the fam.

sorry for the creepy red-eye reduction situation.  i don't have the original of this photo, so i just did the best i could.  anyway - my family is awesome.  this is about 10 minutes post-graduation, but enough time to take my cap off....

it's over!

school, that is.  officially.  this weekend was a whirlwind of activity and excitement, and it was completely awesome.

thursday night, mom and dad came into town and the four of us got to spend some down time before all the festivities started.  jb braised some beef deliciousness and i made veggies from the farmer's market.  smothered new potatoes with dill recipe is below - yum.

friday we ran around in the morning until we picked my brother up from the airport.  we were able to have lunch just the nuclear hesterly fam, which never happens and was super fun.  marilyn, jb's mom, came in as well, which was awesome.  friday night was the actual commencement ceremony.  that was pretty lackluster, but helped to make everything feel final and done.  we went to a reception for just my class afterwards that was ok, but by that point i was SO tired, i was just ready to get some sleep.

saturday we woke up early and got the house and yard ready.  all the parental units worked SO hard to make sure everything looked perfect, and it really turned out nice.  it  made jb and i want to spend more time/energy on the yard in the future because i feel like it's so much easier to enjoy it when it's cleaned up.

anyway...about 40-50 people showed up at our house and there were piles of delicious food brought in from louisiana, kansas, and austin.  it was incredible.  everyone was so supportive and it was just phenomenal to have the vast majority of the people i know and love all in one spot.  the weather, though hot, was pretty good, and everyone was able to spread out a bit so our house didn't seem quite as teensy.  jb and i agree it was the best party we've ever thrown.  such a blast.

yesterday was a day of recuperation and farewells and today we're back to the grind at work!  fortunately, this is a 3-day work week, so we just have to get through this, get packed and organized, and then we're OFF to st. thomas!

**new potatoes smothered with fresh dill:
- about 1 pound of fresh new potatoes, skins on
- about half an onion, sliced or chopped
- a few tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- about 2-3 tbsp butter
- salt and pepper to taste

wash potatoes and chop into fourths (the goal is roughly bite-size pieces).  in a big saucepan (that has a lid), put a dab of butter and sautee the onions until translucent.  add the potatoes over a med-high heat until lightly brown and kinda sticking to the bottom of the pan.  pour in about half a cup of water, cover, and simmer over lower heat for about 10 minutes.  check potatoes and stir, adding more water if necessary.  add salt, pepper, remainder of butter, and dill and stir.  re-cover and simmer until water is mostly drained.  you'll probably have to add about 1-1.5 cups of water in half cup increments, and this whole process should take about 30 minutes.  make sure potatoes are fork-tender and that the water is all evaporated.  serve.

update on the little a.

just a quick update that little arlo seinfeld hesterly is a-ok.  turns out he had hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE).  yikes!  fortunately, my parents got him to the vet in time and the prognosis is good.  he's back there today and hooked up to an iv again for fluids and monitoring and whatnot.  we're so grateful that my family's vets are awesome and that all this stuff went down on a weekday so that he could be tended to immediately.

in other news, jb and i went to our 16 week appointment today and the little bug is sounding great!  heartbeat was 148 (jb will say 145 but the midwife told me 148), so it's a little slower than last time but perfectly normal.  we have the "big" ultrasound on june 16, my dad's birthday.  we're still planning to keep it a surprise, though jb is convinced that this slower heartbeat is a telltale sign that it's a boy.

anyway...i'm still feeling great and hungry.  haha. this weekend is graduation with family friends and lots of delicious eats, i'm sure.  then, we head to st. thomas for a week.  lots of exciting things coming down the pike!  i'll post garden pics and other stuff soon.

little arlo.

i got a very distressing call from my mom this morning - their dog, arlo, is in critical condition at the vet right now.  apparently, all was well when he went for a walk this morning, but when he got home things started going downhill very fast.  the vet my family has been seeing for the past 30 years or so is incredible, and i do trust that they are doing everything they can for the little dude.  just please say a little prayer for him - he's not even a year old yet, and he's a sweetheart.  here's a picture from a few months ago of him with duck on top of my dad's shoes.

tasty treats.

food is on my mind a lot these days.  i've always loved meal time, but it's taken on new meaning between being pregnant and being done with classes and thus having time to spend in the kitchen again.

we harvested our first tomato yesterday!  we haven't eaten it yet - probably tomorrow - but it is beautiful!  i have to give jb full credit for all his hard work with watering and fertilizing and feeding.  we've got tons more on the vine, so i'm sure we'll be taking lots of pictures as the full bounty comes to fruition.  that is...provided it doesn't get too hot in the next week or two....

also, this weekend while driving back from lafayette, jb and i decided to challenge ourselves to get more creative with meals.  we're each taking one day a week to cook something we've never cooked before (or, at the very least, something we hardly ever cook....).  super fun!  my night was monday of this week, so i made black bean soup (recipe from the joy of cooking) and chicken enchiladas (recipe was sort of a weird hodge podge of my brain and the joy of cooking).  the soup could have used some extra pizzazz (i didn't have a ham bone or salt pork to cook with), but the enchiladas were pretty good.  i shredded chicken and mixed it with salsa verde combined with some cream cheese for the insides and then enchilada sauce and grated sharp cheddar on top.  not bad.

