sing it loud, sing it proud

just a quick note on how we do st. patrick's day.

homemade corned beef.

soda bread.

smashed fingerling potatoes with butter.

cabbage.


oh, and apple tart.

good food, and family. no better way to spend st. patrick's day.

oops

so, i had lost our camera last weekend. adrianne and shannon were in town, and i had taken some great pictures with them. we had gone to the history museum with mom and adrianne on saturday, and had used it there, but i knew we had the camera when we were home because i took pictures of lunch. but then sunday, we couldn't find it. we had gone out to dinner with mom and adrianne that night, but hadn't brought the camera. it had simply disappeared. we had to figure it had fallen out of my purse somewhere, or oliver had "put it away" at some point. we looked EVERYWHERE (or so we thought). so, not wanting to go too long without a camera, and since we wanted to buy a nicer one at some point this year anyways, we went ahead and ordered this one from fuji. i had wanted a dslr, but bryan did not (he didn't want to mess with lenses), and even though he doesn't actually take any of our pictures, he won. apparently, however, this camera performs just like a dslr, but you cannot change the lens. i am very excited to get the new camera. i was just upset at the cute pictures we lost.

HOWEVER.

guess what i found today? yep, our camera. it was in one of the compartments of the stroller. i forgot that last saturday, after oliver's nap but before going out for dinner, we had gone on a walk. DAMN. since the new camera not only already shipped, but is in this state ready for delivery, we will just now have two cameras.

oops.

so let's get down to business.

wednesday, march 4th: thick cut pork chops, feta wheatberry salad, and whole wheat rolls with salt. mom dropped off some rolls that day, and we thought they would go perfectly with this meal (they did!). i think the feta wheatberry salad will become a favorite summer dish. it was so good, and so easy. bryan and i both love a greek salad of cucumber, red onion, roasted red pepper, parsley, and feta in a red wine vinaigrette, and the simple addition of the wheatberries made it to die for.

thursday, march 5th: pizza and beer, a classic combination. bryan's infamous pizza crust always makes me swoon. schlitz beer has made a comeback, and bryan has decided to switch his everyday beer to that brand. support the home team, and all. it's pretty good. though be sure to get the bottles, not the cans - apparently the bottles is the good, old '60s formula, while the cans is the crappy '80s formula. or something. i don't know about the details of the beer, just the part where it goes well with pizza.

friday, march 6th: pecan crusted catfish with sweet potato hash and tabasco beurre blanc, sweet peas. this had been a dish on this season's top chef, and while we weren't huge fans of the chef that made it (although he did end up winning), the dish itself sounded very attractive to me. it helps that i love hot sauce, i guess. this was fabulous. we almost didn't make the sweet potato hash; i hadn't planned on it, but bryan wanted to make it. and i'm SO glad we did, because it was amazing. of course, it was sweet potatoes fried in bacon fat, how could it not be? we didn't use tabasco brand hot sauce, and we decided not to use bryan's homemade hot sauce either, since it would have been too hot and overpowering (having been made with habaneros). it was scrumptious (and not quite as day-glo orange as it appears in the picture).

sunday, march 8th: roast chicken with pan sauce, homemade french fries, and artichokes with homemade garlic aioli. need i say more? oh, only that i made a compound butter with lemon zest, parsley, and rosemary to stuff liberally under the skin of the chicken. mom and dad joined us for dinner, and there wasn't much left over (the fries were devoured the fastest, i believe). although we are not huge fans of poultry, this meal may be the epitome, to me, of simple, easy, honest, and perfectly delicious home cooking.


monday, march 9th: chicken enchiladas. using bryan's homemade chile paste. one of the dishes that he used to woo me early in our relationship. turns out, it still works.



tuesday, march 10th: shepherd’s-style rigatoni with ricotta and irish country sausage, roasted cauliflower. a very simple dish that everyone loved. keeper!



thursday, march 12th: sweet potato and black bean burritos with brown rice and tomatillo salsa. bryan roasted the sweet potatoes, and we threw everything else together in whole wheat flax seed tortillas, topped with cilantro, and dug in. adrianne was in town and ate dinner with us. not our usual combination, but good enough to become one.


