Agretti

the farm began growing Agretti, a rather unique green, and we have taken quite a shine to it.

from Wikipedia:

Salsola soda, more commonly known in English as Opposite Leaved Saltwort, Oppositeleaf Russian Thistle, or Barilla Plant, is a small (to 0.7 m tall), annual, succulent shrub that is native to the Mediterranean Basin.^[1] It is a halophyte (a salt-tolerant plant) that typically grows in coastal regions and can be irrigated with salt water.


The plant has great historical importance as a source of soda ash, which was extracted from the ashes of Salsola soda and other saltwort plants.^[2] Soda ash is one of the alkali substances that are crucial in glassmaking and soapmaking. The famed clarity of 16th century cristallo glass from Murano and Venice depended upon the purity of "Levantine soda ash,"^[3] and the nature of this ingredient was kept secret. Spain had an enormous 18th century industry that produced soda ash from the saltworts (barrilla in Spanish).^[4] Soda ash is now known to be predominantly sodium carbonate. In 1807, Sir Humphry Davy isolated a metallic element from caustic soda; he named the new element "sodium" to indicate its relationship to "soda." Before soda was synonymous (in U.S. English) with soft drinks, the word referred to Salsola soda and other saltwort plants, and to "sodas" derived from soda ash.

While the era of farming for soda ash is long past, Salsola soda is still cultivated as a vegetable that enjoys considerable popularity in Italy and with gourmets around the world. Its common names in Italian include Barba di Frate, Agretti, and Liscari sativa. Of its culinary value, Frances Mayes has written that "Spinach is the closest taste, but while agretti has the mineral sharpness of spinach, it tastes livelier, full of the energy of spring."^[5]

oh, i know, it's all quite fascinating (well, it is to me at least). which brave soul decided this could be eaten we'll never know, but i'm glad they did. much more tender and mild than your typical green, the plant has an almost pasta like quality to it. to me, once cooked it tastes very much like pasta tossed with olive oil and salt. to say it's become a favorite in our house would be an understatement. even oliver loves this new "green spaghetti."

while at the market, bryan learned of a new way to serve it: sauteed with hot peppers and italian sausage. the idea was so tempting we decided to try it out post haste.

unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), my late night trip to the outpost yielded no sausage, since the meat counter was closed. but this did provide me the incentive to make my own sausage, which i've done in the past. i hauled out 4 or 5 pounds of ground pork (from our pig), and doused the meat liberally with red wine. i added fennel seeds and various herbs (thyme, marjoram, rosemary, plenty of oregano), along with some garlic, salt, and pepper. and then i added some more wine, for good measure. i let this cure in the fridge for 24 hours before using it (should have been longer, but providence being what it was, we needed to use it). i made small meatballs since i don't have sausage casings.

i sauteed sliced onions, garlic, and sweet peppers in olive oil. the original recipe idea calls for hot peppers, but since we had little mouths dining with us, i decided to use sweet in the main recipe with some hot on the side for bryan and me (i fire roasted a few jalapenos, skinned them, and chopped them up for us). i tossed in the agretti, covered it for a few minutes, then uncovered to let the water cook off and the agretti saute.

i followed Lidia Bastianich's recipe for polenta (since i can never remember the ratios on my own), and just added some grated parm once on our plates.

the resulting dish was delicious, and other than some polenta, no leftovers remain.


if you get a chance to get your hands on some agretti, i highly recommend it!

some more information on and recipes for agretti can be found here.

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!

summer eats

well folks, i hope you have a pot of coffee and got lots of sleep last night, because we have more than a few things to catch up on. i hardly have the time and energy in the same moment to update here, and then the longer i wait the more i have to write, which just discourages me more, and . . . well, you can see where this is going. it's a vicious cycle. i've decided to just post the food things; everything else will come in a separate post. hang in there, though - it's still a good deal. and keep refilling that coffee.

