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A head start

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I have been thinking about Christmas and starting early to pace myself for awhile now. I’ve tried it in the past with some success but I need to turn it up a notch this year, for two obvious reasons.

So when I read a post today on a blog I frequent I knew it was a sign to switch into high gear. I tend to agree with the author, it’s the gift buying, second guessing purchases and wrapping that slow me down and drag on until the last minute. I love the decorating so that is always done in a day, babies or no babies. Even last year with two month old twins still eating every three hours I didn’t neglect my holiday decor. It would take a lot more than that to keep those two green tubs on a storage room shelf through December.

So knowing what I know about gift giving stress, here’s my plan of attack. I’ve always wanted to try buying everything online and I think this may be the year to do it. Not that I can’t take the twins out for some shopping but a) they are too young to enjoy the holiday spirit and b) it is stressful to be bound by the clock, nap times, the hunger/impatience/ants-in-the-pants of two one year olds.

So I’m going to try it. I’ve made my list of people to shop for and some preliminary ideas. I’ve even purchased a gift for my nephews already. I predict I still run into the problem of indecision (is it just me or are there certain people in our lives who are SO easy to think of a gift for that they are actually the hardest ones for which to settle on just one thing??) and I’ll have to do my research to stay away from expensive shipping/stores that don’t ship to Canada, but I think it can be done.

First stop, Etsy. I’m a fan of small businesses and one-of-a-kind gifts and I think that’s the place I want to start.

As for me and my Christmas wish list… that’s another whole post which I am itching to write and will hopefully do so this afternoon. That makes me sound greedy but in truth it actually leads into a bit of bigger discussion I’ve wanted to have with you. Or this blog. Or myself if I’m the only one here.

The files are IN the computer

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If you don’t get that joke you have missed seeing a very important film.

Oh the highs and lows of a new computer.

High: I’m here posting this because I have a new MacBook Pro after the untimely demise of a lovely MacBook who gave me 4 good years. I LOVE this computer.

Low: All my files are locked in the mind of the previous computer (her name was Bianca and she will be missed) leaving me without most of my pictures, videos, other random files, all my passwords, bookmarks – the things a Mac handles for you so you don’t even know you don’t know them yourself – and the photo books I was making for So and Lo’s first birthday.

High: Those same exact files are backed up on an external hard drive in our office.

Low: After hours of trying to get said hard drive to communicate with my new MacBook Pro’s Lion OS we gave up and tried to go the long way around through J’s computer and another hard drive only to realize it doesn’t matter because the login and password for that hard drive is saved in the keychain OF MY OLD COMPUTER.

Thanks for keeping that information safe, Bianca. Next time maybe write it down before you decide to split.

And I have tried every combination I can think of. I have no memory of creating one and nothing is working. It was my Time Machine backup so it just did its thing daily without my help.

Sigh.

The long and short of it is I may have to pay to have the old files retrieved off my dead laptop. Unless the mystery login and password for the hard drive can be retrieved from the computer in my head. Which is running kind of slow these days.

Surviving solo nights

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My husband has a job that changes with the school year and that meant when the Fall semester came along it was time to let go of his work from home days and embrace a few days a week when I’ll do bedtimes on my own.

And by let go I mean pry it out of my white-knuckle grasp.

And by embrace I mean form a 3 cup a day coffee habit and figure out how to solo assembly line feed-bath-cloth-rock-put down two wriggling little squirmballs.

Some might say, just line up a helper for those nights. Ah yes, the helper. The journey to accepting help is a post completely unto itself as is the concept of trying to do bedtime with two babies and a person who they don’t know/hasn’t put them to bed before. Let’s just say that is not a simple answer and it does not solve everything, especially for me.

I remember the first time I had to put both babies down for the night by myself. They were still very young, maybe 4 months old I think? I should back up and preface this by saying I have a little bit of a problem with anxiety when it comes to things I don’t want to do/don’t think I can do/am pretty sure are going to end badly. As soon as I knew I would be on my own I felt that knot in my stomach begin to grow. I had no idea how I was going to get through the evening.

And it was a disaster. There was screaming and crying and throwing up. And the babies were pretty upset, too. HA.

The thing with twins is you just can’t explain to a tiny baby why they have to wait. They don’t know there’s another one that needs her diaper changed, or has to get a bath too, or can’t be left in the other room. From the day they were born there have been these delays between everything we do with one of them because we have to deal with the other and they just don’t know why they keep getting put on hold.

