Figs and Goat Cheese and Goat Cheese and Figs

Since I am on maternity leave, I'm finding that while every day is a new adventure in baby-town, there's also a fair amount of sameness to it.

• Diapers (the adventure the last little while is the switch from disposables to cloth.  I think we've finally found a style/brand that we like!)
• baby bodily fluids (seriously, how are babies able to expel this much liquid in various forms in a day?? Where do they keep it all?)
• multiple outfit changes due to the above (sometimes for both of us)
• the daily walk (ie. let's get out of the house for a bit before mommy loses her sanity)

Babies are lucky they are so gosh darned adorable sometimes.  Other times, they're so cute and sweet and ideal babies you just want to kiss their feet until they fall off.  Or maybe that's just me.

In any event, I'm really loving staying home with our little one.  Look! Here's a photo of how cute she is in her summer gear for you!

Baby sunglasses may be the greatest thing ever, both for their practicality (yay UV protection!), and for how freaking adorable they are.  I'm also trying out our new ring sling - so far, she seems to like it, but I think I need a little more practice.

Now that I'm done mommy-jacking my own blog (I hope you didn't mind!), on to today's lunch.
I've been eating a lot of peanut butter & jam sandwiches and cheese sandwiches lately.  They're quick, easy and I can usually eat them with one hand while juggling baby things with the other.

Today, I felt like trying something a little different, and I remembered a visit to Montréal I took for work once, where I had a fig, caramelized onion and goat cheese panini that was so good, I ordered a second one before I finished the first. Note: one of my coworkers also ordered a second sandwich.  They were that amaze-balls.

With a small child on hand, and an innate laziness, I wasn't about to caramelize onions for my lunch.  I did, however, have goat cheese & homemade fig jam in the fridge.

So, I took some whole wheat wraps, spread them with a generous blob of fig jam, goat cheese, sliced radish, sliced baby cucumber and romaine lettuce.

Pre-lettuce wrap.  Look at the fig jam oozing out!

Amazing!  I wish I had remembered about the fig jam sooner.  As it is, I know I have a second jar, and now I'm torn as to whether or not to use it to make some more homemade fig newton cookies, or delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.

In conclusion: sweet, delicious figs + soft, salty goat cheese = delicious combination!

Tag!

So Skwishee over at Just a Mum? has gotten involved in a game of tag and she's told me I can play along too!

She's posed 11 random questions that I have to answer:

1. Name a book that somehow changed you. How?
This is a hard question since I read a LOT of books.  Seriously, our house is practically a library.
I'm going to name 2 books from my earlier years.  Anna to the Infinite Power and Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls were both among the first science fiction/fantasy books that I read that had female protagonists who weren't simpering princesses awaiting rescue.  It showed me that the sci-fi/fantasy genres could be more than 'boy smash', and that female characters could be represented in a more rounded manner.

2. If someone were to cook you the perfect meal, what would it be?
Spaghetti, with homemade tomato sauce, vegetarian 'meatballs', a nice salad with a variety of greens and boccini, garlic fried mushrooms, beer, tea, water and a super-chocolately cake (with the inner layers having chocolate mousse instead of icing between them) for dessert.  At least, that's what it would be at the moment.  I'm notoriously fickle when it comes to food, aside from the 'no things that had faces' rule.

3. Who do you want to be when you grow up?
Me, or possibly a muppet version of me.

4. You find a wallet containing $20,000 on the ground, containing no identification. What do you do?
Hem & haw for a good 15 minutes.  Then I'd probably take it to the nearest police station and hope they say that I can have it if no one claims it. Boring and staid, right?

5. Name one completely irrational fear that you've got.
That zombies will break into my house when I'm sleeping and attack.  When I was younger, it used to be 'generic bad guys', but pop culture has morphed it into something more specific.

6. Give me three songs that you're embarrassed to admit you like.
Arms Wide Open by Creed
Barbie Girl by Aqua (what can I say? It's catchy!)
I Wish by Skee-Lo

7. What is one thing you absolutely love about yourself?
It's cliche, but I really do love being a mom (most days anyway).

8. If you could be doing ANYTHING right now, what would it be?
Finishing "A Dance with Dragons" while simultaneously having a good, solid nap AND enjoying both.

9. What's the best thing that happened to you this week?
Well, it's only Tuesday, so there hasn't been much of a week yet, but I would say tiramisu gelato was one of the highlights so far.

10. If you could perfect one skill overnight, what would it be?
My knife skills - it would lead to so much more baking and cooking!

11. Tea or coffee?
Definitely tea.  Coffee hurts my insides.

Okay, on to part two!  Eleven random facts about myself.

1. I love salt & vinegar chips. 
2. I hate toe socks and flip flops.  It really skeeves me out to have things between my toes.
3. I probably watch waaaayyyy too much of the Food network.
4. The Food Network & Discovery Channel are the main reasons I do not want to give up cable.
5. I really am not looking forward to leaving my little girl when I go back to work next winter.  I will miss her so.
6. Sometimes, I eat cream cheese with a spoon.
7. I prefer Miracle Whip to plain mayo.  That being said, I've never had homemade mayo, which may change my opinion.
8. I strongly dislike small, round, explody foods.  Ie. I hate peas, tapioca, olives and rice pudding.  For everything except the olives, it is mostly a textural thing.  With olives, it is also flavour.
9. I start a lot of knitting projects, but I often get bored, disinterested or distracted partway through, and it takes me forever to finish them.  Example: I've been working on the same sweater, for me, for 3 years now.  I'm nowhere close to finished.
10. My favourite beverage is water.
11. I'm a huge nerd and I am okay with that.  If anyone wants to give me lightsaber chopsticks for my next birthday, I won't complain. Really, anything from ThinkGeek would probably work out fine :)

Now, in theory I should be tagging some others, but I don't follow too many blogs, and most of the ones I do follow have already been tagged.

Hrm.

I know, you should go and read
Swiskee's blog over at Just a Mum? because she is lovely and smart and funny
Jen's blog at My Adorable Smalltown Life because she really is adorable, and Gary the girl cat is a fluffy love-bug
Julie's blog at Feeding the Cat because she's funny and naughty and always interesting

If anyone would like to be tagged (Marilyn at Shumpgullion maybe?), let me know and I'll make up 11 questions for you :)