A Little Mom-Me Time

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-06-07T16:45:00.004-05:00

So yesterday I experienced true spirit of dedication and friendship. Four of my friends met me at 5 a.m. for a run in the sauna that is Texas in June because it was the only time that I could get in an outside run. It was crazy nuts sticky and awful but still kind of fun because my friends are just that cool.

However, the effort at that early hour in the humidity took every ounce of energy out of me. I didn't have any reserves left and I needed a pick me up. Weeks ago, I had received my May/June Cook's Illustrated magazine and in it was a recipe for the "Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes". I had been thinking of them ever since.

I know that I said that I was going to try not to post about unhealthy baked goods, but I promise that these are worth it. Chocolate cupcakes are good for the soul. Oh, and DrRuckus pronounced them the best cupcakes he's ever had. They sound complicated, but they are sooooooo worth it. Make them. Don't hesitate.

The Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes
Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, May 2010

Ingredients for Ganache Filling:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

Ingredients for Chocolate Cupcakes:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
3/4 cup hot coffee
3/4 cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for Frosting:
1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
Pinch table salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened and cut into 1-tablespoon pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate , melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for Ganache Filling: Place chocolate, cream, and confectioners’ sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.

Directions for Cupcakes: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan (cups have ½-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

Directions for Frosting: Combine sugar, egg whites, and salt in bowl of stand mixer; place bowl over pan of simmering water. Whisking gently but constantly, heat mixture until slightly thickened, foamy, and registers 150 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 2 to 3 minutes.

Place bowl in stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Beat mixture on medium speed until consistency of shaving cream and slightly cooled, 1 to 2 minutes. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, until smooth and creamy. (Frosting may look curdled after half of butter has been added; it will smooth with additional butter.) Once all butter is added, add cooled melted chocolate and vanilla; mix until combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light, fluffy, and thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds, scraping beater and sides of bowl with rubber spatula as necessary.

To frost cupcakes, mound 2 to 3 tablespoons frosting on center of each cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread frosting to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

2010-05-20T21:13:00.005-05:00

So, it has now been over two weeks since I had my favorite meal ever, and the memories of that night are still as fresh and delectable as every morsel that I ate there. On the most gorgeous of Spring afternoons, DrRuckus and I went to Tarrytown, NY to experience the perfection that is Blue Hill at Stone Barns. I am not sure exactly how to express how incredible this place is. Even one of my favorite food bloggers of all time made a cartoon after he first visited.

Growing up in northern New Jersey and spending a great deal of time in Vermont, I had no idea that idyllic, lush rolling hills and farmland exists right there, mere miles outside of NYC. Yet, it does! Located 30 miles from the city is the Stone Barn Center for Food and agriculture and this is the farm from which much of the food served at the restaurants (there is one in the city too) is grown.

We had just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and so heading to this farm to tour it and then really experience a "farm to table" meal was truly exciting for us. We walked around the farm, saw the happy and healthy animals, and acres of greenhouses and gardens where the herbs and vegetables for our dinner were growing.

After touring the farm, and admiring all of their techniques as well as the fruits of their labors, we wandered around the courtyard that is the heart of the Stone Barn Center. There is a great deal going on there, including frequent farmer's markets and a cafe, as well as many educational opportunities. Finally, it was time for our reservation!

We sat outside and admired the view, while indulging in a wild ramp margarita. (It was Cinqo de Mayo!) It was possibly the best margarita ever, out there, soaking up the scene.

Then, we entered the incredible space that is the restaurant. I have never been in such a beautiful room. High ceilings, exposed beams, rough hewn floors - it is stunning and warm. The centerpoint is a huge table overflowing with flowers and edibles. When we sat down, they presented us with a list of items from which the meal was be drawn, rather than a menu. The gracious staff then asked specific questions about our preferences. We chose the 8 course tasting and told them that we would eat anything that they brought us, that if they thought it was worthy of being served, we would lap it up. "Even offal?" YES. You make it, we eat it! They seemed glad that we were adventurous, but we overheard other diners expressing very specific preferences and all were taken into account. Vegetarians are obviously no problem, but some people had difficult allergies or aversions. A woman seated next to us actually told the server, "I LOVE caviar" and this was accommodated. (Why didn't I think of that?)

We found a bottle of an old favorite wine, a Riesling from the Finger Lakes, and settled in to enjoy the ride. We started with a presentation of fresh baby vegetables on tiny spikes, so creative, so simple, so delightfully fresh and beautiful. From there, we enjoyed 7(!!!!) other courses of amuses bouches before even beginning our 8 course tasting. Because they change it every night, and customize for every guest, I won't go into each course but will just list some highlights. One of the amuses was a pork liver pate sandwiched between caramelized chocolate and was so surprising, fun and delicious! We had a brioche made from heirloom red grains and ostrich eggs and topped with fresh, warm ricotta made from cows that had been feasting on the sweetest grasses of the spring. We had face bacon as an amuse and a trio of porky goodness (belly, loin and leg). The meat from the healthy, happy pigs that we had seen just hours before tasted like nothing I had ever had before. Our final savory course was goat with a sauce made from a variety of herbs that they brought to the table for us to touch and smell before being cooked into liquid gold. The timing, the service, the presentation, and the array of tastes were all spot on. But, the fact that each of 15 (7 amuses and 8 tasting) courses was wonderful is mind blowing!

If you haven't been to this restaurant, it should be on your bucket list. I can't wait to go back.

Our Foodie Tour of NY/NJ

2010-05-12T13:19:00.003-05:00

We recently returned from two fabulous weeks back "home" in New Jersey and spent lots of quality time with our families and some time (not enough, no never enough) in our favorite place, NYC. We had so much to celebrate, from my parents' 35th anniversary, DrRuckus's birthday, a good friend's bridal shower, my MIL's 60th birthday, and just the fact that we were there, in the springtime, with the people we love! Ladybug is getting so big and really loved playing with her family and all of the doggies. She also fell madly in love with the beach and I can't wait to bring her back this summer. Z-Man shares our passion for the area and is becoming a true expert on NYC transit. He and Grandpa spent two days in the city, one day just riding around and the other taking the 4 train to Yankee stadium to catch a game. He also went to his first Broadway show with his aunts and Grandma, though it wasn't as much of a hit for him as just being in Time Square. I am so glad that my kids have the opportunity to really get to know the places we call home.

So, of course, I had planned many of our meals and nights out, and there were some definite high points. We also had some great surprise finds that just thrilled and delighted us. It has been a while since I did a total foodie post, but bear with me, I have so much to share:

Lately my family is living a very Michael Pollan approved lifestyle. We try to "Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants" and have discovered so many new flavors, textures and recipes by eating this way and participating in a CSA. We eat very healthfully and my kids love their veggies. However, my amendment to these food rules, is that when I out to someplace really special (which, being me, I will have researched to death and all but guaranteed that it will be great), all bets are off and I am going to enjoy the specialties of the house.

DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies in Robbinsville, NJ. This place was so good that we went twice! We went on the first night of our trip and loved it so much that we decided to drag the whole family down there to get there at 4 p.m. when it opened to celebrate Mother's Day. Tomato pie is to traditional New York pizza as, well, Chicago style is to New York pizza. These pies have ultra thin, crisp crusts with a layer of cheese and then toppings and sweet tomatoes. We had the red pie with white clams both times and it was divine. The clams were all chopped up and added a briny savoriness to the pie that I loved. We also had the housemade sausage and sweet pepper pie and, while more traditional, it was ultra flavorful and delicious. They also do a fantastic antipasti plate and different fresh and creative salads every day. Both times we were lucky to have their heavenly heirloom tomato salad which will only get better as those Jersey tomatoes really start to come into season. Believe me friends in north Jersey, it is worth the drive to Robbinsville to have this pizza.

The Bent Spoon in Princeton, NJ: I am about to make a very bold statement. This ice cream shop makes the best ice creams and sorbets (dark chocolate!!!) I have EVER had, including at Berthillon in Paris. I know!!!!!! Palmer Square in Princeton is so adorable and lovely, and this little hippie ice cream place makes me want to live there and never leave. They are Pollan-ites themselves, sourcing their ingredients locally, supporting local farms, making everything fresh, creating so many incredible flavors every day. We went, we sampled the flavors, we chose, we ate, we sampled some more and then we got seconds! I loved this place so much, I even got a tee shirt. It makes my beloved Arctic Zero stand out like the nerdy wannabe cousin of ice cream that it is.

Chef Vola's in Atlantic City, NJ: This was our second time at this fabulous Italian restaurant in Atlantic City and was the place we chose to celebrate my MIL's 60th birthday. It was just as good this time as last time, maybe even better because with more people, we got to sample more dishes. I usually think that portions like this are ridiculous, but here those enormous plates just part of the fun. And, everything is so tasty that you can't help but eat the whole thing (yes, DrRuckus did finish his entire 2 pound veal chop parmigiana!) Making a reservation is a pain and the setting is strange, but they know how to please their customers. I even made reservations to celebrate my birthday there a few weeks from now!

Colicchio and Sons in NYC: After a 3 star review in the Times and being a big fan of Colicchio and his other restaurants, we thought that this place would be a slam dunk to celebrate my parents' 35th anniversary. It is in a lovely space right under the Highline and aims to be a contender for destination dining in New York. (Well, it is, for suckers like me who feed into the celebrity nonsense I guess.) It was okay, there were some high points, but I wouldn't go back. Best parts of the meal were the crispy chicken skin on my sister's chicken dish and an incredible cheese from my cheese course that came from Stowe, VT (love you Stowey) and tasted exactly like it.

Union Square Cafe, NYC: We met some good friends for lunch at USC and had a great meal there. It is just one of those places that is always solid, always tasty, always delightful. Their "greenmarket lunch" on the weekends is reliably fresh and wonderful with ingredients purchased right up the street at the weekend greenmarket. I had a delicious fresh veggie and pasta dish with a farm fresh egg on top and truffles shaved over it. Heavenly. DrRuckus had a very tasty burger. We got to catch up with friends in a relaxed atmosphere. Not bad for lunch! And, afterwards, we went around the corner to Baked by Melissa, an tiny shop that sells adorable mini cupcakes. What fun! They have great flavors, the cupcakes are filled and frosted, and you can sample a whole bunch of flavors without any guilt. Why didn't I think of that?

Degustation, NYC: One night DrRuckus and I were heading into the city to meet friends for dinner but we weren't sure where to meet them. We headed downtown without a destination and then the other couple had to cancel on us last minute. We were in the East Village and I turned to my trusty friend, Yelp. Lo and Behold, there was a restaurant two blocks away with a very solid 4.5 star rating that I had never heard of. Yay! We found parking (karma) and walked over. We didn't have a reservation, but it was early and it was Monday and we were seated around a sushi bar for one of the coolest meals of our lives. This place was made for foodies and we loved every second of it! All 16 patrons are seated around a sushi bar where 4 chefs are preparing "tapas" with a french/molecular gastronomy bent. They offer tapas by the plate or in 5 or 10 course tasting menus. You know me well enough by now to know what we chose! At $80 for 10 courses (plus a plate of 3 amazing amuses), it was a bargain! Each plate, each taste, imparted new delights. It was made even more special by the fact that we were sitting up close, watching these artists create each of our plates and present them like masterpieces. The entire meal was like watching a cross between a ballet and an episode of Top Chef, except that I got to taste it all. Each dish was intricate and interesting and yet harmonious. I must say, though, that the highlight was the bruleed brioche pudding for dessert. I am still dreaming of that . . .

After such an amazing meal, we walked around the very happening East Village for a while and decided that the only thing that could top off such a great meal would be a massage. "Hey!" we said, "This is New York. We can definitely get a massage at 11 p.m. in this city." So, with trusty Yelp on my iPhone, I found a place in Chinatown called "Foot Heaven" that promised to be legit, high quality and open. Off we went and had pretty amazing reflexology massages at that late hour. Only in New York!

The ultimate high point of our trip was the afternoon and evening that we spent touring and dining at Blue Hill at Stone Barn. It was so amazing though, it will get its own post.

A Little Family Time

2010-04-13T20:05:00.004-05:00

Who would have thought that a family road trip to Geezer Village West would be one of my top trips of all time? Surely not me! At the last minute, DrRuckus and I decided to take the kids to Lake Worth, Florida to see my self-proclaimed "old Grandma" who, after a few months delay, had finally made it down to her condo there. We hadn't seen her in a couple of years and she had never even met my Little Ladybug. Though she is doing very well for 92, we wanted to see her before, well, before "it was too late". So, we decided that we would load up the car and take our little family on the road, 1200 miles from The Woodlands, TX to Lake Worth, FL. I got some advice from a seasoned road-tripping friend (those Canadians sure do like their car travel) and packed our car full of toys, books, snacks and fun.

The trip was so much better than I expected for so many reasons. First of all, because it was really great to have a dedicated block of time with just our family. We are always running around, and it was nice to just be together. Second, it was a highlight of my life to see my kids with my grandmother and to watch them fall in love with each other. Third, we got the added treat of a few days with my parents and youngest sister and made the love-fest even bigger and better. Fourth, because we learned that my kids are really great travelers.

On this road trip, we actually gleaned a number of important lessons. So, if you are taking a road trip with young kids and toddlers, I hope that this list might help you.

Top 10 Things we Learned on our Family Road Trip to Florida

10. The best driving is done in the dark. We got the easiest, most relaxing miles done early in the morning the first day, when we left our house at 5:30 and didn't stop until 9 a.m. After that, we took it easy and made plenty of rest stops the rest of the day. We even did as our fathers never did on trips, we ventured off the highway to tour the USS Alabama. Still, after a picnic dinner, we put the kids in PJs, let them fall asleep in the car, and drove 400 more miles to end up at Disney World. We never expected to get that far in one day, but the night time miles flew by and we decided to make a spontaneous trip to "Mickey World"! On the way back the other day, we also drove for hours after a delicious dockside dinner in Destin, FL and covered a lot of miles while the kids slept.

9. If you are going to blow your diet, blow it with something worthwhile. I highly suggest the deep fried crab stuffed bacon wrapped shrimp from Dewey Destin's Seafood in Destin, FL followed by made fresh every hour custard from Shakes down the street. You might think that it would be too much richness, too over the top, but really it was a heavenly meal.

8. High Fructose Corn Syrup really might be pure evil, but when you never let your kids consume it and then let them gorge on it for 2 days straight, they are beyond thrilled! Even before reading Omnivore's Dilemma, I knew not to give my kids processed food or things containing "HFCS", but on the road, anything goes! Sweet Tart bunnies, jelly beans, Kix, and even Fruit Loops. Oy vey!

7. It is worth it to go down a couple of "star levels" in lodging in exchange for a lot more square footage. Those who know me know that I love hotels, that I love nothing more than getting a great deal on a luxury hotel, that I take advantage of all of the luxuries at those hotels, and that it makes me happy when the staff know my name and want to take care of me. Well, when traveling "en famille", it is totally worth it to give up luxury for space. We stayed in a huge suite at the lovely Doubletree West Palm Beach Airport and having all that space made the stay there so much easier. (Plus, they were always giving us delicious freshly baked Doubletree Chocolate Chip cookies that were divine!)

6. Kids need to be older than 5 in order to really appreciate Disney. 6 or 7 would be even better. My kids, especially the Z-Man, had a great time and were amazed, astounded and delighted by our few hours at "Mickey World", but they had just as good a time, if not better, playing in GG's pool. One of the highlights of the trip for the Z man was learning to use the key cards to open doors at the hotel. The few hours at Disney were a perfect little taste, and we are glad that we went, but won't go back for at least 5 more years.

5. You might have a house full of toys, but all you need is a bowl of shells and a walker. How many kids have gone to my grandmother's condo and played with that same bowl of shells? And now she has a new "toy", a walker with a seat so that my kids were able to take turns getting rides to the pool. It is the simple things, I tell you.

4. Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is a dangerous place. . . for your wallet!

3. The portable DVD player is the best road trip invention since cruise control. I had packed bags of books, toys, crafts, snacks, etc, but my kids happily zombied out watching movies for 95% of the ride. In the meantime, we got to listen to the music we love and I even read The Omnivore's Dilemma out loud to DrRuckus.

2. The iPhone is the greatest overall travel invention since, well, anything! I knew that I loved my iPhone, but now my appreciation for it is so much deeper. We had music, movies and books right there. Maps and directions were at our fingertips. When we wanted to find a place to eat, we had Yelp and Zagat leading us to some true gems. I could text, email and facebook every mile of the way. I forgot my camera, but I still was able to snap and send pictures. And the list goes on.

And the #1 thing I learned (or re-learned) on our Family Road Trip:

I adore my husband! He is the smartest, kindest, most fun, most generous, most loving husband and father that I can imagine. He used his few days off to get in the car with us and take us to see my grandmother and made the whole trip into the adventure that it was. We reaffirmed that together we can do anything, and that we have a great time doing everything. We make an amazing team. I love you, baby.

Feeding the Addiction

2010-03-21T22:01:00.005-05:00

Like many good things, I first discovered this from Hungry Girl. When I saw that I could order this "ice cream" treat from Amazon and have it delivered, still frozen, to my doorstep, I had to try it. The first time I ordered, I got the combo pack of chocolate and chocolate peanut butter. Yes, it was $50 for a 6 pack, but I had to give it a try. A serving is only 32 calories for ice cream! It arrived two days later (gotta love that Amazon Prime membership) in a styrofoam box with lots of dry ice. Each pint was still frozen solid.

It was love at first pint! The problem was that because each serving is only 32 calories, the whole pint is only 128 and there is something so satisfying about being able to eat a whole pint of dessert. Plus, that pint contains almost 20 grams of whey protein! It is the perfect treat each night after a long day and a hard workout. It rewards me while not sabotaging all of my healthy habits - a huge serving of sweet, cold, creamy, high protein, low calorie deliciousness. It wasn't long before I had to order every week because I was having one pint a night.

This has gone on for a few months. And it probably would have continued had we not made a recent purchase. Now I need to trim the fat, or in this case, the fat free. I told DrRuckus that I would stop ordering it and consuming a 6 pack a week. But what was I going to do? I really am addicted. So, I asked my favorite grocery store to carry it. Less than 4 days later, they have it in stock! They have lots of flavors, and it costs A LOT less than buying it from Amazon. I am going to try to keep it to under 4 pints per week, but at least I don't have to give it up completely. And now, you who live near me can all try it for a lot less than ordering it from Amazon. And if you don't live near me, check their website because they are starting to carry it in more and more places. You will love it. But don't say I didn't warn you!

Coming Up for Air

2010-03-12T19:51:00.004-06:00

Alas, it has been a long time since I have blogged. So long that it is almost intimidating and overwhelming to start again. I stopped because I felt like I had strayed from my reasons for starting this blog and that I wasn't really putting anything out there that was fascinating. And then, I tasked myself with trying to be fascinating and thus not writing at all. But here I am, not fascinating, but coming up for air and blogging about it.

The past two months have actually been really great. I have been so content that I haven't wanted to break the peace and fulfill an "obligation" to sit down and blog. I have been reading a lot - books, magazines, blogs and also catching up on movies in our theater room. It helps that DrRuckus has been around a lot more as he has fulfilled his promise to work fewer shifts and have more family time. This has been fantastic for all of us and we have had more time to enjoy one another as a couple and as a family. We had a wonderful little getaway to Austin sans kids (if you haven't been to Frank's for sausages or Uchi for sushi, GO! NOW!) He and I both had Lasik eye surgery, which is miraculous and something we should have done years ago. I have spent time with old friends and made some new friends, all of whom enrich my life. Also, I have been cooking tons of new recipes, mostly soups and vegetarian meals, and have been getting much more adventurous about creating recipes.

Also, I have been adhering to my resolution to be more patient with my children and that has made all of us much happier. As I promised myself, I have been trying to live in the present, to let things roll off my back, and to try to be as calm and relaxed as possible. Most of the time, I have actually been succeeding! At times, this has been especially challenging, and at times I fail miserably, but mostly I am doing it and I am proud of myself.

Admittedly, I am addicted to my exercise routine, so when I had some bad hamstring tendonitis in January that prevented me from doing most of my regular activities, it could have thrown me off and made me miserable. And, it could have sabotaged all of my efforts to be patient and present. Instead, I took it in stride and attempted to figure out how to still work out and thus be the happier Mommy I am learning to be.

I used the "arm bike" for some cardio, I did a lot of resistance training with my upper body only, and I took up swimming. I was so hesitant to start swimming for fitness because of bad experiences on the swim team as a child, but it came at the perfect time for me. I was just starting to re-learn how to swim when I re-injured my hamstring. But, using a pool buoy, I was able to swim by just using my upper body and concentrate on form that way. When I was somewhat healed, I was able to add back in the kicking without affecting my tendonitis. Now I almost fully healed and pretty much able to do everything I was doing a few months ago, but swimming has become an important part of my week.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I take an Adult Swim Conditioning class with a group of wonderful women, friends both old and new. We have a great teacher and true camaraderie in the class and are learning to be good swimmers while having a great time encouraging each other. Those two days have been so fantastic that I try to swim one other day of the week by myself and this has been one of my favorite workouts of the week. I go early on Fridays, get in the pool and swim (slow) lap after (slow) lap enjoying the sound of the water, the feel of my body gliding through it by my own power. When it was suggested that I get some music to listen to while swimming, I was aghast! I have enough noise in my life. Swimming is meditative, contemplative, quiet while still being a kick ass workout! It challenges me with every lap but I emerge from the water feeling wonderful: tired, accomplished, clear headed, and somehow, just satisfied.

See, coming up for air!

Can't believe I succombed!

2010-01-10T22:12:00.005-06:00

At first I thought that they were Fugly. Then, they grew on me, but I thought that they were "over". And then I moved to Texas and thought that they were unnecessary (and "over"). And then we had a cold snap down here in tropical Houston.

Really, with all of the yoga and pilates I have been doing as well as the fact that all of my gym workouts are in my five fingers, well, I just didn't have the right foot attire to wear to and from the gym and studio. And it has been cold! (Plus, I am trying to be good and go barefoot or be as close to it as possible so as not to overly strain my hamstring.)

