The Pancake has Risen

Happy Cadbury Egg day to all!

Easter doesn't mean a whole lot at our house. I mean, we hide eggs and the boys get chocolate bunnies and all, but it probably ranks only slightly higher than, say, Fourth of July on the excitement meter.

Last night we watched "Life of Pi," though, and now I'm thinking that's a pretty good Easter movie. The boys loved it for all the animals. I loved how it illustrates the way amazing storytelling can make you believe just about anything...although I guess I haven't yet heard the story that makes me believe a rabbit hiding eggs is the logical way to celebrate a man rising from the dead, but by no means am I suggesting that should stop anyone from enjoying their celebrations.

Yeah, so Easter is really just a reason to eat poorly at our house. We didn't even make brunch plans this year and I am torn on how I feel about that. On the one hand, I kind of wish I was out being waited on and sipping mimosas.  On the other, I am pretty happy to still be in my pajamas.

Plus, it gave me a reason to try a new breakfast recipe that sticks with the whole "risen" theme of the day: The Puffed Pancake (aka, Dutch Baby).

I used this recipe from Food Network and I'll admit that I did not even attempt to make it gluten-free, although I am willing to bet you could...I just don't know if it would rise the same way. And it rose pretty impressively. Note that I used a cast iron skillet.

Before baking

Puff!

I sprinkled it with powdered sugar because
I didn't have any berries on hand. 

It's super easy. And gives you the added bonus of getting to say, "I put the Dutch Baby in the oven!" which, if your kids are anything like mine, will be met with cries of "Why would you put a baby in the oven?!" Good times.

Since I didn't have berries (I seriously Googled the recipe this morning), we just used syrup and it was delicious. Probably just as good as any brunch we might have paid oodles of money for...minus the mimosas.

And since I was negligent last week in posting, I'm going to give you a second recipe today. It's simple but perfect for today: Egg Salad! Ok, so you probably already know how to make egg salad...but maybe not, because I just made my very first egg salad this year! Plus, I have a secret ingredient (at least, it was secret to me).

Hippity-Hoppity Egg Salad (Gluten Free!)
6 hard boiled eggs
Dash of salt
1/3 cup mayo
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp Heinz relish [That's the secret ingredient! Did everyone already know? I grew up without relish!]

1. Choppity-chop those eggs.
2. Put everything in a bowl and mix. You can decide the right balance of mayo/mustard/relish for your own tastes.

I recommend eating it with gluten-free crackers. Preferably these from Blue Diamond, because I am obsessed with them.

Happy Easter!

A+

This is baby A. My baby A. Born nearly 14 weeks early.

The morning I found out that the attempts to stop my preterm labor had failed and I was about to deliver, one of the nurses said to me, "You know, my neighbor's daughter was born this early and now she's in high school and she is SMART."

Apparently this was meant to assuage my fears that my premature babies would be stupid...the thing is, I was too busy worrying about whether they were going to live to have considered that maybe even if they did live, they weren't likely to be very smart. (Is that even statistically true? I have no idea.)

I was reminded of this today when we got the boys' scores back from the EXPLORE test, which is like the middle school equivalent of the ACT. It's an optional test that gifted kids can take to learn more about their strengths.

So yes, we already know they're gifted and they both scored higher than the average 8th grader (they are 4th graders), but when I saw Aidan's results I almost cried. (I cried, with joy) The kid scored in the 100th percentile for English usage/mechanics. 100th percentile means no one scored better than he did.

I want to go hang up his test results in the NICU so that all those other moms and dads who are so worried for their tiny babies can at least cross one fear off their lists.

(I know I owe you a recipe. I will make it up to you!)

Gluten-Free is a Big Thing in Ireland, Right?

Oh, St. Patrick's Day, you are my favorite holiday...and I really like holidays.

