pussy galore

this is the best...

life after the city - IT DOES EXIST!

I was one of those annoying teenagers who thought of themselves as edgy, smart, and philosophical. to give you an idea of my psyche back then, my reading list graduated from middle school stuff like, The Outisders and Ordinary People, to Nausea and On the Road in high school. by the time I was a high school sophomore, I'd also abandoned my deep, middle school love of The Police to listen to the likes of The Velvet Underground, Big Black, and Sonic Youth.

needless to say, back in those days I dreamt of fleeing the suburbs to live on my own, in a big city - of course! in the end, I did manage to get away from the suburbs, but I only managed to stay away for 22 years (and if I'm being honest, 9 of those years were spent in Philadelphia, which only partially qualifies as "away").

and now, in the words of George Castanza, "I'm back, baby!" not only did I move back to Philadelphia in the summer of 2005, but I moved back to Fort Washington last spring (March 2010). I thought that I would have some sort of crazy identity crisis once I finally landed in the suburbs again, but lo - nothing of the sort has happened, and actually, I've found that I'm much happier in Fort Washington than I was in Fishtown.

orange + sign and dots depict our lovely (that's not sarcasm!) home in Fishtown, Philadelphiavs.
1. St. Claires ; 2. Sawyers ; 3. Fishers ; 4. us ; orange bracket = Sawyer annex (Maman)

what I do miss from time to time are my friends. I don't see them much now, and as you might suspect, it isn't easy to make new friends in the 'burbs. John actually got sad once when our next door neighbors had a big party and didn't invite us. Lori, who is the cute woman next door, explained the omission away the next time we ran into each other. she told me that Mark, her husband and coincidentally John's primary care physician, didn't feel comfortable with a patient at his keg party. hey, that makes sense to me!

anyway, we've finally been able to breach the inner circle of Madison Ave., and let me tell you that it's kind of awesome. we went over to Lori and Mark's house for drinks and hanging out last Friday evening, and I was seriously excited by the fact that Lori is really great, and that there are other neighbors who are similarly genuinely fun to be around. not that I'm claiming to be the world's authority on hipness or anything, I'm just saying that I sort of believed the hype around there not being even one interesting person in the suburbs (me included).

of course, it could just be that a) I'm old, b) I'm now a parent, and c) I'm extremely boring these days (hey, I have an office job and haven't attended a show of any sort in ages - I'm not delusional), but still, I suppose that ignorance is bliss. anyway, the other cool thing about having been able to penetrate the Madison Ave. clique is that their kids are all friends with each other too, and it's the first time I've ever seen the whole kids-in-and-out-of-each-others'-houses dynamic. it's so cool! the extra bonus is that these are all kids who love toddlers. Henry was feted, provided with laps, hugs, and dotes...I think I've moved to Stars Hollow.

anthro-apologies

I promised Zab a photo of our garden ages ago, but being me, I never took any...this weekend, I made a little bouquet. yesterday I actually took a terrible photo of it. it's blurry and dark, but look, you can see my favorite echinacea varietal - coconut lime! the one in the foreground still has its petals, the "green" balls surrounding have lost their petals, then there's one dark, dried ball in the background. there's also a little rose and some salvia in the bundle. sadly, my garden ran riot this year due to my pregnancy laziness, but since nothing beats the joy of home grown flowers, I plan to do a lot of seeding and planting this coming spring.

and there's Henry, making the most of a trip to Anthropologie. he's really better than I could ever have imagined him being. I'm sure ALL parents say that! kudos to dad for taking this pic.

that is pretty much my life these days...work, home, sleep. I'm looking for chandeliers that don't cost an arm and a leg for our main sitting room. we took the trip to Anthropologie for lighting inspiration, but there was nothing that really sparked our interest. of course, there were plenty of non-chandelier objects (um, the midas tree lamp, the grey plaid wool lampshade, and the awesome leather chair - I think I have to find a stump to hollow out, wire, and spray paint gold!)...oh right, I was writing a blog entry - I just went into shopping online at Anthropologie mode. I swear that their styling - no matter how inappropriate for my lifestyle and income - never fails to get me. as a matter of fact, I intend to get back to my pre-pre- pregnancy weight just so I can shop with abandon at their sales. so there. sorry for the sidetrack into anthrofantasyland. I have to get back to my wishlist now.

