spring may have sprung *

monday, april 20th: steak roulade with peppers and parmesan, grilled sweet potatoes, artichokes with balsamic vinegar, and grilled endive, also with balsamic. the steak were on sale at the outpost, already stuffed with red and yellow bell peppers and parmesan cheese, and rolled. the draw of being able to simply toss these on the grill (and them looking so yummy) won out over my normal rule of not buying prepared foods (besides, they were handmade with all natural / organic meat, veg, and cheese, so i wasn't breaking the rule too bad).

tuesday, april 21st: soy glazed flank steak, rice, and broccolini with sesame oil. i wanted to do something a little different with flank steak, since we normally go the tacos/fajitas route for a quick dinner. this worked.

wednesday, april 22nd: chipotle shrimp tacos with avocado. i had been thinking about shrimp, and i'm always looking for an excuse to eat avocados, and i'm not one to turn down tacos... so i loved this. the recipe calls for tomatillos, but we didn't find any, so we just skipped that part. another slightly different, delicious meal. we used bryan's homemade chipotles en adobo.

friday, april 24th: cheeseburgers and cold pasta salad with a sparkling rose wine. martha had been telling bryan how wonderful roses are, so he decided we should try them. the sparkling wine was rather refreshing with the burger, though it was still a little too far on the white end of the spectrum for me. the pasta salad is something my mother used to make often during the summer - pasta, tuna, mayo, peas, onions. i've adapted it to add dijon mustard, lemon juice, and italian parsley. it will forever remind me of summer.

sunday, april 26th: for lunch, i made myself a cuban and a salad with garlic vinaigrette. bryan had gone to chicago with his friend dirk to see throbbing gristle. when they left on saturday, i made them cubans (and toasted almond chocolate chip cookies, holla!) to take on the road. i had mine sunday for lunch, and can i just say, go me?! they were the good stuff. bryan was home that night in time for dinner, and i made a new england style fish casserole, based on some recipes in the cookbook recipes from a very small island. i poached some orange roughy, and mixed that with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, green beans, and cauliflower in a cream sauce with tomatoes, worcestershire, horseradish, and sherry, topped with breadcrumbs and parmesan, and baked. it was the perfect one dish meal for a rainy sunday evening.

monday, april 27th: hot dogs with mango chutney and red onion relish, fries, and our old standby, peas. we had some mango chutney leftover from our curried beef potpie, and this was a nice way to use it in a different way. a delicious way. a very delicious way. as you can see, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. i did not make it through that second hot dog.



tuesday, april 28th: japanese chicken-scallion rice bowls with zucchini. oliver, as usual, ate mostly rice.


wednesday, april 29th: whole wheat pasta with italian sausage, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. this was a request from bryan. he really likes the whole wheat pasta, and easy weeknight meals (fair, since he does all the cooking during the week). i think oliver ate more of this than i did.
saturday, may 2nd: having eaten far too much crap in the prior 48 hours, i was determined to eat nothing but vegetables for dinner saturday. alas, the outpost conspired against me, having some lovely little eberly game hens available. i couldn't resist picking them up, but i'm so glad i did. these hens were the best tasting poultry i have ever had. so flavorful, without even a hint of gaminess. i simply seasoned them with salt and pepper, and grilled. while i'm sure they're wonderful in a sauce, they don't need any. i served them atop a salad of spinach with grilled tomato and roasted garlic vinaigrette, alongside grilled radicchio with balsamic, and grilled rustico french bread. i started feeling better before the meal was even over. bryan could not stop talking about how good the meal was. i totally won the good wife award.

sunday, may 3rd: roast chicken with mustard cream and chives, arugula with roasted garlic vinaigrette, and roasted potatoes and asparagus with parmesan. i didn't think i could outdo the meal from the night before, but i think i did with this one. i made a compound butter with cracked black pepper, thyme, marjarom, lemon zest, garlic, and white wine, and stuffed it under the skin of the chicken. want to know the secret to keeping your roast chicken moist? stuff a stick of butter under the skin. (and don't even talk to me about fat until you've read omnivore's dilemma or in defense of food or real food or... well, you get the idea.) i also put quite a bit of chicken stock and white wine in the roasting pan. the mustard cream, since i did not cook the chicken in the same pan as the cream, i did slightly different - i sauteed chopped shallot in butter, then added the stock, cream, and mustard. i also finished the sauce with a healthy portion of chives from our garden, since they were ready to be snipped. i think the asparagus could have been better; the recipe has you roast them for the same amount of time as the potatoes. the cook in my head said, wait, asparagues roasts far quicker than potatoes, but the other part of me head said, well, that's what the recipe says, so we'll do it. guess who i should have listened to? oh well, no complaints. the arugula was perfect with the roasted garlic vinaigrette, and even better when slightly wilted under the warm mustard cream. for dessert, i made a strawberry rhubarb (from our garden) crumble. mom and dad joined us for dinner. there is no chicken left, that's all i can say.

