Spicy Cashew Chicken with Broccolini, Cheese Flight, Brookline Day, and "Super Duper" Big Boy Bed

On the plate:  Spicy cashew chicken with broccolini

Soundtrack to cook to:  Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D.  Alexander LOVES LOVES the song "Imma be."  It cracks us up every time he starts singing the chorus.

Here's a picture from last week that I was unable
to load onto my previous post.  It's from when
we went to Davis' Farmland and Alexander insisted
on, "Sit on-a piggy, Mommy?"  Okay, sweetheart. :)

I've been trying not to get into a cooking rut.  However, as I have been getting increasingly uncomfortable during this pregnancy, I've had to either find easier recipes, or enlist Joseph to cook dinner for the evening.  While Alexander was taking a nap, I was catching up on Rachael Ray and found a yummy (and easy recipe) that had ingredients that I already had at home (double bonus!).

I chopped up 2 bunches of broccolini.  I par-boiled the broccolini
for about 5 minutes, and then drained them in a colander. 

After that, I prepared the sauce on the stove over low-medium heat.
Ingredients:  

• 1/4 cup cashew butter  *I used almond butter*
• 1 inch ginger root, peeled and grated 
• 2 large cloves garlic, grated
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 cup chicken stock or poaching liquid
• 1/4 cup Tamari, low sodium soy or liquid amino
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• Black pepper
• Let the ingredients simmer until the sauce thickens.

While the sauce is thickening, I chopped 1 onion, 1 pepper,
2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast, and cooked them together
in a dutch oven.
Once the chicken, peppers, and onions are fully cooked, add in the
broccolini and pour the sauce over all the entire mixture.
*The recipe calls for water chestnuts, cilantro, cashews, and green onions.
Unfortunately I didn't have these ingredients, so I omitted them, obviously. :)

The finished result!  I served it over a bed of brown rice and all
was gladly gobbled up by everyone in the Franses household.
I also omitted the chiles, but still put in 1 tbsp of Sriracha sauce.
It was definitely not spicy, because if it was, Alexander wouldn't have
eaten it.  Delicious, nutritious, and so easy to make!   

Hello, my name is Nikki and I am a cheese-a-holic.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but if I could live off of cheese and crusty bread for the rest of my life, I would be a very happy woman.  Unfortunately, there's no nutritional value to that sort of diet...it's just stinking delicious. :)  (And the stinkier the cheese, the better, in my opinion.)

Recently, we had a few of Joseph's classmates over for dinner (we served hot pot - an Asian version of fondue), and as an appetizer, I put together a cheese flight.  I didn't just get any old cheese and put it on a platter - I did my research.  I went to Whole Foods and spoke to the cheesemonger about setting up a cheese tasting.  This guy was incredibly thorough and asked such questions as what food we were serving and what wines we were serving as well, in order to pair the cheese as best as possible.  It was an exciting experience and after tasting many yummy cheeses, I decided upon four different cheeses and paired them with fig and olive crackers, and fig preserves.  The salty, creamy, tangy, and pungent flavors paired incredibly well with the sweetness of the fig preserves and the crunch of the crackers.  *I've done one of these tastings before, and also had some delicious thin-sliced prosciutto on the platter as well.

Here's the cheese flight that I added notecards to each cheese that included such
information as:  The name of the cheese, where the cheese was from,
what type of cheese (goat, cow, sheep, etc.), and what flavors
the taster should be looking for when eating the cheese.
Just looking at this cheese flight is making me salivate.... :)
I LOVE CHEESE!!

On September 23, the town that we live in, Brookline, MA, hosted their first annual Brookline Day.  It was a lovely little fair that celebrated our town and was an end-of-summer celebration.  It brought back great memories from when I was a kiddo growing up in Illinois.  Our town was so awesome in bringing everyone together for summer celebrations (Daisy Days) and the winter holidays (Christmas walk).  It was a great way to get everyone together to enjoy playing games, buy trinkets, and most importantly, eat delicious food!

Brookline Day was a gentle nod to those memories.  However, seeing it from the adult perspective, it's much different now (I wasn't allowed in the bouncy houses...just for the kids.  I'm a kid at heart though, does that count?).  Alexander had a great day at the fair, and still talks about it - hopefully this is but one of many memories that he'll be storing away, just like I got to do so long ago.

Bouncy house fun!  He was only able to participate in this
smaller one, because the other bouncy houses were made for
older kids - Alexander would've been eaten alive.

Alexander was BEYOND thrilled to get his "Bob the Builder"
hat and balloon at the fair.  He loves to put this hat on and parade
around the house saying, "Hat!!  Just like Bob the Builder!"

Along with the live music and delicious food (they had food trucks
at the fair - Joseph and I were in heaven!), they also had lots of
heavy duty machinery that kids could climb into and play around.
Here's Joseph and Alexander in a backhoe loader.

A digger!

Alexander, standing inside the large digger.

Zamboni!

Alexander in the back of a police car.  Let's hope this is the
ONLY time he is in one!

Joseph and Alexander playing and laughing at the 

end of the fair.

Alexander is attending daycare from 8-12 Monday-Friday and has done very well with this transition thus far.  He's also done very well with potty-training, so much that we're considering not putting him in diapers overnight anymore.  Every morning for the past few weeks, he's woken up with a dry diaper - it's everything we could have dreamed of!  We're very lucky.

His last transition was from his crib toddler bed to a regular bed.  Since we already had a queen size bed in his bedroom (his room used to be our guest bedroom, and we just never moved the bed out), we decided to take the box spring out of the frame (it was entirely too tall for him to climb).  Then, since Pottery Barn for Kids was having a great sale, I went and bought him all new bedding to make it special, just for him.

On September 24, we set up his room while he was at daycare and surprised him with his special "super duper" big boy bed.

Here's our big boy testing out his new bed with all of his stuffed
animal friends there to welcome him. :)

His smile and excitement about the bed was absolutely priceless!

Snug as a bug in a rug!  (He cracks up whenever I say that to him
when I tuck him in at night - if Joseph isn't doing so, that is.)

Can you tell that he likes it?

Here's the introduction to his super duper big boy bed

caught on camera.

He's been sleeping in his bed for two weeks, and Joseph and I are convinced that he's much more comfortable in the bed, because he's been sleeping really well.  Hooray!  Another seamless transition! :)  Let's hope that this continues to be this way!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki