The payoff doesn't always match the input.

When you put energy into something, the payoff isn't always what you expect. Here are three examples from my home:

1. Canning tomatoes. A friend of mine gave me a huge bag of gorgeous tomatoes from her garden. Then my neighbor brought over 7 or 8 more. I had, from what I could tell, 4 different varieties. I washed them. I par-boiled them. I peeled them. I seeded them. I chopped them...and onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. I cooked them with red wine, bay leaves, tomato paste, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano. I pureed them in the blender. I cooked them down to a thicker-than-soup consistency. I added fresh basil. I canned them. And this is what I got out of it:

There's another jar only 2/3rds full. I was hoping to give a jar to each tomato-sharing friend, but again this is all I got! We're having pasta tonight with the non-processed jar. That was a lot of work. I sterilized 5 jars. Wishful thinking. But I'd never done this before and now I know it's not like pickles. With pickles you get a lot of jars. Oh. Before I forget, I had to go to 3 stores to find canning lids. Why no one carries canning supplies this time of year I cannot explain.

2. Potty training. Suffice it to say I've been living under a rock for several weeks. I have no idea what's going on in the world. But I can tell you what motivates my child to learn to use the toilet. In the last few weeks, we went from the big potty to the potty chair and back to the big potty. We're on our second style of tracking chart. We've used stickers, stars, balloons, happy & sad faces, and in moments of sheer desperation, candy. There has been a lot of laundry. A. Lot. Of. Laundry. And running errands with child in undies takes no less than twice as long as with child in diapers. But unlike the experience of canning tomatoes, this has a big payoff. We are close to only using one diaper or pull-up a day (night time protection). Wow, the dollars that aren't being deposited into the tills of big box stores! Fiona is learning about her body. Today she was leaning over herself so far to watch herself pee that she lost balance and fell into the toilet. Balance is one of those things that make a very big difference in one's life. And now that she sees where her pee comes out, I think she's more interested and impressed with herself. She is becoming more independent and has even gone to the potty by herself (without prompting and she washed her hands!) a couple of times. It's getting better. It's slower than I hoped it would be, but it's getting better. We have to be close to a toilet at all times so for at least the next several weeks I expect to continue looking at the underside of this rock.

And when you live under a rock, it's imperative to amuse yourself. Behold! I made a tutu:

Chocolate Almond Cake

This is my birthday cake for the 10th annual Leo Picnic, which is tomorrow. The cake is buttermilk almond. The frosting is milk chocolate. It's a tad lop-sided but it's tall and I can't wait to slice into it!

Burgers: A Great American Growth Spurt

Burger joints are popping up left, right, and center here....and I suspect all over the country. But in the Twin Cities these new burgers are a departure from what I've come to know as a classic TC eat - the Juicy Lucy. There's considerable debate over who makes the best Juicy Lucy. But since I've never eaten a Juicy Lucy and my homemade version is turkey stuffed with brie and a slice of Granny Smith apple on top, I won't comment more than to say the Juicy Lucy is a known standard throughout these parts.

So back to the new guys on the scene. A-Mo and I have recently tried Five Guys and Smashburger - two new suburban establishments peddling meat and potatoes in two very different ways. Five Guys is really about simplicity - to the point that their food is served in a brown paper bag even if you're eating at the restaurant. The cooking is open for viewing, which amuses and distracts cranky toddlers. The menu offers only a few choices; alas, no brie. They make a tasty burger, though next time I'll forego the lettuce and tomato as they just made things slippery and the grilled onions were too far to the raw side of things for my liking. Hot dog was split down the middle and grilled - yum. Fries aren't really worth mentioning.

Smashburger caters more to families and those seeking a different version of an old favorite. For example, they offer multigrain buns, veggie frites (carrots, green beans, and asparagus fries), salads, and malts. I built my own burger and it was good, but I swooned over those ordered by others in my party - those with gooey cheese and bacon to be exact. Perhaps the best part of the meal was the Smashfries. Knocking Twin City Grill off the top of the heap, these fries are my new favorite french fries. Tossed with olive oil, garlic, and herbs, they are indeed a different version of an old favorite. And they will have me going back for more.

