One banana, two banana

As I was driving home from yoga the other day, I came to a stoplight that I stop at  when I take the main road rather then the back road. And I saw this in the median, at the stoplight

Now in my opinion that is a strange sight, my first thought was monkeys, because who else could have had SO MANY bananas in one stoplight. My second thought was that it might be the same person who eats a banana a day, because they seem to be varying degrees of ripeness.

Either way, I thought it made an interesting picture

Also, tommarrow, we are moving to Sebastopol!! I am so happy to be moving back, I love that town, and I've been to a lot of them, it has the kind of community feel that I like but its the kind of community we can fit into.

Our new apartment is a one bedroom with the kitchen and the living room being one room, its smaller then our three bedroom that we live in now, but it will be much easier to keep my house clean with only 3 rooms to clean. We are renting from an old Mexican lady who lives there with her daughter and granddaughter (who is 2). The lady LOVES Annabelle, shes' already volunteered to babysit!

I will be walking distance from all my favorite places, including the Hopmonk Tavern where we love to listen to music and eat, Whole Foods, Screamin Mimis Ice Cream, Papas and Pollos Burritos (yes potato burritos they are SO YUMMY I'll be sure to add a pic)

Hoping this will get me out of my funk, I just set up my first Hakomi therapy appointment today, I'm pretty excited, its a sort of psychotherapy that is more body mind connecting, it helps you be conscious, and work on how your breathing and tensions can help you feel whats wrong. I'm pretty excited, my acupuncturist told me to try this woman out, and Ruth (my acupuncturist) had nothing but nice things to say about her. I'll be sure to update and let everyone know how it goes

Skype Challenge

Its been days now since I have been able to Skype.

All of my family lives on the East Coast, its sad, but it snows there, and that is nails on a chalkboard to me. Since I have Annabella, and I want them to have a chance to see her grow, we got a webcam and the free program, and now EVERYBODY in the family has it, and we are encouraging Ryan's side to get it as well.

Its kind of like being on the Jetsons

Until a little less than a week ago its been working out great. But then my

 Logitech C250 Webcam  suddenly quit working. I didn't know what to do! I finally broke down and searched (and I mean SEARCHED) for the webcam video. I found the camera in the computer, by looking in 'devices' and then selected uninstall  the program

Then I plugged it in, and it reinstalled itself, no CD needed.

Now I feel like a Jetson again

Rahmapfelkuchen German Apple Rum-Raisin Custard Torte

Ryan got me a cookbook for christmas, Starting with Ingredients: Baking: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Bake,  Its great it tells you about all kinds of ingredients; flours, liquors, almond, raisins. And the recipes are oh so yummy. I made this and to be honest, I never got to eat it, I sent it over to Uncle Sean's where I knew it wouldn't go to waste. Its so nice to have a place to send extra food where its appreciated.

Anyways back to the cake, it was a German Apple and Rum-raisin Custard Torte or a Rahmapfelkuchen, I still don't know how to say that word, I've been trying since I got the book.

Its pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The first section of the book is on alchohol, and this recipe is all about the rum, And the crust Oh its yummy, it tastes almost tropical, with lemon zest and rum , its called a 'German Mellow Dough" or Muerbeteig dough. I couldn't help but sneak bites of the dough. All day, but I do this anyways.

After reading the Apples section, I read to put the apples in water with a squirt of lemon juice to be sure they didn't brown. Here are the apples and raisins which I baked first to soften

This recipe called for mace, which is the outer covering of the nutmeg, it took a while for me to find it  because I refuse to buy McCormick Spices,because once I bought garlic powder that was hydrogenated, I had to go to Olivers because they just have everything, and I found it no problem.

While this baked, I made a rum-custard that smelled like it might get me drunk, but in a yummy creamy sugary way,  Then it got baked again. And here is the finished torte sitting with my proud chicken (thanks mom)

You see the hole in the side, I think that might be because I baked it a little too long, the springform pan I bought said to lower the temp of the oven 25degrees from what was suggested, I'm not sure I'll do that next time. I had to bake it about fifteen minutes longer then the recipe stated.

Also it called for a 10" sprinform, I used a 9" and it came out fine

Here's a closeup of the buttery lemony crust. Doesn't it look good?? I sneaked a taste and it was CRUMBLY and oh so good. You can see the yellow from the lemon zest.

And a closeup of the top, mmmmmm

I think as far as I can tell it was a success, I did sneak a taste of the custard from that hole that got baked into the top and it was comfort food



UPDATE!!!:
Ryan Just got home and told me the cake was delicious... I can't wait to try the next recipe

Crochet Longies!

I have recently fallen in love with Crocheting, I love it, So I decided to try out topazdodge's longies pattern on cloth diaper nation, it was easy as pie! And the results were fantastic. I think I could have made the wasteband a little smaller, but this was easily fixed by threading a piece of ribbon through the top. I love them, they are not wool, so they don't wick away moisture like they are made to do, but, thats okay, I think they look cute, I made them flair a little extra at the bottom, as well as enhancing the ruffle on the bottom.

