Perkembangan Bayi bulan 7-8

Lanjutan dari perkembangan bayi bulan 6-7 yaa...

Bagaimana aku tumbuh:

• Aku dapat bergerak maju menggunakan perutku, aku bahkan mungkin dapat merangkak.
• Aku dapat menaikkan punggungku dengan mengangkat pantat dan bertumpu pada kakiku.
• Aku dapat menyeimbangkan tubuhku dan duduk sebentar tanpa bantuan siapa pun.
• Aku bisa meluruskan kakiku ketika kau mengangkatku, dan aku berusaha agar dapat berdiri sendiri.
• Aku mengeksplorasi tubuhku dengan mulut dan tanganku.
• Aku dapat menahan agar tidak kencing selama 2 jam.
• Gigiku mungkin sudah mulai tumbuh.
• Aku sudah dapat menyuapi diriku sendiri, namun mungkin masih berantakan.
• Aku senang bermain dengan sendok dan gelas, namun aku mungkin belum bisa menggunakannya dengan benar.

Bagaimana aku berbicara:

• Aku menirukan suara yang aku dengar. dengan cara itulah aku belajar.
  
• Aku sudah bisa menyuarakan beberapa bunyi dalam satu tarikan nafas, seperti ma - mi - da - di - ba.

Bagaimana aku merespon:

• Aku ingin dilibatkan dalam semua kegiatan keluarga.
• Aku senang melihat dan menyentuh bayanganku di cermin.
• Aku senang melihat gambar bayi-bayi.
• Aku senang meraih, mengocok, dan membenturkan benda2 dan memasukkan dalam mulutku.

Bagaimana aku mengerti:

• Kemampuanku untuk berkonsentrasi semakin baik sekarang, dan aku sering menghabiskan waktuku untuk mempelajari suatu hal.
• Aku dapat mengetahui apakah seseorang sedang marah atau senang melalui ekspresi wajah dan cara mereka berbicara.

Bagaimana perasaanku:

• Aku takut dengan orang asing, jadi tetaplah bersamaku ketika ada orang asing didekatku.
• Aku tahu apa yang ingin dan tidak ingin kulakukan.
• Aku sangat senang bermain dan mengganggu orang2.

Bagaimana kau dapat membantuku belajar:

• Berikan aku mainan yang dapat menimbulkan bunyi, seperti bel, kontak musik atau giring2.
• Biarkan aku mencoba menyuapi diriku sendiri, walaupun mungkin aku akan menimbulkan kekacauan.
• Suarakan bunyi yang berbeda-beda untuk aku tirukan.

source: Buku pintar perawatan bayi dan anak usia emas, Iskarisma Ratih S.Psi

Weekend in KY...

This past weekend, David took me to Kentucky for the weekend to a nice hotel and Red River Gorge. Our room was a theme room, Venice Italy.






The ice during the hike was very pretty, but we had to move fast! The temp. was around 45 degrees so we could hear big pieces falling from time to time! Wouldn't want to get caught below this stuff!!








Overall, it was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. The puppies stayed at grandma and grandpa Greutman's so we could enjoy time together without our arms being pulled up by 3 anxious puppies!! :)

Opening the Beard Award selection process

February 22

I spoke with James Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro this afternoon about the fact that so many of the 397 semi-finalists for this year’s chef and restaurant awards are newcomers to the list.

As I mentioned when I reported on the semi-finalists last week, more than half (the actual figure is 53 percent) were on the list last year, too. But considering how many of the same nominees return year after year, that’s pretty good turnover.

Susan explained that the nomination process has been democratized.

Although just about 400 people — past winners and the media — judge the awards, anyone can nominate a chef. That’s been true since 2008, when the awards went all-electronic. That year more than 9,000 people submitted nominations in the 17 chef and restaurant categories. Last year 15,000 people participated in the process, and this year it was more than 21,000.

Then in most categories the awards committee picks the top 20 names, and those are the semifinalists.

An exception is the Rising Star award, which goes to chefs age 30 and younger, so they have a limited window in which to win it. The awards committee takes that into consideration and lets a few more names slip on.

The result is the ungainly-looking list of 26 names you see meandering down the upper right-hand side of this page.

Susan told me one of her goals as president was to try to alleviate the foundation's reputation as an elitist group focused on the East and West Coasts (I'd accuse it more of being New York-centric, actually), and to extend a hand to the masses.

Has she succeeded?

Well, if you look at that list, only one nominee is from New York, but that was true last year (it was Ryan Skeen from Irving Mill, in case you were wondering).