The social experiences for my one visit to each are polar opposites from one another. Five Guys = my little family unit, shove it in as fast as you can because The Toddler is getting antsy. Smashburger = three couples, 4.5 kids, two men (we call them "uncles") for The Toddler to flirt with, and adult conversation not focused on our restaurant exit strategy.

I think we'll give both another shot. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our Smashburger outing last weekend, courtesy of Christie and her "new" camera.

We have a raisin problem.

They're everywhere. Just sit in one place and start looking around the room. You'll start seeing raisins all over the place. When I think I've got them all picked up I'll step on one and feel the wet squish underfoot. While making dinner tonight I turned around and saw a colony of them on the kitchen floor. Since then we've been finding sticky streaks of raisin guts on the kitchen floor. I swear I picked them all up! They're breeding. The raisins are breeding! We're going to have to call an exterminator soon. Or get a dog.

I actually had to think about the address for this blog tonight....it's been that long.

Pink Eye II has taken up residence in our home this week. Poor FiG. The Cough V settled in two weeks ago. Poor me.

This weekend the overnight low hit 35F. Today it was 81F. The lilacs, chives, and irises are blooming. And until this afternoon I didn't have any allergy symptoms. It could be a second cousin of The Cough V coming to visit, but it could also be retribution for openly bragging about how I've had no allergy problems this year and isn't that great for me and too bad for you suffering from hay fever?

Can a girl get a bicycle? Or at least a box with wheels?




















From fully clothed to:













And then to:













It was Derby day afterall. We had an amazing meal on Derby Day at Supper Club. The most amazing bourbon glazed baby back ribs.....mmmmmmm......A-Mo was disappointed that there was only one rib in my leftovers. But that's all that was left!

FiG is playing more independently now. She is currently making soup with water in her sippee cup and her kitchen toys. She has started to be more deliberate with her coloring and drawing as well. She will color in shapes that we draw for her and instead of widly waving markers across the paper, she will concentrate on one area - all with tongue out. Of course.

FiG is also exploring her boundaries, exercising her "no," and expecting what she wants when she wants it. We have a raisin' problem.

Oh, is this where I post?

It's been a while. Thank you readers, for continuing to check in. It's hard to remember all that has happened in the last month, so I'll just skip to last week and call this blog caught up.

FiG is learning to use the potty. She isn't interested in #2 on the potty, but she's getting really good at #1. She's wearing Pull-Ups and is getting better at pulling them up and down by herself. This is all very exciting. Except when she has to go potty at bed time....after being tucked in....after the entire routine. She's becoming a master staller.

She is really funny these days. Talking a lot, finishing sentences in her books, reading to herself in bed, doing art (it's best on a stool in front of her new art desk with the easel up), mimicing me and her father, dancing and singing, dressing herself, stripping when she's unsupervised, diapering her stuffed animals, and insisting on pig tails every day.

I have bronchitis again. Back on the triple cocktail of prednisone, antibiotics, and codeine cough syrup. The pred gives me energy - I've spent the whole weekend in the kitchen and just twenty minutes ago I was dusting the family room. Not normal behavior. The cough syrup works but I'm going to run out of it at this rate. No need for clocks....every 4 hours I need more. This shall pass.

Speaking of the kitchen, I stayed home from work 3 days last week and made dinner those 3 nights. Yesterday I worked on some time-intensive and fussy cookies for supper club. Today I finished them and made two loaves of Garden Harvest Cake. It's not a ringing endorsement, but the cookies aren't bad for low-carb cookies. The cake is relatively low-carb and it's really good. It's been nice to be in the kitchen so much. It is inspiring my vegetable garden fantasy.

While FiG and A-Mo napped today I sketched this vegetable garden and made a list of supplies. It's two raised beds so half the size of what I have been concocting in my head. But it's still quite ambitious. It doesn't sound like we'll be moving this year so I want to jump into this project come May. A few green things are coming up in the garden beds so our growing season is just getting started. I don't think anything suffered too much from this morning's snowfall. It melted quickly. It is spring afterall.

