Burpie or Blankie?

Esme has never had a "blankie".  She loves her burpies though.  She was a big spitter upper when she was a  baby so we have plenty of burpies around.  She goes to bed with burpies, she soothes herself with burpies, she chews on burpies when she's got teething issues, burpies are definitely her thing. 

At just about any given time, you can find a burpie lying on the floor somewhere. 

I think I counted one time and we have over 30 of these soft, white, wonder cloths. :)  Actually, as I'm typing this I just looked down and I'm sitting on a burpie.  Go figure.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Linus, is that you?

She carried that blanket around all morning.  It was pretty cute.  It will be interesting to see if she becomes a "blankie" girl instead of a burpie girl. :)  I have to say that I hope not.  It's pretty easy to throw a burpie in the diaper bag or my purse.  Blankies would be a bit harder...  Here's voting for the burpie.

Budding Artist

As many of you know, we've gone back and forth with baths and water.  Esme used to love baths.  Then she hated getting her head wet and therefore hated baths.  After playing with the water table this summer she learned that water was fun and even started pouring cups of water over hear head.  Once again, baths were good.  Then inexplicably, they were bad again and she would cry every single time we neared the bathtub. 

Then came the "crayons".  Esme LOVES drawing.  Pens, crayons, pencils, it doesn't matter - if it writes, she wants to write with it.  So far she's pretty good at keeping her drawing on the paper, but I'm sure that will change soon.  Anyway, I found some crayons that you can use in the tub and that's all it took.  Now Esme loves the bath!  She cries when we take her out of it, even if the water is already cold.  I think she would sit in there all day!

Brrridge

Here's a preview of our torture session Christmas photo shoot.

Fueling up!

We decided to take our Christmas pictures at the Hanover Bridge.  It's a really cool old bridge with a great history.  It's also very close to our house.  However, we neglected to take into consideration that Esme hates being outside right now.  Actually, we knew it was cold and that the dreaded snow would be on the bridge, but 9 times out of 10 Esme is such a good sport that she can be happy in most conditions.  Not today.  It didn't help that it was also the coldest day so far this winter - like 24 degrees cold.  Yikes!  Not even Grandma Barb could make Esme smile. :(

Luckily, since we were so close to our house, we retreated to the warmth of our living room for some pictures.  Indoor pictures aren't quite as cool (literally for the better and figuratively for the worse) as being outside.  But hopefully we'll get a few keepers.

We should get the pictures in a few weeks.  Hopefully, we'll get a few good outdoor ones and we'll get a good Christmas card out of the deal.  Thanks Kendra for being so flexible!

Superstar!

Ok, enough about food.  Let's get back to the important stuff, Esme.

Tonight after work, I went to pick her up.  Barb told me that when Aaron dropped her off in the morning, she showed up with her sunglasses on.  Amazingly, she's pretty good at wearing them for extended periods of time.  What's funny is that when Aaron drops her off at his parent's house for the day, it's not even light out yet.  When we got ready to leave for home, she once again wanted to wear them.  And once again, it was dark outside.

Maybe she really is going to be a California Girl and insist on wearing shades at all times.  Or else she's practicing to be a superstar!

Cranberry Fun

I saw this recipe for Vanilla Bean Sugared Cranberries in a Rachel Ray magazine and had to try it.  I love most things cranberry.  I don't like cranberry jelly or sauce, but I like dried cranberries and cranberry scones, muffins, etc.  If cranberries are sweet, I love 'em!  I've made this twice in the last couple of weeks and I think it will definitely be a go to snack for holiday parties.

First you make a simple syrup and soak the cranberries overnight.

Then you coat the cranberries in a fine vanilla flavored sugar and let them set for about an hour.  You end up with fresh cranberries with a crusty sugar coating.  Just put into a bowl and serve.  Delish!

Next time I make them I'm going to do it with orange zest instead of vanilla.  Two vanilla beans are $6 or more and I really like the orange flavored dried cranberries from Trader Joe's.  I'm excited to see what the orange would taste like and if it's cheaper too?  Bonus!

Forgotten Soup

Martha's

Ok, so actually, I was wrong in my last post.  I made four recipes out of the Martha Stewart cookbook, not three.  I forgot about the Lentil Soup that I made.  It was really good and it made a great hot lunch this week since it was the first week of really cold weather in MN.

Yummy!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it until I took it for lunch, so while this is not a great picture, it was super great soup!

Channeling Martha Stewart

I love cook books, especially ones with lots of pictures.

I came across this book at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.

I was very excited because it had a picture with each recipe.  But I was a little nervous because it was a Martha Stewart cookbook and when I think of M.S. I invariably think of the need for minute amounts of very eccentric and expensive ingredients.  Not what I want in a cookbook.  But as I paged through this book, all the ingredients were normal; no truffle oil or saffron or anything like that.

I've made 3 recipes so far and they've all turned out pretty good!  The first one I made was Butternut Squash Soup.  I didn't take any pictures of it, but it wasn't bad.  It's not the best Butternut Squash soup I've ever had in my life, but it was pretty good.

Martha's version

The second recipe turned out great!  Tortilla and Black Bean Pie.  So good right away and even better the next day.  One of the ingredients was beer and I used a homemade beer that my cousin Todd made me.  It was a little sad to use, but we raised a toast to Todd as we poured the beer in the pan.  It added a great flavor!  I got out taco sauce and salsa to serve with it, but really just a little sour cream was all it needed.  I'll probably make a few changes to the recipe when I make it next time.  Mainly, I think I'll try to toast the tortillas in the oven for a few minutes ahead of time to crisp-en them up.

Right out of the oven!

Cut a bit too soon it sets up better after a few minutes of resting.

Last night for dinner I made Garlic Marinated Chicken Cutlets with Grilled Potatoes.  Again, very good.  The recipe is written to do on the grill, but since we just got a foot of snow, we did it in the oven and on a grill plate on the stove.  Very, very yummy.  Aaron and Esme loved it!  I did mix sweet potatoes in with the baby potatoes, cuz we are a sweet potato family. :)

Martha's

Mine

This will definitely be a regular at our house.

So right now I'm loving Martha.  There were two cookbooks like this and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the other one as well.  Bon Appetit!