No Whey, Mama

Dude, it's -5 degrees outside, and I didn't put the trash out till evening. It takes some kind of commitment to tear a hole in every single bag of trash I put out, including the food-filled kitchen bags that were in the closed trash can.

We have mice.

Alternative title: I suck, but these books sure don't!

Yeah. Don't send me anything if you want a timely review. I think that's the lesson to be learned here. Sigh.

5:20 pm--Notice wet, warm feeling on leg while holding baby on lap. Pat baby on back to calm him. Notice wet, warm feeling on hand.

I have a six-week old in my house. I don't know how that happened. Soon he'll be off to college and I'll be weeping for my babies. Although his sister will be 27 at that point, so maybe the gap between children at home and grandparenthood won't be that big. Yes, this is what I think about.

Well, I'm not on bedrest like Sarah, and I'm not having problems leading to a C-section tomorrow like Theresa, (Our babies will be birthday twins!) but I AM being induced tomorrow morning because of another big baby. That makes me four for four, people. Woot.

More soon when Baby Boy arrives. Hope all is well with you!

We've been getting soooo many greens in our CSA box, and I've been trying to get the kids to choke them down. We've had success with:
Ranch Dressing
Zippy Little Vinaigrette (scroll down)

Thousand Island (Thank you, Internet!)
1 c. mayo
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. sweet relish

Teriyaki Dressing from Guerrilla Cooking
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. teriyaki sauce
1 t. sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

Happy salad making, Happy Fourth of July, and Happy twelfth anniversary to Scott and me.

I am here. I am fine. The family is fine. The baby is fine. I am just the worst Internet friend in the history of Teh Internetz, that's all.

I miss you, and I appreciate your messages so much. I don't even have an excuse, except to say that I hit some sort of blogging wall and needed to be quiet for a little bit, and that little bit turned into, um, months.

This week is VBS, so we'll be out of the house a lot, but I'll catch up more soon.

I try to get back into blogging and what happens? I get a horrible spybot thing on my computer. Thank goodness I'm married to a computer guy who's fixing it as I speak. As I type. Whatever.

Back soon....

Why yes, I am the worst blogger who ever blogged. Thank you for asking. We are all fine. I just took a tiny break that ended up lasting a month.

As I say, we're all doing well, including the baby, who we found out today is a healthy boy!

More soon. I've missed you. (Although I have been keeping up pretty well in my reader.)

Here's another recipe from that old cookbook of my mom's, How I Feed My Family on 16ドル a Week: brownies without chocolate called, um, "Whiteys." I told Scott that we should probably call them something else, but he insists we keep the original name.

Whiteys

1/3 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup raisins (I leave out the raisins.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan. Melt shortening in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and raisins, if using. Spread batter in pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cool slightly and cut into squares.

I'm sure these would be good with frosting or chocolate chips instead of raisins, but we do like them plain.

Hey! I can talk about food without gagging!

Because of some combination of Spring cleaning/nesting/guilt over how many Runs for The Border Scott's made for me/worrying about money, I straightened out our top-loading deep freezer on Monday to get an idea of what we have in there that needs to be used up.

We have:
LOTS of blueberries
various cuts of venison
lots of cooked, mashed pumpkin and squash
freezer jam: strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and that failed batch of raspberry I use to make dairy-free ice cream
three jars of pesto
two jars of roasted tomato sauce
one jar of tomatillo salsa
dairy-free cupcakes and cookies for school and birthday parties
one bag of cranberries
herbs and spices

Last night I used:
two bags of blueberries and the last bag of peaches in a pie with sugar glaze
the last three bags of zucchini in a casserole (adapted to be dairy free, of course)
two pounds of venison chops
and six brown bananas in two loaves of banana bread

I can cook again! I've really missed it.

Here's what's for dinner:

Gone All Day Stew

1 cup pasta sauce or 1 can tomato soup + 1 T. Italian seasoning
1 cup water mixed with 1/4 c. flour till smooth
1-2 lbs. beef stew meat cubes
1/2 bag baby carrots or same amount of carrot chunks
1 large onion cut into eighths
4 medium potatoes cut into chunks
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 8 oz. container of mushrooms (I'm using canned today because that's what I have.)
2 dairy-free beef bouillon cubes
pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

Cook in a slow cooker on low all day or in a Dutch oven at 275 degrees for 4-5 hours. Five minutes before serving, add 3/4 c. frozen peas. A glug of red wine is good, too, if you have it. In the stew, I mean.

Maybe it's because I have a child who watches H.S. Musical AND children who watch Sesame Street, but this gets me every. Single. Time.

[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/wGMB7Rn8KGE&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Tired of hiding food you don't like in your napkin or saying your stomach hurts? Try this excuse:
"Um, Mom? I'm allergic to spicy foods now, I think."

Hey, it works for your sister about dairy.

Everything appears to be fine with the one (Sorry, Swistle) baby. Thank you so much for talking me down yesterday.

I love love love the technician at my OB's office because she explains what she's doing/looking for during the ultrasound. She said that everything looks good from her point of view, although the information will be correlated with blood work, etc.

Then she asked me if I was going to find out the gender.
Me: "Yes."
Tech:"Well, it's a little early right now."
Me: "Right. I figured."
Tech: "I'm just going to play around for a few minutes."
*She proceeds to look at the baby from all different angles, stopping when she gets a good between the legs shot.*
Tech: "It's early, but if I had to make a guess, I'd say it's a boy. See? Right there?"
Me: "Wow! Are you going to give me odds?"
Tech, laughing: "No. We'll know for sure in a few weeks."

!!!

So we'll see, but I can't help planning bedroom rearrangements and getting excited. I know Eli will be happy, too. "If the baby is a girl, it will belong to Katherine and Helen, but if it's a boy, it will belong to me."