Cooking...

Creamy Green Garlic and Potato Soup

We started getting our CSA last week from Brinkley Farms.  We are so excited about it!  This particular CSA allows us to choose what we want in our box each week from a list of available items. Last week we choose chorizo, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, bok choy, and chinese cabbage.  This week we choose to get some ground beef, green onions, collards, spinach, and green garlic.   We weren't sure what to do with the green garlic... but after asking around, we heard of a green garlic potato soup that Toast (one of our favorite Durham restaurants) makes.  

I googled and found a few recipes and ended up doing a composite of multiple recipes.

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 large green onions
• 3 bulbs green garlic, thinly sliced  (I used the whites, pink, and part way up the green)
• 4 medium Golden potatoes
• Salt to taste
• 1 Quart Chicken Broth 
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoons 2% milk
• a splash of lemon juice to taste

Heat butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, potatoes, and some salt, and saute for another 5 minutes. 

Add the broth and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, allowing the soup to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are nice and tender. Do not cover.  When potatoes are soft and most of the liquid is absorbed or evaporated, use an immersion blender and puree.  We didn't completely puree till smooth, but you could do that.  

Add milk and broth until the soup is a soupy consistency.  Taste the soup - add lemon juice, salt and pepper until the flavor is bright.

Mmmmmm - Yummy!

Making...

Shirts for Elizabeth and Lily.

Elizabeth's first baseball game

On opening day (April 15th) we took Elizabeth for her first baseball game.  It was an amazing night, although the Bulls lost.  Elizabeth loved it! Which is pretty standard for her as she is very social.  She enjoyed the music, watching all the people, and being outside.

New pictures

Check out our fotki site. We have tons of new pictures!

Beets can't be beat!

Check out this article on the New York Times about the TripAdvisor review of the agrotourism destination Schrute Farms from The Office.  So funny!    

Elizabeth Laughs

I can't stop smiling whenever I hear her laugh...
Make sure your sound is up for this!!!


Elizabeth laughs from Nathan Marvelle on Vimeo.

Cooking... Tuna and eggplant stew

Tuna and eggplant stew

Nathan found this recipe on the New York Times, and when I read it, it initially did not appeal to me.  But Nathan was game, and we had most of the items.  For items we didn't have we did a bit of substituting.

No anchovy fillets (not a staple in our cabinets)
Eggplant for the bell peppers
1 fresh tomato, 1/2 can of tomato paste, 1/2 cup water for the 14oz can of chopped tomatoes with juice (we usually have this in our cabinet, but we were out!)
Cooking sherry for dry white wine (the white wine we had was really too sweet)
Russet potatoes for red potatoes
Ahi tuna filets for albacore
Cilantro for parsley

We also were short on time so we cut out the 1st 30 minute simmer and reduced the second simmer to just enough time to get the potatoes soft.

During the middle of the cooking process I tasted it and was really disappointed!  But once it was done I was quite surprised at how delicious it was!

BABIES the movie

We loved this trailer:

Spontaneous laughter

Elizabeth has been giggling for quite sometime now.  She giggles on the changing pad when you tickle her  belly and under her arms.  She has recently started giggling when you hold her up in the air above you head and lift her up and down and just today I started giving her a little toss and she laughs even harder!! But this afternoon she giggled for the first time spontaneously.  We were standing at the bottom of the stairs and I was holding her on my shoulder with her looking up. Pancake started running down the stairs and Elizabeth broke out into laughter!  It was the best!!! We still haven't gotten it on tape yet, but hopefully soon.

Wilco at the DPAC

As Jim would say: "It was epic"

What an amazing evening!  First we met up with some friends for dinner at Piedmont (I got the steak I have been craving), then a quick walk to DPAC.  While it was a little chilly, it was a perfect after dinner stroll across downtown Durham.  And since it was dusk we could see all the people milling around outside and inside of the theatre.  This really pumped me up to see an awesome show!


Now, I've seen Wilco once before at Memorial Hall about 4 years ago and then a solo acoustic Jeff Tweedy show that same summer at the North Carolina Museum of Art, but this show was definitely the best of the 3.  While I'm not a big fan of their newest album, I am huge fan of all the ones preceding it, and they did not let me down.  The show started a little after 8, and they played until sometime after 11... around 3 hours of straight awesomeness (all except the girl 2 seats away from Nathan having a reversal of fortunes. We didn't notice until the attendants came to clean it up).   Below is a setlist I grabbed from another website.  As you can see, they played something off almost all their albums.


