Autumn wonder

- Posted from my iPhone

the end of an era

I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that after putting my little A to bed on Sunday night, I snuck out alone for an early evening showing of the Twilight finale.  I hope my loyal few won't think me ridiculous when I say it was bittersweet.  Oh, the many hours I have spent reading those delicious, poorly written books, talking with my mom (who was a rather inexplicable, but utterly devoted fan) about Edward's princely qualities, and mocking the altogether satisfying movies.

I'm really going to miss this.

P.S. True love triumphs!

P.P.S. I was thisclose to putting Nikki Reed's duet with Paul McDonald in the post instead of Green Day.  Better clips from the movies in that one.  And ok, I like the song.  Oh, the self-loathing! 

weekly distractions, second edition

-On the Road poster art.

-Jessica Biel's wedding dress.  So pink.  Remember Gwen Stefani's? I'm sorry, Mrs. Timberlake, but your confection doesn't come close to this fashion statement.

-Smitten Kitchen's pancetta pot pies.  Made 'em already.  And they were every bit as delicious as they look.

-Art of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  P.S. I love Design Sponge so much.


-Lennon and Maisy Stella, who star in my new obsession/guilty pleasure Nashville, shot to internet fame long before the show's premiere.  Understandably so.

-Starbucks isn't all bad.

-TV character business cards.  My favorites are Jesse Pinkman and Phil Dunphy.

-Loving The Daily Dot.  Especially this gem of a find, a four-year old overwhelmed and SO DONE with the drama of the election.

baked rigatoni with kale

As I was hastily preparing this dish a few nights ago, after a short-lived crisis wherein I realized I did not, after all, have a full pound of kale, I wondered why I had never written about it before.  I've made it loads of times, each one with results as satisfying as the first.  On that occasion, the first mouthful of the toothsome, hearty whole-grain pasta coated with creamy, cheesy sauce and interspersed with dark green kale was so supremely comforting and good that I swore I would never return to plain old mac n' cheese.  Why should I, when the insertion of that most celebrated and trendy veg made it a transcendent experience?

Despite my best intentions, it was quite some time before I was really back in the swing of things in the kitchen, post-baby.  It's hard at the beginning, of course, for all the expected reasons: you're exhausted, baby's schedule (and thus, your schedule) is completely unpredictable...one minute you're swearing that you'll nap after the tenth feeding of the day and the next you are eating your words because you can't help but stare in amazement at your precious sleeping bundle.  For me, there was a brief window of time when the stretches of sleep became a bit longer in the evenings, and instead of taking turns with the baby, my SH and I were actually able to sit down at the table collapse on the couch in front of the television with plates of food I successfully prepared myself.  Those meals were simple at first, but eventually I made things with a few more steps, a bit more prep work, and perhaps enhanced by a flavorful herb or two.

With the advent of solid foods, cooking dinner became more challenging once again.  I didn't have quite as much time to prepare, both because the wakeful periods during the day were very long and though my beloved little A settled into a decent nap routine, he almost inevitably woke up in the middle of each nap and required a bit of soothing back down AND because I made almost all of his food.  Aside:  I found this to actually be easier (and cheaper!) than storebought food, and incidentally, every thing I made actually tasted like what it was supposed to be, which was not my experience every time I tried a jar of baby food.  I could write a whole additional post on my homemade baby food experience-perhaps you'll see it in a few years?

Anyway, to get back to the main reason I'm writing, the amazing baked rigatoni with kale, I positively have to share the joyous time when baby can finally EAT WHAT WE ARE EATING.  After months of double duty dinners, preparing mashes and purees alongside standby soups and pots of beans and rice, it was a welcome relief to gradually begin making baby A his own little plate to match ours.  It was exciting, because it represented his healthy growth and development, and every time he ate a morsel of chicken breast or slurped bolognese sauce off a chunky piece of rigatoni I was thrilled, and not a little proud.  It's also equally convicting and inspiring: I am much more conscientious about what we eat, because I know that A is going to be eating it with us.

I was cautious with those first few table food dishes-I wanted them to be tasty, but also manageable.  This particular blend of hearty green and pasta was a great dish to meet our needs.  The sauce isn't heavy, the cheese is just right (and I need a lot of that, since baby A has yet to fall in love with whole milk), and the bigger pasta is the perfect finger food.  We have made it many times, with kale and also with a substitute of spinach.  It's never let me down.

I found the recipe on a particularly beautiful blog, The Kitchen Sink Recipes.  Blogger Kristin hails from Chicago, takes incredible photos, and writes warmly of food and family.  She recently had a baby girl, and this particular post, eat as three, is what inspired me not only to document the dish I have grown to love so much, but also to write a bit about my own little family eating as three.

weekly distractions

Ok, I wholeheartedly confess that I am borrowing a page from dooce.com's playbook here.  She has a post every week or so entitled "stuff I found while looking around" containing all kinds of interesting Internet tidbits.  Inevitably fascinating and often totally obscure, her discoveries are far more intriguing than mine, but I liked the idea of collating some of the things I enjoyed most during my daily weekly obsessive browsing.  Of course, everything I read is heavily pop culture-based, but that shouldn't surprise my loyal few.

Classic movie posters with a Toy Story twist...-courtesy of graphic designer Jim Tuckwell

Coldplay's latest video, dystopian comic-styles:


Over at Lainey Gossip, Duana (frequent contributor) joyfully expounds on the news that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be hosting the Golden Globes-including a hilarious photo bomb...

Equal parts heart-wrenching and impressive-Henry Thomas' audition tape for E.T., via Huffington Post

New, harrowing trailer for Zero Dark Thirty:


NY Times piece on the background of Justin Cronin's rise to fame with The Passage.  The second novel in the trilogy, The Twelve, is out today.  I'm so excited I can barely stand to start it, dreading its inevitable conclusion!

That must be really hard for you.

Love this.  And for the record, the new phone is a MAJOR upgrade.

The best kind of mail

This arrived over the weekend, my beautiful, wonderful sister's wedding invitation.

"A heart well worth winning, and well won. A heart that, once won, goes through fire and water for the winner, and never changes, and is never daunted."

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

- Posted from my iPhone