Crave Wednesday: Barbecue-Flavored Onion Rings

If you hadn't noticed, birthdays are a big thing for me.  Today is Baby B's birthday and she's going to be 3!  My poor brother and sister in law don't even know what they have in store.

My birthday took a backseat to Thatbaby's this year.  Which is expected.  And one of the reasons I didn't want to share a birthday.  Luckily my girlfriends and I started a tradition of a girls' weekend in June, which I treat as a birthday trip.

Last year, we had two itty bitty babies in the group, so we stayed close to home.  This year, with all the kids over one, we went just a little farther afield - Palm Springs.  Or Indian Wells to be exact. Once again Jurisslave hooked us up with a hotel room, Mrs. Pirate did all the planning, and I made the goodie bags.

Since Palm Springs in June/July is hot, I filled the bag with lots of cool off things.  Like a mister fan, sunglasses, hair ties, and pool floats.  There was also sparkling wine to drink, and popcorn to snack on.  And coffee for the morning after.

Mrs. Pirate also happens to be pregnant (yay!) and while she has a shower later this month, this is the only time the whole crew of us will be together, so we decided to decorate the room for a little mini-shower experience.

Jurisslave headed up the night before and spent the day working.  I picked Horsewhisperer up from the airport and we were the first to check into the room and get it decorated.  We rewarded our hard work by heading down to the hotel bar for happy hour.

And before too long, M joined us too!

When Jurisslave turned up, we decided to stay where we were for dinner, then come up with a plan for the evening.

Our plan was to go to The Nest.  Do me a favor and check out the yelp review for this place. The second review.   Go ahead.  I'll wait.

The Nest is a piano bar.  But different than any other piano bar I've been to.  Because the piano?  It wasn't a piano.  It was a keyboard.

And there was only one.  And they didn't play any classic songs that everyone knew and loved.  But the thing that really made me not love The Nest, was one patron in particular.  If you read the yelp review you'll know what I'm talking about.  One of the regulars dresses up like a clown and hangs out in the bar, just creepily staring at people.

I'm not a fan of clowns to begin with, and this guy just made that dislike seem pretty rational.  After my friends took great joy in my discomfort, we all decided it was time to move on.

And so we found ourselves at Neil's, a karaoke bar.

And of course, by this time of night, we all took a turn with the mike.

We stayed until a bar fight broke out, and then waited until the brawlin' parties were gone before heading home for the night - which was really the next morning.  There was very little talking as we all washed up and crawled into bed.

The next morning Mrs. Pirate joined us, and we celebrated the eagerly anticipated arrival of her bundle of joy.  We found our way down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel, before heading out to spend the day at the pool.

Those pool floats in the goodie bag definitely came in handy.

We really did spend the rest of the day at the pool, alternating between our floats and sitting in chairs until it became too hot not to be in the water.

As dinnertime approached, we headed back to the room to put on our "fancy clothes" and head out to a nice dinner.  Unlike the night before, we ended up just staying and talking, long after the food was gone.  We headed back to the hotel and started changing into pajamas, when the fire alarm went off.

So we grabbed our bags and headed back out.  With cupcakes in tow.  Because if we're going to be stuck outside, we might as well be stuck outside with cupcakes.

Eventually they let us all back in.  And we resumed bedtime rituals.  Since it was't the wee hours of the morning, we stayed up talking for a lot longer, until one by one, we drifted off to sleep.

The next morning we woke up and said our goodbyes.  It was only a couple days, but it felt so much longer without any of our kids.  And it was really the perfect break, which made it a nice birthday present for me.

It was like a weekends I used to have with my girlfriends when I was in college.  Lite.  Because none of us are college kids any more.  So everything is a little less.  A little more mom-like.  Which is true of a lot of my food choices.  I can't eat like I could when I was in college.  Which isn't a bad thing.  It means that I'm very happy with lighter versions of the terrible things I used to eat.  I've slowly converted Thatboy too.  Like onion rings.  While he used to love those heavily battered, thick cut rings, now he's just as happy with onions that are thinner and more lightly coated.  These onion rings are even baked, instead of fried and my stomach definitely appreciates the lack of oil.  Then again, when crispy rings are loaded with such great seasoning, it's easy to ignore the fact they're missing some of the batter.

