OK, so it’s only 1/2 local, but last night I cooked up a bag of this farro that I had in the cupboard. Today for lunch I’m having some of it with some local, roasted beets, and some chunks of Kenny’s farmhouse monterrey jack, with a little bit of basalmic vinegar and salt sprinkled over. SO YUMMY.

We got home from Milwaukee early Monday morning (5:00am to be precise). I had finished Animal Vegetable Miracle on our trip–thank you Zoe for the recommendation, and Tanja for the loan of the book–and I was all inspired to push even further with my burgeoning “eating locally” obsession. So after a few hours of sleep and with Ewan safely at daycare for the day, I set out to fill our house with some more local food. Obviously, I’d missed the Saturday farmer’s market, so I headed to our local whole food co-op, Good Foods. There I picked up a bit of produce to tide us over until next Saturday’s market: some tomatoes, potatoes, onions, beets and swiss chard.

In the protein department I picked up some local eggs, a roasting chicken, lamb chops and ground bison from the Kentucky Bison Company. I also got a selection of Kenny’s Farmhouse cheese. We’ve had the Monterey Jack before and it’s wonderful. This time I also decided to try the Kentucky Blue, which is pretty good, the St. Jerome which is creamy and flavorful, and the aged cheddar, which we have yet to try. Now if I can just find a good, local organic dairy, but those seem to be hard to come by.

I decided to also get some local non-perishables. Perhaps most exciting was my discovery of a local mill. I got a whole wheat flour, yellow cornmeal and white grits from Weisenberger Mill.. I also got our soon-to-be staple local sweeteners: honey and sorghum.

Last night I made roast chicken with potatoes and onions and an old bag of baby carrots we had in the fridge (not local). Tomorrow night it’s bison patties with homemade polenta and sautéed chard. This coming Saturday at the farmer’s market I’m going to focus on picking up some late summer harvest items that I can preserve for winter consumption: tomatoes, and hopefully some corn and beans as well…

So tomorrow morning we’re setting out for Milwaukee, bright and early-ish. Tonight I wanted to use up all the stuff in the fridge that I know won’t make it until we get back. I made us a fritatta with summer squash, peccorino cheese, and smoked paprika, rosemary fried potatoes, and a salad with romaine and cucumber. The squash, potatoes, and cucumber all came from the farmers market last week, or maybe the week before. In either case, everything was yummy. We’ve even got fritatta left over for breakfast before we hit the road.

So Ewan has been with us for almost a year–please check the link to our flickr pictures to see how much he’s grown since December. He’s been such a treat; still no plans to give him away any time soon. We got back to the Northwest for 5 weeks earlier this summer and Ewan got to meet all his great aunts & uncles and cousins (on my side of the family). We had a great visit but were actually glad to get back to Kentucky.

Spending time with our friends Zoe & Andre, and Liz & Taggart, got me all inspired to think more about what we’re eating…make more of the things we would typically buy…to buy more food that is grown/made locally. So I’m going to start writing a bit about our adventures with local and homemade foods here.

First adventure: a Moroccan/Serbian inspired phyllo dough pie filled with a lamb and squash filling. The lamb came from Elmwood Farms and I got the summer squash and zucchini at the Saturday farmers market in downtown Lexington. The zucchini was actually old and given to me by a farmer who said it was so old he wouldn’t even sell it…turned out to work fine in the dish.

I sautéed up a 1/2 pound of the lamb with about 4 cups of chopped up squash with a local onion and garlic (from the giant mega Meijer grocery store), some cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg and salt and pepper, until the squash was soft but still had some structure. Then I layered phyllo dough and the sautéed mixture in a greased pie pan, starting with sheets of phyllo dough on the bottom and ending with it on top, gave the top a brush of olive oil and baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes, until the top was golden brown.

I only got about 2 layers of filling and phyllo out of the amount I made, so a bigger batch would probably make a more impressive pie, but it was really quite tasty. It was like a less expert version of Burek (the serbian part of the inspiration) and the combination of spices really did give it a kind of middle-eastern flavor that was really lovely.

On our last trip to the farmers market, I noticed a stand that sells local bacon, so I think when we return from Milwaukee, I’m going to have to take advantage of the fact that corn is so plentiful right now and make a batch of mom’s family’s squaw hash (probably some vague derogatory reference to native americans…maybe we’ll call it: “summer” hash). Anyway, it involves bacon and corn, so you know it’s got to be tasty.

