I smell obsession

I don't know why, maybe it was the cooler weather we had last week, but something put it in my head that I need to start baking bread. All kinds of bread. Yummy, warm, tasty, buttered bread.

I have a recipe that was my grandmother's, and I've made it a few times and it was great. But I wanted something more. So I googled and found some great websites full of artisan bread recipes and holy heck now I want to make bread every single day!

Since all great ideas need to start somewhere, I decided that the best place would be something close to home, but not plain old grandma loaf. I found this great recipe for a rustic Italian bread and away I went.

The recipe seems long, but it's really not a lot of work at all. It's mostly a lot of waiting and planning, but only maybe 20 minutes of actual labor. That's a good deal!

I began my loaves last night (SB asked I one point if I was still "not making bread" while I was waiting for the Biga to rise). I finished them about two hours ago, and I have to say they are delicious. Very nice crust, and a very moist and spongy middle. I am worried I may eat all of the bread before SB gets home tonight.

And, believe it or not, they are pretty too!

so far so good

So far I'm digging the blog revamp.  It feels fresher.  Now on to more important matters.

Myself and my mama friends have been all in a tizzy lately about feeding these wee bairns.  There are so many theories on what's "right" and so, so much information to plow through that it can be a bit overwhelming.  Luckily, we are about ten moms, all with kids around the same age, all with different ideas, and all open to sharing them, so we are very efficient about pooling information and taking from it what works for our families.

The first 6 months, however frustrating they may be, are actually a no-brainer in the baby diet department.  I am of a mind that there can be no argument that breast milk is best for an infant.  All the studies in all the world-over agree that this is the case.  Seems simple, but breast feeding may not be best for every family.  And that's fine, because, wouldn't you know it, there is another choice that is pretty great and it's called formula.  So if you can't/choose not to feed baby Option #1, Option #2 is still pretty fantastic and your baby will live and thrive.  That's it, the end.

I miss those simple, simple days.  We did a little of everything at our house - breastfed, pumped and bottlefed breastmilk, then when I lost my milk we started on formula.  The transition between all stages was smooth, no nipple confusion, no digestion issues, and no concerns about seriously fucking up my kid's digestive system.

Now we're in FOOD territory.  Admittedly, we started food very early.  I read all kinds of books and articles and everything except the pediatrician said that after 4 months if the kid seems game, go with it slowly.  So that's what we did, at almost 5 months.  We chose to go the traditional route and offer purees of various fruits, veggies, and cereals, one at a time in small quantities.  (I have a friend who is doing Baby Led Weaning, and am rather jealous that her baby is into whole solids - M gags at the smallest lump in her velvety purees - Priss.) 

And so far it's going well.  M loves to eat (most of the time) and the only things she will consistently turn her nose up at are meats and lumps in the purees.  She seems to love all flavors, it's the textures that are the problem.  The only digestive issue was a few weeks in:  whoever the hell thought it would be a good idea to suggest rice cereal, bananas, and carrots as first foods without issuing a disclaimer that they are all BINDING should be shot.  Perhaps it should have been obvious to me that she shouldn't eat all of these food within the same 24 hour period, but it wasn't, and our poor little Chicken was crying while she tried to pass one of her first solid stools which was WAY too solid.  (no other instances of this since I clued in to which foods should go together and which shouldn't.  And we also keep prunes on hand for such emergencies as they tend to get things going pretty quickly.)

SQUASH

Now it's time to worry about the big things, namely highly allergenic foods and when to introduce them.  My major concern is actually with wheat/gluten because I know several people with Celiac's disease and it is nasty.  Previous theories said you should hold off on wheat until baby is older, but there are some new studies that say introducing it earlier is actually better... And some of our mama friends from Israel have never seen peanut allergies there, where peanuts aren't withheld. 

So, for any mamas I haven't already had this kind of convo with, if you can add something to the mix please do.  How did you deal with allergenic foods?  Any advice for stressed out parents who don't want to break their kid?  (I'm pretty sure the warranty ran out a while ago....)

the root of it

Another birthday has come and gone. Meh.

Actually, Saturday night was amazingly fun - dinner out with my ladies. I wish one of us had a birthday every week because we have such a great time when we get together. They spoiled me, as always, not only with their lovely and thoughtful gifts, but with their presence, love, and laughter.

Monday, my actual birthday, was underwhelming. SB and I had lunch together, which was great, then in the evening we did a rousing round of groceries. Probably my least favorite thing in the world, and there we were for two hours grocerizing. Ugh. We made up for it Tuesday night by visiting a French restaurant I've been dying to try for months and months. The food was fantastic, plus it's bring your own wine which is always a bonus.

And that's the story of my birthday. SB asked me yesterday when I was going to blog again, and I said I would when I had something nice to say. And those are all nice things. Fantastic things. But my heart is hurting.

I have one more year to thirty, which is possibly the most depressing sentence I've typed in my whole life. I never thought turning thirty would bother me, but now as it approaches, and I take stock of my life, this is not where I thought I'd be. I may not be the most ambitious person, but it doesn't mean I didn't have goals for myself, and as thirty approaches those goals seem ever so far away, and I feel completely jammed up in a life that is totally preventing me from even taking a step in the right direction. I know I have a lot of good things, and a lot of great things, but I'm not who I want to be, and sometimes nothing is worse than being disappointed in yourself and feeling like you can't change it.

