Becoming a Carnivore

I have been a relatively strict vegetarian for the last 10 years. I say "relatively," because I know there have likely been times I have consumed things made with chicken stock, or devoured eggs that grazed a piece of bacon on the brunch platter. I have never been that vegetarian who demands her food be cooked in a separate pan which has never touched an ounce of meat. I have never chosen an inferior Mexican restaurant simply because it is the only one in a 50 mile radius serving vegetarian refried beans. And I have certainly never been the vegetarian who refuses a home cooked meal from someone who has no clue I am a vegetarian, and who places a meat dish in front of me after slaving in the kitchen all day. On occasion, I am a vegetarian who eats meat.

Growing up, I was never too interested in the meat dishes served by my parents. Like all kids, I loved bacon and sausage for breakfast, and pepperoni pizza with pineapple was my meal of choice in high school. However, if mom put a chicken leg in front of me for dinner, I would lick off the barbeque sauce, then pick at the meat in disgust. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma in college, I was pretty convinced that I needed to cut meat from my diet completely.

For a majority of the time, being a vegetarian is simple. Mark Bittman has an awesome vegetarian cookbook, and most meals you confront in the outside world are served with vegetarian sides. Almost every restaurant is willing to be flexible when you are looking for meat-free options, and some even specialize in this. However, it does get trickier with a kiddo. For one thing, meat and protein are an important part of the human diet. We vegetarians talk a lot about eating only natural things, but consuming meat is one of the most natural things I can think of (it's the way the animals are treated, butchered, and served that causes the problems). Children need protein, and animal protein cannot be replaced by un-animal things, no matter how many legumes it contains. I may have a personal cause, but I cannot let my cause affect the health and well-being of my offspring. Also, I kind of think that kids should choose for themselves. After all, they are human beings, and a basic human right is choice. I let Everett pick out his shoes, his toys, and his books. Why would I then dictate his nutritional choices?

Because of these reasons, since Everett was born I have been buying organic, free range meat to balance his diet. And because I do not wish to poison my child or give him something inedible, I test everything I serve to him before forcing it down his throat. Therefore, I consume a little meat whenever it is served to him.

Lately, I have been cooking meat on a larger scale. I have made a couple pots of pulled pork, tried my hand at braised beef, and made a superduper chuck roast. Cooking meat is the easiest way to have a lot of food for many meals - I am over vegetarian chili!

Then...

We have been frequenting the Kendall Yards Night Market, which is a farmer's market for Spokane area producers held every Wednesday night. One of the regular booths is from Spokane Family Farms. We get Everett's milk from them whenever possible, and they offer whole chickens at a reasonable price (among other meat options) at the market.

The meat sold by the family offered everything I was looking for: local, free range, natural, yada yada yada. So I bought a chicken. While I was waiting for one of the workers to grab my future dinner from the freezer, another gal offered to show me pictures of the animals at the farm. After nodding and smiling over the happy animals running through the green pastures, the worker deposited 4 pounds of frozen bird in my hands. I looked at the now petrified critter, and let me tell you, based on the pictures I saw, this animal lived the good life.

Since the next day was my #telecommuting day, I planned to research chicken preparation options over my morning cup of coffee. I put the bird in the refrigerator to thaw (because that's what Julia Child told me to do), then determined that my method of preparation would be roasting - in my fantastic Le Creuset Dutch oven.

A few hours later, it was time to start. I unwrapped the bird, laid it on my carefully prepared "meat" cutting board, then went to work. Unfortunately, it was still frozen solid after many hours in the refrigerator. After consulting websites, YouTube videos, and my food guru, Katelyn, I discovered that the little lady was still frozen because she was still fully intact - all internal organs were still attached and frozen solid to the cavity of the bird. Thus began my thawing of the bird in a bucket of water. Let me tell you how attractive THAT looks.

