Travel Log Day 13 - 11/27/11

I really love church in a new place.  I don't know anyone, everything is "new" and there are always little surprises.

The boys were able to start their day with children's liturgy of the word which they loved doing.  Eva meanwhile kept Cristina super busy for the rest of mass, but luckily this left me to be able to really listen to the homily.  We were lucky to get the bishop, mass was at the cathedral, and once he started his homily it was a neat moment.  "God wants a close relationship with you, even more than you want one with him."  

So here I was thinking about my faith, my family and just life in general and here is this great statement to chew on, I really enjoyed all I had to think about.  It is almost like I want a great life for my family, but my parents likely want that even more than I can imagine.  I know Drew wants to do well in school and succeed in where ever his life leads, and as he gets older he probably won't believe how much I am pulling for him.  This simple sentence gave me a lot of hope, I know that my creator wants me to succeed and be close with him even more than I can imagine, and in a lot of ways that made me feel great.  I could write more, but I think the beauty of the statement is how much I personal reflection it caused for me, not a defined "this is what I learned."

The boys came back for the eucharistic prayer and then the most pleasant thing occurred during the passing of the peace.  If you are reading at this point you will realize I am Catholic if you didn't already know.  Eva walked down the pew to a woman in her late 50s or early 60s and reached up to be picked up.  The woman looked to us as if to say "can I?" and we nodded yes.  For the next 5 or so minutes till just before going up for communion she held Eva, and Eva loved it, resting her head on her shoulder, little did I know how much the woman loved it.  Apparently when Cristina picked her up for communion the woman was crying a bit.  It turns out that after mass she shared with Cristina how she has 9 grandchildren and none are local and one who visited just left after Thanksgiving.  This is exactly what she needed, and Eva in her own way knew that.  It was a really special moment to witness.

After church we realized the struggle of finding anything open in the South on Sunday, but alas after finding a praise and worship group in the coffee shop we tried, we walked around the corner to The Fat Cat Cafe.  I had a mortadella egg sandwich that was phenomenal and we had a great breakfast as a family.  This place was really in the spirit of our Triple D theme and I would recommend it to anyone in Lake Charles.

Finally we got home and relaxed for the day, I was able to make a really great dinner.  I brined a pork loin stuffed with garlic and rosemary, a salad and mashed potatoes with pan rosemary sauce.  This was the first time I had brined anything and it turned out awesome, I will be brining again for sure.  Dinner was just nice with the family and we all ate our fill.

If I could program every Sunday from her till I die, this Sunday would be the example I would base almost all my Sundays after, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

Travel Log Day 4 - 11/18/11

The kids loved the cozy Mommy and Daddy Bed

There were no fancy breakfasts, or busy morning today.  The day was simple, wake up, a light breakfast, key word light and head out of town.  This was marginally successful, the coffee shop in the hotel had mediocre breakfast burritos (not too light) which we split and the kids had cereal.  We left Santa Fe, a little heavy hearted, the city is magnificent and I will be coming back, I think many times, but likely sans children, this is a town I could spend a lot of time with my wife in.

We were only driving to Amarillo, TX, mileage this would be the shortest day, but it was the longest drive.  Even with the generous New Mexico 75 MPH speed limit the drive was boring, and the kids were fried and tired, which equals whiny and nothing is worse on a drive than that.  We arrived in Amarillo, extremely fried around lunch time, at this point I was done.  I asked the wife to fined a Chick-fil-A, the most marginally healthy moderately fast food I could think of.  The past 3 days I had indulged in extremely rich (bad for me) food and needed a simple grilled chicken sandwich.  We checked in, and got settled.  Cristina and I decided we should make dinner because the Homewood Suite we were staying in was awesome with a full size fridge and kitchenette. 

So off to Super Walmart for us, a box of pasta, vodka sauce, and Italian sausage as well as a Caesar Salad.  We also bought some lunch supplies for the next days drive.  Little did I know such a quiet night in Texas could be so pleasant.  I made a nice dinner, which the kids LOVED, we had a "Movie night family" as Drew and Sean say and watched Lion King.  The kids went to bed and actually slept moderately well.

Drew hardly moved from the spot for the movie

This was just a travel day, nothing over the top special, just us driving and ticking miles off.  Simple, but even with the brutal actual drive the night was nice, quiet and hit the spot.  The hotel even had a piano in the lobby that Drew was able to practice his piano on.  

