Christmas in November

For reasons that I am not free to share in this public forum, BJ and I have had a difficult, stressful, sad November. While those in our immediate family are healthy and fine (including little George), things in the world as we know it are not as they should be. Consequently, we have had bouts of tears and grief daily, and we also have the sad understanding that it is only to get worse for some time. Learning about the OSU plane crash on Friday morning was simply the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Yesterday morning we woke up needing a plan.

That's when BJ put on the new "She & Him" Christmas album and announced that the Christmas season is coming early to our family this year. Never in our eight years of marriage have BJ and I partaken in any kind of Christmas festivities before Thanksgiving, instead making ourselves wait until the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving to officially begin the greatest season of all. Right now we have a different perspective on life though, and we figure that we ought to seize the days we have and enjoy them. If that means letting ourselves look ahead to Christmas fun five days early, so be it. So yesterday we listened to Christmas music, and when the three of us went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, I splurged and ordered a seasonal Peppermint Chocolate shake. This morning Silas and I made a trip to Target and perused every aisle of the gaudy but exciting Christmas department, although we did not make any purchases (yet!). I sang Christmas songs to him while we scooted the cart around and he happily pointed out trees, lights, and Elmo ornaments. And tonight we have plans with BJ's parents to indulge in Mexican food and then spend an evening in the Yukon park looking at their awesome light displays.

We are realistic and know that this by no means heals our heavy hearts. However, this is one coping mechanism that our little family of three has chosen to employ during a difficult time, and sometimes that's what happens in life: you can't control the things that suck, but you often have the ability to control SOMETHING. And also, since I control this blog, I am posting pictures that make me happy. You may look at them or not. =)

Take care, friends.

Silas happily sporting a foil hat.

Tex in his usual positions.

Silas and me one year ago.

 Learning about zoo animals on Friday with our friend Vicky.

 

Keeping warm at the zoo.

Recuperating from the zoo...

'Cooking' in the kitchen this morning while we made cereal, waffles, and coffee. =)

Good Stuff

I wasn't sure what to title this post because it covers ground on a couple of topics, but because the topics are fun, there you go. Good stuff. First off, some good friends of ours had a baby last week, so we made a road trip to western Oklahoma to visit them and meet Baby Roxie. She is adorable and good times were had yesterday. Roxie's older brother Miles is a playmate of Silas', and also the same boy that I knitted the OU scarf for. We were able to get the boys together to show off their college scarves, but the picture is certainly sub-par. I had envisioned an adorable twosome with arms around each others' shoulders, grinning for the camera. What we really had were two cranky toddlers who were enthralled with their "prizes," which were little bowls of M&M's to make them sit still momentarily. Ah vell. Here are the Bedlam Boys (in case you're not from Oklahoma, the rivalry between OSU and OU is called Bedlam):

The second topic of this post is pomegranates. Oh people, let me tell you how I love fresh pomegranates in the fall. In my book, these delicious fruit seeds are rivaled in taste only by fresh pineapples. I have noticed over my adult years that when I talk about pomegranates or eat the seeds in public, people typically have no idea what they are. I thought I'd spend a short time discussing their goodness and how best to prepare the fruit. The pomegranate itself looks like this in your produce aisle:

 

When you cut it open, you'll find that it has lots of seeds inside that resemble red corn kernels. The seeds are the edible part of the fruit, while the skin and the coarse white bits that hold them in place are not.

Getting the seeds out can be a laborious and quite messy process, but BJ and I have found a method that cuts down on both of these problems. Start by quartering the pomegranate, and be careful when doing so because the red juices really will spill onto the cutting board. Wear a crappy shirt or an apron just in case.

After you've cut into it, work with one quarter at a time. I put a mixing bowl in the sink and fill it with cold water. Then, take a wedge of the fruit, hold it in your hands underwater in the bowl and begin digging the seeds out. Some of the seeds will want to cling to the white part, but most will fall straight to the bottom of the mixing bowl while the whites pieces that you don't want will float to the top. Separating it can take a little bit of time but it is worth it! Once you have all the seeds out, just start skimming the floating white bits out of the water and into the sink to discard. Dump the seeds and water into a strainer to lose the water, and pick through the seeds to get out any major bits of white stuff that you missed. Then, grab a spoon and dig in!

This weekend we have been so busy with cleaning out the office, which is officially an empty room now! It won't be long and it will be Silas' big boy room. We also watched good college football, made and enjoyed a delicious eggnog recipe by Alton Brown, and sold a bunch of things on craigslist and Ebay. I am feeling pretty good about us right now!

Earthquake!

