On the Oscar movie catch-up front, Dallas Buyers Club was excellent. It had some beautiful moments (the butterfly scene, if you've seen it). Waiting on 12 Years a Slave. Other Netflix picks: I really enjoyed the unusual approach and subject matter of Stories We Tell and Mitt was an even-handed documentary about Mitt Romney and his family. They are likable, earnest folks even though he can't totally shake the automaton image.
My office crock pot is awesome...until I spilled 20 oz of piping hot broccoli cheese soup everywhere - so take it from me, keep the bowl in the warming vessel during transport and consumption. Be an office hermit and enjoy a warm homemade lunch al desko.
Despite attending a ginormous state university, Greek life is still a mystery to me and Caitlin Flanagan's Atlantic articleconfirms all of my preconceived notions (if you are involved in higher ed or have an older kid you might be interested.)
I needed my CV revamped and have zero word-processing skills so Luke suggested Elance.com. I made my proposal and within a few hours had several bids. So far so good, my CV should be ready this week. If you need online work done this seems like a great resource.
The Lego movie is so meta! (And this essay so well-written) [NYT magazine]
And, cute sheets and toys (I wonder if C would be fooled by this phone) and so many other things I need to browse at Biscuit Home, perhaps when we go to the Houston rodeo later this month! Yeehaw!
Luke took these last week when the day care hosted pony rides and a petting zoo. C wouldn't pet or touch the rabbits, but jabbed at them with her foot:
Apparently the hair chalk craze has even gotten to ponies.
No more baby face - she's a toddler
With Isabel. Don't be misled by this photo - she adores Isabel
A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014.
This Thursday I got outta town for an overnight work trip with my friend Jen to New Orleans (poor us on hardship duty). Our hotel was 5 miles from the French Quarter so we cabbed it there, had beignets at Cafe Du Monde (she had never been to Nawlins before and I insisted upon this), and then - after doughnut hors d'oeuvres, of course - had a delicious meal at Domenica. I had the cavatelli with fire roasted eggplant topped with goat cheese and it doesn't sound like anything spectacular but it was so good.
I had been hoping to go to Head for the Hills music festival in Kerrville on Saturday but the weather didn't cooperate - it was cold and rainy all weekend. We enjoyed some quality family time watching Dallas Buyers Club (have you seen it? You should!), went to work out at the Y but had pulled pork at the Beat Street Bistro instead (because C has a bout of conjunctivitis and we've already brought one dose of plague to the Y)*, and tried to get into The Americans but no dice.
*would like to say that's that the first time that we've put on workout clothes just to go out to lunch, but alas.
On the cooking front, I tried out several new things, bran muffins from here and Cooking Light chocolate-banana snack cake*, each with a hearty addition of chia seeds. I bought an enormous bag of chia seeds a while ago and am finally getting around to incorporating them. They go unnoticed in the bran muffins - which are shockingly delicious, even the man of the house said so, and C ate them with gusto - and add a birdseed-but-not-in-a-bad-way texture to the snack cake.**
* I love chocolate and banana together, and this cake is delish
** how ridiculous is the term snack cake?
AND I started using my newly delivered pressure cooker this weekend. I had purchased ATK's Pressure Cooker Perfection over a year ago but dawdled buying the appliance because C arrived and I stopped cooking for a long time and in the spring it was reported that the Boston marathon bombers used a pressure cooker as the bomb vessel, which added to my notion of pressure cookers as dangerous and scary. These many months later, I decided to give it a try. I've never seen a pressure cooker in action but I watched this video:
I tried out chili, macaroni and cheese, a chickpea and artichoke tagine, and steamed butternut squash. I am in love with this thing! I made two batches of mac and cheese, each with an addition of a lonely half-consumed bag of frozen peas (batch 1) and chopped spinach (batch 2). No-mess one pot cooking, done in 10 minutes from start to finish. Someone else was also a fan:
Can't wait try it out for roasts and stews and maybe some desserts. (Luke says I ask him at least every six weeks if he's ever had rice pudding and he answers 'no' and I murmur 'me neither, I wonder if it's good'.)
On Sunday C and I went to Babies R Us (which along with Bed Bath & Beyond rounds out my list of stores that I will only shop at only under circumstances of dire need, a diaper pail bag refill being one of those -- and their inventory was wrong and they didn't even have them I hate you Babies R Us!) and Costco. More pressure cooking, one more episode of the Americans (final verdict: not 80s enough! Too implausible!), and a batch of chocolate ice cream that didn't freeze properly for some reason but no matter - I'm re-labeling it as a semifreddo.
