Since Shalinee and I didn’t Swap this week, I thought I’d share one of my favorite salads. I can’t use this salad for The Swap because it involves almonds (we have a No Nuts rule because Shalinee’s son, Alex, is allergic to nuts/seeds), but I’m sure that Shalinee would love it. This is based on a recipe for a salad that my cousin Karen used to make. It is no coincidence that I’m posting about this salad now; this time of year I’m thinking lots of my cousins Karen and Eric. Karen was a regular reader of the blog, and she would have gotten a big kick out of seeing this recipe posted here! [[[Love up to you Karen!]]] Anyway, last weekend I made a double batch of the dressing and the almonds (the key ingredients), and we’ve been eating variations of this salad all week. It is great with just about any dinner, and I love it packed for lunch at work. Karen’s friends have told me that she was “famous” for this salad – that she’d bring it to pot-lucks all the time, and that it got to the point where they were begging her to bring it whenever they’d have get-togethers. I can understand why. I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t like this. Try it— you’ll see!
~~~~~~~~~~ Dressing: 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/2 cup olive oil 1 Tbsp dijon mustard 1 Tbsp orange juice concentrate sugar to taste (I use about 3 Tbsp) —Place all ingredients in a jar. Shake until combined. Store in fridge. ~~~~~~~~~~ Almonds: 1 bag of sliced almonds (1 2/3 cups bag) 1 cup sugar —
Put almonds and sugar in a dry pan on stove over medium-high heat. Watch carefully, stirring regularly, until sugar starts to melt. When sugar and almonds start to caramelize stir constantly so as to avoid burning. Keep stirring until almonds are toasted brown and coated evenly with caramelized sugar. Remove from pan by pouring out into a thin layer onto tin foil. Let cool. When totally cool, break up any pieces that might be stuck together. Store in air-tight container. ~~~~~~~~~~ Salad: baby mesclun greens, romaine, or whatever you like any combination of the following: dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, fresh strawberries, red onion, crumbled goat cheese, and/or any of your favorite salad toppings. — Toss together with dressing and almonds, to taste. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired. ~~~~~~~~~~
I am a very seasonal food person; I like to eat and cook with the seasons. So, there are very few things that I make for our family all year long. This salad is one of the rare few. Karen’s original recipe called for simply greens, dried cranberries, and mandarin oranges (and the almonds and dressing, of course). It is great that way and that is how I make it during late fall, winter, and early spring. K, O, and M love mandarin oranges, so that helps make this salad always a big hit with them! During those seasons I love to serve this salad with a side of baked brie and crusty French bread (few things are as superb of a combo as toasted almonds and baked brie!!!). My favorite variation, however, is with greens, fresh strawberries, and goat cheese (there is something outrageously good about the candied almonds and goat cheese combo contrasted with the brightness of the fresh strawberries). So, as long as I can get relatively decent and relatively cheap strawberries (which I can, pretty much, during late spring, summer, and early fall), I make it with strawberries and goat cheese. From time to time – regardless of season – I’ll add thinly sliced red onion. This is a really easy and delicious salad, nice enough to serve to guests or to accompany a nice dinner. Simple enough to toss together on a weekday for lunch or dinner (especially if the dressing and almonds have been made in advance). And because it is easy-to-assemble, it is also my go-to salad for pot-lucks, picnics, or for including with a dropped-off dinner (for a family with a new baby, etc.). Try it! You’ll love it!
There was no swap this week. We had to cancel since I had a conference in Maryland. I brought Dave and the kids along and we spent a good part of the week down there. After four days of eating out, we are now back home and (happily) eating in.
So in place of the swap, I’m offering a recipe for our favorite Sunday lunch (favorite for the last month or so): Udon with Vegetables. I’ve made this several different ways; below is the most basic version….very fast (so fast it could easily be a weeknight dinner) and much liked in our household.
