The Nest

7 week flashback

I've gone a little overboard with my 30 week photos, especially if you check facebook. It occurred to me that I never posted many of my earlier photos in either location, so here are a few 7 week photos.

At 7 weeks I really hadn't gained much weight, but I could tell a little difference in my belly. Frankly, I think I look fairly hot at 7 weeks. Huge improvement with that recent ,  15 ish lbs  I lost just before getting preg.

It was the Best of Cow, it was the Worst of Cow.

Last week, among my adventures in pork, I broke out the beef. I wanted a hamburger. A nice bloody hamburger. Oh, how I remember the olden day's when I was afraid of pink meat. But I learned the error of my ways a year or two ago. Beef is supposed to be a little red/pink. Maybe not if you get the amonia rinced crap from Wal-mart, but if I loved my introduction to grass fed and fatty pasture raised cow before, I appreciate it even more with that juicyness that you can only get by not cooking beef  'till it's brown through and through.

And that's not the pregnancy talking, beef is just better that way... though I will admit that although I haven't really had any particularly strong prego cravings, the strongest of them has been the occasional hankering for some "bloody beef." 

mmmm blood.

I'm a million times happier here than I look. I'm just soooooo overwhelmed. 

And having eaten out more than usual in my prego laziness, I can affirm my suspicions that no fast food or restaurant to date can make a burger as yummy as I can make at home.

What you can't see in my crappy phone camera photo, is that this burger is truely amazing... and I even tried something tricky with it this time....

That's right, I puréed some raw liver... and put a  few spoonfuls into my pound of ground beef before I cooked my burger. My burger had liver in it, and it was still WAY better than any in-in-out, culvers, applebees, red robbin burger I've had in months. Brett was a bit worried, but admitted you can't tell. 

I also made liver and onions. Because liver is good for you and your supposed to eat it. But really, like brussel sprouts, liver has a bad rap. You can make a world of a difference in flavor and texture depending on how you cook it. 

Just ask Brett who makes the BEST liver he's ever had... I'll give you a hint: it's me. And it's not a fluke, I've made it more than once in the last few years. 

No, it's still no steak or juicy burger, but it's edible, not revolting... But after our liver-hamburger experiment, B an I agree that freezing liver purée in ice cube portions, thawing a cube out when we thaw out our ground beef, and mixing it into our hamburgers is preferable. Get that punch of nutrients without even noticing. 

Depends Mommy, Mommy Depends.

I bought my first diapers this last weekend.

Let me rephrase that:
I bought MY first diapers this last weekend.

Notice, they are size 5? I'm told that I get to put them in my mesh panties (sounds sexy, no?) to absorb all the joy I can no longer contain after I expel adorably slimy little humans from my lady parts.

Birth is going to be so much fun!

Adventures in Pork.

I don't like Pork. I like beef. I also like chicken. But not Pork, unless, of course, we are discussing bacon. I like bacon.

So last fall, I made a rather illogical choice. I bought our usual quarter of a cow. And then I bought half a pig. And, on top of that, I told them not to cure any of it... so technically, my bacon isn't even bacon.  Way to go Charlo! Your logic astounds us all!

Now I have to learn to like it, and since I spent the first trimester of my pregnancy as almost vegetarian, and several more weeks with absolutely no desire to cook anything that requires effort, the pig just sat in my freezer, worrying me that I had made a fairly expensive mistake.

Introduce Bravery:
Mid January, I got out some pork chops, cut them to half width, rubbed them with some stuff. This stuff included brown sugar. I hate sugary ham. Gross. But I did it. Because the pork-eating-jewish cookbook told me to. 

Followed instructions, which resulted in burning one side. 

And even though I also don't like fruit and meat, I made an apple-applebrandy-apricot topping for my burnt Pork Chops. Because the pork-eating-jewish cookbook told me to. 

But Puppy didn't seam to be discouraged by the sugared-fruited-burnt  disaster of a pork experiment, so I ate it. 

And it was actually fairly good. Mr. B even ate leftovers throughout the week... and he's been on an anti-leftover/pro-microwaving-frozen-processed-crap kick lately.

And in the last week, Brett has made pork chops 3 times! First time he has actually cooked something in MONTHS.  Both from this recipe (which he didn't burn) and from one he made up. And I liked it, and I am making friends with Mr. Pork...because the pork-eating-jewish cookbook told me to. 

The RIghted Mis-Adventures of a Pregnant Chef.

I burnt the pork (see tomorrow's post), and still feeling lazy, it was a while before I returned to my attempts to cook anything fancier/more time consuming than steaming vegetables or making a salad.

Then, in honor of easter, I made Challah. It's been a very long time since I've made bread, to celebrate, I decided to make several loaves for the people I visit teach, and some family.

It overcooked it-self (I maintain I did everything right), I burnt it's own bottom. It was dry.  So in true visiting teaching spirit, I gave it to my families anyway... and told them it was for feeding the ducks. 

Lucky Duck. 

But that still left me with 2 loaves, and I could only eat half of one (too dry). B and I had just recently tried bread pudding for the first time, so, as per his brilliant suggestion, I used half a loaf to make bread pudding for Easter. 

And it was good. Could have used more "pudding" and less bread, but it was still good, and I would do it again with smaller bread slices. The Vanilla-ness and mild sweetness of Challah made for the perfect "day old bread" to use in such a desert. 

I cut off the crusts for the croutons, but didnt' bother doing that with the bread pudding. 

Then, as also suggested by Brett, I used the other loaf to make my first crutons. I thought the mild vanilla was not the best choice for croutons, but it didn't stop B's sister's fiancé from eating 80% of it before we went to dinner... so at least it did not go to waste!

So that's how you waste-not your slightly overcooked bread; you can always feed it to the ducks, make bread pudding, or make croutons. 

Baby real-estate

It may not look like there are babies in my butt... but I promise you, they are there.

For the longest time their favorite playground was just above my pubic bone, but over the last week or so, they've decided it was time to relocate the workforce, and the bulk of their efforts. Now they like my buttox. I have NO IDEA how they got in there, but they love it. They spend most of their energy doing what I can best deduce as "blowing large bubbles in my butt.

No, not out of my butt (that would be me, and we would call that gas), but IN my but. Playing with bubbles IN my butt.  Strange babies with strange hobbies.

Front and Back... Side to Side

They are mostly front-loaded babies... at least for now. 

walk o' the weeks

See. you guys are spoiled. I could put these on Facebook, but I thought I'd put some extras here... at least first. You get some bonuses for pretending I'm interesting

7-17-23-30

Fundal Height:

8 cm =  aprox size prior to preg. 

15cm @ 14 weeks 

24cm @ 18 weeks

30cm @ 22 weeks 

34cm @ 26 weeks

41cm @ 30 weeks

Dear Stupid Consumer, Letter 2.

This one has been annoying me for a few months now.

So explain this to me... You pay extra (yes, it costs more) for the privilege of  being the one to stir in the company determined/provided flavoring options? You know, they do have pre-made frostings where the manufacturer did the stirring for you...

Trashy Differences: Found Art

I have a secret for determining whether trash I find around the house is my slothfulness, or Brett's slothfulness:

Nicely folded and creased Brett wrapper. 

Carelessly Crumpled Charlo wrapper. 

Crisp Brett Tissue.

Not so crisp Charlo tissue.

...if only he were as keen to fold the laundry we keep and store as he is to fold the crap we throw away.