Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Staycation Part 2
No, I'm not considering today's all-day, country-wide curfew to be a Staycation. It's nice to stay home, but this post is to re-cap the other things we did last weekend for the real Staycation 2009.
For my birthday, Zeke had a hard time deciding what to get for me. In the end, he chose these really cute Fisher Price stacking blocks. We spent hours playing on the floor with them, making echo sounds by talking into the open side, making towers, and putting the smallest one inside of the biggest. It has been a super-fun gift.
Staycation Sunday was a dough-y day. I started out in the morning by making my homemade pancakes. We love pancakes in this house. I had also read online that whole wheat bagels made a good teething/finger food for babies. I know that whole wheat bagels are usually made with honey- a no-no for babies, so I decided to make my own.
And yes, you actually boil them before you bake them! It was a lot easier than I thought, and yummy too!
Ever since I visited China in 2003, I have had occasional cravings for Chinese steamed dumplings, or jiao zi (pronounced jow-tsa). When we were on our honeymoon in Vancouver a few years ago, I introduced Tom to this yummy treat. So, with a few creative substitutions, we made our very own jiao zi right here at home! The grocery stores here don't carry dumpling wrappers, so I had to start by making my own out of a little salt, rice flour, and normal flour. I rolled them out and cut them to size with a glass.
Filling and closing the dumplings was the hardest part for me. I know that there is a "right" way to do this, and it involves 3 or 4 precisely placed pleats. I was not able to do this. I've been taught a few times by my expert friends Amy and Kate, but never actually figured it out. Luckily, the dumplings seemed to work well if I gave them a few pinches and sealed up the top.
We don't own any of those fancy bamboo stack-em and steam-em things, so we opted for boiled dumplings. Our filling was a combination of ground beef and finely chopped pork chops (we can't buy ground pork here) and some other little veggies and ginger.
We dipped them in a special dipping sauce and were amazed at how delicious they were. This is definitely something we want to make again! Next time, we'll do it with other people, since the stuffing/wrapping of the dumplings is pretty time consuming.
On Monday night of Staycation, we had our neighbor friends over for some Chicken Tikka Masala. Casey introduced us to this delicious recipe awhile ago, and this is the second time we've made it. I think it might be a new family favorite. I even made a little homemade garlic naan to go with it. While the dinner was delicious, the real highlight of the evening was watching Zeke play with his friends Lucy and Ellie.
It is so fun to see how he is learning to interact with others. The girls were wonderful with him, we love hanging out with their parents, so everybody has a good time.
By Tuesday morning, our last day of Staycation, we were gourmet-ed out. After such a delicious weekend, we enjoyed a low key morning of painting, sipping coffee, an afteroon family pool party, and ordering pizza for dinner. Staycation 2009 was great, and I'm excited to try out my new recipes again soon!
For my birthday, Zeke had a hard time deciding what to get for me. In the end, he chose these really cute Fisher Price stacking blocks. We spent hours playing on the floor with them, making echo sounds by talking into the open side, making towers, and putting the smallest one inside of the biggest. It has been a super-fun gift.
Staycation Sunday was a dough-y day. I started out in the morning by making my homemade pancakes. We love pancakes in this house. I had also read online that whole wheat bagels made a good teething/finger food for babies. I know that whole wheat bagels are usually made with honey- a no-no for babies, so I decided to make my own.
And yes, you actually boil them before you bake them! It was a lot easier than I thought, and yummy too!Ever since I visited China in 2003, I have had occasional cravings for Chinese steamed dumplings, or jiao zi (pronounced jow-tsa). When we were on our honeymoon in Vancouver a few years ago, I introduced Tom to this yummy treat. So, with a few creative substitutions, we made our very own jiao zi right here at home! The grocery stores here don't carry dumpling wrappers, so I had to start by making my own out of a little salt, rice flour, and normal flour. I rolled them out and cut them to size with a glass.
Filling and closing the dumplings was the hardest part for me. I know that there is a "right" way to do this, and it involves 3 or 4 precisely placed pleats. I was not able to do this. I've been taught a few times by my expert friends Amy and Kate, but never actually figured it out. Luckily, the dumplings seemed to work well if I gave them a few pinches and sealed up the top.
We don't own any of those fancy bamboo stack-em and steam-em things, so we opted for boiled dumplings. Our filling was a combination of ground beef and finely chopped pork chops (we can't buy ground pork here) and some other little veggies and ginger.
We dipped them in a special dipping sauce and were amazed at how delicious they were. This is definitely something we want to make again! Next time, we'll do it with other people, since the stuffing/wrapping of the dumplings is pretty time consuming.
On Monday night of Staycation, we had our neighbor friends over for some Chicken Tikka Masala. Casey introduced us to this delicious recipe awhile ago, and this is the second time we've made it. I think it might be a new family favorite. I even made a little homemade garlic naan to go with it. While the dinner was delicious, the real highlight of the evening was watching Zeke play with his friends Lucy and Ellie.
It is so fun to see how he is learning to interact with others. The girls were wonderful with him, we love hanging out with their parents, so everybody has a good time.