Basic Udon with Vegetables
– 3 packs of Udon noodles (from local grocery store)
– 1 & 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
– 1/2 onion, chopped
– 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
– ~1 cup of broccoli florets (bite-sized)
– 3-4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
– 1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce (depending on taste)
– Dash of sriracha sauce (optional)
– Good handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
– 1/2 lime
Directions: Cook udon noodles according to directions. Retain udon broth. Heat oil and toss in onions, bell peppers, and broccoli. Sautee for a couple of minutes, add mushrooms and garlic. Sautee for a few more minutes. Add soy and sriracha sauces. Mix and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Toss in noodles, mix and then add 3-4 ladels of the udon broth (more or less of the broth, depending on how soupy you want the end product). Add in cilantro and juice from lime. Remove from heat and serve.
To make this with slightly more Thai flavors (mixing metaphors, I know), I tried a simple modification last week: Replacing the soy sauce with a combination of soy and fish sauces and the cilantro leaves with basil leaves. Worked liked a charm.
7ish – our typical Saturday morning routine, all three bambinos are crammed into our bed, watching cartoons on PBS, eating cereal bars, and drinking orange juice. We talk about how we really need a king size bed, according to K & O: “not a queen, not a jack, not an ace, not a ten card bed, but a king size bed.”
9ish – we’re eating eggs and toast and two of us are drinking big mugs of coffee.
10ish – Braydon watches the three outside on the trampoline doing their thing. Crisis hits. Meera’s right arm has been slammed down upon by Owen’s body. She’s crying in serious pain.
11ish – after Tylenol doesn’t cut it one bit, and we’ve observed our baby girl behave like we’ve never seen before (incredibly lethargic, in torturous pain, insisting on being on Mama’s lap and Mama’s lap only, holding her right arm in a sling position with her left hand, refusing to allow anyone to even look at it, turns down offers of Tinker Bell, Lion King, bottles of milk, bunny snacks, and every other of her favorites in all of life…) we make the decision to go to the ER.
11:30ish – the nurse tells us it is presenting as a “Classic Broken Arm” (apparently the way Meera is “guarding it” is the telltale sign to all ER nurses of a child arm fracture). I think I might die right there on the spot, just thinking of it: my baby girl, age 2, sweetest thing on the entire planet, with a broken arm?????… X-rays are ordered.
noon – X-rays are taken while Meera cries on the x-ray table “Mama, mama, mama” and I beg the x-ray technicians to “please hurry!” with tears streaming down my face.
12:30 – the nurses, x-ray techs, and doctors have all read the x-rays. Much to their shock it appears there is no break. They can’t explain it because they all would have sworn it was broken by the way Meera was presenting. We’re given orders to continue with Tylenol and follow up on Monday if she’s still “guarding it.” I cry tears of relief and thank God for sparing us with this close call.
1:00 – we’re discharged. We walk out relieved beyond belief. Hunger hits (in a big way; all that adrenaline has left us famished).
1:15 – we’re at the Burger King drive through. A first for the bambinos (they’ve never had Burger King). Meera sees a picture of an ice cream cone and says, “I want that one!” (some of her first spoken words since the crisis began). Absolutely, she can have whatever she wants. She loves the ice cream. We all love it all… the milkshakes, the french fries, the chicken nuggets, the whoppers… I don’t think Burger King has ever tasted so good.
1:45 – we’re home with boys playing football in the yard outside and girls napping in Mommy and Papi’s bed.
4:00 – Meera wakes from her nap in a terrible crying fit. She cries hard for about 30 minutes straight while we all try hard to console her. There is no consoling her. I’m certain it is not physical pain, but just the fear, anxiety, and stress of it all releasing itself to the four people who love her most in all the world. We absorb it for her and then we all watch Tinker Belle.
5:45 – Meera announces she wants to go outside…. as soon as we’re outside she declares: “I want trampoline.” What????? And sure enough she gets on there and starts jumping with her brothers. Braydon watches the three outside on the trampoline doing their thing… only now it is “their thing” with just a tad bit more care. They come in for dinner with Meera in good spirits and back to her regular old self.
…Dinner and baths and books and bed…
8:15 – The bambinos are all in bed. Braydon and I are done/shot/finished/fried/frazzled. We missed a birthday party today, we missed a fun-loving-fancy-free-R&R-Saturday. Instead we all learned some big lessons. Luckily…
all’s well that ends well.
