One more Moore

Freezer Jam & Frozen Grapes

Chris: "Hey Morgs, you know what I want to buy the next time we have like a ton of extra cash?"
Morgan: "No, what?"
Chris: "Strawberry Jam"
Morgan: "I have strawberries in the fridge, why don't I just make you some and save us the oodles of cash that a jar of jam would cost."

It took 10x longer to track down some pectin than it did to actually make the jam. "Pecta...what?" was the response from 3 separate grocery stores followed by the ever so popular "Yeah, if it's not on the shelf, we don't have it." I've never made jam before. I was debating making it a few weeks ago when we went strawberry picking but never got around to it (okay it wasn't such a fruitful pick- try picking strawberries while nursing a newborn...we were more of the pick and eat variety.)

 I had some strawberries left over from the 4th of July cake and so I decided to have a go at it. I do aim to make dreams come true, you know. It was so beyond simple. I just grabbed the smallest package of pectin available which happened to be a 'no cook'  one. If you can cut up strawberries, mush them, add contents of package and sugar and stir for 3 minutes, you can do this. The recipe I used was on the back of the package (4 cups mushed fruit + 1 1/2 cups sugar.) If you want to see a demo, go here. The jam was DELISH and only had to sit for 30 minutes. I feel a bit like a jam cheater, you know? It's nothing like the canning experiences I recall witnessing as a child. No steamy, 100 degree kitchen. No rubber gloves (there were rubber gloves, no?) No big canning pot thingamajigg. I mean can I add "Jam Maker" to my kitchen repertoire? I feel so sheepish even suggesting it. 

So one of my favorite childhood treats were frozen grapes. Ever tried them? They are good. They really are a treat now especially because grapes purchased 'on sale' are $2.50 a lb. (and while I'm complaining about the price of things- I would like it noted that I paid $97.20 to fill up the car this week. Cripes.) Anyway, just wash and let dry and put in the freezer. I'm remembering now that we used to pull them off the stem and throw them in a ziploc bag before freezing, but either way will work. Hope you are all enjoying your Summer!

xoxo

Happy 4th of July!

It cannot be denied. I love the 4th of July. It's just one of my most favorite holidays. Jill called yesterday and we talked about all those 4th of July's that we spent together back when we all lived in Boston. Boston is a great place to celebrate the 4th. One year we went to the 33rd floor of the John Hancock tower (thanks, Dave!) and had the most brilliant view of the fireworks being shot off over the Charles River. They were at eye level and the Hatch Shell was jam-packed with people listening to the Boston Pops. A couple of years we spent the 4th in Maine. One of those years, we went with a ton of friends and rented two cabins in The Forks, ME and went river rafting down the Kennebec River ("Come on river, take your skirt off!!") We've been talking about taking a trip back to Boston this Fall and Chris & I keep having dreams of being there (me sobbing, not wanting to come home.) ...."when Johnny comes marching home again, hoorah, hoorah!..."
 This year our 4th festivities got started a little early. On Wednesday night we packed up our little family and headed to the Hollywood Bowl. It was the first of three nights where they were shooting off fireworks and it was a night all about celebrating baseball. Celebrating the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to LA 50 years ago. Our little Henry has become increasingly interested in baseball so it was perfect. The LA Phil played baseball music (ala the theme song from "The Natural" which is just one of the best baseball movies ever)  and we all sang "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." If you click on the photo, you can see the "Hollywood" sign in the background. We actually went to the Bowl last Saturday as well for a "Beatles Tribute" which was a ton of fun. Billy Corigan of The Smashing Pumpkins was a special guest as well as the lead singer from the band Gomez (which I had never heard of, but who had the most brilliant voice.) The only unfortunate part of it all was that it performed by....Cheap Trick. I'll spare you the details about them coming out in sailor attire. Cripes.
We are headed off to a BBQ with lots of friends and hoping to catch some more fireworks tonight in Marina Del Rey. Hope you are making lots of wonderful 4th of July memories. I love living in America. 

xoxo

p.s- are the pics on the blog showing up ginormous? Typepad changed its formatting and everything is all screwy now....

