I've been thinking this week about how my mom and Bill are going to France this summer, and I'm a little jealous but mostly just excited for them. So that means I've also been thinking about French food. A lot. African hot chocolate at Angelina in Paris. Tarte au poisson and Kir Royal at a bistro in Rouen. Crepes from a street vendor in the Jardin des Tuileries. Croque monsieur sandwiches, pretty much anywhere. On this rainy day, in which I was sorely disappointed not to go to the Rex parade in NOLA and desperately needed something to help me embrace the rain, I couldn't get savory crepes out of my head. Crepes made with salt and herbs instead of sugar and vanilla, wrapped around roasted chicken, mushrooms, and potatoes, and topped with just a smidge of gravy. La Madeleine has something like this on their menu, but it's overly salty and has too much gravy, so I decided I could do better myself.

I can roast a pretty great chicken, but this seemed to need the ease of a rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chickens remind me of France, too; the apartment I stayed in in Nice was right next to an open market, and I walked past the rotisserie chickens every morning on my way to school. Even at 8 a.m., it's a great smell. Plus, there's that lovely scene from Amélie where she's describing everything to a blind man at breakneck pace, including a child who's watching a dog who's watching some chickens spin on a rotisserie.

The chicken already taken care of, I diced some potatoes and onions, quartered some mushrooms, and threw the vegetables into a roasting dish with olive oil, salt and pepper, and herbes de Provence. They did their thing in a 425 degree oven while we watched Jeopardy! (it comes on at 4:30 here, freakishly), and then I made the gravy and crepes. For the crepes, I used Alton Brown's recipe and followed the "savory" guidelines, using fresh parsley from my garden for the herbs. The gravy had to be vegetarian, because Jack was having the same thing I was having, minus the chicken, so I made a roux and then added a cup of vegetable broth, some dried thyme, and some fresh parsley. I simmered it until it was thick, while I was cooking the crepes, then rolled everything together like a big French enchilada and spooned some gravy on top. Et voilà. It was done.

I had meant to steam some broccoli with it (since the green beans at the store looked horrible) but about five minutes before everything else was done, I realized I had forgotten the broccoli. It would have been nice to have a fresh vegetable, but we did just fine. And I realized that even buying a whole chicken, I fed all of us for less than I would've spent on the thing from La Madeleine.

One bite into it, I knew it was better than La Madeleine's, anyway.

Best rainy day meal I've had in quite some time.

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures, photography, travel

• posted by erica 3/08/2011 07:26:00 PM
•  3 comments

A friend of mine, who's looking to expand her cooking repertoire, mentioned recently that she wants to learn to poach eggs. Ever since I heard her say those magic words, I've really wanted some. My favorite horrible-for-me breakfast is called Eggs Ponchartrain, served at a local restaurant called The Chimes: it consists of poached eggs on top of a toasted croissant, topped with hollandaise, bacon, and fried oysters. It's SO good. And I feel kind of gross after I eat it. I dialed back the heaviness when I poached eggs tonight, keeping the croissant factor (because why wouldn't you??) and doing a sliced tomato and a mozzarella sauce on top. To keep the seafood factor, mine got some sautéed garlic shrimp on top, too. We also had roasted asparagus, because asparagus always seems happy to sit next to a poached egg.

I've poached eggs a couple of times in the past, and they're passable, even though they usually turn out rather ugly. The pot gets to be a total mess, too, with egg white bits floating everywhere. I used Emeril's procedure this time, since it's slightly intimidating to poach an egg and I feel like I need explicit directions when things are slightly intimidating. I roasted the asparagus and sautéed the shrimp first. (For the record, Papa John's garlic sauce is *excellent* for sautéing shrimp. It's also excellent in grits, mashed potatoes, and just about anything else I think to cook with it.) Then I put the croissants in the warm oven as I turned my attention to the eggs and cheese sauce. The eggs drained on a paper towel while I finished the cheese sauce and sliced the tomatoes, and everything came together pretty well. Quick, delicious. Highly recommended.

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures, photography

• posted by erica 5/04/2010 08:02:00 PM
•  2 comments

Our day yesterday got started like this...



...and it just kept getting better, somehow. My nesting instinct was in full-force as I did a ton of cleaning, lending an air of non-horribleness to our guest bathroom, our kitchen, and our dining room table, all of which were somewhat out of control. We ate a peaceful, early lunch when we both got hungry. There were many morning poops in the training pants, and a lot of laundry before noon, but after that, he stayed dry for the entire rest of the day. We had a fun trip to Hobby Lobby for yarn. Kent took a two-hour (!) nap while I started a sweater for Dean. We had a Mommy/Kent date while Jack had his weekly study night. Then we came home, Jack put Kent to bed, and then Jack and I watched Wednesday's Top Chef before turning in. All good.

The sweater is this Baby Yoda Sweater by Cari Luna, the same pattern I used to knit Kent a sweater before he was born. I ended up not liking the marled yellow yarn I used for Kent's, but I was in a phase of wanting to make things that were gender neutral, you know, just in case. Well, now that we're having another boy, I thought, "The heck with all that. This kid is wearing some BLUE!"

I perused Hobby Lobby's growing section of natural-fiber yarns and found a lovely cotton blend called Eco-Cotton by Red Heart, the makers of that cheap, bright acrylic stuff that's in every elementary school and Sunday school craft closet in the country. This yarn is pretty far removed from the craft closet stuff. It's made of 75% recycled cotton (from old T-shirt remnants) and 25% acrylic. Yarn with acrylic in it isn't usually my first choice these days, but I needed something soft and washable, and this seems perfect.

Here's the bottom few inches of the back of the sweater so far. I'm using Midnight Marl (navy with hints of green and purple) for the hem, the ends of the sleeves, and the ties, and Vanilla for the body of the sweater. There might be coordinating booties and a hat, if I make it that far. It's going to be cold for about a month after Dean is born, but after that, he should be able to wear a lot of the short-sleeved stuff we had for Kent. Also, since Mardi Gras is a few weeks after our due date, I'm thinking he needs some sort of awesome outfit for that, or at least a cool hat. I wonder if there are baby jester hats... maybe I'll attempt to sew a purple, green, and gold sun hat. I'm cracking up at the mental image of our newborn boy in a sling, wearing a Mardi Gras hat to the parades.

Our date yesterday evening was fantastic, definitely Kent's best trip to a restaurant in a while. I decided to take advantage of the fact that Jack wasn't around to eat a food he would be REALLY glad he missed: crab legs. It completely grosses him out to watch me eat them, which I don't blame him for at all, but I still need a fix every once in a while. So to Joe's Crab Shack we went, armed with a certificate for a free kids meal that we earned from the library's summer reading program. We wore funny paper bibs that said, "Let's get crackin'!" Kent had fried shrimp, corn on the cob, and extra French fries because they brought out the wrong plate at first. And I had a big bucket of crab legs, along with some corn on the cob and some delicious herbed red potatoes that got boiled in the same delicious garlic & herb stuff they put the crab in. YUM. I ate the whole thing, plus a few of Kent's crunchy shrimp with cocktail sauce.

