Tag Archives: food

The Most Unflattering Photos Ever

Posted on July 2, 2010 | 8 Comments

Before I get to the point of this post, let me just describe for you the scene in my bedroom.

Porpus just puked. Then she and Schween ate it. Now Porpus is bathing Schween in the sun. Enya is playing in the background and I am sitting on a birthing ball eating a popsicle. Something inexplicably smells like corn chips, but only I can smell it. I just looked through some old baby photos of myself that came the mail, which reminds me that there is a possibility that my child may be born with a reddish mohawk. Which would be kind of rad.

So about a million times a day, if I leave the house, I will be asked how I am doing. I’m not sure if people want the short answer or the real answer. Usually I just say, “good.” Sometimes “Meh.” or “Ehh.” IF they linger, or they are a good friend they will get the whole story, including the saga of my Shrek hands.

My hands and feet are in a terrible state. I was worried that I was going to go into the midwife this week to be told that my blood pressure was high. But all she said was to try drinking a ton of water (I do), and eat some watermelon and asparagus. But for the most part she just pitied me and said that life was likely to be horribly uncomfortable until after the birth. And also? My pelvic pain? Totally normal. Just my bones separating. Eegads.

So, asparagus and watermelon. That sounds pretty good. Since I hate complaining and not trying to do anything about the situation, I decided that I should look up some other foods that help with edema. I added tomatoes, celery, and grapefruit to the list. There are many more, but this is a good start.

And a pretty start at that:

One of these things just doesn't belong here, can you tell me which thing just doesn't belong...

LOOK at that hand. You are lucky no feet pictures are being uploaded. You would be puking along with my cats.

FAQ about the hands:

WHY are they like that? Because I am pregnant. And it is July. And they just are.
Does it hurt? Yes. Like arthritis in the joints and sort of like the skin will bust open at any moment. Like I have rubber bands around my wrists on a 110 degree day. I can’t open jars or make a fist.
High Five!?! No.

On the bright side of things, this baby is full term tomorrow, my bags are packed, and we are really excited. I am ready to be done, but trying not to get my hopes up for an early delivery. I just want to meet him so badly. GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT, LITTLE ONE.

22 days to go.

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Posted in Daily Picture, pregnancy

Tagged 37 weeks, 3rd trimester, Daily Picture, food, foods that counteract edema, photography, pregnancy, swelling during pregnancy, swollen hand

A Year Ago

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

One of the advantages of posting photos all over the internet, is the date and time stamp that goes with that habit. I’ve never been one to frame many photos at home, keep a scrapbook, or any type of photo album. But I have a Flickr account. And I have this place. It’s rad to be able to see what was going on exactly a year ago to the day. I imagine this online photo habit will be great for looking back on wee baby Boley when he is not so wee anymore.

On the night June 26th 2009, I was riding with two beautiful ladies in a rickshaw with a belly full of some of the best food I have ever eaten. We were in Austin Texas for the HOW Design Conference. What a trip.

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Posted in Daily Picture, dining, photography

Tagged austin texas, flickr, food, granola and fruit, memories, one year ago, photography, rickshaw, scrapbook, tomato salad

20 week Cantaloupe

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 3 Comments

We have reached the halfway point.

The point where the baby is compared to a cantaloupe.

This is also the week that we bought a car. Which is good. But it meant that I decided to go grocery shopping in person vs. the delivery service I have been using for a couple years. This is less good.

I have lost nearly all my skills in the grocery shopping department, so it took me about 10 hours and a million dollars. And I failed to get any ingredients to make this cantaloupe into something special. Hours later, I found out that if you wrap it in prosciutto, it becomes fabulous. Grocery fail.

I also fail at throwing and catching cantaloupes with one hand. Frame three shows an injury that occurred as a result of my poor hand/melon coordination. But I recovered without any lasting damage.

So as I mentioned, there are no ingredients to this cantaloupe recipe beyond…cantaloupe. Sorry. Though I would like to hear if you try the prosciutto idea and love it.

There is something very satisfying about cutting open a cantaloupe and then scooping, dividing and chunking. Cutting any large fruit with a big knife seems this way. Pineapple, watermelon, or even an over-size apple is an exciting chop. Am I alone here?

Actual baby news: We have the big 20 week ultrasound tomorrow afternoon, and if baby cooperates, we will know the answer to the “boy or girl” by the end of the day. We are so excited to see the baby on the screen, since up until now, all we have gotten is a little heartbeat flicker coming from a pinto bean, and a few heartbeat recordings at later appointments. It will be amazing to see an actual baby kicking around in there. Oh, yes there is much kicking. Everything is becoming more real.