By Tuesday morning, our last day of Staycation, we were gourmet-ed out. After such a delicious weekend, we enjoyed a low key morning of painting, sipping coffee, an afteroon family pool party, and ordering pizza for dinner. Staycation 2009 was great, and I'm excited to try out my new recipes again soon!
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Haps in Hondo
So, I could try to give a detailed rundown on all that has happened today, but I think that my fellow blogger, La Gringa, has done a great job of explaining what's been going down. Basically, ousted President Manuel Zelaya returned to Honduras today and he's trying to get people all excited to protect and support him. He's currently camping out in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. All appears to be calm here in La Ceiba.
Any time a country has two people claiming to be president, and any time one of them is standing on a rooftop shouting to the people to gain support, there is a possibility of some unrest. In order to try to keep everyone safe, the government here has imposed a curfew that started at 4pm today and goes until 6pm tomorrow. I don't have any reason to believe that we'll actually be allowed out of our houses for the evening tomorrow, but we'll see.
Everything appears to be calm and peaceful here in La Ceiba. Luckily we went grocery shopping on Saturday, so we've got food. No classes tomorrow (since nobody is allowed to leave their houses), so Zeke is excited to spend a little extra time with mom and dad.
I'm hoping to catch up on some other blogging tomorrow during our time at home. Just wanted to let people know that things are okay with us, and we'll keep you all posted.
Any time a country has two people claiming to be president, and any time one of them is standing on a rooftop shouting to the people to gain support, there is a possibility of some unrest. In order to try to keep everyone safe, the government here has imposed a curfew that started at 4pm today and goes until 6pm tomorrow. I don't have any reason to believe that we'll actually be allowed out of our houses for the evening tomorrow, but we'll see.
Everything appears to be calm and peaceful here in La Ceiba. Luckily we went grocery shopping on Saturday, so we've got food. No classes tomorrow (since nobody is allowed to leave their houses), so Zeke is excited to spend a little extra time with mom and dad.
I'm hoping to catch up on some other blogging tomorrow during our time at home. Just wanted to let people know that things are okay with us, and we'll keep you all posted.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Agenda
We're going to start off the day today with a little water color painting on the dining room table. We'll post the results in a few hours. We will be listening to the Velvet Underground during this activity.
America's Test Kitchen
You may notice that the Mirado Black Warrior Pencil link has been removed from the our sponsors section and replaced with a link to the America's Test Kitchen cookbook. I guess its because the ATK cookbook has done much more in the last seventy-two hours to enhance the quality of our lives. Here's what Karine has to say: "Not only is this book full of great recipies, but its also full of great tips for first attempts at new recipies."
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Staycation Day One: Photos
Karine made pancakes for breakfast this morning. They were awesome. Now she's trying to make some bagels, also awesome. I will begin filling up the swimming pool after I finish this little project.
I'll try to put these pictures in order, more or less, chronological.
Zeke's number one toy these days. I guess you could call it an obsession. The man loves ice water in tall glasses. Its because he cut his first tooth this week. He's all about cool sensations on the gums. I took this glass away from him because somewhere in the instinctual protective father part of my brain alarm bells rang. Something about not letting your children chew on glass. Even if they want to. His cries when he realized I wasn't just goofing around: heart wrenching.
Zeke loves grass. Ruby loves Zeke.
In the backyard at dusk, with a flash. Did I mention that we figured out how to use the flash on on camera? Its neat.
Here's Zeke after bath time. This is pretty much Zeke's attitude toward life captured in this photo here. Unless you take his ice water away.
Here's dinner last night. Pictures of food are so weird. Lobster tails with chipotle-lime shrimp, served with ginger glazed carrots and rosemary potatoes. Washed down with a Chilean chardonnay that was nice and cold. Zeke did us the favor of shuffeling to dreamland before the food was on the table. I'll post recipes later.
Karine is making some kind of wacky stuffed Chinese balls for dinner tonight.
I'll try to put these pictures in order, more or less, chronological.
Zeke's number one toy these days. I guess you could call it an obsession. The man loves ice water in tall glasses. Its because he cut his first tooth this week. He's all about cool sensations on the gums. I took this glass away from him because somewhere in the instinctual protective father part of my brain alarm bells rang. Something about not letting your children chew on glass. Even if they want to. His cries when he realized I wasn't just goofing around: heart wrenching.
Zeke loves grass. Ruby loves Zeke.
In the backyard at dusk, with a flash. Did I mention that we figured out how to use the flash on on camera? Its neat.
Here's Zeke after bath time. This is pretty much Zeke's attitude toward life captured in this photo here. Unless you take his ice water away.
Here's dinner last night. Pictures of food are so weird. Lobster tails with chipotle-lime shrimp, served with ginger glazed carrots and rosemary potatoes. Washed down with a Chilean chardonnay that was nice and cold. Zeke did us the favor of shuffeling to dreamland before the food was on the table. I'll post recipes later.
Karine is making some kind of wacky stuffed Chinese balls for dinner tonight.
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