February, 2010

March says Spring to me and Spring says time to start planting. Okay so this year March planting in Auburn might be a little iffy. Folks, I'm holding out for warmer weather to descend upon us very soon and we will all forget the cold bitterness of this winter. I'm ready for fresh stuff like salad greens and asparagus, with local eggs - doesn't that sound like a fritatta? Turkey bacon, sliced strawberries and what the school cafeteria calls orange smiles out of Mandarin oranges on the side. Now we're talking Spring!

This is the last blog I’ll write as mommy-to-be of a Child of Undetermined Gender. Tomorrow, I’ll be shopping for gender-appropriate nursery gear after our ultrasound.

Thank goodness for grandparents who want to spend money. Just kidding, grandparents. Don’t stop reading now.

In all honesty, while I cannot WAIT to find out if this little turnip (again, who comes UP with these analogies?) is pink or blue, I’m also just a tiny bit sad.

Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez! Having lived in New Orleans for 5 years it was easy to get caught up in the happenings of Mardi Gras. It's an amazing party that starts the night before and doesn't end until you manage to move your car and make it home. I love the food styles in New Orleans and believe me eating them is no hardship. I always buy a bigger ham than my family can consume at Christmas anticipating gumbo and jambalaya on Fat Tuesday. Right now I have a huge pot of jambalaya cooking, French bread baking and a wonderful light tossed salad waiting for my jubileers to chow down.

It seems that most moms are born with some type of inherent knowledge to pass along to their children…how to play the piano or throw the perfect pitch. Maybe even how to drive a car. I don’t really qualify for any of the above, but I have been thinking really hard about what in the world I am already 100% sure that I know how to teach my apple-sized baby.

I haven’t come up with a huge list, but I do know this: my baby is going to know its way around a kitchen.

Since I began teaching college courses, I’ve had one rule that some other instructors found a bit odd. I don’t allow students to “friend” me on Facebook.

Call me old-fashioned, but for me, Facebook is like a big ‘ole window into my living room…a place I want to keep far, far away from student interaction.

This semester, I caved, thinking I could just adjust my privacy settings and be done with it. I very quickly discovered that my aversion to “friending” students was less about my privacy, more about the protection of my own feelings.

I picked up a carton of Florida strawberries to put on our fruit tray for the Super Bowl Game and was amazed at how gorgeous they were. These were not the little deformed strawberries that often come out at this time of the year because of lousy weather and the industry pushing to have them on the market. No these were not to big, not to small, not to sweet, just perfect for chocolate covered strawberries.

If y’all wanna chalk this one up to hormones, go ahead…but in the interest of safety, please do so behind my back.

So as the second trimester progresses (Baby is the size of a LEMON now), I’m learning more and more about the tangled web of pregnancy expectations that has been woven by generations and generations of bumpalicious pregos before me:

“MY wife never even showed until the 8th month.”

“I ran a marathon at 9 months!”

“Look at her – she’s ALREADY lost the pregnancy weight!”

“My daughter was winning tennis tournaments all the way through her third trimester!”

OK, so we're past the major holidays and Valentine's day is a minor one but there is no denying it has to be the time to indulge in chocolate. You can go out and buy all kinds of expensive stuff but some of the best chocolate I have ever eaten comes from the kitchen. Fudge of course is my favorite and folks, the kind you make with sweetened condensed milk is absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately in Alabama making a complicated scratch fudge really does depend on the weather if you want it to come out the right consistency, if that doesn't matter, eat it with a spoon...

I have to tell you about a Spinach Salad I made yesterday for dinner. We were getting really tired of the run of the mill green salad and I thought it was time to perk up our options. We all like spinach salad but it can get really heavy and sometimes enough so that it needs to be a main course. Here's what I did to make it a great side salad. I used baby spinach, a chopped Fuji apple, candied walnuts, grated Havarti cheese and a light vinegarette. It was wonderful. So light and flavorful I plan to make it regularly.