krisalis

Here are two more recipes I tried this weekend that turned out deeeeelicious and that I’m planning on cooking again in the hopefully very near future:

1) Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

I served this sauce over about 12oz of riccia pasta instead of the full pound recommended in the recipe, mainly because I couldn’t fit all the pasta into the saucepan I used to boil the water. I think the sauce-to-pasta ratio was about right though, and there was enough to feed me, Mark, my Mum and Alexander at dinner, with a bowl leftover for me to eat for lunch tomorrow.

The idea of eating just pasta and sauce (even fancy sauce like this) was worrisome to me, so I also cooked up a pan of sliced cremini mushrooms in a little bit of butter to put on top of the dish. The mushrooms were not a necessary part, but I enjoyed them and would probably include them again next time I make this for dinner.

2) Honey Roasted Butternut Squash with Apple and Pecans

I got this recipe from my Mum, who got it from a packet of butternut squash she got at Costco. I never would have gone for this recipe if Mum hadn’t made it for us last weekend for dinner, because I instinctively stay away from savoury type dishes that contain honey. I don’t like sweet vegetables, or sweet meat (honey roasted ham – ick!) or sweet bread (honey wholewheat bread – yeuch!). But this is good! And Alexander loves it! Anything that gets Alexander to willingly eat vegetables = win.

Here’s the recipe (I halved the below quantities when I made it, since I was just cooking for me, Mark and A-train):

1 lb butternut squash, cubed
1 medium baking apple, peeled, cored and cubed (I used a regular Granny Smith apple)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(Serves 5)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put cubed squash and apple in a baking dish (recipe says to use an 8×8 dish, I just used whatever Pyrex dish I had on hand that was a good fit for my ingredients). Add 2 tablespoons of water and roast uncovered stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. (I didn’t stir because I got distracted by the kiddos and I forgot. It turned out fine.)

Meanwhile, combine the butter, honey, pecans, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl. Remove squash from oven and pour honey mix over the squash. Stir lightly to coat.

Return to the oven for another 10minuts, or until cooked through.

Remove from oven and serve.

Oh…I know I said two recipes, but I have one more to share….

3) Baked apples with mincemeat

OK this isn’t so much of a recipe . It’s just my current obsession. We had some apples that needed to be eaten before they turned to mush, and we also had some mincemeat leftover from not making mince pies over Christmas this year. Soooo…..

Core the apple
Fill it with mincemeat
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25mins

So good!

Saturday’s Dinner
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Featuring the unexpectedly delicious brussel sprouts.

I didn’t think it was possible to make brussel sprouts delicious! Brussel sprouts have always been something to be endured. I’ll always eat one or two or sometimes even three if they are served up for Christmas dinner, but I certainly never would have considered going out of my way to consume brussel sprouts. Until now.

We got a bunch of brussel sprouts as part of this week’s veggie box. I initially tried to pass them off to my Mum, but she declined to take them, insisting that I eat them. I had a look on Google (as you do) and came across this recipe. It has 4.5 stars out of a possible 5, has been saved by over 13,000 people. 13,817 people who all love brussel sprouts? Surely not!

The recipe itself seemed simple enough, so I figured I’d give it a go. Worst case, the sprouts would end up uneaten in the bin. Which frankly didn’t seem like it would be such a bad outcome to me.

BUT NO! The brussel sprouts were deeeeelicious! Seriously!

I don’t know if it was because the brussel sprouts were farm fresh, or whether the roasting took out the bitterness and added in some beautiful crunchy goodness, but whatever the combination was, it worked pure magic in the oven.

I love brussel sprouts.

I can’t believe it.

Suzanna is two months old today!

She is growing beautifully, and her little cheeks and thighs seem to be filling out more with each passing day. She also seems to have started growing a new crop of fine, blonde, fuzzy hair on the top of her head. She smiles and coos and is generally a happy little girl, when she’s not dealing with intestinal discomfort.

She naps! Not always in her crib. Sometimes in her car seat or stroller or baby bjorn if we need to be out and about, sometimes in the swing in the kitchen if that’s where the action is, sometimes on my chest as I watch yet another episode of “What Not To Wear” while Alexander takes his afternoon nap.

When she is awake, Suzanna loves to lay on her changing table and watch the butterfly mobile flutter overhead. She also likes her crib mobile and her gymini, and will happily entertain herself for short periods of time cooing and gurgling away. Suzanna is strong! She has been lifting and moving her head for several weeks already, but now when she lifts her head up to look around she reminds me of a meerkat – her back straight as a ramrod, and her eyes huge as she turns her head to take in all that is going on around her. She seems particularly fascinated with whatever Alexander is doing, and her eyes and head will follow his voice and movement around the room.

I took her to her 2 month doctor’s checkup a couple of days ago, and she weighed in at 11lb 12oz and is now 23″ long. Also, after much discussion with the doctor, we decided to try Suzanna on some ranitidine (Zantac) to address some of her post-nursing crying and spitting up to see if it is indeed reflux. After just 2 days on the meds, I already think she is a much happier baby and I’m starting to feel bad that I didn’t take her to the doctor sooner. Ahh, parental guilt, waiting round every corner.

