Martha Stewart and Creepy Toys

Two completely unrelated topics, at least in this post!

First, I was surprised to see this video on Facebook – Martha Stewart speaking out against factory farming.  It’s very short and only hints at the horrors that these animals go through, but better than nothing.

Second, the creepy toys.  Who didn’t have one as a kid?  Or now, as a parent?

Mine as a child was my sister’s large doll that talked.  Sometimes when you pressed the button, sometimes on her own in the middle of the night.  She was extra scary looking because one of us had chopped off a lot of her hair.  This was also in the era of “Child’s Play”, which we’d watched at a cousin’s house late at night around the age of eight years or so…

Now 20 years later, here is the creepy toy in our house:

It’s supposed to be a CD player, see the disc in there?  My grandma got it at a thrift store.  It plays music, sometimes when you touch it, sometimes when no one’s in the room with it.  I’ll go a week without hearing the thing and then all of a sudden it’s playing by itself 5 times a night.

Finally last night Nathan threw it outside into the snow, to be later put in our garbage at the end of the driveway.

This morning when my “client” (Hahaha the dad of the kid I nanny for occasionally…  stories for a different time, UGH) came to drop off his kid, he says “I found this outside” and hands me the creeptastic toy.

It made its way back into our house, I think we are cursed.

Vegan Chickpea “Chicken” Salad Recipe

I’ve been craving this recipe since last weekend when we were at my parents’ house and my Dad agreed that packaged lunchmeat is icky, but “what am I supposed to eat for lunch?”.  This was the first thing that came to mind as something he might like instead, and I had planned to make it and bring him a sample today, but of course when I was at the store the other day chickpeas were the one item I forgot.

So now I’m enjoying it all by myself.  Friday night, Nathan went to a friend’s, Jane is sleeping, and I don’t feel the least bit lame for planning to go to bed early.  Looks like I really have come to accept this parent lifestyle.

Anyway, this salad is awesome.  Very easy, very cheap, and easily customizable, hence my lack of specific measurements.  Really all you need is the chickpeas, a crunchy veggie, mayo, and some spices.  Otherwise, you can make is as healthy (lots of veggies, less mayo), creamy, salty, or spicy as you want.

I had mine in a salad over some spinach, but of course in a wrap or sandwich would be great too.

Vegan Chickpea “Chicken” Salad Recipe

- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas (about 2 1/2 cups)

- 2 large celery stalks, diced

- 1/4 cup sweet onion, diced

- 1 big pickle, diced

- 2 big spoonfuls vegan mayonnaise (I use Vegenaise but have heard Earth Balance is very good also).

- 1 big spoonful tahini (I was running out of mayo and thought this would be a good sub, but you can use all mayo too!)

-1 T nutritional yeast

- few shakes garlic powder

- few shakes mustard powder

- little shake cayenne

- salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Drain & rinse chickpeas, then put in pot with water and boil for about 15 minutes, so they’re soft & easy to mash.

2.  Chop veggies, mix in mayo & spices.

3.  Drain warm chickpeas again and mash in pot with potato masher or fork, then mix in with veggies & mayo.

-K

P.s. I have to include some baby updates too.  Jane has learned how to “hug” and it is so, so sweet.  You’ll say “Janey give Mama a hug!” and she’ll lay her head down sideways on your chest.  She’s never been a cuddler so it’s really extra sweet =).  Also, my parents gave us their piano (which really hasn’t been used since I moved out a decade ago) and we finally got it moved to our house…  I haven’t played much at all, but Jane does every day:

Book Review: Twelve By Twelve

Twelve By Twelve: A one-room cabin off the grid & beyond the American dream by William Powers.

I’m not much into writing book reviews, but really liked this one so at least wanted to let other people know about it.  The back of the book can summarize better than I can:

“Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity?  To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina, where she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis.  Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a seaon while she traveled.”

So the book is mostly a memoir of this guy’s time living in the 12 x 12 and getting to know the neighbors also living “alternative lifestyles”.  He writes a lot of his thoughts about how the world works in relation to simple living, and also includes stories from his time abroad.

One passage I could especially relate to:

“In international aid work, the philosophical chasm between living well and living better can lead to culture clash – as well as to serious marital problems.  I know a French aid worker who married a woman from Burkina Faso.  Their most difficult problem isn’t money or in-laws but idleness.  His wife, he confided to me one day, “has to have five or six hours a day of doing absolutely nothing in order to be happy.”  My friend is inclined to fill every available moment with work, hobbies, and travel, but his wife prefers to simply sit on the stoop watching the breeze in the trees, idly chatting and joking.  If she doesn’t get this idle time, she becomes grouchy.”

I read that and thought “that’s me!”  I’m happiest when I can spend hours sitting on my porch in the sun reading, or taking long aimless walks – I just wish I could find other people to do them with me.  My ideal life would be to have other stay at home moms on my block who weren’t rushing around to scheduled activities, who weren’t so busy, who just wanted to spend the afternoons casually hanging out.

Anyway, this book is great.  It made me think a lot about how I want to live my life, it’s easy to read and the writing is perfect balance between philosophy, interesting stories, and drama between the neighbors and in Powers’ own life.

Ten Months

Time is strange for me related to Jane.  I’m so surrounded by her every day that I can’t imagine forgetting the little things she does, but then I try to think back just a few months ago and can barely remember what it was like having a baby who was unstable sitting up on her own.  Having a newborn who can’t smile or babble seems almost as foreign as it did before I had a baby at all.

So, a snapshot of Jane in month ten, to help me remember in a few months, in a few years.

In general she’s a total delight.  Sleep is decent and we’re on a regular schedule, and as long as she sleeps well she’s usually in a good mood.  If she doesn’t sleep well she looks like this:

She’s HUGE into pointing right now.  She points at everything, constantly.  Sometimes if I catch her looking at me from across the room I’ll just point at her and she’ll laugh and point back.

No signs of walking yet, but standing on her own for a few seconds at a time.

And we have a first word!  Actually this happened almost a month ago.  We don’t have a cat, but my parents do and Jane is fascinated by it, and every time we go over there my mom says as soon as we get in the door “want to see the kitty, where’s the kitty?”.  Her usual baby talk consists of “Ba ba ba ma ma da da”, but when she sees the cat she distinctly says “itty” or “ditty”.

And now she loves pointing at pictures of kitties too.  If you have the book “Goodnight Moon”, you know there’s some pages showing a room with a bunch of different objects, including two little kitties playing on the floor.  She loves to turn the pages of the book and will only stop on the pages with the kitties and put her little finger directly on them.

She’s still mostly breastfeeding, but I try to offer her a variety of foods…  it’s so easy to get stuck in the rut of cheerios and bananas though, her favorites that also don’t make a huge mess!

One more pic of my sweet little person.  Ten months is a good time.

Vegan Calico Beans Recipe (and some x-mas pics).

Every year for x-mas my grandma makes a calico bean dish that has the most addictive flavor.  Unfortunately it also has a bunch of ground beef and bacon, as do most calico bean recipes.  I used textured vegetable protein (another great veg food with a horrible name!) in place of the meat and it turned out wonderful.  Nathan, my trusty carnivorous food judge, was in love with it and said the flavor was exactly as he remembered it.  The texture of tvp is similar to ground beef, it’s nutritious, inexpensive and quick cooking, give it a try!

Nana’s Calico Beans (Vegan Version)

Serves 12

3 T Earth Balance Butter

2 yellow onions

6 cloves garlic

3 (16 oz.) cans vegetarian baked beans

2 (16 oz.) cans kidney beans

2 (16 oz.) cans butter beans

1 (16 oz.) can great northern beans

3 cups (reconstituted) textured vegetable protein

1 1/4 cups ketchup

3/4 cup brown sugar

6 T white vinegar

2 T liquid smoke

2 t mustard powder

salt & ground pepper to taste

Directions:  Sautee onion with butter in large pot until starting to brown, add garlic for a minute until fragrant, add rest of ingredients and simmer for about an hour.

Our x-mas was plenty fun, doing the routine of stops at both sets of parents, food, & presents.  Just a little more hectic with one little girl who wants to chew on every electronic in sight:

The “highlight” of the night was when I fell off my barstool while leaning to read what my sister was texting after several brandy & cokes, and hurt my arm:

Sad, but oh well it was pretty funny.  I have an awesome yellow bruise on my entire forearm now.  Happy New Year!

The offending bar & stools:

My Dad is so awesome, he built this house 28 years ago and designed a lower level with a full bar.  You can see my mom’s shotglass collection all along the side & back wall.  (And her in the background looking like she just took one, ha!)

Of course Jane was fast asleep during the above shenanigans, but she had lots of fun too:

Chewing tinsel in a tutu from Oma:

Happy New Year, Happy end of the holiday season!

K

X-mas Cards

Nathan and I have done x-mas cards every year since the year we met.  Not deliberately, but we always had some picture that inspired us to make a card.

You would think this year having a baby we’d be more likely than ever to do x-mas cards, but we almost didn’t.  We just aren’t the type to slap a cute baby pic onto a generic card.  (For an explanation, see last year’s card here, or some older years here).

I hate the idea that people feel obligated to send out x-mas cards, like it’s a chore, to everyone who has sent them cards in previous years.

But, at the last minute, Nathan put together this card from a photo he took with his new iPhone and I loved it:

It’s the prettiest window in our house, you can’t really make out the beautiful stained glass at the top.  I especially love how you can see each one of her tiny little fingers.

The caption read “May Your Holidays be Merry & Bright”.

Merry X-mas everyone!

K

Impromptu X-mas Party

Last Saturday afternoon we had no plans and no sitter for that night, so we started calling friends to see if anyone wanted to come over.  Any other time of year it would’ve just been, well, having some friends over, but of course since it’s mid- Dec. it was a x-mas party.  That’s why I love this time of year, it’s a reason to be festive and do cheezy holiday things for a whole month… a month that would otherwise just be the beginning of a cold depressing winter!

We bought some brandy and soy egg nog, dug out the ugly x-mas sweaters, and I made gingerbread cookies using this recipe from VegNews.

I rarely bake, and this was my first try ever at both gingerbread cookies and making cut-out cookies.  They turned out amazing, but damn making cut-out cookies is tedious when you have to keep re-rolling the scraps of dough.

My men (my friend Robyn gets all credit for the decorations!):

My other men (well, at least one of them is mine):

Me and my man:

Jane went to bed before the party began, but she got in on the action the next morning:

Hahaaa that was totally not staged either, she found an empty on the table and was fascinated with it.

Did you do any fun random holiday stuff this month?

Parenting and Paranoia

Jane got her first fever last night.  It is really distressing to go get your baby from her crib at 1 a.m. and feel the heat radiating off her.  102.5.

We called the nurse hotline, who told us just give her ibuprofen and check in an hour to see if it goes down.  And by morning, it did, but in the meantime we had a restless night, part of it with her in our bed because I was worried…

I wouldn’t consider my self the “paranoid sort” of mother.  I never checked on her ten times a night as a newborn to make sure she was breathing or anything.  I don’t care if she crawls on a less than spotless floor or puts other kids’ toys in her mouth.

And we even know the probable reason for the fever, it’s obvious she’s cutting one of her front teeth right now.

But still, at 1 a.m. I was mentally mapping out our route to the ER.  Trying to calm down by telling myself “Babies don’t just die.  They aren’t just normal at dinnertime and then BAM get fevers and die….  right?  Or I would’ve heard stories about it??!”

And I know that is irrational but the mind goes there…

And now it’s nighttime again and the fever is back and we’ve given her more drugs and she is sleeping.  And I hope she sleeps well but at the same time will be relieved when she cries so I know she’s ok (and then immediately hope she goes back to sleep again…)

I’m not pacing the floors, but I’m not totally at ease.  Low level paranoia and anxiety, is it a constant theme of parenting?

"She won't fall out, will she??"

Yummy Giveaway from Allison’s Gourmet Confections

One of my favorite foodie blogs Choosing Raw is hosting a giveaway to win a gift certificate to Allison’s Gourmet Confections.  YUM.  Gena has about a gazillion readers, so my chances are slim, but I get an extra entry for posting it here.  So go check it out.

My own lack of posting has been due to no exciting reason…  a combo of busy-ness and lazy-ness I suppose.

Anyway, Happy Holidays!  Hope everyone is enjoying pretty lights and Mariah Carey x-mas songs and not getting all stressed about buying crap or being too busy.

Vegan Mexican Dinner Party Recipes

I’ve failed to post regularly about my food club on here, but we’ve done it every month for the past eight months.  I’m so happy and impressed by this, because it seems in this era that people can be flaky about on-going commitments, but our group is awesome and enthusiastic about doing the dinners each month.

The last time I hosted we ate outside on the porch and dinner was simple falafel sandwiches and homemade chocolate pudding, but this month was more elaborate.

First of all, we don’t have a dining room, we have a kitchen nook that doesn’t comfortably sit eight people.  So I borrowed a nice long folding table from my M.I.L. and a tablecloth from my mom to turn our “middle room” into an appropriate dinner party space (tiny house tour posts to come…)

I decided to go with a Mexican theme, figuring people could use a break from Thanksgiving food this time of year.  Besides I had already tried the main dish recipe twice and knew even non-veg people liked it.  Here’s the complete menu:

Appetizer:

White Bean and Roasted Tomato Dip (served with toast crackers and raw veggies)

-3 1/2 cups white beans

-1 15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes (including liquid)

-1/2 cup nutritional yeast

-2 large garlic cloves

-1 t chili powder

-1/4 t onion powder

-salt & pepper to taste

Directions:  Blend everything together.  Reserve about half of the tomato liquid so the consistency isn’t too runny, then add more at the end if needed.  The recipe as written isn’t heavily spiced, so taste test and add more as desired.

Salad:  A mix of romaine lettuce and coleslaw mix, toasted pumpkin seeds, and very easy Creamy Orange Lime Cilantro Dressing (I subbed cilantro for the basil and added a few shakes of cumin also.)

Main:  Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado.  Yum.  The flavors and textures in this dish are excellent.

Dessert:  Mexican Chocolate Cake with Warm Chocolate Sauce.  Ok so usually I don’t like spicy foods and was skeptical of ruining a nice chocolate dessert by adding cayenne, but whoa this was amazing.  The cake was the easiest I’ve ever made, and the chocolate sauce made it really amazing.  (Note:  I used less than 1/2 t cayenne in the cake and none in the sauce.  The quality of the chocolate also probably matters, I used Baker’s Bittersweet chocolate squares.)

The only food picture of the night, and it wasn’t even me who remembered to take it… the cake not-so-elegantly dusted with powdered sugar (hey, I was in a hurry and had already had my fair share of wine at that point…) and red sprinkles, pre-sauce: