The academic glamour shot

I took this head shot of Jeremy the other day for his department website. Isn't he handsome? I put it as the wallpaper of my computer for sort of a joke, and as it turns out it's a pretty funny joke because his head is truly larger than life on the screen, and the kids think it's absolutely hilarious.

A few highlights from the photo shoot:

-I said, "Where do you want to take the picture?" and he said, "Just in that little copse of trees in our back yard." Who says "copse of trees"?? (He is reading over my shoulder saying, "But it is a copse!")

-When I told him to turn his head at a slight angle to his body he told me I was not supposed to be taking his senior picture. But we both agreed, in the end, that it was a good idea.

-When he came out into the front room in preparation for the shoot wearing these glasses (which are new and which he hasn't really worn yet), Clara looked up at him and said, "When did you start wearing glasses?" (Where has she been her whole life?)

All said, I think it's a pretty good picture. We sure do like our Casio. :) Jeremy is fond of saying that Casio is super great at point-and-shoot cameras and digital watches--of which (I flatter myself) we own both.

Something for your ice cream maker, and something for your pasta

We've tried several new recipes this week, and two of them are certainly worth passing along (though we also really dug oven baked pizzadillas... think pizza baked into a quesadilla. Delightful).

The first is a recipe for lemon ice milk, which is basically frozen, milky lemon deliciousness. We were looking for something relatively light, both in taste and in fat, etc. This really fit the bill. Jeremy liked it so much he told me he wants to eat it nightly, indefinitely. High praise indeed. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Ice

Juice of 1 lemon

Lemon zest to taste (I'd probably zest at least half the lemon)

2/3 C sugar

2 C 2% milk

Whisk together the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest until well combined. Slowly add milk into the lemon/sugar mixture while whisking rapidly. Immediately pour into ice cream maker and turn it on. Don't let the mixture sit before freezing, or the milk will probably curdle.

A few notes:

The sugar amount is variable; the recipe called for 1 C, we used 3/4 C, but we thought it was a little too sweet. Maybe 2/3 C is the "sweet" spot? Perhaps only 1/2 C?

The type of milk you use is also probably variable. I probably would've used 1% if we'd had any, but we only had 2% and nonfat. I guess I could've mixed. The lighter milk you use, I think, the icier the treat will be. 2% was pretty good.

The original recipe was double this recipe. This amount was enough for our family, but a larger family would want to double the recipe. Jeremy wants me to double the recipe next time so we can have more leftovers. Just note that once you put it into the freezer it will get VERY HARD, so plan to let it sit out for at least 40 minutes until softened, then stir before serving. Enjoy!

Homemade Lemon Ricotta (adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

2 C 2% milk

1/2 C plain Greek yogurt

2 tsp. cider vinegar

1 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind

1/4 tsp kosher salt

Combine first three ingredients in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until small curds form, which for me happened pretty quickly, though I kept heating until just before the boiling point. Strain through a sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth; let stand for 5 minutes (you can also let it drain through paper towels, which is what I did since I am both sieve-less and cheesecloth-less, but I would've much rather done as the recipe instructed). Discard liquid. Scrape cheese into small bowl. Stir in rind and 1/4 tsp salt.

That's it! It's so easy and delicious. We sprinkled the cheese over some linguine with summer squash and tomatoes, and the whole dish was so summery and nice.

Photo of Lemon Ice from allrecipes.com; photo of lemon ricotta and pasta from Cooking Light magazine (myrecipes.com).

Oly on my mind

My parents' basement is good for lots of things, like staying cool on a hot day, corralling children and mess into a relatively contained space, preserving sanity when two families share a house for two months, etc. But it is also super good for staging Olympic feats of strength, speed, and agility with two restless children.

Jonathan and Clara competed in events like rolling, somersaulting, the running long jump, and the standing high jump (an event that's hilarious both because it's ridiculous and because it actually used to be an Olympic sport).



I think everyone's favorite event, though, was the high-intensity Dad Dive. At least it's the one I liked most.


We finished each Games with a medals ceremony (in which shiny if invisible medals were awarded) and a rousing rendition of the National Anthem. Trust me: we'll be ready for London 2012.

The mountains, the rolling hills, the meadows, the daffodils...and the mosquitoes...

