Downgraded dinner

Before baby I imagined he'd sleep all day and I'd have loads of time to do lots of fabulous cooking... ummm, turns out not so much.  I cook all his meals in bulk and freeze them, so if I have time during the day, I'm usually doing that.  At the end of the day, after he goes down, I frequently just don't have the time or the inclination to do much in the kitchen for us.  And hubby has requested that I take a bit of pressure off myself and tone it down a bit in the food stakes after he saw me trying to make curry paste when I was dead on my feet one night.  So, I've been trying to do stuff that is easy and quick that is more than just a bit of meat and some veg/salad.  Pasta is of course a major winner, so that's an easy couple of nights a week knocked off.  I've got my trusty scrap books, in which I've printed out, photocopied, written, and stuck in torn out recipes since I moved out of home.  And there are some major winners in there.  Last night I did Allegra Mcevedy's Lebanese Pizza, which is a total winner.  I didn't use pine nuts - almonds instead, and I put some rocket and a dollop of yogurt on top at the end to up the "things that are good for you" factor.  Quick, super tasty, sort of healthy, plus... pizza!  I'm totally into cooking food that is a healthier version of take away food, like making fish and chips at home with oven chips (from scratch) and pan fried fish, this cheats chicken parma (with a fraction of the oil - I just put the breadcrumbs on top at the end without all the oil and cheese and they brown up nicely), and a couple of other tasty pizza recipes I've got up my sleeve.  You get the idea - junk food, but healthier.
And another one worth mentioning for entertaining is Stephanie Alexander's seven hour leg of lamb.  Sure, it requires seven hours, which isn't quick by any stretch of the imagination, but once it's in the oven, you can forget about it, aside from being tortured by slow cooking lamb smells pervading your house.  And it doesn't matter if you or your guests are running late, because you can take it out of the oven whenever you want it and it's still fall apart, melt away amazing.  We've done it pretty much every time we've had people over for lunch since A was born (all of three times).  Total winner.

So do you want to go to the jeweller?

It's no secret that I love jewellery.  My standard reply to questions such as "do you want anything from the shop?" is "diamonds!".  And it's hilarious every time.  I was recently a tres lucky girl, with Jamie asking me to meet him in the city for a coffee (which we do occasionally) because he hadn't seen Arch properly in a few days.  When we met, he uttered my dream phrase "so do you want to go to the jeweller?" Ummm, yeeeeeheeessss.  I'd been scoping these puppies for a while, since seeing them in the window at Fairfax and Roberts, and I luuuhuuuuve them.  I love everything about them.  I love the idea of stacking rings, I love the different golds, I love the diamonds, and I love the deco design.  They are reasonably substantial, which I think suits my hands, and they are kind of like really fancy knuckle dusters.  I'd prefer to be wearing something other than Birkenstocks and shorts when going to a nice jeweller, but hey, whatever.  So I ummed and ahhed over them for a while in the shop, felt a bit bad about how much they cost, got over that, and then green lighted the purchase.  I've got a rose gold one (fourth wedding anniversary is fruit and flowers traditionally, and rose is a flower, and ROSE gold... get it?!?  Jamie says I can rationalise anything), a white gold, and a white gold with baguette diamonds, like in the pic below (I don't have the yellow gold, I got a white gold instead).  I have the rose and white gold ones now, and the diamond one is being made.  Sigh.  L.O.V.E.  The reason for the purchase (if we need one), apart from the fact that I'm spoilt, is because we had our little guy this year.  Hopefully I can tell him one day that his dad bought me these rings when I had him, and maybe one day his future wife can wear them.  Like when I'm dead.  She's not getting them before then.

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Merry Christmas!

It was a quiet but nice Christmas here at Riley Street.  We were going to go away, but after an unsettled weekend with A in Melbourne recently, we decided it would be a lot more relaxing just to stay home.  So stay home we did.  Especially with the pouring rain here in Sydney.  I cooked a pork neck which I talked Hudsons into giving me (after they told me the pork necks had been allocated weeks ago), which was delicious.  We took a drive down to the beach in the rain, just for something to do because we were all going a bit stir crazy.  We drove past Seans Panorama, where we had a couple of memorable meals when I was really pregnant, and going past just flooded me with memories of waddling in and out and those last few weeks filled with anticipation.  I also have stuck my head into the room where they do prenatal yoga at my yoga place - the carpet has a very distinctive (and not unpleasant) smell, and all I have to do is breathe it in and it's just like I'm lying there with Arch kicking me from the inside again.  I think about my pregnancy a lot, and what it might be like to be pregnant again, it's such an incredible thing.  Especially marvelling at this little person that grew inside me.  I still can't get over the fact that his ears and eyelashes and fingernails and ribs (and the rest, you get the picture) grew inside me.  No doubt it would be much harder the second time around, having a bebe to chase after and pick up and get down on the ground with, but like all these things that seem impossible with babies, people have being doing it more a very long time, and people just seem to manage.
I've been going to yoga when I can - which is much easier with Jamie around for the break.  I really enjoy it, and wish I could get down there more often.  Arch is still breastfeeding four times a day, so I still can't be away for long periods of time, and have to time it when I do leave him, but four is better than six, and soon it will be three.  He's still loving solids, and I think I'll give him an eating disorder if I'm not careful.
he's eight months now, and the biggest development lately has been sitting.  He's so much happier and seems so much more grown up now he can sit and play with things.  He's doing a lot of babbling of ma ma and da da - he has no idea what it means, but it's still adorable when he does it.
I'm going to go back to work three days a week when he is one, which I have really mixed feelings about.  I think I'll be a happier person for engagement with the adult world, but oh god, the thought of leaving him... As soon as the new year ticks over I know I'll feel like I'm on countdown until the end of April, and I need to not do that.  But it will be hard.
I've hurt my knee running, and it's taking ages to get better, which is driving me up the wall, so I've found this great gym to go to which specifically caters for pregnant women and women with children - there is almost as much play area as there is gym area, and they do small group training.  So you turn up at some stage in a three hour time block, stay for an hour, and there are usually only a couple of other people there.  The owner puts you through the session she's planed for the day, while the babies/kids play on one side of the room.  It really is ideal.  And something where I don't have to rely on other people to look after Arch, which means it's up to me when I exercise (and Archie's nap schedule).
Some photos to finish off: