The Sweetest of Moments

Wednesday is my first day back to work from being off with my baby on maternity leave for the last four and a half months.  I'm sad, anxious, and dreading leaving him in the care of someone other than myself, even if it is grandmas, aunties, and trusted friends.  It's not me.  It's not the same.  I'm going to miss hundreds of smiles, dozens of giggles, and thousands of sweet moments of his little body held close to me.  To complicate this week further, my husband has been working to fix a car in our garage nightly for the last 2 weeks, and we have Life Groups (like Bible study) starting at our house this Thursday.  So in my little world, that means the garage has to be cleaned and organized so both cars can fit in it to allow for more parking for our visitors, the house has to be cleaned, laundry needs done, and I need to get ready for work.  I feel like I have a million things to do before Wednesday.

In the midst of all this internal angst, my little four-month old baby has been teething for about a month.  He's obviously miserable - drooling, gnawing on his hands (or my hands, or towels, or rags, or whatever he can find except for teething toys because he doesn't like any of them).  He's been extra fussy these last couple of weeks and my heart goes out to him, but it can make for trying hours.  Today he was having a rough time and being very fussy.  He had a clean diaper and he'd woken up from a nap about 40 minutes prior.  I tried feeding him but he wasn't interested.  We'd just been playing on his activity mat for about 5 minutes when he began to wail.  I tried all of his usual calming tricks - walking around the house, swaying, singing to him, even his favorite, bouncing on the exercise ball - all to no avail.  As I was bouncing him, I was holding him in my arms trying to coax him to eat, but he wasn't having it and cried harder.  So I sat him up on my knee and just snuggled him.  He was instantly still.  His little head rested perfectly against my chest, his breathing slowed, he released a heavy sigh.  We rocked back and fourth on the exercise ball, he unmoving, for the better part of 20 minutes.  He didn't want to play.  He didn't want to eat.  He didn't need flashy rattles or stuffed animals suspended overhead, he just needed a snuggle with mom.  He just needed me.  

In those sweet moments my to-do list melted from my mind and all I could do was cry.  Tears streamed down my cheeks as I realized I had only one and half more days to cherish these mid-day meltdowns and comforts.  My heart was so full in that moment.  His sweet breath on my chest, his squished little red lips, and my cheek resting on the top of his sweet-smelling baby head.  Back and forth, back and forth we rocked.  His eyelids became heavy and closed and he slept there, snuggled into me, rocking on that stupid exercise ball.  I cried for probably ten minutes before I could pull it together.  These moments are so incredibly sweet.  Life defining.  And, from what I hear, over in a flash.  I'm absolutely dreading not being there to experience every waking (and napping) minute of my son's days.  Thinking of someone else experiencing those snuggling moments, the fits, and the smiles is enough to bring me to a total meltdown right this very moment.  I hate that I can't be home with him (this coming from the person who never wanted kids) but it just has to be this way for now.  Even the debt-free life costs money and I'm ever thankful for my job (and new part-time hours).

So tomorrow is my last day home with him alone.  My schedule is entirely cleared.  I have no plans except to snuggle and play and nap with my baby.  I'm not answering my phone.  I'm not going anywhere.  Because you never know when it could be the last time, the last day, to enjoy such sweet moments.

Enjoy your moments.

Cheers (and sob),
KDH.

New Name!

Evening friends.  To go along with the content changes of my dear blog, I've also changed the title and URL.  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to come up with a unique URL??  Sheesh!  So, for now, I've settled on this one.  Found this piece of wall art at Pier One and absolutely love the message.  It's likely talking about a circus, but it portrays a much deeper and spiritual meaning for myself.  Free admission to the Kingdom is available to anyone, if only they believe...

Cheers!

KDH.

My Own Cautionary Tale For Those of You Approaching New Mothers

Afternoon folks.  I'm just going to get this out of the way right now and state this will likely be an uncomfortable post.  I'm not being rude, just informative.  I'll make it as painless as possible.  Stay tuned.

