The Gravy Train

in catching up, i realize that time is flying by

Our girl is almost 4 months old.  In that four months, I have amassed a huge pile of food photos that I'm still in the process of editing to share with you.  Mothers everywhere have told me time and again that motherhood is a transformative, all-encompassing milestone in life, and hoo boy, has it ever been.   Times two.  

I'm trying not to lose too much of myself into this whole mothering thing, and to that end I have every intention of updating the blog and making you all painfully aware of the boatloads of good things I've been eating over the last few months.  I'm talking about some truly phenomenal, pants-stretching, food-coma inducing meals.

That being said, every time I sit down to edit a photo about, say, oh, a heavenly fish curry and think about how to wax poetic about it, I get distracted because on the same day that I met this curry, I also happened to take about 40 photos of the kids for every one photo I took of the curry (and the curry alone merited at least 10 photos, so you can imagine that I've got quite a bit of junk to sort through).  

And there's the rub, folks.  Every day right now is a constant war between Me and Time/Space to carve out precious minutes to sit in front of the computer and get those creative juices flowing.  And almost every time I sit down, the battle of Talking About Curry vs. Gushing About Offspring ensues.  

Guess who wins?  Those dang offspring, every single time.

baking in the new year

Happy New Year!  How was your holiday?

Ours was pretty quiet here in Charleston.  We stayed put because of Gravy Too's impending arrival (although some days now it feels like I've been pregnant for a thousand months).  

I also baked.  Actually, I only kind of baked.  It was unseasonably warm most days, and between the bun in my oven and the actual heat from our kitchen oven, I felt like I was sweltering in Malaysia again.  Instead, I found some good no-bake options (see below) to give to the Gravy Baby's preschool teachers and family.

Hanging around the house has also given me some extra time to learn how to use Photoshop Elements, finally.  After almost four years of blogging (yes, it's been that long!), I'm tired of waffling between various photo editing options on the internet, and it's one of my New Year's resolutions to teach myself how to properly edit and blog photos, once and for all.  Above is my first attempt -- you'll have to bear with me as I figure it all out.  I'm open to your input!  If you're still reading about our quiet little life, I want to hear from you.

Recipes for the above-pictured treats are below (now that the holidays are over, you can just omit the Christmas-colored snazzle I added to our treats):

Smitten Kitchen's salted brown butter rice krispie treats (Warning: these are seriously addictive; you might have to double the recipe just to get enough to give away.  Of course, not that I would know anything about that.)

Real Simple's No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies (I halved the sugar in these guys and still found them plenty sweet)

All Recipe's Gingerbread Biscotti (Amazingly easy to make, but dipping them in white chocolate as one reviewer suggested turned mine into an unmitigated, clumpy disaster.  I'd suggest drizzling them with white icing instead)

a gravy train thanksgiving recap

From left to right: our golden brown deep-fried turkey; my sister assembling her oyster cornbread stuffing; and my favorite green bean casserole, courtesy Martha

I noticed that Thanksgiving for us gets more loud and boisterous for us every year, and the amount of food increases exponentially with the noise.  Back in the early 2000s, we had a dip in both attendance and only adult "kids" around, which made them quieter affairs.  Now, Thanksgiving starts the Monday before and ends the Friday after, and we have built-in theme nights that revolve around Thanksgiving, like Fondue and Chinese Hot Pot Night and Roast Duck with Sticky Rice Night (no, I didn't get photos this year; I was too busy chowing for two!).

My sister Amy's sweet potatoes involve pushing the potatoes through a ricer for an extra-creamy, fluffy flavor and incorporating her in-laws' homemade apple butter

This year, my sister Angel added a new twist on our stuffing by whipping up Edward Lee's cornbread oyster stuffing.  I took her to a local seafood supplier to pick up a bucket of the area's freshest.  Everyone agreed that the addition of oysters took our love of stuffing to a whole new level.

After frying the turkey, my dad used the still-hot oil to make 60 egg rolls, which had all disappeared by the following morning (yes, egg rolls + toaster oven = breakfast)

By the way, if you're looking for a variation on the traditional, gloopy canned-mushroom soup based green bean casserole, this one by Martha using a bechamel base has been my favorite for years.  Its festive incorporation of red bell peppers means it's Christmas-friendly, too, right?

And as for the kid and noise factor, I'm a big fan.  Huge, actually.

life and eats, lately

From left to right, top to bottom, here's what my iPhone says we've been up to lately:

Bun thit nuong at Mi Xao Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (yes, really!  and it's delicious!).

Lemon pound cake I made to thank the Gravy Baby's swim teacher for teaching him how to swim and, more importantly, for putting up with his theatrics every week.

The Gravy Baby got a new short haircut and grew up like, 3 years in the past 3 weeks (Big boy underpants! Big boy bed!  Big boy attitude!).

I am undertaking my Most Ambitious DIY Project Ever: a custom slipcover for our sofa.  Step 1: prewash and iron 18 yards of fabric, as learned from this funny lady's tale of woe.

Weeknight dinner last week: pre-marinated bulgolgi (Korean barbecue) from Trader Joe's, homemade Korean potato salad and miso soup.

At the elementary school near our house, the Gravy Baby shocks, awes and terrifies me with his climbing abilities.  The hubby is much calmer about it.

carnita-vores

When my sister hosted us in Charlotte a few weeks ago, she made a delicious carnitas tacos in her slow cooker using pork shoulder she'd bought at their local farmer's market.  Inspired to do the same, last Friday I set up a taco bar and let my boys have at it.

Our preferred homemade salsa of choice is a fresh corn, black bean and avocado salsa, and I had all sorts of other garnishes -- chopped jalapenos, wedges of lime, grated cheese, sour cream, chopped tomatoes and minced cilantro.  A taco bar feels like the right kind of Friday night meal.  It's fancy enough that it feels like the weekend, but doesn't require me to break out a sweat trying to pull everything together.

Around here, it's sometimes hard to convince the Gravy Baby to eat something other than Asian food, but we discovered that when it comes to carnitas, he digs right in and enjoys the whole, er ... enchilada. 

Here's a roundup of some of the more intriguing carnitas recipes I was able to find:

Homesick Texan's Carnitas, as told by Smitten Kitchen

Slow Cooker Carnitas

David Lebovitz's Carnitas, with a great observation of why people feel the need to call thirty minutes before they arrive at a dinner party at your house, just as you're frantically rushing around trying to finish everything

Slow Cooker Beer Carnitas, which is very similar to what I did (but notice I'm not posting my own recipe because I basically seared my pork shoulder, then threw it on top of a pile of onions, jalapeno, brown sugar and cumin and doused the whole thing with a Corona)

Rick Bayless's Carnitas, because if it's anyone who can tell us how to do it, it would be him, right?

viva le france

France seems so very long ago now, even though we were there just last month and I still have tons of stories and photos to share.

Plus, it's been a rocky couple of weeks here in Gravytown.   In addition to the sadness we've been coping with, the Gravy Baby has been sick.  Not fun.  The good news, though, is that he's finally starting to feel better (yay, antibiotics) and that we're starting to narrow down the cause (severe allergies), which requires some hard-core cleaning and reorganizing.  If you know me at all, you know that I find the process of undergoing a deep clean and purge very, very exciting.

Know what's even more exciting?  The fact that we started every one of our evening dinners at home while at the chateau in Antibes with the spread, above.  Every. Single. Dinner.

My heart pitter-patters just remembering it all.