Team Espinoza

Last week the Meat & Dance crew came over for “French Night.” Annabelle had been sick for a few days and I was giving her breathing treatments every 2 hours (even in the night.) I was so tired, but I really wanted a fun night after the rough days I had. A whiny inconsolable toddler is never fun. I am very thankful that Annabelle has now made a full recovery.

Here is our recipe for a French Night. The food may not have been completely true to the French culture, but it was fun and delicious!

I made Quiche Lorraine with maple bacon, sweet onions, and Swiss cheese. I love quiches, because they are so easy to make. Here is a link to the recipe I used. Two things I have learned about quiches:

1. Quiches taste better and are easier to cut up when you bake them with  pre-made rolled dough pressed into a glass dish instead of using frozen pie shells.

2. It always takes longer to bake in the oven than the recipe states. At least in my oven. A runny quiche is not tasty.

I also mixed up a Grand Parisian salad from Costco. I don’t really think it is Parisian, but it is my favorite salad with White Balsamic dressing, greens, dried cranberries, spiced walnuts, and feta cheese.

For the main event I made the Pioneer Woman’s French Onion Soup. I got to use my new French Oven for the first time. It was delicious! The Gruyere cheese I used tasted good, but I think the soup tastes just as wonderful with Swiss.

We watched the French comedy “Amelie.” It is sort of like a Wes Anderson French film. It is so quirky and beautifully made. It’s hard not to love Audrey Tatou in the movie. If you have never seen a foreign film this is a great one to start with.

Finally, we made Nutella crepes for dessert. I LOVE Nutella. Daniel and I bought a crepe pan at a Le Creuset outlet a few years ago. It has gotten a lot of use! Here is a link to the recipe I used for the crepe batter.

For me the only French ingredient missing  was watching my favorite cyclist, Sprinter, Thor Hushovd, riding in the Tour de France. I really hope cable channel, Versus, and DirecTV come to an agreement before July so we can watch the tour again this year.

Have you seen Amelie? Did you like it? What is your favorite French food?

The book “Confessions of a Shopaholic”  by Sophia Kinsella is the first of a 5 book series. I just finished the fifth book two nights ago. I stayed up until 4 a.m. reading it, because I can be stupid like that. Staying up late and reading is one of my very most favorite things to do. Thank goodness for the flashlight app on my iPhone!

The books follow Becky through her life beginning as a finance journalist in London. They are just plain fun to read. They are somewhat predictable, but still enjoyable. Sometimes I want to wring Becky’s neck and other times I am cracking up at her antics. The pace of each book begins slow and then builds to a big ending. Once you get into the book it is hard to put down.

My favorite of the 5 is “Shopahlic Takes Manhatten.” That one had me on edge the whole time.

The movie of the same name combines a few stories from different books. The books are so much better! Besides, Luke, Becky’s love interest is way cuter in my head than the one who plays him in the movie. I think the Luke Brandon in the movie is sort of a wimp. The Luke Brandon in my head reminds me of the boss in the British series “The IT Crowd.” Probably because he is British and plays a boss in an office.  So he kind of looks like a younger and wayyy cuter version of this character (don’t judge me ).

If you are looking for something light and fun to read you should definitely read the first book of this series. Then you will be hooked too! I liked to read one in between serious books. It gave me a nice break and breathe of fresh air when I needed one.

So that is my confession. I really enjoyed reading the Shopaholic series. Have you read any of them? Do you have a favorite?

1) What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? had a son and ran a marathon

2) Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? yes. My goal last year was to have a healthy baby and read more books. I haven’t written out my 2010 goals yet.

3) What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? weight loss

4) What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 3rd – the birth of my son! November 15 – the date of the San Antonio Rock & Roll Half Marathon. I trained for 5 months counting down every training day until that date.

5) What was your biggest achievement of the year? Staying sane.