june

thursday, june 4th: puffy tacos with beef brisket and avocado.
i had stumbled across a recipe in saveur for puffy tacos, and a martha stewart recipe for beef brisket, and we had an avocado waiting to be used, and so this meal was born. we didn't really follow the puffy taco recipe - we utilized the idea for the puffy shells. bryan made their fresh corn tortilla dough, and fried puffy taco shells. we seasoned and roasted the beef brisket, and we filled in taco fillings from there - lettuce, tomato, green onions, jack cheese, pickled red onions, pickled jalapenos, sour cream. oh. my. god. best tacos EVER - hands down. unfortunately for him, i never want to go back to anything store bought - this is it, my friends.

friday, june 5th: pork cutlets with spaghetti collins and glazed carrots.
another saveur inspiration. i thought the spaghetti sounded good - like a slightly upscale diner dish. and so breaded pork cutlets seemed like the perfect thing to serve along with it.

sunday, june 7th: fondue.
while we were dating, bryan took me to dante's down the hatch, a fondue restaurant in atlanta. we had so
much fun, we visited there a few more times, and bought our own fondue set. we hadn't used it in a few years, so we dragged it out and had mom and dad over for fondue. we did a fairly standard cheese fondue, with cheddar and gruyere. for the meat, we did an au vin style. we had bread, broccoli, mushrooms, chicken, pork, and steak, along with 4 dipping sauces (teryaki, horseradish, mustard, and bbq). a good time was had by all.

monday, june 8th: herbed hamburgers with arugula, sweet potato fries, and salad with champagne vinaigrette, sunflower seeds, and sprouts.
since these were upscale burgers, we went for french bread instead of rolls. i wish the hamburgers were a little more herby, but hey, you live and you learn.

tuesday, june 9th: panko crusted fish sticks with herb dipping sauce and veggie pasta salad.
this was a pretty big hit with everyone. and it involved a martha recipe, which always pleases bryan. the pasta salad we made up on the spot: asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, a little parm.

wednesday, june 10th: summer squash sloppy joes on sprouted wheat buns, and cheddar herb potato chips.
a little different take on sloppy joes, with built in veg. also, a perfect excuse to have chips with dinner (something oliver is down with, for sure).

thursday, june 11th: pork chops with cilantro rice, plantains, and mango.
a little nod to cuba, and a delicious one, indeed. i love plantains. it always feels like you're eating dessert for dinner.

friday, june 12th: big fat rib eyes with corn, salad, and three philosophers beer.
our wonderful butcher at the outpost either loves us dearly, or can clearly see the targets on our foreheads, because he's always quick to point out something so delicious we can't pass it up. that weekend, it was incredibly thick rib eye steaks (or as i like to call them, further proof vegetarians are nuts). we decided they would be lonely without a nice beer, and that they needed little else other than some simple sides. we were right again.

sunday, june 14th: banana muffins with brown sugar crumble, and bacon.
we started the day off right. we had a couple of overripe bananas, so i made muffins for breakfast. and bacon, of course. the day continued to get better, of course.
for lunch, i made one of our favorites - bean tostadas. this is a quick and oh so satisfying lunch favorite of ours. i fry corn tortillas for the tostadas. i make refried beans by cooking pintos with spices (garlic, pepper, cumin), and smashing them onto the tortillas. i drizzle a generous amount of hot sauce on top of the beans. you can add taco toppings (lettuce, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese), but our favorite is just raw onion, and perhaps a little sour cream to help offset the hot sauce. we went a little luxe here with some cheese.
for dinner, we had savory onion shortcake biscuits with smoked pork and red onion jam, and sweet potato hash. the idea for this meal started with the biscuits - i liked the idea of the savory biscuit, and thought they would pair nicely with smoked pork (very few things don't). i decided it needed something to tie it together - and hence the onion jam.

monday, june 15th: mini meatloaf with sour cream and parmesan mashed potatoes, and broccoli.
i got the idea for the potatoes from my friend danielle, whose awesome husband mike makes these potatoes. they were good. bryan made mini meatloaves in muffin tins, making meatloaf a quick weeknight meal. and would you believe broccoli is one of oliver's favorite vegetables?


saturday, june 20th: grilled chicken and lemon with garden salad and corn bread.
simple summer meal. the salad was courtesy of our csa - sweet peas, cucumbers, radishes, and green onions bolstered the lettuce nicely. for dessert, strawberry (from our csa) / rhubarb (from our garden) shortcakes. even oliver got some dessert.