saturday, march 14th: for lunch, i made tomato soup and grilled cheese for us, mom, and adrianne. the soup recipe calls for cream cheese at the end, but since we were having grilled cheese, i skipped it completely. a very delicious lunch. it turns out oliver loves tomato soup!

and now, since we did not have our camera the following week, text only, sadly:

monday, march 16th: chinese lemon chicken with rice, snow peas, and bell pepper. bryan used a crockpot recipe as the idea, but of course used real lemon rather than lemonade concentrate. oliver loves asian food and rice, so this was a hit with him. i love lemons, so it was a hit with me as well.

tuesday, march 17th: beef stew with whole wheat molasses bread. mom, dad, and shannon came over to celebrate st. patrick's day with us. the weather turned out to be in the 70s, so not the best day for stew, but it was delicious anyways, especially with the bread. can you believe i didn't even have a beer, though?

thursday, march 18th: thai tofu butternut squash with asian vegetables and rice noodles. bryan and oliver were over the moon with this one.

friday, march 20th: mascarpone chicken with pasta, and spinach with red pepper and garlic. we again used a crockpot recipe as the inspiration, but did it on the stove and changed a few things. bryan made his homemade cream of mushroom soup to use, and i bought mascarpone instead of cream cheese. bryan seared the chicken breasts, simmered them in the soup, and added the mascarpone. simple as that. when i told oliver there was cheese (mascarpone), he got very excited for dinner, and kept saying "cheese! cheese!" until we put him in his chair and gave him some.

saturday, march 21st: bbq buffalo with cornbread. bryan had wanted me to make something with buffalo, and include my cornbread. i decided to go bbq style, and browned the meat along with onion, then added diced yellow squash, diced sweet potatoes, and green beans, and mixed in some annie's bbq sauce. topped with the cornbread batter, and baked. this took literally no time to put together, and was very good.

and what else?

oliver had a bit of a woopsie last week monday. when i picked him up from day care, they had just gotten back from their walk. we took him out of his stroller and let him walk up the driveway with everyone while rachel and i chatted. i carried him over a puddle, and when i set him down, he either tripped over his own feet or thought i was still holding on, and went forehead first into the driveway. ouch. he got a pretty nasty scratch on his forehead, but was over it pretty quickly. i was just glad it wasn't his nose or mouth.


last week thursday, adrianne showed up to spend some of her spring break with us. as i mentioned, she joined us for dinner that evening, and oliver had quite a fun time showing off for her.






last week friday, shannon came to spend her spring break here as well. i had a party after work, which i stopped into for a short time before heading over to mom and dad's house so we could all have dinner together. they grilled chicken, ribs, salmon, and asparagus. oliver very much enjoyed having multiple grilled meats at his disposal.





the next morning, we headed down to the museum with mom and adrianne. i think oliver's favorite part is the butterfly room. he recently picked up the word butterfly ("buy"), so it was pretty fun watching him run around yelling "buy! buy! buy!" although, the butterflies are a little too inured to the presence of humans, which is unfortunate around a 16 month old. we had to do a lot of very active policing of him and his fingers!



we had a blast running all around the museum all morning. i think mom and adrianne wanted to actually look at exhibits, which is hard to do with an active 16 month old in tow. still, we all had fun.









after the museum, we all headed back to our house for lunch and then a nap. after nap time, we went on that walk (whereby the camera was "lost"). the weather was so beautiful, we couldn't resist walking through the park. after a quick run through target (i swear, we can't stop moving), we headed off to margarita paradise to meet mom and adrianne for mexican food (and margaritas - though i ended up having a mojito).


