The Lost Supper

I don't know but what you all think, but nothing says LOST Finale more than steak and cheese! Matt and I were trying to figure out what to make for dinner while we watched LOST and I had a craving for steak and cheese sandwiches! Matt had the meat department cut some bottom round as thin as they could(Greenwich WFM is so old that they don't have a deli slicer in the Meat Dept).

He cooked up some peppers and onions, cooked the steak and then put it all together on a crusty roll as a complete master piece. It was exactly what I needed to fill my craving. It was so hot and melty, I could eat a whole other one right now.


I took a breather half way through, but it was so worth finshing. What a good steak and cheese...

I don't think I can say that the series finale of LOST was as great as this sandwich, but it was a good ending. LIke the way this delicious blend of meat, veggie, cheese and bread filled my gut, the ending of our favorite show was warm and soothing. I do think it could have been better, as the meat could have been thinner, but in The End it was a great night.

Leavin' on a Road Trip...for 11 days.

Next Friday, Matt and I are going up to Hartford for two Dave Matthews Band concerts and then we are going for a road trip out to Arizona the day after we get back. My brother recently moved out there and needs his car so Matt and I offered to drive it out to him and fly back.

At first the plan was to take the Jedo. We thought it would be fun. We knew it would take a little longer and be a little more challenging but we were up to it. Just wondering, I asked my Ma if she would be interested in having him for the whole week. She is already watching him for the weekend so I thought it would work out for him to stay with her. Matt and I are desperate for some "us" time. All you parents out there know how hard it is to get even a measly day for just the two of you, let alone a week! So Super Grammy said yes, it actually worked out really well, and all the plans were set. We're going on a roadtrip!

This does mean one thing though. Mama is going to be away from her baby for about 11 days. This is unheard of in the New Mother Handbook. I am a little nervous about how I am going to react to this. I want to say that I am going to miss him a normal amount, like a Mama should, but I am also scared that I am going to REALLY miss him a crazy amount. I am scared he might take his first steps away from me. I am scared he might have a big change and I will miss it. I am scared he'll forget about me even though that's nuts! I know all of this is very unlikely, but as it gets close it gets more real.

I am going to be away from my baby boy for 11 days. 11 DAYS! AH!!

Mama and Jed's Trip to Union City

So it's 8:15pm on Monday evening and I get a phone call from a city number. I anxiously think to myself: "Could it be her? Could ot be Alexandria from Prestige?" I wasn't in an acceptable position to answer the phone(in the bathroom) so I let it go to voice mail. And I was right. It was Alexandria.

The call back to her was quick and easy. She told me that Hasbro wanted Jed for a casting the next day, anywhere from 10:30 am to 3:30pm. I planned it to go to Jed's gym class first then go to NJ except Jed was NOT feeling very well in the morning so I didn't want to expose him to my gym class. I guess it wasn't very smart to expose him to the babies at the shoot either but oh well. They were competition anyway. : )

We treked it to NJ the next morning with ease. I only took the wrong way once, but we got there in one piece. It was nice to take my old route, remembering back to the days of working in Edgewater, I got a little nostalgic thinking of all my good times working in the store there.

We found the place with ease, in a nice quiet neighborhood in Union City, NJ. The studio was friendly and bright. All I had to do was fill out a paper and then they measured his weight and hight. I then had to strip him to his diaper for the photos and we waitied to get his picture taken. A little girl named Olivia had her eye on him, she kept crawling over to him. It was so adorable.



When it was Jed's turn for pictures, he couldn't have been more a ham. When Mama wants to take pictures at home he ignores here and makes weird faces, but these strangers got all the attention! He smiled and looked up like a true model like he had done this his whole 11 month life. He actually gave me a hard time when it was over and I had to take him away from the camera. I knew this would be a great baby career for him!

So it was time to get dressed and Olivia was back. Jed and Oliva crawled around together, held hands, looked out the window and then parted ways. I saw a tear in her eye as I took away her first love. May she never forget...



This pic is the chair that I strapped Jed in at the rest stop. What a GREAT invention!

Pierogies!!!! (pĭ-rō'gē)

With my Aunt Michelle visiting from Arizona, it was a perfect time to make pierogies!! She basically demanded it as well : ), she wanted to learn so she could make them at home. So, my Dad made a large vat of kapusta (sauerkraut cooked down with ham hocks, cloves, peppercorns, and bacon) and the house smelled heavenly. Of course we all spoke of the times of when we made them when I was little, and when Nanny(my grandmother) would make them by the thousands. Her cut out for the dough was shot glass yet they were overstuffed with the cabbage filling!

My Dad taught Michelle the rule of threes and how to kneed the dough and they got to work. They made 4 normal doughs with sour cream and one with olive oil to compare. Michelle then picked out the black pepper corns and whole cloves out of the kapusta because there is nothing worse than chomping on a pepper ball! Yuk! They never did this back in the day so I guess this is a modern improvisation. We let the doughs rest for about an hour and then started to roll them out. I am not going to lie, I really didn't help as much as I wanted to. Jed woke up pretty much right when we started so Michelle made majority of the pierogies.

This lead to us eating Chinese for dinner, I don't think anyone wanted to cook or eat a pierogi after the hundreds that were made. The next day I came in with my brother after lunch to find my cousin Lou E, Aunt Michelle, Dad, and Poppy having warm pierogies for lunch. A little butter, a pinch of salt on top of a boiled recipe that hasn't changed in years. Comfort food doesn't get more wholesome than that.

Dough

Kapusta

Cut outs

Finished!

Pierogi Slave

Danica Day

Today Danica came over! She is our good friend Sandy's kid who is 2.5 and her and Jed are good friends! She hung out for an hour so her Mommy could go to an interview. We had so much fun!
First we tried to play inside but Danica got a small case of shyness so we moved it outside. Matt said "Danica, do you want to go outside and run around?" Danica: "Yes!". Matt: "Let's go!" Mind you, that every answer about what she wanted to do before this was "No."

So we went out to the yard and Matt and Danica threw a ball around while I tried to prevent Jed from eating every little stick and leaf around. It was a beautiful morning and Danica forgot all about being shy and had a great time! Then Sandy came back and we took a nice stroll into town for lunch. What a beautiful day!

Tree Cheeze!!

Jed wondering who is the better catcher or thrower....

Jedo!

Danica using her best moves!

Cheeze!

Group shot!!

Nice catch!

Tuesdays

Every Tuesday morning, Jed and I attend the Baby and Me Gym Class at the Rye YMCA. It is such a great experience for this little guy. He gets to meet and play with other babies his age and he gets to crawl around like a crazy boy on soft mats and gymnastic equipment. There are balls and stuffed animals and lots and lots of drool.

Of course Jed wants everything he can't have! The woman who runs it, Ellen Watermelon, plays this terribly out of tuned autoharp.
For those who don't know what an autoharp is:


Anyway, the little booger always wants everything that he can't have. Ellen is very good with distracting the kids though, she has a bubble machine and a parachute that they all love. It's a blast.

This Tuesday, we were walking home and we bumped into cousin Molly and two of the kids she watches and they were going to the play ground, so Jed and I joined them. Unfortunately this play ground had wood chips instead of rubber as a base so Jed couldn't really crawl around much because the wood hurt his knees. Being his first experience at the play ground, he didn't really know what to do, or was too little, so he sat there and played with the muddy wood chips. Tip to other Mamas: Keep the pacifier in his mouth if things like dirt and wood chips are around. It definitely helped him NOT shove the wood chips in his mouth like he wanted to as soon as he spit the thing out.