father's day...

this year, we were able to spend the actual day of father's day alone with just our little family of four.  (that's peter's favorite type of day... he's been crazy busy at work with two ginormous projects and hasn't been home much... hence why i haven't blogged.)

anyway, on pintrest i stumbled upon an idea for a fabulous card...

considering all weekend mornings with the little man start off with this wonderful device where elmo lives, i thought it would be a fun card to make.  i haven't taken a picture of mine yet, but it was way cute.  I decided to make it like a "scavenger hunt," and he could lift the flap of each app to find out what came next.

i gave him the pictures that the kids and i took for father's day...

 daddy's sweatshirt... not so happy though...

daddy's hat

 daddy's sweatband.... not daddy's legwarmers

peter's nickname for k is "cupcake..."

then, i grabbed him coffee and a boston creme donut (his favorite).  he took little man for a bike ride, and came back to a picnic in the park.  after playing playstation during nap time, we went up to bonner's farm, out to dinner at a new restaurant, and had ice cream at a new ice cream place.  

 yeah... she's sitting in a high chair :)

 guess who learned how to blow bubbles in his milk?!?

all in all, it was a simple, delightful father's day.  

and peter deserved every ounce of it.  

he is such a wonderful father. 

luxury

friday night was date night.

however, date night doesn't seem to do it justice.

it was the most luxurious (and expensive) dinners that peter and i have ever had.

i wanted to surprise peter with a super fancy pants date night.  and oh... i did.

have you ever heard of  tru?
it's a lettuce entertain you restaurant, and since i horded recieved many gift cards from students, i decided to blow them all on one night that will go down in the history books.  

this blog post might get boring.  it's as close as i'll ever be to a foodie.  you see, i don't think i'll experience anything like this again for quite a while, and i want to write it down so i don't forget how incredibly pampered, happy, and thankful i was friday night.  i mean, this was a place where jackets were required for men.  they took my coat and valeted the car with only our names, no ticket.

i didn't bring my camera, and i'm happy i didn't.  i was already too excited and it was written all over my face.  and... there was another girl my age who brought a point and shoot camera and took pictures with her flash on... tacky.  super tacky.   i scouted the internets to see if i could find a few pictures, and they sent us home with a menu so we could remember our meal.

we sat in a corner booth... the leather was incredibly soft (it felt like one of layla's purses she makes us feel), and they moved the table out for me so i wouldn't have to scoot.  we sat here:

we were served 13 courses.  13.   and that didn't include the impressive bread tray.  or the little cakes they had in baggies for us to take home.

course 1:  comte cheese gougere.
the best way i could describe this is a cream puff without the cream, and the dough was cheesy.  And light and flaky.  they told us we could eat it with our fingers.  every time they gave us a new course, they gave us eating instructions.  which i took.  gladly.

course 2:  truffle cauliflower puree, beef consomme gelee.
beef jello.  i had read about the wonders of gelee in julie and julia, and read more in julia child's autobiography. quite tasty.  we were both surprised with how much we liked it.


course 3:  white sturgeon "caviar", avocado, hazelnut
 it wasn't really caviar.  they poached the sturgeon, sucked the liquid out, put it in a cooling bath thing and it turned into little balls.  totally top chef.  totally amazing.  the avocado was under the "caviar," and the crackers served with it had bits of hazelnut.  the flavors played off of each other beautifully.  that, once again, sounds top chef, but i've truly never experienced it in real life before.

course 4:  linear foie gras, black fig ice wine vinegar, caramelized popcorn
foie gras.  just typing it sounds fancy.  ours was served a little thicker than a mousse in a straight line, and served figs soaked in ice wine vinegar with caramel corn that looked almost like brittle.  the savory of the foie gras and the sweet of the figs and caramel corn was amazing. 

course 5:  celeriac soup, winter truffle, quail egg in its nest
did you know that celery and celeriac aren't the same?  we eat the stems of celery, and celeriac is grown for the root.  yeah... i just looked that up.  anyway, they served us a potato that served as a base for a french fried potato nest with a poached quail egg perched on top.  the bowl was garnished with 24k gold leaf.  then, the poured the soup in our bowls at the table.  beautiful.  we ate gold for dinner.

course 6:  seared scallop, butternut squash + ginger puree, apple celery salad
 out of all the plating, this one was almost tacky, but considering it was the only one like it, i suppose it was more playful.  the scallops weren't in circles like i'm used to eating, but more of a slice and topped with the squash/ginger/apple/celery.  the were placed on a handblown glass conch shell,  and the inside of the shell had a smoked cream (that totally tasted like lox). 


