So
I’ve been on a little bit of a roll lately in the kitchen. My usual
mid-February craziness hit – with Valentine’s Day and Steph’s birthday
in the same week. And with all that is going on in terms of getting
ready for a new baby, getting the house in order, etc, there was no
super-duper Coach baby bag this year. Although I must say I think I was
a little more practical. Lately I’ve woken up to nails on a chalkboard,
I mean, Dave Mathews Band playing on Steph’s iPhone from the bathroom
as she gets ready in the morning. And I freely admit that I’ve brought
the future pain on myself, but I got her a wireless shower speaker that
can play her iPhone music while in the shower and while she’s getting
ready, and not have to rely on the tiny phone speakers. So yes, the
music in the morning is about to get louder and I know I did it to
myself. But on the other hand I can actually get some use out of it
too.
But back to my roll in the
kitchen. I describe my kitchen skills as a blue moon or possibly an
eclipse. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I try and
really step it up. And in this case of the mid-February craziness, we
had three eclipses in a week. For Valentine’s Day I made Lobster
Colorado aka bacon wrapped steak topped with lobster. Asparagus and red
peppers, and green salad with cucumber and avocado. And it was very
good! Then, the weekend of Steph’s birthday I teamed up with Katelyn to
make bison chili and corn bread, which I’m not going to lie, was pretty
darn good. I found a nice balance to the amount of chili powder to
use. When I made it up at the Lake for New Years, it had everyone’s eyes
watering and nose running it was so spicy. On Sunday Katelyn and I
made bacon, blue cheese and chive stuffed pork chops, prosciutto wrapped
asparagus and ratatouille couscous. This was so-so. The chops were
tender and juicy, but the blue cheese made it a tad salty. Combine that
with the fact that the prosciutto made the asparagus salty as well, and
it was a bit of a downer for the birthday dinner. But I must say, the
presentation was awesome! Then on Monday we had Dinner with the
Cousins/Dinner from the Homeland. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was
to try and do a monthly dinner with the cousins, mainly Steve and Mike
since they are the closest, but for others as well that may be around.
So even though we missed January, I was able to get everyone free for a
night, which just happened to be the day after Steph’s birthday, which
would be the third consecutive night of dinner that didn’t involve a
takeout menu or a microwave. I made German Rouladen. And I thought it
was pretty good. Better then the pork chops because it wasn’t salted too
much, but it did lack a bit of juice. Basically it is rolled flank
steak with stone mustard, onions and a dill pickle spear in the middle.
I browned the meat, then simmered it for about an hour and a half in
beef broth. What I should have done, and will do if I ever make it
again, is make sure I pour some of the broth over the meat every 15-20
minutes to keep it even more tender. Then I went with steamed onions,
peppers and asparagus and a green salad. Bottle of wine, perfect. So I
think the first Dinner with the Cousins/from the Homeland was a
success.
I have now packed up my knives and will be going back to spaghetti and meat sauce or turkey burgers for awhile.
In other news, Katelyn has
had three gymnastics meets, and has done well in all of them. She got
her first 9+ at level 9 two weekend ago when she got a 9.2 on the beam.
She took 2nd with that score. Also, her starting value was only a 9.8, so she only had .6 taken off which is very impressive.
Sierra is still limping
around pretty good. She may have to go back to the vet. It’s tough
seeing her limp around so much knowing how fast and agile she was not to
long ago. I thought Bauer was fast, but she dusted him in a straight
race. We’ll see if the anti-inflammatory meds that the vet gave her a
few weeks ago help any. Keeping her locked down so she won’t use her
bum leg is tough during the day when we aren’t home, but we’ll see how
things progress.
Steph’s
had a few more baby appointments, and everything is progressing nicely
on the pregnancy front. We are at about 28 weeks, so May is creeping up
quickly. Steph’s nursing friends threw her a shower a couple weeks
ago, so the influx of boy clothes has started to build. Not to mention
Kristin was nice enough to pass on Freddy’s baby clothes, so the boy is
going to have quit the wardrobe when he enters the world.
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