sunday, june 21st: grilled steaks with charro beans and spinach salad with hot bacon dressing.
our father's day meal for dad and bryan. bryan actually did most of the cooking here, which i think is ok on father's day when the meal is grilled steaks. we all stuffed ourselves silly, but still managed to find room for some gluten free lemon cake mom made, with chocolate ice cream.


monday, june 22nd: mix grill stir fry over baby lettuce.


tuesday, june 23rd: smoked salmon croque monsieur with caesar salad.
eric ripert, oh, eric ripert - how i love thee. bryan saw him on a tv show, demonstrating how to make this dish of his (which is on his menu), and requested it be on our menu. we did forget to pick up the caviar, so we forewent that, but i did make homemade lemon confit (one of my new favorite things, by the way), so i think that counts for something. paired with a simple and classic caesar salad, this was a deceptively lush meal.

friday, june 26th: pizza hand pies and sweet peas.
i had found this recipe for fried neopolitan pizzas, which i interpreted into hand pies, or mini calzones, which we baked, not fried. i started with sauce and cheese, then made multiple variations on the filling with olives, onions, pepperoni, and sausage. oliver enjoyed having his own little mini pizza.

saturday, june 26th: pesto lasagna with garlic bread and salad.
shannon was in town, and had us over to mom and dad's for dinner. i requested lasagna, as i had been thinking of it for days. we gave her some of our pesto, made with basil from our garden, which she used to make the impossibly rich, utterly delicious lasagna.

monday, june 29th: greens calzone.
loosely based on a favorite recipe for beet green calzone, we used various greens from our own garden.



tuesday, june 30th: roast vegetable napoleons.
delicate, rich, filling - i love this meal. bryan roasted various vegetables from our csa and co-op - carrots, onions, zucchini, eggplant, and topped with a bit of cream and parmesan.

july

wednesday, july 1st: flatbread pizza with fresh mozzarella, feta, sausage, caramelized onions, tomatoes, and lemon confit.
the idea for this was backtracked from the lemon confit. i wanted to find another use for it, since i do love lemons so, and wondering if i could work it into a pizza. sausage and feta immediately came to mind, and i decided on caramelized onions to offset the tartness of the lemons, and the fresh mozz to add some mellowness to all the strong flavors. i rubbed the flatbread with olive oil and diced garlic, and tossed fresh oregano from the garden on as well. everyone loved it.

friday, july 3rd: grilled pork chops, corn, and pasta salad with sweet peas, garlic scapes, and feta.


sunday, july 5th:
hannah and bryan made multiple trips out to jenehr farms, who we get our csa from, for strawbery upick. this meant i had a LOT of strawberries. i made some loose strawberry preserves, and canned them so we have preserves and sauce all winter. bryan loves preserves with his yogurt each morning, so i guess it's a good thing we have lots. we did use some immediately on pancakes.

thursday, july 9th: liver and onions, tater tots, and sweet peas.
cue the horror movie music. bryan has always loved liver and onions, but since it wasn't something my palate found agreeable, he only made it when i wasn't home for dinner (which is not often). so he decided hannah, oliver, and i finally had to be subjected to it. it wasn't nearly as bad as i had expected - far less liver-y than i had imagined (presumably the 24 hour soak in milk helped). it did, however, taste a lot like iron. i'm not sure we'll be making it again soon, but it's definitely not off the list forever.

friday, july 10th: hamburgers with watermelon pickles and campfire baked beans.
our camping dinner! i made the watermelon pickles, and since we figured pepper jelly is great on burgers, why not watermelon pickles? there's no reason why not - it's delicious. the pickles were a mega hit with oliver, who proceeded to polish off the jar. the pot of beans fell into the fire, but we managed to salvage some.

saturday, july 11th: cheddar & jalapeno brats with grilled potatoes and green bean & scallion salad.

