JJ's first concert!

I'm so behind. SO behind. I'm sorry! The last few weeks have been total madness. Lots of cleaning, cooking and hosting all sorts of company. It's been tons of fun (which I also feel could be my nickname at the moment), but left very little time for fun things like posting pictures. I figure I might as well go back to the begining of June and work forward from there. I have a post coming about my amazing Beatles themed baby shower and nursery pictures are on the way! Need to get the crib up this weekend...but we're making really good progress in there and I can't wait to show everyone!



I figured I would do a quick post on JJ's very first concert. We went to see Jeff Beck at Wolftrap on June 7. What an AMAZING concert. If you ever get a chance to see him live, do it. He's a legend for a reason. I have to admit, I was initially a little nervous that I would get bored. He doesn't have anyone on vocals. This concert was 90% instrumental (his bass player sang maybe 3 songs in the 2.5 hour concert). But the man is insanely good and his entire band was fantastic. As we walked out I heard a woman say "he doesn't need a singer, his guitar does the singing". Such a cheesy thing to say. But 100% true.

His bass player is someone you need to check out. I linked her website and a youtube video below. She's maybe 24. According to Scott, super hot...and simply ROCKS OUT. I can't say enough about her.

http://www.talwilkenfeld.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdX6ly6ftUM&feature=fvw

On top of all of this...Wolftrap is such a great place for a concert. I'm not sure why this is only the second time we've been. It's small, cheap, the lawn was fantastic and you can bring your own food/drink in. You really can't beat that. As you can see, Scott enjoyed tailgating before the show :) It was a beautiful night...probably 80s during the day and 60s at night. In June. In DC. who knew!



Last but not least...here's a picture of JJ enjoying his first concert! I was about 31 weeks when this was taken (35 weeks tomorrow - holy!). Please don't judge me for the brownie. I'm pregnant, ok? lay off! hehe.

The great freezer cook down

I've gotten into the habit over the last year or so of really taking advantage of the freezer. Stocking up when things were on sale, chopping up my own fruits and veggies and having a great stash of chicken stock in there. Oh, and probably some kind of ice cream at all times. But that's unrelated to this :) We officially reached maximum capicity last weekend and began clearing the freezer out. You know, to make room for my next round of hoarding. We cooked and cooked all weekend (inspired by our recent trip to a cooking class!).

Scott had been stashing lobster and shrimp shells in there and have accumulated enough to make (a TON of) seafood stock. No picture of this since, well, its a big bowl of brown liquid. But it did stink the apartment up something fierce, I'll tell you that much.

Next step? Cooking the chicken I had stashed in there. See picture above. It was deeeeelicious. We made a quick herb butter to put under the skin and baked it in the oven (finished it off on our indoor grill - which had been used earlier for grilled corn, mmmm). The best part though? The potatoes! (see below) Want to make some seriously amazing potatoes? I know you do. I saw this trick on America's Test Kitchen and all I can say is YUM. See how're they're all brown and glistening? Yeah, that's because we cooked them on a tray with the chicken baking on a rack above it. So they cooked in the fat and juices coming off the chicken. Please do yourself a favor and try this! The flavor was seriously outrageous. Note I didn't say healthy. I said outrageous ;)



I was then able to make a big batch of chicken stock from the leftovers. I hate buying the boxed/canned stuff. There is no comparison. Plus making your own stock is beyond cheap and easy.

Next! The bag of previously fresh, now frozen blueberries I had. We made a blueberry buckle. I used this recipe:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blueberry_buckle/

It's really just a blueberry coffee cake. Oh, it's so good...for breakfast, dessert, a midnight snack perhaps. Anytime!



I also grabbed a bag of homemade white beans, that combined with the chicken stock will become pasta e fagioli. One of my all time favorite soups (a favorite because Scott makes it, not me!). Also, a pound of ground beef and a bag homemade black beans that turned into beef tacos. MMMMMM. After was all was said and done, I had one tiny trip to the grocery store and an entire week of delicious food from one weekend of cooking. You really can't beat that. Sadly, this only put a tiny dent in the freezer and now that there is a ridiculous amount of stock in there now, we're pretty much back to maximum capacity again. Oh well!

Just for fun...I thought I'd end this with a super cute picture of the big brother to be (aka, marley dog!)

Oh no he didn't...

So I'm not sure if this story should be filed under "I should give him the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure he meant this in a nice way" or under "men are IDIOTS". I'll let you be the judge :)

I'm leaving work last week. It had been a VERY long day and I was specifically told to go home at 4:00 because I "looked tired". (sidenote, I know I'm being totally hormonal, but that alone took all the wind out of my sails. ugh. I'm working so hard, please don't call me out for being tired!) So I figure, who am I to say no and I take off. On my way out of the building, I run into a broker I work with. He stops me and asks how far along I am? I tell him 28 weeks. He says, no joke..."oh, you're BIG". He then asks, is this my first? I say yes. He repeats himself! "oh, you're definitely big". Oh, no you didn't just call a pregnant woman BIG! are you NUTS? A) yes, i'm "big", i'm pregnant, you jerk! and B) frankly, I would expect this from someone who say, didn't have a whole litter of kids at home. But he does! It took every shred of self control not to hit him. It really did. It truly amazes me the things people will say. I had another male coworker say "oh, no cankles yet!". Ugh, shoot me.

So, anyways, I figured this was a good time for another belly picture! This is 29 weeks along. See, how BIG I am? :) Of course, because that made me totally paranoid, my first question at the doctor the next day was "am i big?". So glad to say the answer was no! hehe.

