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Christmas Eve was a day of highs and lows- we were at the zoo this morning which was excellent- our toddler guest had never seen tigers and such before, and they do look magnificent in the snow. But this afternoon the ladies wrestled with two overtired, stroppy, ill toddlers while the menfolk battled the lines at Target. Neither option was pretty but I’d take retail aggression over Playdoh mutiny anyday. By the time we put Little A to bed she was the tiredest that I’ve ever seen her. She literally couldn’t stand up to have her teeth brushed and while she was “swimming” in the bath on her tummy, she put her finger in her mouth and was about to put her head down to sleep. In the bath, not so fine. Then Baby N had the most spectacular diaper blowout yet… But eventually all the kids were sleeping and we had a lovely bout of adult time.

This evening we made two meals, L made Danish Christmas Dinner, whilst I made Fresh Tomato and Basil Chicken over Super Creamy Polenta. One of the meals was fabulous, and unfortunately the meal I made wasn’t receiving the praise. At least the project dinner was easy to make, as I tried to weave in and out of the kitchen avoiding getting in the way of the grand cooking of the duck and its accompaniments. The polenta was made with chicken stock, mascarpone cheese and Parmigiano cheese. The chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes and browned in olive oil. Red onions and garlic were added to the pan, followed by chicken stock. Once half the liquid had been reduced, the grape tomatoes and basil were added to the pan. We were supposed to have yellow and red tomatoes, but we couldn’t get our clammy hands on any yellow ones. The food was ready to serve once the tomatoes split.

The chicken stock “sauce” was underwhelming, in as much as it tasted of chicken stock with a little heat from the red pepper flakes. The polenta was cheesey and grainy, as always; not a winner. Tomatoes and basil are always pleasant, but this was about as interesting as it got. Tomorrow our guests will be cooking British Christmas Dinner, and I’ll be making Roast Crispy Mushrooms and Grilled Tenderloin Steaks with Green Onions. If we can manage to time it right we could have steak for lunch or breakfast, and turkey for dinner. Or a steak turkey dinner, that works too.

This evening I almost went to bed without posting an entry, it completely slipped my mind. That would be great, to blog for a whole year even through extreme morning sickness, on the day we moved house, during the weeks of construction chaos, when in labour and the night after giving birth, only to just forget to post ten days from the end of the year. Luckily(?) Baby N woke up again, reminding me of my duties. But, I have finally got a decent set up where I can feed and be on the computer, so I can say farewell to one-handed typing, which is a relief. I must type a good 6 words per minute faster with four fingers typing rather than two.

Anyway, today was interesting in many ways. It certainly started early, with our jetlagged guests getting up around 5am. Unfortunately our walls are made of paper so once one person wakes up, everyone is awake. We had fun, although the addition of 3 kids into the mix of friendship certainly changed the quality of the day from our last visit. Far less relaxation, how strange. My major observation for the day is that for at least ten minutes this evening, all three of the children in the house were neither crying, puking, exploding out of nappies or running riot, but rather they were all sleeping. That was the first and only time during the day when they were all quiet. Baby N does seem to be on better form, sleeping more which is delicious. Little A had some serious exhaustion inspired meltdowns and also woke from her nap covered in vomit, which is not so fine. She is doing ok though, hopefully it was just a one-off thing. We think it may be because she’s coughing so much. She’s no longer in daycare, so really she can’t be getting ill. That can’t be right, who would we blame for the inconvenience? This afternoon we nearly froze the children by going for a walk, because we were going a little stir-crazy inside. Still, permanent red cheeks are cute, right? No real damage done, surely. Think of all the money the girls could save on make-up in the future. The two toddlers had a bath together this evening which was incredibly sweet and something which blows your mind if you think too hard about it. The bathing together of children of friends is that quintessential picture in the family album. I never really thought about it from the perspective of being one of the parents, not one of the children. We just had our very own Polaroid moment, capturing an image that the kids may look back at and say “who’s that?” or maybe they’ll see the photo as defining a moment in an ongoing friendship. Either way, it makes me feel old and mysteriously nostalgic.