Owen stayed home from school on Wednesday with a cold. It was just a little cold, but he had been up much of the night, struggling to sleep through the sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, etc. So, we kept him home for some R&R. Meera was thrilled to have Owen home, all to herself. The two of them have a special bond. It is what I imagine as the quintessential big-brother-little-sister relationship. My heart practically explodes just thinking about it. Words cannot do it justice, so I won’t even try. I just know that these two have something extraordinarily special. Something precious, rare, and wonder-filled. I am so happy for them.
Kyle and Meera. These two have something extraordinary too. And so different from the relationship between Owen and Meera. One vignette (amongst many): Last Friday I took Meera grocery shopping while the boys were at school. On our way out of the grocery store Meera spotted a scarecrow amongst a display of potted mums. She went crazy for the scarecrow, insisting that I get it down from amongst the mums so that she could see it up close. She checked out every detail of it, hugged it, kissed it, and told me how much she loved it– “Meera loves scarecrow! I love it! Mommy, I love scarecrow!” Several people walked by during this, commenting on how “cute” it was and how I better “not even think about leaving without buying that scarecrow for her!” etc. I looked at the price tag: $6.99. I thought about buying it, but wouldn’t let myself… it seemed ridiculous, frivolous, and I didn’t want Meera to think I’d just buy her anything she’d go ga-ga over at the store. She was upset that she couldn’t bring it home. But Meera’s a tough little cookie and it takes a lot for her to express upset in anything but the mildest fashion (rare fussing and even rarer tantrums). Later that day I had to go back to the grocery store because I had forgotten one ingredient that we needed. I brought Kyle with me this time. As we were heading into the store he pointed out the scarecrow to me and said, “Meera would love that.” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Kyle,” I said, “I was just here with her this morning and she did love it! She loved it so much, she really wanted to bring it home.” “Why didn’t you buy it for her?” he asked. “Well,” I searched for an adequate explanation, “we don’t need it, and, well, I don’t know, I just didn’t think we should buy it for her.” Kyle was outraged. “You should have!” he said, “She never asks for anything!” he said, “She’d love it!” he said. “How much does it cost?” he asked. “Six dollars and ninety-nine cents,” I said. He then told me that he was going to buy it for her– “Ok, then, if you won’t buy it for her, I will. I’m going to use my own money from the Tooth Fairy to get it for her.” He told me that the next time we went to the store he was going to bring his money to buy the scarecrow for Meera. He could not bear the thought of anything otherwise. This Tuesday, on my way home from work, I stopped at that store and spent the $6.99 to buy the scarecrow… for Meera… and so that Kyle wouldn’t have to buy it. When I arrived home with it they were both ecstatic, jumping up and down at the sight of it, thrilled, shouting, “Thank you Mama! Thank you Mama!” The plan was to put it outside in our front garden. However, it has been inside this whole week, right next to Meera’s little play area in our kitchen, with Kyle and Meera spending lots of time with it.
Today, being Friday, I was home with Meera for the morning while the boys were at school. I watched as she played and played. At one point she played for a long stretch of time with three toy ‘Little People’ that she pulled out from our small collection of them. I watched as she selected the three very carefully from the bunch. Over and over she lined them up on the playroom table, ever-so-carefully to ensure that they were all three “holding hands.” Always in the same order (in her words)– “Owen, this one with blue hat”; “Meera, this one with yellow hat”; and “Kyle, this one with red hat.”
Like much of America, we drive. Load everything and everyone in, car seats, toys, stuff – from here to there and back again. We’re going together. Inside a car is special; small, close, everyone is there. We may be hurtling along at deadly speeds, but we’re together and I am a safe driver.
Trees whistle by, the corn fields are beginning to be plowed under, it’s cool enough to drive with the windows down. And I look in the mirror to check on my kids. I twist the rear-view mirror, I see them behind me. I bring them where we’re going.