Looking forward to enjoying the ahem semifreddo, watching Lena Dunham on SNL, starting this book, and planning for California exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point. Can't wait!
Slathering Eucerin Daily Protection SPF 15 Moisturizing Body Lotion on the arms and decolletage as spring emerges - it's the lightweight fragrance-free body sunscreen/lotion I've been looking for for so long! ($6.99 at Target).
Eating with deep satisfaction: Slices of avocado sprinkled with salt. Doesn't get any more delicious.
These gingham bunny ear headbands are coming soon from Sekilola (Etsy) Cutesy usually isn't my thing but how cute and springtime is this?! Unfortunately C refuses to wear headbands -- I place the headband, she looks at me, slowly moves her hands to the headband and slides it off. And repeat.
This weekend I set about attempting to use up pantry and freezer items because I can't justify a trip to Costco unless the stockpiles run low. And I really want to go to Costco!!! These peanut butter and dark chocolate fudge squares from Cooking Light used up the not-enough-for-a-batch-of-cookies-without-doing-some-math-(and-that's-not-going-to-happen) chocolate chips and languishing can of sweetened condensed milk. Tip: they are even better frozen.
My favorite hair product (also like the mousse) has become Luke's favorite product. This could get expensive as I tried to give him a $3.99 Loreal knock off and he was like:
Readthis (annoyed that I can't find the actual article) with interest because it seems to be one of the only well-designed studies to address the impact of breastfeeding on child outcome (fat-burning, slight cancer-risk reducing benefits for mama well-known or well-investigated). Of course that is because when I free-associate about my breastfeeding experience the words (excluding the 90% that are expletives) that float to the surface of the fugue state that was February to about mid April 2013 are AGONY and COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME and THE MOST HORRIBLE THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME.
[Nota bene, ardent lactation folks, 'cause I know you're out there: those are my feelings regarding my experience. I don't have any feelings regarding yours or anyone else's, the way I don't care about whether you like sprinkles on cupcakes or where you fall on the beach vacation versus mountain vacation divide. I just hope that whichever preferences you have are working out for you.]
Have a great week! I am looking forward to a quick work trip to New Orleans and maybe a music festival this weekend.
Stats: 18.5 lb and 29.5 inches at her 12 month well baby visit three weeks ago. She's small but fast.
Interests: Emptying shelves, baskets, and drawers. Gaining possession of phone, remote control, and the retractable badge holder that I store in my backpack but she manages to find.
Goals: Figuring out how to open pantry and refrigerator. Very interesting stuff in there.
Words: She had hi but lost it ... says Da? Da?! DA! in association with Luke more often.
Will follow these instructions: "Clap your hands!" and "Can you dance?" [moves head from side to side]. Just learned giving a hug.
New thing: Dangling sippy cup/cereal/banana to the side of the high chair tray and then dropping them while maintaining uninterrupted eye contact with you.
This week Luke and I took our first solo trip since the arrival of La Clementina. Walking around uptown Minneapolis felt very much like his old neighborhood of Wicker Park and dare I say a little pre marriage pre baby carriage magic was recaptured? We would have more photos but it was too cold to fumble with gloves and camera. With the Battle of the Bands victory (a lot of rehearsal time in the days before) and my presentation at the university completed (such an honor), our mutual preoccupations of the preceding weeks were behind us and we enjoyed time with each other and a great visit with friends. I am looking forward to a relaxing March - I often become very myopic when A Very Important Task Is At Hand and it occupies my thoughts even when I'm not working on it and a sort of stress-cloud forms, which I envision like that one Peanuts character.
Yesterday Luke provided the music for a marriage retreat with several speakers, the choicest soundbite being "A marriage without Jesus is like two ticks with no dog." (Not from the Song of Solomon, I'm guessing). Today we got in a little gym time (have you seen thisrope climber before? I found it today and my shoulders are gonna huuuuurt) and I devoted the afternoon to restocking the larder, baking lemon blueberry muffins (I like every weekend to have a baking project), and soothing a cranky toddler with a very runny nose. My two goals for the weekend are to cull my cosmetics cache and my wardrobe -- each of these should take about an hour and decrease the stress-cloud to near-invisibility but then I think, wait, I could just go.to.sleep! So I do that instead.
Actually, gonna do that now. Hope you are having a great weekend, over and out!
