Saturday, January 27, 2007

The wisdom of baby crumpet


Mia likes:
- Being surprised
- Hip Hop, Reggae and Dave Matthews (don't ask)
- Gorgonzola cheese, lamb chops, risotto and passion fruit juice
- Chasing cats
- Taking a bath

Mia dislikes:
- Falling down
- Not being allowed to chew cords
- Getting dried after a bath
- Changing cloth
- Sitting still

Friday, January 26, 2007

Mia Uno part 2

Mia @ One = 22 lbs & 31 inches

Menu

Moroccan chicken tagine with preserved lemon, turkish apricot, green olives and saffron

Carrot salad w/t garlic & italian parsley

Green salad w/t hearts of palm, corn, mandarin oranges & blackberry ginger dressing w/t greek olive oil

Roasted heirloom beefsteak tomatoes w/t rosemary & garlic

Roasted elephant garlic dip

Smoked salmon dip

Grilled spicy italian chicken sausage

Lemon curd cupcakes (from Gracie)

Afterwards, an exhausted Baby Crumpet




Mia Uno part 1

Party for Mia.

Thanks to all who came (and donated dry goods for charity)

Rachelle, Tomoko, Desiree, Collins, Jen, Gracie, Todd, Jaime, Aidan, Autumn, Jenni, Jim, Nathan, Kurt, Sabrina, Lucas, Marcus, Paul, Don, Carol, Cathy, John, Maya, Kaoru, Pierce

Friday, January 19, 2007

ONE!

Mia is ONE today!!!!!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Less Than One


Tomorrow (Jan 19th) Baby Crumpet turns one.

Today is the last day she will be Less Than One

Birthday party is this Sunday. Report/photos to come

Below was the first ever original posting of Baby Crumpet.....

Introducing Mia Jade Wood Liang!





Eager to arrive in a world populated by such wonderful things as Joe’s Shanghai, the region of Tuscany and Weber Silver Genesis II™ Gas Grills – Miss Mia Jade Wood-Liang was born at 5:24pm PST on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at the Swedish Hospital in Seattle. (Does that make her Swedish? Maybe an extra discount at IKEA? Oh, the things to look forward to!) Our cats, however, are in for a surprise.


Mia (as in momma mia) was born 5 lbs 14 ounces and 18 ¼ inches long. Both baby & mom are doing great (dad is a little stunned). Mia expressed great control of bodily functions by immediately sneezing, burping, hiccupping and - to great applause - pooping.

Mom is doing equally well. By day two she was feasting on piroshky and sushi and enjoying a Starbucks vanilla latte. In between there is a lot of sleeping.

A few sneak preview photos attached – trust me – a lot (I mean A LOT) more to come. (Wa ha ha ha ha!!!!)



We’ll be home by Sunday. If you’re in the neighborhood come on by. If you wish to skip the parents and speak to Mia directly you can send her an email at babycrumpet@gmail.com. Thank you all for your love & support. It made the whole experience that much funnier.

Adrian, Ku & Mia Jade

Monday, January 15, 2007

NY 3: Food

1st stop: Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown with Grandpa & Grandma Wood, Great Grandma Dot and Colleen. Large amount of soup dumplings consumed.

2nd stop: Cafe Mogador in East Village. Our favorite Moroccan restaurant and the site of our first date many years ago. Everyone around us wore black turtlenecks (even the cook, I hear). Large amount of tangine and pastile consumed


3rd stop: HSF dim sum in Chinatown (later, gelato in Little Italy) with Mick & Alexandra Noya. Mick impresses everyone with his Japanese custom made headphones with some rare wood and taking calls in between bites of canolis from Laurence Fishburn and Bryan Singer.


4th stop: Morimoto in Chelsea. The new digs by Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto. We had visited his flagship restaurant in Philadelphia a few years that remain a significant event in our life. The new place is very swanky and teeters on the brink between perposterous and pretentious. The food however lives up to the hype.


