I briefly scanned through a recorded Oprah recently that talked about how much *stuff* we have in our lives. Stuff was primarily defined as electronics and technology - cell phones, laptops, countless hours spent on Facebook, blogs, iphones, email...*ahem*, all the things we are doing right now. Yeah, I'm totally guilty. Everything is so accessible that it makes it hard not to be.
Brooklyn gets a bath every night after dinner. Anytime that I'm giving her a bath I either bring my iphone to check email, FB, etc...or I clean up our bathroom. I let her play and I'll give her my attention, but it's shared. Because clearly seeing everyone's updates on FB is far more important than giving her my undivided time. She'll only be this small and innocent forever, right? Right...
It applies to my husband too, friends, family, everyone really. At Christmas I almost kicked my brother's ass because he was OBSESSED with the app 'words with friends.' We are all guilty of it but for me, personally, time to scale it back a bit.
Scaling it back means no phones at the dinner table, B's bath's, playing with her in our living room, etc...Giving Dom my undivided attention rather than talking to him while scrolling through gmail. It's just all about stopping for a second to focus on the people in my life and not what's flying all around me. Pretty sure I won't have missed too much if I login and read blogs 2 hours later than I thought I was going to. We need to bring back the true meaning of quality time with one another.
I know my life will only get 'busier' as this 2nd baby makes his/her arrival. It's a balance to maintain yourself, be a good mom, still socialize, etc...but I'm going to do it. Without 24 hours of technology in my life.
It's a bit hypocritical of me to claim this while writing this blog, eh? Worth mentioning I'm sitting at JFK airport waiting to catch a flight home from a work trip, so I suppose in this instance it's okay. I don't think it's necessary for me to do any stripping here...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
All about B.
Even though this was technically Brooklyn's 2nd Christmas, it was a first for us on many levels. Given that she was just about 3 1/2 months old last year we really didn't do much in the way of gifts, etc...This year, however, it was all about B.
She looks deceptively innocent in her Christmas dress. Please, don't let her fool you. Here is a special project she worked on during the Christmas break. It was called Operation destroy the kitchen.
Having a little one allows you to watch all the cheesy cartoons (although we did when she wasn't here too), decorate more, make christmas cookies, put up more lights, go look at lights, buy more gifts, and just love on the idea that her little imagination is about to embark on years to come of Santa and the North Pole, reindeer landing on the roof, her daddy reading Twas the Night before Christmas, and me, teaching her lines from classics, like Christmas vacation.
We spent Christmas Eve at my mom & dad's house, as I have every December 24th of my entire life. I don't know if next year we can swing that having her and a little baby in tow but whether it be at their house or ours I'm sure we'll spend it together.
We spent Christmas Eve at my mom & dad's house, as I have every December 24th of my entire life. I don't know if next year we can swing that having her and a little baby in tow but whether it be at their house or ours I'm sure we'll spend it together.
We opened gifts.
We played in new castles.
We read new books.
We made breakfast with Grandpa:
We had a wonderful Christmas.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Random, like my brain:
*The Bachelor is back on and even though they are featuring one of the top douchebag contenders, I'm in. If he can stop the fake "chuckle" he might grow on me.
*My daughter is 16 months old as of 3 days ago, what.the.hell. Time is flying.
*I spent my Sunday in the hospital because I barfed way too much for any one person. It got to be ridiculous, I was basically laying on the bathroom floor. I just had to go to the hospital to get a couple IV bags of fluid and tests. All is well but I'm totally annoyed I wasted my whole Sunday head in the toilet then in a cold, stale hospital room. I will remind the wee one of this when he/she is born.
*My one and only New Year's resolution is to read more. So far I've done a crappy job but I've signed myself up for 10 books this year. Doesn't sound like much but throw the rest of life in the way and it is. Anyone have suggestions on good reading material?
*I have not ventured back into the kitchen to tackle any more La Cucina recipes. An update for those of you that read my veal disaster, I did make the cannelloni and it turned out edible, but not like your Italian grandmother. I was planning to this last Sunday but then barf-fest 2010 got in the way.
*I'm still in regular jeans but my buttons are about to pop. I'm refusing maternity clothes as long as possible.
*I hate DirectTV. You can't record two shows at once unless they come out and install additional bullshit for $180.00. This wouldn't be a problem if all my favorite shows didn't come on around the same times on different channels. Oh, and I also have a small child. Small child translates to no couch time until after 8 p.m. when she's asleep so ability to record is CRITICAL.
