Day 1 of the rest of my life

I'm tired. I'd like to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. Lately 3 hours has been a luxury, too. I am ready to take my sleep back. I am ready to start the rest of my life, filled with fun days with my kids, kicking butt around the house, and feeling invincible. The few nights that I've had good sleep I have been invincible the next day. No amount of green smoothies can make up for horrible sleep, trust me.

My lovely son who always seems to be full of life and energy will not sleep through the night anymore. The thing that kills me most is that he used to! Just after this amazing point in our lives of very rest-filled nights he got sick and essentially reverted back to newborn sleeping. After a winter of mild but persistent colds he is now oh-so-used to mom and dad's comfort at night. He doesn't take bottles. He doesn't take pacifiers. He will take a sippy cup, but only if it's water and he won't take it if he's upset. He won't take mamma's milk from anything/anyone but mamma.  In his fits of rage/crying he throws any comfort object we offer him. He will cry for hours if we let him (we don't). He will rock/walk to sleep- after 30 to 45 min. Should I go on? I think we see the picture here...mom and dad are suckers. Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me for nearly 365 days...shame on me. But we still love you.

But that's okay, because starting tonight everything is changing. We won't pick him up from his crib. I won't nurse him to sleep initially and I won't feed him past 11. We will hear a lot of crying. We might even have to put miss thang back to sleep several times if his crying wakes her up. I will not sleep well tonight. I may have to sit propped up against his crib all night in the rocking chair (hopefully not). He might even vomit (REALLY hope not). Mom will be there for you and I will visit, but you are putting yourself back to sleep tonight buddy, no matter how many cute little tears you shed and no matter how much my heart breaks. Wish us luck.

11 Months

I cannot believe that my little man is 11 months old today! The fun thing about him having his birthday next month is that he is included in birthday season :) From August 27-October 24 we have 7 birthdays in our family! Anyway, little man is getting so big! He is already outgrowing his 6-12 mo clothes, he is starting to stand on his own, and he says 'dada' and 'baba' with ease. He's only said 'mama' once, and luckily I heard it, but I won't give up on getting him to say it. He is understanding a lot more of the toys that we have and he actually enjoys playing with them. Him and Julia are starting to play together a lot more as well and it is SO adorable. He wiggles like crazy all the time and it is nearly impossible to get him dressed or change his diaper by myself. He LOVES baths and splashing in water. I really wish that he'd sleep through the night...since he's teething he is still waking up around 3 times a night :/ He does have a third tooth with 3 more on the way.

At the aquarium today.

The hooligans playing together.

High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love to bake and since living in Utah I have felt like I've had more baking fails than ever in my entire life. I'm from Oregon so I never thought twice about using the high altitude conversions listed on most recipes. One day it hit me *duh* I'm at pretty high altitudes and I should convert my recipes. I've started doing that and ever since I have had no mishaps whatsoever. Here is a recipe that I adapted from a secret recipe and then also adapted for high altitudes. The nice thing is that they get cooked all the way through without overdone bottoms and they don't fall after baking. They will be just crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside (without being doughy/under done). It's a small batch, which is nice for my family since Julia and I are the only one to eat cookies.















My cookie helper :)

Recipe
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tea salt
Scant 1/2 tea baking powder (measure 1/2 tea then give it a little tap to knock some out)
1 stick butter
1 egg
6 TBL brown sugar
4 TBL white sugar
1/2 tea vanilla
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla, mix well. Add the baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until blended, but do not over mix. Then add the chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 min, or until the edges are just golden brown.

Done in the middle but still soft. Lightly crunchy on the outside and they didn't turn out hard as rocks once they cooled down.

An "everything" smoothie

I know, it looks gross...but it tastes great! Have you ever heard the saying "everything but the kitchen sink" is in it? That's how I feel about this. The great thing is that it hits a lot of must haves for a smoothie these days.

Ingredients
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup frozen sweet potato*
1/4 cup frozen peaches*
handful of frozen blueberries
2 handfuls of spinach
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

Blend it. Drink it. Love it.




*Remember how I made homemade baby food? I put some in ice cube trays and I now have perfectly sized cubes of frozen sweet potatoes and peaches for smoothies, as well as for the baby's meals.

BotH: Chapter 12

Chapter 12
The Chefs

The chefs at The Resort were simultaneously the best and worst people to work with. On the one hand they were friendly to me since I wasn't their subordinate and I was nice to them, but on the other hand most of them had huge egos and thought they were always right, even when they weren't. The Resort had a weird hierarchy for the chefs, so it seemed like there were always power struggles amongst them. At the top was the Food and Beverage Manager (not a chef...at all) and he was over things like food cost, events, supply chain...the boring stuff. Next was the Executive Chef, Phil, who was technically in charge of all of the other chefs. Then there was the head restaurant chef (side note: the restaurant was not technically run by The Resort, it was run by the brand of restaurant that it was-- like how the food court is in the mall but each restaurant is run by itself, not the mall as a whole but the mall still has some say in what happens...it was confusing), the sous chef, the head banquet chef and his assistant, the head pastry chef and his assistant, then there were all levels of chefs in the restaurant. They all had numbers (like chef I or II) based on seniority/experience so it was also confusing to know who to talk to about what.

