Potatoes, Sausage & Greens Redux: HASH.

so i'm trying to get quicker / smarter about nutritious whole foods cooking utilizing all our good CSA produce and the time and resources i've got on hand. so i've been catching some 30 minute meals segments during nursing to nap time to inspire. and though i know others find RR hopelessly perky and too girl next door, i really like that about her. i dig her.

based on something i saw earlier in the week, i did a lovely breakfast for us today that could serve for any meal of the day. and the baby child LOVED it. he chowed down. My Beloved Mister enjoyed, too. with good strong french roast, whole grain toast w/ apricot spread and juice, this was a family-happy meal.


Hopelessly Good and Good for you Hash

EVOO
6 - 8 smallish potatoes diced smallish (cubes)
1/2 onion chopped coarsely
1 bell pepper (green and red)
1/2 lb smoked sausage link, diced
1 T minced garlic
black pepper
sea salt
parsley
1 bunch arugala, tatsoi, spinach or other green, cleaned and chopped

fried eggs


Sautee all your diced veggies in EVOO until carmelized. Season w/ s & p and parsley. Add greens 'til wilted and take flame off / down.

Fry up some eggs.

Dish up hash, top w/ fried egg or two per serving. If you leave the eggs a little soft, it's especially wonderful, but you won't want runny eggs for the littlest people.

Terribly easy & fast fast fast. and GOOD.

I reckon you could use whatever veggies and meat you like. Rachael Ray used ham and other things in the version she made on 30 minute meals.

Potato & Sausage Chowder with Cool Weather Greens.

Especially now with a chill and crispness to the evening air, I do lots of soups and stews and chowders with what's fresh from our CSA and from the larder.

Here's what I came up w/ last night. Very quick. Very easy. Delish.
You can change up what you like or use more or less of what pleases your own family's tastes.

* If you're going to freeze this, it's best to leave the milk out and add that after thawing and heating through.



EVOO
1 med. onion roughly chopped
3 T minced garlic (use how much you like; we're bigtime garlic lovers here)
1 yellow or red bell, roughly chopped
1/2 lb smoked sausage link, roughly chopped (you can use whatever kind you like, including boca; I have oodles of what was on sale for $.50 per pound as the Mister loaded UP)
2 1/2 - 3 C potatoes, roughly chopped (cubes)
1 1/2 bunch collard greens, stemmed and chopped
1 1/2 bunch mustard greens, stemmed and chopped
1 paper carton chicken stock
16 oz. water
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 C half and half
black pepper (be generous)
parsley (again, generous)
sea salt (scant pinch for brightening)


Chop and saute onions, garlic, pepper, sausage and potatoes in EVOO until softened and on the way to browning up nicely. Clean greens really well (yes, you can use frozen or bagged clean and chopped if you prefer), chop and add to veggies. Add chicken stock and water. Bring to boil, cook 20 minutes. Just before serving, add milk and half and half. Heat through. Season w/ pepper, parsley and salt. Dish up and serve w/ crusty bread or cornbread.


I used the remainder of my greens to cook up a pot of greens and beans, one of our favorite high iron high nutritive yummies.

First Birthday Party.

The cake? Michele's recipe for carrot cake. She made it for our wedding cake. Daddy made this one; an extremely rare culinary venture (particularly with the baking.)
Ziggy had his very own to tear up and that, he did.
The face, the hands, the feet: all went in. Yum.

oh, I love love love this boy.

One year ago today: first meeting outside the womb.

Passionate kisses.

It's so funny to me when people who spend minimal time around my child comment on his temperment as if they know him well and have spent lots of uninterrupted time with him. Funny that people, especially those who have children of their own, think that they fully comprehend the complexities of a child whose personality hasn't even finished devoloping and revealing itself to his 24-7 care-giver, a highly attuned and attentive mother.

So it's strange and laughable and somehow slightly irritating when I hear, "Oh, he's so easy going," or "He's a good baby." (By the way: they're ALL good babies. As babies it isn't so much about BEHAVIOR as it is TEMPERMENT.)

Let me, for the record, go ahead and write it out: Ziggy is the perfect baby. And I am the perfect mother. We belong to each other and we are a just right fit. That's what I mean by perfect.

But why oh why is my Ziggy calling my name and fussing a bit in the living room and I am here in the office two rooms away typing?

Because the little man has TEETH. And he uses them. My high needs baby boy is, by all appearances, a wonderfully tempermented easy going baby when he's in a sling, at the breast, in mama's arms, getting what he wants. Now, he ALWAYS gets what he needs, but what he wants, is a something altogether different. His passions, like his mother, I'm afraid, run strong and deep. He can LOVE so hard: kisses, hugs, cuddles, sweet looks. But in the face of being removed from danger or redirected from potential problems? My Ziggy can be a hellion. He hits. He bites. He throws food like the best of the poo-flinging monkeys. He screams and pulls hair and shakes me and tells me "nononononnono." And when today, after nights and nights and nights of sleep interrupted every.single.hour I needed to rest my eyes, Ziggy protested a nap by biting my already battered and bruised nipples and forearms and neck and cheeks. The last chomp on my left breast did it.

As he thinks "No" a riot of hilarity, and redirection only adds fuel to his fire, I today have gently but directly carried him to the living room and set him down. I've gated him so he's contained in a safe area and taken this five minute time-out for mama to cool off.

So now, I will go and love on my boy, and help him gentle down to restfulness, as we both need it so very very badly.

Looking back....

Get Your Grizzly ON.

Okay, so maybe you didn't look at this. Please do.

Misfit Toy Clothing.

