We don’t often have candy in the house… except for Hot Tamales which I started buying when I was pregnant with Lulu. A part of me thinks they’re disgusting, and the other part of me can’t stop eating them. Have you ever tried pouring a box of them into a bowl of buttered popcorn? You should.
Anyway, after Halloween I got rid of most of G’s candy. She brought in quite a bit of it. A cute Pirate Kitty Cat will do that. In fact, she figured out just how to approach the candy holders, “If I meow at them they give me another piece!!!” After she went to bed on Halloween night we put away most of her candy and left her a few goodies in her bag. She was so excited about the candy, she didn’t notice that 90% of her stash was missing when she got up the next day.
I think the first words out of her mouth on November 1st were, “I know! I can have candy for brekstist! THIS is a great idea!” I made her wait to pick a candy to eat until after her afternoon nap. When the time came to pick she chose a Tootsie Roll Pop. I think it was the first, maybe second, sucker she’s ever had. She kept referring to it as a “lollipop guild” in reference to the munchkin trio from The Wizard of Oz. She also picked one out for me. Lulu was sleeping so G and I just sat at the table and ate our Tootsie Pops together, swapping flavors every couple minutes. She’d offer up her raspberry in exchange for my chocolate flavored one.
I kept thinking about those “how many licks…” commercials and I was grateful that Gigi didn’t think to crunch through the hard candy to get to the Tootsie Roll because, all told, we spent about half an hour just sitting together with our lollipops. I enjoyed spending time with her huddled at the table, talking about all manner of silly things and listening to her sing, “lollipop guild, lollipop guild!” over and over, admiring the way her bed-head braids stuck out at funny angles.
I never thought I’d be grateful to candy, because frankly it can be a parenting pain in the ass, but I am so grateful to have shared that half hour with my girl over a couple of Tootsie Roll Pops.
As predicted, the weather here has turned from brilliant fall to grey winter practically overnight. It is officially what I like to refer to as bath season. I love taking baths, and have since I was a little girl when my mom would get out of her bath and I would climb in, the water having cooled down to the perfect kid-friendly temperature. But now I prefer my baths to be on the slightly scalding side. In fact, as I learned during my pregnancies, there is nothing sadder than a luke warm bath. You know what else is sad? The fact that I am approximately 7 (seven!) months behind on my Vogue reading… something I plan to remedy this winter.
Other things I have been working towards… I have been practicing my egg poaching technique, attempting to read a new book every month (currently reading How To Eat A Small Country by Amy Finley), getting an early start on Christmas gift making, obsessively listening to the Spilled Milk Podcasts with Molly Wizenberg of (Orangette) and Mathew Amster-Burton, and, of course, cooking a lot of food.
I recently did an interview where I told the editor of our local magazine that my favorite season for cooking was summer. I realize now that that was an accidental lie. I love all the freshness of summer… the herbs, the sun warmed tomatoes… but I’m more of a cozy socks, sloshy glass of red wine, oven on from noon to nine kind of cook. The kids are always wrapped up in layers of fleece and everything feels incredibly easy, warm, and cozy. My outings are short and are usually to buy candles, more whisky for hot toddys, ingredients for some kind of one-skillet-dish, more wine, or to grab disc of Call the Midwife from the mailbox.
Last night Kyle, Gigi and I were cozied up on the floor reading lots of books with her before bed, my favorite of the bunch being, One Morning In Maine. The house smelled like ratatouille, and I had a little glass of red wine nearby. I said to Kyle, “THIS is so much better than summer.” There’s much less work to do outside so we seem to spend so much more time together, cuddled up in blankets on the floor, reading… or together in the kitchen, cooking.
Kyle is the bread baker in our family. In the fall and winter he bakes bread nearly every weekend. The oven is always warm, and the house smells of clean laundry and baking bread. I often look for a dish that can hop into the oven for a little bit after the bread comes out, and accompany the freshly baked bread on the table. Lately I’ve been making a lot of eggplant parmesan. I love eggplants whether they are roasted, grilled, fried… In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and say they are my favorite savory berries (did you know they are considered a berry!?).
This recipe is simple to prepare, using simple ingredients, but the result is completely indulgent, comforting and delicious.
This Eggplant Parmesan is simple, cozy, and delicious. It’s the ultimate comfort food. It’s indulgent and satisfying without too much work. I crave this dish all year round, it’s one of my favorite fall and winter dishes.
Ingredients.
2 large eggplants, cut into 1/4” thick discs
8oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 ball fresh mozzarella
1/4 cup parmesan, freshly grated or shaved
1/2 cup pesto all purpose flour
extra virgin olive oil (this recipe uses a lot of olive oil)
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 jar marinara sauce
Directions.
