The Easy Life

For Valentine's Day Jen and I did something we haven't done in a long, long time. We went out for dinner! We've never been out for dinner for Valentine's Day even before the babies were born. The last time I was in a restaurant on Valentine's Day it was because I was working there.

In general it is not a recommended move to go out for Valentine's Day at a restaurant. It's expensive, crowded, slow, and just generally a more poor experience than you would normally have at that restaurant.


However, we had a very generous offer from my cousin Rebecca to babysit the babies so we were totally pumped to get out for the evening. It didn't really matter that it was Valentine's Day. It was just amazing to be out for a couple of hours.



Last night Jen's mum and sister arrived. Unfortunately the Wombats were already in bed so they had to wait until this morning to commence their baby-snuggling. In short it has been like we've been on vacation for the past 48 hours. We've had a 100% increase in snuggle-hungry adults around to care for the guys. I almost don't know what to do with all the free time. Other than laundry. And dishes. And all the other errands we've been ignoring.


For lunch we tried mashing up some banana and avocado together. Elliott liked it but Martin seemed to hate it even more than stand alone bananas. It was like we betrayed him by mixing one of his favorite foods with one of his least favorite foods.

I imagine he will spend the next decade planning his revenge.


Before dinner I cracked open one a new IPA from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. Strangely they've never made just a plain IPA and this was release just a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice but reminded me more of an IPA from the west coast rather than one made about ten miles from here.


For dinner I put together this odd "risotto" with freekeh, barley, onion, garlic, carrot, grape tomato, vegetable stock, cream, a touch of tomato sauce, Parmigiano-Reggiano, salt, and pepper. I wasn't really sure about this one but it went over really well.

Martin sat in my lap while we ate and was extremely interested in dinner. I dipped my finger in the sauce and let him suck on it and he pretty much took the skin off my hand. I'm thinking we're going to start pureeing our dinner for them pretty soon. That way they can be insufferable food snobs . . . just like mom and dad!


Jen and her mum both enjoyed this 2009 Domaine de Poulvarel.


Not wanting to let a good beer opportunity go to waste I had this The Talented Mr. Orangutan from Evil Twin Brewing in Denmark. I didn't know anything about this beer other than that it happened to have an amazing name. It turns out it was a stout that was brewed with oranges. It was a bit of an odd pairing with tonight's dinner but I'm glad I had it. I'm not sure what exactly I would pair with this in the future if I ever had it again. Still, with a name like that who really cares?


On our walk today I found this Sweet Potato and Torched Marshmallow ice cream from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I had to give this a shot and I was glad I did. Jen found it merely "interesting" while I thought it was quite delicious. Jen's mum and Lauren opted out entirely. I am fine with not sharing any of the remainder of this ice cream with anyone. There was actually a plastic shaving in the first bite I took but it was so good that I really didn't care.

I do wonder if each container is hand written with Sharpie or if that is just a really cleverly printed label. It's like those letters that come in the mail and look like they're handwritten to get you to open them then when you open them you find out it's a total scam designed to get you to send someone money in exchange for a fake rock to hide your spare house key.


Spending the whole day with the dudes is always great. Spending the whole day with the dudes with two additional helpers is like a walk in the park. It's like our lives have become the easiest lives in America overnight.

Now I just need to figure out a way into bribing our guests into staying a little bit longer. Like for ETERNITY!

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Tonight when I picked up the guys from day care Martin looked at me and became so elated that he began shaking all of his limbs and giving me the biggest smile I'd ever seen.


It's pretty nice to see that reaction in someone. Elliott, on the other hand, gave me a look like I was seriously lacking. Somehow I disappointed him greatly. I guess he was expecting to get picked up by someone a lot cooler than his dear old dad.


Tonight, we tried the Wombats on their first taste of apples. Martin was a very big fan. Elliott was hesitant at first because he was kind of acting like a weirdo. After some maneuvering he ate a healthy portion as well. It was one of their favorite foods so far.

