The past three months - they've really flown by so quickly. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Baby, and, especially with the establishment of her sleep schedule (we loosely followed the Twelve Hours in Twelve Weeks guidelines), it's given me a lot more energy to be able to take care of her and play with her during the day. The biggest excitement of her development so far - she is now able to see across the room, and she recognizes Hubby and me as her parents, and she smiles with glee when she sees us approaching. Other exciting experiences - she's lifting her head, trying her hardest to sit up, and she has legs with the strength that I bore when I bike-commuted to work during the earlier part of my pregnancy. We recently took a trip to Miami, and she had her first encounter with the ocean and the beach - she loved the experience immensely. I hope next time that we return to the ocean, that she'll remember her first trip.
Evening cooking ha, for the most part, returned to normal... however, our recent trip to Miami had set us back, in that she was out of her routine just long enough to not be able to get back to our home routine when we returned. Today seems to be a little better, but still not back to normal - evening dinner-prep time was spotted with temper tantrums from Baby, as much of our trip to Miami involved either her sleeping in her stroller or one of us holding her. Perhaps, then, she had enjoyed her trip to Miami too much - however, we did find that our trip went quite smoothly, so there is something to be said for spending the time to really nurture that connection between Parent and Child, and to not follow prescripted methods without conscious judgment and understanding of what we give our children.
In the same breath, hearing parents drop names of manufacturers, products, and parenting methods with other parents, like Starbucks for coffee, sends a chill up my spine each time. No amount of product can substitute for the intangibles of time and connection - and just the same, no one product, or method, is the correct one for all. It surprises me that some parents get so brainwashed into thinking that their method is the only method for all childrearing, and that their method is the correct one simply because it worked for them. I have to think that each parent learns the most about their own child, and at some point, they will learn that their method will not work for their children's children.
Like my cooking, I don't think that my method of parenting works for everyone. And like my parenting, my cooking evolves over time, as I learn little by little, bit by bit, with each dish I make and with each meal I prepare. And with parenthood, it seems that I learn even more about cooking, in faster lessons. When Baby naps during the day, I do food prep for the evening's meal. Readily-prepped single-serving proteins and pre-chopped vegetables make the final meal prep much easier, and celebrating the best of each season keeps the flavors of each meal new and fresh.
This evening, I prepared ceviche - I picked up sashimi from our local supermarket in the morning, some lime juice, and some cucumber. I mixed chopped sashimi with chopped cucumbers, apricot, jalapeno, and shrimp, and let the mixture marinate 5 hours. The sweetness of the fresh apricot cut through the tartness of the lime juice; the cucumber, the spice of the jalapeno.
Last night, we had a salad of greens, with fresh figs, alongside sliced beef that I sauteed. The beef was seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder - and the beef, I had mixed with these seasonings a month ago. It was so easy, to take the pre-portioned bag of beef, and saute it for the dinner. Most meats, when I cook them, I cook them to just under completely done, and then allow the residual heat to finish the cooking, so that the meats retain their juices and don't over dry. Most vegetables during the spring and summer season, I blanch in boiling water for no more than 3 minutes. The vegetables get cooked, but they still retain their crispness and flavor - and the cooking method is so fast, easily done just prior to serving.
This upcoming week, Nanny starts working with us, and my friend Melissa and I are going to do a dry run of our weekday schedules before we really start everything up the following week. Her Baby and our Baby will spend their days growing up together this first year - I, for one, am very happy about our Nanny, as she seems like she will be able to take good care of our little bears while we make the donuts. We know this is really going to be a huge adjustment - having a little one has changed our lives, and I don't think we will go back to work with the same perspectives as when we left for maternity leave. We will keep our fingers crossed that we will make the adjustment well, and that our little bears will have the love and support they deserve from their growing family.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Long while, and Baby's growing
No, I haven't been starving myself all this time, and yes, I have been cooking quite a bit. The end of the day seems like it just disappears - I get dinner rolling along, feed Baby (who hits 3 months next week!), and have dinner - and before I know it, I'm exhausted, and it's time to hit the sack. But, here and there, I do think about this blog, and I try to keep it up, taking mental notes of what has and has not worked for me during this postpartum time.
