New fun!

 So my hobbies have turned more towards things that allow me to sit on the couch these days... and I was starting to get bored with baby blankets (all my friends are having babies too).  But when I was at the store buying more yarn the other day, I picked up a little book of animal patterns... this was so much fun to make!

It's supposed to be an elephant... but as husband says, it's a pig with big ears who told too many lies.

I gave him a silly face :)

 It was really easy to make all the pieces... not so easy to put them all together.  He's a little lopsided, because I ad-libbed (as usual) when I didn't have the right hook size for the pattern, and then ran out of one of the yarns.  Also, turns out I can't count and follow a pattern very reliably, so he's a little fatter than intended, and so are his legs.  And I purposely made his ears bigger, because he looked like a mouse with the recommended size!  All in all, he's got a lot wrong with him, haha, but it just adds to his character.  He's a great little elephant, I can't wait to give him to a deserving little kid!  And I can't wait to experiment with some more crocheted stuffed animals :)

In case you're interested, the pattern that I botched up came from this book.  Other amazon users have uploaded photos of their elephants... look much more like elephants than mine, haha.  But it's my first time!

Feeeeed Meeee.....

Remember this guy?

Cranky old man who lives in my stomach

I think he's even crankier now that he has a roommate.  Either that, or I'm going to give birth to Benjamin Button  (who doesn't want their child to be as good looking as Brad Pitt?).

Feeeeed us!!!  (my hair is longer, but MS paint still doesn't have the right color)

Moral of the story.... I'm hungry!!  Yaaaay almost lunchtime!  (does it count that I ate a piece of quiche about 15 minutes ago?  No, right?)

Maybe I'll cook this week

So I realize that I've been a pretty terrible blogger.  But I've got valid excuses!  If you want to hear them, listen up, because I don't plan to talk about them very often (at least not as the subject of any posts, they both deserve their own blogs, which most people would not be interested in reading).

1.  I'm Pregnant!!  YaaaaAAAAAayyyyyYYYY!!  (Like Snooki!)
2.  I've been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.  Booo!!  (Like JFK?)

Both seem to be related (at least hormonally), and both have meant that I haven't spent much time in the kitchen during the past few months.  I had lots of food aversions in the beginning (and was also a little bit afraid to eat), but now my appetite is on fire, and my medication seems to be improving my digestion.  I avoided the stove like the plague for a while (unless it was baking french fries or hash browns), but that's all changing fast, and at the rate I'm going the past few weeks I'll be cooking up a storm again in no time.  In fact, I'm thinking about baking some cookies in a few minutes, so that I can eat them all.  Seriously, all of them.

Here's how things have been going down:

Right after the positive pregnancy test -

• LOVED avocado, chicken, eggs, and chocolate milk.

First trimester -

• HATED chicken!!!  Could not be in the same room as it!  
• Also hated pretty much everything else, including chocolate (I never thought I'd see the day!)
• Crazy heartburn, so nothing spicy, and no tomatoes, peppers, or onions.
• Survived on noodles with parmesan cheese, peanut butter, and any type of fried potato.  Salt and Vinegar chips amazingly seem to cure nausea (even though the idea of them sometimes caaaauses nausea...).  Also Blueberry "KIND" bars were tolerable.
• Too tired to eat anyway.

Month 4 -

• Crazy craving for chicken nuggets.  Also into cream cheese, and still loving potato chips.  
• Less nauseous, but still tough to find anything appealing.
• I want spicy food, but still can't eat it.
• Less tired... but still really freaking tired.

Month 5 -

• I now dip the potato chips into the cream cheese.
• Ice cream!
• Loving fresh fruit (though because of colitis I can't eat much of it)
• Still not into any vegetables (colitis says "no" to a lot of these too)
• Eating most things again in small amounts (even chicken!), except spicy food.  But the idea of cooking still makes me tired.  Plus, tons of the stuff in my normal repertoire is either spicy or includes cooked tomatoes... not so great for heartburn.  So I need some energy and creativity!  The other night I boiled noodles, sauteed half a kielbasa, and mixed it all together with canned broccoli and cheese soup.  I called that cooking.  Not very delicious, but progress!

So as you can see, writing about life (and being hungry) has not been very high on my list.  But I think it might be coming back into favor sometime soon, as my appetite is going crazy!  And (some of) the plants in my garden are growing even faster than my baby (who is allegedly somewhere between a banana and a cantaloupe this week... though in my experience those are two very different sizes!)!

I went on vacation!

We went to Spain again!  And ate sooooo much delicious food!!!!!

Here are a few highlights:

• Pastries for breakfast every day*
• Ice cream almost every day (it was vacation afterall!)
• Pa amb tomaquet* (no idea how to spell... basically bread slathered with oil, salt, tomato, and sometimes garlic)
• Chorizo cooked in cider 
• Creamy artichoke soup
• Simple potato salad - potatoes, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion?, garlic?, lots of olive oil
• Fried everything* (fish, vegetables, croquetas de jamon y queso) 
• Shrimp and bacon "quiche" (definately not quiche, but that's what they called it... more like a souffle or frittata? Slathered in a mayonnaise sauce, sounds gross, but DELICIOUS!)
• Mushrooms stuffed with bolognese-type meat sauce & zuchinni, topped with cheese
• Tortillas (Spanish omelets)
• Churros* con chocolate (only when fresh though!)
• Some kind of special spanish region stew - beef (like brisket?), potatoes, kale, white beans, and broth.  So simple, but SO flavorful!
• Grilled (on a griddle, not a grill) mushrooms, the weird flat kind (called setas in spanish)
• Roasted artichoke hearts, topped with crunchy onion pieces and ample olive oil

Things I missed out on, but others enjoyed:

• WONDERFUL WINES!!
• Cured hams (serrano, iberico, etc) and meats (varieties of morcilla and chorizo)
• Lots of awesome cheeses 
• Good looking little sandwiches and tapas with mystery cheeses and meats
• Purposely undercooked scrambled eggs served over super fried and salty french fries

I'm very excited to try and recreate a few of these dishes!  And someday in the not too distant future (in late October), I'll be able to pour myself a glass of some delicious Spanish wine like the ones I passed up this time around... and I will likely close my eyes for just a moment, and try to imagine I'm still on vacation... because I'm sure I'll be exhausted!  Estoy embarazada!  Ya tengo 18 semanas :)  I probably ate a few things that I wasn't supposed to, but I tried my best!  And everything was delicious!

*I couldn't survive on pregnancy restrictions AND gluten free diet, so I ate a lot of gluten.  I did my best to have only "fresh" things (no packaged and processed items).

Spring Cake!

My parents came down for a bit this past weekend, and my mom brought me a really cute cake!  

 It's a sunflower!  (and gluten free! Mmm!)


Thanks Mom!!







Note: I've eaten a lot more of it in the time it took me to upload this picture