good use of leftovers: Pea and Slow Cooked Ham Tarts

i found this recipe for Pea and Slow Cooked Ham Tarts, had a ham in the freezer that i had been wanting to use (one that we had brined and smoked ourselves), and decided to adapt the recipe for winter in wisconsin.

the recipe calls for fresh peas, but i used frozen. the downside to this was extra water content, which made the filling wetter than i think it should have been. i probably could have combated this a bit more by blending the filling more; emulsifying the fat in the cream would have done the trick. but it wasn't awful, and the custard still set.

i added some parmesan to the custard because, you know, it was the right thing to do.

the shortcut pastry dough is hands down the best pastry recipe i have ever made. most basic ingredients, minimal handling - and it puffed in the oven beautifully, and was gorgeously buttery. perfect, perfect, perfect. i've been thinking of all sorts of wonderful applications for this. napoleons? pot pies? fruit pies? yes, yes, and yes.

though i wasn't a huge fan of the recommended method for pre-baking the pastry cups: the author if the recipe has you fold them over the backs of muffin tins. maybe i just needed to cut the pastry rounds a little bigger, but they weren't very deep.

i oven roasted some delicata squash "fries" to go with them, and it was a filling and delicious dinner, indeed. as if the ongoing winter here wasn't enough to make me wishing for warm weather, this recipe certainly has me thinking of june peas, which i can eat raw by the pound at their peak freshness (bryan thinks this is a problem and will confiscate the 3 pound bags i buy at the farmer's market and proceed to attempt to devour).

that's it. a simple and delicious dinner i had to share.

food project: ham

so here i am changing the rules yet again. what? it's my blog.

as has been in evidence, um, all year, i don't get much time to come here and post much. something about having a crazy job and a crazy two year old. so i'm going back to something bryan and i used to do in our early days - food projects.

when bryan and i were first dating, i was far more meek in my food choices. i had grown up with a huge organic garden, so i was already familiar with and a champion of that whole concept. mom cooked home cooked meals every night, made killer baked goods (and still does), and i enjoyed cooking and baking as well. but i had never been exposed to the professional side of cooking, or anything necessarily gourmet. bryan changed that, a change i rather welcomed.

however, that also meant stepping out of my comfort zone some, trying new things. so to keep from overwhelming me, we'd select a food project, something particular for me to tackle, be it eggplant or tofu. this worked very well. now that i'm past most of my food phobias, we've gone on to do food projects together - experimenting with intermediate and advanced techniques. i'm modifying my format here to do that with you, dear reader.


















so here's your first food project: wet cured ham, 2 varieties: baked, and smoked.

the first step in making your own ham it to get your hands on a fresh ham steak. a real butcher will have this. you could also cure a whole shoulder. again, this is something a butcher will have. it is possible you can ask for it at your super market as well; if they carry any large cut of meat and have an actual bandsaw in the back (something you'd expect but is a lot less likely than you'd think), they'll have it. i used 3 fresh ham steaks, about 2 inches thick, and roughly 7 or 8 inches long by 4 or 5 inches wide. so, not your normal giant christmas ham, but with a family of 3, i don't want to have huge hams that take a week for us to finish.

next, find a brine recipe you'd like to use. i used a very simple one from Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie, which can also be found online, here. in the past, i've also done hams in a brine with garlic, juniper berries, allspice, cloves, and bay leaves. a brine is essentially water and salt, and usually sugar. the recipe i used also called for pink salt (not hawaiian pink salt, but a specialty curing salt), which i didn't have, so i omitted it and added a small amount of potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter) instead, which i have on hand for curing corned beef.

submerge the fresh pork in the brine. i have some cambro food storage bins i like to use (you can get them at a restaurant supply store). i did also have to use my giant roasting pan since i needed more space than i had (which is ok - since the brine didn't contain acid of any sort, it's safe to use metal pans). it's important to fully submerge the meat, which generally means weighing it down. i covered the containers with plastic wrap, then put bowls on top of the hams with cans inside of them. the containers then go into a fridge. the recipe suggests 1 day per 2 pounds of ham in terms of curing time - about a week for a large ham. i left my hams in for a day short of 2 weeks, knowing it wouldn't hurt anyone.

