The Menagerie

Mother of Invention Muffins

This morning I went downstairs to make muffins -- there was a recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran package that looked promising.  I knew I'd have to tweak it a bit (walnuts and I don't mix), but I started getting the ingredients together...

...only to discover that the last banana in the house had been consumed by my husband before I got up.  And there was no whole-wheat pastry flour in the house, nor did we have any plain yogurt.  I wanted to try Amaranth flour in something.   And we only had about 1/4 cup of brown sugar in the house, not the 1/2 cup that was required.  And I really didn't want to get the food processor out to grate carrots, because then I'd have to wash the food processor.  And I don't like dates, so I was going to substitute dried cranberries, anyway. 

But I really wanted healthy muffins!  And while I made a bunch of substitutions, the end result was really good.  Matthew is laughing at me for typing this up, but darn it, they were good! 

This looks only marginally like the original.

1/2 c. Bob's Red Mill unbleached white flour
1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Amaranth flour
3/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran cereal
1/4 c. brown sugar (packed)
1/4 c. white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda

I also grated a bit of nutmeg in there. 

Whisk until mixed.  Then mix: 

3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 egg (free range and organic, so it wasn't so large)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla (Madagascar bourbon)
handful of raisins
handful of dried cranberries

Fold into the dry ingredients and mix only until completely moistened.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 18-19 minutes.  They'll be short, but not too dense.  Cool on a wire rack, then place them on a plate and dust confectioner's sugar on the tops.

I think next time I will up the baking powder, add another egg, and add more raisins. 

Playing Catch-Up, or the dullest blog post ever (unless spit-up, edema, and firing clients count as interesting)

I know it's typical for new moms to feel harried, so I hate to keep whining about how I'm scrambling to keep on top of  up with the day-to-day.  But...that's my life right now. 

The Peach is doing quite well.  She's gorgeous; her hair is growing and she's  smiling or laughing all the time (except when the camera is out).  She loves sitting up in her Bumbo chair or in our laps, and she can keep her head steady for a long time.  On the down side, she bores easily and watches the TV if we're watching something while we're feeding her -- which means no more "What Not to Wear" while feeding the baby.  Or House.  (I do let her watch costume dramas with me...they're so slowly paced, surely the American Pediatric Association can't think there's anything wrong with Mansfield Park, can they?)

Health-wise, I'm in Norvasc hell.  Did you know it causes water retention?  So annoying -- I mean, I thought I took blood pressure meds to AVOID pitting edema.  But I'm stuck with it until the hematologist and the nephrologist are done with me.  I see the hematologist Tuesday afternoon, and am hoping that I can talk him into talking to the nephrologist ahead of schedule - I would love to take off trouser socks and not have huge indentations in my calves. 

Work-wise -- well, it's not hell.  It's busy, though -- my to-do lists are insane, and I'm constantly cramming 4 times the work into 1/4 the time. Last week was the worst -- I only had GT for half a work day, instead of two or three days.  Aiee!  At least I kept up with phone messages. 

I've pretty much had to fire a client who was not taking my advice, was accusing me of being disloyal for talking to opposing about settling, sending me rambling email messages, not giving me information about potential witnesses, and then started directly faxing opposing counsel and others.  (And not copying me on those faxes.)  Yeah.  I'm a glutton for punishment, but not that much. 

The big weekend positives: I did a couple of crosswords.  I organized my work area.  (This is huge!  Our house is pretty much a series of rooms with furniture conducive to reading and working on laptops.  Unfortunately, this means that when one area is chaotic, it's easy to move to another.)  I organized my past research, even -- separate folders for "respondeat superior," ORCP 47, "spousal support" and so on.  I'd been meaning to do that for so long - and now my life is already a lot easier.   Which is to say -- yes, I did work, too!

Another positive?  We've managed to eat real meals for three days in a row.  No take out!  And tonight I made a lasagna (fire roasted tomato sauce, whole wheat pasta, six cheeses, low fat ricotta, pepper, salt, parsley, and garlic) that should keep us going a couple of days more.

