Not Cooking...

I am sitting at a coffee shop not far from home while our wonderful nanny is with my baby. I've spent about 90 minutes on work, so now I thought I'd stop by this site before heading home.

How I miss blogging! And cooking! Yet...I don't have it in me at the end of the day. Perhaps in another month, when Becca can sit in a Bumbo in the kitchen and watch me chop vegetables or saute something.

It's beautiful in St. Louis today. Because I'm currently teaching an undergraduate course on women and happiness, I've been thinking more about my own happiness lately. I've found that the things that made me happy when I was a kid (art, pie, friends) still make me happy, in addition to the wonder/awe I feel around Rebecca every single day.

And here is the food that I haven't cooked that makes me happy lately:

-Neopolitan ice cream
- Decaf coffee
-Nectarines (how I would like to DO THIS with fruit)
- Steamed broccoli (we've had this the past two nights - sprinkled with salt and pepper...so easy)
-My mother's amazing chili (I'll get a recipe)

That's all folks. Just wanted to say hi.

Honey cake

Well, our baby is 11 weeks today and she is a real joy to hang out with during her (many) waking hours. She coos and smiles and "talks" to us, kicks her little legs, gets mad during "tummy time," and likes to accompany us on long walks through the neighborhood. Her eyes are wide as I babble on and on to her about the squirrels, motorcycles, construction workers, birds and flowers we walk by. I so love the many faces she makes, her wide grins, and the time we spend together. Even the shortest bouts of time we spend apart are difficult, I must admit.

In other news, the school year has started and I am teaching once again, and continuing wor on a third dissertation chapter. Work takes extraordinary effort these days, but I am also glad to have it.

The weather is beautiful here -- this kind of weather always transports me back to my college days (so long ago!). I so remember the lovely summer-to-fall transition at Mizzou, the changing leaves on East campus, and the long walks and runs I used to take.

These days I take much shorter walks and runs -- but at least I am back in motion. I'm jogging a few miles a week again, and it's wonderful. I am not as fast or strong as I once was, but it's always this way after not having run for a while. I've been running since I was 16, and I feel like, well, like myself when I jog.

Yesterday Jake played with the baby (and sang her old cowboy songs) while I jogged, took a bath, made a honey cake, and read a magazine (Vogue).

Here is the honeycake recipe, a repeat but a worthy repeat. Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends and family!

Life with Baby (I'm not Cookin' These Days)

Meet Rebecca.

She is a joy to know. I've spent the last six weeks getting to know her, and she is a sweet, angelic, smiley, fiery, engaged little person. She has my mouth, Jake's hair, and a personality all her own. We love her so much.

Needless to say, I'm not cooking much these days. Let's see...I made egg salad once. I toast bagels. I pour milk. And that's really about it.

Perhaps in the fall I will come back to the kitchen and play with ingredients again. Perhaps this blog with morph into my musings about babydom. We'll see...

It worked!

We welcomed our daughter, Rebecca, into the world on June 20th at 2:44 a.m. She is absolutely the most amazing thing that's ever happened to us.

Eggplant Parmigiana

Eggplant sauted in olive oil.

A marinara sauce with LOTS of herbs.
Layer upon layer: sauce/eggplant/cheese, repeat!

Baked Eggplant Parmigiana.

I had very little planned today, mostly because I thought today would be a perfectly lovely day to have a baby. But no baby yet. So instead I thought I'd make something lavish that is rumored to induce labor.

So after my morning 2 mile walk, I ran over to the grocery store and LOADED up a basket with tons of goodies: eggplant, bread crumbs, cheeses, spices, tomatoes, and pineapple and nectarines for dessert. As I lugged the basket to the counter, I sighed heavily. The teenager checking me out raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?" she asked, looking pretty worried. She grabbed a cart for me to roll out to the car in our 95 degree heat, and I'm glad she did.

I spent the last two hours in the kitchen, chopping, sauteing, and stirring -- which I haven't done in a while, and it's been lovely. Will the famous eggplant parmigiana send me into labor in my 40th week here? Hard to predict. But we will enjoy it nevertheless:) Happy Friday!

Rice and Vegetable Medley

I like to eat dinner early on Sundays, so we usually do. As my due date approaches, I haven't felt like cooking quite as often so we've been dining on Thai takeout again, our old staple. But tonight I whipped up an easy rice mix and added the following:

2 diced tomatoes
1 diced red pepper
2 chopped carrots
1/2 diced yellow onion
2 T garlic
2 leaves of basil (torn) (I heard this herb could help bring on labor - cheers to that tip...)
1/2 t oregano
1 potato (sliced and boiled)
a handful of dried cranberries
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan and Gruyere cheese (skip the cheese to make this a completely vegan dish)
pepper to taste

I sauted the garlic and onion in extra virgin olive oil, added the red pepper, carrot, cranberries, boiled potato and spices, and then added that entire mixture to the rice and tomatoes. I added the cheese and pepper at the end. Then we ate;) Early. Sunday-style.

Voila: The concoction was festive with its reds, oranges, and flecks of green.

Blueberry Muffins

While it rained and thundered outside today, I baked these muffins. The recipe made 16 muffins (not 12). I'm planning to freeze them so that we can slowly eat them for breakfast this summer. I love the lemony topping - yum;)

Strawberry Festival

We went to the Strawberry Festival in Kimmswick, MO today - a short little day trip. Part of me hoped that walking around outside would bring on labor (but no).

Jake and I kept laughing that the town had an inferiority complex about this festival being the second biggest festival in town, second to the apple butter festival in October. It's one of the first things mentioned on the festival website. And sure enough, we get there and the first person we talk to tells us, "This isn't Kimmswick's biggest festival, you know." Yeah, we know.

Here are a few more pics from the day:

garden kitsch

My strawberry salad at Mary's Sweet Shoppe.

barbershop quartet sings "Barbara Ann"

Of course, my favorite reporter dropped his ice cream;)

Amazing Peanut Butter Cookies

So yes, Smitten Kitchen's recipe for peanut butter cookies is possibly the best cookie recipe ever. The cookie is cake-like, the peanut and chocolate butter chips melty, and the fairy-like sugary dusting...perfecta.

Voila:

Angel Hair Pasta

Sautéd onion and garlic/pot of tomato sauce on the stove.

The raw materials: shredded Parmesan and garlic from a can (usually I buy the bulbs).

Pasta!

Happy June! Woo hoo, so glad it's finally June, and I hope you had a lovely and long Memorial Day weekend. I spent mine trying to stay cool indoors most of the time, watching movies, and reading about the sad life of Sylvia Plath. I really must find more upbeat reading material. We also went here and made a picnic out of falafel, pita and hummus.

So Jake and I made this easy pasta dish (yes, again) last night. I bought some angel hair pasta at Whole Foods yesterday and then added a fairly light sauce made from one can of Whole Foods organic tomato sauce, 1/4 sautéd yellow onion and 2 T minced garlic, and shredded Parmesan cheese. I liked that the sauce was low in sugar and sodium, which is rare for tomato sauce.

Today I'm meeting my dad at the boathouse for dinner, where I'll likely eat their veggie burger - it's delicious. I've also recently been scouring Smitten Kitchen's famous blog for dessert recipes, so perhaps I'll make something totally decadent soon.

In other news, I'm tightening up a couple articles and editing chapter 2 of my dissertation, cleaning, buying last-minute items for the baby, and waiting! (and waiting. and waiting. and waiting). It feels like it will happen in the next two weeks, though I'm no psychic. So ex*cit*ing!