This kid is just getting to be more fun all the time. Oh sure, this morning when I was rushing to get his diaper changed and get out the door, he managed to shoot poop across the room. But really, apart from that, he’s a treat. It feels like he’s becoming much more social. He seems to enjoy being a part of whatever is going on in the house.

We had friends over for dinner last Thursday and he was the life of the party. He enjoyed being held by everyone and cried if he couldn’t sit up at the table with us. He didn’t like to have to leave the scene for feeding or diaper changes, and would spend the whole time craining his neck toward his open bedroom door so that he could hear what was going on. He was totally alert at 10:00 when everyone left, even though he’s typically asleep for the night around 9:00. And it was about another hour and a half before we could get him to sleep. He just lay on the bed between Matt and me, chatting up a storm. It was as if he had saved up all his thoughts about the evening and couldn’t wait to fill us in.

For the first few weeks of Ewan’s life I thought ‘delightful’ was the best way to describe him. And while he is still delightful, as we approach the 3 month mark I think bright is an even better description. Of course, I don’t have to tell you all that he’s a genius, as I’m sure every child is, as far as their parents are concerned. All suggestions of intelligence aside, he is just very alert and very enthusiastic. He loves to lie on his changing table, or in his crib, or just about anywhere and kick and talk, and if there’s an overhead light to stare at, all the better — hence the particularly good fit of ‘bright’. He’s really taken the talking to a whole new level, with lots more modulation of the voice and LOTS more volume — I’m sure those of you who know me at all see this as some sort of karmic reward.

Probably my favorite time of day is mornings when he will lie in his bed huffing and puffing and sort of whispering to himself. I will hear him on the monitor, and when I go in to get him up, he turns on the biggest smile, like he’s just so happy that someone else has come to have a look at these flowers hanging over his bed.

Early last week we made a quick trip to University of Illinois so I could give a talk, and while he did great with the traveling, his sleep schedule was a little thrown off on Wednesday when we were back. On Thursday, we took him to a matinée of American Gangster, which was great, even if the theater was a little fuller than I would have liked, he was able to sleep for pretty much the whole movie.

This weekend I will post some pictures of his first Thanksgiving on flickr, and also some of him in his newly acquired Green Bay Packers gear…

We watched the Borne Identity last night b/c Matt and I haven’t seen any of the “Borne” movies and now we have Netflicks so it feels like we have license to watch every movie ever made. I was exhausted by the end, and thought it was pretty good. It helped me to like Matt Damon again, since we re-watched the Departed earlier in the week, and I clearly can’t differentiate between movies and real life. Ewan was not so taken with the movie, he basically slept through it. Boy, I tell you, the smiles just keep on coming with that kid. Last night Mom and I were laughing at Matt, or Matt and I were laughing at Mom, or something, and Ewan broke into the biggest smile, like he was in on the joke too.

There was nothing particularly special or momentous about today, except that for the 2nd day in a row the kid has been even MORE delightful than usual. I didn’t even think it was possible. This afternoon he and I sat looking at each other — him in my lap, propped up against my knees. We chatted and grinned, and made eyes at each other. He showed me all the neat things he can do with his fist and his mouth and we both laughed at how funny he is.

And later, while I was nursing him, he stopped eating so that he could stare at me for a while. Right in my eyes. That has never happened before…usually he’s staring at my armpit with a sort of drugged expression, or his eyes are closed. I wasn’t even 100% sure that he knew I was where the food came from. In fact, the expression on his face today while he was staring at me suggests that maybe he just figured that out.

Tonight is a bath night. So he and Matt took care of that, and then they sat chatting and admiring the lamp in the living room for a while. Now he appears to be asleep for the night, so I think I’m going to head to bed and really savor the full glory of my child being in a good mood…since I fully realize that tomorrow I could find an angry drunken midget lying in my sweet baby boy’s crib.

It is really hard to believe that Ewan is two months old today. Sometimes it seems like he’s been here forever, other times, like he just arrived. He seems to be enjoying living here, and we like having him around.

Mom is back for another month visit and they are great pals. He watches her, following her face and voice. It’s really very cute. Mom visiting also means that there will be far more pictures showing up on flickr. Now, those of you who look at our flickr site regularly might be wondering how it would be possible for us to post even more pictures, but this, my friends, is the magic of the digital camera.

With mom-the-movie-buff visiting, we decided to take in another matinee last week. We saw Ratatouie at a second-run theater. This trip wasn’t quite as successful as the first one, primarily because we went to a 3:30 matinée. School was out so there were probably 10-15 other people in the theater, which made us a little more sensitive to Ewan’s fussing. But Grandma and dad were great to take turns walking around with him, and I got to enjoy the movie! Tomorrow we’re trying a 2:30 showing of Michael Clayton, which, hopefully will be more empty.

