2.19.2012

The Toddler and the Food.

I'm probably not going for a run today;  I woke up feeling like hell.  My whole body has been sore lately which I have attributed to the running, however the tossing and turning last night and the sinus headache today beg to differ.  Since I'm not running today I thought I'd spend the day chipping away at the "to do" list; well, as much as my very tired body would allow.  So far I've cleaned the pantry and freezers, put away all the laundry, and baked Monkey Muffins for a friend's son.

 They are soooo good.  Here's the recipe;


  • /2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  • In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, peanut butter, milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in chips.
  • Fill greased or paper-lined miniature muffin cups three-fourths full. Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 350° for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. Yield: 6 dozen
I used unbleached AP flour and doubled the vanilla and they came out great.  The only thing left on the "absolutely to do" list is finish my presentation for the conference and some personal spa day fun. 

As I type this the doodle bug is sleeping in the room next door; I took a giant leap of faith and put him into his nap without a diaper on.  We've been really successful with the potty training and he had a dry diaper yesterday, so I went for it.  He's getting better and better about going on his own, we still have accidents, but still for a 2.9 year old - he's pretty amazing. He is SO funny in the mornings, he usually gets up around 6, crawls into bed with us, we all sleep until about 7:30.  At about 8 I hear it; the soft "grunt, grunt, snort, grunt" as he struggles his way to the end of the bed, then the pad, pad, pad of little feet, the struggle to get the door open, and then SLAM - Dex has left the bedroom.  Seriously, the kid is incapable of closing a door without slamming it. 

Invariably, getting up and looking for him will reveal a different discovery every time.  Sometimes I find him rooting around in the kitchen for juice and snacks, sometimes he's half naked in his bedroom with this arms pinned to the side of his head as he attempts to put on a shirt, usually he's in the living room pushing every button on the remotes to get 'George' to come on.  This morning, he was curled up at the end of the couch with a "bankie" waiting patiently for me to come and snuggle with him to watch our beloved monkey "ona beeg t.v."


It's alternately funny and amazing to bear witness to his development. Every single day it feels like he's getting smarter and smarter.  He is also getting sillier and sillier and Brian and I have to remind ourselves to be patient with his antics.  He's very goofy and the goofy tends to make commonplace tasks take four times as long.  There are occasions where this can be somewhat mind numbing, but I have to step back and relax and enjoy the moment, because eventually the silly will be replaced by self awareness and I will miss it. 


No matter how bad I've been about cooking during the week, there's something about Sunday that always makes me bake and cook up a storm.  I'm sure there's some old school Norwegian homemaker embedded in my DNA somewhere.  Tonight, I am roasting a whole chicken with vegetables and potatoes; I haven't done this in a long time and I found a gorgeous, reasonably priced, organic bird at Safeway yesterday. Cleaning out the freezers and pantry have reinserted the bug up my butt to be better about cooking.  We have kind of a silly amount of food laying around and there is no reason not to use it.  There are an unlimited number of quick prepare meals online, I just have to be better about forethought. 


Doh...the beast is awakening.  Time to go see if my experiment was successful.  Wish me luck.
 

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