birthday

Jackson turned four years old on Saturday! We all had such a fun, joyous, friend-filled, happy celebration. Truly one of the best days ever -- one that left us feeling so incredibly blessed and profoundly thankful for each other, our family and friends, and the richness of our lives. A sweet sweet day. Here are some of the highlights:

recent favorite moments

It's been a while since I've posted about our daily goings-ons, and I have a ton of photos piling up on my phone, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite moments captured in recent weeks. The first photo, above, taken at the Temple of Dendur while visiting Abbey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is going to go down as one of my all-time proudest snapshots. I mean, srrsly! A perfect moment captured. Moving on...

Daffodils = Spring, yay!

Joanna took these next ones when she and Toby came over recently. With two chatterbox toddlers, tandem nursing is the only way I can get a word in edgewise ;)

My parents were in town last week, and we had so much fun with them. One highlight for the boys was making art at the

kitchen table with Papaw:

The painting above is by Walker. He has some major chops with the brush, am I right?

I spotted this old Singer sewing machine during a recent walk. It was sitting on the sidewalk in front of a junk shop. I was so tempted to buy it, but ended up just snapping a pic instead.

Toby and Walker in the sandbox.

Jackson and Walker on their favorite local race car.

A nice play of shadow and light from that visit to the MoMA I was telling you about.

Toddlerwearing + museumgoing :)

My bling-y nails. I am a hopeless manicure klutz. I absolutely cannot do my own nails to save my life, or at least that's what I thought until I tried these. LOVE. So easy and fun. I still can't make them look perfect, but at least there's no dry-time and they don't smell awful like regular polish.

Walker and I took my mom out to celebrate her birthday at Pure Food and Wine. It's one of our favorite restaurants -- everything there is so delicious that the fact that it's all entirely raw seems beside the point! This Classic Sundae was so good we ended up ordering an extra one.

Another day, another treat. This one is the soft serve sampler at Momofuku Milk Bar. The flavors? Candy Bar, Crack Pie, Grasshopper Pie, and Cereal Milk. It was hard to pick a favorite. I adore the fact that the sampler includes fun toppings, woot!

Mamaw outdid herself with the building of blanket forts while she was here.

A recent after-bath, naked-baby-romp.

And this is how the boys nap.

They're so lucky to have each other.

The Kitchn

Today I am featured on Apartment Therapy's amazing food and cooking blog, The Kitchn! It is one of my favorite daily reads, so I was beside myself when Leela Cyd Ross invited me to participate in her wonderful Breakfast With a Blogger series. What a fun honor :)

Jump over there right now to see Leela's beautiful post about my recipe for old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits. Enjoy!

Lentil Carrot Soup

Several weeks ago my mom sent me a recipe for lentil carrot soup that is so incredibly simple, easy and delicious that it has become a staple of our Winter diet. With only a few ingredients and hardly any prep time, I find myself returning to this soup whenever I need a warm, nourishing, pick-me-up. Since I'm fighting off a cold, I made a batch today, and decided to share it here:

4 large coarsely grated carrots (I use the grater blade on my food processor and it does the job in seconds).
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves minced garlic
2-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 pound of dried red lentils, rinsed and drained
3 quarts water
Juice of one lemon
1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
1 Tbsp. salt (perhaps more to taste)
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Saute carrot, onion, and garlic in oil, until veggies are soft (around 5 minutes).
Stir in lentils, saute 1 minute.
Add water, bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
Cook uncovered over medium heat until lentils are very soft & soup has thickened, about 45 minutes.
Stir in lemon juice, thyme, salt & pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste.

This is especially good served with a wedge of lemon for an additional kick of flavor. Pair with a nice mixed green salad and some homemade cornbread. Total yum.

Breakfast Yum

Photo via Taste of the Test Kitchen

I ran across a great article on inventive, healthy, hot breakfast cereals in the January 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living. There were several great recipes featured, but so far I haven't been able to move past the first one I tried -- it's so good I had it for breakfast every day last week!

The recipe that I'm hooked on is so simple, hearty, and deeeeelicious: Steel cut oats topped with pomegranate seeds, pepitas, orange sections, milk (I use almond milk), and maple syrup.

And on a related note, thanks to a tip from a twitter friend, I now know how to quickly and easily open a pomegranate!

Awesomesauce.

New Favorite Recipes

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to order less food delivery. There is an amazing array of delicious neighborhood cuisine available to be delivered here in NYC, and it has saved us eating pb&j for dinner on many an occasion, but it is time for me to admit that I over-rely on it. In keeping with my goal to prepare more meals from scratch, I have tried out a bunch of new recipes in recent weeks. Two of my favorites are from Mark Bittman's website: Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad and Warm Chickpea Salad With Arugula. They are both incredibly easy and be-YOND delicious. I've already made the quinoa at least five times ;)

Photos via Mark Bittman.

Amy Atlas-esque Fruits and Veggies

I adore this healthy, delicious take on the usually-sugary-beyond belief dessert table. Isn't it just soooo gorgeous?!? Designed by Esther Kim, photographed by Serena Grace. See all the amazing details, here.

Via Amy Atlas.

Mr. and Ms. Food Face

How fun are these plates that inspire you to have fun with your food!? I think I'm going to have to ask Santa for a family of four Food Face plates ;) Available here.

Vegivore Vogue

I loved reading this feature in the current issue of New York Magazine. It makes the case that "vegetables are the new meat" and highlights the current trend towards fine-dining restaurants focusing on vegetables as the main event instead of relegating them to side dishes.

I am not a vegetarian, but I do love vegetables, and I try to keep them at the center of my diet while limiting the amount of meat I eat (for health and ecological reasons). I love the concept of vegivore as defined in the article:

"These chefs and their devoted clientele are less vegetarians than vegivores, a term that connotes fervid vegetable love rather than ardent meat hate"

Read the whole thing, here, and then drool over the accompanying list of fashionably veggie-centric NYC restaurants. Yum!

Veggie Masterpieces

The Scream of the Sweet Potatoes

The Dream of the Tofu

The Kiss of the Radishes

Napoleon on Potatoes

Vincent Van Gogh Made of Leek

Liberty Leading the Vegetables

From the series Vegetable Museum, by artist Ju Duoqi. Via Flavorwire.

Monday Marvelous

Beetle print by John Dilnot, via Rummey Bears.

Happy Monday, friends! We had a fun and exciting weekend, adventuring around Central Park and romping around the newly-opened gourmand's paradise, Eataly NYC. My parents arrived for a visit last night, so we're looking forward to more fun over the next few days. With my mom around, I hope to tackle our Halloween costumes...if only we could settle on what to be! (J's latest inspiration is to dress up as Fantastic Mr. Fox).

Who do you plan to be this Halloween?

Birke Baehr

I love this guy and the empowering message he's sending about taking charge of the food we eat and making the world a better place. What an inspiring person! Thanks for the tip, Riki!

Happy Weekend

Photo originally posted here.

I hope your weekend is off to a lovely start! Here are a few bits and pieces of the internet that made me happy this week:

Everything in this shop, especially the crayon rings, the dotted tape, and the model's "love" tattoo!

This brilliantly cute wedding ring.

I really want to try this.

Babywearing in Parliament!!!

I adore this photo. The article is really interesting, too.

What surprised and delighted you this week?

Amherst Highlights

Our family had such a lovely time in Amherst, we wish we could've stayed longer! We only scratched the surface of all the fun things there are to do and yummy things there are to eat in the area. For example, next time we visit, I'll be sure to go here and here.

Photos ©Leigh Pennebaker