Happy New Year & A Quick pregnancy update

Well as I am running around, still very much in shock that this is really happening, I realized I should pop in real quick and let you all know how things are going.

I have my first prenatal check up scheduled for Monday the 6th. I would love all the well wishes and good vibes you could send our way. I spoke to my nurse practitioner on the phone this week and based off my LMP she estimated I could be about 5-6 weeks along. I'd say that's about right, I've been charting, obviously, due to the Clomid and I will let the OB know exactly when I ovulated and that should get us a much more accurate idea of how far along I am.

Christmas was amazing and all Dh's family knows now. They were thrilled and showered us with so much love, I was overwhelmed. I feel so incredibly blessed to have the kind of in-laws I have. My SIL was bawling and hugged me so hard I thought I'd pop. I've never been close to my sister and to feel that kind of love and support from someone who I am not biologically related to is indescribable.

I had to get through the last week of school (finals) while completely distracted with the knowledge that there was a tiny bundle of nerves in my body developing into our baby. I don't know how I did on finals and I don't care. LOL!

I am not feeling much yet besides total exhaustion and a little heartburn. I was able to eat everything I would normally eat for Christmas (yum!). Today I've felt a little bit more nausea type symptoms (indigestion and wooziness) and that worries me because we are hosting a big dinner party tonight. I am still holding out hope that I will be one of the luck ones who doesn't get plagued with morning sickness! Cross your fingers that's the case! (UPDATE--- That was totally NOT the case. Way to jinx myself!!)

I sleep as much as possible because I am exhausted all the time, and I am feeling really worried about how things are going to go once I am back at work full time. Actually, I am worried about pretty much everything. I worry more than pretty much anything else these days. Did I cough too hard? Am I allowed to eat this? Was that cramp normal? I feel so fragile. Like everything I do will jeopardize my pregnancy. Dh is trying to keep me calm and is doing a great job at reassuring me. The best thing I've heard so far was that if pregnancy was really all that fragile, our planet wouldn't be so overpopulated! That helped put things in perspective!

Early pregnancy is a scary time. But it's also a magical time, and I need to keep reminding myself that. Right now our baby might be the size of a poppy seed (that's it's nickname at the moment) but it's doubling and even tripling in size every week! This baby has defeated all the odds and is HERE. No matter what happens, I got pregnant and life is beginning inside of me right now. That is a beautiful thing, much much more beautiful than it is terrifying. I just need to keep repeating that to myself!

Thank you all for your support over the last year and a half. There were days I never thought we'd get here and if it hadn't been for all your love and prayers, I might have given up. We love you! Thank you so much!

Merry Christmas to Us!!

So....

I got a cake today.

A cake to tell Dh that we're finally pregnant.
After all the praying, the poking and prodding, the tests and the meds...we're actually pregnant.

I am over the moon.
I am terrified.
Oh, my god...I am pregnant!! 

Week of Leftovers Day One: Turkey Pozole

Today is Friday- the day after you filled your tummies with everything from game day chips and dips to turkey, gravy and of course PIE! You're full, you're bloated, you're (quite possibly, especially if you had dinner at our place) hungover and you want something easy and relatively light to help you recuperate.

I grew up in a large Mexican family and my all time, go-to, comfort food meal is Pozole. I remember being not even tall enough to reach the stove, pulling up a chair to steal giant spoonfuls of my Grandmothers pozole. I was obsessed with those plump white kernels of hominy, tender pieces of pork and the rich, spicy red broth.

If you've never had pozole, it is a hominy stew which can be made with a  variety of different meats, sauce bases and stewed meat. In our house we always enjoyed the Pozole Roja variety with either pork or chicken and tons of garnishes like onions, cabbage, radishes, cilantro, chile flakes and Mexican oregano. I serve it along side some warm corn tortillas or a crispy tostada (fried corn tortilla) with refried beans and cheese. My Grandmother made everything from scratch, including her red sauce for this stew, and I pray one day she might even share her recipe with me! Until then I use a can of my favorite enchilada sauce and it tastes close enough and saves a ton of time as homemade red sauce can be very labor intensive. This is a post Thanksgiving meal you will want to make while family is still in town because it makes plenty- enough to serve about 6-8! Although rich and hearty, this stew is actually pretty low calorie (a cup of hominy weighs in at under 100 calories!) Using the white meat turkey, and low sodium chicken broth

Turkey Pozole Ingredients:

2 heaping cups of shredded turkey
1 28oz can red enchilada sauce
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 29oz can of white hominy**
2 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp of Mexican oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional Garnish:

Shredded cabbage
Chopped onion
Cilantro
Sliced radish
Chile flake
Mexican oregano
Limes

In a large pot saute the onion and until translucent, add the garlic and cook until fragrant- do not brown. Add the remaining ingredients, except the turkey meat. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stir in the turkey and simmer for about 5 minutes longer. Serve with warm corn tortillas, chips or tostada and refried beans.

