November 9th

I picked all my tomatoes today because we're probably going to get our first frost tonight. I'm pretty proud of these late season pretties. Got my fresh mozzarella and fresh basil waiting patiently. That's going to be a good salad. =) I've probably eaten Caprese salad ten times this year, including one in NYC and one at Maggiano's. Yum-O. Feeling like a master gardener over here.

My Favorite Holiday Tradition

We have been using the same dough recipe and cutters for as long as I can remember. The butter cookie recipe comes from my Great Grandma, Charlotte Hundhausen. Some of the cutters are new, some are older than me. I love the decorating, the sprinkles, the getting together. Makes me feel like a kid, and also warms my heart to pass on this tradition to my kids. Good stuff right here.

These Are My People

Helping Me Scramble Eggs

How Quickly Can You Get Here?

These Peanut Butter Bacon Cupcakes will be out of the oven in 20 minutes. Awww yeah, baby!

My Little Corn Eating Munchkin

Charlotte is such a picky eater, sucks too because I made all that baby food thinking she'd transition nicely into real people food. Oh no, she's got an opinion already. The only protein I can get her to eat is peanut butter and chicken nuggets. No cheese, no eggs, it's exhausting. She does like a good corn on the cobb. It's just about the only thing that keeps her interest for more than 1 minute at the dinner table.

Budding Foodies

Tonight at dinner, Cecilia ground pepper on her spoon and ate it, more than once.

Charlotte gnawing on a head of garlic- that's my baby!

Julia Child's Potato and Leek Soup

I've made it twice already-

5 ingredients, potatoes, leeks, salt, water and cream (garnish with chives.) So, so yummy and easy.

Replacing that "New Car Smell" with Garlic.

The new car is in the garage- Whooppie! I'm driving the Chevy Equinox, and it is all decked out. Can't wait to show you a picture- there's no missing me when I drive down the road. Too funny. Ironically I scratched myself on the Cavalier getting Charlotte into the backseat last night.

Things are super busy over here, and my good little sleeper, Charlotte, has turned into a horrible sleeper in the past two weeks. Last night she was up 4 times including not wanting to go back to sleep at 3:30 a.m. What happened to my 4 month old that slept through the night?

John got me this cookbook for my birthday and there's 3 recipes I want to make in the first couple pages about soup, Potato and Leek soup, Cream of Mushroom soup, and Garlic soup. Mom loved Julia Child, and Becky and I went to see Julie and Julia a couple weeks ago. She writes about the Garlic Soup, "A head of garlic is not at all too much for 2 quarts of soup. For some addicts, it is not even enough." Ahh, she speaks right to my garlic filled heart.

I have a zillion blog posts in my head, car related and otherwise. The website where I'll talk up the car nonstop will be live on Monday, so definitely stay tuned for that link.

First Veggie

Charlotte had homemade homegrown zucchini baby food tonight- her first taste of something other than cereal or breastmilk or formula. The look she's giving me explains it all, "wtf mom, why can't I have store bought baby food like the rest of the kids?"

starting her early on sushi

Expanding Her R'epertoire

I had a small blog funk there. I think I'm going to blame it on the weather. If any of your read the winery blog I was into winter for awhile. I am still one of the few people who actually does like winter, but maybe even for me those cold days get long. Anyways, I have lots to share with you now, starting with these cute pictures of Cecilia eating. We are slowly but surely growing out of the grapes and cheese phase that we have been stuck in for months. She now eats apples, which I think is so cute when she holds it herself. She likes to take bites now, instead of having everything cut up tiny. I guess she wants to use her teeth. She's been eating bananas for awhile, but now she likes to hold it and eat it too. She got burnt out on bananas and mandarin oranges for awhile, it's hard not to give her the same foods everyday when she only eats 8 things. She eats pineapple now, and ham, and she'll at least try a lot of foods she wouldn't dare try before. I've mentioned here before that I probably obsess about what she puts in her mouth, but I think we've turned a real corner here.

In other news, I think we've passed the worst of the separation anxiety. We had a good 8 months there of super clingy baby, but now I am happy to say I can walk in the other room without her screaming. I suspect it will get worse after the new baby comes, but I'd like to think and hope and pray that the peak is behind us.

Also, she says a few words now, which is lots of fun. I'll try to get a video. She says "eye" and "uh-oh" and something that sounds like kitty, teeth, ball, Dad, up and down. I'm ready for her to say more, like "I'd like more milk please" or nice things like that, but I know with more words learned she'll soon enough be texting me instead of actually looking me in the eye and communicating.

Last but not least, the winners of the Hat or Not Hat contest are Gavin and William both receiving 3 votes each out of 12. Maybe next year I'll have a prize.

Martha Stewart Cookie of the Month

This is what this girl does for entertainment when her husband's away and her baby's asleep. Very similar to this picture taken in June 2005, minus the wine.

Aunt Linda was here last week from Chicago, and we had so much fun together. I took a couple days off work, which is rare, and we just bummed around, and visited family. She's one of the happiest sweetest people you'll ever meet.

This is Aunt Linda holding Cecilia in our kitchen. She helped me make some chunky applesauce out of apples from the farm, and some from Eckerts. I mix it with plain yogurt, and Cecilia loves it.

Funny

This is a picture of the homemade frozen baby food. There are raw plums, cooked pears, beets, blueberries, carrots with orange tomatoes and cheddar cheese, spaghetti squash with orange roughy, and lentils. I also had asparagus and cauliflower, and apples and pears with cinnamon, but she ate all those already.

Last year, before I made all this baby food, I made some pesto and froze it in ice cubes just like these, excepts I didn't mark the ziploc bag. So, a little over a month ago I had to go to Kansas City to sell wine, and John was watching Cecilia for a couple days. On the last day I was out of town, he had a meeting in Cape, so Becky watched Cecilia. On my way home from Kansas City I called Becky to see how everything was going. She said everything was fine. She asked what the green food was that she fed her for lunch. I said if it was green, it was asparagus. She said it smelled so good, and Cecilia really liked it, but it smelled garlicy. It was then I realized Cecilia had eaten pesto instead of asparagus for lunch. Whoops!

lycopersicum

It's time for our annual question of what-are-we-going-to -do- with -all- these-tomatoes? This year we made salsa at the farm; three kinds including the super hot one Dad and I made this afternoon. We also made tomato sauce; 11 quarts. There are still 4 more boxes of tomatoes waiting for a purpose and more out on the vine. Think I can make tomato baby food?

Cheap Entertainment

I know this is a stupid thing to be excited about, but tonight I fed Cecilia asparagus that I grew. That's pretty cool. Without being too much of a hippy, I plan to make as much baby food as possible. And the fact that it came out of my garden is even more exhilirating. I have in ice cube trays in the freezer more asparagus and pears. Pretty exciting.

This picture was taken Friday night when I tried to give her avocado. Tried is the operative word there, because unlike the asparagus that she got tonight, she did not like the avocado. They say that a kid has to try a food 10 times before you can know for sure they do or do not like that food, so here's to more funny faces like this one as she tries avocado 9 more times.

John gives the best presents.

happy thanksgiving! i'm stuffed, how bout ya'll?

OMG

This pregnant lady means business in her new kitchen.