Type B&B

Of late

2012-01-01T12:14:00.005-05:00

Happy 2012! Hopefully there will be a 'year in review' post up soon, 2011 was obviously an eventful one for us.

Looking back on the few posts I wrote since baby A. was born has been a trip - we have come a long way!

1. Sleep. Things got pretty bad there for a while. I can't even tell you when/how it all went down, I think because it was a relatively slow disintegration that bottomed out a few weeks ago. Enter the magical, wonderful Sleepeasy Solution. Definitely worth a read, especially if you are looking to night wean and are comfortable letting your babe cry a bit. We really just needed to work on the night wakings/feeds; baby A. has always been a pretty good napper and puts himself to sleep fairly easily too. We had also established a nighttime routine when he was a few months old. We decided to:

- run a fan for white noise during naps and nightime
- place 6-7 binkies in the crib for easy self-soothing
- wake him 1 hour before he usually wakes to eat (for us that meant 9 pm and 1 am). I was seriously skeptical about how this would work but he would literally nurse while half-asleep and then go straight back down in the crib. This was one of the major strategies in the book and the one that helped us the most.
- Nurse him for 10 minutes the first night, 8 the next, 6 the next, etc. until a feed session was eliminated
- employ a modified cry-it-out (go in after 5 minutes, then after 10, then after 15) in which we would enter the room and speak soothingly but not pull him out of the crib.

We eliminated night feedings after 5 days, and he's been sleeping from 7 pm to 7 am for a few weeks now. We never had to let him CIO either - when he wakes up, he fusses for 1-2 minutes, finds a binky, and settles back to sleep.

I don't need to tell you how fantastic a full night of rest feels. It's been great. Of course there will always be rough patches (his first tooth appeared about a week ago, we're waiting for more to erupt) but at least we have a plan to fall back on when necessary. I've also realized that probably our biggest mistake was being inconsistent - sometimes we would go in and give him a pat, sometimes I would let him sleep with me, sometimes we would try and let him cry. The poor little guy was probably so confused. I still don't understand how the simple components of our plan somehow add up to 12 hours of sleep, but I'll take it.

2. Breastfeeding - I am proud to say we are still going strong 10 months in. Baby has milk every ~4 hours, usually 4-5 times a day. On the days I go to school I nurse him in the morning and right before bed; in between he will have 3 - 8 oz. bottles of breastmilk+formula. I am pumping twice a day, and plan to reduce it down to once a day soon. I'd like to have him mostly weaned by a year old (in February) but wouldn't mind retaining the early morning and/or nighttime feeds. We'll see what he wants to do, there are times when he seems pretty disinterested in nursing (especially at bedtime) but I don't know if that's just a phase or what. I'm hoping to stay flexible and not stress about it too much.

3. Solid food - In between milk feeds he gets solids, mostly Earth's Best jars but lately we've graduated to rice rusks and veggie puffs. He loves yogurt and cottage cheese, and is definitely into tasting new things (for now at least!). A few nights ago I made a soba noodle soup with spinach and mushrooms and he loved the broth. He has also had a few bites of meatball and is definitely getting better at chewing. I'm looking forward to introducing him to all sorts of new tastes, it's entertaining to see his reactions.

4. Child care - I went back to school for 3 days/week when baby was 6 weeks (!). Still not sure how I managed, but for the first 5 months me, my husband and my mom watched him. In September I went back to four days/week and after much agonizing we hired a nanny to come to our home three days per week. She is wonderful and the baby loves her. It's worked out surprisingly well.

Starting this week I will be back at school five days/week, and the nanny will be with us on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he will be attending a daycare that is really more like a school. We found one that we are really happy with, so I'm hoping this transition goes well. I'm excited for baby A. to meet some other babies and have some structure to his day, I really think he's going to love it. He's visited the infant room twice now, and each time he has happily crawled away from me to explore. I'm dreading the booger noses and fevers that are surely heading our way, but all I can do is continue breastfeeding and get through the cold and flu season.

Otherwise we are totally loving our little guy, he's the sweetest thing and is starting to interact with us more and more (waving hello, pointing to things and playing games). It's the biggest cliche but I can't believe how big he is getting and how time flies. I also feel pretty good about where we are with this parenting gig. It's not at all that I think we've mastered anything, just that I realize we have to roll with it all and enjoy each new stage.

2011-07-16T10:41:00.001-04:00

Totally random but I love this

via stork bites man

Oh boy...

2011-07-14T06:55:00.004-04:00

Of course the sleep gods read my last post about a 'good' night of sleep and decided to punish me. Here is a lovely example of a recent 'bad' night:

7:30 - bath/massage
8 -into crib, fussing, crying, binky-stuffing
8:17 -sleep (I checked since it felt like I had been soothing for ~25 hours)

10:30 - awake, eat and back to sleep right away
12:30 - awake, snack, back to sleep right away
2:30 - awake, eat, awake... until 3:30.
4:14 - awake again whyyyyyyy. Grunting, pants-pooping, general thrashing
5ish - asleep again until 6:45, where I traded him off to my mom for the morning shift. As she was changing his diaper he gave me a big gummy grin as if our forced all-nighter had not happened.

I hate to be so snarky about it since he obviously has a lot going on right now developmentally and just can't make it through long stretches of sleep. The sleep he does get does not appear to be particularly restful: he's constantly rolling around, shifting his head from side to side and crying out a lot.

But seriously. I need to be in the lab today and have a paper to finish, a dissertation to write and new students to train. Plus we're trying to figure out what to do about child care starting in September, which is giving me an ulcer.

In the meantime I may need one of these:

Found here

Sleep and Feed

2011-07-11T09:08:00.014-04:00

Two topics very much on my mind lately!

A bit of background: when baby first arrived home, we had no idea what the eff we were doing in the sleep department and had no real plan re: where he would sleep. For the first few weeks, he either slept in his swing or in his car seat. We tried to put him in a moses basket but he refused to sleep in there. I was terrified of SIDS and suffocation and spent a lot of time checking that his nose was free of obstruction, reminding the world that he needed to be on his back at all times and making sure his blanket wasn't going to jump off the couch and somehow cover his little face.

At about six weeks of age I realized it was much easier to breastfeed while laying down in bed (we have a daybed in the nursery). So we started co-sleeping at that point, so that he would wake up, eat, and immediately fall asleep again. I would often drift off to sleep myself. Win.

I think it was around 12 weeks that he started to thrash and attempt to roll over in bed. He was also waking up many many times, snacking a little, and falling back to sleep. It became a not-so-restful-for-me situation and I started realizing I needed to phase out the co-sleeping if possible. It was also around this time that everyone and their cat was asking: is he sleeping Through The Night?? A.K.A. IHSTTN????? No. No he is not.

His head/neck control was much better at this point, so we started letting him sleep on his stomach. This led to longer stretches of night sleep.

After freaking out a bit when we realized that simply transitioning him to his crib wasn't going to happen overnight, I realized a couple of things:

1. It is completely normal for breast fed babies to wake up multiple times per night. It's even more normal for breastfed, co-sleeping babies to wake up a lot. And it's not like he would wake up and stay awake for any length of time, we both are half-asleep as he eats. I want to continue to breastfeed at night, so I think I'll have to let my 'sleep through the night' dream go for a while, probably at least until we introduce solids.

2. Our goal is for everyone in our house to get as much sleep as possible. Period. In any way that works.

3. We needed a bedtime ritual to show baby that it's time to wind down and go to bed.

4. The transition from co-sleeping to crib didn't have to be all-or-none, something in between is fine.

5. It was time for me to at least attempt to get him back to sleep without eating every time. I've been moderately successful in this department. I'm not ready to let him cry it out, but I do let him whine and cry for a little while, and try to re-introduce the binky, to make sure he is really hungry.

6. Ask Moxie is the best site ever. A couple of posts that pulled me back from the edge:

'time' to stop co-sleeping
quick and dirty on sleep
one year old not sleeping
sleep regressions

I also love amalah and her posts on alphamon

Reading through these posts and the associated comments have been SO comforting to me and have helped my husband and I come up with a plan that works for us.

Baby is 20 weeks old today. Here's where we're at: he sleeps in his swing during the day. He's always been a pretty good daytime napper, and takes two longer (1-3 hour) naps in the morning and a couple of catnaps in the afternoon. Our pattern is to eat (nowadays every 3-4 hours for about 15 minutes), play (with me or on his fantastic playmat that I can't recommend enough) Then sleep. He is generally never awake for longer than 2-3 hours, especially in the morning and early afternoon. As soon as I see him yawn or rub his eyes, into the swing he goes.

5:30 to 6 pm tends to be a cranky time. We make and eat dinner as best we can, and around 7:30, I take him upstairs for a bath and massage. I read him a short book and then feed him one last time laying down in bed. He's usually in the crib at 8 pm. I put him directly on his stomach, he'll just roll over if I try placing him on his back. Every night he fusses for a few minutes, and usually the fuss ramps up to full-fledged tears and real crying. My husband or I generally take him out of the crib at this point for some binkie and soothing. Once he's calm again, he goes back in the crib. He'll fuss a little more, and then finally lay his head down to sleep. He's usually out by 8:30 pm.

I've finally started sleeping for part of the night in my OWN bed again, which is in the adjoining room. On a good night, baby will wake up around 12, at which point I take him with me into the nursery bed again to eat. We'll both fall asleep until around 3, and he'll eat again. I usually change his diaper and put him back into the crib. Lately he wakes again at 6:45 or 7 am.

Of course, there are bad, BAD nights mixed in there. A few times this week he was up 4-5 times, but the last couple of nights he's back to waking two times.

OK, this is getting long! I'll have to save the 'feeding' topic for another time.

cloth dipes

2011-06-14T15:33:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned I signed up for a 12 week long trial run with Philly diaper service. For $22 per week, here's what I get:

An at-home consult to explain how it all works and to illustrate a couple of different folding methods.

80 pre-folds - I'm not sure what brand the service uses but they look like this and seem pretty heavy-duty. They also provide an 'exclusive diapers' service at no extra charge - meaning I get the same cohort of dipes back once they're washed.

A pack of Snappi diaper fasteners - This is a y-shaped contraption that you use in place of pins. They attach to the diaper with little hooks, like you would use with an ace bandage. At first I was afraid these would hook into baby's skin, but we haven't had any problems so far. Love these.

three Thirsties duo wrap covers - these are great because they have snaps up the front to adjust the 'rise' of the cover, so that you can use one size for a longer time as your baby grows. I'm not sold on these though, they hold everything in pretty well, and are very easy to use, but I think they might irritate baby's skin on his stomach and thighs. I might try these Imse Vimse soft covers next. Baby isn't in cloth full time (see below) but even so it would be more convenient to have 5-6 covers, just so I'm not washing them all the time.

GroVia BioLiners - These are flushable diaper liners for when baby A's poop becomes more 'substantial.' ie when he starts eating solid food. Liner gets dropped into the toilet, diaper goes into the pail. Easy.

Punkin butt bottom balm - An organic balm that smells great and works well. Apparently the zinc oxide in a lot of diaper creams isn't good for cloth diapers (or maybe it's hard to wash out? I'm not sure). But I also really like Baby Bee diaper ointment.

Sheepish Grins diaper pail deodorizer - LOVE this stuff. You sprinkle a little on the bottom of your diaper pail and layer in with the dirty diapers as needed. It smells like buttery oatmeal cookies (is that gross?) and totally masks poopy dipe stench.

I also signed up for a starter kit, which was a one time fee for the diaper pail, a Thirsties diaper pail liner and a deodorizer cube (For the life of me I can't find the link for this on the service website, I think it shows up when you are checking out with an order)

So what happens is I fill up the diaper pail with dirty diapers (no need to dump any poop off first, since the poop of a breast/formula fed baby is completely water soluble at this point) and put the bag on our porch every Tuesday. It magically disappears, while a new liner filled with clean diapers magically appears in it's place.

