Arlo is twelve weeks old! The most exciting news this week is that we weighed him on Monday, and he's gained 13 ounces in the past week! It looks like our lots-of-milk plan is working. I'm so...

Arlo is eleven weeks old! We're having more and more luck each Sunday catching him when he's bright-eyed and in a good mood. With the hot weather we've been having for the last few days, he has...

Arlo is ten weeks old! We celebrated with a picnic in Piccolo Park and waffles with Andrew, who was in town for the weekend (yay!). Arlo is doing well. Of course, after finding out that h...

Thirty-eight (and a half) weeks! Sorry to keep you in suspense by being quiet for so long. The baby is still in the belly, though he did drop last night when I was getting ready for bed. I felt some b...

Hello! Not quite time yet for a belly picture this week, but I figured I might want to do more frequent posts now, since the baby could come at any time, and I'm sure I won't feel like writing a post ...

Thirty-seven weeks! The baby is at term now, so he should be able to function just fine whenever he's born. It's reassuring to have gotten to this point. It also suddenly feels like the baby might arr...

Thirty-six weeks! I'm in my ninth month of pregnancy now, and strangers are not shy about commenting on how pregnant I am (which I have no problem with--I think it's kind of cool!). Surprisingly, I ha...

Thirty-five weeks! As Patrick pointed out, the expiration date on his yogurt is now after our baby's due date. Not much longer now... Our pre-baby education continues. This weekend, we went...

Thirty-four weeks! We are definitely shifting into baby panic mode at this point, working hard to get everything ready before he shows up. We're making progress, which is satisfying. Regard...

Thirty-three weeks! Can you tell I was tired when I took this picture? I'm not too tired in general; this was just during a post-lunch slump. I took a quick walk in the sunshine a little later (with f...

Thirty-two weeks! This marks the start of the eighth month--whoa! If I think in terms of months, two months still sounds like a decent amount of time to get ready, but 8 weeks, not so much. Babies are...

Thirty-one weeks! Actually we're at 31.5 at this point. Patrick was out of the house this weekend enjoying some pre-baby hang-out time with friends from college (they rented a condo downtown for the w...

Wow, 30 weeks! Three-quarters of the way there. I'm definitely starting to feel a little unwieldy, but it's not too bad. I've been feeling fewer sharp kicks recently, which is consistent wi...

Twenty-nine weeks! This belly means business. I wasn't sure if I should mention this, because it might move me from the "slightly unorthodox pregnant lady" category to the "crazy new age pr...

Twenty-eight weeks! We've made it to the third trimester. Good job, baby! Here's a bonus family portrait to celebrate (we tried to get Patches in there too, but she wasn't interested). We had...

Twenty-seven weeks! We've got about three months left until the baby is due, which seems like a long time to wait, but I guess it takes a while to grow a human being from scratch. It's a good thing I'...

Twenty-six weeks! Assuming all is going according to plan in there, the baby weighs about 2 pounds, and he can open his eyes. Good job, baby! Hypnobirthing classes continue to go well. We've be...

Twenty-five weeks! Okay, twenty-five and a half--we've been having so much fun this weekend enjoying the beautiful early spring weather in Portland that this post got a little delayed. I'd forgotten h...

Twenty-four weeks! Can there really be only a few more weeks left in the second trimester? I'll be sad to see it go--it has been so fun! Increased energy and appetite, and tangible proof that there's ...

So, like I said, I was in California for work last week, so I had to find a substitute mirror for my weekly photo. Luckily, there's one in the womens locker room at work that did the job just fine. ...

Week 22! All is well. The baby book says the baby can hear at this point, and to celebrate, we took him to a Builders and the Butchers show at The Woods. Okay, so the timing was just a coinci...

Twenty-one weeks--the baby is allegedly as long as a (large) banana. That seems about right. His kicks are getting stronger, which is exciting! We can count on him to put on a little kicking show righ...

Twenty weeks--the halfway point (give or take)! The big news this week is that we had our 20-week ultrasound this morning, and it's a boy! Whoa! We actually had a little false start related to the ...

Today marks the start of week 19! Highlights for the coming week include the baby reaching 6 inches in length and the start of vernix production. Oh, and we find out if it's a boy or a girl on Wednesd...

Happy 2010! I plan to write a post about the year as a whole, but first continuing with the catching up, here's a rundown of our Thanksgiving dinner. It was our one big holiday cooking event of 2009--...

Hoo boy, I've been quiet for too long! Here are a bunch of things I meant to mention at the time but never got around to writing about. Still to come: Ladies Rock Camp and our recent trip to Canada! ...

Some recent tidbits: Shangri-La, the new Indian place at SE 26th and Clinton appears to have closed (already!). Bummer--we never got to try their full menu! They've scraped the paint off the wind...

