Our Week in Meals

This has been an exciting week (from an eating perspective, and I don't know a better way to judge a week) at our house. I tried to step it up in the kitchen a little bit thanks to the "dining in" challenge I proposed earlier this month, so since my last post, I've made:

• Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
• Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Homemade Swedish Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes
• Homemade Granola
• Homemade Pasta with Broccoli, Tomatoes and Sausage (recipe from All You magazine, and mine turned out "eh.")
• Crockpot Roast with Veggies (which is a great idea when you come home to a delicious-smelling kitchen, but kind of torture when you have to smell it cooking for 8 hours beforehand!)

Making dinner is an entirely different experience when you plan ahead a little bit. I've gone from totally throwing something together in a frenzy when Tony gets home from work to planning our meals a day or two ahead of time, and I'm loving it.

My sous chefs, Landon and Sabie, wait patiently in the corner of the kitchen as I explain each step of the cooking process. I think they'll be really helpful with a little more experience:

(Also note that my naughty dog ate half a raw meatball and a whole slice of bread off the counter during two separate meal preparations this week. The nerve.)

And, it wasn't on everyone's menu, but one of us has eaten rice cereal four nights this week. Can you guess who? (Wait, I actually have to include Sable too, because she licked the bowl I left on the dining room table as I was cleaning up. Who trained this dog, anyway?)

Here are a couple pics of Landon's first meal:

And of course we got it on video, too.

I know I've said this before, but Landon is so much fun right now! His personality is really beginning to present itself, and I've heard from some of my girlfriends that he has the most sparkly blue eyes. I think I see a little mischief in them, and I hope I'm right... I think it will be fun to raise a "spirited" little guy.

And in all seriousness, I'm feeling a little sad for HuskyPup right now. She's been on a steroid for an eye issue for almost two months at this point, and I think that's what's been making her so brazen as to snatch food at every chance she gets. She's a little more aggressive (not violent with us or anything, of course) and a lot hungrier than her usual self. So that makes it hard for her to behave, I think. Fingers crossed that at her next check up the vet will give her a clean bill of health. I don't know how to do a better job protecting our food!

Oh, and if you have any favorite go-to recipes that I can try over the next couple weeks, I'd love to hear about 'em!

Inspired.

I'm going to have to come clean here, you guys. I am a total blog-stalker. Somewhere through various links, websites and message boards I've come upon a handful of mamas, couponers, and DIY homeowners who I just fall in love with. And then I can't get enough of them - their daily lives somehow become really important to me.

Almost a year ago, I stumbled upon Enjoying the Small Things, by Kelle Hampton. Kelle is a super-talented photographer and writer who learned last January that her sweet baby girl had been born with Down Syndrome. After reading this amazingly moving post, I was touched so deeply that I just couldn't stop learning about Kelle and her "littles", Lainey and Nella. Maybe it was because at the time I was carrying my first baby, whose good health I had been praying for; or because my hormones were at an all-time high, but I have been adoring Nella and supporting her mama ever since.

Kelle has taken the opportunity to speak about Down Syndrome on her blog throughout the past year, and now in honor of Nella's first birthday, she challenged her readers to "pay it forward" by donating to the National Down Syndrome Society. Her original goal, to be met by Nella's birthday on January 22nd, was $15,000... to date she's raised more than $44,000. Forty Four Thousand Dollars! And she's got 11 days to go! It's unimaginable to me that Kelle, who basically blogs about day-to-day life with her husband, step-sons, and two little girls, has influenced her readers to share so generously!

The first time I checked Nella's fundraising site, Kelle had raised $245. Since then I have been cheering (literally!) each time I refresh the page to watch the funds grow. I am astounded by the power of Kelle and everyone who has grown to love Nella through her blog.

Anyway, just wanted to spread the word. If you're looking for a place to share - the National Down Syndrome Society would be a deserving recipient. And if you're looking for a blog to stalk, try Kelle's. And, if you're looking to swoon over a sweet little man, try this one:


Works for me every time.



Delish.

