Menu Plan Monday

Monday
B: yogurt, granola
L: leftover beet soup
D: roast chicken, squash, salad, bread
To Do: feed sourdough mother, make bagels, dry sprouted spelt

Tuesday
B: yogurt, granola
L: left over beet soup
D: curry chicken salad, chips & guacamole
To Do: make hummus, start stock, soak oats

Wednesday
B: porridge w/craisins
L: leftover chicken salad, chips
D: quiche, bread
To Do: feed sourdough mother, make bread, make granola (& granola bars?)

Thursday
B: leftover quiche
L: sandwich, carrots, hummus
D: Date night out!
To Do: start new sprouts

Friday
B: leftover quiche
L: yogurt, granola, banana
D: homemade pizza, salad
To Do: feed sourdough mother

Saturday
B: scramble, toast
L: soup, salad w/friends
D: burgers

Sunday
B: sourdough blueberry pancakes
L: leftovers (or squash soup)
D: tuna melts, salad
To Do: feed sourdough mother, make bread

Beet Borscht

Fawna brought us over beet soup a couple weeks ago and I had to try her recipe this evening. Yumm! I love beets, so I can appreciate almost anything with beets in it. Ryan, however, does not like beets. Or at least he didn't think he did before he ate Fawna's soup. Now he guesses that he does, at least in soup. Thanks Fawna!

3 T olive oil
1 large onion
2 1/2 c.cabbage
5-6 beets
3/4 lb. russet potatoes (I put in carrots instead, but Fawna used potatoes and they were good)
8 c vegetable stock (I used chicken, it's what I had)
1 c drained can tomatoes, chopped
1 t lemon juice
sour cream (I used plain yogurt) and parsley (I used basil) for garnish

Cook onion and cabbage in olive oil for 5-6 minutes. Add stock, beets, potatoes and/or carrots, and tomatoes and simmer for about 1/2 hour until the veggies are cooked. Add lemon, salt and pepper before serving. Top with sour cream or yogurt and herb garnish if you want.

Fawna's original recipe directed the cook puree the soup. Fawna left it chunky and I liked it that way. I pureed about 1/4 of it and left the rest in chunks.

It was the first dinner time I didn't make something different for Riley. She LOVED it!

A Day at Home

There is no school today and I'm at home with my babe. At the moment, she's squealing like a little piglet, alternating the squeal with her other favorite sound, the pucker spit, which showers the area in baby saliva. I didn't realize how much I would like just hanging out with her for the day. We're going to swim, run errands, take naps (her), prep some food for the weekend (me), and roll around on the ground and make funny noises together. I'm looking forward to it.
Hope you have/had a fun day too!
Us

Menu Plan Monday

Monday
B: yogurt & homemade granola
L: leftover fajitas
D: leftover coconut chicken soup
To do: feed sourdough mother, start new rye sprouts

Tuesday
B: yogurt & homemade granola
L: scrambled eggs & homemade sourdough toast w/butter
D: rice w/lentils, sausage, spinach on top
To do: make quiche crust, make bagels, dry sprouts, feed sourdough mother

Wednesday
B: yogurt & homemade granola
L: leftover rice w/lentils, sausage, spinach
D: quiche, sourdough toast
To do: make shortbread for bible study, make bread, feed sourdough mother, fry more liver for Riley

Thursday
B: leftover quiche, sourdough toast
L: leftover rice w/lentils, sausage, spinach
D: beet soup

Friday
B: leftover quiche, sourdough toast
L: leftover beet soup
D: vegi scramble, sourdough toast

Saturday
B: scones, yogurt
L: leftover beet soup
D: roasted chicken, squash
To do: make more granola, make squash soup

Sunday
B: scramble, sourdough toast
L: leftover soup or leftover something else
D: Poppi Anatolia with friends!
To do: make chicken salad w/chicken leftovers, start new sprouts

Maybe this way I won't lose my menu by the end of the week :)

In Oprah!

Like millions of other women, I get Oprah magazine. Yes, there are fashion tips I think are ridiculous and dozens of products I will never try, but I often find a few articles that are thought-provoking and, at times, even well-written. And it's way better than most other magazines for women.

I have never written a letter to the editor, but I did after reading an article and interview with Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) in the last Oprah issue. And today, while reading this month's issue, I thought to myself, Now this seems really familiar. It was my letter to the editor! I had totally forgotten. Being excited about getting a letter to the editor published in Oprah is probably kinda dorky, but I'm kinda dorky.

Gilbert was being interviewed because of her new book, Committed. In short, it's her story of confronting her fears and stereotypes of marriage after being "sentenced to matrimony" with her Brazilian boyfriend in order for him to reenter and live in the US. She was very articulate about how marriage, though hard, is beautiful because of it's ability to refine our understanding of ourselves and our ability to truly love and accept another. So I was surprised to read her view on motherhood. She was asked about her grandmother, who cut up her favorite coat in order to make clothes for her first daughter because money was so short. Gilbert's response was, "That's the story of motherhood, in a large way. You take the thing that is most precious to you, and you cut it up and give it to somebody else who you love more than you love the thing. And we tend to idealize that, and I'm not sure we should. Because the sacrifice that it symbolizes is also huge." How narrow-minded, I thought. I was bothered by her one-dimensional view of mothering, especially in light of her multi-dimensional view of marriage.

