Birthday and Le Creuset Greatness

Yesterday was Rolland's birthday so went to the new Texas Land and Cattle Co. in Allen. It's the "fancier" version. Truthfully, it was a little fancy but not so much that I worried about Sophy. This was her dinner. Macaroni and Cheese (Kraft) with creamed Parmesan spinach. Spinach was in place of applesauce and our server couldn't believe she preferred this to applesauce but she did. She ate the sauce like soup.

This was my selection. You get to pick the meat for the entree and then the rub/spice and sauce option. I went with salmon, truffle salt and Bearnaise sauce. Holy smokes it was good. Garlic confit in the mashed potatoes was a big hit too. This is quickly becoming a new favorite meal. Their version was yummy. In the blurry background is Rolland's steak with cheese grits. Those grits were fantastic.

Sophy showing off her spoon skills. She switches hands but she really is right handed so that often goes much better. Gotta love her persistence though.

After dinner we came home to find this box on the step.

With this inside.

To reveal my new saucier pot!

A few weeks ago, there was apparently an incident where my Le Creuset chocolate pot fell, nearly braining the baby, and Rolland deflected it to the floor where the non-enamel handle broke with some enamel chipping off the pot itself. The details around the falling of the pot are sketchy. As I wasn't here at the time, he was able to formulate a game plan which included us hot footing it down to Williams-Sonoma when I got home. We were pretty sure they no longer made the pan (they don't) but a suitable replacement was found. My super smarty husband mentioned the incident to the salesclerk and she suggested we contact them since there's a lifetime guarantee for their products. He did and they sent this.  All we had to do was send in the broken one ($20 bucks in shipping) and viola! New saucier in Marseille blue.

Smarty pants is forgiven.

Blog Note: Neither TXLC or Le Creuset asked me to pimp out their products, although I'm not opposed to free goodies that I love and offer tasty goodness. This wasn't the case here.

Summer Break

It's been pretty busy around  the house lately but I'm still super excited for summer. Every year I still think I'm going to get out for the summer and decide to over plan when not much really changes with our schedules except less traffic. Not to minimize the importance of less traffic
cause that's awesome!

But we've made some changes around the house that have made it feel a little more special. We've started eating al fresco for all meals at home. This was partially to save our dining room rug from the toddler but we also wanted to enjoy our nice patio. We've cleaned up the yard and all the debris that had accumulated in the nooks and crannies. A small furniture rearrangement has made it seem roomier and the grill area has a space all to itself making it easier to keep Sophy fingers away. I still want to get a little more color via retro styled seating. Similar to these.

I have a long list of recipes I want to work on from Salty Snacks: Make Your Own Chips, Crisps, Crackers, Pretzels, Dips, and Other Savory Bites, Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk, The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux, and a bunch of other cookbooks I've amassed.

I'm also stock piling these jars. I've currently got a couple in the refrigerator with basil simple syrup and another with lime juice for spontaneous Basil Lime Coolers. My new favorite drink. Sophy's a fan too. 

Super quick recipe is:

1. Simply Syrup: add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water along with 5-6 basil leaves (substitute with mint or any other favorite herb here) and heat until sugar dissolves. Let cool and use immediately or store in a container in the refrigerate.

2. Juice limes: we do an entire bag at a time. Costco or Sam's is your best bet for large inexpensive produce for this. You could also do grapefruit, orange juice, etc. 

3. I also add carbonated water that Rolland carbonates using the soda stream but totally optional.

4. Mix the above into a pitch or in a glass of crushed ice to taste. Sophy and I like tart so I do about 2/3 juice to small amount of syrup and water. Sophy's has about 1/4 juice and 3/4's water with a tiny bit of sugar.

Tasty summer goodness.

Last Saturday: What was for dinner...

And this is what we had for dinner last Saturday but I forgot to post! Oy!

Anyway, we hit the road early to make sure we got to the bakery early to get all the good stuff. Turns out we got there a little too early as they were still putting everything out 20 minutes after opening. This kind of thing drives me crazy because a) I'm crazy and b) I'm a control freak. We were having some friends over for dinner paying homage to The Barefoot Contessa.

But we did procure some tasty bread and croissants. Yum.


For once I did do some actual planning and set the table before everyone arrived so it was pretty cute with several small vases of tulips and my super cute Jonathan Adler pig butter dish. My congratulatory new job gift from my hubby last June. And yes, it was perfect for me because I'm a weirdo.  So here's the before shot...