Barbecue-Flavored Onion Rings (From Cooking Light)

3 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground allspice

2 large eggs

1 lb Vidalia onions cut into 1/4 inch slices and separated into rings

1 1/2 cups dry breadcrumbs, divided

cooking spray

1.  Preheat oven to 450.  Combine flour, sugar, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, and allspice in a bowl.
2. Add eggs and beat with a whisk until blended.
3. Dip onion rings in egg mixture, draining off excess.  
4. Place 3/4 cup breadcrumbs in a ziplock bag with half of the onion rings.  Shake to coat the onion rings.  Arrange onion rings on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
5. Repeat with remaining breadcrumbs and onion rings and place them on a second baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  
6. Lightly coat the onion rings with cooking spray and bake for 10 minutes.  
7. Turn onion rings over, lightly coating with cooking spray and bake another 9 minutes.

Birthdaying with the Girls: Pomegranate, Persimmon & Pecan Salad

Okay, back to my favorite topic.  Me.  Or more specifically, recognition of how wonderful I am.

Since I now share my birthday with Thatbaby I have resolved myself to not getting to celebrate my birthday for the next 18 years.  Or at least resolved to not celebrating on my birthday.  And devoting my birthday to prepping for Thatbaby's birthday parties.

My girlfriends did a terrific job of making sure my birthday was recognized last year, and inspired by that I decided to start a new tradition - a girls birthday weekend.  But rather than make it all about me, I expanded it to include the birthdays of Jurisslave and Mrs. Pirate, who both have June birthdays.

This year we decided to keep it close to home, because most of us have children under 13 months and Mrs. Pirate is pregnant.  So we got a room in downtown San Diego, bid our families goodbye, and met up.

I stopped on the way to the hotel to pick up some cupcakes.  Because it's not a birthday without cake.

I'd also decided that even though this was a grown up birthday party, we still needed goody bags.  So I stuffed some tote bags with water bottles, flip flops, a fan, champagne, nail polish, and lip balm.

Jurisslave's sister had sent up a bottle of champagne to our room, so we began our weekend with a toast.

Then we headed up to the pool.  With no kids around none of us had to actually get wet.  Nor did we have to get up off our chairs to get something for anyone.  Instead we lazed about talking and catching up.  Some napped, some just enjoyed the quiet.


Eventually we left the pool and got all dolled up for dinner.  We headed to BIGA for some Italian food.  M and I both ordered the tableside fettucine.

And we shared a bottle of wine with our delicious fare.

Afterwards we tried to hit up a piano bar, but there was a line, which we were entirely unwilling to wait in.  I had heard about a relatively new bar, Rare Form, which was right near our hotel.  So that became our headquarters for the evening.

Rare form markets themselves as being one of the only schnapps bars in the country.  Inspired by that, and Horsewhisperer's exclamation of BOILER MAKERS! We each ordered a boiler maker, shot of schapps paired with a beer.  I had the apple schnapps and a Czech lager.  That night we discovered that none of us like boiler makers.  Or schnapps.  Lesson learned.

We went back to the hotel room to tuck in for the night, but not before Jurisslave and I took care of our least favorite task, pumping.  Jurisslave has a 4 month old at home and since I had just recently stopped pumping, I was still dealing with engorgement from the lack of pumping or nursing.

We stayed up late talking, just like slumber parties from my childhood.  And the next morning we packed up our things and headed home to our husbands and children.

Before we departed, Jurisslave and I decided to go for a little run.  The goal was 7 miles, as Jurisslave is training for a half marathon but it was hot.  Super hot.  We ended up cutting our run about half a mile short.

I'm such a wimp when it comes to heat.  Which is surprising, given that I grew up on the East Coast.  San Diego summers have nothing on East Coast heat.  When it's hot outside there's really nothing I want to do or eat.  I survive on smoothies and salads (and popsicles).  I'm lucky that my guys are as happy to eat a salad for dinner as I am.  Because we have them weekly over the summer.  With the boys I especially try to include fruit in the salad, because even if they avoid the lettuce, they'll still be eating something.  That and I love fruit in the summer.  Which is probably why I do so many smoothies and popsicles.

Pear is one of my favorite fruits to combine with persimmon.  I find the cinnamony quality of the persimmon perfectly complements the sweetness of the pear.  The toasted pecans add just the right amount of crunch to keep this salad from being boring.  Plus, there's something fun about a salad where most of the ingredients begin with the letter P. 