Phew! August was a frenzy of preserving and trying to keep up with our garden and CSA. Things seem to be slowing down now, which is kind of a relief. We were lucky enough to be overrun with tom...

Baking We went to a fun barbecue at Susan's on Friday, in honor of Linda and Paul, who were in town for Linda's book signing. It was great meeting them! My contribution to the barbecue was a shiro ...

I went a little crazy at the farmers' market on Wednesday and bought 10 pounds of blueberries. I froze most of them (mixed with a little sugar, which is supposed to preserve their texture better than ...

Patrick's family was in town this past weekend, so on the fourth of July we hosted a barbecue and then went to see the fireworks on the SE waterfront (it was very crowded, so next year we'll probably ...

Due to our lack of menu planning, we had some nice meals around SE Portland this weekend. We ate lunch at Broder on Saturday. Man, I love that place! We're so lucky to live nearby. This time I had the...

Like I mentioned earlier, we've reduced our meat intake since moving to Portland. I've been wanting to try making some vegetarian lunches, but my daily turkey sandwich routine is so easy. Plus I was h...

Last Saturday, Patrick and I met up at the PSU farmers' market for lunch (I was downtown for a haircut, and he'd just finished a bike ride in the West Hills). Normally I shy away from the PSU market b...

I think I'm more aware of plants now that we live in Portland, both because we have a garden and because we walk and bike a lot, so we notice our surroundings more often. Right now, lilacs are in bloo...

I'm loving the spring produce lately! I bought two big armfuls of rhubarb at the farmers' market on Wednesday (first of the season!), and after much consideration, I made Nigella Lawson's Irish tarte ...

I've made a few batches of ham and bean soup this winter. I'm always impressed that you can throw a bunch of ingredients together, and a few hours later you have soup! We keep a few ham hocks in the f...

I decided to do a fun baking project over the long weekend and tried my hand at making brioche. I used the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking (it's funny--even though I have a better track record with...

I'm not feeling too wordy tonight, so I'll do this in bullet form: A couple weekends ago, Patrick planted trees in the Woodstock neighborhood (did I tell you he's a Friends of Trees assistant cre...

Hmm, it appears that I haven't written in a while, based on my backlog of food photos. Let's see... We had a nice, low-key New Year's Eve. We went to Bar Avignon (a cozy bistro/wine bar) for dinner...

We're back in Portland! The snow was pretty much melted by the time we got home, which was kind of a relief (no need to run out and buy a snow shovel and salt). Patches was happy to see us and didn't ...

We had a good weekend! Yesterday, Patrick attended training to become a Friends of Trees crew leader, and I went shopping on Alberta Street (that's how it always seems to happen--Patrick does the manu...

We spent a couple hours at the Cross Crusade cyclocross race up in North Portland today. Patrick has recently gotten interested in it (and would be interested in participating instead of spectating ne...

We just found out that you can buy pudding at the farmers' market! Jacob's Creamery sells containers of homemade vanilla and chocolate pudding, alongside a nice assortment of cheeses. Totally awesome!...

Some things I've been meaning to tell you about: I couldn't resist the okra at our farmers' market, but I wasn't sure what to make with it. I tried Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for okra with tomatoe...

We spent the last four nights at live music performances as part of Music Fest Northwest, and I am exhausted! It was great though. We did it in order to familiarize ourselves with the Portland music s...

Some of my coworkers wanted to know what my home office looks like, so I put a few pictures on Flickr (click the picture below for a couple more). It's pretty basic, but it works. I am especially exci...

This has been a pretty relaxing weekend. Patrick went down to San Luis Obispo to attend Eric's housewarming party, but I stayed behind because I was desperately in need of a lazy weekend. And that's...

Broccoli-Orzo Salad This recipe came with our Organic Express box. It turned out pretty well. I think it would benefit from the addition of a little feta cheese. Ingredients: Dressi...

Oh my, I have a lot of things to write about! Let's start with some recent food items made at home. I've been making a lot of easy recipes because our weekend activities haven't left much time to pl...

Homemade Yogurt I had to make quite a few batches of yogurt before I found a good recipe. This recipe won out over the others. I also like Yogurt #3 on the page linked to above, if you want mor...

We started the week with two simple meals. First up was Gingery Shrimp and Couscous with leftover grilled vegetables and strawberries for dessert. It was easy enough, but nothing special. Nex...

On Saturday, we biked over to Menlo College, to attend my company's annual family picnic. It was a beautiful day. We ate some barbecue and bounced in a bouncy house for a little bit (I think this wa...

Homemade Yogurt I'm trying to find a great homemade yogurt recipe through trial and error. My general approach is after the table. YogurtMilkStarter Additional IngredientsMixing Utensil ...

Recent Meals 1. We needed a quick egg-centric dinner (they were about to expire!) prior to our Colorado trip, so Patrick made a Crispy Prosciutto and Scallion Frittata with arugula and goat cheese ...