The meal tonight was Honey Chicken over Snow Pea Rice, which was a MYOTO meal, meaning Make Your Own Takeout. In this instance, I would have to agree with the label; this really was like good take-out food. Part of that was that we didn’t really know what we had ordered- this was called honey chicken, but really the ginger was a far more dominant ingredient. I’d certainly refer to this as ginger chicken in future. The rice was browned in butter and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, joined by lemon zest and wine. Once the white wine evaporated, the rice was cooked in chicken stock with sliced snow peas added just before serving. The chicken was browned and cooked with honey, garlic, onion and ginger with red pepper flakes for some added heat. Chicken stock provided the liquid content, with cornstarch thickening the sauce and lemon juice adding some depth. Scallions were added just before serving.

The meal was mellow but with an excellent depth and warmth added by the ginger. I used to think that I didn’t like ginger, but this year has certainly helped convert me to the cause. The honey, lemon and ginger sound like a cold remedy, and this meal would probably be very comforting if you were sick, but the balance of flavours worked well. This doesn’t taste like sweet and sour, it is more delicate and less contrasty, if that makes sense. I have to say I enjoyed the meal a lot. The rice was also almost good enough to eat by itself, which is always a bonus.

Well, I am now the only person awake in the house, although it is far from silent, Between the snoring and the coughing, the cats and the stirring children there’s a sleep symphony going on, I think I should go and contribute. It’s only polite, really. Tomorrow sounds very much like Christmas dinner, interrupted; Crispy Turkey Cutlets with Bacon-Cranberry Brussels Sprouts.

Today was the last day that Little A will be attending daycare. I know that many people dream of being a stay-at-home parent, but I’m just not entirely convinced that it is right for me. Which is really a way of saying that I had to try extremely hard not to bawl my eyes out when dropping her off and picking her up today. Which is bizarre because it doesn’t feel that long ago that I was even more upset dropping her off for a few hours when she first started daycare. It’s not that I don’t enjoy my children, they are obviously the most beautiful, talented, wonderful, intelligent kids ever, it’s just I am floundering a little when trying to work out how to achieve a life-balance. I know this sounds ridiculously self-indulgent, but I can’t help but feel like the next few months may continue to feel like they are taking place underwater. That each day is a matter of just getting through, minute to minute, hour to hour. I’m also concerned for Little A. She is such a bright social little butterfly, I worry that I can’t give her the variety of experiences and socialisation that she is getting at daycare. I am aware that the things I can see us doing are the things that I enjoy doing and she enjoys doing, such as crafts and baking and reading. The physical side of things and the exploring of the unknown we’ll just have to figure out somewhere along the line.

I’m not rabidly ambitious by any means, but what I do is important to me and my sense of identity. When we first moved to the States, to Smallsville, Midwest, I could not work because I didn’t have a visa, while L had a relatively high profile new job. One of the things that I found hardest was suddenly being perceived solely as L’s wife. Because we also collaborate, for a while that element of my life felt just like an extension of what L did, as if my work was to supplement his. I was also pretty unhinged when we lived there, which could account for some of my crisis of self, at least. My biggest fear at the moment is that I won’t manage to make a success of my grand plan, and I’ll just be the girls’ mum and L’s non-working wife. Of course I realise that the newborn/ toddler combination is more than a handful, and that things will get easier. And maybe parenting will be all I achieve for a while, it is certainly all-consuming and exhausting. I am just wiped out at the moment, but there are so many things I want to be doing. But without resorting to amphetamines, I have no idea how to make that happen. Well I suppose there is a New Year just around the corner, and setting overambitious ridiculous expectations for yourself is what resolutions are for.

