Searching

I misplaced my cell phone yesterday. I was using the phone with someone from Craigslist to buy a double stroller. From the time I hung up the phone, to the time I went to the car - about 10 minutes, I misplaced my phone. The last place I remember talking on the phone was on the stairs, then I walked downstairs to googlemaps the address. About 10 minutes later, couldn't have possibly been more than 10 minutes, I put my coat on to leave. At this point I couldn't find my phone, but I left the house, thinking my phone would turn up later in the evening.

My phone did not "turn up," and today it was officially lost. I spent the better part of the morning looking for it. Of course the battery is dead, so I can't even call it to hear its weak beacon of life.

We went about our normal routine today: breakfast, school, library, grocery shopping, naps, making dinner, cough drops, mommy's homemade medicine (warm water with honey and a pinch of fresh ginger), Blues Clues (I resorted to Netflix streaming video to sedate sniffling children), laundry -- I live such a glamorous life-- however, I was preoccupied the entire day with looking for my phone. Every spare second I had, I searched through pockets, cubbies, purses, old purses, shoes. My biggest fear is that Jonah got ahold of it and put it somewhere. Genna even mentioned that Jonah put it in the trash. Today was trashday and if that's true, the phone will be gone forever. But, I really don't think Jonah put it in the trash. He loves to put things in the trash, but I'm pretty sure he knows that things don't come out of the trash, and he loves my phone too much to put it in the trash. At least I hope so. Gulp.

I'll continue to search again tomorrow. Good excuse to clean the house. It has to show up, right?

Snot

There comes a point where I don't even bother to wipe the snot off of the kid's faces. If I do, it's merely for the satisfaction of other parents near by.

The kids were sick today. Genna was up half the night coughing. Surprisingly, she woke up in a chipper mood and was pretty good most of the day. Dinner, however, she reached her limit and was in her ornery exhausted mood. She's so difficult when she gets that way, but at least I know that it is because she is sick and about 5 hours behind on her sleep. Yes, I still keep track of her sleep. It's really amazing how mood and demeanor is so absolutely caused and correlated with the amount of sleep she gets. Genna needs 12 hours of sleep. Those 12 hours can be night time and nap time, or just night time. If she doesn't nap, she goes to be early. If she doesn't nap for a few days in a row, she'll make up for it by taking a three hour nap.

We also reached a point where we could no longer spend anymore time in the house, so we took the kids out, coughing, sneezing, snot and all. My apologies to all those that will pick up their colds from doors, hand rails and buttons that they touched today.

For dinner I made my homemade pizza. The crust was very nice. I let it rise for about 3 hours instead of the  one and a half hours that is recommended; I will do this again if I have time. Kids are sleeping now. Whew.

Genna putting on a "show" on the Barnes & Noble book-reading stage.

Genna. Hope the next kid using this car uses hand sanitize.

Sports already

Besides trying for an hour and a half to get the kids to fall asleep during nap time (we were unsuccessful), the big event for the day was the Seattle Gymnastics Academy meet. Genna is a "Hotshot," meaning she's in the 4-5 year old age group and gets to wear the purple and white leotard to gymnastics. Today's meet was a competitive meet for older girls, probably 10 and older. But for the younger kids, it was a demonstration where the girls get to show parents their backwards summersaults, balance beam walking, handstands, trampoline jumping, and pull-ups. At the end, they each get a little gymnastics metal.

As I was watching the older girls jump up on the vault and flip around, I was amazed and excited about the possibility that Genna may some day be able to do that. Then one of the girls fell and hurt her ankle. At that point I began to wonder what the whole point is. I see the value in exercise, running, strengthening, and stretching, but why do we have to go so far as have them do crazy things like flipping three times in the air only to land cockeyed on one ankle. Noah reminded me that it's developing determination and persistence that is extremely valuable and taught in many sports.

The Hotshots line up

Genna showing off her handstand

Genna's first metal

Genna did a nice job. She was particularly good at anything that used the same skills and muscles as monkey bars, her favorite playground equipment. But other than that, she's pretty much average. This is not something that I'm quite ready to accept.

Date night

"Mommy, don't leave me with that babysitter!!"

Tonight was date night. We don't get a babysitter very often, so when we do, it is a special occasion. I was looking forward to it for almost the whole week.  My husband told me that our dinner restaurant was going to be a surprise; I was excited. All I knew was that we had a babysitter for at least three hours and the restaurant was within walking distance.

