A year and a half

Jade is now 18 months old, and grew 3 inches in the last 3 months.  Some days she lets me do things, while other days she wants my attention all of the time.  Today, she got her 18-month shots, but after her nap and a quick trip to lend our trifle dish to a friend, she was great.  She needed a little help every now and then, and she wanted 3 books read during the hour and a half before dinner, but I was able to cook the dog’s food and get a dinner cooked that my husband actually liked.

Side Note: Yes, we make our dog’s food instead of buying dog food.  She is 15 years old and her teeth are very bad, so she can’t chew anything that’s hard or too chewy.  So, she gets steamed rice with sauteed ground meat (usually pork), peas, and carrots.

So, what pleased my hubby?  Well, first, he walked in the door and asked “What’s for dinner?” My answer, chicken, squash, broccoli, and pasta.  His response, “With no sauce” in a tone that was as cranky as it gets.  But, he made up for that, by telling me how much he actually loved what I made.

First, I chopped yellow squash and broccoli and steamed them. I then chopped green onions and sauteed them in olive oil.  In my corning ware, I combined the veggies along with the cheese I had left in the fridge (Mexican blend, mozzarella, and cheddar), cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, cilantro, and white wine.  I browned the chicken breast in garlic olive oil and placed the breasts on top of the veggie gratin and topped it all with bread crumbs and baked it.  It was all served over shell pasta.

I love that Jade loves to read. I can’t wait until she can read to herself … well, yes I can. I’m NOT ready for her to be that grown up yet. I’m still amazed she can count to 10.

Coming soon: I got a dark chocolate red wine that I hope to crack open this weekend.  Details on its flavor and something I may use it to cook hopefully coming soon.

My daughter amazes me

So, my daughter will be 18 months old next week.  She amazes me every day with the things that she can do.  She also amazes me at how much of a stinker she can be.  She hates having her hair done, so when I put her hair up in a rubber band, she takes it out and looks at me with a smile.  When she sees that I see her, she puts the rubber band in her mouth and takes off running, giggling the whole way.  See what I mean by stinker.

Today I made rib-eye steaks (seasoned with only salt, pepper, and olive oil and seared and cooked in a 500 degree oven), potato wedges (seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and olive oil), and sauteed asparagus (with butter and Adobo seasoning) for dinner.  This was tough, since my daughter became very needy this afternoon.  So, between cutting the potatoes, flipping the steaks, etc., I had to run into the living room and read a book.  We went through 7 books while cooking tonight (Note: she demands each book be read twice).  And, well, the steaks were a bit more done than I had wanted them to be.  But, the asparagus turned out just how Jeremy likes them, so at least something was good.

She’s counting … at 18 months, she can count to 10.  I asked her how many blueberries she wanted today, and she said “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 … Yea!!!” At swim lessons, she says “1, 2, 3″ and she puts her face under water and starts kicking.

What’s next? My husband wants me to teach her the alphabet. I want her to learn her colors. But, who knows what she’s going to pick up next. She’s amazing!

Parents Night Out

My husband and I got a babysitter tonight, well, actually 4.  We had Uncle Steve, Aunt Lori, and cousins Samantha and Victoria come over to watch Jade while Jeremy and I went to a parents night out event for LOK (Lots of Kids – our family group that we’re in).  I made dinner for the family and got dressed, after getting my hair cut short.  The clothes I wore this evening were all non-maternity, non-nursing clothes, every piece.  This was the first time that not a single piece of my outfit was maternity or nursing since when I was pregnant 2 years ago.  It was weird.

We started out night out at happy hour at Shari Sushi lounge.  This place is awesome.  Happy hour every day from 5-7 and the sushi is really good.  $3.95 for any sushi roll or beverage on the happy hour menu.  That includes volcano rolls and Pinot Grigio.  Then, we headed to Frank & Steins.  That’s hot dogs and beer.  But, it’s not just that.  They have turkey hot dogs, fruit beers, and board games.  I beat Jeremy at Parcheesi and ski ball, but got my butt kicked at the game of  Life.  It was really fun.

Ok, confession time.  We were gone for 5 hours. During that time, I didn’t get one text message telling me how Jade was doing.  We did get a phone call, which freaked me out.  But everything was fine.  I just wanted to know that was the case.  I need a smart phone so I could have checked Facebook to see the pictures that were posted of her having a good time.  I know I’m a freak, but I missed her terribly!

Jade’s 1st Birthday … the aftermath

Jade’s birthday party was amazing! She was awesome! I have to say, the best little girl around!