6) What was the best thing you bought? a pair of jeans

7) Where did most of your money go? house payment and food

8 ) What did you get really, really, really excited about? visiting Dawn in Alabama

9) What song will always remind you of 2009? “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas,  “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers, and Kelly Clarkson’s album “All I Ever Wanted”

10) Compared to this time last year, you are: I am thankfully NOT pregnant. Slimmer than last year, but not where I want to be.

11) What do you wish you’d done more of?  sleep – I didn’t sleep while pregnant. I didn’t sleep after the baby was born and I didn’t sleep while waking early to get training runs in. Also,  I wish I had blogged more in TeamEspinoza.

12) What do you wish you’d done less of? eating sweets at night. I have created a bad habit.

13) Did you fall in love in 2009? yes, with my little boy

14) What was your favorite TV program? “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Mad Men”

15) What was the best book you read? “Middlemarch” then “Same Kind of Different As Me”

16) What was your greatest musical discovery? Hmm. lately its Lady Antebellum. Love them.

17) What did you want and get? an iPhone!

18) What did you want and not get? a new couch

19) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Daniel surprised me with a dinner party out with our life group. I turned 29.

20) Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most? Kellie Pickler. For real, the girl makes me laugh. I think she has an unrecognized courage to be bold and I think she sincerely cares about people.

21) What kept you sane? Twitter and Facebook. My friends Barb, Sarah, Kristin, Wyndi, Melia, Dawn., and so many more! My husband. My quiet times with Jesus. Date nights at home with Daniel while watching Mad Men. Mother’s Day Out and a summer pass to an indoor playground.

22) Who did you miss? Our missionary friends, The Days, in Spain. I really want to go visit them.

23) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Sometimes you have to fight to have quiet times with God. Setting boundaries are hard, but always worth it in the end.

24) What did you gain this year? ha. more weight! My old clothes don’t fit. I also gained deeper friendships this year. More confidence in my role as a stay at home mom.

25) What did you lose this year? thankfully, not much! (I know its a non-answer, but I really can’t think of anything.)

Here’s some of the great thins that happened in 2009

1. Roman

Meeting my boy was the best part of the year. Getting to assist with the L&D was an opportunity that I never thought I’d have.  I can say that I was the first person to know “It’s a boy!”

2. 1/2 Marathon

With the encouragement and inspiration from the Real Deal, I accomplished several consecutive personal records, culminating with finishing the San Antonio 1/2 Marathon in 3:08.

3. Working from home

This was my second full year of working for myself.  I learned a lot of lessons and got to work on some fun projects with great people.  I look forward to continuing with “lifestyle design” and tweaking how/where/why I work.

4. iPhone

I’m seriously not sure how I lived before the iPhone.  I can run my business, communicate with friends and family, and stay connected from anywhere.  I now look forward to red lights and long lines.

5. UT vs. Nebraska

It had been over five years since I’d been to a UT game in person.  Seeing UT get the Big 12 championship in Cowboys Stadium was so exciting.

6. Philippines Mission Trip

I had the pleasure of training a wonderful group of folks for a short term mission trip.  Training for missions is something that I am passionate about and it is great to be able to work in your passion.  I didn’t go this time, but through that another project leader got to step forward and use his gifting.   Way to go Bo!

7. Men’s Group

I’ve been meeting with a group of guys on Tuesday nights through the year and they are a constant source of friendship, accountability, support and encouragement.  We read and discuss books, but the main draw is the fellowship.    We read Eldredge’s “The Way of the Wild Heart” (before I knew I would have a son), Hank Hanegraaff’s “Apocalypse Code” and C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”.

8. New Neighbors

We love where we live, but I would often find myself saying “Why can’t there be more (cool) young families with kids in this neighborhood?”  Well, this year Bryan, Zandi and Owen moved in across the street.  It’s been fun getting to know them and playing scrabble via Facebook and our iPhones.

9.  Getaway  to Austin

For our babymoon we got a chance to hang out in a friend’s Austin home.  It was a super fun time to get to be out of town in a well designed and modern home.

10. Time with family

I don’t want to overlook the time that I got to spend with family over the course of this year.  It’s something that is often overlooked until we don’t have it anymore.