Okay, I love them. I don't want to take them off. I just realized why they are not "over" yet. People just don't want to give them up. I get it. Finally.

yogaFLIGHT

2010-01-04T23:58:00.004-06:00

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to Lululemon here in The Woodlands to participate in a yogaFLIGHT workshop. Sky and Slade are a married couple from Ottawa, Ontario who are currently traveling in their Airstream trailer to Lululemon stores across the US and Canada to share their unique approach to yoga. They are endeavoring to "teach you how to stay grounded amidst the hustle and bustle and the stressors of modern life whilst enjoying the bliss of having your world turned upside down." Yoga Flight is based on the feeling of pure joy you got as a kid when your dad would fly you on his feet while he was lying on his back. It is about being playful and adventurous while building confidence and strength.

This was one of the coolest experiences of my life! The class was held in the middle of our local Lululemon store (a.k.a. my favorite store) in the middle of a busy Saturday. The group of us spread out our yoga mats while others were shopping and began with a series of sun salutations to warm up our bodies. Then Sky and Slade demonstrated some of the moves and poses we would be doing. Well, Slade is 6 feet tall and made of muscle and Sky is a small (albeit strong) woman not much over 5 feet. So, he "played base" while she was the flyer. They did all kinds of crazy moves and asanas, flowing from one to the other, Sky suspended on Slade's feet. Then it was our turn to play. I partnered with Tiffany, my yoga instructor and another small, strong woman. We surprised ourselves and were able to hold each other up and do some of the moves without much difficulty. However, we were not strong or brave enough to try the more advanced stuff.

Later I got a chance to work with one of the guys who works at Lulu and he was able to "fly" me pretty well. It was really cool to be able to get into the "hanging bat" pose where my legs were butterflied and I was holding my ankles suspended from his feet. But then I had a chance to "fly" with Slade and it was a whole new world! I had so much fun and felt so powerful and so graceful. He was so supportive both physically and mentally, that I felt like I could do anything! Moving me around was like nothing for him and this made me feel secure enough to try lots of different moves. Slade was even able to fly the guy who had "played base" for me and was pretty much the same size as Slade!

I wish that there was a place to practice Yoga Flight nearby because I would love to repeat this experience. I might have to get Tiffany to try some of the moves in her Thursday class!

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-04T22:06:00.004-06:00

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions; they just kind of occur to me some time in the new year and I am off and running. (Oftentimes literally.) Last year, on a whim early in January I decided to start doing Weight Watchers. Little Ladybug was just four months old and I had started Pilates and begun to get back in shape but knew that for me, the accountability in recording my points worked. With Weight Watchers, Pilates, and a dedication to healthy living and eating, I far surpassed the "goal" that I set for myself. In a year, I have lost 35 pounds, gone from a size 12 to a size 2, and am in by far the best shape of my life. I have been on the maintenance plan for 6 months and still use WW as a tool for holding myself accountable. I run faster than I ever thought that I could and feel great doing so. My heart and my body are strong, and I am so much more flexible and than I ever imagined that I could be. I am even more coordinated and graceful than before (but that isn't saying much!) In 2009, I dedicated myself to this goal of total fitness and I have accomplished it.

However, somewhere along the line, I became so focused on myself and what I needed to do to attain my goals that I stopped focusing on those two little people who are my heart's joy. I have always subscribed to the "put your own mask on first" theory of mothering, but lately I haven't been ensuring that theirs are on right at all. Over the past few months I have found myself being increasingly short tempered and exasperated with the two of them, and they do not deserve that. They are great kids, magical even, and it is my job to nurture them at every stage and help them to grow into incredible people. Christmas week really made it clear that my patience for my two amazing children has been in short supply and that it was making us all miserable. Yet, I didn't know that I was going to make a change until I just up and did it.

At some point on January 1, I had a lightbulb moment! I realized that if I could transform my body, my eating habits, my health and my fitness just by focusing really hard, I could certainly put that much effort into having patience for my kids. So, all of a sudden, I slowed down. I have been feeling for months like I am a bouncy ball going in every direction and not able to control my energy or focus my attention. Well, I am now making a conscious effort to be more still, more present in everything, but especially in my parenting. I keep taking a deep breath before reacting instead of flying off the handle. I am trying to not sweat the small stuff. When my kids need my attention, I am giving it to them instead of saying, "one minute." When they spill something, I am saying, "no big deal, let's get a towel" instead of flying off the handle. I am trying to put the computer down when they are up. More than anything, I am trying to be more present.

Some of this, I believe, comes from expanding my yoga practice lately and concentrating on meditating and breathing. And, some of this, I truly think, comes from the chia. I have always gotten bitchy when my blood sugar got low, and the chia is helping me to avoid those blood sugar dips. Mean Mommy does not come out as often when her tank is not on empty.

Another resolution actually came to me a few months ago when I went to an amazing U2 concert. For that concert, I ate some "special brownies" and had a fantastic night. During the concert, I sent myself an email that said, "I don't need Lexapro; I just need music". With little kids around, I am so used to having the TV tuned to Noggin in the background or to talking on the phone in the car. However, rock and roll has always been a huge part of my life and makes me truly happy! So, I am trying to play music, introduce my kids to the songs that I love, and feel the joy that it brings.

Now I am trying to figure out my BHAG. I have been toying with the idea of doing Pilates teacher certification. Lately, I have considered doing yoga teacher certification as well. Also, I am in the lottery for the 2010 NYC marathon and there is a part of me that wants to do some great runs and has the dream of qualifying for Boston. Some friends have suggested that I do some tris, but they scare the shit out of me. . . which makes me think that I should do them.

And then, and then . . . I was thinking the other day that I should find a way to combine my passion for cooking and eating with my dedication to health and fitness. I have learned to cook healthy, fresh and truly delicious food with ingredients that I had never used before this year. Things like beets, fennel, quinoa, chia are brand new to me and so exciting. I want to share my enthusiasm with others. I have done so much baking in the past few months, but then I have given it away. Great, so I didn't eat it, but I was contributing to making others unhealthy, (especially my husband who eats at least two portions of everything I make.) I want people to be more healthy and help them feel good; baked goods will have to be for special occasions, not a weekly occurance. So, I am trying to figure out a way to bring my passion for healthy living to others. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I will be putting more healthy recipes and fewer baked goods on my blog. Everyone needs a treat sometime, so while I am not swearing off baking by any means, sweets will no longer be the be all and end all of this blog.

Breathe . . .

Where I've Been (or "What I did Over Christmas Vacation")

2010-01-04T20:39:00.005-06:00

The answer to is a long winded one, but one of my New Year's Resolutions is to make this blog more succinct and more pertinent to what is really important to me. It has lately become all about baking, and it is even beginning to bore me.

I actually haven't been anywhere physically but have been all over the place mentally. Though we travel more than any other young family that I know, we do not travel over Christmas week because DrRuckus always tries to be the good Jewish doctor and let everyone else get some time off to be with their families. Great for them, just sucks for us. I am always miserable during Christmas week because everyone is busy with their families and my husband is busy working and I feel housebound and lonely, like the only Jew in Texas. This year was worse than ever because we were all sick at various times, and were even more confined to the house. To exacerbate the torture, I was nursing a hamstring injury and so was not able to get the release and endorphin rush that I am so addicted to. I don't really know what we did except count the hours until Daddy got home, but we made it, one hour at a time!

On the positive side, we caught up on some of our recorded TV shows, watched and returned some of our Netflix movies and I read some great books. One of these, "A Homemade Life" by superstar food blogger, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette fame was really well written and contains some fantastic recipes (yes, I tried a bunch of them and just took some of her bread out of the oven). If you want to read a baking blog, go to her site because she is the real deal. And if you live in, or travel to Seattle, go to her new restaurant and report back to me!

One of the other books, "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall, has truly inspired me and helped me ring in 2010 with a whole new brighter outlook. I have been meaning to do a post about all of the books I have read on my Kindle and hopefully will get to that soon. But this one just came at the right time and is making my life so much better!

This book is part adventure story, part anthropology lesson, part history text, part manual and ALL inspiration! McDougall discusses an epic ultramarathon in the savage Copper Canyon in Mexico with the hidden tribe of Tarahumara Indians. He teaches us why we as an animal have evolved to run long distances and makes doing so seem like it can be pure joy. As someone who has slogged through countless long runs, the idea of doing so with much less work and much more joy is very appealing.

He also posits that the reason why there are so many injuries from running is that our modern, high tech shoes are forcing our feet and legs to move in a way that is unnatural to them and not allowing our bodies to do the work for which they were designed. The trend towards barefoot or minimal running is taking off and there is a great deal of evidence as to why this is ultimately better for us and will keep us running injury free. Since I was nursing an injury at the time that I read it, I was willing to jump on board. I cannot fathom going all the way to barefoot because I like having pretty feet way too much. However, I did buy a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes and have been learning how to run in them with a natural, short, easy stride. Crazy thing is, all of my leg pain is gone and my legs feel better each day that I walk around barefoot and workout in these. They look like gorilla feet, but they are fantastic!

One of the other secrets to the Tarahumara runners that McDougall discusses in his book is Chia. This ancient grain, consumed by the Tarahumara and other natives of the Southwest including the Aztecs, has incredible properties for overall health as well as for endurance. It contains tons of antioxidants, fiber, Omega-3 and Omega-6, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium AND is a complete protein. As if all of that is not enough, eating it also slows the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar, prolonging their fueling effects. It also has hydrophilic properties that help the body to retain moisture and thus prevent dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.

I've been eating it for a few days now and the difference is incredible! Besides going from injury to recovery, which can be attributed to many factors, the biggest difference that I have found is in my energy level. I mix the chia with my oatmeal in the morning and have plenty of energy to get my kids going, get to the gym, do an intense workout, do something afterwards and not eat until about 1 p.m. I usually need some type of snack in the morning and then have to feed myself before I feed my kids in order to bite their heads off! Over the past few days, we have had some late dinners and I have not had the need to have a pre dinner snack (which I would normally have to do because I am used to eating dinner at toddler time) because I had a chia drink in the afternoon. Amazing stuff!

So much for succinct!

Tuesdays With Dorie - Ridiculously Easy Cookies

2009-12-15T20:15:00.004-06:00

Snot season is officially here! My poor little Z Man has the most wide open sinuses ever encountered. While he has never had an ear infection and rarely feels sick, his poor little nose runs as green as the Chicago River on St. Patty's Day from December until May. While it may be dammed for a day or two here and there, there really is no stopping the flow, save for a little relief in the form of Benedryl once in a while. The past few days, the poor man looks like he was in a real fistfight because he spent a week in the dry heat of my parents' house in NJ and was so busy playing that he just swiped at his nosey with his sleeve every few minutes. It is so raw and sore and uncomfortable that he won't let me near it to wipe it or to put some ointment on it. He just looks awful (but, thankfully feels fine). In order to give him some relief today, I stopped him up with the Bene and then tried to take him out to be social. Big mistake! You live, you learn, right?

At least there are cookies! Today's Dorie recipe was for "Cafe Volcano Cookies". For those of you who know me, you will find this ridiculous: I have never made meringues. Not shocking for most people, but for someone who loves meringues and eats them by the carton and who loves to bake as much as I do, it is just silly. Especially if they are really as easy as the ones that I made today.

Yes, today was a Tuesday with Dorie day, but it was also a long day with two snot nosed kiddos. So, I was tempted to skip my baking and just soak in a hot bath with a big glass of wine. However, I looked again at the recipe and realized that it was so easy that I could make the cookies and then have my mini vacay. These were the simplest cookies that I have ever made. The batter was not too tasty, but OH MY GOODNESS the cookies are good!

I burnt the bottom of one sheet of cookies because I didn't divide my oven in thirds and had the top rack too close to the top of the oven. However, after eating one of the ones from the good sheet and realizing that they taste exactly like toasted caramel nut cookies, I pulled a Miranda Hobbs. I took every one of those suckers out of the garbage and ate the unburnt tops off of them!

By the way, these do not taste of coffee from the espresso powder, only of sweet, nutty caramel, but some of my fellow TWD bloggers did some fun variations of these cookies - cinnamon, cocoa, maple sugar. I will be trying all of them because they are just so easy and delicious.

Happy Tuesday!

Operation Baking GALS

2009-12-14T20:10:00.003-06:00

I don't remember where I came across it. Definitely on someone else's blog, but as soon as I heard about it, I knew that I wanted to take part: Operation Baking GALS. "Baking GALS (GALS stands for Give A Little Support) is a group of volunteer bakers from around the country who bake and ship homemade goodies to our heroic military men and women who are currently deployed in a war zone. Our goal is to show our support and send a little bit of home to remind them that we appreciate all that they do for our freedom."

As deserving as the men and women who work in the Emergency department with DrRuckus are of treats, the men and women in the military who are so far from home and who are dedicating their lives to protecting us are even more so because they can't go home at the end of the day. I am honored to be able to contribute just a little bit to making their jobs easier, if only for the minute that it takes to eat a cookie.

This was the first time that I baked with the GALS, and it was great to be able to make the holidays a little brighter. I joined a team that baked for Private First Class Rebecca and her troop stationed in Iraq. This is the letter that I sent to Rebecca along with some Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Dear Rebecca,

Happy Holidays to you and the brave men and women serving with you. I truly appreciate the service you are doing for this country, for all of us and for peace on Earth. I know that some day my children will live in a better world, in large part because people like you have dedicated their lives to bringing it about.
This is my first time participating in Operation Baking GALS, and I am so glad that I was able to do it for the holiday season. I know that this must be a very difficult time to be away from loved ones. Though I understand that you are a peanut butter lover, I know some of the others are sending that and I am assuming that some people with whom you are serving also love good, old fashioned, chocolate chip cookies.
These cookies are the the famous Neiman Marcus cookies. Why? Because, first of all, I believe that if you are going to give or get a really great present, Neiman Marcus is the best place to start! Second, these cookies really are good. Third, they tend to keep well and travel well, so will hopefully still be tasty by the time you get them. Fourth, they have a really good (but completely untrue) story:

FWD: Free Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe
This is a true story... Please forward it to everyone that you can.... You will have to read it to believe it....
My daughter and I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown "I'm afraid not." Well" I said, "would you let me buy the recipe?"
With a cute smile, she said YES". I asked how much and she responded, "Only two fifty, it's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab".. Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00". That's outrageous!!!
I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them that the waitress said it was "two-fifty," which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any POSSIBLE interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.. They would not refund my money, because according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to her the criminal statutes which govern fraud in Texas. I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want, we dont give a damn, and we're not refunding your money." I waited a moment, thinking of how I could get even,or even try to get any of my money back. I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250.00, and now I'm going to have $250.00 worth of fun."
I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free..She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this" I said, "Well you should have thought of that before you ripped me off", and slammed down the phone on her.. So, here it is!!! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250.00 dollars for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever get another penny off of this recipe....
Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)
2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.
3.In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.
4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

I hope that you all enjoy these cookies. Baking is one of my passions. It is the way that I relax and the way that I express myself. And, chocolate is my favorite medium in which to work. Other than my weekly baked treats, I am actually a very health conscious person. I ensure that my family eats a mostly organic, well balanced diet, and I love to exercise, but homemade treats just make life sweeter.
Like you, I spent some time living in Hawaii. What a beautiful place it is, so magical and so different from the rest of this incredible country. Though my husband and I both grew up in New Jersey, we are raising our family outside of Houston, Texas. We have two children, a four year old, and a fifteen month old. I am lucky enough to be able to stay home to be with them. My husband is and Emergency Room physician. We love to travel and to be outside as much as possible. Houston is a great place for that as we have moderate weather most of the year. Life here is pretty great. I feel very fortunate and realize that I owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women in the armed forces for ensuring that I can lead the peaceful existence that I do.
I hope that you enjoy the cookies and get to come home soon. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for all that you are doing.

I am thrilled to be a part of this group and encourage all who are interested in taking part to sign up for the next round.

Whoa Tiger

2009-12-02T19:47:00.004-06:00

For years I have loved Tiger Woods. What was not to love. He is the "Greatest Golfer of All Time." He has incredible ability, drive, concentration, willpower, success, and, let's face it, total hotness. And, when he got married and became a daddy, he became even more lovable to me because he seemed to do that with the same talent and passion with which he played golf. I have watched so many of his rounds, followed him around courses at tournaments, but my favorite Tiger moment was his US Open Win in 2008 when little Sam Alexis toddled onto the green and you could see how much he and his daughter adored each other. I rewound this part of the broadcast almost as many times as I once did the ending of Anne of Avonlea (when Gilbert proposes to Anne). It was that moving to me. (Yes, I just may be the cheesiest person of all time.) In short, Tiger was my hero. Like a mythological creature, he was beautiful, strong, brave and capable of superhuman feats. Except that he is human.

Do you know that when I first heard of his car "accident" the other night, the first thing that I thought was that he must have been going out to buy diapers or baby motrin? Meanwhile, as he ducked and avoided the media and authorities for the next few days, this became an unlikely explanation. I, like everyone else, knew that something had gone horribly awry for Tiger. However, when he "confessed" today, it was like a punch in the gut. I know that it is his personal life, that this is a private matter for his family to deal with. However, it hurt. He let me down. I know that he is human, but precisely the reason that I loved him is that he is better than most humans. He is supposed to have more discipline, self control, and uprightness than the rest of us. That is what makes him Tiger Woods.

But now I know, he is just like every other jackass celebrity who is all ego, who thinks he can have it all, can do it all, and is above it all. And that sucks. Have you heard this? Ugh!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Menu

2009-11-24T14:27:00.003-06:00

My in-laws will be joining us for Thanksgiving and it will be the first time that I am doing the holiday at my house. I am NOT making the turkey, though. I have always wanted to try deep fried turkey but am not brave enough to do it myself. Plus, I really, really, really hate touching raw poultry and the idea of having to do any manipulating of that big bird gives me the heebie jeebies. So, I ordered the turkey from our local meat market and only will have to reheat it. But everything else I will do myself.

Company comes tomorrow night, and I will be serving them a fun recipe that I found on one of my favorite blogs, We are Not Martha: Pumpkin Pasta with Chicken Sausage. I will be using whole wheat pasta and Fage 0% yogurt instead of the other dairy. But, I have a major thing for pumpkin lately. I have been going through cans of it. You get such a nutrient and fiber rich punch and a lot of flavor. I add it to my oatmeal, to LL's smoothies, to cookies, and my new favorite "treat" - Fage 0% yogurt, 1/4 cup of pumpkin, 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, 1 packet Splenda (aka elixer of the Gods), and a sprinkle of Fiber One cereal. So, anyways, this pasta sounds really great.

I also have the whole wheat variation of no knead bread rising right now and will bake it off tomorrow.

Then, Thanksgiving morning I will be doing the 5 mile Run Through the Woods race and then a Thanksgiving yoga class so they will be on their own. Luckily for them, I will leave them some of Dorie's Allspice Crumb Muffins for them to munch on while I am gone.

For lunch, we want to eat light, but still be in the Thanksgiving spirit. So, I will be serving a roasted butternut squash and apple soup from the NYtimes Dining section. and a big, beautiful salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries, diced honeycrisp apples, and some of the sweet and savory spiced nuts that I just made from a Gourmet recipe and that can easily be munched on all weekend. Hopefully we will have some bread left, but if not, I have an extra one in the freezer just in case!

And, onto the BIG meal. As mentioned, the turkey will be a deep fried one. Along side, I will be serving a Sausage, Chestnut and Mushroom "Dressing" (first time I ever used that word, but I am in the South now) that I found in the Williams Sonoma catalog. Only, instead of focaccia, I will be using the Cook's Illustrated Corn Bread.

I am will also be making maple pecan sweet potatoes. I know that they are from Cooking Light, but they will be amazing! I love sweet potatoes, maple syrup, and pecans, and they have some butter, so there is nothing dietetic about them. However, this recipe does call for one ingredient that I have never added to sweet potatoes before, but many of you have: marshmallows! Back in high school, my friends and I used to have a "Day After Thanksgiving" Feast, and I famously was aghast when my friend even suggested this, telling him, "I am not a Goy!" However, here I am in Texas and the tiny marshmallows are waiting to be bruleed on Thursday!

For the cranberry sauce, I made a light and fresh cranberry orange relish from Gourmet. It was good last night, and is supposed to be even tastier a few days later. And, for "something green", but something that still goes with the deep fried turkey and southern theme, I will be making brussel sprouts with bacon. Not sure which recipe I will be using yet, but anything with bacon is bound to be good!

And last, dessert . . . Oh, how I had a hard time with this one. I wanted to make so many desserts, but we are only 5 adults, one of whom had a heart attack recently, so it seemed as though I should reign in my desires to bake up a storm. In the end I settled on DrRuckus's favorite - classic, two crust, deep dish apple pie. But not just any apple, pie! First, I will be using the magical Cook's Illustrated vodka pie dough. And, on top, we will be serving homemade cinnamon ice cream and butterscotch sauce from Food and Wine.

The exciting thing is that I used all of my magazines for this menu, as well as my beloved NYTimes. The bad part is that I am so far ahead of the game that I am now rethinking that second dessert decision.

TWD-Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake

2009-11-23T22:36:00.006-06:00

Oh, I thought that this month's TWD baking would be no problem, what with getting to choose any two of the TWD November recipes and then posting them on any two Tuesdays during the month. However, here I am, blogging about a cake that took me an entire weekend to prepare on a day when I have to prepare for the first Thanksgiving that I have ever made on my own! Those Molasses Spice Cookies were so good and simple, but I let DrRuckus choose the second recipe. He saw "chocolate" and "caramel" and decided that I would make him that cake. It seemed fine at the time. I thought that I had all month.

I even thought that I was so ahead of the game because I found the chestnut spread and the roasted chestnuts weeks ago. I had stocked up on chocolate from the King himself. Because of this, it didn't even dawn on me until I put it all together, that this might have been the most expensive cake I have ever baked. So much good quality chocolate and those chestnuts really added up. Good thing that it was completely worth it! It was really delicious and decadent.

