NEW BLOG!

Hi, faithful readers.

This blog has moved:

Please visit me at www.joshandkorey.com

:)

A (large) mango

Baby O is 23 weeks now, and the size of a large mango. That is how it was described on BabyCenter, not my opinion on the relative sizes of mangoes, of course.

Over 11 inches long and over 1 lb. in weight, he can hear loud noises, like  vacuum or dog barking, and will get used to familiar loud noises before he is even born! I wonder if he'll be used to the sound of my neighbor's dog barking. I won't. I digress...

His sense of movement is well-developed, and blood vessels in the lungs are preparing themselves for breathing.

Here is a link to this week on Babycenter.

Exciting News...and more change

I have started a new blog.

My blog is growing up, and I thought its style and domain name should, too.

Don't worry, everything that has been posted here moved with it, over to my new site. I'd love it if you would join me there.

www.joshandkorey.com


Also, you can subscribe to my posts and receive them straight to your email inbox! How fun is that?! I have a ton of great stuff prepared for my dear readers, and I'm really excited to share it all with you.

Painting

I promised a picture of the painting I bought for the nursery at the Sawdust Festival, but I should have promised a GOOD picture. Instead, we have this:

Well, whatever, you get the picture. :)

Nursery Project

This might be my first official nursery project!

I found these adorable wooden castles at Michael's (they are birdhouses, actually):

I got two, and thought I'd make bookends of them.

Saturday morning I woke up at 4, inexplicably, and when I realized I wasn't going to be able to sleep, I started painting one.

Here's how I did:

So I think I will have J place them on heavy pieces of wood so that they will hold books, or I'll attach them to bookends somehow, but in the meantime, I like it! Now I just need to decide how to paint the other one so it's a little different...

The kitchen!!!!

This is such an exciting post! The kitchen looks so different empty and OMG do I love...well you'll see.

Wonderful helpers: my dad, J's dad, and friend Chris.

J begins to cut away the window that will connect the kitchen and living room...at long last! I'm so excited.

O M G

Seriously tell me that doesn't already look amazing! And huge! It's about 8' wide.

From the living room...

Macaroni and Cheese

I am always encouraging people to try making mac and cheese from scratch; it's really easy, and employing the methods of making it (like making a roux) are really good and versatile skills to have as a home cook. For example, you will now know how to make alfredo (or any other cream sauce) as well as nacho cheese sauce, which I made a while back [click here for the recipe].

Anyhow, I figured I should post on how to make it once and for all!

Two things you should know going into this post:
1. I made this on Sunday night before we ripped out the kitchen, and most of my kitchen utensils and food items were already packed. I didn't buy anything special for it; I only used what I had (that's how great this recipe is!) I also didn't want to turn on the oven, meaning I never baked this, and it was still delicious!
2. I have never made this the same way twice; I'll try to point out when you can get creative in the recipe.

I'm going to start you with a printable basic recipe that is a good one, from my idol Martha Stewart:
Martha Stewart's Macaroni and Cheese

 Make roux:
1. melt butter

 2. Your first chance to be creative: you can saute finely chopped onions in the butter, garlic, or mustard powder. I chose garlic. Make sure to cook it for a very short amount of time. In fact, I think Gordon Ramsey would scream at me for the brown-ness of the butter in this pan...but it's the stove! Not me!

3. Add flour (you're getting measurements from the recipe, no? I didn't measure anything, but you should if this is your first time. Also, I'm sure no one cares, but I use whole wheat white flour in ALL of my cooking, in case you were interested.

3. Add your milk and/or cream. Sometimes I use heavy cream and milk, sometimes just heavy cream or half and half, and at home, just 1 or 2% milk. This is the part of the roux that freaks people out. The flour is clumpy and looks weird, but just whisk it!

4. Ignore the brownish tint - once the flour is whisked into the milk it will make a nice, thick sauce base: this is the roux. Allow it to bubble slowly and thicken before adding your cheese.

Now add cheese!

I used a cheddar-monterey blend and mozzarella, because that's what I had. I typically use anything like extra sharp cheddar, white cheddar (but always some orange for color purposes), gruyere, havarti, blue, gorgonzola...anything that looks good. My favorite was a wood-apple-smoked gruyere I found once.

This is your other creative time: you can add Worcestershire sauce (unless I'm coming over for dinner: I hate it) dry mustard powder (if you haven't already), Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, black pepper, etc.

Mmm this is making me hungry!

 You can, of course, stir add-ins if you like them. Suggestions: chicken, bacon/ham, peas...

Typically, I'd add bread crumbs (Martha advocates making them yourself, and I'll admit: they are great! Although I typically will use pre-made from Trader Joe's. Italian breadcrumbs are also delicious. You can then add more cheese (this is where I'd throw in a strong cheese like gruyere and another "hard" cheese; maybe parmesan or romano.) You can drizzle 1 tsp. of olive oil over the crumbs for moisture, and I will recommend garlic olive oil or even truffle oil if you have it!

Bon appetit!

Let's get ready to remodel!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope the song from "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" is in your head right now! Here are some images from the last days of the old kitchen:

One empty cabinet!

Fridge sans my photos and cards...

The pantry is packed up--thanks to my mom and my grandma for their help!. This small pantry held a LOT of stuff!

Items stacked in baby's room and ready to be boxed (once I buy boxes and tape--don't worry I did that on Sunday!)

This wall will not be whole when you see it next...

Mostly packed and put away, we are ready to demo. It was bittersweet taking these pictures this morning knowing I'd never see this kitchen again (as I'll be at work when J starts demo)

I won't miss this cooktop. It sucks. :)

Really won't miss this oven. It sucks more!

All in all, there are really not any elements I will miss, so I'm not saying I'm sad to see it go. It's just that there are a lot of things changing around here these days and it's getting overwhelming!! Especially when I come home and, as usual, J is pounding away and things are different. That's a little hard to take. But I promise you I won't miss that HORRIBLE, UGLY linoleum at all! It was its time to go. Also, I want to tell you all that your kitchen holds like 75% of the "stuff" in your house and really isn't fun to pack up! My mom was making fun of me for complaining about it ("I just hate getting a new kitchen! Waaa waa waa!") and I don't mean to complain, but two solid days of packing just sent me back to last September, and it doesn't seem that long ago that I packed and unpacked this same stuff! It takes up both of our bedrooms just to store it in boxes and  bags!!

On ward to our latest adventure...I am really excited!

J takes first place!

Another J victory at last week's Over the Hump race!

The calm before the storm

Your typical, 1960s kitchen.

The calm before the storm.

This is the kitchen I've been walking into every day for almost a year, and it's all about to change.

As you read this, I am probably packing up said kitchen to prepare for Monday, when J rips it all out.

Stay tuned...

Snapshots from Big Bear

 

 A trip to the Moonridge Zoo, which was WONDERFUL, by the way, yielded the following:

A bald eagle

Snoozing raccoon

Wolf

Ummm...

Scary!

Grizzly sleeping on a floating keg!