I'm working up to a few other posts this week, I've been slacking pretty bad. I'm still trying to compose my thoughts on the Lost finale. We've also been cooking up a storm lately - doing a sort of cook through the freezer theme. So I have some delicious recipes to share! But first, thank you cards must be finished. Then I can get back to the fun stuff!

Baby Shower!!

I'm so behind in getting this post up. We got a new camera (YAY) and its taken me 2 weeks to load the software onto our computer so I could pull the pictures off. I must say, I am LOVING this camera. It's so much nicer! I am really looking forward to taking sweet baby pictures now :)

So, returning to the whole point of this post, I had my first baby shower a little over a week ago. My truly wonderful and thoughtful boss, Wendy, hosted a beautiful shower for me at work. All the C&W ladies...cupcakes...fruit salad...and LOTS of cute baby clothes! I can't resist posting pics of just a few of the items I received...



Are those just fantastic?!?



JJ will totally be a momma's boy :)

Ok...and just one more. Of the cute feeties!! Some of these aren't from the shower, but does it get cuter than all these feeties?



I also got hooked up with a ton of baby gear. I mean seriously hooked up. I have the best coworkers! If I thought anyone wanted to see a picture of my stroller, I would put one up. Because you know I have one. Granted, I have pictures of just about everything in my apartment right now because I have a new toy that is just crying out to be played with! Who doesn't need 30 different pictures of my dog and my big belly? :)

I'm officially in my third trimester now. How crazy is that? I can't even be in denial anymore. I've reached the point where there is no longer room for the baby AND all of my major organs to be sharing my body with any level of comfort. OWWWWWWW. Less than 3 months and we'll finally get to meet the little guy who spends all night kicking me and pushing on my ribs! I really can not wait!

Spicing things up...

Please don't let the crappy picture deter you from listening to me when I say...you need to make this recipe!!

We've had a jar of curry powder hanging around for months. We use just a little bit of it each time we make jamaican beef patties (which certainly warrant a post all to themselves, so I'm mentally adding that to the list). But we had a BIG bottle and it was getting used up slowly. I was watching Barefoot Contessa the other day and saw her make this curry chicken salad. We were feeling adventerous and decided to try it. Yes, I know it's sad that curry = adventerous...but it's true :)

Here's the link to Ina's recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/curried-chicken-wraps-recipe/index.html

I've made a few changes though which work well for us...

1 whole rotisserie chicken
2/3 c. light mayo
1/2 c. light sour cream
1/3 c. dry white wine (I used vermouth last time and it worked just fine. This time I had a bottle of reisling so I used that. did you know that when Erin stops drinking, wine lasts more than 1 day in the fridge? amazing)
1/4 c. mango chutney
only ONE tb. curry powder (one was definitely more than enough, 3 to me is overkill!)
1 c. diced celery
1/4 c. chopped scallions
I omit the raisins, just a personal preference
1 c. cashews (I like to toast them in a dry pan before adding them)

You NEED the cashews. that's a must. This salad is so delicious. So what if you stink of curry for a whole day after?!? :)

On a related note...we're finally ready to buy a new camera. So hopefully one day in the near future, the pictures I post won't look like garbage. New baby definitely means new camera. VERY excited about this!

25 weeks!

So suddenly, this isn't a little baby bump anymore! That's a big fat belly :) I swear, I left for Florida with a little bump and overnight it turned into this!

Time really seems to be flying...this picture is a stark reminder that things are moving along! 25 weeks!! crazy.

Love Is All You Need

Designing the nursery has definitely been one of the most fun experiences of the entire pregnancy so far! I started on it right away. I knew I wanted to do something a bit different and spent a lot of time on the internet searching for fun ideas. I came across this website early on...

http://homebuilding.thefuntimesguide.com/2006/12/unique_nursery_decoratingideas.php

(no worries, folks. We will not be naming the baby Abbey Rhode :)

I loved this idea. I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate The Beatles into the nursery. I spent a lot of time as a kid listening to The Beatles. To this day, they are one of Scott and my favorite bands. Plus, my dad is a huge (HUGE!) Beatles fan and I knew I could count on him to find us some unique stuff for the nursery.

After some time searching on the internet I found the perfect nursery bedding! Seriously perfect. Of course, also not being made anymore. Just for shits and giggles, I sent a desperate plea to the manufacturer and wouldn't you know, they had ONE more in the warehouse and it was all mine! To top it all off, I managed to get it for free :)

Next up, scouring Ebay for Beatles albums. I had a lot of luck, I'm happy to report. So baby will have some pretty sweet Beatles albums up on the wall. That is if I don't steal them for other parts of the apartment first! Plus, my wonderful coworker, Merridy, hooked me up with a bunch of albums from her personal collection and my dad bought us a great lithograph of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band. If I had known how wonderful and generous people were when it comes to a new baby, I would have done this years ago! I kid...I kid...

I am still on the hunt for a few more, but I found the most important ones, so I'm a happy camper. We really want to focus on the most colorful album covers - Sgt. Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. If nothing else, baby is going to have a damn good taste in music!


Last, but not least, I scored some fantastic fabric! I know that I'm going to make a tablecloth for a round table I have, but beyond that I have 2 yards to play around with. This is where you good folks out there in the "intertubes" come in! I need ideas! Keep in mind, my sewing skills are, well, mediocre at best. I like to sew in straight lines :) I'm getting better but I'm far from good. So, probably a few pillows for the rocking chair...but what else?!? help me out!

I'll post updates later in the spring as we start to get the nursery together! The crib arrived a few weeks and we have a great storage unit...so things are really starting to come together :) I'm thinking it's about time to start putting everything together. Well, we'll wait on the crib for now in order to keep the guest bed. But I can get started on everything else! can't wait.