IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGOTCHAAAAAA!

N and I have a game where she hides and I find her and we both say, "IIIIIIIIIIIIII Gotchaaaaaaaaa!".

So yesterday was the one year anniversary of N's Gotcha Day, the day I was finally able to walk out of the baby home with her in my arms.

What a difference a year makes!

Yesterday morning we went to the fair with Auntie Liz and Auntie Tasha, two of the best aunties a girl could ask for. They took lots of photos. I took a couple of photos. I kinda had my hands full. :-) This is her on her first carousel ride. And can I just say that the carousel at the Texas State fair really moves! We also rode the ferris wheel, of course. We visited the barnyard/petting zoo. Which really was a zoo with all kinds of school kids on field trips. We ate fried frito pie, fried pecan pie, Fletcher's corn dogs, and fried caramel. We went and saw Tasha's shawl and Liz's photo, both of which won ribbons.

N fell asleep in the Ergo on the train on the way back to our car and then slept for about 3 hours total, so she was well-rested by the time dinner rolled around. I, on the other hand, was exhausted. But when Mom walked in the door she helped clean my kitchen and she and Daddy wrangled N while I wrangled with a recipe I had never done before. Plov pilaf. Which is, evidently, the national dish of Uzbekistan. Different regions have their own variations, men apparently argue at length over the best way to do it. It is, seemingly, a lot like barbecue is in the US.

First off, the recipe was for 8. I found several recipes, but I went with one that had very specific and detailed instructions. I didn't want to play with reducing the recipe since it was a new one, so I got the full two pounds of lamb leg. And I got the "four large onions". Only I think that whoever wrote the recipe may not have been banking on how large our onions are around here, so after discussion with my mom, we agreed that two large "Texas" onions should be plenty.

I've had this hand-me-down cast iron Dutch oven since before I got married, I think, but had never used it. I cubed up the lamb, separated most of the fat out, then rendered the fat as called for in the recipe and browned my lamb.
Then I added in the onions, cooked them until they were translucent, and added the carrots...two large instead of the recipe's four large because I figured maybe they weren't used to our monster carrots, either.

The rice (4 cups of it) had to be rinsed and rinsed and rinsed again and again. Then I layered it over the meat and vegetables without stirring. Before I started, I had boiled 8 cups of water with some salt and set it aside. At this point I was told to make a hole in the rice down to the bottom with a wooden spoon and slowly pour water in until it covered the rice by about 2 inches. Then I covered it and let it cook for 15 minutes without opening it. I had only been able to pour in about 4 cups of the water before I was the recommended 2 cm over the rice, so I let it cook and hoped for the best.

Then I opened it and poured a mixture of spices over the rice. LOTS of spice. Three tablespoons each of coriander and cumin. Also saffron, tarragon, black pepper, and paprika. You just sprinkle it all on top and don't stir. The water had soaked in so I added more in the little hole. Couldn't add all of the rest because the rice was swelling and filling the pot.

After another 15 minutes of covered cooking, I opened it to find a VERY full pot. Either I need to reduce the recipe next time or find a larger Dutch oven. At this point I was supposed to take a large head of garlic with the top cut off and push it into the rice upside down, then cook for 10 more minutes. I used two smaller heads since I couldn't find a large one to use.

I still had a lot of water left to use, so I tried adding some, but adding just a little made it all overflow when I put the lid back on. My stove is a mess! I wasn't sure the rice needed more cooking, but I was determined to follow the recipe, so Mom and I watched as my pot overfloweth for ten minutes. At first it overflowed enough to put out the flame underneath, so I just moved it to the next burner and made another mess!
In the end, this is what it looked like in the pot. I took the photo after I had spooned out part of the rice. The instructions said it was important not to mix together the rice and "zirvak", which is the lamb/veggie mixture. The rice gets plated with the lamb on top of the rice. I uess it's tradition. That golden brown/green/red stuff is the spices I poured on top of the rice after it had cooked 15 minutes.
This is a big serving bowl. I never serve enough food to warrant using it except for dressing on Thanksgiving. whole big bowl was full of rice before I started hitting lamb and veggies. It was A LOT of food. In fact, I didn't even serve this bowl. I ended up bagging it all in a gallon ziploc. I was going to sort it into meal sizes and freeze it today, but it looks like that will be a job for tomorrow. Once I hit the lamb, I saw that the rice had gotten down in it anyway. Whatevs. :-)

Before I started the plov pilaf, I made some flatbread. Naan. Easy yeast recipe, but I've never had to knead anything for ten minutes before. They were good, if plain. I saw some recipes with garlic in them and other stuff. I may branch out next time. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be wider and flatter, but I really wanted to get all 8 on one baking sheet.

This was what was in the bottom of the pot. Rice mixed with lamb, carrots, and onion. I mixed the spices in that had been layered on the top and put it in a second large serving bowl.

We were so happy that Grandmom and Grandpa came over to celebrate Gotcha Day.
And the plov pilaf was good! It seemed like I was adding a ton of spices, but considering how much was in that pot, it evened out. N even liked it. She liked it quite a bit. I was a little surprised because these are not flavors we've given her before. I guess it really is in her blood. :-)
Then she played with her gifts. Pooh, Blue's Clues, and Dora books from Grandmom and Grandpa....hats from C and me. For quite some time, N has been obsessed with hats and I was never able to find any variety of just hats in stores. A clerk at Toys'R'Us suggested I try a Halloween store. Jackpot! She now has cowgirl, jungle, and fire hats.
Isn't that dress adorable! Auntie Liz gave it to her for her 2nd birthday, along with several other very cute outfits. I have gotten so many comments on Liz's outfits.

Sometimes it doesn't seem like we've had her for a whole year...other times it seems like we've had her forever. She's a happy girl. Smiles a lot. Loves to laugh and jump around and give hugs and kisses. She's a top-notch climber and she loves to imitate us and other children. Her language skills are very good now. She has a lot of words and is picking up more every day. She has started putting together three word sentences/groupings and I think before long she will be saying full-on sentences. She just needs to process the grammar. She is very aware of feelings and plays happy vs sad. She is outgoing and friendly, but appropriately stand-offish when necessary.

And today she had her first dentist check-up. She did very well and her teeth look fine. She was a very good girl!