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Baby Jogger*

Last night, I took Tabby running with me (*jogging is a term runners normally eschew, however I used it in this case for the fun play-on-words). She is keen to run a race with me soon and I wanted to test her mettle a bit before I signed her up. Title 9K (actually 9.9 K or ~6 miles) is my next shorter race and she is allowed to be a part of it. However, even though she’s eager, I don’t want her to get out there, not be quite up to it and end up hating it.

I’ve talked before about cultivating a love of various activities in our kids. I would love it if my kids loved running, but more than anything, I don’t want them to hate running because I was too eager about it and pushed them too hard into it (or any of my other favorite activities).

Anyhow, so we went for a run. My goal was to get her through a mile, so we set off around our neighborhood which is mostly flat with some small hills. I had to keep holding her back from going too hard because whenever she did, she would tire out and then need a walk break. She took a fair few little walk breaks, but managed to finish the mile right around 14 minutes, which for her little legs seems pretty darn good to me. I think she could have kept going too.

I asked her if she thought she could do that five more times (how much she’d have to run for the T9K) and she said she thought she could on another day. I’m not signing us up quite yet, but I’m not ruling it out either!

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Asparagus Tart and Cookbook Indecision

So after I decided that the original cookbook I’d selected for this month wouldn’t work, I decided to move on to Jaime’s Dinners, which I’d originally slated for next month. I started going through it and while I found some recipes that I want to try, the vast majority are heavier, BRITISH foods (err … duh) more suited for chilly winter months.

So I ended up giving up on it  and I’ve switched (AGAIN) to Great Food Fast, which is a compendium of recipes from my all-time-favorite food magazine, Everyday Food. I’ve already tackled two recipes from the book since making the decision and I am really glad I chose it. They are tasty, healthy, fast and easy. The book is divided up by seasons which I love because that’s how I cook and everything I selected from this week was from the Spring section.

Asparagus Gruyere Tart

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet puff pastry
  • flour for rolling surface
  • 1 lb of fresh asparagus
  • 5.5 oz grueyere cheese, grated
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400. Roll puff pastry into 10×16″ rectangle. Fold in 1/2 inch on each side and pierce surface with a fork. Transfer to baking sheet and bake 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Top crust with grueyere. Trim asparagus to width of crust and place on top in neat rows, alternating which side the tops point to. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 10-15 minutes more until asparagus is tender. Cut into segments and serve immediately to general applause.

Since we are all asparagus fans, this was an immediate hit in our house. We have another sheet of puff pastry (two to a box) and some more asparagus and Tabby has already requested we make it again. Similar to the chalupas, this is a good jumping-off point for lots of other flavor combinations on top of puff pastry. I can see there being lots of possibilities here!

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Spray Painted Folding Chairs

One of the best things about Pinterest are the really great, yet really SIMPLE ideas that you see there. This is one such idea: to paint your ugly folding chairs in pretty colors with spray paint … DUH! I saw this pin sometime last fall and sometime thereafter, executed it on a couple of the army of ugly beige folding chairs we’ve had since college. I am not going to post directions because umm… you spray paint folding chairs. Obviously, you should do it outside or in a well ventilated area and you should put something down on your surface to protect it. Oh, also, we got a cool gadget that you put on top of the can of spray paint and it makes it a lot easier to spray because you squeeze it with your hand instead of pushing the little thing on the top.

This would be a great project to use up some spray paint that you used just a bit of for another project. It takes quite a bit of paint, but not quite a whole can.

The chairs, even after some months of use, still look great. Both kids have their own chair and now they are not ruining our upholstered chairs! I still want to do a couple other colors and probably will soon now that the weather’s warmer.

Nannersp
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Potty Soccer Surprise Bunny Weekend

Man it was a great weekend. We were crazy busy (duh) and it was jam-packed, but such fun! I’m also pleased to say the house doesn’t even look too terrible.

Friday I kicked off my leisure days with a 12 mile run in the AM with my good friend J. We got two hours of quality time pounding the pavement around our ‘burb. It was good sweaty fun and I was glad to get ‘er done. Then I started the MOST FUN of the weekend, working on potty training with Ben. If nothing else solidifies my (our) resolution to be done with having kids, potty training will do it. He apparently has the stubbornness of both his parents and about 10 generations worth of other ancestors combined into one little man. And that’s about all I’m going to say on the matter, oh and just a piece of advice … tackling potty training AFTER a 12 mile run is probably a bad idea. Aside from potty training, we did the normal Friday things like a run to the grocery store, naps, dinner, etc. We dyed Easter Eggs after dinner for some extra fun.

Saturday I officially started my career as a Soccer Mom. Tabby joined the ranks of soccer players with her first practice/game with her team. Our friend is coaching a team, and his son, one of Tabby’s good buddies is on the team and they are SO EXCITED to be playing together. Tabby is a good little runner (yay) and does pretty well kicking the ball, but she seemed to get a little intimidated when it got too wild chasing the ball. She did seem to get more into it as the game progressed.

