My day of recipes

Warning: If you're not really into seeing or reading about other people's food, go no further.   The following is an account of my meals today.  End of warning.

It was another brisk late-Fall day, perfect for cozying up inside.  Poor Max has a terrible cold, so I spent most of the day changing clothes, wrangling flailing arms while spraying saline mist into little nostrils, drawing a few baths, and cuddling after tears.  Not sure how I accomplished the following with a sick baby at home.  But maybe that was exactly the reason why I was encouraged to (wash my hands lots and) roll up my sleeves and make some good ol' home-made comfort food.  As I'm typing this, Max is sleeping (albeit, restlessly) and David and I are thoroughly satisfied with our meal. (Read: semi-reclined, feet propped, and belts loosened.)  So, I'm sharing my recipes in case you find yourself in need of a flavorful, hearty meal on a cold day. 

Breakfast
I've had this infatuation with Alterra's Pumpkin Cranberry muffins ever since I first laid eyes, then taste buds, on them in 2010.  Alterra is my favorite coffee shop in Milwaukee, WI.  Since it's the perfect time of year for sweet pumpkin and tart cranberry, I've been scouting for something similar here in Toronto.  Nothing has even come close to the goodness from the Alterra bakery... until I found this recipe!  Full of fiber, antioxidant-packed cranberries, and potassium-rich pumpkin, these muffins are just what your body needs as the weather cools down and the sunshine starts to fade.  Not to mention, the smells wafting from your kitchen are enough to brighten anyone's day.  Try them and you won't be disappointed.  Yummmm!

Best Ever Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
Adapted from The American Club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via PreventionRD.com

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/3 cup canola
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice
1 cup + 1 Tbsp raw turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup fresh cranberries
2 Tbsp unsalted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Put liners in muffin cups.
Whisk together flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in cranberries.
Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with remaining tablespoon of sugar and pepitas. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature. Yield: 12 muffins.

Nutrition Information (per muffin): 200 calories; 7.9 g. fat; 36 mg. cholesterol; 206 mg. sodium; 30.7 g. carbohydrate; 2.7 g. fiber; 1.7 g. protein

Result: Sweet, tart, and moist. These are truly *perfect* muffins. Enjoy!

Lunch/Dinner
I never liked beef stew when I was a kid, but something changed in my young adult years, and thank goodness!  Who doesn't enjoy a savory stew with tender beef and vegetables?  Add the Guinness or wine and this stew is super rich and perfectly filling.  Pair it with these cheese biscuits for a fantastic combination.  If I don't feel like making the biscuits from scratch, a package of ready-to-bake scones with a handful of shredded cheese works too!

Guinness Beef Stew and Cheddar Drop Biscuits
Fresh20 Meal Plans (special thanks to my lovely friend, Nikki, for sharing her subscription!)

1 pound chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, cut into small dice
2 medium carrots, peeled and cutinto large dice
2 ribs of celery, cut into 1 inch slices
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into large dice
1- 8 ounce russet potato, peeled and cut into large dice
1 - 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/8 to 1/4 cup tomato paste
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove
1 – 12 ounce Guinness Beer or 1 ½ cups of red wine
1 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 sprigs of fresh thyme

1. In a large bowl, combine meat, salt & pepper, and whole wheat flour- toss to combine.
2. Heat a large Dutch oven or a heavy bottom soup pot over medium heat; once hot, add in oil. Brown the meat. Watch the heat so that the flour doesn’t burn.
3. Add the cut vegetables, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, Dijon and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for 3-4 minutes.
4. Add in beer (or wine), broth, water, and thyme sprigs.
5. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, and reduce the heat slightly. Keep the liquid to a low boil and cook for 25 minutes. Discard any thyme stems floating at the top.
Serve warm with cheddar biscuits or scones.

Cheddar Drop Biscuits

2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ cup half and half
½ cup water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cheddar, shredded
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and prepare a baking sheet by lightly brushing with olive oil. Adjust rack to the middle of the oven.
2. In a Pyrex measuring cup, combine the olive oil, half and half, and water.
3. In a small bowl stir to combine the flour, baking soda, cheese and kosher salt. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
4. With a large soup spoon, scoop out small biscuits and gently place them onto the baking sheet. Place into the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Makes 12 biscuits.


