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A small bonfire, marshmallows from the surplus grocery store, and my camera…
As you can tell, I could easily have been entertained all evening!
It all started out so… civilized.
Marme and Granddad brought the girls some Valentine’s Day balloons last night, and they have been the most exciting thing that has happened to the girls all week.
I made a replica of the breakfast which Dan and I shared (in bed, back then) on our fist Valentine’s Day together.
We had Eggs Benedict (my all time favorite breakfast, in case you’re wondering), but this time on homemade English Muffins, with asparagus…
and chocolate covered strawberries, though this time I made chocolate fondue and we dipped them as we ate them. So much easier! Strawberries and pineapple have been a part of every Valentine’s Day we’ve shared.
The infamous pink latte, with pink steamed milk for the girls…
Dan and I set the table last night before bed.
We actually have colds today, and Kinsley ran a fever off an on last night. It’s tradition, you know.
Looks fairly civilized, right?
Look again. Sophie really enjoyed the fondue. She eventually ended up shirtless, because she can’t stand a stain on her clothing. Strange girl.
Dan had an upset stomach, because he took a zink tablet on an empty stomach.
Kinsley’s dinosaur family made an appearance.
Grandma had dropped by with chocolate hearts for the girls.
Which they very much enjoyed.
In fact, Sophie found them downright inspiring.
We very much enjoyed our breakfast together, even though Dan and I often feel that we’re observing the residents of a loony bin, destined to be residents of a loony bin ourselves, as a result. What would we do without them, though?
Being as large as an elephant, having two rambunctious children running around shrieking like banshees, I don’t feel very romantic at times. However, I always want holidays to be special. So, I’ve been thinking of ways to make our Valentine’s Day special.
I plan to:
Change the sheets. All through the house. Clean, lavender scented sheets are such a treat!
Deprive the children of sleep. Wake them early on Saturday, make them run laps around the yard, and refuse them their naps. Then maybe they’ll go to sleep at a reasonable hour and stay in their beds, which would give Dan and I time to read a book… at least.
For breakfast, I’ll set the table with my white table cloth, pink rose petals, and little heart candies scattered about. I plan to make my little secret (not for long) pink latte, and I will also serve the girls warm, pink, frothed milk in dainty tea cups.
Write Dan a love letter. I used to do this much more regularly, but lately it seems like we’re more like fox-hole buddies trying to survive the battle of raising children together. If I get the chance to remember how wonderful my husband is, it just goes a long way to making the whole day glow.
Light lots of candles. Of course, they all have to be as near to the ceiling as I can get them without starting any fires, but it should still create a romantic and cozy ambiance.
Play some Spanish Guitar music. We used to play this in our cozy little honeymoon trailer, and it just sounds like romance, to me.
Light some pinion incense. See above.
Bathe children and lather sweet smelling lavender baby lotion on their itty bitty selves. Inhale deeply.
Set out a basket of clean, fresh smelling throw blankets in the living room.
Get cozy in the evening and read our newly acquired (library) copy of Wind in the Willows together.
So, that’s the plan for now. How do you make your Valentine’s Days special?
The first thing I think of when we get a big snow, is snow ice cream. Well, maybe I grumble a little (okay, maybe a lot) about the cold white stuff, but eventually I come around and try to make the best of it…. (Sometimes that might mean not looking outside while pretending that there is no such thing as snow, and that the temperature always stays about 60*….)
Okay, so I was talking about snow ice cream. This is something we always had when I was a kid. When it snowed, anyway. I think it used to snow more, when I was a kid. Which, make me grateful for global warming, if it’s happening.
Yeah, so back to snow ice cream.
16 cups snow
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or any flavor actually – this morning we used coconut, and it was really good)
Place snow in a large bowl. Pour condensed milk over and add vanilla. Mix to combine. Serve immediately in chilled bowls.
You have to eat this stuff fast, because it melts fast!
One of the simplest meals we’ve had recently, and so satisfying on these cold winter evenings…
We had some leftover roast beef. And leftover green beans with plenty of flavorful juices. And about a half a can of leftover beef broth.