For those of you who are not local friends, you may or may not have heard that Oklahoma has had a series of earthquakes the past couple of days. The epicenter for these earthquakes was a little town named Sparks, Oklahoma, which (according to Google Maps) is 56 miles from where we live. I would certainly not describe our experience as dramatic, but it is fair to say that we were shaken up (pun fully intended)!

On Friday night BJ and I both came down with the dreaded GI bug that seems to be getting passed around telepathically around here. Silas contracted it more than a week ago, but BJ and I had remained unscathed so we had hoped that it would pass us by. Not to be, however. Eight days later we were both sick with it, but at least it wasn't long-lasting or ridiculously hideous, as some GI bugs tend to be. On Friday night BJ and I slept in separate rooms (because of the illness), and at 2:13AM I woke up to experience the first earthquake but BJ did not. This one registered as a 4.7 on the Richter Scale and succeeded to shake our walls and rattle all of our doors. Tex and I both flew up to sitting positions, but once it was done ten seconds later I was too weak to investigate and thus went back to sleep. BJ and I met in the kitchen at 5AM that morning and looked on the internet to confirm that it was an earthquake, but he had not felt it.

Saturday was our recovery day, and we spent the entirety of it team-working with Silas, eating chicken noodle soup, and lying in the living room watching endless football. Seriously, College Game Day was on in the morning and football did not go off until the conclusion of the OSU game at 10:45 that night. (As a brief aside, the Cowboys pulled off an ugly win, but a win nonetheless. The urgency of the game zapped nearly every ounce of strength I thought I had until...)

EARTHQUAKE!

At 10:53PM, BJ and I both (still sitting on the couch of course) felt the first shakings and heard those first rumblings, and we both just looked at each other. My thought process to him, Marshall- and Lily-style, was "See? This is what it was like last night." We both seemed to think it was cool. For a few seconds. And then it didn't stop. In fact, not only did the shaking not stop, it began intensifying and getting louder. Light fixtures were swinging and the ground was most definitely shaking beneath our feet. It's safe to say that we were both scared at this point and I shouted, "Silas!" as the responsible mother I try to be. 28 weeks pregnant, I'm pretty sure I leapt over the arm of the couch (an unwise move, as it would prove to be once adrenaline had worn off) and ran across the house followed by a frantic Tex back to Silas' room. The earthquake was most intense at this point and I remember feeling the ground shaking under me as I ran, and once I threw open Silas' door, well, he was sleeping peacefully in his crib. There was actually a smile on his cute little face. I stood over him for a few seconds ready to grab him, but the earthquake started dying down. Since it was far less intense, I jogged back into the living room where BJ was and we both stood there, and I stupidly said, "It's still shaking!" And then it stopped.

And that is our earthquake experience, friends. Quite likely the largest earthquake our family will ever experience, as it was the largest in Oklahoma history: 5.6 on the Richter Scale. No damage, no injuries (minus my ridiculous pregnant-woman soreness within three minutes of the earthquake's conclusion). Just a scare and some phone calls to family members while we continued to watch our light fixtures swinging about for minutes after it all ended.

This photo sums it all up nicely. Enjoy your day, friends!

The OSU Scarf

I have finished my latest knitting projects, which were collegiate ribbed scarves for Silas and his friend Miles. In a previous post I mentioned that Silas' scarf would be, of course, in OSU's majestic orange and black, while Miles' is in the rival colors of OU, maroon and white. (OU faithful refer to these colors as "crimson and cream," but really it is maroon and white. I suppose I could also begin calling OSU's colors "ebony and mango," but nah.) One more collegiate scarf, in OU colors, has been requested for another of Silas' friends, and I will be sure to post a pic of that gorgeous little girl when she has her warm OU scarf around her neck in the next month. I'm now working on a navy alpaca basket-weave scarf for BJ. Needles are happily clicking!

Game Day Chili

Our first foray into chili experimenting has come! As a Christmas gift last year I received a one-year subscription to Better Homes & Gardens, a magazine which I have quite come to enjoy. I think this means I'm old. Nonetheless, with each issue I receive I find at least a couple of recipes that I would like to try, and in a recent issue there was this recipe for Game Day Chili. I was intrigued by the ingredients of this recipe, which included dried plums, paprika, cloves, and my all-time favorite food...chocolate. (If you're looking at this recipe online, I think you need to also look up the recipe for chili seasoning puree, because that is a mixture of ingredients that you are required to make as part of this recipe). Overall, the recipe was not difficult to put together and then it went into the slow-cooker for several hours, which left me lots of time to play with my boys and watch some good old college football.

