Frigid Weekend

I heart Ina. Yummy, pretty Rugelach.

Ugh, I am so ready for spring to come. I know I shouldn't complain, we did just have a couple of mild weeks in January. But this frigid weather has got to go. So I didn't do a whole lot this weekend, except stay in and cook, hang out with the fam, and get sucked into yet another vampire series. Ya know, the usual. :) I cooked a few things, trying to use up some ingredients, some I had in the house since Christmas (when I had the best of intentions of making all those cookies). I just finished making one of those batches. They were Ina Garten's Rugelach cookies. Cookies, but more like a pastry. Yes, I'm still working on learning how to work with dough, haven't given up yet. These turned out pretty tasty, although they are what steered me away from dough recipes in the first place- time consuming. I found I actually enjoy the process though. So it's worth it, if only for the feeling of accomplishment of actually finishing them and having these pretty little pastries to show for!

After watching Julie & Julia, I had said I was really inspired to try a Julia Child recipe, so this weekend I tried her Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms and Cream Sauce. Oh my, Julia, you sure do know how to make a sauce! I guess they don't call you the master for nothing. The sauce was absolutely fantastic! Very rich, of course, with her love of butter, and this also had a whole cup of heavy cream in it! But ooohh soooo worth it! It was flavored with Madeira wine, such a perfect compliment to it. I don't have her cookbook, so the link is a blog I found online with her exact recipe in it. I did what this woman did when she cooked it- used a dutch oven. My mom got me one for Christmas and I was so psyched to try it out! What an fantastic kitchen essential! From stove to oven- love it! The picture was taken when I heated up the leftovers the next night, and the sauce kind of separated on me, but the first night, it looked much more like the actual sauce. It was still good the second night regardless!

I was fearless, Julia! And it didn't come out half bad!

I have to say thank you to my wonderful husband for doing all the dishes when I go into cooking over drive, like this weekend, he did them ALL for me. I sincerely hate doing dishes and I am super slow at them, so it takes me forever. I am very grateful for my "dishwasher", he makes cooking much more pleasant for me!

I know you are all wondering about the vampire series I was sucked into. First it was Anne Rice, then Stephanie Meyer, now..... Charlaine Harris! Yup, totally involved now in Sookie and Bill's romance and all the murders going on in Bon Temps, Louisiana. I can't wait to start the second one. It is serious junk food reading— easy to get into, a fast read, and a great escape from reality. I don't know why, but man, I eat this vampire stuff up! It's not Twilight, but I'll take it. :) In fact, my book and a rugelach cookie are both calling to me now, a nice way to relax on a Sunday night, I'd say......

Congratulations!!

A brand new, teeny tiny little Tumino was brought into the world yesterday! A huge congratulations to Charlie, Panadda, and big brother Luke on their new little bundle, Giovanni! He is coming into a wonderful family, with amazing parents and the best brother ever. Lucky kid! So happy for you guys and GOOD JOB, Mama Panadda!! :) Looking very forward to meeting and holding our new nephew!

Wordless Wednesday: A New Reading Spot.

Bon Appetit!

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking

you've got to have a "What the hell?" attitude."

