bourbon-vanilla bean eggnog. you're welcome.

i don't know why i must torture myself like this, but i made some to-die-for eggnog.  the recipe is in the latest edition of the rachael ray magazine and when i mentioned it to jon he practically started drooling.  so i decided to be a nice, pregnant wife and make it for him, even though i can't have any.  its been 3 days and i've already made 2 batches. 

ingredients:

• 4 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar
• 3 cups milk
• 3 cups chilled heavy cream, divided
• 3/4 cup (6 oz.) bourbon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, plus more for garnish
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out, or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

directions:

 

1. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk the egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until the mixture is very pale, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, 1 cup cream, the bourbon, nutmeg, salt and the vanilla bean and seeds.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar; beat to form stiff peaks. In 2 batches, whisk the whites into the yolk mixture. Cover; refrigerate 4 to 6 hours.
3. Before serving, in a medium bowl, beat the remaining 2 cups cream and 1 tbsp. sugar until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. discard the vanilla bean. Gently whisk the eggnog; ladle into cups. Garnish with whipped cream and nutmeg.
    

 and here's what i'm drinking, while my husbands bourbon-y, nutmeg-y, egg-y fumes waft in my direction......

sparkling water with a little cran-grape juice and a lime

 

this weekend we put up our christmas lights, went to a new church that we liked, and did a little shopping.  lots to be done before heading down to poway on tuesday for the rest of the week! happy thanksgiving if i don't update before then.  

today's lunch.

delegating.

extreme light hanger

cat lover. jon needs a jacket.

being silly in the shopping cart at the grocery store

my winter cutie

 

 

 

 

T2!

it's been a few days.  not because i'm dropping the blog ball, but because i've been busy (whoa!).  my mama was here for a few days and i've been going nonstop.

on wednesday i entered the honeymoon phase of pregnancy also known as the second trimester.  so happy to be here.  i am starting to get a little bit of my energy back and i no longer wake up pukey.  my belly is clearly growing but i don't feel massive yet and i haven't actually gained any weight.  this is the trimester where the kicks start (i've already been feeling rolling/flutters!) and we find out the gender (cannot WAIT!).  i'm leaning more and more toward boy but we will see in a few weeks!

another milestone: makena turned 21 months today! she's now perfectly between 1 1/2 and 2 years old, holy cow.  i'm so proud of the little girl she is becoming and she's starting to talk up a storm.  she can say about 40ish words now and in just the last few days has done a great job of repeating and trying out new words.  i love this little girl SO much.

little mommy. gonna be the best big sister.

it was so good to have my mom come up for a couple days, i love having her here.  i get to actually make her meals for her and take care of her instead of the other way around.  we did our typical shopping, cooking and enjoying each others company.  here's a few pix from her visit. 

needy kona was happy to have Di-Da here

kena having fun with one of her favorite people while i cooked

one of the nights mama was here, i made a yummy szechuan green beans and pork with some mabo tofu.  i've blogged about the mabo tofu before and you can find it here.  this time i'll add the green beans and pork recipe.  i suggest doubling the sauce. 

ingredients:

2T soy sauce
2T chicken broth or water
2T dry sherry
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice or white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t hot red pepper flakes or crushed

1 1/4 lb fresh green beans, partially cooked but still crisp. Drain
1/2 lb ground pork (I use turkey)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t fresh ginger, minced
Chopped scallions


directions:


Brown meat, drain. Add garlic and ginger. Add partially cooked green beans. And then add sauce and sauté until most liquid is evaporated, about 1 minute. Toss in scallions.

it's nice and spicy! serve over white rice.




well that pretty much catches me up.  and as if i haven't posted enough pictures, i'll leave you with a few more.  xoxo

fun at the trampoline park

enjoying our morning beverages :)

best meatloaf ever. and latkes. and fire.

last night we had the best meatloaf ever, with no credit to give to me.  i just follow the directions and put it on the table :)  this recipe is from the pioneer woman, who i love love.  her and i share a mutual love for butter, meat, cheese, potatoes and cream.  we get along really well. 