I had full intentions of posting a picture of this yummy meal, but we actually finished it before I remembered.   It's okay, you can be glad. 

Happy Birthday, Opa!

Brrrrrr!  It's a whopping 34 degrees this morning.  We did tell Max last night that it was Daylight Savings Time and Fall Back meant he could sleep in a whole extra hour, but apparently he wasn't interested.  So,  we decided to take a brisk stroll to Sobey's grocery for some fresh bagels for breakfast.   We bundled up our bundle for the trip!  Note the Mimi-tins, the sleeve-like mittens on Max.  Perfect for a kiddo who likes to pull everything off.  Now, if we could only find socks of the like. 

Our rental home is up for sale as of last week.  We've had 7 showings in 2 days!  So today, even though it is frigid outside, we decided to get out of the house to avoid the showings and take a trip to the Distillery District for a walk.  The district was founded in the 1830s and was once the largest distillery in the world.  Now, it's an arts and entertainment district with cafes, galleries and restaurants housed in more than 40 heritage buildings on 10 streets!  Huge!  It is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America.
We've been told over and over again that we need to see it.  So, once Max gets up from his nap, we'll be on our way.  Hopefully, by the time we get back from our field trip, all of the prospective buyers will be through and we can put our feet up and enjoy some Sunday Night Football!  Go Pack Go!

We'd like to wish Opa Behr a very Happy Birthday today!  

May the sun shine all day long,
Everything go right and nothing go wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you
And may all the wishes you wish come true!
Happy Birthday to you, dear Opa!

A hundred candles to light up your birthday would be less than the amount of light and shine you have given to us.  We love you, Opa, and wish you a very joyful and healthy year ahead.  

Boo!

10 months, and who’s counting?
We checked in with Max's pediatrician this week after supplementing his diet with formula.  He has gained a little over one pound and is just above 10th percentile.   Busy growing and busy exploring.  Lately, he's been pulling himself up to standing and then climbs on just about everything.  I think Max may be ready to help Opa teach his balance workshops during our visit to Seattle in December because he is about ready to start standing on his own.  His once slow and steady crawl is now a blur across the floor.  We recently enrolled him in a Play n’ Learn class at Gymboree, which he loves.  You never would have guessed that he was the new guy in the class the way he tackled each activity and wanted to play with each of his classmates.   He definitely takes after David in that way!

The Canadian business people seem to love David’s training.  Business is going great here and we are anticipating hitting Calgary, Vancouver and a few other cities in different provinces in the coming years. Visitors are encouraged and welcome, as always.   Here is a picture of David at a recent seminar he taught.  The furniture company made the poster he's holding in order to advertise his workshop for their salespeople.  I think this may be his first advertisement!  It's a little big for the fridge so we hung it in Max's room.  ;)

The Fall colors are really popping and the leaves are now starting to fall with all the recent rain. Makes me want to snuggle up with a book and a pumpkin spice latte.  With the landfall of Hurricane Sandy over the weekend, it is starting get a little chilly here...mid 30s to 40's during the day and dipping down into the low 30’s at night. We are thinking about letting Max wear his Halloween costume for pajamas because it will certainly keep him toasty warm at night.  Speaking of Halloween, here are a few pictures from Halloween night:

on the move

Max, the Bear

Handing out candy

Max did really well for his first year of trick or treating.  Here’s the first house:

And the best-dressed house:

As you know, we went to Niagara Falls a few weekends ago and are trying to take in as many other sights as we can. Toronto has a lot of great restaurants so we have been eating well.  That, coupled with all the candy we, (cough), I mean Max scored, I think we’d better get our butts to the gym, especially considering we will be sporting our bathing suits in Hawaii in less than one month!  Now that’s scary!

Hey you, slow down!

Blogger is being quite finicky lately.  Seems to be a tug-of-war between text and photos.  And I just about lost it when I tried to publish my last post with Niagara pictures.  So, I'm just going to post one today.  Here is one of my favorite Canadian traffic signs:

Ahhh, now don't you feel better?  I do. 