We took a potty break in the middle of the meal, and then I convinced Kent to stay in his seat (our main challenge at restaurants these days, because he wants us to hold him before we're done eating) by giving him the toy shark they had brought with his kids meal. I think every restaurant needs to give a toy with their kids meals, because this shark kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes while I finished eating. Hallelujah. The shark was hollow and had a huge mouth, so Kent pretended to feed it some of his orange juice, a lemon, a French fry... you get the idea. It was incredibly cute, as is all of the imaginary play he's just starting to do. The shark even took a bath with him when we got home.

Having dates with Kent is kind of funny, since I spend 10 hours alone with him every weekday. It's like a grown-up date, though, in that it's a different, special, fun thing, and I do feel like it gave us a chance to reconnect. We won't go out for every one of Jack's study nights, especially not to a place where I'd spend that much on dinner, but it was a good choice to cap off a wonderful day with my boy.

Labels: craftiness, Dean, eating out, Kent, photography, SAHM, video

• posted by erica 9/25/2009 09:02:00 AM
•  2 comments

I got peed on a lot today. By Kent. Who also peed all over himself. In a public restroom. And the bag with all of his extra clothes and training pants was out by our table.

I’m glad we’re potty training right now. Really, I love helping Kent enter this new stage of independence, and I enjoy seeing the progress he’s making. I think he’s going to get the hang of everything soon enough, and I’m not putting any pressure on him or myself to get it done in any certain amount of time. He’s been diaper-free (except for the occasional long car ride) for weeks now. What that means for my day-to-day life at this moment, however, is a lot of laundry, a lot of timers, a lot of hand-holding to the bathroom, a lot of helping him pull down his pants and then pull them back up when he’s done, a lot of thinking, “Now, how long has it been since he had that huge glass of water??”, a lot of coaching and “you can do it” talk when he’s trying reluctantly to poop on the potty, and a lot of stickers on the potty sign in the bathroom to mark his progress. Frankly, sometimes I get tired of the many steps we have to go through when we’re out, because it means we have to take off his shoes, shorts, and training pants every time he sits on the potty, then put them all back on, and doing that every hour all day gets tiring.

Kent and I were at lunch by ourselves today, one of us happily devouring Indian food while the other happily devoured goldfish crackers, naan (soft Indian bread), two bites of curry chicken, five kernels of corn from the vegetable korma, and a bowl and a half of mango ice cream. We also both drank copious amounts of water. Most of the way through the meal, I knew it was time to take Kent to the potty, but I didn’t want to take all my stuff with me and have them think I had skipped out on my bill or something, so I left the diaper bag at the table. Mistake # 1. Lately, at home, I’ve been teaching him when he sits down on his little potty on the floor that he can leave his training pants around his ankles instead of kicking them all the way off, making it easier to pull them back up by himself, so I thought I might try that in this restroom so that I didn’t have to take off his shoes, his shorts, and his training pants. Since he’d have all that stuff binding his ankles together, I figured I could just sit him on the front edge of the potty facing forward, instead of facing backward like we do when he’s naked. Mistakes #2 and #3.

The universe decided that I needed a clear, obvious demonstration of exactly how profoundly stupid those ideas were. The minute I got Kent’s shorts and training pants down around his ankles and sat him on the front edge of the toilet, his pee shot out in a strong parabolic curve that went straight over the toilet seat and onto everything in its path. His shorts, his training pants, his Crocs, my shorts, my legs, my sandals (and therefore my feet), and the floor. He doesn’t have enough control to stop peeing, even if he sees that it’s making life rather difficult for his mom, so he just kept peeing, and I tried the hardest I could in those roughly 15 seconds to aim his pee anywhere but straight out. I managed to point him down for a little bit, but that mostly just made the pee go through that little gap between the toilet seat and the toilet bowl, meaning it still got out and onto the aforementioned surfaces. And then, finally, it was over.

Ack.

I didn’t panic, but I did grab as many paper towels as I could to clean up as much of the floor mess as I could, and I did count my blessings that nobody else was in the bathroom at the time. I also tried as hard as I could to mentally kick my own ass for being so stupid. It reminds me of something I’ve heard about airplane crashes: when a plane malfunctions and crashes, for whatever reason, it’s never just one thing that goes wrong. There has to be a whole chain of things that go wrong in order for a plane to go down.

Lesson for today: don’t be an idiot, Erica. Take the diaper bag with you whether you think you need it or not, don’t worry what the restaurant people might think of you, take the pants all the way off, and never, EVER forget the ridiculous fact of nature that boys pee straight out, not down like you do.

Labels: eating out, Kent, observations, SAHM

• posted by erica 9/03/2009 02:53:00 PM
•  4 comments

Tonight's dinner, a made-up recipe inspired by a dish I had at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen a couple of months ago...

Artichoke Pesto Ravioli

1 20 oz package cheese ravioli
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, diced
6-8 baby portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and well-rinsed
1 cube frozen pesto (thawed) or 3 Tbsp jarred pesto
zest of 1 lemon
½ to 1 cup half and half or heavy cream

Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling, then cook ravioli according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and cook for 2 minutes until beginning to soften, then add mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes more. Add garlic, toss to combine, and salt all vegetables to taste. Cook another minute or so, then add artichoke hearts, pesto, and lemon zest, and stir to combine. Add half and half to vegetable mixture, cover and reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer a few minutes until slightly thickened. Keep warm until ravioli are ready, then toss cooked ravioli with sauce and vegetables. Simmer a few minutes longer if sauce is still too thin. Top with cheese if desired (though it really isn't necessary), and serve immediately with lots of good bread. Give extra artichokes to your spouse if s/he likes them more than you do, because there are a lot in there.

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures

• posted by erica 8/27/2009 06:36:00 PM
•  1 comments

To combat the craziness of a rare afternoon with no naps (not my decision, you understand), Kent and I took a little jaunt out to our favorite sushi place. He told me before we left that he didn't want sushi, which didn't shock me at all, so I asked him what snack he'd like to bring and he decided on pretzels. When it was time to order, I ordered a tempura bento box, figuring I could share anything from it that Kent was interested in eating, and then Kent turned to the server and told her in his garbled two-year-old voice, "K want PRETZELS!" I chuckled and explained that he wanted the pretzels I had brought for him, and she thought it was pretty funny once she figured out what he had said.

He's started talking to restaurant servers a lot, even telling them what he wants from the menu if we've talked to him beforehand about what he wants to eat. For example, we went to a seafood place a few weeks ago, and he piped right up and told our server that he wanted shrimp. He said it in all caps, with an exclamation point, of course. It reminds me so much of a story my dad used to tell me, about how when I was a little kid, I once looked a server in the eye and said, "I'd like shrimp, and french fries, and milk." She looked at my dad and asked if that was okay, and he just smiled and shrugged and said, "If that's what she wants!" Of course, this sort of thing can only go so far — I probably wouldn't let Kent order a root beer float or a $100 margarita for dinner — but I think it's pretty awesome that he's already confident enough to order his own meal.