Sometimes I get extra-inspired to save money and challenge Tony to spending freezes. I really do! And he's always game for it. This month I suggested that we not eat out at all until his birthday (coming up on the 29th), so I am trying to do some fun and creative meal planning to cover lunch and dinner until then.

I've always been curious about eggplant because they're so dang pretty! But I had no idea what to do with them; so even though sometimes I'd pick them up and consider buying them in the past, I never actually got to the check out with one. But this week they were on sale at CashWise (Gaw! You didn't think I'd pay full price, did you?! I'm too much of a cheap ace for that.) and decided to give Eggplant Parmesean a try. And to be honest, as a person who's never tried Eggplant Parmesean - it was a great choice! We have no idea if it tasted "right" or not, but it was pretty good!

I kind of consolidated a bunch of recipes and ended up with this:

• 2 smallish eggplants, peeled and sliced in 1/4" pieces, then salted and pressed between 2 plates for an hour to remove most of the water




See? Smashed.


• A can of pasta sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• Seasoned bread crumbs

I preheated the oven to 350, then dipped each eggplant slice in the egg, then the bread crumbs, then sauteed them in a skillet with olive oil and garlic until they were brown (could have made them a touch crispier during this step, I think).

I put "some" of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a glass baking dish, then a layer of the breaded eggplant, then cheese, then another layer of each. And that's pretty much it!

I put it in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes and served it with spaghetti and some freshly baked french bread. Yum!

So, does that look like Eggplant Parmesean to anyone who's had it before? It's definitely on my list of "to try again in the future" meals. And of course it made a huge amount, so I know what we'll be having for dinner tonight, too! And maybe lunch tomorrow, and then dinner....

A Shiny New Year!

I just love starting fresh with a brand-new year. There's something so thrilling about choosing a new planner and daydreaming about what will fill those pages... 2010 held a lot of really exciting appointments; 9 months of doctor's visits and lamaze classes, the birth of our amazing son, a niece, and a nephew, holidays, birthdays, and girls' nights out, trips to the lake and dinner dates. My planner is documentation of who I was each particular year, and 2010 was defined by wonderful changes!

I've been trying to consolidate a lot of my high school/college paraphernalia, and ran into my planners from my time in Montana and Virginia. So interesting to re-visit those years! Puts me right back in the moment, you know? I love keeping those planners as a way to reminisce about the "olden days" (and they really are "olden" now; I've been out of college 7 years this May; high school for 11!)

We just celebrated a wonderful Christmas, though we weren't able to join Tone's family in Frazee like we'd planned. I came down with the stomach flu on Christmas night... (came and went pretty quickly, but left me laying on the bathroom floor during!) So disappointing to miss the first Christmas for Kat, Owen, and Landon.

Here's the pic of a little boy who made Santa's Nice List this year: (note the gorgeous back drop behind Santa! We went to the Center Mall because we heard there were no lines. No offense to Santa, but I can kind of see why. We just reminded ourselves that we made a donation to the local food pantry).

When Tony put Landon in Santa's lap, he said, "Sorry, we just woke him up".

And Santa said, "That's the best... they have no idea what's going on!"
And he didn't.

Here are a couple shots from Christmas Day:

We've had a TON of snow lately (always fun to imagine how it will affect our spring flooding situation!) Here are some pics of Tony snowblowing AGAIN a couple days ago:

That's a lot of snow even by North Dakota standards. Glad the little guy and I were safe and warm inside; and so thankful that Tony takes such great care of our home.

And here's a video from today. My heart just can't take much more of these guys!

Could Landon get any cuter?! He thinks his dad is especially funny, for some reason. Love it. This is the best game of peekaboo that I've seen with him so far. Very glad we caught it on video!

And anyone recognize that blanket? My college roommates will for sure, because it's not Landons : )

Owl be home for Christmas

Hmm. I was stretching a little bit for the post title there. Ha! But I wanted to get these pics up on the blog too. Which do you prefer... "serious owl", or "I realize this hat is a little goofy" owl?

