Didn’t get a post up yesterday since I fell asleep 30 seconds after Asher. Novemblaaaagh streak be damned. After a day starting with an 8:30 drop off, post office, recycling and garbage sorting and schlepping, laundry switching and folding, 3hr coop shift, coop shopping, wrangling a new freezer into the apt by moving the washing machine (!!) putting away groceries, then going to get Asher and dragging him home in a tantrum I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Today I woke up to find 2 fun things friends wrote about on the internet that I thought I’d share. Lots of friends are often published, guest starring in TV shows and written about in the times for some reason or another but I thought it was kind of a fun thing to see when I logged onto my computer this morning. Go friends!
First is a nice piece by Lisa, Enna’s mom, for Parenting Magazine. I think it’ll really hit home for some moms. Especially ones like me that spend more time hanging with their kids than cleaning their house. I am grateful for all the time I get to spend with Asher, as much as I complain about it too.
The other is by Kate who used to sit next to me at work back when we both worked at an office. Now I’m at home working part time and she’s at home (in LA) interviewing celebrities. We both have girls due the same week in March so I am super sad she moved from Brooklyn last year but she is having so much fun I am also really happy for her.
Asher was off today for Veterans day so we hooked up with some friends for a walk to the zoo. It was a ridiculous 60 degrees outside so the walk there was a good one.
For the 2 people that might not know, our zoo is inside the park that’s across the street from our house. Its a good 30 minute walk through the park with kids in strollers and longer when they like to walk. I think it took 1hr15min (with stops to explore) to get there and 50 minutes to walk/scoot home. Its a hike but on a nice day its kind of awesome to be able to walk to a zoo. We have a membership and I figured its probably the last time we can use it for a while.
The effects of Sandy are all over the park. 400 trees were damaged and many are still there with caution tape around them. We saw tons of bags of leaves – still green – but the park is mostly functioning again which makes us very happy.
Trying to keep this guy busy while Tiny Kitchen is spread out all over Tiny Living Room this weekend has been a challenge. He’s been great overall but we’ve been taking a lot of breaks so we all keep our sanity.
We were hanging on the couch yesterday when he peered into a box and discovered some rocket ship popsicle molds we have never used so we conducted an experiment. What would happen if we filled them with “smoothie” (strawberry kefir) and stuck them in the freezer???
Matthew had a rare day off so we decided to empty Tiny Kitchen (including removing a wall of shelves and cabinets) and repaint the entire thing. Asher helped from beginning to end, apparently he loves painting. When Matthew told him what we were doing today he said “I am so excited!”
He especially likes to do the parts on the step-ladder. Don’t call it a stool.
We are painting it white. Lots of people thought it was already white, even Jackie today when she was standing in the middle of it but no. Its dirty-yellowy-off-white masquerading as white.
Matthew is sneaking in the second coat after Asher’s bedtime since we’d like it to look semi-even. I am so excited!
Adam and Christine got Asher a toy trumpet for his birthday. Chris had asked me what he would like so I mentioned that we see this trumpet in the window of the toy store and Asher always has to stop and look at it so she ran with it. Good choice too, because it is one of his favorite gifts and he still plays with it all the time. All the tiiiiiiime!
The cool thing is Christine’s parents are music teachers and her dad plays the trumpet so when he arrived at their place when we were over last month she got him to take it out* and show the kids before he unpacked his luggage. Asher’s facial expressions are phenomenal.
*shes gonna say that he actually brought coronet but come on, I wasn’t getting into that with Asher but I thought I’d go for transparency on the blog today
Matthew loves corn chowder but we’ve never made it at home. The coop has great local frozen veggies and the corn is spectacular so I thought I’d try to make some. After much searching I found this simple looking recipe on Food Network, its from Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse and got rave reviews.
I changed it up a little so here is the revised recipe. It was DELICIOUS!!!! We left out the bacon but used (Matthew’s homemade) chicken stock so it could very easily be vegetarian. Its worth making because it took barely an hour and was soooooo filling and delicious. Did I mention it was delicious? Matthew had 2 bowls and even I went back for seconds! I never like to eat food that I make! I grated some sharp cheddar to mix in and I’d definitely recommend doing that.
Here you go!
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 pound bacon, diced (didnt bother but Matthew wants to try it next time, also would be good with ham)
1 cup chopped onion
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken broth or stock
4 cups peeled, finely diced all-purpose potato
1 1/2 cups diced carrot
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (a 10oz bag)
1 cup half-and-half (I used 1% and it was good)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of cayenne pepper (I left this out because of Asher)
Directions
(I omitted this step) Sling the butter into a soup kettle and melt over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook till crisp. Scoop out the bacon and drain on paper towels. Save for later–don’t nibble too much.
Use the bacon grease or…Sling the butter into a soup kettle and melt over medium-high heat. Toss in the onions, seasoning them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook till soft and then throw in the garlic, cooking it all for 1 minute more. Sprinkle on the flour and mix into the veggies.
Dump in the broth, potatoes and carrots. Cover the pot and bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, (until the potatoes are tender.)
Add the corn. Cover and simmer everything 5 to 6 minutes longer to blend the flavors.
Stir in the milk. Season with the thyme some more salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper to taste. Give it one last stir, and ladle it up piping hot.
Serve with grated cheddar and the bacon (if you did the bacon.) I also sliced some apples to eat along side. Yum.
Just a note: Ours came out well but if you find it on the thin side pour 1 cup of the soup into a blender and add back in for a thicker soup.
If you didnt hear, we are having yet another storm today. They are calling it a nor’easter which just seems like a pretty bad snowstorm. Its really windy and bitter cold. Not so much the kind you want to frolic and play in, but when I went to pick Asher up around 430 he wanted to frolic and play.
It took us forever to get home. I actually brought the stroller (we’ve used it maybe 3x since the summer) so I could throw the rain cover on it and about halfway home I finally convinced him to get in. We were soaked and freezing but for some reason ittle kids don’t care.
First snow day and we are already down a mitten. So sad.
Asher and I went to vote this morning and we met up with Ramona so she joined us even though she already voted because she is super. It was a bit of a cluster because our normal polling site is currently a shelter for evacuees so our district was set up at another polling site.
Before we left I explained to him what we were doing and why, as best as possible for him to understand. I showed him pics of our president and told him why we were voting for him to remain in office. We are voting for him because we believe all people should be treated fairly and with respect, and we are voting for him because we believe in helping people that need help because hey, sometimes we all need help. That seemed to be all he needed to know before deciding that the rocket ship sticker mosaic he was making was “for Obama!”
I’m not going to bother going through every single reason why I personally voted for Obama but I really cannot for the life of me understand why people would not. Do you really think the economy will be better with a zillionaire that looks out for zillionaires in office? Maybe. But look at what you’d be giving up.
They’ve called it but I don’t believe it yet. With 1 minute to spare on this post im still biting my nails and holding my breath, hoping we will be ok.