Now that we have Baby on a napping schedule (somewhat) during the day, it affords me some scheduled time to prep for dinner, since twilight seems to be her cranky hour. I will usually start dinner in the morning during her morning nap, taking out whatever meat I'm going to cook in the evening from the freezer to let it defrost, and, at times, I'll also go ahead and season or marinate it so that by dinner time, it already has some flavor and doesn't need additional seasoning before getting cooked. Any rice, I also prep at this time, throw it into the steamer, and set it on timer to be ready by evening. Mid-afternoon, I'll usually prep the accompanying vegetables, whether it be just rinsing them or cutting them. And then, by her cranky hour, I have more time to focus on her, and I have to worry less about having to prep and entertain.
So, with that said, we did have our good friends Melissa and Scott (along with their little Baby) over for dinner the other evening. Overall, the menu was simple, since I didn't do much sauce prep. I had cubed up some pork tenderloin, seasoned with cumin/coriander/s/p/cloves, and I made a tagine dish. Heated up some oil (trick with the Le Crueset iron tagine I have is to just heat everything on low, and raise the temperature only after adding the liquid to bring it to a simmer before returning it to low) along with onions and garlic, stirred until fragrant. To the heated pan I then added chopped carrots and bell peppers. I then added the pork, stirring until lightly browned. I added some sun-dried tomatoes, dried dates, and raisins, along with additional spices - s/p, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper, cloves, and fenugreek. I added some water to just covering, put on the lid, and let it simmer for about 4 hours.
It's basically a Moroccan slow-cooker. And outside of my heavy hand with the salt, the dish came out great. On the sides, I blanched some asparagus, and we also had some mixed rice (brown basmati, red jasmine, and barley). We also started with a salad, pictured to the right here, though fancier than what I plated that evening. This was the left-over parts, that I decided to stack - the composing parts were golden beet, apricot, cucumber, and daikon. The berries - blackberries - were my addition the day after our dinner, and this stack I had for lunch. The sauce on top is tatziki,
which I purchased pre-made from our local grocery store. I really have to admit, this was an amazing stack salad. The tatziki blended wonderfully with the apricot and beets, its tartness pairing perfectly with the apricot's and beet's sweetness. The cucumbers were recalled in the tatziki, and the daikon provided just the right amount of bite to the flavors. When I added the blackberries, it made the salad even better - just a bit more sweetness to set off the tartness of the yogurt. Melissa commented that it looked amazing... but admittedly, everything is made easier with a mandoline.
And speaking of which - the mandoline I use is a ceramic one by Kyocera. I've only had it about 9 months, but it's been a great help in the kitchen. I haven't any complaints about it yet, and this is the first ceramic blade I've ever used... we shall see how the ceramic lasts.
To close out our dinner, our dear friends brought fantastic chocolate chip pound cake from Whole Foods, along with some strawberries. I made a mix of marscapone with heavy cream and sugar, and voila - we had ourselves a fabulous strawberry pound cake. The chocolate chips were just the right touch to the dessert, and they mixed wonderfully with the strawberries. So long as strawberry season is in place, this will now be my go-to dessert.
I've still be following my regimen of serving most of my meats simply, with salt and pepper, and serving sides of steamed vegetables. Now that it's summer, vegetables are quite abundant, and I'm excited about the burst of flavors for each of our meals. You know, come to think of it... most of the meals I describe are our dinners. Daytime meals are mostly simple - sometimes, it's leftovers; other times, it's a simple sandwich on croissant or fresh bread from our local bakery. And I really can't emphasize quite enough what a difference fresh foods make for a quick meal - I can have a simple sandwich, or I can have a sandwich dressed up with some fresh greens, or cucumbers, or peppers. Fruits, particularly now, make for the perfect finisher for any meal, particularly my lunches... I'm still working on tempering my sweet tooth since pregnancy.
Granted, I do have a ready stash of pre-made frozen meals in the freezer, but most times, I do bring out the fresh foods to enjoy. The frozen pre-made things, they can get stale, and the flavor dimishes so quickly... and there is nothing that upsets my palate more than foods without true flavor. So while it may seem like it's more trouble to make something from scratch, when the garden is abundant, it's actually less trouble - less seasoning needed, less covering needed, no sauces. It's high time to celebrate the return of freshness in the season.