Noah said that the restaurant was local and recommended by someone that he works with and that lives close by. The mystery made it even more exciting for me. He said it was the type of cuisine he wanted. The type of "cuisine?" Why was he looking for a certain type of cuisine? Oh no. I received a lot of flack about not liking Italian food in one of my blog posts. So, of course we ended up at an Italian restaurant. Noah wanted to prove to me that I do in fact like Italian food. We had to wait about 10 minutes before our table was ready, so we waited outside and I took a look at the German restaurant next door. It looked really good - all sorts of sausages and schnitzel and pretzels. And they severed beer in the liter glasses, just like in the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. I really wanted a beer and a german pretzels, but I was coaxed into the more intimate Italian restaurant where I told myself that I'd be happy with just a lousy caesar salad (which aren't even Italian) while Noah chugged down a pint of heavy cream in some sort of "light cream" sauce.

When we sat down and the waiter droned on for five minutes (really, five minutes) about the specials, I already knew it was going to be calorie-overload and I'd be sick to my stomach before we even left the restaurant. "Madam, we have five specials for tonight. Please bear with me." When the waiter has to ask for my patience, in advance of actually telling me what specials were, I know I'm in for a night of indigestion. "We have two types of risotto tonight...porcini...seafood...crab...ricotta...double wide spinach pasta...wild boar...tenderloin...procuitto...capers...pecorino...seared...cream...osso bucco...cream... calimari...cream...gorgonzola..." After three minutes I was bored and after four minutes, I was no longer hungry. I finally decided on the puttanesca (olive oil-based instead of cream) since the waiter, in his forced-Italian accent, said that it was the best in Seattle and Noah opted for the wild boar special with some sort of reduction sauce.

The German pub that I wanted to go to

Salvatore's 

Waiter being silly behind Noah

The picture the waiter took when we asked him to take our picture. I told him his picture was going to be on the Internet tomorrow.

Opps, meant to take a picture of our food. This is the last of the tiramisu sauce that we were too embarrassed to lick off the plate.

Much to my dismay, the puttanesca was outstanding. It was after all the best in Seattle. Noah's pig dish was pretty good too, but after a good glass of wine ("good" in this case means "big"), pretty much anything will taste good.

We had a nice walk home in the Seattle mist. As much as I complain about the overcast, gloomy weather in Seattle, it is difficult to beat walking to a nice local restaurant with only a fleece jacket on a January night. Salute!

Go Dog Go!

Today was my first experience as a chaperone for a school field trip. Genna's school went to see Seattle Children's Theater's production of Go Dog Go. I'm sure it was just the first of many such chaperone experiences that are to come. Isn't that what stay-at-home moms do?

The kids waiting outside the school to go on the field trip.

Being a chaperone wasn't exactly how I had envisioned it. I thought that maybe I'd get a little bit of that magical teacher-power bestowed upon me for the four hour duration of our trip. I thought that maybe I'd be responsible for one or two children besides my own, and that they would listen to me and call me "Miss Susan" or "Teacher Susan." But, that really wasn't the case at all. I was merely just the person that held Genna's hand when we were walking outside and getting on and off the bus (we took the bus downtown, which, for the children, was equally as fun as the production). One of the teachers was responsible for holding on to four children and the other teacher was responsible for holding on to three children. I was only responsible for Genna. I thought that was a little odd, after all I do have two hands, but I didn't ask the teachers if they'd like me to be responsible for another child. Now that I think about it, I should have asked since it was difficult for one of the teachers to hold on to four children. Perhaps they didn't want to impose on me? Perhaps there are liability issues? But, I was a chaperone after all. I'll volunteer to be responsible for another child on the next field trip and see how that goes.

The kids standing in line to see Go Dog, Go!

Seattle Children's Theater put on a production of Go, Dog, Go! The production was geared towards children aged 4 through 9, and it was quite entertaining and creative. I wasn't sure how they were going to turn such a simple book, with essentially no plot, into a 90 minute production, notably without any actual dogs either. But, they pulled it off remarkably well with singing and dancing comedic dogs (in costume, of course). My favorite was the pink poodle (remember, the one who is always asking the blue dog if he likes her hat?). If you're still having trouble envisioning this, below is an advertisement for the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeYf76VvnrI
When we got home I read the book again, and they did a remarkable job of including every picture from the book into the production. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing it again.

