Today in La Cocina de Chen

It's not often that I roll out not one but two restaurant-quality meals in one day.  It all started by my telling Sam, "I have steak, and we can either have it for lunch or for dinner, and I don't have 2 meals in me today, so choose when you want a good meal."  However, inspiration apparently struck.  I should have taken pictures.  I'm going to have to recreate these one day--soon.

We had steak for lunch.  Our afternoons tend to go much better if we're all well fed with a good lunch.  If only I had it in me to make a great lunch every day.

Skirt steak, seasoned with salt & pepper, cooked (in a glob of butter) on the cast iron skillet, served with:
Red onion marmalade: one red onion, thinly sliced, sauteed until tender, then cooked for just a few minutes with equal parts sugar and red wine vinegar (about 1 T each).  Trust me, it's an amazing garnish for steak.  And just about anything else you might want a sweet pickled vinaigretted (I just made that word up) onion flavor on.
Yellow rice (in the rice cooker: rice, chicken broth/water, a spoonful of ground turmeric, and a dash each of: oregano, coriander, and cumin), with the addition, when finished, of:
microwaved peas & carrots.

It was the most delicious and colorful and easy meal I've made in a long time.  The colors were remarkable.  The whole plate was beautiful. 

And for dinner, I wasn't feeling like making dinner, and our refrigerator had a strange hodge-podge of ingredients:
A somewhat questionable package of baby spinach, 5 eggs, half a package of bacon, half a package of hash browns and 3 overripe bananas.  Plus the leftover sauteed onions.

Brinner!  Of course!  No, there's no of course about it.  I was grasping at straws, and got lucky.

I mixed up a dozen banana nut muffins, omitting the nuts, and instead adding oat bran for a portion of the flour.  While those cooked, I threw bacon on a skillet and let it do its thing on low heat.  You can never go wrong having bacon cooked.
In the meantime, I browsed cookbooks.  There's not much to be made with the remaining 3 eggs.  So, one egg per person, and it has to count.
Once the bacon was done, I used the same pan (and the grease; don't judge me) to fry the hash browns.  Which were originally shaped like tater tots, but I overcrowded them and they fell apart, so they became hash browns.  Amazingly, the timing of everything came together at the end.

The assembled meal was such:

Spinach on plates.
Bacon crumbled (or not) on the spinach.
Onions on the spinach.  With, or without, salad dressing.
One egg, fried to order (or as it comes off the frying pan, and scrambled for the tot), atop the spinach.  (The tot's plate was sans spinach.  She did try it.  For a second.)
Hash browns on the side.
Amazing banana muffins to polish it all off.

Seriously, I've eaten 2-1/2 of the muffins.  They are that good.  I can't wait to be hungry again in the morning.

Five Minutes in the Mirror

When I look in the mirror I see....

A bit more gray hair than I would like to see.
Hair that has been ignored into a ponytail more times than I can count.
Wispy "wings" around my forehead that won't cooperate, no matter how I straighten, blow dry, or try to join them instead of beat them.
Round cheeks and an overbite, but at least I have straight teeth.  Thanks for the 4 years in braces, Mom and Dad.



Again, there is a very distinct roundness in front.   Evidence of a little girl hoped for, and as yet unseen.  A little child with a promise of grace. 

I see, finally, a grown up who has replaced the quiet girl.  A woman.  A wife.  A mother. 

I've linked today with Gypsy Mama (Links and pics added after 5 minutes were up), and Company Girl Coffee.   Feel free to hop along with the Company Girl Blog Hop, below!

Sugar, coffee, cupcakes, and meal plan

We are completely out of sugar.  Completely out.  All gone.  We have honey, brown sugar, and confectioner's sugar, but none of those seem quite right to put in coffee.  And while pregnant, I need to have a bit of sugar in my coffee--the sugar cuts through the acidity and lets my stomach accept it.

We do, however, have sweetened whipped cream. Therefore, I am thoroughly enjoying my coffee today.

Last night we were at my parents' house to do our family birthday celebration (3 out of 5 of us have birthdays within a three-day spread in February).  It was fun, and I made the most amazingly delicious cupcakes ever.  If the camera battery were not completely dead, I would put a picture up.  But here is the recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes from the Joy of Cooking. 

We didn't get in the car to go home until a little after ten PM, and within minutes Lizzie was out cold.  She slept while I got her out of the seat, woke up for a few seconds when I told her I would get her baby and her blanket (to which she said, "Please"), and didn't make a peep when I put her in the crib and removed her shoes.  Let me tell you, that has not happened in ... I would venture to say a year.  She slept all night long.    We had a full day yesterday, and she had no nap. 

My menu planning concept has been lost recently.  Sam working afternoon/closing shift more days than not has confused me when it comes to dinners.  It seems futile to make an entire meal for myself and a somewhat particular toddler.  Yet, having fewer real dinners makes for considerably fewer leftovers for him to eat for lunch before leaving for work.

