Crying while she nurses

Poor wee BabyBird just had a frenectomy to correct her lip/tongue tie.  We decided to get it for her because nursing still causes me some pain and is tiring for her.  There are also later repercussions for her if she doesn't have the procedure such as dental and speech issues.  I was born with an upper lip tie and it must have torn naturally when I was a child as I haven't had any problems.  I have scar tissue on my upper gum. I was the only one to make my mum bleed when she was nursing me.

Just having the doctor show me the exercises we have to do to keep her tongue and lip separated from her gums was awful for me so I sent Jbird in to hold her during the procedure.  He said he'd never seen her cry so hard.  When she came out to nurse with me she was still and silent.  I guess she was in shock.  

She's a grizzly wee thing right now, crying while she nurses.  She's also a little bit drooly as her tongue isn't used to being so free so it's producing extra saliva.  We were excited to see her tongue extend further out of her mouth than it ever has before and her first latch felt wonderful.  Now her mouth is a bit swollen so it just feels how it always has.  Hopefully we can be good about keeping up with the exercises so that they remain unattached.

A Kiwi afternoon tea

I often tell people that the food we eat at home is different from the food Americans eat.  When they ask me to elaborate, I'm often at a loss for words.  The differences are too subtle to generalise them in just a few words.  But this afternoon I served my American friend a Kiwi afternoon tea.  I know that it was Kiwi because it reminded me of any number of afternoon teas my mother made for us when we got home from school as kids.  The fact that I call it 'afternoon tea' in the first place is also quite Kiwi.  Here we'd call it a snack.  

She had coffee and I had boiling water with lemon - for us Kiwis, afternoon tea can be any drink you feel like although as a child I would have had cordial* or water.  Or milo* if it was a particularly rainy/cold day.  The food menu was toasted hot cross buns with butter and orange wedges.  She only knew of hot cross buns from the song so I was especially glad to share our good sourdough ones with her.  She has eaten orange wedges in this way, but not as a chosen afternoon snack.  It doesn't remind her of her after school snack.

*cordial: powdered juice
*milo: the only hot chocolate I knew growing up.  It's no way near as chocolatey as other brands. But quite delicious with some marmite on toast.  It's also a common drink in many parts of Asia and probably Australia.

A great Hot Cross Bun bake-off

It seems hot cross buns have been in the supermarkets back home - probably at a dollar for a packet of six - for a good long time because there have been lots of status updates about them on facebook.  I thought the tradition was to have them on Good Friday but wiki tells me they're generally served during lent.  All I remember from my childhood is Easter eggs were definitely a no-go before Easter Sunday. Regardless, I've been craving them for a while but kept forgetting to prepare the sourdough starter the night before I had some time to bake bread.  Finally I prepared it during a morning when I thought there would be some spare time within the next 48 hours.  Because I am more wary of my starter working, I decided to also bake some dried yeast hot cross buns.  That way I knew there would be some successful buns (dried yeast always rises) and I could compare the two types of breads.  Both recipes called for 1/4 cup of sugar but because I'm still trying to be basically sugar-free, I only put in a teaspoon or two to help encourage the yeast to activate.  

The first photos are the yeast buns, the second are the sour dough buns.  They both rose beautifully and have a soft, yummy looking crumb.  However, we both thought the sourdough buns were better.  Somehow they seem to have more substance to them, with a richer crumb.  The dried yeast ones were so light and fluffy, they were like eating air.  I was surprised as they called for two eggs and twice as much butter.  I'm definitely hooked on sourdough bread - it's the good stuff.  It was very hard for me not to spread a berry jam on the final outcome but I didn't succumb, settling for melty butter instead.

Somebody save me from my kitchen

...because at the moment it houses gingerbread biscotti, lemon bars, toasted coconut and chocolate chunk cookies, home-made granola bars, AND triple chocolate home-made brownie.  There's no true excuse for the excessive use of white flour and sugar.  Jbird wanted the brownie for the ice cream we bought.  I did not need to throw in the third chocolate - white chocolate chips - but they were begging to be included  <To be fair it's the first tub of ice-cream we've had since before October so I wanted to make it worth our while>.  The lemon bars came about because I was desperate to try something from my friend's lovely Tartine bakery book I have on loan.  Another friend recommended the gingerbread biscotti and her kitchen lacks proximity to my part of the country and I couldn't help trying it myself.  The home-made granola bars and toasted coconut and chocolate chunk cookies are attempts at 'healthier' yummy snacks.  The latter has the least calories of all, I think, as most of the ingredients consist of dark chocolate and coconut.  If we're calorie counting which we're not, right girls?

A friend of mine has said she particularly craved sweets when she was pregnant with her daughter, and not so with her sons.  Perhaps this is the dilemma I am also facing.  I label it a dilemma merely because I feel guilty a lot of the time.

Somebody come over for coffee and make a dent in all this baking would you, pretty please?

Feeling more at home

This is a bit of a strange post as it's sports related.  If you know me well, you might know that the only team sport I ever played was softball when I was nine.  I found it so awful, I couldn't wait for the season to finish.  Oh, and I played one game of netball as an adult.  I thought I was going to die the girls on the other team were so rough and I had no idea what I was doing. 

This passed Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  We went to the same international students event we went to last year which is great for having a great big screen, helping to explain the rules, and providing plenty of Super Bowl type snacks.  I really over did it on the chips this year.  They are my weakness.  

Over four years living here, I have learned that Super Bowl is a National event similar to Christmas or New Years.  The food is important, the event you attend is important, the team you are rooting for is important.  Or it's important that you pick a team.  This can be tough as the teams are linked to cities so if your city is not represented, you have to grab at tenuous links.  Like my friend who comes from Southern California.  He was rooting for the Baltimore Ravens this year because there is a rivalry between San Fransisco and Southern California.  Rather than rooting for his rival, he chose to root for an East Coast team.  That is a far less tenuous link than my other friend who was rooting for Baltimore because the two coaches for the two teams this year are brothers* and he wanted the younger brother (Baltimore coach) to win.  The important thing is that they were rooting for the right time. 