Watched Kung Fu Panda this weekend - very funny. Watching Madagascar right now. Also funny with a lot more going on. I do love me some animated movies.

I've signed up to ride in the ADA Tour de Cure in early June. I am officially a Pancremaniac. Opportunities to support the team are forthcoming. Stay tuned.

And now for pictures:

A creek in the woods during my knitting retreat in March.









Playing in the kitchen sink for the last time.








What? Mickey and Minnie need new diapers. Geez, dad.







Yes. I am paying attention to the story you are reading me.

Thanksgiving 2008 Days 4-8

Things got a little nuts at the rent's house when everyone else showed up! Gus is a beautiful dog. He's enormous and fluffy and playful. And if you chant "I wuuuv youuuu" enough times he'll howl it back! Gus and Cooper were totally insane together. They played outside a lot. FiG got to be pretty comfortable with them individually, but together there was just too much movement for her to tolerate. Actually, by the end of the trip, she was letting Cooper chase her around the kitchen island and she was approaching him on her own to the point that she needed to be watched for tail pulling and fur grabbing. She's been saying Gus and Cooper's names since we got home. I consider it a successful introduction.

The three kids got to pick eggs from the hen house and feed the horses at a friend's farm. G & O found the barn cat and got to play 52-persimmon pick up after the tree got a good shaking. FiG gave Tiny a carrot, held a fresh egg, tossed food into the chicken coop, and walked through a barn on her own two feet!

Thanksgiving dinner was a FEAST. Turkey, glazed ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pearl onions, peas, brussel sprouts with chestnuts, cole slaw, cranberries, and the all important gravy. Then there was apple pie and pumpkin pie and ice cream. It was a nice mix of ol' standby and new recipes. And the leftovers were excellent - I think all that was left by Sunday morning was some ham and the bones.

Since we're all going our separate ways for Christmas this year, we had our family's traditional Christmas Eve meal on Friday: pizza. The planets aligned just so and the dough turned out very well. It's always fun making pizza and everyone gets to have fun with the palette of toppings.

G & O and Aunt B decorated a cake for an early birthday party for FiG. Her face when we sang "Happy Birthday" was priceless - like we were singing at her funeral. But she blew out her own candle and happily ate the cake. She got some great gifts too: a tea set, a cupcake matching game, a birthday cake set, and an alphabet book hand drawn by G. Every letter has two examples of words that start with it. It's totally awesome.

I designed a scavenger hunt for G & O. They had 6 clues each for the outdoors and indoors. After they decorated their bags we hunted outside and their mom planted the inside clues. We all had a good time and their prizes were a big hit. Target, you make 6 year olds easy.

The trip back to MN on Sunday was fairly low key. We sailed through security at PHL (no jinx, no jinx) and our plane was a smaller jet from a partner airline. With leather seats, adjustable head rests, more leg room, and other kids in the back of the plane we had a pretty darned good flight home. FiG has been sleeping better since we've been home. She crawls into bed on her own and we leave her while she's still awake and she falls asleep all on her own - and quietly! I just heard something hit the floor upstairs....there's no screaming....huh.

12

These are celebratory snickerdoodles. I made them to mark my mom's 12th year in remission from breast cancer. Part of my work is to raise money for cancer research so I took these cookies into the office and shared the celebration. Among the many congratulations and good wishes for my mom and family were two requests for the recipe and a one-year cancer remission story. Nobody seemed to notice that the cookies were boobies.

Puddin'

Tapas feast

Yesterday my friend, E-Yoak, graduated with a Masters of Public Policy from the Humphrey H. Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. It was a perfectly good excuse for a party! E-Yoak and I are in a supper club together; so is his wife and my bud, auntlyh. About a month ago E-Yoak said something like, "Unless you guys want to cook for my party." The power of suggestion is strong. That was all it took....supper club catered his graduation party yesterday.