I love the President!

No, not that president.

Those of us here in the great white north frequent a grocery chain called Loblaw's. Other grocery stores under the Loblaw's umbrella are: Maxi, Provigo, Superstore..... probably others out west that I am unaware of.

Anyway, these stores have a store brand called PC - the President's Choice. I don't know who this president is, but (s)he rocks my world. You want butter chicken frozen dinners? The President has chosen a recipe, and it is fantastic. Samosas to go with? The President has a quick solution (although I would love to do these in the deep fryer, but have yet to do so). Want a more natural, clumping, flushable cat litter? The President has developed a magic formula for you, and it's cheap! Cheaper than that other wheat stuff. And don't even get me started on the hot chocolate.

Not those kinds of night sweats

Guess where I was when the time changed????

I was lying on the floor of my bathroom trying to get every inch of my bare skin to touch the cool cool tile while I sweated out....something. If I had been in my right mind I might have removed my sweatpants, but at least I got the legs pulled up. And I was also too busy putting the bathroom trash into a garbage bag and then removing the plastic bucket part of the garbage so that I could go lay down on the sofa next to an open window and still have something to puke in, while trying to remain prostrate on the cool cool tile.

I'm still not sure what the hell was going on. I woke up cramping and puky, and ran to the bathroom wherein the sweating began. After about 30 minutes in there I thought it was safe to retreat to the sofa, where there was NO television worth watching on any of our 400 channels so I finished the book I was reading and drank water. I finally went back to bed around 4/3 o'clock and had nightmares and tossed and turned, but did not throw up.

Then this morning I felt all better.

I am blaming the whole thing on some frozen appetizers we ate yesterday (fully cooked, of course) even though SB didn't get sick at all. Because it's either those or steak, and if it's steak, I might kill myself.

I have fallen in love with Fall

Finally! Fall is finally here! The temperature has chilled, the air is crisp, the leaves are falling, and all is right with the world. Due to global warming fall came a bit late this year, but now we are full speed ahead. One thing that did confuse me a bit was the fact that the leaves began to change color before the temperature drop. This goes against everything I learned in Ecology 101 (literally, we did a 3 week project on leaf-changes, and leafy vs deciduous tree growth based on altitude) wherein the theory would be that the leaves lose all their chlorophyll as the tree sucks it back in so it can survive the winter. And the trigger for the chlorophyll sucking? Cold. So I guess our crazy "theories" were only partially right, and that trees follow some sort of circadian rhythm as well.

Anyway, there are many many things I love about fall, not the least of which is our new fireplace. We moved at the end of April, just in time for air conditioning season, which I was equally delighted by, but it has been pretty freakin' fantastic curling up in front of the fireplace on the weekend and reading the paper and falling asleep with my kitty all cuddled up with me.

I also love the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, so have been having one or two of those a week to celebrate the season.

The group walks have been fun, because there are no bugs this time of year and you are rarely drenched in sweat because it's nice and cool. The bad parts: it's burr season, so the two terriers I walk are generally full of them by the end of the walk; it's fat squirrel season, so I need to keep my eye on dogs chasing the sloooooooow squirrels to be sure no one grabs one, and that no one gets grabbed by one.

In honor of fall, I am making my first ever pot roast (it just kinda feels like a fall/winter kinda meal, don't you think?). I have made many a roast beef and roast chicken/turkey, and I have braised my fair share of slabs of meat as well, but I have never tried a pot roast, so away we go. It is currently simmering away and smells delish. I am not looking forward to my run with all those smells wafting into the spare room while I'm on the treadmill!

VDC strikes again

Actually, VDC has been quite good these past few days. He's becoming more used to us, so he will actually chance it and wander into the hallway before hissing and spitting at us. This morning I arrived along with one of our employees, and while she was preparing the injection, I was shooing him out from under the bed.

The bed has a wooden frame, but it's a platform bed, so it's not very tall, as there is no boxed spring. I have moved this bed twice a day for the past week or so, but for some reason today when I pushed it (knees bent, both hands), I twisted in a weird way and totally wrenched my back. My lower back so of course now it hurts to stand and sit and stuff. VDC is ruining my life. And I don't even want to sit with the heating pad because it's so bloody hot outside anyway, and I feel like it would be dumb to be sitting inside, in the A/C, heating up my back.

I just finished reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, and I have to say that it was quite enjoyable. I really love her writing style, and I wish she had been able to finish it. If you are looking for something to read this summer that is not too fluffy, I would suggest this book. I was a bit worried because I had just read Night by Elie Wiesel, and wasn't sure I really wanted to read another book about WWII, since Night is pretty depressing. But Suite Francaise is about the German occupation of France, which I had never read anything about, and it was about how different people dealt with it, all through the social classes.