this past week, shannon offered to babysit for us, so we jumped on the chance and met my cousin jamie for pizza at wells brothers. we had read about the place as being one of the top 10 pizza places in the world, and in talking to people who had gone, knew we just had to go. so we left oliver with shannon, hopped in the car, and took a 50 minute drive - for pizza. about halfway there, bryan asked where the heck we were going? haha. :) but - it was worth it. the pizza was outstanding. super thin crust, which i'm not normally a fan of, but this was soft and delicious, and the edges were caramelized. we sat at the bar, and the bartender was very friendly and knowledgeable about the history of the place (opened 1921, making pizza using the same recipe since the 1940s), AND he was able to deal with bryan's silly questions. so, although it was a long drive, we'll be sure to go back. we had a lot of fun hanging out with my cousin, eating after 5pm, and being out after dark (though we were still home around 9:30). i had a few beers to make up for missing out on st. patrick's day.

our weekend is shaping up nicely. bryan wanted to check out some garden statues, so after oliver's morning nap (necessitated by a 5:45am wake up, grr) we headed out to waukesha to check out a place i had found in the yellow pages. um, turns out they just had headstones. oops. so we grabbed some coffee/tea instead, and went to visit our friends maggie and enrique. it had been forever since we had seen them, so it was really nice getting to visit. they are dog-sitting for a friend's miniature cocka-poo, and oliver got a total kick out of seeing a tiny dog! we stopped at culver's for lunch, checked out the new menards (a local hardware store) - 2 stories, including a ridable cart escalator, similar to the one at ikea, which had oliver so excited (he kept calling it a "choo choo"). then home for a nap (for everyone). after nap time, we headed out to get bryan and oliver hair cuts. oliver usually does very well, but started to freak out a little when she sprayed water on his head (he, like his father, has a very weird fear of water in his face - although he will dunk his face in water) SO he ended up getting a sucker so he would sit still. his first taste of candy, and he was not disappointed. back home for dinner, and then a walk through the park (and finding the camera). gorgeous weather, fun, fun day.

tomorrow morning, we're meeting mom, dad, and shannon for breakfast. then, oliver and bryan will spend the day together while i get the day to myself. i plan on hitting up macy's, going to the library, and just generally hoping both my boys are alive when i get home in the evening.

check out more pictures in the march gallery.

hopefully monday i'll have a new post with pictures using the new camera!

fat and happy

our st. patrick's day dinner was a big success. the corned beef turned out deliciously. perfectly salted and pink. we've decided we should no longer wait until st. patrick's day to have some on hand; it is, after all, so very easy to make. after it boiled for about 2 hours, i put it in the oven for 40 minutes or so, fat side up. the fat rendered and ran all down over the meat, resulting in a delicious roast. bryan smashed up red potatoes with butter and cream, and sauteed the cabbage; mom's soda bread was delish (i polished off the last of the loaf with butter and tea for breakfast this morning). we were far too stuffed to even contemplate dessert.

no cute oliver pics, unfortunately, as he hadn't napped much during the day and was in bed by 6. he got up at 7:30 for his big feeding, then was on a 4 hour schedule after that. what a good baby.

i am counting the minutes until lunch, when i get to sink my teeth into the homemade pastrami sandwich i made this morning.

WFD: flat iron steak with mushrooms and red wine sauce, yellow squash, salt and pepper potato rounds. god i love my life.

beannachtaí na féile pádraig oraibh!

happy st. patrick's day everyone! oliver's middle name patron saint (in honor of my uncle patrick). hope you have plans to celebrate well tonight. mom and dad are coming over for some homemade corned beef, sauteed cabbage, buttered red potatoes, guinness, and mom's soda bread. i have been dreaming of that corned beef.

our weekend was busy and exhausting, but we got everything accomplished that we set out to do.

friday after work, i went and picked up shannon from her friend's house, who came into town for a surprise weekend visit. we arrived at mom and dad's just as they were leaving the house for a movie, and they were totally shocked. mission accomplished! :) needless to say, they happily canceled their movie plans.

bryan spent friday evening tending to the smoker. i brined 2 briskets in preparation for st patty's day: one for corned beef, and the other for pastrami (which is what happens when you brine and smoke a brisket). the homemade pastrami is unequaled. i was never a pastrami fan until i had our homemade version. now i am a die hard fan. i dream of thick slices of smokey pastrami nestling up to some sharp cheddar cheese.