At one point during our lunch today, after he felt that he was getting to know our server, Kent told me that he wanted to tell her about the airplane we were on last weekend. At first, I thought, "Yeah, great, she's going to have no idea what you're talking about and won't be nearly as excited as you are." But when she came back to the table, he started telling her everything that was on his plate (rice, grapes, and pretzels), and then he mentioned the airplane. I translated for him, and she said, "Wow, I've never been on an airplane! Was it fun?" He elaborated by telling her that it was really fast.

She asked if he liked watermelon, and I said he sometimes did but I was never sure from one day to the next. She brought him a little bowl of watermelon a few minutes later, and he really enjoyed it. When she came back later to bring the check, we thanked her again for bringing the watermelon, and he said (while waving his hands in the air to sign), "Watermelon all DONE!" She laughed at just about everything he said the whole time, and they bid each other a fond goodbye when it was time for us to leave.

Soon, he's going to be asking for their phone numbers, I just know it.

Labels: eating out, Kent

• posted by erica 8/19/2009 04:28:00 PM
•  3 comments

People in Louisiana say that someone "makes" a certain age rather than "turning" it, as in, "He just made 2 last week," and it always sounds funny to me, like it was some big accomplishment that the child got to another year in one piece.

Anyway, my boy is 2. Wow. He's practically a grown-up.

The birthday yesterday was great fun. We rushed around in the morning, making wraps and a last-minute run to the grocery store for ice and other essentials, and we got to the sprayground a little before 10 to set everything up. Friends trickled in over the next half hour, and we had a small but very nice little group to help celebrate. It's really too hot to have an outdoor party in July, even though we were in the shade, so we'll have to hold off on doing that anymore until we move to a cooler region. Someone mentioned to me yesterday that having a February baby seemed like a great plan to contrast our summer boy.

We had a book swap for all the kids so that everyone got to leave with a new book, and the kids all enjoyed playing in the water, eating the Nemo cake, and investigating their treat bags. Our camera forgot to come with us, so I'll have to get photos from friends to fill you in on the visual aspect of the party. Much food was consumed and celebrating done, but heat and naptimes forced us all to leave by about 12:30.

Kent and I both took a long nap when we got home — the sprayground is very skilled at making him tired enough to sleep 2+ hours, so that was nice. When he finally woke up a little after 3, he and Jack got father/son birthday haircuts (Kent is SO calm during the haircut process, which always makes me feel very lucky), and then we came back home to give him a few presents, including some from friends and family. We've been spacing out his presents from us over the last several days, and he'll have more arriving in the mail soon, so he gets a nice long, extended birthday celebration with a new toy/activity each day instead of a flood of new presents. We learned this past Christmas that he's really not impressed by opening a bunch of stuff all at once; one toy at a time is plenty for him, which is reassuring and lots of fun for us, too.

After presents, we went to Izzo's (a local burrito place like Qdoba and Chipotle) for dinner, one of my favorite joints that has food we all really enjoy, and Kent got phone calls from many people who wanted to sing to him and/or otherwise wish him a Happy Birthday. He loves helping to sing Happy Birthday to other people, supplying the "you" at the end of each line of the song, so he got a big kick out of hearing it directed toward him. Actually, when I sang it to him in the morning, he told me afterward that he wanted to sing it to me next, so I tried to explain that it was only his birthday, not mine. Sweet, no?

Kent played with some of his new stuff for a little while longer after we got home, and then we put our loving, funny boy to sleep and bid his birthday adieu. Jack and I were both in bed by 9:30, a true rarity these days. Generally what has been happening since I've started feeling rotten is that I go to bed by 9, and Jack stays up catching up on chores and wasting time on the internet until 10:30 or 11 since I'm not around to make him go to bed, though he always regrets it in the morning. I insisted that he get some sleep last night, even though there were many dishes in the kitchen and other stuff he could have been doing. He's a real superdad these days, picking up all the slack I'm leaving all over the house. I'm already coming up with ways to make it up to him once I start feeling better (in addition to the fact that he, like me, gets a baby at the end of it).

I'm amazed that Kent is 2, and yet it's also completely expected and normal. We were having a little talk the evening before his birthday, him sitting naked in my lap before his bath, about the day he was born and how exciting it all was. I told him he was all wet and wrinkly, but he was beautiful and had a wonderful nose and great eyelashes, in addition to just being an amazing gift to Jack and me.

This year has seen him walk, run, start to use real language and amuse us with all the strange things he says, make friends, develop an interest in Sesame Street and Finding Nemo and Hello Dolly and all his other favorites, learn new methods of destruction, learn to throw a ball, talk on the phone with his grandparents, share, take, whine, whisper, sing, rhyme, clap, march, tiptoe, water plants, drink from a big boy cup, use utensils, "help" in the kitchen, memorize books, kiss, hug, and say "I love you." What else is there in life? Maybe math skills and social awareness, but that's about it. Oh, and the potty thing.

There will undoubtedly be more mysteries for us to uncover each year as our little boy makes his way in the world. He's off to a fantastic start, this two-year-old of mine.

Labels: eating out, getting older, husband things, Kent

• posted by erica 7/04/2009 12:38:00 PM
•  1 comments

I heard an interesting interview on our local public radio station this morning: it was with former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler, who's just come out with a book about overcoming our (largely American) tendencies to eat way too much horrible food that's bad for us. He talked about studies in neuroimaging that have been done recently, wherein participants have eaten sugar, fat, and salt, and had brain scans taken to see how their brains and bodies responded. Apparently, when we eat foods that are high in these substances, it doesn't actually satiate our hunger; rather, it stimulates it, so that we just want to eat more and more. Think buttered popcorn. He also talked about how eating these foods creates pleasurable memories in our brains that we then seek to replicate, and since makers of fast and processed foods are catching onto this, they're figuring out any way they can of triggering the pleasant memories to make us want more of their foodish substances. Even high-end restaurants load their food down with fat, salt, and sugar, though it really doesn't have to be like that. Kessler suggests that the real way to combat one's overeating is to recognize what's making us crave certain foods at the moment we start to crave them, and to create positive memories around eating healthfully that will cancel out the positive memories of eating a bunch of crap (my word, not his). He also said that exercising, even a bit, is key, because once a person gets into a habit of exercising, that desire to do good things for their body and overall health spills over into eating. I can personally attest to craving really healthful foods like turkey, avocado, tomatoes and sprouts after working out, so I know that's true.

As I was driving home, contemplating the interview, I saw a billboard with a tall soda cup with ice and fizz at the top, a Coca-Cola logo, and a McDonald's logo: a triple whammy of triggers to make me think I needed to go to the drive-thru and buy a cup full of sugar. Incidentally, I decided a few years ago that it's no accident that the golden arches look a bit like McDonald's french fries, and their logo is so ubiquitous that it would be hard to drive/walk around a city without thinking you need fries at some point. And then I thought about the green Starbucks logo and green awning that somehow make me think I need a caffe mocha every time I see it, even though I don't actually need it and could make one at home for about 50 cents even if I did. They have the coffeehouse mentality working to their complete advantage. And then there are all those ads for indulgent foods that tell you to "treat yourself" or that "you deserve it". Well, Person Who Created the Ad, I think what I deserve is to be happier about the food I put in my body and to cancel out some of the bad food choices I've been making lately. So there.