If you've ever been pregnant, I'm sure you came across a lot information that warned you about strangers, friends, anyone coming up to you and touching your belly.  And how this is uncomfortable and rude and who knows why people actually do this without asking.  I get that folks want to feel the belly - it's cool and hard and there's a baby in there.  But please, people, ask first.  There are a bazillion blog posts about this issue.  I, however, didn't have much of an issue with this.  After years of being ashamed of my stomach because it wasn't as small or flat or hard as it "should" be, I LOVED actually being able to show off my growing belly.  It was no longer something of which to be ashamed, but something important, special, life-sustaining.  I didn't mind one bit when people touched my stomach and I could've cared less if they did so without asking. 

There has been one thing, however, that has been on my mind lately.  Something that really bothers me.  Something that I never came across in my researching (aka endless hours of reading online) while pregnant.  Something I'm sure is meant to be harmless and with good intention, but is, actually, quite rude.

My big baby issue is when people grab my baby out of my arms. 

I understand he's a squishy, cuddly, insanely adorable little nugget of a baby.  But still.  Have some manners, please.  First off, if I want to give up holding my Love and if I want you to hold him, I'll likely offer him to you which is then your chance to say "Oh, I'd love to!!" and reach for him.  (Side note:  If you don't want to, that's totally okay, I didn't really want to give him up anyway, I was just being polite.  Just say no thank you and I'll keep him with me.)  I don't think I've ever denied someone from holding my baby unless I was on my way to change him or feed him.  Okay maybe once or twice...  But please understand, sometimes I just want to hold him.  Also, I'll interject here, please do not say "You have him all the time!" Yes, I do. Because he is MY baby.  I'm his mother.  I need to have him all the time.  I like having him all the time.  This is not a valid reason for you to have him instead of me.

If you are REALLY anxious to hold my Precious and want to cross the manners-politeness boundary, you should at least ask "Oh he's so cute!!! Could I please hold him?" before ripping him out of my arms.  Under no circumstances, ever, ever, ever in life, should anyone be so presumptuous as to just reach in and take a baby from the arms of his mother (or father).  Especially a first time mother.  Especially this mother.

So, if you read this and find yourself having done this thing in the past, it's no big deal.  (Some mothers may not care about this.)  Just move forward from today and be aware of it when you approach a mother and her baby.  Wait patiently.  And if you just can't stand it anymore, ask nicely if you can hold her baby.  And if she says no for any reason, be okay with that.  Like for real okay with it not just polite, bottle-it-up-and-judge-her-later okay with it.  We're given so few precious moments on this earth and even fewer with our babies as little babies.  Please respect that I'm trying to soak up as many as possible with my little guy. 

Thanks,
KDH.

Changes ahead

Friends.  It's been over a year since I've written for you.  There are several reasons for this.  The main, I've realized, is I detest stopping my cooking flow to take pictures.  Not so great for a food blog.  I'd think about writing about a recipe but then realize I had no pictures and who wants to look at a recipe blog without pictures?  I get too in the moment when I cook.... too into the ingredients, the smells, the measuring, the stirring, the watching.... to stop my concentration and take a photograph.  So, Foodie Life is changing.  Yes, there will still be food.  Probably lots of food.  But there will also be thoughts, dreams, goals, projects, opinions (several), insights, and just plain ol' rants.  I'm really good at rants.  I already have a couple in mind.

So what have I been up to for the last year?  If you're just catching up on things, (doubtful in our facebook world...) things in my tiny portion of the world have changed drastically in the last 365+ days.  Last summer my husband and I went on a mission trip to Haiti.  It changed us.  We loved it.  We sweat a lot.  We want to go back someday.

We returned to the States to find out a few days later I was pregnant with our first child.  We were shocked at the surprise (surprise!!) and I was terrified.  For about a day.  Then when it sunk in that I had a little tiny baby growing inside of me I fell instantly in love.  I was so excited for this new adventure.  (This coming from the person who was never going to have kids....)  So I had a baby!!  Exactly one year to the day from my last post (weird much?).  My life changed instantly on June 5th, 2013 when this guy made me a mama.  Pleased to introduce Marcus Keith Hutton..

My tiny little Perfect.   My little nugget of Heaven here on earth.  A piece of my heart living outside of me.  I can't imagine my life without him, the overwhelming love was so instantaneous.  But that is an entire blog post (or 10,000) of it's own.... 

