Play this video. Let the audio run through in the background. And then scroll down and play the second video.
You send me swingin’.
Mint Condition. I’d sing this song in my head every time you’d settle into your swing for a nap, munchkin.
Author Archives: Suneet
TMLFYI… | Loungin’
What song works best?
LL Cool J (featuring Total)
Yup. My baby is loungin’. And based on the fact that I’m passed out in the background, today my love for you is all about loungin’.
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Trial & Error | Recipe | MF’n Toast
The simple things. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what kind of options you have available to you, the simplest of things done just right and consumed at the perfect time make for magical moments.
Tonight I had that experience with toast. Juicy. Butter play toast. For. Real.
Ingredients
- A slice of sourdough bread
- Butter
- Maple Syrup
- Salt
Directions
- Butter bread. Avoid nooks and crannies so butter doesn’t leak when toasted.
- Toast bread to golden. It will take a little bit longer than usual but wait for it.
- Drizzle maple syrup on bread. Top off with a few sprinkles of salt.
- Indulge.
The balance of sour, sweet and salty. The crunch of the toast giving way to soft, butter soaked center. Everything in concert. Just magical.
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TMLFYI… | A Pathway
We wanted your room to be magical, little one. We wanted it to conjure up excitement, and energy, and inspiration, and happiness. We wanted you to enter your room and feel happy. We wanted other people to enter your room and feel magic. We wanted a set of decorations that were worthy of you.
We tried our hardest.
But perhaps more than anything, I personally wanted a room that I loved. That I adored. That reflected everything I want for you.
I can’t tell you the pressure I was feeling to bring together a vision that would allow us to achieve that. And I think we did. I feel like we did, munchkin. We could not have done it without the kind heart and hard work of Robert Gardner, a fantastic artist who fell in love with you before you were born by falling in love with this vision early on. We were lucky to find him.
And when you stare at Max and all his Wild Things while we’re changing you, I realize we actually did.
So today my love for you is a pathway. One that takes you to and through some amazing characters, lands and experiences.
I love you munchkin. Your room is filled with some of the greatest stories we have ever read. Apropos, because you are our greatest story.
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| Anaiya’s Bedroom |
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TMLFYI… | ALL MINE!
Can you believe it? Your mom actually trusted me. Alone. With you. For a whole day. She had stuff to do. So Daddy stepped-up. And you know what? Best day ever.
We had a pretty fantastic day. We started out on the right foot by sucking all the snot out of you. I am usually the person who has to do that because Mommy thinks you’re going to get hurt or she looks at you and starts empathizing and feeling your pain before even you do — in a way only a mom can. I look at you and think fairly practically, “D*mn! We need to get that snot out before it turns into an ear infection.” And then I get after it. So that’s how we started.
After rocking out some breakfast and keeping you propped for a while, we shifted to the play mat. That’s right. You know EXACTLY what time it was. Tummy time! And you crushed it. I mean, 12-13 minutes. Talk about endurance. You rolled over pretty much right away so I knew you weren’t playing around. But after proving your advanced skills you spent the rest of the time on your neck exercises.
You were pretty wiped after that. So it was time for your first nap. A power nap. 30 minutes. I wish I could look as good as you do going into and out of a nap. I also wish I could be so instantly happy. Do you really wake up feeling this happy? Wow. You just taught me another lesson and changed my life again. Thanks guru!
We moved to the bed. Hung out a bit and rolled through most of The Cat in the Hat. Good times. But you were a little restless. And at this point, Daddy was actually a bit hungry. I figured I’d earned some delivery so went for a breakfast fritata and some breakfast potatoes. There was a point where I felt like you were about to give up on breast milk and upgrade yourself to the hard stuff. When you do, I at least know what you want to get after first. I also know that now I’ll be sharing my breakfast choices with both you and your mom. Awesome.
More play time. More tummy time (round 2.) We got you to 10 minutes but it was a fight. I wonder if I could have kept you on your tummy for even longer. The problem? Every time I turned you over, you looked like this. And frankly, this is the best face the world has ever seen so I allowed myself the guiltiest of pleasures — your dimple and your smile. Once people look at this picture I know I’ll be forgiven for not pushing harder on tummy time at this particular moment.