Besides his Grandma, Ewan is immensely fond of his changing table these days. He will lie there for as long as we will let him, kicking, and talking and staring off into space. It never ceases to amaze me that I find his attempts to master basic motor skills so fascinating, and if you check out our pictures you will find near limitless documentation of various fist and thumb sucking attempts. And if that isn’t incentive enough, I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the cutie himself.

He can sometimes appear very concerned with what is going on just over his shoulder or above his head…

And you certainly know when he’s excited or startled by something…

Other times he is very relaxed…

And sometimes a little coy…

But the most fun is when he smiles!

So these days it seems like I’m on an every-3-week posting schedule. I guess that’s an improvement over my previous annual posting. Ewan will be 6 weeks old on Thursday and we think we’ll keep him. Seriously, he’s really delightful and is kind enough to keep the inscrutable wailing to a minimum. We’ve added some new pictures to our flickr site and I was hoping to post one here as incentive for you to check them out, but apparently all of our pictures are currently larger than I’m allowed to upload, so I’ll have to get tech support (aka Matt) on that right away. Part of the delight-that-is-Ewan, which you will see if you check out the pictures, is that he’s starting to smile. Probably it’s mostly still just gas, but there are a couple that have appeared to be bona-fide smiles.

Also delightful, is the fact that today Matt, Ewan and I went to a matinée. It was really great and I highly recommend it for all new parents — the practice, not the movie…but the movie was good too (we saw Superbad). We were the only people in the theater, as one would expect with a weekday matinée for a movie that has been out for a while. This meant that Ewan could cry whenever he felt like it without giving me anxiety and I could easily nurse him when he got hungry. Mostly, though, he slept while Matt and I had a few hearty laughs. I think we’re going to make it a weekly practice for as long as the kid will tolerate it, or until I have to go back to work, whichever comes first.

So Ewan is already almost 3 weeks old and this is the first official word I’ve managed to post on our blog. I guess, though, since I’ve been averaging almost a year between posts lately, I shouldn’t feel so bad about only letting three weeks go by.

I think pretty much everyone who would be reading this site knows that Herschleb Ewan Beaulieu was born on Thursday, August 23rd after about 45 hours of labor…the rest of the vital details should be arriving at your house on a birth announcement sometime soon.

The main reason I wanted to post today was to alert everyone to the link to our flickr site. Click on that link and you’ll be able to see lots and lots of pictures of Ewan, as well as pictures of our other recent adventures. In fact, I am about to upload a whole bunch of new pictures there.

So far everyone is doing really well. Of course we think Ewan is the cutest, greatest kid ever, which makes all the hard work a lot easier. Speaking of hard work, my mom has been here and has been an absolute life saver. We’re not sure how we’re going to survive when she’s gone next week — fortunately, she’s coming back in October!

OK, sorry everyone, the flickr link isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing, which is to connect you directly to my site…I will try to figure it out, and by that I mean, ask Heather. And I will let you know when it’s working.

So, once again, I promised Heather that I would update our blog — since she complained she’d been reading about our dogs for months. And I couldn’t help but notice that the post directly before the dog post was a sort of “year in review”, which is exactly what I planned to do today. Hopefully this will be the start of a new trend and the days of my bi-annual blog posting will be behind me.

The first thing I want to alert everyone’s attention to is the flickr link on the right. That will take you to my flickr site where I am trying to post lots of pictures. I’m trying to catch up on pictures from the past year in an attempt to get ready for the pictures that we’ll be taking once the baby arrives.

So that’s probably the biggest news around here. We’re expecting our first child any day now! Here’s a quick recap:

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday (plus 6 more days) in Maui with friends Zoe & Andre, and Liz & Taggart. You can see lots of pictures from our trip on flickr. This is where I got pregnant.

We went home for Christmas to the Northwest, got to spend some time with family, made it up to Leavenworth with Matt’s mom and got to see Zoe & Andre again. Unfortunately, since I was newly pregnant, I spent most of the trip totally exhausted.

In Late January we hosted my dear friend Nicole, from San Francisco, and Matt’s friends Jeff & Jason and Kevin from Wisconsin.

Then the rest of the winter and early spring are kind of a blur. In the late spring, I had some conferences to travel to, and Matt went out to Coachella, and I turned 30, and we spent a lovely weekend in Rhode Island with Kathleen & David, and Susan and Sean (friends from grad. school)

This summer we made a trip to Houston to spend time with Zoe & Andre and Liz & Taggart. And it was quite fun because all three of us are pregnant now (!) So we ate very well, and spent time getting pampered, and went to see the Police in Concert.

