As Requested

I've gotten multiple requests for these two recipes lately, so I thought I'd share with all of you. Dessert first:

Eclairs

They look impressive and aren't hard to make (just a little time-consuming).
*There are three parts to this-the puff, cream, and chocolate. All are below. Bake puffs, fill with cream, and drizzle chocolate on top.

The “Puff”
½ cup butter
1 cup water
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1. Heat butter and water to boiling point on stove. Add flour/salt all at once and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan.
2. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
3. Add unbeaten eggs, one at a time (important), and beat until absorbed into mixture.
4. Drop by large teaspoons onto un-greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 400 degrees at 20-25 minutes. After removing from oven, immediately pierce the puffs to allow steam to escape (this will help them maintain their shape and not get soggy).
Pastry Cream
2 cups Milk
½ cup white sugar
1 vanilla bean (or just use vanilla)
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pinch salt
1. Place the milk, half the sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Combine the egg yolks and the remaining sugar in a bowl and whisk until light in color. Add in the flour and the salt, mix to combine.
3. When the milk just begins to boil, remove from heat and remove vanilla bean. Very slowly dribble the hot milk into the yolk mixture, stirring all the time to avoid cooking the egg. When about half of the milk has been added, place all of the yolk mixture into the saucepan over medium heat. Using a spatula or a whisk, mix the pastry cream as it heats, making sure to reach all of the corners of the pan when you stir. Bring the mixture to a boil. Let boil for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. The mixture will be thick.
4. Remove from heat and add the butter. Strain if you wish for a smoother cream. Place into a bowl and cover directly with plastic wrap to stop a skin from forming on the cream. Chill and use within a few days.

Chocolate Ganache
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Milk
Heat pan with chocolate and turn off as soon as chips melt. Add milk until appropriate consistency is reached.

Yummy yummy. Now for the healthy recipe:


Whole Wheat Bread (this recipe has really made the rounds in the Pinnacle Mtn Ward)

Bread Starter

3 Tablespoons instant potato flakes
1 scant cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar

Stir together and let set over night (I often cheat, and let it sit for only about 4 hours).

Bread

2 Tablespoons yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup malted barley syrup (or honey-- I find the malted barley has a better flavor. If you want to make an entirely sugar-free bread, use the malt barley syrup instead of sugar in the starter, and the honey here)

stir gently and let it sit until foamy
add:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup gluten
1 Tablespoon salt
1 cup of the starter (I usually just dump the whole thing in)
6 cups wheat flour (may need a little more)

Mix (or knead) for 10 minutes
Cut into 3 equal parts, place in greased loaf pans, and let rise until double (about an hour).
Bake at 350 for 25- 30 minutes, or until top of loaf is golden brown.

Counting Sheep

For the past couple of nights, I CANNOT sleep (could someone please tell me that insomnia is a sign of impending labor?). I'm exhausted all day, but the second my head hits the pillow, I'm wide awake. Today I even skipped out on any type of nap, thinking that if I could make myself tired enough, I would be able to sleep. But after almost two hours of trying, I am surrendering. All of this late-night wakefullness has left me with many quiet hours of introspection. Tonight, I keep thinking about when Rob and I first started to date.
I remember the night in Peru, just below the Pass we'd just hiked that day. Sam and Rob and I were all sitting and looking at the stars of the Southern Hemisphere, talking and feeling the ebb and flow of simply Being. He put his arm around me, and although he hadn't said it, I could feel him communicating it was more than "just friends". The first time we ever held hands was in Lima, Peru, walking back to the hostel with Monica's medicine.
I remember how natural it felt, the way I was just able to reach out and take his hand without even really thinking about it. We were close to the ocean and I could feel the salt in the air. We stayed up talking really late that night. Our first kiss was on an airplane, above the sunset-stained clouds. We touched down in Baltimore, but I'm not sure that either one of us really left the clouds. Driving from Baltimore back to DC, where we were both living and working at the time, we talked about transitioning our relationship from "vacation mode" to "real life mode" and what changes would need to occur. When he dropped me off, I didn't want to get out of the car because I didn't want to loose the magical flush that was suffusing the world. I was certain that the minute we both went back to work, it would fade. It didn't. It never really has. I still feel that muted sense of wonder, the deep joy of shared life.