There's so much more I want to do before I go to bed -- but looking at the time, I don't think it's a good idea to stay up.  The weekends are so heavenly for me, in terms of sleeping: Matthew takes any odd-hour feedings and I can sleep in as late as I want (usually 10 or 11).  Monday mornings - well, they're not all that fun. 

Gratitude

Can I just say how grateful I am, with our two-week-old baby, that New Seasons Market delivers now?  And that we were given gift cards to New Seasons as gifts?   

Thanksgiving gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is the least commercial (judging by the stores, we skip straight from Halloween to Christmas) and because the expectation is that we will do something we ought to do anyway (appreciate what we have).  We don't do enough of it.

I have a lot to appreciate this year.  Sure, there have been the bad bits, but overall, I have a great life. We're expecting again, the three-legged dog is doing well, I'm enjoying what I do and paying bills, and I have wonderful friends and family.

And, as on every Thanksgiving, I'm grateful John Howland caught those halyards, even if it did give me some dodgy cousins (and some good ones).

Some little updates

First: I'm enjoying working on my NaNo project. Despite yesterday's sleepy start, I hit my self-imposed quota (2K words) easily. Today I did a lot of real work, and wrote about a hundred. Given I'm giving myself a whole weekend day to write in, I'm not too worried about day's lag. Every time I start writing fiction after a break, I'm amazed at 1) how it can be rough to get started and 2) how well it flows once it does start. Legal writing seems to be exactly the opposite.

Second: I've taken a part-time regular job. It's for this SUPER cool attorney in Portland* who does high-end divorce work. I'll work for him two days a week and handle my other clients and contract jobs on the other days. I'm really happy about this, because as we all know, I love the contract research and writing the most out of everything I do. Also, he appreciates the work I do, and that's wonderful. My professional life to date has been doing highly technical things for people who don't know what I've done. (Sadly, this does cover a lot of my solo practice. I would love to have more sophisticated clients.)

Third: I had dinner with a Eugene attorney tonight and had a great time -- she's up in town for a CLE and we chatted about contract jobs, asshole male lawyers, and John Paul Jones. How could I not love her?

Fourth: a little queasiness this evening. I'm hoping this has more to do with the massive amounts of protein I downed at dinner than morning sickness. Fingers crossed!

Fifth: got the reply brief from opposing in my appellate case. It seemed a little pissy, and so I enjoyed running through it with a highlighter and picking out all the grammatical and punctuation and contextual errors before I read it for legal substance. It was much more fun that way.

*Yes, he knows about this blog. How could you tell? :)

As if any more proof were needed

Yeah, I'm a geek. Well -- according to mellow-drama, I'm the Queen of the Geeks (the rest of you can call me "your majesty," thanks). How geeky? I'm "the smart one" when my sister was "the pretty one."* But more than writing-for-RPGs-and-knowing-how-to-splice-fiberoptic-cable geek?

Yes. Because my splurge after working on UIM coverage on Sunday and Measure 37 definitions of "owner" yesterday and today AND handling my own clients was....

...a waffle iron. (Because my last waffle iron fell from the top of the refrigerator and smashed to bits at some point when I was in law school, and I'd forgotten this until I wanted to make waffles last weekend. The really sad part is that I haven't been in law school in 18 months.)

*Seriously. When a "friend" from a college German class saw me talking with my sister in front of another class, he told me how pretty he thought Sarah was. I agreed. Then he said, "So...you're the smart one and she's the pretty one, right?" He never got invited to another Friday night X-Files party after that.

OMG

My neighbor brought over a piece of homemade apple caramel cheesecake.  Absolutely, completely wonderful. I'm going to commission one for my next party!

Score!

This evening neighbor John (three houses  to the south) brought over cheese blintzes with mixed berries and a berry sauce, and a couple of hours later, neighbor Bonnie (two houses to the north) brought over two slices of homemade mixed berry pie with homemade whipped cream.   (Coincidentally, this was the night we were too tired to cook and decided cereal would be just fine for dinner.)    Perfect timing, guys!