Enter our first CSA basket and today's lunch.

We picked up our CSA basket yesterday, so we have bags and piles of fresh produce in the house that we have to eat up or freeze within a few days. It's like a challenge: "What can YOU do with 3 pounds of tomatoes, two bags of field peas, a bag of yellow wax beans, two eggplants, three zucchinis, two enormous green bell peppers, arugula, and tarragon? Tell us: what IS your strategy? Okay, GO!"

My lunchtime strategy ended up being a made-up wax bean and pasta dish, which I paired with a salmon fillet that I just picked up at the store this morning. I marinated the salmon in orange juice and balsamic vinegar, then cooked it in the toaster oven while I made the bean pasta dish. I boiled some yellow wax beans for a few minutes, then added some rigatoni noodles (about a 2:1 ratio of beans:noodles) and cooked them until the pasta was tender and beans were done, about ten more minutes. I drained them and tossed them with a touch of olive oil, some grated parmesan, some cherry tomatoes from the farm, and some fresh basil from my garden. Kent got his beans and pasta without basil or tomatoes, since I actually wanted him to attempt to *eat* it, and I knew he wouldn't be impressed by the tomatoes or by something green. He liked the noodles and at least tasted the beans, and shock of shocks, he absolutely loved the salmon. I had been worried that the fillet was a little bit too big for one person, but Kent must have sensed my worry and used it as an opportunity for growth. I haven't fed him much fish since he's generally been pretty unimpressed with it, but he did enjoy it today. Probably means he won't the next time I make it for him.

Tonight's dinner furthered the mission of using up good vegetables: I made ratatouille and served it over grits with a baguette on the side. My recipe suggested serving it with polenta, but I'm from North Carolina, so I made grits. It was good, but I think I might deconstruct it a bit next time, roasting the vegetables and then putting it all together instead of making it in just one pot, to help with the texture of the eggplant in particular and to give everything a nice roasty flavor.

I've been thinking a lot today about making more positive memories around fresh, healthful foods. Being part of this CSA and growing some of my own veggies and herbs are both huge aspects of this, especially since Kent is part of both experiences and is really living up his inaugural gardening days. Grilling and eating on our patio, or enjoying sushi and edamame outside on a pleasant day, or remembering how it felt to eat fresh nectarines and cherries on the pebble beach in Nice — these are all the kind of things I want to focus more on.

So enough with the gross food. I've done a pretty good job in the last few years about cutting out highly processed foods, but I'm now declaring a moratorium (probably only temporary, but you guys can help hold me to it) on fast food going into my tummy. I can make food that's SO much better.

Labels: eating out, greening, kitchen adventures, listening miscellany, photography, what to read

• posted by erica 6/08/2009 08:13:00 PM
•  7 comments

We took a short road trip this weekend to Houston, the main purpose of which was to get to IKEA to pick up our new Expedit bookcase. The gift-giver offered to have it shipped to us, but when we realized that shipping would cost more than the actual bookcase, we decided to make a little trip out of it. We also weren't 100% sure that the boxes would fit in our car, but Jack had measured, and I had enough optimism for both of us, and we had some straps to tie down the trunk in case my optimism didn't carry us through. Luckily, it did. IKEA was our last stop, though, just in case it didn't quite fit, because we didn’t want to be driving around town for a day and parking at our hotel with an open trunk.

In the spring of 2007, before Kent was born, we took our last vacation as a childless couple in Houston. We saw an Astros game, looked for a vegetarian restaurant I had found online, and spent the rest of the trip exploring. The vegetarian restaurant (which is all Asian food) and another place we randomly found for brunch were both so good that when we started planning this trip, I knew we needed to go back to both of them.

I also started trying to figure out what we'd do on Saturday afternoon when we got into town, and I found a nice-looking public park online that I thought we should check out. Hermann Park ended up being the best part of a very lovely trip; they happened to have a Japanese festival going on this weekend, so in addition to seeing the cool reflecting pool, playing on not one but *three* playgrounds, and running through the kiddie fountains, we also got to watch an amazing show of Taiko drumming by Kaminari Taiko (a local drumming group). Our trip was full of reminders about why I'd like to live in a big city, and this was a big one. The cultural exchange is so important. Also, I really *really* want to take up Taiko drumming. It's percussive, choreographed like dancing, kind of macho but musical at the same time, and looks like a fantastic workout. It's everything I need in my life right now. Maybe they'd give me lessons over Skype. Heh.





All three of us were mesmerized, Kent especially, as you can see. He was barely interested in seeing the train drive by or the other attractions at the festival once we got to a place where we could watch the drumming. Kent wants to take lessons too; he keeps remembering the experience and yelling "Guy... play... big... drum... out... SIIIIIIIIIIIDE!" at random moments. When he gets super excited, he starts flapping his arms like he's going to take off. That's how we know he's not just being fickle.

After all the fun at the park, we headed to dinner at Pepper Tree, a vegetarian Asian buffet restaurant. I remember the food from two years ago, and back then, I was more excited on Jack's behalf than I was about eating the food myself. Now that I'm more comfortable with a lot more of the things on their buffet, like sushi, tofu dishes, gyoza dumplings, and sesame desserts, I was happily satisfied, basically to the point of feeling stuffed. Kent ate a lot of lo mein noodles and a little bit of edamame, and not much else that I put on his plate until dessert rolled around, when he happily crammed a sesame ball and some coconut cake into his little mouth.

I told the proprietors several times how good everything was, and at the end, I asked one of them if I could take pictures of the buffet. The husband who owns the restaurant was talking to me afterward, and he asked whether we were from Houston. I told him no, we had come from Louisiana. He said, "Oh, I figured once you pulled out the camera that you were a tourist!" I grinned and said, "Well actually, I just like to take pictures of my food. It doesn't have anything to do with being a tourist. I take pictures of the food I cook, too." He responded, "Ah. Interesting hobby." Yep. He should see my folder on the computer of food pictures, or read my food journal.

Dinner ran a bit past Kent's bedtime, so we were glad to get him in bed when we got back to our hotel room. He slept horribly all night, probably because he's getting too long for his pack and play but we didn't have another sleeping option for him. I guess we'll need to start looking for hotels that can bring a crib into our room, since he rolls and scoots all over the room and ends up under the furniture if we just let him sleep on the floor.

On Sunday morning, we were up pretty early. Kent and I watched part of a Bollywood movie while Jack was taking a shower, and he really enjoyed the weird, melodramatic singing and dancing. Once we were all ready to check out of the hotel, we decided that we should go back to Hermann Park and ride the train that runs around the park, since we didn't have a chance to do it on Saturday. We got to be among the first people to ride the train, and Kent excitedly exclaimed "K... sit... down... TRAAAAAIIIIIN!" several times throughout the ride. After we left the park, we popped over to the Hard Rock Cafe for me to buy another couple of guitar pins for my collection, and then we headed to brunch. I was starving by then.

