Another First

Zoe actually sat up for the first time without tumbling over almost immediately last week. But she was never able to hold the position for long. Today, she "sat up" for a longest time ever. We are so proud of her!

First Fangs!

Zoe woke up from her sleep earlier - which hasn't happened since she was six weeks old or so - in a state. Our best efforts could not calm her down. She was inconsolable. We finally figured out why: our little one is teething! I put my finger into our mouth and felt the hard ridges along her gum. They are sharp! After administering a few teething tablets and baby Tylenol, she calmed down and even cheered up. This explains her weird feeding habits (She hasn't been eating well) and the persistent scratching of ears and cheeks (which I know is not from ear infection as her ears were just checked yesterday and they were given the ok). We are so excited. Our little one is growing up.

Here's another Picture

Here's another picture of Zoe. It's amazing how fast she is growing developmentally. She didn't seem to do much for the longest time, then suddenly she started rolling over (onto her stomach from a back position). That was some 10 days ago. Since then, she has shown marked increase in interest in touching and grabbing at things. She's turning the various toys on her exersaucer. She looks more and more girly by the day too.

Wine Note - Edmeades Mendocino County Zinfandel 2006

I think the two words to describe this Zin is "not bad." Even though the wine guy at Costco describes it as big and bold, I thought this Zin to be rather delicate. It is not smack in your face jammy, which is how I like my Zins. Neither is it as complex as the label claims it to be: "with dollops of smoke, graham cracker, chocolate and fruit, it reminds us of raspberry s'mores fresh from the campfire." Still, the wine is perfectly drinkable and reflects its rather affordable price of $12.99.

No to Gnocchi!!

Dennis and I got it into our heads that we would like to master the art of making Gnocchi. Dennis is a big fan of gnocchi and would love to be able to produce this bite size potato dumplings in our own kitchen. I, on the contrary, never had a good one. My last and probably only experience of gnocchi was so off putting I avoided them in general. They were basically dense little pellets of potatoes. So, I was keen to achieve what the real thing is supposed to be like - delightful and delicate. It would be a fun and exciting adventure - we've never done it before and it is sufficiently challenging to make the reward extra sweet if done right. After all, gnocchi making has been described as "not for the faint of heart."

We followed Batali's recipe of 3 lbs of Russet Potatoes, 2 cups of flour, 1 extra large egg and 1 tsp Kosher salt. Following his instructions, we boiled the potatoes for 45 minutes or so and then peeled and mashed then. (He called for a Vegetable Mill, but we did it with a fork on a chopping board, as suggested by another cook book author). We piled the mess of potatoes all together into a mound and sprinkled the flour all over the potatoes. Then, we made a little well in the little potato and flour mountain, and cracked the egg into it. We incorporated the egg (with the salt) using a fork, as instructed. It looked promising till I got to the kneading part of the process. The mess was moist and tacky and not amendable to kneading at all. I wasn't sure if that's just how it is supposed to be. I finally decided it cannot possibly be that tacky and added more flour, even though I was resistant to the idea as I read that too much flour results in dense and rubbery gnocchi. Perhaps the potatoes took in a lot more water that expected.

Anyhow, we finally got the mess into a consistency that seemed right - light and billowy. I little moist still, but I decided not to add any more flour. We cut the dough into 6 parts - as the recipe called for - and rolled each into a rope no thicker than our thumbs. We then cut them into these little pieces and rolled them over the tines of a fork. The little pieces looked rather good after a few rounds of practice.

It's too bad that they looked so much better than they tasted. We are not sure where we went wrong. Was it that I added too much flour? Did I mashed the potatoes too well or not well enough? Or, might it be that we didn't boil the little nuggets long enough? Batali says they are ready when they float to the surface, about one minute.

I tried boiling the second batch longer, but they all have the nasty, doughy taste. At that point, we decided to throw the rest of the unformed gnocchi dough out and boil some pasta to go with the basic tomato sauce we have made to go with the gnocchi. We were a little disappointed. But we had a good laugh about it. Dennis even quipped, "No to Gnocchi!"

Hiking

We went out last Saturday (2/9) for a little hike. We seized the opportunity to do so as Dennis didn't have an impending deadline which required him to toil away at his computer the entire weekend. It was wonderful to get out for some fresh air and exercise. We wanted to get baby used to the idea of being out and about too. We didn't get to the peak of Bernardo Mountain as we hoped. Not even close. Baby started to fuss - after a promising start - some hour into the hike, and we decided to turn around. Luckily, Bernardo Mountain is the one right by our home (we didn't even have to drive to get to the trail. We simply walked from home). We got home in time for Dennis to watch Duke beat Boston College. In short, it was an excellent morning.