So, this is the plan:
Real dinners:
- Baked Ziti
- Steak w/ marinated onions
- Pork chops w/ cabbage
- hamburgers/sliders
- something out of the freezer
- drive thru/out

Lunches:
- leftovers
- sandwiches (with some homemade bread?)
- quesadillas (I've been craving refried bean and cheese quesadillas almost daily lately!)

Breakfasts:
- waffles
- egg/sausage or Canadian bacon/cheese bagel sandwiches
- eggs, cereal, oatmeal... the usual.

It's my (belated) birthday!

I turned 30 yesterday.  I guess I should update my "introductions" page to reflect that, huh?

We had a lovely day.  Aside from a mandatory meeting at work, Sam had the day off.

He surprised me by taking me to a restaurant that takes reservations.  I believe it was the first time in the 6 years we've been dating or married that we have ever gotten a dinner reservation.  Technically, it was a lunch reservation, but that's beside the point.

I am kicking myself for not taking any pictures--my hair even looked pretty nice.  The only picture we got from yesterday was this one:

What can I say?  She likes sparkly things.

The three of us went together to Fogo de Chao.

It.

Was.

Amazing.

For years I have heard about it.  Each seat has a coaster that is red on one side and green on the other.  Green means, "Yes, please," and red means, "No thanks."

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They have waitstaff who walk around carrying meat on skewers, and if your coaster is turned to green, they approach your table, tell you what they have, and cut it right off onto your plate.  At one point we had 4 different waiters with 4 different kinds of meat surrounding us.  It was a bit overwhelming.  Sirloin, pork ribs, lamb chops, and filet mignon, all at our fingertips.  You can eat until you can't sit upright any longer.  The salad bar alone is gourmet, but the meats they bring you are so good.

Aside from the toddler who didn't want to sit in her chair, and wanted to walk laps around the tables, it was one of the most delicious and fun dining experiences I've ever had.  They even brought us a complementary Happy Birthday flan.

It too

Was

Amazing.

We came home, where Sam went immediately into a food coma, and Lizzie "napped" for 20 minutes in the car on the way back; thus, there was no break for Mommy.  So I finished the laundry I'd started before lunch, while following the bouncing toddler from one mode of entertainment to another.

Dinner consisted of leftovers in various forms.  Spaghetti.  Bean & cheese quesadillas.  Cereal.

After the littlest person was in bed (at a decent hour for once) we watched 'The Proposal' off Netflix.

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Sam had not seen it, and I decided I would just turn it on, and he could join me if he wanted to.  Eventually both of us, one of the cats, and the dog, were all on the couch.  Oh, we laughed so hard.  Sam and I did, that is.  The cat and the dog were just basking in the privilege of being on the couch with us.

Being 30 is not bad.  Not bad at all.  In fact, I wouldn't mind turning 30 every day.

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Though I am late in joining up to the Home Sanctuary Company Girl Coffee blog hop, I had every intention of joining it yesterday.  However, the day filled up quickly and I never got a chance.  Have you hopped with these bloggers before?  Now is your chance!

The Results Are In! (20 weeks)

 We all went to my 20 week appointment this morning.  Sam held Lizzie and a camera while we watched the screen.  

Lizzie recognized emphatically that there was a "bayee" on the "puter" but didn't really make the connection that we were watching the baby in Mommy's belly.

Our second child has 2 arms that stayed up near the face during the whole ultrasound.  

We were waved at multiple times. 

 

 This little one has two cute little feet...

 

And two cute little legs...

And girl parts.

Lizzie has a baby sister!

Lizzie's 1st Haircut

Dun, dun, dun!

A few nights ago, while Lizzie was bathing, I had finally had enough of her wet little rat tail, and got out the scissors. 

I have never cut Lizzie's hair before.  Yes, she is nearly two years old.  

The thing is, her hair has several strange traits, none of which make it a candidate for a haircut. 

For one, her hair grows from a swirl from the back of her head.  See it, just southwest of the easterly pigtail?  That is where her hair grows, and it grows forward.  If she were to have bangs, they would of necessity start behind her ears.

 

Secondly, her hair is fine, and even on her first birthday, it was about as long as a grown-out buzz cut.

Finally, on top of getting my exact color and hair texture, she received the cowlick that I also got from my mom.  Thanks, Mom.
The tricky thing about this cowlick is that it is also on the opposite side from the thick swirl in the back of the head.  It's like the perfect storm, colliding mid-head.

 

 

Fortunately, her hair is finally long enough that we can get it in pigtails, and for a few minutes, even a braid.  Do you see the random strands in the back, that are a couple of inches longer than the rest?  Those are the ones I decided must be dealt with.

So just days after that cute little braid, I got out the scissors.  I would advise against the covert bathtime haircut method.  It was going fine until . . . .

That missing chunk will grow back--right?

At least the other side looks pretty good.  And at least I didn't give her bangs that go around the whole front half of her head.  At the rate her hair grows, she'd still be working on growing those out in middle school.

Not bad for a first try.

Do you cut your own kids' hair?   I'm not sure I will do this again for a while, but I'm also not sure I would take her to one of those fancy kids hair cut places.  What do you do?



I'm linking up with Alicia's Try New Adventures today!

Teenager in Training