Good Sleep, Bad Sleep, and Paella!

Last night was a triumph. Jen successfully put the babies to bed around 8:00 PM and we did not hear a peep from either of them until 5:00 AM. This would have been even better had we gone to bed before midnight, however, we will take what we can get.


The guys often transition into our bed at some point during the early morning. Jen has set a firm time of 5:00 AM. Often times a fussy baby will become relatively docile and fall asleep quickly after being transplanted to our bed. We just try to use this foolproof technique only as a last ditch effort. It must be the warm embrace of Mum and Dad that is so great at getting the guys to sleep.

Either that or our bedroom has a carbon monoxide leak.


I picked them up from day care where, apparently, they had barely napped at all. Before having to take them with me to pick up my car at the service center I put them both down for a nap. Lately they've enjoyed taking turns with one being the napper and the other showing no signs of fatigue. Can you spot which one is which in this photo?


One reason we got to bed so late last night was because I decided to have this Golding Pale Ale Britannique, another beer from Brasseurs Illimités. I intedned to just enjoy a quick beer before bed but ten minutes after pouring it the head was still rocketing up out of the glass making it look more like an ice cream cone than a beer.

The beer was very good but now I know for next time to give myself a little more lead time if I intend on drinking it in the same evening that it is poured.



Tonight the Wombats tried something new: corn. They really liked it. It was hard to tell if that was because it was really good or if they were just starving to death after having a 90 minute freak out session prior to Jen getting home. Magically after Mummy returned home they were giggly, snuggly, and charming. Prior to her arrival they were screaming and crying so badly that they were hyperventilating.

I guess this was just to balance the scales of baby justice after having such a great night last night.


They have been waking up early lately and have been hungry in the middle of the night. I advnaced a theory that maybe they were actually thirsty and not hungry. As it's extremely dry in our apartment I thought maybe we should give them some water before bed. It always seemed really weird to me that babies don't really drink. Sure, they have milk all day long, but never a glass of water. Tonight we figured we'd start them on water to see how they handle it.


It went about as well as could be expected.


Elliott was able to figure out how to put it in his mouth but didn't quite figure out how to extract any amount of water from it.


Martin mostly ignored his cup but occasionally would bash it into the tray of his high chair before tossing it onto the floor.

Success!


While this debacle was going on I put the finishing touches on dinner. In the interest of time I have been much more interested in quick-and-easy one pan meals lately. So it was that I put together a quick paella. I browned some garlic, threw in onion and pepper, chorizo, seared some chicken thighs, scallops, and shrimp, added some chicken stock from the freezer with saffron threads, added some chopped tomatoes, added some Valencia rice, littlenecks, and let it simmer on the stove until it was ready.


What better way to counter this Spanish meal than beer from Quebec? Specifically I opened this Flacatoune from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. This was a very, very nice Belgian-style pale ale. Maybe it was the stress of the lead up to dinner or the fatigue I was feeling but this was one of the more enjoyable beers I've had in a long, long time.

With the babies in bed and New Girl on the television we can only hope that we get as good a night as we did last night. Since the babies did next to no napping today you would think they'd sleep like logs -- I don't believe in the term 'sleep like a baby' ever since living with two babies -- but babies' sleeping habits do not often follow any form of logic. Life would be so much simpler if babies followed some sort of predictable pattern.

Or if they were just not so stupid that they couldn't figure out that they were tired and how to get to sleep on their own.

Dummies.

The Best Beer (and Babies) in the World

Last night was a train wreck. Martin continued his trend of only wanting to sleep in our bed. The problem is that with Jen home it's a bit tighter in that bed than it was with her away. This meant that he centered himself in the bed and got a fantastic night's sleep. Jen and I were pushed to the sides and both had horrible nights.


After dragging ourselves out of bed we brought the guys to the grocery store. It was an unnecessarily long shopping excursion which made the guys a little restless. Elliott calmed down after I let him ride in the shopping cart for the first time. He seemed to really enjoy this even though he would occasionally slide to one side and hit his head on the side of the cart.



At home, after a lovely two-hour nap, we made them their first fruit: peaches. They were frozen and a little acidic but the guys seemed to enjoy them. They're slightly below avocado in their list of favorites but I'm confident that if they had fresh, ripe summer peaches that they'd probably be straight at the top.