Overall, this chili recipe was agreed to be just alright. It was honestly a little bit too sweet, and the sweetness was slightly strange. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy sweetness in a chili, but this recipe just seemed like a little bit of overkill. BJ especially does not like sweetness in a chili recipe, so he was not impressed with this one. One thing to keep in mind is that some chili becomes better as it stands. BJ and I have a tradition of always eating chili dogs with our leftover chili the next day for lunch, which is usually during a nice NFL game on Sunday. We both strongly believed that Game Day Chili was better the next day on top of hot dogs than it was the night before. It really did improve with some standing and chilling.

Grades for Game Day Chili
Jenny: B
BJ: C

Meeting AB

I have referred in a previous post to our family's favorite TV chef, Alton Brown. Alton has a show on Food Network called Good Eats, which we have been watching as a couple for years. BJ is undoubtedly the bigger Alton fan of the two of us, but my allegiance to Alton runs deep because he uses the concepts of science and applies them to delicious cooking; thus, in my mind, he is solely responsible for my husband's transition from Hamburger Helper to real cooking. With the help of Alton, we are now a solid team in the kitchen, and some of our favorite Alton classics include soft pretzels, cheese soup, seedy crisps, cheesy poof, homemade brownies, and knock-your-socks-off apple pie, which BJ bakes nearly every Thanksgiving.

Yesterday we had a very cool opportunity to meet Alton Brown at a book signing in Oklahoma City! It was his first trip to Oklahoma and we had it on our calendar from the first announcement of it. BJ in particular was quite excited to meet his favorite chef and tell him thanks for everything. I seconded with a hearty thank-you of my own. Overall a neat experience and a minute or so to make pleasantries with a man who has definitely had culinary pull in our house for about the past six years.

On other fronts, this has been an exceptionally busy fall for us. There has definitely been a lot of play time, but we've also been putting quite a bit of effort into transforming our home so that it is ready for a second child. Our office had essentially become our "junk room," as my friend Jamie coined for me the other day, and it was truly an apt description. We've spent parts of the last few weekends working hard to disseminate office contents to other places in the house, trash, or a donation pile. Each room in the house has been gone through to create more space, and part of our process has been realizing that we could use our space much more effectively than we have been. We have nearly emptied the office and then will turn that into Silas' big boy bedroom, so that George can have the nursery that Silas currently occupies. All good things.

We've also been to a pumpkin patch, watched Oklahoma State have an awesome football season and rise to #3 in the BCS rankings, baked a number of fall specialties (including pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, chocolate-covered peanut clusters, bourbon cranberry compote, and pumpkin mac-n-cheese), and read tons of books. Silas' favorite activity seems to be reading books, and I'm not kidding when I say that sometimes BJ and I read 75 times a day to this child. He has a rotation of 10-15 books that he just can't seem to get enough of, and it has been a joy to watch his love for books being born. I have absolutely no idea what is normal for a 17-month-old in terms of vocabulary, but he is also talking up a storm now, typically just one to two words at a time. His communication is effective though, which is good for all of us, and BJ and I have counted in the ballpark of 80 words that he has down pat. Fun times!

I finished his OSU scarf and will post a picture of him wearing that shortly as well. =)  Here are a couple of pics from the pumpkin patch. Hope you are doing well, friends!

A Quest for Chili

BJ and I have established a delicious goal for the fall of finding the perfect chili recipe. During the fall and winter months he and I have enjoyed chili and various soups every since we were first married and surviving those Minnesota winters. Traditionally we have used a box chili, but this fall I had an itch for more; BJ, who loves to cook just about as much as I do, was totally game when I suggested stepping outside of our box o'chili and expanding our horizons to chili recipes that are perhaps spicier, meatier, sweeter, bean-y-er, and/or all around better. I figured I may as well incorporate our quest into the blogging effort. Friends, we are welcoming recipes! If you have a chili that is tried-and-true or perhaps a chili recipe that looks good but you've just not found the time to try, send it on to us and we will give it a look and perhaps a taste. The exception here is white chicken chili recipes, which I will not accept. Let's get real people; white chicken chili is really soup, not chili. The chili must be red!

We decided to start our quest with a baseline, for which we chose our traditional box o'chili. For years we have used Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Brand Chili Kit.

The meat that I use is either lean ground beef or ground turkey, but for our baseline grading we used ground beef. I also added onion that I cooked with the beef, a can of tomato sauce, water, and two cans of beans. For this tasting I used a can of red kidney beans and a can of pinto beans, because how can you go wrong with pinto beans?

As an aside, I know that I took a picture of a finished bowl of our chili kit chili, but I sure can't seem to find it. Sorry.

The verdict: The chili isn't bad, that's for sure! We've chosen this as our easy, go-to chili for years, and with good reason. You can make it as spicy as you'd like because you add your own desired amount of cayenne. With our additions of onion, beans, fritos, sour cream, and cheese, it's not a bad place to start. I think it can get better though.

Jenny's grade: B
BJ's grade: B

Send us recipes!