Fresh (Greek Pita Pizza)

So...it's been a while.  

 

First, we remodeled our kitchen (yay!) and I wasn't able to cook or bake for almost 12 weeks. 

Then, I had a beautiful new kitchen.

Then, I woke up one morning to take the exam to get certified to administer chemotherapy.  This is a certification that I've wanted to get since I started nursing school.  A friend from work and I took the class together, driving up to North Jersey to this tiny little community hospital and sitting in a freezing cold room with no windows through boring lectures about side effects and IV access and tumor lysis syndrome.  And on the morning of the last day of the class when we were to sit for the exam, I took another test of my own.  

Turns out, we have a Hennebaby 2.0 on the way!!

First Time Mommy: Tips for Baby Registries

Recently, one of my good friends asked me for some tips on putting together her baby registry. I put together a list for her of the things that we use for the kiddo, what you really need and what you can skip. She told me that it was helpful for her, so I decided to post it here in case there were any other first time moms out there who were feeling overwhelmed by the whole registry process and wanted some tips from someone with real-world, 5 month old experience. I know we did.

Our first attempt at registering for baby stuff was a nightmare. Hubs and I went into the National Baby Store Chain, all hopeful, me on a pregnancy-induced hormone high armed with my Baby Bargains book (which I highly recommend) and my short list of what to look at. The lady at the registry desk was super sweet, helping us fill out the paperwork, showing us how to use the scanner gun thingie. Then she handed us a list of what they suggest we would need. It was, no lie, 6 pages long. SIX PAGES!! In size 12 type. Already trying not to freak out, we wandered over to the strollers. Twenty minutes later, after a snarky saleslady had already made me feel like the world's worst mommy-to-be while we struggled with the carseats, I had a panic attack in the middle of the Baby Bjorn mannequins. When we returned to the registry counter, the nice lady printed out our choices and remarked that it was "good start". I stared at her with barely suppressed rage while she insisted that any "successful" baby registry has at least 200+ things on it. Hubs pushed me out the door before I ended up in jail for retail-induced violence.

Don't buy into that. The list that they give you when you sign up for a registry - ignore it. The store's purpose is not to equip you with a functioning household of useful things, but to sell you as much crap as possible. Below are her questions and my suggestions, tried and tested by a real mom with a realistic and down to earth lifestyle.

The most incredible thing we've ever made...

Chase Robert Hennefer

November 2, 2011 at 12.05 pm

7 pounds, 19-3/4 inches long

Love you!

Mommy

Gotta Have It (Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing)

Hennebaby watch:  Day 257 (Week 36)

I haven't had too many cravings during this pregnancy, and the ones I've had have been kind of tame.  At the beginning (before I got sick), I went a whole week craving coconut.  Then I moved on to macaroni and cheese, green beans, iced tea and mashed potatoes with gravy from the hospital cafeteria.  I thought I had a craving for Ben & Jerry's Schwety Balls ice cream, but that lasted about 5 spoonfuls before I got bored with it.  The weirdest craving I've had was for bourbon - weird because I don't remember ever really liking bourbon before.  That one I'm going to attribute to Uncle Kracker songs and watching too many NCIS reruns.  Or maybe Hennebaby is actually a cowboy.  Either way, that particular craving will have to wait until after labor.

Hennebaby watch: Week 33 (White Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies)

Things that give me heartburn:

Water.  Tea.  Milk.  Tomatoes.  Cheese.  Bread.  Apples.  Yogurt and granola.  Chocolate.  Cinnamon.  Pancakes.  Chinese food.  Macaroni and cheese.  Chicken and broccoli.   Sitting up.  Laying down.  Walking. 

Things that make my heart happy:

My hubby and my puppy. Feeling Hennebaby kick. 

Sharing is Caring (Salted Caramel Shortbread)

As a brand spanking new nurse, I have a preceptor for several weeks who's there to make sure that I'm comfortable taking care of all my patients and to answer the 1001 questions that I have every day.  My preceptor, Kelly, is pretty awesome, and I'm very lucky to have her to learn from.  Plus, we eat lunch together and get coffee in the afternoons.

Last week she had a handful of salted caramels from the gift shop.  Since she's a nice person, she shared one with me.  Since I'm pregnant and love caramel, it's all that I've thought about all week.

Soooooo, to satisfy my salted caramel craving, I decided to make some shortbread cookies topped with caramel and sea salt.  And since I had a few toffee bars in my cabinets, I figured that I would throw those in the cookie dough, too.  

Good things happen when we share.

Baby Steps... (Key Lime Cheesecake)

Hennebaby is 13 weeks!  We had our first ultrasound last week - it was incredible to see this tiny little life bopping around inside of me.  I can't wait until I get a bump and can start to feel the little guy (or girl) in there!  This itty bitty little person that we made.  That we're responsible for creating and growing and nurturing for the rest of its life.