On the bus ride home, Genna was tired and even a little sick; she coughed several times during the show. When Genna is like this, she doesn't listen to me. So, of course she ignored me when I told her to sit down on the bus. I really hate when she doesn't listen to me in public. My weapon of choice lately against a disobedient 4-year old has been the threat of "no tootsie pop after nap today." The problem is I don't really want to announce to everyone on the bus, including the teachers and other chaperones, that I bribe (or is it control?) my child's behavior with 10 grams of sugar everyday. It works, though. It works surprisingly well. Genna did finally sit down after prompting from the teachers. At least she wasn't the worst kid on the bus.

I made soup with the left over duck from Tuesday. Jonah refused to swallow a single bite. Genna ate her whole bowl. She didn't get a tootsie pop after her nap today, but only because she woke up from her nap with a stuffy nose and forgot about it. Woe is the day she no longer wants totsie pops.

Pedestrians

Seattle is the most pedestrian-friendly place I've ever been. I took a walk with Jonah to meet Noah for lunch and unlike Baltimore where I'd get honked at by a turning car when crossing the street, cars patiently wait for pedestrians. In fact, those yellow pedestrian crossing signs that are ignored in many other parts of the country actually mean yield to pedestrians. And in Seattle, the cars really yield. It's so refreshing.

Jonah was sick today. I don't like when the kids are sick, but it is the only time that they let me hold them for long periods of time. I held Jonah for almost an hour tonight. He'd never put up with that unless he was sick. Hopefully tomorrow he'll feel better so he'll be able to go to swimming, and hopefully he'll remember that he actually liked when I held him.

Stuff

The past four months have really given me a new perspective on my possessions. When we moved across the country, the only "stuff" that we took with us was what we could pack, really shove, in our minivan. This amounted to about 6 tubs of clothes, two tubs of toys and books, a tub of toiletries, a tub of camping equipment (which Noah insisted that we needed and I insisted that we didn't need), and our computers. I packed for our sabbatical (I'm now calling it "our" sabbatical) as if I was packing for an extended week at the beach. We only brought our clothes, a few toys for the kids, and the novel that we've had for the past 6 years that we've never gotten around to reading, but hope to; in this case the "novel" is our camping equipment. We've never actually used the camping equipment in the past 6 years, but Noah keeps hoping.

I'm now beginning to forget what all our "stuff" is at our home in Baltimore. I remember thinking repeatedly in Baltimore that we have way too much stuff, yet when it comes time get rid of stuff via a yard sale or trip to the community dumpster, I have a very difficult time parting with my stuff. Why am I so attached my stuff, even though I don't want to be? I know that part of the reason is that there's always a chance that I may need or use the stuff. For example, my hot rollers -  I only use them once every 4 or 5 years, but I'm so glad that I have them when I do use them. Similarly, I am not willing to get rid of my shiatsu massager. I haven't used it 5 years, but I like knowing that it is there and I could use it if I need to. But is that really a good enough reason to keep so much stuff? Probably not, which is why I have some sort of weird, emotional attachment to my stuff. On the other hand, it's often a mental burden having so much stuff.

After being separated from all of my "stuff" for the past four months, there are only a few things that I really miss: my sewing machine, a handful of kitchen gadgets, and my herb garden. That said, I could probably live my life quite happily without everything else.

I have a co-worker back in Baltimore that lost everything in hurricane Katrina. She told me that she has a very different relationship with her possessions now, and essentially she no longer carries any emotional attachment to physical possessions. I alway thought that would be a liberating feeling, and in some ways this experience has liberated me from my possessions as well.

Culinary quest for the day: Noah made a duck for dinner, which he purchased at the farmers market on Sunday. It was quite good, but a little overdone. Our oven here in Seattle runs at least 50 degrees hotter than what we set it at. Anyway, for being Noah's first duck, he did a fine job. There's nothing like crispy duck skin.

Recycle, Compost or Landfill.... formerly know as just "trash"

The environmentalist in me loves the way trash is handled in Seattle. Instead of what I'm used to in Baltimore: Tuesday Trash and Thursday Recycle & think nothing more about it, Seattle takes a whole new perspective on trash. They charge the heck out of you for filling up the landfill, compost/yard waste is less expensive and recycling is free.

Each house in the city of Seattle is provide a trashcan from the city. You decide on the size; there are five options: 96-gallon is the largest and 12-gallon is the smallest. The city will then empty the trashcan once a week and charge you, based on can-size, on your monthly utility bill. The 96-gallon trashcan is $79.20 per month! That comes out to almost $1000/year. Compost/yard waste is similar, but less expensive. That 96-gallon container of yard waste and compost is only $8.35 per month, practically 10% of the cost of trash. And a 96-gallon container for recycling is free of charge. Composting is great. We can put in all food scraps, including meats, bones, vegetable waste, soiled napkins & paper towels as well as basic yard waste such as leaves and weeds.

So, our landlord has opted for the 12-gallon micro trashcan for $16.55/month. This is great, really it is. To fill up a tiny box of trash each week instead of the mega containers we're used to in Baltimore is a wonderful goal and something our grandchildren will thank us for. And, my family of four, if we're careful and diligent, can actually meet this goal. The problem is we are not the only residents in the household. Our house has a three-bedroom apartment in the basement with three college students. And, there is a preschool with 14 children and two teachers that also contribute to our 12-gallon trashcan. Twelve gallons. That is smaller than ONE of the eight Christmas decoration tubs my dad has in his basement. So, every Monday morning, my husband is trying to stuff our trash in the tiny little mirowave-sized trashbox (at only 12 gallons, it's a box-shaped, not even can-shaped). Unsuccessful, Noah then has to look in other people's trashcans to fit any remaining bags. Fun times.

Today, other than watching the trash truck squeeze it's way through the alley, then the compost truck, then the recycling truck, Jonah and I visited the Petosa Accordion store/factory. Dad is a big fan and customer of their accordions. Jonah was very interested in all the different squeeze boxes, but of course most of my time was telling him, "no, Jonah, no touching." The shop was a bit quiet on a Monday morning. We then went to a park, checked out a community garden and came home for a good nap.

Jonah fascinated by a spinny chair at the Petosa factory

Jonah looking cool at the toddler playground

I made a chicken with an orange-ginger reduction sauce (one of my best so far). I'm practicing the art of deglazing. I even hesitate to call it an art because it is so easy to make wonderful sauces. I have no idea why I have never done it before. I seriously think it is one of the best kept secrets of cooking.

No longer tourists

Sunday is the day that we often go to the Ballard farmer's market. This is a year round farmers market in the hip neighborhood of Ballard. Most tourists don't know about it, but in many ways, it is a lot more fun. The market is full of local crafts, local farmers selling seasonal fruits (not many this time of year), vegetables and meats, bakers. The kids like the entertainment, dogs - which there are many - and the samples.  Today there was a lot of musicians; they aren't the weird ones downtown, but mostly college-aged kids playing guitar and singing, probably hoping to be the Seattle sensation.

Ballard farmers market

Noah bought a duck today. I made it clear that he was going to cook the duck because I don't do whole birds yet. Noah is happy to be the duck chef this week. The unfortunate thing is that the farmers don't take credit card and Noah had to use all of my cash to pay for the duck. Noah never seems to have cash. I don't understand why. Whenever he gets cash, he always spends it. It's as if he likes using the cash, so if he has it, he'd rather pay using cash. The thought of "saving" his cash for when he really needs it just never occurs to him. Me, on the other hand, I value a cash transaction at a premium. What if I need to take a bus? What about paying a babysitter? What about the farmers market? What about the community center family nights? What about money for Genna's field trips? These are all things that require cash, so it's important to always have some. The burden of having cash always seems to land on me. So, this time we paid for the duck and we didn't have any cash to buy lunch, apples, or some jams that I really wanted. And of course there were no ATMs around. So, we had to leave and go to a place that takes credit card for lunch. We actually went to three places because I was being indecisive.

Jonah figuring out how to get out of the yard. Not good.

Once again the weather played a mean trick on me. Our forecast of partly sunny skies changed to chance of rain and overcast skies. My plans of going to Carkeek park to view the Olympic mountains and look for balk eagles are postposted to the next partly sunny day. Whenever that will be. At least we're not living in Ohio where it's currently 10 degrees, as my dad informed me. I even saw some flower bulbs trying to emerge from the soil today. Not sure what type they are, but we'll see in a few weeks.

