Do Not Adjust Your Monitor

In case you get your FrogTacoBlog from an RSS feed, or, like me, haven’t had your coffee yet, you might want to stop by and see what we’ve done to spiff up the place, or else pour yourself a mug and click F5.

Along with upgrading WordPress, I installed a new theme and created some custom graphics that show off some of our favorites from our Flickr photostream.

I’d love to hear what any of you might think about the new look. I didn’t design it, but I can change it, so if anything is hard to read or confusing or seems broken in your browser, please leave us a comment. Which is also a fine thing to do if you like it.

I know, I know… We’re way behind on posting photos or even real honest-to-goodness updates or, well, anything really. So, here’s some food to show we still love you. Or to at least tide you over until we get the photo factory rolling along again.

Evan’s Pressure-Cooker Dhal (Indian Lentil Curry Soup)

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil [edit: I've started using 1 TBSP extra-virgin coconut oil instead, if for no other reason than the amazing smell it wafts through the kitchen]
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, smashed & finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 or 3 tsp Patak’s Mild Curry Paste (or go spicier, or use whatever kind you can find or make your own)
• 1 can (14-15 oz.) Thai light coconut milk
• 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
• 32 oz. vegetable or chicken stock (buy a box at the store, or, make your own—it’s easy!)
• 1 1/3 cups red lentils, rinsed & picked over
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 lime, cut in half

Equipment:

• Pressure cooker (ours is 6 quarts—if yours isn’t or you don’t have one, just use a regular old large pot and it’ll just take a little longer)
• Food processor or blender
• Large mixing bowl or other large container that can take the heat

Start Cookin’:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it can run around the bottom of the pot like water.
2. Add the diced veggies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes
3. Add the curry paste and stir around until the veggies are coated
4. Pour in the coconut milk and veggie stock
5. Add the diced tomatoes
6. Stir in the lentils
7. Add in the cinnamon stick & cardamom pods (just leave ‘em floating on top)
8. Close lid on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure, reduce heat, cook for 8 minutes while regulator doohickey gently rocks.
9. Carefully transfer pressure cooker to sink (look out for escaping steam when you set it down) and run cold water over the top to force the pressure down and unlock the lid.
10. Fish out the cardamom pods (these can be hard to find) and the cinnamon stick.
11. Puree most of the soup mixture in your food processor or blender, only filling vessel up 1/2 way or less at a time to avoid steam causing a soup geyser.
12. Transfer blended soup to bowl, mix in the bit you left out of the blender.
13. Add salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze in fresh lime juice.
14. Eat up!

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook uncovered in a large stock pot for about 20 minutes. Recipe inspired by "Garlicky Lentil Soup" and "Spiced Lentil Soup" in The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup, Barnes & Noble Books, 2002 (ISBN: 0-7607-3096-2).

I forgot to mention a month or so ago that the following photo was chosen to represent the Seattle Aquarium on Schmap.com, a travel site.

Too bad it’s not a paying gig…

Yes, well, we haven’t ummmm, blogged in a long while. Sorry about that. We will try and do better. I know there are many, many drafts of blogs almost ready to go up…

Anyhoo, Keegan is now 14 months old! His first made-up word is "Ga-bay". I don’t know what it means. Zoey had her first made-up word also, Bipth… Keegan uses it all the time. He slips in real words every once in a while. "Hi", "Bye-bye", "water" are a couple. He is mister crawler these days. And he is fast! He is so fast, he is starting to get bruises on his knees, especially when he is not wearing any pants.

Keegan is pulling himself up on things now. He doesn’t quite bring his right foot all the way to standing position, so he is effectively standing on the top/outside of his foot. Ouch. He doesn’t seem to mind. He is happy to find a whole new world of things to play with.

He has a great sense of humor already, too. He likes to put things on top of his head and balance them. Hmmm, where did he learn that from? He likes to play bongo belly using his big sister’s belly. He likes to play ball. He likes to color with crayons. He likes anything his sister is doing. He loves kisses. Oh, and he LOVES to eat. Anything. Everything. The past couple of trips to the farmer’s market, we just buy a pint of strawberries and he is very happy in his stroller and makes everyone laugh with the huge strawberry mess on his face and shirt. One of his favorites, besides strawberries is smoked salmon. Mmmmmmm. We get this salmon from Wilson Farms at the farmers market and they smoke it with maple and wine. It is just amazing. Keegan eats it like crazy!

