Jack 3 Months

This sweet boy is 3 months old! Here are some highlights from his third month of life:

-coos and gurgles 

-very interactive with faces

-loves his binky

-has partied until at least 10 PM every night since birth

-except for that one time he fell asleep at 9:30 PM

-fussy evenings the past couple weeks

-lots of bouncing, shooshing and swaying

-usually wakes once/night to eat

-only after putting him to bed over and over at least three times

-celebrated his first Christmas

-slept his first 9 1/2 hour stretch the night before Christmas

-slept through the night again the night before the Wilson Christmas celebration

-I guess we should just always pretend it's Christmas

-loves to be swaddled

-has begun to grab toys

-and snuggle his Corduroy bear

-laughed for the first time on New Year's Day (11.5 weeks)

-moved in with Emma into his big boy crib (at 12 weeks)

-first found fist to suck on (Jan 2)

-has cradle cap something fierce

-going bald

-likely do to his mother's exfoliating attempts at aforementioned cradle cap  

-a major spitter

-as in constant dampness from neck to belly button sort of spitting

-takes a bottle like a champ

-totally and completely adorable in every way

-loves his doting older sisters

-did I mention he is laughing?

-there is honestly to better sound in life

Aushak

Have you read Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl? Simply put, I adore this book. In fact, it single-handedly sent me spiraling into continuous Google searches for terms like "foodie novels" or "best books for foodies" for a while there. As it turns out (this may be no surprise here), I love me a good food memoir. This book in particular is my all time favorite and I have yet to find a foodie book I like better. I guess that could be because I secretly want to be a food critic. Like really badly. Oh to get paid to eat and write about delicious food! All this to say, if you like reading and you like food, find yourself a copy ASAP!

The book incorporates recipes, two of which have become regulars in our repertoire. I wouldn't necessarily call this one easy but I wouldn't call it complicated either. It's mostly just a bit time consuming but if you have friends or a spouse or small children with eager helping hands, the dumplings come together in no time. I haven't done this myself but I would imagine the sauce would freeze nicely if you made a giant batch and put some away for later.

Aushak is an Afghan dish often served on holidays or special occasions. I altered Reichl's version of the meat sauce slightly, mostly to accommodate the neatly portioned 1 pound packages of ground beef in my freezer (her recipe only called for 1/2 pound). In my opinion, my version provides a better meat sauce-to-dumpling ratio. I'll better the sauce would taste mighty fine made with lamb too. WARNING: the dumplings have some kick if you include the full teaspoon of red pepper flakes. My girls cried their way through the meal. Just a little. The yogurt sauce really helps calm down the spice though if you happen to overdo it. 

Aushak

Meat sauce:

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp diced ginger

1 cup water

1/4 cup tomato paste

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Yogurt sauce:
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
Kosher salt, to taste (~1/4 tsp)

Dumplings:
2 scallion bunches, green tops finely chopped (leave out the white part)
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 pkg round gyoza wrappers

Garnish:
Chopped fresh mint

To prepare meat sauce:

Heat oil in small skillet. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes until golden. Add beef, garlic, coriander, and ginger and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes until meat is no longer red. Add water and cook, stirring often, until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir, and cook another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To prepare yogurt sauce:

Blend ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

To prepare dumplings:

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Lay 1 tsp mixture in center of each wrapper and moisten edge. Fold over and press edges to make semicircles. 

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add dumplings and cook for 5 minutes.

To assemble:

Spoon 1/4 cup yogurt sauce onto a serving dish and cover with dumplings. Spoon remaining yogurt sauce on top and garnish with chopped fresh mint. Spoon meat sauce all around, and serve at once.

Serves 4

Aushak

Have you read Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl? Simply put, I adore this book. In fact, it single-handedly sent me spiraling into continuous Google searches for terms like "foodie novels" or "best books for foodies" for a while there. As it turns out (this may be no surprise here), I love me a good food memoir. This book in particular is my all time favorite and I have yet to find a foodie book I like better. I guess that could be because I secretly want to be a food critic. Like really badly. Oh to get paid to eat and write about delicious food! All this to say, if you like reading and you like food, find yourself a copy ASAP!