after 2 weeks, we smoked 2 of them, and baked 1 of them. the plan was to eat the baked one for dinner, but we ended up having one of the smoked ones. and it was so good. rich, salty, caramelized sweetness. mom and dad joined us, and we ate nearly the entire ham. dad loves ham, and i think this made him a convert.

baked ham


smoked ham




we sliced off some of the baked ham for croque monsiuers, and froze the rest of the baked ham and the remaining whole smoked ham for later use.

so there you have it! a big success. i urge you to try this. it's really simple - make the brine, put in the meat, and forget about it. even if you don't have a smoker, you can bake it, so you have no excuse not to. and it's far, far superior to supermarket ham, which is one dimensional flavorless meat that tastes of salt and not much else. home cured ham has a depth you can't match elsewhere. and you get to impress your family and friends, who'll think you're a magical genius with super powers. go forth and CURE!

by popular demand

whilst in atlanta, i had a number of people request i post links to the food i talk about in my facebook statuses. today's list is too long for a facebook status, so - egads! - i'm updating my blog. and i completely admit i am taking the easy way out by only posting in regards to today's projects, entirely ignoring the past 2 months of food, events, and the atlanta trip. deal with it.

bryan started the day by making one of his lovely chicken stocks. for those not in the know, we almost exclusively use homemade chicken stock. because it is so easy. after we have a roast chicken, we toss the carcass in a freezer bag, along with vegetable scraps - the ends of onions, carrots, celery, whatever. after we have a few carcasses, we make stock. which consists of peeling the frozen hunks of chicken and veg bits out of their bags, covering with water, and slowly simmering for a few hours. once the mix has reduced nicely, we cool, strain, and freeze off in 1, 2, and 4 cup measurements. couldn't be easier. and it tastes roughly 400 million times better than store bought. cooking all day, leaching the bones of all nutrients leads to an incredibly rich stock - at room temperature, it is solid, like jelly. i call it chicken jello. appetizing, no?

i finally decided to tackle some of the giant cuts of pork we have in our freezer from our whole pig. i started with the easy route - wet curing 3 huge ham steaks. after a week or 2 in the brine, i will bake one as is, and slow smoke the other 2. i was reading my Charcuterie book, which started getting me very, very excited for doing more. i plan on doing a dry cured (salted and hung) ham, as well as a blackstrap molasses country ham. this excites me. it's practically naughty.

i also prepared a sirloin tip roast for roast beef with yorkshire pudding, which we'll have monday or tuesday. i seasoned the roast with salt and pepper, and rubbed it with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and thyme. it smelled heavenly. i am planning rocky road bars for dessert, because only chocolate and red wine can follow beef like that.

bryan is working on a potato and leek soup for consumption and freezing sometime this week.

and we're not even eating any of that today.

tonight we're having chicken fried steak and celery root and squash gratin with walnut-thyme streusel, a dish which sounds fancy and time consuming, but is a breeze to make.

enjoy!

the kitchen diaries: prologue

so as you may or may not know, bryan and i have pitched headlong into a kitchen remodel. i say we have pitched headlong, and while that is true (the cabinets are on their way), we haven't gotten very far. bryan is going to start emptying out the kitchen so that we can demo over the next couple of weeks, in hopes that we can paint and tile the floor prior to the cabinets arriving. we have yet to choose countertops (we want recycled glass but are having a very hard time getting that solution to work for us - apparently no one in milwaukee is really all that interested in being eco friendly). that's our last major decision before being able to purchase everything else we need. we are both excited (to finally have a kitchen that we want) and nervous (this is no small project, with a price tag to match).

seeing as how we'll be kitchenless for a solid 2 months or so, you'll see the food posts on this blog drop off in favor of a more renovation oriented diary. we will post updates on the remodel, with pictures. so if you're in need of a good laugh, come here to read about our latest adventure or disaster. i have no delusions that we'll be lacking in either category as we go through this process.

so where did i leave off?

last thursday we had oliver's 6 month wellness visit. i expected him to have tipped the scales on 20 lbs, but he weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz - just a 4 oz gain in the previous 4 weeks. which is fine, considering he was 19 lbs to begin with. we had a barrage of questions for the doctor, which he fielded happily. he was also very responsive to bryan's alternate vaccine schedule, so that was pretty cool. oliver just got 1 shot that day. his new nurse is AWESOME and it was over before he started, so he only cried for about 3 seconds. though he did shoot the nurse a dirty look.

friday evening, i had a hair appointment after work. i was SO bored with my current style, and since my stylist is awesome, she came up with a new solution, which includes bangs. i haven't had bangs in forever!! it looks SO cute though! :) it's a very cute little bob and i am very happy with it. that night, bryan made red beans and rice for dinner, using some homemade polish sausage shannon's boyfriend, david, got from his uncle. helloooooo, deliciousness. bryan used brown rice, which isn't our norm, but it worked very well - it seemed more moist than white rice. he used the ham hock leftover from our smoked ham in the beans. the sausage was so very good as well. all in all, an awesome meal.

saturday, we went to milwaukee marble to see about getting a white marble remnant to top a lower piece of cabinetry, for pastry and pasta work. while they were able to accommodate our needs, and the price fell in our budget (though higher than i was hoping for), we think the sales person quoted us on a cut slab, not a remnant, as we were able to choose the exact size, edge, finish, etc. they also had some beautiful granite, which she said would be more expensive than the marble. i did the math when we got home, and the marble came to $118/sq ft... so no idea what the granite would be. bryan is going to get them to quote us on the job, and see if they have some ACTUAL marble remnants. we then headed downtown to future green to check out some icestone samples. unfortunately, they didn't have the color we were most interested in, but they did also have a similar local product, which was kind of neat. we're awaiting estimates on 2 samples, but we're not very hopeful. the seller is not a fabricator, so all they would do is order slabs from icestone and have them shipped to us. um, we could do that. we'd still have to find someone to cut and install it, and with seemingly no one ever having seen the stuff before, i wouldn't want to hire a GC to do it. le sigh. with the vetrazzo being out of our price range at $140-190/sq ft, it's not looking good on the green front. which is weird - you'd think people would be all excited to go eco. not in milwaukee, apparently!

that afternoon, bryan and i dropped the babe off with mom so he and i could head out to the fancy pants theater in waukesha to see iron man. on the way there, we were rear ended... at a stop light. luckily, we didn't have the baby with us, we didn't hit the people in front of us, and our car wasn't too messed up. we are fine as well. we were stopped, with about 3 cars in front of us, and the guy behind us was stopped, but the drunk in the isuzu behind him did not stop. we didn't find out until the police came that he was drunk. at 1:30pm. with 2 kids in the car. and an expired insurance card (which he swears is current). not his lucky day. the police got us all sorted out pretty quickly (minus the guy who caused the accident - he had to stay behind and fail a dui test), though, so we were still able to make our movie. ;) which was really good! i liked it a lot more than i thought i would. i thought robert downey jr was the perfect cast as iron man, and that the dialogue was very good. looking forward to the 2nd one, for sure.

sunday, we ran some errands to make sure we have enough food and diapers to last us at least a few days. we decided to buy oliver a brand new big boy car seat, since while he's got another 5+ lbs in terms of weight capacity before he reaches that limit, i think he's pretty well at the height limit. plus, carrying around a ~20 lb baby in one of those things requires biceps of steel. he seemed SO excited to be sitting in a big boy seat, which may have just been because he wasn't strapped and squished into the seat of terror (as i lovingly call his infant carrier). bryan had to pick up some sun shades though, since we no longer have the benefit of having the umbrella cover his carrier had, and he was unpleasantly blinded by the sun rising from the east (we drive west) on the way to day care.

last night, we had anaheim pepper burgers with avocado mash, corn & black bean salad, and coca-colas from mexico for dinner. we decided to pick up something ready to go while we were grocery shopping. bryan wanted me to try avocado, as i hadn't for awhile. it's not something i dislike, but it's something i never found very flavorful, just heavy and oily. we picked up some pre-made burger patties from their butcher, which he grilled on the cast iron griddle and topped with the avocado mash. ollie had some avocado with his dinner as well, and LOVED it. :) the avocado lent a very nice moistness to the burger, like mayo would, but richer. twas alright. bryan threw together a side salad of black beans, corn, tomatoes, green chilies, onions, and lime juice. i snagged a few coca-colas from the "ethic" aisle; the ones from mexico are made with real cane sugar still, as opposed to the corn syrup in the ones from the u.s. plus, if you can't get it from a fountain, glass bottled cokes are the next best thing. ;) we split a slice of key lime pie i snatched from the bakery for dessert.

the weather was pretty gorgeous all weekend. we watched mom and dad's dog belle yesterday, as they drove up to minneapolis to see shan run. moose loved having a buddy to hang outdoors with. yesterday was busy, and oliver refused to take his last real nap of the day, but i have to say, all in all it was a pretty awesome day.

i am sure i am forgetting something, but that is all i can remember right now.



WFD: pork chops. not feeling very inspired, so pretty boring ones.

flippin' ridiculous

can i just say, it is 41°F (feels like 38°F), and that really stinks? like, seriously. it's april 29th. bryan thought i was joking when i told him i wouldn't feel safe warm weather wise until june, but i was serious.


oliver & his breakfast prunes. :)

friday night, oliver slept like an angel: down at 7pm, up around 12am to eat, and back down until 5:30am. flipping awesome. after his morning nap, we headed out to do some shopping for kitchen stuffs. we really have our hearts set on finding a recycled material countertop. seeing as how we couldn't find a dealer of icestone, our current favorite, we decided to check out some vetrazzo. we went to a nearby design center, where the sales guy did everything he could to sway us AWAY from vetrazzo, and instead go with one of their granite or quartz options... AND upsell us on their crappy cabinetry. we eventually convinced him to get us a quote on the vetrazzo, but even if we decide to go with it, we sure won't be buying from him. we had much better luck at the tile shop. we found some beautiful dark gray/black slate tiles that will work perfectly. just need to find a matching countertop. ;) we then headed up to lowe's, to compare their corian/granite/etc options to those of home depot (exactly the same, pretty much, just different names). we decided to go home and mull over what we had seen, and to let ollie nap. we tried going to milwaukee marble & granite to look for a marble remnant (which figures into our design) as well as the granite gallery, but both were closed. no such luck.

we stopped by our favorite grocery store to pick up some food for sunday dinner, including beets, which i was happy to find had full beet tops so i could finally make the beet green calzone i had been thinking about. they turned out really, really delicious. we added some sweet italian sausage, since we didn't have a ton of greens AND bryan needs protein. we used some of his famous homemade pizza dough. the filling was cider vinegar braised beet greens with sauteed onions and garlic, crumbled feta, and the sausage. they were really, really good. did i say that? ;) definitely a new favorite.

saturday night wasn't as good for oliver; he is getting 2 bottom teeth and he's feeling pretty miserable. i gave him lots of extra cuddles in the wee hours of sunday morning, and we skipped church so the two of us could nap. dad fired up the pit smoker that morning, and he and mom had us over for a smoked beef brisket dinner. i made a marinated beet salad and bryan made bread pudding (with apple brandy marinated raisins, and an apple brandy creme anglaise... bryan, ftw). le yum. ollie had fun hanging out with nana and grandpa, who i'm pretty sure he favors over us. ;)


yesterday, i spoke with a green design center in chicago that carries icestone, and they said they have recently started working with someone in the milwaukee area to install it here. WOOHOO! he said he would find the information and email me; no email yet but i will definitely be calling them later this afternoon. it's pretty important to us!

last night for dinner, i made a hammy mac n cheese with some of our leftover smoked ham. omg. i'm not gonna lie - it was good. made bryan all starry eyed. i still got it. ;) i made a cream sauce, using butter instead of oil as the base for my roux. i added onions and thyme, and once the cream was in, a healthy dose of white wine. i used both provolone and cheddar; half melted directly into the sauce and half stirred into the pasta. cubed the ham and tossed that in, then poured it into a casserole, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, and baked for a bit. i seared some yellow squash, and that was dinner. i am WAY looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

this evening, we have an appointment with our home depot designer to finalize the plans and order the cabinets. the clock will start ticking!! the contractor who does the cabinet installs came out for the final measurement, and we found some additional changes we need to make. we'll get those in tonight, verify everything, then push the button. i'm excited and nervous - we have a TON of work to do.