I long for the day when I can say “wait right here, I have to go get your sister” and it communicates the reason why they are being left alone. They still may not like it but at least I won’t always get the sense that they think I am abandoning them right when they need me.

So where was I… oh yes, the first bedtime on my own was terrible. Made only slightly less so by the fact that we had a very consistent bedtime routine even at that young age and as long as I stuck to the script they were going to go to sleep.

Eventually.

Oh the crying. I’m not sure you ever really get used to the sound of two babies screaming over each other. Many times in their early days I would just sit own on the couch in the middle of the wailing and have myself a little cry too. It was the only thing I could do.

That, and text my husband. I remember texting him that they were both crying and wouldn’t drink their bottles and I didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t do anything and the world was going to end and we were all going to die of starvation and sleep deprivation because they wouldn’t eat or sleep and where was he and could he please come home. It was not my first nor sadly my last irrational text message to that poor man.

I fed them their bottles simultaneously every morning. I have photographic evidence that this was my method.

It worked perfectly. Until that night. They squirmed and cried and choked and seemed to move further away from sleep by the minute. I just couldn’t make anything work that had always worked and being the only adult in the house just served to increase my panic. Just writing about it brings back that awful, sick, hopeless feeling.

But you know what happened… well, I just tried something else because I had to, didn’t I. I put Marlow in the swing with her pacifier and her blanket and turned it on and let her cry. I gathered up Soren, got him calmed down enough to take his bottle and he fell peacefully asleep. By the time I came back from putting him in bed, Marlow had fallen asleep in the swing! I gave her her bottle and popped her into bed. They had a few more rough moments but before J was home everything was done.

This wasn’t the last time I had to do this, and it wasn’t the worst either. There were nights when J was out of town and I had to do bedtime, bottles throughout the night and morning. There were times when they wouldn’t stop crying and wouldn’t sleep. There were times when my anxiety was so great that I lost my appetite and couldn’t sleep. But the thing I began to realize over time is that 1) it never lasts forever and 2) I can do things that I didn’t think I could.

So does it get easier now that they’re almost a year older? In some ways, yes. But I think what has changed the most is me. I have all these experiences of survival behind me. I have the failed experiments at certain routines. I have all the knowledge of my kids and their little quirks and what works best for each of them. And most of all, I don’t fear that I can’t do because I will do it. I have to. I’ve had to since they were born. I just do it and it’s not always pretty but it never lasts forever.

Today was a fantastic day. My kids napped well and ate well and traveled in the car so well. We skyped with Nana and Grandpa and had baths and bottles and into bed where there were no tears. Not one. Only hiccups.

It took a long time to get to this place, for all of us. And there is no way we ever EVER would have without my husband. But he can’t be here all the time, despite my personal preference. His work is important to him and has value. And I needed to learn how to do things at home on my own. So I can stop sending irrational text messages to my husband and free him up from feeling like he’s leaving me in an impossible situation.

Because believe it or not, I have discovered that solo assembly line feeding-bathing-clothing-rocking-putting down two wriggling little squirmballs is not only possible, but sometimes even very satisfying.

flytrap

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Here’s some randomness for ya. I’ve probably been asked 5 or 6 times over the past few months how to make something that I’ve had success with: a fruit fly trap. Gosh my life is glamourous.

But seriously I once had a fruit fly problem, the first time I had dealt with this, and I researched solutions online. I perfected one that worked for me so when we moved into our new place and found that they show up pretty easily (it’s true living downtown we’ve noticed more flies of all kinds because of the close living situation and the dirtier streets) I attacked the problem with my technique and am able to keep it under control.

So because you asked, and begged and pleaded, for my secret, I’ll go ahead and reveal it here. For only three payments of $99.99 I’ll send you two traps handmade by Sarah herself. Think about it.

First I get a small glass bowl (like very small or else you’ll have to use too much vinegar and that’s a waste), clear is best for attracting flies and viewing your catch. Pour in about two or three tablespoons of white wine vinegar. You’re welcome to try other kinds but I’ve tried balsamic and plain white and never saw near the results. Fruit flies are classy.

Add a couple drops of dish soap in the center. I’ve used lavender, orange and other scents, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Finally I pour tap water directly onto the soap so it creates a lot of bubbles. Turn the water up pretty strong to make this happen quickly so you only add enough water to approximately double the amount of liquid in the bowl.