Wilco (the song)
Bull Black Nova
You Are My Face
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
At Least That's What You Said 
Deeper Down 
Handshake Drugs 
Side with the Seeds 
One Wing 
She's A Jar 
I'll Fight 
Impossible Germany 
Summerteeth 
California Stars 
Poor Places 
Spiders 
Forget the Flowers 
When The Roses Bloom Again 
War on War 
When You Wake Up Feeling Old 
Laminated Cat 
Passenger Side 
Airline to Heaven 
A shot in the arm 
Hate it Here 
Heavy Metal Drummer 
You Never Know 
Jesus Etc 
Walken 
I'm the Man Who Loves You 
Thank You Friends (from Big Star)

Encore:
Via Chicago
Hoodoo Voodoo
I'm A Wheel

I especially loved the production.  They had these cool single bulb long lights that lit up with the rhythm of the songs.  During the middle of the performance the went from rocking out on their more intense instruments to playing almost acoustic in a living room like setting.  They did this by having floor lamps and bringing the piano guys and drummer to the front of the stage with stripped down instruments (a miniature drum set almost looking like a child should be playing it compared with the giant one for the rest of the show, a bass, and small keyboard).

To end the night we went to Whisky where it was extremely crowded at first, but we scored a table and spent the rest of the evening in good conversation.  We even tried a new beer from Highland brewing company:  Black Mtn Bitter. The website describes it as an organic pale ale, but it was dark and extremely tasty.  It turned my mood from - 'eh, I wouldn't mind going home to bed' to 'hey, let's stay and drink this!'.  The table and seats didn't hurt to turn my mood around.

Elizabeth 4 months old

Today Elizabeth turned 4 months old.
We measured her at home on our bathroom scale and a tape measure on her changing pad and she is roughly 14 pound and ~23 inches.  We will get better measurements at the doctor on Wednesday.

Overall Elizabeth is a pretty laid back little baby. She is really very good most of the time and when she melts down it is probably due to over stimulation (which is completely our fault), but these times are few and far between.

Sleep:
We are extremely (and I can't even express how extreme this is!) happy that she has been sleeping through the night since 7 weeks.  There have been a few times that around 4 or 5 we go up and give her her pacifier. And at 3 months she woke up in the middle of the night, and only because I had been reading that children have growth spurts around that time, I fed her.  I realized I didn't want it to be a habit so if it happened again I'd try to soothe her before nursing, but it hasn't happened again!  We've been lucky that she also goes down really easily.  This also happened around 4 weeks.  We started with a bedtime routine of getting her in her PJ's before her last feeding which is around 10pm and then nursing her, taking her upstairs to her bedroom, laying her on her changing pad and changing her diaper if it is wet, while playing a song that her Grandpa Kevin wrote her.  Then we zip her up in her sleep sack and read her a story.  We've been going through all her books and all three of us love: All of baby nose to toes.  After reading we turn on her sound machine to ocean waves which is on an hour timer.  We lay her down in her bed and then swaddle her in the cool swaddler that is attached to her sleep sack.  (however they only make it in newborn, and she is about to grow out of the sack it attaches too, oh no what to do then?), spin her mobile, kiss her goodnight, and close the door.  For the most part she puts herself to sleep.  About 50% of the time we have to go upstairs and put her paci back in if it falls out before she is in deep sleep. Otherwise we just watch her drift off to sleep on our video monitor... the lifesaver for having a downstairs master and an upstairs nursery.  She wakes up around 7:30 every morning. Nathan goes up stairs to get her when she starts stirring and I get ready to nurse her.  As I'm nursing Nathan either gets ready or sleeps in for a little while longer.  When we are done, we all have our morning cuddle and then Nathan gets up to get ready for work and I stay in bed with Elizabeth a little while longer as she drifts off to sleep for a while longer.  She may sleep until 11 during which I eat breakfast, search the internet and clean up the dishes.

Our daytime schedule

Play:
She is becoming more and more interactive every day.  Just today she would not stop giggling when we lift her up and down above our heads.  She also seems ticklish under her arms and neck and giggles when we tickle her.  However, she is stingy with her giggles and once she has done it a few times she stops.  She is not stingy with her smiles though and smiles a lot.  She is especially smiley in the mornings.

