Make way for baby!

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant - which means I am still 3 weeks away from my due date, but I'm officially 9 months along and "allowed" to go into labor whenever this little babe decides to make his appearance. Which I'm really hoping won't be AFTER his due date... I'm feeling much more impatient this time than I was with Charlotte, and that might have something to do with how sleepless my nights have been with preggo back/hip pain for the past few weeks. I remember the 9th month being difficult last time, but not quite this bad... Hopefully he'll follow his big sister's example and come punctually. :)

Over the past few weeks we've been busy getting things ready for his arrival. Charlotte moved to her new room and toddler bed (which she loves), John installed the infant car seat last week, all the little boy clothes are washed and folded, the home birth supplies are gathered and standing by in our room, and we just got the bassinet ready. Basically all that's left to do is just general house-tidying and organizing (or nesting?).

In all honesty, even with the above things being accomplished, I feel completely unprepared to take care of another baby - if I just did this two years ago, why do I feel like I've forgotten everything about infant care and nursing? And how exactly do you care for a crazy 2-year-old AND a newborn at the same time, all while running on just a couple hours of sleep each night? I know what I need to do now is trust God and remind myself that he will give me enough strength for each day. Prayers for peace (and that Charlotte and I would quickly heal from some bad colds we just caught) are much appreciated.

We're so excited to meet you, baby Jackson! <3

Jam Thumbprints

First time making jam thumbprint cookies! These are super easy to make. I love that shortbread is only 4 ingredients...and that it's safe to eat "raw." ;) Used Wegmans brand organic strawberry spread for the middle, although raspberry preserves would have been my first choice.

1 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. almond extract (I added 1/2 tsp. vanilla in addition, but you don't have to)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup strawberry or raspberry preserves

Cream butter, sugar and extract. Slowly add flour and blend until dough forms. Form into 1" balls and place on greased cookie sheet, pressing middle down with thumb. Spoon jam/preserves into the middles of the cookies. Bake for 14-18 mins. at 350 degrees. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheets, then transfer to wire rack.

Tomato-fest

What do you do when your backyard garden is producing this many tomatoes on a weekly basis? Cook LOTS of tomato basil soup and cappellini pomodoro! We're also getting way more cucumbers than we know what to do with - I just have to find some creative ways to use them.

Still Alive!

Oops! Time slipped through my fingers and I haven't updated the blog in almost three months. That's mostly due to the fact that I spent the last three months dealing with horrible morning sickness and couldn't cook anything except for the occasional mac n' cheese for my toddler. We're delighted about the new little one on the way, and though I'm now four months pregnant and still not out of the woods as far as nausea goes, I'm feeling a little more normal and dying to start cooking again (but only if the recipe doesn't include garlic). I can't muster enough blogging power to write a decent post at the moment (preggers brain), but since I don't want my blog to "die", here are some thoughts. I do have a lot of those!

• I've loved using cloth diapers for the past 8 months. I plan on writing a post in the near future about all the reasons why!
• I have one vanilla bean in my cabinet and am contemplating what to use it for. Maybe a bottle of homemade extract?
• I recently made some dried cherry buttermilk scones and they were scrumptious. Recipe and pictures when I find the time.
• No matter how much I wash, fold and iron, the laundry is never really done.
• I am ridiculously impatient for my ultrasound, even more so than I was with Charlotte. How can I make the next 3 weeks go faster? Dying to know if it's pink or blue! :>
• Watermelons went down in price, but cherries are still ridiculously expensive. Anyone know when they're in season?
• We have our first vegetable garden this year! Only casualty thus far is one of the basil plants - devoured by japanese beetles. Thankfully we planted two! Tomatoes are almost ready to harvest, as are some bell peppers. The cucumbers are growing like crazy, but definitely not ready to pick yet. Yum!
• You haven't had hummus until you've had it homemade, with ROASTED garlic - not raw.
• I still haven't finished Charlotte's baby quilt. *sigh*

Simple card

Threw a simple blank card together yesterday -- more to come!

Why I Love My Panini Grill: Reason #23

A better Philly Cheesesteak!

(sandwich steaks, white american cheese, sauteed peppers and onions, little bit of mayonnaise, Italian roll. Even better with mushrooms!)

Why I Love My Toaster Oven: Reason #79

S'mores without needing a campfire!

