Merry Christmas!

December, although mostly undocumented thus far, has been a wonderful month for us. I finally finished up a class for which I was a TA. I have to say, as much time as this class took, I do love the process of seeing students transform from engineers to entrepreneurs in the course of a single quarter.

As classes wrapped up and the holiday break began, we had a moment to really enjoy Abby. In the week following Abby's birthday, Abby went from single unsteady steps to running. I used to hold onto this notion that Abby actually enjoyed our company but with this newfound independence, she is proving to us time and time again that we are the uncool parents we thought we would be in about 10 years. Sometimes, we test exactly how independent she is by taking her to a crowded mall during pre-Christmas sales and watch as she exits stores on her own and startle other oncoming (and perhaps more attentive and wary) parents. Using this extraordinarily scientific method, we have determined that although Abby is quite independent, she does return to us after some meandering - perhaps for some food, drink or because she has really tired legs.



We began our Christmas tradition of taking Abby to see Santa Claus. Obviously, Abby had some seriously misgivings about her behavior this year and begged for forgiveness as she was being held by Santa.



Aside from her brief melt down with Santa, Abby has been in generally very high spirits. We have to say we are very blessed to have a happy baby on our hands with a very good disposition. This doesn't mean that she is obedient, quiet, or sleeps well but she is happy as she is getting into lots of trouble. This is Abby enjoying time at the park on the swings:


We kept Christmas pretty low key this year because, as we like to say, everyday is Christmas for Abby. Honestly, we have way too much stuff - baby stuff - in our cramped apartment to take anymore. Besides, her idea of a good time is to take empty plastic bottles and bang them together to create noise. No need for electronic gadgets. On the other hand, every day is not Christmas for me or Albert so we rewarded each other with gifts which we will return tomorrow for something we like more.

We did, however, use Christmas eve as an excuse for an unbelievable feast. We didn't eat a lot of turkey for Thanksgiving so we used this as an excuse to eat a 15 pound bird between 5 of us (my parents and us). I am now a convert to dry brining. The bird came out juicy and wonderfully tasty. Our recipe for our turkey follows:


For a 15 pound bird I did the following:

Ingredients for Dry Brining:
1/3 cups of sea salt
6 tsps of poultry seasoning
4 leaves of bay leaves crushed

Instructions for Dry Brining:
I took the giblets, neck, etc. out of the turkey and dried the bird with some paper towels. I then rubbed down (inside and out) the entire bird with the dry brining concoction described above. I put the bird on a rack on top of the roasting pan for 15 hours (1 hour per pound). I then rinsed the bird off and carefully pat dry the bird with more paper towels.

Ingredients for stuffing:
3-4 tbsp poultry seasoning
3/4 stick of butter
1.5 loaves of Challah bread
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb of chestnuts (boiled for 20 minutes and peeled of skin and chopped)
2 onions diced
giblets

1 day in advance cut the bread into small squares (if not enough time, cut and put in oven at 250 degrees for 20-30 minutes until dry). Melt the butter in a pan and sautee the onions and giblets until the onions are tender. Add bread and poultry seasoning and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep mixing until the poultry seasoning has coated the stuffing evenly. Put into turkey and put remaining stuffing in a pan, cover with some chicken broth and put in oven to heat 20 minutes before dinner.

Preparation of turkey:
There is no need to salt the turkey because of the dry brining. I do, however, poke the turkey with a fork and separate out the top skin from the breast and stick in some butter. I covered the turkey with butter. I placed the turkey back on the rack and roasted at 375 degrees for 4-4.5 hours. I covered the turkey with an aluminum foil tent for the first 3.5-4 hours. I took off for the last half hour to brown the skin. I also put in some water and chicken broth into the roasting pan to keep moisture in the oven. I used this to baste the turkey every 30 minutes starting at hour 2.

Red roses and such

Happy Valentine's Day!

Albert and I are on a gift-giving hiatus (what do you get for two people who already have too much stuff?) so we chose to stay in with Abby and make a nice dinner. Of course, Albert broke the rule and got some roses (purportedly after he haggled with some street vendors in Spanish). It made me feel like we were back in the days when he was actively courting me and Albert routinely broke those rules.

Al's Valentines

For Valentine's I decided to go with a beet salad in a balsamic glaze and an Afghani lamb dish called Qabili Pallau which we've had a couple of restaurants but never at home.

Our Valentine's Feast

Here are the recipes:

Beet Salad

2 medium sized red (and/or yellow) beets
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tsp brown sugar
olive oil

Drizzle the cleaned beets in olive oil. Wrap completely in aluminum foil and place in oven for 1-1.5 hours (until it can be pierced easily all the way through). Take the balsamic vineger and brown sugar and heat. Stir to completely melt the brown sugar and bring to a rapid boil. Keep stirring for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon. Slice up beets and mix into the balsamic glaze. Serve with some greens

Qabili Pallau

2 cups basmati rice
1 medium onion
olive oil
1.5 lbs lamb shank
2-3 large carrots
1 cup golden sultana raisins
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cardamom
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp saffron
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Brown the diced onion in oil until brown. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides.

Add 2 cups of water, 1 tsp. salt and the cinamon, cumin and cardamom. Cover and simmer until the meat is tender (about an hour). Remembering to keep the meat juice, strain out the meat and onions and set aside in a casserole with a cover.

Cut the carrots into match stick size pieces. Saute carrots in oil with 1 tsp of sugar. Cook until the carrots are lightly browned. Remove the carrots from the oil and add the raisins. Cook them until they swell up.

Boil the meeat juice and about 2 cups of water. Add 2 cups of basmati rice, 1.5 tsp of salt and cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Finally, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix the meat, carrots, raisins and rice together and place into the casserole. Cover and place in oven for 30 minutes.

Fajitas para me

My heart goes out to diabetics everywhere. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a couple of weeks ago which hopefully means I only deal with this condition for another two months. Then it's back to full on gluttony with respect to chocolate dipped ice cream, french fries, and white bread.

We've been trying out a bunch of different foods just to see how it affects me versus him. I was saddened to see that the In 'n Out double-double (despite the reassurances of my dietician) caused my blood sugar to go above the desired 130 limit. Albert's blood sugar had already self-regulated down to a 93... and he had had the whole plate of fries with ketchup.

Still, there are lots of things I can eat that are quite tasty. My favorite so far has been our version of the fajitas so here is the recipe:

Chicken Fajitas for the Diabetic who loves to eat

1 whole wheat tortilla
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 purple onion
1 chicken breast
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/2 avocado
bunch of cilantro
salsa (as much as you want - go crazy because this barely has any carbs)

Cut the chicken, onion, and peppers. First sautee the chicken. Salt to taste and add course ground pepper. When the chicken has almost fully cooked, add the onion and peppers. Continue to sautee until the the onions are fully cooked and slightly translucent. On a separate frying pan, heat the tortilla and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the tortilla. Warm until the cheese has melted. Slice the avocado. Over the tortilla, add the chicken, onion and peppers. Add the sliced avocado, cilantro and salsa and you are ready to eat!

These fajitas were tasty and kept my blood sugar level fairly low. It should be pretty healthy as it's not too high in fat (except for the cheese). I'll keep adding recipes that end up working for me!