Happy December! - December 2012

Happy first birthday, Scout!

She certainly does love her tongue!

We’ve been hearing about McKool Smith’s holiday party since Mario was a summer associate. The firm flies everyone (EVERYONE - associates, secretaries, important clients) from all of their offices to Dallas and puts everyone up in a hotel overnight. The party is at a large mansion in downtown Dallas. It’s a pretty big deal. So there was no way we were going to miss it. We flew my mom out for the weekend to watch the kids while we were gone overnight.
Fortunately we got to bring her in a day before so she could celebrate Scout’s first birthday with us. The poor little munchkin was sick again (again, still, who knows. She’s been constantly sick since we got here.), so she wasn’t very interested in her birthday breakfast donut, her birthday lunch corndog, or her chocolate cake. We got her some assorted balls for her birthday - since she started walking one of her favorite things to do is carry balls around. Actually, she likes to carry everything around, and the bigger the better. She’s our little weightlifter. And it’s remarkable what she can lift.
 

She picked up that box.

The next day Mario and I headed out for our night away. We flew in a few hours early to have some time together. It was lovely to just hang out and walk around a little. I had been dieting hard for months with this party in mind. I had been putting my outfit together for weeks, and I spent part of that morning at a waxing salon and three hours in our hotel room curling my hair and whatnot. Mario threw one of his suits on five minutes before we walked out the door. And he probably looked better than I did. I’m sure he was infinitely more comfortable - I’m not accustomed to walking or standing for three hours in 5-inch heels. The food was a huge letdown (especially since I had been dieting for so long), but we spent the evening gambling with fake money, enjoying endless (albeit mediocre) food, good company, and the best DJs ever. They played everything from Metallica to Frank Sinatra. They even had party-starters - a dance troupe was there so there wouldn’t only be more-than-slightly-tipsy legal assistants on the dance floor.
In short, it was the best party this girl has been to! And kind of the only party . . . but whatever, it was great! We came home to find a very tired Yaya who had been given a run for her money the night before by a certain little one-year-old. 

We spent the rest of our hot December (yes, it was hot, and not just compared to the rest of the normal northern world. Our air conditioning kicked on while we were decorating our tree. We went for a walk Christmas morning in shorts and t-shirts - but that comes later. HOT.) trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We splurged and got a real tree, and I’m so glad we did. There is nothing like the smell of a happy little Christmas tree, and we know something about the smell of happy trees being from Oregon and all. In fact, my dad moonlighted as a lumberjack during his PhD and MD school years (I know, he is one amazing guy. Doctor, lumberjack, mechanic, bread baker, awesome. Just ask me. I’ll tell you how amazing he is.). I am more than familiar with the lovely smell of lovely trees. And ours is a very happy little Christmas tree. 
 
One of the things we love about Austin is how many different activities there are. At Christmas time they have something called the Trail of Lights. It's a huge lights display (for free!) in one of the city parks and it was awesome. The kids especially loved the light sticks we bought for them on our way in.









Josh got really, really excited about Christmas this year. He was totally obsessed with “Jingle Bells.” He wanted me to sing Jingle Bells all day long. At first it was just Jingle Bells. Then he wanted me to sing Jingle Bells like a lion, then a hippo, then the entire cast of animals from Polar Bear Polar Bear, his current favorite book. He also was stoked about the whole Santa thing - flying reindeer, Ho Ho Ho (and yes, I did have to sing Jingle Bells as Santa and his reindeer also), and presents. 

Decorating our gingerbread train (thanks, YaYa!)

The last day of school they were having a pajama party, so Josh got to wear whatever pjs he wanted. He chose his Halloween skeleton ones. And when he got home from school he asked me to make him a reindeer hat. And then he wanted Scout to wear one too.

 











My mom got to join us for Christmas, and we absolutely loved having her visit twice in such quick succession. We got to do a lot of fun stuff - we made sugar cookies, visited McKinney Falls again, and generally had a great time.

I see you!

 
 








We had a fun Christmas morning. The kids got some great toys and so did we!

It's a hit!

I love Thanksgiving for the food and the idea of a holiday devoted just to being grateful. But Christmas is fun because we don’t have a “traditional” Christmas dinner - we just pick something we think will be spectacular. Our first Christmas on our own in Boston we made prime rib and sushi.

My pork roulade.

This year, I invented a pork roulade. And it was pretty darn amazing. I took a butterflied pork loin and stuffed it with a mixture of dried cherries, caramelized onions, mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, celery, parmesan, and shallots. Mario whipped up a lovely pan sauce using the meat drippings, red wine, and cherry brandy. We served it with au gratin potatoes, brussels sprouts, and sweet fennel chips.

Christmas dinner.

For dessert, I finally made my first buche de noel. I’ve wanted to make one for years, and it didn’t disappoint! I made a flourless chocolate roll cake and filled it with vanilla bean-steeped whipped cream folded into homemade creme fraiche and cream cheese. I frosted it with whipped bittersweet ganache and served it with a raspberry sauce. I think we found a winner, folks!

Buche de Noel. Can't wait to do another one next year!

We spent a few more great days with Yaya before she had to go home again and spent our New Year in classic Apreotesi fashion - in bed by 10:30! 

And here's a few fun pics of the kids. The leaves do in fact fall here, but not until December.


 
 
 

Hot Turkey! - November 2012

Playing at the water park in November.

November was decidedly odd. It was very hot, hot enough we would take walks down to the fountain park on the waterfront. In November. Did I mention it was November?

Josh and Mirabel at the zoo.

