Finally! An entry!
The stairs are finished (except for a plank at the top landing that needs replacing and one more row at the very top which is waiting for that replacement. Maybe tonight?).
Dad arrives tonight for the week, and on our agenda is to install the banister and paint and tile the laundry room. I've been playing with different design ideas for adding cabinets in the laundry room as well, but we'll need to save a little more coin before we can kickstart that little project. Otherwise, there are little odd jobs around the house where dad can be put to work (now that I have a table saw I can finally put the final half row of flooring down the hallway, allowing me to floor the two closets finally as well). Mom's only condition is that dad is not allowed to work with electricity because 'it makes her nervous'. We'll see about that.
Also, the Steamboat Wine Festival is this weekend and we'll be attending an event tomorrow afternoon.
Last night was the third in our series of "Top Chef Steamboat" or "Iron Chef Steamboat". It was the pulled pork tamale challenge, and was I think our best effort yet. Both versions were in my very humble opinion VERY GOOD, but Gina ended up taking the crown this time around (which leaves the standings at two to one in my favor). I already sent out an email trying to plan the next challenge. Though I haven't decided what it will be yet (loser chooses), I'm leaning towards gourmet cheeseburgers.
Oh, and I made so much pulled pork (source: 6-lb pork shoulder) that I plan on making another two dozen tamales (tomorrow night?) and freezing them in two-packs as individual meals for later consumption. Oh, crud. I just realized I have to do it tonight, becuase I promised coworkers I'd bring some to work for them.. I guess that's better than having the pulled pork sit around for a while.. And I'll never be able to duplicate the recipe as I did it completely off-the-cuff and didn't keep good track of what I used.
I THINK it was something like the following:
6lb pork shoulder for 6 hours on low in slow cooker with: 2x Negra Modelo, about 1/2 cup tequila, and (real) Coca-cola to cover 4/5ths of the shoulder. One large rough-cut onion and three large garlic cloves chopped into chunks. Seasoned with cayenne pepper, cinnamon and ground cloves.
Drain the pork shoulder, reserving the juices and vegetables. Pull the pork and place back in slow cooker with vegetables and about 1/2 Cup of retained cooking juices. This is where I started to wing it...
Stir in: - about 1/3-1/2 molasses,
- 8oz can of diced green chiles,
- 16(ish?)oz can of tomatillos (diced),
- dice half an 8oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce,
- add entire contents of Pace Tequila Lime salsa,
- one chopped tomato,
- 8oz can of tomato sauce
- salt to taste.
I also added some (1/4 Cup, we'll say) of a very mild green salsa. Mix together well in your slow cooker and turn back on low to continue cooking for about two hours.
There are a number of different recipes I looked at to find out how to make the masa (corn-flour) and assemble the tamales, but this is what you reserved the cooking liquid for. Put the liquid in the fridge and let the fat separate, then skim before adding to your masa mixture. (Though I'm not sure why that is technically necessary, since the masa is made with LARD, of all things).
I really thought I would have Gina as I was convinced she wouldn't use lard to make her masa (which is how she failed the corn dog challenge - she baked her dogs instead of frying them up), but she suprised me and *did* use it. She put more effort into this one so I'm glad she won (and she needed the ego boost as well).
Next time, though, the challenge will be MINE! (again)
So Caroline loves mirrors and loves her Daddy, hence, the ultimate picture.
She has been absolutely adorable lately. It was a bit interesting--for a while there last week, she was pretty crabby--we couldn't really figure it out. Then one day, Mark noticed that she had a couple hairs wrapped really tightly around a couple of her toes. (No, it wasn't her own toe-hair, we'll see later if she inherited that from her mother). After remediating that situation, she's been back to her usual happy self.
Newest things--she now waves at everyone, which makes everyone smile at her, she just figured out clapping in the past few days, and tonight in the bathtub she started laughing hysterically when she realized she could splash water everywhere. It was awesome. I would have gotten the videocamera, but it would need the waterproof case as she was getting water all over the bathroom. She's just so interactive now, it's so much fun. She'll try to talk to you when you talk to her, she always will crawl right to you, and once she starts laughing, if you're laughing too, she'll just keep going. It's awesome.
OK, that's about it. Quick run down of recent events: Jim gets here Thursday (yea!). Iron Chef Challenge featuring Gina Wither and Mark Fitzgerald tomorrow, menu: pulled pork tamales. My soccer team has now won two games in a row. Record: 2-5. Signed our lives away at the bank, more in debt than I ever thought imaginable, but am officially a full owner in 2 separate businesses that will hopefully now allow me enough return on investment to go to part-time (read: no call) doctorin' when I'm 60. Uff-da. Miss Grey's Anatomy horribly. Craving tapas. Julie and Andrea are moving to Oklahoma. Next week. Signed up for Pediatric medical conference in Chicago last weekend in August, staying the following week, planning to not attend Dave and Keri's wedding hungover. My dad has surgery August 5th to remove (hopefully all) of his colon cancer. I think cancer sucks. Mark is working on the last 3 steps in our entryway as we speak, will hopefully have a bannister and baby gate up within the week. Bought a ton of supplies to paint and tile the laundry room while Jim is here. Lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks exercising more and drinking less (who knew?) No, not pregnant, but maybe soon????????
I'll leave you on that note. :)
ADDENDUM:
OK, maybe I won't leave you on that note. So here's the thing. I was looking for a run to do while I'm in Chicago because 1. I need something to train for 2. I miss running on the lakefront path and 3. I can always use another excuse to trash talk Hutch. I found this. I know a lot of you who read this blog knew Tim Butler, who passed away from lung cancer recently. Can't say I knew him well, but always enjoyed his company when we'd run into each other at parties, and he was an asset to our POS softball team back in the day (honestly, I don't remember ever winning a game). If anyone is interested in running with me, I think it's a nice way to remember him. If you didn't know him, then FYI--September 6th is my birthday, so it's a fun way to celebrate a bit with me before we rock it out at Dave and Keri's wedding. Either way, it will be a good day to celebrate life--however much we are given.
So when my father-in-law (Hi Jim!) even mentions that the blog has been a big rusty lately, then I know it's finally time to post. So here goes.
I can hardly believe it's already mid-July. The summer is just flying by. We had a great time in NYC, here's a pic of Caroline relaxing in the hotel and figuring out what we should go see next.
Congrats, of course, to Jos and TK. It was a beautiful wedding.
So the big new thing in the Fitz household is the Weight Loss Challenge. Mark and I finally had the realization that post wedding and post baby, we've really let ourselves go. And that's putting it loosely (or tightly, if you're talking about pants these days). So we're on to lose weight, challenging Dave and Keri to see who can lose the most before their wedding. I don't think I'm officially in on this challenge, but screw it, I'm becoming a write-in. I think Steve is also in on this, but, well, you know how he is. I'm kind of excited about it--I finally got on a scale for the first time since being pregnant, and my goal is to lose the 8 pounds to get back to my prepregnancy weight (so Mark can knock me up again). Following baby #2, my goal is to get back to my wedding weight, which means losing 15 pounds. Both Mark and I really got out of the habit of regular exercise once Big C came along, so we're each making a concerted effort to be more active. And we're trying to drink less--that goal is a bit tougher than the exercise one, but I think once we get the beer we have in the fridge out of there, for me, it becomes a lot easier. Mark is really good about tracking his caloric intake each day online. I'm winging it, just trying to drink more water and make better food choices. We'll see how it goes.
What else? Big C is crawling EVERYWHERE now. We can hardly keep her contained these days. Mark's trying to figure out some time to finish the stairs and bannister, so that we can get a proper baby gate up. If we don't keep a close eye on her now, that kid can take quite a tumble. She's talking a ton, making more consonant sounds, too. Still working on mama and dada, although if we give an "ah", she'll usually say "ah" back. This then can go on for quite a while. She also loves her pink sippy cup, even though the amount of water she gets out of it is pretty minimal. And for some reason her sippy cup makes her want to talk more. Not sure why.
I borrowed my partner Sheila's mountain bike for the past month or so, and have been going on more and more rides. It's the best interval training ever, because when you're on a steep slope, if you don't pedal yer arse off, you lose momentum and then just fall over, usually onto some sharp rocks. On one of the trails here, falling over means going down a pretty steep cliff, at least 20 feet or so, into a creek. I went again this morning, and had a great time, despite being pretty worn out. I've been trying to throw some runs in there as well, and started playing soccer again, too. Mark's been riding his bike to work a lot more, which for the most part, has been quite successful. Except for that day when he grabbed some bike shorts off the drying rack when he was running late. He kept thinking, man, I must REALLY have gained a lot of weight--these shorts are so tight. Kudos to him for not busting out the seams on my WOMEN'S MEDIUM bike shorts he rode all the way to work. I'm sure the other commuters also appreciated this.
Looking forward to Jim coming out for a visit in a couple weeks--he and Mark are going to do some work on the house, which is always appreciated. And I'm planning on being back in Chicago for a week and a half at the end of August--through the first weekend in Sept. There's a medical conference downtown the last weekend in August, then I figured I'd just stick around until Dave and Keri's wedding. It'd be a good idea to take a little time off before the craziness of winter sets in. And Mark knocks me up again.
OK, off to shower and nap--
If you have a baby, or know someone who has a baby, or want to have a baby someday, order something from Hound Dog Designs!
Disclosure - they don't sponsor this blog, but I did just place an order for the robot pattern, of course (with the "pink circles" pattern).
Oh, and I know who's behind it. But I would have made an order anyway. :)
Yes, I finally got out from that huge rock that had been trapping me and am actually blogging! Wonder of wonders!
We just got back from the fourth of July parade and I decided I would put together a little video for my post. But it's still being pulled off the camera, so it's gonna take a while.
Later today we have a party to attend, but we'll be skipping out early since the baby goes to sleep so early (well, relatively).
We should have a great view of the fireworks from our deck this year, since our neighbor lost his enormous lodgepole pines to the pine beetle epidemic. A shame, kind of, because they provided great shade but now we have a great view of the mountain where the fireworks will be. Now that I think about it, I might wait for that footage to put this 4th video together.
Tomorrow morning as soon as D gets back from the hospital I'm driving to Home Despot, then we have ANOTHER party at 3ish. (Happy Birthday, Gina!).
Later folks!
Oh, also: we rode bikes to the parade today, and I got a new bracket to get Caroline's new trailer on my fixie. Which is very difficult. Keep pulling her (I picked her up from daycare in the trailer yesterday) and I'll get back in shape in no time flat!
Happy Fourth, everyone!!!
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