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Life

This past week I have been very much in my head. I am not sure how to describe the events of last Sunday. Crazy, absurd, senseless. We were actually in Vegas when it happened. On a brief vacation to meet up with friends and have a few days to ourselves (the boys stayed home with one of their favorite people in the world). And believe it or not, B and I were in the ER when victims came in because I’d cut my toe badly and needed stitches. What we saw… I don’t have much to say except that I am still a little bit anxious and have been all week. I am thinking about all the people affected and holding them in the light. And hugging the kids every minute I can.

The rest of our fall has actually been pretty great. We have been apple picking (at Terhune) and we plan on doing some pumpkin picking either there or somewhere else in the area before Halloween.

I found a really wonderful facialist where I got a “five element facial” (methods based on Traditional Chinese Medicine).

I’ve been taking ceramics class at the Arts Council of Princeton. It’s something I did for years back in high school, and have definitely been missing. I’ll share pictures of my pieces as I finish them. So far I have 4 bowls in progress and I have plans for some kind of bowl/plate that will have a leaf imprint in it.

K and C are both enjoying their schools. I am very lucky to have found people that I trust with my kiddos. C started a new school when we moved to Princeton; he’s not old enough for K’s school which doesn’t start until age 2.

B’s band (finally) put out their album and they have their launch concert next weekend (not this coming weekend but the following, so almost 2 weeks from now). I’m hoping to find a sitter so I can go to the show in Brooklyn. On that note, we might spend the weekend in the city and take K to see Cats (again). He saw it once with me, before he knew the music, and we want to take him one more time before its run ends since now he knows all the words. This is a remake of the original and it was pretty good (though I do find the show a bit strange!).

I’ll leave you with this pick of my little climber – K at a birthday party earlier today!

Fearless!
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Housekeeping

In the past few years, this blog has become outdated. I have been posting less and spending more time with my family. It’s a little bit crazy realizing just how much free time you have when you don’t have kids… and yet you never realize and don’t always use that free time wisely (or at least I didn’t, when I look back on it).

I’ve done a little housekeeping to bring things back into 2017.

I updated and republished my “About” page.

I updated and republished my “FAQs” page.

I’m finding dead links and fixing them.

And I am (slowly) going through old posts trying to re-tag where I’ve missed things.

Since we’re talking housekeeping, I wanted to veer into some actual housekeeping talk.

We recently moved back into an apartment (a 2-bedroom in Princeton) from a 4 bedroom home (in the neighboring suburb).

After being an apartment/city person for almost 12 years, I could not adjust to owning a house. Does anyone else feel this way?

The housekeeping was exhausting. I felt like I was constantly cleaning and tidying up after messes appeared (ahem, small children). The sheer number of rooms to keep up with was so much – cleaning bathrooms – cleaning a dining room and a kitchen (!) – so much cleaning! Not to mention the mental effort involved in keeping track of all the places in the house.

We ended up paying someone to mow and care for the yard that we thought we’d wanted. I did not understand how much “housekeeping” the outdoor part of a house really required. Or how expensive it got if you didn’t have the time or desire to do it yourself.

Stuff seemed to collect in every room, the basement, and the garage. How does this happen? We were only there 1.5 years. And I swear I am a minimalist!

So one day earlier this year (after discussing it… basically since we bought the house), we decided to put it on the market. Not even two weeks later we were showing, we were in contract in less than a week, and we ended up closing in early August.

We moved to Princeton (our process for deciding this location is another post in itself). We’re renting. And we love living in town. Princeton is great. Our small place is a lot easier to care for and I can walk to my favorite coffee shop. I can also bike (or take a long walk) to yoga. Those were my requirements for when we moved. Bobby’s requirements were that he have space for his music stuff, which we are still sort of working on (his piano is set up, and the guitar is out, but he doesn’t have his own room for it).

I am very happy to be rid of lots of housekeeping. And the family seems to be enjoying our new digs too.

How do you feel about housekeeping? And living in apartments vs. houses?

