Spring Thaw

We had some very unusual but very welcomed weather last week. 3 days were above 50 and we're still thanking God for it. Our icicles all melted (they were starting to become jail bars as they reached the floor of the back deck).



The 2-inch thick ice melted enough to break up and chip off the driveway. We didn't get enough snow meltage to see the ground, but any amount of meltage was welcomed. Our snowbanks were about 7 feet high (reaching over the top of the mailbox) which you can imagine is pretty tough to shovel additional snowfall up on top of!

Once I cleared a decent amount of space on the driveway, I brought Evan out to play with his soccer ball.




As soon as I put him down he was off and running and I think he couldn't stop himself on the slight decline of the driveway towards the road. Before long he hit the ice but surprisingly didn't fall! He became "stuck" (wouldn't move) and we had to rescue the poor crying kid. He played with the ball a little but left plenty of room between himself and the ice.




A short while later he took a spill that left him wet and dirty and he was done.




The next day we tried again and he was afraid to move. He didn't want to be on the pavement, just held or have you squatting right next to him. That didn't last long.

When he went down for a nap, I went out for a mile and a half run. I've been working out inside for a few months now and have been dying to get out and really stretch my legs! It was so warm that I ran in a short sleeved shirt and shorts! I felt warm breezes and even felt the warmth of the sun on my skin! In February!! When I got back I just short of kicked Jack out of the house so he could enjoy it too. He didn't mind! He went for a 3 mile walk.

We tried bringing Evan out again that afternoon when it got up to 60 degrees! This time I brought a blanket out on the almost clear driveway and some toys and a snack. He was perfectly content to hang out on the blanket but didn't dare venture off! We hung out as long as we could until the cool breezes turned into cold strong wind. Even though it was a tease we were so grateful for it.

V-Day

You're probably expecting a post about some elaborate meal and dessert I cooked up to celebrate Valentines Day. Well, I'm not ashamed to admit this, but Jack and I have somewhat of a boycott against Valentines Day. I don't want to come across as a V-day Scrooge. We just feel that we don't need a specific day determined for us where we become extra lovey dovey, go out to dinner along with the rest of the world, and buy presents to support the CEO of Hallmark's third retirement vacation home. It's more special if it's spontaneous. So ever since we were married we stopped celebrating. Or at least we went out the night before Valentines Day so it wasn't so crowded and we were still allowed to use coupons! I even felt a little guilty because our first married Valentines Day, we were snowed in, both "working from home" and we spent the day watching 8 episodes of 24 in sweats! But neither of us felt gypped (I don't think I've ever written that word before... thank you spell check).

Well I figured Jack would think of a special dessert as spontaneous because we don't ever do anything for Valentines Day, so I set out to make Chocolate Mousse. We're both trying to watch what we eat and exercise more, so I thought mousse would be a nice compromise between a plain rice cake and triple death by chocolate cake. Nice light fluffy chocolately mousse. So I scoured the internet and found a doable recipe. I halved it because I didn't want to end up with 8 servings! I ever so gently heated the heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar into a custard. I melted the bittersweet chocolate and carefully added so as not to scramble the eggs. I whipped the cream to stiff peaks and gently folded it in. I scooped it into two large wine glasses (giving us 2 servings each) and patiently waited while they chilled for the next 6 hours. I was so excited to surprise him with this "special anti-celebratory dessert" after Evan went to bed. I even whipped up some extra whipped cream to top it and sprinkled some cocoa powder on top. We cuddled up on the couch to watch our Monday night shows and my mouth was watering as I was about to dig my spoon into the fluffy goodness. My heart sank as my spoon hit the dense cocoa block. It was more the texture of a light fudge and the chocolate levels were through the roof. I'm not like most other women where there's no such thing as too much chocolate. I'm not even really that into chocolate! So oh what a letdown this was. And it was so much work that I'll probably never attempt it again. So I guess I'll have to just order it for dessert at restaurants instead! Or convince my sister-in-law to make me some... haha.