course 7:  duroc pork belly, crispy leeks, stone ground grits
when they introduced the course to us, i was a bit nervous about the grits.  i'm usually not such a big grits fan.  but, the grits were a different consistency than those i've tried, and were super cheesy.  the pork belly was incredibly succulent.  this was my favorite of the meat/seafood meals.

course 8:  scottish salmon, sorrel, smoke cream
the salmon was poached and seared in olive oil, and the crust was seared to perfection.  it was served with a sorrel sauce, which is a bitter lettuce leaf.  i didn't like the sorrel very much at all, but apparently, my mother-in-law is a gourmet chef because she used to use this leaf to make soup when peter was little :)  it too was served with smoke cream...  yum.

course 9:  cervena venison, brussel sprouts, crispy bacon, red currant
i had never eaten venison before, and had always been told it was gamey.  not the case with this... if they didn't tell us it was venison, i would have assumed it was a funky steak.  it was juciy and flavorful, and it was paired with things that really played up the flavors.  i actually really enjoyed the brussel sprouts, which i'm assuming was sauteed in bacon, and the red current added that tart/sweetness that really made it pop.

course 10:  a selection of cow, goat and sheep's milk cheeses
i love cheese.  i love cheap cheese, cheese slices, and the fancy pants ones you find at whole foods.  when they wheeled the cheese cart (cheese cart!) over and told me i could pick three types of cheese, i was in heaven, and made sure that peter would pick three different ones from me so i could try his too.  I had a lovely soft cow cheese, a flavorful goat cheese, and a sheep's cheese coated with herbs that tasted fantastic with honey.  for peter, it was the stinkier the better.  he had a blue cheese, and two more than were incredibly stinky, but i can't remember what they were.

course 11:  pear foam, citrus spiced port
instead of that ice cream palate clenser like in the princess diaries (yes, i just made a princess diaries reference) they gave us a foam.  i liked the pear, but the citrus spiced port was too porty for me, and peter really enjoyed my facial expressions with that one. 

course 12:  honeycrisp apple beignet, vanilla ice cream
on the show chopped (food network), many of the chefs choose to make bignets.  basically, a bignet is a doughnut, and ours looked like donut holes.  however, it was a beer batter, stuffed with a ball of apple, and rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and served warm along side house made vanilla bean ice cream.  heaven. 

course 13:  mignardises 
i just looked up this word in a french-english dictionary i found on line.  i was told that it means preciousness or affection.  i suppose i can see why... mignardises were little chocolates and candies to finish up dinner with... i had a passionfruit marshmallow, lemon cream in a chocolate shell, and a vanilla bean truffle with dark chocolate.   peter had a banana rum cake, espresso meraingue, and the truffle.  finally, we were both given a cherry liquor chocolate that literally exploded as soon as you put them in your mouth.

i stopped in the ladies room before we left...

i don't know how to end the post...
nothing that i can think of saying seems to be able to stand up to the richness of the dinner...

all i can i say, i suppose, is i hope that all of you one day get to experience something like this...
it was true luxury.

Vati ist nach Hause

translation:  Daddy is home!

Peter has been in Germany since Saturday, and after a 2 hour weather delay, he's finally home!  Jason (as overtired as he was for only taking a 20 minute nap today) was full of smiles for his daddy.  :)

I missed Peter, but so much more than I usually do, and for different reasons.  I missed him because he couldn't play with Jason.  I missed him because he couldn't snuggle Kayla until she fell asleep.  I missed him because we couldn't laugh when Jason did something funny.

But he's home now.  And we have three whole days before I go back to work, and nothing on the calendar.  No places to go, no schedule to follow... just us.

He brought home presents...

a german police car toy that makes sounds 
and has flashy lights when you push buttons.

buttons?!  i LOVE buttons!   
too bad i can't understand a word of what they're saying...

daddy got me shoes!  they're pink, blue and have moons.  
and they shake when i kick.

my daddy is awesome.

german pokey sticks!  mama loves her some pokey sticks! 

mmmmmmmilk chocolate... yeah, they're bigger than king sized.  

One more gift I want to share with you...  it makes me giggle.

This is what German people consider to be a great bath toy.

I call it drunk German hippo with rabies.

(the rabies you can't see... when you pour bubble bath in it, it foams.)