The Wombats' Favorite Foods (in descending order from favorite to least favorite)

1. Sweet Potato
   
2. Avocado
   
3. Peaches^*
   
4. Butternut Squash
   
5. Carrot
   
6. Peas
   

After their nightly ritual they still were not tired so I took out my guitar and sung them the classic lullaby, Neil Young's Southern Man. Some babies like songs about wheels on the bus or the lives of infant sea-dwelling mammals. Our babies like songs about racial tension in 1970s America. For dinner I made this lamb stew with garlic, onion, potato, carrot, parsnip, rutabaga, rosemary, turkey stock, flour, salt, pepper, and most of a bottle of Belgian Freeze beer. While the stew finished and the wombats slept I poured this Westvleteren XII from Sint-Sixtusabdij in Belgium. Jen had picked this extraordinarily hard-to-get beer up for me for Christmas and it was among one of the greatest Christmas presents I've ever gotten, right up there with the time I got the Soundwave action figure from The Transformers. For the first time ever it was released as a six pack -- an extremely expensive six pack that looks like it was designed by the makers of Wolfenstein 3D. The verdict was that this beer was pretty damn good. Was it the best beer in the world? That's difficult to say. It was certainly excellent. It was certainly among the best of its style that I've ever had. I just don't feel comfortable comparing it to wildly different beers. In the realm of Belgian Quadruples it is definitely tops. The history and story behind the beer are romantic and it's hard to taste it without allowing that reputation to cloud your judgment. I'm glad I have a few extra bottles to try aging. I'd love to see how the flavor is affected over the years. Along with the beer I put out this Blue Castello cheese with candied pecans. Jen enjoyed the beer but she enjoyed the candied pecans even more. She even ate more of the cheese than I did which is rare as she is not as in love with blue cheeses as I am.
Finally the stew was ready after the Wombats (mostly Martin) had settled down. I served it over a creamy polenta with some additional fresh rosemary.

It was a great night. We had a great time with the boys. I got to make a winter stew in the freezing cold. I got to have the best beer in the entire world. It really doesn't get that much better than that.

Now it's just hard to stay up to watch hockey when we are so unbelievably exhausted. We're still getting used to the fact that a simple day off with the babies is one of the most tiring things that can happen to us in our lives.

But maybe the babies will sleep straight through until 7:00 tomorrow morning and we will be completely refreshed.

I have no idea what I would do with that kind of sleep.

Six Months

Yesterday the Wombats turned six months old. Unfortunately the had a rough night leading into their six month birthday. However, when they woke up they were all smiles.


They are generally smiley as can be in the morning. They seem delighted to have us wake them up in the morning and take them to day care. Unfortunately we got a call in the afternoon that Martin had returned to his earlier tricks and was screaming his head off all day.


This meant we had to divide up. I grabbed Elliott and took him home while Jen took Martin to the late night clinic to get tested out. All the tests came back negative and it was determined that he was suffering from a condition known simply as fussiness. Perhaps he had begun seriously teething. Or, he was just tired of giving his dear old parents a moment of rest each evening.

Our planned six month birthday celebration turned into an evening of consoling babies and ended with Elliott eating so much that he exploded vomit like Mount Vesuvius. This resulted in having to mop the floor, give him a full bath, and burn the pajamas he'd been wearing.


Tonight I was ale to practice my one-handed knife skills and chop up the vegetables for dinner with one hand while I alternately held Martin and Elliott. This was pretty challenging and ended up making dinner be both late and poorly chopped.

For dinner I made this cous cous with garlic, onion, pepper, kale, broccoli, and shrimp. These were all leftover from meals we had during Christmas and New Year's while Jen's sister visited. When it was done I sprinkled some crumbled feta on top and squeezed fresh lemon over it as well. It was a nice, light dish for the new year. While I'm not the New Year's Resolution type I am the Oh-My-God-I-Can't-Keep-Eating-Butter type.


Jen settled back with this 2008 Snap Dragon red wine.