This year is pretty low key for us, as it falls on a Sunday. I'd love to be out drinking pints and listening to reels, but I guess I wasn't willing to give up Sunday as my household catch-up day in favor of drinking too much on a school night. Still, even though I am not physically smushed into a pub, my heart is there...actually, my heart is in Dublin, where my head always pretends to be whilst smushed in said pub on St. Patrick's Day.

We celebrated this morning as a family with an Irish breakfast at a local pub and did our annual toast to my father, who was a fine Irishman that passed away on March 18, nine years ago. This year we toasted with Bailey's & coffee. (Sorry, daddy, we couldn't bring ourselves to toast with whiskey at breakfast with the kids...we'll do two next year.)

Actually, we kicked off the festivities yesterday. I ran the Get Lucky 7K and, much to my surprise, I RAN THE WHOLE THING. 4.3 miles, baby, when the longest I've ever run is a 5K! Apparently the theory that you can basically learn to do anything with enough practice is true. Who knew?

I could dwell on how useful this lesson might have been had I learned it a wee bit earlier in life, but instead, I'm just going to say how thankful I am to be learning it now.

So in honor of today, I bring you a Smart and Good recipe for shamrock sugar cookies, which aren't exactly great for you because they've got 2 sticks of butter, BUT they are gluten free and don't contain refined sugar...until you get to the icing.

FYI, the palm sugar will make
 your dough darker than the
 average sugar cookie dough. 

Lucky to be Gluten Free Sugar Cookies (adapted from Vanilla Bean Baker)

1 cup unsalted cold butter (cut into cubes)
1 cup palm sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
Shamrock cookie cutter (or any holiday-specific cookie cutter)

So easy, even a nine-year-old can do it. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine flour, baking powder and xanthan gum in a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add beaten egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix until well combined.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, one cup at a time until combined. Continue with mixer on lower speed until batter begins to come away from sides of bowl. Scrape down bowl and gather batter to form into a ball.
5. Roll out your dough on a floured surface. (It's sticky!)
6. Cut your shapes. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Pepperminty Icing

1 cup powdered sugar (there might be a non-refined version of this, but I haven't tried it)
1 Tbsp water (adjust based on the consistency you want)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Mix it all up and then add food coloring unless you're making some kind of snowy-looking shamrocks, which would be appropriate here in Minnesota.

Beware: You're going to tell yourself it's ok to eat, like, 6 of these because they're gluten free...try to remember those two sticks of butter. Or, go run 4.3 miles.

Tada! Shamrock cookies are the new green beer, I swear.

The Good, The Bad, and The Yummy

Well, here it is Monday and I have not blogged every day like I planned, nor have I come to you bearing a Smart and Good recipe this week. In fact, rather than bake the gluten-free cupcakes I plan to bake every weekend (Because, hello, what do I like better than cupcakes?), I made Dumb and Bad cupcakes.

They were Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, made from a mix I bought on clearance the day after Christmas. I'm not proud.

But let's talk about the good things! I had the most New York-a-rific weekend one can have without actually going anywhere near New York. My BFF foodie weekend is taking shape...which is good, seeing as it's only 4 weeks away.

I am happy to report that we've secured reservations at WD-50 and Prune and, as I've already mentioned, we are planning to experience the dessert tasting menu a Per Se, although we can't make reservations for that, so I will have to trust that the stars will align.

In other good news, I can recommend to you both "Searching for Sugarman" and (if you're in Minneapolis) World Street Kitchen. It's a food truck turned into a restaurant and it's delicious and economical. And has gluten-free options! So there you have it, rather than give you a recipe this week, I'm just telling you to go out and support a local business. I'm so damn altruistic.

It's a lamb belly YumYum Rice Bowl. Gluten free!

Yesterday is Gone

There was no more tomorrow, sorry. Tomorrow is already yesterday and yesterday felt a little frantic, so there was no time for blogging.

Nothing in particular happened to make yesterday frantic, but it started with not getting enough sleep and then driving my husband to the airport at 6:30 a.m., which threw off the routine, which caused ripple effects that made me just sort of feel a step behind all day.