other than that, we're pretty boring. poor oliver has been feeling SO miserable with teething. and i noticed this morning it feels like he's got some coming in the top as well. i'd rather get it all out of the way at once, so that works for me, but i feel pretty bad for the little munchkin. we're having good success with the teething tablets, which are homeopathic (so we feel better giving that to him on a fairly regular basis), and we've resorted to tylenol a few times as well. he really likes chewing on wet washcloths... and pretty much anything else he can get into his mouth. :)

no fun plans for the week. this weekend, we'll try to go to those marble and granite places, and HOPEFULLY we'll get to check out the icestone as well. bryan and i are going on a saturday afternoon DATE to see iron man at the matinee at the super theater. i'm also going to clean the house, and nap. i hope.

HEY - whatchoo' looking at??


WFD: pork chops. probably greek style. maybe i'll make a little beet salad side with the leftover feta. and perhaps potatoes. or - ooo - potatoes with feta. and a salad. screw the beets. ;)

still not friday

i feel like i've been struggling to catch up all week, even if by monday evening it felt like friday already.

monday we had our smoked ham and it was DELICIOUS. more smokey towards the outside, which is to be expected. it came out a little dry, so we'll have to remedy that next time (perhaps with a mop). even so, it was very good. i also got to nibble on some pig fat, which is one of the few real joys left in this life. ;)


tuesday, bryan's father flew into town to spend a few days with us. oliver decided he didn't want to nap at day care, and took a grand total of one nap all day, from 12pm - 1pm. so he was pretty cranky by the time he got home at 4pm. and thus had more interest in crying rather than settling down for a nap. i gave up completely on sticking to our nighttime routine, administered some tylenol, thinking perhaps it's the teething, rocked and snuggled him, and he conked out around 6. the first half of the night went really well, but he was pretty fussy the second half of the night (or rather, the morning, as it was technically after 12am). he just seemed restless and uncomfortable. i should have given him more tylenol, but didn't. i just hesitate to dose him all the time, but if he needs it, i guess he needs it.

wednesday, bryan took the day off so he and his dad, bill, could do some projects. they got our vegetable garden planted!! it's pretty small, but has a good variety: green beans, sweet peas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, a variety of peppers, asparagus, rhubarb, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and i think that's it. it will be a nice supplement to our csa. bill made us his specialty for dinner - spaghetti. i had been craving spaghetti lately. it was delicious - slow simmered, with italian sausage and bell peppers. i cleaned the last bits off my plate with garlic bread. YUM!

oliver hadn't done much better during the day - one nap from 12pm - 2pm. but, although he was tired in the evening, he wasn't fussy/cranky. so he hung out with grandpa bill instead of crying in his crib, which made everyone happier. he ate his dinner like a champ (oatmeal and sweet peas). we had a nice bath, got ready for bed, and tried to settle into the rocker. our day care provider had recommended trying teething tablets, so bryan picked some up while running errands. i'm not sure if they did the trick of if i was just lucky, but last night was a breeze! he fought me for a few minutes trying to feed at bed, then calmed down, ate, and went right to sleep by 7pm. he woke up just before 10pm, and i went to change his diaper and figured i had a good hour of trying to calm him down. but he settled right into my arms! so i was able to put him back down quite easily. he woke up around 12:30am, ate well, and went back to sleep without a peep. he woke up at 4:30am, and bryan tried to give him a bottle, but he wasn't interested. i think he got frustrated trying his new trick - pulling the nuk OUT of his mouth. he just can't figure out how to get it back in. :) he's been working on this new ability all month, and while he's fantastic at grasping the ring and yanking the sucker out, and he's better at consistently making contact with his mouth trying to get it back in, he still can't quite figure out how to position it so that he gets it back - any time he does i estimate is pure luck. ;) but, i got him tucked back in and happy, asleep at 5. at that point, though, we were pretty much laying in bed fooling ourselves that we were resting, since we get up before 6am. we woke the baby up, to keep with our schedule. bryan packed the munchkin up and they went off to take grandpa bill to the airport, leaving me some quiet time to get ready. oliver was in a great mood this morning, eating his breakfast well (oatmeal and prunes, his new food for the week) and smiling all the way to day care. i LOVE happy smiley baby!!