Anyway, on the plus side, L put up the Christmas tree today. We bought bounceable not smashable decorations from Ikea the other day in purple and silver. The tree looks beautiful, if a little “department store does Goth”. Or Goth lite. Like maybe Norah Jones singing Sisters of Mercy covers. We got some other stuff sorted out today and removed all the cardboard from the hallway and stairs. The house looks much bigger. If you’re ever feeling claustrophobic, I would recommend taping paper to your floors or walls, leaving it up for a few weeks then tearing it out. Hey presto! An enormous house. Tomorrow we have mountains of stuff to do before picking up our guests. Currently they have a bed to sleep in but no sheets. We should try and remember to work on that.

This evening we made Chicken Cutlets on Buttermilk-Cheddar-Chorizo Bisciuits with Tomato-Olive Salsa Mayo which would have been pretty straight-forward if we’d concentrated on cooking. Instead we were simultaneously decorating the tree and entertaining Baby N. Amazingly it would seem that twinkling tree lights plus shiny things plus somewhat inattentive parents are not conducive to calming down an overtired baby. We suffered a meltdown like we haven’t seen since the early weeks. Poor little mite was obviously totally overstimulated. Anyway, eventually with the help of lots of rocking and shushing and a darkened room, the little one calmed down. But not before it sounded like she was being severely tortured.

The biscuits were made from a packet mix with added cheese and chorizo. The chicken cutlets (chicken breasts in our case) were fried in olive oil with dried coriander, salt, pepper and lime juice. The salsa mayo was made with chopped tomatoes, red onion, parsley, olives, lime juice, hot sauce and mayonnaise. The whole lot was put together as if it was a burger, with a lettuce leaf thrown in there for good measure. I’m always a little disappointed by the biscuits made from a packet. They look just like really good cheese scones, but always end up tasting a little institutional. Still, the cheese and chorizo were definitely great additions to the mix. The chicken and salsa mayo sounded less than appetising this evening, but actually they were much better than expected. There were plenty of different tastes and textures at play, and the chicken was particularly good. I was wary of the raw onion + mayo combination, being fans of neither, but actually everything worked well together so that the final effect overshadowed any particular ingredient.

Tomorrow we will be making Spinach and Spicy Ham Pasta Bake, probably for lunch as our guests arrive at dinner time. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the people, we last saw them when we went home for Christmas way back in 2005 when Little A was just Baby N’s age. I’m guessing that the adults will all look the same, albeit fatter and more tired looking, but between us we now have 3 kids and that’s just bonkers.

As we swiftly approach the end of the year, the big question is when are we going to eat the bonus recipe, Day 366: And Last But Not Least… Christmas Pasta? We can’t have it for Christmas dinner because we’ll be eating Rachael Ray food for lunch and duck for dinner on the 24th, and Rachael Ray food for lunch and turkey for dinner on the 25th. So the logical thing would be to eat it on the 366th day of this project, 1st of January 2008. But I suppose that means that the one year project would have taken over a year. Maybe on New Year’s Eve we could do Rachael Ray for lunch and dinner. I’m only thinking about it online because I just asked L and he said he didn’t know.

Mind you, we are too tired to know much of anything at this point. I can’t begin to figure out how many hours I have spent asleep in the chair in the baby’s room rather than in bed. I just can’t stay awake when I go to feed the little one. L and I keep starting the “what should we do next year?” discussion, and somehow we never get anywhere. This may be because we only really manage to get time to chat in the car, and Baby N seems to hate the carseat with a passion. She is not a baby to be taken out for a car ride when she can’t get to sleep at night. We should get a move on, apparently the year is almost over.

