valentine's day en double

impressed with my french skills, no?

anyways.

bryan and i aren't generally huge on the whole valentine's day thing. i get flowers, we eat a fab dinner at home, and that's about it.

this year, we both had great ideas for dinners, so we decided to do them both.

saturday, we had my pick: steak frites (using the hangar steak from our cow) with sauce gascon (essentially a pan sauce with white wine, demi glace, and mustard), homemade garlic aioli for the frites, and roasted beets with creamy horseradish vinaigrette over winter micro greens. and red wine. for dessert, we had heart cookies oliver made at day care, so of course they tasted perfect and full of love. delicious and filling. i heart homemade frites.


sunday, we had braised pork belly with sunchoke puree and grilled radicchio with balsamic vinegar. oh yea, YUM. i had to banish myself from the kitchen once the belly came out of the braising liquid lest i EAT IT ALL. it was very good, though not a whole lot different tasting than a pork roast, albeit a very, very nice one. still, no complaining. we washed it all down with some fat squirrel ale from new glarus brewing company. for dessert i made chocolate cake, with strawberry filling. i wasn't very happy with the cake. it was no where near as chocolatey as i as expecting, and the frosting didn't come out. i had never attempted that kind before and doubt i ever will again. for the strawberry filling, i used some frozen berries we had from last summer's u-pick. in the end, while it didn't look very pretty and wasn't as chocolatey as i was looking for, it certainly didn't suck. oliver in particular wasn't upset, as it's hard to cut a small piece of 3 layer cake, so he got a relatively good helping.





we ended the day by watching couples retreat, which was funnier than i expected. for once, vince vaughn didn't annoy the crap out of me; he talked non stop, but his character's view on marriage was endearing.

all in all, a very lovely valentine's day, happily spent with my two favorites boys.

spring may have sprung *

monday, april 20th: steak roulade with peppers and parmesan, grilled sweet potatoes, artichokes with balsamic vinegar, and grilled endive, also with balsamic. the steak were on sale at the outpost, already stuffed with red and yellow bell peppers and parmesan cheese, and rolled. the draw of being able to simply toss these on the grill (and them looking so yummy) won out over my normal rule of not buying prepared foods (besides, they were handmade with all natural / organic meat, veg, and cheese, so i wasn't breaking the rule too bad).

tuesday, april 21st: soy glazed flank steak, rice, and broccolini with sesame oil. i wanted to do something a little different with flank steak, since we normally go the tacos/fajitas route for a quick dinner. this worked.

wednesday, april 22nd: chipotle shrimp tacos with avocado. i had been thinking about shrimp, and i'm always looking for an excuse to eat avocados, and i'm not one to turn down tacos... so i loved this. the recipe calls for tomatillos, but we didn't find any, so we just skipped that part. another slightly different, delicious meal. we used bryan's homemade chipotles en adobo.

friday, april 24th: cheeseburgers and cold pasta salad with a sparkling rose wine. martha had been telling bryan how wonderful roses are, so he decided we should try them. the sparkling wine was rather refreshing with the burger, though it was still a little too far on the white end of the spectrum for me. the pasta salad is something my mother used to make often during the summer - pasta, tuna, mayo, peas, onions. i've adapted it to add dijon mustard, lemon juice, and italian parsley. it will forever remind me of summer.

sunday, april 26th: for lunch, i made myself a cuban and a salad with garlic vinaigrette. bryan had gone to chicago with his friend dirk to see throbbing gristle. when they left on saturday, i made them cubans (and toasted almond chocolate chip cookies, holla!) to take on the road. i had mine sunday for lunch, and can i just say, go me?! they were the good stuff. bryan was home that night in time for dinner, and i made a new england style fish casserole, based on some recipes in the cookbook recipes from a very small island. i poached some orange roughy, and mixed that with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, green beans, and cauliflower in a cream sauce with tomatoes, worcestershire, horseradish, and sherry, topped with breadcrumbs and parmesan, and baked. it was the perfect one dish meal for a rainy sunday evening.

monday, april 27th: hot dogs with mango chutney and red onion relish, fries, and our old standby, peas. we had some mango chutney leftover from our curried beef potpie, and this was a nice way to use it in a different way. a delicious way. a very delicious way. as you can see, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. i did not make it through that second hot dog.



tuesday, april 28th: japanese chicken-scallion rice bowls with zucchini. oliver, as usual, ate mostly rice.


wednesday, april 29th: whole wheat pasta with italian sausage, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. this was a request from bryan. he really likes the whole wheat pasta, and easy weeknight meals (fair, since he does all the cooking during the week). i think oliver ate more of this than i did.
saturday, may 2nd: having eaten far too much crap in the prior 48 hours, i was determined to eat nothing but vegetables for dinner saturday. alas, the outpost conspired against me, having some lovely little eberly game hens available. i couldn't resist picking them up, but i'm so glad i did. these hens were the best tasting poultry i have ever had. so flavorful, without even a hint of gaminess. i simply seasoned them with salt and pepper, and grilled. while i'm sure they're wonderful in a sauce, they don't need any. i served them atop a salad of spinach with grilled tomato and roasted garlic vinaigrette, alongside grilled radicchio with balsamic, and grilled rustico french bread. i started feeling better before the meal was even over. bryan could not stop talking about how good the meal was. i totally won the good wife award.

sunday, may 3rd: roast chicken with mustard cream and chives, arugula with roasted garlic vinaigrette, and roasted potatoes and asparagus with parmesan. i didn't think i could outdo the meal from the night before, but i think i did with this one. i made a compound butter with cracked black pepper, thyme, marjarom, lemon zest, garlic, and white wine, and stuffed it under the skin of the chicken. want to know the secret to keeping your roast chicken moist? stuff a stick of butter under the skin. (and don't even talk to me about fat until you've read omnivore's dilemma or in defense of food or real food or... well, you get the idea.) i also put quite a bit of chicken stock and white wine in the roasting pan. the mustard cream, since i did not cook the chicken in the same pan as the cream, i did slightly different - i sauteed chopped shallot in butter, then added the stock, cream, and mustard. i also finished the sauce with a healthy portion of chives from our garden, since they were ready to be snipped. i think the asparagus could have been better; the recipe has you roast them for the same amount of time as the potatoes. the cook in my head said, wait, asparagues roasts far quicker than potatoes, but the other part of me head said, well, that's what the recipe says, so we'll do it. guess who i should have listened to? oh well, no complaints. the arugula was perfect with the roasted garlic vinaigrette, and even better when slightly wilted under the warm mustard cream. for dessert, i made a strawberry rhubarb (from our garden) crumble. mom and dad joined us for dinner. there is no chicken left, that's all i can say.

WFD tonight: crockpot chicken makhani (indian butter chicken) with rice and broccoli. this time, i'm using boneless, skinless chicken (which the recipe calls for, but for which i only had normal chicken legs last time). which should be much nicer - no fishing bones and skin out prior to eating.

not a lot of other news from us...

oliver turned 18 months, and now officially weighs 28 lbs (like a 2 year old) and is 34" tall (like a 3 year old). that kid is sturdy. i think he's getting one of his eye teeth - it so very much looks like it wants to pop through, but just isn't quite there yet. he's been suffering from some cold (no, not H1N1!), but is taking it in stride, since he's such a great kid (i say that now, right?).

last week, oliver busted his face pretty good at day care. he was climbing on a chair (a kids size chair - she has a table and chairs set for the kids in the kitchen) and managed to flip over the back. he face never really bruised, just had these red and purple streaks. he recovered in no time (emotionally). i just keep telling myself - it's only going to get worse. the older he gets, the higher he's going to climb. danger boy.

the weather here has FINALLY gotten nice, so we try to spend as much time outside as possible. this past weekend, if ollie wasn't napping and we weren't eating, we were outside! it was so nice being in warm weather. bryan got cracking on his raised beds for the garden, and oliver did his best to help. mostly he ran all over the yard, up and down the deck, dragging the rake, hose, or his bike with him, and generally tiring himself out (ahh, perfection).