- Julia Child

I never have wanted to cook French food in my life. I've never wanted to browse through a Julia Child cookbook, even though one has been in my Mom's kitchen for as long as I can remember. I didn't know much about Julia Child, and that was fine with me. Well, watching "Julie & Julia" changed all that. After watching this movie, I was on a high. All I wanted to do was cook! And not just cook- cook FRENCH food! From Julia's recipes! I can only imagine how many people went out to buy her book after watching the movie. I'm such a sucker for good marketing. John and I were going to watch half on Saturday, half on Sunday, because sleep is a precious commodity now. But I was so into the movie that I ended up watching the whole thing in one sitting, even though John was finding it hard to make it through the end. :) First off, Meryl Streep is amazing in this. I loved how the story took you back to when Julia Child didn't know how to cook anything. She seemed very charming, witty, and bursting with life. Very inspiring. Amy Adams character was very believable, and her goal for herself- 1 year to cook through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", in a tiny NY apartment- kind of hit home with me. Not that I want to do that. No way am I cooking calf's foot. But I just liked the whole idea of challenging yourself with a project that you pour yourself into. And I could relate to cooking in a small kitchen! It's been part of my new years resolutions to cook more, and challenge myself making new recipes, and now I think I have to add to that and branch out a little bit more, and perhaps, just maybe, try a few recipes from Julia. The Beef Bourguignon (yes, I had to google it to find the spelling. And I won't even try to pronounce it.) looked particularly delicious in the movie. So did the Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms and Cream. AND- it turns out that I, too, have been cooking mushrooms wrong my entire life! Don't crowd the mushrooms, people! They won't brown! So, as you can see, the movie got me fairly pumped up about a new style of cooking and a new teacher. And just plain being inspired. Cooking is such a great creative release and there is always something new to learn, always a new recipe to try. "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it" says Julia. True words, folks, true words.

Ah.... New Baby Smell!

Baby Anya, asleep on her Daddy.

I hear Mommy and Daddy's shoulders are her favorite place to sleep. :)

Seriously, don't they have a certain wonderful smell about them?! Warm, soft, clean, and.... new! I got my baby fix this weekend when we went to go visit friends Beth, Josh, and new baby Anya. Anya is 7 weeks old, and is such a sweet, good, plumpy cheeked little angel! She's a little beauty and I'm so glad I got to meet her when she was still such a tiny thing. I think all parents say this, but, I really don't remember Sadie being that small. I'm so glad we have many pictures (thousands!) and videos to remember those times. We were so sleep deprived, not much sunk in there the first month or so. :) Beth and Josh are handling having a new baby wonderfully and we joked about the lack of sleep, the marathon nursing sessions, the amount of late night/early morning tv being watched, and we could understand all they were going through! All worth it, though, we agreed! It was wonderful spending some time with Beth, chatting about babies and being a mom, and just catching up with each other's lives. Here is a pic of the new happy family.

Josh, Beth, and a well-swaddled Anya.

We also got a chance to get coffee with Kari at Barnes & Noble. It had been awhile since we'd gotten together and was nice to hang out, letting Sadie loose in the children's section (poor B & N). She found a rack of Eric Carle stuffed animals and she was pretty psyched about taking out all the animals and giving them all to Kari, and then taking them all back and giving them all to Daddy. Hours of fun, I tell you. Kari happily obliged when Sadie asked her to put elephants, caterpillars, and penguins on her head, and a friendship was born! In fact, Kari made Sadie's day and bought her the stuffed elephant! Let me tell you how much this elephant is already loved. Kissed, hugged, danced with, put in her high chair to eat, put in her crib to sleep, pretending it's walking on the floor (with the trademark Sadie "do do do do do" as he walks) and the first thing she wanted after her nap was her "elfint". So thanks, Kari! Had to show you some pics of her and "elfint":

Kisses for Elephant!

A Good Start To The Weekend

Today Sadie and I had our music class that just started up again. I have to say, and in hopes of not jinxing it, that this winter session is so, so, so much better than the fall session. I am not sure what changed, either it is because we are in an early morning class, or Sadie just changed (which is entirely possible, because don't they change ALL the time?), but for the first time in forever, Sadie did not cling to me, or cry, or scream when we went into the class! She always eventually warms up and enjoys herself, but in the fall, it was a good 15 minutes or so or clinging and crying. It was not pleasant. And I asked myself many times why I continued to go when I had begun dreading the class. I went though, because in the end, she DOES like it, and she needs as much socializing as possible. And so does Mommy. I wasn't going to sign her up again this session but the teacher of the class, who is absolutely wonderful and supportive, talked me into it. I'm so glad he did! She literally has done a complete opposite and it is awesome to see. Today before we left to go to class she kept saying she wanted Amelia and Skylar, her two friends. How sweet!! It was music to my ears actually, that she was looking forward to class and playing with her friends. She even WALKED into class on her own. Usually, she insists on being carried. So anyways, it's such a welcome relief to really enjoy this music class with her, both of us socializing, and it's a good feeling to look forward to this class, rather than dreading it!

