The Weekend Retrospective

The reason I do these weekend retrospective is because I have some funny stories about what we are eating. But I am not making a TON of new food these days. We have found some favorites and we are putting them in heavy rotation. But each experience of eating these foods can be enlightening and funny, and sometimes downright ridiculous. Some highlights from this weekend?

* DH picked up a crazy job this week. He didn't see the kids from Wednesday morning until Friday night, which also meant that I was essentially a single parent last week. Okay, that is insulting, I wasn't a single parent. But DH was working 15-18 hour days, and I was left with all the parenting duties in addition to working. Friday night was a blur of reheated pizza, both homemade and the kind I hate to admit I still have in the house. Our babysitter brought the kids to the pizza store (as we call it in our house) on Friday for lunch, but they didn't eat it for lunch. I am normally opposed to serving the same thing for lunch as dinner for the kids. While I might do it for myself on occasion, I think the kids don't do so well with so much repetition. But by Friday night I was stupid tired, so pizza made a double play in my house.

* Saturday morning I slept in (thanks DH!!) But we still made it to the Farmer's Market. I am down to getting turkey, milk, apples, cheese, yogurt, eggs and sometimes honey and bee pollen from the FM. There is so little left at the farmer's market. But I know that if I can just make it through another 8 or so weeks we will start to see spinach an ramps and all the lovely harbingers of spring.

* Thing 1 didn't nap at all this weekend. But he did help me make a batch of granola on Saturday. He tasted everything from the vanilla to the nuts to the flaxseed (which he did not care for). I actually couldn't find old fashioned oats at Fairway this weekend. So I used a combo of last month's old fashioned oats and some quick cooking steel cut oats. I can't wait to try some this week!! It looks totally different!

* Saturday and Sunday got so mixed up. DH was supposed to work Saturday. Then Sunday we were supposed to have friends over. Then DH ended up working Sunday instead and our friends called and said they couldn't do Sunday. So at the last second our friends came over Saturday night. But what a lovely evening. I made Beef Goulash out of a chuck roast that has been hanging out frozen since the last time I ordered meat from the farm. Beef Goulash really is just like my beef stew recipe with a couple tablespoons of paprika added to it. It was really nice. And it goes nicely with whole wheat noodles.

* Sunday DH did actually work and so I took the Things to the NYC Transit museum. If you live here and you have never been, you HAVE to go. And if you have kids. You have to go TOMORROW. It was a really great time. But Brooklyn Heights is practically a food desert. I brought snacks, but I had visions of cute diners or places to grab brunch, so while I packed snacks, I didn't pack a full lunch. Meanwhile, the only places to get food were McDonald's and Wendy's. I almost braved the hour long subway ride home to make something on home turf. But finally I found a place. I will write about that later this week.

* Apparently you can make a decent spaghetti sauce from scratch while using pork 'breakfast' sausage.

* I roasted a whole chicken on Sunday evening. And there was no one home to help me clean up. That was a mistake. Thing 2 ate some chicken minced up and mashed into his potatoes and gravy. The meal was very delicious. Thing 1 wanted only to eat the chicken skin, which is a relatively new development. I told him that I would give him more skin from my breast if he would just eat some meat first. To this he swiped at his plate sending it flying across the table and just to reinforce how yucky he felt my dinner was, he swiped at his glass of milk, sending it flying across the table too. And also all over the floor. *Sigh* This bird was perfectly cooked, golden brown and amazingly delicious. The gravy was immaculately thick and not too salty. Yet Thing 1 ate the skin off one drumstick and Thing 2 at precisely 1 ounce of meat. Oh well. I will have chicken for all my salads this week. And I will make a wicked Chicken soup. Still, it seems like a waste of a perfectly pastured fowl...

* I am pretty sure that I threw my back out Sunday afternoon. I was bouncing Thing 2 on my hip and all of a sudden my back started to feel kind of short. The rest of the evening I continued to struggle with pain. I found I could not bend at the waist or lift with anything heavy in my hands. Putting the kids to bed was humorous, I literally sat Thing 2 in the crib rather than wait and cuddle him to sleep. Thing 1 was so mad at me that I couldn't sit in his room and wait for him to fall asleep. I usually sit on the floor by the door while he falls asleep, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up!! I medicated myself with beer and Advil, which actually made me feel a little better. But I was really lucky I took the Advil. Because after two beers I almost took a stool softener and then when I did locate the Advil I almost took a double dose. Thank God, right!! It's okay. My trials should make you feel good about yourself as a person and a parent. At least now my back is feeling a little better.

Overall, I am really happy with this weekend. We ate well, had lots of playdates, and visited new places. A good time was had by all. Next weekend we pick up our Lewis-Waite Farm Meat and the last Winter CSA share!! I can't wait to see what we could possibly get during hungry month.

What Did You Eat This Weekend?

What did you eat this weekend? We had a couple of new dishes, so we ate well, the kids? Not so much. They don't cope well with change.

We got 19 inches of snow last Thursday. Our park is like a ski slope with the snow so packed that it still sinks when you land a hard heel in the ground, but the kids can't put a dent in it with their 30 pound weights. We went sledding in Ft Tryon park Saturday and both kids had a great time. Thing 1 actually trudged all the way up the hill by himself and sledded down by himself too! At three and a half! I had visions of being the parent on the sidelines as my kids get older. It was both thrilling and bittersweet. But he had an awesome time. Thing 2 was also hooked to the speed of sledding. When Thing 1 was his age, he was petrified of the sled. But this weekend, Thing 2 was a beast, laughing all the way down.

We also toured a cute school in Inwood that we might choose for Pre-K for Thing 1 in the fall. The entire weekend was devoted to activities that reminded me how our little life with babies would be changing soon.

But there was so much snow last week that we parked our car a week ago Sunday and kind of forgot about it. Alternate side parking has been canceled for days, and we never even bothered to dig out. Instead we cancelled all our plans (I wasn't feeling great anyway) and stayed in. I wish I had a picture of our car, because it is COMPLETELY covered, and quite funny. And I think we own the only car on the street that hasn't been dug out. But...why move it? There is more snow scheduled to come Tuesday. I am feeling particularly beleaguered.

Here are some food highlights from last week and the weekend....

* I worked like crazy last week. I was late a couple nights and missed two nights altogether. The kids definitely had Chinese food with dad while I was gone, and there was talk of McDonald's too one afternoon. I whipped out a couple of furious texts to Daddy-Dearest though, and he later said it was too snowy to go to McDonald's. Hmmmmm....I hate being a nag. But McDonald's is the line. They don't even like it, so why parade it as a treat? I decided that I am morally opposed to McDonald's. It will only upset their tummy.

* I made a couple of new meals this weekend, and the kids ate precisely nothing for dinner both Saturday and Sunday night. I didn't lose my cool though. Everyone drank their milk and one night had a little bread (which was being served with dinner) so I know they were okay. I will persevere and they will eat those yummy dinners soon. Those recipes to come this week!

*After sledding I made an excellent (if I do say so myself) hot chocolate. I took 4 cups of milk, a quarter cup of rapadura or whole cane sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, a shake of cinnamon and a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder and heated it in a saucepan. I also added a little bit of shaved chocolate because we have it in the house. It made for a very special treat. Thing 1 inhaled it. Thing 2 kind of bit the straw on the cup, and didn't even drink half. He didn't even cry when I took it away from him....who knew?

* The car was so buried that we didn't even go to the grocery store. We stayed home. Since I over bought last weekend and worked too much during the week, we have plenty of food. At least to piece together some dinners.