Ben was a bit peeved that he couldn’t play too, but he got over it fairly quickly. He rotated activities, one minute greeting his public with enthusiastic “hello!”s, playing pick-up games with the other siblings hanging around, mooching snacks off anyone and everyone and taking up residence in whatever chairs were on the sidelines. I think he may be mayor of something someday. Kid cracks me up.

Post soccer, we headed home and had lunch then Matt dropped the kids at my parents’ house. They were staying over so we could attend a surprise party for a friend. The party was a decided success. The birthday girl was very touched and happy about her surprise and it was a great opportunity to catch up with many good friends. We had a great time and got to bed really late and super exhausted.

I hated missing the kids excitement over the Easter Bunny this morning, but I got a great call from Ben telling me, “The Easter Bunny came today! He brought cars! and candy! and jelly beans!” Love that jelly beans get their own specific call out. We met up with my parents and the kids and then headed to my grandma’s for Easter with the extended family. It was great seeing everyone and catching up. The kids had a great time hunting eggs and consuming sugar. SUGAR! There were no naps and we put the kids to bed a little early after a light dinner. So much to do before tomorrow.

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Food Fear Factor

The hilarious Becky at Suburban Matron posted a though-provoking response to a Jezebel article about parents in Park Slope (Brooklyn) wanting to ban the ice cream truck from their local park so they don’t have to have battles with their kids over ice cream. Her take is two fold: a) a little ice cream doesn’t hurt and b) saying yes generally makes the nos more palatable. I enjoyed the original very much and Becky’s take on it, but the first bit is what I want to talk about. A little ice cream doesn’t hurt.

See, I was watching Biggest Loser the other night. This is my favorite treadmill show because these people who weigh at least 20 lbs more than I do (at the end of the season) become totally strong and could probably kick my ass so it’s totally motivating. Like if that guy can do it, I can run another few tenths of a mile/hr faster, right?? Right. Anyhow, they had a cooking challenge judged by last season’s contestants. They all look great and have obviously kept up their weight loss, but when one of the contestants used a TABLESPOON of mayonnaise (not the low fat stuff, the FULL FAT stuff), they just about lost it. “I would have preferred you to use the light mayo” one of them said. People, we’re talking about 90 calories worth of mayo, spread over a whole recipe. Seriously???

I am all for vegetables and portion control and water drinking and running and KALE! I love me some kale! But when did we get so insane that we can’t occasionally allow our kids an ice cream at the park or a tablespoon of mayo in their chicken salad? I make vegetables to go with dinner almost every night, upwards of two cups for each person of steamed broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower (generally the kids don’t eat all of it and I take the leftovers for lunch) and I season them with everything under the sun … but I always start with a little butter. A tablespoon or around 90 calories worth of the stuff. It tastes great and adds around 23 calories to each person’s serving of veggies and a little fat (which we need, people!).

I don’t want to raise kids who are fearful of food. I want to raise kids who understand that mostly, we drink water, but the occasional cup of juice is OK too. I want to raise kids who eat because they’re hungry or occasionally because it looks tasty, not just because it’s there. I also want to raise kids who understand the difference between good homemade food and junky processed crap – though I don’t think the Oreo should be expressly forbidden either. I want them to recognize an ice cream for what it is – a treat – and to not expect it every day or every trip to the park. I want them to be able to live without worrying about every single solitary thing they put in their mouths, but enough sense to know that mostly, the fuel should be good wholesome stuff.

I am of course still working on this myself. But I will continue to drop a dollop of butter on the broccoli and I doubt anything anyone says could stop me.

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Broccamole!

Man, this week is kicking my butt. Long days at the office. Plenty of training to do (next race is in 12 days), kids have been … a bit on the frustrating side, house is a total mess. I don’t like feeling like this … under water, stressed. I like all my ducks in a row, all my plates spinning and it isn’t that way this week.

Well anyhow, enough of my whining. I’ve been wanting to share this recipe with you. A while back, I pinned and later tried a recipe for Crack Broccoli. It’s basically roasted broccoli with a little dressing and it is YUMMY. We’ve made it almost once a week since we first discovered it and it was Ben who came up with the name which we now use to refer to it: Broccamole! “Guacamole!” (presumably from “Holy Guacamole” is one of his favorite interjections and he charmingly bungled it into Broccamole! one night when we had this, and so now it is.

Broccamole

Ingredients

  • 1 large head broccoli
  • 3 Textra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 t kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
  • 1/2 t sugar

Line a cookie sheet with foil and place it in the oven. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Cut broccoli into smallish florets and lightly peel the stems. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and sugar and toss to combine. When the cookie sheet and oven are heated, remove the sheet from the oven. Work quickly and place all pieces of broccoli in a single layer on the sheet. Place as much of the surface area on the sheet as possible – this is where it will brown and be real tasty!

Put the sheet back in the oven and roast 9-10 minutes until broccoli is tender and lightly browned. Serve immediately with a drizzle of lemon juice if you’ve got a bit on hand.

Even if you don’t like broccoli you should really try this. Everyone in our house loves it!!

