5 Years, 11 Months

On Friday it rained all day with the threat of floods. Knowing the routine I moved both of our cars to higher ground and we went to bed hoping for the best.


By the morning, when we went to take the guys to swim class, the rain had stopped but the brook was nearly ready to flood. Just another dodged bullet as we foolishly prepare to renew our lease for another year.

Apparently we're just not content with the amount of time we've spent evacuated and the amount of money in storm-related losses since moving into this place four years ago.


Saturday was the Wombats' eleventh month birthday. Elliott has been indicating that he would be crawling any day now. We woke up in the morning with him being unable to crawl but at some point after lunch something clicked and he suddenly realized how to crawl. This meant that he was able to repeatedly escape the living room and go to the hallway where he looked as if he'd discovered the lost city of gold.


In addition to being the Wombats' eleven-month birthday it also happened to be our five year wedding anniversary. We took advantage of this by getting a babysitter for the first time ever and going to Bedford Post Inn.

It was a great meal. If you don't want to be bored with what we ate, please skip ahead to the next section.



We started off with the citrus cured sardines on toast and the mixed crostinis of the day.



That was followed up with the pappardelle, rabbit sausage, fava beans, and leaves (not sure what that means) and the fagotelli, parmigiano fonduta, and chopped truffles.



I had the New York Strip steak special with broccoli and shiitake mushrooms and Jen had the half grilled lobster with herb butter.



As an accompaniment we ordered the marble potatoes with garlic and lemon and sugar snap peas with wild cucumber, feta, and mint. I don't actually think there were cucumbers or mint in the latter but that was fine with me.


For dessert with had the maple mousse with caramelized banana and brown butter ice cream which was outstanding.


And, to top it all off, our waitress looked just like Deputy Jo Lupo from Eureka!

That truly made it an evening to remember.

And, speaking of television cops, we saw a real cop on our way home from Bedford which just happens to be one of the richest places we've ever been. The cop had pulled someone over in a giant police SUV. We couldn't see the car that had been pulled over until we passed and this is what we saw.


Okay this isn't exactly what we saw. I found this on some antique car website but the car and the people in it are almost identical to who had been pulled over by the police. It was a perfect way to leave this ritzy town and return to the poorest corner of our pretty ritzy town.


The next morning we woke up early and decided to walk to the beach with the guys. They were doing some rebuilding from the storm and we were able to take this picture with the babies standing next to a digger before being chased away by the beach police.


We had a nice little time sitting in the park by the beach and all enjoying a refreshing beverage as the late morning sun was starting to make things quite warm.


We even stopped by a yard sale on the walk home where we contemplated buying a great number of things that we didn't need but ended up settling for some measuring spoons and cups so that the boys could play with them instead of using the ones we actually use for cooking.


Minutes before arriving at home both guys fell asleep just in time to be woken up for lunch.


When they were awake I made them their first omelet with only egg yolks and cheddar. This was only after Jen and I arguing about whether of not they should have egg whites as well. This is the source of our only real parenting disagreement. Jen feels that they should wait until they are a year old to have whites because the most common allergic reaction to eggs is from the protein in the whites. I argue that they've had eggs in any number of baked items they've had in the past but that argument doesn't get me anywhere.

If we can make this marriage work despite these differences I think there's hope out there for everyone.



The first omelet went over pretty well despite the fact that Martin treated it like he treats every new food. That is to say he reacts as if he's just licked a lemon.



The same was true of the watermelon they snacked on later in the afternoon. They really only napped for a matter of minutes despite the two hour walk we took to the beach. The main purpose of the walk, of course, was to let them nap.

By the time I left for work at 5:00 PM they had just settled in for their first nap of the day. I felt a pretty intense wave of guilt come over me as I left Jen alone for what promised to be a challenging evening.

Working until 4:00 AM in the morning while nursing a pretty bad sunburn was the easy way out. It's been eleven years together, five of them married. Eleven years from now we should have it a bit easier.

We just need to figure out who takes the guys to karate practice.

Nine Months In, Nine Months Out

Today was an important day. It officially marked the Wombats' nine month birthday. This means they've spent as much time on the outside as they have on the inside when they were merely wombmates and not yet Wombats.


It's hard to imagine that nine months ago today they babies entered the world. Back then we thought we were so busy. We thought we had such limited free time. We thought we didn't get enough sleep.

We were so lucky and so, unbelievably stupid.