WFD tonight: crockpot chicken makhani (indian butter chicken) with rice and broccoli. this time, i'm using boneless, skinless chicken (which the recipe calls for, but for which i only had normal chicken legs last time). which should be much nicer - no fishing bones and skin out prior to eating.

not a lot of other news from us...

oliver turned 18 months, and now officially weighs 28 lbs (like a 2 year old) and is 34" tall (like a 3 year old). that kid is sturdy. i think he's getting one of his eye teeth - it so very much looks like it wants to pop through, but just isn't quite there yet. he's been suffering from some cold (no, not H1N1!), but is taking it in stride, since he's such a great kid (i say that now, right?).

last week, oliver busted his face pretty good at day care. he was climbing on a chair (a kids size chair - she has a table and chairs set for the kids in the kitchen) and managed to flip over the back. he face never really bruised, just had these red and purple streaks. he recovered in no time (emotionally). i just keep telling myself - it's only going to get worse. the older he gets, the higher he's going to climb. danger boy.

the weather here has FINALLY gotten nice, so we try to spend as much time outside as possible. this past weekend, if ollie wasn't napping and we weren't eating, we were outside! it was so nice being in warm weather. bryan got cracking on his raised beds for the garden, and oliver did his best to help. mostly he ran all over the yard, up and down the deck, dragging the rake, hose, or his bike with him, and generally tiring himself out (ahh, perfection).

a look back and the past few weeks:

monday, april 20th: taking a ride and makin' some calls

monday, april 20th: trying to figure out why this balloon was on the ceiling yesterday, but on the floor today

friday, april 24th: blue skies (and oliver sliding off the deck)

friday, april 24th: playing in the bushes (or: a harbinger of things to come)

friday, april 24th: oh, you found me, mom!

saturday, april 25th: helping dad with the shovel in the yard... and DIRT

... and ROCKS!

sunday, april 26th: playing let's steal things i shouldn't have and hide in my tent

tuesday, april 28th: feeding myself with my hands...

...and my bowl...

...and my spoon!

saturday, may 2nd: one shoe on and the other shoe off

goofing around with mom before breakfast

sunday, may 3rd: playing on the deck

ahh, the joy of being outside

sunday, may 3rd: a boy and his phone

our tulip bed, with herbs planted (basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and parsley)

bryan working on the raised vegetable beds

my new strawberry plant (and our chives)

and of course, there are far more pictures (and cute video) in the april and new may galleries.

_{* and i would just like to point out for all you non-wisconsinites, that while spring may have indeed sprung, we still have no leaves on our trees, and the last average frost happens around may 10th. so we're not exactly in the clear yet.}

thank you, and goodnight

yesterday, the 44th president of the united states of america was sworn into office. a black man. a momentous occasion. a big note in the history books; and, hopefully, a big chapter. i still choke up thinking about the change america wants, the choice her people made, and the hope we can have for the future. i have to remind myself to be patient, but i am very excited. i haven't been proud to be red, white, and blue in a very long time, but watching the inauguration and seeing all the american flags, i have never been more proud.

another momentous occasion, to me if no one else, is that i stopped breastfeeding last weekend. thursday, january 15th was the last night i nursed oliver. it being nearly 15 months (next week saturday), i decided it was time. it was no longer necessary nourishment for him; i was only nursing him before bed (he gets cow milk the rest of the day), and he wasn't getting that much anymore. it was more for comfort. and i knew the longer we performed that ritual, the more attached to the comfort he would be, and the harder it would be to wean him. so, starting last friday night, instead of nursing for 30 minutes before bed, i gave him some [cow's] milk in his sippy, rocked and read him a story, and placed him in his crib. he wasn't very happy, but he wasn't nearly as upset as i expected him to be. he talked, fussed, moaned, and cried for awhile (close to 45 minutes), but went to sleep just fine after a visit from bryan and the magic water cup. last night and tonight, he didn't even cry when i put him in bed (he didn't go to sleep immediately, but i think him allowing me to put him into bed without nursing or a meltdown is a pretty major achievement). what i didn't expect was how hard stopping would be on me. i was ready to have my body back, ready to have those 30 minutes back, ready for oliver to go to bed on his own. but i wasn't necessarily ready to give up the 30 minutes of my day where oliver lays calmly in my lap, cuddled up tight to me, dozing off; or when he is done nursing, and breathing quietly on my shoulder. it's another milestone, yet another step to him becoming a toddler. so it's definitely bittersweet for me.

we haven't been up to much interesting. it's been nice to take it easy. this past weekend, we did have fun grocery shopping: we hit trader joe's for our staples (such as beans, bread, frozen peas, etc.), since their organic stuff is generally cheaper than at the co op; then we headed to el rey, a local mexican market; and finished the day off at the outpost. it was our first visit to el rey, and we went mainly for meats (why is it skirt steak is $12.99/lb at the supermarket and $4.99/lb at the mexican markets?), and to pick up some lunch out of their hot case/deli (pork enchiladas, bean and pork tostada, and tamales). overall, we weren't too impressed. i'm sure we'll be back to explore the dry goods some more, and possibly to get some meats, and certainly for the manteca (they do have it in giant buckets, after all), but i don't think we'll make it a regular stop. the hot foods weren't all that impressive, and they sure were happy to completely ignore us waiting to order and help their spanish speaking customers first. maybe we were just spoiled by atlanta's buford farmer's market.

this past monday i had the day off for martin luther king day. i hadn't known i had a free day until the friday before, so it was a rather pleasant surprise. i still sent oliver off to day care, and spent the day doing things i wanted to do: i cleaned the house, went to macy's, took a long soak in the jacuzzi tub, and worked on hannah's scrapbook. a few more hours in the day would have been nice, but beggars can't be choosers.

but surely, you say, even in all that boringness, you ate something good jen? of course we did, my friends. of course we did.



wednesday, january 7th: teriyaki chicken legs with rice noodles and bok choy. oliver was an immense fan of the rice noodles with teriyaki sauce, and i admit, they were quite delicious.






friday, january 9th: spanish tortilla, boring ol' buttered cauliflower (one of my and oliver's favorite vegetables).






sunday, january 11th: ropa vieja with caperberries, saffron rice, and peas.






monday, january 12th: fish tacos with horseradish sour cream slaw and a remoulade inspired sauce; pinto beans. this is my new favorite preparation for fish tacos.



wednesday, january 14th: andouille sausage with the leftover horseradish sour cream slaw on sprouted wheat buns, homemade steak fries with a gremolata style dry herb spice.




friday, january 16th: rib eye steaks (holla!) with baked potatoes and braised fennel with whole mustard seeds.




sunday, january 18th: chicken and israeli couscous with tomato and lemon, sauteed zucchini and sunburst squash. the chicken and couscous recipe was from the martha stewart living magazine, and was scrumptious. oliver gobbled up plenty as his bedtime snack.


monday, january 19th: garlic stuffed pork roast with braised red cabbage and potato pancakes. oliver, true to his roots, stuffed some serious pork into his belly. and i can't say bryan and i didn't do the same. this meal was very, very good. the potato pancake recipe we use is from milwaukee's historic turner hall; the recipe was printed in a saveur featuring milwaukee fish fries. (for those of you who don't know, the friday fish fry is big in milwaukee. if you are a restaurant and don't do friday fish fry, you might not last.)

wednesday, january 21st: big boy burgers with pasta salad and chocolate shakes. we were out of potatoes (how did that happen?), so no fries as usual. instead, i made up a pasta salad with elbow macaroni, mayo, sour cream, peas, celery, red onion, and a few shakes of downer avenue seasoning from the spice house. it worked. oliver had *2* helpings along with his cheeseburger. no chocolate shake for him, though. yes, i am a mean, mean mommy.

tomorrow? i'm thinking brats on pretzel rolls with the leftover braised red cabbage. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?

and, not wanting to break a good tradition, here's your round of cute baby pics (a few more are in the january 2009 gallery):



fee fi fo fum, i smell the blood of an englishman (oliver sucking a chicken bone clean)







me llamo senor crankypants (oliver throws a fit)






now which alien movie was that again??








a series of baby blue eyes shots:







bathing booty








that's all from me, folks. i'm off to fall asleep in bed while watching this season's crappy top chef cheftestants put out uninspiring food that, at worst, i can make far better at home, and at best, i can make as well at home. is it so wrong to expect brilliance? i don't want to watch someone cook what i could cook better. le sigh. have a nice weekend!