Burns Night and The Haggis

The Haggis

Our fellow friends Tony and Michelle hosted a Burns Night this weekend and it was quite the
culinary adventure. I had never heard of Burns Night before so to bring us all up to speed I did some Googling. Burns night (and the Burns supper) is a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns. He died at the end of the 18th century, and apparently the Burns annual celebration began shortly thereafter and has continued to this day. He was Scottish and a Burns night consists of eating Haggis & Neeps (turnips), drinking Scotch Whisky, and reciting Burns' poetry- all of which we did!

This is just part of the lengthy Address to the Haggis that is recited prior to serving:

 His knife see rustic Labour dicht,
An' cut you up wi' ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sicht,
Warm-reekin, rich!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his wallie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whistle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thristle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

And then with a huge knife, the host slashes the haggis open. And of course many "toasts to the lassies".

What is Haggis? I had an idea but Wikipedia says it nicely: Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach.

They special-ordered it from a place in New Jersey that makes the stuff. I was glad to hear that, since it was made in the US, there were no lungs in the mix (since that is illegal here). They did get a vegetarian one as well.

Now, for anyone that knows me, I really had no intention of eating the real Haggis. However, I wanted to write about it, so i had to try it. And I did. I filled my plate with a little real Haggis, some vegetarian Haggis, and neeps. The girls plates also consisted of the same. I took a bite. It was really quite wonderful! It's no surprise Dave liked it, but the girls snarfed it down as well! We even had seconds (and my second serving was significantly larger than the first).

I have to say I am pretty proud of myself for trying it:)

Slainte!!

Belated Birthday (Post)

Of course I cannot believe my little girls are already THREE. But we all know and have been told
my many many other parents about how quickly time flies with children. But... I also know that I never really understood it until it happened to me. I still don't understand how time works. When I was a kid time seemed to drag on and on. It seemed to take forever for my birthday to arrive and the same for Christmas. It seemed like the school day would never end, the weekend would never come, I would never become a teenager, and it took centuries to get my drivers license.

My theory was that with so much change, time seemed to spread out because there were so many turning points, so many milestones. But even as a kid, summers still flew by, as did vacations, and holidays... I guess it made sense: summers, vacations, and holidays were glorious, magical times that just made everything extra special and we didn't want them to end.

But how can one life event feel like it happened so long ago but at the same time feel like it was only yesterday?  It seems so long ago that Lucy and Stella were teeny babies, but not that long ago that they were born. My only conclusion is that, as adults, (especially with kids), we are experiencing these things simultaneously. We are experiencing so much change within our children- so many turning points, so many milestones- that can potentially make time seem longer... but there are also so many precious moments that you want to hang on to, whether its an actual vacation or holiday or just a lazy afternoon (the kind that you may not have appreciated when you were young).

Birthday lunch, poolside
next to their private cabana

As we age, as we grow, we learn to appreciate the simple things, the relatively insignificant things... we learn to appreciate these things as the truly glorious, magical times that make life extra special. These things happen every day, all day. It's those lazy afternoons; its those victories whether its potty training or empathy; its a funny joke, its a funny face; its seeing someone else smile; it's feeling wonder; it's fresh air; it's picking tomatoes; it's real vanilla ice cream with a cherry on top...And we don't want these things to end, because we know now that these are the things that are our life. Our beautiful life.

So it makes sense that maybe life can seem like its flying by at times; but while we may never want our personal precious moments to end... if we can have the ability to find magic in our every day- make our own daily turning points, our own daily milestones. Then maybe that, will provide us with enough change every day to make our lives feel a little longer, and if that doesn't work, at least our lives will be that much better as we take note of our surroundings and dig in to enjoy that ice cream.

Stella eating a dirt pie on her Birthday!!

And on another note, we had a bug-themed party for them this year as they are pretty fascinated by these little creatures (I am trying my best to not freak out when there is a creepy crawly). We had plastic bugs everywhere along with bug catcher nets, make-your-own bug boxes, and grandma came with homemade bug skirts (before she even knew about the bug theme), pretty cool!

Charleston

I am a little late to post on our trip to Charleston, SC in May, but a few other things took priority:)

We hopped in the car Wednesday May 22 for our trek to South Carolina for the first time. Our midpoint on the way down there was Huntersville, NC, which was a bit out of our way, but worth the extra time since we got to see some family, Karl & Merna Hesse! We arrived at their farm around 6 and were able to chat for a bit and then take a ride with the girls on the golf cart to see the goats and horses. Then we meandered over to the chicken coop and the girls got to collect some eggs for breakfast in the morning. We ended up cracking two of them (as the girls were 'tossing' them in the bucket); we learned that the chickens will actually eat the eggs- if they are cracked.
After a great dinner and discussion about the history of the greenback and the general concept of money, we hit the hay to prep for our drive the following day. Full of oatmeal, berries, and eggs- we continued our trek to the next Carolina in our journey.