The strange thing is with visitors coming for the holidays, rather than family coming to help out, there is a sense that things in the house should be finished. We’d hoped that our endless construction would be over by now, but it is still dragging on. We are going to postpone any work while we have prisoners guests because it gets pretty noisy and dusty, and they will have have come a long way for a relaxing break. We are going to take up the cardboard which is currently all over the house to stop the floors getting scratched. There’s still a great big hole in the wall upstairs where our linen closet should be. One of the workmen must have hung our wreath outside- the one I ordered when I was in labour from some local kids who were fundraising for their school. It was delivered a couple of weeks ago and has been sorrily sitting in its plastic wrap on the front porch ever since. Finally Baby N’s room does have a matching pair of curtains up, I changed one set weeks ago and never got around to doing the other one. She also now has drawers with her clothes in, rather than drawers filled with piles of junk hastily packed up from the old house on moving day. Things are going very slowly on the organising front. In many ways it is as if we are still in the process of moving in- finding places for stuff and still unpacking occasional boxes. We have far less storage here than we did in our condo, so things have to be figured out a little more creatively. And the creativity is currently sadly lacking.

In other news, we missed a Christmas performance at Little A’s daycare today- somehow we just didn’t know it was going on. However, I’m not going to go down the conspiracy theory route. Well maybe a little bit. The toddler class were donkeys, how I’d have loved to see that. Apparently Little A managed to sneak away to wolf down handfuls of cookies. That’s my girl. And between starting this post and finishing it, Baby N threw up on me in a spectacular fashion. It’s only happened a couple of times, fortunately, but pleasant it is not. Of course I’d spent the last couple of hours sniffing her delicious little head which smells so good after she’s had a bath.

Anyway, I still need to settle the little one so this should be brief. Tonight we made Crispy Rosemary-Orange Chicken with Parmigiano String Beans, which was much better than I’d anticipated. The chicken was sautéed with rosemary, garlic, onions and carrots then sprinkled with flour. Chicken stock and the juice of an orange were added. Once the liquid had reduced by healf, chopped kalamata olives were added. The chicken mixture was put in an oven-proof dish and topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs, parsley, orange zest and Parmigiano cheese. The topping was browned under the grill; in our case we just saved it before it became blackened. The beans were cooked, drained then returned to the pan with butter, olive oil, salt, pepper and more Parmigiano.

The beans were great; crisp and rich. Of course after being tossed in both butter and olive oil they were bound to be good. The cheese was an extra fat-tastic bonus. The chicken dish was better than we thought it was going to be, although we both felt that the layer of breadcrumbs was unnecessary. It made everything a little stodgy, but this is not always a bad thing. The rosemary-orange flavours were subtle and understated, in a good way. Often dishes with “orange” end up being almost like caricatures of orange-flavored food, if that makes sense. The orange here didn’t scream, hi I’m orange and I’m here to be all orangey. And the kalamata olives, which I have to admit puzzled me a little as they were being added, offered a nice saltiness and element of interest. Good food, good times.

Tomorrow we will be having Chicken Cutlets on Buttermilk-Cheddar-Chorizo Bisciuits with Tomato-Olive Salsa Mayo. I have to grocery shop for the week tomorrow; I just hope I remember to buy stuff for our many planned Christmas dinners.

This evening I made Spiced Grilled Chicken and Veggie Pockets while L put Little A to bed. Although there is a fair amount of chopping to do, this meal is extremely straight forward. The chicken was marinated in yogurt, dried cinnamon, cumin and coriander, red pepper flakes and lemon juice for 10 minutes. It is then cooked on the grill or in a grill pan until charred round the edges. We did the indoor cooking, on account of it being 8?F outside. Plus the grill is buried in snow. Anyway, the salad consisted of tomatoes, pepper, carrots, cucumber, kalamata olives, feta cheese, scallions, parsley, dill and red lettuce. The dressing was simply red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil whisked together. Everything was mixed together and assembled in a pita warmed on the grill and split in two.

This is a good meal to eat on a summer’s afternoon, sitting on the deck with a tall glass of cool lemonade. It’s also reasonable on a December night in Minnesota, but perhaps less appropriate. The chicken marinade is extremely tasty and the overall meal was very light. This was no bad thing, given the amount of cake I’ve been eating this week.

