Ruby 5 Months

Although this post is late, I did take a picture of Ruby when she turned 5 months. Amazingly, she already sits up. I wouldn't have known except her Uncle and Aunt set her sitting on the floor with a toy and she stayed there. She also learned to eat lots of veggies (squash, green beans, and sweet potatoes). For the first time I realized she actually discerns me from everyone else. No, not by smiling sweetly or cooing in happiness when she sees me, but by making a terrible face when I picked up a baby boy at daycare and talked to him. Well, I'll take what I can get. She also likes to pretend to walk, but is abysmal at trying to crawl. Should get interesting in this next month!

Gobble Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving! Ruby is sufficiently spoiled for all future Thanksgiving. While the food was good, if unremarkable, the setting was awesome. Thanks to Jamey's work with Beachguide we stayed with his family at a beautiful house in Destin Point. I highly recommend the Oasis for a great family trip.

The heated pool and spa made the cold weather no problem! Ruby loved getting in the pool. (I learned about swim diapers which are very cool.)

Playing with her cousins made her never want to sleep. The first two days, she was so afraid of missing something that she would strive to stay awake at all times.

She also got to have her first lemon which she loved and munched on contentedly.

Jamey was a hit with all the nieces and nephew as they played countless games. Bohnanza was a big hit and will probably be our Christmas gift to Taylor (the nephew, yeah it gets confusing. I also have a niece named Taylor on my side of the family.) Hope you guys all had nice Thanksgivings as well. Now if I could just find a few million to buy that house, we would be at the beach all the time. Ah well, I am all for temporarily renting a better way of life than I can actually afford to own.

First Food

I was out of town last weekend. Lots to catch up on!

We gave Ruby her first food other than cereal recently. I thought of starting with one of my favorite foods, but she seemed confused.

So we went with the doctor reccomendation of carrots. She wasn't sure at first...



Then she attacked them like Godzilla.

Curried Scallops Recipe

Recently, I had to throw together a dinner quickly. After a quick inventory, I decided on curried scallops. (this gives you an idea of my pantry staples) The result was delicious! I gave the recipe to Yvonne. She tried it with less successful results. Looking at it later, I realized I barely followed the recipe. So here is the altered Cooking Mama approved version.

1 pound frozen sea scallops (I also used some frozen shrimp)
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup salt
3 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon curry powder (use your favorite, I LOVE Penzy's Hot Curry Powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk

Put some warm water in a bowl. Add sugar and salt. Dissolve. Add cold water to the bowl. Add scallops. Let scallops defrost in bowl. Drain.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted.
Throw in the scallops and saute 4 to 5 minutes [until white]. Remove scallops.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same pan. Cook garlic, flour, curry powder and salt over medium-high [medium] heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly.

Remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and coconut milk. Put back on the medium-high setting. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute.

Stir in scallops. Heat about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice. I served with risotto rice that I had cooked in the microwave with some chicken broth.