Milkymilk

My Frienemy, Moose Tracks

The worst name for the best ice cream ever. Vanilla, fudge, and mini peanut butter cups. It is so good, I hate it.

dirt mustache

 

This week Harper made her first strives to becoming mobile. It started a couple of days ago. She went to push up with her hands, and pushed herself back. Very slowly, she backed across the room. Now, every time I turn around she is somewhere different, putting some foreign object in her mouth that has no business there. She has a dirt mustache. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Skylar pointed out that we probably don't need to put down her play mat for tummy time anymore. The dog is using it more than she is at this point. 

Our lives about to really change. This is the work out I wanted that I'm not at all ready for. At lunch out today with our mommy & baby buddies, she grabbed my glass of water. There was a loud crash, water and broken glass every where. Demure, she is not.

Growing Pumpkins & Drinking Beer

This has been the Sunday of my dreams: 

• Brunch at Toast (Oh, I've been wanting to go there for forever, and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be.) 
• Childproofing & weeding (o.k., not part of my dreams, but it felt so good to get it done.) 
• Swings at Fellger Park (We ran into some of Harper's neighborhood friends there, which made us feel cool. Skylar was so cute pushing Harper on the swings.) 
• Planted pumpkins while drinking a Corona

Treebeard's Red Beans & Rice

This is a pretty unappetising photo of the best food I ever made. Really, it is tastey. I promise. Skylar went back for seconds.

I lived in Houston for a couple of years, and this recipe is from my favorite restaurant there. This red beans and rice made me miss a place I never liked that much, and get nostalgic for some of the worst times.

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried red kidney beans


• 2 quarts water


• 2 medium onions, chopped


• 2 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped


• 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped


• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt


• 1 1/2 teaspoons thyme


• 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano


• 1 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder


• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


• 2 bay leaves


• 1 lb smoked sausage, cut in 1/2-inch slices*

Directions

1. Sort and wash red beans. In a large soup pot, add 2 qrts cold water and red beans. Let soak overnight. (To speed up the process, you can bring them to a boil, simmer 2 minutes, remove from heat and let stand 1 hour before the next step.) DO NOT DRAIN WATER!


2. Add onions, celery, and bell pepper to beans and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to simmer about 1 1/2 hours, or until beans are soft. DO NOT STIR MORE THAN NECESSARY.


3. Stir in seasonings and sausage. Simmer 30 minutes more.


4. Meanwhile cook a pot of rice, and serve the beans over the hot cooked rice, garnished with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped green onion.


5. Note: Don't stir more than necessary - you don't want mushy beans. If you want thicker beans, remove the lid during the last 30 minutes of cooking time, or remove 1/2 cups of the beans and mash them before returning to the pot.

*I don't eat meat, so I left out the sausage. It was still fabulous.

The house where that crazy lady lives

Harper has decided her bedtime is 9:00, not 7:00. I tried to convince her otherwise for a couple of nights, but she was would not have it. She is a baby, and cannot tell time. So, now her bed time is 9:00 (which was my bedtime). This means I don't get 'off work' for another 2 hours, just in time to have a few sips of a Corona and hit the hay. 

9:15 last night, fireworks. That's right, fireworks on July 24th; what could they be celebrating? In the middle of the city; what could they be thinking? The dog hid in the shower. I threw my trench coat on over my jammies and headed out into the street, in a hissy. There were two men walking across the street. They were pretty unassuming, in a clean-cut-Midwestern-former-frat-boy way. Pastel polo shirts and khaki cargo shorts. 

I began to yell at them from our stoop. "Are ya'll setting off those fire works? Because I JUST PUT MY FUCKING BABY TO SLEEP!" "No. I think it is our neighbor..." Very long awkward pause. "Oh." 

It hit me that I was acting like a crazy person. I just turned around and went back into our house. No apology. No asking the neighbor who was setting off fireworks to stop. Just the kinda of embarrassment you want to run and hide from. And so I took off my trench coat and went back to bed. I guess I'm the crazy lady on the block now. We are renters, we'll move eventually.