*

*Karl and Lucy after dinner; Merna and the girls the morning we left checking out the Hesse library.*

We chose South Carolina so we could visit our friend Brian, who has a beautiful daughter the same

age as our girls. We knew Brian when he lived in Baltimore and haven't seen him in quite some time (too long)! He graciously let us stay in his home for our 4-day stay. We were able to go to Folly Beach twice and checked out Charleston proper a couple times as well. Every night of our stay we had the bonfire going out back with good brew and good conversation. Of course, the best part of the visit was being able to see an old friend and watch our kids play. It's an entirely different dynamic in your friendship when you can see your own offspring interact with an old friend's offspring. There are unspoken truths that we both can understand now as well.

Sitting outside of Magnolia's restaurant on Memorial Day

Some of the places that we experienced, that I want to remember for next time!

• Folly Beach 
• Farmers Market in Charleston
• Heart Woodfire Kitchen
• Piggly Wiggly: the only one around where you can get growlers from about 100 draft beers on site!
• Black Bean Co. restaurant (feel good food, but in the not-fried and fatty way)
• Magnolias restaurant (feel good food, but in the fried and southern way)... I am sure there were healthier options but we got the seafood and cheesy grits and a fried green tomato BLT... yum

Bier, Wurst, & Trampolines

We took a mini vacation last weekend to our great neighbor state of Pennsylvania. We drove first to Philly and got a free hotel room (courtesy of credit card points, so maybe not really 'free', but...) right on the river by the Ben Franklin bridge. We stopped at a beer distributor and grabbed a case of Summit Red Ale (which is unavailable in Maryland) and to date we only have a few left after sharing (and drinking) the beloved MN brew.

We ate dinner at one of our fave spots right on South St, Brauhaus Schmitz, an authentic German watering hole (and eatery). I think this was the 3rd time we went and while I am sure there are many great restaurants in Philly, we can't pull ourselves away from this Wurst and Bier oasis. We ordered sauerkraut fritters and homemade leberwurst (liverwurst) to start, and continued on with the massive Butcher's Plate that included pork shank, a huge pork chop, a bratwurst and spicy sausage, some more leberwurst, all on top of a mountain of sauerkraut and a huge potato dumpling. In addition, we couldn't resist ordering a couple sides of spaetzle and cucumber salad. Naturally, we sipped a few beers with this feast after having to select from a massive beer list. Then we topped it all off with an Apfel Strudel and Apfel Schnapps. The only downside is that we couldn't really save our leftovers since we were traveling! We were STUFFED so the 30 minute walk back to our hotel helped:)

Post eating, on our 'balcony' table at Brauhaus

The next day we hit the road to Coates, PA to visit Shelly (my mom's cousin, so second cousin??) who I haven't seen in what we think is 20 years!!! She has a great place in the country with a nice spread of land, beautiful gardens, and it was great to see she is a solar panel user!! She made us a wonderful lunch and we got to play with her 3 energetic dogs, who would squeal with anticipation until the ball was thrown:) She also has a huge trampoline that the girls got the hang of pretty quickly and spent a good chunk of time jumping and rolling around on. There was a really neat and intriguing cemetery (very small) next to her house with old grave stones dating from the early 1800s (maybe earlier), but really cool to explore.

The trampoline electrified their red hair as they were jumping- cute!

We look forward to heading out to her place again, it doesn't hurt that we found out that Victory Brewing Company is just minutes from her house as well! Thanks again Shelly!

Tartine Bread

I finally spent the time to go through all the steps to make my first loaf of bread from my Tartine Bread book! The book was created by the owners of the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco that bake the well-renowned (what seems like should be simple) crusty-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside bread.

Now, I am not new to bread-making as you can read from my post on bread last year (well, I guess I am pretty new to it, last summer is when I started). But I am very new to this particular- very time consuming- process.

The first step was to make the starter, which turned out to be a little more than a week-long process. It consists of merely water and flour and it draws in natural bacteria from your hands and the air to create a wild yeast. It sounds sort of gross, but that's how all great bread is made apparently!

Left: Starter after week of acquiring bacteria; Right: after first "feeding"

You are supposed to learn the texture and smell of your starter to know when its ready- I just guessed. Smells like over-ripe fruit? Check. A little bubbly and yellowish? Check.

Then you start to "feed" it by throwing out 80% of your starter and replacing it with equal amounts flour and water. You do this every day until you notice it rising and falling predictably- then you can make bread.

