Coddled Eggs

The perfect Wodehouseian breakfast.

Joy Dare :: 3 Gifts Sweet

Mom and I were talking about Three Gifts Sweet, and we realized that could go a couple different directions. There’s sweet like, “Oooh, that tastes sweet!” Sweet like “Awww… so sweet!” and then sweet like “Schaweeet!” (didn’t think of that last one till just a bit ago, Mom!)

So, really, I only thought about the “Oooh, yummy!” kind of sweet.

We snagged these at our discount grocery store during an emergency run for flour and nutmeg. Yes, no nutmeg DOES qualify as an emergency. They were cute, festive, and dipped in white chocolate, which made the children very happy.

But look! Papa is helping the girls identify a bird that they spotted. Awww, so sweet!

I am very thankful that Dan can make it home on lunch breaks now. It’s nice to see an adult (and one I like so much!) halfway through my day. Plus, we give him a rundown of the school day while he’s here, and he often has something to add. It’s one of my happiest blessings right now!

I also managed to score this yummy Christmas-ish coffee at the discount store. Which is schawheet! (But shhhh… don’t tell anyone about this last one, because some just might make it under the tree for certain family members at Christmas time!)

Joy Dare :: 3 Gifts Silver

When I was thinking about Silver Gifts that I am thankful for, the first thing I thought of was my French press. Turns out, the French press ranks pretty high with my mom, too. Great minds, and all that. It’s a pretty multifunctional piece of equipment, and I am am very grateful to own one!

These pretty little shot glasses were a gift from my brother Jared. I think he snagged them from Germany on one of his trips ’round the world. I am convinced that Jared’s love language is gifts, because he and his lovely new wife Amber both just do gifts so well.

My third item of silvery happiness comes from a thrift shop. Thrift shops are the bestest ever, and every time Dan leaves me with the van he secretly worries what I will drag home. But we both agreed that this was a good find, since last year when we needed a tree topper, and had a very small budget we still hated what dollar general had to offer. Thrift shops are the best!

When life gave us strawberries…

we made scones!

Nod to Rachel, at Song In My Heart

My previous attempts at scone failed ten out of ten times. They were gross and tasted like baking powder. Frustrated at my failures, I decided that that it was a possibility that my three year old baking powder (purchased in bulk from Sam’s) might be the culprit. I got another can of the stuff and sure enough, that solved all my life’s problems. Morale of the story: Baking powder does go rancid. Yuck!

Armed with a great recipe, fresh baking powder, plump strawberries from Aldi, and 2 quarts of iced coffee, I trotted into the kitchen to make us some breakfast, and all was good.

Springtime Breakfast

One of the things that we love the most about spring is eating our meals outdoors. Especially in that precious week of warm weather before the mosquitoes get involved. We enjoyed quite a few breakfasts, lunches and dinners outdoors last week!

The slightly cooler mornings call for coffee, of course!

Some of us take a little longer to wake up and get with the program! 🙂

Lunch

Lunch today was so scrumptious and lovely that I felt compelled to share. Well not share share… more like gloat share.

It was a lovely green salad with leftover baked chicken, cranberries, sesame seeds, black olives, and avocado, with a bit of crushed garlic, a drizzle of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. Yum!

Oh and Rachel? I think there’s a pretty good chance that was your salad so I probably owe you a salad. And I am pretty sure that you owe me like, eighty-five cents.

Breakfast

Inspired by THIS.

snow ice cream – the Gilli edition

As long as I can remember, my family has celebrated the first snow of winter (who am I kidding – pretty much any snow!) by making snow ice-cream.

So of course we had to celebrate what I hope is our only snow of the winter with snow ice cream. 

Not wanting to leave Gillian out, we modified her snow ice cream recipe to applesauce mixed with snow.

I think this is the first time she’s eaten anything colder than room temperature… and her reaction was pretty funny to watch.

Apple Tasting

 

We held an apple tasting last week, as part of our unit study on apples.  It was really fun (and interesting!) to explore all the different flavors,
textures, sizes and colors of this one fruit alone.

We chose one of each kind of apple that the grocery store had (actually, Marme did this part for us)!  We washed them, looked at the different colors, variations of the shapes, the way each one felt, etc.

Then we cut each one in half and admired the star design in the center of each.  We talked a little about halves, wholes, and quarters.

We noticed that the stars in the center were a little different for each kind of apple.

Then we tasted…

carefully considered each apple…

and rated it.

Some of used a star rating system…

while some of us preferred our own rating system, which involved chihuahuas, hearts and people (either fat or skinny).

Not to name names, but the ones of us who used the latter rating system are blonde.

Some of us just pronounced all apples to be “nummy!”

Strawberries and Scones

But check out the strawberry bowl…  It’s just like all the old bowls that my grandma and great-grandma’s had, and I love it!

The scones were really good.  I made them from the Smitten Kitchen recipe, with a few small changes to accommodate what I had in the pantry.

Truxters approved.  Heartily.