(Hat was a gift from Amy and a favorite of little guy's. Loves it. Admires it from his changing table about 11 times a day!)

Roller Derby

A fun anniversary: Last year on December 6th, I gave Tony a onesie. And since he doesn't wear onesies and might otherwise think it was a weird gift, I also gave him my positive pregnancy test. I think it all became pretty clear at that moment... we were going to be parents!

Here's the same onesie, one year later!


Landon looks confused, to say the least!

And, do you want to know how Landon celebrated the anniversary? By ROLLING OVER - twice! Yep, he finally got his head and body going in the same direction and flipped from his stomach to his back.

Here's another picture of that cutie pie from the same day. Love his Sabie hat, don't you?

...But does he? Eh, jury's out on that one.

In other "nest" news, Tony beat the winter weather (by exactly 12 hours, I think!) by completing the siding and finishing of our garage a few weeks ago. He shingled, replaced and painted soffit and fascia, added new trim and a garage door, added a new window (not pictured in these photos), and a number of months ago added a service entrance door. (There was only one way in and out of the garage before, through the rickety wooden garage door. Obviously it couldn't be locked because there was no other way in, so Tony's tools were at significant risk of being stolen. The benefit of having a garage in the condition ours was in... no one would ever suspect there was anything of value in there!)

Here's our "before"

Actually, it's a "during", but this is the general pre-rehab condition

Then a few of the work in progress:

And, the finished product! (minus the light fixture... Tony had to get the appropriate screws for it, and now has to psych himself up to work outside again in the wintry weather!)

Wahoo! Another one off your list, Tony! We are REALLY getting down there now. And no one could possibly be more excited than you are. Except maybe this little guy. He wants to hang out with his dad!

The House That Built Me

You know that song by Miranda Lambert, "The House That Built Me"? I had that moment today. An awesome one with my mom that I don't think I'll ever forget. My very first home is currently on the market, and today the Realtor held an open house. We decided to go take a look - walk through the setting of my earliest childhood memories for the first time since we moved out 21 years ago. We didn't know how we'd feel about it, really.

Of course, because this is one of the best times of my life, I'm not feeling any of the sorrow or wistfulness that Miranda sings about. But I can completely relate to the desire to just catch a glimpse of your history; to for a minute, step back into the place where you started.  Here are the lyrics to her song (if you aren't familiar already):

I know they say you can’t go home again
I just had to come back one last time
Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine
Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
I bet you didn’t know under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could walk around I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Plans were drawn and concrete poured
Nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama’s dream

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could walk around in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I walk around I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

Now check this out: when mom and I pulled up to the house, I hauled Landon out of the backseat of the car and walked directly to the concrete patch below the front steps, and lo and behold, right where we left 'em....

ADJ and RTJ, 9.1.87.

Seeing it really did make my eyes a little misty; for some reason I can remember the exact day we did that. And in the years since, I've lived in another house in Moorhead, then Idaho Falls, then Missoula (5 homes there!) Alexandria, VA (2 houses there), and back to Fargo, where I'm in my third home since coming back. There is something so awesome about coming "home" to your very first house.

As mom and I walked through the property, it was obvious that most of the home had been updated (as it should have been... mom and dad had the house built 30 years ago!) but we're pretty certain the kitchen appliances are original, as was the bathroom light fixture, door hardware, laundry room flooring, stairway handrails, fireplace mantel, and all of the woodwork. We looked into the backyard where our swingset and sandbox had been, and discussed how it seemed so much bigger back then. It brought back the best memories. So glad we went, and so glad my mom was there to share it with me.

I want to say that the carpeting is no longer there, but the rest of the fireplace looks exactly like this! (Nice look, Ryan!)

Here I am with Grandpa in the living room of my first house.

And, just because it happens to be on my computer, this is how a baby sleeps when she has an older brother. (Pic also taken in our first house).



In other news, look at this cutie's newest achievements:

Learning to suck on his fingers, just like his daddy did as a little guy!

... And sitting in his Bumbo! (Thanks Katherine, I think he's going to really like it!)