friday. phew.

This weekend, Kiki's in town. . .

Hope you have fun, too! xoxo

the story of goldilocks.

Someone's been sleeping in my bed.

And she didn't even make an offer.

take me out to the ballgame.

Last night we took Andy to his first baseball game. It was a subway series game at CitiField. And while the start time was rain-delayed over an hour and a half, I think it was still a success. Because when you're a kid, what's better than ice cream in a helmet, pink lemonade, french fries and soft pretzel!?! Plus, he got to share the experience with his best friend and some of his favorite people! A very lucky boy, indeed!

Andy's first tailgate

let the countdown begin.

One month 'til block island.

Can't wait!

friday. phew.

My sleeping babes.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! xoxo

vegetable and bean chili with tofu.

Last night we made a vegetable chili with crumbled tofu, based mostly on a Mark Bittman  recipe from his book Food Matters. We've borrowed this book from the library a few times now, and keep coming back to it. The recipes are easy, tasty, and he provides practically ten different variations for each dish. So it's kind of like a choose your own adventure book, for cooking!

The base of the chili is a mix of eggplant, zucchini, carrots, garlic and onion. How can you go wrong?

As I was making it yesterday, I added a can of crushed tomatoes instead of whole peeled tomatoes (not what I was planning to do. Reading the can would have helped. . .) -- so the color/taste was a bit redder and more tomato-y than I would have liked. I added some sugar to cut the acidity, but I think whole tomatoes would have been the way to go. We also added some chopped kale and eliminated the mushrooms from the recipe (again, not on purpose. When I got to the register at the supermarket the cellophane on the mushrooms was pierced, and I had no motivation to go back and get a new container).

So, I guess that tells you -- it's a pretty flexible recipe -- and one I'd definitely make again. Maybe we'd add some black beans and corn, and garnish with an avocado.

We added the cilantro and chile peppers on top instead of putting it into the pot, because I wanted to try giving some chili to the kids.  Guess what? They wouldn't eat it!

If you'd like to try it, here's a link to the original recipe. Let me know if you try it out and how you vary the ingredients to make it your own.

around here, life is messy.

<End scene.>

superbad.

After yesterday's events I couldnt even come up with one more punishment, empty threat, or waste of breath to discipline Andy. So I told him he'd have to wait for his daddy to come home, and then he would receive his punishment. Tom decided he should write me an apology and sit and think about how he behaved. This is what he came up with, with help spelling the words, of course:

If you need a translation, it reads:

"Mommy. I am sorry. Mommy. Are sorry. I'll be better to

morrow. Mommy. On Tuesday."

That's a picture of me and him on the top. I'm sure someday I'll look back at this note and it will melt my heart. Someday.

untitled (our weekend).

On Saturday we dropped Andy and Rowan off with Mum-Mum and Papa (thanks mom and dad!) and headed into the city with Henry for a little change of scenery (for me). We wound up at the MOMA because we wanted to see the rain room, but between the four hour wait, and the fact that it was raining outside, we stayed with the special exhibitions in the main building -- which were awesome (sorry, no photography allowed!). Then we headed down to Tribeca (Henry's first subway ride!) for some lunch at a cute organic restaurant called Bubby's. It was a great day and a much-needed break from the routine.

Hope your weekend had you inspired, as well! xoxo