melted smoosh

back again with this week's faves!  --first up, our lovely neighbors who borrowed Nick's truck for their latest landscaping project, and returned it with this. i sense cheddar biscuits in our future... --this  zucchini recipe that looks so extra fantastically delicious i can't even handle it. this is definitely going to be put to good use during the latter months of CSA.  -- the parents who thought up this brilliant contraption . you better believe the Will children are going to be well-acquainted with this, unless they happen to inherit all of Nick's easygoing-child ways. (ha.) -- this side dish that combines buffalo chicken, cheese, and potatoes in a win-win situation for your tastebuds and the manufacturer of Lipitor.  -- and speaking of cats, this pair never ceases to provide dramatic entertainment at our house. maybe they could use a Get Along shirt. (also, please note Nick's sock laid down as a battle line.) 

       bump watch:  so at my last appointment with the midwife, she said, "any time in the next few weeks, you'll wake up one morning and look pregnant." and she was right. sweet pea: weighs ten whole ounces and measures 6 1/2 inches long! that moves us right up the produce line-up to a small cantaloupe.  according to the picture, it looks like baby is starting to chub up a little (that makes two of us, kid!). the exciting developmental milestone for this week is ... formation of the ovaries (complete with seven million eggs!) if sweetpea's a girl, and testicular descent if he or she is a he.  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment: feeling so much kicking ! i've felt movement at least once every day this week. sometimes just a single poke, other times a legitimate dance party. still can't feel anything from the outside yet, but it is the best thing ever. it really does feel like something is givi

we go into some CSA nights with multiple recipes for a three-course meal and a definite plan of how we're using all of that week's produce. this was not one of those nights. and i think it speaks to our budding cooking knowledge (and our obsession with Master Chef) that we're starting to figure out how to just throw stuff in a pot and have it actually turn out to be dinner.  so, without further ado, i bring you CSA Night: Week Two.  chicken & chard salad 3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced 1 teaspoon garlic salt 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 head lettuce, washed and torn into bite-size pieces 1 head Swiss chard, leaves washed and torn into bite-size pieces 3 hydroponic tomatoes, chopped 1 cucumber, diced 4 oz blue cheese crumbles balsamic vinegar olive oil 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning Toss diced chicken with garlic salt and crushed red pepper. Divide Swiss chard leaves and lettuce among four bowls. Top with chopped vegetables, blue chees

just a smattering of goodness from this past week!  -- this spectacular discussion about purity from one of the funniest and most genuine blogs i've ever read, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary . i've never heard some of the particular points she makes, and they just make sense.  there's so much more to it than this... -- starbucks hazelnut macchiatos on a rainy day. i can't explain why they're so delicious. nor can i explain how Very, Very First World i feel going through a starbucks drive-thru.  -- sangria slushies from pink parsley . i can't even. i mean, literally i can't until November. but when that blessed month rolls around and i can imbibe guilt-free, i'll be whipping out the blender to make these, snow on the ground or not. -- these mini buckwheat bacon pancakes with bourbon syrup , from the genius mind of Jessica at How Sweet Eats . the buckwheat makes them super healthy, right? 

lots of great things happening this week. for one thing, it's actually looked like summer outside (and felt like it on those fleeting occasions when i'm not at work, taking care of housewifely things, or, you know, glued to HBO's Girls . we're not spiffy enough to actually have HBO so i've been getting installments of the first season from Netflix and it. is. so. funny and i'm hoping that the fact that they're all making dumb, annoying choices circa Episode 5 is part of the appeal of "remember how dumb and annoying we were when we were 22?" and not a portent of things to come.) anyway. so this week heralded my fortuitous re-discovery of iced tea in the quest for keeping hydration exciting. behold: this decaf ginger peach iced tea from the republic of tea (and, more directly, from Mom) is the epitome of exciting hydration. at least, the non-alcoholic kind of exciting hydration. it's been chilling in my curvaceous pitcher from Hom

so it turns out that Kaiser, though he's a fantastic guard dog and gives the best non-droolcovered kisses, is not so fantastic at swallowing pills on command. we've tried a few tricks in the past when he had to take the pain medication tramadol for tendinitis, but that was only a few pills a day. we had to come up with a better plan when we were faced with this line-up twice a day: peanutbutter worked sporadically, but the problem was he'd somehow manage to lick all the peanutbutter off the pill and just when we thought he'd swallowed the medicine, it would drop on the floor with an impertinent plunk. he likes honey, but it was the same story. he'd ferret out a pill in his kibble or cottage cheese. then one glorious day, Nick in his infinite wisdom decided to try with pepperoni.  so now the ritual goes something like this.  "Kaiser! want some pepperoni?"  cue 85-pound German shepherd barreling into the kitchen and immediately

