Five Months.

Iris Marjorie is five months old today.

This is what she is doing right now. It's about 8am, November 14th, really sunny in that New England late fall chilly all the leaves off the trees & everything brown & frosty but no snow sort of way.

We've been up since 5am. Who knows why, Iris just thought that was a god idea today. The light has been really nice, I find I spend a good deal of time lately noticing the light, sitting & holding a baby & looking out the window. 

I've got coffee (decaf but good decaf) & am still in my lobster pjs & we are cuddled up on our new tiny IKEA couch with Dusty Rose. 

Here's DustyRose. 

It's a beautiful morning. When we were still snuggling in bed earlier as the sun was coming up, I was missing driving to work at 6am this time of year, watching the sun rise, having the temperature be real chilly for the first time of the season, enjoying the feeling of layers of wool & shearling boots & how good it was to have a hot coffee when I finally arrived at work. 

Heaven knows I didn't enjoy it at the time. Waking up in the dark, walking to the freezing car...hell no. 

But now sometimes I miss the urgency of actually needing to be somewhere, anywhere. It's odd to get up day after day with no real agenda besides making sure a tiny person survives the day. 

I've always really wanted to have a child. That has always been one of the things I wanted most. Now here we are.

It still seems rather surreal that she is here, that she is real. 

The holiday season last year it just seemed so unbelievable that in a year, this whole other person that didn't exist yet would be joining us. Even in June when she was born it was hard to believe that come winter she would be a much bigger girl needing a Christmas stocking & wearing snow suits. 

I think it's hard to have what feels like an unattainable goal your whole life & then achieve it. How do you live then? I guess we are still figuring that out. 

I'm writing super fast because Iris is stirring & I think she's about to wake up. 

I use to hate being interrupted writing more than anything, I think that's why I keep not starting, because I'm not sure how to adjust to writing under the potential interruption at any time conditions of being home alone with a baby. 

But here's to trying. 

Happy Five Months in this world, baby girl. I love you more than anything on this earth & you've changed my life more than I thought anything possibly could. 

And now sleepy little eyes are peeking up at me.

Butternut Squash #3: In Thai Green Curry With Chicken.

More with the foods, & the making of them, & the continuation of The Great Butternut Squash Food Challenge Of 2011.  

10.28.2011: Butternut Squash Week #3:

 Thai Green Curry with coconut milk, butternut squash, chicken & our garden thai chilis & lemongrass, over basmati rice.

(Note: I did not skip Butternut Squash #2, I just didn't finish the illustrations in order. Not how I roll, numerical order). 

So, another classic recipe of mine, continuing the theme. Curries, all curries, are very high up there for me when it comes to comfort food.  I cook a curry at least three night a week, & I do it differently every time. I've never added winter squash, but it worked well added to a basic version of my Thai Green Curry.

To start, make rice, to be authentic use jasmine, but we tend to buy rice in 20lb bags so usually just have white basmati & some brown short grain on hand. Roasted a split butternut squash in the oven. In a heavy duty sauce pan, start cooking onions, garlic, & chopped chilis (lucky we grew some beautiful thai chilis in the garden this year) in coconut oil. Add some green thai curry paste (I use this one), some curry powder, chopped lemongrass (which we also grew in the garden & currently still have growing in a pot in our kitchen), fresh chopped ginger root, shrimp paste, sriracha & fish oil. I used about a half of a habanero from our garden too, but adjust the spiciness to taste, obviously. I prefer crazy spicy. Throw in chicken pieces & potatoes, make sure they get thoroughly coated with the coconut oil seasoning mixture. Add two cans of coconut milk, then added chopped pre-roasted butternut squash. Cook until squash pretty much dissolves into the coconut milk, serve over rice, & eat. Perfect. 

Note: many of the ingredients in this curry, & also the basic ingredients of my life, are purchased here, at the International Market in Hadley.  

I have been shopping there for about ten years & even though they still feel they need to warn us about food white people won't like, too fishy, too spicy,  (yet we do), I love it there. 

The true genius of curries is that they are so flexible. I made a decent one with chicken thighs, broccoli, 1/2 & 1/2, various spices, chili peppers & potatoes in a cast iron wok the other night exhausted after a long work day & without grocery shopping & I'd rather eat that than most restaurant food & it took very little time or effort, in fact, it really cheered me up.

There in is the beauty of food. 

This particular curry was delicious, by the way, I definitely recommend the squash addition.

Butternut Squash #1: Stuffed, With (Homemade) Sausage & Wild Rice.

& now, back to the cooking! Sorry about all that whining the other day. I've pulled it together, i.e. the house isn't so bad, I did some laundry, I paid the bills, I had a lovely night of wine & food with a lovely friend, & I've actually done quite a bit of watercoloring at the kitchen table.
We bought a bushel of butternut squash for our wedding-you know, you are trying to feed a lot of people cheaply & you live in New England & it's fall, you end up with winter squash. Of course, because we have very helpful & food oriented families, we ended up with way too much food & didn't use the squash.
Forward to about a month after the wedding-we are kind of broke & Owen & I have been driving around with both our cars full of butternut squash for weeks. The only solution was The Great Butternut Squash Food Challenge Of 2011, where we made a new meal out of those pesky car squashes every night for roughly a week instead of buying new ingredients.

10.26.2011: Butternut Squash Week #1: 

Stuffed with our homemade spicy pork sausage, wild rice cooked in homemade duck stock, garden shallots, garlic, & rosemary, lots of butter, & raw milk Parmesan cheese.

This is one of my all-time classic recipes. That was another theme of The Butternut Squash Challenge, classic well loved recipes. Winter squash is really versatile, & lends itself to whatever you feel like cooking already. I invented this for a date, once upon a time ago, I made it at my birthday dinner party two years ago, & I made it for the lovely Melissa last night, because we STILL have stray squashes rolling around in our cars.

Obviously, this works with any squash, & I rather prefer acorns, delicata, or dumplings, but hey, the whole bushels of butternuts was cheaper & it's really pretty much the same.

Split squashes, roast with olive oil. Cook a basic wild rice blend, I like the Lundenberg Organic blend but a mix of short grain brown rice & wild works too, preferably in a poultry basic stock (I like duck stock). Meanwhile saute shallots, garlic, rosemary & herbs de provence in butter & white wine. Add sausage (for this we had some of our first ever batch of homemade sausage). Add rice & more stock. Simmer. Add to squash, cover with cheese, whatever you like, but I like parm or gruyere or swiss. Back in the oven, then eat! Fun times.

Yeah by the way, we have been making our own sausages, thanks to our wedding present Kitchen Aid stand mixer & wedding present meat grinding & sausage stuffing attachments. Just week Owen boned an entire turkey (turkeys are real cheap at Stop & Shop right now) & it became variously flavored turkey sausage. Being poor ain't so bad. 

AS long as you use what you have-i.e. turning cheap meat in awesome sausage & making stock from the bones. 

There you have it-Stuffed Squash, liz style. 

11.4.2011: dog & cat. 

Oh, & that's just a picture of my dog & cat.
For good measure.