So yesterday... I stopped into Arden B, and found myself a black dress, strappy number, empire waist. It fit great, was a jersey material that won't wrinkle, but Hubby ruled the straps too fussy when I brought it home. (When I returned it today, the Then, I stopped into Motherhood, and I found a pair of khaki shorts with a belly band (perfect for this little watermelon I'm starting to sport), and another black empire-waisted dress. Funny thing on the second black dress, Hubby wasn't sure he would like it when I first pulled it out of the bag, but when I put it on, he ended up liking it. It was a similar jersey material, so no wrinkles, with wider-set straps. And for all of $40, I say it was a great buy. I also stopped into Pea in the Pod (which also carried some Mimi Maternity items), but I didn't really find anything. For now, I'm looking for basics, and clean-cut ones, since I'm definitely finding that a body out of the acceptable skinny norm looks a lot better in cleaner designs that in fussier ones. Contrary to what I am sure is some advice somewhere out there, heavier bodies typically look better in cleaner designs. All those straps, patterns, fussy layers, etc - the only thing I found was that well, it just made me look more like a strapped sausage, patterned beach ball, and much too layered to be anything but tiramisu with some serious identity issues.
I headed home, where Hubby and I shared some lunch. This was such a rare treat! Usually, we don't get a chance to meet up for lunch, and this was one of those few opportunities. So for lunch, I baked up some French fries, and made some simple ham sandwiches. OK, not that simple, but they are really good.
Taipei street food - ham sandwiches
In Taipei, some (OK, I only found 1 during the whole summer I spent there back when I was in school) street vendors sell these sandwiches for breakfast. Simple white bread sandwich, with ham, egg, cucumber, mayo, and butter. Yes, mayo AND butter - I don't know that we really could add more fat to this sandwich besides deep frying these suckers in lard. And the street vendors, they butter both sides of each slice of bread before throwing it down onto the frying pan! It's no wonder, after eating one of these street wonderments, I felt like I was ready for sleep again.
Yesterday, I did a somewhat simpler sandwich. I omitted the egg (mostly because I forgot about it), used whole wheat bread, and used vegan mayo on my sandwich. The ham, we also used organic ham, no preservatives. I sliced one of the cucumbers my father gave me, enough for about 6 slices per sandwich, thin slices. I toasted the bread, and buttered only one side of each slice. I lopped on some mayo, layered on the ham and cucumber slices, and there we were, lunch ready to go. With the fries, it was a perfect meal!
Afternoon, I spent some time reading the Baby Bargains book our good neighbor JC gave us. She found the book very useful when she was preggers with her little one, and thought we would be as well. What a treat! The book was chocked full of tips, websites, comparisons, details, prices - you name it, it got it. So, I hit the maternity clothing section. I found that there were whole slews of maternity websites I hadn't hit. Motherwear.com - great styles, and I may pick out one or two as accent pieces as my wardrobe grows with my belly. Japaneseweekend.com was another great website, mostly for ideas, since most of their pieces were pretty expensive. I also checked out duematernity.com, estyle.com, and nordstrom.com - they all have wonderful styles to browse. Most were out of the price range I was looking at for the clothes to last me through the next 5 months, and they had styles that were too trendy to be timeless for the future possible bambino numero due e tre. But hey, that's further down the road. For the time being, Hubby and I have decided to not get anything until we need it. And for the time being, I just need some basic tops, and some pants that can allow my belly to breathe comfortably at the end of the day.
So, after surfing the web for a while, I decided to just make Target my last stop. Hubby had helped me pick out some jeans and black pants from Gap Maternity a couple of weeks ago, but I was floored by how expensive their clothes were for what they were offering. Granted, Gap, I've trusted their clothes for years now, but I felt like at their prices, they knew maternity hunters were locked in and can be chumped out of their money because they have you where they want you - on the demand side of supply. So, I went for a search for those very pieces, black pants and jeans. I usually take a size 6, so I figured, oh, why not, let's start there. Well, the Liz Lange size 6 jeans with belly band (oh belly band, so on my tummy!), it was swimming around my belly like a swim donut. So, I tried the size 4, still swimming. Then, it was down to a size 2. That, it fit well, and my belly still had some room to grow. Who knew! The black pants, I wanted something a little looser, so I pulled a size 4. It fit well, but Hubby wasn't impressed with the overall fit when I brought it home. So off it went, back to the store today - but the jeans were keepers.
