Lately

I was in Florida three different times in May. More than half the month. In three different locations.  Florida is fun but also hot. Maybe I can have a month in Florida again come December.

Gardening.  We set up our home garden, pots and two more beds at the office. I think we did a good job mixing veggies and herbs. Plus early producing veggies and some for later in the season.  We will be eating well.

Miss O likes to help out in the gardens too. We are still working on the concept of being gentle to the plants, keeping the dirt inside of the bed and the mulch out.

Red Sox.  We didn't make it to a game last year. This was the first year in quite a few years that we didn't go to a game. It was missed for sure but we were busy enjoying our little one. This year we decided try it out with Miss O.

This went well at the game but I think she liked the ducks better.

What have you been up to lately?

Happenings

Why have we been so busy lately?  There has been a lot going on.  Both Mr. J and I had a work trip to Savannah for a whole week. It was beautiful and we had some fun alone time but my goodness a week is a long time. I missed Miss O terribly and it felt like my time stayed still while everyone else's moved forward. This might be a good thing for some people but I felt awfully behind.

Savannah is such a fun, beautiful place to visit. I loved walking around the squares, visiting the small, unique stores and enjoying the delicious eats. 

We went on a fun tour of the Savannah Bee Company bee garden. I am really, really frightened of bees and was scared the to death.  I am proud to say I stayed for the whole explanation and even dipped my finger in the hive to try some really fresh honey. My heart was racing really fast the whole time; talk about adrenaline rush.

Once back home it was a mad rush to catch up on laundry, get groceries and finally finish Olivia's toy shelf.  This was sold as a weekend project; it took us 4 months to complete.  No exaggeration.  I am so happy it is done and now we have cleared out all of the baskets floating around full of toys.  Olivia couldn't stay away.

We also threw in a baptism in Maine. Olivia was baptized by my dad in Mr. J's family's church. She was the 6th generation to be baptized there.  It was a very special day and now we have a blessed baby :) 

Whew! I am tired all over again just typing this out.  More recipes to come later this week. Happy Wednesday!

2015 in Review

Happy 2016! This year was a big year for us. We had a baby. The baby meant less blogging and less cooking. I miss my daily interactions with all of you out there but Mr. J and I have enjoyed unplugging and spending more time with our little one. Boy does she change every single day. No joke. But I will write more about that later. Today we are reviewing the year. 

Here are some of my favorite posts from 2015.

January - This month was my baby shower. There was a Hungry Caterpillar theme. It was so cute and I make sure to read The Hungry Caterpillar to Olivia frequently. As for the blog my favorite recipe for the month was Salted Caramel Sauce.

Salted Caramel Sauce

February - Waiting was the game in February. I was huge and uncomfortable. I was convinced and horrified that Olivia would come early. I was done being pregnant but I wasn't ready for the baby just yet either.  One Sunday morning we got ambitious and made our very first Dutch Baby.  We devoured the whole thing within minutes.

Vanilla Dutch Baby

March - Miss O arrived on the 12th.  

Chocolate Coconut Granola

April - We were still learning all the ins and outs of a baby. My mom came to visit for a week and I became a Pro at quick recipes that would be easily grabbed for snacks.

Garlic Flatbread

May - Did May happen?  It got warm and I tried to walk outside as much as possible.  I dreaded going back to work in June.

Easy Fudge Cake

June - Arg! I had to go back to work. In some ways I was very ready to start a more normal routine and get some none baby time.  However it would have been nice to have like 2 hours a day of this and not going back to work full time. Chocolate cake helped!

S'mores Brownies

July - Miss O got sick for the first time and I thought I just might lose it. My best friend came to visit. We decided to do a full gut renovation of our kitchen. Yes, it was craziness. Of course we didn't know how crazy for another couple of weeks. 

Seared Pork Tortas 

August - No kitchen. We lived off the crock pot surprisingly well. Washing dishes in the kitchen sink wasn't quite as easy. 

