Recipe: Italian Bean & Squash Soup

As some of you have seen on Facebook, we have been cooking up a STORM around here lately. After we watched Forks Over Knives, Thad has been much more open to trying a more plant-based diet.  I've been a vegetarian on and off since I was about 15 and when we met, I was eating veggie when Thad and I met 7 years ago.  He's always been supportive of my eating preference but despite my vegan/veggie books I leave laying around hasn't embraced it as much as I would have hoped.  Now, though, he's more open and I am so grateful that we can share in this journey together.  I think that how we eat, like everything else in life, is a journey.  How we choose to feed ourselves - both body and soul - is fluid and evolves.  I've decided that I am going to post successful recipes here for you all to enjoy, too, because while I wish I could share these meals with you in person, that isn't always so easy.  So enjoy and let me know what works for you, too!  Here is tonight's meal, courtesy of Moosewood Restaurant New Classics.


Italian Bean & Squash Soup


Services 6-8
Total Time: 30-40 minutes


Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
3 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
6 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 celery stalk, preferably with some leaves, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups crushed canned tomatoes with their juice (15 oz can)
1 qt vegetable broth
1 t dried oregano
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
4 c diced peeled butternut squash
3 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans (two 15-oz cans, rinced and drained)
1 t salt
coarsely ground black pepper to taste
freshly grated Pecorino cheese (optional)


In a large nonreactive soup pot, heat the oil on medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, and celery and saute until softened, about 10 minutes.  Add the crushed tomatoes, broth, oregano, and red pepper flakes and bring to a simmer.  Stir in the squash and cook until tender, 10-15 minutes.  Add the beans and salt and continue to cook until the beans are thoroughly heated.  Add black pepper to taste.  Serve hot topped with freshly grated cheese, if desired.

Abbey Road on the River

Another bonus of living in the DC area? Abbey Road on the River, of course! We promised Julian the Beatles and we provided....but honestly, I think we should wait until later years when we don't have to juggle naps and bedtimes so we can stay and enjoy the music longer. It's an annual festival- the largest Beatles-inspired festival in the country, apparently- and the boys were so excited to hear the music live! Unfortunately, the band that we ended up catching was playing 60's music so they played not only Beatles but ELO and the Temptations, but the boys still enjoyed it. Ask Julian what he thought, he'll say it was too loud. Go figure. Ask Dash what he thought, and he'll say it was stinkin' hot out. But regardless, it was a good experience for us but I don't think we'll be returning to the festival until the boys have a longer attention span!

Swimmin' and Diggin'

Grandma took off for her annual trip to New Zealand this week. She'll be gone until almost Christmastime and I told her I'd maintain our blog much better so she can see what's going on around here, so, here goes...

What a week it's been since she left! It's a transition for everyone having Mamo gone so I kept us very busy so the boys wouldn't be too sad. On wednesday we went to our Holistic Moms Network playgroup at a local park in Centreville. It was a lot of fun seeing the other moms that I know, mostly, from online posts in our local chat group. This is the same group with which we did the homeschool preschool last year and I know Julian has missed seeing his classmates this summer.

On thursday we visited Grandma Joy for a pool trip! The boys haven't been to the pool nearly as much this summer as we did in past summers since our neighborhood does not have a pool. We miss our KPW neighbors so much! Julian is not the most ... adventurous child and he hates having his face wet so the pool has always been a minor challenge. Daschel, on the other hand, is a 'do-first-think-later- kind of kid so we have to keep an eye on him in the big pool. Grandma Joy is AWESOME with swimming and kids so by the time we were done playing with her last time she had Julian floating on his back (with help) and kicking in the big pool! I'm sad we didn't get to the pool with her more this summer but hopefully next year we'll be able to do it more often.

Yesterday we headed to our farm for its annual Pancake Breakfast and Potato Dig. The thunder didn't stop us, oh no, from heading to the fields to dig up our 10+ pounds of potatoes! Julian really liked helping daddy find the potatoes! We joined this farm last year as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) member wherein we get a weekly delivery of farm-fresh veggies and fruit plus free entry to the farm for our own picking and play. The boys love to play and visit the animals. Our first trip to the farm was when Julian was almost 2 and Dash was only about 6 weeks old and we've gone back regularly since. This has been a fabulous experience for our family and I am so grateful for the boys to see where food comes from. They've picked their own strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and now potatoes and we can't wait for fall picking with apples and pears! Funny note, we ran into the parents of a classmate from high school. Robinson families are everywhere!

Taking a moment

I have started so many postings that never got posted and I figured it's time to at least check in. I am hoping to keep up with the blog better after Grandma leaves for her New Zealand adventure next week since it'll probably be the best way (other than Skype) to keep up with the going ons of our little family.

When I started this blog before Julian was born, I figured it'd be a good way to pass around what's happening here for our family and friends far away. The more and more time passes, I realize that I think this blog is more for my own journal of our family so that we have something to look back on and remember it all. Although, thank God for digital photos, too. :) That said, I want to chronicle something that happened yesterday.

We went to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Le Pain Quotidien, in Clarendon. We try to get out there about once a month but this summer has been so busy I don't think we've been there since at least May, if not April. Anyways, we went and then after breakfast we decided to go to Roosevelt Island for a little nature walk before the hurricane hit. On our way to the island we were driving past Arlington Cemetery and since today would have been my dad's 59th birthday, I wanted to stop and visit with the family.

Julian and Dash had been there before but it was colder out and the fountain wasn't running. This time the fountain was running and they were ready to jump in! It didn't help that the day before we went to the Fountain at Fairfax Corner so they were fresh off of a public fountain frolicking. After explaining to them that this fountain is not appropriate for swimming, we walked over to my dad's location. Arlington National Cemetery is a beautiful cemetery and I am very pleased with how they maintain the space.

We got to my dad's spot and here is what happened:

Me: Julian, tomorrow would be grandpa's birthday. Do you want to sing to him? He would love it.

Julian: *points to grave stone* Is he in there?

Me: Yes.

Julian: But he can't come out and say "yay!"?

Me: No, he can't, but mommy and daddy will clap for you.

Julian proceeded to sing happy birthday to my father and, with tears, I clapped and hugged him. I haven't known how to explain to him and Dash that they can't meet my father. I never met my mother's father, either, as he passed away a year before I was born, but I never felt disconnected to him. Through my mom's stories of him I never felt the gaping hole that I'm sure my mother felt with his absence. I just assumed that my stories of my father would fill whatever hole or gap that my boys may feel without my father being here, but here I am and I realize that whatever story I tell them or whatever pictures I show them, I'll never quite be able to express just how beautiful a person he was, or just how much he meant to me.

I'd give anything in the whole world to have my father meet my family. I can only hope that by keeping him as a verbal part of our life, and by having somewhere concrete to visit that is 'my father's space' that the boys can see, they'll understand that while he may not be here, he's out there somewhere loving them as much as I do.

drive by posting

We are sitting downstairs watching "So You Think You Can Dance" and we hear, 'I want to come and watch this, it looks funny, you know,' come from around the corner. Julian decided to come by and say hello despite needing to be in bed at this very late hour for a toddler. Thad just brought him back up but I wanted to share a little story from my evening tonight.

Julian and I were sharing a quick cuddle in the kitchen just after dinner. I sang a little song to him that I've sang to him since he was a baby, a special Julian song that we share together. He looked up at me, smile, and sang the song back to me but switched out his name for 'mommy.' He's never done this before, not so sincerely or as genuinely as he did tonight. It made me cry. One of those perfect mommy moments that I hope to keep tucked away in my memory forever (which is one of the reasons I have this blog).

Thank you, Julian, for teaching me about unconditional love. And thank you for sharing your laughter with me. .... Now go back to bed and, if you could, please sleep past 5am? Thank you. :)

The little house that love built

Today was the day. It was inevitable as we’ve been battling the real estate market for what feels like forever. Our decision to purchase another home prior to selling our townhouse was the best decision we ever could have made but gee, it was a gamble. For all we knew we could have ended up sitting with double mortgages for months before our townhouse sold but in the end our lovely home was picked up after only 5 days on the market (this time around). Third time’s a charm, right? We had put our house on the market back in 2006 for a hot second (literally only about 4-6 weeks) just “to see” if it would be scooped up. Obviously it wasn’t and we decided not to deal with the “keeping-the-whole-house-clean” thing unless we absolutely had to. Then there was last year. I wouldn’t wish what we did upon my worst enemy and I can’t believe Dash spent his first few months on planet Earth dealing with the stress of having the house on the market. What were we thinking?! In the end, our dream house became available and our house was picked up by a lovely woman that, if given the opportunity, I’d love to be her friend.

So there Thad and I were this weekend doing our final sweep through the old house and I found myself in tears standing in the foyer, thinking about the last almost 7 years of my life. In spring of 2004 my lease was ending at what has famously been referred to as “Cedar House” and I needed to make some decisions about what I was going to do. Was I going to stay with IBM? Travel? Go back to school? It is the dreaded question for any 20-something: “what are you going to do with your life?” My mom and I figured that if I was ever to go back for a Master’s degree my job would hopefully pay for it. Real estate at the time was the best place to invest some money, so that was where we went. We found this house with my agent not long after it had been on the market and we scooped it up very quickly. It wasn’t going to be available until August so we did a rent back after closing in June and I lived with my mom for the overlapping months.

Thad and I met the night before I moved into this house so as far as I’m concerned, he’s always been a part of it. My friend, Shannon, helped me move in and my friend, Melisa, helped me put my IKEA tables together. I mean, really, did someone really say it was okay for this 22-year old to own a house? Apparently so and I loved it. A 4-bedroom house was a big bit for me on my own so the first year in the house was spent with some lovely roommates. There was Scott and Levi, both of whom I found on roommates.com. My mom wasn’t big on me living with perfect strangers who are men that I found on a website but after background checks and some leases drawn up, my mom figured I had to figure things out on my own. Scott was awesome. He lived with me for a year and he was the best roommate. He was quiet, he kept to himself, and he has the best sense of humor. He moved out in September 2005 right before Thad moved in. Levi was not awesome. He was evicted after approximately 5 months of living together. He was stressful, inconsiderate, and he bit one of my friends. Yup, you read that correctly: he bit her. After Levi moved out in spring of 2005 my good friend from college, Lauren, moved in and was with us in the house until Thad and I got engaged in the fall of 2006. Even though she’s moved into her own apartment in Arlington now, we still say that she can live with us anytime she wants.

