And it begins...

Benjamin's birthday season officially began today when he discovered the stash of birthday presents.  Not that they were that well hidden - just stuck in a corner of our bedroom.  It's just that he'd never discovered that corner before ...

In fact, he'd never discovered A LOT of stuff before today.  For, today, Benjamin discovered ... drum roll please... the REST of the HOUSE.  And, not only did he discover that the other rooms of the house still exist when he's not in them, he discovered that ... cue fireworks ... HE CAN GET THERE!  By crawling, cruising, climbing, or any other means at his disposal, Benjamin covered every inch of our house today, to his great delight, my great exhaustion, and the great dismay of the knees of his pants.

My life is never going to be the same.

Neither are his pants.

Anyway, the other aspect of his birthday beginnings was the sampling of the birthday cake.  I really wanted him to try the cake before his party, in case he was allergic to anything ... who wants to break out in hives at their very first birthday party?  So, I perused countless cake recipes, trying to find a healthy one that would also taste good ... sweet potato zuchinni cupcakes with avacado frosting, anyone?  But in the end, I listened to Daddy and just found a basic cake recipe ... no bells and whistles, but also nothing fake (artificial flavors, colors, or HFCS), so we're one step ahead, right?  But when we sat down to feed it to him ...

he wouldn't eat it!  crazy kid!  he's a little sensitive to textures right now, so I think the cakiness threw him off.  Ah well, hopefully he'll eat at least a little at his party!

We also took a quick walk this afternoon.  It was drizzly all day long, but we took advantage of a brief clearing (and mid-70 degree temperatures!) to go enjoy some fall leaves around our neighborhood.

I love fall!  and I tried not to pay attention to the snowman toy that Benjamin played with the whole time ... I want to enjoy today and not dread the winter ... and yet, oh, how I am NOT looking forward to boots, hats, shivers, wind, scraping ice ... I better just go to bed ...  I will not dread winter, I will not dread winter, I will not dread winter ...

Help! We're Leeking!

Ok, you can't write a post about a vegetable called a leek and not make a pun in the title!

From the start, I knew that getting our farm share for the summer would stretch me beyond our salad/green beans/broccoli rotation in the vegetable department, and boy, was I right!  This week, our box included leeks and shallots ... umm, first I had to look up pictures online of what those were so I knew for sure what they were in our box.

And of course, I've seen Ina Garten turn these little-known beauties into all kinds of wonderful things on her show, but what do I know?  Well, I know to go to the Food Network website and start poking around.  So, that's exactly what I did and came upon lots of recipes for potato-leek soup, a classic French dish known as vichyssoise. 

As things like this normally go, I didn't have all the ingredients for any one recipe, so I threw together a little Ina, a little Alton, and came out with a pot of such deliciousness that the first thing our landlady said when she saw me this afternoon was, "WHAT were you cooking yesterday for dinner?  It smelled SO GOOD!"

So, without further ado, I give you...

Val’s Vichyssoise

(Roasted Potato Leek Soup with Crispy Shallots)

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (most recipes call for Yukon Gold, I had Russet on hand and they worked fine)

2 medium leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned and chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and black pepper

1/4 cup white wine

3 cups chicken stock

1/3 – 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 – 1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the potatoes and leeks on a sheet pan in a single layer. Add the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss to coat the vegetables evenly. Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces, turning them with a spatula a few times during cooking, until very tender. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

In a blender, combine roast vegetables with chicken broth.  Blend until just combined, but still chunky.  (If you have the good fortune to own an immersion blender, by all means, whip that baby out!)

Pour the puree into a large pot.  Add the white wine, cream, and buttermilk.  Simmer until flavors have mingled and soup has thickened slightly.  Check the seasonings – add more salt, pepper, cream, etc., if needed. Serve topped with Crispy Shallots.  Serves 4.

Crispy Shallots (these were purely an Ina Garten concoction... you go girl!)

1 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 to 6 shallots, peeled and sliced into thin rings

Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

Add the shallots, and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until they are a rich golden brown. The temperature should stay below 260 degrees. Stir the shallots occasionally to make sure they brown evenly. Watch carefully … it takes forever to get to golden brown, but then they proceed to burned in no time flat. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon, drain well, and spread out to cool on paper towels.

Rough Week, Great Saturday

Last week was just a little tough around here ... i think the damp, chilly, gray days had something to do with it, but also Benjamin has been miserable teething, which resulted in eating issues and sleep issues.  So then Will had issues with getting school and work done (the lack of sleep), and I had can-I-just-please-take-the-day-off-before-I-lose-my-mind issues.  In short, we just had a whole passle of ish-uhs.
 

And what is it about lack of sleep that just turns me into one big ball of UGLINESS ... I guess the truth is that the ugliness is always there, its just that I have, by the grace of God, more self-control when I'm rested and can keep the ugliness at bay.

But Saturday, sweet Saturday ... Benjamin slept till 5:15 ... and trust me, that was something to get excited about.  Then Will got up with him and I was able to sleep till 7:30!  Oh sleep, how I had missed thee!

And then, if that wasn't enough, I awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking!

And then, if that wasn't enough, we all went to the farmers' market together!