this is one of jon's favorites as well. here's the recipe:

you'll need-

• Meatloaf:
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 6 slices White Bread
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup Minced Flat-leaf Parsley
• 4 whole Eggs, Beaten
• 10 slices Thin/regular Bacon
• Sauce:
• 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• Tabasco To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.
Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.
With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)
Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.
Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.
Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

i like to put it in the oven for 30 minutes first without the sauce so the bacon has a chance to cook

what goes better with meatloaf than anything? potatoes.  instead of doing a standard mashed potato, i made my favorite little potato latkes (pancakes).  here's the play by play.

ingredients:

-one carrot
-one potato
-one zucchini
-2 eggs
-2 T flour
-1 t salt
-half a small onion
-canola oil for frying

forgot the flour and oil in the picture, oops.

directions:

In food processor chop 2 T or 1/2 a small onion finely. Add 2 eggs and pulse to blend. Add 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped zucchini and 1 chopped potato. Pulse to chop and blend. Stir in 2 T flour and 1/2 tsp salt.

Spoon onto pan and Fry over med/hi heat in oil (not tons) til browned on both sides. Make sure oil is hot before adding to pan.

ask the hubs to take over when you get splashed with too much hot oil

 

 

again, stop at any point to take pictures of/with your silly "kids". 

daddy made him and kena pipe cleaner glasses lol

i love my family.  and i love food. here's what we got to enjoy.

jon spent a good part of the afternoon yesterday doing a much needed clean-up of our backyard, so we decided to spend some time by the fire after makena went to bed.  i'll end with an absurd amount of photos.  goodnight.

she insisted she wear her hat during story time, lol.

future tv reality stars. HA!

we had a good weekend. the temperature managed to drop more 20 degrees in just two days and we got to enjoy a 60 degree, rainy day.  we threw makena's rain coat on and let her go explore in the rain for the first time.  she loved it..

Instead of staying inside all day, we decided to be spontaneous and head up the mountain to big bear to meet up with some friends who were there for the weekend.  i have to admit, jon and i are usually pretty bad about doing things like this.  makena isn't the worlds best napper to begin with, so to throw her schedule off usually results in a cranky, messed up day.  and she's not usually your standard kid who falls asleep in the car.  but anyways, we still decided to go.  we literally live at the base of the mountain, so why wouldn't we go?  it took us a little over an hour to get there and thankfully makena DID fall asleep in the car for 45 minutes.  must have been those windy turns.  (the same turns that made me feel really pukey when i usually LOVE switchbacks.....damn pregnancy). 

we met up with everyone, checked out a few shops, and then went out to eat.  good times catching up with some of (mainly) jon's old friends and met some new people too.  as we were about to leave, i had my eye on the fudge shop across the way.  we said goodbye to everyone else and headed out. 

as we approached the candy store, we saw a camera crew standing outside interviewing a couple.  we had no idea what it was for, but we just wanted to get inside the shop and they were blocking the entrance.  we kinda stood there waiting for them to be done and all of a sudden the "host" turns to us and starts asking us all these questions, with a microphone over our heads and about 5 different cameras in our face. 

here's why it was a terrible situation:

1. he starts asking us questions about if we have anyone to watch makena for 5 days.  um what?

2. we managed to make it through the whole interview having NO idea what this was for

he asked us if we were adventurous and we basically said, not right now since i'm pregnant. and then the guy goes, ok i'm gonna list off a bunch of activities and you tell me if you can do them while pregnant. skydiving? no. kickboxing? no. mixed martial arts? no.

turns out he is the host of a show on the travel channel called trip flip and he was interviewing people for a chance to win a 5 day planned vacation.  well, needless to say we are not gonna win hahahaha. we gave the WORST answers and it was quite embarrassing.  next time, tell us who the heck you are and why these questions are being asked before you roll the cameras.  tune in sometime next spring for this humiliating broadcast.

we got home around 5:30 so i needed to come up with a quick meal.  decided to go with one of our household staples, linguine and clams.  i can't remember if i've posted about this before but i'm too lazy to look.  even if i did, i've altered the recipe. its super simple and goes like this:

-2 cans of chopped or minced clams (be sure to save the juice)
-1 stick of butter
-half an onion, diced
-juice of half a lemon
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-1/2 cup chopped, fresh parsley
-3/4 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1 16 oz package of luinguine, cooked al dente
-grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

1. cook pasta according to package instructions

2. melt better and saute onions and garlic until transparent.  add clams, juice, parsley, salt and pepper and heat through

3. combine and sprinkle parm on top

serve with some garlic toast, obviously :)  simple as that!