Because some things are just too weird not to share, here’s a photo of a two-headed lettuce leaf that held an honorary place in our salad tonight. Creepy but curious.
Then again, my husband’s comment was, “It’s just produce.” Nothing special.
Maybe. Maybe not.
As I’ve now hit 31 weeks of pregnancy, I’ve received more and more baby gifts and the impending arrival of the baby is becoming suddenly very real, what with all the baby stuff lying around. I can’t believe we’re down to single digits when counting down the weeks! But we find ourselves still living with relatives, which means I still don’t have a nursery to decorate yet and can’t really be buying big things for baby. This means that perhaps I’ve been a little too overcome by the adorableness of onesies – something I can still buy, even if I try to limit most of that shopping to window shopping! I do have to remind myself that a single baby can only wear so much clothing and I’m bound to receive quite a few more outfits as gifts – which I think is great … I just have to limit my own purchases right now. Not an easy task.
But at least I can still look! And I’ve been browsing the stores online, too, which is where I found these totally adorable and sweet – pun intended – onesies by the Baby Bunch
I’ve noticed that all the recipes I’ve posted thus far have been deserts, and since I’ve made soup today to counter the chilly weather streak, I thought I’d post it. This is a recipe for Goulash Soup that I originally got off another website years ago, but have changed to suit our tastes. There seem to be quite a few versions of Hungarian Goulash soup and a few disputes as to what goes into Hungarian Goulash. Either way, this recipe works great for us.
Mostly, as I’ve played with the recipe over the years, I took out some stuff – like noodles. For all the many times I’ve enjoyed some Goulash at a little, mom and pop restaurant in Germany (and once in Austria), I don’t ever remember there being any type of noodle in the soup. So even though I’ve seen recipes with noodles or dumplings, I leave them out because that’s not how I like it. Some had green peppers, but I don’t really like peppers, so I leave them out, too. And I adjusted the amounts of veggies and meat a little.
Everything in the soup, from the meat to potatoes to veggies, I cut into tiny, bit-sized pieces, so you get a little of everything in each spoonful, and also so everything is cooked through and tender. Chunks about a half inch for the meat and potatoes, and for the veggies even a little smaller.
Incidentally, if you’re interested, even though this recipe calls for beef, I have also made the soup with venison. I don’t really like venison, but when you have a freezer full of it, well, you adjust. Anyway, because the soup cooks for awhile and any meat you use gets tender, you could probably use whatever you’ve got on hand.
I find that the most labor intensive part of the preparation is cutting up the meat, since you can put most of the veggies in a food processor to save time, but you can also cut up the meat ahead of time if you want to throw the soup together more quickly.
It goes well with some cold German beer and I usually serve it with a salad.
Goulash Soup
Prep Time: about 30 mins.
Total Time: 2 1/2 to 3 hours
Olive Oil
2 to 3 pounds chuck beef, cubed
1 large onion (I prefer a sweet onion), diced
3 to 4 garlic cloves, finely diced (I actually use a garlic press)
3 to 4 carrots, diced
3 to 4 stalks celery, diced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juice (I use petite diced)
3 to 4 potatoes, diced
3 to 4 tablespoons paprika
4 beef bouillon cubes
Salt
Pepper
1/2 to 1 cup sour cream
In a large pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and cook onions over medium or medium low heat until they are translucent and just starting to brown, at least five minutes. Stir in the paprika; if it’s too dry, add more oil – the mixture should be very red. Then add the meat and garlic to the pot. Sprinkle a little salt (not more than a teaspoon as there’s salt in the bouillon) and a couple teaspoons pepper over the meat. Brown the meat on all sides. Then cover the meat mixture with water, about 6 to 8 cups and add the bouillon cubes. Let simmer on low for an hour.
Add the carrots, celery and tomatoes and let cook for a half hour. Then add the potatoes and allow to simmer on low for another half hour. Check to make sure things are tender – for example, if you can smoosh a potato piece with the spoon, things are probably done. At this point stir in the sour cream. Start with a half cup of sour cream, but add more if you like, and don’t worry if the top of the soup looks a little red as some of the paprika floats to the top. Once the sour cream is stirred in, allow to heat for a few more minutes before serving. It makes about 8 to 10 servings.
There’s been a barrage of emails in my inbox talking about pregnancy nutrition and eating healthy. Even considering my intense cravings for cookies and baked goods, I’m probably the healthiest I’ve ever been, but there are still things I’ve had trouble incorporating into my diet. For example, I’m not a big fish eater – in fact fish often makes me sick, with a few small exceptions.