Cinnamon Chocolate Zucchini Bread

September - I turned 31.  Birthday celebrations were pretty low key, except for an epic journey to Prince Edwards Island.  If we were crazy for gutting the kitchen with a 4 month old, going on a 12 hour car ride was pure insanity.  We were back to a functioning kitchen although most things were still packed away and we were living with only the basics. 

Oatmeal Maple Scones

October - The Fall. Oh the leaves and the apple picking. Miss O started sitting up and eating solids.  She started making the cutest facial expressions and her personality really started to come out. At this point I couldn't remember my life before her. 

Sweet Potato Pie

November - Thanksgiving. And we celebrated twice. My brother and his family along with my mom and dad came to visit for a week in early November. We had a wonderful but hectic time with 3 little ones and 6 adults. The kiddos certainly did a number on us even though we out numbered them 2 to 1.  For the actual Thanksgiving holiday we went back to Maine and met much of Mr. J's extended family.  It was a short trip but so nice to see everyone.  

Almond Toffee Sandies

December - I had my first few nights away from Olivia early in the month. It was so hard but easier than expected. We all survived.  Then Miss O started on her ear infections. We have been fighting them ever since.  However, Christmas was all around. We got a tree, decorated the house and then hosted both families. The kitchen finally got done just before everyone came.


So there you have it.  Like I mentioned earlier 2015 was quite a year. I think we are finally back in our groove.  We have the work/baby schedule semi figured out, the house is back together again, and we aren't rushing to get a million things done for the holidays.  I am ready for a bit of cold weather to force us to snuggle inside together. Cheers to 2016!

Updates on Life with A Cup of Joe

Oh my goodness. I blink and months fly by. This is the view from our back door. I love Fall. How did it become Fall already? And although the leaves are a pain to rake up, the leaves are just too beautiful to complain.

I have a whole bunch of updates and thought I would do a brain dump today. So let's sit down with a cup of coffee and do a little chatting.

My little munchkin turned 7 months old. I cannot believe it. She is starting to be much more like a little person than a baby. She has two teeth. The two middle bottom teeth came in at the exact same time. Between those teeth and a cold we had a rough go of it for a while.  Mostly though she claps, talks and laughs all of the time. We also started food. It took about 3 times of hating it before she really loved it.  Now she is a champion eater.  We do lots of pureed veggies of all sorts, bananas and applesauce. Applesauce is the favorite.  She is also a champion of getting food everywhere. I don't even know how she gets food where she does. And despite my best abilities to clean up I still find food dried up on her hours later. Thank goodness for baths. She doesn't crawl yet but can get up on all fours for minutes.  She scoots backwards or rolls over and over again to get where she wants to go. 

I am still trying to figure out this whole mom/work/life balance. I am beginning to think it doesn't exist. Each day I can be one but never can I do all three. There just isn't enough time and in the end I am never satisfied with how I spent my time.  Miss O takes up so much energy and effort; when she is around that is all you can do. Not that it is a tough job; she is so stinking cute. However, multitasking with her only means failures. I have burned lunches; cookies, forgotten about laundry and a bunch of other things that aren't worth mentioning. At this point I know not to even bother. 

We are still having lots of fun though. She can now sit up in the stroller without a car seat. She loves watching everything, especially big kids playing. I cannot wait for our town trick or treat event for Halloween.

Our kitchen is still a work in progress. We slowed down big time once it became function. We are still missing flooring in one of the hallways, our mud bench/storage area is an open nook, the back splash needs installing and we have some painting to do. Overall though it is in great shape and we love it. Now it is just the finishing touches before the little one becomes really mobile. 

So that is pretty much it right now. Busy, busy, busy with work, baby and house. I feel fortunate to have all three no matter how hectic life can get. 

Lately and #WIAW

I am living in a bit of chaos right now. The kitchen renovations are at this height of destructiveness. Mainly due to the fact that we are redoing our floors. Given that the portion of the house under construction is where we spend about 90% of our time when not sleeping it has been a struggle. We were doing pretty good with the whole no water/sink situation. Not having a living space is different. Our little family of three has been hanging out in the bedroom and going to bed early the last couple of weeks.

On top of that daycare decided to use this week as one of its annual shut down for professional development days. I have been working from home with the munchkin. She is a super baby and hasn't been any trouble. Long morning naps are when I am most productive. 