Happy Thanksgiving - Canada style

The American Falls

How lucky are we to celebrate two Thanksgivings this year!  Canada celebrated Thanksgiving on October 8th.  Since it lands on a Monday in Canada, we decided to enjoy a long weekend in Niagara Falls.  This was both Max's and David's first visit.  I was excited to see the Falls again and I realized that it looks so different depending on your vantage point and the weather!

Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side

David's brother generously donated some extra travel points so that we could enjoy the Falls from our hotel room while Max was napping.   This was extremely useful since Max is such a great napper!  Once we got out of the room, though, the views only got better! 
The orange in Max's hands in the pictures below was a fantastic tool for keeping his attention during the snapping of photos, though he also found it quite fun to throw.  He must have thought it was the best-tasting ball he's had yet! 

Looking over the edge was dizzying.

The lights on the Falls at night were beautiful

Grow, Max, grow!

We visited Max's pediatrician while in Wisconsin early this week.  Here's an update of Max's growth and development at 9 months:

Max is on target developmentally. 

• He is standing on his own fairly well and will cruise (walk while holding furniture) with Momma or Daddy nearby.  He is still a bit wobbly, but independent and quite determined.  
• He can crawl super fast!  Gone are the days when we can run to the next room "real quick"!  
• Max thinks stairs are fun and has tried going up on his own.  He has gotten to the 3rd step before we knew what he was up to.  whoops!
• We are still working on baby safety.  Unfortunately, there is no wall on one side of the staircase, so baby gates are not so useful in that area.  I'm still trying to figure out a way to rig something across the bottom to at least blind his curiosity.  I found one option called the KidCo Auto Close Configuration Gate with 5 joints that you can create a 1/2 circle around the base of the stair case.  This might be our best bet.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Keep in mind, this is a temporary rental, so in another 5 weeks, our environment will be different.  I'm hoping we can come up with a travel-friendly solution that will work for the majority of our rental homes.  
• Max loves music.  He will mimic a very short melody and listens intently when the piano and violin lessons are going on in the upper-level apartment above us.  I'm hoping to convince our neighbor Bridget to let us come up and play audience for an afternoon lesson.
• Max's favorite game is playing catch with Daddy and let me tell you, this kid has quite an arm! 

 Growth stats:
Max was found to have lost weight between his 6- and 9-month visits.  This was a little bit of a shock since he was growing so well in the beginning and really loves solid foods, especially vegetables.  I do remember thinking his waistbands were stretching out and I thought perhaps he was growing taller faster than he was growing wider.  Since Max's development is right on track, the doctor believes this is only because my milk supply is low.  Also, babies that are exclusively breast-fed tend to be smaller than those who get some or all formula since the caloric intake of formula is consistent while breast milk changes with growth.  Max's doctor is very cooperative and a wonderful listener.  He asked me what I think we should do (rare! and appreciated) and has agreed with my desire to continue nursing, adding a bottle between feedings to up his calorie intake.  I'm also starting Fenugreek to see if it helps.  He has also suggested we be a bit more liberal with type and quantity of solid foods.  Mangia, Max!  So, the plan is to give Max extra calories and report back with a weight check in 3 weeks.  David thinks this is a perfect excuse to buy a Wii since it has the weight-sensitive pad for games.  Ha! 

• Head Circumference 43 cm (10%)
• Length: 27.75 inches (50%)
• Weight: 16lbs, 11oz (~10%) 

So, despite the small hiccup with growth, we have a really happy kiddo who loves to learn and explore.  We love you, Max!

long overdue

Beautiful Maple down the block

Okay, so it's been almost one month since I last posted!  I can't believe how fast time has flown by.   We're in full Fall mode here in Toronto.  It's absolutely beautiful and I certainly appreciate the cooler temperatures.  (I haven't had Fall in 2 years.  Last year, we were in Austin and it was HOT!)

In complete reverse proportion to the amount of activity on our blog is the amount of activity we've been accustomed to in our new city.  This is my excuse for not blogging, albeit not very good.  As I've said before, our neighborhood is fantastic!   We've been taking lots of walks to explore.  Everything we need is a few short blocks away.  Since I'm out of practice with the blog, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Oh, and this is an advertisement for our home so you'll want to come see us!

