I Didn't Burn the Dinner

I made dinner the other night.  Something pretty adventurous, Quinoa Cakes (like a crab cake minus the crab) with lemon garlic aoli and some roasted asparagus. I was in the middle of pan cooking the second batch of Quinoa Cakes when the smoke alarm started going off.  I will repeat the title of this post, I did NOT burn the dinner.  I think my smoke alarm had it out for me that day. So I did what anyone would do, I grabbed a kitchen towel and ran to fan the smoke away from the alarm. It didn't work. So, I opened the front door and windows. That didn't work. I turned on a fan in the kitchen. That didn't work. I opened the back sliding door, which sent Scooter running outside to enjoy his freedom. Which made Eliza try to run outside too.  In bare feet in the winter. So, I closed the back door much to the dismay of the toddler who started screaming along with the smoke alarm that was still blaring the most annoying, headache inducing beeping.

I went back and forth between the alarm and the stove to make sure I didn't actually burn the dinner in my attempts to stop the smoke alarm. I grabbed a stool and tried every button on the alarm, that didn't work. I tried to pull it down only to find out it is wired into my ceiling. Ugh. After ten minutes of this I called my husband who was about 5 minutes away and then took the dog and the baby downstairs where the alarm was still annoying but not as headache inducing.

Within 30 seconds of walking into the house Shawn had stopped the alarm. I asked "How did you do that?!" and he said he waved a towel in front of it. But what happens when your alarm goes off for 15 minutes? It runs out of battery. Which it apparently has in addition to being plugged in to the wiring in our home. So instead of quiet bliss for dinner, we had four alarms running out of battery and chirping every 30 seconds. FOUR ALARMS!

"Why do we need four alarms within a 10 foot radius?" I asked Shawn.

"It's code." He replied.

Because if the smoke alarm went off at 2:00am the one five feet away from my bedroom isn't enough, but I also need one IN my bedroom and in the other two bedrooms off of that hallway. I'm not a fan of the code.

But then I found this:




A smoke alarm that will tell you in a patient human voice where the smoke is coming from. A smoke alarm that you can wave your hand in front of if you burnt the dinner and it will stop. A smoke alarm that will tell you in that calm, patient human voice when it is running out of battery. I want it. I want it very badly. At $129 it's a little too expensive to run out to Home Depot and replace our four demonic current smoke alarms, but I will be saving my pennies for this smoke alarm.

And while we're at it, I also want their learning Thermostat. Look it up. It's awesome.

Just Not Quite Right

I'm a recipe follower. Like I can't cook without a recipe.  Even when I'm making a dish I've made a dozen times I still follow the recipe and check it between each step. Last night I had this dream over and over again about Fried Rice but with Quinoa instead of rice. (Side note, why does that happen that you dream over and over again about the same mundane thing? Or is it just me?) So when Shawn got home and we started thinking about dinner I pulled up Pinterest and VOILA! I HAD pinned a dish of Fried Rice with Quinoa. I was determined to make it work. It's the end of the month and since we're trying VERY HARD to stay within our budget, and since our grocery budget is down to "save this money in case you have to buy milk before the end of the week" I was determined to use what we've got in our pantry. As luck would have it green onions, mushrooms, and fresh ginger were the only items I didn't have, and I felt they were all pretty optional anyway. I read over the recipe a few times and then decided "I got this" and I winged it! I was proud of using the half an onion and carrots that were in the fridge as well as the peas and corn from the freezer. And since Shawn's been asking for a Quinoa dish, I felt pretty good about pulling that out as well.  I do wish I had remembered the frozen ham before it was too late to defrost and add it. But the dish looked like the picture and I was feeling pretty awesome about making something without being so strict about the recipe AND using what we had available. 

I was feeling awesome that is until I tasted it.  Oh man, SOMETHING in the recipe was off.  Way off.  Maybe the soy sauce was old or the onion was just that side of being good? Shawn loved it and had three bowls, but I had a hard time choking down my first serving. Or maybe it's me.  Sometimes when I work really hard at a meal I just can't eat it. It can smell delicious, it can even taste good, but somehow in the process of making it I've lost my appetite for it and can't seem to eat it. 

Does that happen to you? That after making a meal it just doesn't meet your expectations? Isn't that so disappointing? 

I'll probably try quinoa fried "rice" again, but before I do I'm going to have to figure out which ingredient wasn't working this time.  Right now I'm thinking we need a new bottle of soy sauce.  How long does soy sauce stay good anyway?

Goal Accomplished!

I finally did it.  After a month and a half of having exactly one item on my to do list I finally accomplished said item.  I planned out dinners for the next two weeks.  I am absolutely horrible at planning meals. Horrible. And for the past several weeks/months we've been eating a late dinner after the baby is in bed that consists of whatever won't take too long to make. No more! For the next two weeks anyway. I've got a plan. I've got recipes, I've added the needed items to my shopping list, we WILL have dinner together as a family!

I use a google calendar to plan my meals. I can keep several calendars in one place and that way can see what we have going on and I can plan my meals accordingly. And since we only have two people who really eat the meals, most of what I make I can use as leftovers the next day, so I only plan 3-4 meals per week. We have plenty of "backup meals" like tuna helper in our food storage in case the day goes awry and the meal doesn't get cooked, or if we don't have the planned for leftovers. It makes it so much easier to only plan 3-4 dinners a week rather than 7.

I also started keeping a spreadsheet of meals I like to make.  I keep track of when we ate it last and where the recipe is kept.  That way I can take a quick look there to help plan my meals when I don't have time to hunt for recipes on Pinterest.

And can I just say thank goodness for Pinterest? When it comes to food I'm pretty visual, I like my recipes to have pictures. If I had to just browse my mostly pictureless cookbooks I would never decide what to eat. But thanks to pinterest and food bloggers, the internet is my cooking inspiration! What in the world did our moms do when it came time to feed all of us?!

The Last 6 Weeks. . .

I've been struggling a little bit lately with the "Homemaker" part of my new role as a stay at home mom.  I just can't seem to do everything I want to do.  Ideally I'd have a clean house, a meal on the table for my husband in the evenings, and an updated blog. But in real life the 30 minutes between Shawn texting me that he's on his way home and him showing up are the busiest 30 minutes of the day as I hurry to get dressed, make the bed, and quickly pick up the house.  And too many times none of that gets done and he walks into a mess and a wife who is still in her PJs.  And I feel like I've gotten nothing done the entire day.

I think back on my days and I'm busy! I pick up after a baby multiple times a day.  I still nurse her 6 times a day, I change her diaper, I feed her solids, we play together and read books.  I do laundry that might never get put away, but at least it's clean.  And that fills up my day.  Especially since lately I only have a baby who will sleep in my arms.

I did realize recently that I only have space for so much going on in my brain at once. I can only concentrate on one or two things that take effort at a time.  And lately those two things have been getting Eliza to nap and gain weight.  I simply can't worry about or focus on more than that or I might have a nervous break down.

Between Eliza's last two doctor visits she LOST weight.  That is the wrong way to be going on the scale, baby girl! I could tell she wasn't growing very fast, but had no idea that she was losing weight.  It was only a matter of ounces, not pounds, but still, it was the wrong direction.  So, the last six weeks we've been concentrating on getting her to gain weight through "power packing" her foods.  And then you need to add to that stress her getting sick and then getting the stomach flu, and not having any solids for a week.  So, we add butter or high fat yogurt to everything she eats.  I concentrate on proteins and dairy.  I have spent way too much time in the baby food aisle comparing calories between baby foods.  Pears have more calories than apples, and peas have more calories than green beans.  I bet you didn't know that. Three years ago I never would have thought I'd be standing in the yogurt aisle at Walmart at 10:00 on a Friday night trying to find the yogurt with the most calories and fat per serving. (Yoplait Baby yogurt and The Greek Gods Traditional Plain yogurt are the answers by the way.)

And then there's the napping situation. I've written about it before, so I won't go into it again, but let's just say, nothing has changed or gotten better and I'm just grateful when she gets a nap even if it means it's in my arms.

So, that's where all of my effort, concentration, stress has been going, and things like cleaning house, making dinner, blogging have all taken a back seat. Now that we've figured out more foods Eliza likes, and she's making headway on the eating I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulder, the clouds have drifted apart somewhat, and I can start to see what else needs work.  Next week we visit the pediatrician for a weight check and will find out if our efforts have paid off.  But Eliza already feels heavier to me and Shawn thinks she's getting a little belly.  I'm certain we'll be keeping with the power packing for a while, but maybe now I'll be able to concentrate on me every once in a while.  Oh yeah, and dinner.

Recently. . .

Things have been busy here in the Walker household and we've had no time to blog.  Except at night when I'm falling asleep and composing amazing blog posts in my head as I drift off.  Too bad those will never get published.  But I have a feeling they would be rather long, sometimes it takes a lot to get me to fall asleep.

What we've been up to recently:

• Experimenting with ways to get Eliza to A) nap and B) nap not in my arms after nursing.  For about 10 days she loved napping in her swing in the bathroom while I showered.  Then she would cry while I was in the shower, but fall asleep as soon as I got out.  Now she will do neither.  Sigh.  
• Right now she is sleeping in her swing with the vacuum running next to her.  At least my living room got vacuumed.  For the first time I find myself wishing our house was carpeted instead of mostly wood floors on the main level.  It doesn't take long enough to vacuum my 6'x4' rug.
• Bonus, vacuuming also drives Scooter nuts! It's kind of fun to watch him "attack" the vacuum.
• Thank goodness for white noise apps.  I was just able to stop the real vacuum and turn on the vacuum sound on my iphone.  I hope this lasts, mama needs a bit of a break!
• Lots of baking has happened around here.  I tried some awesome browned butter cookies I found on Pinterest.  I had wonderful plans to post about them, but that didn't happen.  The browned butter icing was the best part.  Seriously so good.
• We also made Cinnamon Rolls for General Conference Sunday.  Yum! And I used it as an excuse to make browned butter icing again.  Even better the second time.
• I baked Smitten Kitchen's Peach Pie with Creme Fraiche again this year.  
• We grew Kale in our yard, so we tried Kale chips and some Kale soup.  Neither was wonderful, so we'll be looking for new recipes.
• We went to the Home Show because we got free tickets and I was DESPERATE to get out of the house.  And then decided we're not Home Show people.  But it was nice to get dressed up (meaning makeup and earrings and an extra check of the clothes to make sure they didn't have spittup on them) and hold my husband's hand while walking around the Expo Center.

And for making it all the way through the post, here's a picture of the cutest member of our family.

Having It All

I love this post by The Frugal Girl about "having it all."  It's definitely been on my mind as I decided wether or not to continue to work after Baby Girl Walker joined our family.  I have to agree with her in so many ways, to me "having it all" never included having a family and a career.  When I was in my 20's I might have wanted both, but the older I've gotten, the longer I was in a career, the longer I waited to start my family, the more I've wanted to be able to stay home with my children.  I definitely have friends who are moms who work full time, and while some of them do it out of necessity, and some of them do it out of choice, I don't know that any of them would say that they "had it all."  Just in the last week and a half that I've been at home waiting for Baby Girl I've definitely wondered if I made the right choice, if I'll be happy being home all the time, taking on most of the housework and cleaning and child care.  I realize that I might have to take a part time job, not just for financial reasons, but maybe for my mental stability having worked outside the home for more than half of my life.  But at the same time I love that for right now my focus can be on Baby Girl (when she decides to come that is) and Shawn.  And I'll figure out the cooking and cleaning and homemaking, and who knows, I might love it.  And here's to the opportunity to figure out what "having it all" means to me!

Semi-Annual Craft Night

This Saturday night is the Harrell Family Semi-Annual Craft Night.  It happens every April and October and happens to coincide with this other event.  In the spring we made some fun bottlecap magnets and last year we worked on crafts for my wedding.  For some reason or another I'm the one that is assigned to finding the craft project to do, and this year I'm thinking wreaths.  But I like them all and can't decide which one to do.

First up, the Acorn Wreath (tutorial found here).  I love the color of this wreath, I love how perfect it looks.  I love the wide ribbon.  I can't think of anything I don't like! The first problem is where to find acorns.  The second is that it is very time consuming, not a one evening kind of project.

Next, the felt flower wreath. (Found here.) The color is perfect for the autumn.  I love how it looks, I like the idea of the felt flowers.  But again, it might be more than a one evening kind of project.  

Third, another more than one evening project.  Maybe I'm not being very creative, but I do like the dark pink.  Maybe I'll save this one for Valentine's Day.  Maybe it's the color and the gauzy ribbon, but it's a little romantic.  This year I left my red Christmas Wreath on the door until spring, so I definitely need something for Valentine's Day. (Found here.)

This is my favorite of all the wreaths.  It's the Split Pea wreath!  It looks SO EASY to make, and I love the texture.  I want to make them small and hang them in my windows like in the tutorial, but I have no idea which windows.  I love the color, but it doesn't exactly say fall, does it?  My sister suggested spray painting it, and I like that idea too.  Maybe if I spray painted it black it would be a good Halloween wreath?  Add some orange or yellow felt flowers?  Hmmm.  This is a top contender, but maybe too messy for a quick evening project.   (Found here.)

I think this pumpkin colored yarn wreath is the winner.  Winding yarn around a wreath would be easy enough to do while sitting around and talking, and I think it's quick enough for one evening.  I love the felt flowers and the small branches.  I want to make those felt flowers and put them on headbands and bags too.  (Found here.)

Most of the wreaths were found on my new favorite blog, Little Things Bring Smiles.  I want to make all of Katie's projects!  I love blogs that inspire me, and this one is definitely working.  

So, what do you think?  Which one would you do?  Do you have a favorite fall craft?  Or a favorite craft website?  I need some Halloween or indoor fall decor ideas too.  Where do you get inspiration for home decor?

Peach Pie

I ate two pieces of pie for dinner tonight, and I don't regret it.  

Yet.

Do you want to see photos of my pies?  

Now, I'm not a photographer with a fancy camera, and the first two photos were taken with Shawn's phone, so the quality isn't great, but here are the pies!

The first pie is ready to go in the oven!  

I have such hope and am unaware of my sad mistakes.

The first pie is done!  See that crust?  

Well, it's luckily still yummy, but wasn't as fabulous as I was hoping it would be.

The second pie.  

See how the crust isn't overdone?  See how the filling actually fills the pie?  

See all that creme fraiche?  And the streusel?  

We haven't eaten it yet, but I can't wait!  We want to be kind and share our creation, but the real question is, who do we share such a perfect (looking) pie with?

Domesticated Pie Maker

Well Blog, today I made pie.  I made some pumpkin pie around Christmas time for something or other and mentioned that I needed pie weights, so Shawn, being the awesome listener that he is, bought me pie weights for Christmas.  And proceeded to not do anything with them for months, despite Shawn gently hinting ove and over that he wanted me to make pie.  I like to bake, you see.  He cooks too, but I love to bake and when I cook, I want to cook big things.  So, my friend and former roommate, Laura posted a pie she had made on facebook complete with the recipe.  And I remember that pie.  I have very fond memories of eating that pie.  And while my baking/cooking skills are no where near Laura's I decided to be brave and adventurous and make a pie.  A Peach Pie.

Before I could be adventurous and make the peach pie I had to make creme fraiche.  Now, that's adventurous too.  Who lets dairy products intentionally sit on the counter for 24 hours?  Then, I had to make streusel.  That turned out to be harder than the creme fraiche.  (Just because I over mixed it the first time and it turned into more of a dough than a streusel.)  And I had to par bake the crust. (I'm so glad I know that term now, I like throwing it out into conversation, like I'm some official pie maker or something.)  But eventually I got to put it all in the pie shell (including the peaches of course) and put it in the oven and bake it.

And it turns out I made a couple of mistakes.  Mistakes that I was warned about by the recipe maker.  I was warned not to use a deep dish pie plate.  So, I used the pie plate we got for our wedding.  Which it turns out was a deep dish pie plate.  So, the filling didn't quite . . . fill the pie.  And the second warning was that I might want to cover the endges of the crust with foil while it was baking so as to not burn them.  And I ignored that warning too, and since the pie wasn't full enough and the crust was burning, there was a lot of crust to burn.  Oh well, it still tasted great!  And the bonus mistake was that I had too many peaches, so tonight I went out, got me a shallow pie plate and made a second peach pie.  And yes, I covered my crust too.  I got to par bake again and to make streusel again.  It was fun.  Again.  But here's my question, how are two people going to eat TWO PIES?  We'll need help.  Any volunteers?

Oh, and PS, making pie just remind me of the Pie Maker.  Remember that show?  Did you love it too?