Still alive...barely

Kidding. Just wanted to quickly pop in to say that I was sponsoring a little give-away over at the Apronista Blog- so hop on over and throw your name in the hat. Crazy here all week- but will be back next week. Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

The fruits of our labors

My Brother has been here all week (which has been so nice and so helpful) and Wednesday we headed over to our Grammies house for a little visit. We made out with so much fruit. These here are tangerines and apricots. I think I've mentioned it before on the blog, but we had an apricot tree growing up and the smell and taste of those sweet apricots brings back such good memories. I never buy them, they are expensive here, so it really is such a special treat. I was down in Whittier a few weeks ago (where I grew up) and drove past our old house on Friends Avenue. I was so sad to see that they have chopped down the big avocado tree from the front lawn. I really need to take a picture sometime and post it here. It was such a lovely house and a wonderful place to live and grow up in.

Anyway, I think we picked about 15 lbs of tangerines. They are soo good. The skins are really thick, not like anything you'd buy at your local market. Now, I'm trying to think of what I can make to use up all this fruit. I'm thinking of maybe doing a little tangerine/apricot jam. I just realized I've got some ginger root in the fridge, that might be good in there, too.

My Grammie is growing some pretty delicious stuff in her backyard. I can't wait until the day we have our own place. I want a vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees (kumquats, for sure!) As a matter of fact my most favorite house in our neighborhood just went up for sale. It's so totally, utterly adorable:

Cute as a button. It's on the market for...ahem...$1.95 million dollars. Apparently it's bigger than it looks. It's 4 bedrooms. I guess if 2 bedroom homes in our neighborhood go for a million, 2 million makes sense. Pocket change, really.

We had a girls night out last Thursday. We all made jewelry which was so fun. And I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I hadn't left the house in, um, 4 days.

I met Katie & Jenna in the jewelry district downtown a few weeks ago and scored some really great beads. I've kind of been in this turquoise/pink/brown jewelry kick lately. Anyway, it was fun to be with the gals and eat scrumptious treats, and you know, have girl talk. I seriously don't get out much. I stayed past midnight. I can't believe they didnt kick me out.

So Friday is 'Field-trip Friday". I haven't been keeping you up-to-date on all the fun stuff we've been doing. I missed the first week, but the second week we went strawberry/raspberry picking at the Underwood Family Farms:

And incase you were wondering, good times were had by all:

The next week was the train and pony rides in Griffith Park (you know there was no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks we were missing that one) 

We had a little extra time, so we headed over to "Travel Town" which is also in Griffith Park. They have all these old cars and trains and this thing:
How cool is that? I'm totally framing it and hanging it in Henrys room, which by the way, we are making slow and steady progress on. Anyway, we are going to the Science Museum on Friday which will be a ton of fun. Friday night= Dodgers game and Saturday my Sister is coming into town. It's so nice having my peeps around. I just love them so!

Happy weekend to all of you!

Aprons...

are in the shop.

Will be back later today.

xoxo

1 month

It's 7:10 as I start this post. Our little Margot Ryan was born a month ago at 7:13 p.m. It's been emotionally harder having a second, at least for me. I find that I'm having a hard time connecting to her. With Henry, I just held him all the time. You can do that when it's your first. You put your entire life on hold and just snuggle and cuddle and soak them up. Life has been busy as usual since the baby arrived and I've been mournful that I haven't been able to do all the snuggling with her like I did with Henry. Sometimes, at the end of the day I look at her and think 'I've hardly held you at all today' and that makes me really sad. It's the constant juggling of nursing, burping, napping, tending to Henry, laundry, dishes, housework. I'm struggling to find the time to just snuggle and cuddle and soak her up. I'm sure that's why I'm not feeling a conection or much of a bond. I think it's why I've struggled with the name, too. I just wasn't feeling anything. But then on Thursday, I was busy doing something and she was sitting in her chair and I turned and looked over at her and my heart almost burst. Iloveyousomuch!! And you are mine, all mine! And there in that instant, I felt bonded to her forever. We connected. We bonded. It hit me light me like a ton of bricks. And I was so glad. And things are so much better. Finally.
There are so many things I'd forgotten about having a newborn, like:

