Foodmomiac

It sucks to be the younger one...

Max does air guitar when he hears a song he likes.
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

This video is so representative of the dynamics in our household. I was trying to make a video of Max. He spontaneously does air guitar whenever he hears a song he likes, and I wanted to capture that (it's so damn cute). Anyway, you'll see what happened. Miss D could not STAND to have the attention diverted from her own divine self.

Welcome to Foodmomiac 2.0

When I started this blog in December of 2005, it was a sad and ugly little thing, created using a generic Typepad template that was labeled, "food blog."

I eventually customized it a bit. I added a masthead that featured my own photography (and was created by my buddy Mike, purely out of pity for my sad, sad blog). It still was never what I envisioned in my head.

In my head, my blog was a beautiful and comprehensive site. I had a page dedicated to my recipes. I had a navigation along the top. I had a real, live, logo.

Today, finally, the site matches the vision in my head.

You'll notice two brand-new blogs along the top - one dedicated to Travel, and one dedicated to all-things Chicago. Foodmomiac will remain what it has always been - a place for me to talk about the things that are on my mind. Some of these things are kids-related, many of them are food-related.

I hope you like what you see!! AND, if you do, please send some business to the two people who helped me make this happen (actually, they really did everything - I just directed). Gene Powell designed my logo and created my mastheads. (And, he has a brand-new company, but their site isn't yet ready, so stay tuned for that link). Gene and I have known each other for over nine years,  so he was the perfect candidate to create my logo. I didn't have to spend much time describing myself. In fact, when  he sent me the logo (which he nailed on his first try), he said the following:

I’m imagining June Cleaver smoking Pall Mall’s in the attic and drinking Blue Label from her best china. The logo in and of itself isn’t THAT irreverent. I’m just imagining your editorial voice behind it. I don’t know, something about it screams “Danielle” to me.

I'd also like to send GIANT props to Ms. Sweetney herself, Tracey Gaughran-Perez. She programmed all three sites for me, customizing the HECK out of them, and did everything super fast. She was totally down with my phone phobia, and didn't make me call her once! We did everything via email, and it was absolutely effortless. If you need a new blog or a Twitter background or anything like that, you must contact the ladies of Sweet Blog. They are amazing.

The world according to Dylan

What is something I always say to you?
Dylan: "I love you."

What makes me happy?
Dylan: "When I do what you want me to do, and don't just sit around and be lazy."

What makes me sad?
Dylan: "When I don't do what you say and sit around and be lazy."

How do I make you laugh?
Dylan: "Make funny faces."

What do you think I was like as a child?
Dylan: "Fun!"

How old am I?
Dylan: "35"

How tall am I?
Dylan: "OK, this is hard. Five."

What is my favorite thing to do?
Dylan: "Spend time with your family."

What do I do when you’re not around?
Dylan: "I don't know."

If I become famous, what will it be for?
Dylan: "You? If YOU become famous? I don't know!"

What am I really good at?
Dylan: "You are really good at cooking."

What am I not really good at?
Dylan: "I don't want to say this, but I know what you're not really good at, but I don't want to hurt your feelings."

Me: "What is it?"

Dylan: "Singing."

What is my job?
Dylan: "Blogging."

What is my favorite food?
Dylan: "Your favorite food? Mushroom soup."

What makes you proud of me?
Dylan: "When you clean."

What makes me proud of you?
Dylan: "When I clean."

What do you and I do together?
Dylan: "We go shopping and have a lot of fun."

How do you know that I love you?
Dylan: "Well, because you love me."

What is one thing you wish you could change about me?
Dylan: "I wish your hair was longer, but I still think you're the most beautiful mommy ever."

What do you wish you could go and do with me?
Dylan: "What I wish I could go and do with you is go to LegoLand with you and then I wish we could go to France."

The world according to Mr. Max

yay max!
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Yesterday, Linda posted an interview that she conducted with her son Riley. Riley and Max are just a couple of weeks apart, so I figured the answers I'd get would be just as amusing.

I cornered the little dude this morning, before we turned on the TV (he watches Special Agent Oso EVERY morning before breakfast).

What is something I always say to you?
Max: "What are you doing?"
Me: "What are you doing?"
Max: "No one. Mom, there's the car I had to open last night." (pointing at one of his toy cars)

What makes me happy?
Max: "I don't know."

What makes me sad?
Max: “I don't love you."

How do I make you laugh?
Max: “Nothing."

What do you think I was like as a child?
Max: "I don't know. Daddy's a poopy head."

How old am I?
Max: "Five."

How tall am I?
Max: “That big." (holding his arms as far apart as they go.)

What is my favorite thing to do?
Max: "I don't know. See me."

What do I do when you’re not around?
Max: "Going to work."

If I become famous, what will it be for?
Max: "Mom, can you watch the show with me, Special Agent Oso? Do you want beer when you're done telling me words?" (Note: this was at 6:30 am.)

What am I really good at?
Max: "I don't know."

What am I not really good at?
Max: “I don't know."

What is my job?
Max: "I don't know."

What is my favorite food?
Max: “Lucky Charms." (not true)

What makes you proud of me?
Max: “Going nowhere." (I think he means "staying home." He is always asking me to stay home with him all day.)

What makes me proud of you?
Max: “When i go poop.” (I knew he'd say this. EVERY time he goes, he says, "Mom, are you so proud of me??" He has been potty trained for well over a year, so I'm not sure why he is still on that kick.)

What do you and I do together?
Max: “I don't know."

How do you know that I love you?
Max: “I want you to stop saying that. Is it secrets?" (I tell him five secrets every night before bed, and one of them is always that I love him so much.)

What is one thing you wish you could change about me?
Max: “I don't want to."

What do you wish you could go and do with me?
Max: “Go to work with you. Can i Mommy? No or yes. No or yes. No or yes Mommy. No or yes.”
Me: "No."
Max: "Why? Why Mama? Why Mommy? Why Mommy? Because, because i have school??"

Public Service Announcement: Tomatoes in the fridge

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I grew up hating tomatoes. My dad requested their presence in our salad every night, and every night I'd pick them out. GAH. I just couldn't understand how ANYONE could like a tomato. Tomatoes were so mealy. So flavorless. What was the point of the stupid tomato??

Turns out, tomatoes (in season) are awesome. I LOVE tomatoes. I can eat tomatoes plain right off the vine and be happy with them. Sprinkle 'em with salt and maybe a touch of olive oil, and I'm officially in heaven.

What I DON'T like, though, are tomatoes that have been stored in the fridge.

Everyone. Please. Repeat after me.

TOMATOES SHOULD NEVER BE STORED IN THE FRIDGE. TOMATOES BELONG ON THE COUNTER.

Now that tomato season is inching closer (and you southerners and Californians can just hush it over there with your fresh produce all year long), this is very important to know.

Tomatoes in the fridge turn mealy. They lose flavor. They become sad, pink orbs of doom.

So... .don't do it.

(You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.)

Produce Watch: ASPARAGUS!!!

Our local farm
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Here are the signs to the little farm that's just down the road from our cottage. Last week, there were only the two black signs on the left. THIS week, we have an exciting new addition - ASPARAGUS!!

In an effort to avoid reality for as long as humanly possible, we aren't heading back to Chicago until after dinner. On the menu is steak (bone-in ribeyes for the adults and tenderloins for the munchkins), Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes, grilled ASPARAGUS (yay, yay, yay!!!), and green beans cooked with onions, garlic and lots of butter. I can't wait.

It was a great Mother's Day weekend up here in Michigan. We were going to drive in after work, but decided to be crazy and leave at 5:30am in order to do our Friday work at the cottage. The early wake-up call was well worth the pain, as Friday was the best weather day of the weekend, nearing 70 with blue skies and lots of sunshine.

Michael's mom (Moppy) drove in Friday afternoon to join us, and we had a great time showing her the sights and sounds of Saugatuck. Dylan also loved having a new partner for Yahtzee.

This morning, Michael made pancakes from scratch, and served them with homemade strawberry puree and some Michigan-grown maple syrup that we grabbed yesterday at American Spoon.

Right now, I'm sitting with an Oberon (the word's greatest summer beer), while the kids watch Phineas and Ferb. I'm feeling very mellow and satisfied. (OH, and Dylan rode a two wheeler today, FINALLY.)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!!

Pantry Cooking Success #1

This past weekend was a monumental one in the Foodmomiac household. It was our first official weekend in the summer cottage that we rented. And, though the weather was chilly, it was wonderful. We did a whole bunch of nothing. I picked up some eggs at Chicken Scratch Farms, went for a 2 mile run (and then died, because OMG the hills in Michigan are crazy), read books, played catch with the kids, watched my elderly dog romp around the yard like a puppy and just CHILLED. I think part of the secret was knowing that everything was in order at home.

Michael got some kind of an organizational/anti-clutter bug last weekend while I was in New York, and I have to say that I am a big fan of this. He is definitely a little annoying with the constant reminders (nagging) to straighten and pick up, but the house looks GOOD. I also did all of our bills the evening before we left, so I didn't even have that unpleasantness in the back of my mind.

