Doughnuts and Ice Cream

Having company in town is the perfect excuse for trying new foods.  So with my brother Chris visiting for the weekend, we took a trip to Sur La Table on Saturday afternoon and ended up with a couple of Wilton doughnut baking pans (regular and mini-sized) for making cake doughnuts and then found a Cuisinart ice cream maker on clearance, which also does sorbet and frozen yogurt.

On Sunday morning Mark baked up some chocolate, vanilla, and nutmeg doughnuts and glazed them with either chocolate or regular sugar glazes.  Taylor was so excited about the mini doughnuts and instructed us that those were only hers.  Outside of french toast, this may be her new favorite breakfast.  Not surprising considering the sugar content.  The recipe that came with the pans called for cake flour, which is a lighter flour for fluffier results.  It was our first experience with cake flour, but I think we'll try a different recipe next time that uses regular flour.  The doughnuts were tasty, but not as good as our favorite local doughnut place.

 

Then for an post-lunch dessert, we mixed up some pistacio ice cream.  Yum!  We had originally planned on peach or chocolate, but both of those required an additional 2 hr prep time and we wanted the ice cream to be set before Chris had to catch his flight back to CA.  The ice cream had a great flavor, though it took a bit longer to firm up in the freezer than expected.  At least Chris got to try a couple of soupy bowlfuls before we went to the airport.  It's solid now and Taylor enjoyed sharing a big bowl of it with me tonight.  I'm excited to try out the other flavors when we get back from vacation.  I guess we'll just have to make peach pie in the next couple of days to use up all the extra peaches we bought for the ice cream.  Mmmmm.  Can't say I mind at all.

Photo Friday

We made blueberry muffins from scratch this morning! Delicious!
See more photos of summer fun on our Picasa page.

Pushing toward the weekend

Ahh, up early again so I have time to write.  I am very aware of being behind with laundry and such, but it's no fun to clean in the wee hours.  While my ultimate preference is to be sleeping, this is precious time when I can read books and poke around online to my heart's content.  After all, my schedule is going to change drastically in 8 weeks so I need to take advantage of this free time now!

Operation: Super Clean Kitchen has hit a bit of a road block.  It was hobbled by a very busy Father's Day weekend and the situation has compounded by a lots of out-of-the-house time this week.  I'm struggling to get things back on track.  Hopefully with the next couple of errand-free days I can return the kitchen to it's previous glory and enjoy the weekend, when my brother will be in town for a wedding.

However, the menu planning for this week has gone very smoothly.  Mon was minestrone soup, Tues was pancit, and Wed was a salmon recipe from a new Betty Crocker cookbook I picked up last week (Salmon with Ginger-Citrus Salsa - pretty good in my opinion, though Mark and Taylor didn't take to it as readily).  Tonight will be baked potatoes with leftover chili from the weekend, and this weekend we will have chicken satay, spaghetti, and tofu stir-fry (order yet to be determined).

I went ahead and set up appointments with my OB right up to my due date.  I figured, I might as well get everything on the calendar and just cancel appointments when everything with the midwife/birth center is sorted out and I can transfer care.  If the birth center doesn't work out, at least I'm all set with the OB and the hospital.  Once we return from vacation in CA, I'll begin weekly appointments.  The sad thing I realized last night is that I seem to have made all my appointments during Taylor's gymnastics class.  Whoops!  Guess I need to call the doctor's office today and reschedule all of those.

The other day I upgraded our community center pool pass to include the two outdoor pools in Florissant, so now Taylor and I can go swimming during the day this summer!  The indoor pass limits open swim to 7-9pm on MWF, which is very inconvenient for a small child.  I'm tempted to try out one of the outdoor pools today, but I think we need to have some down time at home so I can clean and Taylor can have a bit more of a routine.  Perhaps I should do my exercise video...Mark reminds me that labor is not too far off and I should do what I can now to prep my body.

Now that the sun is up, I suppose I should get off the computer and get moving!  Have a great day!

June update

June has not been a good month for blogging, but things have been going well overall.

