CityMama™

My favorite posts of 2009

January—I could have chosen a post about our newly-minted (at the time) president, but instead, I'm sharing my thank you to Steve Jobs for making my life easier.

February—I am a Blogger, Marketer, and Mother.

March—In This Economy, Love Thy Neighbor. (This month was also one of my best months for food blogging. Spring is so inpsiring.)

April—Recession-proof Life: In Search of a Simpler Way To Live and Be (Why we downsized our life, why we don't regret the decision.)

May—The FTC Wants to Regulate Mommy Bloggers? Bring 'em On! (Also this month I shared the recipe for the amazing potato-mac salad and went to the annual antiques fair in Grants Pass, OR.)

June—We were about to move (and I started a company) so the posting is a little light.  Bunny finished first grade and I wrote about why we make the conscious decision to keep our kids media shy, especially when it comes to television.

July—I just can't pick a post for July.  I was at BlogHer, Cat and I went on our 40-Whatever Birthday roadtrip through the midwest.  I scored some Etsy finds and made some kick-ass pastas.  I'll just link the whole month.

August—How The Women Of Ford, An Assembly Plant, And A Guy Named Larry Changed My Life. (I think this is my favorite post of the whole year.)

September—I wrote about the glaring omission of a "family food/culinary parents who cook good food" track at the first BlogHer Food conference and heard from a lot of you "parents who love to cook" who agreed with me. Maybe next year, a food blogger who is a parent will be part of the advisory team and we can shine a light on those of us who consider ourselves to be expert home cooks who support local, organic farmers/initiatives and also have a family to feed.  As I said, feeding my family well--and teaching them about where their food comes from--is a political act.  Perfect topic for a values track, no?

October—After a rash of teen suicides in my community, I wrote a letter to kids who might be hurting.

November—How about a recipe for a delish pasta sauce with one simple ingredient?

December—My babies are growing up, but I'm not letting go. Not just yet.

I hope you have a magical 2010!

Stefania

New year, new CityMama

Thanks to the talented, quick-working, and very patient Melissa at Eliza Grace Designs, I have a new CityMama for the New Year! It's clean, simple and unfettered—kind of how I'd like 2010 to be. The new design also has all the functionality (sharing on Digg and Twitter, for example) that I've been wanting to add for over a year now, but haven't been able to figure out how to do it myself. Still doing some final tweaking on some minor sidebar thingys but it's 99.9% ready to go. I hope you like it!

Happy New Year!

Stefania

P.S. If you read me through a feed reader, click on through and see the new look!

P.P.S. Feel free to grab a CityMama button if you like (look right)! If you put it on your blog or site it'll link folks back here. It's not about driving traffic back to my blog--it's about sharing recipes and ideas to make cooking for families or friends easier for folks. Plus, it's cute!

Holiday wishes

For so the children come

And so they have been coming.

Always in the same way they come

born of the seed of man and woman.



No angels herald their beginnings.


No prophets predict their future courses.


No wisemen see a star to show where to find the babe
 that will save humankind.



Yet each night a child is born is a holy night,


Fathers and mothers--


sitting beside their children's cribs
   

feel glory in the sight of a new life beginning.


They ask, "Where and how will this new life end? 
Or will it ever end?"



Each night a child is born is a holy night--


A time for singing,


A time for wondering,

A time for worshipping.

--Sophia Lyon Fahs

Wishing you a bright holiday, and health, happiness, peace and laughter in in the new year.

—The CityMama Family

Feast of the Seven, er, Five Fishes

For Christmas Eve Eve dinner my mom made cioppino and pasta with clams.  The deliciousness was totally lost on my girls who aren't fans of seafood unless it's in fried form (a la fish sticks, clams, or tempura), but the rest of us devoured everything, sopped up the sauce with crusty bread, and had fun licking our fingers.

For the cioppino, the seafood was added to a simple sauce made with fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, fennel, fennel fronds, parsley, chilis, and wine.

My mom's clam sauce started with bacon and garlic sauteed in olive oil, then the clams were added and cooked until they popped open. 

