More Adventures in Toddlerhood

We've had a relatively funny couple of days at the Cougar-Mellencamp household, with Ella in top form. We've recently been painting with watercolors at her easel, which is her new favorite activity. She likes me to draw shapes, animals, and people, and then she paints them. Today I stepped into the kitchen to get a towel to wipe her hands, and while I was gone she plunged 2 strawberries into the paintbrush rinse cup and painted both of her ears blue (including quite far INSIDE her ears).

Ella really hasn't been much of a fan of snow until this last snow storm, when she actually *walked* in the snow for the first time willingly. It figures that she'd decide to love it right when we're probably not going to get much more.

Ella loves to tell stories and sing songs lately. Today her favorite story went like this:

"One day, Little Ella spilled the cat food allllllll over the kitchen, and Mama cleaned it up. Baby Bear got in the box and got dirty. Ella gave him a bath in the bathroom sink and he was alllllll clean. The end."

Incidentally, that story was mostly true, and happened a couple of weeks ago. (Baby Bear is a little stuffed baby polar bear that the Uncles next door gave her. She loves him.)

Her favorite songs of late are "Rock a Bye Baby", "Where Has My Little Dog Gone", and what she calls, "The Train Song", which goes like this:

"Choo choo the big fwain is coming down the fwack. Stop....and yisten, stop....and yisten!"

As she gets older and grows out of her baby things, I gradually move them downstairs into storage. Today I was trying to move some bibs and burp cloths that have somehow remained in her dresser, and Ella spotted me. My attempt was completely unsuccessful, as she grabbed what she could out of my hands and declared, "These are my FAVORITE, Mama! I NEED these!"

Last week I was so eager to sew something other than slippers that I made an easy 2-piece pattern and made this little dress out of some cotton I've had lying around. It turned out so cute and was so quick & easy that I think I'll make more. Ella loves the pocket, but thinks it should have two pockets (note to self for next time!):

The food battle remains a battle, and I'm not sure if we'll ever win. I suppose she won't starve herself completely, so as long as she seems to be thriving on milk, air, and fruit, I guess that's okay. She does love new foods that she's either never had or hasn't had in a long time, and I'm always looking for some tricky new way to prepare veggies so she'll eat them. So far the dip idea has flopped - she just dips whatever veggie or chicken strip or breadstick she happens to have, licks the dip off, and repeats. It has completely failed to entice her to eat whatever she's dipping. I can usually convince her to eat a new pasta dish, so I invent new ones at least once a week. Tonight was fusilli with a tomato cream sauce with caramelized onions and garlic. It was quite good, and a hit with Ella. The recipe is below, both to share and so I don't forget what I did. We all, including Ella, really love garlic, so there is a LOT in this recipe, but it does mellow quite a bit as it caramelizes with the onions (and slicing rather than mincing it keeps it in check as well). Feel free to use as much or as little as you prefer. This would be great with a handful of fresh basil stirred in at the end, but unfortunately it's not basil season just yet. When they're in season, I would definitely use fresh tomatoes rather than canned. I was thinking this would probably be quite good served over chicken as well for those who are watching carbs or just not huge pasta fans.

Tomato Cream Sauce with Caramelized Onions & Garlic

2 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp butter, divided
1 large onion, peeled & sliced 1/8" thick
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled & sliced
2 Tbsp sherry wine
~1/2 cup dry white wine
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 cup cream (could substitute half & half)
~3/4 cup grated parmesan or grana padano cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and 2 tbsp butter in a large saute pan and add onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to caramelize, about 20 minutes, adding water 2 tbsp at a time if pan becomes too dry. Add remaining butter, sherry & white wine to pan, bring to a boil and cook about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, cream, and half of the cheese. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in remaining cheese and season with salt & pepper to taste before serving.