I dropped my mum off at the airport this afternoon. She’ll probably come back again next year; it’s odd to know that the kids will be so very different the next time that they see their grandmother. It’s always hard to say goodbye to visitors, but it is nice to get home and completely relax. We have vague plans to go back to Europe to see family and friends in summer, but we have a strong feeling that it won’t happen. Finances plus the prospect of long-haul travel with two little ones will probably keep us here. Speaking of relaxing, we have 10 days worth of Tivo’d programs to catch up on, so I’ll be off then. Tomorrow Sausage and Mushroom Polenta “Lasagne”. I’ll say no more.

This evening we made Mediterranean Chicken and Saffron Couscous and none of us were impressed. L and I are obviously jaded on both the chicken and the couscous fronts, but my mum is more of a clean slate. This seemed like a lot of trouble to go to for a mediocre result. Having said that, we were all exhausted and cooking seemed very much like a chore for all involved. The couscous was cooked in stock with salt, pepper, a clove of crushed garlic and a pinch of saffron. Our saffron must be too old- I got it on a trip to Istanbul, which mum tells me was 9 years ago, when did that happen?- as it didn’t seem to have any effect on the meal whatsoever. The chicken was salted, peppered and sprinkled with cayenne pepper, before being dredged in flour and fried in olive oil. The vegetable mixture consisted of red onion, garlic, kalamata olives, parsley, thyme, basil, cherry tomatoes and artichoke hearts. The liquid content came from white wine and chicken stock.

The chicken was fine, it had a little kick to it from the cayenne pepper, and was not unpleasant. The couscous was just couscous; all other ingredients ended up being superfluous. The vegetable mixture was predominantly red onion, in a very dull, thin liquid. The whole chicken stock and white wine, with no thickening agent, sauce can get quite dull. The whole lot was just not very interesting, although the cherry tomatoes and olives were quite pleasant. Not a winner, I am afraid.

Tomorrow we are making Thai-Style Steak Salad, possibly during the day as a neighbour is dropping off a meal at dinner time. I hope she doesn’t love couscous. I have my postpartum check up, which means I have to spend some time on personal grooming for the first time since I went in to have a baby. I’ve only ever had one manicure, and I have a feet issue (psychological, not physical) so no pedicures, but I think they should be a compulsory part of follow-up care after having a baby. You should have a spa appointment just before the doctor sees you, so everything is shiny and new. It would be good for everyone, surely.

On the first day of the last month of the year we made Chicken Topped with Caponata and Mozzarella which seemed pretty chopping-intensive. At least it was a chop and drop recipe, so we could cook as we went along, if that makes sense. The garlic, red pepper flakes, onion, cubanelle pepper, celery were fried, then golden raisins, capers and green and black olives were added to the pan. The salted eggplant and a tin of tomato sauce went in and the mixture was stirred, covered and left to simmer and soften for 15 minutes. Meanwhile the chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper and sautéed. Once cooked, the chicken was chopped into chunks then placed in a shallow dish. The caponata was spooned onto the chicken and topped with mozzarella cheese. The recipe called for 2-3 cups of cheese, which would be an enormous amount. We used what we had, which was nearer 2/3 cup, and the meal was still sufficiently cheesy.

I thought that the cubanelle pepper was supposed to be sweet, at least that is what the internet told me. Between the pepper and the red pepper flakes we had a pretty damn spicy meal on our hands. Maybe there’s a lesson in there somewhere- don’t believe everything you read. Or I should start using measuring spoons again. Or I bought the wrong pepper, one or the other. Anyway, it was cheesy and spicy and reasonably tasty; comfort food for a snowed-in evening. The raisins provided an unexpected hit of tangy sweetness in the spice. L’s opinion, which I have to agree with, is that this meal is thrown together with a lack of coherence. It’s not bad, it’s just not particularly exciting. The spice stood alone, it could have done with a richness to back up the sheer spiciness. Unfortunately it overpowered the capers, olives, and pretty much everything else. The dish was served with bread, a salad would have been a good addition. Still, melted cheese is always good.

