last week monday, we pulled out a jar of homemade escabeche from the cupboard to try for dinner. and what goes better with escabeche than tacos?? the escabeche was sweet and delicious. bryan was especially a fan of the little green tomatoes i included in it. i only canned a few jars, so hopefully i'll get a chance to make a few more.
last week wednesday, we had a perennial favorite: fried chicken and biscuits. oliver enjoyed it as well. bryan made cauliflower to go with it, but as you can see, it's not your ordinary cauliflower. this is roman cauliflower (or possibly romanesco broccoli). it is a bright green 
with spiraled florets in perfect fractal patterns. it had been delivered in our csa box the previous week. it's a bit sweeter than your standard white cauliflower, and very tender. oliver loves cauliflower, so this did not disappoint him either.last week thursday, bryan took the day off, as his dad and linda were flying into
town. they spent the day buzzing around, and bryan made wheatberry chili for dinner. he had found a wheatberry chili mix at the outpost, and was intrigued. since we are snobs and don't make food from packaged mixes (where's the fun in that?), he bought some bulk wheatberries and decided to go that route. he did not add meat; the wheatberries provided the substance. i made my ever popular golden sweet cornbread, which was a hit as always. it was a great meal to have on a cool fall day to welcome bill and linda to town.
friday was oliver's 1 year birthday! my little boy is 1! i'm still in a little bit of shock about it. bryan and i both took the day off, but oliver still went to day care. am i a horrible mother or what?? we had a lot to do in order to get ready for the weekend birthday festivities, though. i got to take linda to the outpost, so i could do my grocery shopping and she could explore. i also needed to hit up target for party and house supplies, and pretty much ran around busy all day. bryan and his dad were busy doing projects around the house, including mounting our old kitchen cabinets in the basement and installed temporary MDF countertops on them. so now we have some extra storage in the basement, yay! we did all manage to take a break and go have lunch together. we drove out to haute taco, a relatively new chi-chi taco place out in brookfield. overall, we enjoyed our meal quite a bit. we shared a bowl of guacamole, which was well flavored and seemed to be done right. we tried a variety of the food: linda had some of the tortilla soup, which she said was very good. bill had a burrito which he enjoyed. bryan and i tried a variety of tacos: duck (which bryan found greasy), fish (which i found bland), al pastor (which bryan found to his liking), and braised short rib (which i found delicious). i also had a side of elote mexicana, which i think could be improved on. a traditional street snack, elote mexicana is usually an ear of corn, roasted, with mayo, salt, lime, and chile, and sometimes crumbled queso fresco. i've made a version in the past where i've sliced the kernels off the cob and mixed with some mayo, lime juice, salt, and black pepper. the corn at haute taco was an ear cut in half with mayo squirted on the top, chili pepper, and cheese. it wouldn't have been half bad, if it weren't for the mayo glopped all on the top. having to bite through a mouthful of commercial bulk mayo (which i generally find too sweet) wasn't exactly pleasant, and i love mayo. i ended up cutting the kernels off and enjoying it a bit more. we were too full for dessert after all that food (and the piña jarritos, YUM!). after lunch, bill & linda took us to babies r us to buy oliver's birthday present - a fancy new umbrella stroller! we needed something smaller than the full size one we've been using; we love it, but now that ollie's a bit bigger and more mobile, it was time for something a little more portable.
that evening for dinner, we pulled together a quick and delicious meal. i picked up some italian sausages at the outpost, which we served on bryan's favorite - pretzel rolls. i also did some sliced potatoes and onions pan fried in the cast iron, and a celery root and butternut squash gratin with walnut thyme streusel. i don't like butternut squash at all, but i *loved* this dish, and so did everyone else. it sounds fancy and looks like it takes 2 hours, but it is incredibly easy - just slice the celery root and squash, toss in some heavy cream, pour into a baking dish, and top with breadcrumbs you've mixed with butter, thyme, and walnuts. bake. TA-DA.
