Norwitz Notions

Here I am at 19 weeks, 4 1/2 months and well into my 2nd trimester.  I keep asking Michael “do I look pregnant in this? (as opposed to just fat) and, well, judge for yourself.
Things are going pretty well.  At 17 weeks I saw my wonderful family doctor for the last time (she’s switching to [...]

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Well, I hit my 2nd trimester a little over a week ago.  I’m now 14 1/2 weeks along.  The pregnancy sickness is still with me but the worst of it is *knock wood* over.  I still get stomach pain as my primary gut issue.  I’ve also been eating like crazy, lots and lots of very [...]

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Hello all!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted here regularly.  I blame it entirely on technical problems.  Has nothing to do with me whatsoever.  *ducking*  My camera went bad and I replaced it, then had horrible problems with the disc, replaced that, had the same problem with the new disc (different brand), realized the [...]

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It’s Christmas Day and time for our annual tradition of Jews eat Asian food on Christian holidays (why? you ask…because we get the day off and nothing else is usually open, though that’s changed in recent years).  Normally we go down to Todai, a chain of buffets with huge amounts of decent sushi and other [...]

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Miriam has always been more of a director than an actor.  Since she was old enough to hold a camera, she would grab one at any opportunity.  A child’s digital camera is a promised present (anyone know of one that is kid proof, has a display screen, and is under $30?) but, until then, she [...]

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My brother, his girlfriend, and my 10 year old niece came to visit us and shop at the local outlet mall.  Last time I saw them all (at the Marin County Fair the 4th of July) I brought a huge picnic lunch for everyone but this visit I decided not to cook.  I’d been wanting [...]

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I’m not going to pretend that making your own pumpkin puree is just as easy as opening a can and everyone should do it, but it is more satisfying, it tastes better, and does double duty using up your Halloween pumpkins.  And it’s not particularly hard.
Start with the right pumpkins.  Your fabulous jack-o-lantern is not [...]

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“Goodbye old car!  Thanks for taking good care of us all these years! We’re going to miss you!”
Miriam repeated words like this many times today.  I don’t know why I get sad when getting rid of a car.  Am I doing the right thing??  How can we just leave it here to be scrapped after [...]

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Shhh…don’t tell anyone it’s vegan: they’ll never guess.  The first time we made this was Thanksgiving 2007 and it (along with all the cashew cream) was devoured. Someone else’s pumpkin pie (homemade with traditional ingredients) still had half left.  In 2008, this Thanksgiving treat was one of 3 pumpkin pies (all gluten-free as it happens) [...]

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This is a simple recipe but difficult to get just right. You need a good blender and some finesse.
I made the cashew cream to go with a vegan pumpkin pie I took to a Thanksgiving Potluck in 2007 and again in 2008, though it’s delicious on anything sweet.
Recipe:
2 cups raw cashew pieces (I keep [...]

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Some comfort foods come from childhood (the one that fills my soul is very soft, very slow cooked scrambled eggs over buttered whole-grain toast, something I can no longer have) and others are with you all along but hidden until you happen upon that food.  My adult-found comfort food is Ethiopian.  The sour spongy bread [...]

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In my ongoing quest to discover 1001 things to do with masa, I came up with this little gem.  Guaranteed to please three year olds everywhere.
Start with fresh masa if you can get it.  Reconstituted masa harina if you can’t.
Grab a chunk, roll it into a ball, then flatten by hand into a thick oval [...]

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This year, Miriam (age 3.5 years) wanted to be a superhero for Halloween.  Her first choice was Superman, and she was quite clear that she meant Superman, not Supergirl.  Being 3 though, she had a lot of back and forth.  At times Supergirl was okay and so were Spiderman, Batman, or anyone from the Justice [...]

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After all our travel posts, I thought it was time to share some places close to home.  Really close to home in this case.
Peterson’s Farm
636 Gossage Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952
ettamarie@petersonsfarm.com
http://www.petersonsfarm.com/
Yes, we are lucky enough to live across the street from a small, working, chemical-free farm.  In a mere 6 acres, Ettamarie and Ray Peterson manage [...]

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This year the spirit possessed us and we decided to build a sukkah for the holiday of Sukkot.  We’d done a poor attempt a few years ago but this was the first real one for all of us.
Sukkot occurs 5 days after Yom Kippur, in late September or October.  It reminds us of the time [...]