• The fact that my boobs are twice the size of her little head and she is in constant danger of being crushed like a bug everytime I nurse her.
• Getting frantic phone calls from Chris that I should have "topped her off" before I left. 
• Projectile spit-up
• People not looking me in the eye, but rather at the two giant wet circles on the front of my shirt.
• The awesome mesh undies they give you at the hospital. The inventor of those most definitely should be given a Nobel Prize.
• Co-sleeping. I just love having her at arms reach at night. I haven't had to get out of bed once since she was born. She starts to eek out a few little mumbles, I pull her in bed, nurse her for 10 minutes and put her back.
• This girl is what I like to call a 'snacker'. She won't nurse for more than 7-8 minutes at once, and only on one side. I was nervous at first but at her 2 week apt. she was over 10 lbs, so no more worries here!
• Last night, she slept for 8 hours straight. It's the best sleep I've had in months. I'm so grateful for that- and hoping we see lot's more of those nights.

And when you run out of gDiaper inserts, you always have your brothers size 5 diapers to help out:
I love you, sweet girl. I'm so glad you came to be part of our family.

xoxo

p.s. Shop update will be Monday. I opted for a girls night out making jewelry on Thurs. (so much fun) and Friday was a field-trip day (equally as much fun) so see you Monday!

Lockjaw + night vision

I've been a little down and out and gads- Chris went back to work on Monday after being home for 3 weeks so it's been a bit of a whirlwind. On Sunday I came down with a nasty something and was in bed most of the day.

"Chris, call Jason (our resident friend and 24-hour on call doctor) so he can tell me what's wrong with me."
He calls Jason whom I'm assuming proceeds to ask for my symptoms.
"She has lockjaw and night vision"
(Insert: me rolling my eyes. I know exactly where this is going.)
"What? You don't know what movie that's from...." and they go on and on.
"I'll forgive you for not knowing that quote." Chris says.
"Um, excuse me..I'm practically DYING over here!!" sheesh.

Turns out I had a bit of a virus. Chills, nausea, stomache cramps. You know all those things you want to have when your spousal unit is on the brink of going back to work. Luckily, by Monday it had mostly passed. Phew.
Being home alone with 2 kiddo's wasn't as hairy as I'd expected. The days are mostly good, it does start to get hairy around 6 pm, when bath and dinner and bedtime routines start. That's when 'the baby' decides it's a terrific time to be extra fussy. So we got that going on.

I dusted off ye olde sewing machine (it had been packed away for over a month) and started getting cracking on some aprons that I'm going to put in the shop on Friday. I've got a limited ammount of fabric and will only have 6-8 of each design, so when they are gone, they are gone. "Locked in the Disney vault. FOREVER."

Hope you all had a lovely week and have great things planned for your weekend. I'll be back MONDAY for the shop update!

xoxo

Happy June!

I can't believe it's June already. It's starting to feel very, very Summer-y and I love it. We are going strawberry picking on Friday and we can't wait. I love Summer. BBQ's, lazy days at the beach, early evening walks, ice cream, fresh fruit. This here is one of my all-time favorite recipes to make in the Summer months. I've been making this recipe for years and it originally hails from Allrecipes.com. I guarantee you'll love it!
Annie's Fruit Salsa & Cinnamon Chips
2 kiwi's, peeled and diced
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
8 oz. raspberries
1 lb strawberries, diced
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp preserves

Cinnamon Chips
10 10" flour tortilla's
2 C cinnamon sugar
Butter-flavored cooking spray

