baseball gender reveal

My dear friend (who also happens to be my sister-in-law.. that's the great thing about your brother marrying one of your high school pals) is pregnant! Hooray! We had almost all our family together for a family reunion this summer the day she found out the gender of the baby. I LOVE how she decided to let everyone know her big news.

We were all going to an Angels baseball game that night, so she and my brother didn't tell anyone the sex (not even their other children). We all kept asking "Boy or girl? Boy or girl?" "Just tell us already!!". She told us she would let us know what she was having by getting some cotton candy at the Angels game. BLUE cotton candy for a boy, and PINK for a girl. 

Every time the cotton candy guy walked by with his cotton candy, we all held our breath. All game long we kept asking "Are you ready for some cotton candy?". It was more exciting than the baseball game! Then finally in the 6th inning or so, my brother disappeared for a bit and came back with some PINK cotton candy for his wife (all the cotton candy guys kept coming around our section with only blue!).

It was so fun to all find out together (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters) and I loved seeing my nieces and nephews faces as they learned the news. Hooray for families and for creative gender reveals!

back to school dinner

Inspired by others who have similar traditions, we have started having a Back to School dinner the first night of the new school year. It helps to get the kids excited about school and to give the family some time to talk about each child and what they have to look forward to. This year we added a theme for the school year, something we want to focus on as a family throughout the coming year. Our theme for this year is: "Be a Builder".

We took some time to explain to the kids what this means. We built a little tower of blocks and talked about all the things we could do to help "Be a Builder". How it takes time and effort to build something great. How we want to be people who build things, not tear things down. We talked about how to help build others, both at home and at school. How we need each person's help to build our family. And most importantly, how to build their brains (did anyone else read Nurture Shock? There is a great chapter about teaching kids that their brains are a muscle that needs to be worked... not that some kids are just born smart).

I printed out "Be a Builder" signs and placed them on each plate, and asked each person to put their sign somewhere in their room to help them remember our theme. The kids have it on their bulletin boards, I have mine on my bathroom mirror. I also printed a big version for the door to the garage, so the kids see it as they walk out the door. To be honest, I think it is helping me the most. It can be hard to Be a Builder, to remember to build my children up (rather than focus on all their little mistakes)... but I am trying.

We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner with some homemade coleslaw, and corn on the cob and watermelon. The most exciting part of dinner for the kids was the shrimp cocktail, which won a lot of points for presentation (i.e. hanging them on the side of a glass bowl). My 7 year old said "I've seen this before... like in movies, but I never knew we could do it in real life!!". I followed Ina's recipe for Roasted Shrimp Cocktail, and though the cocktail sauce was a little spicy for the kids, the shrimp were a big part of making it feel like a "special" dinner. Instead of boiling the shrimp (or buying it pre-cooked at the store), you roast the shrimp with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.. simple and delicious and sure to grace our table again sometime in the near future.

9.11.

Ten years ago I watched the towers fall from my office on East 43rd Street. I had gotten to work a little early that morning and walked into the elevator with our Style Director. He told me someone had just flown a plane into one of the twin towers.

I remember how normal everything felt up until that moment. My typical morning subway ride, my short walk across Bryant Park into our building. And then suddenly everything was different.

We headed to an office we knew had a television. By the time we got upstairs the second tower had been hit. Our offices were on the 24th Floor and faced south, so we could see the Empire State Building out the window, and behind it, the twin towers. I remember looking at the television screen and seeing the smoke billowing out of the towers, and then looking out the window and seeing it in real life. It looked fake, like I was watching a movie.

I went to my desk to try and call my mom in California, I knew she would be worried even though I was more than 50 blocks away. While we were talking, I watched the first tower crumble and fall. I said "Mom, the tower... it's gone." And she said "No, no.. I'm watching the news right now and it's standing." "No mom, it's gone."

A co-worker and I climbed over my desk and opened the window so we could get onto the balcony that ran along our floor. She was crying. She kept asking, "My friend works on the 48th floor. Do you think he got out?" I remember trying to do the math in my head, the towers were 100 or so stories high, and I was thinking of how many people were on each floor, and how there was no way everyone could have gotten out before the collapse.

We were standing there watching the smoke when the second tower fell.

I was worried about my boyfriend, who worked ten blocks north of the towers. Cell phone service was spotty and I finally got in touch with him.. he was safe and walking north. We decided to meet at my old apartment in Hell's Kitchen where my roommate still lived, since there was no way to get to my new apartment in Brooklyn. I was finally able to get home near midnight, once a few of the subways lines were up and running. The streets were covered in ash and debris from the buildings.

I had been living in the city for over three years, but I became a New Yorker that day.

Three months later my boyfriend and I got engaged down by the water's edge in Brooklyn, staring at the skyline that was now forever different. A few years ago we left New York for California, with our two children in tow. This morning I watched my baby girl take some of her very first steps, and I thought about how much has changed in ten years.

I posted this photo back in 2008, when my blog was only a few weeks old and had about 15 readers (most of which were related to me). I hope you don't mind me showing it again, this was the view from my office window. You can see the twin towers standing behind the Empire State Building.

R.O.D. (Rules of Dinner)

Jenny over at Dinner A Love Story asked me to share our rules for family dinner. My favorite is Rule No. 2 "The Table is a Safe Place". This was a phrase my mother invented, and she used it often at our dinner table when I was growing up. Dinner time is sacred, and only nice things are said at the table. You may want to remind your son to put his bike away, or talk to your daughter about her lackluster performance in Algebra.. but wait until after dinner. Siblings don’t bicker, parents don’t lecture. The table is a safe place.

You can check out all 10 of our Rules of Dinner here. Dinner: A Love Story has become one of my favorite places for new recipes and just great ideas about family dinner in general. Jenny always gives recipes in a kind of honest short hand that I love. So in her honor, I will share one of our favorite dinners this summer.. Roasted Salmon with Fresh Corn Salad.

Roasted Salmon (adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman)

Preheat your oven to 450. Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter and a little olive oil in an oven safe roasting pan. Add a handful of chopped parsley or minced shallots if you have it. Place a salmon fillet (with the skin still on) in the butter/oil, flesh side down. Roast in the oven about five minutes, then flip the salmon and roast 4 to 5 minutes longer until it feels done. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and serve immediately. Buttery and delicious and my new favorite way to cook salmon.

Fresh Corn Salad (from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

Boil 4 to 5 ears of corn in salted water for just a few minutes, drain in cold water. Set aside to cool. Finely chop about 1/2 a red onion and add in the corn kernels (I cut them off the cob with a knife right into the bowl). Add a few tablespoons of cider vinegar (I've also used red wine vinegar in a pinch), and an equal amount of olive oil (like 2-3 tablespoons of each). Season with salt and pepper. Grab a handful of fresh basil leaves and roll them like a cigar and cut them into little ribbons. Sprinkle the basil on right before serving.

Serve with some fresh fruit and maybe some good crusty bread. This is a meal that everyone in our house likes.. and one that only requires about 10 minutes of actual cooking! Win-win!