So the goal was to take you into work at this point. We were hitting the 1pm mark and that was around your sweetspot for travel, or so I was told. So after changing you and feeding you, I got you ready to go. Monkey suit on. Baby Bjorn, harnessed. It was just a matter of getting the two together. I’m going to share a picture of what you looked like before I tried to pull all of this together. Because after … well, let me cover the after, after.
What most people may not realize is that you hate this outfit. As adorable as it looks on you and you look in it, having you in this and then taking you anywhere is brutal. If we’re going to have you wear it we should just carry you. But this and a Bjorn are disastrous. So after fiddling with all of this for 30 minutes and getting you to exhaustion I pulled you out of this outfit, put your old gear on from earlier in the morning — and you faded away like Michael Jordan on the Wizards. Out. So I nixed our trip to the city. And enjoyed you nuzzling in my neck first. Followed by throwing on an episode from one of the last seasons of Breaking Bad. I even captured two critical moments for posterity.
Ahh, Walter White. Few shows are timeless. I fear this show will be completely unappreciated by your generation. It’s ok, you’ll hear me talk about it and love me for it because I’ll never do anything that annoys or exhausts you. (Let me believe that.)
I held you for a bit. I cherished it. But then you were getting hot and Daddy had to actually get some work in. So he placed you in the MamaRoo and got after his job. A good thing in the end.
After this nap I fed you. You were hungry. But you were also twisting and turning your head like mad. To the point where your bib actually flipped around to the back. And what Daddy realized, at that very moment was something incredibly powerful: a bib turned backwards is basically a baby superhero cape! How awesome is that!
After some superhero fun, we worked on your superhero strength. Grip. Right now you have a grip that would make Lincoln Hawk jealous. The problem is that your hands don’t always know what they’re doing — so we’re focused on the difference between voluntary and involuntary. I’m going to have to say that your voluntary grip effort is really on point.
We ended the day back on Daddy’s recliner. I reclined. Rested you on my lap. And we played for a good 20 minutes. Lots of chatter. Lots of talking. Some standing. Some swaying. Some singing. Some sitting. All amazing. All, absolutely, amazing. And here’s the image I will remember most throughout the day.
There’s no denying that this was absolutely one of the best days of my life. I love you munchkin. Today my love for you is all mine. I got to feel what your Mommy feels every single day. And I loved the hell out of it. We’ll have this day, our first of many, for the rest of our lives.
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Trial & Error | Crock Pot | Truffled Five Mushroom Soup
Here’s the next recipe. I went soup again. But this time, I went all vegetarian. If not for the parmesan rinds, it would be vegan. And I think you could substitute two tablespoons of soy sauce for each rind and get pretty darned close to what you have here.
I love mushrooms. I love cream of mushroom soup. One of my favorite specialty recipes when I was young (sub-twelve) was to make an omelette and then spoon some warmed cream of mushroom soup overtop of it as a sauce. I had breakfast game pre-12. Mushrooms were the reason.
For this soup I wanted to find a way to recreate and then elevate my Campbell’s memories. Mission accomplished.
Ingredients
- Parmesan Rinds (4)
- 2 Packages Creminis
- 1 Package Baby Bellas
- 1 Package Shitakes
- 1 Package Chanterelles
- 1 Package Oyster
- Olive Oil
- Bay Leaves (2)
- Truffle Salt
- Black Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Truffle Oil (may be overkill; or a nice touch on top)
Directions
- Clean the mushrooms. Probably the biggest pain. Clean them all.
- Make the mushroom stock. Put 1/2 of all the mushrooms in a stock pot. Add 2 tablespoons of truffle salt. 4 tablespoons of olive oil. 2 Parmesan rinds. 1 tablespoon of black pepper. 1 tablespoon garlic powder. And then cover all of that with water so the water is level with the top of the mushrooms in the pot. Bring to a simmer and then keep it going for 45 minutes. (This is a good place to add butter if you’d like but I don’t think you’d need it.)
- Lightly coat the bottom of the crock pot with olive oil. Add 1 cup of water. Toss in the remaining mushrooms, parmesan rinds, and the bay leaves and start cooking on low heat.