When I look forward, I often I don’t know where we’re headed. I look back and I see the rapid changes in the mirror beyond the road: their faces thinning out, moving from car seats to boosters, reading books instead of using chew toys, asking for music they like instead of the music I choose, wanting the window down to see and feel and smell the air outside.
And though I don’t know where we’ll end up, we’ll get there safely together.
Today my mother-in-law/Braydon’s mother sent to us this (below) New York Times editorial from yesterday. I thought I’d post this today as it speaks to something that Braydon and I talk a lot about: the reality that although we’re raising cute-verging-on-drop-dead-gorgeous, charismatic-charming-cheerful, bright-possibly-brilliant, Gap-HannaAndersson-Patagonia-Keen-wearing, Waldorf-educated, well-traveled, foodie-fun-loving black boys… they will grow up to be black men. And all that entails. This is something we’ve posted about in the past (for example, here), and something we talk about at home on a very regular basis. Cute little black boys do grow up to be black men. The question is not ‘what will happen in the future?’ so much as ‘how will we prepare them for it?’
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Seat Not Taken
By JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN
Well, now that it is officially fall (we’ve had our first cold snap these past few days), I feel compelled to rave about some new hair and skin products that we’ve been using here at the J-M homestead. We’re lucky to live in a climate where at least in the summertime it is humid enough that we get one season “off,” but for the other three seasons, we’ve got to stay on top of it. I’m sure we’re not alone in this reality: with back-to-school comes back-to-getting-serious-again-about-K&O’s-hair-and-skin. As soon as our pool closes for the season (which is right around when school starts), we go into full gear with hair-damage-repair around here. And as soon as those fall winds blow in, we hunker down with the skin-lotion-routines again. I’m always on the lookout for great products for K & O, and I blog only very rarely about it (click here for my only big post), so you can trust me when I say: if I’m blogging about it, we must love it. So, with no further ado, here are our top three latest greatest faves:
- Dr. Miracle’s Stimulating Moisturizing Gro Oil. Let me tell you, this stuff is awesome. We’ve been using it once a week, after our “deep clean routine.” K, O, and M all love a good bath and they take lots of them all week long. But on Sunday nights we do long soaking baths for all three kids, including serious scrubbing and bubbling and heavy duty cleansing. We wash K & O’s hair at least twice and then do a heavy conditioner that we leave in for as long as possible before rinsing out. And then (after clipping 30 fingernails and 30 toenails and cleaning 6 little ears with Q-tips and –for K & O– heavy lotion from head to toe) we do a leave-in oil treatment. We’ve tried a bunch of oils over the years. Right now, this Dr. Miracle’s Stimulating Moisturizing Gro Oil is our favorite. It has a tingling sensation on the scalp that the boys love (I mean, they love love love it!). It makes their hair smell good all week long (even if we wash once or twice in between, which we almost always do). And– best of all– it works miracles (seriously! this “Dr. Miracle” is a miracle!). In a relatively very short amount of time post-pool-closing, K & O’s locs are looking good. If I do say so myself: healthy, shiny, bouncy, vibrant. No kidding. This stuff is seriously a miracle! LOVE IT!!
- Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Nourishing Sheen Spray. K & O love to use a daily sheen spray. They always have. And, while I don’t think it is necessary at all, I have to admit that it does make their hair look really good! So, I indulge them in their love-affair with the sheen spray each morning. For at least three years now they’ve been excitedly calling it “car wash!” when their hair gets immersed in the cloud of mist from the can. They are now old enough to be trusted to spray each others hair somewhat responsibly (most days), so I’ve been letting them take turns spraying the sheen spray on each other (photo at top). Over time we’ve tried a few brands and I must say, this one is our favorite so far. The fragrance is not overwhelming, the mist is very light, there appears to be virtually no ‘build up’ over the course of the week, and the results are great: their hair looks nice and shiny all day long. Really good!
- c. Booth Tahitian Monoi Dry Oil Spray by Delicious Brands LLC. This is a a very sheer pump-spray oil that goes on light right onto the skin. We’ve been using this on K & O’s faces each day before school, instead of a cream lotion. It is just enough to give their faces the moisture that they need, without a heavy or greasy look/feel. And it smells wonderful. The boys love to use this and much prefer it to lotion on their faces. A little goes a long way (we’ve been working on the same bottle for a few weeks now and we’ve still only gone through half the bottle). Just one or two sprays per face, then a quick spread-it-around-and-rub-it-in, is all we need for all-day-healthy-looking faces. It makes their skin glow like scrumptious-looking caramel. Really. I could go on and on raving, but I’ll leave it at that.
So, throwing it back at ya!— Do you have a beautiful black child’s hair and skin to care for? If yes, what are your current faves?
a twinny thing: K & O still whistle while they work/play (they’ve been doing this since they learned to whistle)– and if you find one whistling then you’re virtually guaranteed to catch the other whistling too– and if one stops, you’ll see the next one stop too– all day, every day– apparently completely unselfconsciously. raising twins = oh-so-challenging, but ever-so-interesting.
This weekend we had our twice-annual get-together with the Slavins. Four of us (over the age of six) ate and drank and talked and talked and talked. Five of us (under the age of seven) ate and drank and played and played and played. Sunday morning was the traditional “Show”/performance/production/costume-party put on by the five-some. What a hootin’ hollerin’ good time. Other weekend highlights included: the little girls digging into the appetizers (we continue on our mission to prep these two to follow in the footsteps of their mamas to become college roommates… and the future’s looking bright!); Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue; trampoline; toddler drama; sangria; smores by the fire; FUN. Nothing like old friends. Nothing like it at all. Can’t wait for New Year’s!
This week was Naanwiches! & A Barefoot Contessa Dinner
The Meal:
– Naanwich with Tandoori Chicken, Tandoori Vegetables and a Pea Sauce
– Spicy Thai Chips
This week I’m going fusion…the Naanwich! It’s my husband’s invention, from early in our fusion marriage. Back then, there were no naanwich recipes online…now there seem to be a few, which I think is awesome and one day, I’ll definitely try them out. But for now, here’s our rendition.
Basically, you need to get hold of good quality naan, which is an oven-baked flatbread from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. I actually have a good recipe for naan that I’ve used in the past and had I made this swap meal during the summer (and not during a week in which I had an NSF proposal due), I would have definitely attempted fresh naan. But alas, I had to resort to my favorite frozen naan from my local Indian grocery store.
In addition to (buying the) naan, I baked some chicken in tandoori masala and sauteed some veggies, again in a bit of tandoori masala, and made a sauce for the sandwich (this time I’m trying a pea sauce). That being said, I really don’t think that Indian flavors are required to enjoy a good Naanwich. You could just as well slice up your your favorite roast chicken and sautee some veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper…and then stack ‘er up…may be toss in some cheese…smother on a sauce of your liking…perhaps throw it all in a panini maker…honestly, the possibilities are endless and endlessly delicious.
Tandoori Chicken
A “tandoor” refers to a cylindrical clay oven in which naan is typically made. Tandoori chicken is also usually cooked in a tandoor with a special blend of spices known as tandoori masala. Of course I bake my tandoori chicken (and naan, on the rare occasions that I actually make it at home) in my much less exotic KitchenAid convection oven. And as for the special spice blend, I purchase that from my local Indian grocery store as well. Here’s my recipe for tandoori chicken (for 8):
– 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
– 3/4 cup yogurt
– 2 teaspoons garlic paste
– 2 teaspoons ginger paste
– 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 2 tablespoon tandoori masala
– salt, to taste
– 1 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional, if you like heat)
– 1 teaspoon fresh garam masala (optional)
Directions: Repeatedly pierce chicken breasts with a knife. Toss in all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix and marinate for 1-2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking tray with foil and bake chicken breasts for 25-30 minutes. Turn pieces over and bake for another 10-12 minutes, this time at 375 degrees.
