Attack of the Mommy Brain, and Cooking School

My name is Rebecca, and I am here to tell you that Mommy Brain is not a myth. However, it's not quite what you would think, at least not for me.

Sure, I forget where my keys are, what I was going to make for dinner, and if it happened before Kaylee was born, there's a snowball's chance in a VERY hot place that I'll have any recollection of it whatsoever. That, though, can all be chalked up to physiology: sleep deprivation, hormones, and the myriad other physical challenges my body is facing. That part of Mommy Brain is temporary.

What I'm talking about when I talk about Mommy Brain is the complete compartmentalization of my thought processes: those of Rebecca, the adult, the wife, the cook, the functioning member of society, and then those of Rebecca, the mother. The Adult half of my brain makes grocery lists, addresses birth announcements, and efficiently deals with the day to day minutia of running a house. The Mommy half of my brain, however, is a cornucopia of the frantic, the exaggerated, and the completely absurd.

For example, last night we were giving the baby a bath. Kaylee HATES baths. She shrieks like a banshee and wails like we've skinned her and she's just waiting to be roasted over a fire. So, partially for my own sanity in the face of such fury and partially to soothe her screams, I sing while I'm scrubbing her belly. Last night, I was making up words to the tune of "On Top of Spaghetti." However, I'm REALLY, REALLY bad at it, so the song went something like this:

We're making clean baby
All covered with soap
But Baby hates bathtime
So she's going to mope

We wash her cute belly
And her little arms
But... something something jelly
And we mean no harm

See what I mean? Another gem is a rousing rendition of "Rock a Bye Kaylee," which has different words each time I sing it, and none of them make ANY sense at all. Diaper changes (another experience that makes her scream like the world is ending) have turned into narrated battles, with Kaylee ordering her minions to arm the Poo canon before the evil enemy, Mommy, can raise the defenses (the diaper, of course). When they fail, she has to pardon them to keep them from losing their lives. I mean, I've always been silly, but this is a whole new level of completely off the wall goofiness. And the worst is, this is only the beginning. My parents and I still have ridiculous jokes we tell each other from when I was a kid.

Fortunately, I do still get to exercise the part of my brain that hasn't been overtaken by babiness. When I troll the parenting forums, I always see posts from moms about how they almost immediately lost touch with their friends who were not parents. I LOVE my friends who aren't parents. I love my friends who are parents too, but it's the single girls, the unmarried couples, and my guy friends who will come over and keep Sze and I grounded in the world of people who don't have a newborn. Kaylee is a wonderful addition to my family, but I feel that it's pretty important that we don't lose touch with who we were before she burst onto the scene, and the friends without kids are invaluable for that.

Last night, my friend Ashley came over, as she does every other Wednesday, for our utterly informal cooking school. (This was after bath time, of course.) We've had cooking school since about mid October, and Ashley is an exceptional student and a natural cook, so at this point, I'm just offering starting points, guidance, and a kitchen in which to practice. This was the first "class" since Kaylee was born, though, and was a little more disorganized than usual. I had planned the side dishes- fettucini alfredo and a spinach, strawberry and goat cheese salad- and we'd purchased about a pound and a half of fresh turbot to prepare, but I completely and totally forgot what I'd planned to actually DO with the fish. So, I let Ashley make it up as she went along. She did really well! She concocted a sauce from ingredients I had around the kitchen and broiled the turbot to flaky perfection. We also timed the dishes pretty well, which is always the most challenging part of cooking to learn. It's so difficult to get everything on the table under normal circumstances, not to mention when you're learning and your teacher is juggling a baby and a spatula.

With her permission, I'm going to attempt to post Ashley's delicious sauce for Turbot. You could use any firm-flesh white fish you choose, but turbot is my favorite.

Broiled Turbot with Ashley's Special Sauce

2 turbot fillets
1/2 cup or so apricot preserves
1/4 cup red wine
2-3 tbs dijon mustard
ground ginger to taste
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat broiler. Set fillets on a baking dish and season with salt, pepper, and olive oil. In a medium bowl, mix together next 5 ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings. Coat fish with sauce and broil until flaky, about 10 minutes. Serve hot with pasta or couscous.

Buon Appetito!