As the deadline approached and I realized that I would be busy with Turkey Day prep, I decided to start the cake last Friday. Well, i started the salted caramel milk chocolate ganache that day anyways. Dorie says in the recipe that this cake might just be an excuse to eat that ganache because it wouldn't be polite to lick it right out of the bowl. Well, she is right! I am not really a milk chocolate person, but if I was not already married, I could have easily gotten a proposal out of my husband with this concoction. It was ridiculously rich and creamy, chocolaty, salty, insane!

Revisiting the recipe that night, I realized that this cake was going to be so over the top in every way that I was going to have to throw a party in its honor. Luckily we were already planning on watching DrRuckus's childhood friend on Food Network as the sous chef to Jose Garces on The Next Iron Chef that night, so we had an excuse for a cake party!

On the second night, I made the dark chocolate glaze for the cake. Dorie says that it might take up to 4 hours to thicken up, but a few other bloggers said that it took longer and in my hot, moist kitchen, I knew it would have a hard time setting up. So, I decided to give it an overnight. It is a good thing I did because it took almost 20 hours for it to reach an almost spreadable consistency. Even then, it was on the brink and was quite melty and messy.

The cake itself was pretty simple, and was much easier since I finally invested in a second bowl for my KitchenAid stand mixer. Without having to clean out the bowl in between the batter and thew whipped whites, it took very little time. My only problem was that I forgot that my square cake pans are all 8 inchers, When I poured my batter in, my cake pan was very full! However, though it baked about 10 minutes longer, everything turned out just fine.

The advantage of that 8 incher was that it was very easy to cut into three nice, thick layers and so I was not intimidated by this step. I used Grand Marnier instead of brandy in the syrup between the layers and the orange flavor went well with the chocolate and nuts. The ganache spread easily, though it was hard to resist licking the spatula and the bowl when I was done. One thing that Dorie doesn't mention but not everyone would realize is that you must let the ganache come to room temperature to be able to spread it. Some of the other TWD bakers used leftover ganache to make truffles, but I put as much as I could on the cake and saved the rest for my beloved. The chopped chestnuts between the layers added texture, but I don't find them to be very flavorful. Which is too bad because I have so many now that I am currently putting together a chestnut stuffing for T Day. Well, chestnuts and corn bread and sausage and fennel.

The most difficult part of this cake was the dark chocolate glaze. It was very runny and messy, and even with Dorie's innovative drip catcher (i.e. parchment under a cooling rack), I had chocolate glaze all over my counter. As soon as I put as much as I could on, I put it in the fridge to firm up. It did, but then I had to take it back out to get to room temperature before serving it. At which point, the glaze started running again and the cake had to be rushed back to the fridge! Still, nothing wrong with the taste of that runny chocolate glaze. Yum!

TWD-Sugar Topped Molasses Cookies

2009-11-17T20:02:00.008-06:00

This afternoon was so rough, that I don't even have the energy to bake. (I know!!!) Usually I find it very zen, very relaxing, but today it just seemed like too much work. Luckily for me, I baked my TWD - Sugar Topped Molasses Cookies a couple of weeks ago and already put the pics on the computer so I can post this and still keep up with my commitment to bake along with my favorite baking book.

Why was this afternoon so rough? I am not really sure. First of all, my Little Ladybug has a cold and is teething, so her already Drama Queen personality is exaggerated by her discomfort (poor baby). B (as my sister would say) - they were both really hungry from being too excited to eat lunch due to having friends over. Lastly, neither one slept this afternoon (never a good thing). So, LL was on a major crying jag from about 4:30 on and her siren like cry makes blood boil. Z Man and I were actually doing a pretty job keeping it together until he dropped his bag of marbles from his Quadrilla set and that was it! I actually managed to remain calm despite dozens of marbles scattering across my tile floor and just whisked LL upstairs for bath and bed (yes, it was 5:30 but I had tried everything else) with an admonishment to Z Man to "not do anything else until you find all of the marbles (aka baby chokers)" on the floor.

Went upstairs, had a nice bathtime, book and cuddle and put LL in her crib and descended the stairs thinking that I would see Z Man (self proclaimed "bad finder") playing and not looking for his marbles. Instead I detected the unmistakeable odor of, well, poop. Asking about this, Z said, "I pooped on the floor". When I asked him where it was, he said, "{Phoebe the dog} ate it." Ugh!!!!!!!!! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I felt awful knowing that I had told him not to do "anything" and he took it literally. Also, I was so worried about the dog getting sick! At this point, I too lost my marbles! But, I managed to remain somewhat calm (maybe it is the yoga I have been doing?) and get him clean and into bed. He hasn't had an accident in months and this was his second one today! He peed on himself at the gym after downing an entire water bottle.

Anyways, thank goodness I had made those cookies a few weeks ago. I wish I had them now to eat, but they are long gone and that is very sad. They would be a perfect holiday cookie, a perfect after school snack, a perfect after dinner snack. They are pretty much a perfect cookie! And, this is coming from a pretty die hard chocolate lover, but these were that good. Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle with a great slightly spicy but very sweet flavor. I really could go for one now. However, I will not be baking tonight. Alas, am already on my second glass of Rjoja.

Here is the recipe for the Sugar Topped Molasses Cookies.

I have never baked with molasses before, but I really liked the depth of flavor of it. I have also never put pepper in my cookies, and I was skimpy on it but will actually add more the next time.

The batter was very sticky and thick and was perhaps the first cookie dough I have had "raw" that I didn't think might be better right out of the bowl rather than baked.

It was a really sticky situation to roll them into balls, roll them in the sugar and squash them. The dough was really stuck to my hands and was quite a mess. I also had a hard time getting them to the right shape. I have subsequently learned a trick for the squashing part that I will employ next time: cut a square of parchment to place over the ball of dough and then use a measuring cup to make them round and even.

They didn't look done when they came out, but they cooled to a perfect consistency and tasted even better the next day. I really recommend trying these. Next time I am going to use 1/2 white whole wheat flour and a bit more pepper, but I will definitely be making them again.

Oh, and just to remind myself why days like these are worth it:

Dirty Cookies

2009-11-11T23:41:00.006-06:00

When DrRuckus was at work last night, I looked at porn. Food porn that is! I was searching for inspiration for a delectable and fun treat to bring with me to our annual Moms' Spa Weekend on Friday and Saturday (yay!), and ended up finding all sorts of naughty things.

For some reason, I had an idea to look for homemade Oreo cookies. I have no idea how that got into my head. I never buy nor eat Oreos. Z Man refers to them as "dirty cookies" because of the mess they leave on your face (which, apparently, is caused by the black cocoa powder. I don't have it but will be putting it on my next KAF order). One quickie Google of "homemade oreos" and I found a fantastic food blogger who had a recipe and the most amazing pics of her homemade oreos. Smitten Kitchen was immediately bookmarked after I tried to scratch and sniff my monitor for those cookies. I was so on board with one of her commenters who said, "Brilliant! This falls right into my 'why buy it when i can make it for twice the cost and 20 times the work' ethic." That is so me!

After that, I moved on. I thought that the Oreos looked fantastic and I knew that I would be making them soon, but they would not be the right thing for our outing. I got it in my head that cupcakes would be more festive and happily spent the next few hours (no kidding, hours) looking at cupcake blogs. I finally settled on my choice for Friday night: vegan margarita cupcakes since margaritas are delicious, celebratory and probably the official drink of Texas. Plus my friend who is nursing dairy intolerant twins will be with us so she can partake in the treat! (Don't worry, the alcohol is cooked out during baking!)

Anyways, today I was gathering the ingredients for the cupcakes and I purchased vegan, organic shortening. I was going to get started on my cuppersons, but realized that I didn't have enough limes. However, I remembered that this same shortening was one of the ingredients in the filling of the homemade Oreos. How convenient! (Yeah right, as if this was not my plan the whole time, to do both, this week!) I had the ingredients, DrRuckus was working, Smitten Kitchen's recipe looked so easy, my kids were exhausted and in bed before 7, so the stars were aligned to make my Oreos.

From Smitten Kitchen:

Homemade Oreos
Adapted from Retro Desserts, Wayne Brachman

Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. If you want to make the cookie by itself (as I did a while back for ice cream sandwiches), go ahead and use the full amount.

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

These really are super easy to make, but I do have a couple of notes:
1. I made most of them them too big. I used my teaspoon ice cream scoop to scoop them and then smooshed them down with a piece of parchment under a measuring cup. This worked great in getting the cookies to perfect shape and width, but they spread in the oven and they are about 4 inches in diameter.
2. The ones I baked on Silpat and my good cookie sheets did not puff up as much. The ones on parchment and old cookie sheets puffed up so I just smooshed them with the same parchment/measuring cup as soon as they came out of the oven.
3. I ran out of filling near the end and had to whip up another batch. I only used a little and have a bunch left in a container. I should have thrown it away because my dear husband does not need to be eating it with a spoon, like I know he will.
4. I made some that were tiny, little one inchers, and these baked in only 4 minutes. They are cute little bite size morsels and would look great on top of a cupcake!

Toys for the Z Man

2009-11-09T19:55:00.003-06:00

Funny, when I first started this blog, I thought that it would mostly be about all of the great things I have found for my kids that make all of our lives better. But, it has evolved to something else entirely. I know that I discuss by babies and some of the things that I have found for them, but it is certainly not the norm. However, I have to share some of our latest and greatest here.

Let me start out by saying that my kids are extremely fortunate. Not only do we adore them and shower them with love and affection, but we are able to provide for their needs and wants. And, on top of that, their grandparents do the same and send boxes of gifts all of the time. It is like a birthday here every week. We are all really, really lucky and try to instill in our kids a sense of gratitude and generosity as well.

Still, in the past few days, the Z Man has made out even better than usual. On Saturday, we were going to meet my friend in Round Top, TX. (She lives in Austin, and it is an adorable town halfway between us and has become our little spot.) En route to Round Top, we stopped at the Le Creuset outlet (didn't buy anything) and out of the corner of his eye, Z spotted something. "Mommy! Let's go over to that toy shop. I see something that I have been wanting!" I looked and sure enough was this Dalmatian race game that he first coveted when we saw it at a toy shop in Vail last winter. Knowing that it was under $20 and impressed that he had remembered it all this time, I bought it for him. It is not very interactive, but is cute and sort of mesmerizing, though the sound is rather annoying. But, he has been loving it.

In fact, it has been his obsession for the past 48 hours until it was package time again. You see, I subscribe to a number of online sample sales: Gilt , RueLaLa, ideeli, The Mini Social, and Hautelook. It could be a full time job scouring these sales each day, but I try to only look if it is something that I am really excited about. (Send me a message if you need an invite code to any of these, btw.)

A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Hautelook had Hape toys and I checked it out. The prices were great, and, even better, I had some store credit with them. So, I ordered a game and an intro quadrilla set. As soon as I saw the quadrilla set, I knew that the Z Man would go bananas over it. It is just so right up his little alley to build tracks and study the motion of the little marbles. My little man might not have much gross motor coordination, but his ability to engineer a track is incredible. He is thrilled and delighted each time he attempts a new configuration and is really smart about knowing how the marbles will move. I am truly impressed with how he uses his brain and his hands to play with this toy. And, I haven't seen him this excited about a toy since, well, since his grandparents sent him a Lionel train set (!) a few months back.

This little intro set is perfect for a three year old and was only $15 from Hautelook! Only problem is that the marbles are "baby chokers" so we have to be extra careful.

Oooooh, Look at these shoes

2009-11-05T09:19:00.003-06:00

Damn that Antropologie catalog! I should put it right in the recycling bin and not look at it. I do love everything in it, even the things that have no relevance to my life, like ornaments and stockings. It is like a fantasy world for me.

But those shoes! Chie Mihara, a Spanish shoemaker, makes lovely , well made shoes with great style. There are even some on sale at Saks for 40% off, but not with duckie heads! These ones have a sexy vintage looking heel, a lovely soft black leather, and a whimsical little mallard head. Oh, how I love them. Any friends with November birthdays want let me use their 15% discount to buy these pretty babies? I have just the place for them in my closet.

Oh, speaking of "damn" . . . Yesterday the Z-Man was playing with his electric train. He was trying to put it on the track and having some trouble. He said, "Damn it, Damn it." I had to walk out of the room to keep from laughing. I guess it could have been worse. Me, I prefer the F word!

TWD-Sweet Potato Biscuits

2009-10-20T20:42:00.006-05:00

Knowing that today's Tuesdays with Dorie project was to be "Sweet Potato Biscuits", I purchased some gigantic ones at the Farmers Market over the weekend. You know how they say, "Everything's Bigger in Texas"? Well, these things were ridiculous! Each one weighed in at over 20 oz and they were shaped like enormous bulbs of garlic. Here is a photo of one after it was oven roasted:

I just washed these two big boys and popped them in a 425 degree oven for an hour and 15 minutes. The skin got all nice and charred and the first layer was soft, sweet and mushy. However, because these were so big and thick, the middles were still kind of hard. So, when I went to mash them in my food processor, they were still a little solid. No problem! I added a little bit of orange juice and made a truly delicious sweet potato puree. The recipe called for canned sweet potatoes, but I couldn't use canned when it is sweet potato season. It almost feels like fall around here. It has been cool in the mornings and evenings and gorgeous and one can imagine that it is autumn (except for the fact that it hits 80 every afternoon).

I happened to have some White Lily flour on hand and used that because it is supposed to be the ultimate biscuit flour. I added about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, about 1/8 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Working the butter into the flour felt so good, though I may have overworked it because I was having so much fun! When I stirred in my sweet potato puree, it looked like this:

All it took was a couple of good smooshes and the dough came together. Rather than work it more and develop the gluten, I just flattened it on the countertop with my hand. I then used my recently acquired biscuit cutter and cut out 20 cute little biscuits from the dough. I thought that I had been gentle and had minimized handling, but they didn't puff up all that much. Here they are before baking:

And after:

All morning I thought about what I would make to go with my biscuits. Funny to pick the bread first and then go from there, but, as I have said, the bread is my favorite part! Anyways, I wanted to make chili but then thought that my kids wouldn't eat it as neither is any good with a spoon nor can handle the spiciness I would use. Anyways, I got lazy and just bought a store roasted chicken from Hubbell and Hudson and served it with their very tasty barbecue sauce and made some garam masala spiced green beans. The biscuits tasted great, though I wished they had been lighter and flakier. They were utterly divine dipped into the barbecue sauce.

Z man had 4 of them and kept asking for more "cookies" (they were that flat).

Outerwear solved!

2009-10-18T20:01:00.003-05:00

Here in Houston, there are about 20 days a year that it is cold enough for a jacket. Last year I didn't even wear my little leather blazer one time here because with two little kids to buckle in and out of the car, it was one more thing I didn't want to deal with. However, we do travel to colder places, for our annual ski trip and to see family in NJ. For all of these trips, I usually only have an inappropriately light jacket, the aforementioned leather blazer, or an inappropriately bulky and casual jacket, my snowboard jacket.

Well, in today's NYTimes Style magazine, I found the perfect thing! The RainForest packable down coat.

It comes with its own cute little hobo, into which it can be packed. This way, when traveling to a colder place, I can still have everything in my carry on, pull my coat out and have a bag to use while I am there. There are a couple of other styles, but I am partial to the simple down coat. It is available in a chocolate brown and black. Knowing me, I will pick the black one. I always end up going with black. But, I am so excited about this find!

Hawaii, Quick Recap

2009-10-16T21:56:00.006-05:00

It already seems like weeks ago, but DrRuckus and I had a truly fabulous week away in Hawaii! I can't believe we have been back for four days already and I fear that if I don't post something about it now, it will be too far gone. It was so needed and the help that our parents gave us by coming to our home to care for our kids so that we could get away was really appreciated.

DrRuckus and I honeymooned in Hawaii in 2002 and then lived there for his first year of residency, but we haven't been back since we moved to Chicago in 2003. My aunt and her husband still live there, but not for long! They are getting ready to move to Arizona and we thought that if we didn't go back while they were still there, we would regret it immensely. So, their impending move was our excuse for going.

We spent the first night in our old neighborhood in Waikiki, revisiting old haunts and then having a wonderful sunset dinner at the Halekulani Hotel. There is something about the light in Waikiki that is magical. The next morning I had one of my best runs ever up and around Diamond Head and then we hightailed it out of there and to Kauai.

We spent 8 nights of our honeymoon in Kauai and returned to the same place for our three days this time. The hotel was just taken over by St. Regis and redone and reopened the week before we arrived. The resort already had one of the best locations and views in all of the world, and the redo makes it seem much more in keeping with the location. The old resort was too formal and palatial while it now feels warmer and more Hawaiian.

Our stay at the St. Regis was wonderful, even though the resort is still working out some kinks. The staff there were really friendly and for the most part did everything they could to make guests feel happy and relaxed. Well, we were certainly those things. Sitting on those turquoise chairs gazing at Hanalei Bay, reading a good book and sipping one of their divine El Fresco margaritas with my beloved, I couldn't have been more content. This is how we spent the majority of our three days on Kauai, even though there is so much more to do. We only had those few days to just chill and we took advantage of that. Our big adventure was stand up paddling on the Hanalei River, which was really fun. It was a really great workout and something totally new to both of us. It must be really challenging to do in the ocean and something I want to try next time I have a chance.

The resort's fine dining restaurant was not yet open, but we had some incredible meals on the island. The iPhone is really the greatest thing ever for travel (and everything else) and we found some delicious spots:
Best Sandwiches I have ever had (seriously): Deli and Bread Connection in Lihue
Fresh Sushi, laid back vibe: Hanalei Dolphin
Creative Tapas, cool atmosphere: BarAcuda
Local Ingredients, Old School Hawaii: Hukilau Lanai

After our three days, we flew back to Oahu to stay with my aunt and uncle. We had an action packed 48 hours with them, touring the island and all of the best spots to eat. (Oh yeah and I did my 13 mile training run one night.) We had an out of this world meal at Chef Mavro's justifiably famous restaurant. revisited many of our old favorites, like Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, Dave's for ice cream, and Mariposa at Neiman's (for consomme, popovers, and a great view).

I will not lie, though. A highlight of my trip was searching out and then walking along the beach to the "Lost" beach camp set. I love that show more than any other and it was important to me to make a pilgrimage while we were on the island. We encountered a major rainstorm as we were walking back and were sandy and soaked, but it was so worth it.

We also used miles to fly first class and I don't know how I will ever go back to coach! It made travel so much more relaxing and comfortable. We actually slept the entire red eye flight and had no problems adjusting back to Houston time.

Aloha, ya'll!

Happy World Bread Day!

2009-10-16T21:17:00.007-05:00

When I got an email from King Arthur Flour a couple of days ago announcing something called "World Bread Day", I knew I would have to celebrate it. Baking bread is my favorite kind of baking because I find it so magical to watch it rise and change shape. Plus, I just llllooooooooooovvvvvvveeeeee bread but only eat the white flour, really yummy kinds as a special treat. Otherwise, it is all whole grain, high fiber for me. Not too exciting. So, when I bake bread, it is pure joy.

As soon as I got that email, I thought, "what kind of bread"? I had so many choices, but then I realized that World Bread Day fell on a Friday. So, naturally, a Challah was in order. Though are Atheist non-practicing Jews, we are Jews culturally, and food is a big part of that culture. And Challah, a rich, dense egg bread is one of my favorite aspects of that culture. So, it was "basheret" (meant to be) that the Food and Wine magazine that I got in the mail on Wednesday afternoon included a recipe for Sephardic Challah. Our families are not Sephardic (these are Jews originating in the Iberian Peninsula as opposed to Eastern Europe like our families, who are considered Ashkenazic). Anyways, the challah looked amazing, and I was excited to try it.

I always use instant yeast rather than active dry yeast (just decrease the amount of yeast by 20%) and then don't need to proof it before mixing. I dumped all of the ingredients into my beloved Kitchenaid Stand Mixer and let the dough hook go. Really, this would have been an arduous hand knead, but with the Kitchenaid did all of the work. That thing is amazing! All I ever use it for is mixing, but I am thinking of finally getting some other attachments to see if it really is a jack of all trades. After about 7 minutes, the dough was smooth and elastic and smelled so good. Ladybug and I were very excited watching it go round and round.

I put it in an oiled bowl and left it to rise for a couple of hours while we ran to the gym. When we came back, it was huge and beautiful.

It divided in half really easily and stretched out into a rope as though it was made of elastic. It was truly easy dough to handle and to work, so coiling it up was super easy. I have tried to make round challahs before and always find the coils collapse onto themselves. This dough held its shape but was really pliable. According to the instructions I coiled them on the baking sheets and then let them rise under an inverted bowl. They looked so cute!

After a rich bath of egg yolks and a sprinkling of the seed mixture, they went into the oven. Just half an hour later, they came out and they were gorgeous!

All I wanted to do was eat bread and butter for dinner, but I thought that it would make me a bad mom, so I made some quick, ultra healthy turkey and million vegetable meatballs to eat with the bread. Oh so good!

Happy World Bread Day!

TWD-Comfort Food Needed

2009-10-13T19:59:00.007-05:00

DrRuckus and I got back from a great and much needed week in Hawaii this a.m. (more on the trip later). Our red-eye was pretty painless (despite the woman with the child who screamed all night in the row behind us) because we had cashed in miles to fly first class and had comfortable seats. ( I actually don't know how I will ever go back to coach again after the comfort, service, space, food, and make your own sundae bar. But I digress . . .)

Anyways, though we were better rested than we might have been had we flown that red eye in coach, we were still pretty tired when we got home. However, we were not nearly as tired as my poor mother in law was! My parents watched our kids for the first part of our week away and then my MIL flew down halfway through to take over for them. She had been looking forward to some alone time with the kids, though I thought she was nuts for taking it on herself. Well, so did she after two days because not only was the Z-Man holding on to the bug that has caused him to run a fever every day for over a week, but she also got sick. I always think that the hardest part of parenting is not being able to take a day off when you don't feel well. I called on some friends to help her, but she persevered on her own and made it through the day and a half before we got here.

