winter crudites, white-bean dip with toasted pita triangles, goat cheese spreads

Saturday was a bar-b-que at my parent's house. My mom asked for me to bring veggies and dip so I decided to make Winter Crudites with Lemon Thyme Dip. The crudites I chose were baby carrots, fennel, zucchini and asparagus. Once I got rockin' I kept it going by making Goat Cheese Spreads and White-Bean Dip with Toasted Pita Triangles. That's four Everyday Food recipes in one day (actually five if you count the Dill-Feta Eggs I made first thing that morning).

Pictured in the brown bowls are Sundried Tomato and Thyme Goat Cheese Spread, Pesto Goat Cheese Spread and the White-Bean Dip. There was also slices of fresh baguette, pitas and assorted crackers.

Last week I was freaking out because The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were playing at the Tralf in Buffalo on a Saturday night. The day I found out I spent most of it thinking that I dreamt this scenario. Their self titled album was my favourite album of last year and was pretty much the soundtrack to my pregnancy.
This is actually our first concert out in a very long time. It almost feels like a decade has gone by or something because I noticed some new things happening around us. Probably the funniest was finding all the kids spending most of their time at the show texting, tweeting and photo taking with their phones. Even though we're parents going to a show we got carded at the door, so I'm not letting myself feel too ancient.
I've never seen a show at The Tralf before and it's a fantastic venue because the acoustics are great. We arrived just as the second act went on because we got caught up at the border (pulled over for a car x-ray). I'm glad we caught the second band because I'd never heard of them but they were really good. They are a bunch of kids called Surfer Blood and really great live. I'll probably end up giving them a chance.

What can I say about The Pains of Being Young at Heart but they were really incredible live. I'm totally in love with their live guitar sound (specifically Kip's guitar). Their album doesn't quite capture the jangly sound in the same way. Only a handful of bands I've grown up listening to capture this sound - The Pastels come to mind.

I couldn't help but have Owen always come back to my mind as we were out. He's become a little acrobat these days always doing yoga style leg raises. He does it so often I attempted to get a photo of it but he got a little camera shy. Today after I took him out of his bouncer I found a penny in the seat. He seems to be so active & flexible the change is falling out of his pockets!