Between his classes and her new job I haven't seen much of them outside of supper club dinners. So it was good to see them yesterday. They were relaxed and happy and had time to enjoy their party and guests. It felt good to do this for my friends.

I have to say this....we do good work. S&M, Kris, and I put on quite a spread. Nevermind that we made way too much food - better that than not enough I say. To make your mouth water, here's a run down of all the yummies: chorizo-stuffed dates, lamb meatballs, pork empanadas, chicken skewers, smoked salmon on toast, caramelized onion-cheese-asparagus pizza, patatas bravo, potato tortilla, breadsticks wrapped with proscuitto, cheese-stuffed cherry tomatoes, stuffed piquillo peppers, crudites with lemon-herb dip, a cheese plate with fruit and nuts, a selection of olives, and various sauces and dips to try with everything. Bags of maple-chile popcorn were the party favor.

I'm worn out! It truly was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and would probably do some things differently if given the opportunity to do this again. While I was only joking when I said something about buying a white van yesterday, today I thought about the idea of breaking into the catering business. I don't know anything about the market here, but I imagine it would be difficult to break into it. Then there's culinary school. Oh, and the minor detail of food safety. Auntlyh and I share a pipe dream of opening a yarn shop....at least with yarn, you don't have to worry about poisoning someone.

A-Mo helped me out in a big way for this party. He helped stuff the smallest cherry tomatoes known to man and figured out how to use the top loader on the food processor for the tortilla. But more importantly he kept our cranky, teething, and demanding toddler amused, fed, and out of my way. To thank him for all his attention, she gave him her cold. Thank you A-Mo. I've got the next one. :)

March 2008 Supper Club

We had a nice dinner last night. The theme was "All Things Easter." We had a surprising and refreshing cocktail, the Rooftop Garden. The devilied eggs were deliciously non-traditional with red pepper, chili, and avocado. My beet and fennel soup was a gorgeous raspberry pink. Dinner was an absolute feast with rabbit, duck, and lamb meat pie, lamb and brown rice pilaf, and roasted veggies.

Dessert....Peeps Smores. In the kitchen with a torch. Awesome.

Easy Recipe Contest

For the past few years, my friend Kate dropped a loaf of this amazing bread off at our house right before Christmas. Last year, my dad and husband inhaled it inside of an afternoon. Kate is having baby #2 in a few weeks so there was no bread delivery this holiday. She shared the recipe with me and I promised to make it and deliver some to her house. This is one of those easy recipes with few ingredients and few instuctions and HUGE pay off - it's delicious!

If you have easy recipes that you love, I challenge you to beat this! Submit your recipes and I will test and post them.

Cherry Walnut Bread
Blend 3/4 C sugar, 1 C room temp butter, and 2 eggs. Combine 2 C flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. Add dry ingredients alternately with 1 C buttermilk to butter mixture. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla, 1 jar chopped maraschino cherries, and 1/2 C chopped walnuts. Pour into buttered loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes at 325F. One batch makes one large loaf or 4 mini loaves.

I plan to experiment with fresh and frozen cherries throughout the year.

Blueberry Muffins

For a tasty and easy home made blueberry muffin, try this recipe. It's from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

3 Tbsp melted butter or canola or vegetable oil
2 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 C milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 C blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw first)

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a standard 12-compartment muffin tin, or use paper or foil liners. Mix together dry ingredients in a large blwl. Beat together egg, milk, lemon zest, and butter or oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Combine swiftly, stirring and folding rather than beating, and stopping as soon as the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but quite moist; add a little more milk or other liquid if needed. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter evenly into muffin tin, filling about 2/3rds full. Handle the batter as little as possible. Bake 20-30 minutes or until the muffins are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan and cooling on a wire rack. Or serve warm.

Because there's not a lot of sugar in these muffins, you can really taste the blueberries, lemon zest, and cinnamon. You can add more sugar if you like, but I think they're good as they are. I used blueberries that I picked this summer with friends at Rush River Produce in Maiden Rock, WI. I highly recommend picking your own blueberries - it's worth it! Enjoy!