Directions
In medium bowl, mix all fruit, sugar and preserves. Cover and chill in refrigerator for at least 15 min. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray one side of tortilla's with cooking spray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cut into wedges/strips. Spray again. Arrange on baking sheet and cook for 8-10 minutes. Repeat with remaining tortilla's Let cool for 15 minutes.
You really can substitute with whatever fruit you have on hand. I only had 1 kiwi, but I added in a peach and the Fuji apples I had were enormous, so I only added one. Whatever you've got- just throw it in. I used my last Tbsp of raspberry preserves and then used an additional  2 Tbsp. of some pineapple/apricot preserves. Delish! Oh and I didn't have any butter-flavored spray, I think I used canola or something and it was fine.

Did anyone catch the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday night? Cripes. The single most captivating television I've watched in a long time. I am not kidding. 10 minutes into it, I hit 'record' on TiVo. I even watched it again over the weekend. Sure- some of those kids are so smart you wonder if there's not something seriously wrong with them (yeah, I'm talking about you #88. I kid, I kid.)  If you sadly missed it, you can catch the best part of the whole show here. I heart Sameer. I'm so glad he won. He seemed like the most normal kid there. He's totally gonna get all the girls. BTW, I think numbnut absolutely should have been one of the spelling bee words. This was pretty hilarious, too. 

And because I can't resist, our little miss sunshine:
Happy Tuesday!!

xoxo

Day tripper

Hi-ya! This is where we've been. Well, we just went there on Thursday. Chris' Mom is in town to help out with the new babe and we decided to high-tail it up to Solvang. Have you ever been? You really must. It's great and only about a 2 hour drive north of LA.
They are famous for these bad boys. Æbleskivers. Yummmm. We have an Æbleskiver pan, you know. We make them every Christmas morning. Delish! We ate here:
The Red Viking Restaurant. It was recommended by the folks at the Visitors Center and it was pretty darn good. Very authentic Danish food. Very Smorgasbord-y.
There are a ton of windmills in this little Danish town:
It's so nice to get out of the city once in a while and soak-up all the adorable-ness of these villages.
We were talking today about how it didn't even feel like we were still in California. Anyway, no trip to Solvang would be complete without getting your picture taken by the life-size clog:
It's been so helpful having my Mom in town last week and then Chris' Mom here this week. I had a rather telling conversation with my Mom one night when we had run out to the market.

Scene: 9:00 p.m. at the stoplight on Sepulveda Blvd.

Mom: "You'd better lock your doors."
Me: "Huh?"
Mom: "You don't want to get car-jacked."
Me:...."huh? Car-jacked? Are you  serious?"
Mom: "Don't you ever worry about getting car-jacked?"
Me: "No. I've lived in LA for 3 years. The thought of being 'car-jacked' has never once occurred to me."
Mom: "Really? I lock my car all the time."
Me: Mom, you live in Provo, UT.

I've thought about this conversation long and hard and Mom, I think it's time to cut back on the COURT TV. I  love you, really I do.

The next day I noticed my purse had been moved from it's usual resting place (by the front door.) 

Me: "Mom??"
Mom: "I moved your purse so people walking by outside wouldn't be able to see it."
Me: "Because I might get purse-jacked?"

Yes, definitely cut back on the COURT TV.

So guys, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your comments as of late- esp regarding those thoughts of having a new babe in the house. I had no idea that I'd ever been feeling those emotions. It still makes me a little sad, but each day gets easier. He just wants our attention so desperately. Chris has been off work since DWTS ended, which has been soo helpful (and now, I'm trying to scheme a way for him not to go back to work until season 7 starts! LOL! Think we can pull it off??) Anyway- you guys are so great. Thanks for being so supportive and helpful.