Our last trip of the summer was a drive up to Milwaukee, where Matt’s mom threw us a baby shower and we got to hang out with family and friends for about a week.

Since then we’ve been home trying to get ready for the baby’s arrival. August 15 is my due date. Today is the 12th. Check back here for updates and check the flickr site for pictures!!

This was an exciting weekend for all things dog in the Beaulieu household. On Saturday morning Nacho came home.

The eyes make him look a little posessed, but that’s just because of the flash. We got Nacho from the Clark County Animal Shelter. He’s half corgi, half border collie, and all puppy. It’s not clear exactly how old he is, but we’re slowly but surely remembering all of the behavior modification techniques we had to use on Yoda.

On Saturday afternoon, Nacho stayed home and recovered from surgery, while Yoda went off to the Lexington Dog Paddle. Before the city drains the public pool for the summer, they have a one-day event for doggies.

Needless to say, Yoda had a GREAT time!

The boys spent the rest of the weekend getting to know each other, and on Sunday evening they had their first car ride together.

Can’t quite get the hang of that flash!

There have been a few moments where I think Yoda wonders when Nacho is going home, but all signs point to them becoming fast friends.

OK, I promised Heather that when we moved to Kentucky I would start posting on here again. Soon, I promise I will also have pictures to put up. I know that the last post was actually in January, not a year ago, but it was documenting the trip we took a year ago, so that’s just about as bad. Here’s the quick recap for anyone not up to speed:

1. Got a job offer in late February-early March
2. Flew out to Kentucky with Matt in may and bought a house
3. Finished up the dissertation and got the Ph.D. in June
4. Headed out to Kentucky at the end of July

Mom was along for the trip out and then helped us set up house, which was lovely. We’re just about settled in here and soon I will have pictures to post and some (hopefully) interesting accounts of our adventures in Kentucky.

Here’s a picture of Matt & Yoda somewhere on Route 66.

After a number of good times and good eats in Milwaukee, we headed further East to enjoy all (or a lot) that D.C. had to offer. I had to attend a conference but then had some free time so Matt and I could play tourist. We saw the sights and enjoyed some great meals and nightlife.

Highlights included catching up with old friends, Ethiopian food at Meskerem and drinks and live jazz at the Eighteenth St. Lounge. The link provided here is kind of funny b/c the place is hard to find, but let us in and we weren’t looking particularly “cool” or “sexy”. Really it seemed like a place that just about anyone would enjoy.

From D.C. we rented a car and drove up to spend a couple of days in NY. There we got to catch up with more friends, one of whom provided us with a lovely walking tour of the lower East Side.

On said walking tour, we hit up the very large and very cool Pearl River Market, and the smaller, but also very cool “summer bookstore” at the offices of Visionaire Magazine. It was pretty much like an elementary school book fair with a whold bunch of obscure art and design books. Matt got a beautiful surfing book and I got a collection of interviews and little art pieces that are apparently called “multiples”. Anyway, it’s by Matt Keegan and it’s fun.

We also got to stop by a famous punk rock club…so that Matt could take a picture of the outside.

Eating on the day of the walking tour included a snack at Bread in Nolita, which had fabulous panini sandwiches, and dinner at Number-One Chinese Restaurant.

Day two in New York was a day of total indulgence. Thanks to an entirely too-generous 1st anniversary present from Nicole, we were able to enjoy a delicious lunch at Payard. Everything, from the setting, to the glass of champagne, to the cheese souffle appetizer and pastries for dessert, was absolutely perfect. From there we moved on to see a matinee of Spamalot on Broadway. Both Daivd Hyde Pierce, and Tim Curry performed and it was wonderful.

We rounded out the evening with dinner at Otto, Mario Batali’s pizzeria. We had three divine pizzas, a pepperoni with 3 different kinds all made in-house. One with arugula and aged procuitto, and (my favorite) clam. The clams had to be shelled, so it was a little work, but even Matt (who is not a clam fan) had to admit that it was pretty darn good.

After New York, we made a brief stop back in D.C., where we actually got to attend a sort of book reading by Bob Edwards (formerly of NPR) at a great book store called Politics and Prose.

Then, before heading back home, we had a quick trip to Portland, OR, for a family wedding and more great food. The reception was catered (I think) by a place called Salvador Molly’s and everything was fabulous.

All in all, a completely satisfying, and delicious vacation.