Another picture of Zoe reading

Our Little Reader

Zoe used to sit passively and listen to me as I read to her. No more! She showed a distinct interest in holding and touching and even licking her book today.

Little Girl

Old Times

Dennis and I were looking at the pictures we have accumulated in our album and were already nostalgic of the old times. Zoe was so small then! And there's the lovely picture of Dennis and Paul before baby arrived.

At the Exersaucer

Beautiful Girl

Mammoth, Birthday and Etc.

I actually started writing this post yesterday. But the reality of life these days is that there is precious little time for writing blogs. Anyhow, back to our weekend up in Mammoth that is part of Dennis' birthday celebration. It was a very good trip, notwithstanding the fact that the weather threw some unexpected twist into our travel plans.

The plan was to start out on Thursday evening around 6 pm and to arrive into Mammoth around 1 or 2 am. We got out only at around 7 pm and well, we made it only to Bishop that night because the final stretch of road leading into Mammoth was closed. We had to turn around to Bishop, the closest town with accommodations. As many people were caught in the same predicament, the lines at the motels were long and we were very lucky to have ourselves room for the night.

Friday morning, baby woke up bright and early, completely unaware of the fact that her parents slept for just about four hours during the night. Both Dennis and I wished for more sleep but were immediately cheered when we peeked out of the window to see blue skies. We checked for the road conditions - is the highway opened? - and set out to get breakfast and snow chains. We finally hit the road at around 9 am and arrived into Mammoth at around 10:30. So much for Dennis and Ben hitting the slopes at 8:30 in the morning!

Still all was not lost. The boys got out there by noon and had a few good hours of skiing and snowboarding (Ben snowboards and Dennis skis). I wanted to go snowshoeing at the Tamarack Lakes. Unfortunately, because baby was a little off schedule that day, by the time I made it out there, baby was fast asleep and I didn't want to disturb her. So back to the cabin we went. I figured I can still get out on Saturday. I should have gone for that was a good day for it - sun in the sky, low winds and simply beautiful. Saturday became a series of failed attempts to go snowshoeing. It was snowing hard and the winds were too strong. Even though I really wanted to be out there exercising and that the soul craved the great outdoors, baby came first (of course!). Saturday turned out to be a day spent in the car. As it turned out, baby, perhaps because she is familiar with her car seat, napped well in it (she did not nap at all on Friday; she had difficulty falling asleep in the cabin in the unfamiliar bed). Wishing to keep her to her schedule and so that she can nap a bit, I drove around town while she slept in the back. When I got tired of driving, I read my book in the car. I am glad to say it is a very good book.

One of the highlights of the trip is the food we ate. We ate well! And we had great company too because our friends Brian and Olin were up there the same weekend and so we had dinners together. Whereas previous culinary experience at ski resorts were always at best palatable, upon the recommendations of Olin, we ate at two very good restaurants: Petras on Friday and Skadi on Saturday (Dennis's birthday dinner).

As the Chinese sayings goes, there is no party that does not end in this world, so our little weekend trip had to end too. Unfortunately, it took us a long time to get back to San Diego because the storm that came in on Saturday night dumped a whole two to three feet of snow. Again, 395 was closed and was expected to closed till 7 pm! Poor Dennis was terrible unhappy about it as his being at work on Monday was a non-negotiable. To make this long story short, we didn't leave town at 10 am as plan. But neither did we leave only at 7 pm. Lucky for us - lucky under the circumstances - the roads opened at around two in the afternoon and we were one of the firsts to be escorted by police out of Mammoth. It was very slow going - the police kept us at just about 15 miles per hour most of the way to Bishop - but our spirits were improved since "at least we are not leaving at 7 pm!" We actually made pretty good time once we got into Bishop. The roads were dry and good. We didn't get back into San Diego till 10:30 pm only because of two extended stops along the way - to grab our very late lunch and to feed baby - and because we got lost in the 215/15 maze in San Bernardino.

Incidentally, baby was not terribly happy about being in the car seat for so long on our way back down (she was fine going up because it was night and she slept). It was heartbreaking to see her protest. The good news is, she was absolutely delighted to be home. When we put her into her crib, she was so happy and excited to see her mobile and toys again. We were tired but we were safe at home. And we have the memory of this family's first road trip.