Toddler Travel

Posted on Posted in Deliberate Consumption, MotherhoodTagged ,

We’ve been traveling with our son since he was about six months old. Anyone who tells you that it’s easier to travel with an infant before they’re able to squirm out of your arms is telling the truth. The only exception is that you’re usually too tired to enjoy the trip. There are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way that have made a difference in how we travel.

1. Pacifiers, or drinking/nursing. The reason why many babies cry on planes? Their ears hurt. They can’t clear them the way we can, and their best option is crying, and also, they’re in pain. Sucking on something, or drinking something, can help release the pressure in their ears.

2. If you haven’t purchased a seat for your child, get to the airport early, and make sure you’re one of the first people up at gate’s desk. With all boarding passes for your party in hand, politely ask one or all of your party to be seated by an empty seat. If there is space on a plane, they will likely accommodate you.

3. CARES Child Airplane Safety Harness – Now that you have an empty seat next to you, with this easy-to-travel with harness can strap your toddler into the empty seat you just procured. Our son knocked out for two hours on a six hour flight, and was very happy most of the time. This harness is FAA approved, and easy to install. My other recommendation is to make sure you’re on an airline that still does family pre-boarding. United does not do family pre-boarding.

I’m sure there are more tips, but these are the three that really got us through our last bit of air travel. Good luck, and bon voyage!

Yelp So Serious

Posted on Posted in Deliberate ConsumptionTagged

I’ve been on Yelp for awhile, now, and finally made Elite status last year. What this means (aside from what they tell me) I actually have no idea. The status did, however, make me want to Yelp more. I signed up for their Yelp 100 Challenge, which means I review (or meaningfully update) 100 businesses during this calendar year. I have been pretty much reviewing every place I’ve gone.

What is interesting to me is how seriously some people take Yelp. I know that I take my reviews seriously, and try to be fair and informative in my reviews (It’s my duty!), while maintaining that my point of view is mine, and mine alone. I may come off as being righteously judgmental, but I want to be fair to other people’s experiences of these places. Certainly, as was the case when we were visiting Houston a few years ago, it was a negative Yelp review that steered us to our extremely positive experience at a local eatery.

For instance, some people really, really like chain restaurants. They like comfort, they like predictability, and certainly, in most any town outside of Seattle (that’s not PDX or SFO), I love my Starbucks. You rave about an Italian restaurant because it’s just like Olive Garden? Likely not my scene. You claim to have had the worst restaurant experience because you saw words like “cornichon,” “pig cheeks,” and “rabbit terrine” and didn’t know what anything was – probably worth my consideration (though not without context).

I don’t want to say I’m a food snob, because frankly, I don’t require fancy food or great expense to make me happy. Good food can come from a food truck, great coffee can be brewed at home (and the folx at Tonx Coffee can help), and sometimes the best burger can be found at Dick’s.

That being said, I’ve had a few people respond to my reviews since I started Yelping more regularly. A local shop owner felt that I was unfair in my stars. I wrote her back, since she had reached out to me politely. A local cafe owner reached out to me, and we arrived at the same appraisal: his cafe wasn’t out to make fans of everyone – just those who “get” their aesthetic. Most recently (and surprisingly), I was contacted through my blog by someone who was sputteringly LIVID at my poor review of Ruth’s Chris in Wailea, Maui. I came to the conclusion (after some Googling) that the author was less concerned with my Ruth’s Chris review, and more concerned with the critical, yet positive review of an establishment he co-owns on Maui.

This brings me to my question – do people really take Yelp that seriously? While certainly, it does help guide some of my choices in situations of indecision, I find it hard to believe, as was the case with the first business owner I cited, that one single star review could taint a business that was knee deep in five star reviews. Further, I view Yelp reviews as the opinion of individuals aggregated for ease of the masses. Kind of like the Rotten Tomatoes for food and services. If Roger Ebert loves a movie, but A. O. Scott does not, and you know you tend to agree with Roger Ebert’s opinions more (historically speaking), it doesn’t make A. O. Scott definitely wrong, it just means he has a different aesthetic.

Choosing to write 100 reviews for Yelp this year is my way of committing to writing. I have been woefully out of practice, and while I’m not truly editing all that I put out there, my hope is that through repetition, I will find my critic’s voice, and hone my critical eye and expression in prose.

Do any readers here have any insight as to why anyone (businesses or consumers) may take Yelp so seriously?

Fit Fat Fit

Posted on Posted in Fitness and DietTagged , , , , 2 Comments

I’m pretty sure that I fall into that pesky category of fit and fat. While admittedly, I’m on the small side of large, I’m in that annoying grey area where I can sometimes squeeze into the highest number in the Misses category, and the second lowest size of Plus. I’m growing increasingly skeptical that my Mirena IUD is inhibiting my lasting weight loss, either that, or something with the Weight Watchers program (which has changed since I had my resounding success a few years back) has not been helping.

I have been hovering at the same weight for about a year now. What’s different between now and last year is that I go to the gym at least three times a week, and I’m working with a personal trainer. My trusty scale, which calculates my body fat percentage, says that realistically, if I maintain my current muscle mass, I only have to lose 40 lbs of body fat to be just above the minimum body fat percentage for an athlete. (To get to the top of the healthy BMI, I would have to lose 60-65 lbs.)

I realized that I do not do well when I’m not tracking my food intake, and after becoming so frustrated with the newest iteration of Weight Watchers (360), I decided to try My Fitness Pal. It’s free, works with mobile devices, and syncs with my Fitbit Ultra to help calculate what my actual food intake should be with relation to my exercise level. I’m mostly excited about this right now (consider it NRE) because I’ve logged in for two weeks straight, and have tracked reliably, which is more than I can say about WW in the past year. I’ve also realized that along with possible hormonal impacts to my weightloss, I wasn’t eating enough on Weight Watchers. I thought of myself as sedentary, but it turns out that a mother of a toddler in a highly walkable neighborhood/city is HARDLY sedentary.

Fitbit One
Fitbit One
I just upgraded my Fitbit to the Fitbit One , which has the added plus of syncing with my mobile device. I justify that this will come in handy during my vacation.

This has been an educational two weeks. I realized that I’m much more active than I gave myself credit for, and I’ve not felt deprived since I’ve been able to have a daily adjusted food intake based on my actual activity level. I have only lost about two pounds so far, and now it’s about seeing if I can lose more than that, which I have been unable to do with Weight Watchers this past year.

The best part of this experiment? I’m not gaining weight, and I’m not forcing myself to eat a piece of fruit when what I really want is a slice of cheese.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted on Posted in Food and DrinkTagged , , , ,
Red Waldorf Bundt (Red Velvet)
Red Waldorf Bundt (Red Velvet)

Last night I made a Red Waldorf (aka Red Velvet) cake with cream cheese frosting. Hidden inside were balls of pink and purple cake-pop dots, that could have been skipped, but were fun to try.

I used the Better Homes and Garden’s cake recipe (found here), but skipped their frosting, opting for a cream cheese frosting recipe found here, thinning it out a touch with a splash of milk. (I opted to go with the BHG cake recipe instead of the one on that page.) I used Nordic Ware Cake Pops Baking Pan to make the dots inside (not seen in my photo, sorry!) and this page, that I found originally through Pinterest, for inspiration.

The dots inside didn’t work as well, because I baked the cake in a bundt pan. It just wasn’t surprising enough. A note for the bundt pan recipe – I dropped the temp in the oven to 325°F to bake, and baked for 40-50 minutes, checking with a skewer to make sure it was cooked through.

Whether partnered or single, I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day. Treat yourself to something delicious today!

King Cake

Posted on Posted in Food and DrinkTagged , , , 2 Comments
King Cake
My Homemade First King Cake

For the past two years, I have bought paczki and King Cake at West Seattle’s Bakery Nouveau. This is quite a hike for me, coming from the other side of the city. This year I’ve been on a baking binge, and I figured I’d try my hand at making King Cake. Bakery Nouveau described this year’s King Cake on their blog as “made of laminated brioche dough” then, “rolled up with pureed Tatin style apple…cinnamon and sugar, and a sprinkling of raisins.” And finally, they “finish the cake New Orleans style, with a little bit of glaze and tri-color sugar.”

I would like to state for the record that I have never made brioche (though I have made Pulla). I have never laminated anything, let alone dough, nor have I made Tatin style apples. I have made cinnamon rolls, though, so, how hard could it be?

Sit back, and ready yourself for two days worth of work, and a lot of research. That’s what this took me.

I’m not going to give you the recipe, as that this is one of those triumphs that was cobbled from so many sources, and my own brain, that I couldn’t hope to write them all down. I will, however, point you to my resources.

1. Brioche – this part is easy, as that there is a wonderful source available, and that is the invaluable book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. The brioche recipe I used came straight from this book. Other parts I used for guidance were the recipes for cinnamon rolls and such that can be made with enriched breads. This was the most carefree part of the entire endeavor, and this book is a must for anyone who likes fresh bread, but thinks it takes too long to make. I used half the recipe to make one King Cake.

2. LAMINATE. LAMINATE. LAMINATE. – What is laminated brioche? Think like croissants, but breadier. THe happy, buttery layers of bread come by means of laminating! What does this mean? You take a mixture of butter and flour and make it into a sheet, chill it, and then fold dough around it, kind of like the picture in an old ID badge, where the paper is the butter, and the dough is the plastic. I used a few resources to figure out how to do this, but the main one I used was here. Trust me, this is a part where the more research you do, the better.

3.Tatin apples? WTF? – First, thanks Mark Bittman, and How to Cook Everything. The iPhone/iPad How to Cook Everything app found the recipe for sautéed apples, which is what Bittman suggests for a crust-free tatin flavor. Basically, it’s like apple sauce made with extra sugar, and butter instead of apple cider/juice. Thanks to Bittman, something that could have been hard, was easy. I used one recipe of this, and pureed it.

4. Making the crown, and making it pretty – If I had to do it over again, I would have rolled out the length of my dough as a long rectangle on a Silpat first and then placed it in something like this Thunder Group 18 Inch x 26 Inch Full Size Aluminum Sheet Pan. I spread the puree in one layer from edge to edge, sprinkled on the raisins, and would have, had I not forgotten, added cinnamon/sugar sprinkle on top of the apple puree. Finally I rolled it up so it was a long cylinder, much like you would for cinnamon rolls. Before putting the ends together, I recommend cutting the ends off of the cylinder first, then joining them together to make the crown. Finally, I used Google to get the inspiration for making it pretty.

Laminated Brioche Detail
Buttery Layers

I baked the bread for around 35-40 minutes at 325°F on convection. If you don’t have a convection oven, you might want to try 350°F, and rotating the pan midway to get it evenly brown. I hid the baby Jesus in the cake AFTER baking, by stuffing it in one of the folds.

The cake came out looking buttery and delicious. I let it cool, and finished it off with a simple milk, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar icing drizzled over it, and an abundance of traditional colored sprinkles in purple, yellow and green.

I will be trying this again next year, without a doubt. Though I haven’t tasted this year’s cake (it went straight to my husband’s work), I heard it was delicious.