When the little lady was soft enough to manipulate, I was able to open up her...flaps(?)...and see the junk inside her trunk. Per Katelyn's suggestion ("Just yank them out.") I took off my rings, reached my hand up in her business, grabbed, and pulled as hard as I could. NOTHING. "Get a wooden spoon and stick it in there. That's what I do, then shake it over the sink." I tried, and tried, and tried again. The gizzards were stuck, and excuse my language, but that bird had a really tight ass, and nothing was penetrating that business. I wish I could say I was elbow-deep in chicken gizzards at this point, but I was not lucky enough to suffer such a fate. Instead, now I had a bird with a mutilated ass, sitting tits up in a bucket of bloody water in my kitchen sink.

I should probably also mention my germ phobias. I guess subconsciously one of the reasons I gave up meat was because I was hospitalized for e coli during college. I started getting terrible symptoms right after eating a chicken dish (of all things) from a Vietnamese restaurant in Spokane. Not to worry, this establishment closed shortly after a few other people got sick eating the same dish; we know this because we tried to have them cover my hospital bills, but the owners flew the coop (pun). Since this debacle, I am the psycho who runs around the kitchen bleaching things as I go. I kid you not, with all the reaching and ramming, then YouTube-ing and Google-ing, grabbing and mutilating, then texting Katelyn every 2 minutes, I went through half a bottle of hand soap by this point. And it was the expensive hand soap I bought in Iceland, too!

At this point in the process I was getting frustrated. I did the most logical thing I could think of and called Spokane Family Farms to complain about this farce. I found their number on the bloody bird wrapper and dialed. "They should know that they overcharged me for this bird! If I'm going to spend this much money, shouldn't they have at least gutted the bird?" They didn't answer the phone, which was probably for the best...

So I bugged Katelyn instead. Her next suggestion was to work the organs out from a different angle. This meant my next job was to cut out the bird's spine. After watching YouTube videos of successful removal of chicken organs, I knew that I was in danger of severing something disgusting, causing a bigger mess than what I was already dealing with. Nevertheless, this was my only option, so I set about cutting a creature's spine from its body.

Crackle, crackle, crunch, CRACK, crackle, crunch...

"Everything is normal...this is all normal...there is nothing weird at all happening right now." I coached myself through the process and ended in success. The bird was backless, I could see everything inside, and I was finally able to remove all the bits and pieces. It's a good thing the organs were still a little frozen, because I did all this without popping anything putrid. Success! I texted Katelyn a picture (poor Katelyn!) and she confirmed that everything was clean and ready to go.

I set the girl back on the cutting board, boob-side up, and pulled off a few rogue feathers. After catching my breath for a few seconds, I got started on the next task. I was to push firmly on the breast until it broke and lay flat on the cutting board. So I did as instructed (by Katelyn), performing chest compression CPR on the breast bone until CRUNCH, it popped down.

BTW this whole hulabaloo I just went through is called "spatchcocking." I cut off the bird's wings at the joint, and was officially done spatching the cock. Spatchcock.

The celebration party did not last long, as I realized 2 hours of my life had been wasted attempting to remove organs from a chicken. I had invested a lot of time preparing the bird, but I still had another 2 hours left of flavoring, browning, and cooking.

When Jeff returned home around 7, it was officially an hour after I usually feed Everett. The poor little guy was starving by then and in a foul mood. However, when I removed the chicken from the oven, it was so tender that the meat was literally melting off the bone. While I cut the chicken into servings, I told Jeff about my adventurous day. He also wanted to see the pictures I took of the carcass for some reason. We soon sat down for dinner as a family and dug in.

I cut off a morsel of chicken breast and slowly brought it to my mouth. I breathed in, and it smelled like heaven. I brought it to my mouth and set it gently on my tongue. It was flavored to perfection and seemed to dissolve before I had a chance to chew. "Mmmmmm...Yummy." We ate in silence.

I looked over at Jeff after a couple minutes. He was chewing slowly and staring at me sideways with a worried expression on his face. The last time I saw him eating in this manner was when we ordered oysters from a chain restaurant (spoiler alert: they were disgusting).

"You don't like it?" I asked.

"I am savoring every moment of this because I know you will never cook a chicken like this again."

And he is right. I do not have it in me to take a lovely creature from its happy home, then spend WAY too much money on something that caused so many negative feelings. At one point I asked myself why I didn't just buy a Foster Farms chicken. After all, isn't butchering the poor FF creatures saving them from a life of misery? Trapped in a cage, eating food that isn't natural, and getting pumped with hormones? Sounds like a favor to me! And they are so cheap! Win-win!

