Equal Parts

You think when you bring your second child home that you will have time for absolutely nothing. No showering, no cooking, no folding of the laundry, no cleaning of the countertops, certainly no writing that isn’t typed with a single thumb on a phone during a midnight feed, trying to capture a cute moment the sisters shared earlier that day.

Because some variation of that was true for the firstborn (did I brush my teeth that first week or just swish mouthwash around before I ran downstairs to make another bottle?), and you think the second is going to bring double the work. Surely there won’t be time for any housework, and this time there’s a toddler who needs to eat.

Then, the second night we were home Jeff asked what sort of fancy, can-have-whatever-I-choose meal I wanted him to make for dinner. My parent brain answered soup or salmon and he responded boring! then made me mushroom risotto. Whereas my mom did all of our grocery shopping when Olivia was born (and I also had to call her back to wash and slice the fruit), in the past two weeks Jeff has been to three different grocery stores, the fish market, Costco, and Target multiple times. On Monday he pulled his truck out of the garage to completely detail it. On Tuesday he sharpened all of our knives.

For my part, I’ve showered every day, and only once in the afternoon. I’ve never skipped brushing my teeth, and I’ve flossed too. All of Hallie’s laundry has been folded and put away properly in the dresser or closet, notably not in piles on the guest bed. We had a newborn photo session at our home, and the whole family was cleaned, dressed, and primped on time — actually 10 minutes before it started. I painted my nails two days in advance for the occasion. Yesterday I wrote a list of six possible chocolate cakes to make for Valentine’s Day. Today I wrote this.

It would be amazing if you could have second child confidence with the first child. People would learn to quilt, and take up mountain biking, and start businesses and non-profits, and solve world problems!

Jeff has been on a Michael Symon kick, and for his second home-cooked meal postpartum, Chef Jeff made Chef Symon’s roasted red pepper dip with feta, fried eggs with avocado salsa, and sweet potatoes with almond butter. We’ve already repeated the eggs and sweet potatoes, and the latter are worth remembering just for the almond butter, which is not the kind from the jar.

(And to think that “take down website” has been on my to-do list for the last six months!)

BAKED SWEET POTATOES WITH ALMOND BUTTER, inspired by Michael Symon

*In true chef style, the video demonstration is improvised and doesn’t list quantities of ingredients. Below is my guess.

Bake 2-3 sweet potatoes in oven for 60-90 minutes, depending on size. Toast about 1/2 cup almonds in oven, then let cool. Blitz almonds in food processor with herb of choice (mint, parsley, sage, etc.). Add contents to bowl with about 4 tbsp room temperature butter. Squeeze about 1 tbsp honey over the top. Use a fork to mash all together. When sweet potatoes are cooked through, remove from oven and slice down the center to create a pocket. Scoop a generous spoonful of almond butter into each sweet potato pocket. Finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt and urfa pepper (or similar), and an additional squeeze of honey and drizzle of olive oil if desired. Enjoy!