Small Joys

Today Jen brought the Wombats to the doctor for a follow up appointment where Elliott was given a clean bill of health. After 10 days of antibiotics which had worse side effects than what they were curing he was good to go.


He celebrated this news by returning home to play in his play gym and squeal so loudly that Jen and I could not carry on a conversation. That is to say that he did exactly the same thing that he does every night.


While the guys played with Jen I seared this salmon in a pan with some salt, pepper, and olive oil and served it with a salad I made of sliced radish from the farm, dill, salt, pepper, cider vinegar, and sour cream.


Much to my mother-in-law's dismay I then had a beer. She has taken to texting Jen to praise my wit and tell her to tell me to spend less time writing about beer and more time posting pictures of her grandchildren. This is understandable in that she has little interest in beer. However, having a single beer and writing about it after dinner is one small joy that I have time for these days and, therefore, I will continue to write clumsily about the beers that I have with dinner.

Tonight's brew was this Royal Character Pale Ale from Charter Oak Brewing Co. This is the second entry I've had from this new brewery. It was a bit more bitter than I'd expect from a pale ale with a slightly chalky finish. Another thing I noticed about this beer was that I wonder if the mother of my wife is still even reading at this point. If she is she will learn that there was a slightly soapy scent from the yeast in this beer. She will also be absolutely delighted to know that hoppy malt finish hop characteristic caramel bread. A hundred bucks if you comment on reading this within twenty four hours. Foam head body carbonation sediment ABV IBU lacing.


We revisited letting the wombats join us at the dinner table tonight. It's a bit cramped on the dinner table so this generally means that most of dinner is spent with the boys resting their feet on the bread that we're about to consume. Since their feet rarely touch the ground it's not actually that bad. Except for the times they poop so much that they fill up the legs of their footie pajamas.

No biggie. It'd take more than that to turn down some freshly baked Italian bread.

Viva la parenting!

Seasonal Warm Up

These days I find myself really looking forward to a day off of work. I'm not really sure why. A typical day off of work consists of laundry, dishes, general house-cleaning, running errands, taking out garbage, and just generally straightening up around the house. Sadly it means I usually have so much work to do that I have to drop the Wombats off at daycare and pick them up just so that I can get it all done.

If they stayed here the amount of work I got done would be approximately zero.



Today I also had the added chore of needing to figure out a way to rearrange the living room so that we could somehow fit a Christmas tree into it this year. The addition of the Wombats to the family means a lot less space. The guys and their gear take up probably 35-40% of the apartment now. The contents of two rooms were combined into one to make room for them and even with the remodel it will be a little tight squeezing a tree into our cramped living room.

During lunch I had enough free time to watch the first forty minutes of the movie The Dictator which was pleasing in that it was exactly what I expected it to be. No more. No less. I look forward to finishing it some day when I get the luxury of having another forty minute block of time.


Later in the day I carved out an hour to go to my favorite beer store on one of my quarterly trips to stock up on seasonal beers. I have recently caught up with my seasonal beers and now it is time to move to the next season. I got a few Christmas ales and some winter ales to start off the season. Christmas ales are generally my favorite beers of the season so I was excited to pick up a few that I hadn't had before. The tricky part about this season is finding the time to actually drink these beers.

They say that you make time for the things you truly want to do. They also say that if you do that your babies may not get bathed or eat properly. I guess a stinky baby or two is a small price to pay for the enjoyment of delicious Christmas beers!


Later int the day I picked up the Wombats from daycare. They have become so much more accustomed to their routine. What used to be a 1-3 hour screaming fit for Martin has turned into a short cry in the car for the first five minutes. After five minutes of playing some Raffi those guys are as docile as can be. When we get home we listen to the rest of the album and then often transition into some Pink Floyd.

Elliott is quite fond of Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Part VI-IX).


After our listening party they had a summit, a meeting of the minds, in their play gym where they discussed the terms of their cease fire whereby Elliott would leave Martin's ear alone for upwards of four hours. Little did Elliott know this included four hours that Martin would be sleeping anyway.


For dinner I took the last of the turkey and made it into this turkey and kale soup. I was craving a turkey soup similar to my mother's rather than trying for anything too different or experimental. I cooked some garlic, red onion, celery, and carrot in a little olive oil. Then I tossed in some of the farm kale, turkey, and the turkey stock I made on Saturday.


I thought I had some leftover elbows in the cabinet but it turns out I didn't. I went out to the local Italian market and was only able to find this fancy pants anellini pasta. It was not the standard American pasta element I'd been hoping for but it actually made for a very nice addition to the soup. It was sort of like alphabet soup except where all the letters are the letter O.


