Update..

So much for trying to keep the blog more up-to-date....

Here's a quick recap of the past 15 days (or so) while I try and get Anders down for his much needed nap...

A) S's parents visited for a long weekend. Yay! It was great to see family again and show off how much Anders has grown. Even though we live 1500+ miles away from ANY family member, we have been very lucky to be able to see one side of the family or the other about very 6 weeks.

B)  I am in the process of "building" a composter. I cannot seem to find one I like around here that fits my "low cost" desires...so we are building one.

C) We are making our dog food....Our dog, Bogey, has started thinning out, a lot, for no apparent reason. He eats a ton of food every day, and despite switching his food, vet visits, tests, etc... the only thing we can chalk it up to is his crazy energy level and high metaboism. So, after talking to our vet, we started making the dogs their own food, and it seems to have worked! We have gotten about 2 lbs on Bogey, which is huge!

D) Anders has decided that sitting is fun, but standing is AWESOME. 90% of the time we have to get him standing a soon a we put him down or he will squeal like some prehistoric dino. And, when we stand hm up, he stomps his feet like he is trying to walk.

E) Wee man, Anders, is still sleeping 12-15 hours a night solid, but naps are going out the window. We ae currently getting about 2 20 minute naps/day.

Alright,the kiddo is awake, surprise surprise! Hopefully some pictures this weekend!!!

Baby Food

This is a post about all things pureed. And cooking the living daylights out of steak for Anders...a feat that almost had S and I, as Medium Rare steak lovers, almost in tears.

We, and by that I mean I, decided early on that we really wanted to make all of Anders' baby food. S and I eat a mostly organic diet, and we wanted to do the same with A. When we started looking a organic baby food options in our area we were not impressed with the selection or the price. For example, I can buy 1 container of Earth's Best peas for $0.89 (on average) which is a 2 oz container; or I can buy 1 bag of organic frozen peas at Whole Foods for $1.69 and make 18-20 ounces of food. For my "frugal' lifestyle it was a no-brainer.

When we started to look into what we would need for baby food making we looked into the Beaba Babycook and ultimately decided against it-the main reason being that it makes very small volumes of food. We had recently gotten a Kitchenaid Food Processor for our wedding (which feels like it was ages ago....not just 1.5 years back) and we have a ton of these steamer baskets already.

Here's what we do:
1) prep veggies/fruit
2) steam them until very soft
3) process until desired smoothness is attained
4) pour into ice cube trays
5) freeze
6) store in labeled ziploc freezer bags

With chicken we simply poach it and them puree. Steak, we cook until well done. And, Anders favorite of them all, tofu is simply pureed.

Here's one of his favorite recipes:
Chicken with Apples and Carrots:
1) Peel and chop 10 medium carrots and 4 Apples
2) Steam carrots for 5 minutes then add apples (or steam seperately) and steam until very soft
3) While steaming, cut 2 chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks.
4) Place chicken into 8 cups boiling water and poach until cooked through.
5) Drain carrots and apples and reserve liquid.
6) Add poached chicken, carrots and apples to your food processor.
7) Process using a pulse setting until desired texture is achieved. Add reserved water from carrots and apples as needed for thinning.
8) Pour into ice cube trays and pop into freezer when cooled.
9) Once frozen, pop cubes into labeled ziploc bag, defrost cubes as needed.

My favorite food processor in action

Ready to freeze.

Anders loves this "recipe" and S and I really like it too-we try everything we make for Anders.

Enjoy, more recipes to come....

New Years "Resolutions"

1) Blog more

2) Grow my cooking repertoire to include more challenging and unique foods, and actually BLOG about what we cook

3) Start a raised bed garden in our backyard...which admittedly, our whole back yard is the size of the garden I grew up with. Oh how I love city living.

4) Continue to explore making our own dog food.

5) Finally finish all of our planned major home projects (we should be done these by February), and to tackle any new projects in a timely manner.

6) Remodel our wine cellar. The previous owners installed it "upside down", ie: corks up, and it needs some serious TLC. Let me also note, that it also needs to be stocked...it's so hard to keep a bottle in it!

7) Enjoy every moment, both challenging and easy, with Anders. 

8) Take more pictures!

9) Laugh more. 2010 was a rough year for us all. It's time to enjoy life and take things in stride.

10) Focus on that which is important and ignore that which is not.

Happy New Year!
S, M and A

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was our first in Nebraska and it brought quite a few changes. We celebrated Christmas with S's family in Florida in early December, and my parents came out to NE for 10 days to celebrate with us. Traditionally, we spend the day, and Christmas Eve, running around to different homes to meet up with all of our family, and cook a huge meal to enjoy with everyone. This was our first year "offically" hosting Christmas for our family, and it was very calm, quiet and different.