And carrots and celery, which are always threatening to up and rot, in my crisper drawer. In fact, Dan calls my crisper drawer “the rotter”. We also have a cabinet which he calls “the staler” but that’s beside the point.
We added some potatoes, which were beginning to grow lots of eyes, and needed to be used. Some crushed garlic, some pepper rub for steaks, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and a smidge of truffle salt.
The girls helped make the stew. They’ve become very useful lately, just ask them.
Then, I took some of my wonderful Artisan bread dough, which is often in the fridge, and make parker house style rolls, which tasted sourdough-ish and were very wonderful.
So perfect for dinner on a one degree night. The whole satisfying dinner required about 20 minutes in the kitchen, and then made the house smell wonderful for the rest of the afternoon!
This is a Mama (notice the massive size) “shungeling her baby while the papa and the girl are laying in bed, telling stories”…
“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ~ G.K. Chesterton
This is the only bread recipe I’ve ever tried that I like better than the No-Knead bread recipe from the New York Times.
I like it because the flavor develops over time, and each time I make a loaf, it has a slightly different flavor. And, it’s just as good if I don’t let it sit in the fridge for a day or two. You end up with four loaves for your efforts, instead of one. Four loaves that don’t have to be baked at the same time.
The recipe comes from a book, entitled Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I don’t have the book, but the website has been interesting. Apparently you can deviate from the basic recipe in an endless number of ways to create all sorts of artisan tasting breads and pastries.
Preparation time: 15 minutes to prepare enough dough for four loaves, to be baked over four days to a week. Each daily loaf will average 5 minutes of active preparation time. Makes four 1-pound loaves
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for the pizza peel. (I actually let mine rise on parchment paper, and move the paper to the baking stone)
In a 5-quart bowl, mix the yeast, water and salt. Add all the flour, then use a wooden spoon to mix until all ingredients are uniformly moist. It is not necessary to knead or continue mixing once the ingredients are uniformly moist. This will produce a loose and very wet dough. (Note: I mix mine in the Kitchen Aide)
2.Cover with a lid (or loose plastic wrap). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours, but no more than 5 hours.
3. After rising, the dough can be baked immediately, or covered and refrigerated up to 14 days. The dough will be easier to work with after at least 3 hours refrigeration.
4. On baking day, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the bread from sticking when you transfer it to the oven. Uncover the dough and sprinkle the surface with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough (serrated knives are best). Store the remaining dough in the bowl and refrigerate for baking at another time.
(Note: I don’t use a pizza peel. Actually, I have no idea what one is, so I stick with the age old parchment paper. I also don’t sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, esp. if it’s been stored in the fridge. It seems like that would dry it out too much.)
5. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick. Create a smooth ball of dough by gently pulling the sides down around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. While shaping, most of the dusting flour will fall off. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out during resting and baking. Shaping the loaf this way should take no more than 1 minute. (Note: I don’t worry about getting the ball smooth. And I try to add the bare minimum of extra flour.)
6.Place the dough on the pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes. It does not need to be covered. The bread may not rise much during this time.
7. Twenty minutes before baking, place a pizza stone on the center rack of the oven. If you don’t have a baking stone, use another baking sheet. Remove any upper racks. Place a broiler pan on a rack below the pizza stone or on the floor of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F.
8. When the dough has rested for 40 minutes, dust the top liberally with flour, then use a serrated knife to slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top.
9.Slide the loaf off the peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour boiling water into the broiler tray and close the oven door.
10.Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Allow the bread to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack.
Drum roll….
An Espresso Gaggia! But alas, when I brought it home, it was broken. I wept. Actually, I didn’t weep. But if I had time and energy, I probably would have wept. I felt like weeping, anyway.
However, my completely incredible, wonderful, and also very handy husband, managed to fix it. In his words, he bumped, thumped and knocked on the pump. But I’m pretty certain that it was more complicated than that. He’s simply being modest.
We enjoyed a leisurely weekend together, working and playing in the yard, and even making a spur the moment trip to Saint Louis.
Kinsley has been very interested in “helping” me cook, and took great pride in arranging the food on the plates for our lunch.