She just started using her Johnny Jumper (or as we call it Lizzy Leaper).  She doesn't jump in it yet, but she just looks around and sucks on the front of it.  She plays a lot on her playmat both tummy time (try to get her to roll over more consistently) and on her back grabbing at the toys dangling in front of her and putting them in her mouth. She puts everything in her mouth.  She doesn't much care for her bouncy seat very much anymore, but I sitll put her in it when I need to take a shower and she is awake or I need to do something else and I don't want her "getting into to trouble".  She loves her bumbo chair, but I can't leave her in that without watching her at all times.  She has started to arch her back and I'm afraid she is just going to pop out of it.  She also likes to lay on our bed and gaze and talk to our ceiling fan.  She does this on the changing pad in our bedroom too. She was really interested in the ceiling fan from early on and we used to put her on the "changing pad of solace" when she was a new born because it would snap her out of any funk that she was in.

She loves watching Pancake, but he does not want anything to do with her.  I am kinda glad it is like that right now.  They coexist in the same house, but he would prefer his own space.

Nicknames:
We call her Elizabeth, baby, and chublet - because she is pretty chubby :) and you just want to eat her up! (sometimes we call her Pancake too by accident)
Nathan's parents call her Liz (for the record, I'm not a huge fan of this)
My parents call her Elizaberry... a combination of Elizabeth and Strawberry (her name we gave her while she was in the womb since we did not share her name)
Elese calls her Eliza

Baths:
She gets a bath every other day or so and she loves them!  We put the bathtub on the kitchen counter that is beside the sink so one of us can stand on each side of her.  It makes it really easy since we aren't breaking out backs and knees leaning over into a tub.  We will probably keep doing this until she starts moving more and sitting up on her own - which will be too soon!

Eating:
She eats about 6 times a day around every 3 hours from when she wakes up and goes to sleep.  She is a pretty good nurser, but can get distracted.  When we were on the plane taking our first trip we were glad we had brought a bottle because she did not want to nurse - she just wanted to look around.  She still eats on both sides.  I use the my brest friend and I love it, but I can nurse without it.

Baking...

Apple Cider and Rosemary Locopops!

These tasty treats were the perfect finish to a tapas girls night dinner party.  Very easy to make, and I highly recommend them!  Follow the link above for the recipe.

Making...

A little fabric book for Elizabeth 

I was inspired by a friend of mine from college, Kristina, who featured this craft on her blog Thimbly Things. If you'd like to make your own follow the link and she explains step-by-step. I used some of her patterns but added some of my own.  Also it was really easy and allowed me to use some of the scraps of fabric that I've been racking my brain with what to do with.  For the book itself I used the scraps of fabric from our curtains in our bedroom instead of denim.  

12 weeks of Elizabeth

The silliest baby contraption

I think this photo speaks for itself. Doesn't she look silly!!!  but she loves watching us working in the kitchen.

The World is a book...

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

Nathan and I are big travelers. Don't get us wrong, we love being at home -- the comforts, our friends, our King sized bed.  I am even living in the same state that I grew up in, but we love to get out and see the cultures and sights of other places, and we plan to pass this passion onto our children.

Elizabeth started her journeys on January 15th when she traveled to DC to see Nomi and Kevi (Nathan's parents) and many of our friends. We weren't sure how things were going to go with Elizabeth, Nathan, me and Pancake in a car for 5 hours, but we are please to report that everything went very smoothly. The dog slept in the front seat. The baby slept in the back with one of us while the other drove. Nathan gave her a bottle both on the way up and back, since she is on a 3 hour eating schedule. She would have preferred to sleep, but we knew that if we didn't feed her I'd be up with her at night catching up on that feeding.

While in DC, she mainly stayed in and several people came and visited her: Mike W., Ruth and Michael, Julia and Allen, and Chris and Lou. On Sunday though, we took Elizabeth to our favorite brunch place, Don Jaime's to meet up with our DC friends: Rose, Dave, Sarah, Rich, and Jake. She loved it! We could tell because she napped most of the time.







She did really well adjusting to sleeping in a pack and play and on Sunday night she slept from 11 to 7 (to be honest she was pretty fussy before she went down, but I can handle fussy if I get 8 hours of sleep!) This was the first time she slept through the night without her 3 o'clock feeding. I woke up at 5 all flustered and went to make sure she was breathing... she was. After a consult with Nathan (who would have preferred to be sleeping himself) we decided to let her sleep. What a milestone and to have it while away!