Cream of Potato Soup

I threw together this soup this weekend with some odds and ends we had on hand, and it turned out great! I decided to post it here so I don't forget what I did. :)

Cream of Potato Soup

1/2 lb bacon, chopped into 1/2" pieces (well, apparently I use bacon in absolutely everything)
2 Tbsp butter (feel free to omit to reduce fat - but why would you do that?)
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 - 6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 yam, peeled and chopped
1 cup chicken stock (or 1 15 oz. can, if that's what you have on hand)
~2 cups milk
1 cup half & half
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives (scallions would work too if you don't have a chive plant outside your kitchen door)
Salt & pepper to taste

Brown bacon in a large pot. Remove bacon from pot, and pour off all but ~3 Tbsp bacon grease. Add butter, onion and garlic and saute until onions are translucent. Stir in potatoes, yams, chicken stock, and milk, and simmer until potatoes & yams are tender. Using an immersion blender, puree about half of the soup, or alternatively, use a regular blender. If using a regular blender, puree 1/2 the soup (be careful and cover with a dishtowel!) and return it to the pot. Stir in half and half and cook until heated through (don't boil). Stir in chives, and salt & pepper to taste. Serve topped with crumbled bacon.

This was delicious served with a salad and freshly made garlic bread, and I loved the added color and sweetness of the yams.

I Don't Like Creamy Meat

"Ow. I bonked my noggin." 3/23/09

"No! I yike milk. I don't yike creamy meat," trying to convince me to give her milk instead of her breakfast of Cream of Wheat. 3/25/09

"AHHHH! Don't want Maggie to smell my fruit snack!" 3/22/09

"Ella do it by self." Every single day of our lives.

UPDATE:

I thought "creamy meat" would be the funniest thing I heard from Ella today, but apparently I was wrong. As I was laying down with her for a nap this afternoon, she was her usual crazy self and not exactly in nap mode, so after telling her several times that it was time to settle down, I held her up so she could see my face. In a very I-mean-business sort of voice, I said, "Ella Mae..." Without missing a beat, Ella said, "I swear to God!" So, I guess I'll cross that little phrase off of the list of things I can say around Ella.

One of Those Days

Today started as yesterday left, just after midnight. I was sitting at my desk before bed, admiring the new brochure I designed for Sean's office. We were planning to send it out today as a direct mail campaign to 13000 people in Utah County, and I was thinking that if I were looking for a dentist, this would be exactly the kind of office where I'd like to go. Then I noticed the typo. The hideous, glaring typo that I had somehow missed over proofread after proofread. Right on the front panel of the brochure, our office address is listed as LAYTON, not Lindon. Those of you who live in Utah know that Layton is about an hour or so north of Lindon, and therefore people in Lindon will probably not be terribly interested in a dental office in *&?#$@& Layton. I ran into the bedroom, nearly in tears, to confess to Sean. He was his usual wonderful, understanding, downplaying self, and assured me it wasn't the end of the world. He convinced me to come to bed, where he held me while I spent the night tossing and turning, wondering how I could have made such an awful mistake, and having nightmares that I had gotten the phone number wrong too (I didn't, thank goodness). With some help from our great mailing people at World Wide Mailing, we can solve it. But it's not going to be the fabulous, polished, perfect brochure I had worked so hard for.

Ella was having one of those mornings when she woke up at 8:00. One of those, "NOOOOO! Go OUT! Don't get me out! Want DADDY!!!! Too bwight! Shut bwinds! Don't change my diaper! ELLA DO IT! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" mornings when she has her first full-blown fit in her crib seconds after she wakes up. I wanted to get her up and get to the grocery store early to get a jump on my errands, but she wasn't having it. We went anyway, and what should have been an hour-long trip took over two hours. Part of the problem was trying to rent a steam cleaner for my area rugs and dining room chairs. We're having a dinner party on Saturday and I'd like the place to look as nice as possible, and the rugs have needed to be cleaned for a while now. It was about as easy to rent this steam cleaner as I imagine it would be to rent a leer jet. We waited in line for ages, finally got the thing rented, and asked the service guy to hold it while I did the rest of my shopping downstairs.