Mileage was just a hair under 300 miles.  But given the wind, and lack of any elevation or sites to be had felt like much more, or maybe that was just the kids whining for large portions of the drive.

Celebrating A Wedding Anniversary

About a month ago my wife and I shared our Sixth Anniversary.  I couldn't help but think about the previous years, what we did, and invariably where we went.  While six years doesn't at first seem like much (compared to my wife's parents 51 years), to my wife and I it has been huge, and forever life changing.  From bringing three children into the world, moving 2 times, and making a huge career change, our anniversaries have been a wonderful time for us to celebrate another year closer to one another.

This would be the first year we didn't do anything "special" for our big day.  There were not any presents, and we didn't go out.  Budgetary constraints, time constraints, and energy constraints has severely limited our ability to do many things.  Even with all that, it has not effected our desire to celebrate marriage.

As I have recently become enraptured with cooking and menu preparation I took to creating our dinner night in. Many weeks prior to our anniversary very large Caribbean lobster tails went on sail for $8, at the same time untrimmed beef tenderloin went on sale.  I had prepared the tenderloin weeks previous, but while trimming had some lovely petite tenderloin tips I saved.  With a base for the meal set, a "surf and turf" I went on to planning the whole meal.  I made a favorite of ours a potato leak soup for a starter.  For our salad course we had arugula salad with toasted pecans, goat cheese, topped with fresh green apples and a home made Dijon mustard vinaigrette (a completely original recipe).  We had a toasted baguette with the salad and soup.  Our main course was a home made creamed spinach, with barbecued lobster tail and barbecued tenderloin tips.  The desert was Fossleman's ice cream (pistachio, espresso fudge, and dark chocolate).  All in all I think I spent around $40 dollars for dinner (easily what we would have paid for babysitting alone), I can only imagine the cost at a fine dining establishment (we guessed about $250).  What was so nice was even the next day we had left overs for our lunch, I made myself a lobster burrito, and Cristina had a Steak Burrito, and man those were awesome (and free.)

While I prepped during the day to cook, I didn't start the grill until the kids were asleep.  Once they were down, my wife went to town setting a grand table.  A black table cloth given by my mother-in-law as well as some beautiful chrome chargers.  She set the table with the china given to her by her grandmother.  The silverware was my Swetka family silver.  Our crystal was a wedding gift from the Falcons and Horowitzs, our pots and pans that prepared our food was wedding gifts from more of our friends, and even the ice cream scoop came from a close girlfriend of my wife's.  The candles were holders from our honeymoon in Fiji that we saw and bought on the main island.  With the tremendous amount of love received from family and friends to celebrate our meal, you couldn't help but feel loved, and realize what a great foundation we have been given in starting our lives together.

I'd be lying to say we had tons of conversation, it was mostly just eating, and relaxing.  Though we did talk some about who gave us what, and how cool it was to realize what a great way to start our life together, the majority of the night was us just being content together and enjoying wonderful food.  The dinner, the quiet house, the table setting and everything given to us was out of love.  While time in a quiet restaurant is most often a wonderful luxury, I wouldn't have traded anything for our Sixth Anniversary dinner, and I can't imagine a restaurant could have provided us such a wonderful feeling of being surrounded by the ones we love.

The Joy of Cooking

Having been a fan of cooking in the kitchen for some time I find it amazing it took me so long to buy a book that in some circles is considered the back bone of any cook book collection.  My newest found escapade into the artistic chemistry that is creating food has finally brought my desire to buy this book to the fruition.

So while perusing the book store the other afternoon I finally decided I should  buy this book, and I did.  There are a whopping total of 4500 recipes in the book, a bible thickness, and a funny touch only one silk ribbon book mark, though my first meal made from the pages required 2 different pages with my recipe.  Cooking has become an escape as my last few posts have discussed but a little more for me.

My mom, who happens to live overseas, came in town for her yearly visit.  My children have grown tremendously since her last trip nearly a year and a half ago, and my family grew by a beautiful daughter in that time.

