Refocusing

So much has changed since I last left this blog of mine. I've been thinking of starting to write again (mainly motivated by selfish purposes - I have an almost 13 month old and I want to remember all of the little things that have happened adjusting to this new life as a parent). I thought about abandoning this blog altogether and starting over from scratch, but to be honest I actually still refer back to here for various recipes pretty frequently so it seemed like as good a place as any to start!

I'll still try to write about food, especially considering that I have a new little person to introduce fun foods to, but I mostly want a space to write down my own stories as well as pass along any tips & tricks to any other parent who might stumble across this space.

Things I have planned to talk about include:
- Starting solids
- Cloth diapering
- Sleep training
- Tongue & lip ties
- The joys (and struggles) of being a stay-at-home mom
- Labor/birth story (edited for details that are probably best kept within the family!)
- Various stories from our adventures as new parents

I've spent countless hours reading and researching various topics as a new parent (why does the internet make cloth diapering sound so complicated when it really isn't!?) and want to be able to compile all the information as it worked for me in once place. I'll be back shortly with more!

 - C
 

And we're back!

I signed into Blogger today for the first time in what seems like forever. I clicked on 'Post' to see when the last time I had written anything was and realized I had started several and left them in draft and that I've been MIA since June!

I've had no creative energy this summer and every time I thought about writing it just felt like a chore. I think it's all the writing I've been having to do for school - it's really taking it out of me! I've been feeling totally overwhelmed with the whole moving/commuting/schoolwork business and I haven't gotten back into a good rhythm yet. I'm hoping now that Autumn is here that can start to change!

Can we talk about how amazing Autumn is for a minute? Right now it is gorgeous outside - bright blue skies, 74 degrees, but with a nice windy crisp in the air. I think we have at least another week before the rain starts to come and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it. We actually set a record this summer in the Portland area for the driest July-September ever without any water issues due to the very rainy spring we had. You know what else makes Autumn fantastic? The crazy amounts of produce! I've already started getting back to some Autumn cooking with stuffed delicata squash, soups, and homemade bread.

Before I get too burnt out on trying to think of new and interesting things to write, I thought I'd share with you some of my new favorite foods of the past few months.

1) Greek Yogurt. This took me a long time to come to terms with - I haven't eaten anything but soy yogurt for years and regular yogurt kind of freaks me out. Now I use Greek yogurt in everything (well - everything that I can anyway). It makes an excellent substitute for mayo or sour cream (two other things I don't eat) and I've even used it to replace cream in a recipe or two.

2) Peaches. Ok, these are not a new food to me - but for some reason I've never been in love with peaches, they were also just pretty good. This year I seem to want peach everything. My favorite dessert by far has been roasted peaches with Greek yogurt (I'll share my recipe soon).

3) Oatmeal. Again - also not new, I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast nearly everyday for the past 6 or 7 years. How did it take me this long to realize that cooking it on the stove is like a thousand times better than in the microwave!? I don't know what my problem was, but now I want stove-top oatmeal just about every morning. In fact, it's not even morning and I kind of want some now.

4) Blue Cheese. I always thought I hated blue cheese - let's be honest, it is pretty freaky looking. But after slowly having it in dishes that I couldn't pick it out of I have decided that blue cheese is awesome. We stopped at Rogue Creamery on a recent road trip and sampled about a dozen different varieties. All were delicious, but their Smokey Blue is still my favorite (smoked over hazelnut shells and gives a very "meaty" taste to my vegetarian dishes).

5) Beets. Ok so I'm not eating beets at every meal yet - but since after my last list of new foods I was loving I commented that I still hated beets I thought it was worth mentioning that I have now had several beet dishes that have been quite excellent. First my friend Sara made this beet salad, and I was all "Ew, no - I don't like beets" except then I ate it and was like "What!? How is this beets? They don't taste like dirt at all!". Also the co-op in Corvallis makes this wrap with some shredded beets and other than the fact that it turns everything purple it is pretty great.

That's all for now - hopefully I'll be back again soon! I do have many recipes I'd love to share if I can find the time and energy to do so!

The Overwhelming World of Internet Recipes

You guys. I have 825  recipes favorited  on foodgawker at the moment. Eight hundred and twenty-five! Do you know how many of those recipes I have actually made? 25. (Yes I counted, yes I have better things I could probably be doing, but I really needed to know)

That means there are 800 more recipes to try, and that doesn't even count the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest, or the hundreds of other recipes I have bookmarked, or the hundreds of recipes that are being added every week to foodgawker. The world of internet recipes is definitely daunting. There is certainly more content out there than I could ever hope to try my hand at.

I'm feeling inspired to work through some of these recipes that have intrigued me though. I've been thinking a lot lately about my future and what I want to be when I grow up. Jonathan keeps asking me what it is that I would be doing if someone gave me a million dollars, and my immediate answer is always - cook. I love food and I'm most happy when I've spent the entire day in the kitchen trying all kids of different recipes. The flip side is that I'm also really disappointed when a recipe is a total failure - I'm working on that part!

I'm not planning on making any drastic career switches here - engineering is a good place to be plus I have my masters degree I'm still working on - but I do plan on spending a lot more time in the kitchen this summer working through some of these recipes!

That said - here are a few of my more recent kitchen creations inspired by various recipes found on the internet!

{Kale, Apple, & Chickpea Salad}

{Quinoa, Corn, and Black Bean Salad}

{Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites}

These are "healthy"!  Made with garbanzo beans, and pretty darn good.

