This is not an announcement.*

Me: What do you think of the name Merritt for a girl?

Jeremy: Merritt Garrett?

Me: Oh. Never mind.


*To be perfectly clear, I'm not pregnant.

Le Creuset

Happy Birthday To Me! Jeremy bought me a Le Creuset french oven for my birthday! (I guess he wanted my undying affection. Or maybe just dinner.)



I l.o.v.e. love it. I may have licked it when I took it out of the box yesterday. The woman who runs the Amazon shop Jeremy bought it from even sent a matching pot holder and oven mitt.

I know some people might wonder if I really need a $200 pot. And of course I don't need it. But I'll use it at least 3 times a week for the foreseeable future. And, perhaps the thing I like most about it, it will outlive me. Someday someone will pry it from my cold, dead fingers I'll pass it on to someone else and they'll still be able to use it for years. It's an heirloom, people.

Christmas by the Numbers

Days Away from Home: 18
Hours on an Airplane: 9
Hours Driving Between Newton and KC: 24
Car Accidents: 2
Separate Christmas Celebrations: 4 (If this sounds like fun, you and Christmas need to get a room.)
Hours Stuck in the Snow by I-35: 1.5
Movies Watched in the Theater: 3
Pictures Taken: 6 (FAIL. 2009: The Lost Christmas)
Money Spent on Gas: $351.38
Pounds Gained: 14

Food Friday - Vegetable Pot Pie

I am really proud of this recipe. I glanced at a couple of pot pie recipes, wrote my own version and it came out perfect. Admittedly, pot pie is a pretty hard to screw up but still a lot of my experiments never come back for a repeat performance. I could eat this once a week. Although, I'm not sure this really is a pot pie since I made it in a pie dish. Maybe it's just a pie?


Vegetable Pot Pie

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter
1/3 + cup soy milk

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut cold butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Blend butter into flour mixture until resembles coarse meal. Add milk, stirring just until dough forms. 1/3 cup will not be quite enough, add a little bit at a time until the dough comes together. Gather dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.


Pie Filling:
1 onion, diced small
1 large carrot, diced small
1 stalk celery, diced small
4 oz mushrooms, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 potato, peeled and diced small
3/4 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp soy sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute onion, carrot and celery until softened, 8-10 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic, saute 2 minutes more. Add potato, corn and peas. Stir in vegetable broth and soy milk, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are about 1/2 done, 5-10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

In a small bowl mix cornstarch, soy sauce and 1/2 cup of water until cornstarch is dissolved. Stir cornstarch mixture into vegetable and cok until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.

Pour filling into a 9-inch pie pan. Roll pie dough into a 12-inch round. (Or do the best you can. Biscuit dough is sticky so the end product probably won't be perfect.) Cover vegetables with dough, sealing edges. Cut 4 steam vents into dough and brush with 1 tbsp melted butter.

Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 25-30 minutes. Cool on rack 10-15 minutes before serving.

Toddler Party

Thomas hosted a little toddler party last night. Here he is with Everett enjoying h'ors doeuvres that they whipped up together.

Cooking from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.

As the evening wore on, they got more and more rambunctious. There's a reason you can't serve alcohol to little kids. They don't need it.

Fallout from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.

So, I sort of forgot I had a blog. Um, maybe intentionally. But maybe not. Just halfway intentionally.

Here are two cute videos of Thomas. Maybe I'll get back into the swing of things.

Thomas Outside from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.

Thomas in the Tub from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.

Thomas's New Friend

Thomas has another little friend.

This is Everett but he doesn't look like this anymore. He got his first haircut for his 2nd birthday last week. Now, he looks like a tiny version of his dad.



Everett and his mom Lauren come over once or twice a week. Lauren is super nice and seems to get dressed every single day which completely blows my mind.

Thomas and Ev mostly like having access to each other's toys but they're also starting to play together.