Alas, I do not see any chicken consumption in my future. I will continue to buy an organic breast or two for Everett, but I personally cannot do the whole roasted chicken thing at this phase of life. It will take some time for me to get over the horror of my last #telecommuting day. 

To add insult to injury, today was garbage day. Everything within a 10 foot radius of our garbage can currently smells like rotting chicken carcass. No amount of plastic bags will protect the world from raw chicken gizzards festering in a 90 degree garbage can.

Screw you, Delicious Chicken! Thank you for being delicious, but we are officially OVER.

Ebble's Favorite Things: Juicing Edition

I'm on a juicing kick, and I just can't quit! Someone should hire me to make commercials, because obviously my slogans are legit.

One of my BFFs recently moved to the other end of the world (Philly), and this means I no longer have a coffee buddy at work. It also means I no longer spend money on mochas and doughnuts every day of my life. Instead, I am allocating those funds to produce! This all came about when a complete stranger pointed out my acne problems, and thereafter informed me that juicing would solve all my skin woes. Yes, you read that right. Those were the words spoken to me in my own paraphrased terms. In this person's defense, I have been toying with the idea of getting a juicer for months, so I took the suggestion at face value and bought one anyway.

I have ginger girl skin, and nothing can change that, so I am here to tell you that having a daily Juice (I am capitalizing it since the liquid produced is the purest, highest form of liquid goodliness and foodliness) has done very little to clear redhead blotchiness...so far...That being said, I can tell you the following fun facts:

• It is an easy way to ingest fruits and vegetables - It is the general recommendation for adults to consume 9 servings of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. I am lucky if I can get in 2, so throwing fruits and veggies in a juicer or blender are an easy way to get our daily intake. Everett refuses to eat spinach, but he does not notice its presence in a smoothie or juice drink.
• We waste less produce - I love buying produce in bulk. It just makes sense. For the most part, I am able to use it all up by making baby food puree or adding leftovers to another recipe. However, sometimes I am unable to use an entire bag. Throw it in the juicer and you have yourself an empty refrigerator!
• Everett has an easier time taking a shhhhh...it just hit me - No doubt, this stuff travels through the digestive system at a rapid rate.
• We are drinking less coffee and eating fewer snacks - The Juice tastes amazing right out of the machine, and there is no need to add sugar. Since we are powered by natural sugars, as well as vitamins and minerals, we no longer feel that need for afternoon caffeine. Nothing can ever replace my morning cup of coffee. It truly is the best part of waking up.
• Our compost bin has never been happier.

So here is what we have to get started.

1. Breville Juice Fountain Plus: I went to the store and got the cheapest juicer they had available. It happened to be this one, and I am not at all disappointed by it. There is no pulp, the motor is powerful, and there are 2 speeds depending on how tough the fruit/veggie is you are putting down the chute. I put whole apples in this guy and it says, "Bloop, here you go."
2. Compost Bin: Juicing creates a lot of pulp, which will make an awesome compost over time. If you have an outdoor compost bin, it is helpful to have a canister in the kitchen to collect food and paper scraps from in the house. Once we fill this guy up, we take it out to the big bin. We bought this one because the ceramic is easy to clean. Ours has been going strong for 3 years now, so we are proof of its durability.
3. I admit it, these boots have nothing to do with juicing. But I LOVE them! They are perfect for slipping on your feet to take the kitchen compost to the outdoor bin, or for taking the garbage out, or for walking to the store in the rain/snow, or for cleaning out the hypothetical chicken coop. They are cute, and they are durable, not to mention incredibly comfortable. Warning: heed the sizing recommendations posted online. I prefer these over standard rain boots because they insulate the foot a little better. Regular rain boots = cold Ebble feet.
4. Juicing Recipe Books: It's important to have recipes for your new juicer. The manual to the Breville includes a few recipes, but my favorite book is Juice Alive, by a N.D. in Portland. The recipes contain information on how to address physical ailments, and they go beyond the standard concoctions you will find in a juicing manual.