bryan has an appointment with home depot today to make some tweaks to our kitchen cabinet design. i am really looking forward to nailing that down. hopefully we'll get a chance this weekend to solidify our tile selections.

i am definitely looking forward to the weekend. we've got some rain forecasted, but hopefully we'll be able to sneak in a bike ride. i'm actually looking forward to doing the laundry, since i miraculously got 99% of it done last weekend (except folding the whites), something that never happens. usually on saturday i'm scrambling to fold the last 2 loads so i can use the baskets to haul that week's dirties downstairs (and haven't even washed the whites). on sunday, we're having dinner at mom and dad's - they will be smoking a beef brisket. yeehaw!

WFD: something with pork loin, since we have one in the fridge we need to use. probably with a mojo type marinade, since i have some tangelos that aren't sweet enough to eat. and salad, i need to use lettuce. and maybe potatoes, because that sounds good. now, if i only had some cream cheese and guava pasta for empanadas, i'd have the full cuban meal!

holy crap, it's spring

the weekend was fairly phenomenal. i'm almost afraid to believe it, but springs seems to FINALLY be upon us, and the weather was absolutely amazing. i'm not deluding myself into thinking we won't get another day or 8 of 30 degree weather at some point in the next month, though.

but before we get to the weekend, i must brag a little about our dinner last thursday. bryan made carnitas (something he's rather adept at), and they were really, really good. i had mine with a little salsa verde and sauteed zucchini. bryan made a little salad type side as well. super delish, and not many leftovers to speak of. bryan certainly seems to have a divine ability for cooking true mexican cuisine. i'm sure his training in the more classic/french styles helps him to do that so well (technique is universal in some aspects). i am happy to reap the benefits either way.

then came friday. i worked from home, as our day care provider had the day off. the day started out with me realizing that with ollie's morning change i was using up the last diaper in the basket. i had thought earlier in the week what we had would last until saturday, but i was off. by a day. that's a LONG TIME in Infant Diaperland. luckily we have a few back ups floating around, so we were able to make it until mid-day. between naps, oliver and i had fun playing with toys (his grip gets better every day) and in his jumperoo (he can spend hours in it and i can spend hours watching him). we went to home depot to meet with one of their designers about kitchen plans. oliver's nap schedule luckily coincided with our appointment time perfectly. i love well rested and not cranky baby. we really liked the plan the designer came up with, and started making a few small adjustments. we have a few more updates to make, but we're pretty happy. then it's time to write down all the $$ numbers and figure out how we're going to pay for it, since we're not too keen on incurring too much debt. that aspect of the whole thing has me feeling a little nervous, but we're both REALLY excited to have a new kitchen. all these years of planning "well, if it were OUR kitchen..." and "well, when we do our OWN kitchen..." while renting will finally come to fruition! we're still trying to decide on final choices for the counters, floors, and backsplash... and then we're off! my laptop also decided to DIE COMPLETELY late friday afternoon... as in not even trying to come on, no sound, no lights. it worked when i arrived in this office this am, but i'm still having the helpdesk come take a look since i've been having a few problems.

saturday dawned bright and sunny. oliver had some oatmeal with bananas for breakfast, then he and i played for awhile (which consisted mainly of him trying to chew the bejesus out of everything i handed him). bryan woke up right when ollie was settling down for a nap, so i assigned him to baby duty so i could clean the house, thereby regaining a little of my sanity. bryan even took the babe with him to the grocery store to do all our grocery shopping so i could continue cleaning. it took me half the day, but i was finally able to get the house cleaned the way i like, oh happy day! bryan's friend dirk arrived around lunchtime to work on computer stuff, and he and bryan made us roast chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. oliver decided he was NOT in the mood for his last nap of the day, so the 3 of us whisked ourselves off to target to get some shopping done before dinnertime. the day passed too quickly, that is for sure.