And that is itself responsible for all the craziness going on in my body.  So far this week has been a little better, but I'm still scared to eat normal food.  I've been carbing it up since I got sick - toast, granola bars, scones, if it's flour based I eat it.  I'm hoping that this week I can get up the courage to eat a salad.  I never thought I would miss vegetables quite like I do now.   Our 2nd anniversary was on Monday, and when we went out to dinner I took a risk and had zucchini fritti for an appetizer - I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. 

Spring Surprise! (Fudgy Chocolate Cake)

The trees are budding, the flowers are blooming, the puppy is shedding and it's finally feeling like springtime!!

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything - don't worry, nothing terrible has happened in the past few weeks.  I just don't have anything yummy to post.  I haven't been feeling well since ACE-a-palooza, because, well....I'm pregnant!! 

Hennebaby is due November 18, and we're all really excited!!  (We have names picked out, but for now our last name has to do.)  I found out during finals week, which made it REALLY hard to concentrate on studying change theory and gerontological disease processes, but somehow I made it through the last four days of finals, passed my exit exam (with flying colors, not to brag, haha) and convinced my classmates that I had actually given up alcohol for Lent.  Then, a few days into my first week of free-me-time, it started....Morning sickness.  Or the proper name for it, All The Freaking Time Sickness.  Starting Week 6, a few days after ACE-a-palooza, I haven't been able to stomach even the idea of food, let alone make anything to take pictures of.  In fact, I've watching TLC nonstop and been eating a lot of this:

Ahh, to be 8 years old again.  Anyway, my body feels like a science experiment.  I started to read the "What to Expect" book, only to find that I had EVERY. SINGLE. SYMPTOM. possible, including the weirdo ones like nosebleeds, congestion, headaches, acid reflux if I lay down with less than 2 pillows and the ability to smell better than my dog.  I swore that if one more person suggested that eating crackers in the morning was going to fix me, I would throw up on them.  Needless to say, a food blogger's worst nightmare.  Poor Layla  has been stressed out about why her Girl Human can't seem to stand up without making a horrible retching sound and why Boy Human is the only one who feeds her anymore. 

So that was the past 4 weeks.  For the Easter weekend, my parents came to visit, which was such a blessing.  It was so nice to be pampered and waited on for a few days!  Bob is a wonderful Baby Daddy, and he takes good care of me, but one of us has to go out and bring home the bacon, and that's not me for the next few weeks.  It was soo nice to have some help for a few days.  My mom turned into Mama Extraordinaire, making Easter Saturday dinner, cleaning my disaster of a house and doing all the laundry that had piled up.  In those few days, I moved into my 10th week and started feeling better, with the nausea fading to just the morning and before bed.  (It's my theory that Hennebaby is a boy, since a boy fetus starts to produce testosterone during Week 10 and I'm thinking that's what's counteracting my preggo hormones and helping my body to calm down a little.  We shall see!!)

So, my plans for this blog are to include one pregnancy recipe and (eventually) postpartum/new baby recipe a week to help those other food-loving expectant moms and their families.  The remaining recipes will probably be to satisfy my cravings, which are starting to be, um, interesting in their diversity and surprise factor.  

But, without further ado, I bring you....chocolate cake!!  One of the things I have had no interest in during my icky-feelings is chocolate. Given that it's Easter time, and that Hubby's favorite Easter candy is Reese's peanut butter eggs, my mom decided that for dessert on Easter Saturday she would make him a little treat, in the form of chocolate peanut butter fudge cake.  Using her easy recipe for chocolate fudge cake, she substituted chocolate peanut butter from Peanut Butter & Co for the fudgy filling and drizzled some fudge topping on the top.  Also, the recipe calls for a bundt pan, but since I somehow don't have one, we used a springform pan that worked just as well.  

This cake was rich and delicious and even Hennebaby seemed to approve of the two tiny pieces I had.  The peanut butter flavor was infused throughout the cake, and it was sweet and rich without being tooth-achingly over the top.  And as an added bonus, my house smelled AMAZING for several hours!!

Fudgy Chocolate Baby Daddy Cake

(from Mama Extraordinaire)

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix
1 box chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
8 oz sour cream
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
2 eggs
1 jar fudge ice cream topping (or chocolate peanut butter topping)
Powdered sugar for the topping

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, oil and sour cream well.  Place one half of batter in a greased bundt pan.  Using the back of a spoon, make a 'well' around the center ring of batter.  Fill with topping and cover with the remaining batter.  Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or till cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan 5 minutes then invert on cake plate.  When cool, top with glaze or powdered sugar.  Store covered.  Enjoy!!!

**For Turtle cake, use caramel ice cream topping for the filling and top with pecans.  Dream up your favorite combination!!