Seasonal Affective Disorder

It is April 27th today, in case you lack a calendar.  Even if you are in possession of a calendar, you may still be confused because it is SNOWING here in Edmonton. Not only that, but this bébé is still very comfortable in utero.  I don't know why this surprises me, what with the snow and the due date being a week away, but it does! This waiting is killing me.  And so are the many phone calls and texts of well meaning family and friends "checking in".  The nesting has come to an abrupt halt, and yesterday I spent all morning napping and all afternoon feeling bad about napping all morning.
I know what you're going to say: "Enjoy it, soon you'll be run ragged!"
Somehow that doesn't help!  So for now, it's just me and my anxieties waiting and waiting.  Latest anxiety?  My weight gain has slowed from a steady two or three pounds a week down to one pound two weeks ago, and a pound lost last week. Also, my fundal height has stalled out at a 37 week measurement for the past three weeks.  My doctor says it's not a cause for concern, and I guess I can be glad that the baby won't be a nine pounder.  Still though, the snow, waiting, and anxiety do not a happy combination make!  I'm just going to bundle up in a blanket and watch this commercial on repeat.  And on mute.  One of my friends pointed out that while easy on the eyes, his voice is actually quite annoying.  And she's right!  Also, my mom doesn't like his hair.  Quit ruining my simple pleasures, people!   

Shelby

Uh Oh!

I really made Blogger mad with my not so kind comments yesterday.  Now it won't show me my Reader of all the other blogs I religiously follow, nor will it allow me to obsessively pore over my stats page.  I can't believe it's still letting me write a post. I'm off to buy it some flowers to try and make amends . . .

While we routinely wake up to weather like this (just last Saturday was the latest storm), I know that spring will come eventually.  It may be time for summer when it arrives, but still, I know it will come at some point.  You only have to look to this past September when summer arrived for about a week to know that I'm right.  So while the weather here may not follow conventional time lines, you can create a spring like feeling by baking up a batch of these award winning bites of sunshine that I found on Pinterest.  They turned out crinkly just like the picture showed, and are perfectly tart and chewy-crisp.  I LOVED them.  No surprise they took the top prize at LDS Living Magazine's website, a site I have to admit I would never have been exposed to if not for Pinterest.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Award Winning recipe by Lauren Brennan 

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray cookie sheets with non stick spray and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.

3. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. 

4. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

5. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Jimmy turned his cookies into what he calls a "chip-wich", even though there are no chips in these cookies.  I would have made mine a chip-wich too, if he could've found Pinochio's Royal Vanilla ice cream for me to sandwich in between.  Alas he could not, and came home instead with cocnut ice cream.  Blech.  He said it was good, so if you go for coconut, you might like to try it.  I'll wait until I can get my vanilla. 
Meanwhile, Ellen has issued a pregnancy dance dare to all expectant mothers who should really be dancing for two.  She wants them sent in for mothers' day.  Should I do it?  I don't know if I can compete with this guy.

Until next time,
Shelby

Read Me . . .

. . . elsewhere!  I have another article published here.  It's always a thrill when someone else thinks you write well enough to be published on a real, live website you haven't posted yourself!  I'll be busy this week researching for my next article. It's going to be tough, but someone has to report on the pregnancy spa experience! I promise, while I'm having my massage I will be thinking totally subjective and journalistic thoughts.

It was a very busy weekend with lots to tell you about, but for now I'm off to the doctor to find out if I've busted my own record of gaining four pounds in two weeks. And I have big plans to see The Hunger Games tonight.

I'll leave you with this and this.  Just a little spring fashion inspiration in case spring has actually arrived wherever you are, because it certainly hasn't made much of an appearance in Edmonton.  Even just a little sun would do!
Sigh,
Shelby

Deanie

No, I'm not talking about the book by Judy Blume (that one is spelled Deenie, BTW), but rather my father, Dean.  Deanie has always been my mom's nickname for him, until someone else jumped on board in using this name in recent years.  
You see, I have a sister who, if we looked at genetics is really my mom's niece, but she grew up with us and has been a part of our immediate family for years.  So when this sister of mine had her first child, Bex, almost five years ago, Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa had all been taken by other grand-parental figures.  Ergo we had to come up with something new that Bex could use for my parents.  

Vogue worthy Bex.

My mom fairly quickly became JG.  It started out as a joke (it stands for Jacq the Great) but stuck hard and fast.  It was much more taxing to find something that would work for my dad.  He put forward the idea of Boss.  Yes, he wanted his grandchildren to call him Boss.  But as Bex got older, she refused to actually use it.  Now that we've got another grandchild joining the family, the discussion has come up again because we want all the kids to use the same names for their grandparents.  We're a type A family that way.
Call me crazy, but I have a Grandma and a Nana, and they were my Grandma and my Nana for years.  Then all of a sudden some younger cousins were born, and now we've thrown Oma and Grandma into the mix.  I'm sorry, but you can't call my Grandma, Oma.  Who is Oma?  And now all of a sudden Nana is Grandma?  I found it all very unsettling.  So you can see why the push is on to settle on a name for the kids to use for my dad. This is important stuff discussed over Sunday dinners, right after we finish with the state of the European economy.

Bex and Deanie.