We have a weight check with Dr. Tracy in a couple weeks for him. At his 1 year appt, he only gained 1 ounce in a three month time period. He was 20 pounds and 7 ounces and 28 inches tall. He was burning it all by crawling. Anyway, he is certainly heavier these days and we are keeping an eye on him. I don’t think he will waste away. His hair is starting to come in nicely! Can’t tell yet if it will be curly or not. We think it is a bit blonder than Zoey’s, but still on the red side.

A picture of him at his party. He was not feeling well and didn’t like everyone singing to him.

He was much happier on his actual birthday.

Keegan has started up at the Little Gym. He loves it! His first week was a week ago. Zoey will be starting her art class and "Ballerina" class this week as well. A very full week.

Last week we enjoyed a Fourth of July celebration with the Hess family. We grilled, played, ate, slept, and watched the fireworks from our deck. We can see about 35-40 different mini shows in the valley below us, plus I think Bothell’s and Lynnwood, perhaps. It lasted from about 9:30pm until almost midnight. A good time was had by all, plus Zoey got to stay up late and see the fireworks for the very first time. Next year, we need a bug candle.

Moving backward in time, a couple weeks ago we ventured down to Portland to see Evan’s parents and Aunt. It was a fun time. The kids had a blast! Evan and I got to go out on an actual date! We went to the Deschutes Brewery in Portland proper, then onto Hawthorne Street. That was my favorite! It seems very similar to Fremont. We will definitely be going back there! We ended up at a Gluten Free Fish & Chips place called Hawthorne Fish and Chips. It was amazing! I had some oysters and man, those were awesome!

Currently, we are in phase one of cleaning up our yard. We weeded most of the roses until the spot where there is a bee’s nest. Ouch. We will be buying some compost and weed-wacking the vegetable garden patch and putting on newspaper and compost so it will be wonderful next spring. Our Pear tree seems to have a disease. We need to figure that one out sometime, too. Lots to do. Gotta prioritize.

That’s all the news I can think of at the moment. We will post more soon. Really!

Quick quiz: Is this Zoey or Keegan?

And, while we’re doing posts with pictures, not words, let’s link to the Flickr photoset of our recent trip to Victoria on the Clipper with Brian and Jen:

The highlight of our trip was The Tapa Bar, located in Victoria’s Trounce Alley. Foodie friends: check it out when you’re there!

I finally got the photos of Keegan’s first birthday party posted to flickr, so without further ado (or any actual blogging) here they are:

"Once-upon-a-time there was a Princess and she was lost in the woods. She found a dragon and the dragon killed her. She never saw the dragon again. Because she was dead."

Rona and I are on the third day of a cleanse, wherein we’re not eating dairy, wheat, or eggs. Rona is also to avoid honey and zucchini, and I’m off soy and pineapple, all for the next three weeks. Both of our allergy blood tests came back as highly sensitive to dairy and eggs, and moderately sensitive to the entire wheat family, which is the same as a high reaction to the whole category of gluteny goodness. Or something like that. It boils down to us needing to avoid a lot of stuff that we like to eat, and most things sold in restaurants.

We’re actually both already feeling better, however, with more energy—and less phlegm.

And we’re not starving by any means. Two days ago I made turkey chili in the crock pot, and Rona did up some coconut rice in the rice cooker, and I must say that’s one fine combo. I honestly didn’t miss the cheese one bit, and that’s something, coming from me. Then last night I made steak fajitas, which we had on corn tortillas with homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. Also awesome. Tonight it’s freakishly hot, so it’s cold roast chicken over spinach with grated carrots, sunflower seeds, black olives, and a nice light gluten/dairy/egg-free dressing. Breakfast is the hardest for me to figure out—no more cheesy eggs on a bagel for me—but I’ll make due for three weeks with wheatless cereal with almond milk.

Coming up next, the Keegan’s First Birthday Wrap-Up, complete with photos, of course. Stay tuned!

Zoey just got her second haircut. She even got her hair washed this time. And the stylist put a little "piggy tail" in her hair. She looks so cute! We went to the U.Village Kid’s Club and then we hung out in the play area for a bit. Here are the pix:

Last night Keeg slept from 9pm to 7:30am. Woo hoo!