Wine Tasting and Huckleberry Picking

Another great weekend in the books! Jeff and I drove down to Walla Walla for a night to celebrate our BFF's 30th birthday. We stopped at a few wineries and enjoyed the sights of Southeastern Washington. Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Sleight of Hand is so quirky that you just have to stop in for a visit. I mean, who else features Neil Patrick Harris's face on a bottle?

Yes, I did buy a bottle of the Neil Patrick Harris vintage.

And guess who happened to be getting hitched during that exact moment I was drinking out of his face...NPH himself! It was meant to be. 

We were the only people tasting at that time of day, so we got to choose which record was playing while we sipped on wine. Good wine + good music means lots of dancing. The workers thought our group was pretty entertaining.

Our next stop was a private tasting at Garrison Creek Cellars. This wine is fantastic. They manage a small amount of grapes so that each bottle of wine can be done right, rather than mass producing wine in the assembly line style. The result is exquisite. Each bottle sells at $63.00, but it is really hard going back to Two Buck Chuck after tasting this wine.

We tasted wine straight out of the barrel, then went upstairs to see what an extra 2 years in the barrel will do to the results. I tell you, this was dangerous. I will definitely be visiting again in a couple years to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I will stroke the glass and say to it, "I remember when you were just a little guy in a barrel. You were so sweet and delicate. Now look at you. All robust and grown up." It will be tender and weird.

There are only 5 people who work at this winery, and we met 4 of them (plus their adorable dog). That is how small the operation is.

The view driving to the winery wasn't bad either. Not bad at all.

If you are tasting in Walla Walla, this place was 5 stars in my book.

Once we were all wined out, we stopped at Graze for lunch on their patio...check out this mural...

...then we made the drive back home to take our little Everett huckleberry picking in the mountains.

He stripped these huckleberry bushes clean!

And put the berries directly in his mouth.

He kept saying, "Blueberry. Bucket. Blueberry. Bucket. YUMMMMMM!"

He had so much fun. It was the perfect way to make memories. And you guys, look at how big my baby is getting!

 

Whiskey Ginger

What's your favorite summertime activity?

Some of my fondest memories involve sitting outside on a hot evening sipping a cool beverage. One of my favorite beverages, and one of the easiest to make, is the Whiskey Ginger.

I don't add a whole lot of extra things to this drink (like actual ginger) because 1) I think spending money on garnish is silly, and 2) I'm a mom - which means the purpose of drinking is to drink, not to prep.

• Fill a standard sized tumbler or glass to the brim with ice cubes.
• Sprinkle in a few drops of bitters.
• Pour 1 shot of whiskey over ice.
• Fill remainder of the glass with ginger ale. 
• Sip in the company of good friends.

 Drink responsibly!

These days.

Life has been vacillating between hectic and subdued these last few weeks. We have been very happy, and very grateful for this balance. It keeps us on our toes, and gives us a moment to breathe.

Over the course of three naps, Jeff and I managed to paint our living room. It took two coats of good paint, patience, and lots of tip-toeing around on our squeaky floorboards.

I took this picture before the painting over the mantle was hung because I was too short to hang it, even while standing on a chair. The ceilings are higher than you'd expect for a little bungalow.

We painted the ceiling using Benjamin Moore's ceiling paint in Simply White (FYI, Simply White should actually be called Simply Off-White - don't be fooled by the name). The trim is in Valspar's high gloss Ultra White (which is actually white). Finally, we painted the walls in Benjamin Moore (Natura) Camouflage, which is on the same color card as Simply White; I saw this color on the swatch and knew I wanted to use it. I still have a bit of touch-up work to do on the trim and crown molding, and we would love to tear out the old tiles in front of the fireplace and replace them with something more modern and bright.

Here is the before picture. It sure feels good not to have that accent wall anymore. My house was starting to feel like an Easter egg with all the colorful toys littering the ground.

You can see that we have also purchased a new blind for the front window. The old roman shade wasn't working for us...plus it broke.

I've mentioned before how much I love cleaning with vinegar. There was some soot stuck to the bricks of the fireplace, so I decided to scrub a few of them with a 50/50 vinegar and water solution.