But there’s this huge push to consume omega 3s. Sure, I use Smart Balance Omega, but consuming large portions of a butter substitute just to obtain omegas is probably not all that smart. Plus, I mostly only eat fish when there’s the same amount of mayonnaise as tuna fish in my sandwich – again, not the healthiest option.
Fish oils and omega 3s, all the studies (or at least the journalists) proclaim, are super important for pregnant women to get so that the babies will have big, healthy brains. The studies seem genuine, and, at the very least, I’ve heard nothing negative about them.
So I’ve started taking a fish oil supplement. I have pills, but they’re so huge, and I have so much trouble taking normal sized pills already, that I just choke on them and can’t manage to get them down at all. I hate pills. Pills hate me.
So I headed over to the Vitamin Shoppe and browsed the shelves, reviewing the variety of fish oil, omega 3, 6, and/or 9, salmon oil and cod liver oil. I just couldn’t tell how big the pills were in any of the jars, though, so I started looking at alternative options. There was an omega gummy, but they provided only a fraction of the supplement that came in pill form, and they were kind of pricey for the amount of omegas they contained.
Finally, I settled on something called Coromega Omega 3 Squeeze. It’s a box full of little packets of smooth, thick liquid that’s about the consistency of cupcake icing. I bought the orange flavor and I find it to taste just like a hard candy that’s flavored like an orange creamsicle.
I already know, from the years that my parents owned a GNC and I worked with them, that liquids are a better way to absorb your vitamins than pills. According to the Coromega website, this product that was developed in Norway years ago has been clinically proven to have a 300% better absorption of the supplement than softgel pills. Either way, it’s easy to take, it tastes pretty decent, and I’m finally getting more of those omegas that my husband insists I absolutely, without question, need for the health of the baby.
The Omega 3 Squeeze is made with real fish oil, in fact it’s the main ingredient, but I have to say that it doesn’t have a funny taste that reminds me of fish in any way. Which is good, because I just don’t like fish. At all. And whatever I eat has a good chance of repeating on me (just another fun side effect of pregnancy), but I find I don’t mind so much with this supplement because it tastes like candy. Although, when I chase it with one of those little shots of DanActive yogurts, which I often do so that I remember to get in that extra calcium, then there’s definitely no problem of the oil repeating.
Luckily I can manage to swallow those horse pills the doctors call prenatals, so I’m already healthier than my normal self, but I figure those extra boosts of omega supplements and then the yogurt and a daily glass of calcium-fortified orange juice go a long ways toward improving mine and the baby’s health. I’m by no means a nutrition nut, but at least I try to incorporate all the food groups and various nutrients now. At least being pregnant keeps it forefront in my mind. And, at least there are healthy options out there that don’t have to be taken in pill form.
I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s sense of humor, but then I’m a satirist myself, so I suppose that’s no surprise. So here are some of my favorite Twain quotes, and a few that have made me laugh. I may add to this list later, though, as all my books are still packed away in storage and I don’t have access to them right now.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”
“When I find a well-drawn character in fiction or biography I generally take a warm personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him before–met him on the river.”
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
“I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me. To misplace an adverb is a thing which I am able to do with frozen indifference; it can never give me a pang. … There are subtleties which I cannot master at all, — they confuse me, they mean absolutely nothing to me, — and this adverb plague is one of them. … Yes, there are things which we cannot learn, and there is no use in fretting about it. I cannot learn adverbs; and what is more I won’t.”
“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”
“Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.”
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
“Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.”
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.”
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”
“All generalizations are false, including this one.”
***
(Both images are in the public domain, but can be found at Wikipedia Commons, if you’re interested.)
Well, I’ve never been one for Resolutions, but I still always find that the New Year is a great chance to view things with fresh eyes. It’s a strange New Year for me, if only because I went to bed sober last night. Pregnancy does change things (like keeping me up half the night with heartburn).
But this year really is a new start for us. My husband is officially out of the Army now – his last day of active duty was Christmas Eve. And this year is a new start in many ways: a new home (we’re not in one just yet, but that’ll happen soon enough), a new baby (the March due date is right around the corner!), and a new life in general: new jobs, new projects and new priorities.
I’m excited about 2010. Here’s hoping this year is better than the last few.
***
And back to those Resolutions, here’s a New Year’s quote and t-shirt for you:
“New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” – Mark Twain
We spent our wedding anniversary at Madeira Beach – a beautiful, quaint location that has a lot of history for us. There was shopping and sunsets, ice cream and dolphins, and we had a fabulous time!
It was totally romantic, but also very peaceful and refreshing. Check out all the photos on my Travelblog!
On a not-too-chilly Florida evening, my husband and I find our seats in a darkened stadium that slowly fills to capacity. After an announcer welcomes us and tries not to burst with excitement, promising us a special surprise and insisting over and over that we “not leave early,” everything goes black.
