Kitchen Aid Mixer

About a month ago, Jason and I finally got ourselves our "Christmas presents" for one another. He got the knife set he's been coveting for years, and I got the Kitchen Aid stand mixer that I've been coveting for more years!

The first recipe I made was my mom's banana bread (with my modification for the applesauce and skim milk). Wow, this stuff is great! It's moist and flavorful thanks to the high quantity of (over-ripe) bananas. Oh, and it's simple to make - especially in a stand mixer!

For 2 large loaves (see picture at bottom):

Cream together:
1 stick butter or margarine, softened
1 4oz. cup of applesauce
1 1/2 cups sugar

Add to creamed mixture (and mix well):
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 large (or 4-6 small) very ripe bananas

Add your "flour mixture" and "buttermilk" to the banana mix in alternating turns, taking care to mix after each addition. Start and end with the flour mixture. I usually divide into 4 flour pours and 3 buttermilk pours.

"Flour mixture"
Combine in a small bowl:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

"Buttermilk"
In a measuring cup, combine:
2 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 cup (less 2 tsp) skim milk

(If you already have buttermilk on hand, you can use 1/2 cup of it instead of the homemade combo. But, I never have buttermilk on hand.)

Once your batter is all mixed up, pour into two loaf pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

This bread is best after it has cooled from the oven so the flavors can develop. But, after that, you can eat it room-temperature, cold, or warmed up with a dab of butter. All versions are delicious!

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that this is probably not like your mother's banana bread (just mine!). :-) It is not fluffy or airy like cake or a traditional quick bread. It will be dense (only about 2 inches tall), and very moist throughout due to all the banana -- perhaps even a little uncooked looking in the middle. So, don't fret if this is what it looks like. It's supposed to!

Crazy About Cauliflower

No, I haven't been having any strange cravings for cauliflower (although, as I type that sentence the idea of cauliflower dipped in ranch dressing does sound good. . . maybe I'll add those items to this week's grocery list); according to Baby Center's website, a baby at 27-weeks of pregnancy weighs the same as a head of cauliflower: approximately 2 pounds and rapidly growing. Length should be about 14.5 inches by now.

A few notes for my pregnancy journal, er, blog:

• I could feel the baby's "hiccups" last night as they made my belly bounce. I swear I even saw my belly "jump" once! I'd compare the feeling to having a little bubble pop in your hand. This was the first time I had consistently felt movement from the outside. He's always moving around that I can feel on the inside.
• The biggest difference that I've noticed recently is that I can feel the uterus (and baby?) above my belly button. I guess since it's the size of a basketball, that was bound to happen!
• Leg cramps are still going strong. Every book and website I read warns about them. Guess I'm just having a normal pregnancy.
• Last weekend marked the start of my 3rd cold during pregnancy. I'm feeling quite a bit better now (and this one didn't have the violent coughing of the other two), but Baby's Daddy has a really bad cough this time.
• Clothes: I love my maternity jeans! They were less than $40 at Kohl's, and they look and feel good. Who wouldn't love having cute jeans that fit and are as comfortable as sweatpants?! My favorite work pants have already been pictured twice here. I only have 4 pair, so it's not a lot of competition. Thanks to my very generous friends, Desiree and Nikki, I haven't had to buy shirts. They cleaned out their maternity closets and loaded me up at Christmastime with dozens of shirts and sweaters of all kinds! Luckily, my existing winter coat still fits and should fit for the next 4-6 weeks until the weather warms up!
• Cravings: I haven't had any cauliflower, but with my insatiable appetite I have been eating about everything else. My most consistent craving is for cheese pizza. Other than that, I enjoy all the things I've always eaten - just more often!

Avenue Q

We enjoyed a fun Friday night out attending the hilarious Avenue Q at the Warner Theatre! For those of you not familiar with the show, it's inspired by Sesame Street and has characters that are spoofs of Cookie Monster (Trekkie Monster), Bert (Rod), and Ernie (Nicky). However, the show is definitely intended for mature audiences and has songs with names like "It Sucks to Be Me" and "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" among the milder themes.

