Updated: The Lazy Parents Guide to Raising Twins

DAD is sometimes too accommodative when feeding Liesel, holding the bottle in her mouth while she turns her head left and right to focus on something interest while she feeds.

The device above holds the bottle in one position, thus she loses the nipple when she turns her head or fidgets.

She doesn't like that.

Dad has watched her struggle with it with great satisfaction, intervening only as necessary. She's smart and figured out how to use her hands to reposition the nipple into her mouth.

Update 1: She has also learned to hold her head steady while feeding so as not to lose the nipple.

Dad isn't really lazy. He just wants to challenge his children to learn and grow.

Update 2: Dad observed that she has to be hungry to have the motivation to struggle with this. If she wants a bottle simply to soothe, she won't bother. She'll just cry in frustration. During this condition, Dad'll simple cradle her with a binky. Dad wants to ensure his children learn that food is fuel first and only comfort on special occasions. As one radio host observed with his own kids, there is a normal diet and holiday diet. The normal diet is the healthy one they eat the vast majority of the time while the holiday diet permits indulgences as infrequently as there are national holidays.

Updated: Soothing Song

BUG            a         boo,

my     little        Bugaboo,

my     little      Snugaboo,

and my little Buddy  Too.

Bug           a             boo,

my     little        Bugaboo,

I           love              you!

(Buddy Too!)

The Twins are fascinated by Mom and Dad singing to them. When quiet and alert, Buddy and Bugaboo will focus lazer like on the Parent's mouth and only interject when the song ends. The picture above shows EJ staring at Dad while he sings.

Feedin' and Sleepin' Time

EJ now enjoys oatmeal and the routine of feeding in his highchair.
Liesel is not so hot on the idea of eating solids just yet.

"Where's my oatmeal?"

"Ill sleep in today and skip breakfast."

The Parents tried a mesh netting (picture above) around her crib for a few hours to prevent her parts (arms, legs) from hanging out. That made the sheet savers unusable. But changing the sheet is a PITA they would rather not do more than is necessary, so the mesh went away and the sheet savers came back.

She really gets around that crib even when dressed in her sleep sack. Dad'll often find her sleeping with her head in a corner since she cannot yet extricate herself from that trap. She wakes from her night-sleep or a nap and sings to herself. He screams for food. Dad tries to time his naps to intervene just when he might wake, but Buddy Too has his own ideas about how long he wants to sleep.

Updated: Top Round Roast au Jus

THIS post is not about the roast, which turned out bad, rather it is about the wonderful au jus. But the pictures look nice.

Looks good, but was dry and stringy.

Post mortem: Dad attempted to make a top round roast the same way he makes a chuck pot roast, i.e. he browned it and pressure cooked it. The meat, while not tough, was stringy and dry. The cut has too little connective tissue and fat.

Concurrently he made au jus using Better Than Bouillon, water, seasoning, and unflavored packaged gelatin. Since he is fond of pork and beef gelatin for adding body to dishes that need it, and rendering it out of meat takes time and money, he wanted to experiment with unflavored gelatin. He wondered if it would perform as well.

The au jus is better than any he has ever had. Typically Italian beef juice is too salty and too thin. To compensate, some add a little fat to it, but Dad doesn't care for it. It just pools there on top in a greasy sheen. He likes the body that the fat delivers, just not the taste. So to get that mouth feel without the bad flavor (not to mention everything else) he tried substituting Knox unflavored gelatin instead.

It is wonderful.

Au jus that holds its shape when chilled.

And it is far easier to make. The picture above shows the au jus chilled. All of the seasoning has settled to the bottom (top in the orientation). From this, he can simply heat and serve it with the roast. Alternatively, he can whisk in flour for a more traditional gravy look and feel.

He used half the portion pictured as lunch. It was savory and satisfying, needing only fresh ground black pepper and a splash of Tabasco to liven it up (not that it needs livening up, Dad is just weird. He'd put Tabasco on ice cream to liven it up).

