Super Simple Learning

Over the last 6 months or so Aimee has become increasingly interested in our phones-- particularly in looking at pictures (mainly of herself!) and in watching the short videos that we allow her to see on occasion. Although we still try to limit "screen time" as much we can, she does get a kick out of some of these silly videos and songs and they can be really helpful when you need her to sit still for 5 minutes while you put something in the oven, for example. They are, unfortunately, also my main negotiating tool for when I want to get Aimee to do certain things (note that I did not use the word "bribe"-- until just now oops!).

I've made it easy to organize her favorite videos by following my friend Stephanie's advice for setting up a youtube channel just for Aimee-- it's so much easier that way! At various times, Aimee will have a certain set of videos that she will frequently request to watch (and would probably watch on an endless loop if we let her!). Right now she is a big fan of the videos by Super Simple Learning. SSL has a pretty large library of little videos featuring your favorite nursery rhymes/preschooler songs. And the animation is pretty cute too. Here are some of Aimee's favorites (note you may have trouble with the links if you are reading on an RSS feed):

Bingo

If You're Happy (which Aimee refers to as "The Happy Song")

Old MacDonald

Walking in the Jungle (the current favorite!)

Speaking of Birthday Cakes....

Aimee turned one in August which means its been almost an entire year and I haven't shared her first birthday cake (it also means that she is almost two which totally boggles my mind! Of course when I ask Jason if he can believe she is almost two, he quickly say "yes"....typical!). When trying to decide what to do for Aimee's first birthday, we decided to keep it small. Our house is not terribly spacious and I knew I wasn't really ready to rent space somewhere-- the latter just seemed way too overwhelming given everything else going on in our lives. So we ended up mostly with family and a few of Aimee's "friends" (aka babies/kids of similar age that she saw on a semi-regular basis). Even that number of people filled our house and was somewhat overwhelming for Aimee so I think anything else might have been too much. I tried to keep things simple in general, but of course I had to make Aimee's birthday cake.

We decided on a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting since we wanted Aimee to be able to try her birthday cake and we had not yet introduced her to chocolate (in fact we still haven't-- Jason's brother has a severe nut allergy and we've been holding off on letting her try any kind of nuts. Since most chocolate is manufactured in facilities that also process nuts, we have held off on chocolate too). I found a vanilla cake recipe from my fave Smitten Kitchen that seemed like a winner and ended up using a variation of a buttercream recipe from her website as well. I decided to make a two layer cake for the celebration (which was the day after Aimee's actual birthday) and a few cupcakes since I wanted Aimee (and Jason and I) to be able to celebrate on the day of her birthday as well. It worked out well as I was able to "test" the recipe by making the cupcakes on her birthday and then the full cake the day of the "party."

I am not very confident in my cake decorating skills so I wanted to to do something fun and festive but that was also really easy. I got a great idea from pinterest--- using rainbow sprinkles to top the cake AND identify the birthday girl's age. I have to say it turned out pretty great (thanks to Jason who did the sprinkling while I was busy getting a few other things done right before our family and friends arrived).

 All in all I was really happy with how Aimee's first birthday cake turned out. Aimee seemed to enjoy the cake too-- although she was much more interested in playing with it than eating it :)

Vanilla Birthday Cake with Buttercream Frosting
Adapted (barely) from Smitten Kitchen

Note: The recipe below makes one 9-inch layer cake (two layers) and 12 cupcakes. See Smitten Kitchen for the cake only amounts.

Ingredients
For the cake:
6 cups plus 3 TBL cake flour (not self-rising)
3 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp table slat
3 sticks unsalted butter   
3 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla
6 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups buttermilk

For the frosting (should make enough for the cake and the cupcakes):
4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 TBL half-and-half or whole milk
1 TBL vanilla extract (note: next time I might use 1/2 TBL in order to have whiter frosting)

Rainbow sprinkles (optional)

Make the cake:
1.Preheat the oven to 350. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circle of parchment paper (I like to buy mine precut from here), then butter parchment. Line a muffin tin with festive liners or butter them as well.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla. Then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well/scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, add in buttermilk until just combined (batter will look lumpy).
4. Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated (you don't want to overmix!)
5. Fill each muffin tin 3/4 of the way full. Spread remaining batter in the two cake pans. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. This will be 20-22 minutes for the cupcakes and 35-40 minutes for the cake pans. Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of cake pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, cool completely (about 1 hour).

Make the frosting:
1. Whirl all the frosting ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
2. If the frosting gets too melty/soft while you are working with it, put in the fridge to let it firm up and then resume.

To make the decorations, simply cut out the number you 'd like from parchment paper (use the cake pan as a template so you know how big to make it). Place the number in the center of the cake. Pour sprinkles all over the top of the cake. Carefully remove the paper and voila!

{Tap tap}...Is this thing on?

