What I'm Cooking
A variety of things for Date Night.
Chicken in mole sauce with chocolate linguine. My mom gave me some chocolate pasta as part of a gift a while back. With my big boys at my parents' house for a few days, it seemed like a good time to make something fancy with it. The chocolate pasta isn't sweet -- just cocoa added to regular pasta -- and the other flavors in the mole sauce overwhelmed it completely. And, it so happens that neither my husband nor I like mole sauce all that much. Can't say this meal was a big win.
Egg-white crepes with mixed berries and chocolate chips. Not bad, but I prefer my regular crepe recipe.
Peanut butter meringues. I've made these once before, and they turned out better last time. For future reference, if you let a meringue cool for too long on a baking stone, it adheres to the stone like glue and you'll end up shattering at least half just trying to pry them off.
[Both of the above recipes came about because of an abundance of egg whites in my refrigerator. This is a phenomenon that seems to happen every time I have a child of about Silas's age: old enough for scrambled egg yolks, but not old enough to eat the whites as well. This week, however, the extra whites weren't around because of him, but rather because of the Valentine's Day failed chocolate mousse that required four egg yolks.]
Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers. These have the potential to be excellent, but I think the recipe needs some tweaking. More spices, for starters, though I'm not precisely sure what. More garlic, maybe? Pepper (which the recipe calls for, but I usually omit because 1) I don't really like it, and 2) our grinder is half-broken and occasionally leaves nearly-whole peppercorns behind, which is really unpleasant, especially considering point #1)? Also, the recipe simply says "bake," and I don't think the peppers were nearly tender enough after 15-20 minutes; but, any longer, and the cheese on top would have been completely burnt. Right at the end of 20 minutes, I thought to add some water to the baking dish and cover with foil. It helped a bit, even for just a few minutes, so I think next time I'll start out that way, see if I can't steam the peppers a bit before removing the foil so the cheese can brown. Oh yes, there will be a next time: they were worth a little experimentation!
What I'm Reading
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Picked this one up at random while retrieving some books Isaac had on hold at the library. Funny fact about me: I am attracted to a particular size and color of book. If there's something just slightly shorter than all of the other books on a shelf in a sand/tan/khaki-ish color, I will reach for it every time. This was pointed out to me by a friend years ago, who, after half an hour or so in a Barnes and Noble, laughed at me: "do you realize that every single book you've looked at here has been the same color?" I'd love to know what's going on in my brain on that one.
What I'm Creating
I scrapbooked this weekend! Since the big boys were away, I had the chance to leave out all my supplies for 2 1/2 days without fear of interference. Silas has a bit of a cold and wanted to be held more than I was hoping, but I did manage to complete four pages. All from 2010 . . .
What I'm Learning
The attachments that come with a vacuum are actually useful. This is embarrassing to admit, after nearly six total years of home ownership and several more of solo apartment living, but I've never bothered to figure out what all those pieces are for. This morning, I bent down to pick up something too big to vacuum, and thought, "hey, don't I have a skinny, pointy piece that would fit along this carpet seam?" Sure enough. Who knew?! (Okay, all of you. Don't judge.)
Favorite pin: Is this not the cutest dress ever?
Favorite blog post: I actually haven't kept up on my blog reading this week. I was going to skim my regulars, hoping something would jump out at me, but then I thought: why not just be honest? I love reading blogs, and passing on things that might be helpful or funny or thought-provoking, but it's not always a priority.
Weekly snapshot:
A variety of things for Date Night.
Chicken in mole sauce with chocolate linguine. My mom gave me some chocolate pasta as part of a gift a while back. With my big boys at my parents' house for a few days, it seemed like a good time to make something fancy with it. The chocolate pasta isn't sweet -- just cocoa added to regular pasta -- and the other flavors in the mole sauce overwhelmed it completely. And, it so happens that neither my husband nor I like mole sauce all that much. Can't say this meal was a big win.
Egg-white crepes with mixed berries and chocolate chips. Not bad, but I prefer my regular crepe recipe.
Peanut butter meringues. I've made these once before, and they turned out better last time. For future reference, if you let a meringue cool for too long on a baking stone, it adheres to the stone like glue and you'll end up shattering at least half just trying to pry them off.
[Both of the above recipes came about because of an abundance of egg whites in my refrigerator. This is a phenomenon that seems to happen every time I have a child of about Silas's age: old enough for scrambled egg yolks, but not old enough to eat the whites as well. This week, however, the extra whites weren't around because of him, but rather because of the Valentine's Day failed chocolate mousse that required four egg yolks.]
Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers. These have the potential to be excellent, but I think the recipe needs some tweaking. More spices, for starters, though I'm not precisely sure what. More garlic, maybe? Pepper (which the recipe calls for, but I usually omit because 1) I don't really like it, and 2) our grinder is half-broken and occasionally leaves nearly-whole peppercorns behind, which is really unpleasant, especially considering point #1)? Also, the recipe simply says "bake," and I don't think the peppers were nearly tender enough after 15-20 minutes; but, any longer, and the cheese on top would have been completely burnt. Right at the end of 20 minutes, I thought to add some water to the baking dish and cover with foil. It helped a bit, even for just a few minutes, so I think next time I'll start out that way, see if I can't steam the peppers a bit before removing the foil so the cheese can brown. Oh yes, there will be a next time: they were worth a little experimentation!
What I'm Reading
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Picked this one up at random while retrieving some books Isaac had on hold at the library. Funny fact about me: I am attracted to a particular size and color of book. If there's something just slightly shorter than all of the other books on a shelf in a sand/tan/khaki-ish color, I will reach for it every time. This was pointed out to me by a friend years ago, who, after half an hour or so in a Barnes and Noble, laughed at me: "do you realize that every single book you've looked at here has been the same color?" I'd love to know what's going on in my brain on that one.
What I'm Creating
I scrapbooked this weekend! Since the big boys were away, I had the chance to leave out all my supplies for 2 1/2 days without fear of interference. Silas has a bit of a cold and wanted to be held more than I was hoping, but I did manage to complete four pages. All from 2010 . . .
What I'm Learning
The attachments that come with a vacuum are actually useful. This is embarrassing to admit, after nearly six total years of home ownership and several more of solo apartment living, but I've never bothered to figure out what all those pieces are for. This morning, I bent down to pick up something too big to vacuum, and thought, "hey, don't I have a skinny, pointy piece that would fit along this carpet seam?" Sure enough. Who knew?! (Okay, all of you. Don't judge.)
Favorite pin: Is this not the cutest dress ever?
Favorite blog post: I actually haven't kept up on my blog reading this week. I was going to skim my regulars, hoping something would jump out at me, but then I thought: why not just be honest? I love reading blogs, and passing on things that might be helpful or funny or thought-provoking, but it's not always a priority.
Weekly snapshot:
Owen doing a block puzzle with my grandma on her 88th birthday.
This block puzzle is quite difficult; a different puzzle picture on each side. Owen was quite content to study each picture before choosing to place it in the box frame. Grandma Thomas had to help, of course, but it was fascinating to watch Owen spend time considering where to put each block.
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