Circus & Lounging

Isn't the stair picture great? I was working in the kitchen and then rounded the corner and saw Georgia posed so cute, like a piano lounge singer. I grabbed my camera and caught the moment! I'm so glad. The other photo is of Georgia and Rodolfo at the circus. The Shriner's Circus came to town last weekend and my dad surprised us with some tickets. It was fun, the best part for me was the elephants. Georgia loved the cotton candy.

A cook's heart

"You have to love either what you are going to eat, or the person you are cooking for. Then you have to give yourself up to cooking. Cuisine is an act of love." Madame Jehane Benoit, Chef

A few weeks ago I attended a cooking class called "Il Gusto Del Amore". It was a one night event that was supposed to teach about the aphrodisiac qualities of food in preparation for Valentine's Day. I attended on a whim with a friend and my mom, so it was really not as wild as it sounds. I was prepared to learn a good Italian meal, which I did get to eat a good chocolate creme brule, but in the end, the recipes presented were pretty run of the mill and un-exciting. However, by attending this class I received a book recommendation that has just burst open my mind to the creative possibilities in cooking. The instructor mentioned that one of her favorite books is called The Flavor Bible. I checked it out from the library to see what it is all about, and I have to tell you, it is a brilliant book!

This is not a cookbook with recipes. It is a book that lists ingredients and their compliments. The list is arranged alphabetically and covers a huge range, although who am I to say that there could not be more ingredients/topics possible, the list is pretty exhaustive. For example, let's take one of my favorite ingredients, honey. Here is a snippet of the list for honey:

Taste: sweet, astringent

Function: heating

Weight: medium-heavy

Wolume: moderate-loud

almonds

apples

apricots

baked goods (e.g. biscuits, breads)

bananas

brandy

butter

buttermilk

carrots

cheese: goat, ricotta, soft

chestuts

chiken

Chinese cuisine

chocolate: dark, white

cinnamon

coconut

coffee

etc, etc.

The point is this, say you have some honey on hand and you are really wanting to eat it, but you don't want to eat it the same old way you always do. Well, you pick up this book, see what pairings they suggest for honey, and then using your creative cook's mind, get to work concoting a brillant dish, meal, snack.

The suggestions come from surveys done with a handful of America's top chefs. This is really a clever compilation and I can think of 4 people already that I am planning on sending a copy. Just thought I would mention it here on the blog because this book has astounded me and opened up an entire treasure chest of cooking possibilities.

Happy cooking!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day (February 14) is Georgia's half birthday! On the 13th, Rodolfo and I had planned to see The Pink Panther 2 on a date night to celebrate the holiday. As usual, we were running late on the evening we planned to see the movie. We had child care arranged through our church, but we missed the start time of the child care (6:30) and so were at a loss of what to do. We still really wanted to see the movie together, and then we decided, well, why not bring Georgia along? We had never taken her to the movies before and we weren't sure how she would behave but decided to give it a try. Happily, I can type that she loved it! She sat mesmerized at the large screen and hardly blinked the entire two hours. It was a real treat for all of us! The movie was pretty hilarious, with the best scene in the Vatican.

The following day, Valentine's Day proper, we were invited to a friend's house where Gigi had the fun of cutting out brownies from a cookie sheet, decorating the brownies with icing and sprinkles, and then eating them up to her hearts content. And I had the pleasure of a nice evening's meal without having to worry about clean up. Thank you Rebecca and David for inviting us over!

Beautiful Bonnet

Well today is a very spring-like day and I have Easter on my mind. I don't know what it is about soft winds and delicately sunny mornings and afternoons, but they sure make me think of Easter! Here is a cute hat we dug out of Gigi's closet that we were playing with today. I wish my camera could have caught a crisper photo, but it is still cute and we were having fun!

Funny Looks

Georgia's expressions are getting really dramatic. She expresses a lot with her eyes and mouth. Here is one of her looks. I think it means, Mom, why are you taking so many pictures?

Here she is enjoying her afternoon snack (a pear) and Wally looking on with one thought in mind, how to steal the pear from her hand.

Georgia also has been inventing words. I've already told you about her word for sunglasses-- adah. She also has 2 new names for Wally, Leisel (which is not invented, it comes from the Sound of Music) and Mapda. When she wants something but can't think of what it is called she calls the item a "gulpi, gulpi". She also will shout when she is really excited "pat-a-poing". These words, as unusual as they look, are very present and repeated in her vocabulary. I think babies come equipped to invent language and although they learn the ones that they are around my guess is that they could create a complex language system all their own if they were left up to it!

Beyond made up words, she is also putting together some really funny sentences. On Sunday in the car she told me, "Mommy, I need a kleenex, I have some lady bugs in my nose". I gave her a tissue and then she handed it back a little later saying all the lady bugs were gone. Then, on the way home from church she said that she needed another kleenex because her "nose was running away from her". I had to laugh!

Snowed In!

Two weeks ago we had an Oklahoma snow/ice storm. We were locked in the house for 3 days, not because the snow was piled high, but because the roads were a sheet of ice. Rodolfo had to go to work, even though schools and even my dad's office shut down. He was lucky he didn't have any traffic because the roads were certainly slippery. On day 3 of our encampment in the house I finally pulled out the shovel and started hammering away at the ice on our front porch stairways. It didn't make a dent. Then I had the brilliant idea of pouring nearly boiling hot water down the stairs to try to loosen the ice. This idea, though seemingly brilliant, was actually very unwise. The temperature outside (20F) and the thick ice on the steps cooled the water instantly and then caused it to eventually re-freeze. This frustrated me to no end and so I hammered away on the steps until I had a miniature pathway up the stairs. After having been locked in the house for 3 days this was very good exercise and a nice way to de-stress. I wonder what the neighbors thought? :)

My Frozen Garden

Here is that beautiful crepe myrtle. I was trying to capture the glints of sun shining through the ice on the limbs but my camera didn't capture it.

Here is my frozen lavender. This hardy herb survived the ice. I am so glad. I am testing it to see if it can survive Oklahoma's harsh winter and so far so good. Yea!!! But I'm not calling the test over until the last freeze date which I think is at the end of March.

Here is a coneflower that I never chopped down. Very brown and dry but somehow still beautiful to me.

Here is the coneflower from another angle.