Summer snapshots

Clark Avenue at dusk

Lili and Auntie Deba at the playground

Lili and Peter chillin'

Adin helps feed Lili

Dancing at Millenium Park's kids' concert

Na'ama, Ori, Orly and Yael at the famous "Bean"

Lili romping in the fountain

Lili at the Millenium Park Kid's Tent

Shelly and Savta enjoying delicious Max and Benny's bagels

Talia and Amiel enjoying Israeli pickles!

Neal, Adin, Elijah and me walking down Harvest Lane (photo courtesy of Clarissa)

Two in October

With Elijah's second birthday around the corner, I am starting to garner odd looks when I report his age in months. As any parent of a toddler can tell you, the diffence between 1 1/2 and 2 is a big one. That said, I suppose it is just as well to say "he'll be two in October." It seems to limit the confusion and it's fun to start thinking about his upcoming birthday! I've yet to make party plans, but I'm considering a Halloween theme this year. October 30th is a perfect birthday. His birthday bashes won't be perpetually interupted by tricker-treaters, but he'll always have an excuse to throw a kick-ass costume party.

Now that Elijah is almost two, he is starting to use two (and three!) word sentences. The first and third word are invariably "more" and "please." Our days are peppered with sweet requests. "More cheese please?" and "More book please?" His earnest "thank you" makes me melt. He recently started to repeat me when I say, "I love you." Just precious. Elijah's mastery of multisyllabic words is also coming along. Some of my favorites include "underdog," "bicycle" and "butterfly."

Elijah and Sabba

Elijah loves to sing and some of his favorite songs include "B-I-N-G-O," "Twinkle-twinkle" and the "Sha-na-na-na" goodbye song. He continues to enjoy the "Sh'ma" and doesn't hesitate to belt it out at random times throughout the day.

Elijah and Jacob make funny faces

Garbage is of particular interest to Elijah. He has always been the investigative type, searching about for small objects and presenting them to me with bright eyes. He has recently come to realize that some of his discoveries are fated for the nearest trash receptacle, and he is eager to help them achieve their destiny. I'm impressed at how accurately he is able to discern what is actually garbage. During a recent walk to the park, he recruited another little boy to pick up all the bottle-tops, paper-scraps and other unsavory objects in sight. Despite an abundance of rocks, sticks, bark and other plant-matter, he never did throw away something that belonged outside. Pretty clever little guy.

I don't know how this didn't come up before, but I must mention Elijah's love of stuffed animals. For his first year and half, they were of little (if any) interest, but Elijah is now very tight with his posse of fuzzy critters. It is not uncommon to see Elijah walking around the house with 4+ animals somehow stuffed between his little arms. His favorites are Blue Doggy aka Doggy (pictured above with Elijah and Karen) and Blue Hippo aka Hop-oh. If they aren't in his crib at bed/naptime, he is sure to request them. He then gives them a big hug before curling up to sleep. I love to peek into his room and watch him snuggled up with a stuffy to his chest. So far, he has been very cooperative about letting them "take a nap" in his crib whenever we leave the house. Am hoping he'll continue to go along with this; otherwise I'll have to consider embedding them with some sort of GPS device.

Zucchini bread

The abundance of fabulous summer produce has inspired me to spend much of my free time in the kitchen. I've been trying all sorts of new recipes and whipping up some old favorites like this zucchini bread recipe from Auntie Syl. Since it makes two loaves, there is always enough to share with a friend (or slice up and freeze).

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups flour

{I use 2 cups regular and 1 cup whole wheat}

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

chopped nuts {optional}

Beat eggs and add in sugar, oil and zucchini. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix wet and dry ingredients. Pour into 2 greased pans and bake at 325 for one hour.

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Do try it, you won't be sorry. I love simple recipes, but I occasionally attempt something complicated. A few nights ago, I made a sweet and spicy seasoning paste from one of my Rick Bayless texts. The recipe called for toasting dried ancho chiles, grinding whole spices and straining the whole mixture through a fine mesh sieve. It's a bit time consuming, but it felt like an exotic adventure to me. I mixed the paste with a bit of balsamic vinegar and slathered it on piece of salmon for broiling. Served alongside some cilantro rice and roasted veggies, the food looked and tasted pretty impressive. Pretty impressive, until dessert. I sliced a mango and plunked the happy yellow pieces onto a couple saucers. That was about it. The fruit was sweet, a tiny bit tart and slightly nutty. A perfect mango. There's just no competing with mango perfection.

