house and baby (for real)

I've gone silent on this blog mainly because I've been maintaining a completely separate blog that is all about building our new house.  While I'm not going to tie these to together, I do need to at least post the finished product (of both the house and my wife's pregnancy!)

It was a wonderful experience and it turned out perfectly, inside and out!

Speaking of which, so did our new little one.

As usual I'm not showing her little face, although I so badly want to because she is seriously the prettiest baby I think I've ever seen, but I'm biased.  She hasn't given me permission to post her pictures on the Internet yet anyway...  :)  She's hanging out on the island while mom cooks up something amazing once again, this time in our new beautiful kitchen.

house and baby

Hi all, just adding a post now that I've had a nice quiet weekend.  The house we're building (our contractor is building for us) is turning out great, and my wife's pregnancy is going wonderfully.  It's a girl!

The baby is due in 3.5 months, and the house is due in 3 months.  We really hope the house comes first!

Here's a pic of the house so far, and true to form- my wife baking a strawberry and rhubarb pie for us to enjoy while visiting the building site...

craziness

So, this is hands down the longest I've gone without posting something.  It's been over a month.  I've had a few excuses for lack of content recently, but this one I'm about to tell you takes the cake.

...

My little lady...

...

IS PREGNANT!!!  :)

We're very excited and also quite surprised.  But what a fun surprise! 

Between building a new house in the next month and this new little mini future person news, my mind has been a little preoccupied, so I may not be posting as frequently in the near future as I have about how wonderful (and crazy) my wife is.  Although, I'm already starting to see that I might have more 'crazy' posts to share than I did before...  Still wonderful though.

fun food weekend

Saturday breakfast:  huevos rancheros - egg, tomatoes, avacado, etc

Saturday dinner:  brussels sprouts and bacon pizza - who knew brussels sprouts could be this good?

Sunday breakfast:  egg, peppers, asparagus, cilantro thing - side of pb toast.  I'm not sure I've ever had peppers in my breakfast before, at least not recently.  It woke me right up!

Sunday dinner:  tacos - all the fixins including corn tortillas that my wife toasted on the open flame of our oven!  She said she saw it online.  The things they come up with these days.

the curl on that girl

My wife's hair is naturally curly.  Very curly.  I was sitting next to her on a bench and saw this random curl hanging down.  I've never seen such a curly specimen on another in all my days.

back from vacay!

My wife and I traveled with my family to the Big Island of Hawaii last week.  I'm now fully relaxed and also tan.  Snapped this photo of my wife when she wasn't looking.  Amazing.

random wall stuff

Check out the latest smattering of wall hangings my wife recently crafted.  Seems like there is something new up on our walls all the time.  A few hangings look a bit crooked I'm noticing, but she probably likes it that way.  Like the chalk writing says, "a beautiful thing is never perfect."

breakfast of champions

Breakfast this last weekend consisted of asparagus, sweet potatoes, arugula topped with a "dippy egg" as she calls it (over easy).  Terrific flavor combination.  I love all of these things, although the arugula could be optional for me.

favorite cookie?

My wife was surprised when I said "I think this is my favorite cookie that you've made of all time."  Not only because it was a bold statement coming from a guy who loves every single thing she makes, but also because I'm typically hung up especially on the chocolate chip variety.

After some soul searching I realized that I must really love jam filled cookies.  On our trip to Paris I fell in love with a simple shortbread cookie filled with strawberry jam.  Nothing fancy, just a cookie that comes in a box in the corner store.

At any rate, his particular jam filled cookie that my wife made however was beyond good.  It's a peanut butter cookie with jam filling and also topped with crushed potato chips.  A lot of sweet with a little added salty.  Of course she made a huge batch, and so I took them to work to share.  I was the hero.  I might owe any future work promotions to my wife.

valentine month

This is the scene in our apartment during this pink February month.  Her new pink bowl, pink tape, pink pillows, wrapped Valentine presents, and a pink heart on the window made of post-it notes.  She loves Valentine's Day, if you recall.

Yay for me!

My birthday was this week, and while it wasn't as crazy as the big milestone last year, it was wonderful nonetheless.  My wife made homemade snickers bars for the occasion.  Very very good- so rich it was almost too much to handle. 

