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No pictures in this post, sorry picture liking people. This will be just words, and probably boring words, maybe upsetting to many people.

I can eat whatever I want (see, I told you it would be upsetting). I have always been able to. I can’t gain weight (more upsetting). I’m glad I can’t. I used to want to weigh more when I was little, but now I’m fine with it. I am happy with the skinny lot I was granted.

However, I should probably eat better. It’s not that we don’t eat well, we do. We eat organic mostly, red meat sparingly, some meals entirely veggie. But when I eat, I EAT. And if I’m done eating and I will be hungry again in 3 hours, I will eat again. I do this all the time. By all the time I mean practically on a daily basis. I find myself going out at 9pm to grab more food.

And therein is where the problem lies. Going out to eat. There aren’t a ton of healthy options when you want to grab something quick, even less later in the evening. It’s not that I get junk (to me, junk is McDonalds or an equivalent), but still, it’s not as good as it could be. I could still go out to get my 2nd dinner but get something a little healthier. Or maybe not as much. I don’t seem to have a very timely “I’m full” mechanism. Then I’ll eat and eat and eat and at the end feel like I want to puke. It happened once. By happened I mean puke. It was for a birthday dinner (mine) and I ate 2 appetizers, a main course and 2 pieces of cheesecake (courtesy of my friends and The Cheesecake Factory). The cheesecake made a return engagement before we left the restaurant.

But then I was fine and we proceeded to watch a forgettable movie.

So I guess what I’m saying is I should be wiser. I could do many things. I’ll choose to do a few for now. I could only eat my 1 dinner and not a 2nd. I’ll choose to continue eating when I’m hungry. I could eat only at home for my 2nd dinner. I’ll choose to try and find quicker things to make at home, frozen perhaps, from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but I’ll also choose to continue to get my 2nd dinner food out as well. I’ll also choose to try and cut out the unhealthier options I may choose (choose pun) for my 2nd dinner.

You can choose to hate me because I am choosing to do this rather than having to, but maybe if I don’t choose to do this now, I’ll have to when I get a heart attack.

I have struggled with the concept of stock for cooking. Bouillon, while convenient and cheap, gives me headaches (I suspect due to the high salt content and the MSG… even without the headaches I’m sketchy on the salt). I’ve used Better Than Bouillon and have really liked it. It’s not that much more expensive, really, and it lasts a while. However, corn syrup solids are high on the ingredient list so I’m not thrilled with that, either. If I were really good I’d make my own stock, but I’m not. I make a lot of things. I just haven’t gotten to stock, though I want to. I keep carrot bits and peelings and the ends of onions and the stems of parsley in the freezer in a bag for the day that I’ll suddenly make stock. Last week I needed to boil the chicken to shred it, and the sauce for the same dish needed some chicken stock. So I put some of the frozen veggies and a cube of salt free veggie bouillon (not bad, but not much flavor either) in while the chicken cooked and then used the leftover “stock” for the sauce. Excellent. It worked.

Cooking, for me, is a creative endeavor. It’s a way I can plan and experiment and create something out of little parts. I’ve been focusing a lot lately on what we’re eating and trying out different grains and such. It’s been good, though we have encountered a few misses. That’s the nature of it, I suppose. Anyway, the bummer with cooking is that you eat it and your creation is gone. Which is why I sometimes take pictures, and sometimes share it. For something that is such a huge part of our lives, it’s nice to document it. I remember lots of places and days by things we ate and tried, so why not?

Moving on.

I think I wrote, what, four blog posts in August? Oh well. It was a busy month and we spent a good chunk of it sick. Nothing makes me sadder than a sick baby, let me tell you. Especially when I didn’t feel top notch either. She just wasn’t herself (not very “Morgan-y” as Adrian says). The day she finally laughed again–at Toby, what else?–was a huge relief. Also she went back to sleeping better, which made all of us a little happier. So the story is that maybe I’ll blog more, maybe I won’t. I just haven’t been feeling it. I haven’t even pulled out my camera much at all. Sadness. I should be doing more, I just totally haven’t felt like it.

Speaking of how I feel, I feel like I’m so behind sometimes. I guess that’s just normal. I always felt that way in college, like I was so busy, and now I am kicking myself for not doing more and enjoying it more. Same with pre-baby married life. And I imagine in ten years when I have 15 kids (it’s gonna be a busy ten years, let me tell you) I’ll be laughing at my current self thinking how naive I am. Hehehe! I feel like I’m getting done what needs to, but I don’t think I’m getting ahead and that bugs me. Also, I’m not enjoying it enough, and that’s sad and silly. I’ve tried to just stop and chill and roll around with  Morgan a little more. The laundry (which is my word that means everything from dirty clothes to dirty dishes and dirty floors) really doesn’t actually matter that much. Except that I won’t often put Morgan down on said dirty floors and she is so ready to crawl and even stand that I probably should do something about that.

But of course my head is filled with so many things that sometimes I think I’m going to burst. Right now it’s graphic design. I feel like I’ve always been fairly decent at design, so I’d like to try it digitally. Because that’s what I need: another thing to do and work on. Sometimes I feel like I’m this crazy amorphous sponge, soaking up whatever I can and expanding in every possible direction. Like one of those sponges in a capsule that emerge when you put them in warm water. Yeah, like that.

And if that’s not a fantastic self image, I can’t imagine what would be. Who needs a manicure when you can be a dinosaur shaped sponge?

We went to the Redmond Farmer’s Market and got some pretty great stuff: fresh pastured eggs, sheep’s cheese and fresh mozzarella, and of course lots of fruits and veggies. The peaches we bought were ripe and smelled heavenly, so I cut two up and just blended them for Morgan (who is 6 months old today… what?!?!). They were so juicy it turned into a juice more than a puree, so we gave it to her in a cup. She watches us whenever we drink from cups and get really excited when we let her gnaw on the edge of one, so she was even more excited to discover that this cup tasted good, too. She didn’t like it when Adrian would take it away to give her a break, and as you can see she even helped hold on to it. The food that is easily mashable has been my favorite to give her so far: avocados, which she also usually likes, and these peaches. She also really likes apples, though I did cook those first of course.

[I am FINALLY going to TJ's as soon as Morgan wakes up from her nap, so it seemed a good day to post this. Two food posts in a row is too much? Sorry, but I don't think so.]

Because, judging off the comments my Trader Joe’s post received, we have some folks out there who love TJ’s as much as I do, I thought I’d share one of my favorites. There are many, of course, but because no one mentioned these it seemed really more like a public service to show you these:

They claim to be mini croissants, but they’re a pretty good size once they rise. See, they start out all small like this

You let them rise overnight and in the morning they look like this:

Then you cook them for about 30 minutes (and don’t overcook them like I did a little) and they’ll look like this:

They are really good, seriously. They’re flaky without leaving that gross layer of gunk feeling on the top of your mouth like cheap croissants can do. Please tell me you know what I’m talking about and I don’t sound totally crazy.

Anyway, I think it’s $3.99 for the pack of 8–or the same price for a pack of four pains au chocolat, which we haven’t tried yet. It’s not a bad price, because you just have to trust me that they taste really good. We don’t have them all the time, but I love them for a super easy treat breakfast.

Food is an important part of celebrating. It just is. And we like food anytime, no celebration required. Here’s a sampling of the birthday fare this year:

Bialys. Adrian always talks about bialys (sort of like bagels, but different). Apparently you can only find them near New York or that part of the east. I even went to some place called Mikey’s Brooklyn Bagel Shop or some such thing and they didn’t know what I was talking about. So a couple months ago I found this recipe and decided I’d make them for his birthday. I am very afraid of making breads because it never seems to come out like I imagine. Here, the dough wasn’t rising right, but it came out okay in the end. Maybe not having anything in my head to compare it to was a good thing.

On Saturday, since his birthday was on Sunday this year, we went to the Il Fornaio Risotteria in downtown Seattle. It was good, as always. It’s hard to find real Italian food (Olive Garden doesn’t count, though I still argue it’s not bad for what it is, you just can’t compare it to actual Italian food).

We split a pizza for an appetizer. It was a little oilier than we felt it should be, but the pesto and veggies were good. Note the nice thin crust. Ahhhh. Looking at the picture makes me want to go to Italy. Or at least back to the restaurant, which is substantially cheaper than flying to Europe.

Adrian and Morgan with the desserts. We had creme brulee AND a chocolate fudge-like cake. Both very good. (Oh, and we had main courses of a grilled pear ravioli and the porcini risotto. Yummy.)

The rest of the birthday food got a little drawn out because my big plans for Sunday didn’t work out until Monday, but I’ll spare you the details. We’ll just say Saturday was the celebration day.