Butternut Squash--2 ways

Today, my friend Nina and I were discussing how much we love Butternut squash. She was commenting on a dish she planned on making this evening for dinner and I was telling her about my favorite fall soup recipe. She excitedly informed me that she now gets the squash pre-cut which saves her because she has a fear of cutting the squash.  Turns out she has a fear of using big knives and since Butternut squash is a large vegetable and has a pretty tough exterior, the best - and probably only - way to cut into it is with a big 8 inch chef knife.  The irony is that Nina happens to run a very successful recipe website called Kosherinthekitch.com and is constantly trying new recipes to post to her fans.  So in her honor I decided to post my soup recipe and try her vegi/quinoa recipe.  I am hoping this will inspire her to cut her own Butternut Squash, especially since you can get a 3 lb. squash at Trader Joes for $1.63 and I cannot even imagine how many $3 bags of cut squash you would need to make this fall soup (have you seen the bags? They are tiny!)

     This recipe has become a family and friend favorite. I  found it one Thanksgiving on Epicurious.com and used it for my annual NYC Thanksgiving meal. Even though we moved to LA and our Fall and Winter seasons are not that cold, we still love this soup during the holiday season.  I paired the soup this evening with a cheese and kale quesadilla, the quesadilla was buttery and crispy and turned out to be a wonderful addition for dipping into the soup.

 

Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger:
Serving 6

2 Butternut Squash (about 4 lbs. total)
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 Cups thinly sliced onion
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1/2 cinnamon stick
5 Cups chicken or vegetable broth Or half broth and half water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375, cut squash in half and discard of seeds. Place squash cut side down on baking sheet for 50 minutes until it's soft.  Let cool so it is comfortable to the touch and discard of peel. Cut squash into pieces.  Heat oil over medium/low heat, add onions, brown sugar, ginger, garlic and cinnamon. Cover and cook for 15 minutes till onions are tender. Add squash and broth bring to a boil, then let simmer for at least an hour. Take out cinnamon stick and Puree.

I love using the same ingredients for two back-to-back dinners. Since I am already peeling and chopping, I tend to take some of my ingredients and put them aside for the next night and then half of my dinner is already done. I wanted to try the recipe Nina was talking about so I took some of the cooked butternut squash, chopped onions and ginger, put it in a tupperware and tucked it in the fridge to be used the next day for my Vegi/quinoa dinner.

  Cooked butternut squash, chopped onion and ginger all ready for my vegi quinoa dinner.

Vegetable quinoa with Butternut Squash, Cauliflower and Garbanzo beans.

Here is the recipe Nina sent me. I tweaked the recipe a bit. I added the butternut squash and used fresh ginger instead of powder. I also skipped the coconut milk -- I would suggest using it because my dish was too thick for my liking.

Sorry there is no picture of the finished dish. I was so hungry that I ate my dinner before I could get my camera out of my purse.

iHeart

Being in the beauty world has many perks. Some of them are working backstage at Fashion Week, meeting celebrities, and going to parties, to name a few. But my all time favorite perk of being in this world is that I get beauty products for free! Being a self proclaimed product junkie this brings an abundance of  happiness to my life and skin.  I have a make-up closet that friends and sisters alike come to delve into every once in awhile (I can already hear the phantom knocking on my front door of all my friends, acquaintances and neighbors who did not know this closet heaven exists).  I get lucky enough to test, at no charge, many different products to see which ones I want to use on my clients. The importance of this system is that I and many other make-up artists can recommend to their clients what really works as far as anti-aging moisturizers, glowy foundations, and lipsticks that last all day. I know many beauty product junkies who would benefit from and love this system.

If only there were a way that everyone who buys beauty essentials could have the ability to try the products first, before they decide what to spend their hard earned money on. Imagine if all the women of the world could see if the eye make up remover they are purchasing burns their sensitive eyes or not.  If the body moisturizer the sales lady convinces you to purchase really absorbs into your skin right away so you do not have to wait an extra half hour before you lay down on on your sheets! If only the real clientele out there had something close to the perks that beauty experts have.  And then it happened! As if the beauty gods heard the collective plea, the New Beauty Test Tube appeared.  Well not so much appeared, as... I just found out about it!

Those lucky ladies who live in LA can go to the Fred Segal Santa Monica store and head to the New Beauty section and find a wall with all the test tube goodies displayed (see exhibit A below).  For $30 you can go and pick out which products you would like to try. The best part is that most of these "sample" products are full size so you can really try them for a while and see if you like them enough to purchase.

For those of you who love living elsewhere, you too can get the perk of trying out these beauty "samples" for $30.  The only difference is that the New Beauty, beauty experts will pick which products you will receive in your Test Tube. This amazing offer is available every 3 months and it comes with a magazine (see exhibit B below) that has an enourmous amount of information from the world of skin, weight-loss, hair, nails, and more. It is a huge magazine and could possibly take you 3 months to finish it...it is most definitely taking me that long (having a 9 month old boy may be the cause of that).

For more information you can visit  https://testtube.newbeauty.com/

I am very excited about the SuperSmile whitening toothpaste and I am using the sunscreen daily. See exhibit C below for my picks...what will yours be?!

                                                                      Exhibit A

                                                                     Exhibit B

                                                                      Exhibit C


--It's hard to see the picture clearly so here are my picks

-Supersmile whitening toothpaste
-Klorane eyemake-up remover with cornflower water
-Ahava intensive nourishing body cream
-YonKa anti-age intense moisture time release mask
-Pur-lisse spf 30 essential daily moisturizer
-Moroccanoil treatment
-Dr. Ci:Labo Aqua-collagen-Gel Super moisture

Sleep F***ing Training

   This blog is named sleep f-ing training because I don't believe the words "sleep training" adequately express this process. I have been meaning to write this blog for 3 months now and I keep telling myself as soon as I am finished with the "training" I will write.  But then the day wanes and a new moon comes and alas the sleep "training" is never done. There is nap training, (which I am rather lax on) and then the teething comes and messes it all up. But because Kol has officially been going to sleep beautifully (most of the time) and sleeping through the night (again, most of the time) for 3 months now I wanted to write this before it gets away from me.

   I am not sure which is worse, having to let your child cry it out  during sleep "training" or having to listen to negative remarks from peers, friends and even other moms. Although I am sure they all mean well, I hear "you are doing it all wrong", "he's too young" and my personal favorite "you are torturing my grandson" (yes, that was my mother's remark, granted she is a hippie and all of her kids slept with her till age 12, fine age 2 but really!!!)

   For me, the crying that happens when you teach your child how to sleep is 10 times worse, but the negative feelings that surround this part of parenthood is something we could all do without. In every other aspect of motherhood everyone loves to give their advice, and still somehow all  moms come together to support one another. It is this unspoken pact you make when your child comes into this world, this unspoken feeling of supporting your fellow sisters in child rearing, that no matter your thoughts and feeling at the end of the day, at the end of expressing your opinion,  at the end of your sentence you will always say...but whatever works for you. Except, somewhere along the line someone decided to break the damn pact, and decided it was alright to not be supportive when it comes to Sleep Training and many of the moms followed suit.

   Trust me I understand the fear and heart ache that goes along with letting your child cry themselves to sleep.  Hearing your baby - your blood and soul, your ultimate creation - cry as hard and as long as he can for you, and knowing if you just went in and picked him up, if you just held him close to your body, if you just...if you just...he would calm in your arms and probably even fall asleep. All you have to do is go into his room lift him up and hold him close to your heart where he belongs; where his journey began and where he would be happy all the time. He would be so happy against your heart every day and every night and every moment of every day. And there in lies the rub. If I could function on no sleep, and function with having no time with my husband or myself, then I would never sleep train. But, at 5 months old Kol was still waking up every 2 hours to nurse. I was a full time mom with outside help only 5 hours a week and even though Dov was ever so helpful, he was working full time and needed his sleep at night to function. It was up to me to be a good mom but I wanted to be a great mom and to do that I needed sleep! I needed to have some evenings where my dinner or conversation were not interrupted by unnecessary nursing. On top of all that my active fun child was getting more tired and cranky during the day. And so I did it. I read 3 books and found the method of sleep training that worked best for me.  I am sorry to tell you all but whichever method you choose there is always a measure of crying involved.  Some kids take fewer days to work out their sleep habits and some take more but in the end most of them get it and when they do there is a sense of relief in the home.

   After all the nights of crying - on your end, sometimes more than your child's. After all the negative remarks you hear from other women  how they could never let their babies cry ( I have a couple of choice words for those ladies that I will leave out of this sentence).  After all of that, you emerge 2 weeks later having barely survived and then there is the light...if you are lucky. The quiet after the storm. Your child sweetly lays his head down to sleep at your designated time,  you leave the room and there is no crying.  You sneak back to peak in because surely there is something wrong, after all the nights of praying for some peace and quiet, it is too quiet! So you hesitantly peak your head in and true bliss hits you in the face; your baby's eyes are closed and his breathing is soft and rhythmic. The feeling of pride that creeps over you is like no other. You are fiercely proud of your child and even more proud of yourself for sticking to it and being able to enjoy this huge step forward for you, your child and your family. With that pride comes a whole lot of fun. You have your nights back to do as you will. Catch up with your girlfriends that you have not seen in months! Get a babysitter and go out with your husband. Or my all time favorite, just hanging out with your significant other in your home, enjoying each others company with no interruptions.

    Even though my big 8 month old has been sleeping well since 5 months there are still bumps in the road. You have to sleep train and retrain your baby sometimes. As if he can hear the words that I type Kol a.k.a. Murphy (as in Murphy's law)  is crying out from the other room right now. Sometimes he cries out in a bad dream and my heart leaps and my mind goes back to all my original fears of what ifs -- what if he's cold, or what if he's hungry. Sometimes it's longer and I have to go back to doing check ins, where I let him know we are here, we love him and he is not alone. We will be here every step of the way guiding him in his sleep habits, in his life habits through the hard times and good.  Even if sometimes in life we will not be able to sooth him our hearts will leap with him in his pain and joy and we will be right beside him cheering him on step by step until he learns how to do whatever he set out to do all on his own.

    So let the naysayers say and let the people talk as they will, but know that once again, you always know whats best for you and yours and do not let anyone convince you otherwise.

 

These two books below really helped me understand how and why I should Sleep Train.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child By: Dr. Marc Weissbluth
This book really educated me on the importance of good sleep habits for your  baby, toddler and child.

The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5  By: Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack
I followed this book exactly when I was sleep training. It is a very easy book to understand, especially when you are running on no sleep!

Live From Hollywood!

Mommy Hair

The phrase “mommy hair” brings unparalleled horror to fashionistas worldwide. But, even “mommy hair” is better than the alternative of being a “mommy mess”. Until recently, very recently that is, I was one of those moms. I finally seemed to get my clothing situation under control and managed to grab enough time in the morning to brush my teeth AND put on earrings, which is a feat not to be taken lightly with a seven-month-old underfoot. I mean literally underfoot, Kol is crawling, sitting and taking his baby escape artist skills to a whole new level. (More about that on another blog.) So here I am trying to keep my love for fashion and style alive but I was having a major set back - my hair.  Since about age three months, Kol has been grabbing at everything and anything in his immediate grasp, and the hair grabbing came into the picture at about five months old. Up until now I have actually used it to my advantage, I dangled my long hair in front of my baby’s face while changing his diaper and magically he stayed on his back letting me put on a new diaper and put his clothes back on all in a seven second time span.  Anyone who has a baby that moves as much as mine knows how accomplished I feel every time this happens.  

Then it happened. The hair trick stopped working. Whoever said women with long hair always stop boys in their tracks, need to extend their research to include seven-month-old baby boys.  So my hair turned into a blob in the back of my head. Day in, day out, it got tied in a little bun low at the base of my neck. Even that much out of reach, Kol Monster (yes another nickname) managed to constantly pull my hair out. My little low bun that started out chic in the morning, slowly but surely turned into a straggly blob of hair by midday.   That is when I realized I didn’t have a choice but to cut it all off! I believe it is at this moment in time when many moms give in and get the short "mommy haircut".  