Taylor says more crazy things every day and often wakes up in the morning very focused on a particular thought (eating a big strawberry or wanting "Mommy's pizza" instead of her own) because of a vivid dream she just had.  She has upped her daredevil skills with more jumping and dangling and flipping around the house, and she absolutely loves dancing and twirling whenever we have music on (wearing her special "dancing shoes," of course).  I started keeping a daily journal about things she does, so even if the updates on the blog have been sparse, rest assured that I'm actually being better about keeping track of all the fun, little things in her life.

Mark started his new position at Boeing with the F-15 group a couple weeks back and has been excited about the change of pace.  He's working on totally different software development than with the T-38 group, but he's back with several of the same people he started out working with at Boeing, so it's almost like picking up where he left off a few years ago.

Mark jumped on his Extreme Fat Smash Diet again, in preparation for our family vacation to California over the 4th of July.  So far, so good.  Last time I really had more difficulty with him on the diet than he did, because I was frustrated about just cooking for myself.  It seemed like a waste of effort to get fresh, healthy ingredients and dirty a bunch of dishes if I was only making food for one.  But this time around I'm feeding Taylor, myself, and a little growing baby so it's important to eat well, plus I managed to find some recipes that incorporate Mark's diet requirements on each particular day.

Mark's efforts on the garden are beginning to pay off.  Our herbs are growing very well - it's nice to just run outside to grab fresh basil or parsley when a recipe calls for it - and we have some zucchini and tomatoes that are just about ready to be picked.  It's a bit of a jungle out there with all our different fruit and veggie plants, but it's really fun to watch everything develop.

I have become more motivated to be keep up with my cleaning routines, ironically after breaking free of the FlyLady listserv (daily emails that give you cleaning routine suggestions and "inspiration").  Operation: Super Clean Kitchen has been successful for almost two weeks now (with a couple of messy days in-between) and I'm feeling really good about it.  That means food is put away in the fridge, dishes are in the dishwasher or hand-washed, and the counters are spotless before bedtime.  And when the kitchen is clean it's much easier to keep the eating area clean, which motivates me to keep the living room clean, which motivates me to think about cleaning other areas of the house as well.  Not bad.

Our sad little spot of news is that Phoebe had a seizure a couple of weeks ago.  She's doing fine now, but it was really scary to see and we have no idea what caused it.  She's still young (4 yrs old) so that pretty much rules out a brain tumor, but there are a few other things it could be.  Thankfully she hasn't had any other symptoms of distress like vomiting or foaming or losing control of her bowels.  I've talked to the vet about it and she said they could run blood tests now if we wanted, or we could do more of a "wait-and-see" approach and just come in the next time we notice something abnormal with Phoebe.  Right now we're going with "wait-and-see."

The baby is growing very well; she 31.5 wks along now and moves around all the time.  I have gained 20lbs so far, which I think it quite a bit less than with Taylor.  I have noticed that I don't hurt nearly as much as the first time around (particularly in terms of carpal tunnel), which is likely because of less excess weight.  I'm sure I'm also more active and am eating healthier this time (after all, I don't want Taylor eating junk food!).  Last night I could feel my stomach skin stretching and preparing itself for the baby's next growth spurt.  I'm not particularly looking forward to getting bigger and slower, but I'm getting really excited to have a little baby in the house again.  We are just past the two month countdown to the due date (Aug 20th). 

I was a bit bummed after talking with the midwife from the birthing center today; she told me there are still some paperwork hoops they have yet to jump through, so the center's opening will be delayed even further (they originally planned to open at the beginning of June).  They still hope to be fully up and running by the time our baby comes, but we definitely have to consider our alternatives if the worst happens and they aren't ready.  I went ahead and called up my OB to make my next appointment and will probably schedule the couple after that with her just in case.  I'm nervous that this is the situation so close to my due date, but really praying that everything works out and the birthing center will be available.  I'm not against another hospital birth, but it is definitely not my preference at this point.

New pictures from the last couple of weeks are on their way...just give me a couple of days to upload and post.