We were eating at Dry Creek Cafe, a restaurant we found by accident when we were driving around, lost, on our trip in 2007. It's in a sort of bohemian section of town and is a very kid-friendly and vegetarian-friendly restaurant, lots of dark wood and vintage furniture, young waitstaff in jeans and black t-shirts with interesting piercings and dyed hair, open doors with a couple of patios, and good coffee that multiple people attempt to refill for you throughout your meal. It would be a great place to go sip a beer with friends on a warm spring evening, too. Baton Rouge has some restaurants in this category, and they're some of our favorite places to eat, so we had a good time and an excellent meal.

It was finally time for the pièce de résistance, our IKEA run. Kent fell asleep about two minutes before we pulled in, so I gingerly removed him from his carseat and told him he could go back to sleep in his stroller, which he did. He *never* sleeps in his stroller, so I knew he must be pretty wiped from his sleepless night. He napped while Jack and I walked around and stuffed a few things into our yellow bag, but I think this goes on record as our shortest trip inside IKEA, ever. We were there for maybe half an hour of shopping, not counting the time it took us to take Kent to the potty afterward and then get the huge boxes into our car and pack everything else in around them. It was a magical moment when we realized everything was going to fit. Jack doesn't call me a Spatial Engineer for nothing.

The trip home seemed to take forever, even though it was the same four and a half hours of driving it had been to get there. We got home safely, got Kent to bed, pulled out our bookcase boxes to begin to assemble our cool new piece of furniture, and realized that instead of the 54 small dowels we were supposed to have, we had 53 and 1/2. For some reason, one of them was half the length of all the others. I went on their website and was able to order another one pretty easily, but it could still take a week or two to get here. Sigh. If we lived near a store, we could just go pick one up, but as it is, we have to wait for them to mail it. All of the pieces are sitting on our guest room floor right now, but we'll have it up soon enough and can start geeking out about aesthetically-pleasing home organization. I've been so inspired by all the photos people post online of what they do with their Expedits. Just searching for Expedit on Flickr yields some amazing results.

Houston is great. Really. I highly recommend it. Actually, I also highly recommend exploring a city within driving distance of you, just to get out there for a quick road trip. Even with a baby or a toddler, it can be a lot of fun.

Labels: eating out, Freude, IKEA, Kent, music, photography, travel

• posted by erica 4/27/2009 09:44:00 AM
•  5 comments

Our fun project of the day yesterday was making pine cone bird feeders with peanut butter, birdseed, and some pine cones that had fallen in the yard. We made two, then I tied them onto our patio umbrella. My thought was that they'd be close enough for us to see any birds, and if they were dangling from something, a squirrel wouldn't be able to reach them.

Our get-to-know-your-neighborhood-birds project turned into a feed-your-local-squirrels project, as near as I can determine. Not noticing any missing birdseed when I checked the feeders this morning, I decided to move one of them to our big tree in the back yard. I hung it from the end of a long branch, again thinking I was making it squirrel-resistant (I would never be so arrogant as to use a phrase like "squirrel-proof"). About two hours later, when we went back outside, the feeder hanging from the tree was gone. No pine cone, no string, no evidence that it had ever been there. I scouted the yard quickly and didn't see any trace of it. Oh, well. After a long outing, Kent and I came home in the mid-afternoon, and the other was gone, too. I looked at the patio umbrella, and the squirrel (or perhaps the very talented and inconspicuous primate, judging from its dexterity) managed to pull the string halfway up the umbrella support, then apparently chewed it off. The feeder must have clattered to the table at that point, because there's birdseed all over the table, and then I guess the squirrel/primate carried it off to wherever it had the other one stored.

I SO wish I had been around to see this. I might make more bird feeders and park myself and Kent in front of the window with a bowl of popcorn and the camera. At least I know something in the neighborhood is eating well today, even if it's not our birds.

Labels: eating out, observations, photography

• posted by erica 4/17/2009 03:39:00 PM
•  0 comments

a foodie photographs her Cajun lunch from Boutin's, including fried shrimp and catfish, remoulade, French fries, jambalaya, corn maque choux, and ketchup with hot sauce

I started thinking today about all the quirky foodie things I do, so here's a quiz for you to help determine if you have as much of a problem as I do. Really, it's more of a confessional, since these are all true for me... but if you have more trues than falses, you're probably in good company.

1. [T/F] You get butterflies in your stomach at the thought of watching Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and other cooking competition shows.
2. [T/F] You watch the Food Network regularly and know biographical details of several of the chefs.
3. [T/F] You fantasize about meeting the chefs you've seen on TV.
4. [T/F] When people from out of town tell you they are coming to visit, your mind immediately leaps to questions of what you want to cook for them and what restaurants you should take them to.
5. [T/F] If you blog or email someone about a recipe or restaurant you enjoyed, you make sure to include as many links as possible, just in case they want to recreate your experience.
6. [T/F] When planning to go to a different city, you enjoy figuring out ahead of time at least one exciting restaurant to visit.
7. [T/F] When planning to go to a new or exciting restaurant, you look at their online menu to figure out what you want to order.
8. [T/F] When planning to go to a new or exciting restaurant, you look at their online menu to guess what the other people going with you are going to want to order.
9. [T/F] You have photographed your food, either at home, at a restaurant, or both (see above).
10. [T/F] You have photographed your food in front of people you don't know, even when you weren't sure whether it was socially acceptable (see above).
11. [T/F] You have shared photographs of your food with others (see above).

Scores, please?

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures, photography

• posted by erica 12/17/2008 09:23:00 PM
•  3 comments

what I did for a free pizza today

Looks like a bizarre attempt at making a pizza snowflake, doesn't it? This was for a customer service evaluation, and I had to flip the pizza over, then cut it into funny bits and photograph it. But I got to eat it afterward, and it was delicious, as I had expected. I get reimbursed for the pizza and my time, so it was kind of fun. And hey, how often do you get to cut into a pizza with a box cutter?

(Yes, I washed the box cutter first.)

When I first read all the instructions for this evaluation, I thought they had to be kidding, like maybe it was just to see if I could follow directions. But then Jack and I discussed it, and I think there are actually people at this company who spend all day analyzing the photos, possibly even measuring how thick the cheese is or how dark the crust is or stuff like that. Wacky. It worked out well for me, though.

Labels: eating out, photography

• posted by erica 12/06/2008 04:58:00 PM
•  3 comments

Kent would like everyone to know the real way to eat yogurt.

This happened when we were at a truck stop in Alabama last weekend. As you can tell in the video, we've gotten over the mess factor and are trying to embrace wholeheartedly the self-feeding thing. Sometimes it's more effective than others.

Labels: eating out, Kent, video

• posted by erica 11/10/2008 07:54:00 PM
•  3 comments

Meatloaf.

And it was awesome, because I followed Alex Guarnaschelli's recipe from her new Food Network show, The Cooking Loft. I didn't know that much about her before this show premiered, except that I had seen her on Iron Chef America as both a contestant and a judge, and I liked watching her cook and talk about food. It turns out that just about everything she makes looks delicious to me.