a look back and the past few weeks:

monday, april 20th: taking a ride and makin' some calls

monday, april 20th: trying to figure out why this balloon was on the ceiling yesterday, but on the floor today

friday, april 24th: blue skies (and oliver sliding off the deck)

friday, april 24th: playing in the bushes (or: a harbinger of things to come)

friday, april 24th: oh, you found me, mom!

saturday, april 25th: helping dad with the shovel in the yard... and DIRT

... and ROCKS!

sunday, april 26th: playing let's steal things i shouldn't have and hide in my tent

tuesday, april 28th: feeding myself with my hands...

...and my bowl...

...and my spoon!

saturday, may 2nd: one shoe on and the other shoe off

goofing around with mom before breakfast

sunday, may 3rd: playing on the deck

ahh, the joy of being outside

sunday, may 3rd: a boy and his phone

our tulip bed, with herbs planted (basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and parsley)

bryan working on the raised vegetable beds

my new strawberry plant (and our chives)

and of course, there are far more pictures (and cute video) in the april and new may galleries.

_{* and i would just like to point out for all you non-wisconsinites, that while spring may have indeed sprung, we still have no leaves on our trees, and the last average frost happens around may 10th. so we're not exactly in the clear yet.}

in like a lion . . .

moroccan vegetable stew with couscous: i don't recall which date we had this one, and since we had the date/time set incorrectly on the camera, i can't tell by the picture. tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, zucchini, celery, lima beans, and potatoes in a broth. the recipe calls for the stew to be served over couscous; we used an israeli couscous, orzo, and split pea blend. we also served it which chicken, since bryan needs his protein.



croque monsieurs with french fries. another one i don't have the date for. this was a quick, off the cuff meal - and everyone loved it.



saturday, march 28th: pan fried sole with lemon, pasta, caesar salad. this was so, so good. the fish was so delicate, so tender, so delicious with all the lemon (which is easily one of my favorite foods).

sunday, march 29th: pepperoni calzones. this was my clever way to have bryan essentially make me his kick ass pizza, without asking for pizza yet again. bryan made a giant calzone for us to split (and have plenty over for lunches). we, of course, did the right thing and ate the calzone with beer. oliver got his own personal size cheese pizza, since he's not too big on the pepperoni. i cut the pizza into slices, which he then happily devoured. the boy can be such a good eater!

monday, march 30th: chili nachos. when we had chili a few weeks ago, we froze the leftovers in anticipation of NACHOS. we loaded chips with the chili, pinto beans, diced tomato, green onion, and cheese, finished with sour cream, and put a hurtin' on the pile. they were decidedly good. we gave oliver the same, minus the chili. he was a huge fan of the sour cream, happily dipping his chips into the sour cream. needless to say, we all stuffed ourselves.

tuesday, march 31st: sweet and sour pork with sweet peas, green pepper, pineapple, and rice. oliver couldn't get enough rice, as usual. this really hit the spot.


thursday, april 2nd: cordon bleu brats (i.e., containing ham and swiss cheese) from rupenas, with grilled onions, on pretzel rolls, sauteed peas and carrots, and tater tots. oliver couldn't stuff enough tater tots into his mouth, which was both amusing and slightly dangerous. luckily, he didn't choke - every time he opened his mouth to add another, one would fall out and make room.



friday, april 3rd: roast chicken, spaghetti squash, and roast sweet potatoes with bacon.



saturday, april 4th: we used the leftover roast chicken from the night before to make a southwestern style caesar salad for lunch, by adding one of bryan's (homemade) chipotles en adobo to his (homemade) caesar dressing, along with, of course, his (homemade) croutons.

for dinner, we had our neighbors bill & eileen over. i made a garlic and herb stuffed roast pork, potato pancakes, marmalade glazed carrots, and rye bread. for dessert, we had black & white brownies. everyone was very pleased, and very, very full.