monday, july 13th: penne rigate with lacinato kale, sausage, cheddar, and mozzarella, topped with parmesan breadcrumbs (a.k.a., macaroni pie).
a few years back, when i asked hannah what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she requested macaroni pie. she had never had macaroni pie before, and didn't know what should go in the macaroni pie, and knew it was slightly different than macaroni and cheese, and that's about all i had to go on. taking a slight inspiration from the movie big night, i made a kid friendly timpano
of sorts: a deep dish, baked macaroni, with salami and lots of cheese. she loved it, and from then on, it's always a request from her. i don't think i've ever made it the same twice, but i've never heard any complaints. this one was made with kale from our garden. you have never seen two kids scarfing up kale as willingly and happily as oliver and hannah that night. for dessert, we had ice cream topped with a homemade bing cherry sauce i made.

thursday, july 16th: pecan crusted catfish with tabasco buerre blanc, sweet potato hash, and green beans.
we made this for cat and the kids while they were in town, and i think it made cat want to move in. this is a total favorite of ours. the season 5 winner of top chef made it, and as soon as i saw it on tv, i knew i wanted it in my belly (as usually is the case for meals where i can employ bryan's homemade hot sauce). if you want the recipe, you'll have to email me, because it's no longer on the website. and believe me, you want this recipe.

monday, july 20th: cheese stuffed potatoes with yogurt spice paste and sesame crust, tilapia with honey-curry glaze, and kholrabi.
dirk joined us for dinner before he and bryan headed out to a sonic youth show. everything was just really, really good. the potatoes were so flavorful, and a little spicy - but so good hannah and oliver didn't mind the spice at all. the fish was joined by onions and peppers, and the kohlrabi was simply blanched, a nice and simple counterpoint to the other flavors in the meal. oliver couldn't get enough of the kohlrabi. i am looking forward to making these potatoes again.

tuesday, july 21st: braised chicken with paprika onions, couscous, and date relish; paired simply with green beans.
i have never liked dates, but i loved this. this meal was definitely in the top 5 of all time. and, as so many braised dishes are, this was even better a few days later for leftovers - the flavors really sang, and bryan and i were both raving about it again. this will definitely become a cool weather staple in our house. as soon as the weather cools down wherever you are, go, buy these ingredients. make this.

wednesday, july 22nd: farfalle with garlic scape pesto.
bryan used some of the garlic scapes from our csa to make a pesto. pestos of all kinds are a perfect weeknight meal for us - quick and easy. toss with pasta, add cheese and frozen peas, and you're good to go.


friday, july 24th: guava glazed ribs, jicama and red cabbage slaw, cornbread, corn, and fruit salad.
bryan's 40th birthday luau dinner. i worked for most of the day, so bryan ended having to cook most of the meal (good planning on my part, hey?). hannah made a pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. there wasn't much food leftover.

monday, july 27th: the schlow burger, with salad.
epicurious.com featured a burger article, and this burger stood out to me (and hannah and bryan, looking on over my shoulder). the article described it as "crowned with melted Cheddar, slathered with horseradish sauce, and piled high with crispy fried onions." cue the saliva. after a little bit of digging to find out a little bit more about the restaurant that makes the burger (boston's radius), i found the actual recipe. definitely one of the best burgers i've ever had. ever. i am getting hungry just thinking about it. you want this for dinner. tonight. go. i'm serious.

tuesday, july 28th: summer squash and greens casserole with provolone.
this was devised out of necessity - summer squash from the csa, zucchini and greens from the garden. i layered roasted slices of the squashes on the bottom of a casserole, topped with crumbled sausage, then with creamed greens, sliced provolone, and bread crumbs. a very comforting meal using delicious, fresh summer vegetables.

wednesday, july 29th: coconut curry braised pork ribs with zucchini, green peppers, and kohlrabi over brown rice.


friday, july 31st: roast chicken and mango salad with yogurt.
we happened to have everything for this recipe (except nigella seeds, which oddly enough we saw at the spice house the next day, so we used cumin seeds instead), and added a purple bell pepper from our garden. this was so, so good. a new favorite salad. (and i know i say that all. the. time. but i swear i mean it.)