In the afternoon she joins me with some toy time. Her moose is currently way more fascinating than my computer. The iPhone however is a different story. 

The kitchen is making progress. We have done some of the flooring. The counter tops are going in tomorrow. And then it will be mainly finishing touches. I am thinking those last little to dos might take us forever. I owe you a more in-depth kitchen update. I have been snapping photos along the way so I have a bunch to share. 

Once everything is done we are all going to be smiles. 

What did you eat Wednesday?

Have blog, Must post

This month has been very bad for the blog posting. I realized yesterday that it is halfway through the month and I have only posted one recipe. More will be coming soon I swear. I think the heat has sucked what little motivation I had right out of me. Of course this little one's smiles make it hard to stay behind a computer screen as well. But I am not ready to give it up just yet. For today I thought I would share a little bit about what is currently going on. 

Reading: Who has time for that? I have the book All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. It is about a French girl and a German boy right after WWII. It seems like it would be really good. If only I could start it. Long gone are the days of uninterrupted reading.  When I have free time now I am busy research high chairs and kitchen renovations.

Thinking about: Um, let's just say you don't want know what I am thinking about. Part of the reason I haven't been blogging is that I have so much running through my little mind. It gets confusing, even for me. Here is a quick list:

• The little one - this is a given. She turned 4 months old last week. How did that happen? How can I love her more and more every day. 
• Our kitchen - I haven't shared much about our kitchen renovation. Hello? We are doing a kitchen renovation. It's pretty much a complete gut. We are about 1/4 of the way through demo. I am super stressed about the mess, the timeline, the budget. Basically every aspect of it frightens me. Cannot wait till it is done. 
• Vacation - should we go on one?  Our last get away was to Miami before Miss O arrived. Although I really want to go on one, it seems extravagant given the kitchen remodel, my limited time off due to my maternity leave, and the stress of traveling with the baby.
• Work - arg?!?!?

Listening: I now put on music whenever I am at work. I swear it makes the time go by faster. I use iTunes radio. They just changed the set up and I am a bit lost. I have Taylor Swift radio, Oldies, and Classical.  The Classical station the other day was so sad sounding I had to turn it off. What do you use to stream music?

Watching: So every night around 8:30 pm I fall asleep on the couch. This makes for a lot of 1/2 watched shows. Right now I really only watch Big Brother and HGTV. I am not sure about Big Brother this year. There are too many twists and craziness. It seems like there is less strategy going on and just chance.   Also the news. I am pretty much out of the house by 7:10 am so my beloved Today show is missing from my life.  

Loving: My family. Every day I think about how lucky we are. I love our time together. It doesn't have to be anything special, although we did have a fun trip to get FroYo the other night. Just sitting on the couch, bath time, and morning wake ups are all so normal and special in their own way.  

Mother's Day

I hope all of the past, present and future mothers had a wonderful day yesterday. I love my mom and would always adamantly tout all the good things she has done for me over the years however it wasn't till this year, being a mom myself that I really truly can see everything she has given me and the sacrifices that came with those gifts.  Thank you Mom! 

Last year our little girl wasn't even a blurp on our radar. And here we are today and she is on my mind every second.  We had a great day together as a family. 

Dad made breakfast sandwiches at home. Our little girl is a sleeper for the most part. We didn't want to make plans that would involve waking her up. Thank goodness we didn't either because Sunday she slept right till 9 am. We did call the local breakfast spot when we could leave and the wait was 17 parties deep. No thank you.

Lunch was a picnic by the ocean with deli bought sandwiches. I had a massive chicken cutlet sub with fresh mozzarella and pesto. The weather was perfect for the ocean, sunny with a bit of breeze to stay cool. We went on a walk and relaxed at home. 

Dinner was dad made salmon, couscous and roasted carrots. Of course dessert was a big slice of chocolate cake. 

I couldn't have asked for a more special, enjoyable day. 

Lately

These are the everything blondies I made today. This is right after I dropped my photo right in the pan. Not only did I make a huge dent in the blondies but my phone got a nice little chocolate bath.