I have a couple drafts saved on here that have yet to be published. My goal is to get them live this week, because drafts get stale and gross. And my camera came back out in celebration of warmer temps (more than 30 degrees) so stay tuned for some actual DPH, like in the good old days of Megagood.

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Posted in maternity series, pregnancy

Tagged 20 week belly, baby size compared to fruit, cantaloupe, food, maternity photo series, photography, pregnancy

19 Week Grapefruit

Posted on February 28, 2010 | 5 Comments

It’s week 19. Almost halfway though. Time is going by very fast these days

This week the baby is 6 inches long from head to baby butt. So it is supposedly mango/grapefruit size. Mangoes are super gross this time of year, but grapefruits are a pretty safe bet. So that is what I am featuring this week. During my first trimester I ate at least one a day for a while, so of all the fruits and veggies that have been suggested as comparisons, this one is probably the most accurate. I am sure the baby’s genetic make up is no less than 50% grapefruit.

Which means baby will smell really good and be slightly pink in coloring.

What you see above, is this recipe for grapefruit basil salad*. It seems like an unconventional flavor combination, but it works surprisingly well. The balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper marinated the grapefruit, basil, chives and red onion. The result was a refreshing salad that should be eaten on a patio in the sun.

However, I ate it in the dark, inside my apartment with the heat blasting because I live in Siberia. I will have to try it again when Chicago becomes more like Florida during the mid-summer. Because I have a feeling that my pregnant self will not be using the oven much come June and July. Just a hunch.

**Important tip: If you make this, I suggest trying to slice the grapefruit like this. That way, you do not have to deal with the tough pithy membranes that I had in my salad*.

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Posted in maternity series, pregnancy

Tagged 19 week belly, baby size compared to fruit, food, grapefruit, grapefruit and basil salad, maternity photo series, photography, pregnancy, recipe

18 Week Sweet Potato Fries

Posted on February 21, 2010 | 6 Comments

It’s time for another week of maternity and food shots. Seems like time is going REALLY fast by the way. I can’t believe I will be halfway through this pregnancy in only two weeks.

This week, the internet gods of pregnancy have emailed to inform me that baby Boley is about the size of a sweet potato (about 5.5 inches from head to butt). Soon we get to start adding the leg measurements into this equation which means suddenly baby will appear to grow from a something like a grapefruit to a melon within a span of a couple days. This is not exactly the case, but then again this is all very silly with the fruit and veggie thing in the first place.

Once again, the grocery delivery service gave me slightly smaller sweet potatoes than I would have picked out for this shoot, but let’s all pretend they are a bit more rotund. LIKE MY FACE.

Dear FACE, please stop growing. Not cute.

I don’t think I have given credit to the photographer, Mr. Boley. He is not super thrilled about being on the cold porch for these shoots, but he is getting used to the idea. Today he made me sing the filet o’ fish commercial and talk on the potato phone so I would loosen up in front of the camera. I would rather be behind the camera taking the photos, but that is clearly impossible in this situation.

Porpus Boley has been a wonderful director of photography throughout the process. She is generally excited to inspect each food item. NOT TODAY. She doesn’t want anything to do with potatoes. They are neither cute nor tasty in her feline opinion.

DO NOT WANT.

She is right about this being an ugly food. I added the bunny to up the cute factor.

This week, I made a simple and tasty batch of sweet potato fries. You can find a million websites with different spice blends to put on these guys before baking, but you really don’t need a recipe. Just a few favorite herbs and spices that you aren’t afraid to mix.

Here are some important notes to remember when making sweet potato fries:

Make sure they are cut into small, even sized fries. 1/4 inch is a good measurement, anything too large will be a mushy mess.
DO NOT crowd the pan. Do a couple batches instead. If you crowd the fries they will steam instead of bake. Hence mush mess.
Bake at a high heat. 425 degrees for 15 min. Then turn the fries and return them to the oven for 10-15 more minutes. DO NOT open the oven to peek on them all the time. Let them do their thing. Otherwise, mushy mess.
Experiment with different crisping methods. I have heard that soaking the raw fries in cold water for 10 minutes will remove some of the starch and allow for a crisper outcome. I have also heard that tossing them in egg whites is the way to go. Let me know if you find the perfect method.

