Garden: Flowering Wong Bok

We recently pulled up some of our first generation of plants from our SFG and planted some more leafy veggies.  We left the Wong Bok, Chard, and Basil.  The Wong Bok has been going through a pretty interesting transition the last week or so.  It has grown about three feet straight up in that time and is flowering - pretty cool!

Dinner: Steaks, Sweet Potato Fries, Collard Greens

So we read in one of our pregnancy books that in the last few months it is good to get some cholesterol in your diet - I don't remember why exactly but I didn't press it. Trying to meet that goal we decided to have some steaks. This was also to be our return to grilling outside since our propane had been out for a few months and we actually motivated to get it filled - more on that to come however...

I made some sweet potato fries - we've been having this quite a bit recently. This time I think I made too many and they didn't get as crispy as normal :(.

We also had some collard greens from the farmers market:

The steaks had been marinating in olive oil and seasonings overnight:

The plan was to throw them on the grill outside. HOWEVER, after I started the grill I discovered that even tho the propane tank was now full, the flame was very weak and tiny. I think something is screwed up with our grill, probably due to the fact that I never cover it after using it and it had been exposed to the elements for a few years now. Anyways, we had to abort on the outside grill and come up with a new plan. I decided to try to sear them a little on the stove-top in butter and then bake them in the oven to finish them off:

It worked out pretty well - the steak was tender and well-cooked.

Baking: Layered Lemon Cake

So recently Dana and I went to dinner at a friend's house. We were charged with providing dessert. We had been looking for an excuse to make this great layered lemon cake that we had made last year for a birthday, so jumped at the chance. We started with making the frosting and the lemon curd:

We then baked a couple of pretty standard yellow cakes and cut them in half horizontally - layering them on top of each other alternating curd and frosting:


After assembly, cover the cake with frosting...:


And then decorate!:

The end result? Very tasty. We had half the cake at dinner and were able to convince the guests to all take a little home. We love baking but aren't that into the leftovers - do you want to be our friends? ;)

Knitting: Cabled Baby Hat

So I think I mentioned a while ago that I have taking up knitting in hopes of curing my Rubik's Cube addition. With mixed emotions I have to report that I am still working on the cube. However, I have also been knitting. I made a scarf for a Christmas gift and I have made a few simple baby hats. Here is my latest attempt - my first time doing cabling!

It is currently being worn by a grapefruit.

This was practice, but I did go to the yarn store last weekend to get some 'real' yarn which is more boy colored (Merino wool - very soft). Does anyone want this hat? It's newborn size...

Mustard Mahi Mahi and Spicy Peanut Tofu

Dylan has been the master chef of a few yummy dinners recently. I had a bad cold last week, so was not very much help in the kitchen. It was kind of fun to not be a part of the prep, but to get to enjoy the meal - I think I got spoiled. First was Mustard Mahi Mahi, a delicious broiled mahi topped with a mustardy cream sauce that I think contained Dijon mustard and creme fraiche, maybe some lemon. It was really excellent, and only took a few minutes to prep:


A few nights later was pan-fried tofu with spicy peanut chili sauce. The tofu was nice and crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and the sauce was very spicy. Knocked that cold right out of me, I think! The sweet potato fries were fun as a side dish, based a great recipe we found on the web.


It looks like the only veggie we eat is broccoli! That's not true - we have some killer bok choy in the crisper drawer of our fridge, ready to be devoured tomorrow night.

Streak at Work

Streak has been helping Dylan with a very important work project on his laptop...

Really, I think it was the warmest place in the house on a recent cold morning. She almost IM'd me with her chin!

Update: Dylan has just found a bunch of junk files on his desktop, created by Streak.