Now that we have Baby on a napping schedule (somewhat) during the day, it affords me some scheduled time to prep for dinner, since twilight seems to be her cranky hour. I will usually start dinner in the morning during her morning nap, taking out whatever meat I'm going to cook in the evening from the freezer to let it defrost, and, at times, I'll also go ahead and season or marinate it so that by dinner time, it already has some flavor and doesn't need additional seasoning before getting cooked. Any rice, I also prep at this time, throw it into the steamer, and set it on timer to be ready by evening. Mid-afternoon, I'll usually prep the accompanying vegetables, whether it be just rinsing them or cutting them. And then, by her cranky hour, I have more time to focus on her, and I have to worry less about having to prep and entertain.
So, with that said, we did have our good friends Melissa and Scott (along with their little Baby) over for dinner the other evening. Overall, the menu was simple, since I didn't do much sauce prep. I had cubed up some pork tenderloin, seasoned with cumin/coriander/s/p/cloves, and I made a tagine dish. Heated up some oil (trick with the Le Crueset iron tagine I have is to just heat everything on low, and raise the temperature only after adding the liquid to bring it to a simmer before returning it to low) along with onions and garlic, stirred until fragrant. To the heated pan I then added chopped carrots and bell peppers. I then added the pork, stirring until lightly browned. I added some sun-dried tomatoes, dried dates, and raisins, along with additional spices - s/p, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper, cloves, and fenugreek. I added some water to just covering, put on the lid, and let it simmer for about 4 hours.
It's basically a Moroccan slow-cooker. And outside of my heavy hand with the salt, the dish came out great. On the sides, I blanched some asparagus, and we also had some mixed rice (brown basmati, red jasmine, and barley). We also started with a salad, pictured to the right here, though fancier than what I plated that evening. This was the left-over parts, that I decided to stack - the composing parts were golden beet, apricot, cucumber, and daikon. The berries - blackberries - were my addition the day after our dinner, and this stack I had for lunch. The sauce on top is tatziki,
which I purchased pre-made from our local grocery store. I really have to admit, this was an amazing stack salad. The tatziki blended wonderfully with the apricot and beets, its tartness pairing perfectly with the apricot's and beet's sweetness. The cucumbers were recalled in the tatziki, and the daikon provided just the right amount of bite to the flavors. When I added the blackberries, it made the salad even better - just a bit more sweetness to set off the tartness of the yogurt. Melissa commented that it looked amazing... but admittedly, everything is made easier with a mandoline.
And speaking of which - the mandoline I use is a ceramic one by Kyocera. I've only had it about 9 months, but it's been a great help in the kitchen. I haven't any complaints about it yet, and this is the first ceramic blade I've ever used... we shall see how the ceramic lasts.
To close out our dinner, our dear friends brought fantastic chocolate chip pound cake from Whole Foods, along with some strawberries. I made a mix of marscapone with heavy cream and sugar, and voila - we had ourselves a fabulous strawberry pound cake. The chocolate chips were just the right touch to the dessert, and they mixed wonderfully with the strawberries. So long as strawberry season is in place, this will now be my go-to dessert.
I've still be following my regimen of serving most of my meats simply, with salt and pepper, and serving sides of steamed vegetables. Now that it's summer, vegetables are quite abundant, and I'm excited about the burst of flavors for each of our meals. You know, come to think of it... most of the meals I describe are our dinners. Daytime meals are mostly simple - sometimes, it's leftovers; other times, it's a simple sandwich on croissant or fresh bread from our local bakery. And I really can't emphasize quite enough what a difference fresh foods make for a quick meal - I can have a simple sandwich, or I can have a sandwich dressed up with some fresh greens, or cucumbers, or peppers. Fruits, particularly now, make for the perfect finisher for any meal, particularly my lunches... I'm still working on tempering my sweet tooth since pregnancy.
Granted, I do have a ready stash of pre-made frozen meals in the freezer, but most times, I do bring out the fresh foods to enjoy. The frozen pre-made things, they can get stale, and the flavor dimishes so quickly... and there is nothing that upsets my palate more than foods without true flavor. So while it may seem like it's more trouble to make something from scratch, when the garden is abundant, it's actually less trouble - less seasoning needed, less covering needed, no sauces. It's high time to celebrate the return of freshness in the season.
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