More Easter - mostly food. =)

Our neighbor gave us this footstool. It opens on top and has two drawers. Clark LOVES it. He takes it apart and walks around the house with the drawers. I like it because its a good place to store little toys - like the maraca shown below.

Here John Paul demonstrates his superior strength to Clark.
Here is some delicious Macaroni and Cheese that Ashley made.
Here are delicious green beans and asparagus (underneath) cooked in yummy bacon. Lishu made these. She googled, "Easter foods" because she's Chinese and has never celebrated Easter before and didn't know what to bring. Now we all know that green beans and asparagus are traditional Easter foods!
Here is the amazingly delicious lamb that Tom made. yum yum yum yum yum yum. Even Clark liked it and he's super picky!

This is the lamb cake we made this year (covered in saran wrap). This year, we actually made a Rice Krispy Lamb, frosted it with white and did its face with cookie decorations.

Here's the lamb cake and some Egg cookies. Thanks to Andrea GG for passing on the cookie cutters. I decorated each cookie with the names of our Easter Feasters!

Ashely made a carrot cake from scratch and decorated it with a sign of capital punishment (and salvation).

It was a wonderful happy Easter time!!!

Happy New Year!

I took a few weeks off from blogging. Of course, last month, I posted a picture every day or so and called THAT blogging. Here is an actual blog update about the family.

So January...

For New Year's Eve, we went across the street to our neighbor's house. We played Garage Band and celebrated the New Year by illegally lighting fireworks off on our street. (The ones we bought on Labor Day). It was much fun.

On January 1st we had planned on having one friend, Matt, over to play Monopoly. Our friend, Lauren, called and she invited us to hang out with her family. Instead we invited them over to our house. Then we texted all of our other friends and invited them over. We ended up with Matt, Lauren, Paul and Bernatte Z, and Katie N. and Will Clark. We hung out, played Monopoly and had happy times.

On January 2nd, I went to the gym and ran 5K. It was awesome. Tom and I are both doing Weightwatchers and are having great success so far. I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight! Yay!

The next day we all started feeling bad. We all had a cold (caught from little Bernadette mentioned above..) It was annoying and I'm glad its over with. We fought back by eating Pho. Clark had his first taste of Pho and enjoyed it. We fed him noodles and warm broth from the fat asian spoon. He ate it really well, it was his first soup experience. The pictures below are from his first and second Pho times. It was very comPhoting to share it with him.



I started teaching The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth on January 8th. I have two couples as students. Tom is watching Clark and teaching the segments on Coaching. I am really enjoying it and even more excited to be a part of these women's birth experiences. They seem to be getting a lot out of the classes as well.

We had our 4th anniversary on January 7th and had a date night on January 9th. Clark was babysat by Lauren, Bernadette's mom. Tom and I went to Red Lobster and saw the movie Avatar in 3D. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. We walked in the town square and checked out the dessert shops, finally settling on Ben and Jerry's for a scoop of icecream before heading back to our little boy.

Things returned to normalish in our lives. Tom went to work, I managed the house and prepped for classes, and Clark played with his toys.

He really loves brushes, pens, spoons and paper. To harness some of that energy. I gave him some markers and he colored his first piece of paper.

What am I doing?? Is this fun? Wee heee!!! I LOVE Coloring!!!!

Here is the masterpiece itself. I cut it into 3 pieces. I sent one laminted strip to both grandparents and Tom has one in his office.
On January 15th, John Paul B. had his first birthday! I can't believe the first baby in Clark's Cohort is 1 already! He will be one in a month and a half! If he was born on his due date, it would be a month from now! It's crazy how fast time flies. Here are some photos from the birthday and other hanging out with JPB.

Clark and JP both LOVE walking with the walker. JP has already taken some unassisted first steps, as has Bernadette. Clark usually learns from the older babies, so he might take some any day now (or months... whatev..) Here I am with JP and Clark on JP's Birthday.

Having a cold kind of derailed our early month, nature was also having a cold and was keeping outside temps below freezing. It finally warmed up to 40!!! YAY!!! and maybe hotter at lunchtime. The whole family went for a hike around Lake Needwood a few miles north of our house. We put Clark in the hiking backpack for the first time. It was wonderful to get outside and move around, see nature again, and breathe fresh air. It was the first exercise I got since running that 5K and I was glad to be back.

We've been eating much healthier since Clark started eating solids and we started weight watchers. Here is a delicious meal I made. It was a whole roast chicken that was cooked with Terriaki sauce. The "fries" are baked carrots, cut into strips. The green stuff is lots of different vegetables (onion, turnip, garlic, bell peppers, and kale). It was a delicious dinner and looked beautiful (hence the photo and blog blurb).

