Well, I've finally admitted what's been obvious to some of you for a while now. Having 2 babies in 17 months has cramped my former style to such a degree that not only do I not have time to post to Lex Culinaria, even when I do, I don't have anything to post about. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies, and I love being a mum, but let's face is, right now, my life is about mac-n-cheese, not cheese souffles!
So there. I said it.
I've started a new blog which is more mac-n-cheese and paddling pools. You can check it out here.
I loved doing Lex Culinaria, and I'm sure I'll love the new blog too. Lex Culinaria will still be here as an acrchive (please bear with me as I fix the formatting - I buggered it up when I configured Moms' Idea Factory!). Thanks for 5 years of awesome comments and feedback.
Time flies. Six months has gone by since I last posted. I can hardly believe it! When I last posted on Silas's first birthday, he'd just begun to walk and still had only a little bit of hair. Now he's tearing around the house like a maniac and has an Einstein-like fluffy-crazy hairdo. Lots has been going on for us, aside from cooking. I will try to recap the last six months in a few sentences:
1) finished building our dream house, with the dream kitchen I designed for myself;
2) moved from temporary house to dream house;
3) I went back to work full time (already preganant with baby #2);
4) Cakes got transferred to Langley, BC for his work;
5) We had to sell the dream house and buy one in Langley;
6) Moved to new house in Langley, leaving behind great friends in Edmonton;
7) Within days of the move, our second son, Cooper, arrived significantly earlier than expected!
Whew. I feel tired just typing that.
Thanks to all the readers who took the time to write and ask if I was okay. We are all great, just tired.
The cooking in our house has changed too. We've developed some new favourites which are probably a lot less work that previous favourites. We've also begun eating far more healthily, especially since our new son was diagnosed with Infant Reflux and i have had to cut out all: wheat, dairy, red meat, tomatoes, citrus and soy. The lack of dairy has just about killed me as I am a heavy cheese user! There will be more recipes showing up on Lex Culinaria, albeit at a slower pace, and for the time being, while I am still breastfeeding Cooper, most of them will be wheat and dairy free.
I am really looking forward to exploring our new surrounds from a foodie perspective as we are smack in the middle of some great farms producing all kinds of vegetables and fruit as well as meats and eggs. I'm pretty excited about finally being able to truly eat local. 100-mile diet? meh. We'll be doing the 20-mile diet as much as possible!
Two exciting things happened last week. Silas turned one and I learned how to make my own fondant that doesn't taste totally gross. I hate traditional fondant. It`s kind of sickly and pasty and fake tasing all at once. This stuff is not only miles easier to make, but is actually pleasant to eat. Which is a really good thing as I am not all that skilled with buttercream icing. When I make cakes only with buttercream, they look like a 3-year old decorated them. And I did not want people to think I made Silas ice his own cake.
I got the recipe here, but if you google ``marshmallow fondant``, you`ll find heaps of recipes, all essentially the same. Don`t worry about the marshmallow being too hot to work with your bare hands. Marshmallow melts at a very low temperature so, unless you totally overcook it, you should be fine. Only one caveat: donèt try to make a 3-D sailboat out of it. It won't work. Trust me.
I found a great little tool that lists all the farmer's markets in Edmonton (or anywhere else in Alberta if you ask it to) complete with hours of operation & a map to get you there. How easy does that make getting great local produce?
Check it out HERE.