Paging Dr Stork

This story was too good not to pass on. My sister works as a respiratory therapist at a hospital with no maternity unit (Ellis). A couple showed up to the ER in full on labor not able to get to the sister hospital with a maternity unit that was so close (Bellevue), but too far. Here is the story in her words:

Yup, you heard it right--a baby in the ER. It was a Bellevue patient in labor on her way to the hospital in the family car, 4 previous children--this is #5, and she suddenly started pushing in the car so they bailed and stopped at our ER even though so close to Bellevue. It ended up taking an hour to get the baby out but there was no way to know that any next contraction could have that little baby #5 shooting out like a rocket so there was no transferring her at that point. They called the emergency code "paging Dr Stork to the ER stat!..." (subtle--I'm sure no one figured out what that meant!) Ellis hasn't had a baby born there in years so everyone was scrambling to find things long unused or never used while keeping family reassured that all was well and that they were in good hands (who had never done this before...oh, didn't tell them that part...) All us resp folk were together at the time they called the overhead emergency and we suddenly realized that nobody in the ER is certified to handle the newborns--that is one of our certifications--YIKES! I look at the night crew--two guys, a 23 yr old girl who has never seen a birth, and me. (guess who drew the team leader straw on this one!) So we scrambled to get prepared--the guys ran to other buildings and other floors to gather things we needed and Nichole and I prepared to receive the baby. At the last minute, we had two labor nurses who had been summoned from Bellevue arrive to help with the big moment, one of our residents got to deliver his first baby, and he then turned and handed her to us!! We didn't have a scale to weigh her on but I will guess her at about 5 lbs--she was a teeny little thing although 38 weeks. It was then up to us (me and wide-eyed awestruck Nichole) to make sure baby was breathing, stimulated, responsive, suctioned, heart rate, oxygen, APGAR scored, cleaned, dried, wrapped like a tiny burrito and given to Mom. All went as if it were perfectly orchestrated for which I was very grateful. My neonatal certification also includes rescusitation and intubation for a birth with complications or a baby who is nonresponsive, and I was calmly (full panic) reviewing all the procedures in my head while waiting just in case I needed that knowledge fresh. I was very tempted to grab Nicholes I-phone and google the intubation procedures but didn't want the family to catch me boning up in the delivery room corner (pay no attention to the person behind the curtain frantically studying intubation and newborn procedures...move along...nothing to see here....!) Meanwhile in the other corner of the room, Dad is hovering 3 inches inside the door with a faint green tinge to his complexion. He quickly declined an invitation to the front row with Gramma and cousin, and subsequently had a tech assigned to him to watch for "Man Down Syndrome" as nobody else in the room would have noticed if he fainted! So Baby Anna made her way into this world at 4:35am to a loud round of cheers and applause, followed by the ER staff singing Happy Birthday! Everyone was then packed up and shipped to Bellevue for nursery and OB followup. We were all kind of giddy after that, racing around the hospital trying to catch up on normal responsibilities whih had been allowed to lapse for two hours. I had one of the intensive care units that night and for two straight hours not one person had needed me, no pages, no emergencies, no medications due--a situation which is unheard of but I was so grateful for no conflicts on my time.

This is the reason I love my job--the spontaneity, the unexpectedness which keeps it always new and interesting and never boring, and the opportunity to truly make a difference in people's lives. So hence, my story of Baby Anna and how she brought joy, excitement and life into a place which so often experiences exactly the opposite.

