Where is Spring?

Polar vortex.

Anyone who lives in the "colder" states (or is deeply invested in The Weather Channel) has probably heard those two words a lot this season. What is a polar vortex? Simply put, as in without clicking the link, it's a consistent vortex or swirl around the poles of the Earth. In the wintertime, the vortex can shift or move cool or cold air over a region creating brisk, frigid temperatures, and some intense snowfall. Let me put this in perspective: it's March 18th, do you know where your flowers are?

Here, in the state of Maine, we have snow on the ground. Not just your average few inches of snow. No. Lots of snow. I've looked at the 10-day forecast. Guess what? We're expecting more snow. We're also forecasted for snow on the first day of Spring... as well as two days after. What's the warmest high temperature we're looking at? 42 degrees. (For those of you who know me, no I don't find it a coincidence.) It was six below this morning here. The lowest temperature in the 10-day forecast? Two below. And to be honest, the coldest temperature gets way below that at night here.

I've spent my whole life with cold winters. All twenty-some years. I've never been south of Galveston, TX. (No, I've never been to Florida.) Winter has never really bothered me much, I always say I enjoy snow from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day even though I've always seen snow way later than that. When I spent the summer in Jackson Hole, WY, I saw a slight snowfall the first week of June. On average though, the last snow I see is usually the middle to third week of April.

For the first time in my life, I am literally craving Spring. I always love the changing of seasons, the equinoxes and solstices if you will. I don't have a favorite season really, but my favorite times of the year are those transitions. So why this winter am I suddenly feeling the desire to go south?

I blame the pregnancy. I've asked about this to family and they don't understand what I'm talking about. I have recently felt this deep-seated desire to go to a warmer place. I'm not talking like the Bahamas for a vacation or Florida or Hawaii, while those places are nice. I'm talking about an almost primal need to move to a warmer location. I'm assuming it's a maternal instinct to protect the baby from severe cold.

Twenty-four weeks. That's how far along I am today. The baby is the size of an ear of corn. (I love corn.) This week I only have two pregnancy grievances. Glucose screening and agave nectar.

Agave nectar? You may ask this to yourself. Why's that? Well. It's that sweetener that comes from the agave plant, naturally (ha ha, pun), and tends to be sweeter than honey or sugar. Over the last week or so, I've made up my own cranberry juice cocktails by mixing about a tablespoon of agave with about a half a cup of pure, straight cranberry juice, add some ice and then water to top it off (about two cups) and then bingo! All-natural, homemade cranberry juice cocktail. And agave dissolves in hot or cold liquids, which is great! (Maple syrup does too and I've used that as well.) Well, I was perusing the internet, particularly one website called The Kitchn, and I came across a strange article, is agave nectar healthful or harmful? Take note here, I've been on a baking kick lately and had been looking for things to make, not looking for pregnancy information. I was very, very surprised to find out that agave nectar may cause miscarriages due to high saponin levels. Naturally, when I read this last night I nearly had a panic attack. Fortunately, I'd only been making my drink for the last week or so and hadn't had agave at all before that during my pregnancy (aside from the avocado smoothies). So, would you like another pregnancy food rule? No agave. I think I'll be sticking to maple syrup and good old fashioned cane sugar until I give birth.

For those of you who have never given had to have a glucose screening test, here it is in a nutshell: you arrive at the testing place. They give you a super sweet four ounce drink to consume. You drink it. You sit in the lobby for an hour. You then get your blood drawn to see if your body properly handled the sugar content. You go home. Then you find out whether or not you have, in this case, gestational diabetes. If you do you are treated. If you do not, you do not get treated. I have some serious issues with this test.

It seems so simple and easy. Until you think about it. First of all, what is in this drink they are giving you? I tried Googling it. Nothing. I have no idea. They say it's just straight glucose. I'd love to know how they make it. I'd bet it's no where near natural. It's supposed to taste like cola. I don't drink cola.

Next, I've actually read that some women will actually get sick after drinking this. Sick. If they vomit they have to go home and try again another day. No thank you.