When we left our house in Corvallis, we had a giant dill plant growing. I mean seriously giant, I didn't even know that dill could get that big! I think it was at least as tall as me! We snipped a few bunches off to take with us, so I really needed to find some recipes to use it in. I have also recently become somewhat obsessed with substituting nonfat Greek yogurt for various things like sour cream, mayo, etc. So that's what I did with the following two recipes, used Greek yogurt for sour cream and even half-and-half (yogurt cut with almond milk)!

 {Roasted Potato Salad with Dill}

{Cheddar Dill Scones}

{Cornflake BBQ Tofu}

No recipe for this one - just BBQ baked tofu breaded in cornflake crumbs and baked some more!

{Dark Chocolate Almond Cookies}

I subbed a flax egg, and they are still delicious!

Starting Fresh

So much has been going on here lately! Jonathan accepted a new job, far enough from where we were living that we had to move, we just got back from an amazing European vacation (that's us in Ephesus, Turkey!), and just completed our move! Good thing we're still in Oregon - I don't think I have the creative energy at the moment to rename the blog!

We've left the town of Corvallis, which over the last four years I've actually grown quite fond of. It was a big transition moving to a small college town from Seattle and truth be told I absolutely hated it when I first moved there (and even when I moved there the second time after a short stint in Portland). That all changed when Jonathan and I found the best rental property ever though - a 105 year old restored farm house surrounded by fields, a vineyard, and a horse barn. We had our country house and were still only a 5 minute drive from work and the grocery store (these things are important).

We spent two years there - we built two beautiful garden beds, Jonathan built a chicken coop and acquired two hens, but mostly we learned how to live together as our own little family there. We've left behind a lot of familiarity - a great group of friends, restaurants and bars where we were regulars, the ability to carpool to work and run out for lunch together, among many other things. But we're excited for our new adventure too.

We're just getting settled in our new place in Gresham - about 15-20 minutes outside of Portland. Now if you're familiar with the area at all, you might think I'm nuts for being excited about being in Gresham. It's not exactly known for being the nicest place to live I don't think (noted by the increase in my car insurance premium). But you know what? It's not so bad - I think we're in a pretty good spot, and we're in a nice unit too so that helps. Last Friday was our first "official" night here and we walked across the street to get some pizza for dinner (walking, yay!). Saturday we walked downtown to the farmer's market, which is only a little over a mile away (again - walking, yay!), got lunch at a little cafe, stopped at BB&B to get some spice jars, and joined a gym.

I'm beyond excited that all of these things are within walking distance - even if we are kind of in the suburbs, at least there are a few things around to do! We're also only two blocks away from the MAX which means getting into Portland without driving is entirely reasonable. So you see? It's not really that bad out here! And maybe, with time, I will learn to love it like I did Corvallis!

Homemade Takeout: Sweet & Sour Soy Curls

One of my fellow vegetarian coworkers brought me a bag of soy curls for Christmas. I was very excited because I'd only ever had soy curls at a few food carts in Portland, but never seen them in the store or used them at home. Unfortunately, my excitement wasn't enough to get me to use them right away. I think I just wanted to find the perfect dish since I only had this one small bag to use!

Well I finally felt inspired - a vegetarian version of a sweet & sour chicken! To tell you the truth, I don't think I've ever had sweet & sour chicken, but it all of a sudden sounded like something I must have right.now. And let me tell you, it is some pretty delicious stuff!

Sweet & Sour Soy Curls
1/2 pkg soy curls
1 red bell pepper, large dice
1/2 large yellow onion, large dice
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 small can of diced pineapple
Handful of roasted cashews
Green onion for garnish
1 recipe Sweet & Sour Sauce
Brown rice

1. Soak soy curls according to package (was 10 minutes in warm water) - drain well and place on a baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for 20-40 minutes, turning occasionally (the longer you let them bake, the crispier and drier they will be - I don't care for squishy textures so I left them in the oven awhile).
2. Make the Sweet & Sour sauce while the soy curls are cooking.
3. Saute the bell pepper, onion, and ginger over medium high heat until just tender, drain the pineapple and add to the peppers and onions.
4. Add the soy curls to the pan along with the Sweet & Sour sauce and toss to coat.
5. Serve over brown rice and top with roasted cashews and diced green onions.

Delicious! I must figure out where to get some soy curls of my own now - it's a nice texture change from tofu!

Instagram Recap

It's been a busy couple of months - after our Iceland trip I headed to Hawaii for a work conference, made a trip up to Washington to see my family and friends for a long weekend, and then was approved for a last minute work trip to Dublin. I also started my masters program this week which is a bit of an adjustment - I can't say I missed homework terribly, but I am excited about it nonetheless!

I finally signed up for an Instagram account, and I have some serious mixed feelings about it. I like the filters and effects it has better than Hipstamatic but I hate that I have to be connected to the network to finish taking a photo (doesn't work great for international travel) and I don't like that I can't save the raw photo and apply multiple affects to it. Regardless - here are a few photos from the recent weeks!

Grafton Street - Dublin

 

 Morning Coffee

 Vegetarian Breakfast @ Cornucopia Dublin

Flowers on Grafton Street

 Cathedral

 Dublin Doorway

 Rain from the hotel window

 Dinner on our day trip to Hood River

 Strawberry Cheesecake - My first creation for the "Dessert a Month" package donated on behalf of Heartland Humane Society

That's all for now - likely to have some exciting news to share within the next week or so, but keeping my mouth shut for now!