leftovers

 The other night I made bolognese sauce in my slow cooker. I used three of the the five Italian sausages in the package, and wrapped the other two up, hoping that i would find something to do with 2 sausages before I had to throw them out.

I did think of something!

Tonight at work, Dr. Dyson said that she was making chorizo and black beans for dinner.

I like beans. 

I have sausage, but it isn't chorizo...

I came home and knew that I wanted to do something with those Italian sausages and a can of cannellini beans. I ended up with this soup.

Sausage, cannellini beans, one zucchini, one carrot, two stalks of celery, a white onion, 3 cloves of garlic, fresh thyme, fresh bay leaf, a chopped tomato, and crushed red pepper, with a chicken stock base.

Just brown the sausage in olive oil, add the zucchini, celery, carrot, onion and garlic. Sweat those for a minute, then add the beans, herbs, crushed red pepper, and tomato. Cover with stock. Bring to a boil and let it bubble for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 more.

I sprinkled parsley and a drizzle of olive oil on top, but it would be lovely with some pecorino romano. too.

Let's hear it for soup! Hazaa!

chocolate is a good thing.

 

  I wanted to make a chocolate tart.

I ended up with a dark chocolate tart with vanilla and Jameson Irish Whiskey in a walnut crust with smoked grey salt. 

It was a lovely upgrade 

Interesting tidbit: When writing "whiskey," it's appropriate to include the 'e' for Irish whiskeys and American whiskeys. For Scotch whisky, it's just the 'y.'

Hm.

 Recipe is here at Ever So Sweet.

♥

Slow cooker bolognese

Today was a crazy day. Sugar test on Eglin at 7 am (which meant up at 5, left by 6), dentist appointment at 11 am 40 minutes from the hospital, then a prenatal appointment back at Eglin at 2.

Ridiculous.

I don't have diabetes, by the way. My blood barely spiked during my glucose test. 

Anyway, between the dentist and leaving for my 2 o'clock appointment, I had about an hour at home. 

I chose to spend said hour prepping dinner and facebooking.

Mostly prepping dinner. 

I put a quick bolognese sauce together in my slow cooker (which is actually a Cuisinart Multi-Cooker, you should get one.) 

I'm not a fan of beef sauces, so mine uses hot Italian sausage. I also don't add pancetta or prosciutto or cream, but if you're a traditionalist, feel free.

Slow Cooker Bolognese

-recipe by me-

olive oil

3-4 links hot Italian sausage, casings removed

2 cloves of garlic, smashed. Don't even worry about chopping them.

1 small white onion, diced small

3 stalks celery, diced small

2 medium carrots, grated

2 fresh bay leaves or 1 dried

2 sprigs-worth of fresh thyme leaves

pinch of fresh oregano

crushed red pepper flakes

dry red wine, about 1/3 cup (I used a Spanish red, but use whatever you have open)

1 28 oz can crushed San Marzano tomatoes

chicken stock to thin, if desired

In your slow cooker (or a skillet if you can't brown in your slow cooker) heat the oil, then add the sausage, breaking it up as it cooks. Toss in the garlic cloves, onion, celery, carrots, herbs and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper and allow the vegetables to sweat a little. 

Add the wine, then the tomatoes. If it's too thick for your liking, add a little stock.

Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Now all you have to do is toss some pasta in boiling water once you're home, and dinner is done in 10 minutes. 

I like to top mine with fresh parmigiano reggiano and chopped parsley, because it's tasty and looks pretty.

Mostly because it looks pretty.

Photos from the week

 Global warming at it's finest! The Eastern Bluebirds are nesting... in February. 3 eggiwegs already.

 Nessie! Bigfoot! No, just another backyard otter sighting. Suckers are big. Excuse the blurry picture.

 Cupcakes! Lavender chocolate with lavender vanilla buttercream. Delicious and cute!

 Posted a little late, but better late than never. My Valentine's Day flowers from Ricky. He did quite an excellent job.

