Stuff

• It's definitely fall, y'all! This whole week it's not going to get above 60 here. The leaves are peaking in their glorious fall garb, and it snowed in northern New England today. This means that it's soup weather. Which means that the ready-made broths are on sale at the grocery store, and there are lots coupons out in the Sunday paper, too. And that means that I have like six boxes of chicken broth in my pantry, and I'm sure there will be more before all is said and done. (I'm stocking up on stock . . . hee hee.) And I am sure I will use them all. I love making soup.
• Noah and I saw not one, but two trains today. Oh my goodness, it was a red-letter day.
• It was also a red-letter day because we went to Chick-fil-A. If you doubt our allegiance to this wonderful establishment, you might check out the Ode to Chick-fil-A I wrote a couple of years ago.
• Nathan is leaving soon to go on a couple of job interviews. Getting his research ready to do some talks (part of the interview process) has been a horrible, yucky mess, through no fault of his own. So we would definitely appreciate prayers 1.) for the research to be completed TODAY in a form that he will be proud to present; 2.) for the talks to go well and that Nathan has enough time to plan them to his satisfaction; 3.) for for everything to come together smoothly for him in the next day and a half; 4.) for Noah and I to do okay while Nathan is out of town; and 5.) that the interviews go well and we get some job offers on the table!
  

The Boy Does Love Trains.

This afternoon, we took an impromptu jaunt to the Oktoberfest in Harvard Square. This year, we saw a sign for train rides, and we knew immediately that we would HAVE to do it. Noah loves trains, after all. I hear "choo choo" at least a couple dozen times a day. In fact, yesterday we actually saw the commuter rail coming into our town, and I made a quick U-turn to drive by the station in time to see it loading and unloading the passengers. It was the highlight of Noah's day, and every time I reminded him of it that evening, he sucked in his breath as if speaking about something awe-inspiring. It's cute.

Anyway, so we kept a sharp eye out for the train to arrive back at the sign, and sure enough, after a few minutes, it showed up.

Noah and me, waiting for the ride to begin:

The whole time, Noah didn't act terribly excited. I thought this was a little strange, considering his enthusiasm for trains. I kept telling him that now we'll know what it's like to ride in a train when we watch Thomas, I hummed along with the Thomas & Friends theme song when it came on, and I just generally tried to get him excited about riding on the train. But he didn't really react; he just sat there and rode quietly.

But boy, when we had to get off--that's when the drama began. I literally had to drag him off kicking and screaming. I gotta say, it can't be a pretty sight to see a pregnant woman carrying a kicking toddler. Anyway, it turned out that he loved the train ride. He talked about that five-minute ride all night long. It's kind of funny, but he has that reaction to swinging, too--you can't really tell at the time whether or not he's enjoying it, but if you stop, he makes it clear that he wants to keep going.

Anyway, that train ride had to be the highlight of his weekend. :)

New Noah Stuff

Hey peeps,

Here are new some things that Noah is up to.

• The other day, Nathan put Noah's little red hat on, and the kid did not take it off all day long. If it got crooked, he whined until I fixed it or he fixed it, himself. (Evidently, Noah has inherited Nathan's need to wear his hat perfectly.) It got a little ridiculous, though, when not only would he not remove his hat for his nap, but he got super cranky because it wouldn't stay on straight while he snuggled up with me to rock. Eventually, after he fell asleep, I took it off, but he put it back on as soon as nap was over and wore it until bedtime.
• Now that the days are getting shorter, Noah goes to bed after it gets dark outside (at the peak of summer, it gets dark after 9pm; on the shortest winter days, it gets dark around 4:30). It's the first time he's noticed what "night" is, and now he delights in telling us when it is night. We are trying to teach him that when you turn the light off in a room, it's not necessarily nighttime. :)
• His hair is really starting to come in. Yay! I hope for my little girl's sake that she gets hair a little sooner than Noah has.
  
• Nathan is trying to teach Noah what it means to close his eyes, but so far the results are really funny. Noah just ends up kind of smiling in order to squint his eyes. It's so funny:

Spiced Green Beans with Tomato Sauce

My friend and college roomie, Sarah, is a quarter Lebanese, and her family always prepares a huge Lebanese feast for Thanksgiving (and I am always jealous that I'm not there to eat it!). Sarah's mom invented a quickie version of a veggie side dish: green beans in tomato sauce, with cinnamon for an exotic touch.

I used to make it with cinnamon, but about a year ago, I discovered another spice that I like better in this dish: ground coriander. Oh my goodness. Is it ever good. I like it better than the cinnamon because although it is still kind of sweet, it also has a savory aspect to it (smokiness?), which I think keeps it from making the beans taste a little confused.

I love this recipe. The tomato sauce and onion deepen the savory flavors, and the coriander makes it delectable and a bit exotic. Plus, it is so incredibly simple and easy to make. The funny thing is, as I was thinking about what I should tell you about it, I realized that I have no idea what to tell you to serve it with, because I never get that far. I always just eat it alone. Lately, I've been making it for lunch. And bonus: it costs less than $2 to make.

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Spiced Green Beans with Tomato Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can French style green beans, drained
4 oz. tomato sauce (half of a small can)
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until the onion is tender, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the green beans, tomato sauce, coriander, and salt. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, until everything is heated through. Enjoy!

Artichoke Chicken

A while back, our friends Jeremy and Julia had us over for dinner. Julia cooked this awesome dish she called Artichoke Chicken, and before we left, I asked her to write down the recipe for me. The thing is, I haven't really made this dish a lot, because, unfortunately for me, Nathan doesn't really like artichokes.

However, I adore artichokes. It's one of those items that I relish ordering when we're out, because I so rarely eat them at home. So one day, after having gone through my recipe box looking for some inspiration, I decided I was dadgum going to make the artichoke chicken, regardless of the fact that Nathan didn't really care for the star ingredient. I figured he could just pick the artichoke hearts out.

So a couple of months ago, I made this recipe, and probably the best thing that came out of that dinner was that Nathan announced that he liked artichokes, after all. This lovely dish converted him. After tweaking the recipe to Laurenize it, I made it again last night, and oh my. It is so yummy.

I should tell you that part of my tweaking involved doubling the amount of artichokes, lemon, and white wine called for. Actually, I'm wondering if that might have something to do with my altered pregnancy taste buds. Although I guess Nathan would tell me if there was overkill in one category or another.

In any case, this recipe is so good. It's on the tart and salty side because of the artichokes, but I love that. I even think that it'd be good with a few capers thrown in.

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Artichoke Chicken

1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 chicken breasts (thin--I pound mind a bit to even them out and make them thin enough to cook quickly)
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 oz. sun-dried tomatoes
2 cans quartered artichoke hearts
1 lemon

Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Dip chicken in the flour mixture to coat. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and sauté for 3-4 minutes per side.

Add the wine, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichokes to the pan. Squeeze the lemon over the chicken and cook for 2-4 more minutes.

(I actually have to do the whole thing in two batches because I don't have a pan big enough to accommodate all the chicken. It still comes out great. Just do whatcha gotta do.)

Serve with buttered pasta. I also serve it with a green veggie, such as peas.

Family Pic

A few weeks ago, we attended a cookout for Nathan's department in Manchester-by-the-Sea. It's a quaint, charming little town. Nathan's advisor lives there, and we've been there on a few occasions, including about a year ago, when Nathan's advisor invited all of his students out on his boat to go lobstering.

Anyway, I just thought this was a nice picture . . . or would be, if Noah were smiling. :) Oh well. He was too busy eating a piece of popcorn. Actually, this is a better photo than the other one we took, in which his popcorn was sticking out the side of his mouth, making him look totally bucktoothed. It is funny.

And don't you like his little rancher jacket? Nathan and I think it's super cute. Actually, Nathan has made it known that he would like one just like it.

Baby B2

These images are not nearly as clear as the ones they took of Noah. Apparently Little Girl was turning her head back and forth, and it was hard to get a clear shot. I remember that Noah was sleeping through half of his ultrasound, because we saw him arch his back and sort of stretch when he woke up. :) This baby was awake and moving the whole time, though.