Just a few spring shots

Today it was 65 and sunny here in Eugene. Lucy and I took a long, long walk to Starbucks in the afternoon when it was a little overcast and not as bright out. On the way I took a few shots of things that are blooming with my new Nikon. I'm so excited to have this camera, although I have a lot to learn about shutter speed and aperture.

Here's the view from our back porch. Still waiting for those trees to blossom, but the hillside is such a beautiful green!

And some flowers I picked up from Fred Meyer for 99 cents.

Lucy, etc.

Just some pictures of our smiley baby. Oh, and my birthday present is in the mail right now... a Nikon D80 that I got off of Ebay. Woohoo! So there might be even MORE pictures of our adorable child. As the Heffalumps and Woozles song says, "Beware, beware, bewaaaaarre!" (That song is on almost constant repeat at our house, fyi).

Lucy's First Solids

We decided to start Lucy on rice cereal yesterday, not because she needs to gain more weight, but more because we noticed her increasing interest in food. We'll often put her in the high chair with a toy during dinner time so that she's near us, and over the last few weeks we've watched her follow our forks from the plates to our mouths. She's even done some appreciative licking of her lips while we're chewing. And so we decided to let her join in on dinner time. Here's Joel giving her a bite to eat:

Her initial response was confusion mixed with a little disgust (can't blame her, rice cereal tastes like cardboard to me):

But then she decided she liked this stuff that grown-ups eat (not that we'd ever eat it unless we were starving, but don't tell Lucy):

For a while she was content with helping us guide the spoon to her mouth

But then she realized it was much more fun holding the spoon herself:

And much messier:

Springtime!

I love that my birthday often falls on the first day of Spring. It's such a rejuvenating time of year: flowers waking up from the dead ground (stirring dull roots with spring rain, if you're Eliot), birds finding their songs again, new life, etc.


In Moscow and in Spokane I was often disappointed by the first day of Spring. Quite frequently there was still snow on the ground, or even snowfall. But here in Eugene I really can believe that springtime has come. The trees that line the road up to our house are beginning to produce little pink flowers. Last night Joel and I sat outside on our back porch and ate dinner. I watched two hummingbirds duke it out over a flower trough, and I watched our cat dream of leaping off our balcony and eating them. I suppose she has her own reasons for loving spring.


Here's another stellar recipe from over on Baked Bree. I made these Italian Drip Beef Sandwiches for our outside dinner last night, along with some sauteed asparagus. It was delicious!

Picture and full recipe found here.

Here's what's cookin' at the Cohen house

I tried this recipe that I found over on The Pioneer Woman for Tikka Masala Chicken, and it was incredible! And not too expensive if you already have the spices. For some reason I have a giant container of Garam Masala just sitting in my pantry. You can control how spicy the dish gets by adding chili peppers or a dash of cayenne pepper.
You can find the recipe here. Another reason I'm such a big fan of this recipe is because of the step by step pictures. That's right up my alley!

King Estate Winery

Our friends the Williams came to visit us this past weekend; we had such a fun time with them! We ate a lot of great food, played games, explored Eugene, and caught up on each other's lives. One of the highlights of their trip (and the only time I actually remembered to get my camera out) was our visit to King Estate Winery. This place was incredible. It's about 30 minutes outside of Eugene, and the weather cooperated so the drive was absolutely beautiful. The winery sits on over 1000 acres of vineyards and fruit trees, but the most impressive part of the estate is the winery itself. We took a tour of the grounds: through the wine-pressing rooms, into the storage cellars and the old wine-tasting room. It was so fun to learn about how wine was made, plus after our tour we were able to taste 6 of their delicious wines. Such a great time! Because Lucy had a cold we brought her along with us rather than getting a sitter. Everyone there got a kick out of her, we received several comments about "starting her off young." Notice in the last picture how she's trying to subtly sneak a bit of dad's wine.

Lucy Kisses

Our little darlin' turned 5 months old yesterday! And she's just getting more adorable and fun every day. Here are some recent milestones:

* Discovering her feet. Even more delightful was discovering that she could put them in her mouth.
* Rolling over. This happened a few weeks ago but it's made life so much more fun for her. Now when I lay her on her back I usually find within a few seconds that she's rolled over onto her stomach and kicking those chubby legs furiously trying to figure out how to crawl. I have a feeling that's coming soon!
* Learning her name. We're not sure when this happened but the last few days we noticed that when anyone says Lucy's name, her little head whips around trying to figure out who is talking to her. She really is an incredibly social baby. I have to take her out somewhere every day to admire and be admired, even if it's just a quick trip to the store. She loves people!
*And my personal favorite: Lucy kisses. I guess she was tired of having thousands of kisses planted on her cheeks, ears, forehead, nose, etc., without giving any back. So now when I am holding her she rotates so she's facing me, grabs the hair on both sides of my head, and very deliberately pulls me towards her open, smiling mouth. Then she spends a few minutes with her mouth pressed against my chin or cheek (depositing a lot of saliva on my face) before pulling away to see if I approved. It's adorable. I love Lucy kisses, even if my face is drenched afterwards.

So happy 5 months baby girl! We love you!

The secret ingredient

Have you ever had a dish that pretty much everyone you know loves, so you can't help feeling bad that you secretly despise it? That's how I feel about mashed potatoes. Okay, despise might be a bit of an overstatement, but I don't think I've ever made them for dinner, and at holiday meals I either avoid them or take only a small portion to be polite.

But that has all changed.

Today I discovered a recipe for mashed potatoes that uses one simple ingredient that completely changed my view towards mashed potatoes: Lawry's seasoning salt.

Honestly, if you are like me and you find pretty much every mashed potato recipe bland and uninteresting, you have to try adding seasoning salt! I'm confident that mashed potatoes will now begin showing up regularly on dinner menus at the Cohen casa.

Here's what I'm serving with the mashed potatoes: a good old fashioned pot roast. Can you say comfort food??