So, this gray morning, she was eating her 800th piece of toast as it was the only thing that seemed agreeable to her. The Z-Man was feeling fine but stir crazy, and DrRuckus and I were a little bit jetlagged. I had no intention of baking, but when I saw that today's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was for muffins, I decided that there was nothing that sounded more comforting than fresh muffins. These Allspice Crumb Muffins were intriguing because Allspice is not something I use frequently. The jar smelled delicious, like cinnamon and clove cigarettes (oh how much fun those were back in the day), so I decided to give it a whirl. As soon as everyone went for their nap, I whipped up the batter.

Because I went way off of my healthy eating plan about halfway through the vacation (though it was soooooo worth it), I thought that I better make these a little bit less fattening. So, I substituted all of the flour in the struesel topping and half of the flour in the batter for whole wheat and half of the butter in the batter for Fage fat free Greek yogurt. I did use the optional lemon zest because I think that it adds a zing to everything. The best part of making these was making the struesel topping. I did it all with my hands, mixing the flour, sugar, and allspice and then kneading in the pieces of butter. In my jeglagged state, it felt really good and relaxing.

I divided the batter in the muffin tins and then really smooshed the topping onto each one. I had heard that the topping slid off the muffins in some cases, but I didn't have that problem at all. These are them before they went into the oven.

I added 5 extra minutes to the cooking time because at 20 minutes they seemed raw. However, at 25 they seemed a tad dry and overdone. Might just be the proportion of whole wheat flour though. Tastewise, they are delicious. The Allspice has a subtle kick and a really delicious flavor. The Z-Man thought it was a "good cupcake, Mommy" though he did ask for a cup of hot chocolate to drink with it. I know that it is 80 degrees out, but the kid knows what's good!

Finding Balance

2009-10-02T00:05:00.004-05:00

Our local Bikram studio is hosting the Texas Yoga Asana Championship in a few weeks and they requested submissions for the magazine they are putting out for the event. They wanted personal stories about how Bikram fits into our lives. I have submitted the following story. (WARNING: it is long. They promised they have an editor, but you are seeing the unedited version.)

Growing up, I was never an athlete - zero coordination, less than zero skills on the field, the court, etc. I was always one of the last ones chosen in gym class. When I tried to play softball in high school, I was cut from the JV squad because they didn’t have enough uniforms. But, really, who could blame them? I would close my eyes when a ball came towards me.

Things changed somewhat when I matriculated at Middlebury College, a small liberal arts college in Vermont. There, amidst the glory of the Green Mountains and surrounded by shiny, happy people, it was impossible to be sedentary. I first shucked my non-athleticism there on the slopes of the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. It was on that little hill that I learned to snowboard. Having been stuck as an intermediate skier for years, snowboarding was a revelation to me. I was skilled and graceful for the first time in my life. It remains, to this day, my absolute favorite thing to do.

Bolstered by my confidence on the slopes, I took up running that first spring at Middlebury. I certainly was not fast but was mentally strong and so could run far. On those hilly back roads of Central Vermont, I could run for miles in perfect contentment. I still recall some of those runs, which I used to escape and find my own head space.

After college, knowing that distance was my strength, I decided to train for a marathon. I ran my first marathon a year and a half after graduation. Training for it and completing it was one of my proudest accomplishments. I could never again say, “I am not an athlete.” In subsequent years, I completed four more marathons, slowly and steadily. I developed great and lasting friendships through my training and truly gained a respect for myself and my own body. Where I had always hated my heavy thighs, I learned to love them for being able to carry me 26.2 miles.

I completed my last marathon about a year and a half before my son was born. Going through pregnancy, childbirth and breast feeding, I gained new respect my body for all that it could do. But, as a new parent, it was difficult to find the time to focus on myself and I did so sporadically.

Then, when my son was almost two years old, I discovered Bikram yoga here in The Woodlands. After my first class, I felt an euphoric feeling of both peace and accomplishment. It was almost better than completing a marathon because I experienced those feelings but felt physically wonderful rather than the post marathon pain. I loved everything about Bikram and was doing it as often as I could. Right away, it was a good fit for me, a definite “Type A” personality, because it is so organized and requires intensity of focus and discipline.

I told everyone who listened that “Bikram is great for the body, mind and spirit. It is an amazing workout that targets every muscle in your body, gets your heart pounding, but encourages you to keep your breath measured and controlled. It is meditative because you block out your own thoughts so that the only thing in your head is the instructor’s voice. Then, after class, you are so much more centered than before.”

A few weeks after my daughter was born, my doctor gave me the OK to return to exercise. The first thing I tried to do was run because I could just step out the door and go. It was awful! I was barely able to complete two miles and every yard was excruciating. However, my first Bikram class back was wonderful. I surprised myself by being able to not just stay in the room but practice every posture in the series. It felt great to be back. Unfortunately, my daughter was extremely colicky and I was nursing her all the time for many months, so I was not able to make the time commitment and attend class much at all.

It was about this time that I attempted my first Pilates Reformer class. I had done some mat Pilates here and there, but had never tried the Reformer and wanted to try something that offered the intensity of Bikram. For years I had heard that nothing transforms your body as quickly as Pilates. Knowing that I was definitely NOT having any more babies (colic ensured that it was out of the question), I was ready to not just lose the baby weight, but to transform my body completely.

I lucked out and found a trainer with whom I work incredibly well. She is a kind and skilled instructor who right from the beginning has encouraged me to go farther each and every time. I work one on one with her twice weekly, and each and every time I feel like I get better, stronger, leaner and longer. Pilates, like Bikram, utilizes the breath to encourage the muscles to go deeper into every movement. Many of the movements are similar to ones that are done in the Bikram series, though there are so many more postures and variations that even a year into twice weekly sessions, I have yet to not try something new each session.

My trainer specializes in rehabilitation after illness, and she knows how crucial it is to be physically active for one’s mental and emotional health and well being. In the beginning of our practice together, she encouraged me to find the time to do my cardio as well as our practice. I made a commitment to myself to work my heart and clear my head daily. When I was in the studio, I pushed myself to the limit each time. Thus, I began to see a difference very quickly. I was stronger and leaner each and every week. It was truly amazing! Because of this, I took up running again.

Getting back to running was so difficult at first. I didn’t want to do it, and did it because I “should”. Then, I began to recall why I loved running for so many years. No other workout allows you to just lace up your shoes and go, getting your heart racing, allowing you to push yourself harder, faster, longer without having to use any special equipment. I once again was able to find some head space, much needed for a mother of two very demanding little children. Even better, I found that I was a much better runner than I had ever been before. I can now run so much faster than I ever thought possible, thanks to being stronger and leaner than I ever thought I would be.

It was only this past Spring that I really returned to Bikram. I had really missed it, the 90 minute active meditation that had always left me feeling euphoric. Though I had been away from it for so long, my first class back went incredibly well. It was amazing to see the evidence of how much more flexible I had become. I could see small differences, such as how much better my toes were able to spread and support me after being used to grip the bar on the Reformer. I could see large differences too in how much deeper I was able to go into each pose. My practice took on a whole new dimension.

Now, I am at a point where I am more fit than I ever thought possible for me. Like they say at Lululemon, I sweat at least once a day. I do a little bit of everything - gym classes, spinning, weights, cross training - in addition to my three favorites. The amazing thing to me is how each of the activities that I do informs the others. I now regularly run at a sub 8 minute pace, something I never thought could do. I am much more flexible and graceful when I practice Pilates. And, in Bikram, I am so much more advanced. I am now able to put my forehead on my locked knee in Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose or, more recently, being able to get my hips all the way off the floor in Locust.

Better than all of this is the way that I feel. I have never felt so great about myself as I do now. I have so much pride in all that I have accomplished, and I am able to push myself to accomplish more every day. One of the things that they teach in Bikram is that the goal of your first class is to just stay in the room. Then, when you do more, you have really done something. Well, applying that to my every day, my goal is to just get there and move, but then I end up doing so much more than that once I get started.

I am planning to run a half marathon in a few weeks and actually have a time goal for the first time. I feel confident that I will beat it. I am considering becoming certified as a Pilates instructor. And, with one child in preschool three days a week, I can actually find the time to be able to practice Bikram much more regularly and try to advance my practice. The athlete in me is here to stay; I just can’t wait to go snowboarding!

TWD - Thank Goodness!

2009-09-29T23:06:00.005-05:00

Today was one of those days. If you are a parent, you know the ones. The ones where you count the minutes until bedtime. The ones where you feel like bad mommy, a mean mommy. The ones where you find yourself singing the Stones, "I go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper." The ones where you say, "Calgon, take me away". A big part of the problem is that both of my kids were up before 7, something that is just not done in this house. Plus, LL was just fussy and discontent this morning and there was nothing I could do to console her and thus nothing anyone could do to console me. Then, when I tried to take them to the gym so that I cold get a break for some mom-me time, LL fell asleep in the car and I felt guilty waking her up to drop her at child care. So, we went to a friend's house (which was lovely) and the day started to get better.

It got better because when I am having "one of those days", baking really and truly relaxes me. I love the precision of it, the magic of the chemistry of it, and of course, the taste of the finished products. I find that creating something in the kitchen really makes me feel better. So, when we got home I tackled this weeks Tuesday's with Dorie project: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. Buttery, shortbready crust covered by a layer of caramel coated salted peanuts and then bathed in a thick layer of bittersweet ganache. Chocolate salted caramel - prozac on a plate?

Because I had been feeling like mean mommy for being short on patience and long on exasperation, I decided that this would be a fun way for the Z-Man and I to bond. He loves to get up on his ladder and help me to bake. Plus, the crust was nice and play-doughy, so he was able to contentedly play with it for a couple of hours. (Oh well that he stuffed it into every crevice of my food processor; he had a blast and we had a good time together.)

The tart crust, made in my beloved processor, was really simple to put together. I don't own a tart shell, so I did it in my stoneware pie plate and had some extra (for Z to play with). Chilling it in the freezer for 1/2 hour prior to baking really seemed to help it bake up perfectly.

The caramel was painstaking - melting 3 tbsp of sugar at a time, stirring in the rest of the ingredients one at a time, getting it to an exact temperature. However, it was well worth the effort, especially with the peanuts mixed in. I never had a problem with it getting too hard; it stayed a perfect consistency.

The ganache was really easy, perfectly pourable, set well after the 1/2 hour, "not one minute more" in the fridge, looked all lovely and shiny and tasted divine - bitter, rich, smooth and yummy! I actually assembled the whole tart while on the phone and so I didn't pay close attention to the recipe calling for the peanuts to be chopped, but they were small and lovely studded throughout the caramel. I did use all of the ganache. Some of my fellow TWD bakers had leftover ganache for next week's project. I think that by making it in the pie plate, I made it denser than they did. Extra chocolate? No problem. The Z Man couldn't wait for his piece and then he and I split a tiny one because it was so rich and awesome.

I do think that the crust on this was the best part. This tart crust is ridiculously easy and tastes incredibly good. I can't wait to use it in a myriad of recipes.

My day, however got better, then worse, then better again. I got to catch up with some friends finally, Z and I had a great time baking, LL was delightful after her nap, DrRuckus got home early and we went out for dinner. Yay, right? But the restaurant was a bizarre little place called Eden Café in Magnolia, TX and none of us could find anything we really wanted to eat. Especially my LL, who wouldn't eat, wouldn't touch anything we offered her, and then proceeded to projectile vomit all over the table. She has had a mild bug for about week. We keep thinking she is better, but this is the first public vomiting and it was AWFUL! So, of course, I blamed myself for weaning her this week and for giving her spoiled milk (I really did, for who knows how many days). Either way, mentally, emotionally and physically, there is nothing worse than having your kid be sick. (Meanwhile, she was fine right after puking, just as she is every time she does.)

However, on a good note, after we put the kids to bed, I was feeling too warn out to do much but also feeling blah and guilty because I had my running clothes on since 6:30 a.m. and had never gotten my run in. So, I was talking to my beloved friend/pilates trainer/life coach and bitching about my day. She said to me, "Why don't you go for your run now? You will feel better which will make your husband happier and then tomorrow will be much better." So, I didn't think, just went out the door (I still had my running shoes on) and proceeded to do my fastest run ever!

Maybe it wasn't one of those days after all. It's all in the perspective (and the pie).

(Oh and one week from now I will be in Hawaii!)

My Homework

2009-09-20T21:32:00.003-05:00

Well, folks, it has begun. I am doing my kid's homework already. It is only a short step before I am building his dioramas late at night. Z-Man is in pre-school three days a week and has little projects that he has to do at home. He loves this and takes great pride in doing them each week. This week, I got a little extra "bonus". I had a project to do myself. The Z-Man was the Line Leader all week at school, helping his friends with snacks and getting them to line up and follow him as they went from place to place. He was oh-so-proud of himself and told EVERYONE that he was the line leader. Then, at the end of the week, he got to take the class mascot home for the weekend. He really took this seriously and was very responsible about keeping Leo the Lamb with him at all times. And, lucky me, I got to document it all to put in Leo's journal that will get passed around all year. Here goes:

The Ruckus Family had the joy of hosting Leo the Lamb for his birthday weekend. Yes, everyone, Leo turned two years old today and we had the distinct pleasure of celebrating with him. He is very sweet and a whole lot of fun, and was a great guest to have around.
On Friday after school, Leo accompanied Z on his daily bike ride. Ever since his first day in P-21, Z tells us that he “needs to do his long bike ride”. So, on Friday afternoon, Leo was strapped to the back of Z’s bike and away we went. Our destination on Friday afternoon was Lakeside Park where Leo, Z and L enjoyed some slide and swing time. When Z walked in front of L’s swing and bumped his head, Leo was there to comfort him. What a great friend!

We spent Saturday in Houston and Leo was with us for all of our fun. The first stop was the Bayou City Farmers’ Market. We picked out all of fresh produce, eggs, cheese, treats and meat. (We decided not to buy Leo’s cousins in the form of chops.) Everything went into the cooler and then we departed for the next adventure - our train ride on Houston’s Metro. We all got on and rode the Metro from end to end. Trains are Z’s very favorite things, so he was delighted to share this with Leo.

After the train ride, we went to our favorite Thai place, Asia Market, which is a Thai grocery store and restaurant. Z pushed Leo up and down the aisles in a little shopping cart admiring all of the goodies and we feasted on delicious food.
On the way home, everyone was exhausted and took good naps. That night, Leo watched Bee Movie with Z and then slept in his bed. (He is going to miss having his new friend to cuddle with at night.)
Today was Leo’s birthday and he spent the day playing with Z’s toys. We sang to him many times and even enjoyed some cupcakes in honor of his special day. Leo, we can’t wait to have you back when, as Zac says, “my turn comes around the circle again.”

50 (!) Calorie Cupcakes

2009-09-18T21:00:00.003-05:00

Oh, last Friday's party was so much fun. So decadent and delightful. Alas, this evening is much different. Rather than friends, Louboutins and cocktails, it's just me and Gossip Girl on the elliptical trainer. But, at least I still have cupcakes. Only today's cupcakes are the direct opposite of last week's over-the-top indulgence Today, adapting a Hungry Girl favorite, I made 50 calorie, mini chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. And, though they are no Sel your Soul cupcakes, they are pretty damn good for a guilt free treat.

Here is all that I did:
1. Preheat oven to 325 and line 24 mini muffin tins

2. Take 1/2 box Devil's Food Cake mix and 1/2 can of Coke Zero Vanilla (or whatever diet soda you like, though if you find something better than CZ Vanilla, I will be shocked). Mix them up. Divide batter among the 24 mini muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes. Drink the rest of your bubbly beverage.

3. Whisk together 12 Tbsp Cool Whip Free with 4 tsp reduced fat peanut butter. Put mixture in the fridge.

4. Let cupcakes cool in tins and then remove to cooling rack. Then frost each one with the whipped peanut butter frosting. Put a chocolate or a peanut butter chip on top, if you want.

5. If not serving right away, keep in the fridge.

Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

Happy Birthday, Little Ladybug

2009-09-15T20:29:00.008-05:00

My blue eyed little girl turned one year old last week and we were determined to celebrate this milestone in style! Though she is utterly adorable, charming, funny, delightful, adventurous, bright and sweet, she was not, and still is not, always this way. Unlike my placid, easily pacified little boy, LL knows what she wants and will scream until she gets it. It took us a few colicky months to really get in sync with her and to this day, if we are not on her wavelength, she lets us know, loudly. I love her with a consuming passion, but getting through this first year with her, on top of parenting a toddler, has been the biggest challenge of my life thus far. So, we wanted to throw a party to celebrate her first birthday, but really, we wanted a party because we haven't thrown her or ourselves out of the window this year! We wanted everyone to see our little birthday girl and then send her off to dreamland while the grown ups could get down to the celebration. No kids were invited and even Z-Man was sent down the street for the night to play with neighbors.

The theme was "Cocktails and Cupcakes" because those are two of the most festive things I could think of. We decided to have the party catered because we didn't want to spend the few days before, the first few days in a row that DrRuckus had off at home all summer, in constant party preparation. Also, since this was to be a grown up party, we wanted to be able to relax and imbibe rather than fuss with entertaining. Because I love them, I decided to have Hubbell and Hudson do the catering. Their catering manager was delightful to work with and put together a fun menu of tasty nibbles and platters to please everyone. However, I could not entrust the cupcake aspect of the party to anyone but myself. I love baking too much, and really think that my cakes and cupcakes are way better than any you could buy anywhere else. Besides, it was way too much fun to plan which cupcakes I was going to make.

I have never been a fan of Martha Stewart, but I saw her cupcake book at Williams Sonoma a few weeks back and it really caught my eye because I opened it to the page on Ladybug cupcakes! Of course, I ordered it right up from Amazon and had it two days later. I got that book and poured over it like it was my Organic Chemistry textbook back in college. It was post-ited, highlighted, annotated and broken in within two days. I wanted to make everything in there, but finally narrowed it down to four cupcakes.

I also learned something very important: Martha Stewart is a huge pain in the rear! Her recipes are way more complicated and require way more steps than I am used to, and I bake a lot! Secondly, her recipes make really odd numbers of cupcakes. Not 24 regular size ones, but 32. Not 48 minis, but 56. Why? She obviously has a huge staff, so why can't they tweak the recipes so that the whole batter can fill regular muffin tins without having to start but not fill a third tin. Why?

Usually, I am a last minute lady, but I wanted to be relaxed for the party, and I was damn excited about my cupcakes, so I started baking early in the week and got some cakes in the freezer so that I could do a bit every night instead of being crazed the day before. My mom was there for most of the week and we had fun each night perfecting the "cuppersons". This method worked well for me, and I will have to remember in the future that, with a little planning, things are much more fun and less stressful!

1. Ladybug Cupcakes

I used Martha's recipe for chocolate chip cupcakes and wanted to make a caramel buttercream because I was still dreaming of the best cake I ever had, the Z-Man's third birthday cake which was made by a baker who has subsequently moved to Singapore. First, I tried to use the recipe for Magnolia Bakery's chocolate frosting, substituting caramel for chocolate, but this came out sickeningly sweet. I could not eat it and had to dump the whole thing (much to the chagrin of my sweet toothed sweetie). Then, I decided to try Martha's caramel swiss meringue buttercream. Boy, this one was a pain! Making a fresh batch of caramel, cooking, whipping and cooling egg whites, beating with two different mixers. But, it would have been all good if it was delicious. However, it was not to my liking at all. Where my improvised caramel icing was sickeningly sweet, this one was not sweet enough and just tasted like sweet butter. I still have it in the fridge, but I couldn't use it. I wanted to make the most delicious buttercream. So, I went to Old Faithful, the Magnolia Bakery buttercream, though I always triple the vanilla:

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

(Makes enough for a 2-layer 9-inch cake or 2 dozen cupcakes)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
6-8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

15 minutes 15 mins prep

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add in 4 cups sugar, then the milk and vanilla. On
medium speed of an electric mixer, beat about 3-5 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well (about 2 minutes) after each
addition, until the icing is thick enough for good spreading consistency (you may not need all
of the sugar).
If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. Use and store the icing at
room temperature because icing will set if chilled. The icing can be stored in an airtight con-
tainer for up to 3 days.
**If making a 3-layer cake, use the following proportions: 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, 8-10
cups confectioner's sugar, 3/4 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

I then added some green gel paste and placed two marzipan ladybugs. My good friend, L, stayed until the wee hours of the morning making these, dying our hands black and red and cursing Martha the whole time. They came out so adorable and the completed cupcakes looked fantastic on a cupcake stand, but, even better, I thought that they were the most delicious of all that I had made.

2. Sel Your Soul cupcakes - These were directly from the Miss Martha's book. They were mini rich chocolate cupcakes, from which my mom cut a tiny cone out of the top of each, into which I poured Fleur de Sel Caramel. Then, they were topped with the richest, creamiest, most chocolatey frosting I have ever had. Martha, you more than made up for that yucky Swiss Meringue crap! BTW, I am a great baker, but not a very good decorator, and piping this slick, rich icing was quite the challenge for me, but I sprinkled each of these puppies with a little fleur de sel and they were out of this world. The definition of "To Die For".

3. Pucker Up Cupcakes - These were also from Miss Martha, though I made a combination of regular and mini sized ones. The cakes were delicious, lemony and crumbly. However, her curd did not set up right. I used her recipe exactly (8 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs, yikes!) but it did not set up. This kept me up at night and so I did some searching around and saw that there was not even close to enough butter in that recipe for it to work. I ended up adding another stick and a half of butter to Martha's recipe before my curd set up, but when it did . . . heaven! Who knew that lemon curd is one of the worst for you foods that there is? But, yum!

4. Raspberry Dream cupcakes - For my last and final cupcake, I wanted to do something in a cupcake paper that was not exactly a cupcake, so I made Martha's raspberry swirl cheesecake cupcakes. However, I had a clever twist. Later in the book, there are Oreo cheesecake cupcakes, and I used the crust from these: one whole Oreo in the bottom of the cupcake paper. Brilliant! I also substituted marscapone for half of the cream cheese. These ended up being the easiest of all, and were truly delicious.