We did not do a good job taking pictures, but, thankfully, my parents did. More pictures to come as they settle back into their lives in Vermont!

This time.....

This time last year, well, yesterday 12/27 to be exact, we packed up our SUV and left our home in Vermont to move to Nebraska. We left every single thing exactly where it was since S's company was paying to have it all packed by our movers, and we loaded our two nut dogs, a bag of clothing, 2 sleeping bags, our top tier of our wedding cake, some books, all important documents and some munchies into our car and we left.

S cried for about 3 miles. I waited until week 2 in Nebraska, when, after a long day of unpacking, I discovered our movers had destroyed our brand new carpet in our basement. And then I sat down and I balled for 30 minutes.

Now, we both knew everything would be fine, and now, 12 months later, it is. But what we also knew was that we had a very uphill battle facing us. We have lived and traveled outside of Vermont and the US. We have gone months without seeing our families. We have been lonely and we have survived. However, moving to Nebraska was the hardest thing we have ever done.

Essentially, we left our jobs (which we both loved), every single person we knew, our home (that S built), and our wonderful lifestyle, all for S to pursue a job he hoped that would bring him professional success. Thankfully, S loves what he is doing, and without moving he would have never gotten many of the opportunities that have been allotted to him in Nebraska. But that doesn't make life easier.

We are learning to lean on each other more than we ever imagined we would. We are learning what our strengths are and where we are weak, and we are trying so hard to be stronger and "better" for A. We have finally, and I mean FINALLY, started to see our home in Nebraska as our house, and we are ready to take the next step in our lives, which right now means growing our lives here and realizing that looking back is not a good thing.

And, we have learned that somedays, it will just suck. Flat out suck. Living 1500+ miles from all that you have known and being aware that there is no "summer break" to go home to will suck a lot.

And on those days, I am thankful we have a very well stocked wine cellar.

Hello December

how is it December already? I hate to say it, but it as been almost a MONTH since I had 5 minutes to sit down and blog....yep, I am a blogging failure!

In life news: Thanksgiving was a bust-S was getting over the stomach flu, A had a sinus infection and I had a nasty little cold. We all hunkered down with our turkey and caught up on our DVRed shows. Sad, but true. We went to Florida to visit S's parents and grandmother at their homes down in the sunshine. It was a great way to spend a cold December week, and it was wonderful to finally get to fly with S for a full trip! Right now we are all getting ready for my parents to come out for Christmas-which means that it may actually be time for us to finish decorating our house. We are so behind in all things home/life related simply because since the first week of November one member of our family has been sick with one ailment or another.

On the baby front: Anders is 6 months old! Woohooo!!!! He is becoming more and more of a "real child" (as S likes to say) every day. He can sit unassisted, he has outgrown his bouncer, swing and infant car seat, he eats a boat load of "real" food and he is learning how to self entertain.

One of the cutest things is to watch him eat solids. He loves pears, apples, peas and anything mixed with cinnamon. He's indifferent to green beans and sweet potatoes. This kiddo loves his food.

Oh yeah, and he is huge. Here's our stats over the past appointments:
Birth: 7 lb 8 oz, 20.5 inches
2 months: 12 lb12 oz, 25.5 inches
4 months: 17 lb 12 oz, 27.5 inches
6 months: 19 lb 9 oz, 29 inches
We are in 12 month clothing. Sadly for A, they are all too wide, so we spend the day pulling his pants up...which, of course, he hates.

Last weekend we went to see Santa, and A was wonderful.

He loved Santa's real beard, and Santa loved that A only touched it instead of pulling it....just you wait one more year!

Hiding under S's golf hat

Family shot at S's family Christmas in Florida.

Jolly little 6 month old!

Finally!

Anders rolled over this morning, for the very first time! Yes, he is 5.5 months old and lots of younger babies have been rolling over for a while, but I think each kiddo will hit his or her milestones when they are ready. Anders was just chilling on the floor on his belly while I was putting his clothing away this morning, and next thing I know he's on his side. This has happened a lot since he was about 3 months old-he gets to the side, chills there for a moment then rolls back to his belly. This morning he did his side roll, chilled for moment, and then flipped to his back. All the while with this look on his face like "Hey mom, I could have done this months ago, but I just didn't feel like it."

The only thing I can equate his look to is that of our dog, Bogey, who wouldn't "shake" at all, until one day about 2 months ago (yep, he was over a year at that point, and we have been working on this since day 1) when he just picked up his paw and was staring at S with this look of "I was born doing this, I just didn't feel like letting you in on in you measly human."

I wish I could say I am kidding, but I truly think our kid and dogs have a conspiracy to take over our house...they are just waiting for A to learn to walk.