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Knock Out Weekend

We had a nice weekend. It was short like all the rest. I have no idea what we did Friday. I know I passed out in the middle of the day for a couple of hours. There was a trip to Target in there somewhere. Friday night we had the family over. Downton Abbey was watched. Tasty things were eaten.

Saturday was the day we ran. And ran. We started out with an 11 mi run with some friends. It was a SLOG. Seriously, one of my hardest long runs in recent memory. All day I felt a little off and overheated and thirsty. Drank tons and tons of water. But there’s no rest for the wicked. We took the kids to IKEA to get some storage furniture for Tabby’s room. My sister ordered a bridesmaid dress. Matt ordered a router (the woodworking tool, not the computer hardware). We looked at land (nothing good). We had Middle Eastern food.

Continue reading “Knock Out Weekend”

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Halfway Cookies

I knew when I pinned this recipe for Halfway Cookies that I would have to try it. I almost overlooked it on Friday when we were trying to figure out a dessert when we were having my family to dinner but I noticed it at the last moment and I am SO SO glad I did. It is by far one of the best desserts I’ve ever tried … a little salty in with the sweet, a delightful crunch with the meringue and very much like a chocolate chip cookie in other ways. WONDERFUL. I am sure I will be making these regularly for a long time to come.

Halfway Cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°. Cut two pieces of aluminum foil and fold them to match the width of the pan. Criss cross them each direction of the pan so that the bars will be easily lifted out. Spray aluminum foil with non-stick spray. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl. In a mixer, cream together the butter, the granulated sugar and just 1/2 cup of the brown sugar until it looks like smooth frosting. Separate the eggs, reserving the whites. Mix the yolks into the butter-sugar mixture one at a time until they are completely absorbed, then mix in the water and vanilla. With the mixer at a low speed, add the flour mixture and beat gently until all the flour has been absorbed and the dough looks crumbly.

Press the cookie dough gently into the pan with your hands, making sure the surface is even. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cookie dough and press them slightly into the dough. This will help keep them from moving when you add the meringue.

Using a mixer with a clean bowl and a whisk attachment, start whisking the egg whites. Gradually increase speed to medium-high. When the egg whites are very frothy and look like loose foam, start adding the remaining cup of brown sugar a little at a time. Continue increasing speed to the highest setting. When all the sugar has been added, continue whipping the meringue until it it comes to soft peaks. It should look like “glossy, soft-serve ice cream.”

Spread the meringue down the middle of the pan. It is really sticky and pretty hard to work with. Use a spatula to gently spread the meringue from the middle to the edges. When you get it too thin it disturbs the chocolate chips, so be careful. I think it might be worth it to add another egg white and maybe a bit more brown sugar to make just a little more meringue.

Cover pan with parchment paper to prevent scorching and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the parchment. Continue baking for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the edges look toasted and are pulling away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely, lift out and cut into bars.

Ooh, ahh, drool and ENJOY. With milk, if you please! The recipe says you can replace the chocolate chip layer with lots of other things like butterscotch chips, jam, dried fruit, maybe coconut??

Nannersp
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Bye Bye March

Holy cow guys. March is OVER. That means my kid is officially a full month closer to being SIX and my little guy is just a few weeks away from being 3. And the sun is setting on another cookbook. I really enjoyed Moosewood’s Simple Suppers. I completed seven recipes and reported on five: Banana Cupcakes, Fish Po’ Boys, Shrimp Curry, Spinach Cheese Burritos and the Polenta Peppers. And there are more I’d still like to try. 6/7 recipes were AWESOME. I still need to post about the Butterscotch cookies I made (oooooh, aaah). Unfortunately, the last recipe I tried was the dud of the bunch (so no recipe forthcoming). It sounded so promising, too!

This is the Pine Nut Crusted fish … a simple breading of pine nuts, lemon zest and bread crumbs. It smelled so great but was a pretty lifeless dish. Needed a lot of salt to taste good and even then, it was just kind of meh … not the sum of its tasty parts for sure!!

I was looking forward to trying the Thai Street Food Cookbook my step-mom-in-law got me for Christmas. But I hit a snag this weekend. When I was trying to sort out what to make … all the recipes require things like cilantro with roots, tamarind, lemon grass, whole fish, etc. As much as I would love to try these recipes, incorporating them into my weekly cooking is out of the question – we already go to two stores for groceries and we can’t add in a weekly trip to the Asian foods market (we have about three good ones in our city and the closest is over 30 min away from my white-bread (bred?) suburb. I thought briefly about substituting one of the other two Asian cookbooks in my possession, but they presented the same problem. I am thinking they probably don’t have a place in my library, what with the recipes available on the internet.

So I decided to push this cookbook to the back burner and I’ve moved up Jaime Oliver’s cookbook, Jaime’s Dinners that I had been planning on for May. I think I will rotate my camping cookbook into May instead (or maybe switch up the grilling cookbook since it looks like grilling season will be here sooner rather than later!). A few things I’m thinking about making:

  1. Banana and Blueberry French Toast
  2. Smoked Salmon Sandwich
  3. Chicken Legs with Sweet Tomatoes
  4. Tasty Fish Bake
  5. Scented English Creams

I’m sure I’ll make up the rest as I go along.