Speaking of which….the Alexander of it all is a challenge. His little world has been turned all around over the past two months with the arrival of Suzanna and starting Montessori. He’s coming home tired and hungry after his long morning of processing new information, and fuses are short. He has to share his Mum and Dad and Grandparents and Aunts and Nanny with his baby sister. Life is tough. In some ways, he’s doing amazingly well. He’s such a big little guy. He’s sharp as a tack and he talks so well and he can be so incredibly sweet and considerate. And then a switch flips and suddenly he’s being a willfully disobedient little turd.

But overall, this little family of mine is doing just fine. A little messy, a little sleep deprived, but generally happy and healthy and really, what more can you ask for?

In the past week, whenever I go to pick Alexander up from school, we have invariably had a conversation that goes something like this:

me: “Hi Alexander! How was school?”
A: “It was fine.”
me: “What did you do today?”
A: “I not do anything.”
me: “Really? Nothing at all?”
A: “Mummy, can you not talk to me right now?”
me: “Uh. OK.”
A: “We need to be quiet.”
me: “Alright then.”

Dear Mum and Dad,

I hereby sincerely apologize for all the hundreds of times that you greeted me after school with “How was school today?” or “What did you do today?” and I answered some variant of “School was fine.” and “Nothing much.”.

Lots of love, Kristen

I finally got around to signing us up to receive a weekly box of locally grown organic vegetables. We’re signed up for 4 weeks initially, so I can test the waters and see how it works out for us.

The first week we did pretty well, and I think the only things we didn’t manage to eat was one of the grapefruits and the bunch of spring onions. The spring onions are still in the fridge though, so we may yet get to them before they expire.

This week, we ploughed through the greens pretty quickly, and all that remains to be consumed is half of the bunch of carrots (we’ll definitely manage to eat the carrots – they are so delicious!), some dill (which I’m planning on using tomorrow to make baked salmon with dill for dinner), some oranges (need to hurry up and eat these – they are super tasty, I’m just lazy about peeling oranges. I like eating them, but hate peeling them) and another bunch of spring onions (guess I need to google some recipes that require spring onions!).

Here’s what I did with the other veggies we received (well, the stuff I can remember):

• carrots – made a big batch of Moosewood carrot soup,then some went into a beef stew I made in the crockpot, and some I just chopped and boiled and we ate them as vegetable side dish.
• sweet potato – made mashed sweet potato as a side dish for dinner
• beets – boiled them and chopped them up into a salad
• radishes – chopped them up and put them in a salad
• three heads of lettuce – the base for the salad, naturally
• kale – chopped it up and cooked it in the wok with a tablespoon of sesame oil, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and a handful of pine nuts. (this may be my favourite thing I’ve made so far!)
• bok choy – cooked it in the wok in a tablespoon of sesame oil and chopped garlic.
• broccoli – steamed it, ate it. Yum, yum, yum.

We’ve got two more weeks of veggie goodness to go until I need to make a decision on whether to keep going with this or not.

Right now, I’m enjoying the process of creating meals around the vegetables, rather than centering meals around meat as a main component. I think it’s a great way to shake up the standard menu rotation at home, because it inspires me to cook new things. I think we’re eating more vegetables and I think it’s a good way to get me and my family to eat produce we may not typically have otherwise chosen. For example, I’m pretty sure I haven’t eaten radishes since I was a little girl, because I thought I didn’t like them. This week, I finally tried them again, and guess what? I love them! They are so crunchy and earthy and generally a good addition to a salad! Mmm!

I think it’s good to show Alexander what carrots and beets and lettuce and whatnot all look like in their natural state, before the supermarkets get hold of them and package only the “correct shape” veg into plastic (no fascinatingly grotesque shapes to be found). A lot of the produce we have received in our veggie box are things that my grandparents used to grow in their garden or on the local allotment, which is where I remember learning where potatoes and carrots and broad beans and peas came from. I’d like Alexander to have a chance to learn in a similar way.

I can see that getting through all the items in the veggie box before they are past their prime could be a challenge. I think we’re up to it.

Veggie Box
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

In the classroom
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

How Is This Comfortable?
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Post milk doze.

My sisters and I all like to participate in running and triathlon and general sporty type events. My youngest sisters, Katie and Lennie, are much much faster and more athletic than Billie and I will ever be, but our Mum is our biggest cheerleader no matter how good we are or what the event actually is. She’ll be there jumping up and down and clapping on the side of the road at ridiculous o’clock on a Sunday morning to watch us zoom or plod by.

So when my Dad was out Christmas shopping with Lennie and spotted a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “support your girls”, it seemed only natural that he should get it for my Mum.

When Mum opened the t-shirt on Christmas day and held it out for all to see, a peal of laughter ran through the room from all the daughters.

Dad was defensive. “What? What is it?” he asked.

Mum clued him in.

“Lennie was with me when I got this! Why? Why didn’t you tell me Lennie?!”

“Because it’s a good shirt! And….it’s funny.”

[For the record, I would also like to point out that Lennie managed to get official t-shirts printed for her entire Women's Track and Field team with [University Name Redacted] WTF on the front. Watch out for her. She can be tricky.]