august

sunday, august 2nd: long johns with maple glaze and bacon. right. on. top.
my uncle tom had told us about this at bryan's birthday dinner, and obviously we were intrigued. so of course, i had to make them from scratch. obviously they were delicious (i mean, they're homemade doughnuts, after all). i made quite a large batch so we could share some with mom and freeze some for a rainy day. or tomorrow, as the case may be.
dinner that night was nothing special (roast chicken with homemade fries), but for dessert i made snickers fudge, essentially homemade snickers bars. i did make my own marshmallow creme, but i also cheated and bought caramels. i also used semi sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, since mixing the chocolate with butterscotch chips and peanut butter makes it that much sweeter (and i think milk chocolate is too sweet to begin with), and next time i'd probably use bittersweet, but even still - big fat hit, this one.

monday, august 3rd: pimiento cheeseburgers and roast beets.
ok, so perhaps we like cheeseburgers a lot. and before you scoff at the thought of pimiento cheese, i implore you to make your own. i promise it will be good. (the leftovers make good grilled cheese, too, fyi.)

there are a few other meals we had which i can't find the pictures for. i guess that's what happens when i take a million pictures and wait two months to do anything with them. they included:

hot dogs with dal and red-onion raita, sweet potato fries, grilled veg, and coconut-lime bars with hazelnut shortbread crust.

sticky balsamic ribs.

WHEW. well, if you made it through that, you deserve a prize of some kind. but i'm too tired to give you one.

in like a lion . . .

moroccan vegetable stew with couscous: i don't recall which date we had this one, and since we had the date/time set incorrectly on the camera, i can't tell by the picture. tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, zucchini, celery, lima beans, and potatoes in a broth. the recipe calls for the stew to be served over couscous; we used an israeli couscous, orzo, and split pea blend. we also served it which chicken, since bryan needs his protein.



croque monsieurs with french fries. another one i don't have the date for. this was a quick, off the cuff meal - and everyone loved it.



saturday, march 28th: pan fried sole with lemon, pasta, caesar salad. this was so, so good. the fish was so delicate, so tender, so delicious with all the lemon (which is easily one of my favorite foods).

sunday, march 29th: pepperoni calzones. this was my clever way to have bryan essentially make me his kick ass pizza, without asking for pizza yet again. bryan made a giant calzone for us to split (and have plenty over for lunches). we, of course, did the right thing and ate the calzone with beer. oliver got his own personal size cheese pizza, since he's not too big on the pepperoni. i cut the pizza into slices, which he then happily devoured. the boy can be such a good eater!

monday, march 30th: chili nachos. when we had chili a few weeks ago, we froze the leftovers in anticipation of NACHOS. we loaded chips with the chili, pinto beans, diced tomato, green onion, and cheese, finished with sour cream, and put a hurtin' on the pile. they were decidedly good. we gave oliver the same, minus the chili. he was a huge fan of the sour cream, happily dipping his chips into the sour cream. needless to say, we all stuffed ourselves.

tuesday, march 31st: sweet and sour pork with sweet peas, green pepper, pineapple, and rice. oliver couldn't get enough rice, as usual. this really hit the spot.


thursday, april 2nd: cordon bleu brats (i.e., containing ham and swiss cheese) from rupenas, with grilled onions, on pretzel rolls, sauteed peas and carrots, and tater tots. oliver couldn't stuff enough tater tots into his mouth, which was both amusing and slightly dangerous. luckily, he didn't choke - every time he opened his mouth to add another, one would fall out and make room.



friday, april 3rd: roast chicken, spaghetti squash, and roast sweet potatoes with bacon.



saturday, april 4th: we used the leftover roast chicken from the night before to make a southwestern style caesar salad for lunch, by adding one of bryan's (homemade) chipotles en adobo to his (homemade) caesar dressing, along with, of course, his (homemade) croutons.

for dinner, we had our neighbors bill & eileen over. i made a garlic and herb stuffed roast pork, potato pancakes, marmalade glazed carrots, and rye bread. for dessert, we had black & white brownies. everyone was very pleased, and very, very full.