I ended up with hundreds of cupcakes, so from Amazon (of course) I ordered a bunch of cupcake boxes so that people could bring cupcakes home to share with their kids. This was a stroke of genius on my part, as the kids got a little goody and all of the beautiful and delicious cupcakes went to good homes. In fact, we only ended up with a few the next day, definitely a very good thing after much indulgence!

And the party! Simply marvelous, darling! LL looked adorable in her French frock and managed to stay awake until about half of the guests arrived. We had friends from all different aspects of our life and it was wonderful to have them all here, mixing, at our house. We love our friends and don't get to socialize with them all that often, so it was great fun for us to have them together, meeting one another and enjoying a fun night out. Our neighbors even got a little nutty and played quarters in the entry way, always a sign of a good party.

The food was delicious, and having servers there made it so much easier for us and for all of the guests. All of the little "hors" from the coconut shrimp to the little prosciutto poblano cupcakes with goat cheese "frosting" were delicious, though I was partial to the tiny martini glasses filled with the vanilla corn chowder and a crab meat "surprise". However, my only regret was setting the bar and bartender up in the kitchen. I know that at parties people always end up in the kitchen, but I invited this to happen by having the bar here. I had set up beautiful cocktail tables with turquoise linens tied with silver sashes that set off my chocolate brown living room walls, and no one ventured into that room. Next time, I will put the bar where I want the people to be.

All in all, it was an awesome party. Happy Birthday, Little Ladybug. Daddy and I love you so much.

Tuesday with Dorie - Apple Turnover

2009-09-15T19:57:00.006-05:00

After the utter baking frenzy and the gluttony of the Little Ladybug's first birthday party, the last thing that I wanted to do was to haul out more butter and start baking again. I was going to skip this week, I really was, but then I saw that this week's project was "Flaky Apple Turnovers". Ugh! On the one hand, I still had some butter left after buying out the Plugra aisle at Hubbell and Hudson. But, on the other hand, Apple Turnovers just happen to be DrRuckus's favorite treat. How could I deny my amazing husband his favorite treat. Plus, in reading the recipe, It looked like something that could be done in bits and pieces and thus not be another all nighter. So, of course, I decided to go for it. I just can't step away from a challenge, especially one that makes my husband so happy. (Okay, that is not entirely true. The ladies in my playgroup and I tried to initiate a 30 day "{ahem} challenge" and the furthest I got was 5 days in. Though this could partially be blamed on DrRuckus's shift schedule.) Anyways, we are talking about the other way to a man's heart.

The dough, a sort of cheater's pastry dough, was really easy. The secret was mixing sour cream with sugar and adding that to the flour and butter mixture. Did you know that sour cream mixed with sugar is totally delicious? I had no idea. DrRuckus liked it so much, that he mixed up some more and ate it with a spoon. The batter was very moist and sticky, but I just smooshed it together and wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge over night.

The next afternoon, during the kids' naps, I needed to roll out the dough into 9x18 rectangles and then fold these business letter style. Okay, let's discuss this. I am in waaaaayyyy better shape than most people due to my pilates and exercise routine, and therefore, I assume, way stronger than most bakers. I had done some cardio and a Body Pump class that morning, and thought that I was done for the day. Well, rolling that cold dough into rectangles was like a second workout. I really worked my shoulders and biceps and definitely broke a sweat. That done, I folded them up just in time to hear LL crying for me. (Damn it, no Mommy time yesterday!)

While the kids were playing, I whipped together a custard base to serve to my darling husband with his favorite dessert. While I am not really an ice cream person, he loves it. I figured what is better than your favorite treat than your favorite treat a la mode? I used Dorie's recipe for Cinnamon ice cream, substituting low fat buttermilk for whole milk because I had a bunch left from the cupcakes. Yum!

Then, after we got the kiddos into bed, I got to work peeling apples and dicing them into tiny pieces. While I let them marinate in cinnamon and sugar, I had to get out the rolling pin and do my third workout of the day. The first piece I rolled between two pieces of wax paper. I think that for this roll, it was a mistake. I had to get it really thin and the wax paper kept ripping and then got stuck to the thin dough. So, by the time I tried to fill the rounds, the dough was really warm and hard to form into the half moon shapes. Some of them looked fine, but others were just smooshed together. However, I put them on a silpat lined baking sheet and hoped for the best. Popped them in the oven, pressed "go" on the ice cream maker, and waited 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I rolled the second sheet on a well floured cutting board with a well floured rolling pin and this was much more successful. I was able to cut out my circles and form my little half moons around my apple mixture much more quickly. I ended up freezing these ones, which were so much prettier, so that we can just pop them into the oven when we want a rich, apple-y treat.

These are the second batch, pre-freezer:

This is one from the first batch, on the cooling rack:

I also took some of the leftover dough scraps, put them in a small glass dish, dumped the leftover apple mixture, and then pieced together some more scraps on top.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this recipe. The dough was very tasty but much denser than your standard apple turnover. It was not very flaky, more rich and buttery. The apples were fresher and more tart than you typically find at a bakery, where the apples tend to be very soft and syrupy. The overall effect was like a portable apple pie. With the slightly tangy buttermilk cinnamon ice cream, it was a party in your mouth. DrRuckus took the mini pie to work today and thought that it was almost perfect in this form, even without the ice cream.

Dorie's Chocolate Souffle

2009-09-08T23:38:00.003-05:00

I had actually attempted this soufflé last week before I even knew about Tuesdays with Dorie because I didn't have any butter left and wanted to make something decadent. Though it came out delicious, I had the wrong kind of pan and didn't have any dramatic rising out of the pan action. Plus, I didn't have a sauce for it that time and I was determined to do it right this time.

Since I still don't have a real soufflé dish, and since I was going to bring my soufflé to the block party, I decided to use my ramekins. I have a dozen of those suckers from the one time I decided to make molten chocolate cakes for a party and it was good to pull out more than just the one that I use daily to microwave my egg beaters .

I got the ingredients out and ready while I made the quinoa salad, so that when it came time to prepare the soufflé, it was really a cinch. This time, I beat the egg whites a little less stiffly than the previous time and this made folding the chocolate much easier. (I would say that you don't want to go all the way to stiff peaks, just shy of that.)

I put the soufflé into 8 ramekins that had been prepared and the batter did go almost to the top of each one. I then put the tray of them in the fridge so that I could pop them in the oven while I put Little Ladybug to bed.

The block party was so much fun. We live in a great neighborhood with wonderful neighbors and friends. The sweetest kids live here and they take such good care of my two who are by far the youngest on the street. The Z-Man had the time of his life running around, riding bikes and skateboards with the big kids. Ladybug was content to get passed around, at least for a little while. Then it was almost 6 and past her bedtime. (Lately, she has been going to sleep before 6 every night and sleeping until after 7 the next day. She only takes one short nap, but who am I to complain with this amazing schedule?)

While I was putting her to bed, I popped those babies into the oven. After 18 minutes, they were all puffed up and gorgeous. Nothing says "outdoor block party in the heat of a Houston summer" like a soufflé, I often say. Oven mit and tray in one hand, pitcher of creme anglaise (okay, okay, it was melted vanilla custard, I can't do everything!) in the other, I set out the door. Much to my dismay and frustration, the wagon that I was counting on to bring dessert down to the party was not there! The Z Man had taken that and all of his bikes down the street.

So, I had to carry everything down the street. Well, those soufflés had barely made it out the door in our 97% humidity before they were completely deflated. No one got to see them all puffed up and gorgeous. But, I made a big show out of puncturing a hole in the top of each one and pouring my melted custard sauce over them. And, despite not being puffy, they were adored. Yay, another success! And, I am going to post this with two minutes to spare, while it is still Tuesday, September 8.

Two minutes from now, my Ladybug will be one!

Channeling Martha

2009-09-08T23:16:00.004-05:00

All in all, it was a much busier and much less lonely Labor Day weekend than I had anticipated. I knew that I would be alone with the kids the whole time and I dread holidays when everyone else I know is having family time but DrRuckus has to work. This time, though, he had to work the entire weekend, really extra long shifts, with very little help. This has been a hard stretch and has sucked for all of us, but especially my amazing, hard working husband. We have missed having him around and are looking forward to a few days together at home and all of the festivities surrounding Little Ladybug's first birthday.

Saturday I was very ambitious and adventurous and took both kids by myself to Houston to the Farmer's Market. There is actually a pretty great one and we had a blast and got a lot of good stuff. I had even planned ahead and brought coolers so that we could do what we wanted afterwards. From there, we went over to Hermann park where we got to do the Z-Man's favorite thing - ride the train! We timed it right, got right on, and then back to our car quickly. By now, it was lunch time and I had been wanting to try a Thai place in the Heights for a while. It is called Asia Market and is a Thai grocery store that serves made to order, out of this world Thai food at some tables in the store. Fan-frigging-tastic and the nicest people! While there, I bought some sticky rice and a sticky rice steamer so that I can make my favorite dessert at home, Mango with Sticky Rice. After lunch, we went down the street for a sweet treat at Mam's House of Snowballs, a trailer where two women serve New Orleans style Snowballs in a mind boggling array of flavors. Exhausted after this, we headed home and both kids promptly feel asleep in the car. I only wish I had been able to do the same.

Sunday morning I woke up at 4:30 to do part of my friend's 20 mile run with her before DrRuckus had to go to work. That done, I decided to use the child care at the gym to have a little Mom Me time. I sat by the pool (in the shade, bien sur) to read my book for two hours. Why hadn't I done this sooner? It was heavenly, two hours of reading and free childcare? Of course, that night, I had to try my sticky rice steamer and it worked like a charm. It is such a simple, unwieldy contraption, but it does make perfect sticky rice. I didn't have any mangos, but had mango sorbet and it was out of this world. I used the epicurious recipe but substituted maple syrup for sugar. Mmmmm, devine!)

Monday night, we had a rather impromptu block party. Well, you know me lately, that seemed like an opportunity to try some new things! We had gone to Sam's Club that day and I bought a box of mangos, so the first thing I did was use the leftover sticky rice with some fresh coconut sauce and a lovely layer of mangos on the top. This was child's play. Next, I decided to bring a quinoa salad that I had stumbled across recently. This salad was out of this world. Fresh, healthy and delicious. It will be a staple in my house from now on as it lends itself to countless variations and pairings.

But, for dessert, I had to make my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for the week. More on that in the next post.

Two is Better than One (and Vegan Chocolate Cake)

2009-09-01T21:05:00.005-05:00

I always thought that having two children would be exponentially more difficult than having one. For the first few months, I found this to be exponentially true. Two kids with two totally different needs, on different time schedules . . . How did I cope? But, lately, we have reached a fantastic point. My kids can actually play together!

Little Ladybug (who will be one next week) adores her brother and only wants to play with him, to do what he is doing, to be wherever he is. Z-man always wants an audience and a playmate. Well, aren't they a pair? This is them this morning, playing with one of the many big plastic toys that are throughout my house, so ugly, but so entertaining.

They were having so much fun and playing so well together without needing me to intervene, that I even attempted another baking project this morning!

I had promised my friend A, who is now the mom of three (an almost 4 year old and 7 month old twins) that I would bake a vegan cake for her birthday. A is such a devoted mom that she has given up dairy and many other foods because she is breastfeeding her babies and they do not tolerate a whole slew of things. So, in addition to being way more exhausted and overwhelmed than I can imagine (or could tolerate myself), she has also had to deprive herself of a great deal for her babies' health and well being. Of course she deserved a cake, even two weeks late.

So, I googled "vegan chocolate cake" and the first hit was "The BEST chocolate cake ever . . . that just happens to be vegan". Well, alright alright alright. This one, I almost timed right to bring to the library for story time. However, the icing took a little longer than I had thought, so, of course, I was 10 minutes late, but on time enough to give A her belated birthday cake.

However, I had to go home before lunch and A was taking her kids to meet some of our friends for lunch, so there went the second thing I had baked in 12 hours that I had not tasted.

Luckily, after lunch, A stopped by, bringing the few pieces of cake that were left for us to sample. Yay! This cake was actually really delicious! It is one of the moistest cakes I have ever had and was also extremely rich and velvety. Would I say that it was the BEST? No, but for a simple one-layer cake, it was pretty outstanding. I would definitely make it again. You would never guess that it is vegan, and never miss the eggs or dairy.

Tuesday with Dorie

2009-09-01T20:24:00.006-05:00

Well, after having a comment from Dorie herself, I had to make sure that I followed through with my goal of baking along with the crowd at Tuesdays With Dorie. I am not an official member yet, as the group seems to be currently closed, but I am going to be a member in spirit. This group of bloggers bakes the same recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and then blogs about it. Simple, right? Oh, and you are not supposed to post the recipes to encourage people to get the book. You should get the book; it is so great that here I am doing this. However, I am pretty sure that you are supposed to taste your own recipes, and I didn't get to do that.

You see, anyone who knows me knows that being timely is not my best quality. I have all intentions of being on time, but I never calculate correctly. I am perpetually late, usually 7 minutes, but sometimes way more. So, with baking, it is best for me to do it at night when I don't have be anywhere. Thus was the case last night, when I delved into this week's project: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies. I had picked up the cream cheese earlier in the day (and even got extra to put in the freezer for future projects) and had set out my ingredients so that everything was room temperature. I just didn't look at the clock and factor in all of the time a cheesecake needs to cool.

Because I had read a few posts that the brownies were rather lackluster, I added an extra ounce of unsweetened chocolate to the brownie mix. The brownie part was really simple and came together beautifully. The batter on the whisk was delicious.

The cheesecake layer was even easier, as my trusty Kitchenaid did all of the work and I just dumped in the ingredients. That batter, with it's espresso flavor was divine and I licked off every last bit of it from the paddle attachment before I washed it (but after I poured it into the pan :)

BTW, have I mentioned how much I love my Kitchenaid mixer? It is such a workhorse and makes doughs, icings, and batters so easily. I use it all the time and it just keeps going, strong as ever. Which, actually is rather unfortunate because I am currently lusting after Kitchenaid 90th Anniversary Mixer, in all of its candy apple red glory with the glass mixing bowl. Alas, with mine working as well as the day I got it, I can't justify it.

Anyways, the cheesecake layer was a "piece of cake" and my only challenge was swirling the last quarter of the brownie batter with the cheesecake batter. My brownie batter was too thick and didn't swirl well but I made sure that the chocolate was studded throughout.

So, here is where I ran into trouble and my lateness was a problem. I didn't account for how long it would take to cool that thing when it came out of the oven. I wanted to do it gradually, so I left it in the oven, with the oven turned off and the door ajar. After a little while, I transferred it to the counter, then to the fridge. At this point it was 10 p.m. and I was exhausted. I wanted to go to bed so badly, but I still had to put on the sour cream topping.

So, I took a bath, where instead of reading my novel, I read Cook's Illustrated 100 best recipes of all time. I really need to get my head out of the oven! Finally, at 11 p.m., I made the sour cream topping, layered it on top of the cooled cheesecake where it needed to set for an hour and went to bed. This morning, MrRuckus (or DrRuckus as he would prefer to be known) took it to a meeting. He and the Espresso Cheesecake Brownies left at 6:30 a.m.

I asked that he bring back tasting notes, but all I got was from his boss, "These things will get you high!" Well, if that isn't high praise, I don't know what is.

It's Not All About Food . . .

2009-08-31T21:50:00.003-05:00

When I first started this blog, I didn't intend for it to be all about food, but it is becoming that way. It's just that I love food, the creation of it and the eating of it. Baking relaxes me and has become my retreat lately after I put the kids to bed. However, I do think about other things, (sometimes). It's just that I keep my laptop in the middle of my kitchen, and though I could take it anywhere, I stand here, next to the oven as I shop, plan trips, look at recipes, facebook, email and blog my day away.

If I do take a break from reading my computer screen, it is usually to read on my kindle. Lately, between the two, the dozens of magazines that I subscribe to have just been piling up. I usually love my magazines and fold down or rip out pages of what interests me. Sometimes, though, something interests me so much that I have to go straight back to the computer to look it up.

Case in point, a sweater I saw a couple of months ago in Conde Nast Traveler. It was so beautiful, a pink cardigan with huge flowers on the collar and down the front. For some reason, I can't resist anything that has three dimensional flowers on it, so I saw this and right away knew that I had to procure it. So, I looked up the designer, Katelyn Aslett to order one. Well, it turns out that Katelyn is in Australia and that she makes each of her beautiful pieces to order from hand-dyed, hand-made wool and felt. I gave her my size and color specifications, paid via PayPal, and, a few weeks later, this gorgeous confection of a sweater arrived at my house, Airmail from Austrailia.

It's a little bit funky, a little bit hippie, a little bit rock and roll, and a whole lot of pretty! Plus, it fits me perfectly and is very stylish for the coming season as peplum jackets are huge for the fall. I just hope that our weather cools off enough to wear it. So far, I have only gotten a chance to do so in Stowe.

Dorie the Great!

2009-08-29T14:50:00.006-05:00

My next door neighbor is one of my dearest friends, and we share many things, including a passion for baking. So, a couple of days ago she gave me my "birthday" present. (I am a firm believer that it is best to give the right gift whenever you find it rather than buy just anything just to give it by a certain date. This is why you have up to a year to give a wedding gift, right?) This gift was a book (for me, always a good choice), but not just any book, a cookbook, even better a baking book! Dorie Greenspan's gorgeous, gigantic volume, Baking, From My Home to Yours. This book could be a coffee table book, it is so big and beautiful.

Dorie (as I will call her, since her style of writing is so chatty that I feel we are friends and because I now know we will be spending A LOT of time together), won a James Beard award for this tome. Not only this, but she wrote the best-selling, Baking with Julia [Childs] among others. She claims to bake at home every day, and this book is for the home baker. It feels like Dorie is right there in my kitchen, explaining the story behind every recipe and giving step by step instructions. In the past few days I have read this cover to cover and plastered the book with sticky notes. I cannot wait to try each and every recipe in the book. (I am "back on the sauce." The wheat free/dairy free diet didn't seem to help so I am trying some other remedies to my tummy troubles and, in the meantime, am back to eating some wheat and dairy. )

Tonight we are going to a friend's 40th birthday party. This great guy is so appreciative of my baking skills every time he gets to sample something that I knew that I had to make something to bring to him for his big day. (Plus, let's face it, I relish every excuse to bake.) Because we are going out for dinner before the party, a cake didn't seem like a good idea because it might get destroyed sitting in the car. Cookies seemed eminently more transportable, and just more easy going.

There are so many great sounding and looking recipes in the book, but I decided to go with Dorie's "World Peace" cookies. Apparently these are famous cookies, the recipe from which came from Pierre Hermé in Paris and were dubbed with their current name when her neighbor said that they are all "that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness". Well, we could all use a little peace and happiness, some days more than others.

So, last night, after the kids went to bed and I was ready for some peace, I got started. Then, I almost got stopped before I began because I was down to my last 5 Tbsp of butter, but I found a stick hiding in the freezer. (Note to self: If you are going to be baking with Dorie, by butter by the truckload, oh and lots and lots of good quality chocolate!) Crisis averted, I made this dough quickly and easily, rolled it into logs and put it into the fridge. Wait! I forgot that I would have to refrigerate for hours before baking! And, here I was all geared up to have a tasty bite to eat!

Luckily MrRuckus was happily ensconced on the couch and not going anywhere, so I decided to proceed with another project from the book. Having only 2 Tbsp of butter left in the house (minus some truffle butter, but you can't really bake with that), I needed a recipe without butter. I know that earlier in the week, I was all about dairy free, but now I wanted a Dorie recipe that fit the bill. Soufflé! Hey, why not? I don't own a soufflé pan, but found a china serving bowl with straight sides and decided to use that. Following Dorie's directions, it was actually pretty easy, rose gorgeously in its vessel and tasted divine. I only wish that I had a sauce or melted ice cream to go on top, but I was quite pleased with my effort. It was crusty on top but rich and fudgey on the inside. It is supposed to still be very good leftover, but my rule is that I only have a little taste of whatever I make and then send it on its way, usually to work with MrRuckus.

Anyways, back to my World Peace-ers . . . I got back from the gym, put the Ladybug down for her nap, and turned on the oven. I was all prepared for the cookies to be difficult to slice and keep together, but mine sliced perfectly. Maybe the secret is having them in the fridge for 15 hours and not the 3 called for in the recipe?

I think that I made them smaller than I was supposed to, though I followed the measurements in the recipe with an actual measuring tape. The recipe says that it makes 36 cookies, but I ended up with 58, which is fine with me since at that size they are only 1 WW point each! True to Dorie's instructions, they do not look done when they come out, but should come out anyways.

Now cool, they have a rich, buttery, sandy crumb like shortbread. The chocolate is rich and deep. Plus, the little bit of fleur de sel with the chocolate adds just the right bit of sophistication and oomph! I am loving these cookies. Our friend is one lucky birthday boy! (Though he will not be getting all 58 since we have people here installing my new plantation shutters and I have promised them milk and cookies when they are done. That and my family should be able to have a few, right?)

Catching Up . . .

2009-08-28T10:05:00.008-05:00

Despite the completely NON luxury house that we rented from Our Rental Paradise (Ha!) at 911 Notchbrook, our trip to Stowe was pretty fabulous.

Yes, though the house had such features as this {attractive and safe} pool deck

and this {beautiful} window,

it did have absolutely amazing views of Mt. Mansfield and was in a gorgeous location.

Vermont is great, but there is something magical about Stowe.

Mt. Mansfield stands over the top of town, beckoning you up the road. As you make your way through town and up the mountain road, you find that there is so much to see, do and explore. Stowe has the 5.5 mile rec path, on which you wind your way through fields, trees, over bridges, and up towards the mountain. There are good restaurants, good shopping, tons of outdoor activities, lots of places to stay and enough to keep you busy for weeks on end. It can be totally relaxin or totally active, though I prefer a mix of both.

