dinner for 3

Joaquin's appetite has taken off in the last few days. A week ago I put a teething biscuit on his tray and he gagged just looking at it. Today he grabbed it from me and put it right in his mouth. He widdled that thing down until it was little more than soggy brown drool on his handmade bib. I got him all cleaned up just in time for company. A co-worker turned friend came over to learn how to knit. Have you ever seen someone for the first time and thought, "that's my future friend."? That's the feeling I got from Lana. I like having company because Joaquin really enjoys it. He loves to check out new faces and giggle and it just seems to bring out the best in him. Is that an odd thing to say about an 8 (almost 9) month old? I guess I mean that it's really fun for both of us and that rocks.

Joaquin held his crochet hook while I showed Lana the very basics of knitting. We took lots of breaks from knitting to read stories and eat pears and nurse. I think it's very important to teach hand crafts, pass them down to whoever wants to learn. For free. With a joyful spirit. Yep, that's what I think.

After knitting class Lana left to finish out her day and we made smoothies. Joaquin drank it with a straw.
Baby smoothie
Frozen blueberries
little bit of frozen pineapple
banana
Pour a little bit in a glass and let baby sip with a glass straw. Mom drinks the rest.

Last night, Justin and I enjoyed a nice dinner served on vintage cafeteria trays that I purchased on ebay. This purchase was directly inspired by the greenandcrunchy blog, and her awesome section plates. Check it out!
I made some basil potatoes with the local potatoes I bought from the winter market. I like to make big batches of stuff so we have leftovers. Basil potatoes are perfect for that because they are great for dinner, breakfast, snack, with nutritional yeast cheese...you get the picture.

Basil Potatoes
7 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 onions, chopped
9 medium potatoes, cut into chunks and boiled until tender
1/2 bag of Trader Joe's melange a trois (or two bell peppers cut into strips)
2T. dried basil
Good shake of Trocomare
1 tsp asafoetida
pepper
salt to taste
What is Trocomare and asafoetida? Trocomare is a seasoning blend with salt and herbs that you can find in most health food stores. I like it a lot. Asafoetida is a spice you can find in Indian markets. It takes the place of garlic or onion powder in recipes and is delicious. A little goes a long way!

Saute the garlic and onion in oil until translucent. Add peppers and saute until onions begin to carmalize. Drain and add potatoes and basil and asafoetida. Season with Trocomare, salt and pepper. So good.
The beauty of using section plates lies in filling them. I had only planned to make potatoes and green beans for dinner, but in order to fill our plates I washed what was left of the living lettuce with and added leftover dressing, grabbed some pressure cooked soybeans we had in the frige, and cut up an orange. A feast!
After steaming the green beans I tossed them in a little bit of earth balance, sprinkled on some chopped almonds and seasoned with salt and pepper. Joaquin could not keep his little hands off of these. I decided to let him hold one and he nibbled delicately while squeezing whole-heartedly. He's so cute.

my city is cool

Today Joaquin and I checked out the Indianapolis Winter market. I wanted to see what kind of local produce is available in the winter as I tend to eat a lot of rice and quinoa lately. In fact, since I started writing down what I eat, I've realized that there are some days that I eat very little vegetable. I eat a ton of fruit, and probably too many nuts...but that will all change now. Now that I have...

I couldn't snap too many photos because the place was packed! There wasn't a place to just stand still without disrupting the flow of the entire room. In fact, I had to walk around the place 3 times just to see it all...it felt a lot like being on a conveyor belt. I brought home just a smattering of what the market had to offer.

We bought butternut squash, living lettuce, arugula, local potatoes, and a nice lady gave me a free sample of her "green" household cleaner. I'm really excited about the living lettuce. The farmer told me to just keep it in a cereal bowl of water on the counter and pick off of it. He said it will last two to three weeks. Awesome and fresh!

While there we had a fresh green juice and checked out fresh flour from a local mill. Joaquin was invited to pet an angora bunny, and received many compliments on his cuteness. There was fresh sauerkraut, hand carved wood kitchen tools, lots of pastries, local meat (we don't eat it!), artisan cheese (we don't eat this either!) and dairy (nope, don't eat it!), tons of lettuce, kale, carrots, squash, beets, and potatoes. It's good to know that Indiana can provide all one would need to survive a winter in a healthful way.

We made a salad for dinner. We used the fresh arugula, a bag of salad I already had. I shredded a beet and a carrot and made a giant batch of our favorite dressing

one and a half cups of sesame oil
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup braggs liquid aminos
1 tsp sea satl
2 T maple syrup
3 T crushed pepper flakes (ohhh, spicy!)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup of cashews

Blend this all til smooth and creamy. Sooooooo good. This is a variation of a recipe from a cookbook called Everyday Raw.
While I prepared the salad, Joaquin took some pictures. He loves my iphone.

I don't know what that is... but I think he has a good eye, no?

pickles

After reading several other like-minded mom blogs, I've come to the conclusion that if you don't like Bubbie's pickles you will have your awesome mom card revoked. We love Bubbie's pickles. I have to admit we loved them even more when Trader Joe's sold them under private label for a mere 2.99 a jar. The last jar we purchased cost 6.40 at our local health food store. After a little research, I decided it wouldn't be hard to make our own fermented pickles.

We made these fermentation vessels from some empty veganaise jars, two airlocks from the beer brewing supply store (.79 each) and some grommets from the hardware store. My husband drilled holes in the jars and put the grommets in place and I made the brine and added the dill, garlic, peppercorn and cucumbers.
Cucumbers are not in season, but this is really just practice to see if it's worth planting pickling cucumbers this spring. The pickles are ready in 1 to 4 weeks and will continue to slowly ferment in the fridge when done. I was concerned that this would be hard and tricky, but the salt prohibits icky growing mold and stuff and all you really need to do is make sure everything stays below the brine's surface. Almost every article I read suggests you put an inverted smaller lid inside the jar to help keep the pickles below the surface. I didn't because everything seems to be packed in tightly enough not to move. I may live to regret this.

To one quart of water I added 3 tablespoons of sea salt and split this brine between the two jars. I put dill, 3 cloves of garlic each and about 10 peppercorns per jar. Shoved in the pickles and poured the brine over it. We tried a pickle 5 days into it and they are well on the way to being delicious homemade pickles!

Joaquin and I are working hard to find a sleep pattern that works. He still wakes a lot at night and I started to doubt our family bed/nurse all night situation. Last night I read some articles by Dr.Sears and they were very reassuring. He says that he thinks that an 8 month old that experiences frequent nightwaking/nursing is the norm and that teething plays a big role. His nightwaking is definitely commiserate with teething, so I feel better.

He is sleeping right now, after all.

babies don't care

I decided that after feeling the early onset of cabin fever, Joaquin and I would be more brave about long walks in the snow. The sun came out and it was 20 degrees with no wind. There aren't a ton of charming places to hang out right in my neighborhood, so for local walks it's Target, Whole Foods or Starbucks. We decided on Starbuck's because I almost never go out for coffee anymore, and it was still pretty darn chilly out and why not? I put the baby in his little snow coveralls and a wool hat (made by mommy, of course) and put him in the ergo carrier and covered us with Dad's coat. Dad has tried to recover his coat, but each attempt is met by my wails of "we need it!" We walked through the neighborhood, enjoying having the world to ourselves while all the sensible people are tucked away, inside, by the fire, and watching TV.

Most people who drive by us seem to be trying to get a harder look. I'm sure from a distance I look like either a very fat man in a funny hat, or a pregnant woman about to explode. When they get closer, I usually see a big smile. I guess there aren't a lot of people walking around with a head poking out of their coat, but there should be! Try it!

As we reached 86th street, the busiest street in my part of town I wasn't surprised to see that the sidewalks had not been shoveled at all. This is Indianapolis, where everyday is the Indy 500. Us 'peds' don't get much consideration. I was glad I decided to wear my big hiking boots and the snow was no problem. We reached the crosswalk and I heard someone yell "Hey!"
I turned to look toward the Hardee's parking lot and a man in a Civic leaned toward his passenger window.
"Where are you going?" he asked
I pointed west. "Uh. Whole Foods." I lied
"Do you want a ride?" he asked
"No." I said "This is my exercise for the day!"
"I saw you with the little one and I felt sorry for you. Are you sure you don't want a ride?"
"No." I said "He likes it."
The light turned green and I walked on. The man pulled back on to 86th street and headed east.
So, a man pulled off the road and asked me if I wanted to get in his car. This may sound creepy, and it kind of is, but this happens to me all the time! And it isn't usually men. Sometimes it's a woman with a mini van full of kids, concerned because I am WALKING HOME FROM THE GROCERY STORE.
Oh, Indiana.

Babies don't care about bad weather. Babies love to be outside. They love to look around and breath fresh air and sleep inside a coat shared with mama.