Anyway, Bex has a mind of her own, and once she decides on something it can be hard to sway her.  Cue the stage where she repeats most things the adults around her say.  Things like: "Mom, I look like a monster!  Help me get dressed before anyone sees me!".  That one was from JG.  Or, "Ugh, I have to do my hair, it is a disaster!".  Also from JG.  
So what else did she start repeating?  JG's use of Deanie to address my dad.  Yes, this is the tough guy who wanted to be called Boss, instead being called Deanie by his tiny, blonde, four year old granddaughter.  What makes it even better?  Bex's brother, Cole, who is two, has started using it as well.  As in "Deanie play 'ockey?" (we're working on "h" sounds).

Coley.

Deanie may not like it, but hey, Bex and Coley were here first, and I'm not about to bring a new name to the party when our baby is added to the mix.  Sorry, Deanie! 

My sister, making me jealous long distance.

Have a fabulous day,
Shelby

Ice-Blue

It's blue Monday.  But here in Edmonton, I'll refer to it as ice-blue Monday because with the windchill the temperature is -36 degrees.  The news caster keeps telling me your skin can freeze in 10 minutes or less.  Comforting, seeing as Jimmy insisted on riding his bike to work, as per usual.  Don't worry your pretty little head - I made sure he was properly dressed.  Please note the lacrosse sick strapped to his back and bright orange bella clava.  I bet those morning commuters were thinking it'd be just another boring drive to work.  WRONG!  Not with my James astride his two wheeler.

I don't know that I've ever been happier to be staying home and cleaning the house.

He has texted me to say that he made it to school and is just defrosting his toes in a lukewarm bath while the kiddies figure out the circumference of their pencil top erasers.  Ahh, mind at ease, and moving on to other, more important things.  
Being that it is so cold, today is the perfect day to stay in and make a savoury and delicious pasta dish that "is simplicity itself" (can you tell that I've been reading this? It's about a blogger.  Shocking, I know).
Be warned that simple doesn't necessarily translate to easy, but it does translate to delicious, and besides, it's minus a bajillion degrees outside, remember?  What else are you going to do?  I found this recipe on one of my favourite foodie blogs, and it did not disappoint.  Time consuming?  Yes, but worth it!  As Jimmy pointed out: "This is one of the recipes you've made that actually looks like the picture!"  While that sounds suspiciously like a back handed compliment, he's right, it looked so . . . restauranty.

 And the taste - ah-may-zing - likely due to the generous pads of butter added just before serving.  While the original recipe is linked above, here is my, slightly altered, version:

Appropriately Modest Tomato Sauce

Inspired by Smitten Kitchen's Naked Tomato Sauce

Makes enough sauce for four pasta portions, but if you're going to the trouble, double the recipe and freeze the leftovers for the next time you need comfort on an icy-blue day.

3 pounds (about 10) Roma tomatoes

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 large clove garlic, crushed

Pinch red pepper flakes

3-5 whole basil leaves, plus 2-3 slivered for garnish

3 tablespoons olive oil

500 gram/1 pound box of spaghetti

1 tablespoon butter, more if you're pregnant

Smitten Kitchen recommends blanching, peeling, and seeding your tomatoes.  This is what makes the sauce time consuming.  But it may also be what makes it so delicious.  Apparently the skins and seeds can make the sauce more acidic.  I did as I was told, and like I said, the sauce was de-lish.  That being said, I make another sauce that uses Roma tomatoes, skin and seeds intact, and I don't find it acidic, so I think you could skip the blanching, peeling, and seeding, instead coarsely chopping your tomatoes, throwing them into the sauce pan to simmer, and moving on.

If you want to blanch, it's actually easy.  

1.  Cut a small "X" at the bottom of each tomato.  Blanch tomatoes in a large pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds, rinsing under cold water when done.  Peel your tomatoes using the easy peel tabs created by your "X".  Discard skins.

2.  Cut each tomato in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon and a small strainer set over a bowl to collect the extra juices.  Discard the seeds, and keep the juices.  My tomatoes didn't yield much extra juice, but maybe they just weren't very juicy.  You may have better luck than I.

If you don't want to blanch, pick it up here:

3.  Add tomatoes and salt to a medium saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat.  As the tomatoes simmer, break them up with a wooden spoon, or as Smitten Kitchen suggests, a potato masher.

4.  Once the sauce has begun to boil, turn heat down to medium-low, and continue to simmer gently for 35-45 minutes, breaking tomatoes up more, depending on how chunky you like your sauce.  If the sauce begins to look dry, add your reserved juices.

5.  While the sauce cooks, combine garlic, your whole basil leaves, red pepper flakes, and olive oil to a small frying pan.  Heat slowly, on the lowest heat so it takes a long time to come to a simmer.  Once it's simmering, remove from heat and strain the oil into a small bowl.  This flavour infused oil is another reason the sauce is sooo simple (no onion? no carrots? no nothing?) but sooo delicious.

6.  When your sauce has been simmering for about 25 minutes, cook your spaghetti according to the directions on the box, minus about 1 minute cooking time so pasta is a little more al dente than usual.

7.  Just before pasta is finished cooking, add the reserved olive oil to your sauce, stirring.  When pasta is done, drain, reserving about a 1/2 cup of pasta water.  Put pasta back into the pot, adding the tomato sauce and about a 1/4 cup of your reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce (I was nervous about the water, but it did not make it watery like I feared), adding more to achieve desired consistency.  Cook spaghetti mixture, stirring, for another minute or two, adding your butter and sprinkling with slivered basil just before serving.

Smitten Kitchen says the sauce is rich enough to serve without cheese, but I added cheese anyways.  Nothing is too rich for me these days.  Blisssss!

Stay warm,

Shelby