Sadie and I have also been taking advantage of the local libraries around here. I never knew they had so many things for children her age. Newport library has 3 kid size houses in their children section, filled with books, puppets, and a kid-sized couch and chair. She LOVES it, plus she gets to play with other kids, and she gets to practice her "sharing" :) Which is getting better! She now will hand me toys and tell me "share" with a big smile. It's still hard of course to give a toy to someone else that she does not really want to share! We recently found another library that is fantastic, the Redwood Library, that has a whole room dedicated to kids. Tons of books, but also big bean bag chairs for them to lie on, lego's, stacking toys, puzzles, trains and a train track, etc. It rocks, and they don't come and shush you either, there! It's been so nice to find other forms of entertainment and play activities for us.

Looking forward to tomorrow, we are going to visit my friend, Beth, who had a baby girl late November. Can't wait to meet little Anya!

Wordless Wednesday: A Tribute to E.T.

Just Another Manic Monday

I had made an 80's mix for Sadie and The Bangles are on it, and they are in my head, but anyhoo....

We had a doctor's appointment for Sadie today, and unfortunately Sadie lost a few ounces (in her world, ounces count). She has just been so sporadic in her eating lately. It was one of those disappointing appointments, the only thing you don't want to see is weight loss, and it is such a morale booster to get a weight gain. So when you don't, it's deflating. Not the end of the world though. Last month she gained a fair amount, so I'm not worried. We'll just keep plugging away and hope she does better next weight check.

Great gift, Mom! We LOVE the aerator!

I'm addicted to drinking while cooking now!

I decided after that appointment, that a nice dinner was in order. I had wine in the fridge, ready and waiting for us. I was supposed to make this dinner on Sunday night, but we packed up all the Christmas decorations and put them away, and that took longer than expected. And since we cooked practically nothing ALL weekend, a nice dinner was in order. Seriously- we picked up pizza Friday night, had chinese Saturday night, and resorted to a frozen pizza on Sunday night to save time. And if that wasn't enough, the creme de la creme was our McDonald's lunch on our way to the doctor's today! So I made Giada's Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese, something I've had in my recipe collection for a few years and never got around to making. I'm so glad I made this, it was delicious! You have to like mushrooms for this recipe. The flavors were just so good together and went so well with the red wine (which for once didn't give me a headache). And the wine was needed! My mom is starting to regret giving us the wine aerator, she thinks I'm going to become an alcoholic or something. But Mom, no worries, I went through the alcoholic phase in college. :) But seriously, folks- What a great way to unwind — cooking, drinking wine, "Footloose" playing on the ipod, Sadie dancing around me, and chatting with my hubby. Anyways, this is a great recipe to try, if anyone is actually reading this blog!

Food photography is hard! This picture is pretty horrible, but it tasted delish!

And it went very well with crescent rolls- But what doesn't!

Chocolate for Breakfast

Warm chocolate scones with cinnamon butter!

Come visit us for breakfast!!

One of the things I'm trying to do this year is try new things (however small it may be) and get over some things I avoid or are reluctant to do. So let's start small. Time to get over my fear of dough! I have always steered away from recipes that have any type of dough to them. It seemed daunting and "cutting in butter" just was way too much work with that damn pastry blender. Or even worse, using two forks to cut it in. I was more of a cookie and bar type of girl. But over the past few months, I discovered the joys of the food processor and have witnessed its powers first hand. It really does rock. It takes all the work out of dough! At least the minor things I have tried. Pulse. Pulse. Pulse. There is your dough. That is more my speed. Last week I tried my first scone. Cinnamon Sugar Scones. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? Well, they were a complete dud. Very disappointing, especially considering I was making them for a morning play group with some mom friends. (On a side note, Stop and Shop saved the day with their scrumptious muffins!) So those went in the garbage. When you took a bite, you had to grab something to drink real quick to stop yourself from choking because you didn't have enough saliva in your mouth to work through that dry, crumbly mess. I tried a new recipe today, that I've had on my messy desk for a long time, that I'd ripped out of a Rachael Ray mag (from 2006!!). Double Chocolate Scones with Cinnamon Butter. Oh my oh my! Now THESE are scones for breakfast! With a cup of coffee, it's an awesome Sunday morning treat. I had John in mind when I made these because of his chocolate addiction, and it lived up to his high chocolate standards! Onward now, to more dough recipes! A whole new baking door has been opened to me!