Not only does it taste fantastic, one cup has thirty calories, nine grams of protein, one carb, 680 mg sodium, and zero fat. Moreover, the gelatin cost $1.37 for four envelopes. Dad used one envelope and one tsp. of Better than Bouillon per cup of water.

Going forward he might halve the gelatin to water ratio and see if there is any loss in mouth feel. At 36 degrees, the gelatin was approaching Gummy Bear hardness.

For his next experiment, he is going to try making roast garlic ice cream for dessert. That is a month away yet so check back around Turkey Day to find out how it goes.

Update: "au" is french for "with,"  therefore "with au jus" is redundant. Sorry for the error. (Dad still refers to it as an ATM machine. Get it? Automated teller machine machine? He also has a penchant to say something is doubly redundant)

Buddy dons His Rugby Attire

Happy October 31st!

THERE are rumors swirling about some holiday occurring this time of year.

Hmm, Dad can't be sure what it is, but anyway here are some pictures of the Twins that have no particular theme tying them together.

Beware the cougar leopard young men.

Check out the tail...

...and the ears.

Man's best friend.

Is this why they're called dogs?

Hi Scotty!

Boo!

Daddy's Little Pumpkin

Buddy steals the spotlight with his smile

Hi "Booooddy"

Too cute (handsome).

Progress

THE New Family Twins are progressing along nicely. EJ regularly engages his sister in "conversation." He loves his ExerSaucer. After regressing last week to more frequent and shorter duration naps, this week he has decided that he really does prefer longer and fewer naps. By doing this he wakes more refreshed and cooing instead of screaming. Also, he is more pleasant for longer periods while awake. Dad is still working to perfect the timing, but he is sincerely persuaded that nailing that point when the boy first becomes drowsy is the fastest way to get him to sleep with a minimum of fuss.

EJ is regularly eating his oatmeal, but has decided that crying in protest makes for a accompaniment. Liesel doesn't care for the spoon and has difficulty in transporting the food from the front of her mouth to her throat. The Parents have bought rice and barley to see if she has a greater preference for either of those, though nutritionally they prefer the oats.

Liesel takes one really long nap and many shorter naps. She is yet convinced that life is more enjoyable when well rested. She too loves her ExcerSaucer and when both are in them, engaging her brother in "conversation." Yesterday set a record for dialogue length. It lasted several minutes. Unfortunately Dad was preoccupied and didn't get video. She also set a new low yesterday for worst blowout. She had to have an unscheduled bath, a treat for her, after that incident because the mess was so bad.

EJ sleeps on his back, and now does so on a flat surface. Liesel will not fall to sleep on her back. EJ, up until recently, slept in a bassinet that prevented him from rolling over. So either it is an innate preference, or it is a learned one. Dad believes it is the latter. Liesel, however, transitioned to her crib several weeks ago and quickly learned to flip over. In doing so she discovered that lying on her tummy is more pleasant for sleeping than lying (or is it laying?) on her back. Dad would like to try an experiment and switch their early sleeping equipment to see if she would now be a back sleeper, but time only moves in one direction with no do overs.

Both are healthy and happy.

Play time together

"The Conversation"

DAD figured enough out about the video editor to produce this. See the posts below for the background. He'll spend some time with tutorial when he has a chance.

This is all Dad ever asked from Windows Live Movie Maker. Too bad it couldn't deliver.

"The Conversation"

SO here is the product of Cyberlink's Power Director. Dad used the easy movie feature and accepted all of the defaults for scheme and music after trying to edit it manually.

The interface to edit movies is slick but a little intimidating. And the program hung in an infinite loop when Dad went to produce it. So the video here doesn't have EJ's end of the conversation, but is cool none-the-less.

Neat huh? It shows off the software more so than the parlay between the kids. Dad'll continue to work with it and if he likes it he'll probably end up buying it.