Before

After

Everett and I have also been experimenting with different fruit smoothie blends. It's a great way to sneak healthy things into his diet. I swear, this kid will eat/drink anything that can be slurped through a straw.

• Yogurt
• Orange juice
• Orange slices
• Banana
• Blueberries
• Kale

He likes to help out in the kitchen while I'm experimenting with the Vitamix.

Nailed it! Or rather, Kaled it!

In conclusion, I own too many glassybaby votive holders.

Don't You Know That You're Toxic

Britney Spears is my hero for recording the song "Toxic."

Now let's get Honest. My journey as a mother started the moment Jeff and I decided to have a baby. Since then, our #1 priority has been to protect the health and well-being of our family. The most basic way we can do this is by making sure we have a clean, hazard-free home. The problem? Sometimes cleaning supplies can cause hazards in the home.

My friend J. came over when she found out we were trying to have a baby. She wanted to give me a tutorial on how to "cleanly" clean our house. Before her visit, I was a lover of all things bleach, Clorox wipes, and the like. BUT she showed me the light, and did you know that pure, plain vinegar can do basically the same thing as bleach? And did you know that it is 100% edible, 100% natural, and 100% clean? And mix vinegar with lemon juice, essential oils, or tea tree oil to get twice the grease-fighting, germ-killing action! You can get 2 giant bottles of vinegar at Costco for about $7, and can use it for descaling coffee makers, unclogging drains, stripping soot from a fireplace, killing mold and germs, and removing unpleasant scents from trashcans. The best part? After I clean something with vinegar, I don't have to worry when Everett immediately puts his mouth on the newly sanitized surface...except then I have to sanitize it again.

A few of my friends and family members wonder why I care so much. It is a pretty long explanation, so bear with me here.

I decided to become a vegetarian about 5 years ago after visiting my vegetarian GBFs in Seattle. I was training for a marathon, and went on a 13 mile run along the Puget Sound waterfront. After I finished my workout, I couldn't believe how good I felt. The fresh air mixed with the temperate climate made me feel like Superwoman. I probably could have gone much further, but did not want to keep brunch waiting any longer. All weekend we went to vegetarian-friendly restaurants, ate lots of organic food, and drank SO much champagne with our friends.

 When we arrived home I still felt that leftover energy from my workouts, and I had never felt better in my life! Then a few days later, Jeff and I made a chicken dish with enough leftovers to last for days. I quickly felt my energy dwindle, my body became sluggish, and I was having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.

When you are a runner, you are well aware of the fine tunings of your body. I quickly realized that my energy from a few days prior was actually from eating good food with my friends - food that was free of chemicals, preservatives, and hormones. It was then that I made the decision to buy produce from the organic food section as often as possible (if it was not available in my garden), and to only eat locally raised, hormone-free meat (since this is not easily and cheaply found, I am basically a vegetarian).

So given that back history, when my friend came over to show me how to clean with vinegar, I had already known that making a natural change to my routine yielded positive effects. The fact is we don't really know what products like Bleach and Lysol do to our bodies and our babies over time. We do know that chemicals like bleach were used in warfare to cause harm to the human body. So was my daily bleach spray on the counters causing symptoms I was experiencing that have since disappeared? It is hard to say. I do know for a fact that eating chemicals from produce and hormones from meat was changing the way my body operated, so seeing a connection between chemicals on my counter tops and my basic human health does not seem too far-fetched.

Fast forward two years and here we are! Cloth diapers, clothesline for bleaching our laundry naturally, teething necklaces instead of Tylenol, making our own baby food, compost bin for fertilizing our vegetable garden instead of using chemical fertilizers...All that said, we are definitely not the Granola Patrol. We love the look of a freshly bleached bathroom, and still have bleach on hand for its occasional whitening power. We are ALL about chemicals and hormones in moderation (I ate a hot dog the other day because I felt like it). But the word "moderation" is key. You can never be too careful when it comes to lifestyle choices, and you can never eat too many Oreos (which decidedly do not fall into a natural food group).