jb, though, in typical fashion, totally showed my efforts up last night.  it didn't hurt that everything we ate was super duper fresh - the fish had been fileted less than 2 hours before we were eating it, the lettuce and onions from the salad and dill for the fish were in the ground yesterday morning (gotta love farmers market days).  and the bread was fresh baked from the farmers market as well.  tasty!  anyway...menu was: baked butterfish with sauteed dill and garlic; bibb lettuce salad with toasted pecans, purple onion, goat cheese, avocado, and mandarins; and freshly baked ciabatta.  doesn't get much better than that, so i took a picture.  and no, that whole chunk of bread wasn't just for me....i promise!

mother's day.

happy (one day late) mother's day!  this weekend, jb and i loaded up the pups and drove to louisiana to visit my parents.  it was a great weekend.  friday night, we had dinner at marcello's just the four of us.  yummy.  though i couldn't partake in the tasty cabernet, we had calamari and ciabatta with olives marinated in garlic to start, and i had huge shrimp with pasta and pine nuts and some other goodness.  man, i love to eat.

saturday we ran around getting errands and stuff done, including eating lunch at judice inn at 10 in the morning - hilarious.  i seriously want to franchise that place in my backyard.  i could eat like 20 cheeseburgers a day (ok, so maybe like 2, but they are so so so good).  saturday night was a close family friend's 60th birthday shindig and what a blast!  joe douglas, the bayou boss, who played at our wedding a few years ago, rocked the house.  it was awesome to get to be at a party, dancing and listening to him, and to get to see him play live when we could really pay attention and enjoy the show.  super fun.  we cut a rug the whole evening.

yesterday, we had a great lunch with family (mom cooked pork roast, rice and gravy upon my request) before hitting the road.  we also celebrated my first (almost) mother's day, which was a really nice surprise and very touching.  the dogs wore themselves out completely with arlo, my parents' brussels griffon.  this is the two of them in the car on the way to lafayette.  on the ride back, they were snuggled up in the far back with the seats up, so i didn't get a picture.

special congrats to our friends a&p whose baby girl amelia was born last monday, and to my cousin l and her family who welcomed baby #4, also amelia, last tuesday.  both little ladies are gorgeous and have been born into wonderful families.  

another gaff.

even though i was moderately offended at first about the "pregnant face" comment, i've decided that any commentary about my pregnancy should be taken with a grain of salt, and it's much more fun to laugh at the comfort people have with saying stuff to me.
so, today at a work lunch, the same person who made the pregnant face comment decided to inform me i was having a girl.  first, she just glanced at me and said "oh, it's a boy, definitely".  then, she looked a little closer (i guess?) and said "wait, no, it's a girl.  your skin is bad".
hilarious.  the irony here is that my skin has been better than it has been my entire life until this week, when i've randomly sort of broken out.  but even this break out is nothing compared to the normal state of affairs of my non-pregnant self.  i wasn't wearing make up, so maybe that made it look rougher than usual, but in any case, i am SO amused.  can't wait for the next one!

yummy.

since i don't have class anymore (YAY!), and my energy level is slllllloooooooowwwwwwllllyyyyyy starting to show its face again, i decided to be a tad bit domestic last night.  i made whole wheat bread in our bread maker, which has been sadly neglected for far too long now.  homemade fresh bread is one of my most favorite things of all time, and i am totally vowing to make at least 1 loaf a week now that i have more free time to focus on such things.  anyway...i set the timer on the machine so i didn't have to stay up past 11, and i awoke at 5:40 before my run to the smell of warm toasty fresh bread.  holy goodness.  i had about 20 more minutes i could sleep, but my tummy immediately started growling, so i sliced some up with some all natural peanut butter and honey from my friend d's dad's bee farm.  i recommend this as the way to start every morning.  if you have a bread machine, here is the recipe i used.  i am going to be trying out lots of different whole wheat recipes over the next few weeks, so i'll post the ones i like the best.  this one was a little dense, and i think they were a little short on the yeast (the top didn't poof out the way it usually does).  


100% whole wheat bread
makes 1 1/2 to 2 lb loaf - i used the 1.5 lb setting for whole wheat, light crust
* 1 1/2 cups water plus 2 tablespoons water 
* 3 3/4 cups wheat flour
* 2 tablespoons dry milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 1/2 tablespoons gluten
* 1 tablespoon molasses
* 2 1/8 teaspoons fast rise yeast
(or 3 tspns active dry yeast) 


this weekend, before justin's big ride on saturday, he asked me to make him the homemade granola bars my cousin posted on her blog a few months ago.  he says they are the best energy boosters on a long ride, and they are super delicious.  this is the original recipe, but i usually do about half the amount of brown sugar (i think they're too sweet with the full load) and add pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries or pineapple, and chocolate and peanut butter chips.  yum!  anyway...jb did GREAT on his ride - finished 100 miles in just over 5 hours - beating his last year's time by over 2 hours.  shiner was super fun and i am looking forward to going out there again next year with some pups and a kiddo in tow for music, beer, and brats.  fun!  


Granola Bars Basic Recipe
 * 2 Cup Oats
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 Cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/2 Cup honey
* Any dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, etc.
 Mix all ingredients and press into greased pan, 9 X 13. Dough will be very dry and crumbly, but press until dough forms with pan.. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until edges are browned. Take out and let cool entirely. Cut into strips and store in snack size bags.
 **The dough was very dry. I added a couple of tablespoon of water to help mix it all together and you might need to use your hands to get it mixed up and pressed into the pan.