sunday, april 5th: i took on a very big project, and decided to cook an authentic indian meal. a friend from work, amulya, loves to cook, so we trade tips. she sent me a great website with indian recipes, so i planned to attempt baby brinjals in masala sauce. amulya brought me the ingredients i didn't have: chana dal, urad dal, and curry leaves. she also brought me some bay leaves as big as my hand, from india. i toasted and ground the initial mixture, which i think was supposed to come out as a powder, but became a paste for me. i was having problems grinding it in the food processor, and ended up needing to add extra tamarind concentrate and water. i also added chicken thighs and legs, to make it a full meal. i seared the chicken and added onions before adding the eggplant and proceeding with the recipe. i wasn't able to find the baby or thai eggplant i was hoping to, so i used some smaller eggplant instead, which i cubed. i was a little disappointed that the curry tasted like yellow curry; i was expecting something different. however, it was still very interesting to see how to make that curry totally from scratch, and definitely made me appreciate the flavors even more - and the flavor was good, very good. everyone loved it, even oliver! i served the curry with fragrant rice, which i made by sauteeing the rice in peanut oil along with ginger garlic paste (simply grated ginger, garlic, a pinch of tumeric, and an even smaller pinch of salt), a cinnamon stick, corriander seeds, curry leaves, saffron, and mustard seeds. i placed the entire mixture into the rice cooker, and cooked as normal. the rice was absolutely fantastic this way. i think the rice was everyone's favorite part of the meal. bryan and i generally aren't huge on rice, but i think fragrant rice will become a staple in our repertoire. we also had some afghani flatbread with sesame seeds that was outstanding - soft and pillowly, it was the perfect thing to wipe every last bit of sauce off the plate. overall, a very good meal (even though i'm not sure i did it quite right!); definitely worth the effort.

monday, april 6th: pasta with sausage, mushrooms, and cognac, with spinach. by adding spinach at the end, we made this a one pot meal, and a very delicious one at that. so tasty, oliver even ate his spinach without any complaints.

WFD tomorrow: aunt mo & uncle tom are coming over so bryan can help them determine which new tvs to buy, and they're bringing pizza. holla!

and the other things...

we've been up to the normal recently - working, running errands, trying to relax and failing miserably. oliver actually had some tummy troubles week before last, so we had a long 4 day weekend wherein we pretty much stayed home, and bryan and i agreed that even with the tummy issues, it was a GREAT weekend, doing nothing. we'll have to try that again sometime.

oliver has been doing well lately, getting bigger and bigger, learning more and more - perfecting his temper tantrums, talking, and climbing, mostly. the boy has NO FEAR.
















even though it's been a little chilly, we set up oliver's new (to us) climbing cube/slide toy. he loves it - he can get himself up on the ledge and down the slide by himself, and has begun to figure out how to climb all over it (much to his mother's dismay).








the boy loves to be outside. since the weather has been relatively mild, we try to play outside every evening before or after dinner. the cold never quite seems to bother him. he loves using his slide, playing basketball, dragging around bryan's rake, and generally running around the yard. he's actually started counting to 3, i think just in repetition of us throwing the basketball at the hoop on the count of 3. still, it's pretty cute.














it snowed here, again, saturday before last. we took oliver out in the snow for a little while, though he still wasn't sure what to do with it, and wasn't a big fan. he enjoyed holding a snowball - until he tried to eat it. then it wasn't as fun. they've actually been predicting more snow, but we have yet to see any (thank goodness). seriously, WHEN is spring going to arrive?


i also got him a rocking horse recently, a fancy model that looks like a stuffed horse (and which will make noise, and move it's tail and head, if we ever decide to put batteries in it). i had stopped to check out a local consignment shop, and when i found it, i just knew oliver had to have it. it's pretty adorable, my little cowboy and his horse!






(he's actually a well traveled cowboy - he takes safaris too!)


a few other random playtime pics:










ahhh, my adorable little munchkin. the kid can be crazy (apparently the insane crazy tantrums start at 18 months - not to mention he has inexplicably become literally terrified of baths overnight), but what a sweet, cute little boy - usually.

of course, there are more pictures in the gallery. apparently, i've already taken over 400 pictures with the new camera. what can i say, my child is cute!