rice krispies bars

I've been trying to perfect a rice krispy bar that doesn't use marshmallows, or corn syrup, and includes lots of unsweetened shredded coconut and toasted almond slivers. I'm using honey as a substitute for marshmallows, but it's requiring a bit of experimentation to get the consistency right. my favorite thing about the real rice krispy treats recipe is that it's chewy and buttery tasting. what I don't like about them is that they're made with kraft marshmallows (which contain artificial flavors). my last batch used a vegan caramel recipe as the binder. I'll post a photo of it tomorrow. last night when I tasted them, I was floored by how sweet they were (I'm a bit slow on the uptake because most of the recipe was honey and sugar - duh, what was I expecting?), and I didn't get the ratio of goo to stuff just right, so the bars were too gooey. I salted the bars to help with the sweetness, but then re-read the recipe for the dessert I cribbed the caramel from and saw that it featured sesame seeds, so I ended up cutting the bars, and coating them with toasted sesame seeds. I was convinced that they would still be horribly sweet, but I brought one to work, and just finished DEVOURING it. I still have a lot of tweaking to do, but this has been my favorite iteration so far.

which brings me to my next topic - holiday gift baskets. I swear that I am NOT A SCROOGE, but I do dislike buying stuff for people just to have something to give. I've decided that this year I'll do a homemade treats gift basket for anyone I get stumped on. btw, I'm not Christian, and the holiday I celebrate during the "Christmas Season" is Circleness (I know, I know, I know, but still, it feels wrong to me to celebrate Christmas when I'm not Christian. I do celebrate it with my in-laws, and don't shun Christmas parties, or anything, but just want to do what feels right in my own home, with my nuclear family. Circleness incorporates a lot of the pagan portion of the Christmas traditions - stuff like the tree, eating food, getting together, giving presents & etc. It's just that I don't have to pretend about caring about the birth of baby Jesus - I hope that I'm not offending anyone! I wholly believe in everyone's right to believe in and celebrate anything they deem worthy!).
but I digress.

what I meant to discuss here is my next test recipe, which is the first thing I decided to put into the basket: salted caramels. so there was a whole 'fad' that I missed, but anything that blends salty and sweet appeals to me, so I haven't made these yet, but can't wait. I'm not going to go as far as bacon caramels, but I'm really excited to make them...

everything this blog is not

you can't tell from that blurry photo, but it's one of the cutest blog banners I've seen (ever). please click here to go to an awesome website! if you haven't purchased the book, or hate broth and noodles (a-hem, Zab?), TRY AGAIN!

last night, John was working late, so Henry and I shared a bowl of instant ramen. we've been indulging in the kind that comes with fresh noodles, and a saucy (rather than oily, or powdery) soup base. when we use instant (i.e. not a planned meal), we add whatever we have on hand to jazz up the packet. last night I figured out that everything goes more smoothly for Henry if I provide him with noodles and broth in separate bowls. much less mess...I've never seen a kid who likes broth more than Henry. he actually gets excited about drinking broth.

it's a BOY!

I just got off the phone with John, and he's a little disappointed (and I'm sad that I won't get to see him with a daughter, but c'est la vie).

BUT I'm happy that there were no signs of neural tube defects, trisomy, missing chromosomes, or anything else that portends difficulty for the fetus/baby.

and, my plans of forcing the kids to share a room for as long as possible just became more simple...

oh yeah, and -

and add FLAKEY to the list of pregnancy attributes I'm currently exhibiting. I swear that I'm normally NOT flakey. just now, due to the parasite I'm hosting in my uterus. honestly. flakiness was actually the first thing I'd meant to put on the list, but my brain lapses into fogs so dense that I sometimes have no control over what I'm doing/saying/feeling.


this salad cost $1.56 at my work cafeteria!
there's at least $1 worth of blue cheese on there...which brings me to my newest food obsession: spring mix with blue cheese, other stuff, and Brianna's Home Style Blush Wine Vinaigrette salad dressing. mmmmm. I'm eating it right now, and I'm SO happy with it. the dressing has just the right mix of sweet and acid for a pregnant lady. sorry homemade caesar dressing, even though you are so delicious, you've been pushed out by store-bought vinaigrette.

the funniest part of my current salad thing is that for the past few years, I've been really sort of down on spring mix/baby field greens. even though I'd eat them, I've been more enamored of crunchy greens. mostly I think that I'd gotten sick of frisee. or, maybe it was that I felt like baby field greens (bfg) had become overplayed. they began to feel so 1995 NYC. anyways, I am happy to say that bfg are the perfect leafy substrate for my the blue cheese/blush wine vinaigrette combo.