So I smartly asked a very cool friend of mine to cut my hair and I got a really fabulous short cut.  I am feeling like a 1920’s flapper girl meets french chic meets 80’s power woman; Not a bad combo at all. My two favorite things about this haircut are; 1) it takes me three minutes to wash my hair, and 2) I do not have to unravel my long hairs from around baby Kol’s little fingers.  

To all you fashionistas worldwide, name it what you will, but I feel fresh and sexy and fun!

  

 

chic hair = mommy hair

                                                                      we <3 hats

                                                              always on the go

 

                 smiles

Listening Love

“The most wonderful thing about Tiggers are... Tiggers are wonderful things.” I love that line! It’s the song that the Tiger sings from Winnie the Poo. What is so great about that line is that just being Tigger makes him wonderful.  

That’s how I feel about my husband Dov. Just being Dov makes him wonderful!

Last night I suggested we do some date night-ins. I read about these on some website. It’s a night, once a week or whatever your schedules allows, and you make a plan with your significant other to be at home. You can have a nice dinner, hang out and listen to records or watch a movie.  The idea is to separate time so you and your loved one can have some time alone without the little ones interrupting. I love this because between the two of us being freelancers, and having a new baby, I am feeling like we are not getting enough time to talk. You may not know this but I’m a big talker. I love conversation and discussions and hearing about each other’s days. I like to talk about our ideas, thoughts and goals.  And I love how Dov listens even when said ideas, thoughts, and goals, are disproportionate to where I am in life right now. I always used to say “we need to catch up” whenever we were apart for half a day, but it’s true, we did.  Now we really need to catch up!!

Because raising a 5 month old saps all your energy and is very time consuming, I brought up the idea of a date-in last night.  Today our wonderful housekeeper came; she is warm and lovely and makes our house shine, and as a side note, we thank her on google translate because we can not speak Spanish, but we appreciate her very very much and like to let her know.  

Well today, Dov suggested we leave Kol with our lovely housekeeper and sneak away for an impromptu lunch date.  It was perfect! We ate a great lunch, drank some coffee and got to “catch up”.  There was no baby crying, phone ringing, or computers distracting us from our discussion.  

Amongst all the hubbub of our life right now, it is still so great to know that when you speak, someone is listening. Thanks for listening love.

                                 Loved this photo I found on the internet.


written during week 23

Forgiveness

His face is bright red. I try to ignore the sounds of his cry as he throws his head from side to side.  I am trying to move as fast as I can, but he is strong and his nostrils are so tiny. I hold his head in my hands and he is mad. I stick the blue thing in his nostril and he gets angrier, there is a change in his cries and in the strength in which he throws himself around.

“I am just trying to help,” that thought bounces around my brain as I wonder how many mothers before me have used those exact words with their babies, toddlers, teens and adult children. And then I am done, he can breathe easily again. The crying ceases immediately. His  skin goes from cherry red to silky white. He looks up at me and within seconds he is smiling at me, his coos are loud and solid. He keeps going till I smile back and then as we have a conversation of what just happened, he forgives me and moves on to his toes, the toy of the moment.  I’m amazed it has taken him less than 10 seconds from crazy intense emotion to happiness.  

                                                    crying baby Kol

                                                 laughing baby Kol

 If only I can bottle that up. Save it for him so when he is older I can show him how easy it used to be to forgive. What a wonder to have someone do something you do not like and then be over it so fast that it leaves no mark on your memory, no mark on your heart.  As we grow in life it seems to take us longer and longer to forgive. I see my sister’s children get upset, they hold onto the feeling longer than my baby but after awhile they are easily distracted and they move on. And then we are teenagers, we can harbor pain and resentment for weeks/months/years.  I believe that our hormones and changes in our bodies all contribute to the way we prolong forgiveness for what seems like an eternity--especially to our mothers. By the time we start to come into our true selves, by the time we start to figure out who we really are, we have forgotten how to forgive easily.

Imagine if we moved on like our babies move on, if we could somehow remember what it feels like to forgive easily. To know it’s ok to make your feelings heard but then to smile just as quickly. To let your spouse,  parents, and friends know within minutes of being angry with them that everything will be ok, that you will not be holding a grudge, and that you still love them.  Imagine how freeing that would be!