There’s a misty blue light clouding onto to the stage and as deep bells ring out and a rumble slowly crescendos, silhouetted figures become visible and then with a burst of quick, colorful lights and a heavy bass of drums and electric guitars a chorus of voices explodes into the stadium. There’s music, loud and passionate, and lights, swift and pulsating, and at one point I see a guitarist, his long, blond hair whipping about because he’s headbanging as he jams out to “Joy to the World,” and I find myself thinking, hey, these are my kind of people.
Somewhere between the keyboard and electric guitars, the long, feathered hair, the ballad-like lyrics and the vibrant laser light show, I feel like I’m in the middle of an ‘80s metal music video. It’s pretty cool. Of course, I’m a child of the ‘80s, so I can’t help it: metal’s in my blood.
But this isn’t your normal rock concert. It’s the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Winter Tour 2009 performance at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. We attended on 06 December, buying the tickets kind of in celebration of my birthday, which was the day before, and our wedding anniversary, which is next week. We though it would be nice to do something a little different, which is what the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is: a little different. It’s a mini-orchestra but it’s a rock band, too. They play Christmas music and pieces from traditional operas, as well as their own works.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been around since the release of their first single, “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo 12/24,” fourteen years ago. They’ve sold over seven million copies of their first four albums, but they are best known for their concerts, playing to over 5 million people in over 80 cities by 2008. Their concerts are presumably memorable because creator Paul O’Neill was not only trying to build a progressive rock band that would push existing boundaries, but, according to their website, he was determined to have “people to walk out of our shows speechless and…still not believing what they have seen was possible.”
It was certainly impressive, but I also can’t say that it was the best concert I’ve ever seen – especially since the last concert I saw was Paul McCartney, and I don’t think anyone will ever top that. The band was certainly talented, most of the vocals were well executed, and the light show was well arranged, but there was something a little off. I think that perhaps it was a bit unbalanced. I thought the narration was nice and provided a fairly appropriate break between some of the songs, but some segments were a little overly-lengthy.
Also overly-lengthy was the slow song sang by a singer portraying a drunken homeless man to only the background on a single acoustic guitar. It’s not that I can’t appreciate a good message or a temporary slow pace while attending a rock show, it’s just that it’s so darned hard to me to make out what people are saying through a microphone when I’m not familiar with the material, and it’s just as hard for me to be entertained by what I’m only able to interpret as gibberish. It’s not their fault – I’m a bit hard of hearing these days, but I can honestly say I mostly enjoyed the loud music and psychedelic lights and the energy of the passionate band members, like the crazy, headbanging violinist who kept swinging around her bow.
After what I’ve just said, however, I still feel it’s important to mention that one of my absolute favorite parts of the show was a single man soulfully singing “O Holy Night.” I took over 30 minutes worth of video of the concert, but didn’t tape this – and wish that I had. It was a very powerful performance.
I also have to mention that we did not have good seats. I can’t complain too much since we didn’t even buy the tickets until a week before the performance, so we already knew our choices would be limited. And maybe it was just the venue, since there were these gigantic posters hanging from the ceiling of the stadium to brag about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s past accomplishments just to the left of where we were sitting and there was this massive structure, presumably to hold lights, that was hanging very low and just above the stage, and thus obstructing our view. I would see this concert again in the future, but only if I had the money to spring for the best seats: either on the floor in front of the stage or at least in the first level. We just really felt that the show would have been much, much better if you could look directly at the stage and not down on it from the nosebleed section.
As a special treat, instead of a traditional encore, the surprise the announcer had promised turned out to be a guest appearance by Joe Walsh (a former Eagle), who sang the last two songs of the evening. It was a completely different atmosphere, and one that was purely fun – even the TSO band members were having a blast onstage. He did an eight-minute performance of “Life’s Been Good” and then “Rocky Mountain Way,” complete with talk-box sound effects.
Incidentally, this completely unexpected turn of events – Joe Walsh’s appearance – means that in this year of 2009, my husband and I saw live performances from one of the Beatles and one of the Eagles. Just one of each, but that makes it a memorable year nonetheless.
And now to leave you with a quote from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra:
In the moments of our lives / Both the joyous and the tragic / If the truth is to be told / We are all pursuing magic. / And the magic that we seek / As we’re sure you have discovered / Can be found in certain places / Far more easily than others.
In the sand beneath the Sphinx / In the dreams of candlelight / But the surest place of all / Is the forgiving world of night. / And of all the nights throughout the year / That come and gently leave / None hold the dream of magic / Like the evening, Christmas Eve.