Tourists for a day

Noah loves going to the fish market downtown, ya know, the famous one where they throw the fish. I really don't like going to it because it's so crowded and it is always a struggle with the kids. But, since the weather was nice (i.e. not raining too hard), Noah talked me into going. To avoid the horrible parking, price gouging, and traffic, we took the bus. I really like the buses in Seattle, unlike Baltimore, where I sometimes question their safety, the Seattle public transportation is safe, easy, and often much quicker when you account for parking. Oh yeah - the last time we drove to the market - some guy on a bike ran into our van and gave it a small dent. Annoying.

The market would be a lot of fun without kids. As DINKs, we would love to stroll through all the streets and alleys, sampling the fresh-made jams, pastries, middle-eastern and asian foods. We'd enjoy all the buskers and tantalizing window displays. We'd stop at a coffee house or two, then maybe a wine bar. We'd enjoy a leisurely stroll looking across the Puget Sound to the snow-capped Olympian mountains and finish the day at a nice quiet restaurant.

Instead, we spend the day trying to get Jonah to stop screaming in the stroller. He really hates the stroller. I hate the stroller too. In fact our stroller days may be numbered because as I was pushing the stroller down a staircase (without Jonah sitting in it), I misjudged how high the last step was and almost fell head-on on top of the stroller down the stair. Fortunately, the rear left wheel of the stroller got caught on something and prevented the catastrophic fall, but now we are missing one of the rear left wheels. Prior to the stroller-stair incident, the stroller had double wheels on each side in the rear, but now with only three wheels in the back, we look like a down-on-your-luck family that takes the bus to the market on food stamp friday. Now I'm concerned about what happens when we lose the other rear wheel. Will we have to abandon the stroller on the side of the road? Can we get a citation or fine for that? It will be impossible to push a tri-clop stroller anywhere with a 30-lb Jonah in it. Would I have to leave the stroller and then come back for it with the van, only to have to take it to someplace like Goodwill since it certainly won't fit in our 12 gallon trashcan (trash in Seattle is whole 'nother blog)?

The crippled stroller

Anyway, Noah got his five pounds of seafood, roasted nuts and cappuccino. The kids got some pizza, hot cocoa and some entertainment from the buskers. I got a crippled stroller and the gratifying opportunity to chase my kids around a busy, crowded market without a single incident of them grabbing a fish or piece of produce from a market stand.

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Pike Place Market - not recommended with children

Market stalls - imagine chasing a toddler through this

Puget Sound

"Jonah, we're about to put you back in your stroller."

For dinner, Noah spent an hour trying to fillet perch with a stiff chef's knife and I made curried coconut rice with dried currents, a quick and easy recipe that I will definitely be making again.

Merry-go-round. I think they outlawed these back East, but there are plenty of them here! 

Both kids went to bed early, exhausted after skipping their naps because of our adventure downtown. In hindsight, the market was pretty fun. Success.

Dancing Queen

We ended the day by going to a Retro Prom at the local community center. There were a couple dozen families, mostly with kids Genna and Jonah's age, a few kids were slightly older. The theme was a prom of the 70's and 80's. Basically it was a chance for folks my age to listen to their prom music while watching their children have fun dancing. As far as family affairs go, this was pretty fun. And Genna danced to every song. Every song. She was, by far, the craziest dancer on the floor. Her style is a mix of breakdancing, Lyle-the-crocodile tap dancing and Michael Jackson dancing. Other parents were commenting to me about her dancing. I'm never quite sure what to say in those cases.

This morning was gymnastics for Genna. She loves gymnastics, in fact I'm contemplating signing her up for two days a week instead of one. She was so sad when her class was over, though she was clearly wiped out, as evidenced by her 2 hour nap. I'm pretty impressed with Seattle Gymnastics Academy. The equipment is first rate and Genna's instructor is great. They are clearly training the little girls to be gymnasts, unlike some other classes we've witnessed where the kids seem to be just jumping around without any purpose. But the best part is how much Genna loves it. 

Looking for bald eagles in the park by our house. Looks like Jonah is pointing at one, but he's really not. I told him "look at the airplane."

Cool-looking bird on our walk

What would a day be without snot?

I got a phone call that my Northern Italian cooking class was canceled, due to not enough people signing up. Oh well. I'm not terribly disappointed, Italian food is not exactly my favorite cuisine. Only in a few rare cases have I had really *great* Italian food, most of which have all been it Italy. Otherwise I'm usually a little disappointed in Italian food and then get a stomach ache in the middle of the night because it is so overloaded with olive oil and cream. Now I think I'll take a bread class instead. 