The shopping went fine for the most part, other than me suffering from a bout of delayed-onset placenta head and having to run back and forth across the grocery store a hundred times. We finally got to the checkout, and Ella had had enough. Enough again. After the "enough" she'd had upstairs at the service desk, and the "enough" she'd had while we bought some pansies for the pots outside, and "enough" she'd had at the dairy case. Now she had had "enough" with the checkout. She was trying to stand up in the front part of the cart so she could push the buttons on the credit card machine, while I was quickly loading groceries into my bags to placate the impatient people who had been drawn like moths to a flame to the express checkout immediately after the sympathetic checkout lady had allowed me to go through with my 1.2 million items. In order to avoid a head injury, I lifted Ella from the front part of the cart into the main part, where she couldn't reach the credit card machine and couldn't get out. I finished bagging the groceries and turned to lift the last bag into the cart. There sat little Ella Mae unloading an entire carton of eggs around her, gleefully chanting, "Eggies! Eggies! Eggies evooeewhayooo!" By the grace of god, none of them broke and I caught her just as she was preparing to launch one overboard. As we walked away from the checkstand, she yelled, "Thank you, nice yady!" to the checkout woman.

The rest of the day went about the same way, Ella alternating between positively infuriating to totally disarming. The problem was partly Ella, partly me, and partly the Leer Jet Steam Cleaner that worked half the time and the other half puked out its contents onto an almost-clean floor. After taking over some groceries and flowers for Richard, our neighbor who is finally returning tomorrow from what seemed a very long winter away (we have to wait a few more weeks for Dennis, sadly), I sat with a glass of wine watching Ella and Maggie chase each other around, Ella half-naked, squealing and giggling with Maggie at her hip, while Sean got her bathed and ready for bed. Thank goodness for a fabulous partner who comes home from a long day at work and immediately takes over, rescuing a tired, exasperated wife from One of Those Days.

Backyard and photos

The seeds *finally* arrived for my spring garden, so in go the peas, arugula, lettuces, spinach, and radishes. Hooray! I'm so excited to get the yard cleaned up, and especially for the backyard. We have 1500 lbs of bamboo sitting in the garage just waiting to become a fence, 6 raspberry and blackberry bushes waiting to produce my future jams, jellies, pies, and crepe fillings, and I'm sure there's some sod out there somewhere just begging to be my new tiny lawn. It will be so great for Ella to have a nice place to play in the backyard, and I can't wait for the backyard barbeques!

While I dream of a finished backyard, here are a few photos:

Ella and her favorite guy, Connor.

Connor helping Ella bite her teething ring (the teething ring has recently re-emerged as an acceptable alternative to chewing on scissors, nails, and knives).

More of the "picture smile".

A Whole Warren of Bunnies!

As bunnies tend to do, the bunny slippers have multiplied and taken over the Cougar-Mellencamp household. I spent this week making bunnies in every color of the rainbow, and loving every minute of it - they are SO CUTE!






You can see more of the bunnies at my Etsy shop. Happy weekend!

Sesame Crusted Tuna "Burgers" with Maple-Soy Glaze and Wasabi Aioli

Dinner tonight! A deceptively easy "gourmet" meal, and one of my favorites. This was inspired by the tuna burger at Acme Burger, and adapted from other seared-tuna appetizer recipes I've tried in the past.

Sesame Crusted Tuna "Burgers" with Maple-Soy Glaze and Wasabi Aioli

1/4 Cup maple syrup (gotta use the real stuff)
1/4 Cup soy sauce (I prefer low-sodium)
2 6-7 oz fresh tuna steaks - ahi, albacore, or other sushi-grade tuna
Sesame seeds
2 ciabbata rolls or onion rolls
1/4 Cup mayonnaise
2 tsp - 2 tbsp wasabi paste (to taste)
lettuce and avocado for burgers

In a small saucepan, bring maple syrup and soy sauce to boil over medium-high heat. Boil until reduced by half, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and watching for boil-over. Remove from heat. Rinse tuna steaks and pat dry. Sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds on both sides, pressing to adhere. Sear tuna steaks over medium-high to high heat in a heavy pan (I use a grill pan) until done to taste (I prefer very rare). Place on plate, allow to cool slightly, and pour maple-soy glaze generously over steaks. Stir together mayonnaise and wasabi paste to make wasabi aioli. Spread wasabi aioli generously on cut rolls, adding lettuce, avocado, and tuna steaks.