After, with beef bourginon which was pretty tasty. You can also see the lovely bread from fancy bakery. Photo was provided by my friend Randall as I was super tired and ready to eat by then. There had been a fancy cheese platter breakage incident that had me off my game timing wise.

With spring coming in any minute, we've got some cookouts in the future. Rolland mans the grill and makes a fantastic salmon and grilled burgers. Can't wait. I'm trying to take my laissez faire approach to summer that served me well the last two years. Burgers, maxi dresses and baseball. It's the only way to get through a Texas summer.

Hot Chocolate Obsession

With our cold snap here in Texas and my new mug from Rolland for Christmas, I've been hitting the hot chocolate every night. It's old school cocoa that I learned how to make from my Grandma and it's sooo yummy. I've fancied it up with handmade marshmallows (they're on the list to learn how to make from scratch) from Whole Foods and Mexican Chocolate with Cinnamon. I picked up the chocolate on a whim from Spec's and have started adding a shaving over the marshmallows. Chocolate on marshmallow on chocolate seems like the perfect use for it. 

Recipe that's not really a recipe below.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Makes 1 Serving

 

1 TBSP Cocoa

2 TBSP Sugar

Pinch of Salt (learned from The Barefoot Contessa not Grandma)

1/4 cup of water

1 cup of Milk (I use 2% but whole seems appropriate here)

Note: Most of this is done by eye and just mixing things in until they look right but I took a stab at making and writing it down as I went. Things can easily be adjusted to your taste.

Mix cocoa, sugar and salt together in a sauce pan with a whisk to get out any lumps. Add in water and mix heating over medium heat. Add milk once sugar and cocoa have dissolved. Heat to your preferred temperature and pour into your favorite mug.

Optional adding of chocolate shavings and marshmallows. You could also add in all sorts of yummy experiments like mint, peppermint, caramel, whatever sounds good.

 

The Little Paris Kitchen

I've discovered a new favorite show that my husband can hate. And he does. A lot. Although to be fair Rachel Khoo never stood a chance since he hears the french music playing and bee lines it out of the room. That man seriously has issues with the French. It's not right. Also, anyone want to visit Paris with me? He claims to never return. London? London he loves and will visit any time.

... Anyway, I love The Little Paris Kitchen on the Cooking Channel and can't wait for the cookbook The Little Paris Kitchen: 120 Simple But Classic French Recipes to come out. I may, in the interest of frugality and minor torture, make it my Valentine's Day present request. So far the recipes look relatively easy but fancy enough for a nice dinner if you use the good china. Also, being on the frugality train I love the Paris eye candy to help nip in the travel bug. It doesn't really work but I still like the eye candy. 

So far, there have been a few new offerings for the late winter that look pretty good. I'm really looking forward to Danielle Bryk's new show on DIY. I loved what she did with her house on Family Under Construction. House and Home has a gallery of a few finished rooms. Luckily, the husband loved this one so we can both watch. I'm hoping it will help keep the home organization and improvement momentum going. Additionally, I want to paint everything white - another hated of the husband's. For the love of God, never bring up Sarah Richards. He'll lose his poop. 

Anything else new I can't miss?

Random Wednesday

It's been super relaxing so far in 2013 but we are making progress on the organization. Kitchen clean out and clean up is still going forward with only 2 cabinets left. Lower cabinets have all been Sophy proofed and we swapped out the heavy Le Creuset pots with the much lighter weight baking pans on our island so when she pulls on them down like she did the other day she isn't immediately at risk for a concussion. The loud crash did scare the hell out of her for about 5 minutes and then she was right back it. I may or may not have giggled a little and gotten a pretty dirty look from a disgruntled 10 month old. She is an adventurous little girl. Greatness. I hope she never loses it.

We also used up all the chicken stock in the freezer in 2012 so Rolland made some on New Year's Eve. Glamorous. We did have on our dress pajamas...not true. Totally regular pj's. But going into the New Year with a tasty batch of chicken stock does make me happier than a drunken revelry. Also, I don't drink so there you go. After the chicken stock we had some tasty chicken left over and I made enchiladas for our New Year's lunch. We usually have Central Market tamales but no one wanted to get all scrappy with the other shoppers to get them. CM for the New Year's tamale rush is madness. For reals. But, we had our tasty chicken enchiladas stuffed with black beans, chicken and cheese with Trader Joe's enchilada sauce and more cheese on top to keep the Mexican food tradition alive. There was also black eye pea salsa for luck. The tortilla soup not tasty and was a giant disappointment although I'm not a major fan of them anyway. The tortillas are from CM and super tasty. I'm hoarding butter tortillas in the freezer for an emergency, zombies or what not.