In the first couple of months I mostly worked around Tony the head banquet chef and Phil the executive chef. Phil was full of all kinds of random information that he felt the need to always divulge. Sometimes it was interesting, like how the pigs in Italy are fed certain foods (like wine and nuts) before they're made into prosciutto/pancetta, and sometimes it was not, like how he showed his sons his scars from his vasectomy. For real he told me all about that in addition to how his wife cheated on him but they decided to stay together for the kids and how she pretty much sounded like she was in the marriage for the money. One time I saw him go ape crazy on a mouse in the kitchen--obviously necessary, but instead of disposing of it himself he left it there and called stewarding to come clean it up. I don't think I mentioned stewarding before, they were at the beck and call of the chefs, managers, and servers to do things like dishes, polishing large silver pieces, moving flatware and silverware, cleaning up broken glass, transporting trays of glasses from point A to B...lots of hard labor, basically. Anyway, back to Phil. I liked him and didn't have any beef with him, but apparently he threw a lot of people under the bus to save his own butt. And one last thing about him, his favorite thing to eat was ramen and beer...I guess you just never know sometimes.

Tony was from New York (I mentioned him in the royal wedding) and so most people were afraid of him because they thought he was "mean." Don't get me wrong, I saw him get into a lot of arguments with my manager (she was also from New York) but he never was mean to me. He thought I was joking when I told him that I worked with my mom...most people didn't believe me actually. He also teased (but not in a mean way) that I was Mormon. It's funny how people who know something generic about you tend to bring up all they know on the subject, which ends up being a whole lot of nothing. Like if I had ten husbands...silly stuff like that. Anyway, we got along really well and he would teach me how to make things when they were slow. I did an amazing hollandaise sauce for a holiday brunch (on my first try, if I might add) that he taught me to make. He also helped me plan my birthday dinner that another chef was catering for me. Him and his assistant, who were friends, were always bickering with each other and I remember him (the assistant) saying that he was sure that Tony was wrong so he was going to make it his way and not listen to him. He got sick of being over worked so he left a few months before me and went to go work at The Montage and he is managing his own restaurant over there now.

Orin is my favorite. We're still friends and he owns an amazing pastry shop in Draper. He originally came in as a pastry chef, and after our head pastry chef/chocolatier left becasue she thought everyone in charge was idiots (too true) he became in charge. The annoying thing is that they wouldn't give him the title of "head" pastry chef. Him and Phil didn't get along very well. Anyway, whenever we were slow or had time in between events I would go hang out with Orin. He had pastries that he would share with me, or let me try out new things that he was making. He also gave me TONS of baking advice and shared a lot of fun stories with me about his pastry upbringing and his family growing up in...Norway (?). It annoyed him to no end that instead of allowing him to make things from scratch, Phil ordered premade croissants, muffins, and bagels which contributed to the huge "food cost" debate that seemed never ending. I got to the point where when I was pregnant I did not want to work up in Private Dining anymore and Orin wanted me to come work with him but Phil said no. Then I went on maternity leave. Then I quit...but I digress. We actually both quit at almost the same time. Orin had to drive over the mountain from South Salt Lake and during the snow season you never knew how long it could take. He got stuck in an accident that shutdown the freeway so he was a sitting duck for two hours on his way to Park City. He called to let Phil know about the accident and Phil told him to not even bother coming in. That was the end. Orin is such a nice guy and he owns his own pastry shop now, but he was the scape goat up there and it was ridiculous.

I mentioned that chefs had egos and could be hard to work with. One time when I was working in Private Dining I went to the line to pick up my order and it was wrong. I told the sous chef who sat there and argued with me and i told him over and over again to read the ticket again because I was missing a dish. This was the first time that I literally yelled at a chef and then once he read the ticket he saw he was wrong and walked off to fix the order. The head restaurant chef was the most egotistical chefs I had ever met. Phil and I discussed how much we both disliked Bobby Flay and I never had the heart to tell him I disliked his restaurant more than I disliked Bobby Flay and that is saying something. Almost all the chefs swore like sailors which annoyed me, but was bad for The Resort when they had guests touring the kitchen and came around the corner hearing a string of profanity. The restaurant's kitchen was not my favorite place.

1 Dinner 2 Ways

Do you ever make something for dinner and then realize you have too much left over? I made a big ol' batch of chicken kabobs for dinner and we had a ton left over and so I decided to do a dinner "refashion".

Day one we had chicken kabobs with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and pineapple. I marinated it in a yummy citrus blend (I didn't use a recipe, but McCormick has great mixes) I whipped up and did it on a baking sheet (we don't have a grill).

Day two I took some of the left overs (minus the pineapple) and turned it into fajitas. I added some sour cream and cheese and I'm telling you it was delicious. And I bet you're wondering, "Rachel, where's the pictures?" Well, funny story...I gave my camera to Alex for his mission and so I only have my phone to take pictures with and both times I was eating I forgot...until I was done. So...great ideas can come without photos.

Potty Training

We are potty training in these parts and the past couple of months I have not been diligent enough about getting number one done on the potty. She loves her princess potty and the music it plays when she does number two but mom is ready for number one to get that happy song, too. I know there are a million websites with potty training, but what I think it comes down to is finding out what drives your child and what they're comfortable with. Julia loves stickers, so that will be our first bribe/reward of choice. She really digs the singing potty, too, so I think we'll stick with that. She has only once gone on a real toilet and it was stressful for her (we were in public). Wish us luck, here we go!

Also, here is a potty training sticker chart that I made for her. I'm hoping it will help ME to be more diligent about getting her on there more frequently and help her to see her stickers/reward.