She gave me a simple, yet classy tie clip as a gift, which came in this perfectly wrapped little package.  Underneath of it is my Valentine's present, which is coming up soon.  What a tease!

hoagie rolls

Last weekend our apartment smelled like a bakery.  I honestly felt like a cartoon floating across the room, my nose up in the air, following the scent of warm baked bread my wife was baking.  Is this the best smell of all time?  It has to be.

These hoagie rolls were so soft, perfect for hot turkey sandwiches, philly cheese steak sandwiches, and even just a whack of butter and jam. 

best yet?

I was stoked to try my first bite of the latest homemade ice cream my wife was making, as I heard her cry out from the kitchen, "Mmmm. I think this is my favorite ice cream yet." which is a declaration not to be taken lightly by her I promise you.

Peanut butter and cocoanut ice cream with crushed Nutter Butters. Wowza. I do love me some Nutter Butters. She took the recipe from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home book, and put her own little twist on it. The only way this could taste better is if I were eating it outside on a warm summer day instead of inside on a cold winter evening.

oh wait

Last time I told you I forgot to take a picture of the orange creamsicle tart she made. Well it turns out my wife took a picture of it on her own. She's gone rogue!

Not only that but she went to work on it with Photoshop and made this cute little image. She never ceases to amaze me.

cake trend

My wife has really enjoyed making cakes lately. I've never been a huge cake guy until she started making them. Last night she made a carrot cheesecake with graham cracker frosting, a momofuku recipe, for my mom's birthday party today. I even helped make the frosting. Smearing a few chunks of the cake concoction together (carrot cake, cheese cake, and frosting) pre-assembly, I can tell you that this is a very divine creation.

She made it in similar fashion to the cake she made for her own mom's birthday a couple of months ago. I wonder how my family will compare this year's cake to last year's. The cake-making process was a little less intense this year than last.

Speaking of my family get-togethers, I'm realizing now I forgot to snap a photo of the orange creamsicle tart my wife made for my extended family Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. I drove all around town trying to find a bottle of orange cream soda, but it was worth it. Seriously, out of all the pies people brought, people couldn't stop talking about how good this one was.

too much computer

It's 2012. I decided I wasn't going to do as much contract work this year as I did last year. As a Web Developer there's no shortage of extra work I could do, but staring at the screen all evening after staring at it all day is decidedly not my cup of tea.

Of course, the first week of the year has brought an exorbitant amount of work during my day job, which has prevented me from wanting to go near the screen in the evening, and thus causing delinquency in this blog of mine. Enough! I must get back on track!

I won't rewind too far, but this week my wife made a cute pistachio cake just for the fun of it.


Right now she's working on an Orange Creamsicle Tart for yet another holiday get-together tomorrow. I can't wait. I just returned home from driving to four different stores on a quest for orange cream soda.

Happy NYE

We're leaving town now to seek out good pizza, beer, and a final New Year's Eve spot to have our champagne tonight. Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas Eve morning rolls

Delicious gooey cinnamon rolls for breakfast on our Christmas Eve morning last week.

busy season

It's Christmas Eve tomorrow already! We all know the holidays are busy, but that doesn't mean my wife has been too busy to be perfect through it all. Maybe I'll quickly backtrack through a few of our recent days using the Advent House Calendar (because I watched my favorite holiday movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, just a few days ago.)


Dec 9th - I'm working at the computer, and my wife brings me a dish of gingersnap pumpkin homemade ice cream. Divine. I know it's hard to imagine a creamy, gingery, pumpkiny flavor, but just believe me when I say it's divine.




Dec 11th - Apparently with no time to lose, I find my wife making a calzone while still wearing her designer boots after being out Christmas shopping for the day. This dinner definitely wasn't made in haste however, as it was delicious. We gobbled it up in full by the both of us (mostly me).




Dec 18th - She makes orange scones for a Sunday breakfast. AMAZING. Soft, moist and very flavorful. She has become very good at making them, no doubt.




