too tired for cleverness

so i realized i forgot to mention oliver's little mishap. two fridays ago, day care called right as bryan was leaving to pick oliver up to say that oliver had fallen. he was walking around with a duplo block in his mouth, and fell on his face. she said he bled a good bit and was quite upset, but that the bleeding had slowed and he seemed to be doing better. he was in a fine mood when he got home, but when we sat down to dinner, he cried when trying to eat anything or drink from his sippy. he was too upset to let me look in his mouth, and was eventually able to eat alright, although he still had problems with the cup. after his bath, while getting him dressed, he wanted his cup but started bawling. i took a look and sure enough - one of his front teeth was knocked backwards. i couldn't wiggle it, but of course touching it started it bleeding again. i gave him some motrin and we drove over to children's hospital urgent care. since we were there right at bedtime, i thought oliver was going to be a monster, but by then the motrin had kicked in and he seemed fine - smiling and playing and charming everyone (the doctor even said he made her night, being the only smiley patient she had). the doctor said, yep, he knocked his tooth back, but it's hardly loose and he should be ok, just keep giving him motrin and it should tighten up in a few days. of course, as we were there chatting with the doc (who we really loved, by the way!), he was walking around with a tongue depressor in his mouth (she gave it to him to play with while she checked him out) - and HE FELL. mother of the year, right here. luckily it was more of a stumble, and wasn't on his face, and the doctor has twin 2 year olds so she "gets" it. yikes. by the next morning, he was doing just fine (though i cringed every time a utensil or cup hit the tooth), and it seemed to tighten up very quickly. it's still pushed a tiny bit back, but he recovered just fine. and it turns out that as the mother of a daredevil little boy, i need to grow much thicker skin. i realized on the way to the hospital that it was the first in a presumably long line of trips to the hospital with this little boy. good thing children's is only a few minutes away, and the regular hospital is literally behind our house.

so let's get to the delicious things!

saturday, bryan and i made what he dubbed the perfect winter meal: lemon braised beef shanks with beer and bacon macaroni and cheese and sauteed lacinto kale. i made the shanks in a dutch oven on top of the stove rather than the crockpot. since we were planning on making the kale and pasta, i skipped the mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes the recipe called for. i also used 2 onions instead of 1. and since our shanks were bone-in, i skipped the flour, knowing the marrow would help thicken the sauce. i let it simmer for about 3 hours, and it was delicious. so, so delicious. and who can argue with beer and bacon mac and cheese?? for dessert, i made crockpot 5 layer brownies. the recipe calls for a boxed brownie mix, but i made my own (duh), and included chocolate chips. i don't have a small crockpot, so instead i layered the ingredients in a deep sided casserole dish, and placed that inside the corckpot, turned it on low, and let it cook for 5 hours. i loved them, though they were a little moist and rich for bryan. they were very fudgey, due to all the chocolate chips as well as the sweetened condensed milk, and i think they could have cooked a little longer. all and all, though, it was such a great meal.

for dinner last night, bryan proved how much he loves me, and made tamales. saturday, he boiled a pork butt with cinnamon, then yesterday, cubed it, roasted it, shredded it, and added a homemade ranchero sauce. we served those with more ranchero sauce, cilantro, sliced avocado, and homemade queso fresco (which i swear is ridiculously easy - just DON'T use a whisk like the recipe suggests, use a wooden spoon instead). bryan also made braised collard greens. oh, be still my heart. sooooooooooooo good. mom joined us for dinner, and was pretty darn happy she did. i managed to limit myself to only 2 tamales, in order to save room for dessert - mom brought banana cake with chocolate fudge frosting. the cake was so good, it nearly beat out the tamales. mom left the entire sheet cake with us, and based on the way bryan and i couldn't stop ourselves from picking at it last night, it will be gone in no time.