We take the 7 course omakase (chef's choice). Start with tuna tartar with 4 different sauces (osetra caviar, creme fraiche, dashi-soy, wasabi). Followed by kumomoto oysters served with uni and foie gras; sushi; whitefish capraccio finished with hot oil (which just barely sears the fish) and mitsuba leaf; salad with kabosu vinaigrette; dobin mushi with steamed chicken, maitake mushroom, sudachi and shrimp; whole roasted lobster with garam masala and lemon creme fraiche; and kobe beef. Dessert was bittersweet chocolate tart. For drinks we had various ''fusion'' cocktails but stayed away from the Morimoto sakes - which were handcrafted in Japan especially for Morimoto at a 800 years old sake distillery.

It's not for the faint of heart but worth every bite. Oh, and Morimoto was in the kitchen. Just like last time in Philadelphia. It's good to know a celebrity chef who actually works.


We may have done some other things in NY beside eating, but I don't remember.

NY 2: Crumpet goes to Big Apple




Baby Crumpet tours a subway stop, the Union Square farmer's market, a butcher shop in Queens and the dog run in Union Square seemingly all without supervision

NY 1: party at Colleen's

Party at Colleen's pad. It was Baby Crumpet's first chance at meeting most of our friends in New York. She was suitably dressed in a pirate shirt and pink pants.

It was wonderful to see all the people who made the trek to Astoria - Hector, Carrie, Kerri, Andre, Liz, Evan, Jen, Frank & Alexandra.

Hector (seen giving Mia the chair lift) proved to be an expert baby handler (who knew?). Evan brought cheese cake. Frank made pumpkin brownies. Colleen provided Romanian sausages, cheese & various spreads. Everyone brought beer.

Baby Crumpet was passed around like a joint and entertained the crowd with great feats - including grabbing a beer bottle (and drank from it) to staying up to 1am (she knew she was in NY). Don't know if it made any difference to bridge the cultural difference whereas in Boston everyone we saw either had kids or were pregnant (or both). In NY no one had kids and none are expected. Must be the taxes or something.

Boston 2: the Allens

Team Mia visits Team Allen in Mansfield.

Amelia was friendly & fun as usual. Sophia actually spoke to us (a first!) and gave us hugs. Sabine made an appearance. Olive was a shadow.

John - in full dad mode - whipped up an amazing dinner in less than 30 minutes (take that Rachel Ray!) - grilled lamb chops, risotto w/t sausages and a kick-ass salad. Kate brought us up to date on everyone's lives.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Crumpet in Boston 1

Team Mia spent Christmas at grandparents' house in Bedford (home of the Bedford Flag, the oldest fighting flag in the Union).

Great-grandma Dot came in from the Bay Area. We spent much quality time w/t Mia's cousin Abby and her parents Ivan & Heather. Otherwise it was many days of pure gluttony as grandma Wood cooked up a storm and we just sat back and ate, and ate, and ate some more....

Had a party where most of Adrian's high school and some college friends came to visit; as did Haley, the neighbor's dog. Mia decided it was fun to share.


Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Christmas Party

Team Mia had our 2006 Christmas Party

Great to see everyone - Desiree, Masa, Tomoko, Jen, Chris, Gracie, Leah, Rachelle, Shawn, Kathi, Collins, Kurt, Sabrina, Lucas, Marcus, Don & Carol

Music - Christmas music from Sufjan Stevens, Aimee Mann & Duke Ellington (the Nutcracker Suites in jazz - we saw it performed years ago in NY)

Menu:

- Roast center cut pork with australian crescent potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, shallots & chestnut
- Dungenese crab dip w/t artichoke hearts
- Whole smoked salmon w/t capers & lemon tartar sauce
- Spinach salas w/t beets, corn, spanish olive oil & blackberry balsamic vinegar
- Eggnog cupcakes courtesy of Gracie (who also brought a Kringle)

Sledding in Baker

Gracie & Team Mia goes sledding in Mount Baker
Somehow Mia's snow outfit (thanks Fiona!) looks like some bio-hazard suit

Overall I'd rate Mia's reaction to sledding as ''unconvinced''

The adults had a lot of fun

Here is a VIDEO

More Cozumel photos

More photos from Cozumel has been posted here

Here is a VIDEO of baby crumpet dancing to music at a restaurant in Cozumel