saturday, i had to get the house clean, clean CLEAN! in preparation for the birthday party. linda made everyone a big breakfast as fuel for the day. i also needed to bake! i made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting for oliver. i roasted my own pie pumpkins rather than using canned filling. the plan was to do a blue's clues theme, so i made a single 9" cake along with a pan of cupcakes, and dyed the frosting blue. i laid the cake out on a sheet pan, and arranged 4 cupcakes along the top to make a paw print. mom's birthday was sunday, the day of the actual party, so i wanted to make her something that i knew she would really love. lemons are her absolute favorite, so i searched for lemon cakes, pies, and tarts, and found the absolute perfect pie - shaker lemon pie. the filling is actual sliced lemons, and it can't get any lemon-y-er than that. so saturday, i zested and sliced thinly the lemons, and placed that in a bowl along with sugar to macerate at room temperature for 24 hours. bill's birthday was saturday, and a little birdy told me that he loved cheesecake, so i made mascarpone cheesecake with an almond crust. i was a pretty busy girl!
the weather had been absolutely gorgeous - perfect fall weather. it reminds me why i love this state - perfect weather, beautiful fall foliage - fall here can be really wonderful. i'm glad it was so nice while bill and linda were here so they could see 
it and enjoy it too. oliver and i decided to walk up to the park saturday before dinner to play. we tried out the new stroller, which was very much to both our likings, and oliver had a lot of fun talking to the geese at the park (which was pretty darn cute to watch). we spent a lot of time on the swings. oliver was having so much fun i had a hard time leaving. he actually cried when i took him out 
of the swing!! a few short trips down the slide helped him get over that, though. we stopped to watch the geese on the way home, and i swear he was trying to say
"geese" after me - he kept making a sound like "geet! geet!" it may be my silly mommy brain, but lately it seems like he is trying very hard to repeat the sounds we are making. i have this feeling he is storing everything up and we'll see an explosion of vocabulary in about 6 months. lots of incredibly adorable pictures from the park are in the october gallery, along with a *very* cute video of ollie swinging and laughing.
for bill's birthday dinner, he wanted some of the local lamb we're always raving about, so i got some fresh cut lamb chops from the butcher at the outpost. bryan did a greek lamb chop, the same he made when chris was visiting - marinated in olive oil, garlic, and herbs, and served with a similar sauce. i picked up a mixed bunch of olives, and soft, fluffy pita bread (not the pocket variety). bryan made a tzatiki, and a greek salad 
(tomatoes, feta, cucumbers, red onion, and a vinegar dressing). we also did roasted potatoes, and i selected a lovely red wine. everything was sublime. bill loves greek food, so it was a perfect birthday dinner for him. the cheesecake was delicious as well. since it was half mascarpone and half cream cheese, it was smoother and less tart than regular cheesecake. the nutella cream topping pushed it 
over the top, and everyone was happy. after dinner, everyone gave bill his gifts. linda had bought him some travel books; they'll be traveling to someplace new in the u.s. for the rest of his birthday present. oliver, bryan, and i made him a craft - a framed picture and footprint from oliver, with a poem. why i thought a baby + paint wouldn't be incredibly messy, i don't know, but i thought it was a genius idea. making the craft itself was messy, but fun, and it turned out really cute.
sunday was THE BIG DAY - oliver's birthday party!! i baked mom's pie that morning (nearly forgetting it in the oven but luckily it was saved), finished up cleaning, and generally rushing around like crazy. bryan worked on completing the cleaning of the kitchen, and bill and linda pitched in and helped get everything ready too - we never would have finished if it wasn't for them!! i really needed oliver to be on his schedule so that he would actually be awake and not melting down during the 
party, and everything worked up great. he woke up around 6:30 that morning, and took a great morning nap. while he napped, i decorated with some blue streamers, and print outs of blue and blue's friends. oliver was VERY EXCITED when he saw that - he knew exactly who it was!! 
