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!

srsly

what a week. i found out at work that i will more than likely be transitioned to another project, for about a month, to help them catch up as they are seriously behind. presuming i can get the things done i need for my current project; we recently settled on the solution for a daunting requirement, and as a result, i have 3 additional documents to create. but i'm the man, so i think i can do it. ;)

so here's the run down:

last week friday, we had those kraut brats i mentioned. they were the good stuff. bryan cooked them on the cast iron griddle, grill side up, and tucked them into pretzel rolls with some dijon mustard. he also made wilted swiss chard, with bacon. holla! nice, easy, yummy menu for a friday night.

that saturday, bryan and i made biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast. the sausage was from the outpost; hand made there with all natural, local pork. bryan seared that lovely and made a pan cream sauce. i made the biscuits. they were delicious and filling.

that afternoon, we headed to the outpost to get our grocery shopping done. lo and behold, they had porterhouse steaks on sale for $10.99/lb (all natural and organic). once we got home, we realized we hadn't defrosted anything for dinner, and we had these gorgeous steaks... so bryan grilled those in his signature style (simply salt, pepper, and a pat of butter once plated). we also had carrots (from our garden) and peas (frozen, because i'm no so crazy that i shell my own peas), as well as potatoes (from the outpost) which bryan let get crispy in the cast iron along with onions (from dad's garden), olive oil, salt, and pepper. seriously, this was a good meal. one of the top 3 steaks i have ever had. so incredibly tender, juicy, and flavorful. you forget what beef really tastes like until you have some that wasn't grown in a yard and fed god knows what kind of feed. so beefy. i'm not usually able to finish a steak in one sitting, but i think the only breaths i took were to say "mmmm." the vegetarians need to wake up.

that sunday, bryan spent the day downtown with his buddy dirk from madison, seeing the new exhibit at the art museum. oliver was seriously awesome all day, playing nicely, being sweet baby, and napping like an angel. i had the opportunity to get all my prep for dinner completed while he napped. then he and i ran a bunch of errands, hitting up a few sporting goods stores as well as babies r us. he enjoyed babies r us, and screaming responses to other babies who were crying/yelling.

that night, we finally got around to executing my indian fish fry idea. mom, dad, and shannon came over for it, and it was a smashing success. i roasted beets, both golden (from the outpost) and red (from our garden), just with olive oil, salt, and pepper. i made an indian potato salad with yukon gold potatoes, green onions, and a dressing of greek yogurt with cumin, coriander, and lime. next time, i think i'll add some chile pepper flakes to the mix. bryan wilted some beet greens. we had some lemon sole, which bryan had soaked in milk overnight, then dredged in flour, egg, and panko breadcrumbs. this fried up perfectly. served with a curry mayo on the side. everyone was satisfied, except perhaps shannon, who isn't a fan of either fish or beets (crazy lady). mom brought brownies for dessert - with a layer on lemon curd in them. sometimes, i kind of feel sorry for people who don't get to eat dinner with us. it also makes me so happy to have our kitchen back. lovesit!

nothing overly exciting for dinner this past week. tuesday, though, bryan made the rest of the lemon sole. he put a sauce of his homemade tomatillo sauce with cream on top, and served that with saffron rice and an island salad of tomatoes (from our csa) and cucumbers (from our garden) along with dill (also from our garden) and vinegar. it was a delicious, refreshing meal. we also had steak fajitas, with peppers from our garden, an onion from dad's garden, and an heirloom black tomato from ours. bryan also made a panzanella with tomatoes and basil from our garden, which was so delicious i had another huge bowl of it for lunch the next day. i'm not a huge fan of tomatoes, but it's hard to argue with home grown tomatoes. i doubt i'll ever be able to eat one plan, but there is something about a sun kissed tomato that can really make a dish. seriously summer.


friday, i worked from home since day care had the day off. oliver was very well behaved, and had his first hair cut! the pieces over his ears had been getting kinda long, and it sort of looked like a mullet. his hair is still pretty fuzzy, so i'm not sure if it helped, but i felt better trying.

that night, we made our target run so we wouldn't have to worry about it yesterday, which was great. bryan made a quick dinner of fettuccine with a basil pesto cream sauce (basil from our garden) and chicken.

yesterday, we spent most of the day running errands. we hit up kohls for some picture frames (bryan got new jeans in the process), then headed to lexco tile & stone to return the sample tile we had gotten last weekend, and check out the other colors we could get it in (we decided it was too similar to the other colors we have in there). one of the designers suggested going darker rather than lighter, and we found a great matte dark chocolate glazed tile. so we're looking at getting that in a subway tile, along with a mosaic for behind the stove which would contain 2"x2" tiles: a blackish tile, the same dark brown as the other tiles, and copper tiles (as in actual metal). we're pretty excited and think it will look mega awesome. then we jetted up to lowes for something for bryan's new xbox project as well as baby proofing items, then over to artist and display to pick out a mat to frame the painting adrianne made for us. after ollie's afternoon nap, we hit up the outpost, then rushed home for a quick dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and sauted zucchini. oliver got to try spaghetti, and while he seemed to enjoy the taste, he was not thrilled with the experience. too hard to negotiate. it was pretty amusing, though, watching him trying to get it off his hands and into his mouth and, upon failing, fling it around like a lasso. it made for happy doggies, at least.

today, we met up with mom, dad, and shannon for breakfast at ihop. bryan got to have ice cream on his pancake, so that was exciting for him. oliver enjoyed my pancakes. the waitress seemed to have a crush on shannon. we had a lot of fun and left a huge mess for the bus boy. it was oliver, though, seriously.

bryan and i are heading over to my aunt mo's house for my cousin delany's 13th birthday party. of course, since we had plans, oliver didn't want to nap. he played nicely in his crib for an hour, then started crying. exasperated, i asked bryan for help with a plan, since i hate making the decisions when he won't sleep (mostly because the answer is: let him cry). bryan suggested we change our plans; that we just get him up, go to the party, then come home and see if he would sleep. no sooner had i agreed than oliver was quiet. he did cry again for a second, literally less than a minute, and was asleep. seriously, baby? should have made than plan an hour earlier, apparently. so we're about to wake him up and zip over there.

tonight, mom and shannon (and possibly dad) are coming over for sunday dinner. i've been thinking a lot lately about poulet frites lately, as it's mentioned multiple times in the food book i'm currently reading. so, last night, i made a compound butter with white wine, thyme, the rind of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, and garlic, and stuffed that under the skin of the bird, and rubbed it down with more. that will roast with some chicken stock and wine in the same pan. we have some russets that we'll double fry for our frites, and i plan to make a garlic aioli to go along. we have some yellow wax beans (from the csa) we'll blanch, and some red leaf lettuce (from the csa), tomatoes, carrots, and cukes (all from our garden) that we'll make into a salad. for dessert, i made an apple and fennel pie. we had apple and fennel hand pies at dames d'escoffier event a few years back in atlanta; they were made by bacchanalia and served with cheddar ice cream. i've never been able to find a recipe for it, but it's been on my mind ever since, so i decided to wing it. we'll see how it turns out. it smells heavenly and looks gorgeous, so we may be ok. stay tuned for those pictures.

additional oliver news: he has started standing unassisted! not for very long periods of time, and he hasn't made the connection with walking quite yet, but it's definitely a new step. he is also mimicking sounds a lot more, saying "uh oh!" a lot. my baby is growing up!!