Now that you know the Wirth history when it comes to cleaning and eating, let me tell you about my recent mail order binge. I signed up for the Honest Company's monthly shipment of household products, as well as a Birchbox! I have yet to receive the Birchbox, but my initial reactions are that it is only $10/month so why not, and that the shipping is abysmally slow for this impatient girl. However, I already have some LOVE, like, and meh opinions about the Honest Company products I have received thus far. So stay tuned for more from your favorite Granola Patrol President. AAAAAND stay tuned because we might just have some house news for everyone...

Fit (or not) for Bloomsday

Bloomsday is this weekend! Cue guilt complex...I got put in the "Yellow Group." This means I am assigned to start with runners who anticipate getting stellar finish times. Since I haven't worked out in 2 months, and since I haven't run further than 3 miles since pre-prego days, I might end up starting with the clowns back in the walking group (I call them clowns because many are dressed in costumes).

My body might not be in race shape, but healthy eating this week is necessary to keep my muscles gelatinous, yet healthy. Here is a fast, nutritious recipe that will blow-ur-mind.


Farro Salad

Ingredients

• 10-minute farro from Trader Joe's
• crisp cucumbers
• 1/2 red onion
• tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• feta cheese
• 1/2 bottle balsalmic viniagrette
• chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste 

Cook farro according to instructions on package. Chop your vegetables while the farro is cooking. Once farro is done, strain in colander and run under cool water. Mix farro, veggies, feta, dressing, salt and pepper. Enjoy!

My favorite thing about this salad is that it keeps in the refrigerator. Most salads do not make good leftovers, but this one takes the cake. 

Bam!      

Happy Birthday Dad!

Jeff turned the big Two-Eight on July 6th! Since I had a few pounds of strawberries left over from my jam making adventure, I decided to make a strawberry pie to celebrate the special day. After gorging ourselves on dinner downtown, we came home to this jewel of a treat I prepared the night before.

The experience made me realize I'm not the woman I should be, since I had to borrow all the pie-making tools from my friend Rachel. She also pointed me toward this great recipe, which I tweaked a little (see my recipe below). I did, however, spend way too much money on [necessary?] Pampered Chef pie-making gadgets a couple weeks later...Guess I'll be making more pies soon.

 This simple recipe tastes bomb, and was easy enough for a novice pie maker like myself.

Ingredients:

• 1 (9") pie crust, baked
• 1 quart fresh strawberries
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 TBS cornstarch
• 1/2 cup ginger ale

Arrange 1/2 - 3/4 of the strawberries in the baked pie crust. Mash the remaining berries and combine with the sugar in a medium sauce pan. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and ginger ale. Stir cornstarch mixture into strawberry mixture.

Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring ingredients to a boil, stirring constantly. Continue to boil for 2-3 minutes, still stirring. Remove from heat (make sure the mixture has thickened) and let cool slightly for a couple minutes.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pastry shell. Chill for several hours. Serve with whipped cream, or I used Lite Cool Whip (since we had just finished our third batch of Slutty Brownies).

On Becoming a Homemaker - Homemade Jam

Now that I am feeling well, the nesting instinct from pregnancy is already starting to show its cute/exciting/stress-inducing face. I have found myself wanting to be crafty and creative, and I am needing to prove to myself that I am up to the task of becoming a mother. Lately I've been hearing a lot of people say things like, "My mom used to make the best homemade jam. I remember when she would..." Well, I want to be that mom. I want my kids to remember the good ole' days when Ma would slave over the stove making homemade jam, and said children are going to love my jam. For some inexplicable reason, I know I would feel like a failure if I did not complete the task this summer.

One of my favorite places to visit in Spokane is Greenbluff. This countryside haven is tucked away below Mt. Spokane, and has dozens of orchards that yield fresh, local produce throughout the year. I forced my mom to take a trip to the mountains with me, and we braved the Saturday morning crowds to find fresh strawberries for homemade jam. Be proud of me because I picked an entire flat of berries. And yes, my back was killing me at the end. And yes, I did demand that we stop at the Orchard House to eat ice cream and pie afterwards.

Another exciting step in the baby journey occurred this day. To my annoyance, Mom wanted to stop by some garage sales (she's a sucker for these) one our way home. As fate would have it, I found our crib at one of these sales for $35! And it wasn't even recalled. I wish I'd had the foresight to take before pictures because I definitely painted it, and it looks ah-mazing. Photos to come.

