Quiet weekend

Compared to last weekend, this one was pretty quiet. Friday night we stayed in and took it easy and watched Gilmore Girls (we've recently started over with Season 1). On Saturday, we went into DC, where I was serving as a "pregnancy model" for a massage class. Tough work, but somebody had to do it! We followed that up with lunch at one of our very favorite restaurants, the Cactus Cantina, then headed back home. I've gotten to the point where being out and about for very long just exhausts me, so I was falling asleep on the couch by about 7pm. We did, however, make up a batch of Tammy's Vanilla Pudding (we melted chocolate into half so we had some chocolate pudding as well), and boy, was that delicious and well worth the effort! Like many other things, it falls into the category of "why did people ever stop making this from scratch?" Easy, delicious, and relatively healthy as far as desserts go.

Today, we got up decently early and took a nice morning walk in Reston. Our weather was just perfect today--70's with low humidity, and we were excited to see on our walk, among other things, a heron and a bunch of adorable baby turtles down at Lake Anne.

We came home from that, opened up all the windows, and worked on a few last things as far as getting ourselves settled in the new apartment--including Freecycling back some of the 100 jars we'd washed out back in February. We took a long hard look at the situation and realized that a) we don't have a garden and likely won't until we no longer live in an apartment, thereby leaving us with little to can; b) if we did find the time and means to can, half of those jars would likely be enough; c) IF we decided we needed to someday, replacing the jars wouldn't really cost us that much, especially compared to the inconvenience of storing them and moving them until that day came.

Tonight, we went for a swim at the outdoor pool. I'm looking so pregnant now that about anytime we go out in public, somebody comments on it and says "Normally I wouldn't presume, but in your case it's so obvious..."

Delfest report

As you might recall, this weekend we were planning to head out to Delfest to see Sam Bush and Old Crow Medicine Show in Cumberland, MD. We were also going to stay the night at Tari's Inn in West Virginia, but after talking about it we realized that we've been so busy the past few weeks that what really sounded like a restful vacation was just...staying home. So we planned to drive back to Reston after the show.

Saturday morning my work called and offered some tempting overtime, so I ended up going in for four hours to offset the cost of the weekend. Meanwhile, Matt ran around and packed up a cooler for us, a change of clothes for me, and ran a few other errands. He picked me up around 11 and we headed out out to Maryland--about a 3-hour drive, with lovely scenery and nice weather.

Here we are shortly after getting to Delfest, while Sam Bush was onstage:

Some of our fellow concertgoers:
Here's the baby enjoying a little bluegrass:

About 20 minutes after those pictures were taken, big fat raindrops started to fall. At one point rain had been predicted for the day, but last we had checked it was supposed to be sunny. Bummer. But we pulled out our umbrella, huddled in close, and waited for it to stop.

But instead, the next thing we knew, it looked like this:

Not only was it pouring rain and the wind (we later discovered) whipping around at up to 80mph, but nickel-sized hail was pelting us HARD. After sitting there wet for 15-20 minutes and realizing it wasn't going to stop, we made a run for it, but weren't able to make it to the car, so we ended up huddled in one of the concession tent with a bunch of other people, who were literally holding it down as there were other tents being upended and blown around the concert and campsites. (We felt VERY thankful that we'd decided I was too pregnant and it was too hot to camp...)

Finally, there was enough of a break for us to make it to the car. On the way there, though, I had to pee incredibly badly (of course), there wasn't a Port-o-Potty in sight, and even if there had been, it wasn't where I wanted to be in high winds. (For the curious: I did have my jar in the car, and had already used it before we went in, but knew that was going to be considerably trickier wearing soaking wet clothes.) So I weighed my options and decided that with the rate at which I was being doused with fresh rainwater, my best option was probably just to do like the marathoners do and pee my pants while running. So I did.

Having finally made it to the car:

As a side note: on the way out to Maryland, we'd stopped to grab some lunch at one of our new favorite restaurants: Ted's Montana Grill. Everybody there is always very friendly, the atmosphere is classy but not fancy, they're committed to the environment, and they're generous with coupons. We had a $10 off of 2 entrees coupon they'd sent us (which you can get by clicking on their homepage right now) and with each burger running about that much, it was basically a buy one/get one free. We had them pack up half of each of our burgers and fries for dinner, which we'd planned to eat at the festival. Around $15 with a tip--not bad for feeding two meals to each of us!

Here's Matt working on his while we waited out the storm:

The welts Matt sustained in the hail:The aftermath (this picture, and the one of the rain and hail, came from the DelFest Facebook group--we were incredibly worried that in all this we would ruin our camera, but it was safe and sound and dry inside of Matt's old Jansport backpack):

As for my clothes--having urinated in them, I went ahead and, well, took them off. And headed back without them. What else could we do?!

So when all was said and done--it wasn't exactly the $100 worth of music we'd paid for and were hoping to hear. On the other hand, we were mainly grateful to make it out safely, and we certainly had a few laughs and made some memories. Though as my mom suggested--this next weekend, we're going to try to do less peeing in pants and driving around naked.

Article about maternity care in the LA Times

Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Childbirth: Can the US improve? is a a step in the right direction, and I applaud its portrayal of a well-informed woman who sought and achieved a VBAC, but the tagline ("C-sections are expensive. Doctors ask if we are doing too many") strikes me as as incorrect--in fact, it's women, families, midwives, and other concerned parties, so much more than doctors, who are questioning the current C-section rate. (And they aren't doing so simply because it's expensive--their concerns center around around the known risks posed to mothers and babies.) Like so many media articles, however, this one is quick to blame the so-small-as-to-be-almost-neglible "too push to push" phenomena of patient-choice Cesareans for the rising rate, dedicating almost no time to the far more common "physician's choice" Cesareans, which may be cited as "necessary" for anything from a suspected large baby (not a valid indication) to going past a woman's due date to pretty much anything else under the sun. I was disappointed that the article didn't make a single mention of midwives, either--basically, it laid out the problems with US maternity care and ignored the fact that the solution to our problems (and the reason that the other countries discussed in the article are blowing us out of the water in terms of outcomes) is staring us in the face.

Taco salad

One of the new items on our menu this week was taco salad. I used to make something like this fairly often when I was a vegetarian, with soy crumbles and a Taco Bell seasoning packet, but I can't say whether I've ever made it with actual ground beef, let alone real spices. This time I did, and was really pleased with how it turned out!

First, I made a pound and a half of ground beef (which we barely made a dent in--this should feed us at least another lunch and then another dinner). I loosely based my seasoning on this recipe, and it ended up going something like this after adding a few things to taste and subtracting what we didn't have on hand:

Taco Meat

1.5 lbs ground beef
Seasoning mix:
1 1/2 tablespoons corn flour (masa)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons salt
pinch of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Fry up ground beef in a pan. When beef is browned, add seasoning mix and stir thoroughly to coat. Depending on leanness of beef, you may need to add a little water or lard or other cooking fat to keep it moist. Cook until seasoning is fully incorporated into meat, and adjust seasoning to taste.

In addition to a bed of lettuce and a base of taco meat, we also had a toppings bar that included shredded cheese, black and kidney beans, quasi-refried beans, corn niblets, sour cream, and diced tomatoes. And, of course, a few corn chips to crumble on top.

Matt weaned me off of canned beans recently and onto dried and I must say I couldn't be happier with the switch. Previously, I had a hard time figuring out the ratio of dried beans to soaked, not to mention remembering to soak (overnight) and cook (for 2-4 hours) the beans far enough in advance that they'd be ready. I've gotten better at planning ahead, realized that the ratio is 1:2 (dried beans to resulting cooked beans), and also figured out that cooked beans freeze extremely well--meaning that if I always make an extra cup or two when I'm cooking them, I'll generally have some on hand in case of unplanned bean-containing meals. I usually cook a mixture of kidney and black beans, because they have similar cooking times and go well in the meals we usually make.

We've made our own refried beans before, and they were good, but they were also time- and labor-intensive. This time, I decided to basically make a glorified bean dip--so I cooked a little diced onion and garlic in some lard, and threw in a couple of cups of cooked beans, along with probably half a cup of the bean liquid they'd been cooking in. I stirred it all together and blended it with the immersion blender--and voila, quasi-refried beans in just about five minutes. I added a little cumin, cilantro, and salt to taste, and it's perfect on taco salad, in burritos, as a chip dip, or just eaten as a side dish with a fork. I love that kind of versatility, and both the beans and the taco salad are items we'll definitely have on the menu again!

Rhubarb success!

Because he knows the way to my heart, Matt came back from Pennsylvania Amish country this weekend with three pounds of freshly-picked rhubarb for me. I wasn't about to risk making it into jam after what happened last time, and so instead I set aside a recipe for Custard with Rhubarb Sauce. The simplicity of the recipe appealed to me, and since we have a wonderful source of delicious, local eggs and milk, I figured this would give them and the rhubarb an opportunity to really shine.

And shine they did. While I can't seem to make custard without a few lumps in it, it was creamy and delicious nonetheless, and the rhubarb sauce was tangy and the perfect complement. Here's the recipe, from the excellent site A Veggie Venture (visit the recipe link for helpful hints about scalding the milk, etc; I've just included the bare-bones recipe) :

Custard with Rhubarb Sauce

Serves 4

CUSTARD
2 cups whole milk
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium pot, scald the milk on MEDIUM heat (or a bit lower), stirring often so the bottom doesn't burn...Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar til smooth. A quarter cup at a time, whisk the hot liquid into the eggs, stirring all the while. Return the mixture to the pot and cook on MEDIUM (or a bit lower) until the mixture thickens, stirring the entire time. (It will take milk longer to thicken than half & half or cream. You can tell when custard is "done" when you can scrape a finger along a metal spoon coated with the mixture and the line stays clean.) Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla. Transfer to individual ramekins or a serving bowl and chill til ready to serve.

This makes two cups. If you need more, make multiple recipes but don't double.

RHUBARB SAUCE
4 cups fresh rhubarb, trimmed and cut into half-inch pieces
Splash water
1/3 cup sugar (or more to taste)

Add the rhubarb and a splash of water to a medium pot, stir in sugar and cook on MEDIUM til rhubarb is soft but still shows the chunks. That's all it takes!!

Because I'm impatient like that, we ate it while it was all still warm, which I think only enhanced its deliciousness. Definitely something we'll make again!

And now, I have a jar of the remaining rhubarb sauce, perfect for eating on pancakes or ice cream or straight out of the jar with a spoon.

Yum! Now that's rhubarb as it was meant to be.

Verdict on jam & Pomona's pectin

Eh. That's all I can say about it.

Which, when you're talking about the ethereal combination of strawberries and rhubarb, is actually pretty abysmal.

The jelly didn't totally...jell, but that's my fault because I misunderstood the order in which to add the pectin packet and the "calcium water."

Runny texture I can handle, but bland, watery flavor is another matter.

Granted, the strawberries we used were early, somewhat watery ones from the farmer's market, but I don't know that that would have made all the difference. And it is certainly less sugar than I'm used to seeing in jam, but the ratio was similar to what we use for Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp filling, which is always, in my humble opinion, DELICIOUS, so it's hard to say.

In the meantime, I'll eat it, but I'm disappointed. And Matt brought me back a couple of pounds of fresh rhubarb from Amish country, so I'm tempted to make up a batch of Sure-Jell jam with it, but I'm thinking that Custard with Rhubarb Sauce seems like a delicious, high-protein way to eat it up as well.

Something a little different

As you've probably noticed, our diet around here tends pretty heavily toward ovo-lacto vegetarian. We eat plenty of cheese, milk, and eggs, but meat is something of a rarity for us, something we probably eat a few times a month. Part of this is pure preference, and part of it is for financial reasons.

However, recently we've decided to try to step up our protein intake--something we'd committed to early on in the pregnancy, but which became difficult with 5 months of morning sickness, when eggs and meat were the LAST thing that appealed to me. We've been sort of half-assing it ever since. Now, however, the birth is just around the corner, plus we've made the connection that Matt's headaches seem somewhat tied to blood sugar issues. (We're also looking at summer coming and the fact that we each wouldn't mind losing a few-plus pounds when it does, so simpler and less starchy fare seems like it is in order.)

So our goal is to incorporate more protein-and-vegetable-based meals as opposed to starch-based meals (hello, dinner salads; goodbye, yummy noodle-based casseroles). We're hoping to a) stick to mostly organic meats when possible and b) do so without breaking the budget. However, we're hoping that the higher cost of meat will be offset by the need for fewer "filler" ingredients (noodles, cheese, etc) like we need for casseroles, and we're also planning to try to stretch our meat purchases by incorporating them with lots of vegetables.

That said, here's the menu plan for the next 10 days (to get us back on Wednesday shopping after the moving this weekend threw us off):

1. Salads with steak and corn
2. Taco salads with ground beef, corn, beans, and sour cream
3. Egg salad (using this recipe) on whole-wheat toast
4. Salads with grilled Vidalia onions, asparagus, portabellas & fresh Parmesan
5. Puerco pibil with corn tortillas
6. Puerco pibil with brown rice
7. Tempeh salad over greens or whole-wheat tortillas
8. Some kind of hummus wraps
9. Baked potatoes with cheese
10. Tuna salad sandwiches

For lunches, once again, we eat leftovers; for breakfasts, Matt almost always has eggs and I switch between some kind of cereal and my current favorite, whole-wheat English muffins with peanut butter and jelly. Yum!