Dear Melinda,

You would not believe. NOT BELIEVE. The kid had his first honest to goodness solid food poo. I imagine this not the stuff interesting blogs are made out of, but I wanted (but refrained) to take a picture I was so proud.

The past few weeks have largely felt like an exercise in failure. I did not prepare well for the leap to solid foods. I don't even have a high chair yet, if you thought I was being humble; we sit together on the floor at meal time. My fumbly bumbly attempts to feed him rice cereal were not well met. It wasn't a complete surprise; that stuff looks like the bastard brother of instant mashed potatoes. Still, it definitely left me feeling deflated and unsure.

Realizing that I had no idea what I was doing, there was some regrouping, a couple online purchases, and a recommitting to do right by the kid. Super Baby Food, Vive Le Vegan, and various internet resources are my guide posts now, and we've started fresh. Literally. Fresh foods. I'm spacing out introductions and watching for allergies, but so far he's been introduced to banana, sweet potato, and avocado.

Just like with nursing, it's been a process, and we're both learning. At first, he'd let me stick a spoonful of food in his mouth out of curiosity. Mostly he wanted to grab it and explore the mush with his digits. To be expected. I let him take the spoon, gave him some extra food to run his fingers through and waited for the novelty to fade. It was a great relief when he took his first completely intentional bite of food. Then, it became a struggle to keep him interested past just a few nibbles. So, I started making goofy noises, wiggling the spoon around, making it nosedive straight into a bowl of bananas then making a huge crash sound. It really helped to draw him back in, and after just a few meals his attention wavers less. All around, it seems he's figuring out this meal time thing, and so am I-- Thank goodness.

Dear Melinda,

My first attempts at pantry emptying have met with success.

I busted out some of my triple batch of chickpea cutlets and Jake's massive get-rid-of-all-these-spuds batch of mashed potatoes. For variation, flavor, and pantry-emptying purposes I added a couple frozen, green veggies (all from previously open bags) to our 'taters, spinach, peas, and asparagus-- if there is any piece of food based knowledge I've gleened from my in-laws it is that aspargus and mashed potatoes are meant to be, like a pair of star-crossed lovers who meet their maker right in my mouth.

I used the Mushroom Better Than Bullion (a rare find made at the Golden Harvest up in Kittery) to make the Good Gravy from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes, a book I look through from time to time but never use; the bullion, for all its novelty, was indistinguishable from the regular veg bullion. Still, it helped keep everything nice and damp.

Before I even began dinner, I managed to send some old bananas off in style via the Vcon Lower-fat Banana Bread. I ate a still-warm slice afterward with a pat of Earth Balance, and I'm drooling now just at the memory of it.

Dear Melinda,

Pardon my lack of follow-up. Macaroni mayhem was waylaid by Operation Get-the-Hell-Out-of-Connecticut. A new, non-Connecticut residence has been secured, and in almost a month exactly movers will be coming to box up our things.

I figure it's about time I start cleaning out the cupboards, fridge, and freezer (with my stomach, not a sponge), but I'm failing to come up with meals based around these ingredients. Of course! While else would they still be around??!

Some recipes I think might help get the job done:
My Vegan Cookbook's Salisbury Steaks
Vegan Yum Yum's Mac and Cheeze 2.0 (a combo of Veg News and VYY 1.0)
VWAV Carrot Raisin Muffins
Yellow Rose Recipes Raisin Bran Muffs
Dreena Burton's Lemon Garlic Pasta (heavily modded to suit my tastes and pantry)

Dear Melinda,

I've heard it's down right glacial out in the Midwest right now. My condolences to your butt, which has no doubt already frozen off. It's a balmy 14 degrees here. I'm taking full advantage of the "utilities included" part of my rental agreement, the thermostat says it's 72 degrees in here, and I'm still thinking about starting a garbage fire in the middle of my living room. Unfortunately, I'm too short to dismantle the fire alarms.

Instead, I've been stealing Jake's socks (because they're warmer than mine) and cooking up foodstuffs. While warming up by the oven, I've had my thoughts turned to two particular dishes. Macaroni and Cheese and Hungarian Goulash. There are a lot of traditions, recipes, and opinions about both. And, they both make perfect winter food fare.

After making the In-law's family recipe for HG (with some minor alterations, obviously), I did a little internet "research" and consequently realized that their recipe was the farthest thing from traditional. What I found where several conflicting ideas about what made up this Eastern European , not-quite-a-soup, not-quite-a-stew dish. Some goulashes centered around tomatoes. Others swore up and down upon their Hungarian grandparents graves that the only ingredient reddening this dish should be paprika, obscene amounts of paprika, hot and sweet, and absolutely never ever tomatoes. One point on which all seemed to agree, ketchup, the backbone of my IL's beloved recipe, has no place in a real Hungarian Goulash-- What was I expecting? They're of Finnish heritage. I haven't gotten a chance to make some of these more true-to-form recipes, but I'm looking forward to trying my hand at at least one of the tomato-free recipes in the near future.