For beer I had this Hop Stoopid Ale from Lagunitas Brewing Co. Jen picked this one up for me recently as a gift. According to her the gift was in celebration (not as a reward) for my first week taking care of the babies by myself. This beer was a little too hoppy for Jen so I enjoyed it alone. It had that incredibly hoppy oniony taste to it. It was good but it's the type of beer that you need to be in the mood for. Luckily I was just in the right frame of mind to enjoy this beer.

Jen is leaving for Texas soon. I wonder what I'm going to get for being a single dad during that trip.

I hope it's a pony.

Baby Tickets

On Sunday we kept alive our tradition of going to all the children-themed festivals in town. On Sunday the event was the annual Mistletoe Festival. It's just like all the other festivals in town except that there is a Santa Claus and hot apple cider.

The past four-and-a-half months have been great because, as opposed to the past, we've been able to bring the Wombats with us. In the past we've just sort of crashed these type of events by ourselves like weird pretenders. Now we have two babies who serve as All Access Passes to this type of event.


Unfortunately it was a cold, cold day. Martin just sort of folded his arms in his carrier and squinted his eyes a little seeming to tolerate the cold.


Elliott has this expression on his face the entire time whether or not the hood from his Tanooki suit was completely covering his face.

The Mistletoe Festival was not a huge hit with the boys. We were there for less than ten minute. There's always next year.


Last night things were a little different. Martin was all smiles at the dinner table. Maybe it was because he got to join the grown ups for dinner. Maybe it was because he was wearing daytime clothes that his foolish father mistook for pajamas before being reprimanded by his mother when she returned home from work.

At any rate he was a happy, happy boy.


We were lucky enough to have a second Thanksgiving dinner on Friday and a catered lunch and dinner on Saturday. This made for our latest ever hot turkey sandwich dinner, the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving staple. Jen stuck with tradition, as always, with her sandwich consisting of two slices of bread stuffed with turkey and stuffing and covered with gravy.


For my sandwich I bucked trends once again. Jen's father recently visited after passing through Montreal and brought with him a bag of Montreal bagels. Normally I leave these all for Jen as they are her favorite thing in the entire world. This time I hijacked a bagel to make yet another variation on the hot turkey sandwich theme. This year I toasted the Montreal bagel, stuffed it with turkey, carrots and turnips, mashed potato, stuffing, and gravy. I shredded some leftover Ouray cheese on top and served it with French fries, mustard pickles, and cranberry sauce.

This may have been my favorite variation on the hot turkey sandwich themes to date. It had a few structural issues, such as the mashed potatoes oozing out hole with every bite, but it was worth the used napkins. I highly recommend if you can get your hands on some authentic Montreal bagels. Not very likely if you are not in Montreal but I'm just throwing it out there.


For beer I paired this Island Reserve Tripel Ale from Cisco Brewers. Tripels are one of my favorite beers to pair with turkey. Tripels are one of my favorite beers to pair with just about anything. Tripels are a favorite for any occasion. I'm a big fan of Cisco Brewers as well so I was thrilled when our Thanksgiving dinner guests brought this as a gift.

It's been a little slower going in moving through our leftovers than years past. Luckily, next year, we should be able to feed some of the leftovers to the Wombats. I'm not really sure what one year olds can eat because I'm ignorant and too lazy to do the research. I'm assuming by then they'll be able to put down a giant turkey sandwich just like mom and dad.

I know a lot about childhood development.

Say Uncle . . . Dave

My parents had intended to visit on my birthday but since Hurricane Sandy instead forced us into a hotel and to go out to eat with the boys at a restaurant instead. Birthday visit plans were postponed until yesterday.


In addition to my parents were Auntie Deb and Uncle Dave. It was Uncle Dave's first visit with the Wombats and they took to him right away, particularly Elliott.


Each time my parents visit they bring more booty for the boys. On this visit they brought their walkers as we suspected they were just about ready to start using them. Martin was the first to test it out after a great deal of frustration and finger-pinching on my part. I'm learning now that the Baby Trends brand of baby items are designed for maximum safeness and efficiency for babies. Unfortunately for me and Jen's fingers the same is not true of the adults who have to use the devices.


Martin's feet almost touched the ground so by Christmastime I expect that both of them will be zipping around the apartment, knocking over all manner of furniture and reminding us of how poorly we have baby-proofed our apartment at the moment.