My task for the rest of the evening, provided the baby stays asleep (the very same baby who slept for 6 hours in a row last night, oh she is awesome and she does rock) is to upload some photos to be printed. Our home printer is highly temperamental and I have been meaning to print out some photos of Little A since March, when she started at daycare. In the cloakroom everyone has a space for photos of the family, and we were supposed to take in a handful when she first started. The night before her first day I stayed up late fiddling with the printer but each image was purple and stripey. I bought a new cartridge the next day, then the photos were just stripey. And now, 9 months later, Little A finally has a photo on the board. Sometimes 2 times a day, up to 5 days a week when faced with the looming empty board, we have been reminded that we were those parents, the only ones who couldn’t get it together enough to bring in some photos. And so one of the girls at daycare took a photo of Little A and put it up on the board. Which, you know, is bad enough. And then she told L that we should bring in Baby N so that they could photograph A’s sister to put on the board too. Ok enough, we are bad parents, we get it. There will be photos on that board provided by us within the week, even if we have to take her out of daycare before the year is through. Enough chat, I have some Photoshopping to do. And if you’re interested, tomorrow we will be having Sweet Lemon Salmon with Mini Carrots and Dill. We may be braving one ginormous snow storm to get the ingredients, but eat it we shall.

I just spent the last hour trying to create a soothing evening routine for Baby N in an attempt to preempt the night time cry-fest. Alas, it seems it didn’t work tremendously well as she’s crying anyway, although quite quietly for now. It’s difficult to remember if we went through this with Little A when she was wee. The general consensus is that we had some major troubles getting her to learn to go to sleep on her own between about three and five months, but when she was this small she’d just fall asleep wherever she lay. You know since I wrote this paragraph (I am a slow typer) it has been very quiet up there, perhaps L is working some sort of miracle. Or the swing has become our saviour. We bought the swing when Little A was maybe three months old, so that she’d be entertained while we worked in the studio. It so much didn’t work, she was anything but entertained. As our precious first born we never even thought about putting her in a swing during the normal course of a day. Baby N should make peace with the swing now, it’ll save everyone a lot of upheaval in the long run.

We had a very quiet Thanksgiving, with not a turkey or celebration in sight. Little A has a whole host of new winter clothing that we had to wrestle her into this morning- gloves, snow pants, boots, jacket, hat- it took a while but she was certainly a vision in pink. After many attempts to replace her hat from last year, which is tiny, and find an intermediate hat before her noggin is big enough to fit the age 4-5 year model that we mysteriously bought last year, we were finally successful. She vetoed every hat that we saw when we were looking, but L and I hit gold with a Target hat. The hat is in fact so popular that it now joins Daddy Lion (plastic lion figure) and “creamy” (trial size bottle of baby lotion) in sharing the place of honour on A’s pillow when she goes to sleep. Kids are weird. Anyway, we braved the cold and the snow to take the girls to the zoo, where we did our usual tour of Daddy Lion and Mummy Lion and the ostrich and the zebra and the giraffe and so on. Little A was mostly concerned with looking for mice in the monkey enclosures. Baby N slept through the entire outing. Pretty exciting stuff. This afternoon we mainly battled with the thermostat on our heating system; why must the heating work perfectly when it’s not even a little cool outside, yet go entirely on the blink as soon as it gets cold? And why does toast always land butter side down? And is there a proper reason why my glass is always half empty, when other people’s glasses are half full?

This evening we made Simple and Delicious Chicken with Potatoes and Asparagus, which was certainly simple, and if not categorically delicious, it was at least pretty tasty and good. It was very similar to the meal we had yesterday, minus the cream, bread and cheese, and with the addition of potatoes. The chicken was browned and removed from the pan. The potatoes were sliced and fried with onions added. The stock, wine and mustard went in the pan with the asparagus and everything was served in a bowl. Seasonings were provided by salt, pepper and thyme. We felt that between this meal and the version yesterday, we could have had an almost perfect dinner. Had the potatoes been added to the creamy version, and the toast/ cheese element dropped, it would have been a perfect meal. And the following day you could have leftovers on toast with cheese on top, and you’d have two good meals for the price of one. The meal today was certainly tasty, but without the cream it was not as rich, satisfying or decadent-tasting. This meal was good but not excellent. We may well make it again, but we’d probably add a splash of half and half.