I, on the other hand, had this International Arms Race Zero IBU IPA from Flying Dog Brewery. They had a contest with BrewDog overseas to see who could make the best IPA using no hops at all. This seemed like a very interesting challenge to me so I was very excited to try it. It wasn't all that bitter at all, actually. It was good but not quite what I'd expected. I'd expected them to use something like rosemary stems or something to achieve the bitter taste.

This wouldn't be my go to beer every day but it was a very interesting experience that, perhaps, fell a little short because of the expectations I'd built up for it in my mind.


Today we got a picture of Elliott from day care where it looks like they may have been running a little low on bibs. We were happy to see Elliott not feel confined by standard gender roles. It shows a lot of character for a six month old.

Elliott scoffs at your standard ideas of gender identity.

Not Quite Ready For Food

Yesterday I picked up the second to last farm share of the season. The area I picked up at was still mostly out of power. The pickup location was running on a generator and the street was littered with out of town utility workers who, two weeks later, were still working around the clock to restore power to the area. This is a comparatively wealthy part of a very wealthy town so I'm guessing if they hadn't restored power yet things were probably pretty serious.


This week we got two pounds of beets (which ended up being one giant beet), carrots, two Brussels sprouts stalks, a bunch of kale, garlic, sage, boc choi, celeriac, turnips, pop corn cobs, Winesap Stamen Apples, Golden Delicious Apples, Bosc Pears, and a jug of apple cider.


The doctor said to monitor the babies for interest in solid food. She said once they showed interest we could start feeding them solids. We started putting them onto the dinner table in their Bumbos while we eat dinner. At this point they have shown less interest in solid food than just about anything else we've ever exposed them to.


Martin, however, did enjoy sucking on my finger after I ate short ribs the other night. He enjoyed it so much that he has since tried sucking on me and Jen's fingers a few times only to give us a look of skepticism and disappointment when he has discovered a distinct lack of short rib flavor.


For salad tonight I made this salad with leftover Boston Bibb lettuce, avocado, red onion, sesame oil, lime juice, and soy sauce.

After getting the Wombats home from daycare and dealing with their post-daycare freak out (well, mostly Martin's) there isn't a lot of time to cook dinner these days. I have started a daily routine whereby I put them into a dimly lit room and play soothing music.

This does nothing.

So while they freak out I jump into the kitchen, hastily chop up some vegetables, and then throw it in a pot to simmer while I tend to them.


Tonight I chopped up some onion, carrot, ginger, turnip, bok choy, and ground pork and threw them unceremoniously into a pan with some sesame oil, soy sauce, and the remainder of the short rib braising liquid from the other night. I cooked up some soba noodles which I served the dish over with some sliced radishes and freshly squeezed lime juice.


For beer we ended our 2012 pumpkin beer season with this beer called The Fear Imperial Pumpkin Ale from Flying Dog Brewery. This was the most unique of the batch for sure. It was dark and had a coffee and chocolate bitterness to it, something unlike anything I've experienced in a pumpkin beer before. I hesitate to list it with the rest of the beers because I feel like it was in a glass all by itself. However, in terms of how much I enjoyed it I can slot it in below.

It's misleading though because I'd highly recommend this beer if you're looking to try something very different from your standard pumpkin ale.

2012 Pumpkin Beer Standings (Final Results)

1. River Horse Brewing Company Hipp-O-Lantern Imperial Pumpkin - subtle flavors, perfect balance
   
2. Shipyard Brewing Company Smashed Pumpkin - more pumpkin than spice
   
3. Samuel Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale - rich maltiness
   
4. Southern Tier Brewing Company Pumking - fresh pumpkin muffin batter
   
5. Long Trail Brewmasters Series Imperial Pumpkin - dubbel-style malt
   
6. Harpoon UFO Unfiltered Pumpkin - wheaty and balanced
   
7. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale - good malt, heavy spice
   
8. Flying Dog The Fear Imperial Pumpkin Ale - coffee bitterness and spice
   
9. Saranac Brewery Pumpkin Ale - light vanilla finish
   
10. Uinta Brewing Company Punk'n - nicely balanced
    
11. Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale - creamy head and molasses
    
