Grandpa Hembrey, friends, and some tummy time
January 24, 2009
First time home :)
January 20, 2009
Our Second Day with Jasmine
January 20, 2009
She found her lungs today…but at least she behaved for the visitors 
Meet Jasmine
January 18, 2009
Meet Jasmine Lee H……
January 18, 2009
5:24 pm
7 lbs 5 ounces
19 inches long
The Last Dinner…
January 16, 2009
as a family of two! Jacquie brought it to my attention that Wednesday was the last night that it would be just her and me for dinner. Thursday we did dinner with her parents and sister, Friday is the company party, my mom is here Saturday and Sunday is the big day.
Since it was our last meal, we thought we’d fix dinner instead of going out to eat. And since we have a blog, we get to share our last meal with you
I won’t go into the recipes since we really didn’t write anything down (every thing was eyeballed). I guess the best way to describe it was “Seared Mexican Chicken with a Green Pepper Vinaigarette and a Side of Bacon Mashed Potatoes.”
The only way I know how to cook chicken is to rub it with spices, sear it until the skin is crispy, then bake it to 175 degrees. To really make chicken deliciose you MUST BUY A MEAT THERMOMETER (our chicken breast was soft as cotton because it was the correct internal temperature). The spice rub this time was my chili rub combined with cumin, dried oregano, granulated sugar, white pepper, hungarian paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and garam masala. For the record, black pepper instead of white pepper is fine; any paprika is fine, and cinnamon is a good substitute for garam masala. I was out of most of the “normal” spices though.
If you’re a taco fan, you might even realize what I made was taco seasoning. If you’re in a crunch, you really could just buy a packet of Old El Paso. Anyway, I salted the chicken on both sides, packed on the spice rub…
Dropped it skin side down in the pan…
Then flipped it over, placed it on a roasting rack, added water/prosecco in the pan, and put it in the oven.
While all that was going on, we were roasting green peppers, onions, and garlic for the vinaigarette.
After roasting peppers, be sure to put them in a bowl and cover it tightly with saran wrap while they are still warm. Not sure why, but Jacquie does this and I trust her.
We don’t have a pic of the potatoes on their own, but they were akin to a mashed version of loaded baked potatoes: potatoes, 2% milk, butter, two stalks of scallions, and about a 1/4 lb of bacon (still workin on the 6 lbs of bacon from D&A).
This was one of the best meals we’ve had but that’s not what makes it unforgettable; it’s because it’s the last meal we’ll have as a family of two
Pecan Pie
January 14, 2009
On Christmas morning I made pie crust dough in preparation for pecan pies that I was supposed to make for Christmas dessert, along with creme brulee. Later in the day, though, I decided I didn’t have enough time and only the latter got made. As a result, the pie dough was thrown into the freezer and a prayer was said that it’d be fine to use later on.
This past Saturday, while Jason was making lamb chops for dinner, I decided finally make the pecan pie. I pulled one disc of dough - the recipe makes two - out of the freezer to defrost while I whipped up the filling.
In retrospect, had I known that the crust would be super cooperative and take 5 minutes to roll out while the filling would take only 2 minutes to whip up, I wouldn’t have shafted my father-in-law and sister out of their requested Christmas dessert three weeks ago. Sorry guys!
No worries though, I have the other round of dough in the freezer destined to be used in another pecan pie when my father-in-law comes up to meet “baby J.” When she finally decides to grace us with her presence, of course. Head over to the life blog to see what’s been going on with that!
All Butter Pie Crust
source - Elise from Simply Recipes
This recipe is very quick to pull together with the use of a food processor but I imagine it would be easy even without it. It makes enough dough for a double pie crust.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and very cold (I put the cubes in the freezer for a few hours)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough doesn’t hold together, add a little more water and pulse again.
Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.
*JLH Note: I don’t remember seeing bits of butter in my dough but the crust still turned out flaky so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Also, if you’re like me, you can just throw the rounds into the freezer to be used weeks later.
Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften in order to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle, about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check to make sure that the dough is not sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to prevent the dough from sticking. Carefully place the dough onto a 9-inch pie plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough.
*JLH Note: To get the rolled out pie crust into the plate easier, I gently folded the round in half and then half again into an almost triangle shape. Then placed this into the pan with the triangle point in the middle of the pan and unfolded it. My pie dough also didn’t roll out into a perfect round so I used the trimmed edges to fill in any gaps along the edges. Again, my pie crust turned out flaky and yummy so I feel no shame in sharing this tip!
Pecan Pie
source - Elise from Simply Recipes
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
1 prepared pie-shell, chilled for an hour if freshly made or defrosted for 10 minutes if from frozen (see above recipe)
Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread pecans along the bottom of the pie shell.
Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over pecans. The pecans will rise to the surface of the pie.
Bake at 375°F for 45-50 minutes until the filling has set. About 20 minutes into the cooking you may want to use a pie crust protector, or tent the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent the pie crust edges from burning.
Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Enjoy!
Due Date
January 12, 2009
Would someone please…
January 12, 2009
tell our daughter that she’s supposed to be on the OUTSIDE today?
False Alarm :)
January 8, 2009
Click here for the full photo gallery!
I don’t think it’d have been a proper pregnancy if we didn’t have the false alarm. I really thought we were going to avoid it because we KNEW that labor isn’t like the movies. It’s atypical for a mother have her water break on it’s own (only 13% of people do) and even then, there’s not a mad dash to the hospital. Ideally, Jacquie and I would have noticed she was in early labor with mild cramps, watched movies for 8-9 hours, then really start seeing contractions. About then I’d pre-load the car and head back upstairs to start timing the contractions, waiting until they hit the 5 minute interval mark. That’s when I’d help Jacquie to car, we’d calmly drive to the hospital, she’d push for a few hours and presto! we’d have a baby.
I didn’t account for the fact that we have NO idea what real labor feels like. And by “we” I mean her…
On Wednesday (Jan 7th) I get a phone call around 9am. I figured it was Jacquie telling me that she was on the way to the city with her mom to pick up our video camera. We had ordered it online but decided to go pick it up in case Jacquie went into labor before it arrived. Well, it was actually Jacquie saying she thought her water broke. It wasn’t the “gush” we’ve heard about so we did some research while her mom went to the city by herself. The research said that the amniotic sac could leak instead of breaking, which sounded about right, thus we called our doctor. Of course we knew the doctor’s default answer — go to the hospital — so we obliged. I left work, stopped for gas, came home, waited for the camera to arrive, loaded the car and then went to the hospital.
Once we arrived they processed our paperwork while I sat there wondering if I was going to need a crash course in video camera operations. And we took pics of ourselves
They moved us to a room…
I took another pic of us…
They hooked Jacquie up to a fetal monitor…
(where her cool socks were exposed)…
and then told us the news we had come to expect: it wasn’t water that broke (and for those wondering, no, she did not wet herself as is common. Well, she hasn’t yet, I’ll let you know if she does). They gave us some tips and then discharged us.
We just had our first false alarm In case you’re wondering, the amniotic sac only leaks if your not full term; full term water breaks are the fabled gush of water.
False Alarm!
January 8, 2009