Now would be a good time to check the sofa seat cushions for coins. It's not cheap.

Grrrr. Goodbye Windows Live Movie Maker

ANOTHER three hours wasted and no video to show you of the Twins first "conversation."

Dad would love to post more video of the Twins on the blog. He has some worthwhile footage that you would be interested in seeing. The problem is…

Well the root of the problem is Windows Live Movie Maker (WLLM). It doesn’t support Dad’s camera's AVCHD native format. WLLM will open the file and appear to let him edit the footage, but when he goes to produce it, typically the wrong footage gets produced. Or, if that is not the case, the audio doesn’t synchronize with the video. Or if neither one of those is the problem, its something else entirely.

Anyway, after spending countless hours searching for workarounds – workarounds that didn’t work – he has decided to abandon WLLM.

So, he’ll try Cyberlink Power Director for 30 days for free. If it does what he needs it to do, perform basic editing of the AVCHD file format using his existing hardware, he’ll stingily fork over the money for it but you’ll be able to share the moments he has caught on tape (if its all digital now, what do you call it?).

Dad could just upload the raw footage, but let’s be honest, he doesn’t like most people’s home movies because they run on, and on, and on, and on. He prefers to edit out all of the boring stuff and get to the gold, i.e. if Liesel smiles for two seconds and just bobbles around the other 40 seconds, that shot sustains audience attention for maybe 5 seconds leaving 35 seconds of boredom. That is five seconds of gold surrounded by 35 seconds of worthless granite (is gold found in granite?). Not that he doesn’t glow with pride from watching her bobble, but he is sure no one else cares nearly as much.

If any techie readers out there know of a better solution Dad would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or e-mail him directly, to his firstname@lastname.com.

Updated: Perfectly Cooked Bacon

THE secret to perfect bacon is to...

Crispy.

No under or over done spots

(Click the button to read the secret.)
...bake it!

Sell your bacon press to some novice foodie. It isn't going to do for you what it promises to do.

Place the baking on a wire rack like cookie cooling rack. Place a drip pan beneath it. Pop into cold (see update below) oven and bake it at 325 degrees for about a half an hour. The cooler  slower the oven the longer it takes, but the less splatter mess you'll have to clean up later. Increase the oven temperature to 350 or higher and your bacon will get done sooner, but you'll spend 15 minutes cleaning it. Your choice.

As the fat renders and falls through to the drip pan, the bacon will crisp up evenly along the entire surface unlike when done in a pan wear the grease has no where to go.

For something different, pack brown sugar on to the bacon before cooking.

BTW, the New Family Parents prefer Hormel Black Label bacon and Egg Land's Best eggs when they are in the mood for bacon and eggs breakfast (and cannot get out to the farm to get freshly lain eggs).

Making eggs is a topic worthy of its own post. So Dad'll save that for another time. Right now the Twins require attention.

Update: So some subsequent experimentation seems to suggest that cold bacon, not starting in a cold over, produces evenly crisp bacon.

 The oven rack is not large enough to cook an entire package of bacon at one time. Dad noticed that the first batch always turned out better than the subsequent batch. He attributed it to the residual heat in the oven left over from the first batch because he had learned to start bacon in a cold one. However, after a bad first batch, it was burnt crispy in some spots while still limp in others, he reconsidered this notion.

He observed two things. First, the second batch of bacon always sat out on the counter while the first batch baked. Second, one time, the New Family Mom helpfully pulled out an entire package of bacon and left it on the counter for him so it would be ready when he got to it. Her rational was that, similar to grilling steaks, room temperature meat sears better without overcooking the center. Neither batch was good. He observed that he did not get to the kitchen for fully a half hour (perhaps longer) before cooking it. By this time, some of the fat on the pieces on the edge had begun to turn translucent.

Dad'll continue experimenting controlling for different variables and update with results.

Click here to return to the blog.

Reminisce

COMPARE these photos from now and then.