Dec 20th - My wife made cookies for a few of her coworkers. In addition to being soft and tasty, they are of course wrapped cutely with little jingle bells. She has also made both almond and peppermint brittle this season, but it's completely gone and not able to participate in this blog.




Dec 23rd - This morning a homemade loaf of delectable oatmeal banana cranberry bread is served for breakfast. A light dusting of snow is finally falling, just in time for Christmas. The tree lights are shining, presents are wrapped, and life is good.

peppermint ice cream

My wife almost bought peppermint ice cream from the store a couple of days ago (it was even in the cart, but put back). She thought to herself that she could make a better-tasting version herself. When I had told her that I didn't really like peppermint ice cream, she set out to prove me wrong.

She did just that. Of course that meant I had to make a run to the store to buy cream, milk, and candy canes in order for her to do so. We each had a bowl of it tonight, and it is creamy and delicious. I think I've never liked it before because the peppermint was always too strong of a flavor, but in my wife's version the peppermint was just a subtle flavor added to the frozen milk/cream/sugar combo.

tree-ariums?

My wife saw these cute little things being sold at Anthropologie for a pretty penny a couple of weeks ago, and so decided to try and make her own. (she didn't buy any, these are hers)

After setting up quite the messy workshop, she cranked a few out in no time. And then some more. And more yet. Then her mother came over to make even more. There are now little trees and tree-ariums (is what I'm calling them) all over our apartment.


What she did was buy those little green trees you put into little displays, bleached them (like she did last year for her Christmas Villiage), and then die them with different colors. Then a bunch of other messy stuff happens, and wallah! Tree-ariums!

I surrender

(Look at me and my fancy backdrop!)

After stuffing myself with food yesterday, the day where it is a requirement to do so, I found myself being required to do so yet again today. How can you not when this is the cake that is presented for the mother-in-law birthday celebration. I told myself I'd just have one, but I'm weak. And now I can barely move.


The momofuku cake she was working on a couple of nights ago was a success and a hit. Better than last year's cake? Hard to say.

momofuku cake

While we were in NYC, my wife and I were sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge at some late hour, maybe 11pm or so? Later? I don't recall. I do recall that my wife wanted to get a treat at momofuku milk bar in the East Village, and it was very close to closing time. It was my first time in the big city, it was late, I'd never been to the East Village, but I was getting pretty savvy with the subways, so I said what the heck, why not?!?!

So we went, made it to the little bakery before it closed, purchased and sampled our treats. I don't even remember what we bought. To be honest, I remember that we both thought that it was something to be desired. But in fairness baked goods typically aren't at their best late at night after probably sitting out for so long. What do I know.

Anyway... My wife just bought the momofuku milk bar Milk cookbook, and has been eying up a confetti cake recipe inside all week. It's her mother's birthday the day after Thanksgiving, so not only is she making a pecan pie tonight for turkey day tomorrow, but she's also getting started on this amazing cake for the day after.

The funniest thing about this whole ordeal is that apparently many of the ingredients in this cake are 'fake.' Imitation vanilla, some weird glucose stuff in a tub, etc. My wife says that the author of this cookbook likes to try and re-create store bought stuff, and uses ingredients that make it taste more like store-bought cake. ONLY MY WIFE (and the momofuku lady) would make a store-bought-tasting cake the long and difficult way. I'll post a picture of how it turns out later.

It's Thanksgiving Eve, and I'm having a glass of brandy, and this is why my post is so long tonight. (not the first time)

pot pie and cookies

I was getting very excited when I took this photo, as the fresh and hot family style pot pie had just come out of the oven. Also, a batch of chocolate chip cookies was sitting right there next to it, still in its infancy, just waiting its turn to be placed into the oven. I don't know if I ended up eating more pot pie or cookies this night. 'Tis the season.

dark dark dark

So, I'm already getting frustrated by the darkness. Daylight savings has kicked in and it now is dark outside at 5pm which kills the lighting I need to take a decent picture of the perfect things my wife creates. This will be my excuse as to why my posts have been less frequent lately.

She made amazing pull-apart bread tonight, similar to a previous loaf she made awhile back. I knew a picture of it just wouldn't do justice without natural light, so I didn't even attempt it.

I need to figure out a plan to battle the darkness.