Rolly Boy

I finally got a video of Dallin rolling over! Of course, babies never do things the way you plan, so there is a little "surprise" at the end. It's actually kinda funny, but I do have to warn you that if you get squeamish about baby fluids, you might not want to watch this. For the rest of you, enjoy!

Potato Bacon Torte

I've mentioned before that I've really enjoyed watching Food Network recently and trying out new recipes. They had a show called "Next Food Network Star" where chefs competed to win a cooking show on food network. The winner (and our favorite person from the show) was Melissa D'Arabian and one of the dishes she made during the competition was a Potato Bacon Torte. It sounded so intriguing, I had to try it out. So I made it for dinner last night and it was delicious! Here is the recipe so you can try it if you want. It's fairly cheap to make and not really hard, it just takes some time to prepare and then an hour to bake, so plan accordingly.

Potato Bacon Torte

(recipe from melissa D'Arabian with some adjustments from Sheri)

4 strips bacon

3 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. dried)

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 pie crusts, 9-inch (she gives a pie crust recipe, but I just used the one I always use for pies)

3 medium potatoes or 4 small

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup grated Gruyere Cheese (The gruyere I found at the store cost $10 for a small block and this meal is supposed to be cheap! So I used swiss cheese. I don't know how similar it is to Gruyere but I thought it tasted really good.)

1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water

Make pie dough and separate into two disks. Put one disk covered into the refrigerator. Roll the other disk out to a 10 inch round and gently fit into a 9-inch pie pan. Refrigerate pan while you prepare the torte ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a skillet, cook the bacon until just crispy. Drain on paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat the thyme and cream over low heat to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for about 5 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs, or if dried thyme was used, leave it.

Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then thinly slice the potatoes. Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator. Working in circles, arrange the potato slices in the pie crust, stopping to season each layer with salt, pepper, and 1 piece of bacon crumbled over the layer. Continue layering until the pie pan is nearly full. Top with an even layer of the cheese and gently pour cream around and over the entire pie, allowing it to seep down between the potato slices. You may not use all the cream.

Roll out the remaining pie crust. Cover the torte with the dough and crimp the edges closed. Brush the top and edges of the crust with egg wash. Make a few slits in the center of the top crust for the steam to escape, and put the pie pan on a baking sheet. Bake the torte until the crust is browned and crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes. If the crust edges get too brown, cover them with some strips of foil. Remove the torte from the oven and let rest at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Seves 4-6

Attention Ladies and Gentlemen!

As of 4 minutes ago, Dallin can roll over from his back to his stomach! That's right, he can roll both ways now. I'm so excited for him! A video of this amazing feat will hopefully follow shortly.

Welcome to Solid Food

Here is the first attempt at feeding Dallin rice cereal.

The initial shock

He liked having the spoon in his mouth, he just couldn't quite figure out how to swallow it. It would just leak back out.

But he was so proud of himself

until he started to get frustrated and tired.

So the first attempt was not very successful.

We'll try again tomorrow.

Happy 23rd!

Friday was Mckay's 23rd birthday. (Can you beileve he's so old?) His parents surprised him for his birthday by driving out here from Colorado to spend the weekend with us. We had so much fun with them, and it was nice to spend time with them, since we don't get to see them very often. They treated us to dinner at TGIFridays, and then we came home for cake and presents.

This is my amazingly delicious carrot cake. For some reason my carrot cakes always sink in the middle, so this cake kind of looks like a volcano.

new clothes (they look really good on him, by the way)

Mckay really wanted this movie edited, but edited movies are really hard to come by due to the lawsuit against movie editing companies. Being the good wife that I am, I searched all over for an edited copy and I found one! And it's a really good movie and very enjoyable with all the swear words taken out.

Here is the big birthday surprise:

Mckay's parents got him a new laptop! I'm sure many of you know that Mckay's old laptop was injured when a car ran into it while it was on Mckay's back, so the once portable laptop was converted into a useable but odd desktop.

Now he has a laptop again that he can take to class!

We had a fun weekend of celebrating and spending time with family. Now that Mckay is 23, that means I'm next in a few months. I don't know if I'm ready to be 23....

Stretch those legs

Dallin Update

Most of you have voted on what color you think Dallin's eyes will be, and now here are the exciting results:

Inconclusive

His eyes are mostly brown (congratulations to 12 of you). A lot of the time they will look like a solid brown, but depending on the lighting, you can see a small ring of blue around the outside of the iris. Sometimes the blue ring looks pretty big, almost overtaking the brown (so the 6 blue votes were right). Some people have commented that his eyes look green (good job to the 1 green vote!). Basically, who knows! (YAY! Everyone wins!) I figured his eyes would have settled on a color by now, but they continue to change. We'll keep watching to see if this is a temporary thing or if he'll have changing eyes his whole life. What will he put on his drivers license?!?!?!?

Dallin is growing up so fast. He is not the little baby he once was. He's still very little for his age, but he's growing. At a week shy of 5 months, he weighed 12 lbs 4 oz. So he's still at the bottom percentile, but at least he's following the curve now.

He has rolled from belly to back many times now and I've actually gotten to see it a few times. I still haven't caught it on camera, but I'm working on it. He's close to sitting up on his own. He doesn't really tip to the left or right anymore, but he can't keep from falling forward. He's getting closer though. I'm making him do baby sit ups to work out his stomach muscles.

His new favorite thing is to grab his feet and stick them up in the air. Either both legs at once or just one; he's not picky.

This is what he was doing on our morning walk:

for about 10 minutes.