- After the stock is completed, split it. Put half directly into the crock pot. Blend half at high speed (Vitamix is clutch here.) Make sure the parmesan rinds are in the blender. This will effectively cream and turn into the base for your soup. Pour that half into the crock pot as well.
- Look at your soup and its consistency. Add water to get you to your desired consistency. I’m going to say 1 cup additional minimum. If you want fewer actual mushrooms (I wanted my soup hearty), blend more of the mushrooms.
- Turn the crock pot up to high and let this cook for 2.5 hours minimum. The soup itself will cook through all of the mushrooms beautifully though you may want to stir this a few times to turn the soup mixture over. Taste it. If you want or need more salt, pepper, or garlic, add it.
When it’s done, you’re done. And it is beautiful. Silky. Earthy. Rich. But guiltless. In the picture I topped it with some shredded parmesan but it’s absolutely not necessary.
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Trial & Error | Crock Pot | Chicken and Mushroom Soup
I love soup. I never make it. My sister does and she’s awesome at it. Which is part of the reason I don’t make it. Relative economic efficiency, I guess. I always make other stuff.
But when I looked under my cabinet one day to see these two beautiful crock pots, completely unused, something inside me clicked. And I found myself recently inspired to go crazy with those crock pots.
In the past three weekends I’ve made four dishes which have garnered some serious rave reviews. I don’t remember the exact recipes because I kind of made them up as I went along. That being said, I figure I might as well share what I do remember and leave the rest under the “season to taste” category found in many recipes.
The first recipe? Chicken and Mushroom Soup.
The goal for me first and foremost is hearty. I want to make any food I make feel substantive and hearty. In this case, I didn’t want to do this with noodles. To me, that’s a cop out. So I instead focused on the chicken and veggies to make it work.
Ingredients
- Full rotisserie chicken
- Fresh mushrooms, sliced or cubes. Go crazy. I used a mix of Bellas and Creminis – 4 small baskets.
- Baby carrots (20)
- Celery (5 stalks)
- Parmesan rinds (3)
- Butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne
- Bay Leaves (2)
- Water
- Olive Oil
Directions
- Pull the chicken fully off the bone. Tear it or rough chop it but I kept it in fairly large sizes.
- Make your own stock. I put all of the chicken bones in a pot, added (to taste) butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, parmesan rinds, and water, and then boiled it for a good 90 minutes. I used 5 cups of water for reference given the size of the crockpot.
- Clean the mushrooms. And then either slice of cube them. But no need to sautee or anything. These preserve themselves well in the slow cooker method.
- Mandolin slice the baby carrots. Rough cut the celery (I went about 1/3″ pieces.) I like the contrasting sizes but basically, get carrots and celery into your crock pot.
- Lightly coat the bottom of the crock pot with olive oil. Toss everything into the crockpot. Add the homemade stock (including the parmesan rinds.) Add additional water depending on the consistency you’re going for. And cook on high for 4 hours. If you want to start the chicken and soup actually going, put half of the water from the stock, the celery and the carrots into the crock pot to start and go from there.
If what comes out isn’t the best chicken soup you’ve ever had, you’re doing something wrong. Or I have ridiculously low standards.
The soup crushed it. Screw noodles. Overdone with chicken IMHO.
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TMLFYI… | Pacified
(Note: This photo was taken on 3/25 at 6:33 am.)
She’s got hands! That’s the realization here.
Since your birth you’ve managed to pull off something miraculous on almost a daily basis. But this one, this was one for you. It’s the first time I watched you try to take care of yourself. Amazing right?
It’s the morning. You’ve woken up with some serious hunger pangs so you’re trying to balance saving your energy with crying out loud so that I know you’re hungry. It’s always a fantastic balancing act on your part.
Against the advice and counsel of just about everyone, I’m trying to lessen the pain on both your vocal chords and my ears by introducing you to a pacifier. Sometimes, you hate it. And when you do, you spit it out with the quickness.
But when you like it? I feel like the binky had to have been dipped in chocolate because you’re sucking on it like it’s candy. Amazing candy. Like no candy I’ve ever tried. A candy beyond mine (and Homer Simpson’s) wildest dreams.