Most of all, the house was the stage for the evolution of my relationship with Thad and truly the first home we ever had. On our third date Thad and I laid on the carpet in my very empty house and listened to music for hours. After Thad moved in October 2005, a month later we got 2 kittens and a puppy. Oh boy did we get ourselves into a big mess. Neither of us had any idea how to care for a puppy and the kittens were 2 furry mysteries to me as I had never had cats before either. Poor Lauren had to deal with crying kittens at her door the first week they were here and a barking dog that didn’t know where to poop…oh, the mess.

In the fall of 2006 we got engaged and three weeks later got married with a justice of the peace in the City of Fairfax. Our post-marriage celebration was spent standing around our kitchen island with my brother, Thad’s sister, and her then-boyfriend-now-husband over beers and crackers. In the fall of 2007 we got pregnant with our first little bundle and over the next couple years settled in even more to our home together. In the spring of 2008 his mom moved in with us for what we thought was a temporary arrangement but has evolved into a long-term plan. We are so grateful to have a multi-generational home in a place where it isn’t common anymore. We were especially grateful to have help within walking distance from both of our moms after our second little bundle arrived in the spring of 2010 in our master bedroom.

As I walked around the empty townhouse on Sunday afternoon I could see the faint pictures of events past: House parties with friends and that time that a friend spilled a cranberry-vodka on my white carpet. Drunk stair sliding on slippery pants. The time when I hosted a big Filipino food party and I had friends all over the house chowing down on pancit, watching a Filipino movie, and drinking beers in the backyard. Making Halloween costumes with my girlfriends for a weekend of back-to-back costume parties. Unwrapping wedding gifts with Thad and being surrounded by white boxes, greeting cards, and oodles of love from our family and friends. Painting what would be Julian’s room a Winnie-the-Pooh yellow and wondering how our lives would change with his arrival. Taking a pregnancy test and walking through the house to show Thad the proof that our little family was indeed growing. Laboring in my living room surrounded by my amazing birth team and cursing at whoever put so many stairs in my house. Welcoming our son at the foot of our bed with our other son asleep down the hall. Watching my boys cuddle on the couch on Christmas morning….

In the book that I am reading right now the main character talks a lot about houses and homes. He comes from a nomadic people and he says a couple of times that a house is like a shoe. If it’s too big, it will slide and chafe. If it’s too small, it’ll squeeze and blister. While I hate to think that we left the townhouse because we had outgrown it, it’s the truth of the matter. It is, though, forever be a perfect home to me. And so it is. The little house that love built will live in my heart forever and I am glad that another family can enjoy the space as much as we did. They may not know where all the dings on the walls came from, or about the flood we had in the basement, or how Julian learned to walk on those floors, but that’s okay. I am grateful to the house for being our home.

A year old...when did that happen?

Not sure when it happened but a year has passed since our little dude joined our family. I feel like I was just waddling around IKEA yesterday waiting for his arrival. We got home from IKEA about 2 hours before I went into labor. Consequently, we went to IKEA today, too. I had this great plan to chronicle what life has been like as a family of four- well, in greater detail than I have- but, alas, I guess this is what happens when you add another child into the mix. Kudos to anyone who can maintain a blog better than I have.

Not gonna lie, those first 3 months were rocky and crazy. It probably didn't help things when we decided to put the house on the market for three months. Come to think of it, since Dash's birth it has been a non-stop crazy train ride for us. Perhaps it's a testament to the presence that he has created in our lives....the kid is a bulldozer and I say that with lots of love. He's a loud, playful, crawling, toothless wonder with lots of energy and a very devilish smile...I wonder where
he got it from?

He and Julian are BEST buds and we are so excited to see just how much fun they have together. Julian is so kind with Dash. He watches over him to make sure he doesn't play with toys that are not safe for him and makes sure to take them away and replace them with toys that are safe. It's so helpful to have a watchful big brother around!! He even makes sure Dash doesn't crawl towards the stairs. If Dash does, Julian goes, "No Dash, don't go to the stairs!" and runs and gives Dash a big bear hug and lays on top of him to make sure he doesn't go anywhere. ( I'm really glad we only have one staircase in the new house. :)) A big part of our motivation to have another child was to give Julian a sibling and after seeing them together over this past year, I am so grateful that they have each other. Where Julian is a sensitive, relatively calm, and pensive child, Daschel is proving himself to be a tasmanian devil and we are excited to see what kind of personality comes out of him as he gets older.

So happy birthday to my little rogue, my little devil. It's been an awesome year getting to know you and I am excited to see what this next year has to offer. Here he is enjoying his first ever sweet treat today. See anything funny about this picture? ;) Happy birthday, chuck!