We rounded out the evening with dinner before the show at Elephant & Castle English pub and dessert at M&S Grill afterwards. A nice early Valentine's celebration!

Ford's Theatre

The newly renovated Ford's Theatre has reopened in honor of Lincoln's 200th birthday. Last night the Obamas and other dignitaries were there. In a few weeks, the Shields' will be there to see a play. Supposedly Al Roker is doing a Today Show spot from there this morning. This is the crowd assembled. It wasn't too impressive yet, but a charter bus of enthusiastic high school students was unloading as I walked by. Ford's Theatre is one block from my office, so on nice weather days like today, I walk past it on my 4 block walk from the metro station. On bad weather days, I transfer to a train that dumps off immediately next to my building.

26 Weeks

This picture was taken a few days early, but I needed a picture for my post about our hospital tour earlier this week. These are the same slacks from the 24 week picture with one of my non-maternity shirts that stretches! I don't think I look this big when I look in the mirror, so I'm starting to wonder if I stand funny for the picture?! If this is 26 weeks, wait for 36 weeks! Ha!

We joined a group of 5 other couples for a tour of the labor/delivery area and maternity floor. I wasn't sure of the set-up until we got there, but there are in fact, two different rooms. You stay in the first room for labor/delivery/recovery (about 2 hours postpartum) and then get transferred up to the maternity ward for the rest of your stay. We got to peak at the nursery when we were up on the maternity floor. There was only one little guy in there, and he was under the bilirubin lamps and didn't look too happy about it.

We got a chance to ask questions about hospital policies and procedures (e.g. what type of fetal monitoring do they require; how long can the baby stay after delivery before tests and shots) and get a feel for the facility. Everything seemed nice and very professional. Seeing the little fella in the nursery made me super excited about our own little guy arriving!!

The only real surprise for me was one of their security measures (although I have since confirmed that Olathe Medical Center does this as well): after the umbilical cord is cut, a sensor tag is connected to the baby's stump. This tag looks exactly like the ones on clothes at the mall. So, if the baby is carried or wheeled too close to an external door, the alarm will sound - just like someone stealing a sweater from Banana Republic!


This second picture is a front view of me last night. I just want to have a record for myself that I still look pretty normal from the front side, regardless of the gigantic belly in the side view top picture! :-)

Weather Warm Up

We have had a great weekend enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures! It was in the 50's yesterday, so we took Rachel to a new dog park to run around and socialize. She loves to run and play, but never strays too far from us. I took the camera, but Jason said it would be "a bit excessive" to get it out and take pictures! He obviously doesn't know what he's in for once the baby arrives! Today it is in the 60's but windy, so it feels about the same as yesterday. We had hoped for a bike ride, but the wind is too fierce. Hopefully we get a chance one of these days before I get too big to balance! Instead, we've got the driving range (Jason) and tax returns (Lisa) on the agenda. Fun!

{Saturday was also a noteworthy day because it marked the 12th anniversary of our first date back in college! :-) }

24 Weeks

Here I am at 24 1/2 weeks in my Motherhood Maternity work outfit. I feel the need to add the 1/2 week since my belly is sticking out so far! These are my favorite pants. I like to think they don't look like pregnancy pants if you can't see the belly that's holding them up! Today was the first day that I wore this sweater. There is still too much fabric, but I'm quite certain I'll be filling it out eventually. Mostly I still wear my regular shirts (using a camisole to extend the length), since I prefer the fitted look and think my maternity tops are still too big.

I've been feeling really good this past month; I'm at that happy stage where I'm obviously pregnant and the belly gets lots of attention, but I can move normally and it's not heavy. However, I do get winded rolling over in bed - and I have to do it a lot because my hips and thighs will hurt after being on one side for too long. My calf muscles cramp up at night, too, which is supposedly really normal. Other than that, no real complaints!