Last week at my weightwatchers weigh-in, I had lost a total of 18 lbs since November. It was 10% of my starting weight so I got this keychain that is a 10. When I hit goal weight I get another charm for it, and same for when I become a lifetime member. I've started WW so many times before and this is the first time I got the damn keychain. I'm so proud!


Tom is doing great on it too! He lost about 5% of his starting weight, even with having c-diff. We are really glad we are doing it together and are going to sign up for another 3 months when our program ends next Thursday!

Thats it for January. Maybe I'll post again soon.
Peace out,
V

Making Gumbo - for dinner

We are back from our trip to Minnesota and I am another year older. I will post more on that this week and also highlight a few other things we did this month. I've been out of it, sorry.



Tonight, I made gumbo for dinner. You can find my delicious recipe for this dish here. As you can see from these photos, I obviously cheated by purchasing Roux in a jar. It is pretty good, but darker than I usually make it. I've used about half of the jar already. I recommend using as little as possible if you are going to use jarred Roux. Its much darker than the caramel color I prefer. Cajun roux is usually darker and creole roux is usually lighter in color (resulting from more or less cooking).



After my last post about making gumbo, Fr. RB sent me some File in a bottle, you can see it in the photo. It actually came in the mail the day Clark, our baby Gumbo, was born. It was funny because Andrea walked into the room and said, "Hey, you got a package! Want to open it for some motivation." I think I was nearing the pushing stage, or in it, and NO, I did not want to open some mail while I was hard at work in LABOR! I opened it a few days later.



This gumbo is a seafood gumbo, made with crawfish, crawfish stock and some vegan shrimp that my best friend, Liz, bought for me. I still can't eat shrimp for Clark's sake, but did go to All you can eat shrimp @ Red Lobster for my birthday. I had to throw my milk away and there was a mild amount of spitup, but we all survived it.

What's for dinner?

I know I need to be posting more often. I've been reading alot lately, and it pretty much zaps my drive to do anything but read.
Here I go...
We've been on a grocery budget lately, and I am getting some awesome deals at the store, creating some More Amazing Than The Resturant Meals, and saving lots of money.

Here is what we had for dinner on Monday night. I wish I had a picture, but instead I offer you the following photo and say that what I made was even more beautiful and delicious.


It cost us about $9 to make because the ribs were on sale and we had the rest of the ingredients on hand. We ate them with grilled zucchini and onions. Thank God for a grocery budget!!

Memphis Dry Rub Ribs

Method: Indirect Grilling (which means put the meat over the burners that aren't on and use the grill like an oven!
Serves 4

2 racks baby back ribs (4 to 5 pounds)
For the rub
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons celery salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the mop sauce (optional)
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups hickory chips or chunks, soaked in cold water
1. Wash the ribs and blot dry. Remove the thin papery skin on the back of each rack of ribs. (Pull it off in a sheet with your fingers, using a corner of a dish towel to gain a secure grip.)
2. Combine the ingredients for the rub (the paprika, black pepper, sugar, salt, celery salt, cayenne, garlic powder, mustard, and cumin) in mixing bowl and stir with your fingers to mix. Rub 2/3 of this mixture on the ribs on both sides. Transfer the ribs to a roasting pan and let marinate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

3. Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium (about 350 degrees). Place a drip pan in the center. If using a gas grill, place all the chips in the smoker box or smoker pouch and preheat the grill to high. When smoke appears, lower the heat to medium. If using a charcoal grill, toss the wood chips on the coals.

4. Place the ribs on the grill over the drip pan and cover the grill. Cook the ribs until cooked, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours. Start basting with mop sauce after 30 minutes, basting every 20 minutes. If using a charcoal grill, replenish the coals after 1 hour. The ribs are done when the meat is very tender and it has shrunk back from the ends of the bones.

5. Transfer the ribs to a cutting board or platter. Mop one final time with mop sauce and sprinkle with the remaining rub. Serve with your favorite barbecue sauce on the side.

Excerpted from BBQ USA: 425 FIERY RECIPES FROM ALL ACROSS AMERICA

After half a million miles on the barbecue trail, America's "Grilling Guru" celebrates our pit masters and pit stops, backyards and back roads in BBQ USA. From Lone Star Brisket to Maryland Grilled Soft Shell Crabs to Hawaiian Huli Huli Chicken, Steven Raichlen offers 425 fiery and fabulous recipes covering all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.