I keep this blog with the help of my husband. It chronicals our adventures, whether its living in the far north, parenthood, keeping up with our small city homestead or just trying to make a tasty meal.
We've always been a food centric family, but with Zelda starting solid foods, its perhaps magnified a little as we decide which foods to have her try. I really enjoying making baby food and its super easy and quick. Zelda likes to watch and seems really interested when we cook. Her foods to date have been avacado, sweet potato and roasted squash. She seems to like everything so far. This weekend we'll give pears and apples a try. I love the action shots Zach has been able to get of Zelda eating.
These are some random food related photos I snapped over the last couple of nights as I practice using Zach's camera. I'd like to take more pictures with something other than just my iPhone.
What's on your menu for this evening? We have a wonderful eggplant rollatini planned to take over to some friends' house and as a bonus we get to meet their brand new daughter. I can't wait!
As my family leave draws to an end with only a week left to go, I decided I'd keep track of what Zelda and I did today. The good news is that Zach and I've decided I will only go back to work part-time. So, today is probably a good indication of what our life will be like while I am trying to work part-time and care for Zelda. I get to start out gently though with Zach staying home about 2 days per week working from home so that I can work at the office part-time without Zelda for a couple of months. Of course, once his leave is over, we'll have to go to the office more, but those days aren't that different than today, just a different location.
2011 was a big year for our family with the addition of Zelda in September. After an initial trip to Dallas in August to meet our birth mom and test whether we could survive the Texas heat, we headed south again over Labor Day weekend and then awaited her arrival. She showed up right on time and we spent the next couple of weeks getting to know each other before we all returned to Alaska as a family of three.
Of course with the addition of a baby, our fall and winter have been filled with firsts for Zelda. Her first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We also made a quick trip back to Iowa so that she could meet most of her extended family and attend Zach's cousin's wedding.
Potica is a Slovenian holiday bread and is an annual tradition in the Zaletel family. It is a sweet yeast bread that is stretched as thin as you dare stretch it, covered with a mixture of walnuts, honey, sugar, sweetened condensed milk and spices, and then rolled into a log, roughly the size of your arm. After it rests and doubles in size, it is baked for about 45 minutes. You end up with a tasty horseshoe of sweet treats that always disappears too quickly.
I mixed things up with the recipe a little bit this year, and allowed the dough to proof in the refrigerator overnight before stretching it out. The results are promising, though if I manage to plan my time better next year, I'll probably stick with the regular recipe.
After the dough is mixed, it proofs until doubled.
The filling is prepared.
The dough is stretched thin and covered with the filling. After the filling is spread all around, the dough is rolled up into a log and placed in a horseshoe shape on the pan.
After the potica is baked, cut into thin slices and enjoy!
We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, whether you're in the US or located further afield. Here are pictures from our first Thanksgiving with Zelda.
Zelda awake and smiling and ready for turkey.
Cranberrys with apples in the works.
Zach peeling garlic for potatoes.
The snow on the deck.
The cutest Thanksgiving turkey ever!
And her tail feathers.
Hanging out after we arrived back home from an awesome meal.
Out skiing as a family to burn some of those calories.
Zelda's post ski snooze.
We went downtown yesterday for Trick or Treat Street. Zelda slept through the entire thing, which is her stamp of approval of any almost any activity.
A quick note about Zelda's costume. In case you can't tell, she was a strawberry. Since its always cold and likely snowy for Halloween, the costume for the really little ones either has to be a sleeper pj suit of some sort or its mainly got to be in the hat since the kids have to stay warm. Since she was going to be in her carrier, we decided to go the hat route, but did have other strawberry embellishments for when she wasn't in the carrier, like a red onesie and tights and berry buttons on her sweater.
We got out today with the dogs and hiked some of the ski trails after aborting an icy and car sliding attempt to head into the mountains without studs or snow tires.
Zelda was bundled up and slept through the hour long hike. She really seems to like the front carrier. The dogs were excited for the attention & time outside. We were also glad to enjoy the outdoors some more before the snow flies.
It's hard to believe that's been four weeks since Zelda made her appearance. In that short time we've been busy getting to know one another in Dallas and then introducing Zelda to so much in Alaska - the dogs, our friends and the chilly weather.
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