So after a very long time of not buying clothing and looking like a bit of a ragamuffin, I bought a small stable of staple fill in pieces. This was back in the Spring, but they were still, by my lame standards, considered my "new" and "good" clothes.

In the weeks and months that followed: a couple shirts got put into a bag on a trip to East Texas and got bleached. My favorite long gypsy kind of skirt shredded in the dryer, even though it was to've withstood the drying. My ample thighs rent the fabric in an unsewable way on my favorite all purpose wear everywhere heavy linen floods. I spilled coffee or salsa or curried squash soup or some such thing onto nearly every shirt I own, leaving behind (despite Oxyclean soaking) faint oily / colored stains....

And then last night the Mister dried and folded (thank you) my and Ziggy's clothing-- I'd laundered that load just before I nursed the very upset snuffley snouted baby down and fell asleep curled 'round him. I awoke (far too early, after far too many wakeful hours filled with miserable baby tears) to find that I'd really blown it by leaving my TerraTint healthfood-store lipgloss/balm in my jeans pocket. The entire load is now marred with blops of mineral tint and whatever moisture base the balm was based in. Zig's clothes aren't as bad, somehow, but my basic go everywhere linen skirt and my favorite all purpose "new" yoga pants and most-worn pair (of two) jeans? Awful.

All of which goes to say, when next you see me, do me a favor? Just pretend you don't notice my dry glossless lips and my torn, stained clothing. Or, for that matter, my ill fitting & falling apart nursing bras since I bought household organizational items and a rug for baby play with this year's panty and brassiere budget. Tell me instead how well the deep dark circles under my eyes set off the flashing color of my irises. You won't be lying.

Ziggy says, "Baby" when he sees this photograph.

Rows to hoe, sometimes hard.

Well, there was the car accident. Travel. One year molars making their active presence known. The struggle with finances, old cars, time management and balance. A computer crash, loss of materials, writer's block, late freelance work. There is continuing strife at home over old wounds and hard feelings between me and the Mister. There is a certain disquieting coolness I would not have guessed at in the early days. All calls for vigilence, forgiveness, softening and the willingness to let go of the parts that just aren't working.

There are the two new mama jobs n(fantastic for so many reasons), and yet new challenges to mount, obstacles to navigate. Ms. Booty Homemaker has added a pink collar to her well worn apron, now working for Attachment Parenting International --originally in the capacity of Director of Finance & Administration, now in redefinitio-- and-- in addition to and as outgrowth of local organizing-- as National Outreach Coordinator for Mothers Acting Up. The former has brought forth parenting / professional dilemas with regard to office time and Ziggy's unhappiness. Though I've had the great fortune to keep him with me all the time, the schedule changes, split mama focus, and restrictions have been unforseeably hard on him. Due to his misery and discomfort, today is a work at home day. I type right now as my tired, snuffly snouted cold ridden, teething, purple pump-knot on the head (received in a Sunday leap from the bed into the bedside bookcase) baby boy nurses and slumbers simultaneously.

There are growing pains for all of us. In recent weeks, Ziggy has taken his first steps, increased his vocabulary nearly by half, spoken his first sentence and been caught up in the frustration attendant to differentiation, change in routine and lack of ability to communicate in line with desire. All of which leads to angry hitting, biting, throwing of objects and ohhhhhhh, so many tears.

I'm flat out busted tired. Discouraged in part. Disheartened. Lonely.

And yet, I have the best of all possible reasons to stay focused. Motherhood and marriage are not for the weak and self indulgent.

Renewal will surely come. Balance and clarity, too.


Thank goodness it is nearly really Autumn, my most favored season, and the one I think of as the true beginning of a year, ripe with the harvest of reinvention.

Baby Legs.

These are the super cutest, and highly utile, too. Wren's mama, Em, gave Ziggy a pair as an early birthday gift. They look like this.

While I'm not all that keen on consumerist frenzy and having lots of gear to muck things up, Baby Legs are a clever and very fun looking solution to banged up knees, gaps in cool weather and work well with EC, diapering and toileting.

Strange Fruit.

For the twenty plus years that Mama Loca and Ms. Booty Homemaker have been the dearest of friends, there've been tales of the Loca Family-Nuclear Sunday suppers of peanut butter and crackers and ice cream.

I've always thought this sheer brilliance.

And for many years, a favorite snack recipe was shared, that only recently have I tried and found to be utterly wrong and delightful.

Here goes:

Make a few peanut butter & saltine cracker sandwiches. Set aside.

Dip up a bowl of rainbow sherbet.

Pile peanut butter cracker sandwiches on top of sherbet. Bust 'em up with a spoon.

Dig in.

FW: Mamas, find your strength and pass it on

September 2006

Mothers Acting Up Dear Paige La Grone, This Fall, as the air grows crisper, there is a feeling of possibility and renewed attention to purposeful work after the languid delight of summer holidays. What is the work of MAUs this Fall? To renew our commitment to nurture & protect the world’s children. Everywhere we look—nationally, internationally, environmentally—we see crisis and possibility. It’s time to find our strength and begin shaping policies to benefit children and create a healthy future for our global family. If this movie serves to fan the flames of your love & commitment, pass it on to 3 friends. Together, we are building a movement of mothers*, publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children. Invite everyone you know to join this magnificent revolution to honor the promise of our children’s lives. Send this to friends and family! Yours in spirited partnership, Joellen, Juliana, Beth, Jen Caltrider of Progress Now and the growing team of MAU mavens *mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller email: beheard@mothersactingup.org phone: (303)474-1286 web: http://www.mothersactingup.org

Nashville Mothers Acting Up

Chalk for Peace: Tomorrow!!

Nashville Mothers Acting Up