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When we were trying to figure out what to do on our one day in Portland during a heat wave, we met some moms in Salem who said we should go to OMSI.  To where?  To the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.  An entity big enough in Portland to warrant its own set of [...]

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I’ve lived in cities with large central libraries before (like Boston) but the locations I’ve lived recently tend to have smaller ones (with access to more books via inter-library loan).  Portland has one of those old-fashioned but refreshing monuments to reading.  A library where you actually want to spend time, not just kill it.
Multnomah County [...]

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Our first day of travel from Petaluma, CA to Vancouver, BC was our worst.  We took I-5 and, despite keeping the A/C on recirculate and me being on oxygen, I got pretty sick from the pesticide exposures driving past all the agriculture.  Miriam was in even worse shape.  Screaming, tantrums, and two episodes of extreme [...]

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Unlike our misadventure of the night before, our two night stay at Champoeg State Park, just south of Portland and north of Salem, was peaceful, quiet, and medically uneventful.  We arrived with concerns.  Since it was a weekend, and we were only booking a few days in advance, there were just two campsites left.  I [...]

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The first overnight stop on our road trip from Petaluma, California to Vancouver, Canada, was in Southern Oregon at the Indian Mary Campground in Merlin. By Google Maps, it’s 410 miles and a 6:30 hour drive. With extensive stops, it was more like 9 or 10 hours.
Indian Mary Park
Uninc Josephine County, Oregon
7100 Merlin [...]

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While visiting the Vancouver area last month, we stayed with friends in Burnaby, a suburb to the east of the city.  Some other friends from New Brunswick overlapped their stay with ours then went to a hotel in downtown Vancouver for a convention.  On their last night, we met up with them for dinner.
Finding a [...]

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Michael and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on August 21st (and 12 years of being together).  I was ill for our first wedding anniversary, and our second was a so-so dinner with Miriam after a doctor’s appointment, so we were determined to have a romantic dinner alone this year.  We were in British Columbia [...]

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This huge and beautiful park is worth the couple mile detour for anyone travelling along I-5 in Oregon.  Our first stop was the picnic area.  They have a large covered section of tables, which was taken when we were there so we ate at a table in the sun (during a heat wave unfortunately).
The building [...]

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While driving north on I-5 through Oregon, I paged through an Oregon tourist guide looking for a good place to stop for lunch.  We decided on Salem, with the fabulous Riverfront Park next to a children’s museum.
A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village
http://www.acgilbert.org/
116 Marion St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301
503-371-3631 or 1-800-208-9514
Admission is $5.50 for adults and children 3 [...]

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On a recent trip to Vancouver, Canada, I admired my hosts’ towering apple tree, as well as the superior taste of the apples.  When I found out they simply composted them, I vowed to turn them into something useful.
First, I collected 24 hours worth of fallen apples.
Next, I cut away the bad parts (nice organic, [...]

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Popsicles are an easy summer treat that feels like dessert but can be very healthy if made with the right ingredients.  I always use whole fruit, never juice.  And I don’t sweeten them either.  But you can make them any way you wish.
The basic recipe is:
Pureed fruit
Liquid to make them pourable

For this batch, I used [...]

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I’m loving this dehydrator a coworker of Michael’s gave him.  So far, I’ve made Fruit Leather and a bunch of dried fruits and vegetables.  Below are some of my experiments.  Everything was dried at 115*F to keep it raw.  I run the dehydrator all day then turn it off at night (or when going out) [...]

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I have a new (to me) dehydrator and it has a plastic insert for making fruit leathers. So I had to try it.
I just toss some very ripe fruit into the blender. Mostly stuff too soft for the dried fruit I was prepping. Peach, strawberry, banana. And a pinch of salt. [...]

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This is one of my favorite “fancy” meals that most everyone likes, even some people who don’t like fish (got my fish-hating brother’s seal of approval).  It takes a while to make though (would be faster with thicker fish and a deep fryer) and it’s not exactly lowcarb.  But yum.
Recipe:
(Makes enough for 8-10 people, or [...]

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Coleslaw is basically raw shredded cabbage, with or without some other vegetables, in a creamy and/or tangy dressing.  I usually make it from green and red cabbage and carrot, in a mayo/mustard vinegrette.  Comes out very pretty.
How you cut the cabbage makes an enormous difference.  I have in the past used the shredder attachment of [...]

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