Cover a work area with a single layer of paper towels or a clean kitchen towel. Lay the eggplant slices out on the towels in a single layer, sprinkle with a small pinch of kosher salt, flip, and sprinkle a little more salt on the second side. Top with another layer of towels, place a cookie sheet on top of that, and a heavy book on top of the cookie sheet. Let the slices sit under the weight for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare your pan-frying area. You’ll need a casserole dish with a cup or so of flour, mixed with a little freshly ground black pepper. You’ll also need a pair of tongs, a frying pan or skillet, olive oil, and a cooling rack lined with paper towels.
After 20 minutes, pile the eggplant into a dish and discard the towels. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a frying pan or skillet over medium high heat, until shimmering. One at a time, dredge the eggplant slices with a little flour (it will stick to both sides but not the skin), shake to get rid of the excess flour. Working in small batches, fry a few of the eggplant slices until golden, flip and cook until the second side is golden. Add more oil to the pan as needed, you don’t want to cook them in a dry pan, even if that means adding it between flipping the eggplant slices. Once both sides are golden, carefully transfer the eggplant to the lined cooling rack, allowing them to cook and letting some of the oil drain out. Repeat with all the eggplant slices.
Preheat the oven to 350º F. In a large skillet or casserole dish, spread a thin layer of marinara sauce, followed by a layer of eggplant slices, a little pesto, a little marinara, a little sprinkle of the grated mozzarella. Repeat, beginning with the eggplant until you get to the last layer of eggplant. Top the dish with a little pesto, marinara, torn pieces of fresh mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Transfer to the oven and cook for 30-45minutes. Until the dish is heated through and the cheese on top is golden and bubbly. Remove it from the oven and let it rest for ten minutes or so before digging in.
Lately I’ve been making an effort to set work aside, even if that means staying up a bit later in the evening to play catch up. I spend whole days (even days in a row) without turning on my computer. The weather has been breathtaking every single day. The leaves are bright and the sky is blue. It’s like the Pacific Northwest fall days are daring me to think about editing photos, or replying to emails. We have many dark, dreary days in the months to come so I’m doing my very best to take advantage of this spectacular weather. The mornings are chilly enough to entice the heat to kick on, but the afternoon sun is direct and warm enough that the kids can still play at the park without even wearing coats. Between the weather and my joyful girls I have no desire to do anything but absorb it all.
Gigi and Lulu are at marvelous ages. With three just around the corner, Gigi is full of fantastic, hilarious things to say. She is bursting with creative energy, playfulness, and the ability to make-believe. I spend a lot of my time either reenacting scenes from Beauty and The Beast (“Okay, Mom. You be Gaston and I be Belle!) or The Wizard of Oz (we take turns being Dorothy/The Wicked Witch. Lulu is almost always Toto). We are also pirates a lot. I specialize in playing a pirate named Eye-Patch and G likes to be Captain Hook. She plays a lot with her dollhouse, she loves to watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, she gets insanely excited to have dinner with the neighbors. She’s getting a bit too big for me to “fly” down the hall and is so, very independent. She regularly uses expressions like, “awesome” and “that’swhatDanielTiger’sNeighboorhoodsays!” and “I’m glad of you.” She drives me nuts when it’s time to get ready for bed, makes me laugh all the time, and makes me unbelievably happy.
Lulu is an absolute doll. I love this five month mark. Ninety percent of the time she has a huge smile on her face that makes her eyes light up and her cheeks tight with joy. She is changing so much and her personality is emerging. She makes silly sounds that sometimes startle her, and makes us laugh at 2am with some of the odd squeals she lets loose. She still smells like a newborn, and has the softest little hands which she uses to grab my nose, or knead me while she’s nursing. She smiles at everything you say or do, she tucks her little knees up to her chest with glee, she rolls over unintentionally and gets herself wedged in funny positions. She’s such a baby. She’ll be starting solid foods in just a few weeks, she will cut her first bright white teeth, she will figure out how to crawl.
I wish I could freeze everything right now. The weather, the stillness before the holidays, the stages that the girls are at. I know I can’t stop time, no matter how much I wish that I could, so I’m just enjoying every minute of it… even when I find G has eaten a kitty treat, gotten into my favorite lip balm, or that Lulu has spit up all over her newly laundered sheets. I don’t care about any of that. I hold G accountable, I change the sheets, and then I get back to enjoying them. Even at the end of the most impossible days, I feel like I’m going to burst with love for these two little ladies.
One of the many ways we have been embracing the days is to pack up a simple little lunch and walk to the nearby park. Lulu wakes up from her morning nap around 11:15 and we jet out the door for an hour. It’s never anything very elaborate… a grilled cheese and a sliced up carrot, an apple and a peanut butter sandwich. Most of the time G hardly eats because she’s too busy playing, but I don’t fret about it… she’ll eat a big dinner. I just let her kick off her boots, play in the leaves, nibble her food, get dirty and messy, and I just watch her. I sit on the picnic blanket with Lulu kicking by my side, and I just take deep breaths, count my lucky starts, and memorize them.
