Mendolonium

My in-laws came up to visit us (really Thomas) yesterday.  They live about an hour from us in a “beach city” where the temperature rarely strays outside 55- 75 degrees regardless of season.  Yesterday, the daytime weather here was in the upper 50s.  My mother in law commented several times about the “extreme” weather we have here and her dislike of the cold.  After being born in Minnesota and living for years in places such as Wyoming and Nebraska, I cannot fathom the weather here as extreme.  That said, I am a person who is perpetually cold and I generally don a sweater as soon as the temperature drops below 80 (no, I am not joking).  I was thinking about what my mother in law said tonight and I realized that, paradoxically, it is because I dislike being cold so strongly and chill so easily that I love fall and winter weather.  I don’t equate cold weather with being cold I think of it as a time to get warm.  There is a very good chance (and a subject for many more blog posts) that we might move to a colder climate within the next couple of years and the truth is I am looking forward to having a proper winter.  I adore sweaters, boots, and coats.  I sleep contentedly under the weight 4 layers of blankets (or I would if I wasn’t contracting or dealing with toddler nightmares).  I am inordinately pleased by the flames dancing in our fireplace right now.  I could live on soup and grilled cheese.  I love spending hours cooking and baking in a warm, fragrant kitchen.  Tonight I made a warm, spicy Indian dish, Chana Masala, for the first time and it was the perfect antidote to our cold weather.

When I was 31 weeks pregnant with Thomas (out of a nominal 40) I woke up in the darkness one Sunday morning with the thought that I had been waking up in pain and falling back asleep for the past couple of hours.  It only took me a few minutes to realize that meant I was having regular contractions.  Upon timing them I discovered that they were regular and 4 minutes apart.  Not at all appropriate for 31 weeks gestation.  After waking Jeff and consulting with our midwife we headed off to labor and delivery, where it was indeed confirmed that I was having regular, strong contractions.  After multiple doses of medication the contractions tapered off somewhat and we were sent home.   The next few days were a whirlwind of contractions, another trip to L & D, visits with our midwife and OB, and me abruptly stopping work and being told to take it very easy.  After all the drama, Thomas was none the worse for the wear and made his entrance into the world at a perfect one day before his estimated due date.

Not to be outdone by his* older brother, this baby seems to have gotten the regular contractions going this past Monday night at just shy of 22 weeks gestation.  Thankfully, this is not my first baby and while I am concerned, I am not overly worried – more annoyed that this seems to be the way my body does the later (or in this case) middle stages of pregnancy.  My midwife and OB, while cautious, concur and I have thus far avoided a trip to L & D or medication with the caveats that I am to present myself for regular monitoring, super-hydrate myself, and again, take it very easy.  So now I have to figure out how to take it easy with a 2 year old, a job, and my sanity.  I have a feeling the job may be the first to go…The two year old, of course, gets priority, and so I turn to cooking for my sanity.  While I would love to go out and do some planting or take a long walk with Thomas those are off the table for now until my contractions don’t react every time I get off the couch for longer than 15 minutes or until this little guy is born.  The upside is, however, more time for blogging and for developing recipes.  So in the spirit of making lemonade from lemons, I give you the recipes for two of my favorite comfort foods:  Egg-Free Buttermilk Pancakes and Black Bean Soup.

Egg-Free Buttermilk Pancakes

Black Bean Soup

*Yes, his.  He is a he.  I have already organized all the baby clothes, bought him a few new things (even though we have everything for a baby boy we could possibly need, I want him to know that he has a few special things that were just his own), and the name discussions have begun in earnest.

Not Crazy…

Enjoying a well-planned Thanksgiving with family and new friends.

We had a perfect Thanksgiving.  I began my preliminary prepwork (making vegetable stock) the Sunday before Thanksgiving, continued prepping on Monday and Tuesday (chopping vegetables), and Thomas and I cooked up a storm all day Wednesday (baking cake, making frosting, making pie, assembling main dishes), with the result that Thanksgiving day was so relaxing I got to sleep in and enjoy hours de vours with our guests.  For those of you who weren’t in attendance the menu was:

• A Selection of American cheeses (cheddar, smokey blue, sheep, and goat) with Crackers, Nuts, and Dried Cranberries
• Stuffed Pasta Shells with Marinara Sauce
• Butternut Squash Boats Stuffed with Quinoa, Leeks, and Parmesan
• Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes
• “Unstuffed” Stuffing
• Cranberry and Orange Salad
• Rutabaga with Parsley and Butter
• Steamed Broccoli and Carrots
• Green Beans Sauteed in Shallot and Almond Butter
• Buttermilk Biscuits with Honey and Butter
• Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Apple Pie

I was very pleased with how the meal turned out.  Nearly all the food was local and some of it (the herbs, the marinara sauce, the carrots) were straight out of our backyard.  Next year I hope to serve our own homegrown squash, pumpkins, potatoes, green beans, and shallots.  We also participated in a program sponsored by Jeff’s employer to host three international students for an American Thanksgiving.  We had three international graduate students in attendance, one from Turkey, one from Germany, and one from India.  They were all so very nice and also provided a lot of interesting perspectives and conversation.  After the meal, my mom helped with clean-up and we spent a lazy evening talking and snacking until…

Crazy…

Everyone departed, we put Thomas to bed, and I packed up to go “Black Friday” shopping…at midnight at an outlet mall.  Now that is crazy.  And I realize that it seems rather unlike me and my non-consumer stance.  The thing is, unless you live on an entirely self-sustaining farm on which you grow your own food, mine your own metals, and produce your own cloth, you are going to have to buy things from time to time.  Some of those things (such as long underwear for living comfortably in our unheated house) are actually a direct result of our living a more low-impact lifestyle.  With the family sleeping I decided in might be fun or at least a “cultural experience” to go out shopping in the wee hours of the morning.  It was what I thought it would be:  crowded, gluttonous, crazy, and a little bit fun.  It was certainly an experience.  The aspect I found most disturbing was not the mass consumption, but the amount of young children out shopping (or more accurately looking pathetic) with their parents.  I saw dozens upon dozens of older babies, toddlers, and young children in various states of sleep and happiness out with the crowds.  It made me very sad to see parents behaving unsympathtictellicy to these poor kids who were clearly exhausted, hungry, thristy, and bored.  I cannot fathom the concept of taking your child out at those hours in that environment.   For me it was a successful trip.  I think that I was probably the only person in the mall who did’t buy a single gift for anyone (we are making the vast majority of our gifts), however, I did find many of the items on my post-Thanksgiving shopping list such as long underwear, rechargeable batteries, and vegetarian shoes.  And I did get to indulge in one of my favorite unsustainable treats:  a buttery mall pretzel with “cheese” dip.

We spent this past Sunday morning at the Roaring L Ranch picking (and eating) apples.

I now have 80 pounds of apples sitting on my dining room table.

Yippie!