Pomegranate, Persimmon & Pecan Salad

 3 ripe persimmons

3 ripe pears

1 lime

seeds from 1/2 a pomegranate

mixed greens

1 cup toasted pecans

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 shallots, finely chopped

5 Tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Mix the vinegar, mustard, and shallots.
2. Season with salt and pepper.  
3. Slice the persimmons and pears into slices.  Put in a bowl.
4. Sprinkle with the juice of the lime.
5. Add the pomegranate seeds and toss gently.
6. Toss the greens with some of the vinaigrette and arrange on plates.
7. Toss the fruit mixture lightly in the remaining vinaigrette.  Arrange on top of the greens.
8. Sprinkle with the toasted pecans.
   

Mommy Mondays: Mom Groups

When Thatkid was born, I was really excited about maternity leave, and staying home with him.  And that was fine for the first 3 months.  After that, I started getting a little stir crazy.  The only adult conversation I had was with Thatboy when he got home from work.  My best friends had moved away while I was pregnant, and I wouldn't have been a very good friend anyway.  Which is a hazard of having a new baby when your friends don't have kids.

But it's hard to make friends as an adult.  Where do you meet other like-minded adults if you're not in school? 

I tried taking Thatbaby to baby activities, but there's weren't a lot that worked with our schedule.  And I have a little social anxiety in those places anyway - so I didn't initiate any conversations with the other women there.

I decided to look for a local moms' group.  I went on Meet-Up and found a couple in the area.  I looked at the members to see if they had similar age kids.  I went to huge meetups and small meetups.  And I found my tribe.

I consider myself so lucky to have found these women.  It was one of the smaller, more localized groups.  And to tell you the truth, I wasn't originally going to meet with them.  They all had "older" children, born in early 2011, while my little guy was an end-of-the-yearer. 

Except one.  Superwoman had a son just a couple days younger than Thatkid.  AND she lived around the corner from me.  I ended up going to meet her, and connecting with the entire group.

It's been 4.5 years since we've met and I couldn't ask for a better, more perfect group.   They're always there for me and my kids.  They are fantastic with advice.  And they get being a mom.

I didn't really understand the importance of having mom friends before I was a mom.  I was the first in my group to get married and that didn't change the relationships with any of my friends.  But kids are different.  And being friends with other moms means they understand when you cancel last minute because your kid was up all night, or sick, or throwing a massive temper tantrum.  Being friends with other moms means they know exactly how to discipline your kids and keep them from trouble.  Or that you always have someone to take your kid to the bathroom (Thanks L&O!).  They just get it.

So one of my big pieces of advice to new moms is to find a moms group.  But not just anyone, a good one.  Like anything else in life, you can't find insta-friends with all people.  So if one isn't a good fit, try another one.  Because that saying "it takes a village"?  It's not so far off.  So find your village.

Special Delivery: Beefy Enchiladas

In my group of friends, we like to have baby-buddies.  I say that tongue-in-cheek, because it's never planned, but as a happy coincidence there are usually two of us pregnant at the same time.  When I was pregnant, my baby-buddy was M, who was due a week after me, but had her daughter 5 days before Thatbaby was born (because everyone has their babies before me).  

More recently Horsewhisperer and Jurisslave were baby-buddies.  Both due in March.  But, in an uncanny coincidence, both gave birth in February.  I joked that their boys just couldn't wait to meet each other.  

Which means earlier this month I was running around, visiting babies and bringing food to my friends. 

Like orange cinnamon muffins, for quick one-handed breakfasts.

I love chicken, and it easily serves a grip of people, so I always like to bring a chicken dish to homes with a new baby.  Like this Cuban chicken.

Or this rosemary chicken.

With this warmer weather we've been having, a chilled soup makes a nice, easy lunch.  I thought the avocado soup would work well with the Cuban chicken.  And the strawberry soup is popular enough in my house that I wanted to share it with my friends.

One other trick I found when bringing over meals is to bring a special treat for the new big sibling.  Like chocolate chunk cookies.

Or cream puffs.

Or a berry-filled steamed pudding.

