I'll arm-wrestle ya for the last peanut!
The things that go thru my head …
I'll arm-wrestle ya for the last peanut!
I'll arm-wrestle ya for the last peanut!
Frozen Assets
In preparation for little one's arrival, Matt and I have been making double batches of our dinners and freezing half (or more) so that we'll have some eatables in the fridge when we're busy with the absorbing task of caring for a newborn. So far we've made:
– baked ziti
– clam chowder
– chili
– mexican chicken casserole
– BBQ chicken & black bean burritos
– maybe I'm forgetting one other??
Are there any dishes that you guys make that you know freeze well? Our freezer's getting progressively fuller, but we've still got a ways to go and I'm almost tapped out.
PS. We recently made Jenn's recipe for Rootbeer Sorbet. And it's AWESOME.
Rootbeer Sorbet
from: 164
Ingredients
1 qt veggie broth
1 T olive oil
1.5 C arborio rice
12 oz beer (1.5 cups)
3 C chopped broccoli
1 T Dijon mustard
4 C loosely packed grated sharp cheddar
2 C chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
sprinkling of black pepper
Directions
In a saucepan, bring the broth to a boil and then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan on medium-high eat, warm the olive oil. add the rice and stir until well-coated with oil. dd the beer and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid, a couple of minutes. Ladle in the simmering broth a cup at a time, stirring often. Let the rice absorb most of the broth before adding the next cup, usually about 5 minutes between additions.
While the risotto is cooking, steam teh broccoli until bright green and just tender. Set aside.
When the last of hte broth is absorbed, the kernels of rice should be al dente and the risotto moist. Add the mustard and cheese to the risotto and stir until the cheese is melted. Stir in the broccoli and tomatoes, season with black pepper and serve hot.
from: Just Jenn
Ingredients
2 12-oz bottles rootbeer
1/2 C sweetened condensed milk
1 C half & half or whole milk
Directions
Open the rootbeers and let them sit out to get a bit flat. Then dump them and the other two ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Freeze according to the instructions on your ice cream freezer.
Preparations Gliding Along
As we hit 34 weeks, things are gliding along in the nursery … literally. Mom and I spent most of Saturday recovering the hand-me-down glider that Holly gave me in the cute fabric you see above. It's called “Hula-Hoops” but it reminds me of Froot Loops too.
Neither of us are real seasoned pros at this, so we were very pleasantly surprised by the results we got which are amazingly good. And of course we had fun doing it together.
On Friday we received a gift from a college friend … a little green Vandy onesie, Vandy receiving blanket and Vandy baby bottle. Absolutely darling stuff.
And Matt spent most of his weekend in his shop, working on the end table. It's getting very close and we're both anxious to see it complete.
Tiffin
I somehow found this article yesterday while I was mindlessly surfing a few minutes away. It's an interesting story about India's tiffin-wallahs in Bombay who transport some 160,000 hot lunches (tiffins) from family homes to the offices and schools of hungry husbands and children and then perform the same in reverse with the empty lunchboxes. The tiffin wallahs who do the transportation are largely illiterate and rely on a system of symbols hand-painted on the tops of the containers to sort and process them in rapid order. Extremely impresive since they only make a mistake once a month, earning them a 6 Sigma performance rating from an unlikely admirer, Forbes Magazine. All this for the cost of about $3.33 per month, with service six days a week.
The tiffin wallahs are all of the same caste and a fairly closely-knit group, many related and largely from the same village. The service, in fact, is suspended for a month every year so everyone can go home for a long festival in their home town. Every tiffin-wallah works for himself and pays dues to a union or association and is guaranteed a job for as long as he can do the work. The association itself handles administrative tasks and then donates a large share of its take to feeding the poor.
A very interesting look a business I never knew about and probably wouldn't have thought feasible.
Birthin' Babies
We went to our first childbirth class last night and despite promises from the books and friends, there was no “miracle of life” footage in the film we were shown. Shucks. Anyhoo … the class has 10 couples in it and apparently, we are a bit behind because we're the earliest due date by quite a bit. Of all the couples, six are having girls, two boys and two don't know. Which I find interesting.
In other baby-related goings-on, little miss has been making excellent strides in her quest to annex my abdominal cavity in its entirety. Breathing has become quite challenging. I can't believe how close it's getting!
Rarebit Risotto
For dinner last night, we broke out the new cookbook Kelly gave me for Christmas, Moosewood Restaurant's Simple Suppers. I'm a long-time fan of Moosewood Restaurant's cookbooks … they're the ones who taught me how to make streudel and I think they can convince just about anyone that veggies are delicious.
We tried out their rarebit risotto … a traditional risotto flavored with beer and cheddar for a very very yummy if slightly unusual flavor (for risotto). Try it out! 
Continue reading “Rarebit Risotto”
Rarebit Risotto
from: 164
Ingredients
1 qt veggie broth
1 T olive oil
1.5 C arborio rice
12 oz beer (1.5 cups)
3 C chopped broccoli
1 T Dijon mustard
4 C loosely packed grated sharp cheddar
2 C chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
sprinkling of black pepper
Directions
In a saucepan, bring the broth to a boil and then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan on medium-high eat, warm the olive oil. add the rice and stir until well-coated with oil. dd the beer and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid, a couple of minutes. Ladle in the simmering broth a cup at a time, stirring often. Let the rice absorb most of the broth before adding the next cup, usually about 5 minutes between additions.
While the risotto is cooking, steam teh broccoli until bright green and just tender. Set aside.
When the last of hte broth is absorbed, the kernels of rice should be al dente and the risotto moist. Add the mustard and cheese to the risotto and stir until the cheese is melted. Stir in the broccoli and tomatoes, season with black pepper and serve hot.
Productive Weekend!
Yes yes, another weekend shot. How do they go by so darned fast. Here it continued to be very cold, but that probably helped us out since we had loads to do at home.
Friday was loads of errands to prepare for the weekend and a trip out to the industrial suburb of Denver (Commerce City) to pick up the dresser that Matt's dad and stepmom bought for the nursery. That is an interesting story in and of itself, but perhaps a different time. We had to wait until the next morning to see it in the room since I am presently useless at lifting heavy things. It is absolutely perfect in there and we're really excited to see the nursery shaping up so well!! Continue reading “Productive Weekend!”
TGIF
Man am I glad it's Friday!! Matt got back into town last night after a 5-day trip to Cali for work. We picked up Thai food on the way home and had a nice quiet evening. This weekend will hopefully be more of the same. It's a balmy 1 degree outside right now with highs this weekend topping off around 20, so we intend to do a lot of staying indoors. I've got a nice backlog on the Tivo and a few projects I want to work on, plus some extra fun stuff like cleaning the fridge. Matt plans to get slaving away in his shop on some more stuff for the nursery. Probably more than anything, though, I'm just looking forward to not having to wake up to an alarm for two whole days straight.