Petite filets with roasted potatoes and asparagus. I still cook I swear! (Ricky has wine, I have cherry juice.)

We enjoyed the aforementioned meal at our new dining room table! We have 6 chairs, but for some reason there's only 5 in this picture. We got it at World Market, I'm in love with it. I find myself searching for reasons to sit at it. I'm at it right now writing this blog!

Curry!

We eat a lot of curry dishes around here, as I've said in previous posts.

It's just so easy and so good! I love that I can come home from work, cook some chicken, add onions, some spices, tomatoes, and some water, serve it over rice, and dinner is done.

I finally found my favorite blend of spices for making a quick yellow curry dish:

(There are no measurements because I just throw stuff in a bowl, sorry)

Garlic powder

Ground ginger

Salt

Pepper

Cinnamon

Coriander

Turmeric

Cumin

Fenugreek

Madras curry powder

Red pepper flakes

I just mix all of these together and add it to the chicken and onions, followed by about 1 cup of water, and let it reduce. Repeat that process three times.

Finish with a little cream and some chopped tomatoes.

Yum.

Lontra canadensis

 

Excuse the very blurry picture.

These live in the pond directly behind my house! Our back yard is separated from the water by our fence and about 8 feet of brush and some trees. For the past couple of weeks, Malo has been getting out of the yard (we did finally find his secret escape spot and repaired it) and mucking around back there, getting into the water up to his chest. We had no idea why, it seemed like an odd behavior to suddenly develop.

This is why. 

Ricky came home, let the dogs out, and walked through the yard with them. Malo and Maggie started losing their minds at the fence. Ricky looked over, and there were 2 3.5-4 foot long otters up on the bank, making this weird hiss-bark noise at the dogs. They scurried off into the water shortly after.

I'm glad he got a picture! I was at the grocery store. =(

How have we lived here for 2 years and never noticed these guys before?

Sneaky otters.

Books.

Everyone has their laundry list of books you must read while pregnant.
I for one found the scare tactics in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" a little too much to handle, but that's just me. I know people who swear by that book. I've heard it called "the bible of pregnancy books."
I skimmed over it and hated it. So I bought these!

 Silly name. Incredibly useful, practical information.

Also an odd name, but don't be fooled. Really interesting information on the science of pregnancy.

I'm a fan of science.

Salvador

On Tuesday, January 3rd, I came home at noon on my lunch break and found that Salvador, our 1.5 year old male cat, had passed away sometime in the morning. I found him laying on our bedroom floor, next to Ricky's side of the bed. 

There were no outward signs as to what the cause was, and I did a thorough check of the house. Nothing was out of place, nothing had been chewed. All the cabinets were closed. Everything was as it always is.He was just... gone.I called Ricky, and as soon as he got home we brought Sal's body to my work so that Dr. Dyson could try to see if there was any reason to be found. Salvador was a healthy, active, energetic cat. He was vaccinated properly and ate a great cat food.She did an ultrasound and found what we had suspected it was. He had a heart attack. Sal had an underlying heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopethy. Some cats have symptoms, and in those cases it can be found and maybe treated. Unfortunately, Salvador had none, so we had no reason to think that there was anything to be found. He was only one year and five months old.That was that, and we had him cremated. I got his ashes back today in a cedar box with his name on it.We put the box in the small window above our front door. Sal was always trying to get up there, and although he only made the very high jump a few times, he never stopped attempting it.We love you Salvador, you were a wonderfully weird cat, and a cherished member of the family. Thank you for sharing your time with us.

♥

Merry Christmas to me...

Ricky was very proud of himself this year. I love love love my new bag, and I love that the Louis Vuitton Neverfull MM is also large enough to use as a diaper bag. Right?!