You must know by now that Jbird and I lived in Baltimore for two years so of course we were rooting for the Ravens on Sunday night.  And what a game it was.  The Ravens were winning by a huge deficit of over 20 points by the end of the first half.  They came back after the break with a really exciting play where one of the guys conquered most of the field and got a touch down in one run.  Then there was a 30 minute power cut (!) after which the San Fran 49ers came back from the deficit and nearly overtook Baltimore!  NEARLY.  Baltimore won.  After four years, I can nearly follow all of the rules (or most of them), except that at the end I had to ask can I be happy now? I wasn't sure whether play could be extended beyond the hour.  With all those time outs, it can be really confusing.  It was an exciting, close ending too, 34-31.  

Now that I have had a not so tenuous link to a Super Bowl final (and winning) team, I somehow feel more linked to America, a nice feeling to own.

*What's neat is their brother-in-law is the Indiana University basketball coach and he was at the Superbowl game cheering his brother-in-laws on, in the family box.  What a family of coaches!  What a box to sit in!  By the by, the IU basketball team - the Hoosiers - won their game on Saturday night against the Michigan Wolverines putting them at Number One.  The Wolverines are my sister-in-law's team and by default my brother's team.  Except we don't really care or follow the sport.  Except we do kind of care...

A night out

We ate at one of the nicest restaurants in Bloomington last night, Restaurant Tallent.  Jbird's teacher takes us there once a year.  It's the only restaurant he and his wife will eat at and he loves to stretch out the evening from appetizers right through to the digestif.  It's difficult eating out when you're pregnant.  There are so many no-nos, it can be quite mind boggling.  I know I ate at least two by accident - salami and a blue cheese sauce.  Oh well.  

I shared the beets with Justin for the first course.  Beets have magical properties in them and we've been having raw beet salad a lot at home recently.  For my main, I had the scallops with pigs belly.  When it arrived at the table it seemed really small, with only three scallops on it, but I found that the scallops with the pigs belly were more than I could eat.  The vegetables were divine, though unrecognisable - popcorn puree, spaghetti squash, pickled onion, and pecan.  For dessert I tried to share the persimmon bread pudding with Jbird but he'd had lamb for his main and had no more room.  Scattered throughout the evening we were also served crispy sour dough, a delicious meat and cheese platter, and some freshly made doughnuts with ricotta, and the aforementioned digestif.  I'm still fill this morning.

Lettuce on my sammy

I forgot to tell you, about a week ago our lettuce was ready to be eaten!  It is the most lovely thing to pop out and pick a few leaves for our sandwiches everyday.  As quick as I pick, more leaves grow.  I planted a variety of flavours and colours and we have some dill ready too.  I never would have thought I'd like dill until I grew it myself and got to taste that particular bitey flavour representing something I'd grown myself. I feel a little bit silly being so pleased with myself as this is a common occurrence for so many people, but I am anyway.

Guilty as charged

Oh. Dear. We went to the dollar shop to buy a vase and came away with a bag of twizzlers.  Jbird went off to a recording session and the twizzlers have all gone.  All of them.  In my belly.  Don't worry, I'm paying for it.  The dollar shop isn't closed yet.  Should I go and buy some more?  That way he'll never know.  But then I'll eat that packet too...

Finals Week

It's finals week.  The weekend was full of parties put on by Jbird's professors.  I ate three dinners last night - only because I didn't know I was going to the second scrumptious party so I had seconds at the first.  My stomach didn't thank me.  

Meanwhile I'm writing for my own 'finals' week - it's the end of the first of three modules.  I have three essays due soonish: a critical teaching incident where I will try to bring democracy into a personal teaching anecdote; a literature review on formative assessment, I'm bogged down in articles; the effects of culture on a child identifying with a behavioural disorder...  and I'm not very good at focussing.  Any tips?  I think I'll be back to setting the timer, just to keep me at the computer. 

Happy Anzac Day!

ANZAC day is our memorial day.  It's 'happy' because it's a public holiday (unhappy if it falls in the weekend).  Placed strategically at the end of summer, the day starts with a dawn ceremony, and ends with a barbeque with friends.  You may watch a war doco somewhere in between, or visit a war memorial museum, hopefully while eating some ANZAC biscuits*.

The story goes that these bickies* were often sent to the ANZAC soldiers during the war.  Made with oats, golden syrup, dessicated coconut, and other biscuit type ingredients, they were hardy enough to survive the long months before the package was placed in the hands of the soldier.  They must have arrived hard as a rock and barely edible!  Sound unappealing?  Since then the recipe has been doctored a fair bit and of they're delicious now.  

They're the primary reason I stock up on golden syrup every time I go home.  I'm still not happy with any recipes I have used here in the States though, because of the flour conundrum.  This year I used an Australian recipe, taking out some of the flour.  I got them to taste right but I still can't get the ideal crispness.  I may have to bake another batch. 

Failing a good war doco, I'm reading Catch-22.  I started it once before, but I was 19 and couldn't find the motivation to get into it.  I would love to read Tu by Patricia Grace but I don't fancy my chances finding it here.

ANZACs are the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, so named in WWI. ANZAC day commemorates the day the ANZACs attacked the Gallipolli Peninsula.  It was meant to be a bold strike but turned into an eight month stalemate, and they were finally evacuated in December.  The day is now used to remember all soldiers who fought and were lost at war for Australia and New Zealand.  Read more about ANZAC day here.

*biscuits/bickies = cookies