spring brunch for supper

The weather goes from almost summer-like to cold and grey in the blink of an eye. It is only the lengthening of the light during the days and the spring flowers blooming that indicates the season. The lilac is almost blooming in our front garden. Inside, we have a surfeit of dinosaurs. The boy has been engrossed in dinosaurs, doing complicated dot-to-dot dinosaurs, colouring dinosaurs and this weekend, we have been reading this series of books which have our boy enthralled. He is trying so hard to sound out the words but he's learning to read in french at school so is much more familiar with french sounds just now, although reading in english is almost there.

We had a clean out of the boy's toys and room today - starting with his books and toys and ending with piles of too small clothes and too young books which will need to find new homes with new boys. But now his favorite dinos are displayed on his shelves along with his dino books.

For supper, I turned to a recipe I found in our latest Edible Vancouver - a brunch recipe that I've been meaning to make. It came together extremely quickly and was delicious.

Baked Eggs with Asparagus and Leeks (from Edible Vancouver)
1/2 lb bacon, sliced thinly
6 medium leeks, thinly sliced
1 bunch asparagus
salt and pepper
1 c vegetable stock
1 tsp dried thyme
6 eggs

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. In a large saute pan, cook the bacon until it has rendered it's fat. Add the leeks and let them cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cut the asparagus into 1" pieces, leaving off the woody ends of the stalks. When the leeks are cooked, add the stock and stir to mix. Add in the asparagus and then create 6 wells. Break the eggs into the wells and then put the pan into the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the eggs are set. Serve immediately with hot buttered toast.

dinner in a hurry

The past couple of weeks have been a bit busy with something after school for the boy most days. Wednesday is the hardest, as gymnastics doesn't finish until 6:45 and then we have to get home, have dinner, and all the other things that come at the end of the day. This week I changed it up a bit and took the boy to the rec center a good bit before his class, and we hung out together, he worked a bit on his mathematique homework and had a snack before he ran up the hall to the gym for his class. And I had prepared for dinner before we got home.

Tuesday morning, instead of dashing off to work at my usual early hour, I had an appointment so I tried to get a jump on Wednesday. I put a pot of rice on. (That I forgot it a half hour later when I ran out to door to my appointment and had to have my husband go and rescue it is one of those oops moments - thank goodness everything was ok. From now on, doing my dinner prep in the evenings). Anyway, when I got home on Wednesday night, I had some cold rice, some leftover pulled pork from the freezer and made up pulled pork fried rice using a recipe from Jenny of Dinner, A Love Story, that was in the March Bon Appetit.

So make the rice ahead of time (but not in a way that threatens to burn your house down) and this is a good and quick dinner for those crazy no time to make dinner nights.

Pulled Pork Fried Rice (adapted from Bon Appetit)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 c cold, cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
1 c pulled pork, thawed
1/2 c frozen peas, thawed
1/2 c frozen corn, thawed
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic and ginger and cook for about a minute. Add the rice and stir to coat with oil, breaking up the lumps with a spoon. Cook for about 2 minutes. Push the rice to one side of the pan, and add the beaten egg on the other side. Push the egg around the pan to cook and then mix into the rice. Add the pork and peas and cook for a couple of minutes to heat through. Then add the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil and cook, moving and stirring for another minute. Serve.

betime conversations with a 4 year old

T: Mummy – when were you made?

M: Oh – a long time ago honey.

T: Back in the time of dinosaurs?

M: Oh – not that long ago.

T: But when Mummy?

M: Well, my mummy and daddy went on a holiday after they got married and that’s when I was made.

T: and then what happened?

M: Well, then I grew in my mummy’s tummy until I was ready to be born.

T: Like me – I grew in your tummy?

M: Yes

T: How come I didn’t grow in Daddy’s tummy? Can I grow a baby in my tummy?

M: No honey. Babies don’t grow in daddy’s tummies. Only Mummy’s have the right parts to grow babies in their tummies.

T: Oh. (Big sigh) So what do the daddies do? Do they do anything?

M: Yes, it takes a mummy and a daddy to make a baby.

T: But how?

M: Well, Daddy has a seed and Mummy has an egg

T: (T has a big snort here) An egg?

M: not like a chicken egg. People eggs are so small you can’t see them. You know, how when we plant a seed in the soil, and water it, it grows into a plant? That’s what happens with a baby – it grows inside mummy.