We're in Greek Town

Our front door.  Blackie is our neighbor's cat.

Our bright kitchen

Fruit and vegetable stands abound

Our living room

Max enjoying a magazine on the couch

a look down the street

Max patiently waiting for his walk

Yummmm, avocado!

Ha ha!  Mom, this article is hilarious!

One week in...

and we are moving out of temporary rental #1 and into temporary rental #2.  Ugh.  The owner here has been a little volatile.  She notified us last night at 8:30pm that we'd have to move out today.  As in, less than 24 hours notice.  We got her to agree to Sunday.  Back to the House Hunters comparison, none of the previous 3 housing options ended up working out.  We went back and forth with the owners of our first choice to the point of nausea.  The property manager said one thing and the owners came back with another totally different term.  Out of frustration, we decided to stop playing that game.  It just felt dirty.
Instead, we have a really good option just north of Danforth Avenue, which is a fantastic location. 
Click here to learn about: Danforth Village
The only hitch, which was revealed this morning, is that the current tenants, who have been there for 2 years, can't move into their new home until Sept 22nd, which is a week later than originally discussed.  Something about contractors...you know how that goes!  So, if we want to take it (and it's probably our only option left at this point since we've notified everyone else of our decision), we will have to move at least 2 more times before it's ours. 
In the meantime, we've found a condo building in Mississauga (west of Toronto) operated by Pelican Canada, which caters to corporate clients and can take us for a week.  Here's hoping the condo is available for an additional week.  Fingers crossed, please.

In Max News:
After one full week of total exhaustion, Max has finally taken a full nap!  In fact, he's on nap #2 today!  Yippee!  To top that off, my amazing husband got up with him this morning so I could sleep in!  I don't think I've done that yet.  I feel like a new woman! 
Here is the face of a well-rested Max:

And finally, a picture of Max helping David with his sales calls yesterday.  He makes quite the impression.

Maybe we should put him on the phone with the landlords to see if he can persuade them to move up our move-in date.  We'll keep you apprised. 

Oh Canada!

Here we are!  After two days of driving, and one stern border crossing guard's glare behind us, we've crashed in our new city.  I say 'crashed' because the place we're currently renting will not be our final home for our stay here.  It seemed like a decent option for a week.  The owner has walled off the kitchen, one bath, and a room off the living room for herself.  It feels really odd to have her living or working on all sides of us.  Technically it's private, but it just doesn't seem that way.  Not to mention, she has renters in the lower level too.  It's just a little uncomfortable.  So, from the moment the U-Haul dolly was returned, we've been to showing after showing of rental properties in the city.  It feels like an episode of House Hunters on HGTV.  We've got Option 1 - the Leslieville Townhouse on the east side of Toronto close to the action but also the most expensive Option 2 - the small High Park Semi-detached on the west side, and Option 3 - the Midtown Mystery (so-called a mystery because we haven't yet seen it in person).  Which one will we choose?  We hope to know the answer to that question in the next day or so.   It really would be nice to be able to unpack.  And buy groceries. 

Before we left Milwaukee, my godmother gave me this terrific travel journal that I set aside for our journey to Canada and beyond.  Shoot if I didn't pack it somewhere for safekeeping and now can't find it!  It's somewhere.  And here we are in Toronto.  I'll have to keep memorizing all the best parts of our trip until the journal reveals itself.   
Max has done amazingly well with the transition.  He was a total rock star on the road.  Napped well, ate well, and is now doing great with his new surroundings.   Max is still working on coordinating his legs/arms with crawling.  Still a bit of a bumpy inchworm movement, but he'll get there soon.  Baby gates are definitely on the list once we move into our more permanent digs.  

Max in his new travel high chair

The video above is of Max in his Johnny Jump Up.  He doesn't yet know it's a Jump Up.  He thinks it's for swinging in circles.  Silly.

Speaking of a more permanent place, once we find our home in Toronto, we will be ready for visitors!  I bet you've always wanted to see some Behrs in Canada!