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Something Tells Me It's All Happening at the Zoo …


On Labor Day, we took advantage of the excellent weather and the day off and took Tabby to the zoo for her first visit. My mom and sister accompanied us and we took turns holding Tabby and pushing her in her stroller. The Denver Zoo is a nice one, with “natural” living environments for its animals and a very park-like feel.

Tabby got very into the whole experience, really enjoying looking at the various animals and cooing and smiling at them. After an hour or too there, she was worn out to the max and we were too. We're anxious to take her back when it's a bit cooler out.

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Glimpses

This morning when I left for work, it was the first time that I said goodbye to Tabby in her crib. Always before she has woken up before I left and I got to give her a snuggle and a kiss as she's lying next to her Daddy. She was right there, all cuddled up with her blanket, sleeping so soundly.

She's such an amazing little person and I'm so pleased that she's able to be in this world so successfully, but already, she needs me less than she did when she was first born. As a parent, you have to strive for this, but when you get it, it is bittersweet. I had a glimpse of her independence this morning and that she won't be my baby forever. 6 months has gone by in the blink of an eye and I sort of glimpsed this morning how fast 6 years and 16 years are going to go.

I am sad, proud, and completely in awe. Being a parent is hard and so wonderful.

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Zucchini Bread Muffins

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

from: Fitness Magazine June 2007

Ingredients
2 med potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
2 C broccoli florets (the nice part)
2 T EVOO
1 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 400. Toss the potatoes and broccoli with the oil; add salta and pepper. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until paotoes are tender and golden, about 25 min.

from: Sunset Magazine March 2006

Ingredients
6 artichokes
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
3 T butter
onion, chopped
6 C chicken broth
2 T all purpose flour
3 T whipping cream
salt and pepper
chervil to serve (optional)

Directions
Trim leaves, stems and fuzzy chokes from the artichokes. Drop the hearts into a bolw of ice water mxed with the lemon jice and olive oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 T salt. Drain hearts and add to boiling water; cook until tender. Drain. In a pan over med-high heat, melt 3 T butter. Add onion and stir until golden. Stir in flour and cook, stirring often 3-5 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and artichoke hearts; stir until mixture boils and thickens, 15-20 min. Whirl mexture in a blender until smooth. Return to pan and heat through. Add the cream and season with S&P to taste.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chervil if desired.

from: Sunset Magazine March 2006

Ingredients
3 dozen baby artichokes
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 T salt
1 oz pancetta, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 C dry white wine
1/4 C mint
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese

Directions
Trim leaves and stems from the baby artichokes, leaving just the tender yellow-green leaves. Drop the artichokes into a bowl of ice water mixed with the lemon juice and olive oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 T salt. Drain artichokes and add to boiling water; simmer until tender, 10-20 minutes. Cut any larger ones in half, removing any fuzz at the heart.

Set a frying pan over med-high heat. Add the pancetta and stir until fat is rendered. Add garlic and stir until golden. Add the wine and the artichokes. Cook until the wine is almost evaporated. Add mint and season with S&P to taste. Serve topped with shaved or shredded parmesan.

from: Adapted from Epicurian

Ingredients
2C sugar
3C Flour
1tsp. baking soda
1tsp. baking powder
1tsp.(each) cloves, cinnamon,allspice & salt
3 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C vegetable Oil (or 1/2 c apple sauce and 1/2 c veggie oil)
2 C grated Zucchini (unpeeled)
1 C raisins

Directions
Soften the raisins using hot tap water. While they are soaking, sift all dry ingredients together. Mix in the soaked (and drained) raisins with the flour, making sure to coat them well. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Bake at 350 degrees. 1 hour for bread, 20 minutes for muffins.

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I Dream Of …

I don't know what's been up with me (possibly my body regulating to its new extra early schedule), but I don't think I've been sleeping all that well. The reason I think this is that I've been dreaming … or more precisely, remembering my dreams. I do this very rarely because I am such a deep sleeper.

One one occasion, I dreamt about going to Fudruckers (do you have these near you? excellent burgers) which is really weird because I'm sort of a take it or leave it girl with red meat, probably leaning towards the leave it. But dream about it I did (maybe I need more iron!?) and this resulted in a trip to Fudruckers.

But about 3 or 4 times, I've dreamt about having to take a final and not being prepared … and not just any final. Math. See in high school, math was easy for me. Way easy. Then I got to college. I decided to major in Computer Science … see for some reason that is unclear to me, they like to torture CS majors with an inexplicable amount of math classes as part of our curriculum. So in my 4 years of college, I took 3 semesters of calculus (it was really 4 semesters worth, but engineering gamely smooshes it all into 3 to make it extra fun), discrete structures, linear algebra I & II, statistics (oh my god how I hated this class!) and differential equations (diffeq, pronounced diffyQ). I honestly still have trouble sometimes believing that I survived these classes. I was the person haunting her professor's office at all hours (not just office hours) and staying for every extra minute of review session. I'm the one who emailed the TA at 3 in the morning. And as my dreams show, all this had a very lasting effect on me.

The worst part? I don't use any of this math knowledge that I had to accumulate. Not a bit of it. High school level algebra and occasionally geometry … sure … sometimes daily. But all of this advanced math knowledge? I had to learn it and now it is slowly leaking out of my head with the passage of time. And yet I'm still forced to relive (at least in my dreams) the stress of it all. What a waste.