The book incorporates recipes, two of which have become regulars in our repertoire. I wouldn't necessarily call this one easy but I wouldn't call it complicated either. It's mostly just a bit time consuming but if you have friends or a spouse or small children with eager helping hands, the dumplings come together in no time. I haven't done this myself but I would imagine the sauce would freeze nicely if you made a giant batch and put some away for later.

Aushak is an Afghan dish often served on holidays or special occasions. I altered Reichl's version of the meat sauce slightly, mostly to accommodate the neatly portioned 1 pound packages of ground beef in my freezer (her recipe only called for 1/2 pound). In my opinion, my version provides a better meat sauce-to-dumpling ratio. I'll better the sauce would taste mighty fine made with lamb too. WARNING: the dumplings have some kick if you include the full teaspoon of red pepper flakes. My girls cried their way through the meal. Just a little. The yogurt sauce really helps calm down the spice though if you happen to overdo it. 

Aushak

Meat sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp diced ginger
1 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Yogurt sauce:
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
Kosher salt, to taste (~1/4 tsp)

Dumplings:
2 scallion bunches, green tops finely chopped (leave out the white part)
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 pkg round gyoza wrappers

Garnish:
Chopped fresh mint

To prepare meat sauce:

Heat oil in small skillet. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes until golden. Add beef, garlic, coriander, and ginger and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes until meat is no longer red. Add water and cook, stirring often, until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir, and cook another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To prepare yogurt sauce:

Blend ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

To prepare dumplings:

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Lay 1 tsp mixture in center of each wrapper and moisten edge. Fold over and press edges to make semicircles. 

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add dumplings and cook for 5 minutes.

To assemble:

Spoon 1/4 cup yogurt sauce onto a serving dish and cover with dumplings. Spoon remaining yogurt sauce on top and garnish with chopped fresh mint. Spoon meat sauce all around, and serve at once.

Serves 4

Shoes

I wish I could say that when my kids walk in the front door, they quickly remove their shoes and coats and put them in the closet but nothing could be further from the truth. Usually we're a mud-tracking tirade of Northwest wetness slopping across the kitchen floor when we enter. Shoes kicked in all directions. Coats landing in piles. Stuff everywhere. EVERY time. One would think after the one thousand and fifty second time hearing "OK kids, let's take off our shoes and coats and put them in the closet" that a habit might form. One would think. But the only habit that seems to be forming over here is the shoe kicking, coats landing one. Tirelessly (OK, really tiredly) I bellow my line again but it seems to fall on deaf ears. This is my homecoming.

These days, so much of my life is like this. A poor system, seemingly on repeat until I finally have a break in the malaise to realize Ha! Something about this is not working. But finding a solution takes energy, energy that is in short supply. So often I just let the cycle run it's course, hoping one day a magical solution will dawn on me. Please tell me you've been there? I think it must be the third kid thing!

We struggling a bit over here with siblings battles. I think my kids have discovered the holes in my system and are starting to take advantage of them faster than I can keep up. They know how to really irk each other and they know how to irk me. People always told me that with three kids, you're outnumbered but for some crazy reason I thought my organizational skills would prevent that from happening to me. Ha! 

I'm reading a couple of parenting books to get some new ideas but I've learned to hold all concepts I encounter loosely. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they are helpful and sometimes they can make a parent feel completely incompetent. By golly this parenting thing is complicated but I am working on giving myself a break. And on a lot of days I am getting better at it. What I really want is a set plan I can follow and voila, problem solved! But instead I'm learning (not necessarily achieving yet but learning) to lavish myself with grace and pray hard for extra doses of wisdom!!

