Flipping Over

Yesterday, we caught Emma on video flipping herself over.
 
She actually flipped herself over for the first time a couple of days ago, but we missed it.  That day, we placed her on her playmat tummy side down, and turned away for a few seconds, only to turn back around and see her tummy side up, placidly smiling at us.

She is growing up so quickly.  I have such mixed emotions about it.  On one hand, I want her to stay a little baby forever, so small and cute.  On the other hand, I can't wait to see all the fun interactive things she will do with us in the future.  It's exciting and sad all at the same time.

About the video camera - Lance bought the Flip video camera (warning: clicking on this link will take you to the Flip video website which will play music and stuff) a couple of weeks ago.  It is small, really easy to use (meaning even I can use it), and you can edit the videos using free editing programs.  We don't really know what we are doing on the editing programs, but Lance was able to add music to the video in this post, and to take out our ridiculous proud parent exclaimations using free Windows Movie Maker.

We Finally Got In!

Here's an unexpected benefit of having a small child - you can get a table at practically any restaurant because you have to eat early. And thus, we were finally able to get a table at Burma Superstar at 5:30 PM (half an hour later and the small restaurant was packed). We have tried probably three other times to go to this restaurant, but gave up because we were told the wait would be 1 hour or more. It is a local San Francisco favorite, serving up unusual foods like fermented tea leaf salad, samusa soup and other delectable Burmese selections. This restaurant has been featured on the show Check, Please! Bay Area and on the Food Network, which turned it into an even more popular spot. It is also nice that Burma Superstar has a fair selection of vegetarian foods, or foods that they can adjust to make vegetarian, including their famous tea leaf salad.

We started with the samusa soup. It has a deep, spicy, rich curry broth with vegetables and chunks of potato samusas.

Someone once told me that this soup is supposed to induce labor, and that many pregnant women who were desperate for the baby to come out have ordered this soup. One of the three previous times we tried to get into this restaurant was during the last week of my pregnancy. Perhaps if we had gotten in and eaten this soup, little Emma would have arrived on time, or even early.

We also tried the fermented tea leaf salad. It has a lot of ingredients - split yellow beans, sunflower seeds, peanuts, tomatoes, lettuce, jalepenos, etc. - but the real star of the salad is the fermented tea leaves. Our waiter brought out the salad, explained each ingredient, then mixed the salad at the table. The salad was salty, spicy, crunchy, sweet and delicious.

Beet Greens

Well, here I am singing the praises of fresh lovely beets, and then I went and threw away the beet greens last time we had them.  This time, we ate the delicious beet greens.  They taste a lot like Swiss chard and can be prepared in much the same way.  Some people discard the tougher stalk portion on the beet greens, but we like eating these.  They just have to be thrown in the pan a little earlier and cooked a bit longer.  The stalks are a lovely shade of purple red.

We sauteed the greens in olive oil with some onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and then a dash of balsamic vinegar at the end.  These were a great addition to our meal of polenta with marinara sauce and sauteed broccolini. 

We got the polenta at Trader Joe's.  It comes in a little log that you can slice up and then pan fry in a little olive oil.  Of course, you can just make your own polenta easily with corn meal, too.

Husband and I were talking the other day about how our new diet is leading us to experiment in new ways with food.  We certainly are eating a much wider variety of vegetables than we did before, and finding healthy substitutes for many old standbys.  It is also making us look harder at nutrition labels and thinking more about where our food comes from.and the choices we make in what we eat.

We Live in a Great City!

On Sunday, we took Emma to Ocean Beach. It was a gorgeous day, and all sorts of people were out walking the trails and the beach.  While we were strolling around, we thought about how, sometimes, it is easy to forget that we live in one of the greatest cities in the world.  Do bad things happen here?  Sure, just as they do in any urban area, and when they do occur it is tragic and unfortunate. Is it ridiculously expensive to live here?  Yeah, but we benefit from so much here.  Tourists travel the world to visit San Francisco, and marvel at how you can find diversity, culture, haute and cheap cuisine and panoramic scenery all within one city's limits.