The sucking part is adorable. But today you did something extraordinary. While I thought you were about to smack yourself in the face (something you will sometimes do) you actually allowed your hand to slowly make its way to your pacifier. You then pivoted your wrist and put your palm on your pacifier.
(Suspense right?)
And then you pulled it out, kind looked at it like a drunk would his house keys, and jammed the whole thing back into your mouth. I tend to have my camera on the ready with you so given that all of this happened in slow motion, I was able to capture your hand still on the pacifier after you’d reinserted it into your mouth.You did something most adults forget how to do. You pacified yourself.
You’re growing up so fast, my munchkin. Like I wrote about earlier, you’re going to need me less and less every single day. Today was beautiful to watch for you, and humbling for me. Today my love for you is pacified. And I’m totally fine with it.
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TMLFYI… | South Indian
So it’s actually dosa. Or as I like to spell it, Dosa. I capitalize because it’s a divine food.
Today, my dear, was your first time going out to dinner. You were spectacular. The rest (Chadhas and Motianis) of us feasted on Dosas (fully varied across the table, from rava to paper, from mysore to plain, from masala inside to masala out.) But we crushed ourselves some Dosas in Edison at the world famous Swagath.
What I love about this whole trip is that throughout her time carrying you, your Mom had one craving on one day — that’s it.
Guess what it was for?
You nailed it. Dosa. Capital D. Don’t worry, you got some with your nightcap I’m sure.
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TMLFYI … | Satiated
Something worked!
I got home from work today and you were doing well. Playful. Your Eeshan Kaka was here and you were your compelling, beautiful, natural self which also means you completely won him over and made him your servant and enabler for life. I know. I’ve been there.
But as the night wore on you weren’t quite satisfied yourself. You were eating, enough to fill you up in the short-term but not enough to knock you out and satisfy you for a few hours. You were napping, but you’d snap out of it almost as quickly as you’d fall into it. Everything you were doing, you were doing in fits and spurts.
I feel lucky today though. I want to figure this out and today, I think I can. So I work some options and get you to take 2 ounces at 10. So far so good. You burp yourself into a milk coma. I hold you upright for 15 minutes. And then we swaddle you and drop you off in your crib. All is well. I clean some dishes. Sanitize your humidifier. I even get some work emails out.
At 11, you’re up again. First I see some flickers on the monitor screen. Motions. It’s you doing your darned leg lifts again. (Your core has got to be pretty fantastic at this point, by the way.) After the flickers on screen I hear bleats in stereo, both directly from the room and from the monitor. Surround sound fail on my part.
But you just can’t be hungry. You’re tired. Your diaper probably needs a little changing. So I do that first. Blue line down the front of the diaper means it’s game on and I have you wiped, diaper swapped, and smiling in minutes. I don’t want to feed you though. I don’t think that’s what you want. I think you’ll take a half an ounce; but then you’ll be unsatisfied and I think you’ll wake up shortly again anyway.
So I leave you on the peanut and we start stretching and exercising. You look like Cynthia Cooper before a game — and I’m your trainer. We’re stretching your legs. Stretching out your arms. We’re getting downright PT up in this nursery. And after a few minutes, a beautiful thing happens. Your eyelids get heavy. Another twist of your hips and your eyelids start to look like they weigh pounds. Like keeping them open is your greatest act in defiance of gravity.
I pick you up, I reswaddle you, and then I caress your head lightly. Just fingertips. Every stroke seems to create a slightly stronger seal between your eyelids. Soon enough, you’re out. And I watch you. I shush lightly. I stare deeply. And I don’t know where the time has gone. I really have no idea.
After 20 minutes I shake off the daydream (mostly because my body was falling asleep in weird places and stages.) I take this picture and decide to finish up some emails and then write this post. Here we are, 45 minutes later, and you’re still at peace.
So today, my lovely, brilliant, amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, outstanding, wonderful daughter, my love for you is briefly satiated. All because I found a way to bring this look to your face. It’s not quite the happy dance you gave your mom last week, but in context (midnight on a work night), it’s downright perfect.
Perfection kind of seems to be your thing, though. Who knew?
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Suneet Bhatt 