All in all, they are a healthy and unexpected fry option, that is generally a winner for most people. And if you are pregnant, they have all these wonderful vitamins and nutrients that your baby will love you for. (If you are not pregnant, don’t worry, you are allowed to have nutrients, too.) So skip the McDonalds’ version, and treat yourself to a healthy plate piled high with these seemingly indulgent fries.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, food, pregnancy

Tagged 18 week belly, cat, food, maternity photo series, photos, pregnancy, recipe, sweet potato fries

17 weeks Turnip Bump “Glump”

Posted on February 16, 2010 | 2 Comments

Welcome to week 17 of the my maternity/food series. If you missed last week’s edition, check it out here.

This week, the What-To-Expect-Baby-Bump-Circus emails suggested that the baby was now the size of a large onion or turnip (or a bit over 5 inches long from head to bum). Unfortunately, I have my groceries delivered, and this week the produce was a bit on the small side, so let’s all pretend that objects in this photo shoot are larger than they appear. Except my cheeks, in which case you can obviously tell the camera adds 10 lbs…ahem.

I love my little apron. It is actually my husband’s grandmother’s nanny’s apron. It is in pretty good shape for being an antique. I love the little characters stitched along the bottom:

Oh, onion skins. I can’t resist an onion pic. If you have been here for a while you already know how I feel about these luminous bits that we all throw in the trash. Even though I discarded them as usual, the least I can do is give their image a permanent home on the internet:

Porpus, director of maternity and food photography, much preferred the week 16 shoot. She is not a huge fan of onions. Clearly.

So what did I make from the turnip and onion? Well, it started off as being a dish that resembles vegetable Cornish pasties. It ended up more like something my mom would call a “Glump.” I know this sounds gross, but it is quite the opposite. We often had glumps when I was little. Tuna glumps to be specific. I know that sounds even grosser, but it is really just a pocket of rolled-out biscuit dough with a cheesy, gooey, savory filling.

My glump creation consisted of :

potatoes
turnips
onions
carrots
mushrooms
garlic
cheddar cheese
milk
egg
rosemary, sage, thyme
salt and pepper
refrigerated biscuit dough
and a wee bit of butter

They come out looking like fancy hot pockets. I decided to call them Bump Glumps, in honor of the belly.

The belly approved.

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Posted in pregnancy, Uncategorized

Tagged 17 week belly shot, baby size compared to fruit, bump glumps, food, maternity photo series, onion, photography, pregnancy, recipe, turnips

16 Week Guacamole

Posted on February 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

Every week, thousands of pregnant woman receive communication from websites they have signed up for. The email/text/app tells them what to expect from their bodies that week, as well as how the baby is developing at that stage. In almost all the updates, the baby is compared to a fruit or vegetable, just to show you how large he/she is by that week.

I just hit the 16 week mark yesterday (4 months for those of you who don’t speak in weeks). Baby Boley has just passed the avocado size this week. (Yes, I am aware that I am more melon sized than avocado, and no, I don’t believe twins are in there.)

But seriously, food is for eating, and I am not totally on board with it showing up in my prenatal updates. So I have decided to put food in its place. My mouth. This week, guacamole was a no-brainer. Especially on Superbowl sunday. Stay tuned for next week’s recipe that will feature a large onion. And if you hang around until July, you will get a lovely watermelon or pumpkin recipe.

I didn’t make this one up on my own, but I did add some cumin to the mix. If you are even slightly a fan of guac, I highly recommend this top recipe from All Recipes:

Guacamole by Bob Cody.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that this may be considered creepy–eating a food that is supposed to be your baby. Hmmm. Not what I intended, but I think I am going to stick with the recipe thing regardless. Don’t be scared!

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, pregnancy, Uncategorized

Tagged 16 week belly shot, baby size compared to fruit, food, guacamole, maternity photo series, photography, pregnancy, recipe

Apologies to Summer

Posted on September 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

I feel bad about jumping the gun on Fall excitement. Amber reminded me to enjoy what we have right now. And that picture of me in the parka with the duck face makes me cold.

Then there was last Thursday’s farmer’s market on Daley Plaza. Summer, this is where I really started to regret wishing for fall. Because the produce is so ridiculously abundant, that they have stopped trying to contain it in cute,tidy bushel baskets. They are likely just backing up dump-trucks full of locally grown goodness and depositing GIGANTIC HEAPS OF AWESOMENESS under the various seller’s tents.

The huge pile of multi-colored fresh peppers made me want to do this:

Weeeeee!

