The family...after the wedding

What does the family of the groom do once the wedding is over and the happy couple is off on their honeymoon?

Paige's 1st birthday!

I'm one! I'm one! Hurray! Of course, I'm not really doing anything a "normal" one year old does. I still refuse to crawl. I'm not walking on my own. Since I've never been the type of baby to put stuff in my mouth, finger food is a work in progress - a slow process. But I have to two teeth with a third on the way, and I have lovely hair.

Mommy decided the best way for a little girl like me to truly enjoy her birthday was for mommy to do nothing all day but spend time with me. No cooking - except for my meals of course. No cleaning, nothing.

We visited daddy at school in the morning, then mommy took me to the pet store to play with puppies (good thing daddy wasn't around to see me put the puppy chew toy in my mouth! Mommy freaked out enough... I guess some things do go in my mouth.)

That afternoon mommy and daddy took me to the park to have a picnic, play ball, and open my presents. To be honest, I would have been perfectly content to just play with and eat the grass.

Then we went home and I ate my first cupcake! Mommy made butterfly cupcakes. Pretty, huh. My first refined flour and sugar ever! Mmm...

Time in Vegas

While in Washington back in June, I learned a valuable lesson: the most active baby is the most watched baby. So... to put it bluntly - I wasn't watched. Much. I didn't crawl or climb on or around furniture, walk backwards, or stuff my mouth with food or throw it on the ground, or anything worth watching; I was pretty content to just do the watching. But I have to admit, I wasn't the most fun cousin around.

When I arrived in Vegas I learned a different lesson: the only baby around is the only baby watched. The second photo I posted depicts the scene 30 seconds after my Grammy and aunt and uncles saw me. From that moment on I was the queen. Too bad my kingdom shrunk the next morning when most everyone headed back to Utah. Oh well, for one day it was pretty crazy.

To eat or not to eat...

Paige is asleep so I will take a moment to commandeer her role as postmaster. You may have noticed an abrupt end to my cooking posts a couple of months back. Allow me to explain. First, Dave spent 5 weeks on a dental rotation in DesMoines, IA and was only home on the weekends - thus no cooking ( I wasn't going to mess up the kitchen just for me!) Then we left on vacation for 5 weeks - again, hardly any cooking. After that I decided for a whole month to refrain from eating refined sugar and flour, which simultaneously resulted in little cooking. I lived off of strawberries, blueberries, cherries, bananas, Greek yogurt, and whole wheat tortillas with peanut butter and fruit and cinnamon. I'm afraid Dave's meals were pretty bland. To be honest, while on that "diet" my usual cooking style seemed very unappetizing. Everything was so heavy. Since starting this diet I have just wanted light, cool foods.

Well, tonight I decided to cook something interesting. These recipes come from Ina Garten, aka (The Barefoot Contessa.)

I made Linguine with Shrimp Scampi which is sauteed garlic and shrimp with freshly squeezed lemons and fresh parsley. I complemented it by adding a dish of Arugula with Parmesan salad, which is arugula leaves, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and very good shaved Parmesan cheese.

So... to eat or not to eat? Rather than tell you straight out, let me relate a few of the comments from the dinner table and you decide.

Dave: "Is this the arugula? Hm, it taste like a weed."

Dave: "Well, the strawberries are good!"

Dave: "Do we have any macaroni and cheese?"

OK, OK, before you go thinking I have a totally ungrateful and tactless husband, please understand that first, I didn't care for the meal much either (not a fan of store-bought arugula). Second, I agree with him that the lemon in the pasta was way overpowering.

Third: I knew before making this dish that Dave doesn't care for shrimp.

So why not stick to cooking boring, safe foods instead of daring to experiment? Two reasons: you never know when you'll be pleasantly surprised, and discovering new flavors and textures is what keeps cooking fun.