Veggies Sauteed in Tandoori Masala
– 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 6 oz. portabello mushrooms, cut in half and sliced
– 1 medium red onion, chopped
– 1 medium yellow bell pepper, cubed
– 1 medium red bell pepper, cubed
– 15 asparagus stalks, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
– salt, to taste
– 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
– 1 teaspoon tandoori masala
– 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
– handful of baby spinach
Directions: Heat oil in pan and add mushrooms. Sautee till about half done and then spoon out all the mushrooms from the oil and keep aside. Return oil to heat (a bit more oil might be needed at this point). Add onions and sautee for a minute and add both red and yellow bell peppers. Sautee for 2-3 minutes, add asparagus and salt. Sautee for another 2-3 minutes, add garlic and tandoori masala. Sautee for another few minutes. Remove from heat. Toss in cilantro and mix. If you have having this fresh (not swapping that is), toss in baby spinach at this point. Otherwise, wait till reheating.
Pea Sauce
– 1 (12 oz.) packet of frozen peas, thawed
– 3/4 cup yogurt
– 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
– 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
– salt, to taste
– pepper, to taste
– zest of half a lime
– 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Directions: Blanch the peas (I like to use the microwaveable bags of frozen peas and just cook them in the microwave, straight out of the freezer). Toss the peas in a blender. Add yogurt and blend till a paste forms (might need to help it along with a sprinkle of water). Mix in rest of ingredients and blend some more.
To Prepare Naanwich:
– Thinly slice the chicken breasts.
– Reheat chicken (stovetop, preferrably…might need to add some oil to ensure it doesn’t stick to pan).
– Reheat the vegetables. At the end toss in a handful of baby spinach and mix.
– Thaw naan (can use microwave) and heat both sides of naan on a non-stick pan.
– Use two pieces of naan to make a sandwich using chicken, vegetables and sauce.
– Might want to put cheese in the sandwich as well and heat the sandwich on a panini maker.
– Serve with chips.
Enjoy!
The Verdict:
Tuesday: Naanwich night. Here’s the thing, though…my local Indian grocery store had only two packets of the frozen naan that I like. So, I gave both packets to Heather and purchased two packets of frozen Tandoori Roti for myself. Tandoori roti is usually made with whole wheat flour, it’s thinner than naan, and usually it’s round. Because of the thinness of the roti, we ended up having our chicken and vegetables on the roti, soft taco style (instead of sandwich style)…..a tacoti, as it were. Regardless, the dinner was a hit on our end.
Wednesday: What a fancy meal for a Wednesday night! Kavya really liked the rice and carrots…in fact she asked that I pack her the leftover rice for lunch the next day. Alex loved the chicken and the raisins 
Kept putting a raisin on top of each morsel of chicken that he ate…very cute. Dave and I felt so grown up giving our kids this delicious, proper meal in the middle of a crazy busy week. (I had a cold by Wednesday night, which I am still nursing…so the swap was a lifesaver this week!) It was a pleasure to see our kids chowing down on wild rice pilaf and goat cheese infused chicken…wow! Granted they both didn’t love all parts of the meal but to seeing a two year old enjoying roasted chicken with goat cheese and basil…oh, the wonders of the swap! Thanks, Heather!
So, I’m a little bit of a cookbook junkie. Or, at least, I used to be. I used to regularly buy cookbooks for pleasure reading. I’d lie in bed at night reading cookbooks, cover-to-cover, as if they were engrossing works of literature, while Braydon would lie next to me actually reading engrossing works of (non-cookbook-genre) literature. I still love cookbooks and still do buy one here and there, and read them in that same way from time-to-time, but not nearly as much as before we had kids. Over the years I’ve been pretty good about getting rid of coookbooks that I don’t actually use, and keeping only the ones that I genuinely love, but still I have quite a few cookbooks. My favorite cookbooks –by far—have always been, and still remain, Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. For this week’s swap I decided to pull one of the Barefoot Contessas from the shelf – Barefoot Contessa At Home – and choose recipes I hadn’t tried before. Although I doubt I’ll ever use the recipes again (the meal was decent, but they weren’t outstanding “keepers”), I had a lot of fun getting the chance to really use one of my tried-and-true-oldie-but-goodie cookbooks. And here’s the funny thing… while sitting down with Barefoot Contessa At Home in planning for the swap, I was inspired to try an additional recipe for our dinner on Monday night (outside of the swap). It turned out to be absolutely fabulous and an instant favorite for all five of us – a definite outstanding “keeper.” So, ironically, I’m not posting the recipes for my swap dinner here this week. But instead I am posting the new favorite recipe. Note: The only reason I didn’t use it for the swap in the first place was because it involves pine nuts and Alex is allergic to them. I am sure that Dave and Shalinee would love this recipe!!!