Besides improved home keeping, I do want 2013 to be a little more art filled. Rolland got me a much coveted flex shaft (pics in the future!) with the fancy pink limited edition shaft that will require some studio rework. It was already on the reorganize list anyway. I have big plans for some soldering projects, jewelry pieces and more frequent journaling. The journal pages are great since they're easy to do when Sophy's sleeping and I get a little creative outlet. This one was a super New Year's Eve quickie page but I love the colors and got in some drawing that I usually don't do. I really need to work on my lettering, I find it tricky and intimidating. I have no idea why but am adding it to the art goals for the list.

Tomorrow is back to the mines. I'm totally not ready but am already contemplating my outfit so there is that. This partial week of doing nothing has been awesome. With a plan for a more frugal 2013 I'm hoping to get more of them in. Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Planning

Super excited that I know have Bouchon Bakery in my hot little hands! Well, depending on the recipe having hot hands wouldn't be a plus but I'm pretty sure you get that I love myself some hyperbole. I actually picked it up at Barnes and Noble yesterday with a my member discount it was $45 vs Amazon's $30 but I wanted to support one of the sole brick and mortar businesses left even if they are a giant chain but not $15 bucks worth. From now on, online ordering is it. Also, I clearly have a lot of pinions...also not surprising to anyone who knows me.





I'm also super excited that Beadfest is this weekend in Arlington. Larger shows are great for finding some harder to come by beads and findings. The International Gem Show is in Ft Worth in February and I've marked it on my calendar. I'm ready to spend some time in the studio to finish up a couple projects and then get started on some new goodies.

I got Solder Technique Studio: Soldering Iron Fundamentals for the Mixed Media Artist at B&N with a coupon - only exception to new frugal book buying policy - and want to make everything!



I'm back on the handmade bandwagon and want to make at least 1 thing for everyone for Christmas. The likelihood of this is a solid 20% especially with Sophy but we'll see. I can't wait until she's old enough and we can do projects together. Also, projects handmade by Sophy would be big hits with the fam for gifts.

Anyone else have fun weekend plans?

p.s. Cool weather has hit Texas and I got to wear my new motorcycle jacket and snuggle under extra covers. Baking and soup creation are on the docket as well. Also solid 20% on all of my weekend plans but dreaming of major productivity is almost as good as actual productivity.

Suzanne made me do it...

So the waxing of the magic that is Williams-Sonoma, and love for kitchen tools in general, continues. My friend Suzanne, who is awesome, and her fiancee Jairy, who is also awesome, are getting married in November so she asked for a few tips for her registry. Because I could go to graduate school to study kitchen gadgetry (which is much better than being a hoarder) I was happy to comply. On a totally unrelated note, does anyone remember Cliff Huxtable (a la Bill Cosby on The Cosby Show) and his love for kitchen gadgets and wasn't allowed to buy anything from Jake? Just me. Alrighty then back to my list.

1.Short Order Griddle - Which you might remember from yesterday. Let's call that one covered.

2. Frying pan - in a larger and smaller size. I have non-stick and regular versions and am quickly thinking everything should be non-stick! These are pretty much mainstays in the kitchen although the griddle could get you through for a while in cause you had to wait from birthday to Christmas then back to another holiday of your choosing.

3. Cookie Sheets - Alton Brown recommends cheap pans from restaurant supply stores and that's a pretty good suggestion. I have some pastel ones I love from last Easter at Target that make me happy because they've held up well and they're pretty. Pretty and utilitarian goes a long way for me. It's kind of how I like to see myself but I feel I could be digressing again.

4. Silpats - they go with the cookie sheets! These feel weird but are fantastic for baking and cooking anything that you would normally use a cooking spray or parchment paper for and frankly, that parchment spray business is a pain in the ass and seems fairly wasteful.

5. Stock Pot - Pick a nice stainless steel one that would hold the amount you normally cook and for boiling pasta water, etc. Just make sure it's not too tall when it's filled on the stove and is easy for you to pick up and carry. Learned this the hard way! Again, the restaurant supply is probably a good idea although I have a nice one and one that came with a dish set we got when we got married 17 years ago. The giant ones that include the pasta strainer (also have) but are too tall for me to easily drain the water and I end up with steam burns or scalded from the water. I promise, I did the research here for you. Get a nice mid-size pot and drain in a colander like your Grandma or Mom. Well, like my Grandma or Mom.

6. Dutch Oven - these things can be crazy expensive but you'll use if for everything since it can be used on top of the stove then popped into the oven for a long time which is great for anything in the winter. It's especially good for braising meat and then throwing in the veggies, herbs and liquid and sticking it all in the oven on low heat for most of the day. Yum.

7. Bakeware - cookie sheets have been covered, but if you want to do some baking I feel like the following are good for most anything you'd want to make. Brownie pan 8x8, cake pan 13x9, round cake pans (at least 2 at 8"), tart pan with removable base (great for quiche as well and would stick with 8" or 9"), loaf pans, at least one bundt pan (especially if you're in the South or Midwest!) and a pie pan (mine are usually glass).

8. Two sets of measuring spoons - or maybe that's just me since I have 3 and regularly have them all dirty. Plus measuring cups for dry and wet ingredients. No, they're not interchangeable so don't even think about it. These have tons of options and I have both pretty versions and utilitarian work horses.

9. Cooling wire racks - really great for cookies. Leave them on the baking sheet with silpats to rest for 5 mins them remove to cooling racks. Greatness and they don't crumble on you like they would if you removed them immediately.

10. Wooden spoons, rubber spatulas, etc are must haves! Leave them stuck out for easy reach by the stove. I have 4 different crocks for mine but I'm kind of crazy and watch way too much Barefoot Contessa.

11. Also highly recommend a mixing bowl set that you'll use over and over. I also have a stainless steel set of 3 with the largest bowl being fantastic for mixing large batches of anything and an antique ironstone that I use for cookies which I mix by hand when I feel all domestic. I also use if for rising bread dough.

12. And the final thing I use all the time is my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have the kind that raises and lowers the bowl vs the neck raising and lowering. For whatever reason I felt like it would last longer and I've had mine for about 15 years so my instincts did not steer me wrong. Pricey but you'll have it forever. Seriously.

I think this focus on the kitchen lately is largely due to Sophy reaching an age where she can now have some solids. She has no interest in food beyond watching us eat and throwing a fit but we continue to try. I'm looking into baby led weaning and will report back.

Also, I really love kitchen gadgets. I am still not schilling for the man and am just a weirdo Williams-Sonoma groupie. Admittedly, I have been known to cheat on them with Sur la Table.

Order Up!

My husband bought this for me last week after I pointed it out to him in the Williams-Sonoma catalog. I explained it could change our lives and that it was exclusive. He was skeptical. But, because he loves me and knows I love a surprise. He purchased said griddle fairly convinced it would never be used.

In fact, it has changed my kitchen life. I love this griddle and will carry it with me in my backpack across the country if the zombie apocalypse does in fact come to fruition. Well, Sophy will carry it since I'll have her and Rolland will have everything else. Also, across the country because I don't want to be hot AND eaten by zombies so I'm taking the fam and heading northeast. I digress. With the new griddle I have made egg mcmuffins (we also bought the nifty egg rings - you should butter those by the way). Quesadillas that were tasty with left over crockpot beer chicken and salsa left over from our stash from the Mexican place in Missouri (yes, I live in Texas. Shut up.),and unbelievably tasty patty melts tonight. Tomorrow, fish tacos!

The griddle made me love the kitchen so much I made fresh strawberry jelly on the fly to prevent our strawberries from going bad. Recipe a la The Barefoot Contessa. Turned out nicely and now I'm debating french toast for Thursday night. Use up leftover fancy bread, use the griddle and the jelly! I may have a little bit of a problem.

Note: I was not in anyway paid or contacted by Williams-Sonoma to wax poetic about their griddle. Which is kind of a damn shame since I definitely need a fancy new knife to cut up stuff for my griddle.

Arnold Palmer

I love the Black Tea Lemonade at Starbucks but at nearly $5 each, it's not feasible for a daily treat. At least not feasible for us, $5 is almost a onesie and our little fashionista is growing at a rate that requires lots of clothing purchases. So... I've finally gotten around to figuring it out. Except the part where I measured anything. :( I made homemade simple syrup with 3 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar since I like my lemonade fairly tart. Normally it's equal parts of each. I juiced an entire bag of lemons from Sam's and would say it was about 1 1/2 cups of juice. Mixed both together. Next, I made a cup of tea with our Keurig (we're venturing out later to pick up Awake from Starbucks for the Keurig to taste compare)for this I just used Earl Grey and poured it over ice. The cup of tea mixed with a cup of lemonade of ice is yummy! Perfect summer drink.