**I've met them, but I will never understand them: People who hate hominy! If you are one of the misunderstood, feel free to replace the hominy with regular white corn, black beans or chickpeas!

Week Of Leftovers Day Two: Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Today is day 2 of our Week of Leftovers and we are swooning over these Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps. They are the exact thing we are craving after a weekend of rich foods. Here's the recipe:


1 head of butter lettuce
1 cup shredded white meat turkey
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
12 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup each, chopped cilantro & mint

Place 2 lettuce leaves overlapping on your plate, fill with slaw, cilantro and mint. Garnish with lime wedges and serve with peanut dipping sauce.

Peanut Dipping Sauce

3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
3 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 inch of fresh ginger (or 1 tsp powdered)
a splash or two of sesame oil

Mix all in a food processor until smooth.

We gobbled up three of these for dinner! They were so addicting and SO light. Our favorite Thai place makes wraps like these with ground turkey and tons of fresh herbs. That's where the inspiration for these came from. You could certainly use other types of large leafed lettuce, but I've found butter lettuce works best and it's so tender! Alternative you chop a ton of lettuce and layer everything salad style, which is what I did for with the leftovers (packed them in the DH's lunch box for the next day!).

They are also phenomenal as a meat free option, you could replace the meat with saute'd tofu or hearty mushrooms.

A Week Of Thanksgiving Leftovers

Whew! Guys...We made it!

Congratulations, you all lived through all the traffic, the food, the football, the...family.
You stuffed yourself until you had to be rolled out to the car. You drank and swapped family stories over gigantic moats of turkey gravy and you traversed a dessert table toppling over with delicious, sugar filled, whip cream dolloped treats.

I am so proud of you. In the days after Thanksgiving you are probably in one of two boats, you were either sent home with pounds upon pounds of turkey or you hosted and were left with pounds upon pounds of turkey (and all the sides, desserts!)

So what we are going to do this week is find a way to help you re-use those leftovers in ways that are a little unexpected and even a few that are a little on the healthful side.

First, here's a list of this weeks meals:

Friday: Turkey Pozole  and Chocolate Dipped Dessert Bites
Saturday: Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Sunday: Curried Turkey Hand Pies with Winter Vegetable Salad and Cranberry Sauce Dressing
Monday: Loaded Turkey Taquitos & Green Chile Potato Soup
Tuesday: Pesto Turkey Salad on Croissant
Wednesday: Leftover Stuffing Breakfast Bake
Thursday: Potato Pancakes, Ham Studded Wilted Greens and Poached Eggs

Next, here is a list of little "cheats" in helping you deal with the overwhelming amount of leftovers:

1. What to toss. I am a huge proponent of using up as much leftovers as possible. I hate waste. However, if you really know that no one in your family is going to touch day old gravy- toss it. Recognize what leftover ingredients are usable (leftover meats and cheeses from the snack table, turkey bones for stock) and which are not (wilted garnishes from the turkey plate, mayo based dips or sauces that have been sitting out for hours). I keep all unused bread, crackers, chips and pretzels and pulverize them in my food processor. I use these deliciously flavorful breadcrumbs year round!

2. Think long term. Much of what is leftover can actually be frozen (if you can make room) and kept for weeks or even months. My father in law brought an extra green bean casserole to dinner, so I am freezing the one I made so we can thaw and bake it for Christmas dinner. Leftover desserts freeze well, and I always take about half of the leftover turkey meat I am left with and freeze it for later. The turkey taquitos we'll be making on Monday freeze perfectly! Just pop them out of the freezer right into the oven and bake until golden brown!

3. Bring in the freshness. Leftover have the tendency to feel very one note in terms of flavor, bringing in fresh citrus, chiles, herbs and spices is a great way to breathe new life into your meals.

4. Cook small. The last thing you want to do is end up with a bunch of leftover leftovers! I have to be careful when making things like soups and turkey salad, because it's just the two of us here. So don't cook like me, and make sure you're only preparing what you will reasonably consume in the days following TG.