Back to my story. The first step in making jam is to decide what kind you are going to make. Naturally, you need to pick a fruit, but you also need to pick a recipe. There are two types of jam: traditional and freezer. The traditional recipes require a bit of an investment in equipment, and you need to be very careful to avoid germs and bacteria since the jar will be sitting on a shelf for months. With freezer jam you do not cook the berries, and the finished product is stored in the freezer after the jam has set for 24 hours. Per the advice of many, I went with freezer jam.

Freezer jam is the easiest to make, however, it is also more difficult to give as gifts - and gift giving is often the central reason one would make jam in the first place. It is difficult to ship a jar to begin with, and embarrassing to have someone unwrap a frozen gift, then after all that effort you would need the gift receiver to read attached instructions to keep the product frozen until use. Talk about a high maintenance gift. Due to these challenges, the jam is mainly used for Jeff and my personal use. However, we have gone through 3 jars already, and I have found you can store opened jars in the freezer without the fruit being too hard to spread for sandwiches. And I would not post about this jam adventure unless it made a delicious treat.

Basic ingredients for freezer jam include fruit, sugar, water, and pectin. I used a couple different kinds of pectin for my project, and can state with certainty that Sure-Jell was my favorite. The other brand tastes wonderful, but once I opened the package and read the instructions, I discovered two other essential ingredients that were not listed on the outside of the box. Naturally, my hormones sent me into a rant of frustration because this necessitated my third trip to the grocery store in the last 2 hours.

The whole process only took a couple hours (including the grocery store runs), AND I was even multitasking by making my third batch of Slutty Brownies. You heard me right - my third batch in the last 2.5 weeks. Some day I would like to attempt a traditional jam recipe, but for now I am happy with my delicious freezer jam.

Recipe: Gloria's Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberries and Strawberry Freezer Jam

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 cup flour (whole wheat works for the healthy cooker)
• 1 TBS sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Fresh blueberries 

For topping

• Strawberry freezer jam

Beat egg; add remaining ingredients in order and stir until smooth. Add extra buttermilk or milk until desired consistency. Cook pancakes. Substitute strawberry freezer jam instead of syrup for topping. Enjoy!

Famish and Fatigue

Weeks 13 and 14 were a busy time in our lives. Jeff's family was visiting from Portland to attend his graduation ceremony, and friends were visiting from Seattle to help us celebrate. To top it all off, I planned a graduation party at my dad's house and invited about 50 people...AGH! We all know what parties, company, and house guests mean: crazy preparation.  These two weeks were spent cooking, cleaning, and napping between chores. Although there was a lot to be done, I only wanted to lay on the couch and watch TV. It took a lot of effort to peal my lazy, expanding behind off the couch and complete the long list of necessary chores.

 I'm so proud of my little graduate!

For the party, I found a great recipe for springtime beverages on a local wedding blog. For anyone who loves lavender as much as I do, this is a great refreshment for any upcoming parties you have planned. I saved some lavender from my garden last year, and was happy I finally had a use for it. I imagine it would taste amazing with some vodka mixed in too...for non-pregnant parties.

Sparkling Lavender Lemon Tea:

Find the wedding/party sized recipe on this website.

This beverage is perfect for Sunday brunch, or just for having in the fridge during the hot summer months.

Ingredients

• 4 lemons
• 1 TBS dried or fresh lavender buds, crushed
• 1/2 cup agave nectar or honey
• 1 cup steeped lemon balm tea leaves, or I just used lemon flavored green tea which can be found at most grocery stores
• 5-6 cups sparkling water (I used San Pellegrino)

1. Brew the tea in 1 cup water. Set aside.
2. Zest the lemons then juice.
3. In a medium sauce pan heat lemon juice, zest, crushed lavender buds, and agave nectar/honey over low heat. The house will smell AMAZING while you're doing this, so turn on the stove and do some laundry (or watch TV) while the mixture fills your home with a delicious scent.
4. Once the mixture starts to simmer, remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. In a large pitcher combine lemon and lavender mixture with the sparkling water and tea. I used a strainer to remove some of the lavender buds. There are a lot of people in my family who have issues with texture, so doing this was more family and kid friendly.
6. Serve over ice and enjoy!