people started arriving, and oliver was a little overwhelmed. he's generally not shy, but i think all these people he didn't know many of were a little much for him. luckily, he got over it pretty quickly, and was visiting, flirting, and playing with everyone in no time. for lunch, we decided on tacos, since that would be something easy to serve a lot of, and sure to be a crowd pleaser. bryan boiled 2 fryer chickens, along with mexican spices, and shredded the meat. he browned ground beef with onion and spices. he also made charro beans, which involved him cooking an entire pound of bacon along with onions that morning (our house smelled AWESOME). we served those, kept warm in mom's nesco (a prized family heirloom in our
family), along with all your standard taco fixin's: hard taco shells, flour tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole, and chips. i had planned on making a mexican squash casserole, but it slipped my mind that morning. we had plenty of food, though. can you believe i forgot to take a picture of the spread, though??! everyone ate a ton - including oliver. he loooooves beef and beans.
after lunch, it was time for cake! oliver was pretty fascinated by the candle, though was pretty clueless about blowing the candle out (even though we've been practicing with the birthday book that brent & jess sent us!). 
i think he was too full from lunch to enjoy his cupcake too much, though he tried. i think he had more fun squishing the frosting between his fingers, actually. to my surprise, the lemon cake was the biggest hit! although i knew both mom and i would love it, given our lemon obsession, i didn't think it would go over as well with everyone else. i was very wrong, and it was demolished very quickly. we also pulled out the leftover cheesecake. bryan and i thought the pumpkin cake was superb as well - it was so moist and delicious! and who can resist cream cheese frosting, even if it is blue?
i forgot to take a picture of the cake before we cut it, but i think you can get the drift:
after cake was presents, and oliver got a lot of great stuff. he was in need of some new toys, since he's a big 1 year old boy now, and he still had a lot of baby toys. he also got a bunch of new clothes and books, which we can never have too much of. the kid cleaned up!!
we also gave mom her present, another craft project. we did oliver's handprints in the shape of a heart on an apron, along with a poem about little hands. the red paint for that project got *EVERYWHERE*.
all in all it was a very successful day. he even went down for a nap after all the excitement, with minimal fuss.
bunch more birthday party pics in the birthday party gallery.
thanks to everyone who came to the party and who sent their good wishes through mail!! you helped make oliver's first birthday very special!
oh, oliver is walking now, did i mention that?? 2 weeks ago, he took his first few steps (in an attempt to eat dirt), and has been taking a step here and there. last week friday, he got a little bit bolder, and would practice to 2, 3, 4 steps all weekend. sunday at the party, i think he was inspired by my cousins' kids (who are 4 and 1) and now is toddling all over. we went to dinner at mom and dad's house on wednesday (for mole, YUM) and he was walking all over the house! crawling is still faster, and he's still prone to fall, but he is WALKING. unbelievable! it's amazing how fast they grow!!
additional pictures from recently are in the october gallery.
OH! our john boos arrived yesterday! happy happy joy joy. it looks soooooo pretty! the more i look at it, the more i like it, i think. we still need to move our old breakfast table and benches out of the space, and organize the new table, but i think it will be perfect. i'm so happy we worked that into the new kitchen!!no big weekend plans here. hopefully it does NOT snow like they are predicting (and it would be nice if it didn't rain either). i'd like to get in a few more trips to the zoo before it gets too cold, if possible. other than that, hopefully we can just play around the house and maybe start thinking about things for the holidays. we'll be hosting thanksgiving, and i think we have most of the menu planned for that. i'd like to do some crafts for the table (yes, i'm totally turning into martha stewart. ok ok - turning back into martha stewart.). also would like to nail down a few more gift ideas. and maybe we'll go look at christmas trees. since oliver is so very into EVERYTHING right now, and he's a pretty clever boy who likes finding his way around any obstacle we provide, we won't do a full size christmas tree this year. i'm thinking a miniature one on the piano, and bryan wants to convince me to get a silver aluminum one. we'll see.
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