It was so great to get out of the oppressive heat and humidity of Houston, and to be in a place where mornings and evenings were cool enough for sweaters. Even the heat of the afternoon was bearable (as long as you were not sitting in the kitchen of the NON luxury house with it's lack of airflow). We had a fantastic time running, biking, swimming, cooking, eating and drinking wine. Friends and family came and went and we enjoyed having long days to catch up and relax with people we love. Z Man and Little Ladybug had a blast being loved and adored by their aunts and grandparents (okay well, that was sort of an issue for a few days for LL and Grandma) and had so much fun with their cousins and friend Sam.

I really loved having the time (and the climate) to challenge myself to go faster and farther, even running the path round trip one day (11 miles). I also amazed myself with how much I enjoyed biking, something I never do, and how I was strong enough to bike one mile up hill to the house.

We spent two Sunday afternoons at the wonderful Farmers Market, which is like a big community festival, complete with live music and face painting, in addition to food and crafts.

There an incredible array of food to picnic on there and to bring home to make marvelous meals (such as huge fresh veggie frittatas with farm fresh eggs and steel cut oatmeal risotto with beets and fresh goat cheese).

MrRuckus and I also had a chance to get away by ourselves for one perfect meal at Hen of The Wood in Waterbury. Everything about this restaurant was exquisite. The location at the bottom of a waterfall in an old grist mill. Inside is warm and rustic, with an open kitchen, while still being completely modern. The food was divine - fresh, simple, perfectly prepared. I had been dying to go here for over a year and am now dying to go back.

Speaking of restaurants, we left the kids with a sitter one night and went to my favorite restaurant IN THE WORLD, American Flatbread, in Waitsfield, a place so yummy, laid back, fresh, creative, innovative, fun, unique and just plain Vermonty, that I will might have to devote an entire blog entry to how much I love it.

Our trip to Stowe was wonderful. Being there made us want to move there. It is just that great. Maybe someday!

Tolerant Dessert #2

2009-08-22T22:10:00.002-05:00

I still have to catch up on other things, but again, FOOD! I am really trying to be wheat and dairy free for a while longer as I try to heal my tummy and figure out what is distressing it, but I need sweets!

Tonight we took the kids over to Waterway Square where, on Friday and Saturday nights, they have entertainment for the little ones and their parents. Today there was live music, a caricature artist, and a face painting clown. Plus, both kids actually enjoyed the dancing fountains! (Of course, it was 95 degrees at 7 p.m. Hell, I wanted to jump in fully clothed myself!) Z Man has never been all that into the fountains before but was all over it tonight, smearing his face paint two seconds after the clown had finished. Ladybug delighted in sitting in the spray in her sodden diaper. Then, of course, Z man had to sit observing the fountains and figuring out the water patterns and determine from where the water would come next. My little genius!

Afterwards we all wanted dessert. I had to forgo my beloved Berripop where the rest of them got frozen yogurt delicousness but figured that Hubbell and Hudson across the street would have some sorbetto amongst its incredible gelato selections. Alas, all contained dairy. So, I perused the market but didn't buy knowing that my Tolerant Cookies from yesterday were at home. However, on my way out, near the fruit, I spied some fresh juices and I saw one that caught my eye due to its hot pink color: beet, watermelon, basil juice. Yum, three of my favorite flavors. Plus, I just happened to have roasted my two bunches of beets today so that I would have those ruby jewels ready for a variety of uses over the next few days and a watermelon that I had cut up this afternoon. On the way, home, I decided that I would try to make that juice into a sorbet.

Unfortunately, I forgot that I was out of basil, but I still made a gorgeous and delicious sorbet.

Watermelon and Beet Sorbet

1 Medium Roasted Beet
1 cup watermelon
2/3 cups water with 1/3 cup sugar cooked into simple syrup
zest and juice of one small lime
pinch of sea salt
1 TBSP of Cointreau (homemade sorbet and ice cream freeze better with a little bit of alcohol added. You can use vanilla or vodka but I thought that the citrusy Cointreau would be a good addition here)

Put it all in the blender. Chill until very cold (I forgot this step and mine was not quite scoopable, though still cold and spoonable) and then put in the ice cream maker and let it whir. Well, mine doesn't whir as much as make a deafening whine so I do it in the laundry room. Came out a gorgeous purply pink color, with a sweet but earthy flavor. If I had the basil, I would have just thrown some sprigs in the blender and I think it would have been a perfect addition.

Oh, but I still had one of those Tolerant Cookies and am thinking of grabbing another right now!

Tolerant Cookies

2009-08-21T09:54:00.004-05:00

I know, I know, I have lots of blogging to catch up on! There is much to share, and it is all coming, I promise! Despite the NOT luxury house, we had a fabulous time in Vermont and I will share more details and photos soon. However, coming home is always hard because not only is the vacation over, but catching up and getting back to normal takes me a few days.

Anyways, front of mind first. For me, that is, as usual, food! Lately I have been having a great deal of "tummy" trouble and it seemed to get much worse over the past few weeks. In researching my problem, I found that two likely culprits are dairy and wheat. So, for a while I am going to cut both out of my diet and try to see if I do better. I have also added some digestive enzymes to my regular probiotic supplements. I am seeing some relief of my symptoms, so I will continue this for a few more days and then re-evaluate and try to slowly re-introduce the foods I have cut out. Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for me is finding a way to satisfy my need for a chocolate treat every day.

So, of course, enter google (my very best friend). I searched "wheat free dairy free desserts" and saw something about fudge and oatmeal, two of my favorite things. I knew that it was only 9 in the morning and I had lots to do today, but these were so easy that I tried them right away!

Serves: 18

Ingredients:

2/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium heat combine the maple syrup, oil, cocoa and cinnamon. Boil for three minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, rolled oats and vanilla until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto waxed paper and chill to set, about 30 minutes.

First of all, maple syrup is definitely on my list of kitchen staples. I put it in everything from salad dressing to sauces for a deep, rich, sweet taste. Oatmeal is my best friend; it has branched out from my daily breakfast to be my go to grain even before cutting out wheat. But, chocolate and peanut butter together!!!! Need I say more? (BTW, I am sure that you could substitute Sunbutter, almond butter, etc if you wanted or had a peanut allergy.)

I used reduced fat peanut butter but otherwise followed the recipe to a "T". With that substitution, each one is just about 150 calories and only 2 weight watcher points (how very Hungry Girl of me!)

Laundry List

2009-08-08T22:28:00.002-05:00

Readers, I am on vacation in one of my favorite places on Earth, Stowe, VT. It is so gorgeous here and I am so happy to be back in The Green Mountain State. MrRuckus and I are here with the kids and with my family, and we are excited to have friends and family come join us here. We will be running, biking, sunning, golfing, eating and just all around enjoying ourselves here in this mountain paradise. We rented a great big house to accommodate everyone so that all of our guests would be comfortable. The house is huge. There is plenty of space, and many toys to play with. The views of Mt. Mansfield are incredible, but . . . Well, here is a copy of the letter I just wrote to the management company.

Dear Managment,

We checked in today to the house at 911 Notchbrook Rd. We are thrilled to be back in Stowe. Over the years we have been here many times and our family owned a home here until three years ago. It is great to be back in our favorite place.

However, we are currently very disappointed in the conditions of this "luxury" home. There are a number of issues that require some resolution:
- About half of the window cranks are broken. They do not open or close and many of the cranks are missing.
- Light switches are pulled out of the wall. Light bulbs are out all over the house. We would not even know where to start in fixing these situations ourselves.
- One of the major features you sell about the house is the 10 foot tv/home theater. Well, it doesn't work at all. This needs to be rectified ASAP.
- Speaking of the TV, there are remotes all over the house and none of them has any batteries in it. Not one.
- The clutter is appalling. Everything is disorganized, piled everywhere, no rhyme or reason to where things are located, and no storage because there are boxes and junk everywhere.
- The house is not clean, but the cleaning service has notes all over the house saying that tips are appreciated. Here is a tip: clean the house! It is musty, dusty, and just feels dirty.
- Sheets were left in the dryer. We do not know where these go, though I guess they can go anywhere, just like everything else in the house. Meanwhile, we have to put them somewhere because we need to do laundry.
- Speaking of laundry, we were told that there would be laundry soap. There is none.
- We were also told that there would be cleaning supplies. One basic cleaning supply is paper towels, and there were none to be found.
- The lawn is overgrown and full of weeds, as if it has not been maintained in years.
- Another selling points to the house was the keg of beer. This was changed and we were not told until after signing the contract.
- The whole coffee thing: a big point was made about leaving a big bag of coffee. There are about 10 bags with some dregs of coffee instead.

Also, you had instructed me to have things sent to the house. While we did receive the boxes sent via UPS, I had two packages sent via USPS that should be in the mailbox. These are gifts for my father's birthday. I need to get them by Monday.

Thank you so much for your prompt attention to these matters. I will call you and John to follow up tomorrow.

Sincerely,
MsRuckus

This is still going to be a great vacation, but I hope that they can fix some of these matters!

More Ladybug Feeding

2009-08-03T22:41:00.003-05:00

I love the baby aisle at the grocery store. Whenever I am there I find something to buy. A new sippy cup, some type of lavender lotion, travel containers, and, of course, food! A few months ago, when the Ladybug first started on solids, I discovered Sprout baby food at HEB. This might have been one of my best finds ever. We bought some and were hooked immediately. Amazon doesn't sell them. You have to go to HEB, but if you want to buy them in bulk, like we do, you have to go to the source. (And use the coupon code JS15 for 15% off your order!)

I know a lot of people who make their own baby food. Good for you! I just can't be bothered on a regular basis. Sure, I smash up avocados, sweet potatoes and bananas. I might grind up the occasional meal if the mood strikes me. But, I believe in making my life as easy as possible. Sprout does that. And, not only do they have amazing baby food, but they have all sorts of great green baby products and are adding more every week.

Sprout was started by Tyler Florence, the cute, personable Food Network Chef. They are 100% organic, which makes me feel good about giving them to LL. But, unlike Earth's Best and some of the others, they are really fresh. The foods are packaged in small, CD size vacuum pouches. They are really easy to throw in a diaper bag, in a purse, in your pool bag, etc. And, they are re-sealable. But, that is not the best part. The best part is that that they taste really good! I have tasted them. I would eat them. Hell, I have eaten some of them. (Peach Rice Pudding is my favorite - peaches, brown rice, cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg are the only ingredients.)

Though I can get them at HEB, as I have said before, I prefer the convenience of delivery. Especially if I can save money. So, with Sprout I joined their club and received a regular shipment. The company has been so friendly and accommodating. They will customize my order for me with the quantities that I want and makes sure that I get them quickly. We travel frequently, and they have sent me packages of food overnight to where ever I am because I have forgotten to bring. When I asked for a coupon code for my blog readers and my facebook friends, they gave me one. I can't say enough about the customer service.

Unfortunately, Sprout only makes mashed baby food right now. Now the Ladybug is eating more table food and I am not spoon feeding her very much. I am proud of LL for growing up and being more independent. However, it is sort of a bummer. First, because she is going to be one in a month and I am NOT having any more babies, and she won't be one soon. But, the bigger bummer is because spoon feeding is so much easier! It is neater, cleaner, and quicker to feed her. Now, with her bite size pieces of everything, she takes forever, makes a mess and makes the dog sick with all of the table scraps.

I will miss Sprout's food, but I hope that some of you will love it as much as we have!

Going Elegant

2009-07-29T16:45:00.003-05:00

Even here in Texas, we get home delivery of the New York Times every day. Of course the Times has a great website, I use the NYT app on my iPhone all the time, and it is not green at all to get the paper. But, I treasure my ritual of a latte made on my Nespresso D150 and a few minutes with my real paper, black newspaper elbows and all. I tend to block everything else out for a little while, including screaming children. Though I read the front page and skim the first section every day, there are some weekly sections to which I truly look forward. These include Wednesday's Dining Section, Sunday's Travel Section, and Thursday and Sunday's Style sections. I have found so many of my favorite things on these pages. A few weeks ago, I read this article and filed it away.

I love invitations, but I am not a saver and do tend to take people's invitations, send in the reply cards, put the date in iCal and then recycle the beautiful, carefully chosen and pricey invite. I have used Evite many, many times and it is convenient, but I have always found it a little bit disconcerting to send an invitation that has ads attached to it. Also, they are cute, but so informal. So, in planning for Little Ladybug's very "grown up" first birthday party, I knew I would have to check out Paperless Post. It was so much fun to design my own beautiful invitation. They remind me of the modern, elegant engraved invites that our parents spent way too much money on for our wedding. You do have to pay for stamps, but they run about 5 cents each. A bargain for something so gorgeous, elegant, fun and easy.

Speaking of Ladybug's party, we have decided on a theme of Cocktails and Cupcakes and are making it a grown up party to celebrate our little girl growing up. We thought that a house full of kids would overwhelm the birthday girl and that she should really be a star at her party. Plus, she can be there at the beginning, charm everyone with her toothy grin, look adorable in the dress I will find for her, make everyone smile when she makes a mess with her cake, and then go off to pleasant dreams while the grown ups can continue to enjoy grown up treats. We will have wines and drinks, charcuterie and cheese platters, hors d'oeuvres and cupcakes! Plus, I get to wear my new Elizabeth and James cocktail dress and my Louboutins. Fun!

Gossip Girl Hair

2009-07-26T16:13:00.004-05:00

One of my (albeit many) guilty pleasures is the CW network show, Gossip Girl. I love the scenes of New York and all of amazing fashion eye candy. It is so much fun to watch the melodrama and sheer over-the-topness of this show. However, to assuage my guilt at watching this (awesome) teeny bopper spectacle, I only let myself watch when I am working out. I have bought seasons one and two on iTunes and have been known to stay on my elliptical for two episodes because I am so hooked.

I truly cannot get enough of the fashion and style showcased on the show: Lily's luxurious elegance, Jenny's trendy funkiness, Vanessa's vintage flair, Blair's preppiness. However, Serena van der Woodsen is my fashion icon. Her style is a blend of rock and roll and boho. I LOVE it! If I had her money, I would dress exactly like her. (Though really, what 17 year old dresses like that?)

As much as I idolize Serena's SoHo style, Blair Waldorf is my hair icon. (Serena would be that too, but that blond would just not work for me.) However, Blair's red is gorgeous and really flattering. I love her color, her waves, her length, her thick locks, even her headbands!

I have the color now, after many months of dying my brown hair more and more red. I have found a way of creating soft waves with no work by spraying my hair with Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray, twisting it into a bun and letting it dry. However, I do not have the length or the thickness yet. So, last week I went to my usual salon to explore getting extensions to complete my Blair Hair look. It is incredible what they can do with extensions! They can last for six months and would be oh so beautiful. But Holy Hair, Batman, are they pricey! I mean really pricey. As in, to get Blair Hair for up to six months, it would cost me over $2000! Now, I am quite good at taking care of myself and treating myself very well, but even I could not consider this. Oh well.

I Hate Wal Mart

2009-07-24T22:24:00.002-05:00

Here in the bubble that is The Woodlands, we have two Wal Marts. One of which is pretty standard and one of which is actually quite nice, for a Wal Mart. But, I rarely go there. First because I use Amazon Prime for so many of the things and that one might buy at Wal Mart (which is everything) and thus can avoid dragging my children around. But, secondly, because Wal Mart just gives me the creeps. I love Target, but Wal Mart just makes me feel kind of dirty.

However, I had to take the dog to the vet today and the vet's office is right next to Wal Mart. I asked them to keep the dog for 20 minutes while the kids and I ran across the parking lot to get a trunk load of storage bins and hangers for my upcoming and much overdue closet cleanings. These things really would have cost me more on Amazon, so I sucked it up and went to Wally World. I found everything that I was looking for (and a few things I didn't know I was looking for) and $250 later, we were out of there. I felt like I needed a shower. It might have to do with the lighting and the layout of the store that makes one feel like a mouse in maze. It probably has more to do with the idea that "Hey! We have everything, why do you need to go anywhere else?" Well, they do have everything, but much of it is crap. And ugly, And, well, cheap. Which is great for some things, like storage bins, but for other things just seems yucky.

For example, on the way out of there with my storage bins, hangers, dvds, cumin, toddler tighty whities, a hot wheels car, pool noodles, a pair of scissors, sugar free dulce de leche pudding and biter biscuits, I saw Rainier cherries. As you know, I LOVE them, so I was thrilled to see them on sale there. I never made it to Sam's Club the other day and figured that these two are the same company (BTW, though I hate Wal Mart, I adore shopping at Sam's Club), they'd be the same cherries. I was WRONG! These were mealy and gross. Ugh! I hate Wal Mart

Gifting

2009-07-24T21:44:00.002-05:00

My good friend from high school and his lovely wife had a baby boy the other day and I am so thrilled for them. They have a spritely three year old and now have a tiny little boy to join their family. Congrats J and J!

Though I know that they do not expect me to send a gift and that it is not necessary, I LOVE when I find the right thing for someone. I am really good at gifting and love thinking of something that will really make the recipient smile. Today I sent a gift from my go to source for baby gifts. When I found Uncommonly Cute, I immediately bookmarked the site. The make adorable baby shoes that are like the ubiquitous Robeez but personalize them for you. (These are the shoes with non-slip soles that actually stay on a baby's feet.) Ladybug has a pair and I have sent a few as gifts that have gone over really well. Uncommonly Cute also makes clever tee shirts and onesies with ironic and amusing phrases like "Elmo is my homeboy" and "AB/CD". Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I have reconnected with J and J. For their new bundle of joy, I found a onesie that says, "Famous on Facebook". I can't wait to see the photo they post there of little B.

If you ever need gift ideas, please ask me. I love to think about it and make suggestions!

A Bone in My Fish.

2009-07-24T21:23:00.004-05:00

Sushi is one of my favorite cuisines (the other being Thai), so one of the things I lament about living down here is the lack of really good sushi. Because the quality of fish is just not all that high at most places, I end up getting a lot of maki (roll) sushi because the fish is somewhat obscured by the flavors of the other fun ingredients. There are so many interesting combinations of fish, veggies, spices and colors that I am usually pretty content even if I am not blown away.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a place called Thai Cottage that opened up on 242, not far from my house. Not only is it a new Thai restaurant, but it houses a small offshoot of Houston's "Blue Fish House" sushi bar. Though it looks like a fast food joint from the outside, the inside is cool and inviting. We had a pleasant lunch there with some fun maki and a big dish of edamame. The Z-Man loves sushi, and we polished off a ton of it.

This afternoon I had to pick up MrRuckus from work. Poor guy! He has been working like a fiend and had car trouble again today! A few months ago there was some flash flooding at the hospital at which he was working and he unwittingly drove through a lake of water. His engine had to be replaced and this is now the second time since then that his car has had a problem. Thank goodness that BMW pays for all service for the first 50K miles! But, it is frustrating and saddening to have our beautiful convertible have to keep going into the shop.

But, I digress . . . So, we were on the way home from picking up a loaner and wanted to get dinner near the BMW dealer and decided to return to Thai Cottage. Started out great. I had a grilled shrimp salad with a very spicy citrus and garlic sauce that I couldn't stop eating. I then ordered two maki rolls: a tasty mango crab roll and a yellowtail, ikura and avocado roll. I had one bite and found a bone in it! I have had so much sushi in my life and have NEVER found a bone in my fish. The whole point of sushi is that the preparation is an art. They did replace the roll but I couldn't eat it after that.

I will go back to Thai Cottage, but I will stick with the Thai food. I will not be ordering sushi there any more. I might wait until my trip to Hawaii in October when we can get really amazing fresh fish!

I have chosen

2009-07-20T22:38:00.005-05:00

I love fruit! Really, I have yet to meet a type of fruit that I do not enjoy. (Though I have met many individual fruits that were no good). Apples, blueberries, mangoes, tomatoes, kiwi, honeydew, apricots - I love them all. And, in the summer, there are so many to choose from. I have been eating so much fruit that I fear I may be developing a musky odor (shout out to you know who!)

I love them all, but I have chosen my favorite. Ranier cherries. They are juicy, slightly tart, sweet and just the best fruit ever! Apparently, they were bred in a lab in the 50s and are a cross between Bing and Van cherries. They are super difficult to grow and since they’re a relatively new fruit and probably have a lower production, they can be as much as a dollar a cherry (says Wikipedia)! Their red and yellow skins are almost as pretty as they are delicious. Best fruit of the year.

Yum! My friend, E, picked some up for me from Sam's Club on Saturday and they are so fantastic. I can't stop eating them and will have to drive there myself tomorrow to get some more. I have not even considered baking with them because they are sheer perfection eaten over the sink. Yes, I wash them and pop them in my mouth. Cannot even wait to put them in a dish and use my cherry pitter. I just eat them and spit out that sucker!

Cape May 2009

2009-07-16T19:37:00.005-05:00

I haven't written for a while because we were in Cape May, NJ for 8 days visiting MrRuckus's parents' beach house. We returned last night and spent the day trying to catch up, organize ourselves and recover. Z-Man took a long nap and he seems to be doing well, but he is the most adaptable kid ever. The Little Ladybug, on the other hand, seemed to be doing great until 6 p.m. tonight when she just started screaming bloody murder! My little girl is so sweet, loving, playful and fun. But, when she is unhappy, she lets you know it. We call her Drama Queen (or DQ for short) because when she is unhappy, her cry is so loud, piercing and painful, it is almost operetic. So, after putting her to bed for the night at 6:30, all has been quiet and peaceful.

In many ways, it is the most peaceful I have felt since before vacation. Don't get me wrong. Our trip to Cape May was wonderful and I wouldn't have missed it for anything, but it was not peaceful and relaxing. It is difficult to have peaceful and relaxing when you have two kids under 4. It is even more difficult to achieve it when you are staying at your in-laws' house (albeit gorgeous and well-located) with plans for every minute of the week. I am ever so grateful to my mother-in-law for being accommodating,helpful, thoughtful and the most generous person I have ever met. She did everything in her power to make sure that all of our needs were met, to take care of both of my children so that MrRuckus and I could have a break, and did not even take a single moment for herself to relax. Still, it is a lot of proximity for 8 days and I felt like we were on a treadmill the whole time we were there.