Pregnancy

It was right around this time when I received a lecture from a friend about the frustrations I was having with the changes in my body. It went something along these lines: "You are pregnant, so you are going to gain weight and things are going to change. It's normal, so you shouldn't complain or worry about it." Though she was right, I never really had any issues with my weight gain, and the changes I have faced will all be worth it when I have my little bundle of joy. My real issue: there was an alien growing in my stomach who was sucking the life and soul out of me, and to top it off I could not get any of my clothes to fit comfortably.

Being an active person who enjoys roofing strangers' houses, running marathons, hiking, and staying up late with friends, I found myself stripped of all activities that made me feel happy and fulfilled. Instead, I was sitting at home watching How I Met Your Mother and Anne of Green Gables - not because I'm a big TV watcher, but because my body wouldn't let me do anything else.

To top it off, every morning I'd wake up to get ready for work only to find that yet another article of clothing no longer fit. A hard part about the early transitions in pregnancy is that you can't go buy new clothes every time you expand another inch. Not only will you end up spending a lot of money, but you will only be able to wear the garment for a week or two. Although I've been lucky enough to avoid spending a lot on transition clothes, I have already spent close to $500.00 on new undergarments, wider shoes, cotton dresses, stretchy skirts, longer shirts, maternity tank tops, and BeBands. Of course I was going to be upset and stressed about not having any clothes that fit. Also, what woman doesn't freak when she suddenly gains 12 pounds?

Breakdown

How do I feel?
Please see above.

Weight gain?
12 lbs!

Food cravings?
HOT DOGS! Also, I'm a vegetarian. In addition cheese, berries, and pizza. And I'm still wanting to eat all the time.

Food aversions?
Garlic, onions, anything spicy.

Sleep?
What's with the crazy dreams?! I have some good material for novels now - lost love, pirates taking revenge - and I'm still somewhat uncertain if events I remember come from recent dreams or real life.

Gender?
Only time will tell.

Mood?
Here come the hormones...

Movement?
Nope.

What have I learned?
Here are some must-haves for early pregnancy when your body is going through that awkward transition stage:

 1. Cotton dresses and skirts - you can find cute dresses at Target or Nordstrom Rack for great prices. They will grow with your body, and can even hide your little bump if it's still a secret. My general rule with these is that if it's more than $30.00 it's not worth it. Places like REI are also great for finding stretchy, comfy skirts and dresses. They will be a little more pricey, but the material tends to be a higher quality than your general cotton dress.
2. BeBand - when I started gaining weight I knew something like this had to be invented for women like me. It's essentially a giant rubber band that can be used to push down on your unbuttoned jeans to make them look buttoned, or can be worn over your entire tummy to smooth you out. And it comes in white, nude, and black, so if it starts popping out from under your shirt, it just looks like an undershirt. The BeBand can be found at Target.
3. Hair ties - chances are you already have many of these in your possession. Hair ties in all shapes and sizes can be used to keep your pants from falling off when you can no longer button them. Use the small sizes for early pregnancy, then gradually move to the bigger ones.
4. Leggings - when your belly is cramping and all you want to wear is sweatpants, leggings are an answer to your prayers. I like to use the lululemon pants as leggings because they can be used for prenatal yoga classes, brisk walks, lounging around, and can also function as leggings under a long shirt or dress. The lululemon Will Pant has a waistband that can fold down for use during non-pregnant times, or worn up to smooth out your belly, serving as a BeBand of sorts.
5. Maternity tank tops - I bought four of these in early pregnancy, and have already got my money's worth. You can wear them as undershirts, alone as a cute top, or layer them for a fun look. I got the ribbed tank from Gap.com because they don't look like a maternity top at first glance, but will expand with your growing belly.
6. Wide shoes - I will be spending a large portion of my pregnancy in hot weather. It 's good to invest in a pair of sandals that have adjustable straps and plenty of room for swollen feet to expand. I bought these Steve Madden sandals from Nordstrom in the early spring, and get complements every time I wear them.