Really, switching to cloth hasn't been a big deal at all for me. I had to practice getting the leg holes tight enough to avoid leakage but that's about it. My Mom and husband are not taking to it as I have though, so baby is still in disposables three days a week and at night. For this reason 80 diapers has been WAY too many for us so far.

I was surprised at how soaked all over the diapers get, which is both a pro and a con. A 'pro' because disposable diapers are supernaturally absorbent for a reason, and I don't even want to know what that reason is and how many chemicals are necessary to make it happen. The wetness also supposedly helps with potty training, since they feel wet much sooner, although obviously I can't speak to this yet. It's a 'con' in the sense that you end up changing diapers a lot more frequently... but with 80 per week I have plenty, and I don't mind changing them.

I was also not expecting how bulky it all is once you have on the cloth diaper and the cover. It looks pretty funny! The whole ensemble doesn't work too well under a onesie, but a lot of times at home I just keep him in the cloth without the cover, monitor closely, and change often.

I've also started using this diaper lotion potion as a wipes solution - I mix it with water and a little witch hazel in a spray bottle and spray it directly onto a flannel baby wipe. It smells nice, cleans well, and cuts down on the number of wipes we use. Again, my Mom and husband (and my dad for that matter) all pretty much use disposable wipes, and I use the flannel ones (kept in a wipes warmer) in the nursery.

So I haven't gone crazy trying to get all caregivers on the cloth dipe/resusable wipe program. I'm happy to at least partially cut down on waste for now... and I have other more pressing matters to worry about, like getting my baby to sleep in his crib through the night. Next time :)

Adventures in breastfeeding - part II

2011-04-16T07:44:00.003-04:00

Subtitle: pumping at school!

I really should have kept a journal during these last few weeks; I know there were other bumps in the road along the way (including googling 'I hate breastfeeding' one day) but amnesia has set in a little. I'll try my best to recap...

I believe I left off when baby was around 2 weeks old and I was trying to feed without the breast shields. The shields were great for transitioning us back from bottle to boob, but they get SO annoying to use, especially at night. They start to lose their suction power once they're sterilized a few times, so you end up fumbling to get it on as baby cries for food. I also think someone should invent a colored/ glow-in-the-dark breast shield - the clear ones kept getting lost all over our house! I was paranoid that someone would find one on our couch and be like, ewwww what is this???

It took a couple of days but I was eventually able to feed without the shields, around the time when my husband went back to work and I was on my own with baby all day. Much of that time is a blur but I know there were days when I just sat in our kitchen, holding the babe and sobbing... because I felt like I had NO IDEA what I was doing, feeling totally isolated and unsure I was doing it all 'right.' There were (and still are) times when the baby seems unsatisfied after feeding on both sides: crying, fussing and pulling at me in frustration. This was so stressful for me and it HURT at first, until I realized that it's his way of getting more milk and/or telling the boob factory to start producing more. Nowadays when this happens I just keep switching him back and forth until he is done, which seems to work.

I went back to school part time when the baby was 6 weeks old; a hard transition made easier by the fact that my mom is watching him at our house. My boss was really great about helping me set up a place to pump in a little storage closet near the lab; it's a tiny space but 1. the door locks behind me and 2. there's a big fan running constantly in the hallway so I don't have to worry about anyone wondering what that pumping noise behind the door is. At first I pumped every two hours, for a total of four sessions, but quickly realized I got the same amount if I pumped every three hours, three times total.

I don't get a lot out during each pumping session (nowadays about three ounces total) but I've read that's pretty common (Nice article here). What ends up happening is that I pump during the day, I fill four bottles after school for the next day, and supplement up to 3.5 ounces per bottle with formula. I breastfeed exclusively on my days off, and try to feed him right before leaving for school and right when I get home. A lot of the time I miss that 5:30 pm feed, so I have another pump set up at home and try to pump any time I miss a breastfeeding session. This has really helped me to generate a little breast milk cache to freeze.

Baby is now 11 weeks old and I'm happy to say things are running pretty smoothly (in the breast feeding department at least). I've fed him many times in the backseat of our car, and a few times out in public. He is sleeping with me at the moment, and I can now feed him laying on my side while half asleep. I try not to stress about the formula supplementation; I would love to breast feed exclusively but it's just impossible with me at school three days per week. Baby weighed 12 lbs 8 ounces at his last doctor's appointment (double his birth weight) and seems to be happy and well fed. My original goal was to make it to six months and I think it's totally feasible.

But of course with each challenge mastered there arises a new one, if not multiple new ones! Right now we're working on his sleeping 'situation.' He still eats every three hours or so, including at night. In fact, sometimes he eats more often than that at night, which I'm sure is because I'm right there beside him all night long. So at the moment I'm trying to let him go a little longer between feeds during the day by letting him fuss longer than I normally would, and I've started a little night time ritual - feed, bathe, massage, a book and then hopefully BED. Finally, I've introduced him to the wonderful world of his crib. Last week I put him in there during the day, just to hang out and see how awesome crib land really is. He wouldn't nap but it was a start. Last night after his book he slept in there for a few hours, and then I brought him into bed with me for the remainder of the night.

As I type he's asleep in the crib for his first nap of the day. I'm hoping to get him sleeping in there all night, with me sleeping in the room until he goes a little longer between feeds. Then maybe I can return to MY bed, and my snoozing husband. I'm learning that all of these things are just trial and error and I have to go with the flow and adjust when things aren't working. So we'll see...

Next up: adventures in cloth diapering. We have a consult today with Philly Diaper Service and I'm on board for a 12 week trial period.

Adventures in Breastfeeding - Part I

2011-03-03T22:35:00.004-05:00

I'm really hoping the subtitle for Breastfeeding-Part II is "we exhibit total and complete mastery" and not "fail: we give up."

Actually I'm just being dramatic, today wasn't so bad at all. But the babe and I have put quite a lot of work into this breastfeeding venture in the last 10 days. I knew from reading a lot and from talking to my girlfriends that breastfeeding is 'hard' but I didn't really GET what that meant. And of course, every experience is different so I had no idea what was in store for me.

Phase I: Baby latched on immediately, probably 15 minutes after being born. This amazes me! At this point he knew much better than I did what to do. After a hospital lactation consultant helped me with my positioning, we were off - he fed really well for about 4 days.

Phase II: Then my milk came in. My boobs were hard as a rock and baby had no idea what to do. Suddenly he wouldn't latch and was obviously upset and very hungry. I tried taking a warm shower, applying a warm washcloth and continued to try and offer the breast. We were both getting more and more upset, since the hospital had told us to feed every 3 hours OR ELSE. Unfortunately I wasn't sure what OR ELSE entailed or what to do if I couldn't get him to eat. I don't know why I didn't just offer him some formula to take the edge off, but I didn't. Finally on day five we got the breast pump stuff cleaned and ready to go, and I figured out how to use it. He had gone for 6-7 hours without much food and was pretty cranky, as you can probably imagine.

Phase III: Meltdown time. Thankfully we had our first pediatrician appointment that morning. I was exhausted and worn out, and baby was still hungry. I was trying to hold it all together but started sobbing once we got into the exam room. Baby was screaming uncontrollably, was all chappy from us trying to console him with the pacifier, and was wearing an outfit that was probably 3 months too big - obviously we were all a mess. THANK GOD for our doctor: she ignored the chaos and was like, 'CHILL guys. Your first priority is to feed this baby. However you can. Give him formula if you need to, and keep pumping every two hours to maintain supply and ease engorgement'. Then she gave us three huge bottles of formula for free and told us to come in for a weight check in a week.

It was exactly what I needed to hear. I had been so focused on breast feeding, and avoiding giving a bottle (I had read to wait until 3 weeks of age to do that) that I had basically starved our baby in the process. Looking back I can see that I was obviously hormonal, but at the time I felt so ashamed and angry at myself.

There was one bright spot during our horror show of a ped visit: two moms in the waiting room. Both were there with their second kids; one was a toddler and the other baby was only 2 weeks old. I think they could tell I was about to fall apart and both made a point of saying 'hang in there! It totally gets better! We've been there!' Such a little thing... but it meant a lot.

Phase IV: So on day 5 I start pumping like crazy and supplementing with formula. At first it seems great because I feel so much more in control and can give formula if necessary. Plus my husband is now able to feed him too. Baby is finally getting food and it is obvious that he is much more content and happy.

Then I notice that baby is gulping from the bottle, which gives him a lot more gas. I also notice that he doesn't seem to know when to stop - he just keeps eating, and then eating more. I can only get him to latch on and breastfeed once on day 6 and another time on day 7... then not at all. So now we have another problem: how to get him back to breast feeding exclusively.

Phase V: After doing a little reading online I try for a day or two to get him back on the boob (making sure to remain as calm as possible, NEVER forcing the breast, bottle feeding near the breast so he gets used to positioning, etc). I didn't want to troubleshoot this issue for too long, and ended up setting up a consult with a lactation specialist at The Breastfeeding Resource Center (which is like 10 minutes from our house!). I met with Colette, who worked her magic and seriously had him breast feeding again after 10 or 15 minutes. She suggested a change in position and nipple shields (which feel more like a bottle nipple) and came up with a written plan for us to follow. I was also to pump as much as possible to try and increase supply.

So that was Tuesday, and I'm happy to report that we are doing much, much better. On Wednesday I was able to get him to breastfeed, and only had to supplement with formula/bottle a few times when it seemed like he was still hungry. He has been exclusively breast fed since Tuesday night; we are still using the nipple shields but every once in a while I can get him to latch without them.

Now he's feeding constantly, which can be hard since he's attached to me basically day and night, but we've made such good progress that it hardly matters. I'm hoping our winning streak continues... I'm just glad I stuck with it for this long, and asked for professional help when I needed it. No wonder so many people quit!

Whew. What a week.

AAO 2-21-11

2011-03-03T06:48:00.017-05:00

Despite concerns that I might be pregnant forever, our baby boy arrived on February 21st at 4:08 PM. He was (is) a little guy, weighing in at 6lb3oz and 19 inches.

On Sunday the 20th (at 40w5d), we decided to visit the art museum, thinking that walking around a bit might help things along. I had lost my mucus plug the Friday before, but there were no other signs of labor at this point. I was huge, swollen and cranky. I was scheduled for an induction on Feb 25th, and was feeling so fearful of what an induction might bring and hoping hoping hoping for a vaginal delivery.

Around bedtime on Sunday night, I started dripping a little fluid. I went to bed, and felt two stronger drips while laying down. Contractions started around midnight, and I woke my husband up around 1 am. After talking with my ob, we decided to head to the hospital to see if my water had broke (there was no dramatic gush on our couch, in our bed, or in the car, as my husband feared).

I arrived in triage around 2 am, where the nurse determined that I was indeed leaking amniotic fluid. I was admitted and they wheeled me to the birthing suite, where we would remain until baby joined us. At this point I think I was 2-3 cm dilated, easily breathing through some mild contractions. They felt like menstrual cramps and were felt mostly in my lower back. The nurse gave me a little pitocin to move things along. I was scared that it would ramp things up uncontrollably, but it was such a slow drip that I didn't notice anything like that.

I started having more regular contractions and politely enquired re:epidural around 8 am. The doctor wanted a more defined contraction pattern and more dilation. I worked through contractions until 5 cm dilated, at which point things were starting to ramp up a bit. The ob broke the amniotic sac to release the rest of the fluid.

At this point they administered the epidural. I felt some odd pinching sensations and muscle twitchiness as the catheter was going in, but it truly wasn't that painful. Certainly nothing compared to the contractions I was having.

Once the epidural kicked in I felt fantastic - warm, calm and totally pain free. It was heaven. I made sure that friends and family knew it was game time:

Around 7 cm or so they decided baby was sunny side up - which explained why I was feeling a lot of pain in my back. I started to notice that I could feel some of the contractions on my right side, and wondered if the epidural was wearing off a little. This scared me... I started to get the chills.

A resident on duty came in to see me and had my lay in this "spider man" position - sort of on my stomach/side, right leg up and left leg down - in an effort to turn baby so that his head was facing toward my back. As you can see I'm starting to feel rather miserable:

At some point I was 10 cm dilated, but at zero position - meaning the baby wasn't far enough down the birth canal yet. They wanted me to wait a bit longer to see if he progressed.

Happily there are no photos of the next stage, where I got the shakes accompanied by painful, intense contractions. In the progression from 5cm to 10, the contractions had changed - they now felt like extreme pressure and pain in my rectal area. I started to whimper with each passing wave, and my incredibly calm and reassuring husband started pressing on my lower back to try and ease the pain. I'm truly not sure how long this phase lasted, maybe an hour?

Finally I couldn't take it any more and had my husband tell the nurse I had to start pushing. Pushing actually felt good (better than trying to breathe through a contraction, anyway). I pushed, and pushed, and pushed... I know there was a point about 30 minutes in where I was exhausted and feeling totally demoralized - is all this pushing doing anything??? I'm tired.

I kept going, my husband holding my right leg and a first year nursing student (his first day on the labor and delivery floor) on my left. At some point, they broke down the bed and my ob appears in hazmat gear - face shield, knee high booties, the works. I can start to feel what I think is the baby's head further down along the canal, and work to push against the pressure. I get a surge of energy everyone in the room cheers when the top of baby's head becomes visible.

It's all a blur after that, I pushed for an hour and 5 minutes total. Once the head was out, baby's body slid out immediately after. I tore pretty badly in the process, but thankfully was still a little numb down there so as to blunt the pain a bit. There was meconium in the amnoitic fluid, so my husband wasn't able to cut the cord. They whisked baby away immediately and started to make sure he was ok. Once I heard him cry I relaxed a bit and delivered the placenta. Then I tried not to crawl out of my skin when the ob started to stitch me up - OUCH.

Finally they brought him over to me - such a cute little guy. He was really calm in those first few moments. I'm feeling really good at this point, chatting with the doctors and nurses and trying to get a good look at the new addition.

Afterwards we were moved from labor and delivery to the post-natal ward, where we would remain for the next two days. Both sets of parents arrived to meet the baby, it was all so surreal.

I feel so lucky that everything went the way it did and that the baby is healthy and happy. My husband was seriously like a superhero - anticipating my needs and staying calm the entire time. I'm sure none of this was easy to watch!

We've been home now for about a week, enjoying this quiet time where it's just us. I have lots to say about what we've learned in that time, and what we're trying to figure out. Next time...

2011-02-04T18:36:00.006-05:00

Well! Here we are at 38w 2d:

I saw the doctor this morning and she thinks baby will stay put for another week, if not longer. I'm not too terribly upset about this; I am supposed to be writing a paper during my time off, and of course this week I slacked (napped, drank tea, spent too much time online, baked lots of muffins etc.) terribly. Another week to redeem myself would be nice. Anything longer than that
I'm assuming will start to get annoying.

I really don't feel too terribly uncomfortable, during the day at least. Bedtime is another story: rolling 'the bulk' over to my other side actually kinda hurts, and I've become a total sweat machine (it's gross). I'm normally someone who sleeps soundly for 8-9 hours per night, and these days I've been sleeping for about 4 hours, waking up for 1-2 hours, and then maybe sleeping for another 2. All in preparation for the almost total lack of sleep I'm anticipating in a few weeks.

Anyway, now that I'm nearing the end I wanted to mention some pregnancy-related items that I found useful this time around:

Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy - week by week info for pregnancy and beyond. I liked their "when to call" pages at the end of each section, especially early on in the pregnancy when every little twinge freaked me out.

Belli facial wash and body lotion - paraben free, lightly scented and really gentle. I will continue to use these post-baby.

Bella B Tummy Honey Butter and nipple cream - Again, both paraben free. At the very least the honey butter helps with the itchy stomach that comes with extreme stretching; I don't believe anything really prevents stretch marks but it was great to apply something so deeply moisturizing, especially in winter. Keep in mind that it's not a lotion, more like the texture of a thick lip balm that needs to be rubbed in pretty well. It can be a little sticky, so I ended up using it at bedtime. It has a faint honey scent that I liked. As for the nipple cream, just trying to be proactive at the advice of a friend...

I found two workout videos that complement each other really well: Summer Sanders' Prenatal Workout and The Perfect Pregnancy Workout. The Summer Sanders dvd includes a workout for all three trimesters, each of which contains an express and full-length program. The Perfect Pregnancy Workout is more difficult, (the instructor is formerly an acrobat with the Cirque du soleil). Switching between the two videos kept things varied enough for me to keep at it. I also just ordered this post-pregnancy dvd by Tracy Anderson, it gets good reviews so we'll see.

Gilligan & O Malley Nursing sleep bra - For some reason I insisted on wearing my regular Calvin Klein underwire bras for far too long, way past the point of them being comfortable. I started to wear sports bras for a while, but eventually those became painfully tight too. I've bought a few nursing bras so far, keeping in mind that I may have to buy a few more once the baby is here and I start breastfeeding. That said, GOOD GOD most nursing bras are ugly. I really like this one by Gilligan & O Malley because it's not horribly fugly, it's soft and it fits well. It's also pretty inexpensive. I've also purchased a couple of these Medela sleep bras - not as cute but very comfy. They run small though - I ended up needing a size bigger than usual.

Stretchy shirts in a size larger than usual from Anthropologie - I stuck to the basics (Target, Motherhood Maternity, Old Navy) for most of my maternity wardrobe, but there were several occasions where I needed something nicer (presentations at school, baby showers) - the ones bought from Anthro were worth the extra cost.

Cardigans from Boden - I'm still wearing a striped wool cardigen I bought last year, only now it is un-buttonable of course.

Nectarine Blossom and honey cologne from Jo Malone - obviously sweat monsters need a little pick me up, no?

Totally unrelated, but my crazy sweet tooth is telling me this looks amazing.

2010-10-10T18:11:00.012-04:00

My husband and I are expecting a baby boy in February! I'm about 22 weeks along and probably like anyone that's had a miscarriage, feeling lucky and kinda amazed that things seem to be progressing as expected. I was extremely fortunate to get pregnant pretty much as soon as my ob gave the go-ahead to start trying again... those few months in between the D&C and finding out we were pregnant again were truly rough. I don't think I let myself get even a little excited until after our 13 week ultrasound, at which point the baby looks like a baby and not a little oblong peanut (like it did at 7 weeks). With each ultrasound, pre-natal appointment and more recently the odd sensation of someone kicking me from the inside, I'm becoming more and more convinced that this baby is actually going to happen :)

We've started thinking about designing the nursery and have settled on a little room, at the moment our office/sewing room, that's attached to our master bedroom. We painted it a light grey with white trim and last year we had the floors stripped and stained a nice honey color:

I absolutely loved this nursery makeover and it seemed like the perfect starting point, since we didn't want to paint again (and I have a weakness for orange):

We're working with a pretty small room so I was looking for a crib that wouldn't overwhelm the space. After much deliberation we decided on the BabyMod Olivia 3-in-1 from Walmart. I generally avoid Wal-Mart at all costs but the reviews were positive and it was really exactly what we were looking for (and right within our price range). It came in the mail a few days ago and I'm happy to report it looks great. Of course, I am still not comfortable setting up a crib in our house this far away from my due date (see: previous miscarriage anxiety) so I can't really speak to how this thing looks assembled.

We haven't ordered a changer yet, but I'm liking this Parklane 3-drawer changer, again from BabyMod-I think the wood accents look nice with our floors:

I think I will probably end up ordering custom bedding from Nursery Dreams on etsy, as I haven't seen anything commercially available that I really love. I'm thinking white sheets and a white dust ruffle and a bumper or changing cover in this cute elephant fabric:

And a few simple prints for the walls, like this alphabet poster from Binth

baby animal prints from Sharon Montrose (loving the porcupine and baby giraffe):

And this winter birch decal from Janey Mac Press - possibly in white?

And I'll leave you with a couple of belly shots, taken today:

2010-08-16T15:28:00.008-04:00

We just got back from a really wonderful long weekend off the coast of VA:

The view from our bedroom:

Taking a break during an epic bike ride:

View from our kayak on Saturday:
Somehow I didn't take any pictures at the beach but we did a little of that, too.

We're already planning our next trip; thinking of checking out Portland, Maine in October. Has anyone been?

2010-07-31T17:09:00.005-04:00

A few summery recipes I've tried recently:

Spinach, carmelized onion, bacon and goat cheese pizza. I pretty much followed the instructions here, although I used a whole grain pizza dough from Whole Foods and added a layer of shredded mozzarella underneath it all. I also carmelized the onions rather than just softening in bacon grease (mmmm). Obviously my version won't be winning any beauty contests but this thing tasted delicious and all the toppings can be made ahead of time. I used to fail miserably at carmelizing onions, until I tried this recipe (another good one). I think red onion is the key.

I'm pretty sure I've posted about this sour cream apple pie before, but it's worth mentioning again. I like it with the pate brisee recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Yes, there are only two of us in this household, and no, we didn't require any help eating this entire pie.

I've also attempted dill pickles for the first time, although it remains to be seen whether they will turn into poisonous mush or wonderfully crispy spicy pickles. I used this recipe and also found this tutorial to be really helpful since I don't have any fancy canning equipment. I'm also thinking about picking up Canning & Preserving by Ashley English - has anyone tried it out?

And finally, sesame soba noodles with cucumber, bok choy and mixed greens were not camera worthy but were a great way to use up some of our farmer's market veggies.

2010-04-29T14:28:00.004-04:00

Some random stuff I've been into lately:

pear tree green tea - I get this a lot at the cafe near school. Nice with a little honey.
recipe journal from moleskine
cross over velcro strap shoe from Groundhog. This brand is new to me but it looks like they have some great stuff.

Les Choristes

Caipirinhas on Friday evenings after work. I used this ginger cordial recipe, which I also mixed with club soda to make something like ginger ale.

Nothing like an at-home science project: wild yeast.

2010-04-29T12:24:00.002-04:00

I'm having kind of a bad week:

1. Accidentally walked in on my boss taking a pee when we were out at a restaurant (gahhh!!! blushing just thinking about it. So embarrassing)

2. Gave a shaky, nervous introduction for a seminar speaker I was hosting yesterday. I can still hear my wavering voice blasting out into the auditorium...

3. Mad at myself for not asking a question of said seminar speaker, even though it was a relevant one that I'm still wondering about.

etc.

These are all small, stupid things that should be let go immediately. I realize this. Am I the only one that obsesses over social faux pas / a less than stellar performance for days afterward? Sometimes it feels like it.

This is all coming on the heels of a bad couple of months, actually. I've hesitated to put it out here, but I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks at the beginning of March and it has surprised me a little at how rough going it's been since then. For sure I am feeling better physically and emotionally, but it does still creep up on me at unexpected times. I'm trying really hard to work through it all in a healthy way but I'm still feeling unmotivated, unexcited about my lab work, and I'm totally dreading a presentation I have coming up next week. Just not like myself, I guess.

This too will pass, I know. Just wanted to put it out there, so hopefully in a couple of months I can come back here and realize this was a rough patch and I made it through.

2010-01-20T15:03:00.002-05:00

Today's my birthday, and I just bought myself these gorgeous boots. I've been visiting them on the zappos site for some time now, and finally decided to take the plunge. Besides, they will last forever, right?

Enjoying these...

2009-12-29T12:05:00.001-05:00

via hot child in the city

Aren't cookie tables universal??

2009-12-20T08:34:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/16cookies.html

2009-09-21T15:43:00.004-04:00

I've ordered a couple of really great prints recently:

Many Faces of Mook - I love grey skies

(My husband thinks this one is a bit creepy but I love it)

Poseidon letterpress calendar - Lizard Press

Luna letterpress calendar - Lizard Press
ALPHABET - beauchamping

(check out the close up photos on this one )

And the Philadelphia and San Francisco prints from Ork Posters.

In other news, we are getting a new roof put on our house this weekend, weather permitting. I will be sure to post some very exciting before/after shots if possible.

I am also running the Eagle National Bank 5k on Saturday morning. I'm hoping it doesn't suck as badly as the last one I did.

AND finally, I'm doing a bit of crafting. Been working on a cream felt pillow with rosettes based using this tutorial, I'll post pics soon. And remember this?

Probably not, it's been moldering in our back office since the last time the weather was cool. But I layered the quilt sandwich and have everything pinned together. I've officially moved into fly by the seat of my pants mode, because I've never quilted anything this big before and I'm not totally sure how to proceed. I'm hoping to figure it all out as I go.

I will leave you with this:

Knitting in Biology 101 - The Crafty Hedgehog

I'm controlling myself on this one; I want this badly but can't quite figure out an appropriate place for it to live in our house.

etsy jewelry

2009-07-26T20:06:00.008-04:00

My stipend, once doled out twice a month, is now on a last-business-day-of-the-month schedule - I'm broke! No extra $$ for anything fun, like all of this great stuff I'm coveting from etsy. Jewelry first, but I'll try to do a post later this week about some of the clothing and housewares I'm stalking as well.

Calypso earrings - Bijou de chat

Horizon accent necklace - Verre encore

Opposites attract necklace - Ali Baubles

Pentacle pendant - Aula46

Pod hoop earrings - Yoola

Sea collection necklace - ERM originals

2009-07-26T19:36:00.005-04:00

We finally took the plunge and had two chairs and a tiny loveseat reupholstered for in front of the fireplace. The furniture originally belonged to Ryan's great aunt and is probably from the 1950s. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm glad we didn't end up buying a new set.

I found the coffee table for $20 at a thrift store in Glenside - not bad! The wood isn't an exact match but I can't get over how perfectly sized it is for our little space.

It's had to see the fabric we chose for the couch - it's a grey/blue with red, gold and cream stripes. Perfect for the carpet, which was difficult to match. The chairs are covered with a textured gold fabric.

We also had luxuriously soft grey wool carpet installerd in one of the extra bedrooms, which is now pretty much completed. We're open for visitors if anyone wants to come this fall!

First 5k stats

2009-05-07T16:35:00.002-04:00

Lehigh Valley half marathon and 5K in Allentown, PA
5-3-09
33:27 (10:46 minute mile)

I totally went into this one unprepared. I hadn't run in a week and the best I had done was 2.5 miles on a flat surface. My friend and I decided at the starting line that we would 1. Finish in less than 40 minutes and 2. Not finish last. So, mission accomplished.

Despite only finishing in the top 77% it was great fun! I've already signed up for another one in September, this time closer to home. My biggest mistake with this one was not knowing where the heck the end was - so it was hard to motivate myself. Next time - a carefully timed iPOD playlist so I have a better sense of how to pace myself. Because the next one is in Philly I'll be able to actually run the course beforehand.

around the house

2009-05-01T11:17:00.005-04:00

Well. It has been a while, hasn't it? I think unfortunately lately Facebook has been a quicker way to post photos and share what we've been up to. Here's a quick update:

West Elm must have heard my fervent requests: the pin-tuck duvet cover is now available in white!

This is just what I've been looking for. We also got a couple of etchings up on the wall, thanks to these.

A few weeks ago we started a little garden behind the house, just outside of the kitchen window:

If all goes well, we will have romaine lettuce, swiss chard, peppers, onions and cherry tomatoes. We also have plans to dig out an ugly rock garden nearby and start an herb garden, but that hasn't happened yet. For now I have basil, mint and cilantro in pots on our patio, with plans to start some lemongrass soon.

Another recent activity of ours is searching for morels growing near the base of our enormous ash tree. We haven't been brave enough to eat any yet but I put a few in the freezer.

Tonight we're picking up some carpet samples for the currently linoleum-covered bedroom. We couldn't bring ourselves to buy anything acrylic, so we're going with wool despite the extra $$$. I

Ongoing project

2009-03-08T12:09:00.006-04:00

We recently painted our bedroom a marigold yellow and finally had the floors sanded and refinished. This room sits in the center of our second floor and doesn't get a lot of light; I like the color - it's warm but still brightens up the space.

I'm going to go with a bright white duvet cover but haven't been able to figure out where to go with the rest of the room. I decided I needed some sort of colorful throw or quilt over the bottom of our bed to pull things together and get me started. I've been on the lookout for the last few weeks but haven't found anything I like, so yesterday I started to make a smallish quilt. First I set a few rules for myself:

1. Simple design, otherwise I know I won't finish it.

2. It has to use up fabric I already have

3. I want something that doesn't look too country

Here's what I have so far, I started by making a ~5 inch high stripe that would lay across the bottom of our bed. I laid everything out on top of a (wrinkly) white sheet so I could get some idea of how it would look once I buy the duvet cover:

Here is the view coming into our bedroom:

Here is my progress so far: a charcoal and white panel for the bottom part:

I think I would like to just make a solid charcoal panel for the top, but I don't have enough fabric. Not sure how it will end up but I'll probably cut up a white sheet for the back and binding, that seems like the simplest way to go.

Tampa 2009

2009-03-08T10:51:00.019-04:00

We just got back from a relaxing long weekend in Tampa. A few highlights:

Dinner at Columbia Restaurant in historic Ybor City. Completely campy (Flamenco dancers) but fun!

Fort DeSoto and Fort De Soto Park

Albrecht Durer exhibit at The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg

And of course we ate well:

Golden Orchid Thai

L'Olivier in St. Petersburg for wine and crepes

Catch twenty-three

Brunch at Pinky's Diner

The Junction Ice Creamery & Coffee House (We ended up here because they sell Mike's brand key lime pie, which is supposedly the best in Florida. Ryan disagreed; the quest continues).

A few things

2009-02-01T10:10:00.005-05:00

Things I've been enjoying lately, in no particular order:

Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal

I make up a big batch of this on Sunday and take it to school for breakfast all week. I crave hot cereal when the weather is frigid - nice with blueberries, a little agave nectar and some milk. Also good with PB & J stirred in.

Make Your Own Jeans

I'm short (5'0") and I loathe buying jeans. They are invariably too long with gap-waist and thigh suction. So... I was really curious to try this out. The website was a little difficult to follow; you first choose a type of denim, then supply your measurements (including front/back rise, around the knee etc.). Once that's finished you can choose different pocket styles and type of thread. For the first time I went with a pretty basic style:

Deadly dark blue denim

Boot cut

Archers Pocket Style

Total cost: $66.

They arrived 12 days after I placed the order

The verdict - These fit me better than any other pair I've ever owned. The denim appears to be good quality and they have held up in the wash. The cost is reasonable as well. The downside is that they're shipped from Mumbai, it would be nice to have a similar operation here in the US.

Also intriguing: the Clone a jeans option.

Customized stationary from DailySip Studios

I am old fashioned and still send thank-you notes. Love these.

Foodzie - like etsy but for food. I haven't ordered anything but it looks promising

This (free!) printable calendar

Talks on TED (Technology, Entertainment Design) - Pretty much all I did last night.

Joe DeRisi
Jared Diamond

Mark Bittman

Craig Venter

Michael Pollan
Matthieu Ricard

Richard Dawkins

Ze Frank

In progress

2009-01-19T07:59:00.003-05:00

Here are some photos of our recent upstairs renovations. We went with a golden yellow for the bedroom and light grey for both the sitting room and office. The bedroom sits in the middle of the house and doesn't get much light, so we thought something light and bright would work well. The yellow is growing on me - it was a little startling at first. I'm thinking crisp white bedding with a little texture, something like this in pure white. I really like the grey color in the other rooms; it has more of a blue undertone than we planned but I think it still works.

The floors were stripped and stained this past Saturday and I'm really happy with the results - I wasn't sure they could be salvaged. The second coat of stain/polyurethane goes on tomorrow. In the meantime we are camped out in the library, sleeping on the couch.

One other thing we need to do is buy carpet for the office - at some point a previous ownder made the decision to put plywood and linoleum over the original wood floors. The linoleum is glued to the plywood, the plywood is attached to the original floors. Such a shame. Anyway, we're not sure what color to go with, it needs to be something that hides stains and wears well but also goes with the grey and white walls. Maybe a sage green?

Other than all that, we finally bought a carpet for in front of the fireplace (this one in ivory). We have inherited a settee and a set of chairs from my MIL which, if reupholstered, would be perfect here. I have to get quotes though, not sure if it's worth it.

HNY

2009-01-01T09:11:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year! Despite missing our traditional New Year's Eve companions terribly, we had a relaxed, quiet night in Philly complete with filet, braised kale (From the most recent Cook's Illustrated) and this gingerbread (which was sooo good and pretty easy to make).

Time to revisit last year's resolution list:

2008 to do list

School:

Set up my committee and arrange my first meeting (completed 9/08)

Complete my qualifier (Finished! 12/17/08 - such a relief)

Health/beauty:

Continue running (Dropped the ball in Nov and Dec but have started up again with my friend from school. Signed up for a 5K in May 2009)

Try the cardio kickboxing class offered at the gym (check)

Re-evaluate my skin care regimen - current one is not working! (Things are pretty much ok in this department)

Try to be more healthy about guilt and stress - either do something about it or let.it.go (Well, this is an ongoing goal)

Have a better attitude and expectations about my body and how it will age and change as time passes me by (see above)

Apartment

Frame prints/photos and hang above couch (check)

Find and purchase piece of furniture for horrible blank wall in living room (never happened)

Make pillows for the couch (Managed to make 1 pillow)

New curtains for living room (didn't happen)

New bookcase(s)? (still have the p.o.s. IKEA bookcases)

Misc.

Make all gifts (if possible) rather than purchasing them (did pretty well with this... Also I really cut back on the Xmas gifts this year which was rather liberating)

Decrease my computer time at home (still a bit of a problem)

Recycle (check)

Replace our tupperware with glass containers (check)

Strengths in 2007:

shopping locally

eating healthy

cooking a lot and trying new recipes

plenty of craft/creative time (MUCH less of this in 2008)

research was fairly productive

Room for improvement!

Spent too much time on the internet

Worried a lot about fitting things (ie school kids travel where to live etc etc) comfortably into my life (Moved to a house in 6/08 - thus solving the "where to live" question)

I'm sure there's more but why dwell on it, right? right.

...............................................................................

Unfortunately R's grandma passed away early this morning, so we are Cleveland-bound once again. She was 104, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but it's sad nonetheless.

awesome

2008-12-17T07:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phyg_uIPQII&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcUxwpOQ_A&fmt=18

via kottke.org

AmyCrankyPants

2008-12-13T09:17:00.003-05:00

I simply cannot believe Xmas is so close... don't ask me exactly how close because I have no idea what today's date is. I do know that it's Saturday, and that I'm going to school soon. I will also be going there tomorrow.... siiigh.

I'm trying to drum up some excitement over the holiday season but my oral defense is this coming Wednesday and thinking about it takes up a large chunk of my time. I have bought two Xmas items, both for my husband. That's it. I have a few vague notions involving handmade something-or-others which I'll give more thought to later in the week.

So. Handed in the written portion of my proposal on Dec 1st. I severely underestimated how long it would take to fill in references and figure out how to use Endnote, so that's pretty much what I did during the last 2 days. Since submitting I have thought of approximately 1000 things I should have included but didn't. Other students assure me this is normal but I am still annoyed with myself! One good thing about this exercise is that now I have a better idea how to pace myself and how long certain things will take.

Speaking of exercise, I haven't for about 1.5 months? A friend and I did sign up for a 5K in May though.

On a more positive note, I attended a conference in New Orleans last week. What a great city! I didn't see much this time around but would love to visit again.

Third time's a charm?

2008-10-19T10:23:00.002-04:00

I just printed out The Couch to 5K Running Plan-for the third time.

First attempt: I started in August 2007, and I think I made it to around week 4.

Second attempt: I was running with a friend from school, which definitely kept me motivated. We were doing really well and had signed up for a 5K in early June. But I got sick, we missed the race and soon after she started working on her dissertation. She has now graduated and I haven't found a new partner yet.

I haven't stopped running and still get out 2-3 times per week. I don't keep track of how far I run or how fast. I'm probably doing 2-3 miles each time, but I'm walking for some of that.

So. I'm going to start the program again because I don't think I'll improve without some concrete goals. We'll see how it goes.

deep thoughts

2008-10-11T09:37:00.011-04:00

After 10 years I now realize that my senior project, completed within the safe confines of college life, was not a Big Deal, even if I most definitely thought it was at the time.

And I know that in 10 more years, the anxiety surrounding my qualifying exam will mellow and eventually disappear in the same way, which is why my Mentor (who writes grants that must actually exist in the realm of reality) keeps telling me to stop worrying about it.

That said, writing this bitch is HARD.

I do think the thought process is pretty interesting though. I have so far completed the following stages:

Birth of the original Vague Idea that has now been rolling around in my mind for a few months
Commitment of Vague Idea to paper. Realization that Vague Idea requires much more thought and research until it can actually take the form of Specific Aims
Generation of scrap paper to record ideas/issues/problems which always seem to reveal themselves at odd times (when running, after "sleeping on it", while listening to an unrelated seminar etc.). This one surfaced while I was making coffee this am:

Four drafts of specific aims, each one successively less related to original Vague Idea

Realization that specific aims must be grounded in some form of sound hypothesis. What do I really want to know? How will specific aims address this knowledge? Why is this knowledge important?

This is pretty much where I'm at right now. This mess has to take shape in some form or another by early November. There is another student in my lab who is in roughly the same place as me, so at least I know the "process" I've been trudging through isn't unique.

random links

2008-10-01T07:05:00.002-04:00

rice stuffed tomatoes

apple cake

good turkey burger recipe (we've also made a meatloaf version)

tote bag tutorial

paper bead tutorial via whipup

honeycomb smocking tutorial (trying to figure out where I could use this...)

triangle mobile tutorial

good upholstery book
(Anyone know of an upholstery workshop in/around Philly? I've been searching and haven't found anything).

wheat bread recipe

Indian restaurant/take out/delivery (we've tried the one in Mt. Airy - yummy and reasonably priced)

Travel checklist

2008-09-29T14:24:00.004-04:00

I found out last week that I'm attending a conference in India (Delhi) for a week in November. I'm excited but I also realize that this kind of trip will require a different mindset if I'm going to avoid crippling diarrhea, malaria etc. I've been looking around for travel tips and here's what I have come up with so far:

1. AVOID THE H20 AT ALL COSTS. Drink bottled water and make sure the seal is unbroken. Do not open your mouth in the shower and use bottled water to brush your teeth. Bring rubber bands to attach toothbrush to bottled water as a reminder (I like that one). Also bring extra toothbrushes in case accident occurs.

2. Vaccinations: HepA, HepB, cholera, tetanus, typhoid, polio and maybe meningitis. The travel clinic here at Drexel will take care of these, although I plan on talking to my PCP to see what she thinks is necessary.

3. Malarone.

4. Basic meds: anti-diarrhea pills, cipro, pepto bismol

5. Insect repellent, hand wipes, sunscreen

6. Flip flops, loose clothing, hat

7. probiotic supplement to maintain happy gut flora. I should probably start taking this now. I already eat lots of yogurt, but I'm guessing the bacteria in Indian yogurt is of a different variety than that in my Fage. Anyone know if it's ok to go all out with Dairy products while I'm there?

Anyone else have any suggestions?

The blissful joy of home ownership

2008-09-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

2008-09-12T07:15:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin scares the shit out of me on so many levels.

My husband sums up what we've been talking about lately.

!

2008-09-07T13:41:00.004-04:00

We found this in our yard yesterday morning, on the ground beneath the ash tree:

Despite looking like some sort of armored alien life form it is actually a hickory horned devil, the caterpillar that will pupate underground to become a large regal moth.

In other news, I had my first committee meeting this past Wednesday, and it went well. Next up: qualifier in December.

2008-08-23T08:44:00.002-04:00

Totally loving Emotionalism by The Avett Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rDFkgP9ADk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On73Ui9S22A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy-gwgJPW2c&feature=related

originally spotted on posie gets cozy

62/100

2008-08-18T07:18:00.009-04:00

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

The ones I have tried are in red

Good thing I have R. and Erin around to remind me of like 5 things I missed

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Originally spotted at Chocolate & Zucchini

Master Plan in bullet form!

2008-08-17T14:31:00.004-04:00

I have a couple of big benchmarks coming up in fall 2008:

First committee meeting. In 2 weeks!
Qualifier: Basically you submit a 3-year grant proposal to your committee. If approved, you have 30 days to write the full grant. You turn this in, and defend your work(presentation/grill session) two weeks later. Once completed, you are considered an "official" candidate of the PhD program. Whatever that means. I must complete this by March 2009.
Small local meeting in Oct
Meeting in New Orleans in early Dec.
Fellowship application due in Jan. Contingent on completion of the qualifier.

I'm also a student representative for the department, along with another student (we interface between students and faculty, plan student activities etc.) and I help set up micro labs for the medical students. It's going to be a lot.

So I sat down yesterday and tried to map out how I want things to work. I'm not too worried about the committee meeting coming up - I have the presentation started and I've made pretty good progress research-wise. It's a good way to get a feel for the members of my committee because there are a couple of people on there who I don't know very well.

I'd like to complete the qualifier right before Thanksgiving; around Nov. 21st. To do this, I would need to hand in my proposal in early October. Which gives me all of September to write it. This is really the most difficult part of the process, because you have to do an extensive lit review and come up with a unique idea of the appropriate size to test. I'm sure writing the document will be hard, but once you have the proposal submitted things are at least on track. October seems really soon! But instead of constantly thinking about all this, I want to get started. I think if I get up in front of my committee in two weeks and verbalize this plan, it will keep me from procrastinating.

I don't have any idea what is involved in the fellowship application. The deadline will be posted on Sept. 15th, so I don't even know when it's due. I think I'll put this one on the back burner for now.

I want to make the process as streamlined and panic-free as possible. I'm not good at cranking things out last minute (hence the committee presentation that is already mostly finished). I will have to work at keeping the lack-of-confidence monster at bay (Is this idea good enough? Will my committee rip me apart? What if I fail? How do I compare to other students? etc).

I know from the past that when I get super busy like this I tend to totally disengage from the rest of my life. I don't spend as much time with my husband, I'll avoid trips to visit my parents and won't commit to any social events that might take time away from working. Months will pass in a total blur. I really don't want this to be the case this time around; I want to enjoy the new house and fall weather, take time to celebrate our anniversary, and attend our friends' wedding in October. We'll see how all this works out!

2008-08-16T17:39:00.001-04:00

It's beautiful out and my friend is coming over for dinner. Homemade ice cream on the menu.

News bulletin

2008-08-12T10:28:00.003-04:00

These wonderful peep-toes are on sale at Target for $26.99:

I tried them on in the store. They were surprisingly comfortable and seem pretty stable for such a high heel. They were a little bit wide so you might want to try them on if you're interested. A total steal!

2008-08-09T15:50:00.011-04:00

We scored these two chairs for $20 at an estate sale this morning:

I especially love the rocker:

The house had an overpowering cat piss smell so we immediately started removing the upholstery before they could be granted entry into our place:

The innards:

straw, horse hair and burlap - mostly disintegrated:

Here's what we ended up with:

We also found this sweet wall o'drawers that was originally in a hardware store. I want it very badly but it's too expensive:

I'm sure "cant files" are something hardware store-ish but I'm imagining many things that could possibly live in something labeled such.

I'm off to school and then we're doing rotisserie chicken/Sam Adams/Olympics this evening. Enjoy the weekend!

2008-08-03T21:52:00.002-04:00

Another old photo I just found. This was probably Christmas ~1981, at my Grandma's. I think I'd like to have that dress again, it's almost back in style. That's my brother on the left, complete with magnet-buckle belt holding up blue cords.

Scenes from my weekend

2008-08-03T20:56:00.007-04:00

Placed the great garden stakes my labmates got us as a housewarming gift.

I love them! They're by from artisan hands

We replaced our oil furnace with one that uses gas, and had the oil beast removed

I finally got the kitchen curtains made

My Folklore collection by Lucien, purchased from bee square fabrics

And I bought frames for the prints that will hang in our pink bathroom

Little papercuts from my folk lover

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

2008-07-29T19:56:00.000-04:00

R. put a few new photos up on his flickr site.

2008-07-27T11:21:00.006-04:00

I had so many plans for this weekend, but really all I accomplished were these cookies, Originally spotted at Orangette.

My husband and I are in the habit of rating just about everything, a la Netflix (i.e., scale of 1 to 5). In my mind, a 5 should be almost unattainable. Just to orient you:

1 - The Messenger: the Story of Joan of Arc. If the scale had a zero, this movie would have received it. Horrible.
3 - most things in life
5 - Our dinner here, breakfast here and these

I notice all of my personal fives have to do with food, and in some way with chocolate, but I digress.

I think these cookies might be a 5.

Notes: I baked a few after 15 hours and a few more once the dough had been in the fridge for 24 hours. The ones that incubated longer were more flavorful, but I think if you baked these even after a short chill in the fridge they would still be good.

I used these bittersweet chips

These cookies are LARGE and very rich. Half a cookie is possibly the perfect amount.

I'm curious to see how these hold up after being frozen. I scooped the rest of the dough into a plastic freezer bag so we'll see...

Update: previously frozen cookies work just fine, and took ~22 minutes to bake.

How boring

2008-07-21T20:49:00.002-04:00

Here's where all of our $$ is going for the next few months

Old photos

2008-07-14T21:42:00.005-04:00

Kindergarden. I remember totally loving that corduroy vest.

First grade, I think? Things went swiftly downhill from here (perm, braces etc.)

Mom and Dad, 1968

Paternal grandparents on their wedding day, 1945

My Mom has a whole drawer full of old photos, maybe I'll work on scanning some more.

etsy favorites

2008-07-13T22:26:00.009-04:00

House-related stuff I like from etsy:

apple tablecloth from PataPri

poppy tea towels from Michelle Brusegaard

set of utensil prints from dazeychic

plenty of pots from seaspray blue

lampshade from draw flowers

quilt from shelece

2008-07-06T16:25:00.007-04:00

We had a great weekend with the Lipcans, filled with variations on this theme:

with a little soccer and tennis foolishness mixed in. Plus a few local garage sales and some shanghai rummy.

And... we bought a carpet for our dining room from Material Culture. It was difficult to make a decision but I really like what we ended up with.

6'1" husband for scale:

Now what we really want to do is save up for this table and these chairs (or something like them) from The Old Farm Table Company, based in Virginia:

First attempt

2008-07-02T19:16:00.008-04:00

at pizza on the grill:

We started with these basic guidelines, but I used the pizza dough recipe from here. Toppings were herbs, turkey sausage and mozzarella.

The verdict:

1. The dough was much too thick. I'm going to try this one next time, or else divide the dough into 3-4 balls and roll it out thinner.

2. You really need to move quick! It was starting to burn when we flipped it over.

3. More sauce

4. Simpler toppings

One room down

2008-07-02T08:11:00.010-04:00

The challenge: oddly colored countertops and yellow-stained walls in our kitchen. Gross. R.'s parents were here for a visit last week and did everything while we were at work. It was great.

At first we thought we'd go with a light grey and white scheme but it was too dark. We ended up with white/brick red which I really like!

The walls have a bumpy texture to them, so the paint job required a lot of fine-tuning. It's still a little uneven where the red meets the white ceiling, so we might need to eventually add some molding in those areas.

Pretty much every other room in the house needs a coat of paint, so we're hoping to get a lot of it done this summer.

My MIL and I also worked out in the yard, I'll try to get a few photos at some point.

Enjoying...

2008-06-29T13:50:00.004-04:00

The first three hours of The Decalogue. Depressing and gray but also intriguing and beautiful.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Perfect.

Boy With a Coin video. Make sure you watch to the end.

Marinated grilled tofu. Simple and tasty.

Farfalle with yogurt and zucchini. This week I'm going to try it with bits of asparagus.

Graham Slam ice cream. This has bad-for-you shit in it but it's sooo good. Graham flavored ice cream, graham cracker crumbs and chocolate covered marshmallow pieces. I'm going to try and make a homemade version this summer. R and I have already discussed our strategy so stay tuned.

Terrain at Styers - great for ideas.

It's official!

2008-05-29T14:34:00.002-04:00

The closing went smoothly this morning and we are really excited to move in! The movers arrive June 14th.

A few (dark) photos here - more later.

Sorry, this is all rather vague

2008-05-18T14:03:00.006-04:00

I tend to keep things fairly light and fluffy around here, but I've been dealing with some bad anxiety over the past few days, brought on by:

financial stress accompanying our home purchase
an energy-sucking "friendship" that I need to distance myself from
some health issues (nothing terrible, but even routine check-ups stress me out)
Worry over a situation that people close to us are dealing with
A reminder that I can be waaay too accommodating, at the expense of not standing up for myself etc.

Most of these are small things that I let build up, culminating in a really bad day at work on Friday. Thank god for my husband, pizza and a Spirited Away re-watch.
My attempts to alleviate all this included:

cardio-kickboxing at the gym yesterday morning. It's ridiculous but I actually imagined punching anxiety in the face. It helped.

A few hours spent at the bookstore perusing Quick and Easy Upholstery and the 2008 Antiques Guide and realizing how much I like both Finn Juhl chairs and Windsor settees.

A great multi-family yard sale in my neighborhood. Old birdcages, dusty books, wooden boxes, containers of sewing thread, rusty medical equipment and tools...

The People of the Book - halfway through and enjoying it.

black bean pumpkin soup (Note: I only used ~2 Tbs of butter and cut out the sherry and this was still really good).

I tackled 1/3 of Mt. Washmore, which is so large it seems to exist in a fourth dimension:

Here's to a better week, starting tomorrow.

On the menu

2008-05-04T20:00:00.007-04:00

Israeli couscous with roasted tomatoes and olives
Baked cod in yogurt sauce
salted butter caramel ice cream (oh yeahhhhh.) via smitten kitchen.

The ice cream photos will have to be continued - the custard is in the fridge overnight.

New Love

2008-05-02T13:01:00.002-04:00

Radio Lab from NY Public Radio. Sort of like This American Life for science nerds. So so good.

I can't remember where I first heard about it, but a post on kottke.org reminded me to check it out.

For my birthday, maybe?

2008-04-24T05:18:00.006-04:00

New shoes are totally not in the budget at the moment, but how gorgeous are these Progetto pumps??

The details and colors are beautiful and those heels are exactly the right height/shape for people (me) who don't wear heels very often.

Available at Lori's Shoes and found via oh happy day (a great blog I've been enjoying recently).

2008-04-19T07:02:00.002-04:00

This entertained me for a long long while this morning.

My favorites: 1 2 3 4

via kottke.org

Bday gifts

2008-04-18T08:38:00.002-04:00

Here is what I bought R for his birthday

This one
This one
and This one

Click through the site and read some of the character descriptions. They're hilarious!

Happy Birthday!

2008-04-17T06:51:00.002-04:00

R. turns 33 today. For his birthday he gets a house!!! I don't want to jinx us but it looks like it's going to work out.

On our menu tonight:

swordfish with braised endive
parsley leaf potatoes
cherry cheesecake from Dublin Bakery

I'll post his bday gift later, I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Worth the drive

2008-04-17T06:34:00.003-04:00

Altomontes Italian Market in Warminster - lots of olives and cheese, a great butcher section, fresh pastas, homemade sauces and stock/gravy... so glad my friend pointed this one out to me. I'm regretting the fact that I didn't buy any beef while I was there, it looked so good.

Dublin bakery in Willow Grove - famous for their butter cake (I can't believe there is a wikipedia entry for that one). Also: homemade donuts, sticky buns, cakes, cookies. A few of the cakes looked completely foreign to me, making another trip a must. All for extremely reasonable prices (I bought two cakes and a donut for $15.80). Here are a few reviews.

Diversions

2008-04-16T08:33:00.003-04:00

Did anyone see Nova last night? The show was titled Marathon Challenge and they gave 13 out-of-shape people 10 months to train for the Boston marathon. Twelve out of 13 finished the race. Pretty amazing!

I also wanted to watch Sick around the world on Frontline but forgot. Looks like this one is available online.

Just waiting

2008-04-15T13:55:00.003-04:00

This house buying endeavor is really an emotional rollercoaster. We've entered the post-inspection negotiation phase and are stuck between us taking time to get reasonable cost estimates and the sellers pushing for an early close date.

Of course we love the house but also don't want to make a very expensive mistake. At the moment it is all very uncertain and the wait is killing me!

Oh the possibilities

2008-04-11T07:50:00.003-04:00

This kept my husband up for quite some time last night: home inspection nightmares from the This Old House site

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII

We met with the mortgage lender on Wednesday night, radon testing started yesterday and the structural inspection is set for Saturday afternoon. We both have the distinct feeling that we are totally flying by the seat of our pants, but so far haven't encountered any major issues. We'll see...

Recently

2008-04-06T20:10:00.002-04:00

It has been a while since I posted... I spent almost all of last week in bed with the monster flu bug that has been going around. I had a fever for so many days that I actully started sobbing on Wednesday night, asking R. what I would do if it never went away. That's how pathetic I am and how infrequently I get sick. I was starting to forget how it feels to be well.

AND, we've spent the last two days buying this:

How cute is that?? We're totally in love with the interior (there is an entire room filled with floor to ceiling bookcases), I'll post more photos as soon as I can. It was built in 1850, and the owners accepted our first offer, so we're hoping the inspection this week isn't a deal-breaker. Keep your fingers crossed! If all goes well, we'll be moving in early June. It's so crazy and happened much sooner than we thought, but we're really excited and have already started arguing about how we will divide up space (my craft area and his "toys" are going to have a throwdown).

More later!

Things

2008-03-16T10:22:00.007-04:00

that are making me happy this weekend:

progress made on a spring hat. Based on this pattern but made with organic cotton yarn from here.

This shirtdress from Target. It's cuter in person - soft white cotton with blue stripes. Maybe I need red shoes to wear with it?

Giovanni Hot chocolate sugar scrub also from Target. Smells exactly like dark chocolate.

We finally got a few prints hung above the couch. Sorry for the crappy extremely reflective photo. Top - insect etchings from Printman's etsy shop. Bottom - three lure catalog prints from sub-studio. We still need one more set, maybe from here?

Couch pillow, made out of this My Folklore fabric from Superbuzzy (I can't find the listing anymore!)

Dinner at Citrus last night: green tea, mixed green salad with goat cheese+strawberries and eggplant "meatloaf" (much better than it sounds!)

Sunday breakfast: I like mine dippy, he likes his "dead" with ketchup.

etsy favorites and to do list

2008-03-01T07:19:00.005-05:00

octopus thank you cards - inkdesigner
bon voyage tags - aiek
plantable seed cards herb set - porridge papers
third skin composition - eloise ghioni
things I like print - birdie 1973
The long tides of time and love tryptich - charmfoundry
monster family passport case - tinymeat
little papercuts print set and romantic icecream moments - my folk lover
Chartreuse curve bakelite necklace - PetitOiseau
Small collection zine - Gracia Louise
vintage purse - showpony

Goals for today:
1. Finish lab work
2. Gym
3. CLEAN bedroom

Try this!

2008-02-26T18:53:00.006-05:00

So simple and totally delicious:

Carmelized tofu and brussels sprouts from 101 cookbooks

We have tried to achieve optimal tofu consistency and taste in the past, and things just haven't worked out. This time I froze and thawed the tofu, cut it into cubes, and squeezed out most of the water. I cooked it in a non-stick pan with a little hot oil+salt. It sucked up the oil immediately and browned nicely in a few minutes. After that you add garlic (next time I'll use one clove instead of two), toasted chopped pecans (I used cashews) and brown sugar. The sugar carmelizes and creates sweet/savory tofu bliss:

Then I sauteed shredded brussels sprouts in a little more oil and salt, until brown and crispy.

Et voila!

I'm so happy with this that I'm thinking of buying Heidi's cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. Has anyone tried it? Here is another great site that she is involved in.

I ate so many of these this weekend

2008-02-24T20:21:00.003-05:00

Recipe here

Lazy weekend

2008-02-17T16:28:00.004-05:00

R. is sick so this weekend was all about comfort food. And The Wire, Season 2: our new crack addiction.

Warm mulberry and pistachio granola + blueberries, yogurt and honey

Hot popovers + jam and butter. Easy and quick recipe here

Kale and basil soup + chicken. With gruyere toast. Based on a recipe from here.

Three ridiculously easy meals

2008-02-13T08:08:00.004-05:00

All containing chicken stock; 2/3 involving the crockpot:

In my dreams I lounge at home on Sunday afternoon, flipping through cookbooks and planning five meals for the impending week. Afterwards I head to the grocery store to purchase only what I need, and nothing goes to waste. In reality, during a good week we cook three times and have leftovers/takeout to fill in. These are three fail-proof staples that we return to over and over, because they can be made a million different ways, depending on what we have in the kitchen:

1. Whole chicken in the crock pot

I think this one was born out of pure lazyness - I hate dealing with chicken breasts and they tend to turn out dry and tasteless unless I put some work into the preparation.

- Acquire a whole chicken. I really like the ones from Bell and Evans

- Soften ~3-4 Tbs of butter and mix in whatever chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley) you might have. Alternatively, skip the herbs and just add a little ground pepper/salt

-Rub the butter mixture underneath the skin of the chicken

(Sometimes if I have a leftover lemon or orange I will slice it very thin and place that under the skin, too. I've also done a thai version with ginger, lemongrass and some coconut milk stirred into the resulting broth).

- Salt and pepper the skin

- Place the chicken in your crockpot and add ~32 oz. of chicken or veggie stock. I try to use a low-sodium version.

- Add veggies if you like (carrots, potatoes, chopped onion, garlic)

- cook on low for 8 hours or so

The result: the chicken will literally fall off the bone; we often have trouble getting everything out of the crock pot in one piece. The skin will come off easily and the meat will be flavorful and tender. Generally we eat this with brown rice and a simple green salad.

2. Pork tenderloin in the crockpot

- Acquire a pork tenderloin. These tend to run $8-15, depending on the size and quality. It might seem expensive, but the two of us get at least dinner and lunch out of it.

- freeze the pork tenderloin. I've tried this with fresh tenderloin, it just isn't as good.

- Place the frozen tenderloin in the crock pot and season with salt/pepper

- Add ~32 oz. chicken, veggie or beef stock.

- Add veggies if you wish. Also good with sauerkraut and onions.

- cook on low for 8 hours

I have made this one so many times. We will be having it for dinner tonight, as a matter of fact. Occasionally I'll make dumplings or spatzle (Joy of Cooking recipes) to simmer in the broth. I like to eat this with a little horseradish and of course a veggie on the side!

3. Poached fish

- Any white fish (tilapia, orange roughy) will do

- preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

- place in a 8x8 inch pyrex dish or similar (we use our Le Creuset 3.4 qt. covered braiser)

- salt and pepper both sides

- Add chicken or veggie stock to a depth of about 1 inch

- poach until flaky (usually ~15 minutes)

- There are so many possible variations - add lemon slices, herbs (cilantro/mint/basil is a nice mix), sprinkle with lemon pepper, a can of chopped tomatoes... we tend to keep this one simple.

We do eat vegetarian food quite a bit, but in general I find this requires a bit more planning, so that I have fresh ingredients/spices on hand. I'll try to do another post about our recent veggie favorites sometime soon, my Mom got me a new cookbook for Christmas and I've made a bunch of new things that have been simple and delicious.

Home again

2008-02-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderfully relaxing vacation, filled with lots of pool lounging, fresh seafood and gorgeous 80-degree weather. I'm glad to be back home though, despite rather pessimistic feelings about the coming week.

Currently

2008-01-30T06:15:00.001-05:00

A random collection of things I'm into at the moment:

Philly

Nice Philadelphia design guide featured on Design Sponge and created by Joy of oh joy!
Tinto Restaurant - tapas and wine bar
Honey's Sit 'n Eat - brunch
Kaizan - I'm intrigued by the kaiseki-ryori
La Golosa - dessert

Recipes, mostly chocolate

I need to be better about noting where I find recipes. Sorry for the lack of acknowledgement on most of these!

etsy love

This collection of leather bags from Neiko designs in New York. My heart nearly stopped with I saw this one, prompting me to consider an "expensive yet classic" handbag fund. Here is their etsy shop.
Glass mobiles from Leah's glass creations
Crocheted wire jewelry from Precious meshes
paper and ribbon from angelaliguori
cool urban calendar from feYerwerks

Beauty/Health

Teamine eye complex - I originally saw this in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Blueprint (RIP). I've been using it for about three weeks and I think it's working. I have recruited another study participant and will get back to you on this.
PCA skin protecting hydrator spf 25 - I've been looking for an oil-free moisturizer with sunscreen for some time now, after deciding that the one I'd been using was too heavy. I'm really happy with this so far - it moisturizes without being greasy and my skin looks and feels smoother.
Bumble and Bumble thickening spray - my hair is thin and fine, and if it had it's way it would part straight down the middle and lay flat against my skull. I spray this on wet hair and dry with a round brush for volume. I've tried many many hair products and this one actually works.
walkjogrun - a running route planner that allows you to click on a map and calculate distance/time

Suggestions?

2008-01-27T08:59:00.001-05:00

Can anyone recommend good restaurants in Miami? We're open to pretty much any cuisine, and will probably be there for dinner. Moderately priced ($18-$25 entrees), with a good wine/drinks selection. We are not familiar with the city at all, so any comments about the neighborhood/surrounding attractions would be greatly appreciated!

A couple that I've found so far:

Talula
Bistro Bisou
Cohiba Brasserie
Joe's Stone Crab
Michy's
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink

32

2008-01-20T14:32:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday! We celebrated last night with a great dinner at Gayle. I had their warm winter salad (lentils, grilled artichoke and potatoes with a warm lentil vinaigrette) followed by the best tuna I've ever had (and I've tried quite a few since it's a favorite): the tuna itself was seared and served rare over basmati rice+buttered leeks, with curry ice cream on the side. It sounds odd but it totally worked. For dessert I had a little molten vanilla cupcake with a dark chocolate terrine. Mmmmm.... so good. R. also surprised me with this.

Unfortunately I'm stuck in the lab all day. I have a very flexible schedule during the week so I normally don't mind working weekends at all. But today I'm feeling a tiny bit bitter about it.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Over there

2008-01-18T07:09:00.000-05:00

on the right side, below my friends. I've made a list of blogs that I enjoy. I also have a bunch of cooking blogs, craft blogs, design blogs etc. that I frequent - I'll try and add those at some point too.

Reminder

2008-01-14T12:06:00.000-05:00

The Complete Jane Austen is on Masterpiece Classic, starting with Persuasion last night. Northanger Abbey is up next, and here's the full schedule. You may also enjoy The Men of Austen.

When I mentioned this to the girls at school last week, there was a long unappreciative pause, followed by: "nerrrd bommmbbb" from our lab tech. Hmph.

HOWEVER when I reminded R. last night that it was starting at 9, he was totally excited - I have found my perfect match for sure!

Thoughts...

2008-01-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

..on the co-op:

1. I can't say it's pleasant to shop there - it's a tiny space and that makes for cranky customers.
2. Some things are very reasonably priced, like veggies, prepared foods and dairy (they stock Pequea Valley yogurt, my new obsession). The co-op also runs a farm, one reason why the veggies are so cheap.
3. Breads and meat are a bit more pricey, but there is a nice selection
4. You have to pay for bags, so almost everyone brings their own. I'm finding that this is a good thing for me, because I can only carry so much and I only buy what I really need. It also forces me to make an organized shopping list; I try to list things in the order I will encounter them in the store.
5. I worked for the first time last Thursday from 7:30-9:30. I chose "floor" duty because I thought it might help me familiarize myself with the store. I re-stocked the dairy case, moved crates of veggies into the cold room, vacuumed the carpets and tore apart cardboard boxes for recycling. I actually sort of enjoyed it.
6. Once the CSA starts up again, I will be able to buy everything I need at these two locations. No more Whole Foods and their ridiculous prices/congested parking lot!!

In the works

2008-01-07T08:29:00.000-05:00

New pillow for our (beige) couch which sits in front of our (white) walls atop our (cream) carpet. Blah. The only color constraint I had was that our lampshades are green.

Here are the first few strips:

After quilting:

A close up:

The pattern is loosely based on a log cabin pillow, which I originally became interested in when I saw some examples on Lisa Congdon's blog. Designing a nice color palette is more difficult that it seems! In this case the solid red and orange really take over even though I really wanted to highlight the leaf pattern fabric. Next time I'm going to work almost exclusively with patterns and see how that turns out.

Speaking of fabric, the leaf fabric is Liberty of London Tana Lawn from purl soho. I totally love it but I only had a tiny piece (it's expensive)! I buy most of my solid cotton fabrics from equilter.com. Speaking of purl soho, they have an online journal that is a great place for craft ideas, color palettes, etc.

As you can probably see, I took on a rather "freestyle" quilting pattern, partially in an effort to camouflage my crooked sewing! I'm pretty happy with the result so far. I'll try and post a final photo once I'm done.

must.resist.temptation.

2008-01-05T06:36:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of recent etsy finds - I shouldn't buy anything, since we're going on a trip to Marco Island in Feb, but maybe you can!

Felted brooches from jenmenkhaus.

Wall graphics from oneupdesigns

Brainy whale Tshirt from spittingimage
This seller had a great "favorites" section (when you are on the main shop page, there's a link on the right hand side that includes profile and favorites info).

Tshirt from timberps

felted purse from lusitania

original etching from maseman

soy candles from Martinsville emporium

cinnamon, clove, cardamom and orange travel candle from Gabriel's aunt

Coin purse from oktak

Have a wonderful weekend!

2008 to do list

2008-01-01T18:38:00.000-05:00

School:

Set up my committee and arrange my first meeting
Complete my qualifier

Health/beauty:

Continue running
Try the cardio kickboxing class offered at the gym
Re-evaluate my skin care regimen - current one is not working!
Try to be more healthy about guilt and stress - either do something about it or let.it.go
Have a better attitude and expectations about my body and how it will age and change as time passes me by

Apartment

Frame prints/photos and hang above couch
Find and purchase piece of furniture for horrible blank wall in living room
Make pillows for the couch
New curtains for living room
New bookcase(s)?

Misc.

Make all gifts (if possible) rather than purchasing them
Decrease my computer time at home
Recycle
Replace our tupperware with glass containers

Strengths in 2007:

shopping locally
eating healthy
cooking a lot and trying new recipes
plenty of craft/creative time
research was fairly productive

Room for improvement!

Spent too much time on the internet
Worried a lot about fitting things (ie school kids travel where to live etc etc) comfortably into my life
I'm sure there's more but why dwell on it, right?

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:15:00.001-05:00

A few highlights from our weekend with the Lipcans:

A fantastic dinner at Marigold Kitchen on Sunday night

My place setting, created by Elaine

Our table, set up so that eating and gaming could occur simultaneously

The opener for our multi-course meal: arugula soup

ricotta gnocci, roasted carrots and filet

Nest that I felted for our guests

Hope you had a wonderful NYE, and here's to a healthy, happy and productive 2008!

Breaking news

2008-01-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

Check out Erin's new blog!

Gifts for co-workers part III

2007-12-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

I mixed up some hot chocolate mix, based on this recipe. I added a little cinnamon, and I think a pinch of chili powder would be nice too (I didn't have any on hand).

From top to bottom: the toffee, the hot chocolate, and the marshmallows. I love those gift tags, they're from elfrida and this crap photo does not do them justice.

And the final product.

Next year I want to try gingerbread in a jar! Originally spotted at Angry Chicken.

Gifts for co-workers part II

2007-12-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

I cheated a little on the "homemade" part of homemade marshmallows by using this kit from the Barefoot Contessa. Everything was already measured out and the directions seemed fairly simple. In retrospect I should have done a little homework - next time I will oil the baking dish before coating with confectioner's sugar, so that I won't have to pry the marshmallows out of the pan. Annoyingly, the kit didn't mention how to store the marshmallows and how long they last. After some digging online, I wrapped them in parchment paper and stored them in ziploc bags; I'm assuming these go stale rather quickly but I'll have to get back to you on the specifics.

Dissolve gelatin in cold H20:

Combine sugar and corn syrup mixture with water and bring to a boil:

Wait until the mixture reaches 240 deg F ("soft ball" stage):

Add sugar syrup to the gelatin, and beat until it's thick (and sticky beyond belief):

At this point you're supposed to pour the (did I mention extremely sticky) mixture into a glass baking dish covered in powdered sugar. Here's where an oiled pan would have helped, so that the powdered sugar coated not only the bottom of the pan but the sides as well.

The marshmallows sat overnight, and then I cut into squares using kitchen scissors:

I wrapped them in parchment paper and tied with string:

Some of them look a little gimpy but I worked late today and I'm tired!

Next up: Mexican hot chocolate.

Gifts for co-workers part I

2007-12-16T15:25:00.001-05:00

I usually make something sweet+homemade for my friends at school; it's easier than trying to buy gifts for everyone (there are seven of us in the lab, including my boss). Plus I get depressed about the commercialism that seems to come along with Xmas. In my dreams I make all of my presents, and ask for only handmade gifts in return. But that's a whole other post, isn't it?

Anyway. First up was salty peanut toffee. I like this one because you end up making quite a bit, and it keeps at RT for two weeks.

It was easy enough to make, and having a candy thermometer really helped - I think without it my inclination would be to pull the caramel off the stove before it's done (300 F).

First I melted an appalling amount of butter with sugar and a bit of salt:

As it starts to bubble, the color deepens and the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the pot:

I mixed in 2C of salted peanuts (the recipe calls for 4) and poured everything into a buttered pan:

The finished product:

If I make this again I think I'll try it with cashews and a little salt on top.

Next up: homemade marshmallows.

p.s. went to see Atonement last night. I think it might be the best adaptation of a novel that I've ever seen - they got the tone of the opening chapters exactly right, the casting was perfect and the cinematography was beautiful. I was even able to ignore Keira Knightly's skeletal frame for the most part. A must see if you haven't already! Wish I could say the same for The Golden Compass...

CSA I miss you.

2007-12-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

I've been floundering a bit since the CSA ended in early November. I'm pretty sure we'll sign up again next year, I really had fun with it and the weekly commitment wasn't a big deal at all. Next season we'll need to figure out whether to split a share again with my brother and SIL, and I'm also going to look into Red Earth Farm which delivers directly to our neighborhood but does not offer the great meat/cheese etc. selection that Greensgrow does. Signups will start in March 2008.

To fill the gap over the winter I've finally joined our local co-op. Weaver's Way is within walking distance from our apartment, and my SIL joined also. In addition to a $30/year investment, there is also a work requirement: 6 hours/year/adult.

I'm going to try and sign up for work later in this week, and I'll try to keep a log of how it goes from there. I'm already excited about this.

In the works

2007-12-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been admiring

these porcelain pinecones
these organic shapes
this pendant

and thinking that I could probably create something on my own, starting with basic modelling clay

pine needles

I think these would make nice ornaments, or gift tags.

peppercorns

bobby pins

needles

Seriously, think of the possibilities!

Photo backlog

2007-11-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

and a few cold weather recipes

Graveyard cake that we made for Halloween. I made the cake/frosting, R. decorated. This is his photo.

I've been eating this for breakfast a lot: steel cut oats, blueberries and toasted almonds or walnuts. Three superfoods in one meal - add a little yogurt and you've got 4. Lately I've been buying frozen wild blueberries, which I just heat up in the microwave or in a saucepan with a little water.

Our last CSA pick up included an enormous cabbage. I made sauerkraut using these guidelines. Basically you shred the cabbage (I used my food processor, which worked well) and pack it into a crock, salting as you go.

My fermentation vessel: I covered the cabbage with the bottom part of my springfrom pan, and held everything down with a pyrex container filled with water as a weight. After one night the brine hadn't reached over the top of the pan, so I poured in 4 cups of salted H20 and let it sit for a week. Apparently the salt water brine keeps bacteria/mold/etc from growing in your kraut.

At first it just smelled like... wet salty cabbage. But somewhere around day 3 it turned into real

sauerkraut, which I cooked in the crockpot with potatoes and a pork tenderloin. I totally love kitchen experiments like this.

The pork/sauerkraut meal finished up with this fantastic sour cream apple pie (via Posie gets cozy). One of the best apple pies I've ever tasted, seriously. I always use the pate brisee recipe from Martha Stewart's baking handbook, and it has never failed me. This time I actually put the flour and salt into the fridge before making the crust, and it did make a difference.

Some other recipes I've been wanting to try (I've had these saved for a while, and now can't remember where I first saw them. Sorry!):

Buttermilk-Mexican chocolate bundt cake
Blackbean pumpkin soup

carrot ginger soup in the crock pot

roasted brussels sprouts

portobello black bean burgers

Breaking news

2007-11-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

I've been away for some time, haven't I? Two things prompted my return:

1. Erin (who doesn't have a blog, but should) called last night to make sure I was ok, since this space has been silent for so long.

2. R. has started a blog! As you will see this may be a dangerous thing for me, since he's already revealing the stupid crap I come up with, but enjoy!

I have a journal club presentation this afternoon (this paper - an interesting topic) and that is occupying much of my brain space at the moment. I'll try to post again once it's over...

CSA week 21

2007-10-16T20:13:00.000-04:00

There are only two more CSA Saturdays left! What are we going to do all winter?? I'm wishing we had a giant chest freezer; if we did I would cook like crazy and store it all away until next May.

carrots, (a lot of) bok choy, pears, chicken/feta/spinach sausage, a pumpkin, chocolate milk, cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, and cheese. My brother and SIL are in Florida for the week so we get the full share.

Butternut squash, leek and potato soup + a bit of sour cream. I'm so glad soup weather has finally arrived. Carrot ginger is up next.

The starting line at the Dragon boat festival two Saturdays ago.

Not sure who Becky's Beauties are... but here's a close up of their dragon head.

Currently

2007-09-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

Reading

The Golden Compass (Book 1 of the His Dark Materials trilogy) by Philip Pullman
In preparation for the movie in Dec (oh man it looks good!) Thanks to Dan and Elaine for recommending this series.
Next up: Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter and Madame Bovary (recent yard sale finds).

Listening

Iron and Wine - "The Shepherd's Dog" (LOVING this)
Interpol - "Our love to admire" (Not sure yet)

Watching

Eastern Promises Despite being a Viggo Mortensen fan I was lukewarm about this one. R. really liked it though.
3:10 to Yuma Surprisingly good (I'm not usually into westerns)
Pride and Prejudice (final decision - the BBC version is better)

Enjoying

Clif nectar bar in Dark chocolate walnut.
ffffound! via kottke.org
The Petch House
Gluten-Free girl
waiter rant
skinny laminx
day-lab diy
little paper planes

Looking Forward to

Dragon Boat 2007
Birchrunville Store Cafe - for our anniversary
The Dillweed Inn - we'll be there over Halloween weekend and hope to check out the
Ghost Town Trail
Trop Med
Potential trip to Marco Island in early Feb.

Lake George

2007-09-19T07:43:00.000-04:00

A few photos from our trip to Lake George, NY this past weekend:

Apple cider donut from the farmer's market in Glens Falls

North of Lake George along Rt. 9

Near Fort William Henry

Things to keep in mind for next time:

The Sagamore

The Adelphi Hotel

The Wine Bar in Saratoga Springs

Chicken Tikka Masala

2007-09-13T21:45:00.001-04:00

This was soooo good, much better than I expected. It's from the Sept/Oct 2007 Issue of Cook's Illustrated (Which I highly highly recommend - everything I have made has been great).

The sauce had a nice warm spicy taste from the garam masala, and the chicken was incredibly tender and flavorful because of the yogurt marinade.

For the chicken tikka:

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 tsp salt

2 lbs chicken breasts (I used 1 lb and it was fine)

1C plain whole milk yogurt

2 Tbs vegetable oil

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbs. grated fresh ginger

Mix together the spices and salt and sprinkle chicken on both sides. Refrigerate for 30-60 min.

In a large bowl, mix together the yogurt, oil, garlic and ginger and set aside.

For the sauce:

3 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 onion, diced fine

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 serrano chile, ribs and seeds removed, minced (I didn't add this)

1 Tbs. tomato paste

1 Tbs. garam masala (or - 2 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp black pepper)

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes ( I used whole and chopped them up while they were in the pan).

2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 C heavy cream (I only used 1/3 C, and I think you could get away with less)

1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I didn't add this).

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden.

Add garlic, ginger, chile, tomato paste and garam masala. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add crushed tomatoes, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cream, return to simmer, and remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.

While sauce simmers, position oven rack about 6 inches from heating element and turn on broiler. Dip chicken in yogurt mixture, shake off excess, and place on foil-lined broiler rack. Broil 10-18 minutes, turning once during cooking. And don't eat any pink chicken, because you might end up with Campylobacter jejuni.

Let the chicken sit for 5 minutes, cut into small chunks, and add to sauce. Stir in cilantro.

More couch than 5K...

2007-09-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

... so far anyway, but I'm definitely improving.

A few weeks ago I started working on this couch to 5K program. The goal is to run 5K (3 miles) in thirty minutes and at this point that goal seems unattainable, but I'm working up to it.

In the past few years I think R. and I have really improved our eating habits: we cook a lot more, eat tons of fruits/veggies, drink lots of H20 and we've pretty much cut out all hydrogenated oils and corn syrup products. We buy a lot of organic food, neither of us drinks soda, we avoid fast food and neither of us is overweight. One thing I do need to watch is refined sugar - I like it in my coffee and I do like my sweets. R. is the same way but is better about eating something fruity (rather than chocolate-y) to satisfy sweet cravings.

It's the exercise department that needs some work. I started making an effort to exercise a long time ago (in high school, maybe 14 years ago?) and sometimes I'm really good about it, sometimes... not so much. In the past 2-3 years I've noticed that my body is starting to age and that I need to re-think my routine - pilates and a walk here and there isn't enough any more.

So back to running. I started couch to 5k once before but didn't stick with it. But for some reason this time I have - I've gone three times per week for four weeks. Something odd happened when I started to get more serious about it - I found that it's addictive! I don't have trouble convincing myself to take a run before school; it's much easier for me than convincing myself to get to the gym for some reason. I prefer to run around my neighborhood and in Fairmount park, but I do run on the treadmill sometimes to check timing and speed.

So for those of you who are more advanced than me, a few questions:

1. How do you avoid knee pain? Mine hurt when I first start out but it seems to go away eventually.

2. How do you carry your music and keys? Do you somehow carry water too?

3. Do you have a playlist that you really like? I'm getting bored with the one I'm currently using.

2007-09-07T19:04:00.000-04:00

OK obviously I need to get busy because we don't even have the CSA yet and here are the veggies currently in our kitchen:

Most of this is from my SIL's Mom. I like the fact that we're straddling two seasons: lots of summer tomatoes but also the first appearance of some squash.

One thing the CSA has done for me: the thought of wasting a ripe roma tomato makes me die a little inside. So I wanted to use up some of those and also the two white epplants that you see up above. The solution: polenta stacks with eggplant, tomato and mozzarella. With a few modifications because a) I was hungry and feeling rather lazy and 2) I was the only one eating (R. is here for the weekend).

First I chopped up the eggplant, tossed with salt+pepper+olive oil and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 deg.

I made polenta: boiled 1C H20 + a pinch of salt and added 1/4 C cornmeal. I whisked this until it was thick, about 3 minutes. I patted this into the bottom of a large bread pan (the recipe is for little polenta squares - this is where my laziness started to take over).

I sauteed a garlic clove in olive oil and added 4 seeded, chopped roma tomatoes.
Next: a little salt+ pepper and some balsamic vinegar.
I just heated this for a few minutes until it was warm.

Then I layered the eggplant, some cheese and the tomatoes into my polenta-filled baking dish and threw it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

It turned out pretty well!

Does anyone have any okra recipes that they could share?? I've never made it before.

OK, time to go read and fall asleep early - school this week has been craaaazy. I'm on week four of couch- to- 5K and I want to get up early tomorrow for a jog. (Maybe)More on this endeavor later.

CSA week 14

2007-08-27T20:06:00.000-04:00

In the CSA this week:

whole chicken (destined to become roast chicken in fig-balsamic glaze later this week)
a dozen eggs (have already taken part in a chocolate cake - see below)
cheddar+port spread
tomatoes (gone! Made caprese salad with whole wheat penne last night)
white peaches (partially gone! See granola, below)
hot peppers (not sure what to do with these)
a bunch of herbs (will probably end up with the chicken)

I have a granola recipe from my aunt that I have optimized and make often, this time with the white peaches. It has endless potential, but I think I'll write a post later in the week about that, so more later...

I'm a little obsessed with strained Greek yogurt at the moment, it has such a nice consistency and goes so well with the granola and a little honey. I buy Fage brand and even the 0% is good.

We had a pretty busy weekend; I was in the lab a lot and we got some errands/cleaning out of the way. But I did find time to make the Azo family chocolate cake (I originally found it here). It has a ridiculous amount of butter and chocolate and tasted ridiculously good. If you're on a diet and tend to crave chocolate - run for the hills!

We also went to see The Bourne Ultimatum on Friday night. It made my stomach hurt a little but I still really liked it.

CSA week #13 / Ricotta gnocci part deux

2007-08-20T07:07:00.001-04:00

Part of the weekly CSA

Tomatoes, squash, apples, red leaf lettuce, green beans, goat's milk gouda cheese, yogurt and sausage.

We ate very well this weekend:

Whole wheat bread

Thai coconut soup with mushrooms and chicken. From January 2007 Cook's Ilustrated

Ricotta gnocci - homemade ricotta and breadcrumbs, basil from our plant, tomatoes from our CSA. This was an easy dough to work with and they turned out really well. And nothing beats a quick sauce with fresh tomatoes.

Thai coffee

A couple of local things I'm excited about:

The Set Table - In East Falls. We sat outside and listened to the church choir next door. Great coffee and a cute out-of-the-way location.

The Marketplace at East Falls - please please let this actually happen. From what I've read it looks like they've had some trouble getting off the ground.

Bargain Thrift - I stopped in here on Saturday morning, I didn't buy anything but it definitely has potential.

Happy Monday everyone.

Ricotta gnocci part I

2007-08-14T20:15:00.000-04:00

There is a ricotta gnocci recipe in the new Cook's Illustrated that I'd like to try, so I thought I'd use my cheesemaking kit to make fresh ricotta.

The process differed from the mozzarella protocol in that I just added citric acid and salt (no rennet) and heated it up to 195 degrees F.

Curdage started to happen around 120 degrees:

At 195 degrees I removed the curds/whey from the heat and let the steaming mess sit for 10 minutes:

After the ten minutes I ladled everything into a cheese cloth-lined colander, tied it from the kitchen faucet, and let it drain for an hour. R. thought it looked like a "giant white scrotum" so I'm guessing nobody really wants to see any photos of this step.

While waiting I took a pizza break: carmelized purple onion + corn + cheddar on a whole wheat crust:

It's looking rather radioactive here but trust me, it was good!

And here's the finished product:

I was surprised at how much it made - enough to fill a 32 oz. yogurt container, and plenty for the gnocci. Stay tuned....