And then, if that wasn't enough, Will and I went on a date Saturday night!  (a friend came over after Benjamin went to bed and had the toughest babysitting job ever ... "Call us if he starts screaming."  Thankfully, he slept peacefully ... till 4 am, but we won't go there).  We ate at Panera Bread and enjoyed sharing a meal that didn't have to be interrupted by "We don't throw our food on the floor" or stanzas of "Twinkle Twinkle on my Toes" (A Trautman original).  Then we did a little low-key shopping and ended the evening browsing at Barnes and Noble.  ahhhhhh.

So, Saturday, after a really long week, was a sweet, sweet day.

And today Benjamin was anxious to show off what he's been working on ...

Embracing the Cowlick

Many Random Thoughts

Try as I might, I can't come up with a way to string all these thoughts together by theme, chronology, or other etc. device, so I'm just gonna throw them all out there ... after all, this is my creative outlet, right?  And you can't always wait to be creative till you can produce something perfect ... this is the main reason I was never that successful in art or music-related endeavors - perfectionism!  There was also the comment from my college piano instructor that my playing sounded like "an elephant tramping through the jungle" ... not so very encouraging ... but that is a whole other story.

Sunday night, we hosted our first-ever Supper Club with three other couples from our church.  It was a great success ... I haven't laughed that hard in months!  I made chicken enchiladas and some awesome guacamole.  Not that I'm tooting my own horn about the guacamole, it's just that I had never made it before, and Alton Brown came through for me in a big way!

Hosting eight people did make me realize one disadvantage of our flat that I hadn't realized before.  Previously, there were only two disadvantages of any consequence ... street-parking, and a bathroom fan that sounds like a freight train.  Well, there's also the ugly kitchen floor, but that's more an aesthetic issue than a real disadvantage.  Anyway, Sunday evening uncovered a third ... no good way to set up a buffet line.  (Discussions with my mom on this subject led to the contemplation of purchasing a buffet to go in the dining room to solve that problem ... i love this one ... but I had to laugh because, really, what problem can't be solved by the purchase of a new piece of furniture?)

Back to dinner... Sweet Husband helped me serve the plates, so all went well.  And we were most grateful for all the great up-sides of our little flat ... spacious kitchen and dining room, and solid wood doors... after we closed Benjamin's door and the hallway door that leads to the bedroom area, his sleep was undisturbed by even the heartiest of laughter.

Also, along with guacamole on the list of things I've never cooked before ... eggplant!  It's in season and we've had a steady supply coming in our weekly farm shares.  What to do with it?  Here are my favorite recipes so far ...
Pesto and eggplant pasta (thanks, Giada!)
Roasted Eggplant Hummus (thanks again, Giada!)
Fried Eggplant (I mean really, you can't go wrong with Emeril, right?)

Can you tell I really miss the Food Network?

Anyway, I guess I will wrap up this post about nothing that I've been working on all day by saying that Will and I just had a snack of s'mores made in the microwave.  Hallelujah and Amen.

A Near Perfect Weekend

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our Labor Day Weekend.  It was near perfection, with a great balance of productivity, fun, and relaxation, time with friends and time with just us and our little family.  It also didn't hurt that Will took Friday off, so we had FOUR WHOLE DAYS!  

On Friday, we went to the beach at the lake first thing so Benjamin could play in the water again.

 

 

 Then we all came home and took a nap!  After which, we headed to the New York State Fair...

I don't know that Benjamin completely understood what all the hoopla was about, do you?  But Will and I accomplished our main objective ... DINNER!  Corn dog and funnel cake - isn't that really the whole point of the fair?

I must reveal that this photo was taken right before a big gust of wind blew powdered sugar all over me ... shirt, bag, face, hair, everywhere.  So I was forced to walk around the rest of the evening looking a bit like a 12-year-old.  :)

The remainder of the weekend afforded quality time with good friends, both in town and out, and lots of enjoying the pretty weather, as well as lots of cooking for me and homework for Will.

And here we are again, ready for another weekend ... where did this week go?

A New Day

A post about our labor day weekend is coming, including some great pictures.  But first I just had to share this early morning view from our kitchen window.  Sure, the sunrise would have been even better if unobstructed by power lines and headlights, but I am working on contentment :) 

Not yet!

How can summer possibly be almost over all ready?  I confess I never loved summer when I lived in the south ... humidity, mosquitoes, radiation beams from the sun burning my skin ... I couldn't wait for the cooler breezes of fall, whenever they decided to arrive ... say, around October.

The temperatures have been in the 90's here this week, and though I am really hot ... and as an aside, doesn't the heat just zap your energy?  I just unloaded groceries from the car (and, as an aside from the aside, I just spent like half our monthly grocery/walmart budget on diapers!  I can only hope they last longer than the month!  holy cow!) and put in a load of laundry, and I am exhausted!  whew!  I even drank caffeine coffee this morning, but I could just lay down and nap right now.

anyway, back to my point, that though I am really hot right now, I have loved summer this year and am not quite ready for it to be over.  But, time waits for no man, and it especially waits for no mom.  Its no longer light outside when Benjamin wakes up at 5:30 in the morning, leaves are turning on some trees already, and this Saturday, the high is only going to be 65.

So, we have been making the most of this week, and will continue to make the most of this long weekend - so, more to come on that front! :)