Some people tell you to cover it with plastic wrap and poke holes in it. Don’t bother. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out of the holes are the right size or if the plastic wrap is keeping the bugs away. The soap bubbles are specifically to coat their wings and keep them in the bowl, you won’t have a problem with that.

Now set your trap near a problem area, usually near where you kept some fruit out or the sink where it’s moist and warm. Moist. Yuck. Make sure though, that it’s also not going to be disturbed so the flies stick around. I’d show you a picture of all the flies I caught but then you’d know how many flies were in my kitchen and I just realized that’s what this post implies and I’m kind of regretting it.

Plus Marlow just took a bite out of a business card.

Lobster night.

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We’re spending the next six weeks living in a house with two other families. We’ve worked out a system of cooking, cleaning and copious amounts of coffee making. Then someone got a brilliant idea to have a lobster dinner party.

So Sunday night we boiled 12, count ‘em, 12 lobsters for supper.

I’ve only tasted lobster once before (on our honeymoon in Cuba) so seeing them come in the door in a cardboard box, being chased around the house by a friend holding a squirmy one and seeing them go into the pot alive and come out red and ready for butter was a stretching experience for me. But I ate some, enjoyed the rest of the feast – and the atmosphere surrounding the whole process.

Ten people living under one roof can be a lot of fun and we’re already talking about our next lobster night.

E.d.t.f winter 2011 ends

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I started another edition of Eating Down The Fridge last Friday so I’m wrapping it up today. Boy that went fast.

All in all, not a bad round of clearing out and trying some new “creative” ways to use up ingredients. I definitely still have a few things hanging around but without buying ingredients I just wasn’t able to find a way to make them work.

So what did I clear out in the last few days?

On Thursday we did the usual breakfast and leftovers for lunch.

For supper I made a slow-cooker meatloaf which used up the ground beef we had. The recipe is in the Company’s Coming cookbook of slow-cooker recipes so I won’t write it out here but you can ask me for it if you don’t have access to the book.

Then yesterday I had cream of wheat for breakfast which I had to buy because I finally used up those Hearty Medley things. Within the rules. For lunch J took the last of the soup from our friends and I ate a strange combination of the rest of the leftover Spicy Chicken Bake, the last of the yogurt, the last of a box of healthy-ish cookies I bought because I tried them on a plane once. (You can find the full selection here, I bought the blueberry brown sugar with flax. Yum.)

For supper we totally scored: a homemade lasagna from our dear friend, Lynsey, who dropped by to hang out with me in the morning. It was all pre-cooked and ready to go so all it needed was a bit of time in the oven to reach its full melty potential. It. Was. Delicious.

Today we only had coffee for breakfast (it’s Roll Up The Rim time so it was a Timmy’s run) because we were meeting up with friends for dim sum (yes, again). An old friend and former roommate, Laurie, was in town. Sidenote: Kirin at City Square Mall has a great mango pudding.

For supper we got to enjoy more of the lasagna from Lynsey -and there’s still more for tomorrow! Then I did a bit of searching online and found a recipe for a peanut butter pie that would use a couple ingredients I have been really trying to get rid of. I’m not going to put the recipe on here for a few reasons, namely:

a) all the ingredients come from a box and that is too 1980s for even me to be proud of
b) the instructions were basically non-existent and there were a few things that would have been good to know like the fact that the peanut butter and icing sugar would be very tough to mix well, and
c) because it’s pretty ugly and had better taste good or else it has nothing going for it.

The important thing is it sounds like it will be decent and it used a box of vanilla pudding, most of my peanut butter, half my icing sugar (which I can never find uses for and hangs around for ages), the graham cracker crumbs and the milk. Not half bad.

So I’m recipe-less today but here’s the list of what I used up in the last few days of this Eat Down…

Ground beef
Box of blueberry brown sugar with flax cookies
Box of vanilla pudding
Bag of graham cracker crumbs
Litre of milk
Container of yogurt

This wasn’t my best Eat Down – I barely touched the list of example items I gave in my first post – but it was probably the one where I purchased the least new food during the week. Having said that, we ate out more than usual and our meals contained less fruits and vegetables than I’m comfortable with so next time I’ll stock up on those before we begin.