I was telling my neighbor that I was feeling a bit stressed about the weekends in Michigan because the weekends are my time to get everything accomplished. However, I think that's a "glass half empty" point of view. My new philosophy is that weekends away are AWESOME, because we are forced to accomplish everything during the work week, leaving the weekends for pure relaxation.

The one glitch that we still need to work out is the food shopping. For the past year or so, we have been doing our food shopping on Sunday mornings. This won't work on the weekends we are in Michigan. This week, we determined that Michael would shop Monday evening (last night) while I prepared a dinner using stuff we had laying around. It worked out fine, but I'm not sure it's the system we'll use for the long haul.

Anyway, last night's dinner was pretty successful! We grilled a humongous pork loin while we were in Michigan, so I had those leftovers to work with. First, I chopped up 1/2 an onion and 2 cloves of garlic and sauteed it in some olive oil. I then chopped the pork into 1/2 inch chunks and added it to the pot. After one minute, I added one cup of chicken broth, one can of diced tomatoes and one can of tomato sauce. I then poured in a VERY healthy amount of chili powder and one can of corn kernels. While that simmered away, I cooked up some Jasmine rice in the rice cooker and made a salad (we had leftover lettuce from Michigan and I made ranch dressing). Voila! Instant pork chili.

She's a Tomboy, NOT a Girly Girl

pretty girl
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Dylan has always been a girly girl. She likes to wear her hair down and insists on keeping it long. She loves wearing nail polish and makeup. She somehow manages to find the highest heels available in a size 13 anytime we go to Target. She likes girl stuff.

However, her best friend doesn't. Her best friend loves the colors green and blue. She doesn't like skirts. She mostly wears sneakers. And now Dylan is insisting on doing the same thing. And it is driving me batty.

It's not that I need Dylan to be girly. I truly don't. I just want her to be herself. And it scares me that she is altering her personal style (which has always been a huge deal to her) to suit someone else. But, short of forbidding her to wear sweatpants (which seems silly), i don't know what to do.

We tell her that she can wear whatever she likes. That she doesn't have to dress to please someone else. That she doesn't have to respond to the teasing that she looks "girly girl."

It falls on deaf ears. And we end up with tantrums. As I told Julie earlier in an email, we actually had to go out and buy Dylan some new shorts and capris last night because she was choosing to raid her dirty clothes hamper in lieu of wearing the perfectly clean and lovely (girly girl) clothes in her closet. She actually came downstairs yesterday morning wearing a pair of turquoise sweat pants that were covered in stains.

Help!

Just add butter

I was thinking the other day about butter. I am a big fan of butter. I realize that it is high in fat and calories, but, truly, you don't need much for some impact. I have a whole slew of food items that I make that taste better with a small pat of butter:

- canned green beans (we always do French cut) - oatmeal (steel cut with fig jam and a small pat of butter yields an utterly luxurious breakfast) - white rice - tomato sauce - steak - eggs (my sister-in-law always tries to make me use olive oil, but eggs with butter are SO much better)

Do you guys use butter as a secret ingredient? Or do you have any other little cooking tricks like that? Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Best Laid Plans...

As I mentioned last weekend, my dad, stepmom and aunt were set to arrive in Chicago this past Thursday morning. On Wednesday evening as we were eating our dinner, I received a phone call from my dad. He and Marcia (my stepmom) were on their way to the ER. Marcia had been suffering a splitting headache since 3am, and as the day wore on, she began vomiting and her blood pressure spiked.

Long story short, she has been on Coumadin every since a heart surgery a couple of years ago, and it caused a blood clot in her brain. When they gave her medication to flush the Coumadin (to prep for emergency surgery), it caused a heart attack. SHE IS OK NOW. After a very scary day (the clot caused some brain swelling that created a lot of confusion - she thought is was 2002 and didn't remember why she wasn't in Chicago), she is now stable. They inserted a drain to help with the brain swelling, and her heart does not appear to have much damage. Right now we are watching her blood pressure, and looking at 3x/daily CAT scans to track the clot.

When all of this happened, Michael was in Seattle on a business trip and not scheduled to return to Chicago until Tuesday. I had a lot of wonderful friends and co-workers offering to help with the kids, but I just couldn't conceive of leaving without Michael coming home first. It was just too overwhelming for me. Thank goodness, our company always puts family first. I left yesterday morning at 4:30am. Michael was home yesterday by dinner.

If things continue to stabilize, I'm aiming to get home before another work week begins, but right now I'm just trying to keep my dad company. My brother is here from Miami as well. The weekend family reunion is now in a hospital waiting room, but we are together.