On Valentine’s Day, the O’Leary chicas along with 2 friends came to visit for the week. We had such a fun time.  The boys got spoiled rotten by all of the attention. We walked by the river, shopped, toured Bern, Thun and a couple of towns in France, ate, laughed hard, and had a wonderful time!

One of my memories of living with Annie was of her making her famous devil dog cookies. They were awesome! So for her visit I made heart-shaped red velvet whoopie pies! They turned our better than expected. I was sure they would look like big blobs. And I had about a 4th of the food coloring I needed. So mine were hot pink and not so red but you get the idea.

here was the recipe I used…

http://annies-eats.net/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/

Enough about the treats..here are a few pictures from our time. I haven’t uploaded them all yet.

So fun to have Annie, Suzanne and all of the girlies here! Wish we all lived closer! Still having some withdrawl!

Below my friends is a picture of the first Valentine’s day dinner that Seth cooked for me after we got married. I remember him seeing the recipe in my Southern Living magazine and saying “I’ll make that for Valentine’s day”. I will be honest my concern was more that it seemed like a funny thing to eat for a romantic dinner but had I been a little smarter I would have been more concerned about how he was going to accomplish it. The poor guy had hardly cooked pasta and was quickly spoiled as a married man with a personal chef. He enthusiastically prepared Chicken fried steak and nearly burned the whole apartment complex down.  He literally had to run to the front door with the hot skillet to dump out smoking char, which accidentally landed on and burned small spots in our carpet. All of this was followed by a really good laugh. You would have thought we would have ordered a pizza after the fiasco but if I remember right we were too cheap to do that. So here it is, V-day dinner 2006.

notice I ate everything on the plate but the chicken fried steak

But this, this is what Seth cooked on Saturday night. He planned an early V-day dinner since our friends were coming to town on the actual day.

(sorry my pictures are a little blurry but I do like the coloring better with no flash…still learning with this camera)

He researched and made the menu and whipped up London broil with herb butter, browned butter green beans and garlic bread. It was amazing! I was so impressed and decided that he will be cooking MUCH more often!

And did I mention that he did all of the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen! It was the best gift ever!  thanks, Seth!

In Bogota, I had the privilege of being in the South African ladies club. It wasn’t actually a club, I am being silly but I met 2 great girls that were my age and in the baby phase and we spent lots of time together. We did lots of playing with babies, planned trips, went through a couple of exercise phases together, shared recipes, chatted about parenting, husbands and dreamed of when and how we would be living somewhere a little cleaner and safer that the BOG. A visit with Kima and Bronwyn rarely took place without Bronwyn’s bran muffins…or a cup of tea. The group slowly expanded as we met new friends. And the muffins and tea continued!

We now all find ourselves in places much cleaner and safer than Bogota. Whew. And even now, every couple of months I get a craving and mix up a big double batch to pop in the fridge and pull out when we need them. They are the kind that you can mix up and will last 30 days in the fridge. You scoop out batter into muffin tins and you have fresh hot muffins in minutes. They were the perfect solution post-baby because we were all growing tired of cereal and yogurt. They are so easy to mix up and you can add or subtract based on what your family likes. Owen is my super picky guy as I have mentioned before and I was able to make him think he was getting cupcakes for breakfast. After seeing that he would eat them I stirred in some pumpkin puree to his batch and sure enough I bamboozled him on that too! He loves them.

ta da! don’t they look yummy!

I asked Bron if she would mind me sharing this around and she agreed! So here it is in her writing! If you need me to decode for you let me know (hint: bi carb is their word for Baking Soda)

Is nice and easy so here goes:

2  EGGS
half cup OIL
1 and a half cups BROWN SUGAR
2 and a half cups MILK
2 cups DIGESTIVE BRAN
2 and a half cups NUTTY WHEAT FLOUR OR JUST NORMAL SELF RAISING WHEAT FLOUR  (I use whatever flour I have..normally a mix of wheat and white all purpose flour)
half tsp SALT
2 and a half tsp BI-CARB OF SODA
1 tsp VANILLA ESSENCE
2 tsp CHOPPED OR SLICED ALMONDS (or any other nuts) – optional
500g DATES or RAISINS – optional
half cup COCONUT – optional
1 cup RAW OATMEAL- optional

Mix all ingredients together and place in an airtight container overnight in the fridge.  Half fill muffin pans and bake for 20min at 350 degrees  on middle shelf.  This mixture keeps for 30days in the fridge so you can just bake them whenever you want fresh.  Most of the time I double up the mixure as I make everyday.  It doubles up fine.  You can add or take out any of the following as you please to your taste: raisins, dates, nuts, coconut, oats

ENJOY!