Orzo Spinach Salad

This makes my taste buds do a happy dance! "The Cheese Shop" in Williamsburg's Merchant Square make something similar, and I love it so much I decided to copy it at home. As it turns out, I actually like mine even better. :) Here's how I made it. The amount of spinach I used is just a guesstimate here, it's possible I may have used more. I like it on the spinach-y side -- it adds flavor and it's healthy!

Orzo Spinach Salad

1 box Orzo pasta (cook, drain, and rinse with cold water)

3 cups FRESH baby leaf spinach (stems torn off, chopped one direction into "strips" -- don't chop too finely)

1 package Athenos original Feta cheese

1/4 cup pinenuts

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*(I forgot! you can also add some fresh basil)

Rinse cooked orzo with plenty of ice-cold water until it's completely cooled off from cooking -- drain off excess cold water. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil to add flavor and keep from sticking. Combine spinach, and gently stir in feta and pinenuts. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Curtain-y stuff!

I'm getting ready to make some curtains for our in-the-works guest room (I'll cover that in a later post), which will hopefully get done next week (both the room and the curtains!). I decided to make my own instead of buying them this time, and headed over to Ikea for some fabric. If you don't live near an Ikea... I'm sorry. I live just a mile and a half away, so I'm a little addicted. ;) I found this design (seen below) and just love it! I'm a little nervous about using it, only because the design itself it so big -- it repeats every yard, and the two panels will need to line up "just so" to look good next to each other. That may not make sense unless you see the whole, big length of fabric opened up. Hopefully it'll turn out okay. Crossing my fingers!

I'm so in love with this fabric! It's sort of reminiscent of peacock feathers.

These are the fantastic clip-on curtain rings (Ikea Riktig) I got, because I thought they were so awesome (and my time is too precious to do anything else). The curtains are long, and the fabric heavy -- however, these clips feel super strong, so I'll report later on how well they work. I bought a total of 30 clips for just $9.00! Deal, huh?

The most delicious (and ugly) cookies ever

Don't let the picture fool you -- these are for sure the most ugly cookies ever, but the taste is out of this world! The best part is they are no-bake cookies. The original recipe says to just let them cool on wax paper, but I'm partial to eating them straight out of the freezer. They freeze to just the right chewiness and they are sooo good.

I got this recipe from a friend many years back and have since changed it around to my preferences -- Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, please! :>

Cocoa peanut butter oat cookies

• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 heaping tbsp. DARK cocoa powder (please use dark! I used Hershey's brand)
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (you can also use creamy and just add some peanuts. Or stick with creamy and skip the crunchy stuff altogether)
• 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

Melt butter, sugar and cocoa. Boil and stir for 1 minute, then remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Stir in milk, then finally the oatmeal. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to scoop mixture onto wax paper, then freeze (or let cool at room temp) until firm (this step goes quickly).

More magazine files!

Since I recieved some new magazine subscriptions for Christmas (and I like staying organized! :> ), I got a few more blank cardboard magazine files at Ikea and "beautified" them. I think the

blue/red one is my favorite!

Julie and Julia

After much anticipation and patient waiting, I finally got to see "Julie and Julia." LOVE. I need to own this. The movie tells two stories, one of Julia Child and how she began her cooking career (which was not until she was almost forty -- it's never too late!), the other telling Julie Powell's story -- a woman who blogged her adventures cooking all 524 recipes in Mastering The Art of French Cooking in one year. I enjoyed the movie as a whole, but was particularly moved by the "Julia" half of the story. How inspiring. I loved seeing a portrayal of her relationship with her husband Paul -- it was so sweet. Meryl Streep was amazing.

Anyway, I now have a burning desire to cook new things, especially aspics! (joking) Boeuf bourguignon is nearing the top of my list.

Pesto Mushroom Pizza

Pesto, mushrooms and cheese are amazing. That is all.

Well, not really. I also want to say that I love the pizza crust I used here. I normally make my own dough in the bread machine, but there's a baker (Kirchoff's Bakery) in Paducah, KY where my in-laws live. They make these pre-made, ultra thin and crispy pizza crusts that practically make me run around in circles and sing. I haven't found anything comparable in my area, and no recipe I've found seems to match. Since I live 850 miles away from said baker, my kind mother-in-law brought me three dozen of these crusts last week. I am happy.