This year’s list has more chefs from cities in the interior* — Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Des Moines, Denver, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Peoria Heights, Ill. There's also a nominee from Hawaii’s smallest major island, Kaua‘i, Colin Hazama from the St. Regis hotel there. I guess that’s off the beaten path in the grand scheme of things.

But he was also a nominee last year. So was Sameh Wadi from Minneapolis. The rest weren’t on last year’s list and the only other interior cities that were represented were Farmington, Pa., Rochester, Minn., and Memphis, Tenn.

Okay, so this year’s list isn’t that much more geographically diverse than last year's. It’s still dominated by coastal cities, but then again, coastal cities are most of the country's major population centers.

I do wonder why Chicago’s not represented, though. Maybe too many great young chefs split the local vote.

*for these purposes I’m going to classify Philadelphia and its suburbs as East Coast, even though it’s technically not, because it is culturally, and the rest of Pennsylvania as interior; and Las Vegas as West Coast; New Orleans is unclassifiable, but since it has always been considered an important food city I'm going to say it's not interior, but I'll go ahead and say Houston is interior. That’s just how I roll. Chicago is always well represented in the awards, although it doesn’t have any rising star nominees this year, unless you count Peoria as a suburb, and I think that’s stretching it a bit.

Kaeng Phanaeng Kung (Shrimp Curry with Basil)

  

    
A friend recently told me that I make a lot of North African dishes, and that is true.  Moroccan tagines are a great way to whip up something quick, easy and exotic.  However, it was also a signal, at least from myself, that I need to explore and develop more.  For me, that means confronting my fear of authentic asian cuisine.  Fear is probably too strong a word, trepidation may be better, but it is that feeling in the face of something complex and poorly understood.  The last shrimp recipe I posted last week was very simple.  Coming from Portugal, it is easy to see why.  It contained ingredients that could survive on a ship for 6 months sailing back from the spice islands to Europe.  Basically, from a barrel of curry powder.
     
This recipe from The Food of Thailand: A Journey for Food Lovers represents the next step in my journey into the complexity and beauty of Asian cuisine.  In addition to our curry base, come not only coconut milk, but also fish sauce and palm sugar.  The latter is something for which brown sugar can substitute, but their is no substitute for Thai fish sauce.  While used sparingly, it adds layers of complexity impossible to find elsewhere.  This recipe also uses yellow curry paste instead of the more common green or red curries.  Yellow is my favorite because it contains the cumin and turmeric spices I love.  Red curry paste is also made from red peppers, but uses less coriander and includes galangal (ginger) and no cumin.  Green curry from green peppers instead of red will also include lime skin or leaves.  All that said, just go buy a jar of your favorite at the store, along with a little bottle of fish sauce.  Stick it in a shelf in your fridge and use it for dishes like this.  A further note, I like my dishes very "saucey" so that not only the meat and vegetables are coated, but the rice added to a bowl can soak up the broth.  If you don't need so much sauce, just cut the recipe in half.  Serves 2.
     
Ingredients:
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp yellow (or green or red) curry paste
1 can coconut milk
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp palm (or brown) sugar
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
handful of sweet basil leaves, torn
    
Directions:
Heat the oil over medium heat in a saucepan or wok and stir fry the paste a minute or two to release the flavors.  Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar and bell pepper and cook for a minute, mixing the ingredients fully and bringing them to a simmer.  Add the shrimp and cook a few minutes until the shrimp are cooked through.  Mix in the basil leaves if desired, or serve the dish and garnish by dropping the leaves on top.
    

What Celina Tio’s up to these days

February 22

The last time, I mentioned Celina Tio, she was planning on opening a restaurant called Julia(n) in Charlotte, N.C.

Well, plans for that fell through awhile back — something to do with a disagreement with the landlord, if memory serves — and it turns out that she’s back in Kansas City and is the proud chef and owner of Julian (sans parenthesis — as a general rule, it’s a good idea when you’re thinking of putting parentheses in your restaurant’s name to think again).

Celina’s billing the food as refined but comforting food made with local, seasonal ingredients, which is to say  that she’s doing what most other fine-dining chefs in the country are doing.

I don’t mean that in a bad way, in fact, I mean that in a good way. It makes sense to respond to the Zeitgeist, after all, doesn’t it?

The full menu’s on the restaurant’s web site, but it includes things like lobster shepherds pie, cassoulet, short ribs with gratin potatoes and Brussels sprouts, a cheeseburger — you get the idea.

There are also "popcorn sweetbreads" for appetizers, and a lobster salad with grapefruit, fennel and argan oil.

Who knew argan oil would get so popular?