Elliott at 34 weeks!

The one benefit to having elevated blood pressure has been that I get a "free" ultrasound that I would not have gotten otherwise!!  Today, we got to see Elliott in 3D, and we find him to be pretty darn cute!  The sonographer estimated that he weighs about 5 lbs 6 oz which puts him in the 54th percentile -- almost smack dab in the average range.  Only 3-6 more weeks (depending on my blood pressure) until he makes his debut into the outside world!!!!

Snuggled in

The sonographer informed us that he has a bunch of hair which was floating around in the amniotic fluid!!

Chin, lips, nose

2D profile -- what a schnozz!

Referred to by the sonographer as the "turtle", here is his manlihood for all the internet to see!

Happy Birthday . . .

Poodle in the sky.  We miss you very much!  You would have been a whopping 8 years old today.  I hope you are running around the fluffy clouds and celebrating with doggie cake.

Florida Dreamin'

Nothing like having some delicious citrus to brighten up the Winter blues!  This Key Lime pie recipe from Emeril is DELICIOUS and EASY!!  I made one for my Sister-In-Law for her Birthday, and everyone loved it!  I urge you to make it the next time you need a touch of tropical in the drab of a Midwest Winter!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick butter) melted
• 2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
• 1 cup key lime or regular lime juice
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime zest

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.

Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pieshell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, combine the sour cream and powdered sugar and spread over the top of the pie using a spatula. Sprinkle the lime zest as a garnish on top of the sour cream and serve chilled.

He Bares the Cone of Shame!

Oh, our poor little Escher.  We decided to go ahead and have his stomach tacked when he got neutered.  Stomach tacking is a procedure that is usually done in emergency situations when a dog's stomach flips upside down (gastric torsion), which is what ultimately resulted in Ollie's death.  However, it can be done as a preventative measure, and we wanted to reduce the risk of a repeat of Ollie's tragedy.  Sadly, this is what had to happen (Warning: don't continue to scroll down if you are squeamish about wounds):

That incision consists of 24 staples and is at least 7 inches long, and that is in addition to the incision from his neutering which is just some internal sutures.

Poor buddy.  He is tolerating the "cone of shame" very well, but we all can't wait until he can take it off. He is terrorizing Wembley with it, slamming into the backs of our knees with hard plastic, and scratching the paint off the walls as he runs into the corners.  He's a mess.

My baby jumped ship!

I don't know what it looks like on your computer, but my widget that has the baby countdown looks like our baby left the womb!  All I can see is this long umbilical cord and the baby is off in cyber space.  It's a little disturbing!  I want my baby back!  Mmmm, ribs . . . I want my baby back, baby back, baby back ribs.

Under Construction

It has been 3 weeks since I posted last!  My how the time flies!  Not too much exciting going on here, just cruising along in the words of my Ob.

We had some exciting arrivals recently, courtesy of Chris' overly generous uncle!  Thanks to Uncle Mike, our nursery is really starting to take shape!  He sent us our glider/ottoman, our stroller/car seat, and our crib/mattress is on its way!!  Over the weekend Chris and I tried to hang some new blinds in the nursery, but alas, Lowe's doesn't have our size blinds in store, so we have to order them online.  We did, however, put together the glider, I put together some new bookshelves, and we hung some floating shelves from Ikea on the wall that have been sitting in closets ever since we purchased them probably 5 years ago!!

Here are some very much under construction photos of the nursery so far!

Baren closet -- we will surely add more storage units and maybe another bar for hanging items!

Look at how the book shelf cries out, beckoning for children's books!

Blindless window -- the bare wall will be the home of the crib once it arrives.

There will be picture frames, stuffed animals, organizing bins/baskets, decorations on the shelves, and hopefully a cute little owl lamp on the end table!

Hey!  Look what else is under construction -- my belly seems to change every week!

Obviously we have a lot of work to do and finishing touches to add to make the nursery what it will become, but I am getting pretty darn excited!  The "theme" if that's what you want to call it will be little forest critters with a color scheme of orange, green, and brown.  I think Elliot is going to love it!

PS -- Take the poll, how should we spell Eliot/Elliott?!

Empanadas de mierda

Second night in a row I am cooking a nice, healthy dinner from scratch!  AND blogging about it!  I'm impressed with myself.  Tonight I made some empanadas that were stuffed with mashed sweet potatoes, black beans, cumin, chipotle chile powder, green onion, and they were supposed to have poblano peppers which I couldn't find at ANY of our stores this week, so I substituted diced green chiles from a can -- definitely not the same, but they worked.  As Chris and I were assembling the empanadas, a few of them looked less than beautiful, so I said it was a shitty empanada, which turned into Empanadas de Mierda, hence the vulgar blog title.

The empanadas were good!  We dipped them in salsa verde, and I will be eating them for lunch the rest of the week as the recipe made 10 empanadas!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas

• 9  ounces  all-purpose flour (2 cups)
• 3/4  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1/3  cup  canola oil
• 1/4  cup  cold water
• 1  tablespoon  cider vinegar
• 1  large egg, lightly beaten
• 1  poblano chile
• 1  tablespoon  cumin seeds
• 1  cup  mashed cooked sweet potatoes
• 1  cup  canned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/3  cup  chopped green onions
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1  teaspoon  ancho chile powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1  egg white, lightly beaten
• 1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine canola oil, 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and egg in a medium bowl. Gradually add oil mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Knead lightly until smooth. Shape dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour.
  2. Preheat broiler.
  3. Place poblano on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 8 minutes or until blackened, turning after 6 minutes. Place in a paper bag; close tightly. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel chile; cut in half lengthwise. Discard seeds and membranes. Finely chop.
  4. Preheat oven to 400°.
  5. Cook the cumin seeds in a large saucepan over medium heat 1 minute or until toasted, stirring constantly. Place cumin in a clean spice or coffee grinder; process until ground. Combine cumin, poblano, sweet potatoes, and next 5 ingredients (through 1/2 teaspoon salt) in a large bowl; mash with a fork until almost smooth.
  6. Divide dough into 10 equal portions, shaping each into a ball. Roll each dough portion into a (5-inch) circle on a lightly floured surface. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), spoon 3 level tablespoons poblano mixture into center of each circle. Moisten edges of dough with egg white; fold dough over filling. Press edges together to seal. Place empanadas on a large baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Cut 3 diagonal slits across top of each empanada. Bake at 400° for 16 minutes or until lightly browned.

 In addition to making a healthy dinner (we had a spinach salad along with the empanadas), I baked my favorite Christmas cookies!  I was sad that I didn't get to make this recipe at cookie bake this year.  I had made the dough and brought it to Faith's house prepared to make the cookies, and then wound up with the stomach flu, leaving Faith to finish and enjoy the cookies herself.  Poor Faith (not really).  So, here they are, my all time favorite Christmas cookie, Chocolate Filled Russian Tea Cookies:

Recipe:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

48 Brach's milk chocolate stars (from 14-oz bag)

Sugar Coating:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon red sugar

1 tablespoon green sugar

(Christmas being over, I just omitted the red and green sugars)

Heat oven to 400F.  In large bowl, beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed.  On low speed, beat in flour, salt and walnuts.

for each cookie, shape scant measuring tablespoonful dough around chocolate star to make 1-inch ball; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set and bottoms begin to turn golden brown.  Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix sugar coating ingredients.

Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheets, roll in sugar coating.  Cool completely on cooling racks, about 30 minutes.  Roll in sugar coating again.