So, so far... Motherhood, I got basic basics. I did keep one dress shirt from the pile of clothes I got, but we'll see how the quality goes, as I've heard negative reviews of the quality of their clothes. Target's Liz Lange line, quality isn't as great as I would like, but I'm curious to see how long the jeans will last - otherwise, they fit just great. Gap Maternity, I'm keeping those black pants. Their fit, still clean and well constructed, but I wasn't so impressed with their pricing, but I have yet to find another pair of black pants that fit just as well and are still at their price range. Mimi Maternity, middle-of-the-road, wonderful clothes, but they can get expensive. I'm going to do a search on their website for a good suit - that is one outfit where I will not spare a dime. Pea in the Pod, more designer items, but I find I can just as well scour websites and other equally stylish non-maternity stores for comparable empire-waisted pieces to fit a growing belly.
The hardest thing I found so far is pants. Not the easiest fits, and it is a given that an expecting woman most likely will not be able to wear pants with shirts tucked in, especially not after the 16th week (we're now into our 17th!). The best thing I have found so far are built-in bra camisoles, just from regular stores, but I do look for ones that are longer than just past my waist. Even if my belly grows, the camisoles, especially the longer ones, will still cover the belly, particularly during the colder months, and I know I can layer on top an empire-waisted top, shirt, or sweater on top of the camisole without catching belly cold.
So after my shopping excursions during the day, I came home to make dinner. I did a variation of the pork roulade we made the last day at the CIA.
Pork Roulade
- Variations - I took one pork loin, butterflied and hammered out the loin to be about 1/4" thick. I sliced it in half in the short direction, so that I had 2 pieces I could use for rolls. In fact, come to think about it, you could slice it in half in the long direction, so long as you could roll up carefully (then you end up with a short big roll). I seasoned the loin with salt and pepper, each side, and threw the loin into the fridge until I was ready to roll.
- I made a dried-fruit mincemeat mixture on the stove, with dried apricots, dried cranberries, dried cherries, and dried raisins. I heated up these fruits in a small saucepan until just beginning to sizzle and caramelize in the dry pan. I then deglazed with just enough water to cover, and seasoned the mixture with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Prepare an icy ice bath, with a smaller bowl to be able to sit comfortably on the ice. Go ahead and set the oven to preheat at 350.
- Once the fruits disintegrated enough to become almost a lumpy paste (I added enough water while the mixture simmerd to allow the fruits to further disintegrate, and to make sure the mixture did not dry up), remove from heat. Scoop into the smaller bowl of the ice bath, and stir to cool the mixture quickly. The more you stir from one side to another, the easier it will be to get more of the mixture exposed to the cold sides of the bowl, and the sooner the mixture will cool down.
- Bring out the loins! In one loin, I sprinkled some cayenne pepper and parsley. I then laid on the mincemeat, in a thickness to match the thickness of the pork. Starting at the narrow end, I began the rolling process, making sure the final seam was on the bottom.
- With the other half of the loin, I sprinkled on some parsley, sage, chives, green onions (dried is AOK), and thyme. I layered on some sliced and chopped mushrooms, and rolled up this half of the loin in the same way I did with the other half of the loin.
- Put the rolls into a 9x9 pan, and bake uncoverd for 25 minutes.
- I also prepared a mushroom cream sauce. Sliced mushrooms, into a hot pan with oil, saute until caramelized. I took the shrooms off the heat, and whisked in enough heavy cream to serve, and seasoned with salt and pepper. This sauce, I served on the savory roulades (not the mincemeat ones).
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