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The Very Best Teriyaki Salmon Recipe

This is the best and easiest teriyaki salmon recipe I have ever tried. (Ok, I haven’t tried that many.)

I make this recipe about once a week, rotating my fish selection. The photos here are of salmon. Last night we had this with a new fish that I picked up at the farmers’ market last Saturday – I think it was called Cobia. Delicious as always!

I got the original recipe out of a book: Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat. I borrowed it from my mother in law a while ago and have not given it back yet… there are just too many good recipes in there.

Teriyaki Salmon Recipe

Ingredients

  • 4 4-ounce pieces of salmon (works well with any firm fish – tilapia is the only one I’ve tried that doesn’t work well and that’s because it tends to fall apart)
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil, olive oil, or ghee

For the marinade:

  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons mirin

For the teriyaki sauce:

  • 1/4 cup mirin
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sugar

Instructions

  • Mix the marinade and let the salmon sit in it, flipping once, for about 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, make the teriyaki sauce by mixing those ingredients (soy sauce, mirin, sugar).
  • Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat.
  • Remove the salmon from the marinade and pat it dry with a paper towel.
  • Reduce heat to medium and cook the salmon, skin side down, for about 5 minutes.
  • Flip the salmon and cook for one more minute (skin side up).
  • Whisk the teriyaki sauce one more time to make sure the sugar is dissolved, then pour it over the fish.
  • Tilt the pan to spread out the sauce and use a spoon to spoon some over the top of the fish.
  • Cook for about 1 more minute to let the sauce thicken.
  • Remove from heat, and pour any extra sauce over top of the fish.
  • Serve with fresh rice and a veggie side.

The only changes I made from the original recipe are:

  • I use a little more oil and sugar. It still doesn’t have a lot of oil or sugar.
  • I don’t remove the fish to wipe out the oil before I add the teriyaki sauce. It’s an extra step to reduce the fat but I don’t really mind skipping that. Fats make this dish yummy.

Original here.

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Hello!

::Wave::

Hello? Anyone there?

Gosh it’s been a while.

Where did we leave off? Oh yes… we were leaving Hoboken and I was pregnant with #2.

And now here we are:

Kurt turned 3 in April. Calvin turned 1 in June.

We took a weeklong trip to Boulder, CO a few weeks ago and that is where most of these pictures are from. The last one is me and Calvin at a farm near our house (Terhune) where you can do berry picking, and on weekend evenings we listen to live music and drink wine there.

I have lots of things to update about, and hopefully I can make some time to do more posting!

Talk to you all, if anyone is still reading, very soon šŸ™‚

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Recipe: Yogurt Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Both Bobby and I have a major weakness for really good oatmeal raisin cookies. I also happen to have a jar of homemade yogurt in my fridge from my dad’s girlfriendĀ (she makes it from raw milk they buy in PA!) that I wanted to do something with aside from yogurt breakfast bowls.

So I set out to experiment with a yogurt based oatmeal raisin cookie. It came out GREAT. I will warn you – these are not very sweet (on purpose) and could probably be eaten for breakfast or a healthy/hearty snack – but in my mind they are also the perfect dessert.

I haven’t gotten Kurt into these yet (to be honest, he doesn’t like ANY sweets, and thank goodness – have you ever met a 20 month old boy who doesn’t want candy? That’s my son) but that’s ok… more for us.

IMG_0684

Here’s the simple recipe:

Yogurt Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2.5 cups whole oats
  • heaping 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Mix together the yogurt, sugar, egg, vanilla.
  3. Separately, mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
  4. Add the flour mix into the wet mix; mix well.
  5. Add the oats, raisins, and coconut – mix well.
  6. MakeĀ large (1/3 cup or so) scoops of the dough into round cookie shapes and bake for 13-15Ā minutes on a baking pan sprayed with Pam.

This made 8 very large cookies. If you prefer smaller ones, reduce the cooking time by about 2 minutes to accommodate that!

Hope you get a chance to enjoy these yummy healthy yogurty oatmeal raisin cookies!

And Happy New Year if I don’t check in before then!