That’s it for this time, I’ll let you know how the pie turns out.

e.d.t.f. more successfully

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On Monday I just had yogurt and coffee because we were going for dim sum at 10:30 with J’s coworkers. So for what amounts to Chinese brunch we had an assortment of items like Chinese donuts in rice noodles, steamed buns, chicken feet (just J on that one) and other delicious treats. There was even some leftovers for us to bring home. Score.

For supper I got really creative and using frozen chicken breasts, a can of Rotel, panko Japanese-style bread crumbs and tex-mex shredded cheese I made a delicious chicken bake. The pictures don’t really do it justice because it’s not the most beautiful dish but it was warm, spicy and filling. I added the rest of our leftover potatoes as a side and dug in.

On Tuesday I had the Quaker Hearty Medley cereal and coffee, J had his bran and coffee. I was never a breakfast creature of habit before, in fact you’ll recall I barely liked eating breakfast at all. But getting up at 6am every day now requires that I fuel up and microwave oatmeal is quick and healthy. If I didn’t care about that second part it would be Poptarts believe me.

For lunch J took the rest of the dim sum and I had the soup we scored at our friends’ house on Sunday. Yum.

For supper I made the M&M Meats slow-cooked pot roast (which is amazing and easy and makes tons of gravy) with rice and a chickpea salad. This used up a roast, a lemon, a can of chickpeas, and an onion.

Yesterday we did the usual for breakfast, more leftovers for lunches and then out to #1 Beef Noodle for supper. Yes that is its name. I also broke some rules and bought some egg tarts, a pork bun for J and a butter cream bun for me at the Chinese bakery that puts things on sale before the mall closes. You might remember that place from our date night awhile back.

So that’s about it up to today. Below are a couple little homemade recipes and the list of items I was able to use up. I’m not claiming any of these recipes as gourmet, I just offer them as perhaps inspiration to make up your own dishes because all of them start from an idea I find online and then build depending on what I have in the kitchen. They won’t win any awards and would probably offend some chefs for their randomness but I feel a sense of accomplishment when I can make something out of nothing so boo to them. [sticking out tongue]

Quick & Random Chickpea Salad
Can of chickpeas, drained
Small onion, whatever kind you have
Lemon or lemon juice
Cilantro
Olive oil
White wine vinegar
Dried dill
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Pour drained can of chickpeas into medium mixing bowl. Chop onion into very small pieces and add as much as you would like (I didn’t use the whole onion because I wanted a higher chickpea to onion ratio. Could I BE more nerdy when I say that?). Drizzle with olive oil and add a splash of white wine vinegar. Shake on a good amount of dill, salt and pepper and finely chopped fresh cilantro. Toss and taste, then add more of whatever you think it needs. Keep covered in the fridge (the onions will smell) and enjoy as a side or as a lunch on its own because chickpeas are great for you!

Spicy Chicken Bake
2 Frozen boneless chicken breasts, thawed
Can of Rotel (if you can’t find this in Canada – we have ours brought up from Texas – grab a jar of salsa)
Panko Japanese-style bread crumbs (buy a box and use it to bread all kinds of things. They are crunchy and hold up well in the oven)
Olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Fresh cilantro
Kraft tex-mex shredded cheese (or just cheddar if that’s what you’ve got)

Heat oven to 350F. Place chicken in baking dish (cut them in half to make four pieces total if you don’t want to worry about them being cooked evenly). Pour Rotel or salsa over chicken. In small bowl mix bread crumbs with salt, pepper and cilantro. Drizzle with olive oil and mix well. Sprinkle heavily over chicken and salsa. Put in oven until chicken is done (cut one open and check that it’s white all the way through), about 20 minutes or so. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with as much cheese as you want and put back into the oven just until melted and bubbly. Remove and enjoy with rice or veggies.

Things I used up…

Chickpeas
Onion
Lemon
Can of Rotel
Box of Panko bread crumbs
Box of hearty medley breakfast cereal

e.d.t.f: winter 2011 edition

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As I mentioned last post we’re cleaning out the food that’s just hanging around our kitchen from my pre-babies stockpiling. Here’s how we’re doing so far.

Yesterday I had a Quaker Hearty Medley hot cereal. I do not recommend them over my usual oatmeal. Also had a bowl of yogurt and a cup of coffee, of course.

J had bran cereal and coffee. So nothing random used up for breakfast yet.

For lunch we ate leftover pasta from Anton’s.

