable mixture; drizzle with dressing.

For baked polenta: Buy a roll of organic polenta (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s). Slice into 1/2 inch slices. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Flip halfway through cooking time.

A is for Arboretum.

Waiting for the tram ride to start.

Walking on the rope bridge.

Looking at the blue bird.

B is for Bike.

Bauer got a bike!

C is for Connections Brunch.

We decorated our table with a bird theme.

These are the ladies I was in a group with.

Here I am with Lesa the cool leader.

PDO is for Parents Day Out.

Bauer makes playdough pizza at PDO.

H is for Happy.

Just look at 'em.

Bauer likes this pose.

F is for Family.

We were taking a walk and Bauer wanted to stop and take a family picture.

Bauer is quite a good little photographer.

This is what we had for dinner last night and what I had again for lunch today. It’s a recipe that I adapted from EveryDay Food Magazine. It was originally given as a side dish recipe to go with pork tenderloin I believe, but I thought it sounded like it could be the main dish if paired with rice. Up to this point, I have omitted the red pepper flakes and the cilantro, but I am thinking I will try the red pepper flakes the next time since we like the baked orzo dish made with red pepper flakes. I am not thinking to try the cilantro anytime soon because neither TJ nor I are very fond of this herb.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Dish

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 lb total), peeled and cut into ¾ inch cubes
¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)
1 can (14.5 oz) organic black beans
½ medium red onion, finely chopped
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (optional)
coarse salt and ground pepper
plain rice or rice blend, for serving (we like the Near East Whole Grain Blends “Roasted Pecan and Garlic” variety)

1.    Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.    Place cut-up sweet potatoes in large mixing bowl with 1 T olive oil, and season with coarse salt, pepper, and red-pepper flakes (if using). Toss to coat potatoes well, and then spread potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet that you have first lined with foil and sprayed lightly with cooking spray (which keeps potatoes from sticking and makes easier to toss during cooking).
3.    Roast potatoes in oven until tender, tossing 2 times during cooking, 25-35 minutes total.
4.    While potatoes roast, heat black beans in a pot on the stove. Don’t overcook but get them heated well to soften them a little. Once they are heated, drain and rinse.
5.    In a large bowl, whisk lime juice with remaining 1 T olive oil; season with salt and pepper.
6.    Add roasted sweet potatoes, beans, onion, and if using, cilantro; mix gently to combine.
7.    Serve over rice or rice blend of any kind.

Yields 2-3 dinner size portions. If served as a side dish, would serve 4-6.

Yesterday we attended the Green Earth Fair at The Green Earth Institute for the third year in a row. We met up with our friends Lisa, Billy, and Brooke (and baby due 5/31) for the second year in a row.

The Green Earth Fair, which is always the first Sunday in May, is where we buy our tomato plants for our garden. They have a bunch of different tents and tables set up to teach people a variety of things about healthy living and staying close to things that grow. The Whole Foods table is always a hit because they give away free samples – this year it was peach cobbler and cherry cobbler. At a different table, I got a menu to a local raw restaurant, which I’d like to try someday. Third, TJ got some information about healthy alternatives to conventional pesticides for yard use.

It was a fun couple of hours in the sunshine, hanging out with friends. But unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures of all of us, or even of Bauer and Brooke. But here’s one of them from last year:

They look so much littler.

Here are the few pictures we got this year:

Did you notice Cash and Bauer’s shirts?

Did you notice my pants?