Self Improvement Never Ends (and A Tale of Two Banana Breads)

It’s been a busy week at work, and Ger had some traveling so my parents came down to help me cover some meetings. My dad brought down some tracing tools I asked him to build. Here are Matt and I practicing our shapes after work one day. He loves his tracing tool, they are just big and solid enough to be a toy even though they are secretly a teaching tool.


Meanwhile, I took Matt to the Morris Arboretum this weekend. They have a summer railway exhibit, and I wanted him to be able to see it one last time before it closed for the summer.
 
We couldn’t go the arboretum without seeing the fish in the fernery. The fernery also has a wooden bridge which Matt loves to run on.



Ger had some late night shifts but we decided to try and reset our circadian rhythms with an early afternoon hike on the Wissahickon. Ger and Vax are in their element, as you can see. Matt loved running along the trail.

Into the kitchen…
I decided to see how fast I could get meatball supper on the table. You know because I’m not type A or competitive or anything.

Six minutes to gather meatball ingredients.
10 to roll out the meatballs, including lining cookie sheet with foil and greasing with oil.
Another 20 to get the meatballs in the oven and repurpose the bowl and mix a banana bread.
Meatball dinner with peas (not shown) and banana bread baking while we eat: 1 hr. (I need to get faster).


The banana bread with the meatball pictures is vegan with spelt and barley flour, the one above from earlier in the week is joy of cooking, heavy on the butter and eggs. I’m trying to zero in on the best recipe for us, trying to be conscious of the sugar content in our treats without sacrificing taste and cost. The vegan blueberry muffins were awesome, but at 1/2 cup maple syrup and 1/4 cup agave they are just not cost conscious for the amount of baking we do.

Week of August 18th

Batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies since last post: 1

The big trip this week was two precious days where Matt and I met Christa, Reid and Grant at Sea Isle City. A much needed break, and much needed catching up!

It was so nice to be at the beach!

That last picture is the lobby of the Colonnade which was a super cute inn right on the main strip in Sea Isle. It was the perfect place for Matt and I traveling together without Ger. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about traveling with Matt by myself, but staying at the inn was no problem. Matt completely knew how to behave in a hotel. I shouldn’t be too surprised, this is a kid who turned two over the pacific ocean going to New Zealand, and we just spent a month traveling about the Pacific Northwest.

 

Proof that Asia can be held a round with three players in the game.

I also took Matt to the Please Touch Museum. It had been a while since we took him. My in-laws try to take him when they are in town, so Ger and I have been taking Matt to the Franklin and I take him to the Morris Arboretum. As you can see, he was just so happy to be at the Please Touch. It really is one of the things that makes Philadelphia special.

And now into the kitchen:

Breaded Pork Chops ready to go. Can’t let you get the wrong impression from the vegan blueberry muffins in the last post. Plus we hadn’t had pork chops in a while.

I tried the carrot lentil soup again, this time with yellow lentils instead of red. I normally stock yellow lentils for dal, and wasn’t too excited to start carrying another pantry item. However, I think the recipe really needs red lentils.

I’ll be drinking this with sandwich for lunch this week.

Meanwhile, I’m always trying new things and this recipe caught my eye. First off, I have healthy respect for mid-westerners. I was third trimester pregnant in Chicago and did not go hungry. Second, there was nothing in this recipe that Ger wouldn’t eat. I substituted the ham for the shrimp, but heck, zucs, two types of cheese and eggs are all Gerry approved foods.

 

 

Aren’t they so cute? Too bad they are kinda bland. Ger’s pronouncement: “They are edible”. They are, for sure but they kind of need some hot sauce or something. Which is too bad cause when you first see all the ingredients on the left you start to get excited. Maybe it would be different with ham, but I’m not so sure. I can’t decide if this recipe is worth playing with. The bones are in place and makes a nice presentation, but it needs something more for oomph (than just salt).

Matt makes vegan blueberry muffins...

Matt loves to mix muffins. As soon as I give him the bowl, he's ready.

I don't mind when Matt secretly eats some of the blueberries when he thinks I'm not looking. That's the point!.

"Carefully, carefully with the plates..."

Yum!