2009 has been a great year and one I will look back on fondly. Here are my Top 10 moments of the year.

1. Roman

My labor and delivery couldn’t have been more perfect. Thankful for a safe delivery and an AMAZING new son!

2. Running 26.2 miles

My All These Things That I’ve Done friends and my impending 30th birthday encouraged me to accomplish this life goal. I trained for 5 months and it took me 5:08:59 to run the entire course.

3. Being a Stay at Home Mom

I LOVE my job. I have now been a SAHM for 2.5 years. I am thankful for another year getting to do what I love.

4. iPhone

I don’t remember what life was like before I got an iPhone. It is permanently attached to me all the time now.

5. Vacations

Before Roman came we hung out in a cool house in Austin for a few days. This summer we took a tour of the South in Arkansas, Memphis, visiting with my friend Dawn and her family in Alabama, and New Orleans.

6. Woman’s Bible Study

This Spring I only missed one week of Bible Study, because I had a baby. I enjoyed getting to know the ladies in my Spring study. This Fall I joined an inductive study of Romans. I learned the importance of a quiet time all over again. In fact, I didn’t want the group to end, so I now I blog weekly devotional updates over at Thirsty for Living Water.

7. MEAT & DANCE Crew

It all started with an invite to help eat a 13 pound brisket. Now Melia, Wendy, Zandi, Kara & Ian, and Barb come over to eat and watch So You Think You Can Dance. They make me laugh until I pee in my pants.

8. Book Club / Finishing ‘Middlemarch’

A few ladies at the Spring women’s bible study asked about a book club and I agreed to lead the club. I had always wanted to lead one. I enjoy helping to pick books every month and discussing themes and characters. I also finished ‘Middlemarch‘, one of the best books on the planet. It is also 859 pages long. Any Jane Austen fan would LOVE this book.

9. The Mom Crowd

My parenting blog, The Mom Crowd, continued to grow in visitors and revenue this year. I recently closed the blog, but I am incredibly proud of the work that I poured into the site and the people it has inspired.

10. Cooking

I don’t know why, but I am more excited about cooking lately. I even got a French Oven for Christmas. I am not a good cook by any means. I enjoy finding easy recipes that have ingredients I recognize and taste good. This year I mastered lasagnas and learned how to make a hot Indian curry.

I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings next year. I have some new projects happening and I am actually looking forward to turning 30 in a month.

Today was an odd day. Daniel, myself and the kids were certainly dragging this morning after a fun day on Sunday eating at Salt Lick and walking the Austin Trail of Lights. As I was strategizing to attack my To Do list I called my mother-in-law, Felicia. She told me that her brother (and our Uncle) is to have heart cath surgery tomorrow.

Then later as Felicia was sitting in the road to turn left an 18 wheeler rear-ended her. Daniel went to help fill out the report, etc. as Felicia headed to the hospital for x-rays. Praise God she is only sore and is okay!

Then later as Daniel was driving to the hospital to go drop off the reports he got a nail stuck in his tire and got a flat tire.

So my sister-in-law, Denise, went to go pick up Daniel at the tire shop and take him to the hospital. This morning Denise learned that their family dog passed away today. He had eaten a box of tampons and other things and didn’t make it before the surgery could happen. It appears that he also had some other intestinal issues.

Thankfully, the only accident I had to directly deal with was minor. While the kids were in a bubble bath, Annabelle poured a bunch of water on Roman’s head and literally scared the crap out of him. I immediately washed them in another bathtub and cleaned the poopy tub. It was gross!

The rest of the day got better after we all finally ate lunch and relaxed. I eventually got groceries and stamps after the kids slept. For today, Christmas was on hold.

We are praying that God and the doctors will be able to fix Uncle Henry’s heart in the morning.

I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day!!

Things Mom Like is giving away copies of the Glee soundtracks and I really want to win them. I get 5 additional entries if I blog about the giveaway. So forgive me.