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

1. Pears
   
2. Sweet Potato
   
3. Apples (McIntosh)
   
4. Avocado
   
5. Mango^*
   
6. Peaches^*
   
7. Butternut Squash
   
8. Bananas
   
9. Carrot
   
10. Peas
    

^*Frozen. Will rank again fresh. After finally wrangling the babies to bed we had a quick dinner including this Sculpin India Pale Ale from Ballast Point Brewing Company. I kept hearing great things about this beer. I've seen this around for years but I've never thought to try it given the picture of the big dumb fish on the label. It turns out it's a really, really good IPA for a very reasonable price. Who would have thought that after looking at that strange bottom-feeder on the label? Elliott has been having trouble staying asleep lately and seems to only want to sleep in bed snuggling with me. While this is fine by me I think it's probably best to break him of this habit. It will become particularly awkward when he starts to have sleepovers.
Instead I took off my shirt and let him snuggle with that which seemed to knock him right out. It seems like bad parenting to put dirty laundry in the crib with your child but I like to take a "Whatever Works" type approach to parenting.

Now I just need to figure out how I can get them to start doing the laundry. It's never to early to learn household chores!

Breakfast: It's What's For Dinner

Last night I was smacked on the head with some sort of mystery malady. I picked up the babies from day care and new that I needed only to make it one hour until Jen was home so that I could just go immediately to sleep. I fed them and got them in their pajamas and prayed for her prompt return.


While I waited Elliott started crying and I could barely move to comfort him. Luckily Martin saw this and took it upon himself to attempt to comfort him by patting his arm. It was a touching moment. Me, being the great father I am, sat back and recorded this incident. This was mostly because I lacked the energy to sit up immediately.

Note: I did pick him up after a minute to comfort him. I'm not a complete monster.

After Jen got home I helped her get them ready to bed, ate two pieces of toast, then went to bed at 8:00 PM and slept for eleven hours.


Today I was till pretty tired but didn't feel completely exhausted. When I got home I set the babies up to play in the kitchen in their walkers while I made dinner. Tonight, in honor of Shrove Tuesday, I made breakfast for dinner. This is something that drive Jen crazy every year because she claims I am bastardizing the holiday by removing the focus from the traditional pancakes. It's interesting because I never used to do anything for Shrove Tuesday until I met her and she showed me to make pancakes and made a side of scrambled eggs. I'm just riffing now. She hates my riffing much the same way she hates jazz.

This year to keep with the theme I cracked open a Breakfast beer from MOA Brewing Co. in New Zealand. This beer was a lot fruitier than I thought it would be. Apparently it's brewed with cherries but I tasted more banana than anything. Overall it wasn't what I expected but that's mostly because I'm dumb and didn't read the label.


While Elliott dutifully in his crib like a good little boy Martin zipped around the kitchen in his walker while I prepared the first course of our dinner: sliced ham, scrambled eggs with Gruyere cheese, and home fries with crispy onions.


Of course I served a plate of steaming hot pancakes to accompany this dinner. Jen made up for her earlier complaining about me bastardizing the holiday by telling me that I make the best pancakes. Flattery will get her everywhere!


In the midst of all this eating and cooking Martin has discovered that he can also eat something . . . his toes! Unfortunately he darts around like a minnow and I couldn't get a really great picture of him performing this new task. He seems quite excited about this turn of events as, I'm sure, his Auntie Lauren will also be.


After dinner I poured another breakfast-themed beer that I've really been looking forward to trying, this Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale from Rogue. I am a big fan of Rogue but I am sad to report that this beer was just awful. I knew what I was getting into. I was fully prepared to taste a strange beer given the name and the ingredients. I was not expecting anything other than a very bizarre beverage. Unfortunately what I got was something that was undrinkable. This is one of only two or three beers in my life that I could not drink. Sadly I ended up pouring it down the drain. I had about 1/4 of a glass but that was all I could deal with. Every aspect of it was unpleasant. It had a harsh and confusing smoked flavor. I've had smoked beers before but this was just awful. I couldn't really pick up on the bacon flavor at all, just the taste of burnt something-or-other. The maple flavor was there but in a very off-putting sweet manner.

I can't help but think there's a possibility of making a drinkable beer using this concept. Of course it will be weird but weird is fine. This beer didn't taste weird it just tasted bad.

It was so bad it makes me wonder if I was doing something wrong. I mean, all I did was chill it, pour it, and drink it. But surely it couldn't taste like this on purpose. Maybe there was some sort of instruction on the bottle that I missed. It made me question everything.

