Our giant t-rex

Wednesday, the 24th we had our "20" week ultrasound and doctor's visit. Mattie got off work and seeing as we did not want to know if we have a little boy or a little girl I ate as little sugar as possible in hopes for a nice calm, not flashing baby. As soon as we talked to the ultrasound tech we told her that we did not want to know the sex of the baby. She said that would be no problem. We handed her the disc to record our little baby and got ready for some quality face time. The ultrasound was a long one, there were a lot of measurements and things that needed to be checked. Mattie and I thought it was really cool to see the four chambers of the heart beating away (this is one of the big things they check). Also, the check to make sure there are three blood vessels flowing through the umbilical cord. They took measurements of the abdomen, brain, and head and as far as we could tell everything looked good. The baby weighs about 15 ounces right now.

The doctor did tell me (not to freak out...it is totally common) that the babies placenta is a little too close to the cervix. However, this should move further up as the uterus continues to grow. This only means two things right now: 1) call if there is ANY bleeding (which I would do anyways) and 2) that I get an "extra" ultrasound next visit (yay...more time to see the baby). Other than that, it was a fairly routine visit. I will post pictures of the baby soon, but the baby was still being difficult and wouldn't give us a cute little profile shot. We think it was completely turned away from us. We do have a few things on our "homework" list from the doctor...pre-register at the hospital, find a pediatrician, make sure we get a car seat installed properly...and we added on to read up about the "Bradley" method of labor for our own benefit. So much to do before we meet this giant baby!

The reason we are referring to it as a giant baby is because the ultrasound shows the baby measuring closer to a Halloween birth rather than November 5/6/7. We are not too worried about it either way...we just need to remember to stay away from newborn sized clothing!

Demolition!!!

Right now Mattie is in the process of preparing the house for baby. We have been complaining about our nasty old carpet since we moved in. Seeing as we did not have available funds to do the floors then, we decided to wait. After much mulling and arguing we finally decided on laminate wood floors upstairs (which we still need to pick out) and stained and polished concrete downstairs. Sounds like a wonderful idea until you realize that your entire downstairs needs to be moved. So everything is currently upstairs or in the garage. We are getting the concrete done this week, then Mattie will work on putting in the laminate wood upstairs in the next couple of months. That will be easier as it can be done in chunks. I will post demolition pictures tomorrow, but in the mean time here are a couple of pictures of the "before".

I really don't like carpet in bathrooms...

Yummy, Fluffy, Buttermilk Biscuits

I have a deep fondness for buttermilk biscuits. One of my earliest cooking memories is sitting with my father on top of our counters sifting the flour for our breakfast biscuits on any given Sunday morning. I loved to watch the flour "snow" into the bowl or wax paper and I loved spending the time with my father. He still comments about me being so little that I could scoot all the way under our cabinets and sit with my back against the back splash. As my father learned how to make a softer and softer biscuit, so did I. I learned from all that my father did and now replicate THE biscuit recipe often. Sometimes I want a biscuit from Popeye's or KFC...buttery, tender, flaky...my biscuits are not like this. My biscuits might be considered a little more "gourmet" and they are definitely softer. If you do not follow this method you will not have the softest possible biscuits. The choice is yours and yours alone!

Ingredients:

1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon baking soda (I lean towards the 3/4 side)

2 cups bread flour (not All-purpose, not self-rising...definitely not cake)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt (I often measure just shy of a teaspoon)

1/3 cup oil (not olive)

2/3 cup buttermilk

Measure milk and oil in the same cup, but do not mix together. Set aside. Sift your dry ingredients together...twice...do not skip this part. Matt's mom thought that sifting was for mixing dry ingredients, but that is not the case. The purpose of sifting is for aerating the ingredients thus creating a lighter and fluffier product. Pour the milk and oil all at once into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined to make a soft dough. Sometimes I need to add a touch more buttermilk, you should know if you need more buttermilk by the third or fourth stir. I tend to stir less and have a bit of extra flour at the bottom of the bowl. This ensures a softer biscuit because I have not worked the bread dough. If you overwork the bread dough you will start to develop the gluten...this makes chewy bread...which is great for baguettes...not for biscuits.

As you can see in the picture above I am delicately forming the biscuits in my hand, usually with the help of a fork. I don't usually roll and cut my biscuits (goes back to the whole gluten thing). I take a biscuit sized glob with the fork, make sure it holds together, and place it on a greased pan. I then cook the biscuits (this recipe yields about 8 biscuits) in a 475 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Begin checking these suckers at 10 minutes or so...you want a nice golden brown color.

Now serve with eggs, sausage, gravy, jelly, whatever! These are not biscuits you can make into a sandwich...they will fall apart. I really like a good cream gravy with sausage bits in it, but do not make it that often. I prefer more "traditional" jellies like peach/apricot (they don't taste that different in jelly form) or strawberry, and sometimes some really good honey while Mattie likes "crazy" jellies like cherry, blackberry, and raspberry. Enjoy one morning! I am looking forward to one day making these biscuits with my own little one.