Martin was extremely cheerful in the beginning part of the day and took great joy in Grandpa Butch testing out the humor value of random English words. The verdict: most are pretty hilarious.


For lunch the family brought over what back home is referred to rather redundantly as Italian Pizza. It's basically like a focaccia with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese on it. We also had the eggplant version which I've never had before and it was quite tasty. This is another classic from back home that I have only ever had at family gatherings. It was nice to have it brought to me in New York because apparently there aren't enough pizza options here to include this particular variety.


With the pizza I opened this 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Raymond Vineyards which I picked up on my recent trip to Napa. After emptying this bottle I regret having only purchased one bottle.


For dinner my mother made this beef stew with egg noodles. I foolishly only heated up 3/4 of the amount she made then when we completely tore through it all I had to sheepishly return to the kitchen to heat up the remainder and cook the rest of the egg noodles.

I guess I'm a little rusty on how much food to prepare for more than two adults.


While everyone else enjoyed wine I poured this Imperial Stout from Founders Brewing Co. I do enjoy a heavy beer with a nice stew. While this was not quite at the same level as their KBS (and what is?) it was a really nice, bitter, imperial stout that I enjoyed over the course of about an hour.


After dinner Deb and Dave had some snuggle time with Elliott who seemed just about ready to go home with them at the end of the night.


I even got a birthday cake! It seems odd at my age to celebrate a birthday at all, even on my birthday. It was from my favorite bakery back home, Wright's Dairy Farm. We continue to monitor the babies' interest in food per our doctor's instructions so that we know when it will be a good idea to start them on solid foods.


Martin was not very interested in the cake as Grandpa Butch ate his.


Elliott, on the other hand, was very interested.


After realizing that we weren't going to give him any cake Elliott was very satisfied with chewing on Auntie Deb's finger.


It was an exhausting day for the Wombats but they held it together until the very end. It was a little bit of a battle getting them to bed but when they finally did fall asleep it was a ten hour affair. This is extremely encouraging to me as I have always wished to be well-versed in tiring out children for a long night's sleep. That long night's sleep equals lots of opportunity for productivity for me. Unfortunately what happens instead is that I fall asleep eleven minutes into a twenty-two minute television show after dinner.

Productivity is relative.

Pagpapasalamat

After yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner at home we were fortunate enough to be invited to our good friends' house for a second round. I always feel some level of guilt at eating out or at someone else's house when our fridge is jam-packed with leftover. However, having had Mel's cooking in the past and enjoying their company I was able to let that guilt roll off my back.

This was the Wombats' first trip to Brooklyn meaning they have tackled three out of the five boroughs in less than five months. I'm not sure when we'll be able to get them to Queens (or why) and if we can save some money away we may be able to afford the toll to get them over the Verazzano bridge to Staten Island.


Mel and Jule are great hosts and made a very nice spread featuring some classic Thanksgiving dishes as well as some family favorites.

I'm always intrigued by the items found on some people's Thanksgiving tables. Usually this is just some form of family recipe from their cultural background. To me this always seems exciting to me. Then I realize that, having French-Canadian and Italian ancestry most people's Thanksgiving dinners did not consist of lasagna or meat stuffing. Jen says she had never really had chicken parmesan or linguine with clam sauce until she was in her teenage years and got it at a restaurant. For me these were meals we had on a weekly basis.



Mel and Jule's Thanksgiving dinner included lumpia and pancit. This was a big draw for me in that I've had Mel's pancit and lumpia in the past and I'm a big fan. Having it alongside stuffing and sweet potatoes was an exciting diversion from my normal Thanksgiving experience. While it seems wild and exciting I had to remind myself that it's actually not much different from pairing Lasagna with stuffing. One family's tradition is another family's exciting twist on a classic theme.


After dinner there was a bit of a Poopsplosion™ incident. Elliott is still taking his amoxicillin which seems to do nothing in the way of making his ear infection and conjunctivitis just clear up on their own but has some unfortunate gastrointestinal side effects. This means a lot of diaper changes and a lot of spare clothes were packed.


Unfortunately we forgot the clothes in the car and, by some miracle, Mel and Jule had a spare set of pajamas in Elliott's size from when their son wore it four years ago. This was extremely lucky for us and I am committing to leaving a few random sets of clothes around our apartment for the visiting parents of the future so that they may be beset with such good fortune as we were.


Martin was not bothered by Elliott's incident and slept in an incredibly uncomfortable position on the couch through the entire episode.


After returning home we got the Wombats to bed which required a bit more of letting them cry it out than normal. Still they were both asleep a bit after 9:00 and I poured myself this Nut Brown Ale from Samuel Smith's Brewery to cap off the evening. That is no better way to top off a holiday than with some old-timey British beer. Samuel Smith's is a beer steeped in the tradition of the 1700s and 1800s. I can only assume that nostalgic attitude is why their website is steeped in the tradition of the 1990s.

Overall I think the Wombats have enjoyed the three Thanksgivings they've had this year. It seems unfair that through all of this delicious holiday food they can only eat milk. Soon, however, they will be onto solid food. This solid food won't have anything to do with the holiday, but by next year they'll be able to have some of it. Then they can systematically begin rejecting and hating all the food that we eat.

Then the holidays will truly be complete.

The Thanksgiving Challenge

This year's Canadian Thanksgiving was notably scaled back from previous years. We had about thirty fewer guests than normal and it was about the same level of difficulty to prepare given that we also needed to care for two young babies.

This year's American Thanksgiving looked as though it might not happen at all given that I wouldn't be home from work until 5:00 PM and Jen would need to cook dinner and tend to two demanding babies all day. Jen figured if she could get a good, solid nap out of them then she'd be positioned well to possibly get everything done.


Sadly Elliott did not cooperate but luckily Jen was able to distract him with one of the worst yearly television events: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This will undoubtedly be one of those times where she is upset by my editorializing on the blog. However, if she wants to defend her position that this is a thing worth watching I will allow her to discuss the merits of this abomination on the blog next year. I, however, will be watching something worthwhile with the children, something far more entertaining like soap operas or C-SPAN.


This week marked the final week of our farm share pickup. I made a late night appearance where we got a pound of beets, two pounds of carrots, Red Russian Kale, garlic, celeriac, potatoes, turnips, radish, parsley, dill, Golden Delicious Apples, Fuji Apples and Bosc Bears.

They also threw in a bonus jar of apple butter after we got short-changed on the fruit last week. This would have been fine since I'm having difficulty keeping up with the work of maintaining current apple sauce production.


After getting home from work I put together this cheese slate with Ouray, La Tur, and a blue cheese whose name I have already forgotten even though it was an exceptionally good blue cheese.


To start off the evening we poured this 2007 Vintage Cremant de Bordeaux Les Cordeliers that we got in Bordeaux last year. As much as I've been preferring beer with cheese these days I have to admit that this went very well with the cheese selection.


This was the Wombats' first American Thanksgiving and we may not have been able to have it at all had we not had two friends, Heather and Adam, generously accept our invitation to come over and hold the babies while Jen was able to put dinner together. Martin repaid the favor by immediately spitting up all over Adam's sweater.

We really know how to show our guests a good time.


Jen miraculously put together a fine meal featuring:

Roast Turkey
Mashed Carrots and Turnips
Glazed Tri-Color Carrots
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Scalloped Butternut
Cranberry Sauce
Jellied Cranberry
Roasted Root Vegetables


Also on the menu were these roasted potatoes. Jen was trying to recreate her grandmother's roasted potatoes. She reported that they were not as good but as close as she has come.

She asked me if we were making too much food for four people. I suspected that she already knew the answer to this question. When I suggested that maybe one style of potato may be enough for just four adults she informed me that there was no chance of her removing either potato dish from the menu.

As I suspected. She knew the answer and laughed in the face of it.


With dinner we had this 2007 Corton-Renardes Grand Cru that we got on our extremely costly wine detour when we were in France last year. Again, I'm normally more excited about beer pairings but it was nice to finally have one of the twelve bottles we bought in France. This was a very nice, peppery, wine that was still fairly light and went very well with turkey dinner. It was nice to be able to share it with good friends who kindly distracted the babies so that we might eat.


For dessert Jen was able to pay homage to the somewhat overlooked Canadian Thanksgiving this year with her Canadian themed pie.


It may have been a little more stressful, and a little more messy, than years past but this year's Thanksgiving was pretty rewarding. We got to FaceTime with our families, enjoy our new babies, and share food and drink with good friends. Now, in just five or six hours of work, we may even have a kitchen that does not look like someone cooked an atomic bomb in it.

Now taking volunteers to come and help next year!

Daddies = Dummies

In the past week the war of the ear grabs has continued. Sadly, Martin seems to be getting soundly defeated by his brother in battle after battle.


He has lost the morning pajama battle.


He has lost the late afternoon battle.

Presumably Martin is on the receiving end of some ear-grabbing going all through the night as well.