So I finally have a few minutes to post some pictures from our trip to Milwaukee this past August. I have to say that I think Milwaukee is a great city (of course, I enjoy it a little more when it’s not freezing cold outside). Not only is it the setting for shows like Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley (neither of which did I appreciate as a kid b/c I didn’t understand that they were set in the 50s and I just thought all the caracters were kind of weird), but it also has a lot of character, and really good food.

One day we walked to a great spot for brunch called Trocadero, which is run by a complete francofile and has every detail of a French bistro, right down to the water jugs and sugar cubes. On the walk there we got to see some fun sculpture by the Milwaukee River

I also found what I thought was a great looking bus stop.

We had another fun outing with family and friends to a Serbian restaurant called Three Brothers. It’s in an historic building that used to be a Schlitz company tavern, and the specialty is Burek — basically a cross between pot-pie and lasagne, with philo dough supplying the crust/layers. It took an hour to make from the time we ordered, so we had plenty of time to soak in the atmosphere.

Here’s the proprietor, who earlier had been examining this cabbage while he and a friend of about the same age sat at one of the formica tables in the restaurant drinking red wine from a bottle with no label

The Burek finally arrived and was enjoyed by all — we each got our own so there was plenty to take home!

But we did more than eat while in Milwaukee. We visited the beautiful Milwaukee Art Museum.

We visited Family. Here’s Matt with his Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom.

And here with his cousin Cheryl.

We also made it to a Brewers game. Here I am with Matt’s mom and Sister. Neither one of them enjoys having their picture taken, and they tried to hide behind me, but it turns out I can bend my knees more than they can.

My favorite part of the game was watching the weiners race.

After Milwaukee we were off to D.C. and New York. Check back for a report on those cities soon…

Even though I’m woefully behind in posts, I just had to put up a little note about what a great friday I’m having. First, I get the gift of a talking book on itunes: Julie and Julia from Kneecole (aka friend Nicole, in San Francisco). THEN, as if that weren’t treat enough, the UPS man brought me a glassy baby, a Halloween gift from my wonderful mother. It came in an adorable package…

and the package contained an even more adorable glassy baby.

Yoda was also quite excited.

It’s a beautiful little glass container, I think the color is “artic”…I just can’t decide if I want to use it for a votive holder or a glass…Yoda can’t decide either.

Originally, this post was going to be about Matt and my most recent trip, but I decided that probably you all are more interested in getting an update on Yoda. He spent his vacation in the Pacific Northwest with my parents. He had a great time

lounging around…

going on picnics…

going for walks.

and learning how to climb stairs…

But it wasn’t all fun and games for Mr. Yoda, he also worked hard. He got a part time job with the local neighborhood watch,

and also took on a couple of modeling gigs.

Most importantly, though, he made LOTS and LOTS of friends!

Matt and I enjoyed a perfect wedding weekend in Leavenworth, WA for the wedding of my dear friend Zoe Stemm to Andre Calderon. I don’t think describing the wedding as perfect is any kind of exaggeration, to be quite honest. It was one of those rare occurrences where everybody really had a wonderful time. Everyone was great…the bridesmaids (naturally)…the groomsmen…and the significant others of everyone in the wedding party.

The happy couple put us up at an incredible vacation house/lodge that had 6 bedrooms (two with jacuzzi tubs), fireplaces living spaces and kitchens both upstairs and downstairs, a sun porch and extensive decking right on the river — wish I could remember the name of the place, I think it’s Alpine House, but that’s not turning up anything on Google. I would absolutely love to stay at this place again and it was perfect for the wedding weekend. On Friday before the wedding, as a matter of fact, it was the scene of a great welcome reception for out-of-town guests.

The next morning, hangovers notwithstanding, the bridal party got hair and makeup done. Here Zoe and bridesmaid Lindsay share a moment.

The wedding was held just down the road from our accommodations at Two Rivers Farm, the Stemm family’s organic farm. Everything was beautiful.

The bride and groom were stunning.

There was plenty of time to relax while pictures were taken.

Some of the guests didn’t look too shabby either!

We walked down the asile to the Beatles’ All You Need is Love.

During the ceremony Andre & his mom sang I Will.

The recessional (seen here close-up) was Best Friend, by Queen.

Then it was time to eat! Here Zoe and her brother Nels look darling.

Clearly the setting was gorgeous (as are the Stemm-Calderon Family).

Here groomsman Phil helps out with one of the family-style platters. Everything was delicious.

At some point, Nels got ahold of the camera and produced this final sequence of pictures, which I will call “Emily & Lindsay: a Study”.