I can't blame Peter for buying it.   I would have too.

Kids are in bed.  Dog is happy.  

I'm thinking it's cuddle time.  :)

loved.

I wasn't expecting much for valentine's day this year.   That sounds a lot meaner than it's meant to be...

You've read about Peter's and my tradition.  We're not "valentiney" people.  The party on Saturday night was wonderful, breakfast yesterday was wonderful, and that was really all I needed.

When I took the dog out last night, I snuck 3 cards into Peter's car... one from me, one from Kayla and on from Jason.  I figured he'd come home with a card, and perhaps flowers. 

I was in for a suprise.  :)

It was a hard day today... I'll post more about that tomorrow when there's resolution, so I was so overwhelmed and happy when I came home to 4 wonderful things:

1)  the four MyPublisher books I ordered came in, and they are beautiful.  After bath time and bed time, Peter and I get to snuggle up and look at all our memories since the little man was born.  That sounds perfect even writing it.

2)  I checked my email.  My husband "made" me a valentine's card via PowerPoint presentation, complete with clip art.  Be still my techie heart.  :)

3)  While checking my email, I noticed a piece of paper peeking out from behind the keyboard.  It was a letter.  A love letter.  My husband is foreign, and although most times you can't tell, you can tell in his writing.  He's a fine technical writer, but conversational writing is not his forte.  But, during the past few weeks, I've told him that I needed his words more.  I needed to feel like I was important.

At dinner a few weeks ago, a newly wed friend asked a few of us "longer marrieds" if our husbands missed us when we went out for dinner, because hers did.   All of the friends answered yes.  And I said
no.  Peter is perfectly happy being home alone, or being home with the kids. 

Do you remember that movie with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn?  I never saw it, but I remember the line from the commercial for it...

Jennifer Aniston:  I want you to want to do the dishes!
Vince Vaughn:  Why would I want to do the dishes?

After dinner that night, I felt like the dishes.  And I told him so.  I don't want to only be his kid's mom.   I want much more than that.  But with everything going on with them lately, it's what it felt like.  I'm Mama.  That's all.

Today, in his letter, he gave me his words.  I teared up (just a bit) and felt like a wife.  A completely loved wife.  sigh

4)   After I gave him my thank you, he told me to go back and check my email.  You know how I'm making all those MyPublisher books?  I told him last night that they're running a deal now on 40% off gift certificates.  So, for $60, you can get a $100 gift card.  The best price I've seen for the books is $35, so with the gift certificate money paying the sale price, you could get 3 books for $60.  Does that make sense?  He didn't seem too interested in it last night, (nor does he ever seem interested in my picutre taking or the makings of the books) but in my email today was a gift certificate for $100, and a note that said

I thought you'd like a gift certificate from my publisher because the books you make are so beautiful. I love you and thank you for creating them. 

So much better than flowers.  

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day.  :)
 

resolution 2011.

It's February 1, 2011 today. 

February was scaring me a bit this year... let's rewind and see why.

February 15, 2009.  Peter and I were up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  We went away for the first time ever for Valentine's Day.  We stayed at a bed & breakfast that didn't have any rooms available besides twin beds.  We were sure we couldn't have kids, and were planning on starting the adoption process that summer.  Maybe it was the wine from the local winery?  Maybe it was the amazing pesto mozzarella sticks?  Most likely, it was the twin beds.  Enter:  Jason Evan Tarnawa, October 16, 2009.

February 16, 2010.  Went to see the wonderful and fabulous Dr. Jahedi because I was weaning Jason, and felt funny.  I had nausea, headaches, and was quite moody.  I wanted to make sure everything was okay before I went back to work.  She checked if I was pregnant.  I wasn't.  We talked a bit about our plan of attack just in case I became pregnant.   February 18, I'm pregnant.  I went back to work pregnant not knowing.  Enter:  Kayla Elyse Tarnawa, November 18, 2010. 

My wonderful, amazing, lovable children are one year, one month, and two days apart.  And at that moment Kayla was born, Jason was 13 months and two days. 