She's into comfort food, but with some kind of flavor twist, like the tarragon and sour cream in this meatloaf. I didn't use the tarragon she called for, only fresh parsley, since I didn't want to plunk down the money for a package of fresh herbs when I don't actually know what tarragon tastes like. Maybe I'll try that next time. Baking it on a sheet pan with parchment under it, rather than in a loaf pan, made all the difference in the world in getting a nice crust on the outside. It was also very moist from the sour cream and eggs, and I could really taste the tangyness of the ketchup in it. I laugh every time I cook with ketchup, remembering how once, on Iron Chef America, commentator Alton Brown jokingly called ketchup the American mother sauce. Foodie humor.

I loved this meatloaf. Kent loved it. I wanted so very badly for Jack not to be a vegetarian at that moment, so that he could love it too, but what can you do? It's not like I could sneak meatloaf into something, even if I were that devious. This was actually my first time making meatloaf, and I'm glad I had a yummy recipe. Most of it has already been packed up between wax paper layers and put in the freezer, but I saved a few pieces (including the nice crispy leftover end) for a meatloaf sandwich and some bits for Kent.

Now I feel that I have to visit her restaurant in Greenwich Village, which is called Butter — how could you not want to go there? Not cheap, but I'm drooling already looking at the menu. I want to eat every single one of the desserts.

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/16/2008 08:51:00 PM
•  2 comments

When we went to A Salt and Battery, a delicious fish and chips shop in Greenwich Village, back in June during our trip to NJ, Mom and Bill bought Kent a t-shirt to commemorate the visit with the restaurant logo on the front and "SHRIMP" on the back.

He looked great, so I snapped a few photos of him in the shirt when we got home, then emailed them to the restaurant people in case they wanted a photo of a cute kid wearing the shirt for their website. They wrote back and said they'd be delighted to use one of the photos, so even though it took them a while to update their site, you can see it now! Scroll down to where it says "More friends" and notice the awesomely cute Kent. Then scroll down five pictures below that one... and you'll see that Kent's picture appears on the same website as that of Bobby Flay. Could a mommy be any more proud?? Sigh.

Labels: eating out, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 9/21/2008 08:46:00 PM
•  0 comments

On Tuesday morning, we went out to get berries as usual, though I sadly didn't take any pictures. We found very few, since we had gotten so many on previous days. Before we packed up to head out to the airport, we went down the road to a huge rock on a hill across from Sue and Tony's house, a rock that's very special for Bill's family. It's where the ashes of several of his relatives are scattered, including those of his first wife, Eileen. Mom has had our dog Daisy's ashes in a box since Daisy died almost two years ago but hasn't known what to do with them, but when she found out about this memorial rock in NH, she decided that scattering them here would be perfect.

We had a little remembrance of Daisy, peppered with stories about her crazy personality. I remembered how, despite her wild temper, she loved my late stepfather Bill unconditionally — he was definitely her favorite — and all of these mental snapshots flew through my head of the two of them playing together, roughhousing and such, and of Bill trying to pretend like he wasn't as attached to her as he was. I also remembered aloud how if a bunch of us were standing around, talking to each other and not paying attention to her, she'd start drawing attention to herself by chasing her tail wildly. My friends from home, who knew Daisy and her silly habits quite well, still say, "Daisy, Daisy, Daisy!" when one of us suddenly breaks out with a random statement to draw attention to herself. After we told stories, we took turns scattering her ashes and saying goodbye (enter my light-hearted comments about getting "Daisy" on our shoes).

Then it was back to the house for some very creative spatial engineering to get everything to fit in our suitcases, and we were off to the airport.

We had a fairly pleasant first flight and a *wonderful* layover in the Orlando airport. It's a nice place to have a layover, especially since we found a Bahamian bar/restaurant that had some amazing nachos that we made into our dinner. The chips were about seven different colors, including green and purple, and were smothered with cheese, sour cream, a traditional salsa, and some pigeon pea relish (sort of like blackeyed peas, very traditional in Caribbean cooking). The sweetness from the relish gave them such a unique flavor that we couldn't get over how good they were.

The Orlando airport also has these very cool tiled walkways running down the concourses, so we admired those and had some fun walking time with Kent while we waited for our flight to start boarding.

We got in on time, but oh-so-late at night for our little boy, who slept through the entire second flight (from before the plane took off until the moment I stood up to collect my bag in New Orleans). He also fell asleep in the car on the way home, so when we got back to our house around 10:45, we changed him into pajamas (he fell asleep during that, too) and put him right to bed.

It was a lovely trip all around, with many reminders about the importance of family, old and new, and inspiration in unexpected places.

Labels: canines, eating out, family, my stepdad, photography, travel

• posted by erica 8/10/2008 10:34:00 PM
•  1 comments

On Sunday, we opened the day with raspberry picking, having found some little raspberry bushes down by the road. The berries are tiny, and much less tart than raspberries in the store. Kent loved these so much that when Jack found one and was going to bring it to me, Kent grabbed it and ate it before he had a chance. So it goes. There were plenty more.

We had plans to attend church and then spend some time lunching and shopping. Most of us were going to go to an Episcopal church, while Chris and Cat were interested in finding a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to visit. During talk of who'd be going where and in what cars, I started thinking about how much I had enjoyed Chris and Cat's wedding at the UU church in Greensboro and realized I was more interested in sharing a new experience with them than I was in going to an Episcopal service. I've started feeling lately that I'm getting less and less out of the Episcopal experience each time I go back, preferring a more spontaneous or at least less rigid service, in contrast to one where everything seems to be done by rote and loses its meaning to me over time. I piped up about wanting to go to the UU church instead, and then everyone decided it would be simpler if we all went there, so that's what we did.

It was a small group, maybe 30 or so people gathered in what reminded me of a tiny independent bookstore, or maybe a reading room in a tiny independent bookstore. The nine of us, trying to sneak in after everyone was already seated, made an impact. They welcomed us with open arms and invited us to introduce ourselves, and then we proceeded through a service that revolved around what's gained and lost in interpersonal relationships/communication in a digital age. The talk (a mix of sermon and seminar) was given by a guy about my age who had grown up in the church, and he solicited ideas from all of us about how digital communication was making an impact on our lives and on how we treated others. He talked about Facebook a bit, and I got so much out of everything he discussed and my subsequent reactions to it that I momentarily wanted to join Facebook just so I could keep in touch with him. There was no mention of God in the service, but I don't think it's a godless place. I just had to work a little harder mentally to locate the spirituality than I would in Christian worship, though I believe strongly that human relationships can be indicative of our relationship with God, so frank discussion about the changing nature of our relationships with each other was not at all far removed from how we can explore our relationship with God. I also believe that my own self-awareness is at the heart of understanding the One who created me, and the process of self-discovery can only bring us closer to that understanding.

Now, onto less spiritual matters...

After church, Bill took us to the King Arthur Baker's Store, home of King Arthur flour, which is the only type of flour that my grandmother likes to use. She used to order it from their catalog and may still do that, though I'm not sure, since I'm woefully out of touch with all her grocery shopping habits. It was a brief stop, but a fun chance to play with some kitchen tools and see their big displays of flour, baking mixes, and the like. I bought a pair of very simple but very useful kitchen toys, one for me and one for my grandmother, which I'll wait to reveal until after I've mailed hers to her. We'll be twins when we bake.