*It was 11 degrees at my house on Saturday morning. I live in Austin people - this shit doesn't happen here. Arctic blast froze our pipes but luckily nothing busted. I couldn't shower though on Saturday until after my lunch date with friend Angie. Thank goodness close friends don't care about appearances.
*I need to clean my house.
*I need to change my blog template out again as Santa is back at the North Pole. Add it to the list.
*My daughter is 16 months old as of 3 days ago, what.the.hell. Time is flying.
*I spent my Sunday in the hospital because I barfed way too much for any one person. It got to be ridiculous, I was basically laying on the bathroom floor. I just had to go to the hospital to get a couple IV bags of fluid and tests. All is well but I'm totally annoyed I wasted my whole Sunday head in the toilet then in a cold, stale hospital room. I will remind the wee one of this when he/she is born.
*My one and only New Year's resolution is to read more. So far I've done a crappy job but I've signed myself up for 10 books this year. Doesn't sound like much but throw the rest of life in the way and it is. Anyone have suggestions on good reading material?
*I have not ventured back into the kitchen to tackle any more La Cucina recipes. An update for those of you that read my veal disaster, I did make the cannelloni and it turned out edible, but not like your Italian grandmother. I was planning to this last Sunday but then barf-fest 2010 got in the way.
*I'm still in regular jeans but my buttons are about to pop. I'm refusing maternity clothes as long as possible.
*I hate DirectTV. You can't record two shows at once unless they come out and install additional bullshit for $180.00. This wouldn't be a problem if all my favorite shows didn't come on around the same times on different channels. Oh, and I also have a small child. Small child translates to no couch time until after 8 p.m. when she's asleep so ability to record is CRITICAL.
*It was 11 degrees at my house on Saturday morning. I live in Austin people - this shit doesn't happen here. Arctic blast froze our pipes but luckily nothing busted. I couldn't shower though on Saturday until after my lunch date with friend Angie. Thank goodness close friends don't care about appearances.
*I need to clean my house.
*I need to change my blog template out again as Santa is back at the North Pole. Add it to the list.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Intelligender intelligent?
When I was pregnant with Brooklyn it seemed like it took forever to get to 20 weeks. 20 weeks was a HUGE deal because that's when our doctor agreed to do a sonogram to find out the sex of the baby. There was no question as to whether or not we were going to find out what we were having. Are you kidding me? I'm way to much of a control freak for that.
So much so that when I found out about this Intelligender test this time around there was no way I wasn't giving it a try. Impatient? Maybe.
The concept of this test is so genius - $30.00 for some plastic cup to guess what you are having with obviously no liability if wrong. A total play on your emotions but well worth the gratification.
That's what I have said all along I think I'm having - we'll see how intelligent this little test is here in about 3 weeks. Stay tuned!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Excuse me, do you carry dry spumante?
I've been a bad blogger this holiday. I have good excuses though, really, I do. Oh, and one of my 2010 resolutions - use more excuses. So, there you have it and I think I'm starting off on the right foot.
My inability to keep up with everyone's blogs, including my own is because of this:
I'm sure many of you watched Julie & Julia, and if you haven't - definitely add it to your list. It's a great movie that will both inspire (if you like to cook) and make you hungry. As a result, I found myself wandering the aisles at Barnes & Noble's cookbook section and rather than pick up a copy of Julia Child's Mastering French cooking I decided to stick to my husbands roots and go Italian, full on Italian.
LA CUCINA.
It's 1000 pages people, written by the Academia Italiana Della Cucina. I love everything about Italy so I said f*** the French, let's do this. I'm not going to recreate the Julie & Julia scene by any means, but I did consider making it a New Year's resolution to master the art of Italian cooking, for both my husband and my kiddo's. I think it's important that we bring back the whole passing on of recipes concept so I need to master my specialties.
My husband said he wanted Veal for his first 'La Cucina' dish. I love veal too and narrowed it down to about 5 recipes for him to choose from. We agreed on Veal with Mushroom caps made with truffle potatoes. Easy enough. Loaded up and went to Central Market where I found myself asking people in the produce section if they carried 'dry spumante.' No one could help me there so on to the spices. Nada. Nothing. Pulled out the trusty iphone only to google that spumante is 'sparkling white wine' in Italian. Awesome. I clearly know what I'm doing.