Here's a sampling of that beautiful scenery:

Emma took this all in from the comfort of her stroller.  She fell asleep most of the time, chilling out in her little sunhat.

A Veggie Month in Review

Thought I would take an opportunity to showcase some of the delicious vegetarian/vegan meals we have had this month.

We made an awesome vegetable stir fry with just about every vegetable you can think of (broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, celery, carrot, onion, bamboo, corn, etc.) with tofu and a great hoisin sauce.

The sauce is pretty simple, if you have the ingredients laying around.  I realize not every family has a jar of hoisin in the fridge...

Hoisin Stir Fry Sauce

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup water or vegetable broth

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 teaspoon fresh chopped ginger
corn starch to thicken the sauce

Mix all ingredients together in small saucepan and simmer for a few minutes.  You can toss in the sauce when the vegetables and tofu are almost done stir frying, then stir fry for another few minutes to coat the vegetables. The recipe makes a fair amount of sauce, so you may have some left over.

Here's a simple roasted vegetable and pasta dish, made by tossing the vegetables in olive oil, roasting them in the oven, then mixing together with hot pasta and a scoop or two of part-skim ricotta, salt and pepper.

 

We also had roasted beets.  For those of you who think you hate beets, have you ever tried fresh beets instead of canned ones? I will admit that canned beets can be offputting (although I do like those, too), but fresh beets are firm, sweet and delicious. They are also high in iron.

My friend, R, worked hard to create a vegan Thanksgiving dinner (early, I know). 

The meal was complete with mashed yams, mashed potatoes, great stuffing, mushroom gravy, brussel sprouts and vegan sausage. Yes, vegan sausage, and it was pretty darn good.   It's hard to capture these smushy foods on camera, although here is my best shot.  It kind of looks a mess, but it was scrumptious.

There has been so much more, just didn't want to stuff it all into one little post! 

As I mentioned before, we have been really good about our committment this month.  Husband has cheated three times (!), and I cheated once at a baby shower by eating half of a meatball.  (That darn meatball!!  It burns in my mind).  We are going to try to continue with this vegetarian diet.  Husband has experienced fewer stomach problems, although ultimately he will probably have to get the surgery.  However, even after the surgery, since gallstones can come back, a healthy diet is recommended anyway.  We are going to be setting a great example for our Emma and getting her the right start to a healthy lifestyle.

Emma's Busy Social Calendar

Emma makes lots of friends. This past week she met mommy's friends, R from Ithaca, S from Seattle, and E from right here in San Francisco.

Here is Emma with E. Baby is looking pretty pensive here in her fauxhawk.

Emma also has to schedule in tummy time, so she can practice lifting and supporting her head. She's pretty good at it now.

Emma also went to visit Herbivore 3 times, 5 times if you count dropping in just to pick up pieces of vegan strawberry rhubarb pie (R, you better remember that we took one for the vegan team in visiting that restaurant so many times!), Enjoy Vegetarian, and Cha-ya (twice). We went to the new branch of Cha-ya that opened on 9th and Irving and enjoyed it immensely. It is a vegan Japanese restaurant serving cuisine based upon Buddhist vegetarian traditions. Trust me, you don't miss the meat here, and the food is absolutely fresh and delicious. We kept meaning to take pictures, but we ate the food so quickly that taking pictures only came as an afterthought.

Emma is scheduled to meet another of mommy's friends this Sunday, then attend a birthday party for E's little girl the following week. What a busy little baby!

The Dreaded Kale Smoothie

Well, the vegan has flown back to New York.  I am at home sick with a terrible cold. Can't tell if my cold has affected Emma, but she has been very fussy for the past three days. 

Before R came to visit me, she wrote to me to tell me about her special kale smoothie.  I thought it sounded absolutley gross, but it turns out that it wasn't so bad.  She made it practically everyday that she was here for herself, me and husband. The ingredients are super secret, but it tasted quite good and was very healthful.