Some Highlights of the trip:
1. We took Z-man to see Lucy the Elephant on the beach in Margate. This was the highlight of my three year old's vacation and the part he had most been looking forward to before going. This six story elephant was built in 1881 and, in addition to being a tourist attraction that you can climb in and look around, it has also been a hotel, a private home, and a saloon.

2. MrRuckus and I got to spend a night at The Water Club in Atlantic City. Lovely room, chic hotel, but it is still Atlantic City and you can tell that by looking around. I got to lounge by the pool for an hour and he got to play poker at the Borgata for a few hours, so this was a little get away for us. Plus. . .
3. We had dinner at Chef Vola's restaurant in Atlantic City. We met my sister and her friend and had a 10 p.m. reservation at this gem of a restaurant. I had heard that it is the best Italian restaurant in NJ, and I had to try it, so we took what we could get. it is a tiny, hidden little restaurant on a residential street in Atlantic City, run by a couple who are truly passionate about what they do. The portions were enormous and the food was incredible.

It was like eating someone's Italian grandmother's best food in a speakeasy. Because they are so great to their customers, we we were not seated until nearly 11, but the owner makes 21 unique desserts and said that they were on the house for us. So, of course, we each tried one!

4. The Z-man LOVED the beach. My in-laws' house is right on the beach on the Delaware Bay and so it is really easy to take him down there to play. He loved to have his feet in the sand and to be in the water. We put him in the kayaks with us and paddled right in front of the house. He was so happy being on the sand and in the water; it was spectacular to be with him there.
5. Little Ladybug is at a great age and charmed everyone. Her personality is really starting to show and she is so active and funny! Although we were running around trying to catch up with so many people, she was flexible, easy-going and happy.
6. We got to see J, L and their new baby. They are such great friends who we get to see so rarely, so it was special to have our kids all together and then to have a night with my MIL sitting so that we could really catch up.
7. Sunsets. They have the most beautiful deck overlooking the dunes and the out to the bay and we saw some spectacular sunsets from there.

But, it is good to be home. Have my space, sleep in my bed. Plus, as of tomorrow, our theater room and our new home gym will be complete! We will have all the amenities of a resort right here!

Feeding the Ladybug

2009-07-04T10:56:00.003-05:00

My Little Ladybug is almost ten months old and I can't believe how big she is getting. In the beginning, I couldn't imagine getting to this point because she was such a difficult newborn. My little hurricane baby was born three days before Hurricane Ike blew through our part of Texas. Though it could have been so much worse (and was for countless others), it was challenging to have a brand new baby during the storm and in the days after when we had no power. Nursing and changing a newborn by flashlight was quite nerve-wracking. At least we were only without power for three and a half days. Plenty of people had no power for three and a half weeks!

Then, a few days later, I was told that my Little Ladybug was not gaining weight properly due to weak sucking and the lactation consultant suggested that I might want to try a speech pathologist in order to help her get stronger. So, of course, I went that very day and started a regimen of exercises intended to help her eat better. I also was pumping every time I nursed her to keep my supply high and giving her syringes of breast milk in order to give her a burst of energy to use to suck hard. I was obsessed with feeding her and how much weight she was gaining and it was pretty stressful. But, I stuck with it and in a couple of weeks she was eating like a champ and nursing started to get easier.

And then the colic hit! Nursing was the only way to keep my Little Ladybug calm and quiet and I was doing it all the time and starting to resent the fact that I was the only one who could keep her calm. So, MrRuckus made it his mission to be able to give her a bottle of pumped milk a few times a week and this made a huge difference. We both firmly believe that it is important for him to be able to feed and calm the baby and made sure he was able to do this. In fact, when she got an ear infection at 3.5 months and would not take a bottle, we were all distraught at the idea that she would never take a bottle again and made sure we stuck with it.

Then, all of a sudden, at about 5 months, she got easy. She started sleeping through the night and being quite placid most of the time. Now she is a doll, smiling, laughing, crawling around after her brother, pulling up on everything and just being a total sweetheart, my princess baby. And, all this time, I have stuck with nursing. For the Ladybug and me, it is our time to just be quiet and relaxed and we both enjoy it. At first, I had no expectations of how long I would stick with it, but here we are at 10 months and still it works so well for us. I was even able to go away from her for multiple days twice in the past few months, having MrRuckus or her grandparents give her bottles and spoon feeding while I brought my pump with me.

After 10 months of nursing, many months of losing weight and exercising, my nursing bras were just not working for me any longer. The ones I had just did not fit and did not give me the shape I was looking for. So, the other day I decided to take myself bra shopping. I went to Dolce Bella Lingerie at Market Street. They do a great job measuring and suggesting bras and found a number to meet all of my needs. I decided that I was tired of wearing nursing bras but wanted something that allowed me to nurse but also have nice shape and support. So, they suggested the Spanx Bra-llelujah underwire front closure bra. Now, I already knew that Spanx produced magical products like the thigh and butt slimming shorts, but this thing is a revelation! It is so comfortable, so light, seamless, and allows easy access for nursing either by folding away the flexible cups or opening it up in the front. I got it in two colors and will be buying more in the future. (I got a few other useful bras, but this one is tops!)

Tripp Trapp

2009-06-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

When The Right Start went out of business in my area, I was very disappointed. I loved that store from before the Z-man was born in Chicago and was so excited that one had opened here in The Woodlands before Little Ladybug was born. It was so convenient to go in there to get all of the handy gadgets that make parenting easier. Plus, they had great toys so my kids were entertained while I shopped and a clean restroom and changing table. All in all, it was a frequent destination of mine and I was bummed to see them go.

However, I did manage to score some good deals when they were closing. I had always wanted a Tripp Trapp high chair but had never wanted to spend $300 on it. However at 40% off, I pulled the trigger. From about 5 months on, Little Ladybug has been in her Tripp Trapp and we have been loving it. It is modern, stylish, simple and puts her at the table with us rather than behind a huge plastic tray. We have found this to be both convenient and pleasant as she seems to be more a part of things sitting with us at the table. Plus, it is all open so it is really easy to clean. There are no creases and crevices for food to hide in.

We have the Tripp Trapp and the baby rail. At first, we didn't use the shoulder straps because they are just kind of a pain and the baby chair had been keeping her pretty contained. However, lately the Little Ladybug is becoming a big shot. First she was standing up on the foot rest. No problem; it was easy to lower it down. Then, she was pulling one foot up onto the seat and trying to climb out.

This child will definitely not be like her brother, who to this day, at three and a half could not and would not climb out of a crib. Z-man has been in a big boy bed for months and is really good about not getting out until it is time to wake up. But, a few weeks ago, he got "stuck" in his sister's crib and did not even attempt to get out of there. She is 9 months old and I can see her already trying to figure out how to get out of there. One day I forgot to put the rail all the way up and I got her from her nap and she was standing up, holding on, trying to put her leg over the side. No, I am not kidding!

Anyways, in addition to trying to pull up on everything, Little Ladybug wants to eat big people's food. She wants to feed herself. The problem is, the chair is pulled up to my round table. So, as she learns her pincher grasp and tries to pick up her food, she is dropping a great deal of it on either side of her chair. My dog is sitting there, waiting to pick up any morsel that she drops. However, the dog is getting older and we don't want to make her sick from eating too much people food. So, until the Little Ladybug learns to eat neater, this chair will not work for her and we had to drag the big, ugly plastic one down from the attic. Yuck!

But, all was not lost. We took off the baby rail, made some adjustments and now the Z man has a seat at the table that is just the right height for him. He does not have to sit on his knees to reach the table and he can now begin to eat a little bit more neatly. Yay! The Tripp Trapp will be with us for years to come.

Summer Cravings

2009-06-29T15:32:00.002-05:00

It is so f-ing hot here! When I step outside, I often get the feeling that there must be an oven or a furnace open and if I take a couple of more steps, it will return to normal. But then I realize that, no, all of outside is an oven or furnace and this is normal until at least October. Just disgustingly, brutally, stickily hot.

Last summer I was very pregnant and it was so much worse. I would often say, "I hate outside!" after just exposing myself for a few seconds. This year is much better; I can bear it for a few minutes at a time. However, I realize that my constant cravings from last summer had much less to do with pregnancy and more to do with trying to stay hydrated and refreshed. I managed to not gain a ridiculous amount of weight with my last pregnancy because it was just too hot to eat and all I wanted to do was eat watermelon and drink lemonade (and sleep . . . )

Well, thank goodness I am not pregnant this summer (and NEVER plan to be so ever again. I am not a good pregnant person. I have two amazing little kids. But I digress . . . ) Still, I find myself once again only wanting to eat watermelon and drink lemonade. Local watermelons are in season and I am getting one weekly at the farmer's market and cutting it up to snack on all week. Pretty healthy, though all of the sugar in it does add up when I am eating plate after plate of it. Luckily, I have found a very lo-cal way of satisfying my lemonade craving. Chick-fil-a makes diet lemonade with that is so good! It has the perfect puckering tartness, real pieces of lemon, and is sweetened with Splenda, my very favorite calorie free sweetener.

In the past week, I have gone through their drive-through daily to get my large diet lemonade. It has become quite the addiction. So, yesterday after grocery shopping, I pulled in only to see that they were closed. The horror! Who ever heard of a fast food joint being closed on a Sunday? F-ing Bible belt! So, today I got smart. I got in line at the drive through and ordered a gallon to go. Now I don't have to worry about them being closed and can quench my thirst and my craving any time I want.

On another note, I hope that someday they don't find that Splenda will kill you because I will be a goner for sure!

Beddy Bye Time

2009-06-26T20:13:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I have NO patience for my kids. Heck, some days I have no patience for them. Part of it is because they are both at ages and stages where they need so much attention. Part of it is that I am selfish and really want my Mommy time and Mommy space. But lately it is because MrRuckus has been working so much and such long hours that I just don't really get a break until after they go to bed.

I realize that I am extremely fortunate. I get to stay home to care for my kids and have the flexibility to spend time with MrRuckus when he does have time off. When he is home, MrRuckus is 100% hands on and does whatever needs doing for the kids. We have the means to get sitters whenever we want to go out or if I do need a break. There is great child care at my gym and I use it for the full two allotted hours a few times a week. But still, I do lose patience with my kids more than I want to admit.

However, no matter how tired and drained I might be at the end of the day, I love bedtime lately. 3 year old Z-man and Little Ladybug are so in love with each other and have been playing so nicely together (she trying to do whatever he does), that I now try to put them to bed at the same time. I put them both in the bath, her in her little safety seat, him right next to her and they splash each other and trade bath toys back and forth. Then I get them both in "gagamas", brush teeth and we all read a book on the Z-man's bed. Little Ladybug loves to be up on his bed and snuggles right onto his pillow. After the book, Z-man says, "let's cuddle" and we all have a cuddle and lots of kisses. Then I take the little Ladybug, nurse and rock her until she is drowsy, put her in her little crib, come downstairs and feel all content.

And now I get that mommy time!

Bacon and Chocolate

2009-06-19T15:37:00.002-05:00

I have been a huge fan of Vosges chocolate since we lived in Chicago, where the company began and is based. They make really high quality chocolates with interesting flavors. When they first started in Chicago, they had a small boutique in Lincoln Park, just down the street from our apartment. I would treat myself to one of the delicious and beautiful little truffles every time I was there on Armitage, window shopping and walking. They have such a great design scheme, and truly innovative flavors; it really made an impression.

But, alas, I thought that I left that (and many other tasty treasures) in the windy city. Then I found some Vosges chocolates the other day at Hubbell and Hudson. I should have known that a company as cool as Vosges would be busy expanding in the intervening years since I last tasted their delicacies. Of course, I bought a couple of bars to try the new flavors!

Last night, in my bath, I had a square of the red fire bar. It is dark chocolate with chipotle chiles and cinnamon and was perfect to savor slowly.

Today, after a delicious lunch of BLTs on fresh, homemade french bread with homemade garlic- saffron aioli, I thought that a piece of Mo's Bacon Bar would be the perfect little sweet. Bacon and chocolate, how could you go wrong? Salty, tangy, chocolaty and rich! Perfect. Welcome to Texas, Vosges! I hope to see a lot of you.

Swimming School Dropout

2009-06-18T19:37:00.003-05:00

This week, the Z-man began a series of private swim lessons at the "new gym" (this is it's name around here, even between MrRuckus and myself). Their schedule for group lessons didn't work for us, and we know that the Z-man does not like to be taught anything. At all! First of all, this kid is stubborn (must get that from his dad). When he makes up his mind about something, there is no budging him. Secondly, he is a bit if a wuss. Third of all, he hates to try new physical skills. And, fourth, he is completely uncoordinated. As in could not jump with two feet off of the ground until last month (he is 3 and a half!)

So, for swimming, we knew that us trying to teach him was only going to be a battle of wills and that, because at some point he is bound to win the battle, it should not be about swimming. Thus, I signed him up for a package of six private lessons. He loves to be in the pool, so I thought that he was going to actually do really well at it. I didn't think that he would be skilled like my friend K's son, who is turning 4 this month and can already do the butterfly, but I was hopeful for a head under and a doggy paddle.

Until Tuesday's class, every time the Z-man goes in the pool, he has worn a flotation vest. This has worked extremely well for us as he is very buoyant in it and has the confidence to flutter kick his little legs around the pool. We even moved him this year to a less buoyant vest and he is able to stay (mostly) above the water. So, on Tuesday he went into the pool with the instructor and sank like a stone. Seriously! Some kids are floaters and some are stones. That kid is a boulder!

But, for a half an hour, I watched Z and his instructor kick around the pool and tried to stay out of it and let them do their thing. (Is it bad that I was admiring this teenager's tanned, defined torso and not paying much attention to much else? Bad Mommy!) At the end of the lesson, the instructor told me that he has to work on floating on his back in order for him to learn to swim.

So, yesterday afternoon MrRuckus and I brought the Z man and the Little Ladybug into the pool. 9 month old ladybug loves the pool. Kicks her little feet and squeals with delight. Loves to go on her back, even tolerates being splashed in the face. The Z-man? Not so much. Only wants to push his toys around the water. We both tried so hard to get him to float on his back but he screamed and would not release his vice grip on our necks. We put him on a pool float to lie back and you would have thought we were waterboarding him. Yet he was willing to try to swim a few feet under water, kicking like mad, to get from one of us to the other. Go figure!

Fast forward to this afternoon's class. First, the instructor decided to use the inside pool as there would be fewer distractions. (Damn! Then I couldn't stare at him!) So, I took the Ladybug outside and played with her. 15 minutes later, Z-man is brought to me in instructor's arms. I was told that he would not cooperate and that when the back float was attempted, he pitched a fit and refused to swim any more and did I want him to force the Z man to cooperate? Sort of ! I can't make him do it, maybe he can! But, I said that I didn't think that was a good idea. So, the instructor said that there is not much they can do until he can float on his back, that it is not really safe for him to be in the pool without that skill, and I should cancel the rest of my lessons until he is ready to do that because it is a waste to just kick him around the shallow end.

I was so pissed! Not at the instructor. I think he was correct - it is dangerous for him to be in the pool without him able to back float and get himself to the surface where he can breathe. And, it is a waste of money to have him kick around holding on to the instructor. He basically does this in his floatie vest at home. No, I was pissed at my wussy, stubborn son because I don't know how to get him to do this. I can't make him and he won't do it until he is ready. We are at a standoff!

But, oh he is so sweet and so smart and so funny and so considerate. So, maybe he is destined to never do anything athletic. Maybe his sister is the great hope!

Easy Summer Dinner

2009-06-16T20:26:00.003-05:00

We made such a fantastic dinner tonight and it was so easy! This past month's Cookie magazine (I agree with Yummy Mummy about why this is the best) had a recipe for blender soups and we decided to try one today. It was so good, I licked my bowl:

1 avocado

1 cucumber (seeded)

1/2 cup fat free greek yogurt, 1/2 cup skim milk (the Cookie recipe called for 1 cup buttermilk but we used these substitutions)

1 Tbsp shallot

juice from 1/2 lemon

cumin and salt to taste

Put it in the blender and whir it all together

This afternoon, after lunch at Hubbell and Hudson, we bought some sea bass for dinner and the preparation of this was equally easy and delicious:

1 cup wine

1/2 cup red miso paste (I keep this in the fridge, it lasts forever and is such a good flavoring)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp ginger powder

Mix together and marinate fish for 2-6 hours. Then put it on the grill on medium high heat for 6 minutes per side.

We had slow roasted some sweet potatoes and had these along side and some blueberries for dessert. Oh! And I finally broke into that fancy box-o-wine (Washington Hills) that was light, sweet and paired well with everything.

As Backpack would say, "yum, yum, yum! Delicioso!"

Grasshoppers!

2009-06-16T20:12:00.004-05:00

After last week's disastrous date night (way too much wine resulting in a very sick MsRuckus), we were determined to be a little more mellow. As we have been sampling many of Houston's finest restaurants lately, we thought that it was high time that we try Hugo's, known around town as one of Houston's best restaurants and one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country.

Though they have an amazingly well thought out wine list, I had their $28 margarita, listed on the menu as the "best margarita you'll ever have". I had to try it, and while very good, I am not sure if it was head and shoulders above all others.

Our meal was really great, starting with goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms and the grasshopper appetizer. Yes, grasshoppers! If there is something interesting on a menu, we always have to try it. These were just little ones, sauteed with onions. By themselves they were slightly crunchy and grassy. In the blue corn tortillas with a little avocado and sauce, they were crunchy, grassy and delightful. We then had the slow roasted goat and lamb. Both were tender and delicious. However, the true highlight of the evening was the dessert course. I had churros with a variety of sauces served with a big bowl of Mexican hot chocolate. The churros were fresh and lightly dusted with cinnamon and sugar. The chocolate and caramel sauces were finger licking good, but that hot chocolate! Rich, cream, spicy and utterly delicious. MrRuckus had a bread pudding that was divine as well. I can't wait to go back. It would be so much fun to go with a big party for a birthday dinner.

NY Weekend

2009-06-09T22:57:00.008-05:00

Though I was just in NJ/NY last week, that trip wasn't planned. My mom had surgery for which I wanted to be there, so I booked a trip last minute. She is doing much better now, but I went back to NJ this weekend for a long planned trip. I wanted to bring my baby girl to see her grandparents and to do a number of other things. It couldn't have worked out better. Getting to see my mom up and about was a highlight.

In addition to the little Ladybug, I brought a good friend with me since MrRuckus decided to stay home and have a boys' weekend with the Z-man and his brother. So we had a girls' weekend with my sisters and a little bit of time with mom and dad. Luckily for me, they all got a chance to spend some QT with the Ladybug while my friend L and I had some QT with the city. For a day and a half we walked, ate and shopped in my favorite city in the world. NY in perfect weather, with great company and lots on sale, what could be better?

Started out by showing L the Union Square Greenmarket, then wandering through the Village and SoHo. We just wandered in and out of stores, purchasing trinkets from street vendors. We finally made our way to Magnolia Bakery and took our cupcakes to the park across the street to get our "fix".

We then went to a shoe store where I purchased one of my all time favorite pairs of shoes years before and each had luck finding something that fit our styles perfectly. Shopping bags in hand, we headed back uptown through the meatpacking district.

Now, this area I do not know very well at all, so we were just wandering. Then, all of a sudden, we passed a shop with windows filled with beautiful shoes with red soles. My heart, literally, started beating faster.

We were standing outside of the Christian Louboutin store and I hadn't even planned it! I have wanted a pair of Louboutins for years, but have never pulled the trigger as they are usually so pricey. We immediately went in and started delighting in the beautiful array of shoes only to hear that an entire wall of the store had a sale going on. At this point, I was practically hyperventilating. I spotted a pair of shoes that was very much my style: basically simple with a rock and roll edge. And, they had my size! These babies have 5.5 inch heels and a pewter platform in front and are so beautiful and make me feel so good (except at the end of the night after walking many blocks, but that was my fault, not the shoes). Buying them was one of my most exciting shopping moments EVER!

That night, we went to the chic bar at our hotel, none other than the Palace, (home of Serena Van der Woodsen) and then on to dinner at Asia de Cuba (Cuba being the thing that brought us to NY that weekend in the first place). The restaurant was quite good and was still trendy, stylish and lots of fun. Went back to the room and feel asleep watching Confessions of a Shopaholic (fitting for the weekend).

Sunday morning dawned (okay 9:30 a.m.) bright and beautiful. Here is the view from our room, St. Patrick's right there and all the way to the Hudson in the distance:

We had a delicious brunch at Fred's and then spent the next two hours exploring every other floor of Barney's. L decided that she loved Barney's so much that she wanted to live there! Barney's also had a huge sale going on, but we restrained ourselves and only bought presents there for our families and nothing for ourselves. Then we went back to the room, checked out, and took the bus to Hoboken.

The whole purpose of the weekend was to attend the opening of my father's first one man gallery exhibit. The Almanac Gallery in Hoboken showed a collection of his recent photos of Miami and Cuba, and it was wonderful! I was so proud of my father, who has been passionate about this work for so long. Many of his friends and family members were there to support him and his work looked amazing hung together there.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I love and miss NY so much.

The Greatest (Diaper) Bag

2009-06-04T21:44:00.004-05:00

One of my original intentions in starting this blog was to share with people my favorite "finds", but lately all I have been writing about is food. However, that is about to change.

I am, without a doubt, a "bag lady". I love bags, purses, clutches, even suitcases. Also, because I am also a mom of two little kids, I love diaper bags. With the Z-man, I had a few of them, none of which I really loved. But now, for the Ladybug, I have one ultra-fabulous, utilitarian and handsome diaper bag.