Next stop. A white truffle. I knew this didn't mean truffle like I've seen in chocolates, but I honestly wasn't sure where to go. I sent the hubs on this mission since I already made his Italian grandmother roll over in her grave by thinking spumante was a vegetable. He came back with a teeny little bag with .01 ounces of truffle - totalling $1.99. If you do the math on this you will realize that truffles cost $199.00 a lb. One-hundred-and-ninety-nine-dollars!!! And you don't even get high or anything from this thing. WTF?
Okay, moving on. We got the veal cutlets, totaling about $26.00 - I only bought a pound. A few other things and we were on our way home. I couldn't wait, I was totally inspired by my new project.
I put on my new apron (Xmas present from my mama) and it was GO TIME. No need to really go into details from this point forward but the whole meal was a total f***ing disaster. FAIL. BIG TIME. VEAL FAIL. I followed the recipe like it said to but something about the way the veal was floating/boiling in about 1/2 cup of white wine and 1/4 cup of beef broth just didn't do it for us. It basically boiled veal cutlets into tiny pieces of ass that you could have made a a leather purse out of. I sat and studied the recipe over and over, made my husband read it, called my mother, and still have no real conclusion on why it turned out so incredibly inedible.
We ordered pizza that night.
La Cucina - 1
Me - 0
I took the day off yesterday from cooking and went to catch a movie with my girlfriends. we settled on grilled steaks and asparagus last night too as that falls more into my husbands department. I needed to give him an opportunity to fail too so I could potentially even the score but he cooked my steak to perfection.
So, here we are. Sunday - the day of the big meals and I'm gearing up for round 2. Literally when I close this laptop I'm venturing back into the kitchen to take on some Canneloni with meat sauce. If I screw this one up I may retire from my quest and whip up a chicken fried steak or something. Bring me back to MY roots. If I succeed we'll all raise a glass of spumante, the drinking kind. ;)
Bring it, La Cucina!
My inability to keep up with everyone's blogs, including my own is because of this:
LA CUCINA.
It's 1000 pages people, written by the Academia Italiana Della Cucina. I love everything about Italy so I said f*** the French, let's do this. I'm not going to recreate the Julie & Julia scene by any means, but I did consider making it a New Year's resolution to master the art of Italian cooking, for both my husband and my kiddo's. I think it's important that we bring back the whole passing on of recipes concept so I need to master my specialties.
My husband said he wanted Veal for his first 'La Cucina' dish. I love veal too and narrowed it down to about 5 recipes for him to choose from. We agreed on Veal with Mushroom caps made with truffle potatoes. Easy enough. Loaded up and went to Central Market where I found myself asking people in the produce section if they carried 'dry spumante.' No one could help me there so on to the spices. Nada. Nothing. Pulled out the trusty iphone only to google that spumante is 'sparkling white wine' in Italian. Awesome. I clearly know what I'm doing.
Next stop. A white truffle. I knew this didn't mean truffle like I've seen in chocolates, but I honestly wasn't sure where to go. I sent the hubs on this mission since I already made his Italian grandmother roll over in her grave by thinking spumante was a vegetable. He came back with a teeny little bag with .01 ounces of truffle - totalling $1.99. If you do the math on this you will realize that truffles cost $199.00 a lb. One-hundred-and-ninety-nine-dollars!!! And you don't even get high or anything from this thing. WTF?
I put on my new apron (Xmas present from my mama) and it was GO TIME. No need to really go into details from this point forward but the whole meal was a total f***ing disaster. FAIL. BIG TIME. VEAL FAIL. I followed the recipe like it said to but something about the way the veal was floating/boiling in about 1/2 cup of white wine and 1/4 cup of beef broth just didn't do it for us. It basically boiled veal cutlets into tiny pieces of ass that you could have made a a leather purse out of. I sat and studied the recipe over and over, made my husband read it, called my mother, and still have no real conclusion on why it turned out so incredibly inedible.
La Cucina - 1
Me - 0
I took the day off yesterday from cooking and went to catch a movie with my girlfriends. we settled on grilled steaks and asparagus last night too as that falls more into my husbands department. I needed to give him an opportunity to fail too so I could potentially even the score but he cooked my steak to perfection.
So, here we are. Sunday - the day of the big meals and I'm gearing up for round 2. Literally when I close this laptop I'm venturing back into the kitchen to take on some Canneloni with meat sauce. If I screw this one up I may retire from my quest and whip up a chicken fried steak or something. Bring me back to MY roots. If I succeed we'll all raise a glass of spumante, the drinking kind. ;)
Bring it, La Cucina!
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