We bought the movie Julie & Julia and watched is Sunday afternoon. It was a very good movie, but I frequently found myself jealous as I saw both women spending lots of quality cooking time. I realized I haven't been able to cook dinner without babies screaming in the background in seven months. I love the little buggers, but my goodness! From 5 PM until they go to bed at 7 PM, it's usually a mess at our house. The babies are tired, but won't nap. They just want dinner, bath and bedtime as quickly as possible. Sometimes they have been so tired, they've fallen asleep by 6:30. This usually leaves me trying to prepare our dinner in a few stolen minutes during this chaos. Last night, I was trying to make a pot of three bean chili while I was alone with the boys. We were expecting Leo's parents for dinner and Leo had to go take Phoebe to the children's opera rehearsals she started this weekend. I was really ready to cry a few times. I was exhausted after everyone left last night and I passed out quickly.
The other thing I realized though about the movie is that it's supposed to be about life-altering experiences. I think surviving the craziness that is two babies is becoming my life altering experience. Someone at Phoebe's ice skating school once watched me feed one baby a bottle in my arms while using my foot to rock the other in the stroller. They gave me the usually line of "Wow! Twins! That's a lot of work!" I told them I now feel qualified to teach a class in creativity!
So as I'm surviving this crazy time, Here's a list of ingredients for my three bean chili. I don't measure anything for this. I eyeball everything in the pot, depending on how much I want to make and how much ground meat I have.
Turkey Three Bean Chili
Ground turkey
Garlic, crushed
Onion, chopped
Black, kidney and roman beans
Crushed tomatoes
Stewed tomatoes (cut up a little - I like the chunky tomatoes from adding this)
Frozen corn
Chili powder
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Cumin
Cayenne Pepper
Oregano
Bay leaf
I usually saute the garlic and onion in some olive oil first and then brown the ground meat. I then add all the seasonings and mix thoroughly before adding the tomatoes, beans and corn. Let it simmer on low for about an hour to let all the flavors meld. See if it's missing any taste from the seasonings after an hour. I never add too much salt during cooking. I'd rather need to add at the table, but I usually don't feel I need to.
The other thing I liked in the movie is Julia Child saying how much she loves to eat. That is the whole reason I love to cook. Right now I'm eating a croissant spread with Nutella along with my really really strong coffee. The croissants aren't homemade. I bought them at BJs. I'm hoping when the boys get older and I have some quiet time in my kitchen, I can learn to make a delicious croissant. They are heavenly! And Nutella is from the gods! I introduced Phoebe to it in the past year and she wants to put it on practically everything!
The other thing I realized though about the movie is that it's supposed to be about life-altering experiences. I think surviving the craziness that is two babies is becoming my life altering experience. Someone at Phoebe's ice skating school once watched me feed one baby a bottle in my arms while using my foot to rock the other in the stroller. They gave me the usually line of "Wow! Twins! That's a lot of work!" I told them I now feel qualified to teach a class in creativity!
So as I'm surviving this crazy time, Here's a list of ingredients for my three bean chili. I don't measure anything for this. I eyeball everything in the pot, depending on how much I want to make and how much ground meat I have.
Turkey Three Bean Chili
Ground turkey
Garlic, crushed
Onion, chopped
Black, kidney and roman beans
Crushed tomatoes
Stewed tomatoes (cut up a little - I like the chunky tomatoes from adding this)
Frozen corn
Chili powder
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Cumin
Cayenne Pepper
Oregano
Bay leaf
I usually saute the garlic and onion in some olive oil first and then brown the ground meat. I then add all the seasonings and mix thoroughly before adding the tomatoes, beans and corn. Let it simmer on low for about an hour to let all the flavors meld. See if it's missing any taste from the seasonings after an hour. I never add too much salt during cooking. I'd rather need to add at the table, but I usually don't feel I need to.
The other thing I liked in the movie is Julia Child saying how much she loves to eat. That is the whole reason I love to cook. Right now I'm eating a croissant spread with Nutella along with my really really strong coffee. The croissants aren't homemade. I bought them at BJs. I'm hoping when the boys get older and I have some quiet time in my kitchen, I can learn to make a delicious croissant. They are heavenly! And Nutella is from the gods! I introduced Phoebe to it in the past year and she wants to put it on practically everything!
Comments
Right now, my evenings are exactly like yours. Except, one baby always decides he or she (usually he) doesn't want to go to bed tonight AT ALL. Get a job buddy, then you'll want to sleep at night.
When you master the croissant recipe, send some my way. Yum. And I watched that movie this weekend, too. Pretty cute, but I couldn't find myself liking Julie. I tried. Even hubs gave a little frown when Julia walked past the baby carriage and looked back longingly. At the end, with the scene in Julia's kitchen, hubs said, "so they never ended up with kids? How sad."
Tonight I just left the two screaming babies with D to put to sleep while I went to gym!!! I have to do it - have put on Christmas weight and back to work weight (we have a fantastic coffee shop and canteen)
I'm a huge fan of what I call One Pot Wonders - anything I can throw into one pot and let it do its thing on the stove and then eat. I just throw whatever I have in there and there is dinner/breakfast and I do a big pot so I don't have to cook EVERY mealtime.
Thanks for all your sweet comments while I was stuck at home so sick these past weeks -- was nice to not feel forgotten! Hope your new year is fantastic.