Seriously, I tried really hard to NOT like this show. I refused to DVR it for a while, but then I found myself watching them on Hulu. I mostly like the songs. They just make me happy. I think I played their version of “Don’t Stop Believing” over a hundred times this summer.

Anyway, you can check out the contest over at Things Mom Like!

The Life of a Work at Home Dad

Roman is now 9 months old. I LOVE this age. I am hiding all the push toys so he can keep crawling longer. He is still having trouble sleeping through the night, but it is getting better. Roman is so cuddly in his jammies.

Daniel and I love to read books. So I thought we should list them as we go along and share our thoughts. I have been inspired by my friend Dawn and her reading list. She is on her way to read 52 books this year. I know I enjoy perusing her list and reading her thoughts about books. So I thought we would do the same. If you need a book idea, then please stop by our Books page.

I also lead a book club every month. Anyone is welcome to come. The next meeting is on Jan. 7th. We are reading “A Christmas Passage” by David Saperstein and George Samerjan this month. Please leave me a comment if you would like more details about the book club.

Some other books that looked interesting this month:

- The Christmas List, by Richard Paul Evans - This author puts out a Christmas book every year. This book is a story of redemption and a new twist on the classic tale of A Christmas Carol. The book club couldn’t decide between this book and the one we did choose.

- Home In Time for Christmas by Heather Graham – A cheesy Christmas romantic book about a woman who picks up a man who thinks he is from the Revolutionary War on the way to her parents house on Christmas Eve. They have this one at the library and I am totally going to read it.

My friend Wendy killed her very first deer over Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, she got a 10 point buck. So what better way to congratulate my friend then by cooking her deer meat? It seems so organic and natural to know exactly where the meat came from, how it was killed, and cleaned.

A few friends and I get together to eat and watch So You Think You Can Dance. This tradition started with a 13 pound brisket and has been coined MEAT & DANCE. So we decided to cook Wendy’s deer meat at our next MEAT & DANCE party. This is how we did it.

Prep Work

Monday night Wendy dropped off the deer meat at my house. It arrived frozen and I left it out a bit to thaw out.

The meat comes pre-cut into medallion sized pieces of varying thicknesses.

Once the meat is thawed or at least thawed enough in my case, it is time to tenderize the meat with a mallet. I had to borrow one from Zandi, my neighbor. My arm was sore the next day!

Seriously, this takes a while.

I have no idea if I did this right, but this is what the meat looks like in the bowl.

Next I poured some milk in to bowl to cover the meat. I had Organic 2% on hand.

Then I put in some Tabasco. I don’t know how much, maybe 8 squirts.

Stir it up and stick in the fridge to hang out until the next night.

Cooking the Backstrap

Make 2 bowls. One bowl has egg, milk, salt, and pepper. The second bowl is flour.

Be sure to double batter them in this order: egg, flour, egg, flour

Also don’t be skimpy on the salt and pepper. Taste one done and add more if needed.

Enlist some friends to help batter the meat.

So they can do the dirty work. : )

Heat up a big pan of vegetable oil and stick the battered fillets in the hot oil.

IMPORTANT: You have to cook them until they are almost black in the pan. The ones in the back of this photo are almost done. Turn them over every once in a while.

Wendy helped valet the meat into the pan here. She was also teaching me how to cook them.

Perfection! I wish I could eat this photo.

I set up a drying rack over a cookie sheet to catch the grease. Apparently, if you put them on paper towels the meat will re-absorb the oil as it sits on the paper.

Eat!

Delicious-ness. Serve them with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Country Gravy. I used the Pioneer gravy mix which Kara so kindly helped to make.

Here is Ian with his first bite of chicken fried deer ever. I think he was a little scared.

I think this photo means that he liked it!

Yeah, check out these clean plates in front of Zandi and Wendy. Kara already had hers (with ketchup of course.)

Melia is now an Official Member of the Clean Plate Club! Daniel is shocked.

Miss Wendy the hunter herself and Daniel.

Happy bellies! Zandy, Wendy, and me.