The Jamie by Storksak. What originally sold me on this bag was the tough but supple leather and the overall unisex look to it, cool enough for me but manly enough for MrRuckus to carry. (Brad Pitt carries this bag. I have even seen pics of him carrying it without any of the kids in tow, though how he manages to get out of the house without having to take even one of them is a wonder.) But, the more I have used it, the more I have loved it. It has numerous internal pockets, some of which zip, for stowing extra clothes, Desitin, hand gel, breast pads, binkies, etc. There are two insulated pockets for bottles, a really handy detachable key holder, and a folding changing mat. It easily fits a laptop as well and has an external mobile pocket. And, because it is a really light color inside, you can easily find everything. However, the best thing about it is that once it is all broken in, it can hold so much stuff!

The dimensions of this bag are reasonable: 14"Hx12"Wx4"D. However, it just swallows up whatever you give it and leaves you room for more. Right now it is all packed up to take the Ladybug to see her grandparents in NJ (and have a little Mommy time in NYC with my friend "L") for the weekend. So, currently inside this baby are:

6 size 3 diapers
3 swim diapers
an entire package of wipes
2 changes of clothing
the changing pad that comes with it
a bottle
a tube of desitin and a hand gel
4 packages of baby food
a pack-n-play sheet
a copy of Goodnight Moon
my Medela breast pump and bottles
Some Fiber One bars for Mommy

All of that, and room to spare! Unbelievable, right? It is like one of those clown cars at the circus. I love this bag, my husband loves this bag, the child care staff at the gym love this bag. It goes over the handle of the stroller and is easy to sling over your shoulder or wear messenger style because of the adjustable strap. I got mine new on eBay for about $175. A quick check on froogle.com finds it at a number of stores for about $200. For this quality and utility, it's a bargain.

Plus, look at how lovely it is:

Farmer's Markets

2009-06-01T22:08:00.003-05:00

I find it very difficult to get myself and my children out of the house quickly. Well, I should rephrase that. I find it very difficult to get myself out of the house quickly. Getting the three of us out is sometimes close to impossible. I just don't know what happens to time in the morning, but for me to get out of the house takes a bare minimum of 45 minutes, and this is with no shower and no latte. If I need to do the whole routine plus kids, I need two hours. So, I am really curious how I am going to get the Z-man to preschool next fall at 8 a.m. As it was this year, half of the days that I had to take him, I was still in my PJs and glasses and the baby was unchanged. And school started at 9! I really don't know how I am going to do it. I am considering finding a different school just because I don't know if I can deal with the 8 a.m. preschool start.

Because of my slow-pokiness, I have NEVER made it to the Farmer's Market in Grogans Mill while there was any produce left. But, last weekend I was determined to get there when it started at 8. But, when we did get there at 9, we were all cleaned, dressed and fed, so I was pretty pleased with myself. And, pleased with what I found there! Lots of fresh, seasonal produce, meats, eggs, breads and delicious Indian Food! I had no problem walking around, getting what looked best from every stand (and parting with lots of cash.) I plan to make this a weekly occurrence when we are in town. (It runs from 8-noon all Spring).

All last week, I was in NJ because my mom had surgery and I wanted to be with her and there for my sisters and my dad. We were pretty busy running back and forth between their house and the hospital, but I did have some time to be in my favorite place in the world, NYC. So, last Saturday, in an effort to stock their kitchen with fresh, healthy food to eat over the next week, my middle sister and I decided to go to the Union Square Greenmarket.

I loved every minute of being at that Farmers Market. First of all, the day was gorgeous and the square was filled with thousands of people enjoying the day and the markets offerings. So, the overall energy level of the neighborhood was just incredible. Secondly, it is still mid-spring in the northeast and everything green is at its height. We tasted so many delicious veggies and bought lots of them, filling our market bags quickly. I only wished that I could have stayed to cook and eat the food with them, but I was returning to Texas the next day.

The Bryan Caswell Empire

2009-06-01T21:41:00.002-05:00

One of the best things about living in The Woodlands is that it is less than an hour to Houston. One of the worst things about living in The Woodlands is that it is almost an hour to Houston.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a free day and it wasn't too hot, so we decided to try to take the kids to the zoo before schools let out for the summer. I also had an ulterior motive: to try the sliders at Little Bigs, purported to open in Late Spring 2009. So, we loaded the kids into the car and got to the zoo before 10 a.m. only to see that every school in Texas had decided to take an end of the year field trip to there that day. It was too crazy for us so we decided to take the Z-man on the Hermann Park train. We had just done this a few weeks before with playgroup and he thought that it was the greatest thing in the world.

The miniature train goes all around the park and through a tunnel (!!), with many stops to get out and play. We had a blast riding it around and stopping to play and then returned to the main train station/gift shop. Of course! Where MrRuckus bought a new train for the Z-man. Of course! But, the new Little Bigs Hermann Park was not yet open.

So, we loaded ourselves back into the car to drive down Montrose to the original location of Little Bigs, the "slider shack" opened last year by the team from Reef. What a great concept and what a treat! I happen to love sliders and these did not disappoint. They are really tasty little burgers and truly delicious fries. My favorite part of the meal, though, might have been the sangria slushie that they serve. If I lived near there, it would be a summertime addiction. As it is, I can't wait to go back.

The next night, we went with some of our favorite friends for a highly anticipated night out. I had made reservations at Reef because I am a total nerd for foodie magazines and when I read that there is a restaurant in Houston that was:

Top 10 Best New Chef by Food and Wine
One of 50 Best New US Restaurants by Travel and Leisure
#1 Seafood Restaurant in the US by Bon Appetit

Well, I just had to go. In the meantime, I read every Yelp review of the place and thought hard about which fish dish I would order. Luckily I went with fantastic people who were not only great to spend the evening with, but were willing to share and taste everything. I think we managed to taste much of the menu that way. The food was delicious, beautifully presented, cooked to perfection, but did not blow me away. The room was cool, very lofty and open, but quiet loud. All in all, I had a great night and a good meal, but would not even put Reef on my list of top five restaurants in Houston, let alone the US.

I have a Crush on Crush

2009-05-22T17:13:00.005-05:00

MrRuckus and I believe very much in couple time. We go on trips without our kids and aim for "date night" at least once a week. Almost always, this involves a delicious meal out with some wine. The other day, we had that PLUS a movie! Not only that, we got to try out a really fun place during its "soft opening".

Crush is a new wine bar that opened in The Woodlands along the Waterway, behind Hubbell and Hudson, my favorite grocery store/restaurant. Walking in, you are transported from Suburbia to a cool, chic spot (c'mon, The Woodlands is getting better all the time, but it is most definitely Suburbia). The bar on the main floor (the second floor of the building) is enormous, snakes the whole length of the room and glows. On this floor, there are tables inside and outside. The outside tables overlook the fountains. Upstairs is an even more lounge-like rooftop space. There are cabanas with long settees, a sleek and modern fire pit, and plenty of comfy chairs and couches, as well as a few tables. The look is very modern but the feel is inviting. Staff members are friendly and, so far, really seem to want to please.

This has been their "soft opening" so they still are working on some kinks. However, things seem to be going in the right direction. Wine list is extensive and varied, and there are many items available by the glass. One strange thing is that the list was "backwards" with Cabs on the first page and sparkling wines on the last. I have never seen this before. Also, there was little information given about the wines, so you have to put a lot of faith in the servers. I would like to see flights offered as a way to taste many of the carefully chosen selections. I had a very dry sparkler from New Mexico to start while MrRuckus started with a juicy Alsace Reisling (of course). We then each had a light and fruity pinot from Monterey that our server recommended. Perfect for that evening, a rare Texas night in May that required a "light sweater or jacket".

The food was quite good. We had a cheese plate with five different cheeses. All of them were yummy (though I love cheese, all cheese, except Swiss), but no one except the chef knew what they were. In fact, one server said that the chef sources all of them from a dairy "in The Woodlands". When I called BS on that (dairy in The Woodlands???), I was told that their source is in The Woodlands and all of the cheese are from Texas. Maybe . . . The cheese comes with light and tasty homemade flatbread, some nuts and some fresh berries. We also had beef carpaccio whose flavor was marred by the overuse of dijon mustard. Then, we had their Kobe sliders with a gooey cheese sauce on top. Great burgers, but no fries! How can you serve sliders without fries? I was told that they never intend to have a fryer. At least some fancy chips?

All in all, a great place that I intend to frequent. We then went down the street and saw "Angels and Demons". Ugh. As usual, "the book was so much better."

Fro-Yum

2009-05-20T16:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had to go run an errand in Houston and had a few extra minutes before I had to turn around and pick up my son at pre-school. So, I decided to try the fro-yo at Berripop in Uptown Park. I have never had the pleasure of trying Pinkberry in LA or New York, so was excited to try this cool, creamy treat here in Houston. Berripop, like Pinkberry is made from real yogurt with probiotics. Since I have lately been very into Fage Greek Yogurt and love the tart taste of it, the idea of having it in frozen form was very appealing. Berripop did not disappoint. I tried a few flavors but settled on mango with pineapples and strawberries on top. It was delicious, sweet, tart and refreshing.

Last night MrRuckus and I were out for dinner and drinks at a new place on the waterway, here in The Woodlands and I said to him, "Berripop would do great here since there are no places to get simple 'treats' right here." Then, I woke up this morning to find my daily Hungry Girl email was about fro-yo. She was discussing the need to check nutritional information carefully and know the size you are getting. So, I went onto the Berripop site out of curiosity and didn't find further nutritional information, but something even more exciting: they are coming to The Woodlands! They have a location already on the waterway. Yay! Can't wait until they open.

Weight Watching

2009-05-17T20:32:00.004-05:00

I love food. Reading about it, shopping for it, finding new places to eat, reading restaurant reviews, planning meals, cooking, baking, and especially eating. I subscribe to and read all of the major food magazines and collect cookbooks. I watch Food Network and love Top Chef. When I cook, I usually try to buy the best quality, most flavorful and freshest ingredients. I love trying new restaurants and enjoy nothing more than a tasting menu for sampling what the chef thinks are the best things to put out. I like to think of myself as a foodie.

Recently, I have had to temper my inner foodie. In the past few months, I have successfully lost all of my baby weight plus twenty five pounds, and I have never felt better. I have not and will not give up my passion for food. Mostly, I have trained myself to make better food choices, to have small portions of the things I love, and to splurge when something is really splurge worthy (hello, recent meals at Feast and Da Marco) or when on vacation (I'm looking at you Eric Ripert). I have done all of this successfully by following the weight watchers plan. Without going to a single meeting, I have access to all of the tools available.

Basically, though, the keys to my "success" have been:

1. Write down what I eat and don't cheat. If I have three m&m's from my son's "potty prizes", I write it down. I am accountable to myself and so I have learned that bites here and there add up.

2. The more fiber the better. Higher fiber content makes foods lower in points values and more filling. So, I try to choose whole foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grain breads and pastas. Vegetables (for the most part) have no points, so I have learned to snack on them more than anything else.

3. Steel cut oatmeal every morning. Every day for breakfast I have a bowl of steel cut oatmeal and a large latte that I make on my beloved nespresso machine. This fills me up all morning.

4. Save some points for a small treat every night. I have a sweet tooth and must have dessert. (If I have baked something fabulous, like the Paula Deen's caramel cake that I made for MrRuckus's birthday, I will, of course choose a tiny sliver of this. ) Otherwise it is a skinny cow ice cream sandwich or a jell-o sugar free dulce de leche pudding. If I am out of points, I drink cup after cup of naturally sweet Aveda Comforting Tea. MrRuckus thinks that this makes my breath smell like I have been partaking in some marijuana inhalation. No wonder I like it so much!

5. Sriracha, or thai hot sauce, is the greatest condiment ever. I put this on everything that is not sweet and it adds so much flavor with no calories.

6. Water water water. I drink at least a gallon a day, two if I am going to go to Bikram.

7. Pilates Reformer works. I am so much stronger, leaner and faster thanks to my twice weekly training on the reformer.

8. Breastfeeding burns a lot of calories each day. Thank goodness for, as my friend "K" puts it, my "little calorie sucker". I guess the little ladybug will be nursing for a while.

Home Made Pizza (and Calzone)

2009-05-16T08:47:00.010-05:00

Most of the time, when I shop at a really good grocery like Hubbell and Hudson, Whole Foods or the farmers' market, I buy what looks good to me that day and then take it home and figure out how to prepare it. Sometimes this entails running out to my neighborhood Kroger to get a few missing ingredients, but I keep my kitchen pretty well stocked with tasty, flavorful essentials. Because of this shopping method, I have discovered some favorite foods that have become weekly staples, such as beets, fennel and leeks. I buy these weekly and can't get enough of them.

Having cooked most of my produce from last week by way of a beet and beet green risotto, chicken with leeks, pork with a beet/leek sauce, and meyer lemon braised fennel, I was left with broccolini. This is a pretty new one for me and didn't go over all that well when I bought it last time and roasted it, so I wanted to try again.

I also had some Niman Ranch uncured applewood smoked bacon that I bought at H and H last week after reading an article in Bon Appetit about bacon being a health food. "So that means that some could argue that bacon is about half as good for you as olive oil and about 100 times more delicious." If regular bacon is 100 times more delicious than olive oil, then this bacon is another power of ten.

So, what to do with broccolini and bacon? How about pizza? I found a couple of pizza recipes, combined them, made some substitutions with what I had in the fridge and came out with some great results.

Here is a picture of the broccolini, caramelized onion and bacon pizza before it went into the oven.

Recipe for Bacon, Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza:

Dough (adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzber and Francois):

2 3/4 cups warm water

1 1/2 TBSP granulated yeast

1 1/2 TBSP salt

1 TBSP sugar

1/8 cup EVOO

6 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and EVOO with water in a big bowl

2. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flour. Use wet hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if necessary

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses, approx 2 hours

4. The dough can be used immediately after the rise, but is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a covered (not airtight) container and use over the next 12 days.

(This recipe makes enough for four pizzas. I halved the recipes and made two)

Topping:

1 lb broccolini, chopped and steamed

3 thick slices of bacon

1 onion, cut in half and sliced thin

3 sprigs thyme

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup ricotta (or do what I did and combine 1/4 cup cream cheese with 1/4 cup fat free greek yogurt)

1 tsp minced garlic

S and P

1. cut bacon into 1/2 inch pieces and cook in skillet to render fat and brown bacon.

2. remove with a slotted spoon and then dispose of all but 1 TBSP bacon fat (yum!)

3. Caramelize onion in bacon fat by cooking over medium low heat. Add sugar and salt in the beginning and then thyme once onions are nice and soft and starting to brown. Stir frequently and cook until they are nice and brown, about 20 minutes

4. Mix cheese, garlic, S and P in a bowl

Putting it together:

1. Forty minutes before baking home, preheat oven with a baking stone to 550 (or 500 if that is your oven's max)

2. Dust the surface of refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a grapefruit size piece. Dust with more flour and shape it into a ball.

3. Flatten dough with your hands and roll on a floured wooden board until it is a thin round. Dust with flour to keep from sticking.

4. Place the rolled out dough on a cornmeal covered pizza peel.

5. Spread cheese mixture all over crust, leaving 1/2 inch around the edge

6. Scatter the broccolini, onions and bacon all over

7. Slide the pizza directly onto the stone. Check for doneness at 8-10 minutes. At this time turn pizza around in the oven if one side is browning faster than the other. Might need a few more minutes.

8. Use pizza peel, remove from oven, cut and enjoy.

(I had some technical difficulties in sliding the pizza off and ended up with a heart shaped pizza, but it was still delicious)

The broccolini added some bitterness and freshness to the sweet and savory flavors of the onions and bacon.

I also made a simple sausage pizza by layering store bought tomato sauce, fresh buffala mozzarella and sliced sausage. However, when I slid this off the peel, it folded over on itself and made a very messy calzone.

Not quite Dolce Vita, but there was no time to drive into Houston last night.

Mom Me Time

2009-05-14T21:00:00.004-05:00

MrRuckus is a physician and he works strange hours around the clock. Sometimes I hate it, but sometimes it is really great. Like tonight.

My kids were in bed early and I have the whole night to myself. Perfect for my mini vacation. Fill up the tub, add my favorite bubble bath, turn on some music, grab one of my many magazines, pour a glass of wine, take two pieces of dark chocolate and bliss out for an hour. I usually put a deep conditioning hair treatment on as well as a thick layer of moisturizer so that they really sink in with all that steam opening everything up. When I come out, I feel like I have been on vacation, just lovely and peaceful. I try to do this at least once a week.

I Love Amazon Prime

2009-05-14T20:30:00.004-05:00

I shop online all of the time. It saves me tons of money and, just as importantly, saves me tons of stress. With a little research, you can find better prices for almost anything online than in stores and there are so many ways to get free shipping. I will blog all about my favorite sites and strategies some other time. But, as I am sure that I will be talking about what I bought from amazon on a frequent basis, I might as well post about it here in the beginning. For many years, I thought of amazon as the place to go to buy books. They have almost everything in print and they have tons of reviews. Maybe I bought a movie from them here or there. They had that nifty and thrifty "super saver" shipping if you bought a couple of books.

Well, man was I missing out. Amazon has single handedly made my life so much better, so much easier, so much more pleasant and stress free. Why? Because of Amazon Prime. For years they offered me a "trial period" and I declined. Finally, a few months ago, I decided to try it out and I discovered that it is the BEST thing ever. Yes, it costs $80/year. But, it is the best $80 I have ever spent. If I am deciding on an item, there are tons of reviews to help me make my decision. When I need something specific, all I have to do is go onto amazon and put it in my shopping cart. I do not use amazon for browsing. I use it for BUYING. Then, when I am ready to check out (usually I do this every other day), they ship it to me with FREE two day shipping. If I want it the next day, it is only $3.99/item. Not only is shipping free, but the prices are usually the same if not better than you would find at your big box stores (i.e. Sam's Club). Plus, no tax.

Running low on diapers? Amazon. Need my son's organic chocolate milk? Amazon arranges for shipment every month. An enormous kids' picnic table for a party this weekend? $3.99 and the 60 pound box is at my house in less than 24 hours. Nursing bras, strollers, birthday presents, spices, new Kitchen Aid mixer, vitamins, laundry detergent, water filters. These are all things I have gotten from amazon in the last month. I am telling you, you name it, they have it and can get it to you in two days. No need to go to Sam's Club. No need to go to Walgreen's, no need to go to Babies R Us. No need for dragging cranky kids all over. For less money than I would have spent hopping around from store to store, my stuff comes to me. How can I go wrong? (There is even an iPhone application so that I can shop on the go.)

I still buy my books from them. And I will be doing so even more easily when I get my Kindle.

VillaSport Athletic Club

2009-05-14T15:03:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, our family decided to join the new gym in town, VillaSport Athletic Club. We had been getting mailings from them for months and I thought about joining back when they were offering 50% off the enrollment fee, but it is hard to commit to a new gym without seeing it. Before opening, the discount on the enrollment fee was only 20% off, so I thought that I should at least get that savings if I was going to do it. I toured last week and was really impressed, but just wasn't ready to pull the trigger because I have been getting back into Bikram and have been doing a ton of Pilates in addition to cardio. My three year old was all set to join; he loved everything about it, but back and forth I went, should I or shouldn't I? So I brought MrRuckus with me yesterday to help me decide. I didn't think that he was going to join with me because he has such limited free time and never comes to the gym.

Well, all it took was a tour for MrRuckus to decide that this is the place that will change his habits and make him "want to work out". Today was the opening day so we were there! This place really is fantastic. It is like belonging to a great resort. First of all, it is HUGE so there is plenty of space for everything. The VillaKids area is really innovative. They separate the kids by ages, so that there is a dedicated baby room complete with cribs, swings and toys. Then there is a toddler area, a pre-school area, a school age area, a computer lab, a "gym", an art studio, an enormous indoor play structure, an outdoor area, and a movie theater. The kids switch around every half hour and get to do lots of different activities. I didn't bring my son yet, but my daughter did great in the baby room playing with all of the toys. The woman in there gave me a written report of what she did. Impressive.

The gyms for volleyball and basketball are downstairs as well as all of the weight and resistance equipment. Every kind of weight equipment you could want is there, and there is lots of room to move around. Upstairs are all of the studios as well as dozens of every kind of cardio equipment you could want. There is a dedicated Pilates studio with reformer/tower combinations as well as pilates chairs (yay! can't wait). Next to that is a lovely yoga studio, a spin studio and another multipurpose studio, which I was in today for Body Pump.

Downstairs is a full service spa, which is really lovely. Members receive discounted rates for spa services. I can't wait to have a facial and a mani/pedi without having to arrange for childcare. The locker rooms are like spa locker rooms. There is a lounge area with tons of magazines and a large plasma TV as well as a beautiful sauna and a large steam room. (The men's sauna has a plamsa in it. How come the ladies don't get that?) You don't have to bring your towel or your products, as these are all stocked. Each locker room has a huge saltwater jacuzzi and then leads out to the pool areas.

There are indoor and outdoor pool areas. Inside, there is a zero entry kids' pool with two waterslides, a large jacuzzi, and a lap pool. Outside is a huge waterpark pool with enormous waterslides and a kids' play structure and an adult area with a lap pool and enormous jacuzzi. After our workouts, my husband and I sat in the jacuzzi and remarked that it was like belonging to a great resort. Oh, there is a snack bar outside that has a good menu as well as smoothies and "real drinks". There is another snack bar inside with all of that PLUS a Starbucks.

I might go back later today just to take the kids in the pools. Will definitely be back tomorrow. Color me happy!

The Search, The Find

2009-05-13T15:32:00.003-05:00

I love a great find. Without my kids, I could browse stores all day, just looking, getting ideas, seeing what is out there. But now I have two kids (a three year old son and an eight month old daughter), so the days of leisurely "window" shopping are gone. Instead, I do most of my browsing in online windows and in magazines. I am not always browsing for clothing and accessories (though I do plenty of that!) I am often looking at restaurants and travel destinations because eating and traveling are two of my passions. My quest is to find the best products and places for the best prices. I have no qualms for paying a lot for something that I deem to be a good value, but I will always try to get the best possible price.

My First Post

2009-05-13T15:30:00.002-05:00

Only one way to start and that is to begin typing. Welcome to my blog!