I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud, but I am REALLY struggling with the name Margot. I never call her that (none of us do). She is referred to as 'the baby.' Someone the other day asked me what her name was and I nervously said "Margot" like, 'is that okay with you???"Just totally unsure of myself. I've just been sick about it. The thing is I don't even know what I would change it to, if we changed it. I think I just like how it looks on paper, with the 'T'  at the end, but the 'T' is silent (unless you are my 85 year old Grandma Betty who pronounces it with the 'T'). Oy vei. All the stress has turned me Jewish. I know, it's not too late to change it if I'm not feeling it, but I'm not feeling ANYTHING. I want a name I can feel good and proud about. She needs a name. She's a person, too! Man- this baby business is tough.

Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

Is this what happens when you have a girl?

Ridiculously cute hats, coy little poses. She may be smiling here, but I know she was thinking something like this:
Henry calls this her "Pirate Face." Argh Matey! She was a big 5 days old here. Wow. I'm in love.

Today he turned 3

He said he wanted "strawberry cake." But he doesn't like strawberries. And then I remembered he had strawberry shortcake last week, sans strawberries. Just cake n' cream. I think it was mostly the whipped cream that he was after. So I made an angel food cake, added heaps of cream and threw on some mandarin oranges and berries (okay so it was only for looks.) He got his little train, ran it over the whipped cream and sucked it off the bottom of the wheels. It was a birthday dream come true.

"Henry you are turning 3!!" I said to him last week.
"And then I'll be 4, and then 5!" he replied.
"When you turn 5, you'll get to go to Kindergarten."
"What's Kindergarten?"
"It's school for all the boys and girls who are 5 years old."
"I don't want to go to Kindergarten. I just want to go to The Olive Garden,  K, Mama?"

I curled up next to Henry in bed the other night while he was sleeping and just cried. He seems so much bigger today than he did last week. Having a new baby in the house means he is no longer my baby and that makes me really sad. He's the 'big' brother now. But he doesn't like being called 'big'. He always reminds me that he's little. That he's my little boy. Having a new baby has given me all these emotions that I just don't know what to do with.  A part of me is sad that I can't be 100% Henry all the time like I was before. He's having to grow up in new ways now that there's a baby around. The first few days with Margot were a little tough. He was talky-talky all the time, bouncing off the walls and very loud. He warmed up to her real quickly though and is constantly hugging and kissing and even eeked out an "I'm so lucky to have a sister" yesterday. He seems to have mellowed out back to his regular self and we are trying to settle into some sort of normalcy with all the changes, re-assuring him that he is still our #1 boy (to which he reminds us that he's a KID!)

Things I love about my sweet Henry:

• You like telling jokes
• You wanted to go to El Chollo for your birthday so you could have Enchilada soup. You think  you are so funny when you call it "El Chollo Loco"
• You love trains and will play with them for hours a day
• You love asparagus and rootbeer
• You are so sweet natured and tender-hearted
• You and Papa dancing around the house at night to Johnny Cash's "Orange Blossom Special" singing "Going down to Florida to get some sand in my shoes, or maybe California, to get some sand in my shoes..."
• You, walking around the house singing "Sugar, Sugar, Honey, Honey" and "Lollipop, Lollipop, Oh lolly lollipop." You love that Papa made you your own playlist on his iPod and ask for songs off your 'list' when we are in the car, often calling out "Louder, Papa. Louder!"
• When I tell you I love you, you ask me to tell you what I love about you and when I list out all the things, you ask me to 'tell you that story again'

Happy Birthday My Darling Boy! I love you to pieces.

xoxo

She's here!!

Hooray!! I thought the day would never come. We headed to the hospital on Wed around noon and were sent to triage to see if they were going to admit us or have us come back. 2 1/2 hours later (why do those things always take so long?) they decided that since I was dialated to a 4, I could stay. We got checked in, I had to have some penicillin administered and yaddy-ya-ya. I was given a small dose of pitocin at 5:45 and by 6:45 she was ready to come out. They called the Dr., got the room ready and out she came at 7:13 p.m. She is so lovely (swollen eyes and all!) and we are over the moon with her. She smells so delicious and I can't keep my cheeks off her soft hair. They just smell so yummy, don't they? The recovery and everything is going much smoother than it did with Henry. I just remember feeling so awful, and I was really dreading this part, but all is well. I'm feeling really good.
Chris brought Henry by today to meet his new sister. He had the following to say about it:

1) She cries a lot.

