life

I feel like Oliver has changed a lot this last month. He listens and pays attention to more than I realized. He can get impatient with food and his bottle. When I tell him wait I guess I do this thing with my hands. I put it up like what most people do for wait. This weekend I said something about waiting and I didn't even realize he was listening. I looked at Oliver and I realized he was doing the thing with his hand.

He is starting to say a lot of words and he is really into animals. By far his favorite is his duck. This morning when I went to get him I said good morning and he said duck. He runs around the house yelling quack. He tries to give our cats his stuffed duck and when they won't take it he throws it at them. We were at my Mom and Dad's house this weekend for Easter. (you can tell by the pictures we aren't home. How does she keep her floors so clean?) Anyway, they live by a pond. Oliver would look out the window and make his what's happening thing he does with his hands and say duck. Really cute.

He has started getting picky with his food, but his loves his bottle (bop). He is always asking for his bop. Sometimes it can get tricky because they way he says up is bup. Usually we can figure it out.

It is so much fun to watch him change and grow.

sorry for the food posts

I love to cook and it is rare that I make a recipe as it is written down. I'm finding that when I go back to make recipes again I can't exactly remember what I did to it. I thought it might be helpful to me if I started writing them down here.

Oliver is talking up a storm. Mostly only things we can understand. He learns anything to do with food very fast. He knows the word for cracker except he calls it crack. We were in the supermarket and he saw a box of crackers. He started screaming "crack" "crack". The other morning for breakfast he kept asking for crack. He would push his yogurt away and say "crack". It's hard not to laugh. His other big word is duck. He thinks all birds are ducks.

Screaming at the ducks/birds in the yard

More cooking

I also made a recipe from last weeks New York Times. It was delicious. The whole point of the article is to make something inexpensive, but still fancy enough for a dinner party. I made some changes to it. It is the kind of recipe that can easily be played around with. The only thing I wouldn't do is subsititute chicken breasts.

My picture doesn't do this dish justice. Sorry.



Pasta With Roast Chicken, Eggplant, Raisins and Almonds

Adapted from “New York Times”


3 1/2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, patted dry

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 eggplant diced

1 1/2 pounds dried pasta, preferably bucatini or linguine

1 teaspoons crumbled fresh rosemary

1/2 cup dried raisins

2/3 cup almonds, toasted

1 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped mint

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

4 tbs. butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange thighs in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour 2 tbs. oil over all of the chicken. Bake until just cooked through and skin is crisp about 35 minutes.

2. Dice eggplant. Put in colander and salt generously. Leave for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. Put in same roasting pan just drain off most of the fat. Add 2 tbs. oil or use chicken fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until soft about 35 minutes depending on how big your pieces are.

3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When chicken is done, let cool slightly, then use hands to pull meat and skin from bones, making bite-size pieces. Reserve meat and discard bones.

4. Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water and cook just until tender but not mushy.

5. Melt butter in a small sauce pan on low. Add breadcrumbs. Stir until toasted about 2 minutes.

6. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth to the pasta pot on the stovetop and turn heat to low. Add chicken, eggplant, rosemary, raisins, mint and almonds to roasting pan and toss, adding more salt and black pepper to taste, and more chicken broth if mixture seems dry. Top with breadcrumbs reserving some for individual bowls.

Bread

I have found an amazing bread recipe. I was nervous about making my own bread. I had never worked with yeast before. My Dad, who has been making incredible bread, for at least 20 years, swears by Mark Bittman's Sullivan Street Bakery recipe. I had looked at that before, but it still seemed complicated. I came across this recipe while looking for something else. It seemed so easy I had to try it. I think you can mess around with the types of flour, but I'm not brave enough to do that.




Here's the recipe:

4 -5 Loaves of Bread
Ingredients

* 24 ounces hand warm water
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried fast rising yeast
* 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 6 1/2 C unbleached white bread flour

Directions


1. Pour the warm water into a large mixing bowl - the water should be warm. Not too hot or it will kill the yeast.

2. Add the yeast to the water and then the salt, mix well.

3. Rub the mixing bowl with 1 tbs. oil because the dough is very wet. This will help you get it out of the bowl. Add all the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or a dough hook until all the ingredients are incorporated.

4. Leave the bread dough in the mixing bowl and cover loosely.

5. Proof for 2 hours on the counter or on top of the fridge.

6. The dough can now be stored in the fridge or you can use the dough to make a loaf of bread immediately. I store mine in a large tupperware which I also rub with oil.

7. If baking a loaf of bread now, pre-heat the oven to 450F and place a baking sheet or pizza tray in there. Tear off a large ball, about the size of a small melon, and knead it for about 1 minute with floured hands and on a board with wax paper and flour on it. Shape it as desired or place it in a greased and floured loaf tin. Allow to proof and rise for a further 20. Slash the surface with a sharp serrated knife if you wish.

8. Put bread into oven. Add a small pot of boiling water cover removed to the oven as soon as you add the bread – this steams and bakes the loaf to give a brown crust, a good chewy texture and keeps the inside moist. I bake mine in a small oven proof pot. It gives it a nice shape.

9. Bake at 450F for 40 minutes or until well risen, brown and the loaf sounds hollow when it is tapped on the underside.

10. Remove the bread when baked and cool on a cooling rack. Serve warm with butter, cheese, jam, hams and cold cuts, or slice when cool for sandwiches.

11. Store the excess dough in a large covered bowl or Tupperware in the fridge this will keep for 2 weeks. This amount of dough will make between 4 and 5 loaves of bread, depending on the shape and amount of dough you use.

Shoes

Remember when we first got home from Vietnam and Oliver refused to wear shoes. Well that is long gone. He loves wearing shoes. He'll wear any shoes he can get his hands on. I wear a lot of flats so they are perfect for him. He slips them on, clops around, and goes about his business. It is so cute and funny. I have to hide one of my pairs because he won't leave them alone. The other day I had them on. He was trying to pull them off. When that didn't work he tried to slip his foot in over mine.



Last week I bought him a pair of chuck taylor's. I couldn't resist. Plus Anthony had a similar pair when we were in college. He is so cute in them. He looks like a little hipster.

Six months

This was our first free weekend in a long time. We ran some errands, played, went out to dinner, and went for a hike. We bought Oliver a table. When we were in California he loved sitting at Elise's table.

He loves his table too. Anthony put together the table first. While he was working on the chairs Oliver took matter into his own hands. He pushed over a chair from the dining room. He got himself on it and sat very proudly at his new table. He is so funny.



Time is flying by and it is hard to remember a time when Oliver wasn't with us, but today is the six month anniversary of when we got Oliver from the orphanage. It is hard to put into words how happy we are and how much better he makes everything that we do. We are incredibly lucky.

TWD

This week they are baking Chocolate Armagnac Cake. It is a wonderful light chocolate cake. It called for dried prunes, but since I'm a fig lover I went with dried figs instead. I think the figs worked well.




I've been keeping up with the Tuesdays with Dorie gang and baking along side them. The caramel crunch bars were in BIG hit in California. I need to put up more pictures from our incredible trip.