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The first official pic of my little annabella, I also made that quilt

I really need to post more

Well hello, my teeth are doing well and I have moved back to cooking solid foods.

My favorite restaurant in New York City is Carmines, hands down (well its italian food so I guess the hands would be up gesturing). So you can imagine my surprise when I found the Carmine's Family-Style Cookbook: More Than 100 Classic Italian Dishes to Make at Home

It has everything (except of course cannoli). My first test was the Eggplant Rollatini. I love eggplant, and this dish is eggplant sliced lengthwise, friend and stuffed with delicious cheese, then baked in a casserole, I made it with the suggested 'Carmines Marinara Sauce" and it was so good, and my boyfriend LOVED it, we've been eating leftovers for the last three nights!

the final product, the recipe made a HUGE dish of it, from just one eggplant! It was pretty inexpensive to make

  

I used these tomatoes as suggested and they were definetly worth the extra price in my opinion. You definetly pay for quality

I firmly believe that ziti or rotini should go with any dishes like this, I think they taste great with italian casseroles.

Of course you can't have a dinner without bread!

The finished plate

And of course the inside Oh it was so cheesy and melty YUM!

This book is a keeper

And the teeth go on....

I made a smoothie this morning only to read that if I drink smoothies with seeds (ahem, raspberries and strawberries the only way I like them) I could get seeds in my sockets and they could give me dry socket and that would be awful

Right now I am eating more carrot coconut cashew ginger soup, which I thought I wouldn't like but I do, its good, but its nice creamy, reminds me kind of an exotic butternut squash soup, which is the other staple soup in my cabinet right now, Green and Orange,what a lovely appetite

I have been assured now that I can resume breastfeeding, and so since annabella now has a rash on her booty that I am attributing to the formula that I just told you fine readers she loved to much. Although it could be from other things.

I pumped about 15oz of breastmilk total that I had to pump and dump such a sad site  but this is the last one that I am dumping...... And I don't plan on pumping for a while either, I just don't have the energy to manually pump right now, I should have just rented an electric pump

Morning Book Review

The Runaway Bunny

I remember this book from when I was a baby, and I hope that Annabella will remember it as well. She loves all the beautiful pictures, I'm so thankful that my Uncle Ken bought her these books because I love reading out loud.

Its amazing to me how you can forget all about books that you read or heard when you were a kid, but then as soon as you have one and start reading those classics, you remember all the great books that everybody read to you when you were little. I find myself searching for titles of books that I really don't know the names of. I remember the pictures, or the way they made me feel. I hope I can bring this to Annabella so that one day when she reads to her kids she can feel the same memories come back to her heart

 Its the story of a little bunny who says he will run away from home, his mother tells her little baby all the things she would do to find him. Becoming the wind or a fisherman so that her little one can be happy and protected by her. This story is so sweet, and true. I would recommend it to every mother who wants her baby to know she would do anythign in the world to find him

Like pulling teeth: Day One Mushy Peas and tearful formula

Its been a while

Yes yes I'm aware its been a while my dear readers (if there even are any of you out there) I guess its been a mix of lazyness and busyness.

New Years eve was spent in San Francisco, We went to see Further, and Annabella loved it. I thought she might be a little scared of the lights and noises, and of course new people. But we stuck in some EarPlugs Kids Soft Silicone. And they worked great,. The staff at the Bill Graham were so kind, they even let me change annabella in the employee bathroom so I wouldn't have to do it on the floor (yea no changing tables in the bathrooms can I say lame) But the nice lady in front let us bring annabella's  Graco Vie4 Strollerin which served as the mobile comand point for the night, there is so much space in it. That we didn't need to carry our stuff around all night. And I could lay it back and change annabella right in there (which was nice because even though I got to change her in the employee bathroom it was dirty, the stroller was cleaner)

On the way to the show we saw this incredible mural

Also we went to visit Annabellas grandma and great grandma down in Ventura.

Ventura by the way is beautiful, not the way I thought it would be, I was expecting the harshness and fake people of Los Angles, but I loved it, it was warm but not hot (of course is January), it was clean, natural, and there seemed to be lots to do

We went to the promenade and the beach

Saw a dog that looked like Karma if she were an old man

I want to say thank you to Ryan's family who showed us such a wonderful time down there. And also to Lisa who had us over for her DELICIOUS Salmon cakes with a yogurt caper dill sauce which rivaled a crabcake (I know I can't believe I said it either)

Lisa also has the most gorgeous view of the sunset I have ever seen. I'm not sure what this island is I forgot to ask but I think its Catalina or Santa Cruz

And after the sun has gone behind the island

We also went out for some mexican food, I had chicken quesadillas and rice and beans, they special made ryan a chimichanga. I rate a restaurant by thier chips because those are my favorite things at a mexican restaurant this was medium, the chips were a little thick, But they earned extra points for the man with the box of 120 avocados we only paied forty dollars for! And this sweet painting about hallucinating with a corn god

Thats about it for now, tommarrow I go for dental surgery, so I guess for the next few weeks you can call me the  'toothless gormet'