I think it goes without saying that being a mom can be really exhausting. Don’t worry, this is not one of those ridiculous rants that people post on Facebook about how “I am a full time nurse, a cook, a launderer…”, gosh, I hate those things. I will not encourage you to “Like” this post if you are an exhausted mom. I will, however, encourage you to pull yourself away from the Halloween candy you bought early (Snickers!) and catching up on episodes of Parenthood, and go to the store to get the ingredients to make this satisfying stew. This stew helped me, and I can’t deny that I am pretty darn tired.
I am just coming out of the newborn haze, Lulu has passed the four month mark, and although we’re still working out the quirks, we are finding our rhythm. One thing I tend to do, and perhaps you do too, is to output too much and not take enough in. I do this with energy and love, and often with food too. I make food for my kids, my husband, my neighbors… but sometimes I forget to take care of myself. Sometimes I even forget to eat, which I know is totally ridiculous/dumb/absurd.
I had this moment the other day when I was pumping breast milk and I could swear to you that the breast pump was saying, “de–plete … de–plete … de–plete …” as it expressed milk (drained life-source from my body). That’s when I knew that I was probably in need of some real, honest to goodness, sustenance. And probably something high in iron too. I am helplessly anemic, and always have been. Usually, I forget about it until inanimate objects (such as a breast pump) start to threaten me, or I get lightheaded… both of which have been happening lately. I actually tend to shy away from red meat but then there are times when I crave a really great burger, a perfectly seared steak, or a rich and nourishing beef stew. I’d never had a beef stew that I liked until I made Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon a few years ago. I entered into it skeptically and was shocked by how wonderful it was.
After my breast pump made me want to cry, I had Kyle pull some organic, locally raised stew meat from the freezer and I looked around the house for ingredients to make a beef stew. I quite honestly didn’t have the energy to drive to the store to get the ingredients for Julia’s Boeuf Bourguignon, her stew takes many steps and many hours. I wanted similar flavor without doing all the work. We had enough on hand so I set to work. The result of a few basic ingredients, prepared thoughtfully, resulted in a beef stew that really helped boost my energy. We ate it together as a family while the rain whipped against the windows… we may have even been wearing our pajamas at the dinner table.
Whether you’re depleted or not, this stew is really satisfying, and fortifying. It certainly helped me feel a little less afraid of my breastpump and my alarm clock. …did you see that? I just lied to you. I don’t have an alarm clock. Kyle does and I hate it. My alarm clocks are cute, fuzzy pajama’d little pips. Although I sometimes fear the hour at which they wake up, those girls don’t scare me one bit.
Ingredients.
2 pounds stew beef
1 quart beef broth
several small cippolini onions, peeled and roughly quartered or 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, thinly sliced into discs
red wine
a few sprigs fresh rosemary
a few sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons flour
1 bay leaf
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
vegetable or canola oil
Italian parley, roughly chopped
Directions.
Using paper towels, thoroughly dry each piece of stew meat and set aside. When all the meat is dried, sprinkle it with a bit of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat two tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil over medium high heat in a large dutch oven. Working in batches, brown the meat. Give them space and turn them to make sure all the sides are browned nicely. Remove from the pot and set aside. Repeat with the remaining meat.
Pour a couple tablespoons of beef broth into the pot and gently scrape up the all the brown bits (the fond) from the bottom of the pot. Pour this over the browned meat.
Preheat your oven to 325º.
Heat another tablespoon of oil in your pot, over medium-high heat, before adding the onions along with the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Sauté the onions until they are softened and on the verge of browning, 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon butter in a separate frying pan until it starts to brown a bit around the edges, toss in the carrots and sauté until they are bright and vibrant in color, 3-5 minutes. Toss in the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the carrots, garlic, and butter to the onions and stir to combine.
Return the meat and drippings to the pot, toss with the vegetables. Sprinkle in 1 tablespoon flour, stir it in thoroughly, and cook for 1-2 minutes before adding in 2 cups red wine, the rest of your beef broth, the bay leaf, and tomato paste. Stir well. Cover with a tight fitting lid and place in the oven for 2 1/2-3 hours. Check at the 2 1/2 hour mark to make sure you have enough liquid… you want the broth to be nice and thick, gravy-like enough to really coat a spoon. If you’re happy with it, pull it out, or leave it for another half hour. If it’s still “soupy” you can remove the meat, onions, etc. and reduce the liquid on the stovetop for a few minutes.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with parsley, and serve alongside some crusty french bread or garlic bread. We had some freshly plucked French Breakfast radishes so I sliced them and sprinkled them over the garlic bread, which was a very good decision.
These chocolate chip cookies are always close at hand in our house… and have been since I was a child. If you want to, you can read about them and print the recipe here. Enjoy this little cooking video that Gigi and made…
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