Being married has been the most fun I've ever had in my life; all of the adventures, misadventures, and learning experiences we've had, and how great it's been to be just the two of us. It was hard for me to make the decision to add a third to Us. But things with the dog worked out pretty well, and Rob was able to convince me to add a fourth to our coupledom. I feel a little like I did that night we were just getting back to DC, a little hesitant to step into the next chapter. I have so enjoyed having these years just to ourselves. The baby-thing is scary. But there's nobody I'd rather do it with. Hell, there's nobody else who'd put up with nine(ten) months of pregnant, ornery, cursing Me, and still love me on the other side of it.
Here's to the future, babe. Love you.




PS- It makes me really mad that I can't get the stupid time-stamp on my blog--or email--to recognize what time zone I'm in. I've changed it about a zillion times, and even done the interactive Help feature. Didn't work. What does it think, that I live in Japan or something? There's a 5 hour difference between the time it has, and the time it is.

We Have No News

Although it is handy that everyone is answering my phone calls right now; nobody wants to miss The Call announcing the arrival of Baby Glade. The absence of Baby News--or progress, or even encouraging news from the doctor--is disheartening, especially when I'm SO READY TO NOT be pregnant anymore. Maybe EVER. Again.



Moving On:
Over Memorial Day Weekend, we had Rob's parents and sister and her husband come stay with us. Rob's dad was celebrating the big Six-O, and since I had been advised not to leave town (due to a certain child who refuses to budge from his cozy Hotel Uterus room), they brought the party to us. Hooray! It was a very welcome diversion (Thanks, Becky, for letting my hijack some pictures off your blog).

34+ Weeks

Last week's doctor's appointment came with a bit of a shock: Baby Glade is no longer breach (hooray!), but he had also already dropped. The NP was concerned with how low he was, and told me I needed to drastically scale back my activity. She also said that she could tell I'd been having some heavy contractions. This suprised me quit a bit and made me feel a little dumb: I thought Baby Glade had just found a really creative new way to kick me.
So all this week, I've been trying to be really careful, and pay close attention to the contractions. As the week has gone on, I've been feeling progressively a little worse. I decided to take Thursday off work, in the hopes that laying around for a day would calm things down. But as the day wore on, things felt much worse, instead of better. I ended up deciding to haul myself off to the Relief Society meeting anyways, and it was while sitting through the meeting that I started to think, Uh-Oh. On my way home from RS, I called the 24-hour nurse's line. She told me to high-tail it to Labor and Delivery to check for dilation, and have the contractions monitered. I drove home to get Rob--who had had a REALLY busy day at the hospital, and was JUST about to sit down--and we went to the hospital. The monitor showed that I was having contractions every 2 to 5 minutes, but Baby Glade was healthy and in no apparent distress, and I was not dilated at all. The nurse started an IV, laced with a narcotic to slow the contractions (and it's at this point that my memory fails me), and told Rob that I need to be on bed rest, at least until my next appointment, at which point they will re-evaluate.
The week looms large and empty before me... And the refridgerator looms large and empty. Really, what solace does a pregnant girl have when she runs out of caramel sauce?

Freebie

So a while back, I recieved a free sample of some athletic head wraps made by a company called imActive. I have LOVED them. They stay put, don't give me headaches, and even when I swim laps, they can keep the hair out of my face. I'm sold. So everytime I go in a store, I've been looking for them. Nobody seems to carry them. Anywhere (I guess it COULD be because I live in Little Rock). So, being the saavy internet girl I am, I got online to see where I could buy them. Here is the company's website. And guess what? FREE shipping! Yes! Success!... except I couldn't get the website to work. I tried about 4 times to place an order, and it NEVER worked. So I called the company, and told them just how frustrated I was, and that I REALLY wanted those silly elastics. The company rep apologized for my troubles, checked the website, and after verifying that they were indeed having technical issues, told me that she would ship me my order for free. How cool is that?

My O My O Elephant!

This weekend we visited Riddles Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary. Elephants in Arkansas. Who knew? Despite how blasted hot it was, we enjoyed seeing the Asian and African elephants. Pretty cool stuff.




After leaving the elephants, we continued to drive North to Blanchard Springs Caverns. We took an hour and 45 minute tour of the caverns. We had a great guide, and learned alot about the formation of caverns, general geology, and some Arkansas history. The caverns were much more lovely than the pictures can do justice to.




And finally, my big achievement recently has been canning peaches. And they all sealed! Aren't the beautiful? I was really proud of myself, and am looking forward to eating delicious local Arkansas peaches all winter long.

"The baby is eating my brain"

One of the girls I trained with during my radiology rotations said that ALL the time when she was pregnant. I now understand what she meant. For days now, I've been wanting to post some cool pictures I took... if I only could find the USB cable for the camera! So this morning I FINALLY found the cable... and NOW I can't find the camera!