Saturday was my 28th birthday and my husband and I spent the day out. We saw a movie, though that choice was mostly made because we had been meaning to visit the Big Cat Rescue but the weather was terrible and we needed to find an indoor activity. So: movie. Simple enough solution.
Then we had a nice dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy at the Westshore Plaza in Tampa. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to have my birthday dinner, but his parents and sister gave me a gift certificate which was good at a few places, including Maggiano’s, and I’d been in the mood for Italian, so again: easy solution.
The food was quite good and the décor upscale, but we’ll probably stick with Carrabba’s Italian Grill in the future since its still Seth’s favorite restaurant – and it’s cheaper. I’m just not that much of a “high class” person, but when I do go somewhere that’s supposed to be classy, I don’t expect the servers to shout to eat other from twenty feet away or to touch every single water glass in the restaurant with the rim of the water pitcher or to ask me if we’d like them to box up our food when I’ve still got my fork in my hand.
If I’m going to chance putting up with all that, I’m going to eat somewhere cheaper.
The food, though, was very good, and because it was Seth’s first time eating there, we were offered (just like we saw them offering other tables) a complimentary sample of their fried zucchini, or Crispy Zucchini Fritte, appetizer. That’s something I wouldn’t have ordered on my own, but it was incredibly tasty! The crunchy, breaded zucchini with a warm, soft center then dipped into the lemon aioli cream sauce was more like a savory dessert then a vegetable. Also, we had ordered the Bruschetta, which we both loved. Fresh, juicy tomato chunks topped crouton-like, crispy bread, and I thought it could have used a little onion, but Seth thought it was perfect the way it was. Those two appetizers were our favorite part of dinner, really, and we could easily go back for just wine and appetizers and be plenty satisfied.
For an entrée, Seth got the Chicken Marsala, which he said was very good, but he still preferred Carrabba’s – no surprise there. (I think he could eat Carrabba’s Chicken Marsala every night and never get tired of it!) He wished there was pasta on the plate, too, but since pasta is traditionally a first course, I believe that’s why it was excluded. I ordered pasta as my main course: a plate of Gnocchi with Tomato Vodka Sauce. The gnocchi were tender and the tomato-cream gravy smooth and flavorful. I do prefer more sauce on my food, which I know is merely a personal preference, but the top pieces seemed a little dry to me since the sauce had pooled in the bottom of the bowl.
No dessert was ordered because we were both quite stuffed, and there was cake waiting for me at home anyway. In fact, I barely made a dent in my full-size (as opposed to half-sized) plate, which I believe could have really fed three or four people, and even Seth took home some chicken. But that’s okay; we’ll just have leftovers for a little while.
The mailbox has recently been stuffed full of myriad catalogs selling everything from cheese logs to chocolate pretzels to flavored popcorn. These are dangerous times for a pregnant lady…
So, to satisfy some unexpected cravings, today I made a snack that I love: Caramel Popcorn, or Caramel Corn. I use the recipe from my Pillsbury Complete Cookbook, simply omitting the slivered almonds, because I prefer just the popcorn. Plus, this is a great recipe because all of the ingredients are usually in my pantry anyway – so no need for preplanning! I’ve made this for parties and potlucks, but also just for myself to enjoy because it’s so simple to make.
I prefer to use light brown sugar, but all we had on hand was the dark, which also works, though it has a slightly stronger flavor. And because my first batch of popcorn was mostly burnt and I decided to make a fresh batch but use a handful of decent-looking pieces from the burnt package, I ended up with some extra popcorn and not every piece was fully covered in caramel. No big deal, though – the pieces only partially covered taste just as good!
Another note: when you add in the baking soda, be sure to mix it in well. The caramel should become thick and lighter in color before you pour it over the popcorn, otherwise the end product will be a little off. Also, do NOT let the hot caramel touch your skin – that’s a searing burn you don’t want!
So here it is:
Caramel Corn
Prep: 15 mins., Yield: 6 (1 Cup) Servings
6 cups popped popcorn
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds, if desired
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
In a large, microwave-safe bowl, combine popcorn and almonds. In a 4-cup microwave-safe measuring cup, combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt; mix well.
Microwave sugar mixture on high for 2 minutes. Stir, then microwave for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until mixture comes to a rolling boil.
Stir in baking soda and mix well. Immediately pour over the popcorn and toss until coated.
Microwave popcorn mixture on high for 2 minutes. Mix again to make sure all the pieces are coated, then spread out on waxed paper to cool, separating the big chunks.
I use two spoons for separating the caramelized pieces. Once cool, I store it in a plastic Tupperware-type container, and I find that it stays good for awhile – though it usually never lasts more than a few days at most in my house! :)
