Adventures on a Tuesday

Today has been a pretty good day.

It started with a slow and gentle waking to the cool breeze and brightening sky, songs of birds and sounds of cars filtering in through our open bedroom window. Hopped up and came downstairs to tea and some breakfast with my love before he headed out to the bus.

Off I went a short while later to the La Leche League meeting near us that Grant calls "The Milk Bar." When I last went a couple of months ago, there was hardly anyone there. Today I walked in at about 10 minutes after it started to find 16 moms present with babies! As usual, when a new person arrives, they have you introduce yourself to the group and check in with you on why you have come. So, I told them who I was and when I was due. They asked where I planned to birth, to which I replied "Well.... my plan and reality are currently not the same..." and filled them in on my situation with Alchemy. Boy am I glad I went today. Not only did I meet many moms who were very reassuring about their Cesarean experience, but I met several in that room who had used the same OB I will be meeting tomorrow and LOVE her. They spoke very highly of their experience with her even when they needed surgery as well. I like what I heard and am more hopeful that tomorrow we will walk out of her office feeling much more natural birth supported in our Cesarean if that is the path we have to take.


Left there and decided to stop quickly at the bead shop for new clasps so I could fix a piece of jewelry or two, and hoped for a bagel, but the bagel shop was oddly closed. Oh well. Onward towards home where I spoke with my mom for about an hour while making and eating a very yummy lunch. Shortly after, I was sleepy-ish so I took a small nap that got interrupted several times- ended up being more of a short laying sideways than a short nap, but that works.

Now- feeling less groggy and a little more with it, I am adventuring in cookie land. About a week ago, Grant very sweetly made me a batch of cookies since I had been craving something tasty and he wanted to keep me away from crack-filled store bought cookies. So, I bought things I liked in an oatmeal cookie and he found a good recipe- slightly crispy, slightly soft. What came out of it was the most orgasmically yummy oatmeal cookie I have had, maybe ever. He was worried our cookies would go bad and sit too long. We ate them in two days.

Today I decided that I would recreate the amazing, but of course Grant tells me that he altered the recipe. "Oh great, how will I duplicate it!? Did you write it down?" "No. I didn't even measure" he tells me. I gave him my "Seriously, are you freaking kidding me?" face. He laughed. FINE. I can do this myself and make these cookies Nicole style. So today, I attacked said recipe, altering it much like he did- "whip the hell out of the butter" he tells me. No chilling the dough. I put more butterscotch chips that he did, but that's because I love them. I didn't measure the raisins though, Grant would be proud. Parchment paper? Heck no, we use butter. My cookies are smaller, almost bite sized- making me feel less guilty when I eat 4 of them without blinking. Less chewy, more crunchy which I like. All in all, a cookie success!! Now, I have to remember to eat dinner tonight and not just have cookies.

This is the recipe- we altered it a bit, but I think that is the fun of it. If you love oatmeal cookies, try these!
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/#comment-896095

In other news, I am realizing several small things bring happiness to me today beyond just the great weather and awesome cookies. Thought I'd share them with you.

 The beautiful card my mom sent me today in honor of me becoming a mother. Inside it talks about how I am the greatest thing she has ever made. Love my mom, she is the best ever.

 I am not sure why I have hesitated picking this off the shelf for so long. I am loving this book so far, very amusing.

 I work best when organized, and even though I am not "working" in the traditional sense, I do love having one book to write down my to-do's, appointments and hopefully my future henna sessions. At very least, it will be filled with pediatrician appointments. :)

 I am in love with my double insulated Klean Kanteen. I bought it originally to use for my bus rides with hot tea when I was working and I couldn't get over how hot it kept my tea- for at very least 5 hours it still steamed. Recently I have been using it for ice water or iced rasberry leaf tea and have been amazed at the never melting ice and the steam- that comes from my hot breath hitting the extremely cold liquid inside as I go to drink. Whoever designed this thing is a genius and Wheatsville Co-op sells them. I am also in love with that Mac Trackpad we got for the computer when we upgraded to Lion. I hated our mouse, this thing is a Godsend.

 My altar is looking pretty-filled with lots of coming baby mojo. Every possible birth helping spirit or deity I am aware of is being honored on there. I am fast running out of room and feel like it's turning into a bit of an altar collage, but I like that. Feels like a big magickal art piece.

 Our Ganesha altar has been getting lots of love this week- he usually gets love, but since it's his birthday Chathurthi week, we are giving him lots more love. I just shared my cookies with him.

And last- these cute little glasses bought with the intent of being little wine glasses. Grant likes his red one so much he has been drinking pretty much everything out of it. Eventually, these will take over where our other inferior wine glasses leave off.

Now, to enjoy the sunset and the rest of the evening before I pick up my love from his late class tonight. Because I love him, I will bring him a cookie. 

Pineapple Rice adventures

Tonight Grant and I will be attending a dinner potluck at our friend's house. We love hanging out with S & M, so we are extremely glad to be joining them and meeting their other friends P & H.

Originally when I heard this was a potluck dinner I got excited- I love making food and sharing it out. Then I was told that H is vegan, so I needed/should make something vegan friendly. No problem, I'm not vegan so its a bit more tricky for me, but I am sure I can find something good. Happened to have a package of Seitan in my fridge, so I went on a search on my favorite recipe blog (http://www.101cookbooks.com/) for something good, and what I found was a recipe for Pineapple Rice. (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/pineapple-rice-recipe.html)

Looked at the ingredients and I had pretty much everything I needed to make it already on hand with the exception of a very few things. One glitch in the matrix- it calls for brown rice. This isn't hard for your average bear, but I only started cooking with brown rice for the first time this week when I made the Spanish Rice Casserole (amazing!!) a few nights ago. Having never had to just cook a batch of brown rice, I was a bit intimidated. Thank gods for Google. Looked up instructions, kinda blended the two I found and wa-la, cooked brown rice to let cool. Only thing I am slightly concerned about it the mushiness of the rice- I hate when brown rice is too hard still, but this rice ended up very soft, I think next time I will lessen the water and cook time by just a bit to try to get it perfect.

Fast forward a couple of hours and with a bit of blending, chopping, sauteing and stirring, I now have a giant pot of Pineapple Rice, extra dressing/sauce in a jar to be heated for when we serve it, and the toppings. It tastes good, but is still a bit mushy. Hopefully everyone will be so happy with the taste that they will excuse the mush-factor. If not, we may all be walking to the nearest vegan friendly restaurant for dinner.