Macaroni and Cheese, on the other hand, is far more familiar territory for me. Being from the land of milk and more milk, I feel like I have a firm knowledge of what Mac and Cheese can and should be. Veganism, of course, has altered my perception, and now I quest/lust/test for the perfect vegan replacement. The internet and ever growing Vegan community have offered countless interpretations, several of which you and I have explored together. Some have come closer than others, but still we journey on, hungry for perfection in noodle and cheeze form.

More recently, I've tried my hand at both the Veg News Mac and Cheese and Veganomicon's Mac Daddy. I'd like to recap my thoughts on them, and several other popular vegan M n' C recipes we've tried very soon. I will edit this post to include that in a few.

Hey Melinda,

I've been seeing a lot of lists welcoming in the new year. In particular, tops and bottoms of '08. I don't really need to make a best (or worst) of 2008 list since my aught eight was entirely dominated by the singular force known as Felix. So, here's a Best of My Number One Best of 2008, Felix:


1. Getting to live with my bestie (did I just say that?) again. Pregnant? Husband transferred to another state smack in the middle of your second trimester? Don't want to change hospitals or doctors? Don't have any friends or family living within a 1000 mile radius? NO PROBLEM. Just have your transcontinental best friend who's hot off a botched stint in the PC and currently biding her time passing out bon-bons to blue hairs in the Midwest move in with you for the duration!

2. Happily gaining 30lbs. So cherubic tummy fat did not come back into style in 2008. Nothing like a pregnancy to turn that frumpy beer gut into a charming baby bump.

3. That first cry. Hook. Line. Sinker.

4. Nap Time. As a general rule, babies spend most of infancy looking absolutely darling, even at their most unruly and mischievous. But, I struggle to think of anything more beautiful than a sleeping baby. This is to say nothing of how physically and emotionally refreshing nap time is for mommy-- I could probably just rename it "snack time;" it's also one of the only good breaks I get during the day to eat (and since I'm nursing I'm pretty much hungry all the time).

5. That first laugh (and every one that followed). There are so many firsts with babies; I can't help it if several dominate this list. As I remember it, I was changing his diaper, and for some wonderful though completely mysterious reason he giggled.

6. Morning smiles. The first phrase that comes to mind is, "It KILLS me," but really I can't think of something that makes me want to welcome a new day any more than this.

7. That it's over. I wasn't living my pregnancy or any part of my life to just get it over with, but I am so glad I can go hours without peeing, can walk up stairs without getting winded, can eat without heartburn, am not in labor, will probably never again have to move to a new apartment, let alone a new state, two weeks off having a c-section, or have wait so long before my friends and family meet my new baby, etc, etc.

8. The motivation. I want to learn more. I want to cook better. I want to read more. I want to be defined as more than a mother. I want to be more. I want to be the best person possible for myself because ultimately that will be the best person for him. He fills me with excitement, vigor, and love, and I want to give all of that and more right back to him.

Dear Melinda,

Veganomicon Cashew Ricotta straight out of the food processor.

Love,
Me

BOB Day, The Navy Hates Me, and Turkey Armageddon.

day 43,
originally uploaded by corrie.jay.

Dear Melinda,

BOB Day (Baby Out Belly Day) has come and gone. It's been nearly four months since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (I'm feeling very undecided about how to approach internetsing about him) was born. You've moved back to the Midwest, and I miss you dearly, or daily, or both.

The hubs has finally come back from several months at sea, and despite the Navy's attempts to wring out every last moment of his time, we still get to steal a few here and there.

Mostly, we've spent our time trading off the baby and cleaning duty. I've never been so committed to cleaning and organizing in my life. You would be both proud and peeved to see how far I have come since our days as roommates back in Milwaukee. It's like I'm finally nesting. Having almost no time to myself has made tasks as mundane as sweeping the floor seem almost heavenly. Seriously, what chemical reaction has occurred in my brain? The switch has been flipped, and I hope it is never turned off.

I'm not sure if we're having people over for Thanksgiving (*insert illustration of traced-hand turkey and the word "LIVE"*), but we're definitely keeping the menu simple this year.

Here's what I'm thinking: Bryanna Clark Grogans Turkey Roast thing I made last year (per the hub's request, mind you. Just have to find the link again.), Betty Crocker stuffing (veganized, of course), the kimchi brussel sprouts I found on the Martha Stewart site last year (too spicy for me, but he likes the heat), sweet potatoes, some kind of gravy, and the Betty Crocker Apple Crisp (How did we not find this recipe sooner? So easy to make. So easy to veganize. So good to eat.).

Of course, I'm relying entirely on the hubs actually having off on Turkey Armageddon, otherwise I don't see myself having a free hand to make a sandwich, let alone a feast.

As it stands, I'm only able to blog to you because He-Who... has finally passed out (Heavens be praised).

Probably enjoying my baby's sweet repose more than he is,
Corrie


P.S. SUCCESS! I located the BCG Roast recipe in my own blog's backlog. I thought that was going to require way more digging.