So I didn't exactly notice it rising and falling predictably when I started. It all happened when I woke up one morning to find my wild yeast had gotten a little too wild and rose all over my make-shift pantry. (I was storing it on the top shelf and it made its way down about 4 shelves). So I thought- OK, it must be ready. So I made bread.

The recipe is all in grams so first I had to convert it to something I could measure in my kitchen (sans scale). The Gourmet Sleuth's conversion calculator was very helpful. So I added my starter, flour (bread flour and whole wheat flour), water, and a little salt. Unlike the bread I have made so far, there is no kneading. There is a very specific folding/ turning method that you do once every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours. After that is complete, there is yet another 3-4 hours of rising time.

Once you are ready to bake. You throw a dutch oven into the stove and preheat at 500 F. I didn't have a dutch oven so I used my large stock pot .Once preheated, you place the dough in the pot, score it, and cover. This is to allow the steam to form. Most home ovens are designed to extract moisture, so this was the way the Tartine guys figured out it could work in a personal kitchen. Bake for 20 min., then take the lid off, turn the oven down to 450 and bake another 20ish minutes until it looks right (and right is obviously subjective, so once again I guessed).

After a week and 9 hours I was overly anxious to see if it worked and if my bread was crusty on the outside and soft and moist on the inside.
IT WAS INDEED!

Dave and I spent a good chunk of time admiring it; and then it was gone in about 24 hours. I made some a couple days later, which was still wonderful, but did not compare to the first loaf. Was there truly any difference? Probably not, but the taste of the first loaf, after so many laborious hours (and a big question mark as to what would happen), had the taste of victory on the first try! Here's to wild yeast!!

Garden Progress

So my community garden plot seems to be doing well! We've eaten a lot of the kale and collard greens already. Someone did climb the fence and steal my broccoli however, which was OK, since it actually wasn't growing properly anyhow. I was warned about this happening for tomatoes and peppers, but broccoli??

The day I got my plot a couple months ago

 The first pic is the tomato view, the second is the kale, pepper, squash view.

In my backyard I harvested my strawberries; they weren't super sweet, but still tasty!

Beauties and the Beasts

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in sunny Baltimore. We had quite the feast for our little family unit. Tonight was actually the first night that we did not have leftovers! I already miss the wild rice casserole that has been a staple in our family thanksgivings for as long as I can remember.

The first beast: This was the first time I have attempted to make an entire Turkey and it was exciting, nerve-racking , and a bit gross.

The whopping 9.9 pounder fit nicely in our mini fridge.

 So I made the glaze and officially bought the Turkey... 

but I just couldn't take out the innards myself- so Dave came in very handy.

After only 2 hours-It came out perfect!

The other beasts:
We went to the Maryland zoo for the first time (and the first time our little beauties have been to any zoo) on Saturday.

Checking out the giraffes and the cheetah

After taking a close look at the leopard we realized that our "Cheetah Lounge" 

should actually be the "Leopard Lounge"!

The lion came right up to the window to take a closer look.

The Maryland Zoo is really a city zoo and was only a few minutes away from our house. You would never have guessed we were in Baltimore proper once we got in however- it was really spacious and the habitats were quite nice. Next stop- the National Zoo in DC!

Foot In Mouth.... & Spoon and Face

Foot in Mouth: So lately I have been speaking a lot of 'baby talk' in public without realizing it... and it's only sometimes that my children are actually with me. "Mommy wants coffee.. mmmm; and I wonder, where are the bananananananas?"

Spoon in Mouth: I have been working on getting the girls to use spoons We have tried a few times, some more successful than others. They love eating with the spoon, its just hard to scoop up what they want.

Face in Mouth: I caught the end of Stella biting Lucy in the cheek. There was screaming, but then an abrupt smile when Lucy realized she still had the sippy cup in question. On the other hand, maybe she was just posing for the camera!

My biggest challenge so far

Warning: First-time mom insanity clearly outlined below.

One can imagine, that after having a baby, not to mention twins, that we face numerous challenges as parents. There might even be one that trumps all others. What might that be? Lack of sleep? Dealing with temper tantrums? How about tantrums in public? Maybe the realization that you will never ever not worry again? What about diapers, germs, baby-proofing and development?

While these are all indeed challenges, the one thing that has remained my constant challenge is FOOD.

Let me elaborate:

Pregnancy:
Eat a fully balanced diet, take my vitamins, steer clear of tuna, smoked fish, soft cheese, anything under-cooked (no sushi, eggs over easy, or anything less than medium-well) along with a host of other things. "Don't eat too much sugar"; "don't eat too much salt"; "don't eat too much"... but "eat enough, after all, there are two in there!"