More Invisible Food!

We're all headed to Fillmore tomorrow morning to visit Wah-Wah and Papa (grandma & grandpa for those of you who don't speak Ella), and I had to make dinner with a few odds & ends. There's definitely a trend of cheesy pasta dishes these days, mostly because "noo-noos" are some of Ella's favorite foods so I know they're generally a safe bet. This recipe uses a basic bechamel sauce, which is really easy to adapt to your particular taste. I'm sure you could substitute whatever veggies you have on hand (carrots, cut into small cubes, cauliflower, etc.), and the quantities below are just suggestions - I'm sure I had less than a cup of asparagus. The chicken is optional (I added it to give Ella a bit of protein), but this is a great way to use up leftover chicken - shredded would work just as well as grilled & cubed. I pounded the chicken breast until it was relatively thin so it would cook quickly and not hold up the meal. Although I didn't have any on hand, a bit of chopped parsley would be nice stirred in right at the end. Enjoy!

Creamy Pasta with Spring Vegetables & Grilled Chicken

1 chicken breast, grilled & cut into cubes
1 lb package dried pasta, whatever shape you have on hand
1-2 cups broccoli florets
1-2 cups asparagus spears, cut into 1" pieces
1 10 oz package frozen peas
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed (or minced, whatever works best for you)
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream (this is totally optional)
3-4 oz cream cheese, cut into pieces
1 tsp lemon zest*
1/2 cup shredded parmesan or grana padano
salt & pepper, to taste

Bring large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Set timer for 2 minutes less than pasta cook time and add pasta to water. Meanwhile, melt butter in small saucepan and add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and stir in flour. Cook butter/flour mixture for about one minute, stirring, to get rid of starchy flavor. Stir in milk, working flour clumps out as you stir. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes, until sauce thickens considerably. Stir in cream cheese until it melts, then add cream and lemon zest and remove from heat.

When pasta is about 2 minutes from done, add broccoli & asparagus to pot. Cook for about a minute and a half, then stir in frozen peas. Test pasta for doneness, and reserve about a cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta & veggies and return to pot. Stir in bechamel sauce, adding enough reserved pasta water to thin the sauce to desired consistency. Stir in shredded parmesan or grana padano and salt/pepper to taste. Bon appetit!

*Lemon zest isn't critical, but it does add a nice brightness. I always zest any lemon I'm using for juice and keep the zest in a plastic bag in the freezer. Then I have it on hand when I need it and don't have to buy a lemon just for a tsp of zest.

Potty training SUSPENDED

After the most ridiculous 10 minutes I think I've ever spent, I've decided to suspend potty training, at least for the day.

This morning was a little rough on the potty training front, most likely because yesterday was crazy and we got out of practice. After she woke up, Ella wanted to wear her "big girl panties", and so began a day of potty training. She hasn't really been recognizing when she needs to go, so I've been using a timer with her and it has worked really well. Unfortunately it didn't work very well today.

While eating her cereal about 5 minutes after she woke up, she peed on my foot. And unfortunately, on the seagrass rug. I handled it fine, didn't have a fit, just cleaned it up, put some dry undies on her, and restarted the timer. When the timer went off, we went to the potty, but she didn't think she needed to go. 5 minutes later, "uh oh!" Again, cleaned up the wet spot (this time on the hard floor, thank goodness, no biggie). Reminded her that when she feels like she needs to go, we need to go to the potty. Restarted the timer again for a shorter amount of time. Went to the potty again, and again didn't need to go (probably because she'd already gone on the floor twice!).

You'd think that the past 10 minutes had been sort of ridiculous, but it was NOTHING compared to what was coming.

I was fairly certain there was *something* coming down the pipes, so I was paying close attention for any signals and thinking to myself that perhaps we should just get a diaper back on and continue that way. Ella had a fit about the diaper, so we had a little talk one more time (me thinking it wasn't doing any good because she obviously isn't understanding the "need to go" signal) and put the little Care Bears panties back on. I walked into the dining room to try to get some slippers done. And then all hell broke loose.