On a different note, I just heard my friend, Ginny, had her baby boy today! Congrats to Ginny, Brian, and big brother Will!! Baby Sean Michael is such a cutie and already looks like his brother. Ever since having my own peanut, I recognize what an accomplishment labor and giving birth is, so rock on, Mama! You did amazing! Looking forward to seeing more pics!

Lastly, just a few pics that make me smile.

Sadie liking Mommy's new Target purse. Oh how I love Target.

See? My art degree paid off. Throw the box away! Nah!

Voila, an indoor sled!

Waking up from a nap, very happy! We like that!

Wordless Wednesday: Less Than A Month Left. Oh Happiness! Oh Joy!

Yay for wine!

So I'm following one of my resolutions- more wine :) I just made a delicious pasta dish- angel hair pasta with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese. It was super easy and totally yummy! The sauce had white wine in it, so I poured myself a glass of wine while chopping and cooking tonight. NICE. Why don't I do this more often??! Cooking and drinking- Julia Child knew what she was doing, folks. What a fabulous resolution I have! Much better than exercising, which is what is usually on the list. Sadie had her stir fry kit in the kitchen and played with John while I cooked, so nice! John had received a wine aerator for Christmas and we had tried a red wine with it the other night and tonight we tried a white- what a great gift! It seriously made our wine taste SO much better! We did a taste test, before and after the aerator. Hands down, much smoother and tastier when aerated. Highly recommend for wine drinkers!

Now to put the babe to bed and onto more resolutions.... watching the second part of the new Harry Potter movie. Yay!

Hello, 2010.

Sadie cooking like her mommy.

I like the start of a new year. It's nice to have that feeling of starting over and getting another chance of accomplishing all those resolutions. It gives you a chance to reflect on what you want to do this year to make life better. And that usually involves a list, and I seriously love making lists. I love crossing things off a list even more. I am glad that '09 has come to an end, although we've had many blessings this year, it's been a trying one for us. One that I'd like to see behind us. I am hoping for a happier, more relaxed, less overwhelming year. Our biggest problem, getting Sadie to eat solids, is still there. But, the threat of a feeding tube has been lifted- the removal of the tube being our (and Sadie's) greatest accomplishment last year. So we are very lucky in that aspect. Now we're hoping to get her to eat, actually eat foods, in the early part of the year, if it's possible. It's probably hard to understand, but feeding her is very time consuming and requires a lot of energy, sometimes you really have to dig deep to find that smile and positive, fun attitude that is needed to get her to eat and drink. Because every time you offer food to her, it's a battle and a refusal, and when most all things you try to offer are rejected, it wears on you and your spirit. And this of course, spills into all other parts of life. I never realized how big a part of life food was until I had to feed a child who hated to be fed. We always have to feed her at home, because she won't eat anywhere else just yet (nor will be eat for anyone other than John and I). So I am home a lot. And daycare won't accept a child who won't eat on their own. So working has been put on hold. It's a complicated, all-encompassing situation. I have a good feeling for this year, though. I think many changes will take place to make life better. I won't go into my list of resolutions because it makes too much pressure to do them! Two of them are drink more wine and watch more movies! Ha! So, I guess what I am trying to say is here's to a great 2010 for all our friends and family! Wishing for happiness and peace and love in the new year ahead!

More snow in Newport! Do you like our new stroller?