Fourth of July

I love holiday weekends. Our Independence Day festivities started out with a trip to our neighborhood McDonald's. As always, it was quite amusing to watch Amiel place an order with the cashier. The numbered meal-deals don't fit our specific dining needs; Amiel and the poor kid behind the counter inevitably end up confused. Ronald has yet to start offering vegetarian sausage, so I brought my own and enjoyed a tasty Sausage McMuffin with egg. The hotcakes were pretty disappointing, so we made our own chocolate-chip banana pancakes the next morning.

They're lovin' it

"Sausage" McMuffin with Egg

After Elijah's nap, we headed to the beach for a picnic with friends Mike, Marina and Max.

Happy Fourth of July!

Short but sweet

Elijah and I just returned from visiting my Grandma Doris in Boca Raton. My sister, Deborah, joined us, and I must admit that having her there was a huge bonus. In addition to her entertainingly crude company, she was a huge help with Elijah and a fun people watching companion at the airport. Though shy at first, Elijah quickly warmed up to his great-grandma and was soon running around the house exclaiming "Gigi! Gigi!" Other trip highlights included: seeing Cousin Sheryl and meeting her darling baby, piling into Grandma's bed with Deb and Elijah every morning, eating at Aunt Susan's house where the food always rocks, splashing in the pool with Deb and Elijah, and staying up late to eat pie and watch movies with Grandma.

Deborah, Hannah, Elijah and Sheryl
Grandma Doris on the patio
Elijah and Deb snuggle poolside

I once read that swaddling your toddler is a sign you are ready for more children. Don't know about that, but there is something very cozy about wrapping up Elijah in a big, fluffy beach towel.

Summer fun

Elijah at Oz Park

Adin and Clarissa came over to play!!

After a rainy visit to the zoo, we walked to the Chicago Fire Department House on Halsted. Adin climbed into the fire engine and the friendly fire fighters gave us frosty glasses of lemonade.

Daddy plays hooky

After a bit of prodding, Amiel agreed to ditch work and join us for Mr. Singer's weekly zoo concert. Gilie drove out from the burbs, Jacob tagged along for the ride and a fabulous time was had by all.

Daddy and Elijah enjoyed the music

After the show, we visited the zoo's organic garden

Gilie helped the little ones weed
Jake & Lili looked cute in their matching outfits

After the show, Amiel dashed back to work while Gilie and I took the boys to the farmer's market for lunch (cheese and herb-filled crepes) and shopping (the gorgeous, pink peonies were my favorite find).

19 months old

I typically avoid posting photos out of sequence, but these were too cute to leave out. In the 6 weeks since these photos were shot, Elijah has probably gained a pound or two. His first four molars are now completely grown in, and he is looking more like his Daddy. His appearance has not changed dramatically, but he is a very different little boy.His speech has really picked up, and he can now repeat most words (when he feels like it). Ask him what color something is and he says "Blue!" This is a great little trick, provided I point to an appropriately colored object. Ask him to identify a letter and he says "D!" Again, this works well under the correct circumstances. He can sing much of the alphabet song and loves the ABC flash cards from Cousin Max. He occasionally shocks us by repeating a random phrase. When asked a question, he sometimes says, "I don't know." Amiel and I are especially enjoying the way Elijah sings with us. In addition to the typical childhood repertoire, he sings the "Shema" every night before Amiel lays him down for bed. His pronunciation is amazingly accurate, even emphasizing the letter dalet in the word echad. Though Amiel is the only one to consistently and exclusively speak Hebrew to him, his Hebrew comprehension does not seem to differ significantly from his English comprehension.
Elijah no longer walks, he runs. He's not particularly fond of climbing, but he can now venture to the top of a small slide and go down all by himself. He loves to push things around the house, his new potty is especially well-suited for this purpose. Pulling things around the house is another favorite activity, and Elijah is conscientious about taking his wooden alligator, snail and ducks on plenty of walks up and down the hall. We've yet to hear from the downstairs neighbors, but I fear it is only a matter of time.