Swap meal:
- Roasted Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese & Basil
- Orange-Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots
- Wild Rice with Dried Fruit and Fresh Apple
The J-M’s New Favorite Salad:
This is the Pesto Pea Salad from Barefoot Contessa At Home. Here I’ve just slightly modified the ingredient list to make it easy to throw together on a moment’s notice. I served this with blackened tilapia and rice. Super easy and super, duper delicious! Owen had three huge servings of it and Kyle and Meera weren’t too far behind him. Braydon and I would have eaten more of it but there was none left by halfway through dinner. Next time I’ll probably double the recipe—no joke!—it is that good!
1 bag of fresh baby spinach 1/2 bag of frozen baby sweet peas, defrosted (I just rinsed them in a colander under lukewarm water to thaw them) 1/2 cup prepared pesto 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp kosher salt 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts (just place raw pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat and toss until browned and toasted evenly)Toss first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt to taste, add pine nuts, and toss again. Yum!!!
O.k., now, about Shalinee’s “Naanwiches”….
All I’ve gotta say is WOW! WOW! WOW! My first thought was, “oh my gosh! naanwiches!!?! this is the next big thing! I can see naanwich shops springing up in every major city, suburb, and college town! we must patent this ASAP!!!!!!!!!!” Upon trying them, my reaction: “AWESOME!” This is a great, great idea. So fun, so tasty, so simply great. We all really liked this dinner. Owen and Meera went a little berserk for the mushrooms in the veggie mix. They started picking them out and eating them up like little crazy people. This bothered me because the mushrooms were my favorite part, too, and my children stole them all before I could eat them all. Kyle, on the other hand, was not thrilled with the veggie mix but went crazy for the chicken instead. Braydon and I just loved the whole entire “naanwich” package. And the pea sauce?! In my opinion, that’s what really pushed it over the edge to give it that wow factor!! So good! A very fun fun fun meal for our family. It made for a great J-M Tuesday dinner time. The swap… weeknight dinners around here are not like they used to be! In more ways than one! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our little Thursday-Heather-teaches-late-night has quickly developed into a ritual where we go to our local pizza place (affectionately called “Sal’s” after the name of the man who makes pizza, although the place is not called Sal’s). We love the pizza there, and our family has always been welcomed. In fact, they still have two years of our Christmas cards on their wall (note, there is only one other family on there as well). Which, while could be indicative of something else, is still quite a positive statement.
Our ritual goes like this: we get in the car, head on down to Sal’s (about 5 min away), park and go in. We sit in the same booth, order the same beverages (M: water, O: Root Beer, K: Ginger Ale B: draft lager). Following my lead, all three kids like putting on extra oregano, Parmesan and hot peppers (too funny to see that!). We hang out and have a nice time and everyone does great. It probably helps that over the bar there is a little TV playing sports….
Last night when we were leaving, we passed by the pick up area and I accidentally bumped into an older man picking up their pizza. Not bad, just a little bump. The man and I excused our selves, but Kyle and Owen really needed to know what happened.
O/K: “What happened?
Me: “Oh, nothing really, I just bumped that man there – sorry again!”
The man: “I’m sorry too (then to Owen and Kyle) – I just bumped your dad a little.” Then a bit of a pause from him and some embarrassed confusion… “er, well, or whoever he is.”
Owen: “He’s my Papi!”
And off we went.
The thing to me that’s so very interesting about this little interaction is that his first assumption was that I am the boys’ dad. It was only after he processed for a moment that he thought to question that. Of course, that’s the way it should be – but it’s often the other way around.
People tell us regularly that the boys look like us. Clearly they don’t mean their skin or facial structure – they mean something less tangible.
And that’s pretty cool.
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