It’s been so long since I’ve showed my face here that I’ve almost forgotten how this works. I guess that’s ok since I doubt anyone even checks for new posts anymore (except my friend Susannah, who reminds me she is still a loyal reader whenever I see her).  I’d try to explain away my year long (gulp) absence but there is not much to say—young child + full time job+ trying to maintain some semblance of personal /free time (ha!)= little time for cooking period, let alone anything worth writing about. That said, I did enjoy this old blog of mine back in its heyday so thought I’d dip a toe back in the water and see what happens. Posts may be scattered and may not always involve cooking really amazing things (hey, remember when I did this??) but, you know, baby steps.

So without further ado…..Susannah, this one’s for you!

Three day weekends are the best. And I actually spent this one doing some cooking. First up—Smitten Kitchen’s Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp Bars. I’m not posting the recipe since I followed it pretty much to the letter.  Definitely worth the (minimal) effort—delicious and does not make me feel too guilty for indulging, which is great since I had to buy A TON of rhubarb from the one grocery store I could find that sold it—so we may be eating a lot of these bars over the next week or so.

Next, a Memorial Day bbq “feast.” We were lucky enough to enjoy delicious cookout fare (e.g., burgers, sausages, grilled veggies,etc.) at a friend’s house on Saturday but I still felt the need to cook up something barbeque-y to celebrate the start of summer. I did a little BBQ chicken in the oven using a combo of a Smitten Kitchen’s dryrub oven barbeque chicken and another blogger’s baked chicken recipe (which we are also big fans of here). It turned out well. Although it definitely did not have any kind of crispiness to the skin (if that is something that is important to you). I don’t really go for chicken skin in general (one reason I am not a big fan of fried chicken) so this was fine with me. Moist, flavorful and pretty smoky for not coming within spitting distance of a grill. I served it with corn on the cob and this potato salad.

  

Hope you too spent some quality time with good friends, family and food this weekend. See you back here again...(dare I say) soon??!?

 Gratuitous photo of child-- nothing to do with the rest of the post!

BBQ Chicken (Minus the Grill)

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Hellobee

Ingredients:

3 TBL brown sugar

2 TBL smoked paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon cumin

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (any bone-in/skin-on chicken will do)

BBQ sauce of your choosing

1. Make the dry rub by mixing together the first 6 ingredients. This is enough for two recipes if you are using 4 chicken thighs so I poured half into a small bowl and put the rest in an airtight container for another use.

2. Preheat the oven to 350. Place chicken in a baking dish. Rub the chicken—under the skin and on-top of the skin—with the spice mixture. Be generous!

3. Pour a little water in the bottom of the baking dish—up to ½ inch or so. This time, I just put enough in to make sure the bottom was wet. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake for about 50 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Remove foil and pour a TBL or so of BBQ sauce onto each chicken thigh. Up the oven temperature to 400 degrees—put the chicken back in for 10 minutes or so until the BBQ sauce gets a little caramelized. Serve with additional BBQ on the side (if desired).

Catching Up

Wow—that was one long (unintended) hiatus! Somehow I thought that maternity leave would mean having more time to devote to the ol’ blog—you know, while my angelic baby slept for hours at a time during the day and I, well-rested and organized, would have plenty of time to read, cook and post thoughts about life and my newfound motherhood.

Ha!

In reality, my four months of maternity leave went by in the blink of an eye and my baby, while sweet and adorable, was not the world’s best sleeper during the day or at night which meant that a large part of my daily schedule consisted of trying to get her to sleep, thinking about how to get her to sleep, reading about how to get her to sleep and/or trying to get some sleep myself. Add in the busy holiday season plus some additional worries about finding loving and reliable child care (for when I went back to work) and weight gain issues and that was that. Now I am back at work and things seem to be going well. As Aimee gets older, all the things I worried incessantly about while on maternity leave seem to be finally falling into place—while not the world’s greatest sleeper she is sleeping most, if not all, of the night now, she’s gaining weight (thanks to a combo of breast milk and formula) and at seven months (!) is so active and fun to be around. 

I have lots of stories to share about all of it—and hopefully, I’ll be able to do that on a somewhat more regular basis now (famous last words....). I’ll be honest—there’s not a whole lot of interesting cooking going on these days but when  and if I find that secret to cooking dinner during the week while working full time and spending quality time with my baby and husband…I’ll be sure to post about it :) In the meantime, I hope the two of you who still check this blog on a regular basis will find the baby related stuff of interest (or at least enjoy the pictures) and you’ll stick around for the rare occasions where I try a new recipe, like the results, and actually remember to take a picture of it to share !

 

Nursery Reveal

I talked a little bit about my vision for Aimee's nursery back in the summer when I shared the trials and tribulations associated with the curtains I made (white furniture, gender neutral wall color, fun fabric, etc.), but I never got around to showing off the final product. So without further ado....the big reveal! We are pretty pleased with how it all turned out--sweet and girly without being over the top. And I especially like that both Jason and I contributed to Aimee's room (me with the curtains, Jason with the painted walls and refinished white cabinet). Although she doesn't spend that much time in there right now, I hope Aimee will enjoy it for years to come! Just like her, it was a labor of love.

(All pics except the last one are thanks to the fabulous Leigh Dameron)

Here are the details:

-Wall color: Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue (lattice pattern courtesy of Jason's awesome/meticulous taping skills)

-Curtains: Wavery Pom Pom Play Spa (fabric from Fabric.com, sewn by me)

-Crib: Baby Mod Olivia from WalMart 

-White cabinet: something we already owned and refinished

-Crib skirt: Etsy (seller BabyLove)

-Chair: our biggest splurge....Little Castle, ordered from Belfort Furniture

-Letter A: Craft Cuts

-Knit blocks: Dwell Studio (from Amazon)

-Dresser/nightstand: Ikea

-Somewhere over the rainbow picture: Etsy (seller sugarfresh, colors selected by me)

-Whale picture: Society 6

Two Months

I can't believe my baby is two months old already! And what a difference another month makes. Aimee is becoming a little person who does more than just eat, sleep, cry and poop....okay, those things still make up the bulk of her daily activities but now she smiles and coos and is beginning to really notice the world around her. It's pretty exciting to watch...I can't wait to see what the next month brings.

2 Month Stats: 8 lbs 6 ounces (staying strong on the 4th percentile growth curve) and 22.5 inches. 

Holy moly! She's grown 3 inches in the last two months-- newborn sized footie pjs are no longer possible and, as you can tell from the pic, even newborn size onesies are getting a little tight....which means we are officially into the 0-3 month clothes (or 3M in Carter's) although they are definitely a little big on her still.

She had her first round of vaccinations this week and did pretty well-- there was some intense crying but thankfully the nurse was really fast and had all three injections done in less than a minute. One of the keys to calming her down-- I nursed her for a few minutes before we got her dressed and headed home. She slept pretty much the entire afternoon but was pretty much back to normal by the next day.

Aimee at 1 month

From the Freezer: Chicken Tamale Casserole

One of my third trimester goals was to fill our freezer full of delicious homemade meals that we could easily reheat once Aimee arrived. I had initially planned to make a few dishes each weekend in August until our little girl was born, but that did not end up working out exactly as planned thanks to the fact that Aimee decided to cozy up to my sciatic nerve and I was left with pretty terrible back pain when standing or walking the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I was able to suck it up long enough to make a few items the weekend before she was born and supplemented with some of our favorite frozen items from the neighborhood Trader Joe’s*.

I tried a couple of new recipes including one for a chicken tamale casserole that we really enjoyed. The recipe comes from one of my favorite “lifestyle” bloggers— Kate from Elefantitas Alegres. The original recipe includes making homemade enchilada sauce and roasting up fresh chiles—no doubt these extra steps would make the dish even more amazing, however I decided to go with her time-saving suggestions (since I was also trying to bang out a few other freezable meals the same day) and went with canned instead. It was a cinch to make and froze/reheated beautifully. I made it in two batches—we ate one on our first night home from the hospital and the second a few weeks later with chips and guacamole (from Trader Joe’s of course).

I would highly recommend this dish—whether you are making it ahead for yourself, for a friend, or simply planning to eat it the same day. Yum.

*In case you are interested, here are some of our favorite Trader Joe's frozen foods: meat lasagna, eggplant Parmesan, chicken tikka masala and naan, tamales (cheese and green chile and the chicken ones), and Mandarin chicken).

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Adapted (barely) from Kate at Elefantitas Alegres

Ingredients:

1.5 c. of corn muffin mix

2 eggs, beaten

kernels scrapped from 2 small ears of corn

½ c. milk

2 4oz. cans of chopped green chiles, drained

2 ½ c. cheese, grated (Kate suggests pepper jack-- I used a "mexican cheese" blend from the grocery store)

¼ T. chili powder

½ T. cumin

1 10oz can of your favorite red enchilada sauce

Meat from one natural rotisserie chicken, skin removed and shredded

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Fold eggs, corn kernels and milk into corn muffin mix. Add green chiles, 1/2 cup of grated cheese, chili powder and cumin and combine. Pour into a greased one 9×13 or two 8×8 inch baking dishes. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the middle of the mix is firm.

3. Pierce tamale base all over with a fork. Pour the majority of the enchilada sauce over the tamale base, then top with shredded chicken and remaining cheese. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the whole thing.

4. Casserole can either be baked immediately for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or wrapped and frozen. If you decide to freeze it, simply bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until hot.

One Month

It’s hard to believe that Aimee is one month old already! In many ways, it feels like barely a week has gone by since we brought her home from the hospital. And although we don’t tend to accomplish much in a given day (eat, sleep, cry, diaper change…repeat), somehow they pass rather quickly. The first few weeks were a little rough as we (Jason, me and Aimee) began to adjust to our new way of life, but I think we are starting to get into the swing of things.  I am hopeful that in the next month, I’ll be able to spend a little more time on the ol’ blog; in the meantime, however, I’m hoping you’ll enjoy a retrospective of Aimee’s little life thus far :) It’s amazing how much she’s changed in such a short amount of time!

Happy One Month Birthday Aimee!