The weather is ACTUALLY supposed to be nice over the weekend, so I'm looking forward to it! 

New at blogging

I'm new at blogging, so forgive me if I don't use proper blog-etiquette. I'll learn as I go, like everything else. It's sorta weird writing a blog. It's part journal for myself, but I always have in the back of my head that someone else might read it. Anyone else. Weird to think about that.

My blog is inspired by friend and neighbor, Ruth, who faithfully blogged everyday for a year and a half when she moved to Ecuador (movingtoecuador.blogspot). Unfortunately, "movingtoseattle" was already taken so I had to use "2" instead of "to" in my title. Anyway, I'm using this blog to journal my adventure in Seattle. My husband is "on sabbatical" at the University of Washington. Six months ago he suggested I quit my fantastic part-time job that paid well and we move to Seattle for a year. Was I stupid to agree? Yes, probably, but I guess we all learn from mistakes.

Unlike Ruth who started blogging six months before her actual move (also, for her husband's sabbatical), my blog is starting three months after I've already been in Seattle.

So, instead of painstakingly documenting the past three months, much of which I don't wish to recount anyway (!), I'll sum it up: Being a stay-at-home mom in a drab, rainy city with a 4-year old in preschool school and a 22-month-old constantly in-tow is boring. It is so boring that if I start thinking about how bored I am, I'll get depressed. So, to distract me from my boredom, I've decided to teach myself a new skill: cooking! I've always liked to cook, but I've never been particularly outstanding at it. Yes, there are a few fairly simple dishes that I can do well, homemade pizza, pesto, tenderloin, a few of those high-calorie appetizers, but I don't have a large repertoire of varied meals that are really showstoppers. I love to eat at wonderful restaurants with creative chefs. In fact, the last time I ate at one (Refectory - Columbus, OH), it really made me feel bad about my own cooking. How could lamb chops and duck taste so much better than anything I could every make? Yes, the chef had years of training, but if I spent all day preparing just a single serving of lamb, I don't think I could even come close to what I ate that night. My goal is to be able to make just a few meals that could really stand up next to one of my favorite trained chef's meals. Did I mention Ruth was fabulous cook?

My duck from the restaurant

Alpaca terrine. I didn't know anybody ate alpaca. 

Step 1: Library.
Since I refuse to buy books anymore, except in rare cases. I went to the library last week to get some books on cooking. My favorite of the pack: Cooking New American - 200 Recipes from the Editors of Fine Cooking.

Last week's menu:
Sunday - Salmon with lemon ginger butter and chives, mashed potatoes and green beans. This was just okay. I think I like my honey-lemon-dijon sauce for salmon is a little better and it has about a fifth of the calories. Never quite got to make the green beans. Kids were screaming for food and didn't have time.

Wednesday - Orange marmalade chicken with rice - this is weightwatchers recipe and pretty good. Nothing to "write home about," but I can't make a super-high calorie, gourmet meal every night.

Tuesday - Blood orange salad with shaved onions, basil and pomegranates (for which I had to substitute cherries since pomegranates are out of season). Pork chops with reduction sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans, yes the beans that were supposed to be made on Sunday. The blood orange salad was "okay." I might try it again when blood oranges and pomegranates are in season. The pork chops were too think to fry. Noah had to step on and save the day by cutting them in half, length-wise. The sauce was outstanding. I will definitely make this again. This is one of the meals that I will be perfecting over the next few months. I learned was "deglazing" is, did it, added some butter and made a fabulous sauce.

Wednesday - warm Chinese chicken salad, rice, fresh homemade bread. The chicken salad was very good. I will be perfecting this dish over the next few months. I needed to use fresh ginger and scallions, but next time it will be better. The bread was "okay" - typical homemade bread. Noah said it tasted good, but like a giant drop biscuit. I'm considering taking a bread class at a local cooking school/store. I should do it.

Thursday - homemade tomato bisque and grilled cheese sandwiches on the homemade bread. The tomato bisque was "okay." I did not use the carrots as the recipe stated because we didn't have them. After reading the recipe reviews, the carrots were necessary to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. I'm not sure if I'll make this again.

I started out just making vegetarian dishes. This didn't work very well. I don't think the cookbook I was using was very good and the kids really did not like all the spices in the food. I'll try to work in more vegetarian dishes.

Well. There it is. My first blog. My husband just said he wasn't going to read my blog. Good.