Visualize whirled peas

My baby was born to eat. We all were, really. It's a necessary part of life, a key to survival. With almost every gulp of milk or spoonful of vegetable puree, she makes small, grateful "mmm" sounds, as if to say "Thanks. This is just what I needed, and it's good stuff."

Now that she's sampling vegetables and fruits herself, without me as the processing middleman, she opens her mouth wide, showing her brand-new serrated teeth and eagerly awaiting the spoon delivery of her fruit and veggie mash. She loves each bite -- but somehow, she knows when to stop. She knows when enough is enough, and she trusts that when she gets hungry again, her daddy or I will be there to fill her up again. She has no need to stock up -- no matter how sweet those pears are, or how creamy the carrots -- she trusts that we will provide, and stops when she is full.

How do we lose this sense of "enough," this trust of the hands that feed us?

A taste of Scandinavia

This is what I had for lunch. This is what I'm still savoring, two hours later: Spice-encrusted salmon with Aquavit sour cream and new potato and green bean salad with capers and herbs.

The salmon, bought skin-on and frozen from Trader Joe's, was surprisingly fresh, tender, and flaky, rubbed all over with dill seeds, fennel seeds, cumin, and coriander. A splash of lemon juice before baking and a ridiculously generous dollop of sour cream seasoned with fiery Aquavit and caraway seeds cooled and complemented the salty, anise-y fish. And on the side, we enjoyed the buttery texture of new potatoes, fresh from the farmer's market, seasoned with mint, basil, and parsley, then tossed with green beans, olive oil, lemon juice and tangy lemon zest. For an umami-pleasing twist, this summer salad was peppered with briny capers.

Thanks to Andreas Viestad for the recipe, and to my husband for enjoying it with me. It was a fresh taste of Scandinavia in our own backyard.

Learning to love goat cheese

I used to think I hated goat cheese. It wasn't the taste, really; I mean, I was pretty confident that if I held my nose while I ate it, I would enjoy it very much. Somehow, that pungent, "goaty" smell just turned me off, and I steered clear of all goat cheese recipes -- which always looked so delicious -- for years.

And I'm here to tell you that I not only put up with goat cheese, I love it. Don't ask me what changed; I guess I just decided to like it, and now I can't get enough of this creamy stuff.

This recipe was what really did it for me:

Goat cheese salad with beets and walnuts

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 5 small roasted beets,* peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
  
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, finely chopped
• 6 ounces soft goat cheese, room temperature
• Lettuce, spring greens, beet greens, baby spinach -- whatever tender greens you have on hand
  

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together shallot, vinegar, orange juice, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Place beets in a small bowl. Pour 1/3 of the dressing over beets; toss to coat.
2. Place walnuts in a shallow dish. With your hands, form goat cheese into 12 equal balls. Roll balls in walnuts, turning to coat completely, then flatten into discs.
3. Place greens in a large bowl. Drizzle with remaining dressing, and toss to combine. Divide among plates, and top each serving with some of the sliced beets and 3 goat-cheese discs.

*TO ROAST BEETS: Wrap washed beets, with the skins still intact, in 2-3 packets of aluminum foil, and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size, until beets are slightly soft to the touch. Cool in packets, then rub off skins.

Adapted from Great Food Fast

If you're like most people, you probably don't eat beets too often, either, so this recipe might actually get you hooked not only on goat cheese, but on this sweet, tender root vegetable as well.

Enjoy this late-spring meal with loved ones outside, with the breeze blowing through the backyard, light condensation forming on your iced tea glasses, and the sweet and tangy tastes of beets and goat cheese mingling in your mouth.

I highly recommend it.

Oh, and so does Mr. Incredible; actually, he's the expert in our house at preparing this salad (which is probably why the walnut-studded cheese medallions are so, well, perfect).

Feelin' Irish

Three months

Man does not live on bread alone

But it certainly doesn't hurt. Now that I am a stay-at-home mom, I figure I might as well indulge my more time-consuming domestic and do-it-yourself urges. So I bake bread. My bread repertoire is expanding to include soft, swirled sandwich bread; chewy, porous rustic loaves, and long, shiny-topped Italian feather bread. I also make cheese, although so far I've only made microwave mozzarella.

Mr. Incredible says this is one of his favorite things about my new vocation--that I make bread and cheese. I'm not sure what he's more excited about: that he knows my diaper-filled days are also filled with kitchen fun, that he gets to eat my delicious experiments, that we're saving money and still enjoying artisanal food, or that we've moved one step closer to living off the land.

Next, he says, he'd like to start bottling his own perry from our remarkably prolific pear tree. And in between loaves of bread and canning the summer harvest of our 5-gallon bucket garden, I think I'll lend him a hand.

What up, my homies?

Handmade gifts

In the past few weeks, we have received a number of beautiful, handmade gifts for our baby. Here are some photos of just a few of them (to the left are the burpcloths my friend Katie made for us--I stole her image of them because she's a better photographer than I am)! Thanks to Katie, Brubaby will be barfing in style.

