Once in a while, hubby, Sophia and I embark on the 2.5 hour journey to visit my in-laws. I jokingly call it the spa because much like my parents’ house, the experience is so relaxing. Good food is always on hand, there is ample help with Sophia and the very fact of being back in the Philadelphia area has such a relaxing effect.
Despite Sophia’s first cold, our spirits were instantly lifted by this delicious chocolate chip cake. Mmmm, so good! 
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
… well, at least on or rather in mine. Baby’s first cold came on with the wrath of a tsunami complete with watery eyes, runny nose, sky-high fever, and general infant grumpiness. It lasted, well actually, it is still here but in much lighter form, days and has managed to take me down with it. I thought I was able to avoid it or at least with very mild symptoms when all of a sudden, in a matter of hours I litearally turned into a sneezing, wheezing, hacking puddle of sadness. It feels like the bubonic plague for I don’t remember a cold this bad in years. Perhaps the continuous sleep deprivation and taking care of a sick infant makes things worse or I’m getting old, or … well both.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
I’ve been meaning to go on a healthy kick as of late and my latest trip to the grocery mart started out with the best intentions. I remembered to pick carrots and zucchini for the latest installment of Sophia’s soups and had every intention to pick up fish for our Thursday dinner. The fish counter was uninspired and uninspiring. I pushed ahead to the meat counter being incredibly tired of chicken and fairly lazy to wrestle a roast or complicated stew. When all was said and done, I walked out with some steak tips which were destined for my 20 minute stir fry. Why healthy? Well, we omitted rice and stuck to lots of green and orange veggies.
There is something incredibly inviting about a plate full of greens and ginger, scallion and garlic.
The beef is sliced in one inch chunks approximately (350 grams) and marinated for 15 minutes in 2 tbsp. of soy sauce.
I sear the beef in a hit skillet with peanut oil until almost done. Empty the skillet for these beauties:
After pouring a little water and covering to steam, I uncover and saute the garlic and ginger (incredibly generous portions of each) in a little sesame oil.
Everything is reunited in a pan and a sauce of 2tbsp. of soy sauce, 3 tbsp of hoisin sauce and 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 1 tbsp of potato starch and 2 tbsp of water is poured over. One quick toss, a sprinkling of scallions and shaved carrots and ta-da; Dinner is ready to be served.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
As promised, this blog documents not only our culinary adventures, but also our globetrotting escapades with little Sophia. We’ve documented our frequent trips to the Philadelphia area to visit our families and this summer’s shore trip. This past weekend marked our first trip further afield. Specifically, we traveled to West Bloomfield, Michigan to attend my cousin’s beautiful wedding. As Sophia is a little young and would probably make too much noise at the ceremony, we decided that she would spend the evenings with my amazing mother-in-law who traveled with us just for this purpose. Before I share the nitty, gritty of our first experience in airline travel with child, I must say that all went fine.
First, we took a flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Detroit (DTW) on Friday at 9:45 in the morning. We were renting a car in Detroit and visiting with family briefly before heading to our hotel for the mandatory afternoon nap. Much to my surprise and delight, Sophia held out for her morning nap until we boarded and promptly fell asleep as we were taking off. We weren’t so lucky on our trip back as the flight from DTW was taking off at 10 am and Sophia decided to sleep while we were at the gate and still only took a 20 minute nap. She spent the duration of our return flight playing and jumping and interacting with all of us until we were exhausted and she was hungry and ready for her afternoon nap. We got home on Sunday with just enough time to bathe the airplane grime off our little girl and put her to bed.
My general observations are that it is entirely possible to travel with an infant, although I am not sure I would travel with a small child and an infant. I would also dare not travel alone until the child could sit, stand and somewhat walk on their own. The amount of stuff we brought was significant and I doubt would decline until Sophia was potty trained and eating table food. All that said, I am happy we chose to attend the wedding as it was beautiful and the experience with travel with Sophia was enlightening. Looking back, we did the right thing and we will travel again. I grew up in a family that traveled, enjoyed and saw the world and so will my own family.
Lastly, I owe my wonderful mother-in-law a big thank you for traveling with us and leding a helping hand throughout the weekend while we went to the wedding.
A few weeks ago, we decided to nightwean Sophia. She was 9.5 months at the time and did well (all things considering). We decided that the breastaurant was going to be closed from 8:30-5:30 and so every time Sophia would wake up, hubby went in to console her. The whole process took about 5 days. Much to our surprise, she was sleeping through the night after the 5 days for a few days. She also cut her first two teeth. We couldn’t believe ourselves; Until then, Sophia was feasting or rather snacking every 2-3 hrs. After two nights of relatively peaceful sleep, I felt like I’d not felt in a LONG time. In fact, looking back (at the time), I couldn’t believe how I survived the 9 months working full time and being up for 15-20 minutes every 2-3 hrs.
Our celebrations were shortlived as 5 days into the new sleepcycle, Sophia started waking up hourly. After some googling, we realized she had acid reflux. A call to the doctor was followed by a run to the pharmacy to get adult Mylanta. I personally have never had acid reflux or at least not severe enough to warrant an antiacid. That stuff is pretty vile. Tastes like flavored chalk. We tried giving it to Sophia who promptly spit it out. Fast forward 3 hours during her bath and equipped with a zillion little tchachkas, we finally were able to stuff 1 teaspoon into her and 2 teaspoons on her (for good measure of course). We’ve done this for the past few nights and I hope to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
But we’re so good at distracting and dispensing medicine now that we may as well moonlight as childnen’s remedy dispensers for all the houses with little ones in need.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Sometimes you just want pizza. No, not the greasy, overly cheesy pizza from some mega-pizza maker (you know who they are). Instead, you crave crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside pizza which fills the house with amazing aromas while it is baking. Come to think of it, perhaps you just want your house filled with the aroma of baking dough and the pizza is a welcome side-effect.
This is exactly what we made (and it couldn’t be easier) this past Saturday. I only wish our basil plant had come up in our garden as we had to resort to store-purchased, hydroponic.