sunday, bryan performed in our church's passion drama. good friday got snowed out (that was the 16" snow day, if i recall), but the pastor put a lot of work into the drama, so they moved it to this past sunday. and added scenes. lucky us. it was LONG. oliver's AM schedule worked fine with church, and he would have been ready for his next feeding and nap about 20 minutes after getting home from church - on a normal day. but this drama was LONG so he ended up pretty cranky.

after a much deserved nap (for both oliver and i), bryan hooked the bike trailer up to his bike so we could all go for a spin in the gorgeous weather. i had been looking forward to this weather for this exact purpose! oliver grinned at us from behind the mesh of his seat (not for the picture though, of course!). he seemed VERY excited at this new experience! i think he was also very happy that he was outside, it wasn't chilly, and the wind wasn't blowing in his face (another new experience for him). i was thrilled to be on the bike again, and while the ride wasn't very long (just around the block to the park and around the park once), my butt is currently remembering how a bike seat makes it feel the next day. i look forward to overcoming that pain. oliver seemed to enjoy the ride, at least until the end, when i think the strap was rubbing against his neck, making it a little uncomfortable. he was pretty happy to get home and out of the contraption. we'll have to come up with a solution for that. if he'd just learn to sit up already, that would do it! :) hopefully we can think of something (and he should be sitting up unassisted in the next month or so), so that we can take some long weekend rides together. i want to wear the wheels out on that trailer! actually, not really, as i don't want to have to spend money on new wheels.

oliver and i spent some time sitting on the back deck watching daddy do some yard work. it was at this time that i believe to have diagnosed oliver's current sniffle situation. he's had some congestion and a light, dry cough for a little over 2 weeks now. we saw dr andy week before last, who said it was viral and come see him again if it lasted more than 2 weeks. this weekend, his nose started dripping, his congestion seemed worse (especially at night), and his eyes looked watery and red. when we were sitting outside, his nose went into overtime snot production. allergies! so we have that to contend with. unfortunately, there's nothing the doctor could do to make him feel better, as he's too young for any kind of treatment. and i am not thrilled with the prospect of subjecting oliver to allergy testing (my memories of the same have a nightmareish tinge to them, and i was old enough to understand what was going on), but i think he's too young for that anyways. we have oliver's 6 month wellness visit next week (6 months! already!), so i'll be sure to discuss it with the doc then. in the meantime, we'll continue with the baby vicks, nose drops, humidifier, elevated crib mattress, tylenol at night when he's feeling just terrible, and extra hugs and snuggles.


oliver's new food this week was green beans. he likes them. :)

last night for dinner, we had planned on making a ham, but i was excited by the weather and we decided to smoke it today instead (see the WFD below). so instead, we made a teriyaki glazed pork loin with pineapple "crust", teriyaki onions, grilled baby bok choy, and crispy potatoes. bryan augmented a bottle of teriyaki with soy and mirin. i seared the pork loin in the cast iron, then transferred it to the oven to roast, continually basting with the teriyaki. in the meantime, i let sliced onions marinade in the teriyaki. at the end, i dumped the onions into the pan, pressed crushed pineapple onto the pork, and turned on the broiler. it worked out rather well. it would be much better with fresh pineapple; we had the canned variety, leftovers from a cake i had made. i thinly sliced potatoes, which bryan pan fried and then broiled until a bit crispy. the baby bok choy i simply seared on the cast iron griddle, which still had a trace of butter on it from the grilled cheese bryan made me for lunch. bryan had 2 helpings of everything. :)

check out new pictures and movies in the april 2008 gallery. the new gallery plays the movies much better, fyi.

WFD: the aforementioned ham. as i stated, the weather inspired me to eat outdoor type food, and in the absence of gas for the grill, i thought about the smoker. smoke & spice, our go to bbq book, had a few good recipes for smoking whole hams. since i didn't have any ginger jam, i opted for a more traditional maple bourbon recipe, to which i added some brown sugar. i scored the ham and rubbed in a wet rub, wrapped that sucker up in plastic wrap, and left it to ruminate overnight. bryan's had it going on the smoker since mid day, using some cherry wood i believe. we'll just make some cheater's mac n cheese (orzo+cheddar) and grilled zucchini to go along with it. i've got a few ideas for that leftover ham too... but more on that in good time. :)