In other summer news, our pepper and tomato plants are slowly producing fruits. I took two orange cherry tomatoes off one this morning, and two super-hot peppers off another. I'm not sure why we got so many hot pepper plants - I don't even think we'll eat them. But the little tomatoes taste SOOOO good! Too bad we only get like two tomatoes every three weeks.

One thing to smile about.

One super fun thing that happened last week that I forgot to mention - my Mummy brought SB and I some super yummy lobster! We had a fabulous feast on Thursday evening, and it was AWESOME.

When I was little, I would only eat the "Little Legs" of the lobster - I liked to squish the meat out using my teeth. Then I graduated to eating those and claws, when they were properly cracked for me. I eventually was able to crack them myself. A few years ago I got over my phobia of eating the tail - the digestive tract runs along the top of the tail, and I was always terrified I would accidentally eat part of it and die. But now I am confident in my poop-peeling ability.

I still refuse to eat anything in the body/head of the lobster. SB tried to get me to dig into the meat on the side of the "ribs", but I kept getting these crunchy parts which really skeeved me. And don't get me started on the gross green stuff. Once I got all crazy and tried the red eggs, but quickly spit them out. So dry and gross they remind me of peas, which I HATE. Not that they taste like peas, but the texture is close.

I remembered the lobster feast this morning, and smiled. But I remembered it because I scratched my hands up breaking open the tail. And that memory was triggered by the fact that I spent the morning trying to give an insulin injection to a pissed off cat, who then scratched up my entire arm and hand, then shit in the closet.

I'm not loving my job so much this week.

Happy Thursday!

I just finished eating a ridiculously disgusting number of tacos. Homemade, with tons of veggies, but tacos none the less. Yum. The even more disgusting part? I would eat another one right now if SB hadn't been giving me weird looks that suggested he may leave my ass if I took one more bite.

For lunch today I had Subway, which I haven't had in a while. I was pretty excited, until the girl asked what I wanted.

"A 6" Spicy Italian on Brown.

She turned around to grab the bread, but grabbed the Italian bread.

- No, brown bread please.

She smiled and mumbled okay, grabbed a brown bread, then cut the bread, then asked what kind of meat I wanted.

- The Spicy Italian.

- You said you wanted brown

- Yes, brown bread, but Spicy Italian sub.

This confused her, so she called over one of her cohorts.

- Spicy Italian please.

- That's a kind of bread.

- No....I'm pretty sure it's a sandwich. It's listed right there under the BMT - see - on the menu there...

They both stared blankly at me, then called over another cohort.

- Can I have a Spicy Italian sandwich please?

- Sure....

Then he went on to explain it to the two other dimwits.

The rest of my sandwich construction went okay, until it came time for the sauce.

- Mayo please

Another blank stare.

- Mayonnaise? Mayo.....

Still staring blankly, then she calls over smart guy who knew what sub I was talking about and told him she couldn't understand what sauce I wanted. He looked at me.

- Mayo - I would like to have mayo."

He turned to her, and I sweart to god, said "Mayo." And then she put mayo.

Off my meds again...

Thus, randomness abounds. Sorry about that, but I keep finding myself thinking of millions of funny little things a day.

My whole life I hated mayonnaise. I'm not sure why, but for about 25 years the very sight of it skeeved me. When I worked at McDonald's I refused to make the McLobster without rubber gloves on because I didn't want to get any of the lobster/mayo mixture on my hands. I was lost and starving at many many many functions because people serve two things at gatherings for lots of people: macaroni/potato salads and chicken/egg salad finger sandwiches. I ate a hell of a lot of crudite.

Then, three years ago I suddenly got over it. I think it was the appeal of the yummy greasy Moe's french fries served alongside the mayo, but I gave mayo a try. Now I have been spending the last three years trying all kinds of things I previously wouldn't eat. Here are some things I have been particularly enjoying:
1) egg salad sandwiches - I eat about two a week. So good.
2) fries and mayo - nuff said
3) fries and flavored mayo from Frite Alors, the Belgian fry place down the street.
4) McChicken sandwich, which I previously ate with only ketchup, but which is so much better with mayo
5) Wendy's Bad Burger (aka Big Bacon Classic) - I used to order the regular burger with only ketchup. This is way better.


All of this to say, I think I have deduced how that extra 15 pounds crept up on me.

No Grec for Me

I have decided to change what my blog looks like. I chose this template in a rush, just because I was anxious to get started. But now, I find it is depressing me, so hopefully within the next few days you will see a new look on my site. Also, hopefully, this new look will not fuck up the work I've done here so far.

The long weekend has been pretty great so far, with a nice mix of relaxation and activity. We thought we would maybe go to the Bishop's home opener football game today, but then with the price of gas at $1.40/L, we thought we would forego this excursion until maybe Homecoming. No Village Grec for me.

For those of you who do not know, Village Grec is like no other diner in the world. That I know of. Grec has the best souvlaki I have ever had, even better than what I had in Greece. I never go to Lennoxville without having Grec souvlaki. They also have the best poutine in the world. And they serve this poutine with the aforementioned souvlaki. So, we have a Greek/French Canadian restaurant in a predominantly Anglo town, and it's owned by some Asian family. Whatever, I don't care what the recipe is, their food is damn good.