Thanks, Bronwyn! Hope you are surrounded by some friends eating these now! I am sure they will be asking for your recipe!

It’s funny, I don’t think of myself as being a good cook but lately people have been asking for recipes. I am always embarrassed because all of my recipes are from my mom or friends. It’s not like I do anything original. I love to try new recipes and mess up a lot. Early in our marriage I was scared to try too many things because I wanted Seth to enjoy what I made and I hated failing. I still want him to enjoy the food I serve him but now I am more bold and even if the recipe contains mushrooms or beans I give it a go and tell Seth just to pick around! I vow to try at least one recipe from each magazine I get. And typically try one new recipe a week. Since coming to Bern I am getting Southern Living. It’s not tough to find something that looks amazing and is super easy to make. I cook because I enjoy it and I have been realizing lately that I cook because it connects me to my mom.

I hate being far from home. All through high school I would sit at the kitchen bar and “do homework”, ie chat with my mom and watch her cook. It was our time together. I learned so much just through watching her work. She was budget conscious but it was a huge priority for her to make fresh, delicious meals.  No matter how long she had worked that day she whipped up yummy things! So I think I am realizing that when I cook I feel connected to my mom. Even if she is in a different time zone and I sure wish I was watching her cook, somehow being in the kitchen helps stave off some of my homesickness.  Calling home with questions about recipes always gives me an excuse to call and chat so that helps too!  (on a side note, if I had a million dollars I would want to have a little restaurant with my mom..or a B&B)

My favorite recipes are the ones I have from my mom. My wedding gift from her was a book of her handwritten recipes. The book got lost in a box we mailed and she spent hours rewriting the recipes into a new book for me last Christmas. She is great at picking recipes and great at knowing what goes with what. She is a true foodie. You would think she would be obese by now with all of her great cooking and love for food but nope, she’s petite and has the best self control of anyone I know. If she makes a chocolate cake and has a piece, she’s done. She’s not the leave a fork on the cake plate just to make the next walk-by cake bite more convenient. Or if she was she was really good at hiding the fork and the bites.  I am the fork on the cake plate kind of girl. Wish I wasn’t but I am.

I have been trying lots of new recipes lately. Since coming to Bern I have had lots of time to focus on settling in and that has included lots of cooking. I love that I can be in the mood to try something, google it, and come up with a zillion choices to pick and choose from. And I am gradually getting more comfortable being more creative and doing things my own way.

On Sunday we had some leftover brisket in the fridge. I wasn’t in the mood to make sides and whip up a whole meal. So, we made a BBQ brisket pizza. It was delicious. We spread BBQ sauce on instead of pizza sauce. Layered it with brisket, onions, red bell peppers and cheese. It was delicious! Wait, I already said that. It was nothing you haven’t seen before but nothing I had done at home. Nice to try new things.

Other new things on our list last week were Southern Living’s Stovetop Potpie (We skipped the biscuits and the fattening crust!) and crock pot barbacoa beef (chipotle knockoff) that we used for burrito bowls. Both were a hit. In fact the pot pie called for wine and I normally shy away from things I think my kids won’t like. But Owen, who is my ornery eater, scarfed it down like he has been waiting for a splash of white wine to brighten up all of his meals.   We have also been having lots of salads for dinner to balance out all of the fudge and treats we had with Seth’s parents.  I am always on the lookout for a salad that is healthy but has enough pizazz to make it feel like a dinner not a diet meal.

Tonight is going to be stuffed green peppers. They weren’t Seth’s favorite when I made them like 5 yrs ago but he said he would give them a try again!

I wonder what my mom is cooking tonight.