Chinese Chicken Salad

After a rather indulgent December, a couple of us were feeling the need for some hearty main-dish salads around here. It just so happened that I had everything but a head of napa cabbage on hand to throw this one together tonight. I'd forgotten how completely delicious and easy it is! The original recipe came from our friend Lacey who delivered it to us after Emma was born. Ironically, she was the salad's biggest fan tonight, dishing up sevenths and even eighths - a first for any of my kids which ordinarily rarely touch salad! I think it was the sweet dressing that won her over. It probably helped that she just received a handmade bunny blanket and I told her bunnies like cabbage....

I made a couple of minor adaptions to the recipe and next time I think I'll throw in a dash or two of sesame oil for a more savory flavor but I was all out tonight. I served the salad with Nutmeg and Fresh Black Pepper Popovers (totally random and not Chinese whatsoever but I've had the recipe lying around waiting to be tried for ages and an all-salad dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity...) The whole meal was a hit with everyone. Enjoy!

Chinese Chicken Salad

Dressing:

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Topping:

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

2 pkg dried ramen noodles, crushed

Salad:

1 head napa cabbage, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

3 mandarin oranges, peeled and broken into segments

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken (I used rotisserie from a meal earlier this week)

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

To prepare dressing, combine ingredients (sugar through soy sauce) in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool.

To prepare topping, melt butter over medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Add almonds, sunflower seeds and ramen and saute until golden brown.

To prepare salad, combine cabbage, green onions, oranges and chicken in a large bowl. Add topping and toss with dressing. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Crozier Christmas 2013

 Christmas morning started off wonderfully, as every morning does when your favorite baby boy sleeps all the way through the night (his first 9 1/2 hour stretch!!) Unfortunately the girls woke up crying so I didn't get to sleep through but close enough! We kicked things off the "right" way with stockings first.  Emma was in a bit of a mood (she was "hungy") but she turned around once she saw the presents.

This girl got an awesome new bike, which I neglected to photograph. Our goal is to get her up to running speed so we can totally take over the trail with our moving family of five: 2 on foot, 2 riding in the double Bob, and 1 pedaling on her bike.

Helping Grandpa and Grandma open their new picture calendar. 

 My kids' beautiful auntie 

 Both Tash and Canon had been sick leading up to Christmas too so we were glad they were well enough to join the party (they missed Christmas Eve).

 Great Grandma Juna spent the day with us

 After presents, Graham cooked up his famous duck with cherry port sauce in full feast fashion. 

We walked it off with a trek to the beaver pond and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing puzzles and playing games before we packed up a FULL van load and headed home. We were spoiled!!!

Christmas Eve 2013 (continued)

After an afternoon power nap for Emma, we rushed our little hinies off and somehow managed to make it to Bethany's Christmas Eve service, fighting (*cough* I mean jingling) all the way. As Graham would say it, I put the kabosh on him doing the music this year as he so rarely gets the holiday off and I just felt the need to be together for as much of Jack's first Christmas as possible. It was lovely to sing carols together by candlelight and have our kids participate in the service.

 After the service, we joined the extended Crozier clan at the senior Crozier homestead for a traditional Christmas Eve fondue dinner. I apparently neglected to take pictures of this portion, likely because all I could think of was the mutual germ sharing that was going on as each of us dipped into the pot of bubbling cheese. Had we not just concluded the tail end of the worst stomach flu experience known to man, I don't think I would have thought twice about it, but I was petrified we might get it again and those are days I don't care to repeat!!!! 

As a side note, look at Graham's awesome shirt! It was the one and only of all the presents I got him that he kept. Until it shrunk in the dryer....Never again will I attempt to buy him clothes! I learned that early on in our dating relationship but foolishly thought nearly 7 years of marriage would have helped me better understand his taste preference. Wrong. 

  The extended family switched it up a bit this year and trialed a white elephant exchange. We knew it was sure to be a riot with this group... Below you see picture the most sought after gift of the night: the Ostrich Napping Pillow.

 So stylish, so many uses. 

 After the party died down, the immediate Croziers hung out for a bit and then stayed for a sleepover to welcome Christmas morning.

 'Twas just another normal night

And Scott gave me a lesson on how to do crazy things with my camera. With this family, it's always a party!