And here's a long-awaited shot of the blanket I knitted, on a backdrop of the soft white blanket Mr. Incredible's mom stitched for us. This is a winter baby, and everyone seems determined to make sure that we get some good, warm cuddling in before the weather turns warm. I'm not into pastels, you see; hence the autumnal colors. Everyone thinks this means I'm having a boy. I think it means I don't like pastels. Either way, I'm really happy with the blanket--it's soft and washable and I can't wait to use it.

And here is the blanket [Great-] Aunt Mildred knitted for our baby. As a novice knitter, this crocheted blanket looks impossibly complicated to me, and we'll always think fondly of Aunt Mildred when we use it. She is, without a doubt, the cutest, sweetest Brethren in Christ little old lady I've ever met, and somehow I had the fortune of marrying into her extended family.

Okay, enough with blankets! This kid is going to be swaddled and bundled like crazy.

The wife of my cousin by marriage--yes, it's a little complicated--surprised us with this beautiful sweater, which she knitted herself. I love the design; it's so simple, almost with an Asian styling to it. She also knitted a little red flower, "to pretty it up" in case we have a girl!

And perhaps my favorite items are these onesies, made with love by dear Brandie. I love these little animal characters, with all their varied textures and buttons, and can't wait to dress my little one in Aunt Brandie's creations. Part of me loves these onesies--just like Katie's burpcloths--because both of these friends very recently got into sewing and threw themselves into making totally amazing, useful, creative items!

But I love them also because I know that, behind every stitch of all these gifts, there's so much love and time and prayer that's already being invested in our little one.

Thank you, everyone, for welcoming Brubaby so enthusiastically! Now if this baby will just make its appearance sometime soon, it can actually use these items. . . .

Welcome to Brubaby's room

During Thanksgiving week, we finished Brubaby's room. Not that he or she will be spending a whole lot of time in it for a little while, but it feels good to have it done. At least there's a place to put all of the baby stuff! Mr. Incredible worked hard on this room, with very little help from me--partly because of the fumes and partly because, by the time we were ready to paint, I was too big to be climbing up and down a ladder!

He gave up his study, moving his desk into the dining room; then, with his dad's help, he put new drywall up on the ceiling (it looked like the plaster would give way sometime soon). After our favorite local drywall finisher did the dusty, nasty work of taping and spackling--we hate that part--Mr. Incredible painted the room with the help of a generous neighbor. And then, almost on a whim, he decided to refinish the floor--a feat he accomplished in one day with a pretty cool tung oil-based product. The result is a nice, warm, natural finish that we're pleased with. We headed to Ikea last week for a fun rug, and now all we have to do is hang some pictures!

The chair was a random yard sale purchase that my mom made; it's surprisingly comfy!

The baby's closet is already getting full.



















The crib also came from my parents.

My buddy

Today, among many other things, I am thankful for a well-behaved, happy dog.

{30 weeks}

Of apple butter and autumn-colored yarn

As September draws to a crisp, cool close, I’m happily overwhelmed by the rich colors of the season. From the pale green and red painted leaves—just starting to turn—to the glossy, deep brown of my apple butter, neatly contained in timeless glass jars with brassy-colored rims . . . these are my comfort colors.

Rich reddish-brown chestnuts with blackened ends scattered across a grey sidewalk—

The deep, vibrant coppers, teals, and browns of the chunky, hand-painted yarn I’m using to knit a baby blanket—

The quilted brown of my bedspread, next to the creams and whites of our bedroom carpet and curtains, against the dusky green of our walls—

The glossy, almost waxy orange of my solitary $1 pumpkin against the creamy tan of butternuts ready to be roasted and eaten—

These are a few of my favorite [fall] things.

{26.5 weeks}

Raw beauty

These photos were snapped in a distinct window of time -- an hour after the afternoon showers stopped, minutes after these beauties were plucked from their vines, and seconds before they were thrown on the grill and into the pot to become next winter's pasta sauce.

Photos: Mr. & Mrs. Incredible

More photographic proof {22 weeks}

I suppose it's still possible, at this point, to think that maybe I've just been making too many visits to Dozen Cupcakes. But the truth is becoming more obvious every day.

Our little alien

We had our first ultrasound yesterday and were happy to discover that we are the proud parents of a bony alien who has (as far as they can tell) a healthy heart and a full set of intact body parts. It was amazing to see our little one on the screen and watch him or her swim around to get away from the annoying pressure that the technician was putting on my belly. As much as I wanted to get a good look at the baby, I had to cheer for it that it was so skilled at evading the ultrasound.

Here are some glamour shots.

How we spread the surprising news

A crossword for my grandma (this is her first great-grandchild)



A canister of tea for the veteran grandma (this is her fourth)









When my parents were pregnant with me, they announced it to my grandma using a mustard yellow sweatshirt that said "It's just ducky being a grandma" (in fuzzy iron-on black letters, of course -- it was 1982).




We thought it was a good enough tradition to continue.

The welcome package

I’ve been wanting to post this photos for a couple of weeks now . . . here are some photos of the welcome package I received from Brady Communications, where I now work. See why I feel so good about this?

Work in progress

Because I am tired of everyone badgering me to post photos of our new bedroom . . . here they are. As you can see, we're lacking all the finishing touches: trim around the windows and doors, art on the walls, curtains, etc.

But we're really enjoying the carpet, which has a great texture to it, and our super-organized closet. Hopefully someday soon I'll be able to post photos of the completed project!