Jumping into a pile of ripe edibles in public is frowned upon. So I restrained myself. But look how lovely they are:

Peppers! And baby Vidalia onions! These roast up into a perfect marriage that would pair nicely with some italian sausage.

What's this?

Disapproving Squirrel has been let out of his lengthy timeout. He was allowed to play in the onion patch, but his attitude clearly needs a bit more adjustment. He didn't show proper excitement for the peppers, so was not allowed near them.

Sunflowers that look like saffron-colored marigolds. They are so heavy that their necks are slumped. Such a strange posture for a really happy looking flower.

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Posted in Daily Picture

Tagged Daily Picture, fall, farmer's market, food, onions, peppers, photography, squirrel, summer, sunflowers

Weekly Pictures of Happiness?

Posted on August 24, 2009 | 2 Comments

So I have clearly been slacking, but regularly scheduled DPH will return tomorrow. My brain has been all mushy the last couple weeks, but has started to gel again. Things are good. Here are some WPH instead.

Norp and her dad.

Last year, our landlord tore down ALL the ivy that was growing on the front of the house. This made me really sad for awhile, but I noticed it is growning back as strong as ever! (Insert metaphor here)

Last year, our landlord tore down ALL the ivy that was growing on the front of the house. This made me really sad for awhile, but I noticed it is growing back as strong as ever! (Insert "thus is life" metaphor here)

Peaches at the Chicago Farmstand. It is like an indoor farmer's market on Randolph street. It isn't as great as the real farmer's market, but it is always there and pretty nifty, neat, and swell.

Peaches at the Chicago Farmstand. It is like an indoor local farmer's market on Randolph street. It's not as great as a visit to the real farmer's market, but it is always there and pretty nifty, neat, and swell.

Local! Not shipped from South America! Not covered in poisin!

Local! Not shipped from South America! Not covered in poison!

Purple bottles at a new store on Clark called Brimfield.

Purple bottles at a new home store in Andersonville called Brimfield.

Brimfield's library of blanketry.

The vintage tartan bag made me swoon. Makes me want crispy fall weather. I might even haul out the breadmaker.

Taste of Heaven's steel cut oatmeal with peach compote and granola.

French onion soup.

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Posted in andersonville, Daily Picture

Tagged andersonville, brimfield, Daily Picture, food, glass bottles, photography, soup, vines

This Pertains to My Interests

Posted on August 17, 2009 | 5 Comments

This image has nothing to do with the brunch you are about to receive, but I took it on Saturday night on my date with Justin. It is the closest thing we get to "big sky" in our hood. Don't laugh at me if you are from Colorado.

So this weekend, my brother, his friends, and his ridiculously nice camera came for a visit. You might ask,”Was he apartment hunting because he is moving here shortly?” No such luck. Yet. But I feel like we are making strides in the right direction.

Most of the trip was a series of mishaps and getting caught in the rain, but at least brunch didn’t let us down. Six of us trudged up to northern Andersonville, or “Wisconsin” as Justin would say, and waited for about 6 hours in 90 degree heat/steam before being seated. We were eventually lead to a table on the patio directly in the sun, in the same heat that we just waited in for 27 hours. On the bright side, a constant stream of condensation from our water glasses dripped on our legs, and Amber guzzled an iced coffee the size of her torso.

Sounds great, right? Well when the food arrived, all was forgiven. Just look at it!

Summer peach & almond bostock french toast: Two thick slices of homemade almond crusted brioche french toast, layered with warm syrah poached summer peaches and vanilla creme anglaise.

Let's just see that again.

I am telling you, I am more of a savory breakfast person, but this is one of the best things I have ever eaten before noon. I wish I could send this through your computer screen so you could taste it.

Casey's keylime and apricot brioche french toast: Three thick slices of french toast layered with homemade lime curd and fresh apricot.

The awesome thing about having a six person brunch is getting to try all the other dishes that you were pondering on the menu. I had blackberry blisscakes, mango & sour cherry blisscakes, huevos borrachos, and my good friends–home fries.

We signed our bill just as the storm hit the patio, we congratulated each other on our perfect timing, then we ran/waddled to our buses and declared brunch a victory.

If you would like to try these delightful dishes, and you live within 10 hours of Chicago, go to M Henry on Clark. You will not be disappointed.

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Posted in andersonville, Chicago, Daily Picture, dining

Tagged andersonville, brunch, Chicago, Daily Picture, food, french toast, m henry, peaches, photography, review