       bump watch: it's now more like, "watch me try on clothes that don't fit anymore." the shirt in the above photo is on its last legs, despite the help of my beloved bella band .  sweet pea:  is the size of a large mango - six inches long and weighing half a pound! when i first read that statistic, i immediately thought of my usual cheese order at the deli (a half pound of pepper jack, or dill Havarti for special occasions). and that's weirdly appropriate because this is the stage where vernix, the cheesy coating that protects baby's skin, starts to form.  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment:  getting to hear baby's heartbeat for the second time at my 17 week appointment! everything sounded perfect. sweetpea must be a speedy swimmer, though, because the nurse practitioner started listening over my right lower belly and then moved the doppler all around without locating the heartbeat. not

for the last few years, we've gone in together to buy a share of produce from the Dillner Family Farm's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, and it's become a highlight of the summer. for one thing, we get to exclaim over and figure out what to do with such assorted veggies as kohlrabi, scapes (the shoots from garlic plants), and more greens than you can shake a stick at. plus, since there are always at least four of us cooking, we can put together elaborate dinners and brainstorm flavor profiles (oh, there are so many flavor profiles) way outside the scope of what any of us would do on our own.  tonight's repast didn't push the culinary envelope, per se, but it hit the spot. plus we learned a lot about Caleb, including the fact that since his mother always made her own fresh whipped cream, he never quite mastered the art of the perfect Reddi-Wip garnish.  le menu: garlic butter steak salads recipe adapted from here for the steak: 2 TBSP min

for some reason, i was absolutely ravenous by the time i left work tonight. the kind of ravenous that demands to be fed, now , not when you get home and lovingly prepare a meal from scratch. plus, Nick's teaching an organ lesson two hours away in Altoona this evening and spending the night at his parents' house, so it's just me and the menagerie. so i contemplated these facts for about seven seconds before deciding to try out the new bacon habanero ranch quarter pounder at McD's. sad  to say, it's a sorry substitute for the Angus mushroom & swiss, but i was most delighted to observe this woman with the best purse i've ever seen. (if you can't tell from the crappy iphone photo, it's a miche bag  with an alcohol-themed cover -- shakers, olives, martini glasses and strainers.) i just can't compete with that. to top it off, she then informed her friend that she was on her way to work and "just had a glass of wine".  yep. you win.

...who's the worst mother of them all???  the story starts on Saturday, when the dilapidated full length mirror that has been hanging on the back of our bedroom door by three poorly mounted corners finally bit the dust. the whole bedroom really needs an overhaul, but i've been too busy pinning nursery decor ideas to actually get up off my butt and do anything about it. so the mirror gently slid down the door, and i equally gently propped it up against the rear wall of the bedroom until i could take care of it.  that night, while i was at Duquesne's performance of the State of the Union, and Nick was doing yard work, Kaiser somehow knocked down the mirror, and the top corner broke off in the process. and then, he sliced his rear leg on the broken piece of glass. so when Nick came back into the house, he found Kaiser waiting patiently at the back door surrounded by a pool of blood. ingenious husband that he is, he managed to wash out the wound with soap and water, then ba

       bump watch:  i think we're about the same as 16 weeks. basically, when i'm sitting, it still looks like i have a major case of the munchies, but standing or laying down flat, it's a lot more noticeable! i've gained 8-10 pounds (depends on the day!) from my pre-pregnancy weight, and a lot of that is in the tummy and butt too, so it hides the bump a little.  sweet pea:  is now a sweet potato ! if that sweet potato were five and a half inches long and weighed five ounces, that is. baby can now hiccup and yawn, and has fully developed finger prints. and all kinds of movement is going on now, which serves to reinforce the growing web of neural connections that are multiplying exponentially in baby's brain. all that fish oil better be doing its thing!  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment: speaking of movement ... i'm pretty sure i felt sweet pea for the first time on Saturday! i was just sitti

       bump watch: ta da! sweet pea is definitely making his/her presence known (as is the tag on my shirt ... full disclosure: i made Nick take another picture from the other side after i realized the tag was showing,  but the angle was less than flattering and i need all the help i can get!). you'll notice i had a mom-fail and didn't get a 15 week picture, but there truly hasn't been much change in the belly since last week!  sweet pea:  is five inches long and weighs three ounces. the powers that be at What to Expect When You're Expecting say that this is turnip-sized (um... not so cute), but they also throw out the more appealing notion that the baby is about the size of your open hand. the very best part is that sweet pea can now hear outside noises along with my voice. this means getting early exposure to organ music and NPR (to Nick's delight), and to the theme songs from Gossip Girl and True Blood, along with the Ke$ha and PitBull concert i went t