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Spring Break just ended around here. While Josh and I did not take any time off, our families did. First, Ben's Oma Glenda and Opa Dean stayed with us right before their flight to Spain. The next day, March 12, Ben cut his first tooth! Despite teething pain, he finds time to have fun!
That weekend, Josh and I went to my parents' house, where my brothers and Tante Heidi also were for dinner.
Ben evidently really likes plastic bottles...
Back at home, Ben is starting to take an interest in toys. He even plays with Curious George.
Sadie, who had her 4th birthday on March 17, continues her role as self-appointed guard dog.
Meanwhile Ben stays occupied with his toy elephants.
Ben's Aunt Bethany and her boyfriend John visited him. Unfortunately he was teething, so it was not his most cheerful afternoon. I was telecommuting that day, so while I had to work, at least I was able to go to lunch with everyone!
Ben now grabs at books during storytime - I'm lucky if I can go through a couple pages!
Ben loves watching basketball... must be something about March Madness!
When Oma Glenda and Opa Dean returned from Spain, they got to play with Ben again!
Ben got new animal pajamas. Unfortunately, they barely fit him. Guess we're buying 18 month clothing soon!
We visited my parents last weekend, and Ben had lots of energy to spend!
Over the past weekend, I made Golden-Cinnamon Pumpkin Bars, a recipe I found on the Cookie Madness blog. It used up my Cinnamon Chips and was a great snack.
Josh and I were pretty excited when we saw a Gravy Oven Cheese Fries with Roasted Garlic recipe on seriouseats.com. It tasted alright, but is way heavier than what we normally eat. Serves us right for trying to splurge! However, it is the first time we used Gruyere cheese... it won't be the last.
Josh and I had pasta with ricotta salata the other night, based on a Cooking Light recipe. It's a simple meal, one with mostly pantry items - it will be a good quick dinner.
Two weekends ago, my mom made us a Bon Appetit family style meal: Five-Spice Chicken, Snow Peas with Toasted Almonds and Ginger Rice. I had not had food like it in a long time, so it was very refreshing.
The other weekend I made Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies, a recipe by Giada de Laurentiis. I love toffee, but ever since discovering the Cooking Light chocolate chip cookie recipe, this one really can't compare.
In our effort to make more seafood, we made rainbow trout with a panko crust. It tasted just fine, but Josh wasn't crazy about it - probably won't be a repeat.
Recently Josh was in the mood for sweet potatoes, so we made mashed sweet potatoes based on instructions in the Bittman cookbook "How to Cook Everything." We added a tiny amount of butter and salt - they were soooo good!
One of our repeat recipes is Hawaiian Pizza, a Robin Miller recipe. Sure, we've tinkered with the recipe a bit - crushed red pepper and garlic, for example. But lately we've started adding tomato paste and cheddar cheese (before we only used Monterrey Jack cheese). The result? Not particularly healthy, but quite delicious!
There was some Lemon Pepper Shrimp and Couscous left from last night, but not enough to make a meal for two people.
I took one of the ciabatta rolls we had on hand, cut it open with a bread knife and preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
I melted butter and mixed it with garlic powder and a small amount of Italian seasoning. The melted topping was put on the opened sides of the bread, and then I topped it with some shredded mozzarella. Then I put the top on the bottom of the bread, wrapped it in foil and placed it on a cookie sheet.
Once the oven was preheated, the bread baked for 15 minutes. I sliced in into about 10 thin slices - Josh had most of them. Since he said he could eat the bread every day for the rest of his life, I have a feeling that this may be requested again.
I love apples - always have. However, I'm always good at finishing entire bags full of apples by myself.
In order to use up apples before they get too old, I decided to make an apple crisp. I just sliced a few Pink Lady apples and placed them in a small 8 inch square glass pan. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
I then mixed the apples with cinnamon and a very small amount of granulated sugar.
I mixed 2 tablespoons of melted butter, some light brown sugar, cinnamon and about 1 cup of oatmeal to make the topping. Next, I spread the topping over the apples.
Once the oven was preheated, I cooked it for 25 minutes. Here's what came out... it may look simple, but it was so good that even Josh (not a huge apple fan) liked it!
After a not-so-healthy dinner on Friday, Josh and I are trying to eat more at home (and healthier!). We both took health risk assessments, and our areas of improvement are nutrition, exercise and stress. We've been cooking at home more and more, and are starting to take nightly walks (which the dogs sure do appreciate)!
I read the most recent Cooking Light issue during my flight to Virginia this past week. One of the recipes, for Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi, caught my eye - we've been eating seafood a couple of times a week lately, and it looked great.
I used some garlic and olive oil couscous we had in the pantry, but otherwise followed the recipe. While Josh does not consider this to be shrimp scampi due to the absence of cream, it is definitely an easy recipe to make - took less than 20 minutes, and the only thing I don't always have on hand is shrimp! Of course, it doesn't hurt that it tastes delicious too!
This will be a repeat...
On Friday night, we went to a small place on 494 called Pete's Burger Place. It turned out to be a small, clean place with delicious (but not so healthy!) food. Now we have a place for steak fingers nearby!
Just when we thought we had beat out sicknesses, they came back! We are fortunate now to have been illness-free for two weeks - and hopefully for many more to come. During the past few weeks, we just kept on telling ourselves that Benjamin's immune system was developing very well!
One night, when Ben had a fever, we were told to give him Tylenol and just keep a diaper on him. So he played with one of his toys on the ground.
A couple of days later, he was on medication for his ear infection and enjoying floor time.
Then, we had a peaceful Valentine's Day for Benjamin (his Daddy, on the other hand, had a fever and didn't feel so well).
The next day, Ben got a fever. Then, I started feeling ill too. Turns out we all got the same virus. Ben even got a rash. I had to go to Dallas on a business trip, and the rash looked way worse when I got back (it was so hard to leave). The day after I returned, Ben got a skin biospy to make sure that his rash was a viral reaction (it was). Then, we bought him a jumper - best investment ever! He enjoyed watching his daddy assemble it.
But he enjoys using it even more!
His rash eventually went away and things calmed down. My mom even came up that Sunday to help out - Josh and I got a lunch date, and she helped us with folding laundry, something I never get to! Ben really enjoyed floor time over the weekend.
Sadie even guards Ben!
He is now closer and closer to sitting up on his own - should be soon!
And if I thought he couldn't get more adorable, he proved me wrong!
He even sticks out his tongue while playing. My mom says that is just like his Opa Peter!
Ben and Sadie continue to bond, she guards him - sometimes even from Perry!
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