Rumbling stomachs then led all of us to lunch at Lui Lui in West Lebanon, where I somewhat reluctantly opted not to get a wood-fired pizza, being drawn instead to the lobster ravioli. I think I made a good decision. It was so yummy that I wolfed it down, then said out loud after I finished, "Dang. I should have taken a picture of that!" They served us bread with a delicious dipping oil, and when I could only identify parsley and something salty in the oil and was curious what was in it, I asked our waiter. Anchovies, he said. That's what they put in the bottle of oil that had a label for their restaurant, but no ingredients list. Guess who had been eating it already? All of us. Including the vegetarian. I looked ruefully at Jack immediately after the waiter revealed the secret ingredient and asked him if he needed to go purge, but he seemed okay and just kept the oil beyond arm's length for the rest of the meal. Despite their subterfuge, it was still a delicious lunch that everyone seemed to enjoy.

After lunch, we headed down the street to Encore Books, a store I had found online that sells used books and also remainders and other reduced-price books directly from publishers. If a page is printed wrong, or something else about the book is defective in some way, it can't be sold for full price, and places like Encore are happy to sell them at a discount. We were happy to buy them at a discount. We spent a lot of time perusing their kids' books, and I didn't even make it to the big-people books because I was so engrossed in new stuff for Kent. Jack's and my favorite of the five books we bought is Nobody's Nosier Than a Cat, which has whimsical illustrations and features everything strange/beautiful/hilarious about cats. There were many excellent finds at that store.

One extended car trip later (including a return to the restaurant, where we had left Kent's water bottle), we were all back at the house and getting ready for a dinner of chicken, burgers, and hot dogs on the grill. Bill's nephew Jamie and his family came over, along with Sue and Tony again (Jamie's parents), so it was a rather crowded but very fun meal. Jamie and Melissa's daughter Larkin is three and a half, and she has a new baby brother named Silas, so she's been doing a lot of reverting to babyhood lately, wanting to sit in a high chair and drink from a sippy cup, and even asking if she could nurse on her mom after she saw me nursing Kent. Upheaval of adding a new sibling to the family has got to be hardest on a little kid who's used to being the only kid. Despite that, though, Larkin was delightful, always asking very politely ("'Suse me...") if we'd read her some books, hold her in our laps, let her watch while Kent took a bath, etc. Funny girl.

We snapped a few photos of Kent and his newly discovered cousin riding a rocking horse together, though it was not designed for two kids and was kind of off balance. Larkin kept slipping off the back, then asking whether Kent could ride in the back instead. I don't think she understood that he wouldn't know to hold onto her and would probably break his butt or worse if we let them ride that way. Still, they were cute together. Whenever we go back and Kent and Silas are a little older, the three of them can wreak some havoc together, and hopefully Nicholas and Travis can get in on the action as well.

More pictures from the day (and a few from the rest of the trip) include the following:



Kent's obsession with the Heineken box



Carlos in Morgan's lap at breakfast. He sat in her lap for just about every meal. Such a sweet, funny dog. Kent thought he was hilarious.



Morgan said something about Carlos not being photogenic, so I was determined to get a good shot of him.



Morgan and Brian on the sofa in the evening. I hate using flash on people, but there wasn't really enough light, hence the dark faces. Incidentally, notice how they're wearing the same shirt? That happened more than once. Morgan did all the packing.



Jack studied much corporate finance while we were on the trip. Here he is having a bright idea.



Kent rode the rocking horse a lot. He got the hang of it pretty easily, but I still spotted him when he started standing up to do his trick rider moves.

Next up: Monday, wherein there were many crafted things of all shapes and sizes.

Labels: church, eating out, family, photography, travel, what to read

• posted by erica 8/08/2008 07:54:00 AM
•  3 comments

The most evil and delicious sandwich that I know of is the Monte Cristo. Not the most delicious of all sandwiches, mind you, but the most delicious of all *evil* sandwiches. It's a ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich that is batter-dipped and then deep-fried, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with a side of raspberry jam for dipping. I hadn't had one in at least 4 years, the last time being when my mom was in town and we split a Monte Cristo and a salad (since salads are the opposite of Monte Cristo sandwiches). On Saturday, though, I had a craving. A strong craving. Jack and I went to Bennigan's to find one, and he was also pleased to find a veggie burger for himself. I couldn't finish the whole evil, delicious thing in one sitting, though, so I brought some home and had it with chips yesterday for lunch. Something I discovered, whilst dipping my sandwich in raspberry jam, is that I also like potato chips dipped in raspberry jam. Crazy, you say? Well, think of all the other sweet/salty combos that work, like crackerjacks, peanut butter and chocolate, and fried chicken and honey. I've always liked dipping potato chips in Coke, so I figured this wasn't too far removed from that idea. Boy, is it good.

Yes, go on thinking that I'm crazy. That's okay. More for me.

While I was enjoying my evil and delicious lunch, Kent was enjoying what can best be described as his first Big Boy lunch ever. He had some banana pieces, some ham from my sandwich (he loves all pork products), and a PB&J sandwich. Throwing caution to the wind, I served him peanut butter on a toaster waffle (one of my favorite snacks, and hey, another sweet/salty combo I adore) for the first time a couple of months ago, even though most recommendations are to wait on peanuts until a child is three years old in case of allergic reaction. All the warnings made me feel like I should have an epi pen at the ready. I realize peanut allergies are very serious (his school, and most others I know about, are now declared Nut-Free Zones), but the allergy is still rare, and I didn't want him missing out on two years of eating peanut butter. So there ya go. Lock me up for child endangerment... but now I know that my kid loves PB&J.

I've also had two more triumphant Bobby moments in the kitchen this past week (yes, I'm just calling him Bobby now). The first triumph was some chicken legs that I was going to grill, until 14 matches later I realized I was never going to get the grill lit and should just broil them instead. I hadn't ever bought a package of just chicken legs — I'm usually a boneless-skinless-breast kind of girl — but I wanted to give dark meat another shot, and I figured Kent would like it as well. They broiled just fine, coated with a little olive oil, some salt, and pepper, but the big finish came with the orange glaze I applied toward the end. I reduced a mixture of orange juice, honey, and soy sauce (listed here from most to least) until it was thick and dark orange, then brushed it on the chicken legs a few times when they were almost done. DELICIOUS. And not evil at all. It gave all the chicken a great orangy, sweet flavor, which was the perfect accompaniment to that night's Thai red curry and has also been handy to have in the fridge for supplementing some of Kent's other recent meals. I've watched chefs reduce orange, lemon, and tangerine juice to concentrate the flavor, but I'd never tried it myself, and now I'm sold on the technique.

