Baby, quinoa, Monday

Before lunch, I went to my friends' house to deliver food and meet their new daughter. Of course I wanted to give them the food, but really I wanted to get my mitts on a darling newborn. Just shy of 2½ days old, this little peanut was what my arms had been missing. Oh! I love the babies. I could have 80 babies. I could happily hold a baby for hours on end, day after day. I love their tiny features, their little bleating sounds, teeny mouth puckers, involuntary motions and twitches. Little ma'am never opened her eyes today, but that didn't lessen my utter bliss in just snuggling her. Seriously, I should get a baby-holding job. Can you volunteer in hospital nurseries as a baby holder? Sign me up. Whatever happened after I returned home was unremarkable except for finding this amount of granola left when I went in for a snack. Seriously, husband? Seriously? Just eat the final three bits of granola for pete's sakes. #lazyanddoesntwanttowashdishes #doesntwanttogetintroubleforeatingallofgranola

And then I was stumped re: dinner. I wanted to caramelize Brussels sprouts with chunks of thick-cut bacon, but it's Meatless Monday so I made good on that instead: roasted asparagus with lemon and salt; quinoa with pistachios, apricots and lime vinaigrette; toasted bread with some hard Spanish cheese I found in my cheese drawer plus roasted tomato jam. All in all, I give it an A. T concurs. Off to watch Homeland.

A few final thoughts

If anyone has a random $7,500 and wants to treat Ms. Em-i-lis to a holiday treat, I'll take these stunners! Seriously, I saw these in the Times a couple weeks back and have been in full-scale lust ever since.

And, I was really jazzed by this article in today's NYTimes. It discusses the ways in which the federal government is helping curb the obesity epidemic in the US by making stores who accept WIC vouchers MUST stock whole grain breads and cereals, fresh produce, reduced fat dairy products and so forth. As 50% of all infants and 25% of kids under 5 will be on the WIC rolls at some point in their lives, access to healthier food that is also affordable is critically important.

A veritable cooking marathon!

We got home, grabbed lunch and parted ways; Tom went to get the boys, while I ran to the market. I wanted to cook for our new parent friends and also whip up some more ricotta. In short order I made: a large batch of John's Jambalaya (such a good, good Louisiana recipe!); a pot of ribollita; a batch of ricotta; and two turkey sandwiches. I still want to finish things off with some cocoa and brown butter brownies for our friends, and T and I plan to keep things simple with a grilled pizza (and Friday's Real Time) for our Sunday meal. Jack recalled that he had a homework assignment due so started in on compiling lists of attributes that characterize him as well as things in the natural world that might also be described by his traits. After some explaining of all that, he had to craft a name for himself. We brainstormed and came up with Voluble Eagle based on the fact that his primary attributes were loving to talk, loving to run and go fast, and loving to eat. T thought Chatty Hyena might also work but J didn't want to associate with a carrion eater. I get it.

It really is stunning how whiplashy is my settling back in after time away from the boys. Slow -> full speed. Quiet -> non-stop talking and noise. Bedtimes a'comin soon!