Both cakes turned out amazing. I have to say that I am a pretty good decorator, if I do say so myself.  Jade’s cake was really tasty too.  Too bad she didn’t want anything to do with it.  I guess she had too good of a lunch beforehand 

I didn’t get everything I wanted to, but I guess it is good I didn’t because there was quite a bit of food left over.  Noone touched the Butterfly salad until the very end, when I told Granny it wasn’t garnish.  The caterpillar snacks didn’t go and the homemade pita chips, there are so many left over.

But, the cakes are almost gone and Jade had a great time!  Thank you to everyone who made her first birthday party very special!

It’s been a long time

Well, it has been a long time since my last post.  I’ve been working on a white chili recipe, but haven’t found one I like well enough to post yet.  My daughter is 18 months old next week, and that means that it gets harder and harder to cook good meals, since she always wants Momma’s attention and wants to be played with.  I suppose I could try what most people do and sit her down in front of the TV, but I don’t think that would work, if I did want to go that route.  She likes to be the center of attention, for me at least.  So, it is very difficult to concentrate on creating new dishes when I have to keep running back and forth from the kitchen to the living room to read a story, build a tower, or taste or “soup” or “tea”.

So, hopefully within the next few months you’ll see my new vegetarian white chili, and maybe a couple of other new things.  I’m going to making the cake for my niece’s birthday this month. I’m not sure what else my sister is planning for food, but I may be involved with that.  Maybe I’ll post something about that in a couple of weeks.

Thank you to my loyal followers.  Stay tuned. I promise there will be more to come.

Welcome to my blog

Hello! Welcome to my blog!  This is my spot to talk about everything that is on my mind.  Whether it is the challenges of being a mother or my latest cooking endeavors, you'll find it all here.

Let me start out by introducing myself. I'm Wendy Breiding. I'm 30-something, happily married, and the proud mom of a beautiful daughter.  18 months ago, when I decided to quit my job to stay at home and raise my daughter, the world was shocked.  Until then, I was known as this super career girl.  I put myself through college at the University of Miami, graduating in 3 years with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Math.  I went into the workforce, but was called back my the University of Miami a year later to join their new Master's program.  My current employer did not appreciate me bettering myself and passed me up for a promotion because I was in school, and so I quit and worked on a grant for the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center.  A few months later, I was hired as the University of Miami's webmaster.

I got my Master's Degree in Communications while working at the University of Miami.  The web department at UM was just me when I started, but it quickly grew as the importance of the internet grew.  I went from being the webmaster to the Senior Manager of Web Development and Support.  I became well known for Content Management in Higher Education, traveling around the country speaking about its importance to other Universities.  I was also becoming well known in the journalism field, traveling the world speaking about newspapers using new technology and the internet.

I also decided to get another Master's degree in Computer Information Systems while there (it was free).

But, I was not happy in Miami.  I did not see any opportunity to move up in my career.  My boss was the Assistant Vice President for Planning & Institutional Research.  I obviously couldn't take her job. So, where was I to go.  So, I started looking elsewhere.

I was offered a job at Publix Super Markets as a Portal Administrator (definite step backwards), but they promised that the opportunities to move up were quick and easy at Publix, so I moved to Central Florida.  Sadly, the CIO retired shortly after my arrival and there was a huge reorganization at Publix I/S and my opportunities to move up were quickly taken away. I was there for 5 years, and had not returned to being a manager yet.  And, there was no sign that it was going to happen any time in the foreseeable future.

So, when my husband offered me the opportunity to spend my days hanging out with my beautiful baby girl, I could not pass it up.

So, here we are 18 months later, and I LOVE spending my days with her.  My life has completely changed.

I used to love to cook.  It was my stress-reliever from my life.  I would get home from a long day of work and go into the kitchen and create.  But, now, I don't have a long stressful day at work.  I don't have a reason to need to go into the kitchen and unwind.  I play with my daughter all day.

But, I don't have a lot of opportunity to outlet in my new life.  So, that's why we're here.  I have a lot of great stories about my amazing daughter, my goofy husband, my crazy dog, and just life in general.  But, I have no one to tell them to.  So, now I'm telling them to you.

So, why the name of the blog?  Well, I still love to cook.  It's just a bit different these days.  It's not creating great restaurant-quality dishes for my husband when he comes home from work.  Now, it's trying to create something edible while running between the kitchen and the living room to read stories, build towers, color, and keep my daughter happy.  It's trying not to burn tonight's dinner. It's trying to come up with something that my hubby won't complain about (since it's not as good as he's used to) that can be done quickly using as few pans as possible (since I HATE doing dishes and he stopped doing them for me when I became a SAHM).  I have lots of adventures to talk about in the kitchen.  And wine ... well, everything's better with wine.  And, now that I have finally stopped breastfeeding, I hope to start experimenting with some good wines and I plan to tell you about what I fine.  So, we're cooking, I'm Momma, and there is wine.