When we got to Starbucks I ordered a Earl Grey soy tea latte, and it was delicious. Loaded with sugar I am sure, but it hit the spot. As soon as I sat down, Joaquin leaned in to nurse. Babies don't care where you are and no matter how many layers you have on, they still know there are boobs underneath.

snow day where have you gone?

Oh, the long days are so short right now. Each morning when I get up, the day seems wide open. I think about baking bread, going to the library, taking long walks, watching movies, finishing the afghan, getting the house sparkling clean....so many things to do! But the sun sets around five, then dinner needs to be prepared and Joaquin starts giving me the sleepy eye, rubs his ears in the tell tale way, and communicates in baby ESP that he wants his pajamas.

It has been snowing for about three days. I don't mind snow, but I'm wary of the ice, and the wind is no picnic either. Yesterday, we didn't even go outside. I decided today at about 4pm that enough is enough, so I bundled us up and went for a walk. Today's low is -3.
Two hearts, one coat.

We only lasted about 10 minutes because the wind was blowing on my face and I just couldn't take it. We walked back home and put a bunch of fresh tracks through the backyard. It was fun to be able to see the tracks made by critters. They seem to be really enjoying our compost pile:)

Being stuck inside isn't so bad. I actually start looking forward to it sometime around August. It's nice not to have the "pressure" to go outside and make the most of the weather. Now that I have an 8 month old, we can hang out in the living room and play with toys.

I have been knitting for almost 10 years now. My best friend taught me the basics and I love to make hats. I taught myself how to crochet about two years ago and lately I am absolutely obsessed with the granny square. I am making my first afghan. I am not much of a pattern follower and you have to follow a pattern to make a granny square, at least a beginner like me has to. With all the pattern following and repetition, my crochet skill set is really coming along!

7 squares done, only about 49 to go! I know the blocks look a little wonky, but I will block them and get it all straightened out before hand stitching it together. I really like the idea of making afghans and I have some big ideas about what to make next.
I read that next to reading, arts and crafts are the best thing to do with kids. Joaquin and I read about 4 books a day, and he doesn't mind a little craft action at all!

Is 8 months to young to crochet?

take that winter!

I came home for my/Joaquin's lunch/nurse break and my boss called me at home and told me to stay put. This winter storm we are having has brought business to a standstill and they couldn't see the point in me driving back for what might only be another hour before they throw in the towel for the day. Don't say anything, but I was secretly hoping that would happen.
I was dreaming of pad thai and since we just went to Saraga (the best grocery store in Indy), I have all the fixins. While soaking the rice noodles, my husband decided to whip up some raw soup for his raw diet. We have a bunch of tomatoes (from Saraga) to use up

and some jalapenos

That's a big ol' bag of hot peppers. He mixed up a big batch of spicy goodness in the food processor and instead of pad thai, we had some seriously spicy gazpacho!

"Winter Knockout Warm-Up Soup"
12 tomatoes
5 tomatillos
5 jalapeno peppers, seed included
1 whole head garlic, peeled
One small onion, cut in chunks
Half a bunch of cilantro
Himalayan sea salt
garnish with avocado (I put a whole one on my bowl!)

Put all ingredients in the food processor and process untill not quite smooth.
This makes a very, very spicy soup. We love it that way, but if you can't stand the heat, add less jalapeno!

Pad thai tomorrow!
Thanks so much Awesome Husband!

nap time

Joaquin is asleep, napping on the family bed. Getting him to go to bed is a delicate dance. You can't try too early or make him wait too long, and pray that he doesn't startle at that critical moment just before deep sleep. Our first attempt at a nap today was interrupted by Dad as he was moaning out in the kitchen. After about the fifth moan I decided I needed to at least call out and see if he was okay. Joaquin was sooo close to sleep, and when I used my finger to latch off, he screamed. I called out to Dad only to find out that he had a clump of potting soil in his eye. He asked me what I thought. I told him to flush it out and let his eyes work their own magic. Joaquin was now ready to play.
I scooped him up and brought him into the kitchen with me. We made this

Yet another version of "big greeny."
5 whole kale leaves
1 cup of frozen mango
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup cacao nibs
4 medjool dates
T of mesquite powder
T of maca powder
1 cup of pineapple
1/2 cup blueberries
put it all in the vita-mix and tear it up.

Dad is home today and I have to work later. Well, I am supposed to work later but it's possible I'll get snowed in . I'm concerned about going in because I drive home on my lunch break to nurse and it might take way longer than normal.

whoops. guess this nap was a fake out.
talk you you later.