The second Bobby triumph was surprising: chiles rellenos, from (you guessed it) a Throwdown. Halfway through the cooking process, I thought it was just going to turn into a huge mess and make me cry. I had roasted the poblano chiles to get the skin off, but they were too soft and were falling apart, and I thought I'd never be able to stuff them and have them stay together through the frying process. I made Jack's first, out of the chile that had a bit more structural integrity, and it surprised me by staying together as soon as it hit the hot oil, rather than exploding and gushing cheese and mushrooms everywhere. The chile I had saved for myself, though, was going to be a different story, as it already had several holes, and I didn't think I could even get it into the batter without it totally coming to pieces. Jack sauntered in, took a quick look at my impending kitchen disaster, and brilliantly suggested that I wrap it in a tortilla. This was like the story about the truck being stuck under a bridge because it was too high to make it all the way through, and a bunch of adults standing around can't figure out what to do until a kid comes along and says, "Why not just let the air out of the tires?" Jack's moment of insight rescued me in a similar manner, though I'm not sure whether I'm the group of adults, the truck, or the bridge in this analogy. I got two tortillas out of the fridge, wrapped them around my poor chile, stuck some skewers through the sides, and managed to batter and fry it with great success. It was a mess to eat, but it tasted wonderful with the fried tortilla on the outside. I think I'm going to have to do that every time I attempt this recipe, whether out of necessity or deliciousness.

Is your mouth watering yet? I think mine is.

Labels: eating out, Kent, kitchen adventures

• posted by erica 7/29/2008 10:57:00 AM
•  2 comments

Bed soon.

We went to the farmer's market downtown this morning. It's always a fun time, especially with fruits and vegetables of every color surrounding us in the summertime. We decided on blueberries, okra, and tomatoes, and reluctantly passed up peaches and eggplant (Indian, Japanese, OR regular ol' American) because we hadn't brought enough cash. Silly us. We ran into the family of one of the little boys in Kent's class, which was kind of funny because I only recognized the kid, not his parents or older brother, and I just walked up to him in his stroller and said, "Hi, Finley!" We talked to his parents for a couple of minutes and then headed out, since we were done shopping and wanted to get Kent home for his morning nap.

There was napping by Kent and mowing of the yard by Jack, and then we went out to lunch at an awesome restaurant that used to be right next to campus until they had to move to make way for new condos. We hadn't been to their new location yet, but on a whim decided to check it out, and we left with happily full bellies a little while later. Any meal that starts with fried green tomatoes and ends with chocolate pecan cheesecake can't be that bad... and the stuff in the middle was pretty good, too. Jack had an open-faced roasted veggie sandwich, and I had some tomato basil pasta with shrimp. Kent mainly ate applesauce but also tried his first shrimp, cut into little pieces, and he kept wanting more, so we'll call that a success. Shellfish: check.

We swung by the library after lunch so that I could look for a couple of books on Montessori, an educational philosophy I'm interested in knowing more about, at least to help give our days at home some structure. Montessori, Reggio, and Waldorf are all these sort of mysterious, magical philosophies (to me, at this point) that I've decided to research further... not that I'm planning to homeschool Kent, because I don't think that would work for us, but just to understand better what's out there as an alternative to more common educational approaches.

I also picked up Pantley's No-Cry Potty Training Solution to do some pre-reading about potty training. I figure it can't hurt us to be laying the foundation for that now, in case it makes things easier/quicker/less traumatic down the road. As stubborn as he can be about change, though, I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Like I said, pre-reading.

The rest of my day was spent making tacos for dinner and then eating them, in between rounds of cutting and applying fusible web to a bunch of green fabrics for a couple of banners we're making at our church this week. Everyone in the congregation is picking a word that they think describes their experience at our church, or just what they love about it, and all the words are going onto these banners that will hang in the front of the church during part of the year. A lot of the green fabrics I'm bringing are from my grandmother's and great aunt Irene's quilting stashes, and I recognize many of them from quilts, clothing, etc. that the two of them made over the decades. It's a fantastic cycle, this passing on of fabrics that already have a history, going to some other project and helping to tell someone else's story. (And hey, did you know that you can buy fusible web BY THE YARD instead of in those expensive little packages? Rock!)

Kent was having a particularly rough time during dinner, not at all interested in the avocado mixture we tried to feed him and preferring instead to spit it out, complain, and turn his face different shades of red. It started to rain as we were finishing our meal, and it seemed like the kind of evening when we just all needed to play in the rain before bathtime, so we did. Jack and I took turns holding Kent out in the rain while the other ran up and down the driveway and did silly things, and then we held him up to our Japanese magnolia tree so that he could touch the wet leaves. He really liked that part and kept grabbing at them, then laughing as water droplets bounced off his face. After his bath and some quick stories, he went to bed more easily than he has all week.

And thus our long Saturday is concluded. Jack is still at our other computer, giggling about web comics. I think we just need sleep.

Labels: church, craftiness, eating out, Kent, what to read

• posted by erica 6/21/2008 09:58:00 PM
•  3 comments

So I gave my paper at the colloquium yesterday. It went well, I think. I'm getting my Presentation Voice more solidified each time I do one of these things, helping me feel much more comfortable and competent. All of the questions/comments I got were very supportive (this is a small group of scholars who know each other well), and I came away with a few new ideas about listening perspectives and how I might explain some of the funnier parts of the piece I've been analyzing. I got to visit with a few friends I haven't seen in a while, including the friend who got me the teaching gig the year before Kent was born, who just took a job in KY last year. It was a nice day, and there was one paper about Elliott Carter, given by a couple of other grad students, that I found kind of impressive. They used graphs, but not in an offensive way (as some theorists do, when they get too far removed from the music in favor of making exciting pictures and tables). It was like music theory day camp. And my godsend, Mary, had a great time with Kent while I was enjoying everyone else's papers and presenting mine. Kent slept in the car on the way there and on the way home, and Mary and I chatted about subjects from knitting to careers to churchy stuff to academia; her husband is chair of the history department here, so she knows academic types very well and kept commenting on the differences she was observing between historians and music theorists, especially their wardrobes.

Jack and I celebrated my triumphant presentation by going to Jason's Deli for dinner (I know, not India's!). Kent enjoyed some hummus, cantaloupe, and tiny bits of their awesome whole grain flatbread crackers, and he threw everything else we tried to give him onto the floor. Pretty standard. He had a fun time looking around at the other babies and little kids, since this restaurant is Family Central most of the time. They have such a healthful and diverse kids' menu that it's the perfect place to bring tiny persons. Imagine my shock when I looked behind us to see one little girl bringing in a Happy Meal. Chicken nuggets, french fries, and a soda, when she could have been eating mac and cheese, deli sandwiches, a kid-sized salad, pb&j, or any of the other great things on the menu there. Oh, well. Maybe she's in that picky stage and all she'll eat is Happy Meals. It just seemed so very wrong, especially given Jason's Deli's near-militant attitude toward trans fats. I expected guys in hazmat suits to tear out of the back room and quarantine her Happy Meal, like the renegade sock in Monsters, Inc. Chuckle.

Anyway, it feels good to have that done. Now I've given not one but TWO conference papers, doubling my output — score!

Labels: dissertation land, eating out

• posted by erica 5/21/2008 11:26:00 AM
•  1 comments