It has almost been a full week since I last checked in.  Boy what a week it was. I was super busy. I had to go to South Carolina for two days and Maine for two days.  Lately I have been getting super sick from traveling. Thus making for some not very fun days. I couldn't wait till Friday hit.  Plus only two more weeks of work travel for me. 

Once I had both feet on the ground and not a hundred billion things to do I started to feel better. We went out to breakfast and I got a bit too excited about the menu. Eggs or pancakes?  If you are pregnant you can get both.  I was only able to eat half of each but Mr. J made up for it. 

We got this cute little cart at IKEA. I love putting things together and this was a fun project. Now I just have to decide what to do with it.  I kind of want it for the baby room. But I could also use it in our kitchen pantry. 

I also got some Christmas cards done.  10 down. 20 more to go. Forgive my pregnancy brain that I wrote some maiden names on the envelopes. I also lots the two books of stamps I bought for about 24 hours and had a minor freak out. 

What were you up to this weekend?

Celebrating

This weekend was all about celebrating.  We had a very low key Friday night for our anniversary. We were both beat from the work week and just ordered pizza.  We also had some big plans for the long weekend.

We decided to make the trek into NYC for Saturday. Our trips normally revolve around our meal plan and this one was no different. I wanted to go to April Bloomfield's The Spotted Pig.  Do you see all of the pigs?  They were everywhere. I loved it!  The place was pretty hipster but were so welcoming to us preppy folks from Connecticut. I got the most amazing grilled cheese. It was loaded with cheese and then served with a sweet onion marmalade.  I offered Mr. J a taste and then had to fight him off of seconds and thirds.

He went all out ordering cold brewed coffee, a devil's egg and then this massive burger. I couldn't get it in the picture but under that bun was a boatload of bleu cheese.  And that stack of potato sticks was gigantic. They were served with fried garlic and rosemary. He had to fight me off of these. 

After walking around Greenwich Village and then Union Square we came back home. I was beat.

Sunday was pretty low key. I made chocolate chip cookies. We went to the movies to see A Hundred Yard Journey.  It was my first choice.  So cute! I loved seeing France and hearing French accents. Plus there was a lot of food shots. Don't go hungry because you will leave hungry. I currently need to visit a French bistro and then an Indian restaurant.  Mr. J grilled steaks and corn for dinner and we enjoyed the evening inside as the thunderstorms rolled through. 

Monday I made gumbo - recipe this week on the blog.  Not sure if it was the best idea on a hot, humid day. It tasted amazing but left us both sweating.  

We hit up the movies again. Mainly because Mr. J wanted to see his first choice movie - The Chef, and because it was super hot and movies equal lots of cold A/C.  The movie was a bit slow to get going but then got really good.  Also another movie where you will walk out hungry. This time for a Cubano sandwich.

We finished the day with an ice cream as a final farewell to Summer. 

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!  I am not really looking forward to going back to work. 

Date Night!!!

A week ago I felt like such a rebel.  A friend at work mentioned that they had tickets to a show at the Yale Repertoire theater that night but couldn't make it. Would I like the tickets?  I, of course, would love the tickets. Mr. J though would need some convincing.  

I think he took pity on me since work has been pretty brutal lately. So when I said that I really wanted to go, he caved.

Part of the deal included dinner out in New Haven.  New Haven is just far enough away that we don't go too often. We almost never go on a week night.  The play started at 8pm.  This is also a big deal since our bedtime is normally at 9.

We felt pretty cool in the big city at happy hour. Mr. J insisted on getting an appetizer.  His pick was bacon popcorn. We were betting on whetherr or not there would be actual bacon pieces in the popcorn. I said yes and won!

Mr. J got a big steak.  Go figure! I had a chopped salad and short rib meatballs.  We both had specialty beers. The restaurant was Cask Republic which is known for their super big beer selection on tap.  My beer filled me right up before any eating commenced. I could barely finish half of the meatballs.

After dinner we walked the few blocks back to where the theater was located. We got super lucky earlier and scored a parking spot literally across the street. Every time we are in New Haven I think of Bryn Mawr College. The building architecture is so similar. Like a castle right?