Needless to say I won't be rushing out to try their newest collaboration with Voodoo Doughnut. I think it would best if Voodoo Doughnut stuck to doughnuts, Rogue stuck to beers and they never spoke of this again.

At least that's what I'm going to do.

Exit the Dragon

The babies were born in the year of the dragon. My mother commemorated this with a a Chinese brush painting of some baby dragons.


This shows a tremendous amount of foresight as these dragons seem to mimic the babies. One baby came out with little fuss. The other wanted to stay inside his shell (i.e. mother's womb) indefinitely. This hangs right over their changing table and they always seem to look fondly on this picture, particularly Elliott who is quite impressed with his own rebellious nature.


While I was at work getting caught up after the blizzard Jen was left to care for the two sick babies. She reports that they seem to have turned a corner today. I hope she is correct. After a week or so with both of them being sick I could use with a little less snot, coughing, and fever in my life and theirs. Their regular trips to the sauna (our bathroom) seem to be helping.


They took a series of naps today long enough to allow Jen to bake some muffins which was great news for me. We don't have enough room in the freezer for them so Jen suggested she take them to work.

I told her that was a foolish idea. I am going to spend most of tonight trying to squeeze them in somehow.


So begins the year of the snake. I was born in the year of the snake. It's much less cool than the dragon but equally as reptilian and untrustworthy. There aren't many trustworthy animals on the Chinese calendar so being stuck with a slimy serpent is the best you can hope for.

Except for the horse. Horses are super trustworthy.

I made some egg rolls to signify the beginning of a sleazy snake year.


I also made this noodle salad with noodles, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, red pepper, Chinese cabbage, Sichuan peppercorns, and green onion.


I also made these Chinese cabbage rolls with steamed cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of pork, egg, onion, red pepper, soy sauce, rice vinegar, bread crumbs, and hot sauce.


To ring in the year of the snake I poured this Spiral Jetty IPA from Epic Brewing. Jen got this on her most recent trip to Utah. It was a fantastic IPA with a wonderful grapefruit flavor. This was another winner from this newish brewery in Utah.

The year of the dragon was a pretty good one. It brought us two dragon babies and a lot of lasting memories. Here's to hoping that this slimy, no good snake will be even half as good as the glorious mythical dragon.

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

How To Survive a Blizzard with No Preparation

We did not prepare for this storm in any way. We didn't rush to go to the grocery store, we bought no additional milk or bread. This was an extremely risky test. Would we be able to weather a blizzard and not die of starvation without going to the grocery store ahead of time. In fact, we hadn't bought any groceries since Tuesday.

We're risk takers. What can I say?


For lunch I managed to cobble together this tuna melt using bread from the freezer, canned tuna, hop pickles, onion, celery, hot sauce, horseradish mustard, dill, lemon juice, Gruyere, olive oil, butter, and potato chips.

No milk or fresh bread were used in the making of this sandwich.


The guys are still quite sick but they had a few moments of good spirits spaced out through the day between layers of screaming and fussing.



After lunch the Wombats desperately wanted to sleep but instead we strapped them into carriers and brought them out into the freezing cold to go for a walk. Some doctor somewhere said that it's good to give them exposure to cold air when they're sick. Sounds like a bunch of malarcky to me but it was a good to get out and stretch our legs.


For dinner I used up a bunch of leftover ingredients to throw together this risotto with garlic, onion, peppers, ham from the freezer, risotto, turkey stock, riesling, olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, half and half, kale, and fresh chervil.


On our walk into town Jen was so impressed that our local wine shop was open that she said we should go in and buy a few bottles. We picked up this bottle of 2011 Lurra Garnacha because Jen felt the sheep on the label was "hilarious." I didn't find it all that funny but Jen and the clerk at the wine shop tried to convince me that this sheep was in some way humorous.

They failed.


To combat Jen's sheep I went with the goat, the symbol of German bock beer! In this case it was actually a Belgian version of said beer brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge. My parents got this one for me for Christmas and it was a very nice bock that was fairly faithful to style with a slight note of Belgian yeast.

And there you have it. We somehow managed to survive a dinner with no extra milk or bread. We really played with fire tonight. Now if we can just manage to get to a grocery store at some point in the next five weeks before we run out of food.

Time is a-ticking.