When I picked the guys up from day care today, for some reason, they were both wearing these bibs. Martin's was comically small and Elliott's was large enough to double as a sleeping bag. I'm pretty sure this wasn't done on purpose but it was spectacular.


After I got them home I decided to celebrate their nine month birthday with a #9 from Magic Hat Brewing Company. I've had this beer a bunch over the years, though not much in the last decade. I was trying to think of another nine-themed beer but this was the best I could come up with. I had this recently out of a bottle and I was not thrilled with it. I must admit that out of the glass it was much more enjoyable, though still much more malty than I'd expect from a pale ale (or a "not so pale" ale).


For dinner I served them some flounder with spinach, rice, and milk.


After dinner Martin decided that he was going to use his Mum-Mum as if it were some sort of ceremonial sword rather than eating it in a timely fashion.


Elliott, on the other hand, spent his time perfecting his new skill: removing his bib. He did this about four or five times during the course of his dinner and snacks.

This means things are about to get increasingly difficult.


After dinner, when Jen got home, I made them their first yogurt with cut up mango bits.



Despite their initial reactions -- which I will optimistically refer to as lukewarm -- they ended up loving this combination. I was surprised because I was pretty sure that they would hate the sourness of the yogurt. Apparently the mango offered enough of a balance that they were big fans.


To further celebrate their nine month birthday I also enjoyed this La Vache Folle Imperial Milk Stout from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. It was 9% alcohol which kept with the night's theme. It's a stretch but at least there's some sort of tie in. I got this one in Quebec and it was one of the one's I was most looking forward to trying as the idea of an Imperial Milk Stout was an enticing one. It delivered in every way. It was one of the best beers from the recent Quebec trip. I highly recommend picking this one up if you have the opportunity.


For dessert we had more of the labne with mango and honey. This labne stuff is pretty awesome. I'm so happy Caolan and Paul were nice enough to bring it over. And we're only about half way through the container! Maybe there'll be another nine months of labne-themed blog entries.

And maybe we'll even mention what the Wombats are up to as well.

ஐநூறு - A Celebration of Adequacy

I'm not one to draw unnecessary attention to this blog (follow us on Facebook!) or reflect back on any of our past posts (follow us with Google!) but I think it's worth mentioning that this is our 500th post.

That's right, this is the 500th post since we started blogging our dinners over three years ago. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Even though 400 or so of these meals probably weren't even worth mentioning and the other 100 were only moderately interesting. If nothing else I have to admire my own compulsive, misplaced discipline.

So I only really realized last night (when I noted it was the 499th entry) that tonight would be the 500th. I got home around 7:30 PM and Jen was working quite late so I wasn't really sure what to do with this 500th entry. Should I write an entry to reflect back on the last 499 entries and bore you all to tears? Should I create an elaborate multi-course meal and bore you all to tears? There really were an unlimited number of options.

What I decided was to do exactly what I was going to do for dinner tonight anyway. Given that I didn't really have any interesting ingredients around it's barely worth blogging about, however, it does pad my numbers nicely.



I slowly cooked some onion and potato in what I like to call "the lazy man's ghee." Basically that's just melted butter that I haven't clarified because I don't feel like it.

In the freezer I had the leftover lamb leg meat from Easter. I cut that into chunks, tossed it together with the vegetables, then poured in some ready made Tikka Masala sauce and simmered everything for about an hour. After the potatoes were tender I added some remaining frozen okra and green peas then served a few minutes later over some cooked white rice.



I wouldn't have really had a beer with this meal but I figured it was the 500th entry so I owed it to myself (and my fans fan mom) to have one. What better than another Belgian ale from For beer Brouwerij Van Steenberge that my parents had brought over for Easter? It would be a perfect accompaniment go the lamb (also from Easter).

Traditionally one would pair a lager with Indian food. The theory is that foods like Indian are so flavorful that you want a really neutral beer to accompany them. My theory is that that's all well and good but wouldn't it be much more fun to have a beer that was actually good on its own. It turns out I was right!

I think I'm at a point in my life now where I don't really ever need to have another lager again. Then again, who knows. My tastes and preferences are always changing. Maybe in the distant future I'll be tempted to have a lager again.

So the 500th entry on this blog is nothing special but it is touches on a lot of the themes we've developed over the past years: eating dinner at 10:30 PM, Belgian beer, using up a bunch of stuff from the freezer even if it's not really what we want to eat.

For that reason this entry is probably the most average representation of everything that's lead up to this point.

Maybe by the 1,000th post we'll have finally cleaned out our freezer while enjoying a lager.