Catch Up

I haven't forgotten about posting I just haven't had much time to get to it. The husband set up my laptop on the dining room table so now I'm able to run wild on the intranets with baby safely nearby in her pack 'n' play. For my last two weeks at home, this will be greatness and I have totally unrealistic expectations for getting back into the kitchen. Also, we've been fairly under the weather with complications from delivery to general illness but now I think we're over the hump.

On Easter we did the required baby in the bluebonnets pictures. Next year should be awesome with her ability to actually sit up/walk and pose. She'll be running wild!




Generic cute baby picture. She loves to play on Mommy & Daddy's bed so I can get some good picture time in.



Small kitchen side note: I made the basic meatballs from this book and they were fantastic. I used pork and beef in the mix since I had ground pork in the freezer. It also makes them a little lighter than all beef. I served them with the basic tomato sauce which wasn't as tasty and pretty bland so I'm continuing the tomato sauce search.

In progress

Midnight journal page since the baby was all riled up one night with the kicking. I'm cheating a little with the large scrapbook pages I can just cover existing journals with for immediate backgrounds then adding the layers. I'm loving the pink, black and white.



We've also started the baby prep stocking with food for the freezer. I'm guessing in the first couple of months post delivery I'm not going to be all about the cooking so we've started making the "freezes beautifully" items. So far this includes: meatloaf, red beans and sausage (the rice cooked later will be a breeze), lasagna and pumpkin bread. The rest of the week includes pizza dough, chicken stock and chicken pot pie. With my family coming down next weekend if Sophy hasn't arrived, Mom will probably finish stocking the freezer for a good 6 months!

Sunday in the Kitchen

I spent some time in the kitchen today and made a new batch of spicy rosemary nuts from the Barefoot Contessa. I up the heat factor by using habanero powder instead of chipotle powder. More of the snacks were requested by the husband and his coworkers.



We're having Italian for dinner and I love garlic bread but wanted to find an easy recipe to make the french bread myself. I found this one on food.com and so far it was easy, smelled great and looks good. I won't know until a little later how it tastes. I have high hopes since it really was super easy and could save a lot of $.



Last up for tonight is fried mozzarella balls and tomato dipping sauce as an appetizer prior to spaghetti. I'll have to snap some shots if it works out well. I'd post the recipe for the mozzarella but Pinterest is down.

Even though the baby was going crazy playing earlier, at least that makes it sound more whimsical than just beating the crap out of Mommy's internal organs, and I desperately wanted a nap I'm excited I managed to get some kitchen time in. I've missed my fancy measuring cups and kitchen aid mixer. It's also been fantastic to have a fire in the fireplace and football in the background. Perfect Sunday.

Thankful Day 13

I'm thankful for cable and wireless internet that helps keep up my food porn obsession by watching cooking channel, food tv and searching Amazon, while watching said food porn, for some new favorite cookbooks and inspiration. Upcoming this week I plan to attempt some crock pot cooking, making squash dumplings a la Alton Brown and my favorite pumpkin bread from the Eureka, KS church cookbook I've had since getting married (thanks Grandma Criswell!) - also, they have a shockingly good website. Excellent Sunday evening.

Thankful Day 2

Today I'm thankful for butter. Yep, butter.



Most comfort foods include yummy tasty butter so when I'm missing my Grandma I can now make her chocolate sheet cake recipe my Mom sent me. When I think of my favorite food from my Mom it's chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes (yep, starch with a side of starch but it's tasty) and nothing makes mashed potatoes yummier than butter. We made sugar cookies for Christmas covered in smooth royal icing that I still can't duplicate but when I taste remind me of growing up. Grilled cheese toasty with melted butter for when you're sick and the basis for the all time favorite comfort cookie chocolate chip. The Barefoot Contessa has it right by adding a stick of butter to every recipe.

Summer Lovin'

Past summers have most likely been fairly hellacious for my husband as I spend mid-May through October bitching about how hot it is here. I have vowed this summer will be different and I will embrace all things that are good about summer. So far that has included:

1. Kaftans: My favorite has been from World Market

2. Reading, reading and more reading. So far I've finished the Twilight Series, the latest Sookie Stackhouse, read this fantastic book called Spellcast that I can't recommend enough, and am working my way through the books stacked on the nightstand.