Elijah is quite advanced when it comes to mischief. Today, we paid a visit to the Lincoln Park firehouse. Elijah charmed the firefighters and even got to sit in the front of their big, red engine. Unfortunately, we had to quickly jump off the rig due to an emergency. A moment later, we found out that the 'emergency' occurred on the very fire engine we'd been sitting on. The fireman said Elijah must have hit the emergency alarm. I wasn't surprised, if there is a button to push, Elijah is sure to find it.

Another post about food

The comfort of meat and potatoes is not lost on vegetarians. That is why they are products like BBQ Riblets. I can't imagine a meat-eater confusing them for the real deal, but the barbecue sauce sure is tasty and they are a snap to make in the microwave. Even Amiel gets giddy for riblets. Last night, post-market day one, we roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary from the patio. In keeping with the comfort food theme, I made a vegetable casserole with cheddar sauce and crushed crackers on top. The recipe is from a cooking class I took with Anna in Texas. You can use whatever vegetables you like, but the combination below really works well.

1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and diced
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, blanched and cup into 1 inch pieces
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
3 cups mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in butter
salt & pepper to taste

3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 cups crushed Ritz-style crackers (Late July makes a great buttery cracker)
paprika to garnish

1. Combine veggies in bowl and season with salt & pepper
2. Make cheese sauce. Melt butter in pot over medium heat. Add flour and cook for one minute. Gradually add in milk and stir until thickened. Turn heat down and stir in cheese until melted. Sauce should be thick (mine didn't seem thick enough and so I added a bit more flour and that did the trick). Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place veggies in buttered casserole and top with cheese sauce. Top with crackers and sprinkle with paprika.
4. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Farmer's market

The farmer's market is no place for shopping lists. I steer Elijah's big, orange stroller past the colorful stalls and buy whatever strikes my fancy. Since just about everything looks amazing, I tend to patronize vendors who seem friendliest. Those who smile admiringly at Elijah or offer free samples get special preference. Yesterday's finds included: slender spears of asparagus, ruby-hued rhubarb, knobby fingerling potatoes, magenta radishes, plump tomatoes and two new additions to our herb garden, a perky spearmint perennial and a bitty green basil plant. I couldn't resist the thorny garden roses. They don't last as long as their grocery store cousins, but the intricate petal formations are much lovelier, and they remind me of the rose bushes at my childhood home on Harrison street.

After stuffing everything into the stroller, Elijah and I picnic with friends and dance to the live music. The toddlers play in the grass, vying for toys, pulling on tree branches and nibbling from each other's lunches. By the time we get home, Elijah is ready for a nap and I am ready to start cooking. This week, I decided upon a simple three course menu. For starters, I recreated an aspargus dish the chef from 160 Blue demonstrated at the market a few weeks back. After blanching the asparagus, I drizzled it with a citrus-shallot vinegrette and sprinkled on some mint leaves and crumbled feta. I served it alongside a few choice looking radishes and the result was met with Amiel's enthusiastic approval.

For our main course, I used a simple pasta recipe from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer cookbook, Spaghettini al Sugo Crudo. She provides a lengthy explanation, but here is my abridged version. Place 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let them sit for a few minutes. Drain them, peel them and scoop out the seeds (I didn't bother scooping seeds and it was just fine). Core and chop the tomatoes before brutally (her words) crushing them with a small clove of garlic, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1 tsp sugar, sea salt, pepper and 1/2 a cup olive oil. Let the whole thing sit, covered and out of the refrigerator, for a couple hours. Toss in a bit of lemon zest and fresh basil. Mix with hot pasta. This was so delicious that Amiel and I dumped the leftover sauce into our bowls and slurped it up like soup.

Our dessert was a variant of Lawson's Rhubarb Fool. Coarsely chop a big bunch of rhubarb, mix it up with 1/2 cup of sugar and place it in a glass baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes, until the fruit is completely soft. Since I made this early in the day, I reheated it slightly before serving it up with Vanilla Haagen Dazs icecream. Pure heaven.