For supper I cooked up our last two M&M frozen salmon filets, all the brussel sprouts and a bag of assorted new potatoes. If you’ve never tried them they even have blue potatoes, though I actually don’t like the blue ones that much. I find them drier like a russet/baking potato and prefer the flesh of the red or yellow ones.

For breakfast today it was yogurt and coffee for me and cereal and coffee for J. Lunch was at a friend’s place (where sidenote: So & Lo were super cranky and challenged our ability to enjoy ourselves and not feel bad for our hosts) and we ended up coming home with a container of homemade soup. Score.

Supper was a bit outside the rules… we got McDonalds. I’ll confess, we have a weakness for it, me especially, so on nights when we don’t want to cook we look through our coupon box for our Mickey D’s coupons and that’s how we justify it. Heck, we don’t need to justify it, it was delicious and that’s all you need to know.

So I haven’t gotten very far in using up stuff, though we did kill the salmon fillets, brussel sprouts and potatoes. However tomorrow I’m going to make up a package of vanilla pudding and I’ve got a simple chickpea salad I’m going to try, probably with a good amount of substitutions for all the things I don’t have.

We’re off to a slow start. I’m accepting recipe ideas for the list of items in my previous post if you’ve got anything that helps me use them without breaking the e.d.t.f. rules.

In case you’re curious, here’s how I cooked the sprouts. If you think you don’t like them but have only had them boiled, give this a try. They went from something I never cooked to arguably our favorite veggie side.

Roasted Brussels
Fresh brussel sprouts, washed with ends cut off and sliced in halves
Olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Set oven to 350 F. Put brussel sprout halves in medium bowl, drizzle on a good amount of olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat sprouts completely.

Dump out on baking sheet (I use a large stoneware one) and spread out. You don’t have to but I turn each sprout half so the outsides are facing up and they lay flat on the cut side. Because I am OCD. If there are loose leaves get them on the pan too, they are the best part!

Put pan in oven and cook until the sprouts are easily pierced with a fork (I’d say about 10 to 15 minutes) and the outside leaves are getting a bit black and crispy on the edges. Leave them a bit longer to crisp more or turn the oven to broil for a couple minutes. BUT watch carefully, this will crisp the leaves quickly.

Scoop off pan into serving dish. So simple but so addictive.

Oldie but a goodie: e.d.t.f

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It’s time to bring back some old topics I’ve blogged about. I’ve looked through my blog and have some ideas for a few things but I’d like to start with an Eat Down The Fridge because it’s so needed in our house right now. Not that we have a lot in the fridge – I recently went out of town so John not only let it get empty but also cleaned it which. was. awesome.

So our fridge is actually pretty bare but our pantry and freezer are another story. Starting about a month before the babies were born I began stocking up on food for when we would be SO hungry but only have the energy for something that hops up onto the counter and makes itself. We also filled our freezer with M&M Meats products to which we became total converts once we were willing to admit we’re not really foodies, sometimes we just want to eat.

But as always happens, a full and bountiful pantry eventually becomes a hodgepodge of half-used items and ingredients that seemed like a good purchase at the time. So now that we’re not in Survival Mode anymore (a.k.a. never let the kitchen get empty or we may go without a meal) and our gracious and amazing friends and family have been able to stop cooking for us (which was seriously the only reason we ate balanced meals for the first two months) I’m ready for a good old fashioned e.d.t.f. cleanup.

What’s hanging around my kitchen…

  • Half bag frozen tropical fruit
  • Half ziplock bag frozen strawberries
  • 3 Boxes vanilla pudding mix (which I was ashamed to notice were on my list in my original e.d.t.f. post. yikes.)
  • Jar shredded coconut
  • Jar ground almonds
  • Half bag whole wheat spaghetti noodles
  • Half bag frozen green and yellow beans
  • Jar carob chips

You remember the rules, right? Let’s see what I can come up with over the next week and how many good recipes I can make using the randomness of my kitchen. Let the eat down begin.

Mmmm sweet recipe

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I made The Pioneer Woman‘s chocolate chip cookie sweet rolls the other day. So sweet, so yummy, so so bad.

Tips for making them from my experience: warm and soften the cream cheese in the icing before blending it with the other ingredients so it doesn’t get lumpy, listen to the recipe when it says to let the buns cool a bit before pouring on the icing and don’t be afraid to let them get good and brown on top. I hate overcooking anything so I took mine out just a bit too early.

The dough process was different than any I’d made before but was totally worth it, and I plan to try making her other sweet rolls too.