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Almost Done …

Updated: Sheesh. Computers are out to get me this week. Something went wonky with a file, but it's fixed now and the things I wrote about actually work (imagine that!).

Ugh. So busy. I promised myself that I'd get the updates to the site done this past weekend. Of course cuz I promised myself, that didn't happen, but I got very nearly done and with the bits of work I put in last night, I'm even closer. So … what's new? Not lots that you can see. The big deal is the cookbook … I added a few really cool things there. Firstly, there's photos. Not of everything, but I'm taking them as I make stuff and trying to remember to add them. Darn it's hard sometimes to get a halfway decent photo. I'm no Ansel Adams, people! I also added a better search, but the really cool thing I added is called “menu picker” … it will pick a few menus for you to try out, basically randomly, but with some criteria you set. Then it will generate a grocery list. I made it for myself, but I like to share, so there ya go. I figure someone might use it.

Overall, I think it's easier to use. I didn't change the links section much except that I added a new category called “featured” on there for Yvett and Ani, cuz they wanted me to archive the links I post about in some coherent sort of manner, so hopefully that will work out for you guys. I think I'll also add a category to the entries themselves called “linky goodness” or something equally “witty.” But I haven't gotten that accomplished yet. But for the day-to-day, we're ready to go.

Meanwhile, you've all written me nice comments on this and that and I haven't responded to any of you nor have I read any of your blogs, so when things slow down for a minute (possibly tonight), I will work on that. No, really.

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Sauteed Baby Artichokes

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

from: Fitness Magazine June 2007

Ingredients
2 med potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
2 C broccoli florets (the nice part)
2 T EVOO
1 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 400. Toss the potatoes and broccoli with the oil; add salta and pepper. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until paotoes are tender and golden, about 25 min.

from: Sunset Magazine March 2006

Ingredients
6 artichokes
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
3 T butter
onion, chopped
6 C chicken broth
2 T all purpose flour
3 T whipping cream
salt and pepper
chervil to serve (optional)

Directions
Trim leaves, stems and fuzzy chokes from the artichokes. Drop the hearts into a bolw of ice water mxed with the lemon jice and olive oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 T salt. Drain hearts and add to boiling water; cook until tender. Drain. In a pan over med-high heat, melt 3 T butter. Add onion and stir until golden. Stir in flour and cook, stirring often 3-5 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and artichoke hearts; stir until mixture boils and thickens, 15-20 min. Whirl mexture in a blender until smooth. Return to pan and heat through. Add the cream and season with S&P to taste.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chervil if desired.

from: Sunset Magazine March 2006

Ingredients
3 dozen baby artichokes
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 T salt
1 oz pancetta, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 C dry white wine
1/4 C mint
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese

Directions
Trim leaves and stems from the baby artichokes, leaving just the tender yellow-green leaves. Drop the artichokes into a bowl of ice water mixed with the lemon juice and olive oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 T salt. Drain artichokes and add to boiling water; simmer until tender, 10-20 minutes. Cut any larger ones in half, removing any fuzz at the heart.

Set a frying pan over med-high heat. Add the pancetta and stir until fat is rendered. Add garlic and stir until golden. Add the wine and the artichokes. Cook until the wine is almost evaporated. Add mint and season with S&P to taste. Serve topped with shaved or shredded parmesan.

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Creamy Artichoke Soup

 

from: Fitness Magazine June 2007

Ingredients
2 med potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
2 C broccoli florets (the nice part)
2 T EVOO
1 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 400. Toss the potatoes and broccoli with the oil; add salta and pepper. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until paotoes are tender and golden, about 25 min.

from: Sunset Magazine March 2006

Ingredients
6 artichokes
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
3 T butter
onion, chopped
6 C chicken broth
2 T all purpose flour
3 T whipping cream
salt and pepper
chervil to serve (optional)

Directions
Trim leaves, stems and fuzzy chokes from the artichokes. Drop the hearts into a bolw of ice water mxed with the lemon jice and olive oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 T salt. Drain hearts and add to boiling water; cook until tender. Drain. In a pan over med-high heat, melt 3 T butter. Add onion and stir until golden. Stir in flour and cook, stirring often 3-5 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and artichoke hearts; stir until mixture boils and thickens, 15-20 min. Whirl mexture in a blender until smooth. Return to pan and heat through. Add the cream and season with S&P to taste.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chervil if desired.

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Roasted Broccoli and Potatoes

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

from: Fitness Magazine June 2007

Ingredients
2 med potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
2 C broccoli florets (the nice part)
2 T EVOO
1 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 400. Toss the potatoes and broccoli with the oil; add salta and pepper. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until paotoes are tender and golden, about 25 min.

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Butternut Squash Fries

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

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Laborious Labor Day Weekend

OK, so if I tell you what we did with most of our Labor Day weekend, I will bore the pants off you and then, well you'll be there … bored and pantsless. Hah. So I'll give it to you by the numbers …

10 peaches eaten
9 hours of sleep a night
8 bags of magzines to be given away
7 loads of laundry
6 houses viewed
5 people going to the zoo
4 movies watched
3 recipes cooked
2 cars deep cleaned
1 nice date night

Hope everyone else had a nice long weekend!!