January 9th

Need to figure out what to do tomorrow, as they're shutting down our power for 4 hours in the middle of the day. Freaking city. Why are you doing this on the weekend?

Also need to figure out how to keep the baby from turning into a bipolar mess in the evenings. She hasn't been napping so well lately, leading to horror and chaos in the hours before bedtime. Do we need to become rigid schedule people? Her natural rhythms are pretty regular. She goes to bed easily. Just need to figure out how to get her down for naps.

Recent cooking:
Pasta with white sausage sauce - Tried the red wine variation. Tasted like wine.
Cream-braised Brussels sprouts - Tasty, though R thinks it lacked bacon. I'm sure that can be rectified next time.

Cute baby!

Managed to create a little scene in Costco today. The baby was great, it was the people around us who were behaving oddly. Apparently the Friday lunchtime crowd reacts strongly to the phrase "cute baby." First the cashier and bagger (boxer?) were cooing over the baby, then the employee from the next line came over, then another customer. Suddenly we were in the middle of this mass of women. Some of them were poking at her and grabbing her feet. It was a bit intimidating. The one of the customers walked out of Costco at the same time as us and kept pointing out the baby to all the employees she passed.

Still, beats what happened when we went to Costco on vacation (yes, we went to Costco while on vacation, in two different cities even). This woman in one of those rascal scooter carts asked if she could see my baby. I lowered the baby down a little so that she could get a closer look (you know, being in a wheelchair and lower to the ground) and she reached out her arms as if to grab my baby. I stiffened up a little and pulled her closer, but there was definitely some baby fondling. Had the lady looked in my face, I'm sure my expression of horror would have clearly conveyed my thoughts at that moment. What the hell? Are you in elementary school? Look with your eyes!

Gah. Boundaries, people!

January: You start the year off fine

My sister came over today to get a little auntie-niece time. We ate some of the coconut curried chicken soup I'd put in the freezer to prepare for the baby, but never got used thanks to the outpouring of love (and food) from our friends and relatives. As I just quit my old job and the new job is still in the prospective phase, I've been playing the "How little food can we buy this month?" game and have been eating previously frozen soups for lunch. My sister was here on a good day - I've got a couple of containers of bean soup in the chest freezer that she probably wouldn't have wanted to be a party to. Anyway, my sister brought a letter from my mom with her. We both noted that she says mean things, but uses such beautiful handwriting. The letter is practically a piece of art.

We got a new vacuum for Christmas and, thanks to the little one actually taking a nap in her crib (yay), I finally got to try it out. Our old vacuum only made the place look less dirty; this new vacuum makes it look clean. R remarked that he would even feel comfortable putting the little one down on the carpet (precisely the reason we wanted a new vacuum in the first place). Now I just need to do the upstairs. And the stairs. Which have drifts of cat hair (eww).

Recent kitchen exploits:
Slow cooker black bean soup - Meh.
Coffee toffee - So good!
Chicken thighs with balsamic vinegar - A surprise hit, as R isn't a vinegar fan.

Happy New Year!

Woo! We celebrated the new year in style - new parent style that is. After being on the road for 10 hours we defrosted a bag of breast milk, drank some of the champagne leftover from our wedding, watched the clock click over to midnight, and immediately fell asleep. Envious?

Really, though, we've had a great vacation. The little one turned out to be a great traveler. She slept in large blocks of time, ate quickly and easily when we stopped, and didn't mind spending all day in her bucket. When we finally made it to Oregon, however, she took one look at her cousins and doubled the number of feedings. I guess she felt she needed to catch up. Unfortunately, this meant I was unable to store up enough milk to leave her with her grandparents and go snowboarding, but since the snow wasn't very good we decided to cancel the trip anyway.

Veggies!

We got our first shipment from the CSA this week. As I thought it would be, it has already been an interesting experience. Since we're not going to be eating many meals in the house the next week (bad timing on my part), I've had to get creative with some of the produce.

I pickled the beets (and ate the greens sauteed with a little garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper) and have a jar of hot peppers in vinegar aging in the fridge. The three cute potatoes from the shipment (R ridiculed this a bit, and rightly so) became hash browns, which are about a million times better when made with fresh potatoes than with dehydrated ones. I suppose that should have been obvious, but we'd never tried it before. I'm also pretty sure they cooked faster.

I also made a rather tasty cauliflower soup inspired by a recipe I forgot to bookmark on foodgawker (saute onion & carrot, add cauliflower and a little broth, puree, add cream and cheese, season). All in all, a lot of fun. I look forward to the next box (and eating more meals at home so that we're not in such a rush to use up the contents).