Growing a Beanie Blue Cake Baby

Well, hey there. It's been awhile. Sorry about that. Poor Dad says he still checks the blog every day for that Mini Apple Pie recipe I promised on November 4. Someday, Dad...someday.

The holidays have come and gone, and here we are in late January. I'm 38 weeks pregnant, and Dara's and my baby-boy-to-be is apparently complete. I could go into labor tonight or four weeks from now. Freelance work projects have come to an end, and now it's time simply to rest, nest and be prepared.

So, per the topic of this blog, how have we been eating seasonally in Seattle? People love to joke that pregnant women are eating for two, and that they crave pickles and ice cream at 2 am. In my case I haven't had specific cravings necessarily, but have been hungry many times throughout the day. I try to make nutritious choices, but it doesn't always work.

Virtuous winter cooking highlight: The slow cooker is a magic device into which many variations on soaked beans, onions, broth and herbs and spices can be simmered into harmony with mere minutes of morning prep. For pennies! The other day, for example, I combined a dry chili bean mixture with a sliced yellow onion, broth, water and two sliced chicken sausage links. We topped each bowl of the resulting chili with plain yogurt, shredded cheddar and chopped cilantro. Tomorrow I'll try an Indian variation on the theme, with dry black lentils, onion, carrots, peas, broth and curry spices, to serve on basmati rice. Healthy baby, healthy me!

Trashy winter cooking lowlight: Last week I craved a yellow cake so much. I bought a cake mix and a can of white frosting. I baked the cake in a tube pan, dyed the frosting blue, frosted the cake and piped on white dots. It could have been cute, but it had that untidy, desperate, late night look. Suffice to say, no photograph is available, as there was no time to linger over the camera. Oh, the shame -- fat baby, fat me!

Now that I'm a huge heiffer with an aching back who can't even run around the block, I'm inspired to get this baby out and lose the weight as fast as I can with exercise and a nutritious diet. The season seems to agree. There's a freshness in the air, and spring buds are poking their own heads out of the fertile earth. Come on, Baby Sahebjami, let's do this.