Birthday- 6 months:
Latching on- what's that? What do you mean most babies 'catch on' right away?? Pumping, bottle feeding, waking up in the middle of the night every 90 minutes to feed expressed milk and then setting my alarm every 4 hours to pump; 90 minutes bottle, another 90 minutes bottle, another 60 minutes pump, another 30 minutes bottle etc. etc. After five long weeks they finally figured it out.

My thoughts: Are they getting enough? Am I eating enough? Do I have to supplement? What about vitamin D? Remember to take my vitamins. Remember to give the girls their vitamins! And, will I ever get to have a glass of wine??

Should I try formula? Soy-based or milk-based? Powder or Liquid? Was that brand recalled?
Ultimately it never mattered much; we tried it, but the girls wouldn't drink it, and then they stopped taking a bottle all together. This made my social life even more challenging to say the least.

6 months- attempt the solid food; deal with the cute (at-first) cringing and spitting everything out
7 months- attempt the solid food... slight progress- still a lot of cringing
8 months- will eat sweet potatoes and peas... and start moving into other foods slowly.

Truly solid food (as in chunks not pureed): Are the pieces too big? Will they choke on that? Is that a rash? Are they allergic to strawberries? What about peanuts, how do I introduce them to that? Should I even introduce them to that? Are there steroids in eggs? Are those peaches organic? Is there added sugar in that applesauce?

Am I feeding them a balanced enough diet? What if they will only eat cheerios and applesauce?? Why don't they like milk? Are they lactose intolerant?

Oh, no, diaper explosion... it's everywhere. What did they eat? Why do they have diarrhea? Why has it lasted more than a week? What's a pro-biotic? Is that yogurt too sweet? Should I buy soy yogurt? Are they getting enough liquids? Please don't dehydrate!

Oh no, now Stella is not able to keep food down, what happened? Does she have E. Coli? Let's look it up on WebMD (haha, not a good idea by the way).

Now we are dealing with each of the girls eating different things. I made a butternut squash soup with apples, carrots, and celery along with a "green pudding" with spinach, avocado, and applesauce (might sound gross to some, but it was pretty tasty). Lucy eats only the green stuff and Stella the orange. On the other hand when they are eating mixed veggies, Stella picks out the green stuff (peas and green beans) and Lucy picks out the orange (ish) (corn and carrots).

And, what happens if you can't tell how much your child is eating? How does this happen? Well, if you have a pet, you know. It's become quite the game to throw morsels on the floor and see how fast Teddy or Penny can gobble it up. My problem then becomes... how much ended up on the floor and ultimately in a canine's mouth?

Needless to say, I am most likely over-thinking all of this, but that doesn't mean I still don't stress out about it:)  I am getting better as time goes on and slightly more sane.

I still find it quite comical that out of all the challenges a child can bring into their parents' lives, that my largest challenge has been the simple necessity of chow. 

You say Tomato...

In my effort to be green and with visions of making organic baby food literally from the fruits of my own labor...I tried to get a plot in our local community garden this year. But unfortunately they were all taken by February. So I decided to create my own urban farm in my 8x13ft (ish) backyardette (since I don't think it can officially be a yard being as small as it is). I had minimal space left in the ground so I bought a bunch of containers (2-5 gallons). I was optimistic and motivated so I planted: tomatoes, summer squash, watermelon, lettuce, radishes, beets, green onions, spinach, basil, cilantro, parsley, broccoli, and strawberries. Now being August, I have learned that I should have planted my greens (and probably
broccoli) as a fall crop. My spinach lasted until the heat wave a couple weeks ago, the cilantro died almost right after I put it in, my watermelon never sprouted (nor did the lettuce). The summer squash plants are large (but who knows if they will fruit), and I am waiting to see what will happen with my beets and radishes. I have an obnoxious amount of Rosemary however!

Summer Squash

Rosemary

Broccoli

 As may be obvious, I only half (or less) know what I am doing when it comes to gardening. I have had success in the past few years with basil, tomatoes, swiss chard, and rosemary. However it's been hit or miss with tomatoes since I first tried them 3 years ago. This year it has been a bit of a miss. I wanted to attribute it to the HOT HOT weather, but everyone else I know that are growing tomatoes around here has had great success this year. We did have a few visits from our neighborhood city kitty (aka RAT) that worked his way under my protective netting and has eaten at least 3 tomatoes from one plant-- which is basically all I got on that one. As for my other bush (or twiggy stalk)... they have been small-- and so far have had minimal fruit. Regardless of size or quantity- they are still delicious!