Two weeks before we left Utah for our new home in Missouri, we went camping with my parents and sister in American Fork Canyon. I will freely admit that I'd pushed for this to happen, but my parents are pretty game for camping most of the time, and Jeremy is always game to make me happy--especially when I'm preg-a-nant. So we loaded everything up into our cars and my parents' swank tent-trailer and drove an arduous 20 minutes into the canyon.

The site was lovely, and the distance was ideal for my dad, who had to drive home to work during the day. We stayed for two nights, and I think of the seven people in attendance, our average level of enjoyment, on scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most fantastic, ranged from a low of about .05 to a high of 10.

The lowest of the lows was me--and probably my mom--when we were abandoned with my sister and Jonathan for the better part of a wretchedly hot day with no car and no possible means of escape. Added to the wretched heat were the swarming mosquitoes who found my flesh desperately appealing. I finally took Jonathan into the trailer, stripped him down into his shorties, and played about a million slow-motion games of Crazy Eights with him. My mom kept coming in and making me drink water. Megan sat in the shade and read a book (which is why she probably wasn't feeling the .05 like my mom and I. And Jonathan loves being in his underwear and seems more or less impervious to heat, so he was pretty happy.

Of course, I have to give Jeremy a shout out, since one of his lowest lows happened to correspond to what was probably one of Clara's highest highs (though that's hard to accurately describe, since I have never seen a happier camper--literally--than my Clara). Jeremy surprised Clara with a trip up to Timpanogos Caves. She was so excited to go, and probably would've hiked most of the quite steep trail up and down if the ranger hadn't given so dang many stern warnings about rockslides, snakes, mountain lions, and other sure-fire-tales-of-death-and-maiming. So Jeremy carried her on his shoulders the whole way up and the whole way back. This was happening while I was bordering on heat exhaustion back at camp. By the time he got back, he could barely walk. But Clara was absolutely thrilled with her excursion. In fact, in the first cave, the ranger asked for volunteers to identify the formations on the wall. After several incorrect answers from the other tourists, Clara bravely raised her hand and said, "Those are fossils." She was right. That's my good little geologist.

Other than those long and painful hours--and later than night when my dad melted the anti-reflective coating on his glasses while cooking foil dinners, which he hates to make and which I also requested ("Seriously," he said, "I could sautee the same ingredients in a pan with the same taste and a lot less effort")--we had a pretty good trip. Jonathan and Clara loved hiking and exploring, and Jonathan in particular was always happy to sit on a bench and watching the rushing water in the creek. Megan is always great fun to be around, and my parents are great about making things enjoyable and fun for their offspring. Plus, my mom will do just about anything for a legitimate excuse to make S'Mores. Seriously, she's an absolute fiend.

I'm really glad we went camping, especially since I don't see myself (at this point) becoming much of a Missouri camper--unless I somehow come to grips with relentless humidity, chiggers, and not having actual mountains to camp in. I miss the arid West already (but am pleased to report that we seem to have largely replaced mosquitoes and hornets with fireflies).

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I like this picture, because even though I have no makeup on and am really quite filthy, I look deceptively slim. I could show you some more accurate pictures, but I won't (like the one of me hiking downhill with Jonathan, which Jeremy took from a vantage point below me, despite the fact that I have told him countless times to never take pictures of me from below when I'm pregnant).


I like this picture because it is classic Meg-man. Love it.




Jonathan and Clara were perpetually sticky the entire time. My mom is the kind to wipe messy children down; we are the kind to reduce stickiness by covering it with dirt and dust.




And I had to end with this one, because I couldn't decide whether I liked this one or the opening photo most. They're a good-looking pair, those two!

While the cat's away...

It's Jeremy's first full day at work (though he won't be an "official" employee until mid-August). Nevertheless, we're missing him on his first big day away and want to keep him posted on our activities while he's gone. In the last hour, we've gone on a walk (with much crying and whining; the kids also seemed unhappy), and done a little bit of city building and piano playing:




Why Clara seems largely incapable of keeping her eyes open or looking at the camera in a picture is beyond me, but we only had one shot.

In other news, we're starting to feel more settled after our first week in Missouri. House pictures to come (so look forward to that, Mom!).