Pasta was set out in bowls and we could top it with either the cioppino or the clam sauce. I like clam sauce with my pasta, but cioppino just on its own.

For Christmas Eve, we're having a turkey dinner. It's not something we usually do for Christmas (we usually do a standing rib roast--which we might do as well), but my niece loves turkey and we didn't get to see her for Thanksgiving so turkey it is.  I'm in charge of roasting the turkey. Right now it's getting happy in my sister's dry brine (a salt rub), which will ensure it's flavorful and moist tomorrow. We'll have the usual sides and loads of cranberry sauce for the kids who love it. Pecan pie is for dessert.  (I'd love to hear about what you're having for Christmas Eve dinner and what your plans are.)

After our dinner we'll go and sing Christmas carols at hippie church, take a cruise down Christmas Tree lane, set out the carrots and cookies and milk, and then get the girls tucked up into bed to await Santa Claus's visit.

Christmas is almost here and I can feel the magic in the air! This time of year is just the best.

Ox tail party in photos (and a recipe, too)

 

Ox tails on the table.

Last weekend, J. and I kicked off the holidays with a small dinner party. We invited a few friends and I cooked up a big batch of Roman style ox tails and polenta to go with it. We love to throw dinner parties, and with the girls ensconced at their grandma's for the night, it almost felt like the kind of parties we used to throw. (Know what I mean?)

I had so much fun tinkering with the table setting, setting out candles, and selecting the different wines. Five bottles and some Jameson's later, we were playing a furious game of "girls against boys"  Guess The Celebrity (girls rule, boys drool), which devolved into a penis-y game of charades.

A great time was had by all, especially us.  Here are some photos from the party if you want to take a peek.

As far as the ox tails, go, here is my basic recipe (which I tripled for the party).  If you've never had them before, they are so worth cooking. They are fall-off-the-bone tender and taste just like beef shortribs.  One tip I have for you, though, is to get the ox tails from a Korean market if you have one near you. (I go to Han Kook in Sunnyvale or Kukje in Daly City.)  They are much cheaper at a Korean market where I paid about $13 per 2.5 lb package.

Also make them one day ahead, not only because they'll taste better, but also because after you refrigerate them you can degrease them almost completely.

I changed my original recipe slightly by doing the following:

• sauteeing some chopped pancetta with 3-4 bay leaves, shallots, celery and garlic before adding the oven-browned ox tails, tomatoes, and wine.
• adding about 6 cloves to the simmering sauce (I put them in those DIY tea bags, the kind for loose teas, so I can remove it later)

Other than that, the recipe is about the same. It's very forgiving--just think of it as making a rich, meaty spaghetti sauce (we served the ox tails over pasta the next night), and the meat you are adding is ox tails.

Holiday Dinner Party Table Setting

Holiday Dinner Party Table Setting
Originally uploaded by citymama

Click to embiggen. We're havin' a party, and it's gonna be cute! More photos to come!

Some holiday cheer!

Babble.com included CityMama on its Top 50 Mommy Bloggers list along with Kimchi Mamas (Seoul sistahs, represent!) and that was some damn fine news to receive on a Friday afternoon. A Friday afternoon where the kids are out of school for two weeks.  Merry Christmas to you, too, Babble!

I bought some vegan caviar from http://www.caviart.us/ after reading about it on several food blogs. I got two kinds, the black and the one that looks like ikura (salmon eggs). It arrived in containers packaged just like regular caviar. It also looks amazingly like real caviar. Going to serve it over the holidays, Will report back.

Dancing but not letting go (not just yet)

I've written before about how we tend to keep our kidlets a little sheltered.  They are five and seven and there's plenty of time for growing up. J. has been finding random videos of the girls when they were littler and they are so sweet and tiny, so precious and innocent, that they make me cry every time I watch them. He thinks it's weird that they make me cry, but they do. Almost to the point where it hurts to watch them.

They are only five and seven and I feel like I didn't get enough time with them when they were one or two or three or four. I want to go back in time and give their sweet baby heads one more smell.  I want to dress them in their puffy winter suits and tuck them into their strollers under warm cashmere blankets from Tata and go for a walk one more time. I want to hold them in my arms, fresh from a bath, and just kiss and kiss and kiss them. I miss them so much when I watch those videos. Maybe other mothers understand.