2) He can't sit on the bed by me and the baby because it will make him grumpy.

He was totally uninterested in her (can you tell???) and that is a-ok. He'll come around when he is ready. It's a lot to take in and I'm not going to push all this baby-business on him.

So here's the deets: She was born 5/14,  weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, and her height, well it's a mystery. No one can agree. Around 20". And her name? Uh...we still haven't handed in the birth certificate forms.  After MUCH deliberation, I think we are going for Margot Ryan Moore. I was really gunning for Tess, but then realized that Tess Moore just didn't have enough syllables. It sounded strange if you said it too fast, like it was a college or a corporation. Chris really wanted Maggie but we wouldn't name her Margaret, we'd name her Magnolia and call her Maggie. In fact before we ever got pregnant, I told him that when we had a girl, I wanted to name her Maggie. I really like/liked the name but for some reason, it wasn't sticking with me this time around. I think it's becoming more popular anyway which was a bit of a turn off for me. I could never get Chris to agree on Olive and Amelia was actually something I originally liked that Chris didn't but he had a change of heart this past week and we had it in our top 5 but we decided against it. So I guess if her name is Margot, you could still call her Maggie. I really don't like not feeling 100% and being up against this deadline. It's completely stressing me  out. I just want to be sure because your childs name is a big deal and I don't want to settle for something. I really like Margot. I just don't know if it's right. We are both going to sleep on it and see how we feel in the morning. We don't want to drag it out and have promised ourselves that we are handing in the paperwork before I check out in the morning.

Today is our 10-year wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary, Hon! We got ourselves a family!!

xoxo

**edited to say: She's officially Margot Ryan Moore!

Ready to rock-n-roll!

Having contractions. Going to the hospital. Right. Now. Wish us luck!

One of my most favorite places...

I love the Huntington, I really do. We have annual passes but Chris has never been. It was his first day off in the last 7 so we packed up the car and headed out. It was overcast and just the most perfect day to be out strolling the grounds.
I know I've bloggd about this before, but they have the most incredible Children's garden. Like this get-up. You can't tell from the photo, but it's miniature with little tables and chairs inside. Everything in there is made for the little people in your lives. Little tunnels for running through, little hills to climb, and little doors to open and close.
And the Japanese Gardens, they are just the best. The Huntington is just huge, everything there feels like it goes on forever. Anyway- back to the Japanese Garden:
Aren't the Koi gorgeous? There were just a ton of them today- all bunched up, swimming together.
The Rose Garden smelled incredible as usual. Anyway, I was hopeful that all the walking would get things moving around here. No such luck.
We headed downtown to Union Station last Saturday to get our choo-choo on (did you know it was National Train Day?) I've done so much walking. And eating of spicy foods. And pineapple. And drinking of Raspberry Leaf Herbal Tea. I'm too chicken to try castor oil. Have you heard of the side effects? Like I want to be dealing with that while in labor!  Everyone keeps telling us about this place in the valley where we can order a "pregnancy salad." Allegedly it's supposed to put you in labor. There's always the Pregnant Burrito. Whatever that is.

What I'll be doing today...

Did you know:

When a pregnant Plains Indian woman was near term and showed no sign of going into labor, tribe members would tie her to a rock in an open field and stage a mock "attack," pulling up their horses only at the very last minute, in hopes of inducing labor. The Pilgrims, for their part, would stand women whose babies were late against a pole, strap them to it, and pound the pole up and down against the ground -- apparently hoping to shake the baby loose.

All I need is a rock, open field and volunteers.

By the way, I have the exact same look on my face.