12. New Holland Brewing Company Ichabod Ale - heavy spice
    
13. Captain Lawrence Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale - slightly sour
    
14. Fire Island Beer Company Pumpkin Barrel Ale - too much cinnamon
    

One thing I learned this year is that imperial pumpkin ales are far more enjoyable for me than regular pumpkin ales. For 2013 I think I will stick exclusively with the imperial variety. After dinner we split a single cupcake from Sugarrush which was voted the best cupcakes in New Jersey! It was an extra bonus for me since Jen doesn't like M&Ms and I got to eat all of hers. Except for the ones she spit out, that would be a little gross. After dinner we enjoyed some quiet family time where I got to share a beer with Elliott. He seemed to really enjoy it. Note: Before any buttinsky parenting experts chime in, no babies were actually fed any beer in the making of this blog entry.

Lastoberfest

Yesterday marked the end of my stretch of Mr. Mom time and, sadly, I had to return to work. All three days were rainy but the last two days I managed to get out of the house to take the guys for a quick walk. Yesterday Martin was an angel who didn't cry at all except for when I took him into La Pain Quotidien.

Apparently he shares his father's level of enthusiasm for this particular chain.


After a quick walk I was able to shuffle them into the car and off to pick up another odd mid-week farm share pick up.

This week we got Siberian kale, Delicata squash, leeks, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, potatoes, pumpkin, parsley, eggplant, Jona Gold apples, Empire apples, and Seckle Pears.


After Jen got home from work we enjoyed the last in this year's Oktoberfest beer selection: this Dogtobergest from Flying Dog Brewery. We've only had a few Oktoberfest beers this year but each of them has been excellent. It's not always my favorite style but I think the Oktoberfest beers we've had this year may be turning me around on this subject. Like anything else I guess there are so many poor versions of this beer on the market that they obscure what is, on the surface, a very enjoyable type of beer.


To go along with the Oktoberfest theme I made this roasted pumpkin with sausage, sage, onion, garlic, and tossed in some fresh potato and cheese pierogies. Unfortunately I did not have time to try my new brilliant idea for an Oktoberfest-themed stuffed pumpkin. Unfortunately that will have to wait until next year. Cliffhanger!

Is it still a cliffhanger if no one actually cares?


Tonight Jen made a wonderful salad with apple, pear, feta, red onion, and walnuts. She also made a vinaigrette in a gigantic Ball jar which is one of her favorite things to do. I'm not sure exactly what was in the dressing but the whole thing was delicious.


For dinner we let Mario Batali cook for us. Well, we let his chefs at Tarry Lodge cook for us and had this prosciutto pizza with arugula and tagliatelle with bolognese sauce. It was so good and easy it makes me wonder why we don't have a celebrity chef's minions cook for us every night.


I hadn't intended on writing a blog entry tonight. When I don't plan on blogging I usually pick myself up a nice, large beer that I have had before. Tonight's selection was this Anchor Steam Beer which I blogged about over a year ago during my Classic Beer Weekend. It's just as good as I remember it and I will be visiting the brewery on a work-related trip next week so I am greatly looking forward to having it fresh out of the tap with whatever other beers they have to offer.

If only the Wombats were joining me.


After dinner things somehow degenerated into an impromptu photoshoot. We took pictures of the guys in some of the outfits they've gotten as gifts as well as on top of many of the blankets and quilts that have been crafted for them.


Unfortunately we have pushed laundry off far too long and we were scraping the bottom of the barrel with finding pajamas to dress them in. These were the last two sleep outfits they had left in their drawers. After all it must have been upwards of four days since I've washed every article of clothing that they own. I don't know what I was thinking by pushing things that far.

Enough talk. Time to do laundry.

It's Raining Wombats

Last night after posting the blog entry and having plans for a relaxing evening of putting the babies to bed and catching up on some television. Instead Martin and Elliott launched into a fuss that would rattle the very foundation of our lives. It only lasted a couple of hours but we finally got to sleep around 1:00 AM, bewildered and exhausted.

This was surprising since the previous night they'd had a record-setting seven hour sleep! Even last night, after the fuss, they slept for a solid six hours.


Today they took quite a few unexpectedly long naps. While this was good for my productivity it is a little scary because I wonder if they will just spend all night awake.