But, the day ended snuggling with my boys and then (after boys went to bed) catching up on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so all was well.

Today the boys are coming downtown with my mom to meet me for lunch and then I'm leaving early with them, so that's pretty awesome, Ah, to see my fancy downtown office building through the eyes of a kid again...

Coming soon: An update on my plan to somehow still knock out a bunch of items on my 40 by 40 list in the less-than-3 months before my birthday...because seriously, how am I going to do that?

Preparations

I am preparing for a 4-day weekend of single parenting. Well, no, it's not a 4-day weekend for ME, just for everyone else. My husband is headed to Atlanta and my kids will hang out with grandma while I'm working.

It will all be fine, of course, but knowing that I'm headed for single parenting always sends me into a survivalist state of mind. I feel like I need to stock up on supplies and prepare for all possibilities. I think it's an anxiety left over from when my husband used to have to travel for work nearly every week and the boys were young enough that leaving the house with them alone was actually a daunting task. I basically just want the three of us to cuddle up under a blanket until things return to normal.

Unfortunately, the boys have other plans, so rather than cuddling, I'll be managing logistics and transportation for their busy social lives. Sigh.

More tomorrow.

Snow Day!

No school today thanks to all of this lovely snow. And I mean that un-sarcastically - it really is lovely...especially because I didn't have to drive in it.

The boys were psychotically excited. The kind of excitement where I fear one them will run directly into a wall or that they will smash their heads together while jumping around screaming for joy. 

I get it, of course. Snow days are the best. And in my mind, you must go sledding on a snow day...and so began the many hours-long quest to sled. 

First, we apparently lost our sleds. How this is possible, I'm really not sure. How does one lose a sled? It's not like I stuck it in a closet and forgot about it...it's not like you just leave the sledding hill without your sled...it has to be in the garage somewhere. But it's not. And that's just the sled I can remember us owning. I feel like we should own at least two sleds...right?

Ok, so my husband had to head into work anyway to deal with the deposit, so we figured he could get some sleds. The good news is, he got to work and then made it to Target without getting stuck in a snowbank. The bad news is that Target apparently clearanced out its sleds weeks ago (I didn't pay attention because we own a sled!).

Thankfully, the local hardware store still had sleds. Hallelujah.

Next up was my snowpants. As in, I know I own a nice pair from back when I used to snowboard (not like, really used to snowboard, but like tried to snowboard while on vacation with my dad during college). We (read: my husband, who dug through the crawl space) found the snowboard and boots, but no snowpants. 

Repeat that process for my nice ski gloves (only we found nothing in that case...) and you can see why I've arrived at the theory that maybe I've been sleep sledding and my snowpants and gloves are with the missing sled somewhere in the woods. Seriously, it's March...how have I not needed a sled, snowpants, or ski gloves this entire winter?

But finally, finally, finally, after my husband spent hours on this pursuit while I worked (thanks, honey!), we were all bundled and out the door to sled. Hooray! This is where I wanted to show you a beautiful photo of the snow coming down while the smiling children flew down the hill...only my phone died as soon as we got there (sad face) and only one of the children was smiling, while the other was frustrated to tears by the fact that no matter how he approached it, he could not get his sled to go off the jump...it was like they were magnetic poles repelling each other (there is likely a more scientifically accurate and articulate way of saying that, but I do not know the proper terms). It would have been hilarious, had it not caused so much screaming and crying. 

And so I sit, drinking my last white Christmas beer of the year (I'm giving up buying beer that has gluten, but this is still leftover from our holiday party in December) and thinking how happy I am that it is not, in fact, Christmas and that this snow is going to melt in a matter of days (probably) and that spring is just around the corner...it's just a very large corner. 

I'm Pretty Sure There Have Been Days Like Today

I had an amazing thought today that went something like this..."What if I tried blogging every day until it became a habit again?" Even more amazing is that even though today is the 4th, which is an odd time start something, I decided to do it anyway. No day like today, right?

My day consisted of a snowstorm and wearing a suit for a giant presentation I had to give. The presentation itself wasn't really gigantic, it was the caliber of the audience that made it giant. If you've never worked in corporate America, then there's really no way to describe the fear that is systematically struck into your heart based on a person's place near the top of the organization's hierarchy.

I try to remember that they are just people. That they want to believe what you're saying to them is a good idea, because, honestly, isn't it more fun to hear people present good ideas, than bad ones? But there is also that distant reality that they could totally have you fired (or make you want to quit) that makes things hard.

Well, and there's the plain old fact that I hate presenting. Hate it. My face gets flushed as soon as I speak in a conference room. Throw in a PowerPoint deck and some bullet points I know I have to hit, and I'm pretty much suffering. This is not to say that I'm bad at it. In fact, I think I've gotten a lot better at it over the years, but I still hate it. Probably always will.

Anyway, the presentation went smashingly, in that I didn't say anything stupid and I'm pretty sure I hit all my key points. The rest of the day was spent writing assorted emails, talking about emails, reading things on the Internet and filling out grids...a typical day at HQ.

Then I came home just in time for the snow to start up again. It's supposed to snow all night, so I'm planning to work from home tomorrow. (Woohoo!) This brings us to now, where I'm sitting by the fireplace eating Ben & Jerry's Banana Peanut Butter Greek Frozen Yogurt...which is obviously full of dairy and sugar (and something called Locust Bean Gum?) and is really amazing and only has 210 calories per serving vs. the 10,000 calories in regular Ben & Jerry's (that's an estimate).

So it was a good day...add in that I've now blogged for the day and we're looking at a damn successful Monday. Here's hoping the rest of the week goes this well.

Love and snowflakes to all.

In Praise of the Bake

Welcome to March, everyone. It's a good month. The sun has returned to Minneapolis. One of my favorite holidays is just two weeks away...there are Shamrock shakes.

Travel planning has kicked back into full gear, as I prepare for my BFF foodie trip to NYC and my BFF couples trip to Vegas this spring, plus our family trip to NYC and Boston this summer. (Shhhh...don't tell the boys, but I think we're staying in another hotel with a pool on the roof!)

Lots to be happy about, including this week's Smart and Good recipe, which I'm super excited about because it solved the problem I was having with breakfast.

After my cleanse, I realized that I had to stop eating yogurt every morning because it was just too much dairy and it wasn't making my stomach happy. But ever since, I haven't been able to figure out what to eat for breakfast and it's been causing me to have coffee breakfast, which isn't great.

I don't get up early enough to cook breakfast in the morning (I get up at 6, which I think is early enough), so it had to be something I could grab and take to work with me. I tried a few things, but nothing was as easy and filling as yogurt. Enter the OATMEAL BAKE!

This is the photo from the brilliant creator of
this recipe. There's also coconut whipped cream
in this photo, which sounds amazing, but I
skipped that part...for now.

I have to give my friend Kristina credit for introducing me to the concept of what is essentially a casserole made of oatmeal. After learning of its existence, it only took a quick search of Pinterest to find this recipe, which I only changed by using gluten-free oats rather than regular ones.

It's oatmeal and cinnamon and coconut milk AND it's dairy/gluten/sugar free! How can that not sound awesome?

Cinnamon Chia Oatmeal Bake

¼ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup raw honey
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup applesauce
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups gluten-free oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 cup coconut milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a medium to large bowl mix together oil, honey, eggs, applesauce, cinnamon, and vanilla.
3. Add to the bowl rolled oats, baking powder, chia seeds and milk. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Pour oat mixture into an 8 inch square baking dish and bake for 20 - 22 minutes. Let sit for about 3 minutes, cut into 9 squares, and serve warm.

I'm pretty sure the discovery of the oatmeal bake is going to cause me to attempt to make many other breakfast-type bakes. Egg bake, waffle bake, sausage McMuffin bake?