This past week was a busy week, full of new friends for Emma, and lots and lots of vegan cuisine from around the city and at home. We have had vegan cupcakes, pancakes, pies, Japanese and Chinese food.  I will post more about the restaurants later, but sadly, I don't have any pictures of the vegan food.  

Husband and I have been really good about the vegetarian diet.  We both feel really good about it and proud that we have stuck to it for this entire month.  We are going to keep to the diet as much as possible.

The Vegan Has Landed

The vegan has arrived! My friend, R, arrived on Monday from Ithaca, NY to visit us. Emma has taken a shine to her.

Emma is growing quickly - she's got a large baby belly. She is also attempting to rollover.

On R's first night in San Francisco, we all went to Herbivore, a vegan restaurant. I admit I was skeptical at first, not because it is a vegan restaurant (one of my favorite restaurants is a vegan one), but because I had heard some negative reviews about the place. Happily, our meals were very good. R and I both had the "cheesesteak" and husband had the BBQ "chicken" sandwich. Here's the "cheesesteak" (yes, I know, a traditional cheesesteak does not have lettuce and tomatoes on it, but it was still very good):

The portions were huge, but we saved room for dessert and finished with a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie and German chocolate cake. The pie was especially delicious.

When Tigers Smoked Cigarettes

So, this morning, I was reading Emma this Korean fairy tale:

(Roughly translated, "The Angel and the Woodcutter.") when I opened the first page and read the first sentence.  Hmmm, I thought, maybe I didn't read that correctly, doesn't really make much sense.  I read it again, and then later checked in on Babelfish.  I was right.

The story opens with this first line:  "A long, long time ago, in a time when tigers smoked cigarettes."  What?

"Momma, everyone knows tigers don 't smoke cigarettes."

Getting Ready for a Party

Let's get ready to go to a party! She is modeling her new red dress (a little big, but she will grow into it) with her little ballerina socks.

Since it is chilly outside today, let's wear the little ladybug sweater that mommy made for her.

We are all going to attend a small baby shower for Lance's former co-worker. Emma soon will have another little friend born into the world.

An Experiment

My husband has gallstones.  It causes painful stomach problems.  Before he goes for the ultimate solution, which is surgery, we are trying changes to our diet, as suggested by his doctor.  We have been more and more conscious of what we are eating ever since I got pregnant, but now we are going to try a vegetarian diet for a while.  Now, this is huge.  My husband has previously threatened a coup in our marriage when I suggested going vegetarian.  But, on the way home from the wedding, we stopped and visited some friends in San Luis Obispo who are vegetarian.  The wife has always been vegetarian, but her formerly carnivorous husband recently turned to a vegetarian, organic diet.  He couldn't stop talking about the benefits and how good he feels.  I mean, he used to almost exclusively eat red meat, didn't even eat chicken!

This isn't to say that we won't cheat once in a while.  In fact, we probably will.  And we will still include dairy and fish in our new vegetarian diet, but let's see how this goes. 

Last night's menu:
Salad with romaine lettuce, candied almonds, dried cherries, pears and blue cheese

Ciambotta - an Italian vegetable stew

This meal, which really should have only taken about an hour or two to prepare took me all day since I had to prep the veggies, make the almonds and croutons all throughout the day between nap times!  It was worth the effort, and delicious!

Greetings from the Coast!

We took our first long trip with Emma this weekend.  We attended my husband's sister's (my sister-in-law's) wedding in Nipomo, CA, near Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo.  Having had a nuclear meltdown right before the wedding, Emma was on her best behavior during the ceremony and reception.  It was a beautiful wedding at a very nice facility.

Beachwear Emma - we didn't really get to go to the beach, though, because it was a bit chilly on Friday and Saturday.

During tummytime at the hotel - gotta keep in shape!

"I'm ready for my close-uo."

And a picture of the wedding cake - very contemporary and pretty.