Vay-cay-shun!

It's the big one.  Three weeks of American bliss. 

Tomorrow is Bee's second birthday and we're taking her on an airplane ride home to see her grandparents!

I am off to finish packing.

Posting will probably be light, or nil.

See you in a few weeks.

A second method for stopping a tantrum

So tonight, Bee was running toward my bedroom yelling because she wanted to keep reading Richard Scarry's "Busytown" and did NOT want to sit down and have dinner. She didn't know it, although I did know it, that really the reason she was running and screaming was that dinner was late and she was hungry and tired.  

Poor David was cooking dinner and the fuse for the stove blew. Once this happens, it usually takes a few hours for it to cool down and work properly again. I don't know why this happens. Maybe it is our special Eastern European wiring.  Ever resourceful, David lit the stove with the gas and a match and carried on boiling the pasta. 

Anyway. . . the fuse box was irritated it decided to make all the electricity cut out.  Suddenly, the apartment became completely dark.  Bee, who seconds before had been speeding her way toward my bedroom, changes directions and starts bumbling back through the pitch black hallway, screaming even louder.  I groped through the darkness at toddler height until I found Bee.  Her tantrum stopped.  A blackout is dramatic method, but it worked.

Smile on my face

--My VIP visitor departing the country this afternoon.  

--Bee's request for kisses all around when David and I arrived home from work today, but particularly when she ordered, "Daddy, kiss Mommy mouth."  Great idea, let's do that again!

--Watching Bee slurp peanut noodles at dinner.

--Curling up in my bed under a warm woolen blanket that I bought once upon a time in Guatemala.

Guilty Pleasures

Magazine subscriptions. I think I subscribe to eight different magazines. 

The guiltiest pleasure of the lot is US Weekly.  US Weekly magazine is a dumbed down version of People magazine, which is already pretty dumb in its own right. 

I like to compare US Weekly to a McDonald's value meal--you get the same thing every time, it's cheap, tastes great, although it makes you feel a little bit sick when you're done.  Since I've all but given up Mc Donalds (don't watch Supersize me, just don't) US Weekly is my weekly junk fix.

Despite the lingering bad taste, I keep going back, week after week. I think it is the brightly colored pictures and gossip-y language written on a third grade reading level.  After a long day at the office, I don't want to puzzle out some postmodern novel, I just want to retreat to some lowbrow entertainment.  

I just got home a few minutes ago and it is well after 9 pm--the very rare work night out that I do my best to avoid.  (There is no dinner, meeting, or reception that is more important to me than after work cuddle time and Play Doh creation with Bee. But as it was my event, I had to attend.)  

I'm tired and off to bed with Oprah magazine.  David will probably be reading the Economist. Hopefully his intellectual pursuits will balance out my mental laziness.

All the live long day

Highlight of my day: sitting on the floor of Bee's room, playing cars and trains together.  I built her a long bridge with cardboard blocks.  We balanced her train and cars on top. We drove them underneath.  We landed helicopters and airplanes. We strategically positioned wooden trees and houses around the bridge. We sang nursery rhymes about trains.  We played until dinner was ready.  Just me and my Bee.  One of the purest joys of parenthood is the chance to be a kid again.

Test kitchen

Maybe it's the sudden drop in temperature. Maybe it's the fact that we're leaving for our vacation next weekend and won't be cooking for ourselves for three weeks.  Maybe it's because cooking is a form of stress management for me.  Whatever it is, David and I have been cooking all weekend long.

Here are todays hits and misses:

Pumpkin waffles with maple cream cheese syrup

Grade: B

I think this was a recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian," but I'm not certain because I was sleeping when David and Bee whipped these up.  Bottom line, you couldn't really taste the pumpkin and the syrup was a bit congealed.  However, I love waffles in all their guises.

Pumpkin bread (with the pumpkin I stewed yesterday)

Grade: A+

I used my Mom's recipe and it never disappoints. The fresh pumpkin gave the bread a great color and lighter texture than the canned variety.

Applesauce

Grade: C-

It tastes wonderful, despite the fact that I initially added chili powder instead of cinnamon (a quick rinse in cold water saved the apples), but I didn't peel enough apples and cooked them a bit too long.  Yield-less than one cup.

Chipotle roasted pumpkin seeds

Grade: A

I soaked the seeds in saltwater overnight and then tossed them with olive oil (dry off the water first) and chipotle popcorn seasoning.  Bake on a cookie sheet in a 300 degree  for 40 minutes, stirring the seeds every 10 minutes or so so they don't stick.  

Later today:

Sugar cookies (with halloween cookie cutters). I'd like to decorate them with royal icing but we'll see whether I have any energy left.

Vegetable stock (all the veggies are ready to go) and then Sunday's soup.  We still need to roast the red peppers.  

I'd also like to clean the house, start packing (beachwear), make playdoh, and go for a jog.  This is overly ambitious, I know, but this is why weekends ought to be three days instead of just two.

P is for possibilities

Three minutes until my pumpkin is finished roasting.  Now I just have to decide what I want to make with the puree.  It probably weighed about two kilograms whole, but I'm not sure how many cups that will translate into.

David is lobbying for pumpkin pie. I would like to make some mini loaves of pumpkin bread (freeze the extras to eat on rushed weekday mornings).  We also have two unopened containers of cream cheese in the fridge, so maybe pumpkin cake or cookies with cream cheese frosting? Or even cheese cake?