we also put our new oliver nighttime routine and rules into effect friday night. we've done lots of reading and talking to people, and the thing that always strikes me about parenting in general, is that you can read everything you want, and it may all seem like common sense, but when you have a crying baby, putting into practice what you thought you learned isn't quite as easy (and suddenly much of it seems contradictory). :) one of the main things we gleaned from our reading last week was that at his age, he needs 11.5 - 12 hours of downtime at night. since we get him up at 6:30 every morning during the week for day care, that would mean he should be in bed by 7pm at the latest. we had been getting him down at 8pm. so by moving his bedtime up an hour, we helped to ensure that he was getting to bed before he started to get over tired. that seemed to help A LOT. also, someone i went to high school with is getting her doctoral in child development specializing in regulation and infant crying, so she has been giving me some GREAT advice/tips/knowledge on the subject. it was so good to hear that he won't put up a stink for no reason, and that while it may be hard to tell the difference at 2am, the baby knows if he's crying just to fuss or if he's hungry - it's his only way of communicating, after all. bryan and i did better tracking our actions at night, and communicating. we observed each other's methods so we could come together a bit more on that too. for the most part, he was on a solid 4 hour schedule. he did have a fit of gas on saturday night; but we worked through it and i found that having him upright relieved some pressure some where and he was able to settle down to sleep. sunday morning, he even sat alone in his crib and babbled away happily to himself for a good 30 minutes. all in all, he did very good with his eating schedule and much better on the sleeping front as well. i think we're making progress. :)

saturday morning, we left ollie with mom and shannon for awhile while we drove to kenosha to go mattress shopping at a furniture outlet. we picked a king size simmons set, which is HUGE compared to our old queen. we did get an extra firm, and after sleeping on it for the first time last night, bryan isn't so sure he loves it as much as he thought he did (i was so tired i barely noticed). we do have 30 days to exchange it if we so desire, so we'll give it a week. either way, it is nice to lay on the bed and not roll towards a dip in the middle. ;) after we made that purchase, we zipped through the prime outlets so i could exchange some pants for oliver, and buy myself some pants that fit, then hurried to get oliver and head downtown to pick a csa.

slow food wisconsin hosted a csa open house at the urban ecology center. multiple farms from around the state set up tables to give information. we reviewed materials from all of them, and spoke to many of the farmers, and in the end chose JenEhr Family Farm. their biggest draw is that their pick up spot is at the west allis farmer's market, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house. some of the other farms didn't have any spots in town, which just doesn't work for us. they were one of the few certified organic farms present, which was a big plus in our eyes. the farmer we spoke with as well was very personable, and we got a great vibe. their materials were well presented. they also offer members the ability to come and pick their own strawberries and tomatoes during the appropriate seasons, which will be a lot of fun. we bought half a share, so will be receiving a full bushel every other week. we are SO excited for the season to start, in june. i can't wait to see what we get with each pick up, and hopefully to develop a relationship with the farm.

we had so far managed to make it through the day without disrupting oliver's eating/napping schedule, and he did us the favor of conking out almost immediately in the car, and even continuing to sleep as we stopped at the first grocery store to begin our food shopping. he awoke at the next store, still feeling rested and not yet hungry, so we zipped through and headed on home so as not to break the schedule. we made it home in time to have some play time and cereal eating time, right on schedule.

mom, dad, and shannon brought over some singha thai take out for dinner. this is easily our favorite thai place, hands down, and is the perfect place to fall back on when we don't know where to go. i have said it before and can't say it enough: BEST SPRING ROLLS EVER. their menu is expansive, and while the pad thai is my usual favorite, i ordered the spicy catfish. mom had gotten it last time we were there, and it was outstanding. it is my new favorite. the catfish is battered and fried, and served in a mildly spicy red chili sauce with green beans. i am not a big fan of catfish, but whatever they do to this fish works - it's seriously addicting. i had a hard time not eating all of it so i could have some leftovers for lunch today. :) shannon had cashew chicken, which was very flavorful and packed with giant, perfectly toasted cashews. bryan had some very spicy green curry pork, and dad had some yellow curry chicken. mom had some peanut beef, which was spicy as well, and had a slightly vietnamese taste to it. we had some italian double chocolate gelatto and red raspberry sorbet for dessert. i had seem them at the grocery and said, gee wouldn't they go well together? turns out i was right.