After naps I forced them into some tummy time. Elliott used to hate tummy time until he learned that you can treat tummy time as 'lie on your tummy and don't move at all time.' Since discovering this he has had a marked increase in his enjoyment of this morning activity.

While the Wombats enjoyed their afternoon nap I got to work on dinner.


I started with this salad of roasted farm beets and onions, St. Nuage cheese, and toasted pistachios. I drizzled a little olive oil and honey over the top with salt and pepper.


For the main course I took this "Jersey Arm" cut of beef short rib and seared it in a pan with onion, garlic, celery, potato, and chunks of pumpkin. I added some Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale, and chicken stock before covering it and throwing it in the oven to braise for two or three hours.



I took advantage of the braising time to bathe both the boys and get them ready for bed. They've really embraced bath time and only fuss a little at the very beginning if I put them down in their bath and they get cold water on them. In all fairness I would probably make a bigger deal than them of this if someone ever put my bare back against some cold water. In fact I'd probably punch someone in the face about it.

Luckily the Wombats lack the kind of coordinated muscle control that would land me a knuckle sandwich.


After bath time we enjoyed the short ribs which came out quite nicely. Of course it ended up being a little warm and humid today as opposed to yesterday's temperatures in the fifties. Braised short ribs weren't quite as appropriate as they may have been yesterday but we usually force the seasons based on our desire to eat seasonal dishes and my desire to use my seasonal beers in an appropriate way.

Sometimes it's more the latter than the former.


As an accompaniment I poured this Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale from Samuel Adams. In the scheme of pumpkin beers we've had so far this year this was at the top of the list. It was a rich, malty beer with far less obnoxious spice notes than some tend to have. I've enjoyed all of the Sam Adams Limited Release Beers so far this year and this one was no different.

Here are the current pumpkin beer standings as I see them so far.

2012 Pumpkin Beer Standings:

1. Samuel Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale
   
2. Captain Lawrence Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale
   
3. Fire Island Beer Company Pumpkin Barrel Ale
   

And at that day number two of Mr. Mom has gone off without a hitch. We've tried not putting the TV on at all in an attempt to have a slightly less fuss-filled evening that last night. With a little bit of luck we will enjoy another seven hours of sleep and not have a three hour run of fuss leading to it.

Only time will tell how wrong I am.

In Belgium They Call Summer Winter

Sometimes, when the pressure is on, one does their best work. This doesn't really apply to me but I thought I'd bring it up because I find it to be an interesting fact.

Tonight I had 15 minutes to put together dinner before picking up Jen at the train station. That meant I had to kick it into SUPER PREP MODE, a state only previously achieved during extremely stressful days when working in restaurants. Achieving SUPER PREP MODE while at home and only cooking for two is overdoing it a bit but it does make for a speedy dinner.



I started off by putting out some Italian bread with some St. Angel which I'd purchased for Jen since it's delicious and pasteurized therefore meeting the criteria of every alarmist study on eating during pregnancy that we have come across.



In a pan I browned up some garlic with butter and olive oil, threw in some shallots, Yukon Gold potatoes, and tossed in some chicken then threw it into the oven with a little rosemary on top. After dashing out to pick up Jen I returned home, threw in some chopped New Jersey asparagus, roasted Divina tomatoes, mozzarella, and a little more rosemary before tossing it under the broiler to brown.

This was a hasty but happy dish, one that can only happen when one is in an extreme rush. I'd recommend it as a nice spring dish for early in the season where it is still chilly at night.



For a drink I opened up the last of Jen's Valentine's gifts, this Winter 12 from Hof Ten Dormaal in Belgium. This was a fantastic beer with just the right amount of Belgiany goodness and a great floral taste. I thought it had the taste of fresh flower petals from the type of hops used until I found out from the back of the bottle that there were actual rose petals used in the brewing process, something that Jen had told me but I had forgotten.

I'm not sure why this beer is called Winter. The website, written entirely in the strange language of Belgium, may or may not explain this name but if they are referring to the season I think they have it all wrong. This beer was wonderfully refreshing but it is odd to be refreshed when it is 49 degrees out. I would love to have this beer again on a hot day in mid-summer.

Maybe in Belgium summer is actually called winter!