5. M.Y.O take out. My Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps were inspired by my favorite Thai place in town. They stuff this tender little lettuce cups with ground turkey, fresh mint and green onion with a creamy, sweet peanut dipping sauce. Yum! So think about throwing some of that turkey onto a white sauce pizza, or into pineapple fried rice, and stuffed into gooey quesadillas. Throwing ethnic flavors at turkey meat works because turkey doesn't have a strong taste at all, it's the perfect canvas for all of your favorite take-out preferences.

As much as I love Thanksgiving I love love love playing with the leftovers. Every year I like to challenge myself to try new things with every part of the leftover Thanksgiving meal, not just the turkey. Is there something that your family loves to do with all of your leftovers? Comment below, I would love to hear from you!

I truly hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by friends and family and I hope you're all as stuffed and happy as I am.

Happy Holidays Ya'll!!

Goat Cheese and Leek Ravioli With Basil Cream Sauce

Oh, Summer! WHY are you so darn hot? I mean I know this is Paso Robles and all but my goodness. We're broaching 115 around here and I am just not built for this.Do you know how much cooking I want to do right about now? None. None cooking. I want to sit with the freezer open and gobble up all the ice cream before it thaws. Nothing can be done in this heat. Nothing!

So instead of describing to you how delicious all the take out pizza and Chinese food has been, how about I share a recipe from a few months ago with you? Deal?

You might of read that we have a new photographer here at HNE who is incredibly talented (all of these gorgeous shots are thanks to her!). Well, Jessica came over a few months ago for our first photo shoot and I made her a new ravioli recipe I was working on. I have a fancy catering gig at the end of the month and this will be the first course for that event. Since it was only my first try I was really stoked with how it came out. So was my taste tester!

I worked at a French restaurant for some time and the chef taught me how to make THE most deliciously rich reduced cream sauces. The technique basically always the same but the possibilities are endless once you've nail it. This incredibly versatile sauce is what the ravioli will be swimming in. The ravioli itself was inspired by my recent trip to France with Mikey. On my birthday he took me to a really nice restaurant near our apartment. We got a full course dinner and our first course was this tiny, yet mind blowing deep dish "lasagna" made with layers of goat cheese, leeks and a creamy lemon sauce. We dunked giant chunks of crusty herbed bread into the terra cotta dish after we scarfed down all the pasta. It was pouring rain outside and this warm, cheesy dish totally hit the mark, especially paired with a glass of strong orange fortified wine. It was a  magnificent meal. I am bringing you a taste of France here, people! Do you get this? Are you feeling the refinement?

So, let's talk about the pasta. If you've never fresh pasta before, fret not. Not only is this recipe stupid easy, but you probably have all the ingredients (eggs & flour) already in your kitchen. If you have a food processor you're really ahead of the game. You can make the filling ahead of time and it keeps in the fridge for about 3 days. A note about the goat cheese: I know some people just do NOT do goat cheese, you can substitute cream cheese if you want to. For the rest of you, don't feel like you need to go out and spend a ton on this cheese, whatever's in your local grocery stores cheese counter will do. I used a small tube of chevre
from Tj's (please tell me you know what Trader Joe's is) and it worked perfectly.

Let's get to it!

Ingredients:

For the pasta:
2 Eggs
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
Salt

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
Combine the eggs and flour in your food processor until roughly combined. When it looks "sandy" turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and fully incorporated. Don't fuss with it too much, or it'll be tough. Let the dough rest for a while. I don't know how long I let it rest for today, but I would say roughly 10-15 minutes wrapped up on the counter or until everything else is ready.


For the filling:
1 Egg, room temp
1 4oz Tube of Goat Cheese, room temp
4 oz Cream Cheese, room temp
2 Leeks, Sliced thinly and sauteed (with so much butter...)
1 Lemon, Zested
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix ingredients in a large bowl and transfer to a large plastic ziploc bag.

For the sauce:
2  Lemons, Juiced
1/4 Cup Dry White Wine
1 Cup Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp Cold Unslated Butter
2-3 Basil Leaves, Chopped Fine
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a small sauce pan reduce wine and lemon juice by half, over medium heat, this should only take a few minutes. If you've never cooked with wine before just be careful of flare ups. No need to "flambe" the wine,  by the time we're done most of it will cook out. Add the heavy cream and continue to reduce, stirring occasionally to prevent scalding, when your cream lightly coats the back of a spoon and the sauce loses that astringent boozy taste, you're ready for the next step. Take the sauce off of the heat, this is very important! Then add one tbsp of the butter and quickly stir with a spoon or whisk until it is fully melted into the sauce, then you can add the rest of it. Stir in the chopped basil and season with salt and pepper. Once you've mixed everything together you cannot reheat this sauce. It will break and separate, which looks very unappealing!