EJ on his Birthday

Liesel on hers.

The Twins today.

Why...

...did Dad repost these photos?

Does he really need a reason? Isn't adorability enough?

Fall Walk (Updated)

CHILLY air is no reason to keep the NF Twins in side. The Family decided to take a stroll and stimulate the kids.

"Hey, look at the camera. What's so fascinating over there?" wonders Dad aloud. "Oh," he figures, "wind blown leaves fall from the tree. Everything is new and fascinating to them."

Update: Dad forgot to include this picture.

Help, I've Been Sacked!

WITH the Bundler no longer a menace to the New Family Twins, it seems a new antagonist has moved in to replace him.

I've been sacked!

While the details are sketchy, a new villain seems to have snuck up on EJ and attacked him with a sleep sack.

No, You Are Not Being Punished

DAD apologizes for the infrequent update. He was busier than usual this past week.

And having to look at that salmon burger for so long may have seemed like punishment. But it was not intentional.

EJ, who has shown a fair amount of development recently, has regressed in one area. He now has decided that he doesn't want, or need, naps during the day, and so he makes nap time a struggle. However, he is really involved in his little world. He is now actively reaching for and grasping objects. He loves his ExerSaucer. Perhaps this, in conjunction with not being swaddled, have made nap time hard for everyone.

First Solid Food Feeding

IT is finally time to let the Twins try some solid food. In the video below, Mom feeds them oatmeal.

Salmon Burger

TODAY'S lunch is broiled salmon burger on a lightly toasted Kaiser bun and topped with bacon and tartar sauce.

Updated: Cost Accounting Beef Stock

DAD was curious to determine which would be a better value in making beef stock, soup bones, back ribs, or his preferred beef base.

He bought a 1.47 lb. package of soup bones and 2.11 lbs. of beef back ribs. He pressured cooked them separately, each in two cups (16 oz.) of water for 35 minutes. The back ribs were $2.69/pound while the soup bones were $2.79 per pound.

The container on the above right, the product of the bones, produced 3.125 ounces of fat, and a negligible amount of gelatin. The one on the left, the yield of the ribs, produced 4.625 ounces of fat, and 4.75 ounces of gelatin.

Beef back rib.

Source: http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/zen_of_beef_ribs.html

To standardize these (since Dad began with unequal amounts of ribs and soup bones, he converts the fat and gelatin yields to percentages). The ribs yielded 13.7% fat and 14% gelatin. The bones yielded 21.9% fat; the gelatin was not measurable.

The clear winner was the back ribs. The collagen content was much higher. The femur bones produced almost all fat. Moreover, the ribs also have usable rib meat, the bones only have the marrow.

Femur soup bones.  
Source: http://www.ifood.tv/blog/how-to-use-soup-bones

Next Dad was curious to know which is the better value, making beef stock from ribs or just using Better Than Bullion beef base.

The rib gelatin was $1.20 per ounce. The beef base is $1.24 per ounce. The base has additional ingredients Dad does not necessarily want or need, while the ribs yield edible meat. However, the ribs require time to cook and have energy costs (natural gas). Additional analysis exceeds the benefit, so Dad will not pursue it further.

For you BEC candidates, Manufacturing Overhead (MOH) is applied at the rate of... just kidding. If you are a BEC candidate, you need to get off this blog and get back to your MCQ practice.

In another post, Dad'll consider buying gelatin and using and costing that as a base for beef stock.

In conclusion, the choice to use Better Than Bouillon or to make his own from inexpensive beef ribs depends on qualitative factors, not quantitative ones. Dad enjoys cooking, but sometimes the convenience of the ready made beef base is more desirable. Further, soup bones aren't a good value at any price since Dad's diet seeks to minimize these types of fats and this fat gets wasted.

Update: Since the time of original posting, Dad has experimented, and with great success, in using unflavored gelatin as beefstock base. See top round Roast with Au Jus.