Ode to Fish

I grew up eating a lot of fish. I mean *a lot* of fish. My mom grew up in Cartagena, Colombia and is no stranger to seafood. I remember going with my dad to the fish monger shop to get the fish for dinner and he would always pick up a side of New England Clam Chowder. The Irish are also no strangers to seafood. When my parents come to visit, at least one meal is always fish.
There are a lot of people intimidated to cook fish at home and think it will make them sick. Well I’ve eaten raw fish (sushi) at least once a week for the last 20 years or so and I don’t think I ever got sick from it (the jury is still out on long term mercury poisoning. HA!). Plus when we live in a world where you can get e coli from spinach might as well resign yourself that you are going to die from something and just enjoy dinner. :-)
So if it comes out of the sea, there’s a good chance it will be tasty. Raw (sushi), pickled (ceviche), fried, baked, broiled, poached or grill, I will eat it as long as it doesn’t have the head on (that rule goes for any animal).
Now that Matt is solidly eating salmon, I want to get him on other kinds of fish as well. This week one of the weekday dinners was a quick miso baked cod.

Lined a toaster oven tray with aluminum foil, mix up brown sugar, miso, mirin, and sesame oil for the glaze.

The glaze is all pantry items. Miso lasts for a long, long time in the fridge. All you need is the fish.

Broil it up in the toaster over till cooked through. I like the miso a bit blackened, but that’s to taste.
This is a winning recipe, you’d pay $17.50 for this dish in a restaurant! Add some fancy sides and white wine and you’ve got a great guest meal (this was a weekday, so broccoli and rice are the staples).

Ger eating miso glazed cod after a shift at work.

Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying walking with Matt home from school every day, while it is still light enough to do so. I think he outgrew the stroller though.

Weekday Dinner

This is a special blog post, dedicated to my mom, who from time to time when I start complaining how much there is to do reminds me she made dinner from scratch every night, while she was working at Chase Manhattan Bank, and had to take the bus and the train to work and didn't have the benefit of driving so had to carry the groceries from the store and did it all while pregnant with my brother thank you very much. She did all this and wore heels. So here is proof, proof that I too, come home and make dinner (when possible).

Prepped: Pork cubes, red pepper, scallions, garlic

6pm start cooking

6:10 pork browned, sweet and sour mix added, rice cooking.

6:30 pm dinner done, waiting for Ger to get home.

Sweet and Sour Pork with peppers and pineapples, a Finan Family Staple.

Working with Matt on using the fork with some noodles....

Just as I was about to get Matt to try some Ger comes home and says, "smells great, but I'm going to eat my roast beef sandwich from lunch." *sigh*.Oh well, you can't win them all.

The Walls Came Tumbling Down...

It's been an action packed two weeks. Since Ger has finished residency there's been a bunch happening on all fronts. The first is the demolition of the barn.

 

Meanwhile, I tried my hand at

this cake. 

It was pretty easy, kind of hearty, perfect for breakfast.

 Last week we went to visit Jen to see the hot air balloon launching, but it rained so we ended up staying indoors. At one point during the thunderstorm Matt and Jocelyn were running in the rain. Ger attempted to take pictures but as soon as we got home we saw he had taken a picture of John's car bumper. Oh well.

This weekend, Kelly came to visit. We ended up trying Earth Bread and Brewery, a flat bread pizza restaurant.

I had the red pesto pizza and I have to say I wouldn't think to put potatoes on pizza but it was a really good idea.

One of Matt's favorite snacks...

"I'm coming out so you better get this party started...."

 

We do a lot of chocolate chip cookies from scratch on demand so I've decided to keep track in my blog posts. 

Batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies since last post: 2

Meanwhile there are 3 forces that combined have really interfered with my reading and book reviews. The first has been a pretty busy 2 months at work. The second is that I am now driving to work and so my train -reading time has been cut. The third is that Ger and I are making an effort to reclaim a semblance of physical fitness. I've joined a gym by where I work, and if I go 40 times in the first 3 months I don't have to pay the initiative fee. I'm about 20 times in already. This morning Kelly, Ger, Vax and Matt and I went for a 5 mile hike through the Wissahickon. 

Ger sold it as a 2.5 mile hike, but neglected to mention "one way". Here I am gasping for breath at a pause at the covered bridge (the last remaining one in Philadelphia).

 Hopefully all this physical fitness will give me energy (soon)!