Two Meals Out 1. Last Friday, we biked to Palo Alto and had dinner for the first time at St. Michael's Alley. It's on a side street that I don't go down very often, so I kept forgetting it existed...

Homemade Yogurt (Version 2) See this journal entry for my comments on this recipe. Ingredients: 2 c 2% milk 2 c skim milk 1 T honey 1/2 c plain whole milk Stonyfield yogurt Directi...

I have been working on being a better hippie by trying to find the perfect granola and yogurt recipes. I still have some work ahead of me. Yogurt I made my first batch of homemade yogurt in our...

I planted our summer garden today (pictures here). This summer, we'll have three new kinds of tomatoes (Supersweet 100s, Black Zebra, and Stupice), Crane melons, beets, and a bunch of herbs (basil, c...

First, a picture of the granola I made a while ago with some dried blueberries (yum!) and milk. Not bad, but not amazing. Much healthier than commercial granola though. Our garden seems to ha...

I put up a few pictures of our latest garden setup. Click the daisies! As anticipated, the temperature has fallen below freezing at night for the past few days. The first night it happened, I...

A few nights ago, Patrick made us breakfast for dinner: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes, grapefruit, and Tomato and Chard Frittata (from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites). I thought the frittata was ki...

On Wednesday, I donated blood again. They were in desperate need of types O and A last week, and they were giving away free movie tickets (and free ice cream coupons). It went really well. I told t...

Israeli Couscous Salad with Green Beans and Feta This recipe was cobbled together from this, this and this. It's a good summertime salad. It is pictured here with Spicy Shrimp Kabobs and ...

I'm too busy enjoying life to write about it! Not much new to tell; like most weekends, this one was spent eating sushi at Akasaka, staring at our garden (only I do that), eating pastrami sandwiches ...

I've finally posted the pictures from our trip to LA and Noah and Jenny's wedding. There's nothing too exciting, but click the picture below for more (I'm smiling like a fool, but Patrick sure looks ...

Picture time! Here are a few pictures from around the cottage: » Light coming in through the bedroom curtains in the morning » Mama laptop and baby laptop, with the Tour de France in the backgro...

I had a good dinner tonight: Orzo with Shrimp, Feta and White Wine. The only changes I made were adding in some green onions and using peppercorn feta instead of plain. I was going to make som...

So I had some eggs and Gruyere that were getting pretty old. If I had more time and some heavy cream, I would've made quiche (ooh, and I'd want some bacon in there too!), but since I've got other stu...

Tonight I made a mixed-up dinner: Teriyaki Chicken, Collard Greens, and cous cous out of a box. Those don't really go together, but I got all the important food groups, which was my main goal. I'm t...

So, back to more mundane entries (but I'm sure there'll be some wedding-related thoughts popping up now and then). Tonight I made more soup, this time my mom's Split Pea Soup. I'd been meaning to ma...

I've been having a good day today. It was beautiful this morning, so we ate part of our breakfast outside. And then we drove to the movie theater, and there were so many trees in bloom. And the sun...

Yesterday, I wore my pajamas all day. Patrick almost did too, but then he got a craving for pearl milk tea around 10 pm, so he put on real clothes to go out and get us some. Life with Patrick is goo...

I was looking through the Thanksgiving issue of Cooking Light while at my mom's house, and they had a bunch of good-looking recipes, including one for roasted brussels sprouts with ham. Of course, it...

Patrick just made me dinner (Farfalle with Prosciutto and Asparagus, one of our favorite recipes)--what a sweetie. I spent most of the day at home with him. We got up early and went to the post offi...

The teriyaki chicken turned out well! It's the first time I've cooked with chicken thighs, and they turned out nice and juicy and tasty (probably because there's more fat on them than chicken breasts...

I forgot to mention that last night I made Eggplant and Apple Pasta for the first time. It's one of the mysterious recipes in my recipe binder that I transcribed into Notepad and printed out; I have ...

I made bagels tonight! I've had the recipe lying around in my cookbook forever, so I finally decided to try it out. I'm not sure where it came from (I think I transcribed it from a paper cookbook at...

Plain Bagels I'm not sure where I got this recipe originally, but it turned out well. I like that brown sugar occurs three times in the recipe! Ingredients: 1 oz fresh yeast or 2 tbsp ac...

Today I worked on the journal article for my undergrad advisor (deadline is Monday, which is good, since classes start Tuesday). Then I watched Amelie and had a good cry. It's a beautiful movie. I ...

I'm making Sausage and Rice tonight, hoping to break my spaghetti/canned soup habit. The store was out of turkey sausage, so I got full fat pork sausage, and all the fat was making it jump around whe...

I posted the results of my Kool-Aid tests here. This is fun! I think I'm going to leave the scientific side of it alone for awhile now, and just play around. I want to see if my grey mohair wil...