Knitting again

After making one adult-sized hat today, I managed to strain my right hand. But I'm still eager to crochet a few baby booties, and knit some baby hats.


In other news, a cool food blog called Eat Me Daily mentioned my comic strip! Well....it really only mentioned the fact that I happened to illustrate the great cooking of my friend Ryan (who also mentioned my post), but I'll take the publicity any way I can ^_^

Healthy chocolate muffins

So I made these chocolate muffins that have basically no fat. They are made of flour, sugar, chocolate, egg whites, water, and prunes (there's also some baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla). I had never really eaten dried prunes before. They were okay plain, not particularly sweet, but had an interesting flavor that I could believe would go well with chocolate. The recipe was easy and the muffins turned out nice an moist. And....they tasted pretty darn good! I would definitely make them again - maybe even as a cake. You can taste the prunes in the muffins, but the chocolate also comes through strong, and, heck, it has fiber and healthy nutrients. Not bad. With a tall glass of milk and a little whipped cream, it's a great dessert.

More movement

Now I've been able to feel more than just tickling. An occasional push against my stomach, very light. Seth's been jealous because he can't really feel the movement yet. Although, if you put enough pressure on the stomach, you can feel it. To me, right now, the movements just feel like gas. Although, it feels like gas around your belly button as opposed to your intestines. The movement isn't bothersome yet, but I'm sure it will get to be as I continue to expand.

Been baking a lot

I got a great muffin book and have made quite a selection so far....blueberry oatmeal, apricot oatmeal, strawberry, and banana-honey muffins to start. The banana-honey muffins have got to be my favorite so far.

Beginning to feel things

It's like someone is delicately dragging their fingers along the inside of my stomach. It is really ticklish and makes me want to scratch at the spot.

Trying to keep my reputation clean

I try to avoid drawing raunchy comics.

Visiting the twins

Seth was much more at ease about holding the babies than I was. I keep feeling like I'm going to break them. The twins were just a little over 5 pounds each, and they were tiny!

Extra loads of wash

Bigos is staying with us for the week as his owners have welcomed two new additions to the family. Molly gave birth to her twins (a healthy boy and girl - Nikolas and Halina) today and we are going to watch the dog until she returns from the hospital. And, along with Bigos at the house comes extra laundry.


On another note, I have managed to pass the 400th post! Wow!

Finally, success!

I managed to cook the pork perfectly so that you could pull the meat away from the bone with a spoon. And....I managed not to burn the skin, so everything was superb. Seth and I must have consumed a good quarter pound of pork skin/fat each. Yum!

It's going to be a girl!

We found out the sex of the baby today. A little girl, healthy and growing. We are both ecstatic, but for Seth that happiness also comes with a fear of the teenage years. Heehee ^_^

Adventurous eating

Our friend Ryan Adams has a great food blog in which he is cooking all the recipes in Fergus Henderson's book The Whole Beast. Fergus Henderson is known for his use of all parts of the animal at his restaurant, and Ryan has eaten a considerable amount of less desirable animal parts from the cookbook. He invited us over to try some of his recent cooking escapades including headcheese, roast quail with lentils, and blood cake with an egg fried in duck fat. He even had a dessert from the book; a brandy and goat cheese spread. The brandy was a very specific type that managed to shock all of our senses. It was a great night of eating and company - I even got to eat an extra quail, as I'm pregnant and all, hehe.

Good start to the new year

Loki was ecstatic. Although, the massive amount of meat and fat she got off this bone gave her a horrible case of gas for the next day. But we still love her. Also, sorry for the lack of posting. When I got sick I could hardly muster the energy to do anything. And then I was just lazy....and still a week behind in posts. I hope to remedy this quickly and some more posts should follow soon. Sorry.

Porcine disaster

The pork still tasted good, but it was not fall of the bone tender. Plus, there was so little edible skin left after "the incident" that it wasn't nearly as joyous an occasion as I had wanted. The side dishes were still tasty (green beans and potatoes), and my friend Ryan made an amazingly delicious dark chocolate ice cream for dessert. So, overall, it turned out well.

My yearly sickness

As is usually the case when I travel, I caught a cold in Chicago only to have it ruin the rest of my holiday (I flew home Saturday morning). And, considering I'm pregnant, I was constantly worried that I would end up with a repeat of tonsillitis or some other fever-inducing sickness. But, instead, I just sneezed more than I ever have and blew my nose so often that it turned beat red and raw. Such fun. The only good thing about this is that I most likely won't get sick again until next Christmas.

Christmas Day

Also, in the tradition of my family, we make sure to consume as much food during the holidays as possible. So, for Christmas dinner we made a delicious roast leg of pork with all the cracklings. We put the roast in around 11am, went to see a movie, and came back to pork falling off the bone. Delicious! But, as good as the meat was, the crispy skin is what makes the meal worth all the time.


On a side note, The Curious Life of Benjamin Button was good. But not something that I will ever watch again. And certainly not the movie i would choose for best picture (I might have to go with The Dark Knight for that).

Christmas Eve

Every year since I've been born we've always had the traditional Italian-style Christmas Eve dinner - 7 fishes, 7 ways. But, we threw it all aside to have roast beef. And, thank goodness, it turned out delicious!