Can you tell why I am petrified of February?  The big joke is that Peter and I can't share a bed, let alone look at each other during the month of February.  My dear friend Paulina offered her couch to Peter or myself for the month.  I was seriously thinking of taking her up on it.  For Peter, of course.  I'd stay home :)

In January, during my 6-week post partum check up, I got to see Dr. Jahedi (did I mention how much I love her?) again, and we talked birth control.  As much as she was instrumental in getting me through my pregnancies, I desperately needed her help in never getting pregnant again.  We talked options.  The pill?  No way.  I'd forget to take it, or at least never take it at the same time.  The patch?  Nope.  The shot?  Nope.  Nuvaring?  I'd be petrified it would fall out or I wouldn't install (yeah, I used the word install) it right.  An IUD?  Now we're talking.

There were two she offered... the first being a copper IUD with no hormone whatsoever.  Bonus:  it would last for 10 years.  Side effect:  heavy regular periods.  Considering I hadn't gotten my period in over two years, and before I was pregnant I'd get it every 2 to 3 months, that didn't sound like fun. 

Enter Mirena.  It lasts 5 years, has some hormone (but not a low dose of estrogen.  I'm not good at low doses of estrogen.  Ask Julie.  And Bob Newhart.)  and makes your periods super light.  Sounded like the perfect choice. 

It's suposed to be inserted by your OB/GYN in the office during your period.  I had scheduled an appointment with Dr. Jahedi for mid February already because we didn't know if I was going to get a period.  When I called the office to reschedule, I learned that she was pregnant (HOORAY!!!!!), and that she wasn't in the office at all this week (BOOOO!!!).  I rescheduled with the doctor I saw in college for Wednesday.  Turned out that would be Snowmageddon.  Luckily, they were able to see me today.

The process wasn't that bad.  There was pressure, and some really funny cramping when it was "installed," but totally worth not taking pills every night.  The doctor said I must have a good pain tolerance beacuse I was able to talk right through the procedure, but after what I've been through the past two years it was nothing.  The best part - it's effective immediately, though I should expect minor cramping and will perhaps spot for a few weeks.   I go back in 6 weeks to get it checked out. 

So, I've officially completed my new year's resolution:  2011 - the year of no new babies.  For the Tarnawa family.  The Augustine's and Dio's... you guys go right ahead.  Gomez's... you too! 

I've given Peter the "Get out of Jail free" card until February 1, 2016.  2016. 

Wanna bet he sees the doctor about a permanent solution on January 31, 2016?  :)

Green Chili Chicken and Lime Soup

The soup I'm about to share for you has quickly turned
into a Tarnawa family favorite. 
I found the recipe for this soup over at Picky Palate.  Look how beautiful she made it look!

 

I exchanged rice for pasta, added a few seasonings, and found the Points Plus value... which is surprisingly 5 points a serving!   I love the punch of lime in the broth, the heat from the chilies and the freshness of cilantro. 

And it makes a HUGE pot of soup.   HUGE!  

My pictures aren't nearly as good as hers... is it summer yet so I can cook with natural light?  I was too lazy to get the fancy pants flash thing Peter got me for the holidays.  I just wanted you to see the "stuff" in the soup before you see my wimpy final picture in the recipe.

There are a few pictures that I took today that I just need to share.

First up:  Sweet Baby K sitting in the Bumbo.  Wearing leg warmers.

You saw from today's earlier post that Jason's feeding himself.  

Watch what Little Man can do with his yogurt.

So, of course Daddy just had to join in on the fun!

game face

When we bought our PlayStation 3, it came with Madden NFL '10, which Peter and I enjoyed immensity.  Apparently, I'm a fabulous punt returner.  In the TFL (Tarnawa Football League), the Bears went to the Super Bowl.... I'm hoping that it's a good omen for the Bears...

Anyway, for Christmas, Peter's parents got him the Tiger Woods game, and one of the options was to create your own "game face" 3D avatar thing...  I had to take a front and side picture of him for the best results.

The results?  Freaky.  Here's what Peter would look like bald...

We went through many different looks...  and I just had to post them.  Too funny:

And finally decided on this one:  

How does it look in the game?

 
Isn't that crazy?  That's who we see on the TV when he plays.

And speaking of game face, he's using that as he negotiates with a car salesman online... we finally got the breakdown of my salary for the rest of the school year, and are only a few steps away from buying a brand new Chevy Traverse.  I am so excited!!  We'd have 2 cars that are safe to drive in during the winter!  (read:  bye bye little white sh*tbox!)

A few more faces:  here's Little Man at Hawthorn Mall today, where he was finally able to walk over, bend down, and crawl through the log (THANK YOU AUNT DANI!!!), and Kayla and her boyfriend.  Not sure how Kayla feels about it yet, but I'm sure she'll warm up to it.