BabySpace: Happy Monday

Well, I'm dying of boredom here. My main client is a health insurance so I'm crazed basically from 10/1-2/15... but outside of some prep work before and after it's really pretty dead. I work on other clients but they aren't nearly as large and cumbersome, and while I was cranking out tons of new business earlier this summer, both my bosses have been on vacation in August so no requests have been coming down lately.

She LOVED taking out this vest this weekend. I put it on her and she was in heaven.

So in between perusing Trulia and Zillow, checking what's new on Facebook (always a snooze-fest unless someones posting a cute baby pic or on a really amazing vacation), reading any updates from my favorite blogs, frantically checking to see if George R.R. Martin has posted any new chapters for The Winds of Winter, I do what I love to do best... look for new food recipes. Here's what I've been doing in the kitchen lately:

Learning to make pizza dough with Mama

This weekend I pre-made some whole wheat pizza dough for a Daddy Dinner night (i.e. when Bill cooks). Mo LOVES shredded mozzarella so that's already a house staple and I keep pepperoni in the freezer just for pizza night use.
I also had some parsley that needed to be used up sooner than later so I made some Chimichurri that I froze back into some of Mo's baby food containers. Perfect topping for any one of the frozen meats we have waiting for us.
Last night I made some shell pasta with spicy Italian sausage, spinach and my favorite jar sauce: Rao's Eggplant Sauce. It's pricey but so yummy and satiates my eggplant cravings while not being so heavy on the veggie that Bill objects. I could just eat it out of the jar... and did. If you want to make your own, I highly recommend this recipe.
I've been making this warm bacon spinach salad that my friend Brenda turned me on to years ago... it's my 2nd favorite salad next to my mom's homemade cesar. Bill LOVES it.
Whole Foods had Hake on sale, which is a flaky white fish like cod. I used it to make my favorite cod recipe: broiled in a miso glaze. Instead of sake I used Chinese cooking wine and added in a dash of soy sauce for good measure.
For busy nights, skirt steak has been my go-to. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook and is perfect with just a simple arugula salad. I love this Jonathan Waxman marinade... just add some ginger or garlic like he says to mix things up.
My friend Preethi (who's husband is the head butcher at Eataly Chicago) claims steak is better when cooked frozen then thawed. I have yet to test this theory, but if anyone does, please let me know.

And in "what Mango eats" news... the answer is everything, mostly. See below. But specifically we usually start the day with some yogurt...I prefer Stonyfield Farms baby yogurt, either plain or in vanilla, but Whole Foods had neither last week, and I had an edgy baby dying to get out of her carrier so I grabbed apple and blueberry. Not thrilled with the amount of sugar in them but Mango LOVED them. She also ate some pancakes on Saturday and had some omelet on Sunday. For lunch we did grilled cheeses. She's been a tad backed up, but hates prunes, so I hide them in her beloved grilled cheese. She usually doesn't object. Pouches for snacks, along with roast beef and chicken cold cuts, she shared my banana and almond butter crepe, cheese at any point during the day and some bits and pieces of whatever we have for dinner. She loves veggies in any form but doesn't love fruit that isn't pureed (we came close to a meltdown with peaches!) or cooked. We're almost completely on whole milk and still working on sippy cups. Our clear favorite are the Zoli cups... which have a flexible straw so Mo can still drink even if she has the cup tilted way back and they don't spill, so I'm a happy mama... they're just a bit on the pricey side for a sippy cup. I use one for milk and one for water and wash them constantly so I don't have to buy more.

Under intense supervision, she actually ate that whole thing, taking bites and everything! Pretty good for a Mango with no teeth yet.

Demanding some omlet. We're all leaning to share in this household.

I worked from home last Friday and we crashed Ollie's music birthday party. Mo had a blast, crawling, standing, clapping and stealing Mama's pizza. Ollie's fabulous Mom does marketing for all kinds of awesome clients, including tons of jewelry and one of the gifts in the party favor bag were Karen Walker dogtags, which I'll happily wear for Mo until she's old enough. And speaking of party favors, Mo's arrive sometime this week!

I've also been hearing rumblings that our parent company, Mediabrands, is moving to make all offices "remote accessible" meaning laptops for everyone and we're encouraged to work from home when possible. This is great news, since previously our CEO frowned on it, but so far just water cooler talk. And I'm sure as anyone who's tried to work from home with a child can say... it's almost impossible to get much done, especially when Moira's favorite game is banging on my computer keys. I also spend most of the time feeling like a horrible ogre for actually having to work while she just wants to play, so if we go more remote accessible I'm sure I'll still be in the office on days I need to actually work, but could hopefully be more choosy with my schedule to stay home on lighter days. But we'll see if/when it comes.

What else... we're moving ahead with the bathroom renovation and have decided on the week after Labor Day to have it done. We're still looking at houses (and trying to decide if this awesome house has ghosts) but my favorite house went off the market. C'est la vie, as they say. And both sets of Grandparents arrive next Wednesday!!!!