sunday, april 5th: i took on a very big project, and decided to cook an authentic indian meal. a friend from work, amulya, loves to cook, so we trade tips. she sent me a great website with indian recipes, so i planned to attempt baby brinjals in masala sauce. amulya brought me the ingredients i didn't have: chana dal, urad dal, and curry leaves. she also brought me some bay leaves as big as my hand, from india. i toasted and ground the initial mixture, which i think was supposed to come out as a powder, but became a paste for me. i was having problems grinding it in the food processor, and ended up needing to add extra tamarind concentrate and water. i also added chicken thighs and legs, to make it a full meal. i seared the chicken and added onions before adding the eggplant and proceeding with the recipe. i wasn't able to find the baby or thai eggplant i was hoping to, so i used some smaller eggplant instead, which i cubed. i was a little disappointed that the curry tasted like yellow curry; i was expecting something different. however, it was still very interesting to see how to make that curry totally from scratch, and definitely made me appreciate the flavors even more - and the flavor was good, very good. everyone loved it, even oliver! i served the curry with fragrant rice, which i made by sauteeing the rice in peanut oil along with ginger garlic paste (simply grated ginger, garlic, a pinch of tumeric, and an even smaller pinch of salt), a cinnamon stick, corriander seeds, curry leaves, saffron, and mustard seeds. i placed the entire mixture into the rice cooker, and cooked as normal. the rice was absolutely fantastic this way. i think the rice was everyone's favorite part of the meal. bryan and i generally aren't huge on rice, but i think fragrant rice will become a staple in our repertoire. we also had some afghani flatbread with sesame seeds that was outstanding - soft and pillowly, it was the perfect thing to wipe every last bit of sauce off the plate. overall, a very good meal (even though i'm not sure i did it quite right!); definitely worth the effort.

monday, april 6th: pasta with sausage, mushrooms, and cognac, with spinach. by adding spinach at the end, we made this a one pot meal, and a very delicious one at that. so tasty, oliver even ate his spinach without any complaints.

WFD tomorrow: aunt mo & uncle tom are coming over so bryan can help them determine which new tvs to buy, and they're bringing pizza. holla!

and the other things...

we've been up to the normal recently - working, running errands, trying to relax and failing miserably. oliver actually had some tummy troubles week before last, so we had a long 4 day weekend wherein we pretty much stayed home, and bryan and i agreed that even with the tummy issues, it was a GREAT weekend, doing nothing. we'll have to try that again sometime.

oliver has been doing well lately, getting bigger and bigger, learning more and more - perfecting his temper tantrums, talking, and climbing, mostly. the boy has NO FEAR.
















even though it's been a little chilly, we set up oliver's new (to us) climbing cube/slide toy. he loves it - he can get himself up on the ledge and down the slide by himself, and has begun to figure out how to climb all over it (much to his mother's dismay).








the boy loves to be outside. since the weather has been relatively mild, we try to play outside every evening before or after dinner. the cold never quite seems to bother him. he loves using his slide, playing basketball, dragging around bryan's rake, and generally running around the yard. he's actually started counting to 3, i think just in repetition of us throwing the basketball at the hoop on the count of 3. still, it's pretty cute.














it snowed here, again, saturday before last. we took oliver out in the snow for a little while, though he still wasn't sure what to do with it, and wasn't a big fan. he enjoyed holding a snowball - until he tried to eat it. then it wasn't as fun. they've actually been predicting more snow, but we have yet to see any (thank goodness). seriously, WHEN is spring going to arrive?


i also got him a rocking horse recently, a fancy model that looks like a stuffed horse (and which will make noise, and move it's tail and head, if we ever decide to put batteries in it). i had stopped to check out a local consignment shop, and when i found it, i just knew oliver had to have it. it's pretty adorable, my little cowboy and his horse!






(he's actually a well traveled cowboy - he takes safaris too!)


a few other random playtime pics:










ahhh, my adorable little munchkin. the kid can be crazy (apparently the insane crazy tantrums start at 18 months - not to mention he has inexplicably become literally terrified of baths overnight), but what a sweet, cute little boy - usually.

of course, there are more pictures in the gallery. apparently, i've already taken over 400 pictures with the new camera. what can i say, my child is cute!