Then there's my thought of how my body is processing this. These doctors are going to try to force me to drink a substance I will never drink again so that they can see how my body will process something it will never need to process again. All the while, this will get filtered through the baby and who knows what kind of effects that can have. I'd be willing to bet that drinking this substance could cause diabetes in itself.

Lastly, my favorite part of all: hypocrisy. Baby Center has an article about this test and since I know not all of you will read it, I will cover some of it here. Here's the beginning of a quote: "Between 2 and 5 percent of expectant mothers develop [gestational diabetes],..." Okay, so if you think about all the women who have become pregnant, you'd automatically think, "wow, that's a pretty low percentage," right? Here's the rest of the quote: "... making it one of the most common health problems during pregnancy." Now I'm confused. If 100 women got pregnant, between 2 and 5 of them would have gestational diabetes. That seems like an awfully low number. But all this gets better with the next quote: "In fact, only about a third of women who test positive on the glucose screen actually have the condition." So now after I sat around for over an hour to get my blood drawn after drinking a substance I don't know how is produced, I may test positive even if I don't have the condition? Oh and if I DO test positive, I'll have to take a longer, more definitive test? Do I hear insurance companies laughing and throwing money in the air? I think I do...

I'm not scheduled to have this test yet, I will probably be told to take it next week after my prenatal visit. Guess what? I'm not taking it. One website mentions that if you are a healthy eater (ding!) and are not overweight (ding!) you don't have to worry about taking it. If I was overweight, had poor eating habits, or had other risk factors I would consider taking the test. I really would. But I don't and I'm not putting myself or my child at risk for any silly test.

Of course, we need to talk about desserts that I have made over the last week (ironically after talking about sugar). Now, unfortunately I have just about run out of flour and will need to wait until Friday to get more. Therefore I will be waiting until the weekend to create more pastries and things. BUT, I have a comprehensive list of things I will be making. (I will include links when I make them.) I plan on making a preliminary vanilla bean bundt cake with a cream cheese glaze. It will be preliminary because I will be making many more for my baby shower next month. I will also be making pâte à choux (pat-ah-shoo) which is a French (duh) hollow pastry that I will be filling with buttercream frosting, chocolate pudding, a sweet cream cheese filling, OR, since one of my favorite Italian desserts is cannoli, I may fill them with cannoli filling. They will get dusted with powdered sugar no matter what. The other thing I plan to make is a chocolate covered soft meringue/marshmallow treat, very similar to the Schokokuss (or Bio-kuss) I ate when I was in Germany. Since I am having trouble finding a recipe for that very soft, cloud-like marshmallow/meringue, I will have to make my own recipe and post it here. It will be my first authentic Holly recipe for a baked good/dessert so I'm looking forward to that. My recipe will likely be based on this recipe I found from the BBC.

What have I made this week? It's been a pretty dry week for baking, I made a loaf of bread, nothing to report there, I did make the chocolate chip bread (link was on last week's post), but I was wanting butterscotch pudding so badly I had to make it (no whiskey included). It was fantastic, although not the best picture. (Ironically, I barely eat the desserts and sweets I make. I have a few pieces over a day or two, but my fiance eats most of it. The ONLY exception was the pudding... I ate most of that one...)

Chocolate chip bread. It was such a bad idea. I could eat another loaf.

The inside. I will say this: I used mini chocolate chips because that was what I had. I think as a result of that, baking time increased by over twenty minutes. Keep that in mind if you plan to make this. Otherwise, eating this is like no other experience.

Butterscotch pudding. Little known fact about me, I've always loved making pudding. Butterscotch is my favorite, but I love making Milchreis or German rice pudding, and I'd love to make tapioca pudding, although I don't know if my fiance would eat it. Chocolate pudding is definitely on my list.

And so another blog post comes to an end. Next week will be filled with baby info (I have my prenatal visit next week) and probably more desserts (I'm going to buy a lot of flour). Maybe the weather will warm up... although it doesn't seem likely for me...

Enjoy your week!