Ricky also received a snazzy new bag for Christmas. The Petunia Pickle Bottom Rubicon Rucksack. How awesome is this thing? All leather, all sorts of pockets, messenger style, removable bottle/sippy cup holders, and a laptop sleeve. Whenever I see men out with their wives carrying those big, squishy, pink or blue and brown shoulder diaper bags I feel sorry for them.

Ricky will not be one of those men, I just made sure of it.

I still cook, I swear

I promise I'm not one of those horribly lazy women who stopped just because I'm pregnant.I am, however, really bad at finding the time to blog. 

 Tofu and vegetables over rice. One of my favorites.

 Slow cooker pot roast over egg noodles. Made in the fabulous Cuisinart multi-cooker that Ricky got me for Christmas.

 Pasta with peas and mushrooms.

 Thanksgiving! Ha! Has it really been that long?

Thanksgiving desserts! Pumpkin bread pudding with pepita caramel sauce and apple blackberry pie. Yessir.

Come on blogger

My top tabs are broken. When I go to edit them, the addresses are correct, so I don't know what to do.MAYBE if blogger had their shit together I'd be on here more.Also if I weren't so lazy and tired.But still. If anyone wants to look at Powell Sprout, it's powellsprout.blogspot.com 

tabbytabby

I've added a tab at the top of this page, under my header that reads, "The Powell Sprout." From now on I'll be making my pregnancy posts and gripes on that page.=)

Something New ♥

So... this is happening.

 Sprout! We found out in September, but finally made it public the other day. Look at it! Like a little alien teddy bear in there! This is an ultrasound from October.

Here's my most recent. Sprout measured 11 weeks 5 days in this picture. I already love the little polliwog.

Things have been going relatively well. Along with the fetus (it's officially a 'fetus' at this point!) they also found a tumor on my left, and only, ovary. It looks to be calcified in some places, which isn't great, but the doctor isn't worried. At this point in development, even if I end up losing that ovary in a removal surgery, the placenta would take care of the pregnancy and I wouldn't lose it. That was a big worry in the beginning. I was on pelvic rest for a while because of the whole ordeal, but thankfully that's over and I can start working out again. For those of you who don't know, I lost my right ovary in 2003 due to a large tetratoma. It was bigger than a grapefruit when they found it, and it was torsing and nearly killed me. We didn't even know that I could have children, and who knows how long it would have taken to find this other tumor if I hadn't become pregnant. Thanks, universe. ;)

Being pregnant and having lupus wasn't something that I was looking forward to, and for good reason. I'm exhausted, not just "I'm pregnant and I'm tired" exhausted. Debilitating exhaustion. Not very fun. I can't take any medication for the joint pain, as NSAIDs are off limits while you're pregnant. Other than that, no complaints. I've heard some great stories about how the hormone changes that accompany pregnancy can sometimes end lupus symptoms all together, even after you deliver. Here's hopin'!

We're very excited. It seems so legit now that everyone knows about it. I sent out some pretty cute "we're expecting" announcements, because I'll use any excuse I can to buy cute paper products.

We're hoping for a boy, but we get what we get. It's a female until it's a male (yeah, I saw Jurassic Park) so for now it's a she.

♥

Separate Post: Food in NYC

 Farrera Bakery in little Italy. No words.

 We had to go to Katz's Deli. I had the Matzo Ball Soup and a Spinach Knish and Ricky had the Pastrami on Rye. Amazing. Also where Harry met Sally, did you know that? 

We stopped by a little place called Sugar Cafe and had some of the best strawberry rhubarb pie I've ever had. Tiny little place, but the food was delicious, the coffee was great, and the service was fantastic. Definitely worth the stop.

My Birthday in New York

 This is the view from our hotel room. <3

 Most of my actual birthday was spent at the Central Park Zoo (Red Pandas!) and at the Museum of Natural History.

 Giant Sloth!

 The Loch Ness Monster...

 My favorite part of any museum is the dioramas. How cool is this guy?

 Wall of lobstaaaahs!

 Ricky loved the poison dart frogs. These ones were real frogs, not just display frogs.