Anyway, November was hot and fun. We had Groupon tickets to go to the zoo with the Ancers, but Scout was running a fever of 104, so I suggested Mario and Josh have a playdate with Jose and Mirabel. As Josh is currently wild about lions and assorted safari animals, he was over the moon about seeing a real lion.

Josh seeing his first real lion (that he can remember, at least)

We had a very quiet Thanksgiving. We had plans to have dinner with the Ancers, but Josh came home from school with a bad cold and Scout was sick again, so we exchanged food with them (as we were each cooking half the meal) and ended up enjoying Thanksgiving separately.

We took advantage of two partial days off for Mario (he often (read: almost always) works a few hours from home on holidays while the kids are sleeping) to visit two more local state parks.

Pedernales Falls State Park

 










The first was Pedernales Falls State Park. We went in November, so there weren’t many “falls,” and it was crawling with people, but it was quite beautiful. It was a series of large pools linked by small streams of water, with evidence of some pretty strong currents in the past. 

Son of a!

 

 

McKinney Falls State Park

The next day we visited McKinney Falls State Park, which is only 20 minutes from our house. I’ll admit I was pretty shocked that a place like this is only 15 minutes from downtown Austin. The pools were beautiful and very intriguing. 










Scout started walking the first week of November. She had taken lots of isolated steps before then, but she put all the pieces together and was off like a rocket! I guess it helped that she had someone to chase!

A Sweaty Halloween! - October 2012

We are very fortunate that we ended up in the same city as some great friends from law school. We met Sophie and Jose at Thanksgiving our first year in Boston. Sophie and I saw each other pretty regularly at our Harvard Widows nights (where all of us semi-abandoned wives would get together to watch movies or just hang out), and when her daughter Mirabel was born we had playgroups together too. (By the way, Sophie is an AMAZING gluten-free baker and keeps up two beautiful blogs - one about her lovely family and one about her lovely baking.) We discovered that they are fellow foodies and shared some pretty awesome food. After a few years getting beat up in the job search, Mario asked Jose what the market looked like here in Austin. Jose did such a great job selling us on the area that Mario thought he’d give it one more shot. And that’s part of why we ended up here! Anyway, they invited us to go visit a pumpkin patch the day after ACL. Thankfully, Josh and Mirabel are just opposite enough that they have a ball together.
 

Josh's lion, followed by a hippo, a giraffe, and a zebra.

We carved pumpkins, as always. Josh told Mario what animals he wanted on his pumpkin; I think Mario did an amazing job. 

Josh actually got two pumpkins this year - I did this Iron Man one for him trying to get him excited about his costume.

 

Scout's pumpkin - with her two lonely little teeth.

Here’s Scout’s pumpkin. And mine.
 










 
The weekend before Halloween we visited a sort-of-nearby “State Natural Area” (what does that even mean?) called Enchanted Rock. It was beautiful and we can’t wait to go back and actually get to hike the dome. Scout wouldn’t stop crying in the front pack and Josh refused to walk more than ten yards at a time, so we gave up and found some water for Josh to throw rocks in while we tried to keep Scout from eating said rocks. 










 


Halloween was fun, but I’m excited for Josh to get enough better with his talking that we can actually one day have a real conversation, like, say, about what he would like to be for Halloween. That way I won’t have to guess, then buy, then have second thoughts, then rent three movies to try to get him excited about what it is I think he said he wanted to be for a holiday I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand. He was thrilled to get to wear it to school and walk in the costume parade, though, and then thrilled again to get to use it to get lots of candy. I actually tried to get him an animal costume, namely a lion or an elephant which were his current favorites, but I got totally hosed. Mario amped up Josh’s costume when we went out trick-or-treating, though. He put one of our camping headlamps around Josh’s chest so it would shine through the chest piece on his Iron Man costume. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

We were going for a theme here, can you tell? That’s just about the cutest hulk I’ve ever seen (sorry, Mark Ruffalo).
 
Mia was still pretty sick, so she and I stayed home to finish making dessert and snuggle while Josh and Mario did more trick-or-treating with the Ancers. And he didn’t take one single photo, dang it, so you’ll just have to imagine!

My mom does so many things well, and one of those things is make bread. She made all of the bread we ate for the lean years of our childhood. In fact, we used to request “bread that folds,” meaning plain, white, store-bought bread, because we ate homemade bread so much and that, of course, does not fold (as in making-a-half-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich fold). Anyway, I’ve never found a better cinnamon roll than my mom’s, fresh out of the oven with cream cheese frosting. And one of my most favorite bread traditions in my family was Halloween donut parties. In honor of my amazing mother and her out-of-this-world homemade donuts, I gave it a shot. I’ve attempted donuts before, but this time instead of trying to work my mom’s magic with my mom’s dough (which I apparently am just not talented enough to do), I tried Alton Brown’s yeast doughnut recipe (note: I used unsalted butter instead of shortening). It was phenomenal. As my mom has taught me, the mark of a really good donut is that little white ring around the middle - it means you didn’t overwork your risen dough, you developed your gluten sufficiently, you didn’t kill your yeast, and you fried them at the right temperature so the dough could continue rising even during frying. And lookie what I got here!! I took a picture of it then and there and sent it to my mom. 

I made some super-dark chocolate glaze and (a la Flying Pig from Gourdough’s) a sweet maple glaze topped with crispy bacon. Heaven.

 


It was odd to worry about the kids overheating in their Halloween costumes. Last Halloween, Josh had just gotten his leg cast off and it was 7 degrees outside. This year I think it was in the high 80s, maybe low 90s. Good times.