Tomorrow we will be making Mushroom Bisque and trying to entertain ourselves for the day without going anywhere near a shopping emporium. For five of the six years that we’ve lived here, we have inexplicably found ourselves at the Mall on Black Friday, without having any clue as to what is going on or why we can’t find a parking space. We will not be making that mistake this year, despite the lure of the robot on sale.

PS I big pink puffy heart the swing. I mean I lurve the swing.

This evening we made Creamy Chicken and Asparagus on Toast while both of our babes were in bed. Now Baby N is awake again, but there was a nice 40 minute glimpse into how life may be when the girls are both old enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour, leaving evenings to ourselves once more. Baby N is only five weeks old, but it does feel like she’s been with us for ever. Every now and then I try and force myself to pay real attention to how little she is, knowing that the obvious- that she will never be so small again- is almost too profound to process. Already she has changed so much, she can hold her head up pretty well and she has been smiling alot the last few days. She has also started making some obnoxiously cute noises, cooing and the like. I am not mentioning the other noises she makes which are less than cute. She does have a bit of a nasty rash on her face which gets more angry-looking at certain times of the day, like just after she has eaten. I mentioned it to the pharmacist today, and she really had no clue, but she said if it was an allergy to my clothing, I should try feeding her (the baby that is) with no clothing between us. That is an interesting plan of attack for when we are out and about. I’ll just strip off next time N’s hungry, and tell anyone who complains that it is for medical reasons. (Shudder).

The chicken and asparagus is extremely tasty and satisfying. Onions and garlic were browned in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme, then removed from the pan. The chicken was added to the pan, with some butter and more olive oil, when it was browned the onion joined it in the pan, and flour was sprinkled over the mixture. A minute later, stock, half and half and white wine were whisked in and the mixture brought to a simmer. The chopped asparagus was added to the pan, followed by the parsley and chopped ham. Meanwhile, the French baguette was split lengthwise, lightly browned in the oven, topped with melted butter (we used a little olive oil spray rather than the 5 tablespoons of butter the recipe dictates) parsley, salt and pepper. The chicken and asparagus mixture was spooned onto the baguette, and a cheese/ breadcrumb mixture liberally sprinkled on top. The baguettes were put under the broiler until the cheese was melted, and we managed to catch them just before they started to burn.

As I mentioned, the chicken and asparagus mixture was extremely good. It was rich and hearty and would have been equally at home with rice or potatoes. On top of a baguette with a cheese topping, this meal felt like leftovers. With a relatively elaborate dish on top of toast- albeit toast with parsley butter and a fancy topping- it seemed a little like hangover food; when you are too tired to make a side dish so you just eat yesterdays meal on toast. That is not to say that this wasn’t a pleasant dinner, after all bread is always good in my book, but it was a fair amount of trouble to go to for a sandwich. Although, having said that, there is no real reason why it would seem to be more trouble when the end result is served on toast, than it would have been if the end result had been on rice. Just another case of double standards I suppose.

Tomorrow we will be having Simple and Delicious Chicken with Potatoes and Asparagus. I suppose this isn’t too far away from a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, in as much as it features poultry and vegetables. Fortunately we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving so we won’t be feeling short changed. This won’t be the case at Christmas however, where i believe we’ll be eating Fresh Tomato and Basil Chicken over Super Creamy Polenta for Danish Christmas on December 24th, followed by Roast Crispy Mushrooms and Grilled Tenderloin Steaks with Green Onions on the 25th for UK Christmas. Then we’ll either be feeling very hard done by or very, very full depending on how many meals we decide to cook and eat. Potentially we could be having chicken and duck one day followed by steak and turkey the next. Maybe in 2008 we’ll be doing a year of detoxing.

