Valentine's Date Night

Last night Billand I had our Valentine's Date Night. We went to
Pizzeria Lola, them to see The King's Speech, then ended up at our new
neighborhood watering hole, Thd Prairie Ale House, pictured here.
Fantastic night all around!

Sent from my iPhone - please forgive typos.

Easy Cake Cookies

My littlest valentine and I made cookies while my bigger -but-still-little valentine was at a birthday party this morning.  We made cake cookies, a thing I've never done before.  

1 box cake (in this case, strawberry, an artificial flavor I will never get again)

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

Mix 'em up, drop 'em on a greased sheet bake 'e, for 8 - 10 minutes at 375.

I shaped half of them into hearts while he stirred in the very small amount of white chocolate chips we had left into the remaining batter.

Of course, quality control is very important when it comes to chips, and we encourage that in our house as long as we're the only ones eating the result.

On the sheets:

Baked.  They puff a little, but don't spread much:

We made vanilla butter cream frosting, tinted pink.  Because how else are the sprinkles going to stick?

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

4 cups confectioner's sugar

6 TBS cream

2 tsp vanilla

Alternate sugar and cream into the butter in about three or four rounds for best results.

Safe keeping until the cookies are cool and everyone is packed up and at my parents' house, where they can get sugared up while Mama and Daddy go on a date for Valentine's Day.

Did I mention the quality control?  We split one.  It was 10am.  I'm a good mother.

Specs

Today we found out my five year old daughter needs glasses.  I got mine in 3rd grade, but probably should have gotten them sooner.  Hopefully hers won't be as gooney as mine were:

Now I'm getting all obsessed with glasses... and in my head all I can hear is this: 

High Five

My kids get High Five Magazine in the mail every month, thanks to my in-laws.  I love this magazine, and we read it a lot together.  Yesterday we made a "cookbook" of all the recipes from their back issues.  It's a copy of each recipe page, three hole punched and put in a three ring binder.  They think it's the best thing ever.  The only thing I had all the ingredients for right away was this:

The kids liked it.  (no comment from the peanut gallery - not all recipes are created equal. 

I went shopping for other ingredients today.)

The Peanut Gallery.

Oh, honey, you really do go on everything.

I'm working on an all honey menu.  I have the great fortune of knowing some lovely people who keep bees and share their honey with me, so it seems only natural to try all kinds of delicious things with their amazing honey.  I recently cooked up some of this and tossed it with some olive oil:

What does that have to do with honey, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  First I heated a bowl of water in the microwave, spilled out the water and ended up with a warm bowl.  In it I put some blobs of goat cheese.  I also crumbled up some walnuts and put them in.  I then placed my olive oil tossed lemon pepper pappardelle on top, and mixed it together.  The goat cheese becomes a rich sauce when it melts on the warm pasta in the warm bowl.  The best part is next: I drizzled it with a little honey and tossed in the tiniest bit of fresh thyme.  

This is my new favorite pasta dish.  Creamy, crunchy, nutty, citrusy, sweet.  Perfection.  I must get myself to Trader Joe's post haste, as I've eaten all the pasta I had.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

My day in food: Fried egg over orzo with broccoli rabe and feta, tuna
melt, chicken pot pie, vanilla frozen custard (made from the custard
of...), creme brulee. Now drinking a Russian Mule and watching Glee.
Yes. Yes, I did have two desserts. It's my blog's birthday.

See you tomorrow, my loves.

Sent from my iPhone - please forgive typos.

The Eve.

On the eve of my first blogging anniversary I went to my first food blogging event.  I was nervous.  I was excited.  I went and had a great time and met some really interesting people.  Now I'm home and I feel like this:

Happy.

Happy First Anniversary Eve, blog.  I don't really know what to do to commemorate the day tomorrow, but I kinda can't wait to see what I come up with.

xoxo,
V