Ella started yelling from the hallway - right outside the bathroom - about poop on her foot. "Great," I thought, and went to investigate. Sure enough, my worst potty training fear had been realized. Poop. All over her and the floor. Trying not to gag and cursing the fact that I was home alone with her, I picked Ella up and stood her in the tub. While she yelled about "POOP! EVERYWHERE!" (pronounced "evoo-whay-oo!", I cleaned her up and mentally prepared for cleaning up the floor. I took her out of the tub, dried her off, and told her to stay in the bathroom while I cleaned up the hallway floor. Walking into Ella's room to get her a diaper and silently pledging to try the potty training again tomorrow, I found Armegeddon. Poop. On the carpet. Not the carpet! ARGH!

While I was still contaminated, I cleaned up the mess in Ella's room, cursing under my breath. I moved from her room out into the hallway, disinfecting the floor as I went, grateful that Ella had gone into the living room and wasn't getting into any of it. As God is my witness, just as I finished cleaning the floor, in trots Ella, a hundred tiny wet footprints trailing behind her. Before I could wash my hands and get a diaper on her little bottom, she had PEED AGAIN! At this point it was just too ridiculous, and all I could do was laugh as I carried her to her room and *immediately* put a diaper on her (don't worry, I sanitized my hands first). I took the Windex into the living room to clean the hardwood, and found the big ol' wet spot right on the seagrass rug. Great. Until today, we've been lucky with the rug during potty training, and the spills that have happened have largely been me spilling my wine. I got another clean cloth diaper, put it on the wet spot, and began stepping on it to sop it up. Ella thought that was great, and wanted to step on it too. Fine, I thought, and let her do her part while I wiped up the floor.

"Wrap up baby!" I heard her say behind me, and was horrified to see that she had picked up the wet cloth diaper and was putting it on one of her stuffed animals. And herself. "NO! That's dirty!" I yelled as I ran over to get it from her. I took the cloth diaper to the kitchen and tossed it downstairs into the laundry room with the rest. As I walked back into the living room, Ella picked up the bottle of Windex and sprayed herself in the face.

Photos!

Swinging at the park with Sean.

Thinking about going down the slide. She decided against it.

At the playground.

Trying to remain grumpy after her nap.

Grumpy "just woke up" face.

Playing with Maggie in the driveway.

Ella's patented "picture smile".

Food and Baconday

I am thrilled to report that our little Ella Mae is as much a fan of *any* cheese as we are. Last night Sean and I revisited our old favorite meal of baguette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, assorted cheeses, fruit, and wine. The cheeses on the menu were a washed-rind Rougette Landkase, which was lovely, and an English Shropshire Blue, which I would have enjoyed had it not tasted exactly like the whole dairy farm. I'm sure I've had Shropshire that was much creamier and lacking that rather unpleasant flavor, so I'll be looking for a brand other than Pilgrim's Choice next time.

We were excited to see that Ella enjoyed the meal as much as we do. Much like her daddy, she loves washed rind cow's milk cheese, which is about the stinkiest stuff there is. (Sean's favorite is Grayson , a washed-rind cheese with a strong flavor similar to Tallegio, but which tends to travel a bit better and we think tastes better by the time it gets to our table from the farm.) Ella's love of strong flavors is something that never ceases to amaze me. Who would think a toddler would love onions and garlic, pasta with garlic & clams, and stinky cheese?

In other food news, I tried something new for our "Baconday" breakfast this morning. Rather than the usual pancakes, I adapted my trusty Betty Crocker recipe and made Oatmeal Raisin Pancakes. They were delicious! I've posted the recipe below for anyone who'd like to give it a try. This recipe doubles beautifully.

Oatmeal Raisin Pancakes

1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 - 1 cup milk (or buttermilk* - even better!)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup (heaping) rolled oats
3 tsp baking powder*
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins

Grind oats in a food processor until close to a floury consistency. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix until well-combined. Add a bit more milk or buttermilk if necessary to achieve desired consistency. Cook on a 350-degree griddle until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup, cinnamon-sugar, or molasses.

*If using buttermilk, reduce baking powder to 2 tsp.