The play was "These Paper Bullets" it was near the end of its run but the show was still very busy. It was a take on Much Ado About Nothing, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It was a modern take set in London during the 60's and the characters were a boy band group similar to the Beatles.

We ended up getting home well after 11pm.  Friday was a bit rough in the morning but I was so happy we stepped it up and went out.  Makes me think we still have a bit of spunk in us.

A list kind of day

I am….
making: something apple-ish. How is October almost over. I haven't had my fair share of apple baked goods.
cooking: salmon curry for dinner
drinking: hazelnut coffee with skim milk. does my soul good in the afternoon
reading: Engagement  by Courtney Sullivan. So far so good.
wanting: just a little slice of this Caramel Pound Cake.
looking: furniture for the house wishing : for a nice, warm and long fall, before the cold of winter settles in.  
playing: the radio
wasting: time on Pinterest…  
enjoying: the quietness of 6am
waiting: for the next episode of Homeland...a week is so long to wait
liking: home ownership
wondering: how I can make my cold go away
loving: this time of year 
hoping: for a nice weekend as my parents visit
listening: to Mr. J swear as he tears up the sub-flooring in the guest room
marveling: how some people just get it, and others don't
needing: another hour in the day
sowing: ideas for holiday gifts.  
smelling: kettle corn
wearing: the most ridiculous outfit - Umbro shorts covered in paint. guess what I am doing later?

following: the news, it is depressing
noticing: first yellow leaves on trees
knowing: I have so much to do this week, but that it will get done
thinking: if only i could take a one month sabbatical from work  i could get the house in tip top shape
bookmarking: these Garlic knots
opening: windows to let the fall air in
giggling: watching Mr. J eat chicken wings and trying to stay clean. impossible
watching: season 3 of Downton Abbey on DVD
feeling: grateful for my family

A Race For Lobsters

This post could have been titled many things.

The good and bad of Whole Foods

What not to do before a race...

Basically Saturday started with a a trip to Whole Foods.  I love pretty grocery stores, whole foods is one of those stores.  You know, the ones with a large selection of fresh produce neatly arranged.  The shelves neatly organized.  I could walk around the store for hours. 

I didn't have hours though.  I had Mr. J with me.  His job was to pick out dinner from the fish selection.  I told him I didn't care what he got.  Clearly this was a mistake as we ended up with this whole red snapper.  2.5LBs of red snapper. $20 worth of red snapper. And it was on sale!

For a meat and potatoes kind of guy he sure loves his fish.  We have never spent $20 on steaks.  I am not sure if we have ever spent $20 on any one meal.

Since he picked out dinner, it was his job to prepare and cook dinner.  Our red snapper was stuffed with red onion slices, fresh parsley, lemon, garlic, and salt and pepper.

Randomly, he also wanted to roast some poblano peppers.  They were delicious but didn't quite jive with the rest of the meal. 

The poor, not so little fish has certainly seen better days. 

A couple glasses of wine, grilled corn on the cob, and the fish was quite a dinner.  It was all so delicious.  So delicious that I could no longer make fun of Mr. J anymore for picking out $20 of fish.

The bad news was it was about 8pm, well after dinner was finished that I realized I had a race early Sunday morning.  Its not that I forgot, it just kind of slipped my mind in all the dinner excitement. 

I signed up for this race purely for this t-shirt.  Lobsters have my heart.  It was called the Sea Leg Shuffle.  You cannot get much cuter than that.

But as you know from my useless day on Sunday, I woke up with a headache and a stomach.  I have a sensitive stomach and I have these days more than the common person.  The wine and fish didn't help though. 

The weather certainly didn't help either.  Picture standing under a heavy waterfall.  That was the race start.  We had downpours.  We were drenched and our clothes were heavy with water.  I think I was carrying about ten extra pounds of water as I ran the 5K. It was hard and my pants were slapping against my legs. I walked some and couldn't see through my sprinkled glasses.  But I finished.  I finished in 34 minutes.  Then, I did nothing for the rest of the day.