This evening we made Veal, Chicken, or Fish Francese with Lemon and Wine, and we actually ended up using chicken. This was less by choice and more by virtue of having chicken cutlets in the freezer, which is as good a criteria as any other for making these protein choices. The chicken was seasoned in salt and pepper, dredged in flour then dipped in whisked frothy egg and fried. The pieces came up beautifully golden and puffy, just as the recipe said that they should. The pan was deglazed with white wine and lemon juice, with nutmeg, parsley capers and lemon slices added. After the heat was turned off, a knob of butter was added to the pan and everything mixed together and served. Spinach and crusty bread rounded out this meal.

The chicken was pretty nice, as chicken goes. This is an excellent way to prepare chicken to keep it moist and succulent. The sauce was a bit too acrid for our tastes. The lemon and the capers combined to make an extremely sharp sauce that could have brought a tear to your eye. So it wasn’t a great tragedy that we inadvertently only made about a teaspoonful of the sauce- that was all that was needed to get a hint burst of the flavour. We would use this method of cooking chicken again, but the sauce will never be reprised. If you have a sauce with actual slices of lemon in it, I do feel that there should be something to balance the acidity, either in the form of something rich or something sweet.

Tomorrow we will be making Mushroom-Veggie Sloppy Sandwiches, which hopefully have neither lemon nor capers in the ingredients list. We are half-heartedly gearing up for change again round here. After a couple of nights in a row where Baby N has been up until 1am, plus colds all round, we are too exhausted to really process anything. L goes back to work tomorrow so he has to get up at 5.30am, and he won’t be home until after 7pm. I need to somehow work out how to get two children and myself up and dressed and out of the house before 4pm. Everything hinges on Baby N’s sleep/ wake pattern. Some days she is awake and hungry at the exact same time that Little A wakes up wanting breakfast, other days things are less crazy. I am interested to see how A does when it is just the three of us. When I was still pregnant I was gearing myself up for a rejection in favour of Daddy, as that is apparently pretty common when new babies arrive. In fact Little A was all about Daddy for the last couple of months of my pregnancy. What has happened so far since the arrival of the sister is that she has been much more clingy than I expected, especially if the baby is awake. She always wants to be carried by me, presumably so that I am not spending time with the baby. It’s been a juggling act, obviously made billions of times easier by the fact that L has been home all this time. She has been playing us both a little too. However, presumably she is starting to realise that the baby is here to stay and that some things are not going to change. Now when I feed Baby N, Little A invariably has a sore tummy or her eye hurts or her leg hurts or something else. Fortunately she is too young to be very manipulative about it. When L asked if her tummy hurt on the inside or the outside, she said outside and pointed out the window. Later on when I asked if her tummy hurt because I was feeding her sister she said yes and agreed that it would stop hurting once I stopped feeding the baby. So I wonder if she’ll be more angry with me tomorrow when there is no Daddy around to mediate? Time will tell, I suppose. Also, just to make things more exciting, we are starting construction again tomorrow. Yes, the men, they will be back. The last part of our house renovation is the insulating and finishing of the attic space in the house. Upstairs was utterly unbearable temperature-wise in the summer. Even in May when we first looked at the house, it was so stifling upstairs that we could only be up there for perhaps five minutes. By the time we moved into the house in August, I honestly couldn’t be upstairs, not even for five seconds. The plan was always to insulate the space, both to make it habitable and to cut down heating/ cooling costs. The contractor said that they could finish the space, but only over fall or winter because it was so inhumanely hot up there that nobody could possibly work in those conditions. Now that the weather has turned, we have an Arctic chill coming down from the attic, it hits you about half way up the stairs to the bedrooms. Whilst I can’t face having workmen back in the house in any way, it will be good to get the work done. Hopefully within a couple of weeks they’ll be out of here again and we can turn the heating down a bit. In a week and a half my mum is coming for a visit for ten days or so, then we have a couple of weeks before friends arrive for Christmas. Unbelievably that takes us to the end of the year and the end of One Year Project. Bonkers crazy.