Now, Bunny can make her own breakfast. Take a shower all by herself. Text her papa on my phone. Remember things I ask her to tell her teacher. Make her bed more neatly than I can do it.

Wallie loves to help me cook. Asks me to turn the music louder. Writes me letters. Can finally wipe her own bum.

It's too much. Too fast.

(Except the wiping bum part. That's a welcome relief.  She even sprays the bathroom with a few quick bursts of air freshener when she's done which is also muchly appreciated.)

Recently the girls had friends over to play and as I was serving their dessert, one of the girls mentioned calories. I heard Bunny ask, "What's calories?" and I totally cringed inside. "There are good calories and bad calories and if you eat too many you get fat," her friend explained. "If you look on packages of food it will tell you how many calories something has. Then you'll know."

Bunny is very familiar with reading packages. We read packages together all the time at the grocery store but we focus on things like "iron" and "fiber."  We look to see how long the list of ingredients is.  If we can recognize any words. If something contains "high fructose corn syrup" or "sugar." She loves pointing out what's "gluten-free," since so many of her friends have allergies. One thing we don't look for is calories. My emphasis, especially because I have struggled with my weight for most of my adult life, has always been on health, and knowing what good, clean food is.

I don't want my seven-year-old to be counting calories. It's bad enough that because she's so tall, I've had endure adults commenting on her figure ever since kindergarten when she really sprouted. With parents who are 5'9" and 6'4", she's going to be a tall girl any way you slice it. I don't want her worrying if eating too many calories will make her "fat." Not in second grade. I want her to continue joyfully anticipating Saturdays, the day we walk to the farmer's market and choose our food for the week. I want her to continue wanting to go swimming or to practice yoga or to "work out" with her papa or to go jogging with me (a new habit--yes, I've been doing it for several months now so it's officially a habit).

Parenting is like a big square dance. You and your children are partners but every once in a while "Outside Influence" cuts in for a do-si-do or two.  You can allemande left and try to get back on course, but then you allemande right and suddenly your child is partnered with "Independence." Around and around the circle you go until finally your children are right back where they started, with you. Then you all go and have some punch and cookies and talk about the experience. Magical, yes, Dizzying, yes. Growing up, letting go. That, too. And I will, when it's time. Now is not the time. Not when my girls are still so small.

Hannah Montana. Kate Moss. Calories. I swear, you make me want to pick up and move to the mountains of Spain where you can't touch us. At least until Bunny and Wallie aren't so impressionable. Like when they're 40.

Note: Blogher asked to syndicate this post. I gave the okay, and they are paying me $50 for it.

Let's meal plan together for 12/14/09

Only 11 more days until Christmas (for those who celebrate)! Have you started thinking about what you are serving on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day?

I know that some families choose one or the other to "do it up," but my family does it up on both, especially if my mom is in town.  Our own Butler family tradition includes going to Hippie Church after dinner to sing carols (one of the few times of year we say the word Jesus in our church) and then we end the night by cruising our city's Christmas Tree Lane (which, if you live near Palo Alto, I highly recommend you do). But more on Christmas as we get closer to Christmas.  I'm getting ahead of myself. I can't help it, though! I just love Christmas!

This week, in terms of meals, we're keeping it mellow.  I didn't go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday because it was raining and my mom comes into town tomorrow, so we're playing it fast and loose.

• Monday--Wild salmon, rice, salad
• Tuesday--Chicken tortilla soup (have some in the freezer) with fixin's (chopped avocado, cilantro, cheese)
• Wednesay through Friday--not sure yet. I have stuff on hand for a veggie pasta, lots of salad ingredients, and frozen meaty soup bones from the farmer's market last week and I might make a big pot of beef-veggie or mushroom-barley soup.
• Saturday--We're having an intimate holiday dinner with friends and I'm making a big pot of braised oxtails and a vat of creamy polenta.  We're also having lots and lots of red wine.

How about you? I want to hear all about what your cooking, baking, and making as we head into the holidays. Especially if you are making edible gifts!