To Finish the pasta:

Unwrap and divide your dough into 4 balls. Roll out dough, one ball at a time. Think length! You're rolling each ball out into long, wide strips. I could give you measurements, but...who would actually use them?
Keep some damp paper towels nearby, place them over your strips of pasta to keep them from drying out while you work on the others. Once all four are rolled out, grab a little cup of cool water, your filling and either a pasta cutter or a dry drinking glass to help press out the ravioli (a 2-3 inch circle would work well for this, I use a knife or pizza cutter to make imperfect squares).

On one strip of pasta squeeze out a nice sized dollop (about 1 1/2 tbsp) of filling every 2 inches or so. I think I made 4-6 ravioli for one strip of pasta. Yes, they will be large ravioli! Once your filling is piped out, dip your fingers (or a pastry brush) into the cup of water and "paint" water all over the pasta sheet around your filling. Quickly take a second strip of pasta and place it over starting at one end, taking great care to gently push down all around your filling and moving on to the right. You really want to make sure there are no air pockets around the filling and that those two sheets of pasta are nice and fused together now as one. You may now cut out the pasta. I use a pizza cutter and just make a bunch of imperfect squares, feel free to use an actual ravioli cutter. Drop the ravioli a few at a time into your gently boiling water. A rolling boil will destroy them. Once they float up to the top, wait one minute and yank 'em out.

If you start to notice your filling coming out or the dough isn't holding up, stop and make sure your dough is really pressed together. If it is, try refrigerating your ravioli for an hour and trying again.

Now you can place the cooked ravioli into that wonderful delicious sauce we've been working on and very very gently warm it. But you have to be SO careful. I always make the sauce last and spoon it over the ravioli. I serve these as appetizers for the catering company, and we serve one per person then. Just between you and me, I can polish off 3 or 4 of these babies in one sitting. They are a lot of work but my goodness is it worth it! That wonderful tang of goats milk cheese, with the luscious creaminess of the reduction. Did I say 3 or 4? I meant 6-12. At least...

Oh, Goodness

I know it's been a month few weeks and I am being so very naughty by not updating.

On the foodie front I can tell you that Jessica and I have some amazing recipes/photos coming your way, so try and be patient. It'll be worth it, I promise.

On the TTC front I am afraid there is no change. We were checking for ovulation every month but took last month off thinking that if there were less pressure it might yield the desired outcome, but it did not.

It is August- Making that a year since we started this long voyage into trying to become parents. This also marks the point where supposedly we are considered "infertile".

What this basically means is...more tests. I will be calling the lab on the first day of my cycle and they will schedule an appointment for me to come in so they can take a blood sample. They will be testing my progesterone levels, FSH, testosterone and all sorts of other fun acronyms. My Dh's tests all came back normal, which was a relief, but also pretty much made me feel like sh*t.

I hate that it sounds that way...but...Yeah.

If it's not HIM..then it's definitely ME. I know that's a totally unhealthy way to think of it and "shame on me" for not being happy for "us" and all that, but there was a part of me (a small small part) that kind of, sort of, "hoped" it would be him.

Oh, goodness that is awful. And I am so glad you're not a judgy group, because I know how awful that is. But, it's how I feel. There are just so many feelings involved in all of this. Some are easy to make out and some are more complex. I am happy the Dh is a healthy, typical, normal man. With healthy, typical, normal sperm.

I am just bummed that this means more poking and prodding for me. I fucking hate doctors. And I hate needles. So I am NOT thrilled about having to do all this.

OH! Oh! Then, there is the ink test. Have you heard about this? The ink test the Obgyn uses to tell if you have a blockage of the Fallopian tubes? I would rather rip my eye lids off than take this test.

But if the blood work comes back normal that will be the next step. Not looking forward to that at all.

Anyway, yeah....

Let's move on...

I have to tell you guys that I am still looking forward to mailing out some delicious Brown Butter Cookie Company cookies to the 7 most recent "followers" of the blog who post a comment on their favorite Her Name is Ed post.

So please, remember the contest rules. Not only do you need to ADD us and FOLLOW us, you MUST comment on your favorite post to receive your prize!

So GO! Or I will eat all yo cookies!!

Talk soon guys,

as always, thanks for all your support!

~Ed