Her second trip was a trip to Greer, SC and Asheville, NC. Elizabeth and I drove 3.5hrs from home to Greer to celebrate Kim's baby shower. She slept the whole car ride and ate right when I got to Kim's house. She was a little angle at the shower. At first she was awake and I held her, then she fell asleep and I put her down in her carseat and she slept for the rest of the shower

Her and I drove up to Asheville after the shower to stay with my parents for the first time. She did really well. That morning she hung out with my parents (see her cuddling with Pappy) and she played with Nana. In afternoon she visited with Grannie and Nancy. It was really great for her to see Grannie. That evening we had an uneventful drive back home.

So far she has been a wonderful baby to travel with (well, she is also pretty wonderful at home so we are glad she is being herself when we travel). We are hoping this continues as our next big trip is on a plane... Keep your fingers crossed.

Cooking...? Baking...?

Snow Cream!

As a kid we used to make snow cream, a combination of clean fresh snow (only to be collected when the wind is not too bad so there is not extra fiber included), evaporated milk, sugar, and vanilla. You can substitute sweetened condensed milk for the evaporated milk and sugar or just use cream. With all the predicted snow, on Friday night I put out a bowl to collect the quintessential ingredient.

Saturday morning I had more than enough snow! By 11am I couldn't wait any longer and had to make it. I can't believe how good it tasted (just like ice cream), but maybe this had to do with the fact that I had not had it since I was a kid and memories sometime make food taste better. I can't wait for Elizabeth to try it... the way it snows around here, though, she may have to wait until she is 5!

January 30th Snow

On January 30th Durham got the biggest snowstorm that Nathan and I can remember since we moved here in 2004. It started snowing on Friday night (the 29th) and didn't stop till Saturday night, and we had a total accumulation of 5.5 inches. On Saturday I shoveled our steps and walkway, but the weather was COLD and overcast.


While this wasn't Elizabeth's first snow (that was December 18th) it was the first that we could take pictures with her and the snowy backdrop.
Saturday night Nathan took to the streets and drove over to Michelle and Mark's to give them a helping hand and babysit Camden so they could go to Mamma Mia since their scheduled sitter was iced in.

Sunday morning was the most beautiful blue-bird pow-pow day! We started our morning by calling Hong Kong Chinese... we had made plans with friends to go and have dim sum but with the weather we were not sure they were open. With no answer, we rescheduled to go to iHop. On our way out the roads were not too bad. The powdery snow made for good driving. Amazingly Durham had not plowed, salted, or sanded I-85, Hillsborough, or Guess Rd by 11am. These are all major arteries through Durham! I am wondering how long the city will be shut-down due to the snow.

As we drove by, we were surprised to see that the restaurant was indeed open. I think that we choose the best time to go! They had pretty good Dim Sum with the full service, but there was hardly anyone there. And from what I have heard, it is generally a mad house on Sundays. As we were leaving the crowd was starting to gather. With 6 people we were able to try lots of dishes: shrimp dumpling, fried shrimp taro cake, spring rolls, BBQ pork buns, eggplant, bok choy, BBQ pork, lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice, fried rice, short ribs, fried pork dumplings, and sesame balls. My favorite was the BBQ pork buns, fried pork dumplings, and the sesame balls.

In afternoon we took some photos and then while Elizabeth was taking her afternoon nap, Nathan and I shoveled our driveway - the whole thing. It is longer than it looks and it looks long!

Doesn't Elizabeth look cute in her infant snow suit?

Warning: This is an incredibly long post.

For Elizabeth's baby book I have been writing down who has visited during her first weeks. Here I wanted to document it with pictures. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of everyone, but I have documented them here as well. I have also put a few other events in case I don't get to them in another post. I fear if I don't write down all her firsts now, then I wont remember them.

November 27th
For her birth Nathan and Nana were present. 6:52am


Pappy and Jesse at 11am

Keith Gerdes and Erin Riney at 5:30pm

November 28th
Elese  at 5pm

Aunt Michelle at 10pm


November 29th (homecoming day!) 1pm
Pancake
Nana, Aunt Michelle, and Cousin Alex




Nana stayed through December 5th. She left that Saturday afternoon.

