Wipeout!

This is a picture of Levi and Kate at Gym Class (notice Levi's Batman costume with cape and his red nose...this is post wipeout!)

On the IPOD "Mockingbird" By: Carly Simon and James Taylor

So today started out great... Today was my first day off in forever. The High Holidays (most important Jewish holidays) are over and I'm finally back to the daily grind. It was nice waking up with no work responsibilities for a change. Anyways the plan was to take Levi to his gym class with his bestie Kate and then Tasha "Kate's mom" and I were going to treat ourselves to sushi for lunch.

Levi had a great morning...we slept in and cuddled with Daddy and then got up and played a little while I caught up on some DVRed sitcoms. We did our hair and got dressed and headed over to BeBe's house. Levi cuddled more with BeBe while I heated up some baby pancakes. Levi ate pancakes in bed with BeBe (I know nice habits I'm starting) while I packed his bag up. We loaded up in the car and headed to therapy...Levi fell asleep in the car and slept almost all the way through my appointment. My therapist fixed me for the week and we loaded back up and headed to gym. At this point I was feeling great...Levi had a great morning nap, I was sane again, and we were running ahead of schedule.

We got to gym a little early so we hung out in the car listened to great music and sang a little. Tasha and Kate were parked in front of us and to my amazement Kate also had a great morning nap. Could we be so lucky that everything was working out????

Ugh! This is when it all started....

12:05 Walk into the gym and put shoes and bags away

12:10 Gym Teacher lets us all in the room and I set Levi down on the mats

12:11 Levi crawls right to the foam stairs and crawls up with no help needed

12:12 Levi does an about face and literally jumps off the stairs past the gym mats and on to the rough carpeted floor face first!

12:13 Levi screams bloody murder as I watch his nose and forehead turn to a Rudolph shade of red

12:14 Levi calms down and heads straight for the stairs again...I quickly nip that in the bud and end up having to force him to sit in my lap.

12:15 Class begins

Class goes great although Levi's carpet burn seems to be getting more red by the minute...isn't bothering him as much as it is bothering me...

At this point we should have just gone home, but I'm obviously a masochist.

So we loaded the kids up and headed to the sushi restaurant across the street... Now just so you don't think we are completely insane. These are both restaurant kids...they have been going together their entire lives and up until today have always been perfect angels! Obviously when they were baby talking in class they came up with a terrible master plan!

So we walk in and the restaurant is nicely full but not crowded. They quickly seat us and we put the highchairs right next to each other on one side of the table in their usual spots! Within 2 minutes Levi drops a toy on the ground and when he looks for it he bangs his head right on the edge of the table. Of course he goes into full fledged "My life is over" mode, but I scooped him up and it quickly dissipated. Then if on cue Kate pipes up. Tasha breaks out the puffs and all is quiet again. We figure out our order while we both exclaim how thrilled we are to be out eating sushi. The babies are both playing nicely, but we are quickly running out of puffs. Just as the waiter sets down the salad and soup both of them start in...sort of taking turns...

This is a nightmare...Levi is screaming at the top of his lungs between each bite reminding me each time that I wasn't feeding him fast enough (on a good note he loves some sushi..He was all over that avocado roll like it was his b---h) while Kate is literally having an emotional meltdown next to him. We all look like we have been to hell and back...We're both apologizing to the tables around us while trying to stuff our faces between screams and cries and as they both finally pull it together I notice that we are both sweating, our hair is in our faces, and we are a far cry from covergirl ready. At this point there is really nothing to do except laugh or cry...thankfully this time we both laughed!

We payed our bill, tipping extra for the crime scene that we left under the table, and it seems as if we will all live to see another day...

Everybody is napping at our house sure hope its the same at Kate's house...

I don't know maybe work isn't so bad...just kidding I still wouldn't trade today for anything!!!!

But I sure hope they sleep tonight!

xoxo chef a

A Rant...

On the IPOD "Fallin' For You" By: Colbie Caillat

So this is old news for those of you who are friends with me on facebook, but for the rest of you...We finally found out that it is most definitely a BOY! Since we found that out we have been bombarded with name game questions and we are yet again tabling the discussion on names but I do promise to let everyone know at a specific time before he gets here. I used to get so annoyed at people for keeping it a secret but I completely understand now...even when I change my wording from "what do you think about...?" to "We are thinking about..." I continue to get the same response of "Oh I hate that name!" or "No, you should change it to..." Let me explain the correct etiquette if you ask someone what names they are thinking about and they actually tell you...your response should point blank be "Oh that's (wonderful, beautiful, perfect....)" I'm not quite sure how one would think that by asking you what names you are considering it gives them the right to give their opinion... especially when you never asked for it! If you really want to name a kid then you go through the morning sickness, back pain, ligament stretching, and heartburn. Until then either figure out a way to smile and say you love it or don't ask!

Sorry for the rant but to tell you the truth the most important thing to me is that Mike and I agree and the last thing I need is people making me second guess our extremely difficult decision! I mean maybe I'm the only one but I have never met someone and thought to myself "Ugh, I hate their name, I refuse to be friends with them!" It seems like the only time people discuss the kid's name is before they are even born! After that they are just who they are and that's the end of the story! So please know that when I finally announce our son's name it will be to the tune of....Suck it up this is his name!

Well at least I feel better now! This morning I woke up to a baby doing somersaults... and now he is currently in his favorite sleeping position which includes him jamming his feet into my lower back and directly into my sciatic nerve. It's awesome...NOT! Well I'm off to cook so that maybe I can make my Nia class tonight...

Jalapeno Chicken
Sauteed Broccolini
Pan-Seared Chicken with Proscuitto Fig Sauce
Stir-fried Haricot Verts
BBQ Glazed Salmon
Sauteed Chopped Veggies
Balsamic Braised Shortribs
Grilled Mexican Corn
Mexican Tortilla Casserole
Peppered Pork Loin with Creamy Cheddar Grits
Chicken Spaghetti

Hope everyone has a great day today!

xoxo chef a

Drumroll Please....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It's a GIRL!

No name yet but we are working on it...

Just wanted to let you all know!

xoxo chef a

The "Golden Brown" Menu

On the IPOD "Feels Like Home" By: Edwina Hayes

Well first off I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and for those of you who get to take today off...I'm so jealous! I instead am doubling up my day today because I have a doctors appointment right in the middle of the day tomorrow.

I have to go on a rant today and I have to be honest and tell you that the hardest part of my job comes in the form of two requests. The first one I don't even have to explain to you..."Can you make me a really healthy, low fat, low calorie, low sugar version of _____ that tastes exactly like the original????" For the record I'm a chef not a magician! The second one is a tad bit more difficult, "I have three kids ages 6, 8, and 10 and I need you to cook healthy food for them that they will eat because all they will eat is junk!"

Unfortunately this is probably the most difficult... This is not your kids problem... it's yours and if you are smart you will try to change your ways now. We are lazy as a society. Our ancestors fought so hard for us to have freedom of choice but we hardly ever use it. How many times in the last year have you ordered your child a kids meal? I mean you're sitting in a great restaurant with lots of choices but your 5 year old in eating chicken nuggets (that the restaurant brings in frozen), Mac and cheese (that is being sold to the restaurants in premade cups that you just throw in the microwave), or a wonderfully processed hot dog. It is so easy to forget that when we were kids there were by far less options. Most of the time in a restaurant our parents ordered off the regular menu and we either shared with them or with each other.

I was lucky. I grew up in a home where my mom cooked every night. And she didn't cook two meals one for us and one for the adults, it was one meal and we hopefully chose to try it. Kids will never learn to try new foods if we continue to serve them the same foods all day long! They are growing up unaware of what real food looks like. They think it comes in a box with heating instructions! I actually had a child say to me two weeks ago that she only likes the apples that come already sliced in a bag. Are you kidding me? I remember losing teeth in the side of an apple! We are creating a society without taste buds. I have yet to open a freezer and not see some form of chicken nugget whether organic, all natural, or all processed. It is still a chicken nugget!

I remember having large family shabbat dinners on Friday nights. The menu was always the same:
Salad
Baked Chicken
Roasted Brisket with carrots and potatoes
Some sort of Green vegetable of the day
And little tiny rolls with poppyseeds on top

The Shabbat dinner I catered last week...the client brought in kids menu from a local restaurant:
Chicken Strips
French Fries
Onion Strings
and pasta with butter

(I saw at least 10 adults eating the kids menu as opposed to the by far healthier and better tasting adult menu)

What is wrong with this picture???? Kids food has turned into it's own food group, "Golden Brown"! I would say the funniest comment I've heard recently is when a child was home from camp one day and she asked me before she left, "Do you think you'll still be cooking when I get home?" My response was, "Most likely, Ive got lots to cook today." She followed up by saying, "Wow, I thought it only took 10 minutes to cook food!"

I'm not trying to be hard on you or even tell you that your child should never eat a chicken nugget again, but I think in general parents are frustrated because they want their kids to be healthier but when kids menus are shoved in your face everyday, and you are tired and stressed out and working too much, it is just easier to order off the "golden brown" menu than it is to argue over broccoli. Unfortunately the difference in generations is that we got chicken nuggets, french fries, and onion rings as a treat. That's why we still get excited sneaking food off the kids table. But for children today it is not a treat, it's just dinner...everyday! So I guess my chef advise is to stop ordering off the kids menu... start allowing your kids to experience real food so that one day when they are on a date thay actually know how to cut their own food and they don't ask for dipping sauce on the side! :)
xoxo chef a

Bounce

On the IPOD "Party in the U.S.A." by: Miley Cyrus
(We listened to this song numerous times today)

I'm going to start off by saying that when I started to write my post tonight this is the story I told...but while driving home I realized that I have something much more introspective to write about today. I started to add it to this post but I really felt like it needed its own and I didn't want my precious time with my nieces and nephew to take a back seat to something so raw. So it is very possible that I will post two entries within hours of each other...

To say that I am tired does not really give you a full description of my day. After a little bit of work this morning I picked up my nieces and nephew for a fun filled day with Aunt Amanda... We grabbed a quick lunch (I had a turkey burger with half or a whole wheat bun, lots of veggies and spicy mustard) and then headed to "Bounce U" (an indoor kids playground that has huge inflatables like an obstacle course, boxing rink, tower slide, basketball, and a dodge ball court.) Running the obstacle course 6times with young kids is extremely fun until its 11:00pm and your arms and legs are covered with ice packs...I should have caught on when all the mothers were sitting to the side reading magazines (BTW I hope I will never give up the chance to run around with my kids in exchange for a magazine article...) After we bounced for an hour and a half, I took them to an old-fashioned penny candy store and gave them each $5 to spend however they wished...Hey I'm an aunt it was either a candy store or Toys R Us! It is slightly amazing that it took everybody a solid hour to figure out how to spend their $5... What a great day!

Client Menu for Tomorrow

Arugula Salad with Parmesan, Pinenuts, and Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
Linguini Pomodoro with Grilled Vegetables
Falafel with Cucumber Tomato Salad, Hummus, Tahini, and Pita
Spicy Red Snapper Tacos with
Corn and Pepper Relish, Shredded Cabbage and Chipotle Aioli
Chopped Spring Salad with Balsamic Drizzle
Pan Seared Pork Chops Au Jus
Sweet Corn Pudding
Fresh Snap Peas
Horseradish Crusted Beef Tenderloin
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

xoxo chef a