oliver has been having a bit of a rough go lately. he's getting his molars in. i've been waiting for and wanting this for some time, since it will make it easier for him to chew things (most notably meat), but why oh why does it have to take SO LONG?? and be so painful? saturday, i think was the worst yet for him. he had a whole body fever, and was positively miserable. he barely ate anything for lunch, and if that kid isn't eating, something is definitely wrong. as bryan finished dinner, oliver was sitting in my lap, leaning pathetically against my arm, and just crying quietly. he crashed at bed time, woke up around 3am, and bryan gave him more motrin. he woke again at 4, and i gave him a warm cup of milk and rocked him for a bit. he fell back asleep around 4:45 and slept until 9am, only waking because we went in there to rouse him from his dead sleep!!! that is insane - the kid has never done anything like that before (though i'm not complaining about getting to stay in bed until 8:30am). but no fever yesterday, and he seemed to be a little bit better. last night, starting around 12:30am, he was up every hour. ugh. COME ON TEETH!!

he was helping us cook last night. so cute. he was hanging out in his chef's hat, stirring some imagined creation in a sauce pan. he would pause and pretend to taste it - it was so adorable!! then he wanted bryan and i to try as well. doesn't get any cuter than that!






a few more pics in the january gallery.

WFD: tuna & artichoke casserole, from one of bryan's martha stewart living magazines. kinda excited.

just lots of eating

well, my plans to do nothing all weekend did not go quite as planned. still, all in all i don't think i did too bad of a job.

friday night we stayed in. bryan braised beef shanks for dinner, and served that with a wonderful mash and some peas. he also reduced the braising liquid to serve as our sauce. super deliciousness. we stayed up late watching something, though i can't for the life of me remember what. i blame my memory issues the baby and him taking all my blood.

saturday morning, i stayed in bed until 8! i was pretty proud of myself. bryan and i ran out to the grocery store. i know i said i wasn't going to run any errands, but we were pretty much out of vegetables so it was a necessity. we were exploring a store close to my parents, so we stopped in at their house to say hi. mom was home but dad was out getting his tattoo ("26.2" on his left arm). once we got home, i got the laundry going and bryan needed to get some brush to the municipal yard. i took the opportunity to take a nice nap. that evening, bryan made some fantastic grilled porterhouse chops and a butternut squash puree. i made a maple and cider sauce for the pork, and forced bryan to put brown sugar on the squash (i'm not much of a squash person). the pork was fantastic. those bad boys weren't joking around - check out that heft!

we watched 3:10 to yuma and we both enjoyed it immensely. christian bale is one of my favorite actors; he may be a little weird but all his dedication to his roles really reflects in his acting.

i spent sunday afternoon shopping with mom. we had a lot of fun at the mall. got a few cute things, including a zip up hoodie for bryan (which he can never have enough of) and a really cute fleece outfit for ollie (one i had been eyeing and it was finally on sale!), as well as some holiday decorations to hang in the front hall (there's a narrow awkward space that needed *something*). also a few more frames, in my ever present mission to replace all the frames in the house with nicer ones, and yet another christmas gift for hannah (bryan and i have already though of so many things for her we've started her birthday gift list - for APRIL!). we really enjoyed our shopping trip together (even if mom bought stuff for shannon, who wasn't even there... spoiled little princess!! ;) and found some really awesome deals. my legs are still store from walking for 3 hours though. counting down the minutes until i can get home and into an epsom salt jacuzzi (i apologize in advance to oliver for the loud underwater noises).


mom and dad came over for dinner, and bryan made pollo verde. it was soooooooooo good. we had whole chicken legs, which he halved, and braised in beer and chicken stock along with some of his homemade tomatillo sauce. the skin crisped up so nicely, and all the liquids cooked into quite a few of the "good bits" on the bottom of the pan (have i ever mentioned how much we *LOVE* our cast iron?). he served that with some additional tomatillo sauce, and some rice with saffron, peas, and tomatoes. it was incredibly delicious and i wish we had leftover chicken but we scarfed it all down (see photo evidence below). mom and i had picked up some caramel cashew custard from kopps on the way home, and served that along with a sugar cookie for dessert. positively delightful.


so, i didn't exactly stay at home on the couch, BUT i didn't accomplish much of anything either. so i'll still claim it as a win. :)

bryan and i are going to make one final effort this week to pack up some more freezer meals, and i'm also going to work on finishing packing my hospital bag. only 3 more weeks to go!! :) i plan on making another effort to relax next weekend. i'll get it right one of these days.