So life's changed more than a bit.  And I've realized over the last 8 weeks of my motherhood experience I need a written outlet.  I have millions of thoughts bouncing around inside of my head at any given time - it's exhausting!!  I want to record them.  Or just get them out.  Some I want to share, some I don't, but I need a place to get them out and written down.  And actually writing the whizzing thoughts down takes so.long and leaves me with a pretty severe arm/wrist/hand cramp.  Typing is much better for me.  So this is my new journal of sorts.  Love it, hate it, share your opinions.  Mind you, if your opinion is hateful it will likely be removed.  (Freedom of speech may be your right, but you have a choice in hurting others.  Again, a post for another time...)

So toodles for now, and I'll write again soon

KDH.

The most wonderfully delicious Swiss chard tart....

 (why yes, I did eat a large portion of it before I remembered to take a picture.  You try smelling it for an hour without digging in at the first possible moment... whoopsies!)

The husband and I joined a CSA this summer at a half share.. it's plenty of produce for us each week and kind of fun to see what you get... it's a super fun surprise for a food lover!  Last we got some Swiss chard in our box and I had no idea what to do with it.  Did a little Google search.  Stumbled across a recipe.  Changed it up a bit.  It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  Swiss chard is in season now friends, go get some to make this!!!!!!  (Ali - I'm bringing Swiss chard and bacon to Spokane to make this for you guys.  You will lurve it.)

(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 Tbs olive oil

2 large green onions or 6 small ones, white and green parts, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 oz (or 6 or 8..whatever) bacon, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 lbs Swiss chard, ribs removed and kept to the side.  Mince ribs, tear leaves a bit

1 medium potato (any kind), thinly sliced

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream (use a runnier brand like Darigold or Daisy.  Tillamook is too thick for this.)

3 oz freshly grated Parmesean

3 oz shredded cheese (flavor is your choice, I used a Mexican blend)

frozen pie dough (or fresh pie dough, if you are so inclined to make it.  I'm not.  I love the Safeway brand frozen pie crusts, they're very yummy)

salt and pepper

*  You'll need a spring form pan for this.. pie pans are too short.  Or maybe make 2 shallow ones?

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375.  (If you are using a dark colored pie pan, lower temp approximately 15 degrees

1. Heat oil in pan and sautee green onions until tender but not soggy, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic, sautee for 1 minute.  Remove to a plate.
2.  In the same pan, fry bacon pieces until cooked and crispy.  Remove to the plate with green onions, reserve fat.  
3. Fry Swiss chard ribs in bacon fat until tender.  Cover and let cook approximately 5 minutes.  Add Swiss chard leaves to pan, toss in bacon grease, and wilt, covered, for approximately 2 minutes.
4. Beat eggs with sour cream and season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste
5. In a large bowl, toss green onions, bacon, Swiss Chard, and cheeses to combine evenly.  Set aside
6. Unroll thawed pie crust and place inside spring-form pan and trim to top of pan.  You may need to use 2 doughs to make it completely up all sides of the pan.   This is okay.... discard extra crust.
7. Place sliced potatoes on crust in one layer
8. Top with bacon/Swiss chard/cheese mixture
9. Pour egg-yumminess on top
10. Optional: sprinkle with a teeny bit of nutmeg, (literally, TEENY bit), pinch of chili powder, and dried oregano
11. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes until middle is set.  Remove from oven and let sit to cool.  Eat at room temperature.

Reheating is done best in an oven until heated through.

I'm telling you, friends, this was amazingly delicious and super quick/easy to prepare.  It was delicious reheated in the oven for a bit and lasted less than 1 full day in our house....

Enjoy!

KDH.

Nutella-esque

Well hi there people, babies, dogs and unicorns alike!  Today, a friend and I took on the challenge of duplicating Nutella into a recipe she can eat (read: no sugar or gluten) and we were successful!  We followed a recipe found here but agreed we would make a few changes next time..  If you are Celiac or Vegan or sugar-free, THIS is a great cocoa-nut spread you can use like Nutella!  And for the rest of us without dietary restriction, this is just healthier. 

Let me state right now: THIS IS NOT IDENTICAL TO NUTELLA!!!!  So get over it.  I know it's not the same.  It's different, and that's okay.  This is a nod to Nutella and it's super yum.  Junk food is junk for a reason.....