The sweet tooth won

I've always been more of a salty snacker than sweet, but ever since I was pregnant with Evan, my sweet tooth has gotten a little out of control (admission of guilt). I finally started to get it back under control since I noticed how tight my pants were right after Thanksgiving. Between working out at least every other day and substituting fruit for less healthy treats for dessert, I finally started noticing progress. But progress was halted once I read my sister-in-law's recent blog post. I'm not much of a baker, mostly because I know I shouldn't make such decadent treats because then I'll EAT them! Well between the blog post and an episode of How I Met Your Mother tonight that showed sinfully delicious looking chocolate cake in at least 3 scenes, my sweet tooth beat out my self control. As I mentioned, I'm not much of a baker, and I wasn't about to go out while post-snowstorm cleanup is still in progress just for sweet treats. I knew I had cocoa powder in the back of the pantry and I was hoping and praying that it didn't expire because I have no idea when the last time I used it was. After thorough examination of the package, I didn't see any expiration. Phew! And there was a recipe for chocolate cake/cupcakes on the back, Score! And I actually had all the ingredients! It was meant to be. After reading the instructions, I knew it would be beneficial to use an electric mixer... something I haven't used since my apartment days and was hoping I still had all the pieces to it. I dug up the body of the electric hand mixer from the laundry/storage room and cleaned it off. I found the attachments in the back of a kitchen cabinet and was hoping they fit because back in my roommate days we had 2 mixers and a plethora of various attachments between the two. They fit! Like I said, it was meant to be. (Un)fortunately I didn't have any powdered sugar so I couldn't make the icing. I put "un" in parentheses because I used this argument to justify having more than 1 cupcake. And by more than 1 I mean 3. Yes, I ate 3 cupcakes. And I don't feel bad. They were light and fluffy, yet rich and deliciously moist.

Here is the recipe if you care to try! I halved the recipe because it makes 2 9-inch round cakes or 30 cupcakes. I went with cupcakes.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water (I just used the hottest my tap goes and it came out fine)

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. (or line cupcake tins with muffin cups)

2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans. (I poured the batter into a liquid measuring cup which made it easy to pour into muffin cups - fill 2/3 full)

3. Bake 30-35 minutes for cakes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pants to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting (recipe below). 10-12 servings.
Bake cupcakes 22-25 minutes. Makes 30 cupcakes.

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa.
2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups.

{no picture because they didn't puff way up or get iced and the presentation was highly lacking. Just picture dark yet delicious flat-top lumps in a muffin tin}

I'd like to add that Jack practiced amazingly impressive self control and didn't have ANY. He opted for V8 and a clementine. What a guy.

Spinachpalooza

When yearning for pesto without my herb garden in full bloom with basil, and with a lot of spinach on hand that I needed to use up, I thought why not substitute spinach for basil? Tonight's dinner just looked so beautiful, if I do say so myself, to skip blogging about! Here's how I used a whole bag of spinach in one dinner for 2 (well, 2.5... Evan had some!) Salmon with spinach pesto, spinach pesto pasta with peas and tomatoes, sauteed spinach. I used whole leaf spinach, not baby spinach. And I had enough pesto leftover to fill a 3oz baby food container (which should do another batch of pasta).

Pesto (very rough estimates because I eyeballed the whole thing):
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 bag of spinach (10oz bag)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Add all ingredients to food processor and blitz until smooth. Taste test and adjust ingredients accordingly.

Salmon:
I seasoned the salmon with salt & pepper on each side. I sauteed 1 clove of chopped garlic in about 1 tbsp olive oil until it started to brown then I added the salmon. After I flipped it, I added about 1 tbsp white cooking wine (optional). Once it was cooked through (they were very thin so it was only a few minutes) I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over them and then topped with some pesto.

Pesto Pasta:
I cooked about 1/3 box (14.5oz box) of elbow noodles in salted water. Both Barilla and Ronzoni make some vitamin and protein packed pasta these days, so I get one of those. After draining the pasta and before returning it to the pan, I add about 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil and about 1/4 cup frozen peas and 15 or so chopped grape tomatoes (just the kind I had on hand today... I've done it before with roma tomatoes) to the pan and cook over low heat until the peas are cooked through. Then add about half the remaining pesto mix and the pasta to the pan and stir until that pasta is the beautiful green color. Top with parmesan cheese.

Spinach:
I used the rest of the spinach, which may be a big portion but it cooks way down, as a vegetable side. I sauteed 1 chopped garlic clove in about 1-2 tbsp olive oil then added the spinach. When it started to wilt, I added a little white cooking wine. Once it was all cooked, I topped with some fresh squeezed lemon juice which is great for flavoring but it will turn the spinach slightly brown where it is concentrated.


As I mentioned before, I had about 3oz of pesto left which can be frozen and used in the future. I also realize that pesto usually has some sort of toasted nut which I've never used before and I still enjoy the taste!