November 30th
First trip to the doctor (Dr. Singleton)


Michelle Leslie

December 2nd
Umbilical chord fell out
First bath

December 3rd
Heather Petrusa brought us dinner - Foster's adult mac 'n cheese

December 5th
Mark Leslie


Marie Fogarty and Ian Carroll brought us dinner - Veggie chili with cornbread and sherbert


December 6th
First outing! Went to pick out our Christmas tree

Anna, Josie, and Nancy Nave

December 9th
Laurel Clayton brought us dinner - Apple salad and white chili and oranges

December 11th
Two week check up Dr. Lail

December 12th-13th
Nomi and Kevi


December 13th
Dan and Sarah Calvert brought us dinner - stuffed shells with salad and garlic bread

December 15th
Suzanne Minton brought us dinner - red beans and rice

December 17th
Michelle Leslie brought us dinner - lasagna with garlic bread

December 18th
Visited Amanda's lab - Kyle Gaulton, Li Qin, Damien Croteau-Chonka, Marie Fogarty, Karen Mohlke
Attended Health Planning Source's Holiday party.
First snow!

December 19th
Sarah Birken brought us dinner - Shepard's pie

December 20th
Daddy gave her first bottle feeding

Graham, Christoph, and Elese Stutts

December 20th
Alex Russ (spent the night and first non-family house guest)

December 21st
Marissa Akerman brought us dinner - chicken pot pie and cream puffs

December 25th-27th
Pappy, Jesse, and Nana came for Christmas

December 27th
Lily, Alex, Todd and Michelle Lankford came for Christmas dinner and gift exchange

December 28th
Four week check up with Dr. Hosford
Sarah, Ben, and Jane Birken brought us dinner - chicken french bread quiche

December 31st
Visited Michelle and Mark at their house for New Year's Eve dinner. Elizabeth got to meet, Michelle's mom, dad, and brother as well as Mark's mom.
Went to a New Year's Eve Party at Dan and Sarah Calvert's house. Elizabeth saw Rebekah and Brian Wrenn and Lindsey and Joe Heidrick. Several other people were at the party too.

January 1st
New Years's (black eyed peas and collards) brunch party at Rebekah, Jackson, and Brian Wrenn's house. In attendance: Lindsey and Joe Heidrick; Heather, Dianna, and Matt Madsen; Sarah and Dan Calvert; and several other people

Danny Loss and Rebecca Rogers spent the night January 1st and 2nd



Elizabeth's first game of Settlers of Catan
Elizabeth's first outing to a restaurant - The Federal

January 4th
First smile

January 5th
Heidi and Jim Brantley brought us dinner - gumbo and french bread



January 6th
First lunch out - The Old Granary at Farrington with Sarah and Jane Birken

January 7th
Laurel Clayton brought us dinner - roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and mac 'n cheese

January 9th
Lindsey and Joe Heidrick's Asian dinner party

January 12th
Visit to Amanda's doctor and Amanda's lab

January 13th
First family dinner out at Rockwood Filling Station

January 15th -18th
The whole family (even Pancake) traveled to DC! Very easy baby to travel with. Slept the whole way. Nathan fed her a bottle while we were driving.
First trip to the Don's
Visits from Ruth and Michael Brannon; Mike Wipfler; Rose Stellar, David Stern, Sarah Davidson, Richard Hoppock, and Jake Thomsen; Christine Swearingen and Lou Steadwell; and Julia and Allen Lear

January 20th
First babysitting! Christoph and Elese babysat Elizabeth while Nathan and Amanda went to the UNC vs. Wake Forest game (UNC lost).

January 22nd
First Science talk. Amanda and Elizabeth went to Kyle Gaulton's happy hour genetics talk. We saw lots of people in the GMB program.

Sepi Alavi spent the night the 22nd - 23rd

January 23rd
Dinner out at Tyler's Taproom - woke up at the end of dinner

January 24th
Drove to Greer, SC for Kim McDonald's baby shower. 3.5 hours with just Amanda. She did very very well. She did not wake up until we got to Kim's house. After the shower we drove the 45 minutes to Nana and Pappy's House where we spent the night.

January 25th
Spent the day with Nana and Pappy and visited Grannie and Nancy Nave

January 27th
2 month appointment with Dr. Hosford
Visited Michelle and Camden in the afternoon

January 28th
Dinner at Broad Street Cafe with Heidi and Jim Brantley

January 29th
Snow storm!

January 31st
Brunch out at Hong Kong Chinese with Lindsey, Joe, Sarah, and Dan