Here are my recommendations and planned changes for next time:

• Double the cocoa powder.  At least.   And maybe triple it.
• Use dark cocoa powder, or mix regular and dark... much more flavor.
• This recipe wasn't quite sweet enough... we ended up using WAY more stevia... like 5 or 6 packets instead of 1.  Next time I'm planning on trying honey, but the person with whom I was making sharing this recipe, isn't much of a honey fan.  Try honey instead of Agave, or mix agave, honey and stevia to your desired tastes.
• Cut the nuts a bit.. this recipe calls for 2 cups but it was overwhelmingly nutty... I'd say next time I'll use 1-1/2 cups instead of a full 2.
• Don't.Burn.The.Hazelnuts.  When roasting, turn the oven down to 400 if you need, but don't burn them.  We burnt ours just a tad and you could taste it in the finished product

Also, this recipe isn't smooth like Nutella, it has some texture to it.  I am a huge fan of chunky peanut butter so when we were finished with our Nutella-esque, I thought you could make this chunky too by processing the nuts in two batches...  Put 1/2 the nuts you plan to use in the food processor first, blend, add other ingredients, blend, then add the other 1/2 of the nuts - chunky Nutella!! 

We ate this on bananas and apples and it was delicious!  I can't wait to try this on pancakes, frozen bananas or on toast... YUMMY!  If you give this one a whirl and have tips/tricks/ideas/changes, be sure to post them!

Enjoy!

KDH.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies...Redone!

Evening, Friends!  I've recently (yes, behind the times, I know...) discovered the marvelous marvel of coconut oil.  I've heard the hype and read some of the info on it, but it wasn't until I bought some that I became curious about cooking prospects.  Admittedly, I've only used this weekend, but stumbled upon a recipe redo that I just HAD to share.....

First let me give you some back story... I sent my husband to the store for unsweetened coconut and quick oats for a DIFFERENT cookie recipe.  We don't usually keep quick oats around because we like the real stuff.  I needed two cups for this other recipe and of course, the hubs brought home a whole 2lb container, and I'm thinking 'what the heck am I going to do with all of these quick oats?!'  So I make the other recipe, which you can find here (delicious) and began to put things away...I moved to the pantry to put our new huge container of quick oats away and discovered... SURPRISE!!!... I already HAD a 2lb container of quick oats!!!!  huh. weird.  


Needless to say, we'll be eating a lot of instant oatmeal breakfasts around here.  However on this night, I was craving oatmeal chocolate chip cookies... MMMMMMmmmm oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my favorite kind of cookies.........  I was looking up my go-to recipe, groaning and ughing at the calories and bad fat and thinking of how many hours I'd have to spend on the treadmill if I wanted to burn them off when it occurred to me... WHY NOT MAKE THEM HEALTHIER?  duh.  Why didn't I think of this sooner?????  And ohmygoodness, friends, they are AMAZING.  Probably some of the best oatmeal chocolate cookies I've ever had.. I was WAY impressed and they were WAY more delicioso than I expected.  So here it is folks, my revamped, slightly healthier recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!!!!!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. Coconut oil
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c. honey - buy local!  buy raw!!!
2 eggs
1 tsp. real vanilla
1-1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3-1/4 cups quick oats
1 to 1-1/2 c. DARK chocolate chips (the darker the better... at least 60% cocoa solids!)


What to do:
1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
2.  Mix coconut oil, honey and brown sugar in a bowl until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes
3.  Add eggs and vanilla to wet ingredients and mix well (Ali - be sure to crack the eggs in a SEPARATE bowl and pick out any shell pieces before adding to cookie dough...!)
4.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix well until mixture shows beater lines as your beating..about 3 minutes.  It should be smooth and fluffy and completely mixed...
5.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips (don't use your mixer)
6.  Drop cookies onto a baking sheet leaving about 1" between each.  (these don't spread so cram 'em in!)
7.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove to wire rack or wax paper to cool


Friends, by following this recipe, you lose 3/4 cups of processed sugar not to mention there is NO butter, lard, vegetable oil, or shortening, only healthy coconut oil.  You also ditch a ton of flour and add more heart-healthy fiber from the oats.... I hope you love these as much as I do!!!


Enjoy!
KDH.