I love feeling helpful and bringing food to my friends.  It wasn't so long ago I was trying to balance adjusting to a new family member.  And although it was easier the second time around, it's always nice to feel taken care of.  When I make food, I will sometimes make a meal specifically for my friends, like the chicken dishes.  Other times, I take a meal we're eating for dinner at our house and double it.  Like the strawberry soup, or these enchiladas.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to make a ton of enchiladas?  It's a great thing to serve to a crowd, which means it's easy to make enough to feed 2 families.   They also freeze fantastically.  I made a set of these enchiladas for us, and a set for Jurisslave and her family.   You'll notice these are "undressed" which I prefer if you're going to freeze them.  Add the sauce right before reheating in the oven.

Beefy Enchiladas (From Guilt Free Weeknight Favorites)

 1 cup chunky picante sauce, divided

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 lb extra lean ground beef

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided

5 corn tortillas

2 Tbsp chipped cilantro

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Spread 1/4 cup picante sauce in a 9-inch square baking dish, set aside.
2.  In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute bell peppers, onion, and ground beef until peppers are soft and beef is browned.  Drain excess liquid.
3. Stir in 1/2 cup picate sauce, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat; stir in half the cheese.
5. Stack the tortillas and wrap in wax paper.  Heat in microwave on HIGH 10 seconds, or until warmed.
6. Spoon 1/2 cup meat mixture down center of each tortilla. 
7. Top evenly with remaining picante sauce, remaining cheese, and the cilantro.  Roll up and serve.

Wow December sure flew by!

I know you've all been missing something as this new year begins. That little piece of Thatgirl that makes your life complete. But almost all my free time in December was dedicated to this little project:

More on that later, but suffice to say I was knitting on a schedule so blogging took a backseat. Which is a shame since we sure did a lot last month. (Which probably only compounded the timing issue.)

Like when Thatboy's best friends came down for the weekend. Our little home was filled to the brim with 5 adults, a toddler and a baby - which made the holidays even warmer. The last time we saw Ace he was 2 weeks old. Now he's a giant!

(picture taken seconds after Ace kissed Thatbaby's head and moments before Ace followed said kiss with a slap. Toddlerhood - it's a learning process.)

Their visit happened to coincide what has quickly become one of my favorite San Diego races - The Jingle Bell run. If you recall, I ran it last year and vowed to make it a regular part of my running schedule. It was just as much fun as I remembered, complete with jingling jingle bells on shoes, marimbas playing Christmas music, and an acapella choir who were singing "Steal my Kisses" for some reason - which I don't associate much with Christmas.

And of course there were the awesome costumes. I didn't get a picture of the guy in a green unitard on a unicycle, but I did capture Santa on Stilts:

The boys in the footie pajamas:

Santa and her sleigh of reindeer (these chicks won for best costume):

And other festive attire:

And we got into the spirit too.

Thatboy and the rest of the crew walked the race while I ran ahead. The nice thing about not being super speedy to begin with is I'm already back to my pre-pregnancy speed. In fact, at 2 months postpartum I actually finished this race 36 seconds faster than when I ran it in 2010!

After I crossed the finish line, I turned around and ran the course backwards to meet up with everyone. Which was fun because I got comments like "Hey - the finish line is the other way!" and I was able to give support to tired runners "The rest of the course is all downhill!" Around the halfway point I met up with these lollygaggers.

And we finished the rest of the race together.

Well, almost together. As we neared the finish line I ran ahead so I could capture Thatbaby finishing his first race. See that car behind us? That was the cleanup crew. We were the absolute last people to finish the race. But it was still a PR for Thatbaby!

Thatboy's favorite part of the race (and the reason he'll run it again next year) was the beer garden hosted by Stone Brewery.

Thatbaby was too young to come in, but we're such good parents, we kept an eye on him while we enjoyed.

While we were having houseguests I of course wanted to serve them up something home-cooked and delicious. Especially since we didn't want to go out the night before the race so we could all get to bed a little earlier.

I wanted to do something that would feed a large crowd but still be easy. I gave Thatboy some choices - roast chicken, lasagna, chili, or enchiladas. Not surprisingly he chose enchiladas. He always chooses enchiladas.

I used Nicole's adaptation for chicken enchiladas with red chile sauce. They were amazing. I really think making your own chile sauce is the key here. They were a big success and Magski even asked for the recipe to make at home once I assured her it was incredibly easy. Served with a nice salad and some Spanish rice it was the perfect way to spend an evening with friends.