3. Have not complained about the heat once. Seriously, this is miraculous.

4. Watching all the fantastic summer programming and looking forward to others starting: White Collar, Burn Notice, Eureka, Haven and all things Real Housewife on Bravo.

5. Cooking: I'm trying to avoid the oven which is tricky since I want to work my way through some of my baking books but with the heat (of which I'm just mentioning but I'm not complaining about) it's much better to not turn on the oven and just cook it all outside. The husband has cooked some tasty goodness on the grill.

6. Travel: So far this has been a bit of a summer wish list but we've got a trip to Austin next week planned and there are several minor road trips I've got my eye on so again with the wish list. And if I eek summer into September I have a trip to NYC planned with a friend and I can't wait!

Ok, I'm packing it in at the top 6 since I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks and it's sad how little progress I've made. More summer to-do items include:
more studio time, playing with the digital camera and my light box to figure it all out, have a garage sale, clean out my studio, update studio space in the garage and work on some home improvement projects. Good thing summer is a fairly decent amount of time in Texas!

What are your summer plans?

Baking and Stuff

I've been doing a lot of this lately.



I find it incredibly relaxing to bake and have the house smell yummy. There's a reason I love Julie & Julia so much - Nora Ephron really got it right that it's such a comfort to know mixing eggs and chocolate will thicken. It really is a law of the universe. It's reassuring to know if you follow instructions, have a little patience and a really good mixing bowl that lovely baked goods will emerge. This is not always true for the rest of the outside world. I prefer to stay all hermit like in the house.

Except for last weekend. I went to the Bishop Arts District with a friend to check out what's new. We found this incredible shop (I saw it on Unique Eats on the cooking channel) that I couldn't believe was in Dallas.



I highly recommend a visit. They let you sample everything and really know their stuff. A chocolate and foodie lover's paradise.

A nice view of downtown and the Pegasus way off in the distance.



Love the Belmont Hotel perched high up on the hill. I'm dying to try Smoke right next door.



I've got big plans for some bread baking this weekend.

Baking and Soldering

I've become a huge fan of the show "Anna & Kristina's Grocery Bag" on the OWN network so I did a little baking this weekend. Although to be clear, I don't really need much of a push to do any baking!

These were cookies I made over the holidays and froze the dough. This is the absolute best way to insure an easy option for much needed baked goods in an emergency. I thawed them over a few days then rolled them and baked them today. They're the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies from one of the cookie editions of Martha Stewart Living. Super tasty and the touch of chipotle powder to the mixture you roll the cookies in is awesome. I think they're the perfect "take to the office for Valentine's treat".



Muffins from one of my favorite baking books. I made the blueberry muffins but had to swap out most of the sour cream for yogurt and it's a pretty tasty substitution. After Rolland nicely ran out to get more sour cream, I made another batch for him with cherries instead of blueberries. He declared these tasty as well.



And finally for dinner, homemade pizza. I've been making the crust for years which is super easy. The sauce my dad actually taught me forever ago and it's still a favorite. Rolland, not a fan but that's the beauty of homemade pizza, everybody can make it to order.



During all of the cooking frenzy, I made 5 charms. 3 are for Valentine's gifts (I was a big failure at Christmas so folks are getting Valentine's gifts!) and two others just 'cause I had enough stuff on my desk to work on a few more and more sparkles are always great.

I hope everyone had a terrific Valentine's eve and have plans for a sweet and romantic day tomorrow.

New Foodie Favorite

Extra Virgin on the Cooking Channel has to be one of my new favorite foodie shows. I kind of love Debi Mazar anyway, such amazing style, so watching her cook with her husband at their house in LA is greatness. They're kind of hilarious but serious about food which is also greatness. I mean they built a pizza oven in their backyard (new summer project for hubby?!) incorporating tiles from Italy. Also, the food looked amazing.

Speaking of food, I'm to a lunch date with the hubby.

Best Ice Cream

Lately I've been getting a lot of Border's coupons for 40% and I typically use these to feed my cookbook addiction. My last fix included The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. And it didn't disappoint!

This was in progress



Then the perfect scoop(s).



I added in marshmallows and toasted almonds turning it into Rocky Road. Beyond tasty.

I made Rolland vanilla with actual vanilla beans (go figure) to which he added almonds (untoasted) and dried cherries. But since he was impatient to let his chill I put his in the fancy maker that has the compressor while mine was in the more old school frozen bowl maker. Ice cream turned out great with both so no super fancy equipment really required.

I have a blood orange sorbet recipe that sounds super tasty as well.