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January 22, 2008

Single mom

OK, not really. But Jeff's been gone an AWFUL lot lately. He was in Alaska for two weeks in December, and then in January so far, he's spent two weeks in Seattle - flying home in the middle just for Linna's birthday - and now a week in California.

It's actually not as hard as I anticipated. The two weeks in December WERE hard, partly because there was so much I felt I should be doing to get ready for the holidays. But I feel like now I have a sort of a rhythm with the kids (with Ethan especially, who's more challenging than Linna right now), and I lower my expectations in terms of cooking and doing anything else.

There are a few perks, too - I get to be totally in charge, for one. I guess that's a disadvantage, too. And I don't need to cook as well - Ethan is easily satisfied with things like noodles with butter and cheese, easy burritos, miso soup and rice. And I can just eat leftovers from lunch. I do still put some effort into lunch, but I can cook things that Jeff wouldn't like - butternut squash, for example. And he gets cranky with all the vegetarian meals, but of course our vegefishian nannies like it just fine. I even made a beet salad last week - yummy. Plus I made a salad from my new Cafe Flora cookbook (on sale at Powell's), with spiced nuts and pears warmed in an orange vinaigrette. Kaya really liked it, and Ethan chomped the extra nuts later. Oh, and then last night I made this Dutch potato soup from the book - beer and cheese in it too. Yummmmy. Ethan loved it, and Jeff liked it OK (or at least that's what he said - I think he's learned to be a little cautious in his comments on my cooking), and Mandy liked it but found it sleep-inducing.

Anyway, my main point was about being on my own... having to do it maybe got me a little more in tune with Ethan, a little better able to be patient, and set things up so it's smooth. When Jeff is around I sometimes get into this mode of wanting him to rescue me if things are difficult, and then when he's not here, I have to handle it myself. And then I realized that for the most part, I can handle it fine. Yeah, I know - there are plenty of moms who do all the child-watching most of the time anyway. But I'm not one of them, and frankly I am one of those people who needs peaceful time to recharge. Not that I get a lot of it anyway, but I do get moments here and there.

Posted by ktingey at 05:51 AM | Comments (6)

January 14, 2008

I want to be a soup master...

Sadly, it would be difficult around here, as Jeff is something of a soup snob (to put it mildly), and also he does not look kindly on soups without MEAT, or at least meaty broth. And yet, last night I managed to make a crab chowder that pleased everyone. I was proud. I was highly determined to make a good one (my last two attempts have been so-so), and so I pulled out all the stops - it had prosciutto, and heavy cream, and better crab than usual, lots of it. Plus a lot of corn.

Anyway, here's more or less what it was, for posterity:

I sauteed 1/2 a chopped onion and 3 cloves minced garlic in 2 tbs butter. Then after a bit I added about 1 oz chopped prosciutto and 1 small gold potato, chopped into about 1/2-in cubes. Not peeled. Then I added a bay leaf, maybe 1 cup of veggie broth, and enough water to cover everything nicely. I let that cook whilst I roasted 1/2 a package of frozen white corn in a 400-degree oven. When everything was more or less cooked (15 minutes, maybe?), I added the corn in and then used the handy immersion blender to partially puree the lot. Then I added some heavy cream... I think it was about 1/2 cup, perhaps a bit more. And turned the heat down. I used canned crab, but refrigerated canned crab from Trader Joe's - it was a big can of premium claw meat, not sure how much there was. I sauteed that in butter just to warm it up, and then had to slap Jeff's hands away from it because he wanted to eat it. Finally, I added the crab, plus a little salt and pepper (I tend to under-salt things. We all added pepper at the table).

And EVERYONE loved it.

Posted by ktingey at 07:16 PM | Comments (6)