(At some point I talked about mummy and daddy having a magic hug to create people – a term I found while reading something about talking to kids about procreation. Now D is worried about T wanting to give his little girlfriend a “magic hug”. Hopefully he’ll remember that the magic hug is only between mummies and daddies. )

The magic part lead to this exchange:

T: Magic, like in the bathroom magic. That was so funny!

M: What was so funny?

T: that the toilet flushed all by itself and the water came out when my hands were there. How did it know to do that? That’s magic.

M: And the hand dryer was magic too!

T: Yeah – it was cewel!

(The bathroom was at Whole Foods, with automatic toilet flush, faucet activation and hand dryer activation – fascinating to a 4 year old. But as D said, not as cool as the bathroom in a creperie in Marseille, with a rotating/cleaning toilet seat activated by the light switch!)

M: Night muffin. We love you. Go to sleep now.
T: I’m not a muffin, I’m T. M. (pause) And I have another name, don’t I? A middle name. I don’t remember what it is.

M: Kingsley

T: That’s funny. Like Uncle Kingsley?

M: that’s right. He and you are named after mummy’s grandfather Kingsley.

T: What about Auntie Clare?

M: She’s married to Uncle Kingsley. She and Kingsley are Freddie and Harry’s mummy and daddy. They are your cousins. Uncle Kingsley is mummy’s brother. Like Uncle Mike is daddy’s brother. And Auntie Kerry is daddy’s sister.

T: um (confused)

M: Like C’s big sister R. They have the same mummy and daddy (this is going to lead to trouble soon with brothers and sisters with different mums and dads but we’ll go with this for now!)

T: So Daddy and Kerry and Mike?

M: Yes – they have the same mummy and daddy. Kerry, Mike and Daddy all lived together when they were little.

T: With Uncle Tom? (Tom is Kerry’s husband)

M: No, honey. Kerry didn’t know Tom until she was grown-up.

T: Well, where did Tom live?

M: He lived with his mummy and daddy and his brothers and sister.

T: Oh. What were there names?

M: I don’t know – maybe you can ask Uncle Tom the next time you see him.

A few seconds later:

T: Mummy, what day is it today?

M: Sunday

T: starts singing the days of the week

M: time for sleeping, honey.

T: Mummy, when is swimming?

M: On Wednesday.

T: (still singing days of the week). Mummy, I was scared during the fire alarm during swimming the other day.

M: I know you were. It was very loud, wasn’t it? But you were safe with your teacher. And you found mummy outside. And then you got to see the fire pumper truck and then you had the rest of your swimming lesson.

T: Some bad person pulled the bell. That was bad, wasn’t it?

M: Yes, we don’t want to pull the alarm unless there is a fire. Hopefully there won’t be an alarm this week during swimming. So you can practice your swimming.

T: Yeah – like this (demonstrates holding a float board) and I put my face in the water.

M: Yes, like that. Now, it’s sleep time.

boy oh boy

Last week T asked D – “how do you make people?” D was caught off guard and consequently can’t remember what he said. He did at some point talk about babies being in their mummies tummies (we have a picture of me in T’s baby album entitled “waiting for Figlet” with a massive bump which T always comments on “is that me in your tummy before I was born?”). D thought kids didn’t start asking this until they were about 8. Hmm – maybe he needs to reread the parent book. Even I knew that it was coming any day….

Later in the week we were talking about planets (that’s what they are doing now in preschool). I asked T, “what is your favorite planet?”

T: “Mars.”
Why?
T: “Because it’s bumpy.”
Who knew?

The other day we went to visit Auntie Kerry’s “farm” (the place where she rides) and saw the horses, a bunny and a duck. Later T was explaining what he learned about horse poo (he saw the big pile of horse manure) – they roll it out and make it into fish and crab meat. Really? (D says it is no wonder he won’t eat fish and crab!)

And there has been much more submarine construction, of the lego variety. One night I heard T and D talking about submarines and next thing I know we have a whole submarine station in our bedroom with many submarines large and small including bathroom submarines (which if like me you don’t know what they do – bring bathrooms to houses). It is parked next to the shark submarine which has a special shark stun probe. Not to be confused with the shark looking submarine which is easy to spot as it has a window.

Then there is the message he left his Uncle Mike on the weekend. It went (according to Mike) like this: (shouted) Hello, Hello, hello … (D in background, “you have to leave a message”), then there was a long pause, then a whispered “this is T”. Mike phoned back to see what T had wanted to tell him and it goes as follows:
– can T see the Big Rocket before it leaves
– can Uncle Mike come over for a play date
– T had scored a goal on his soccer team

Yes, now T has soccer on Saturdays. He is part of a pre-school soccer “class” where they run around with soccer balls for 30 minutes and play a “game” for about 10 minutes. Lots of fun! There is much excitement when anyone scores a goal, half the time they score on their own nets but nobody minds. The teacher/coach is trying to explain the rules to them but mostly it’s all about the running and kicking (and playing what time is it Mr. Wolf?).

T also moved up to Killer Whales in swimming last week. He really had fun in his last Dolphin lesson. As an end of lesson treat they got to go down the Big Red Slide, several times. Killer Whales is a bit more serious swimming than Dolphins and T is worn out by then end of the 30 minutes. But he still loves it. Even though he struggles with the float board exercises. He makes me so proud. Except when he doesn’t listen to his teacher and then I’m embarrassed. All within 30 seconds.

4 year olds can be very sweet. Occasionally T comes up and gives me a drawing or a flower and says “I made this/found this for you, Mummy”. Aw – just melts my heart. Yesterday his little friend C gave me a flower too. So sweet. And they still are very huggy. At least the ones I know are. It could be a cure for the world – Hug a 4 year old! (Lots!)

at home (sort of)

Last night I finished making perogies with my new perogi "zipper" bought during my quick trip to Winnipeg. The dough is easy:

4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 c warm water

Form into a dough ball and let stand, covered, for an hour.

Roll out into strips about 1/8" thick.

Make a filling - mine was mashed potato, browned onion, a couple of sausages ground up and some grated cheddar cheese.

Place a tsp of filling on the dough at ~ 2" intervals and fold over the dough to form the perogi, press the dough together pressing out air pockets. Using the perogi "zipper" cut and seal the perogi.

I used my pasta machine up to setting 4 to form the dough strips - I went up to setting 5 for the first ones but the dough was a bit too thin. Actually the perogi started to remind me of condoms so I had a fit of giggles for a while. It took me back to the days when I worked in a lab and the company acquired the license to sell a well-known brand of condoms and we used to sit around and think up testing devises for them. In the end we didn't end up doing the testing and had to be content with the regular pills and suppositories that were our lot. But I digress. I now have a few big bags of perogi in the freezer waiting to be dinner some night. Her's a picture of some of the perogi and the perogi "zipper".

A lazy morning this morning and I actually got to sleep in a bit - a rarity with a 3 1/2 year old boy but he was content to play quietly and watch "his" TV this morning and let mummy sleep. We got up and spent some time in the garden - T riding his tricycle and playing in the sand box and me thinning out green onions. It was thrilling to see the tiny green onions, smelling all oniony - I cut off the root ends and they'll be like a chive topping for green beans with feta and vinagrette for supper tonight. It was lovely in the garden, sunny, quiet with big, furry bees humming in the lavender flowers and a couple of butterflies flitting around. T tried to catch them.

I picked a few cherries that hung on our side of the fence, from our neighbours tree. Yum! T helped with the watering and I set up the sprinkler for him to run in. (Well I was prompted by T taking off all his clothes and announcing he wanted his pool set up).

I picked a few of our blooming roses, they smell divine!

Here are some more pictures of the garden - tomatoes and zuccini. T and I watered and then all the unstaked tomatoes promptly fell over so I ran around trying to find sometime to stake them with. And good news, the basil I thought was finished is reviving slowly.






Then T and I rushed off to attend a birthday party. There were 2 birthday parties at the Gator Pit so it was very loud with kids running everywhere. Eventually T settled down and played trains on the train set - although that was fraught with pushing, not sharing and tantrums. The kids had lunch - T didn't eat any hot dog but did eat grapes, cucumber, watermelon, apple and chips. Then came the birthday cake which T had been asking about all day - it turned out to be an ice cream cake so he tucked right in. Then he joined the other kids in climbing and sliding around the play structures until I dragged him out and we came home. I'm exhausted. He's playing with his balloon and new truck.