On Wednesday night, in the midst of all this back-and-forth, I found some time to snip all the Brussels sprouts off the stalks, season them, and toss them in the oven. I put Martin in a Baby Bjorn and sung him a song I wrote called "Cutting the Brussels Sprouts Off The Vine." I know it's not really a vine but it worked really well within the context of my song.

I also boiled some of the farm potatoes and tossed them with butter, olive oil, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. I served them up with a little more of the bacon cranberry chutney.


For beer I poured this Fall Festivus Ale from Cricket Hill Brewery. This beer was completely different than I'd expected. It was excellent. I am increasingly impressed with beers I try from Cricket Hill. All of their stuff seems to be really good. This beer was more like a really, really nice IPA. I had been expecting something sort of malty but this was just a really, really nice IPA. I dare say it reminded me a bit of Pliny the Elder.

I just hope no beer snobs read this and then attack me for the sacrilege I just spouted!


On Thursday we got a call from daycare saying that they suspected that Elliott had conjunctivitis. This meant that on my way home from work to pick them up I had to bring both of them to the urgent care clinic and get Elliott inspected. Jen and I had talked about how the daycare didn't know what they were talking about and that we'd just get a note clearing him to go back to daycare on Friday. There was no way he had conjunctivitis.

After a quick inspection the doctor revealed that Elliott had conjunctivitis and an ear infection. Boo ya! Jen and I were right! He didn't have conjunctivitis only!

Being right is such a great feeling.

Another great feeling is the praise that was showered on me by every single woman that worked at the urgent care. They could not believe I was wrangling these two babies by myself. I was the talk of the medical facility. I'm pretty sure one of the nurses even slipped me her number.

Sadly I think this is only because it is assumed that men are stupid, inept buffoons when it comes to childcare (and most other things). I doubt any of them would have even batted an eyelash if Jen had showed up with both of them by herself.


After dropping Elliott off at home I went out and picked up the prescription from amoxicillin. Since Jen is highly allergic to amoxicillin we watched Elliott very carefully over the course of the evening but he seemed pretty happy apart from spitting out most of the amoxicillin all over me. Or maybe he was happy because of that.


After a very long day we did something we haven't done in about six years and orderd a pizza to be delivered. It felt very retro except that we ate it with babies on our lap which is sort of new.


Last night Jen's father popped in on his way back from Canada to shower us with gifts of Canadian foods.


He may, also, have wanted to visit the Wombats.


I repaid the favor with dinner starting with a nice cheese plate of Coach Farm Triple Cream Goat, Ubriacone, and Hudson Red served with lemon garlic olives, crackers, bread, Marcona almonds, and sliced salami.


As a pre-dinner warm up I poured this 1687 Brown Ale from Charter Oak Brewing Co., a new brewery out of Connecticut. It was an very nice brown ale which paired well with the cheese selection, particularly the creamy goat cheese.


As a salad I used up the giant Chiogga beet from the farm, julienned it on the mandolin, and tossed it with rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and pepper.


For the main course I grilled up some New York Strip Steaks and served them with caramelized ciopollini onions, green beans with garlic and butter, and mashed farm potatoes with truffle oil.


Along with dinner I served up this Scythe & Sickle Harvest Ale from Brewery Ommegang. This was another fall beer that was not at all what I was expecting but was incredible. This was a classic Belgian-style ale with all the flavor of a beer with twice the alcohol by volume. I was extremely pleasantly surprised by this one but, of course, I have never had a beer from Ommegang that I did not thoroughly enjoy.


For dinner I used leftovers from the last few nights to make this noodle dish with sesame oil, garlic, ginger, onion, bok choy, slices of New York Strip, Chiogga beets, peanut, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and radishes.


To accompany this unholy combination of leftovers I poured this Peeper Ale from Maine Beer Company. Jen had got me this beer as a gift for taking care of the guys while she was at work. This keeps with the theme that mothers are expected to take care of babies thanklessly and that fathers are big dummies.

I don't mind any kind of insult to my character so long as there is a present of delicious, free beer.


To cap off the evening I took some of the cider donuts from the farmer's market and made a sundae out of them with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

We would have also capped off the evening with a little television except for that the guys took an amazing late afternoon nap and have very little interest in sleeping now. Instead Jen is putting away laundry while I rock Elliott with my foot and write this blog entry.


The babies slept until 4:00 AM last night and then had a few other stretches which meant we got to nap until a little after 8:00 this morning, a rare luxury. If they can give us half that tonight I'd say we are getting off easy.

Of course the concept of "easy" has been relative these last few months.