Aside...as far as sifters go I am a fan of the old "crank" style sifter, rather than the trigger/spring style sifter. It is less effort on your hand and seems much less pretentious when making something as homey as biscuits!

Half Way Mark!!!

Yay! We are officially half-way (ish) there at 20 weeks! In some ways the past 20 weeks have gone by fast and in other ways they have gone by a little slow. I have truly enjoyed most parts of pregnancy so far. As you can see the baby is expanding quite a bit, but I think the baby goes through little growth spurts. All of this "bumpage" was put on about two weeks ago and I haven't expanded any more since. Last weekend when we were at the Howards I had the future grandfather (who is a doctor) show me where my uterus was. When I lay down you can definitely feel the top of the "baby's room" just under my belly button.

A big change in the past week...this baby likes to move! For the most part the movement is still little flutters, but every once in awhile I get a big "kick" or movement of sorts. A lot of the flutters occur when I am sitting and relaxing and they actually tickle a bit. I laugh so that it feels like I am interacting with the baby a bit more.

Next week we go to the doctor and I leave Saturday for NYC. Hopefully the baby will be nice to me while I am gone for 5 days without Mattie.

Taco meat por favor!

Matt and I frequently partake in making mexican food of all sorts. We recently decided to make beef taco meat. We actually ended up with a half beef/half ground venison mixture because the venison is free and adds nice flavor and texture. First chop half of a large yellow onion for each pound of ground meat that you have (I say half of a large rather than a medium because I have not seen any medium size yellow onions for some time in my grocery store). Also chop a small green bell pepper for each pound of ground meat. Once that has sauteed/sweated (very little color on the veggies) in vegetable (actually corn or canola) oil, add your ground meat. Before anything more than the very bottom layer that is actually touching the pan gets cooked add A LOT of garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and a bit of oregano. The cumin is the main ingredient. As you can see below there are a lot of spices in this pot for two pounds of meat. I stir this concoction around then let it sit, covered, on medium low heat until the meat is cooked. It should have rendered out some good juices, but if it has not add a bit of water to the pan. At this point I taste the meat and usually add more cumin and more pepper. Remember, it is easier to add more spice than it is to take away too much spice in a dish! I try to let this simmer for at least an hour, but it is always better the next day.

These are Matt's perfectly formed tacos. He requested flour tortillas that were bound to the crispy shell by a layer of refried beans so I obliged by having all that was necessary. We had the beef taco meat, beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream (which I have had an increasing fondness for in my pregnancy). He also indulged in a good Mexican beer with lime!

We also really enjoy making Mexican Rice. For this saute a small amount of onion and bell pepper (this would be really good with red, yellow, or orange bell peppers too). When they have gotten soft, add a bit of oil to the pan and saute the rice so that it can soak in some oil and get a little toasty. When it appears translucent, add your liquid...we usually use some Rotel style tomato juice, water, and chicken stock. Let that cook down, stirring occasionally to avoid stick-age. When the rice is almost done add corn, cilantro, and some of the Rotel tomatoes (get the mild unless you like it really hot, if you don't want it hot at all then go for canned diced tomatoes). Season to taste with a bit of salt or garlic powder.

The next day we put a twist on one of our favorite dinners which is mega salad. For mega salad we imagine that we are at Sweet Tomato or Souper Salad making one of their salads. For this one, due to the taco meat, we put a latin flair on it. Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, fresh corn, drained and rinsed black beans, avocado, and bell pepper were all tossed with shredded cheddar cheese, warm taco meat, and tortilla chips. For a dressing, I threw in some sour cream and salsa and tossed to coat all the veggies. It was yummy!...and delicious!!!

Mayes Family Reunion

This past Saturday we had a little family reunion for Mattie's mom's side of the family. Most of the family are the Mayes' except for Mattie and I's unit which would be the Howards. We had a really good time. The whole family was there except for Matt's sister and brother-in-law Rob and they were missed, but it was good to see everyone else there. All in all we had four generations: Grandma and Grandpa, the four kids (Ron, Gary, Deb, and John), all of their kids, the one birthed great-grandchild, and our little great-grandchild to be. It was definitely warm, but we had a shaded pavilion at Lake Murray (South Oklahoma) to try and stay fairly cool under.

Mattie and I really enjoyed teasing all of the Mayes girls, meeting the newer additions to the family in Valerie and Jamie, and spending time with people we love but may not get to see very often. Grandma and Grandpa seemed very happy with having all of their family surrounding them. Here are some pictures!

Family talk

Mattie and Grandma

Martin, Erica, and Allison playing cards...the girls had a weird obsession with hugging watermelons...

Allison and Erica...Kimi and Heather were too anti-social

Adam and Grandpa

Also, Matt's mom indulged the baby with a few really nice gifts from a store she found in Houston. Here is Matt testing one of the gifts out with his Dad's help!

In two weeks

Just a quick little note that we are really excited to have a "date" with our little one in two weeks. We will be getting a lot of face time with our t-rex because this is the big ultrasound where they do a whole bunch of measuring! We are looking forward to the quality time.