Rory's Lego Party

Rory had a Lego birthday party Sunday.  There is a new place (not really close by) that hosts Lego parties and we jumped on it based on spotting it in the Boston Globe 100 Best New Places in the area.  If the guy that ran this place had any charisma whatsoever, this place would be a gold mine.  Alas, he does not but will probably make money in spite of himself.  I'm hoping this will spark his creativity building things without kits/directions.  The kits are a fortune and he rips through them regardless of the age range or # of pieces.

 Look how happy he was...










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TV: Winter Shows

Recently Finished

1. Boardwalk Empire - Great season finale.  Despite the fact that they killed off a MAJOR character, I'm more interested in seeing how Nucky deals with Margaret when he finds out she gave his major money maker to the church.  Gave me much more of a gut sink to see that than the murder, which was daring, but not as dramatic.
2. Dexter - Was JUST starting to get a little bored when BAM, the season finale was great.  Didn't love Colin Hanks, but I honestly think topping John Lithgow may not be possible.  I'm in again for another year.  I must know how they address the cliffhanger of Debra walking in on Dexter. 
3. The League - Fantastically funny and raunchier than usual.  I'm now following ALL those guys on Twitter.
4. Homeland - Really solidly good.  Happy that Claire Danes won the Golden Globe for her role.  Not happy that it beat out Game of Thrones for Best Drama.

Ongoing

1. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Love it.
2. Top Chef: Texas - Not as much talent as usual on this season.  Still love it, but not really rooting for anyone.  Wish Nyesha hadn't gotten booted so early.  Come to Boston!!!
3. Portlandia - We just started this season and it's extremely witty and sometimes laugh out loud funny. I never loved Fred Armison on SNL, but he's so great on this.
4. 30 Rock, Modern Family, Office, Parks & Rec - of course Is Bob Newport on Parks & Rec an homage to Robert California on Office?  Hmmm

Upcoming

1. Luck (HBO) - Jan 29 - Just heard an interview with David Milch on NPR about this and the clips sufficiently caught my interest.  I didn't love Deadwood, but I hold out hope for this new show.
2. Eastbound & Down (HBO) - Feb - Season 1 was hilarious.  Season 2 had it's moments.  Will go in again and hope for more April and more laughs.
3. Game of Thrones (HBO) - April...Big Sigh.  My #1 favorite (with Sons of Anarchy a quick 2nd).  I might buckle and read Book 5 b/c April seems so far away...

On DVD Now/ Future

1. Big Bang Theory - We've been watching this on DVD for several months.  It's really funny, but it's still a network sitcom so it's tough to power through on DVD.  We've had to put it down and pick it back up.  We are like 3 seasons behind.
2. Bored to Death - Love Ted Danson and I've heard great stuff about this.
3. The Killing - Everyone was talking about it...feeling obligated.
4. Louis - Saw 1 episode and it was really funny - I didn't like his HBO show, but this one was good.  Joe wasn't into it though so it may take awhile for me to get to it.

Rory Lost His 1st Tooth!!

Yesterday he went from a slight wiggle to dangling thanks to an ornery popsicle. Today, tooth comes right out at school!


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Books: Game of Thrones

That is seriously all I've read in months.  I'm beyond obsessed.  If a repeat of the Season 1 episodes pops up on HBO, I'm up all night watching.  I read books 1 - 4 in a row without stopping.  It's taking all my will power not to jam through Book 5.  Because then there will be none left.  And, truthfully, I didn't love Book 4.  The author has indicated he will take the series through Book 7.  HBO is filming Season 2 now and is going to film, I think, Seasons 3 and 4 back to back to save $ (and thereby having the episodes ready to air quicker).  Season 2 begins in April and I'm hanging out on the show making of blog just to get glimpses of the show to kill time until it comes back.

Oh, I also read Mindy Kaling's new book and loved it.  She's great and the book is as funny as her Kelly Kapoor on The Office.

Spaghetti Squash

I haven't cooked Spaghetti Squash before...usually I just use Butternut Squash.  I thought I could trick the kids to trying it though.  No such luck, but I loved it!  This was recent Everyday Food recipe for Roasted Squash with Parmesean and Herbs.  I roasted the spaghetti squash one day.  I made the rest of it another night and ate it that night and for days afterwards.  It was better Day 2.

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Movies: Girl with a Dragon Tattoo & DVD Rentals

I haven't written about movies in awhile, but we've seen some good ones lately...

1. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo - Joe and I both read the 3 books and we saw the 1st Swedish movie.  I think this one was a snazzier, more glossy, intense look at the story.  I loved the intro, the music, Rooney Mara's Lizbeth Salander, Daniel Craig and the general visual depiction.  I did not think the direction/editing was smooth.  If you hadn't read the book or seen the other version, it was choppy and I don't know if I would have followed the details of the story.  The Swedish version was less flashy but easier to follow and Noomi Rapace was great.  I'll see the others when they come out.
2. X-Men: First Class - Michael Fassbender and James MacAvoy were great in this prequel.  None of the supporting mutants really jazzed me much, but I loved the origin story of these guys and will watch any future installments.
3. Super8 - Joe and I both really enjoyed this movie.  It didn't do that well in the theater, I don't think. Other than the close up of the alien at the end (which was kind of hokey), I thought the kids were awesome, I love me some Coach Taylor and will see him in anything, and it was great J.J.Abrams.
4. Win-Win - Paul Giamatti is seriously a guarantee (except for that Adams mini series on HBO which was way boring). 
5. Due Date - Joe had heard this was good and we had nothing to watch.  This was not good.
6. Captain America - Slow start, but I like this as far as super hero movies go.  I think I liked this and Thor equally.  Looking forward to Avengers, I think...it could go either way.
7. Pearl Jam Twenty - Just watched this last night and it was really awesome.  We've recently seen the Foo Fighters documentary Back and Forth.  The differences were really interesting.  Foo Fighters was a more chronological study of the bands ascent.  You got exposure into the band members personal lives, as far as it related to the band.  You got some really honest analysis about what they went through.  Really great music, obviously.  In PJ20 it was clearly more "movie" than documentary, thank you Cameron Crowe.  I didn't get the feeling about how the band members really felt about each other or their personal places in the band.  Awesome music making me want to listen to PJ again.  Eddie Vedder is more weird than I thought.  Both were totally worth seeing more than once.

Linguine w Crab

I had some fresh crab in the freezer and an evening of Mac & Cheese for the kids that Joe and I tend to avoid.  From BonAppetit I got this recipe for Linguine with Crab, Lemon, Chile and Mint.  I modified removing the Chile and Mint and substituting with some fresh baby spinach.  Yum.


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Escarole Soup

Needed to throw some healthy meals into our mix for the New Year.  Every Wednesday is Macaroni & Cheese night (sanity for me, happiness for the kids).  This Escarole Soup from Saveur Magazine was simple and came out so deep and flavorful.  I love escarole and this could definitely be made with or without the meatballs.  I only had 2/3 of a lb of beef so I made less meatballs and it was plenty.

Watching Gymnastics

Kelly yells out commands to Shelagh's gymnastics class. She thinks she can since she has the same teacher for her class. High volume of somersaulting in our house these days...



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Avocado Citrus Salad

I used the recipe from the current issue of Everyday food for Avocado Citrus Salad as the idea for the below salad, but I changed some things.  I used 2-3 clementines instead of an orange and a grapefruit (Joe doesn't like grapefruit).  I used sliced thin red onion instead of radishes and I added in cucumbers.  Also, I had some balsamic lime vinagrette from Gwyneth Paltrow's book that I used for dressing.  I just love the arugula + avocado + clementine combination.  I'm a very lazy salad preparer.  I love to eat salad and I hate to make it.  This was so good.  I'll make it again tonight probably since I have leftover avocado, washed arugula and dressing ready-made.


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Burgundy Mushrooms

I love the Pioneer Woman website/blog/cooking extravaganza.  Now she is on Food Network and so I watched her make Xmas dinner last week and was determined to make Burgundy Mushrooms.  Imagine cooking mushrooms for 9 hours!!!  Look how dark and rich these look???  They were heavenly and my house smelled so good all day.  I think they actually might have been a tad too rich (which takes a lot for me to say).  I halved the recipe and probably should have reduced the time - I did cut out the last 2 hours, but I should have cut more or just made the whole recipe.  We had these with Roast Beef and garlic-parmesean mashed potatoes last night. 


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Winter Veggies

I tried 2 new veggie recipes to try to plow through my leftover CSA December share vegetables.  Both were delicious!
From Everyday Food, this month I think, I started with Roasted Beets with Orange and Thyme. Very simple...I didn't have fresh thyme so I used dried.  Beets are definitely one of my favorite vegetables I've only tried recently.  Looking forward to more beet experimentation.


Glazing Vegetables - This was on the Saveur Magazine's "100 Favorite Things" this month.  It was a loose instruction which included the following steps:

1. Cut veggies uniformly and make a single layer in a saucepan
2. Add a few tablespoons of butter, some salt/pepper and a pinch of sugar.  Almost cover with water.
3. Lay a piece of parchment paper on top and simmer until the water cooks off, shaking pan now and then.  (Realizing right now that I also covered it with a lid...hmmm...wonder if this changed things). 

I combined carrots, parsnips, and turnips and these came out so rich and soft and delicious.  Butter is the elixir of life.


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Smugglers Notch

The weekend after NYC we head up to Vermont for a weekend at Smuggler's Notch with some friends who generously offered us a free condo on their Disney Vacation Club.  Not much snow, but we had a fun time regardless.  We spent 1 day skiing and 1 day in Burlington at the ECHO Science Center and around town. 

Look who got on skii's at 2 1/2 years old!!!!!

Too cool for school...

Shelagh enjoying the science center

Joe and Carda enjoying the Body Grossology exhibit at the Science Center (yes, it's a Fart exhibit).  It was very educational.

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Rory Turns 6

Rory turned 6 yesterday.  The night before he was pretty sad and said he'd rather turn back to 4 then up to 6 so that he doesn't grow up and can stay with me forever (so cute, but I had to restrain my heart melt to convince him that growing up is way cool and that he'll get the opportunity to learn and do so many exciting things.  He finally bounced back when I reminded him that he couldn't chew gum at 4.)

Nonetheless, he had a great day!  He had cupcakes at school with his class.  His teacher gave him this lovely hat and certificate to parade around in and despite the extra attention managed a green card for the day (good behavior).  He chose Mac & Cheese for dinner, more cupcakes for dessert, and presents.  He is counting down to his Lego birthday party scheduled in a few weeks.  He cannot do enough Lego's.  The kid is obsessed with them - Lego kits, Lego clothing, Lego Wii game(s), etc.  I'm going to attempt a Lego cake for his party despite my past failures at cake baking.  How hard can primary colors, rectangles and 1/2  marshmellows be?????? 

Rory with his new Bruins Tim Thomas holding the Stanley Cup picture that Joe picked out for him.  Hopefully to go into his new room (more on that when I take the plunge on buying new bedroom furniture and don't completely fall apart at the idea of getting rid of the baby furniture that all 3 kids have used.  Sigh).



And yet another Lego kit...I think he was miffed that Santa didn't bring him any Star Wars Lego's (even though he did get a Harry Potter kit and Lego Kingdom Prison Tower as well as a Ninjago for Hannukkah).  He does them so fast and then starts thinking of the next one on the horizon.  I anticipate that the Lego themed bday party will bring even more and I'll have to siphon them and let him have them slowly...




The girls were proud to pose with the birthday boy.



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Chicago Beef Stew

Back to food...I've been cooking the bare minimum home cooking to get us by through the holidays.  I'm back to meal planning and winter cooking (my favorite).  This beef stew was in the last month issue of InStyle.  Normally I wouldn't put much stock in a recipe from this magazine but it was from Stephanie Izzard, my favorite Top Chef contestant/winner.  I had high hopes but I also had a funny feeling that a beef stew with a set of sweet ingredients (fruit) wouldn't work for me.  It didn't.  It seemed off to me from the printed recipe through the stages of cooking.  Solid effort though. 


Look at all the fruit in here - it's a whole pineapple, an apple, and a pear.  I thought the apple/pear would be in there for their pectin to thicken things up a bit.  It was way too much though...the pineapple flavor overpowered all the other stronger flavors - wine, stock, worcestershire, fish sauce, balsamic, tomatoes, etc.  There was also 2 cups of apple cider.  Perhaps this set of flavors would have worked better with chicken?  I don't know...the proportions seemed off to me.



This is the dish with all ingredients added in prior to the big simmer step.  Seems off, but I was hoping a lot of the liquid would cook off and reduce so that it would look more like the picture in the magazine.  No online link.


This is the dish almost finished after 4 hours of simmering to break down the beef chuck. Does the liquid/non-beef proportion to beef seem way off? Of course the kids didn't like it either. They are thrilled that Wed is Mac & Cheese night to make up for this debacle.


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Kids Together

Some pictures from the last month of the kids snuggling together (doesn't happen so often with Shelagh and Rory!!).  MUST GET A NEW CAMERA!!!










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