My mom valued cooking for our family and equated her cooking to her expression of love for us.  We'd eat all sorts of things, always with little spice and never with butter.  My mom, a child of the 50s and 60s grew up with the advent of the dreaded vegetable oil solid that is now a trans-fat nightmare of margarine, but I can't fault her for that, and it did after all give me the greatest pie crust yet with Crisco instead of butter or lard.  My mom who has become far less of an exploratory cook as she has aged was quite the explorer as I remember our dinners.  She would try anything and everything, her recipe index would likely provide enough meals to have a new one every night for the rest of our lives, and she would still tear out recipes from the food section on Thursdays.  My mom, as a house wife, knew the intrinsic value of eating as a family, and preparing fresh healthy food.  It even took my mom till I was nearly 12 to finally decide it was okay to get a microwave.

As my mom and I visited we noted how different we are, and the similarities between her and my other siblings.  But cooking and "dinner time" we do share.  She commented that I would be a great chef, and I disagreed, cooking for me is more about feeling and less about trying to figure out how to make money from it.  The time came for dinner and I made our kids a quick meal since we were having a late adult dinner due to my brother getting off work late.  I made braised stuffed pork chops with home made Italian stuffing.  It took me longer than I thought it would and the mess I made was worthy of a feast, not a simple dinner.  But as my brother and our wives with my mom sat eating our food, which I slightly over cooked, it did give me joy.  There was a joy to cooking.  I really loved preparing food for my family, I loved knowing that I made this from scratch, with herbs from my garden and it wasn't a quick 15 min. exercise in microwave heating, but rather a process that produced a delicious meal to be the backdrop of our family at table breaking bread.  It seems to me that when I spend a little more time creating a meal; it is more than just dinner.  It becomes a center piece to foster the building of relationships.

Cooking : BHG Deep-Dish Chicken Pot Pie

There is little I could write about cooking that hasn't been put to page before.  Though I doubt that "love" needs anything new to add and people have managed to write about it since the written word was born.

Cooking seems a lot like running to me.  I know many people who get some sort of runners high, I don't get that, and I know just as many people who won't cook.  People love running or just put up with it, and they love cooking or just put up with it.  I love to cook.

While I have never taken a single class on how to cook I am the proud owner of a 4H Club gold medal in cooking for my pot stickers I made one year at "regionals." I have always really loved to cook, and can't imagine that changing.  My mom was my first teacher when it came to the kitchen and she imparted one thing on me that enabled me to "learn" to cook, and that was to follow a recipe.  By following a recipe I have now become pretty adventurous in the kitchen and am self taught.  This also means I have very little idea what I am doing in the kitchen so when it doesn't go to plan it sometimes bombs.  Granted the point of a recipe is that just about anyone could do it by following it step by step.  So I do just that, step by step, one at a time, I bake, grill, poach, sauté, and when all is said and done I think I succeed 75% of the time.

To make matters worse I make the biggest mess imaginable when I am in the kitchen.  If my food wasn't decent most of the time I think my wife would kill me for the dishes I dirty just to prepare food.  Being a novice as I am, I misjudge size of bowls I need, so I dirty 2 or 3, I misjudge how much food will really be made, regardless of what the recipe says for servings.  Granted this does mean my in-laws get the benefit of getting tons of food for dinner which I do think they appreciate.

Lately I have been cooking more than I have in the past, I seem to go through phases a lot, but I get so much out of preparing food for my family.  I just love watching ingredients transform into something completely different and more incredible then they are on their own. Sort of like a piano, it seems there are infinite possibilities what those 88 keys can do, watching what I can do with flour, water, salt and butter always seems to amaze me.  Creating food for me has given me a better appreciation of the past as well.  Perhaps there is a connection with a 90 minute prep time for dinner and family time.  By forcing me to slow down on my days off and cook, I have time to think a little, listen to some music that speaks to me, and even interact with my kids.  The kitchen at 4pm at our house is the heart of the entire house, where everyone is coming and going where electricity is in the air.  It is also known as the witching hour so it is either a hellish chaos, or like today, a energetic and life giving that is fun to be around.

Perhaps this cooking phase will pass, and I will look at cooking once again as a chore that can be fun, but tonight I made a Chicken Pot Pie that was awesome.  My kids and my wife all ate it and while our dinner routine is a mix between being a referee, a speed eater, and a nurse, occasionally I make something that works with our family dynamic and my kids eat and I eat at the same time and we all enjoy a good meal.  When it all works that 90 minute time investment seems more than worth it, and I feel like I have taught my children a little about nutrition, family, and value of doing something yourself (perhaps that is a bit ambitious but I can dream right.)