Food and Bev and Bun.

It's been a few months, but I promise I have a good excuse this time...three hints:

1. I haven't feel like cooking much (what?).
2. I couldn't be in the same room with onions sautéing in butter (never before!).
3. I've been eating my burgers well-done (now you know something is going on).

Yes, in September, Food and Bev will add a new diner to the reservation! We are so excited to be expecting a baby girl. Before we knew what we were having, we wanted to be able to call her something besides "It," so we dubbed her "Bun" (a double play on a loose tie to a family name, and, well, she's in the oven).

Thankfully, things have been pretty smooth. The worst of it has probably been the fact that, for the first 16-18 weeks, food didn't taste the same. I couldn't season anything properly (only once did Nick actually not finish his over-salted oatmeal). The more umami, the worse things tasted...I completely skipped braise season this year. Soy sauce was out. Even chocolate lost its appeal. But otherwise, I've been very lucky, and it's been pretty great. Family, friends and co-workers have been excited and supportive, offering well-wishes and welcome advice.

Like a proper Millennial mom-to-be, I have two separate phone apps to track the pregnancy. Sure, there are other mom-to-be discussion forums, places to keep notes from doctors' appointments, calendars to log weight gain, nutrition and exercise. But my favorite part is definitely the weekly update (refreshing every Thursday, based on my due date) that tells me what size fruit/vegetable Bun is. Though the produce progression has been a bit suspect (the tomato appeared four weeks after the orange), it's great fun to imagine. The primary reason I got the second app was because an also-pregnant friend told me it had an option to size the baby based on a Parisian Bakery theme. This week we're on banana and brioche, respectively.

Just over half way through -- appetite and energy to cook are both back in full force, so expect to see more posts this summer!