katie texted us to see if the tornado had hit hannah's area; we had NO idea what she was talking about, having been on the go since 6:30 that morning, and were shocked to learn of the tornado that ripped through downtown atlanta friday night. we immediately thought of our friend chris, who lives but a few miles outside of downtown. we saw sunday morning that the tornado went straight through his neighborhood and destroyed many homes and buildings. when we got in touch with him sunday afternoon, we were relieved to learn that he was all right, and that while a tree fell on his house, it appears to have caused minimal damage. his yard is a disaster, though.

sunday, we couldn't quite get our schedule in line with the baby's, but in the interest of our sanity we favored his and eventually got it together. we attended palm sunday church, which is always an interesting one to me; the service starts out on a joyous note with the palms, but the passion gospel is always so depressing (and LONG). i was surprised to see that most of the music was organ heavy; we didn't do much joyous celebrating, and i was rather relieved that the passion gospel was a simple reading, and not the 40 minute drama i remember from my youth. all in all it was pretty disappointing, but since we're not all that big on organized religion to start with, we can't be too surprised. :) next year, i think i'll take bryan to mom's church so he can see the palm walk, which is a pretty neat procession, and we'll just slip out before they get to the gospel and all that heavy stuff. i guess we're just in it for the entertainment. ;)

after church, we both had lunch on our minds, so we zipped home to bake the strata i had prepared the night before. i layered potato chive bread, usinger's beef ring bologna, and mozzarella cheese, drowned it in an egg custard, left it overnight, and baked. it turned out pretty tasty, and there wasn't much left over. i packaged up the leftovers for mom, as she doesn't get a chance to eat ring bologna, but loves it. i ran out to do some quick target shopping (we were in the danger zone with the diaper supply), and once oliver woke up from his next nap (right on schedule; what can i say, he's a great baby), he and i got all packed up and headed out to spend some time with shannon before she left. his next expected nap time coincided with her departure time, and when his eyes began to droop, i got him in the car and lulled to sleep; made a quick stop at home to drop him off then headed back out to buy some new pjs and onesies for oliver (he keeps growing), and sheets for the new bed, as we didn't have any king size ones. oh darn, i have to buy all new bed linens. :)

the bed arrived last night, and the delivery guys were nice enough to keep it down so the baby didn't wake up. the bed looks great in the space; it fits the room much better than the queen did. bryan is going to build me a headboard to upholster, since we don't plan on buying new bedroom furniture until sometime next year. so that will be a fun project for the both of us.

we made mushroom swiss burgers for dinner last night and ohhhhhhhhhhh yum. bryan cooked the mushrooms in butter, and finished them with sherry (one of my favorite flavors). i picked up some emmenthaler; i wanted something a little more biting than your generic deli swiss, since i like that depth of flavor better. no mustard, no mayo, no lettuce, no tomato, just some seriously caramelized onions: we really wanted the sherry and cheese to shine through, and they did. it was the perfect end to the day. we watched eddie izzard's sexie, which was amusing as always ("Um er, so the breast thing, so as a transvestite it’s my job, right eh, just wearing breasts..."). GAH i can't wait to see him live. :)

i woke up around 3am feeling incredibly sick all of a sudden, but whatever it was seems to have passed through. i must have caught a stomach bug on one of our 77 errands over the weekend. tis the season. luckily, it seems to have passed by bryan and the baby. i debated staying home to catch up on sleep but then i may just want more. so i had a cherry coke for breakfast instead. :)

i hope everyone enjoys their st patrick's day. and remember while celebrating tonight:
"cha deoch-slàint, i gun a tràghadh!"
"it’s no health if the glass is not emptied!"