So here's what I wrote:

I enjoy Elizabethe Gilbert's candor and the way she openly receives life. So I was surprised to read her negative view of mothering. As a new mother, I'm realizing that parenting, like marriage, is an opportunity to learn how to better love and respect myself. Though parenting is complicated an deeply difficult (again - like marriage), it presents another crossroads in life where we have to struggle with who we really are and what is truly important to us. Gilbert so quickly dismisses the beautiful messiness of mothering, but I think she would find it offers the same opportunities for growth as does her relationship with Felipe.

Thanks Oprah! And thanks Marianne! We're celebrating with your yummy oreo cookies tonight :)

Clapping

For those who know Riley, you know that she loves sounds. Snapping fingers make her laugh. Cell phone rings make her raise her eyebrows and turn excitedly to find one of her favorite technologies. The moment I pull up the e-brake and turn off the car, she starts to kick her legs and looks up at me in the rear-view mirror with an open-mouthed smile.

So it's exciting, for me and her, that my babe learned how to clap this week. Though her claps aren't making any sound yet, which sometimes seems to confuse her, they're claps nonetheless as she's putting her hands together open-fisted (or is it open-handed) for the first time. The best part is that when we return her claps with our own, the hugest smile breaks out and she looks thrilled with herself that she's somehow caused this great, fun event.

So many moms have told me to soak it up because it goes so fast, and I think I'm finally starting to understand, really understand, the truth of what they're saying. We visited my new nephew, Micah, last weekend, and I can hardly remember the little Bean when she was that young and small. I can hardly remember her before she could smile, before she could reach to grab my cell phone, before she could pull a book to her lap so that she could chew on the corner.

I feel the thick tension between wanting to remember the beautiful parts of her past and being fully present with her in the moment. I feel the need to organize the hundreds of pictures we've already taken and also to put down my camera to sit and play with her on the floor. I'm already telling stories that start with "Remember when she used to ... ?" while trying not to trap her in those memories but allow her to grow and change and surprise me. I'm sure this tension will only get stronger, but so, I hope, will my knowledge of who she is so that I can encourage her toward her future rather than ruminate in her past. But wow, the pull of the past is strong because the unknown of the future is too.

Pool Play

Riley loves the water, the more of it the better. She's started splashing more, and wants to talk to and play with whomever else is there (sometimes distracting the swimmers). Here's a fun dad n'daughter moment. Cute, huh? And this is my suit from when I was a baby. I don't know exactly why I think that's special, but it is. So far she hasn't tried to drink the pool water like she drinks the bath water. Perhaps it's too salty.

Micah Jakoby

This is my brother, Joe, and his beautiful baby boy, Micah, born January 27. Welcome to parenthood bro!

Travel Memories

So I guess I've been to 12% of the countries in the world. Just looking at the map, memories flood back. It's interesting how a lot of them have to do with food ... Greek moussaka, Italian pasta, Polish zurek, Hungarian goulash (anyone have a good recipe for that?), Spanish tapas (and mushroom ice cream there too ... wow!), French cheese & wine, mmmmm.

It's kinda cool, and kinda sad that travel now consists of day trips to the beach, camping in the mountains, and long weekends in Seattle. Well, not truly sad, but I do miss dreaming of the next big trip knowing that it'll be a reality in the near future. But we did exchange all that for a whole new, amazing adventure (who's taking a nap at the moment). Maybe we'll get the Bean to Europe someday, who knows ... or South America :) Now that would be fun. Patagonia anyone?

Brisket

I've decided to try one new recipe every week. Last week it was coconut chicken soup (a smashing success!), and this week it was braised brisket (another success). I'm on a roll ... it's a good thing that one area of my life is going smoothly :) So I thought I'd share, even though it seems a bit of a braggy thing to do, because I love reading other people's successful recipes. It's so much better than reading random reviews on recipe websites.

I didn't have high hopes because I've never liked brisket that much, but we had a cut in our box from the farm so I had to figure out how to cook it so it didn't turn out dry and tasteless. So I figured the only way to keep it moist was to smother it in an ocean of wine, broth, and veggies. I found a recipe that looked promising online, made a few changes (as usual), and voile! In addition to being tasty, it made the whole house smell wonderful and gave us leftovers for a few to several days. I was planning to make chili with the leftovers tomorrow (since I thought it might still end up a bit dry and tasteless), but no, now we'll just eat it as is.

Braised Brisket:
I started with what was probably about a 3 lb hunk of brisket. (I had marinated it for a couple days in buttermilk, thanks Marianne.) I pan fried it in oil with salt and pepper, about 4 minutes/side. Then moved it (fat side up) to the roasting pan. I poured in about 1 1/2 c. each of cabernet and beef broth (homemade if you can), then threw in a can of diced tomatoes and sauce (canned last summer), a sliced onion, a few carrots (chopped), a head of garlic (peeled), and a handful of chopped prunes. I sprinkled thyme liberally over it all and threw it in the over at 325. I left it in for about 3 hours as the savory smell filled the house. (I love being able to smell dinner from every room in the house!)
After I took it out, I pureed the leftover sauce and veggies into a nice mash and spooned it over the cut brisket. Oh my, was it good! However, had I not pureed the sauce and veggies, the brisket would have been moist, but not especially flavorful because most of the flavor was in the puree. It was a good thing there was a lot of leftover puree!

As a novice to braising, I was pleasantly surprised at how moist it kept the meat. Any other good braising stories?

Hearts are not had as a gift

Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful

W.B. Yeats in "A Prayer for My Daughter"