Hello again, it is I, The Geologist

My wifely one is feeling sick and I have ordered her to stay in her recliner.  She is not quite lucid and keeps mumbling things under her breath.  I am not sure what it all means.  Most things she says I can't make out, but I caught a few words like: followers, oven, must *pause* take *pause* pictures, Marie, flour, etc.  Since she is out of commission I have decided to write a short post in her absence.  

Today we are playing a game.

The first person to guess what her next post will be based on these close-up pictures wins automatically.

If no one is awesome enough to guess the actual item, there will be points awarded as follows:

1 point for each picture identified correctly.

1 point for getting the correct dish even if it isn't the right flavor, variety, etc.

1 point if you are not grossed out by the snot looking thing (you have to tell the truth if it grosses you out, honesty is the best policy).

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Good luck.  I will let April decide what the winner or winners get and when or if he or she or them or they get it or that or the thing slash item.

P.S. As usual, April is not allowed to edit this post.  Typos are all myne.  No edditinng.  I mean itj!

Stephen

Small and Wonderful Things 18

Snuggles that turn into tickle fights

Getting lost in a new book

Source: Larhea Sedillo via Pinterest

Being sore from actually DOING something!

Lilacs

Source: hopelesswanderingsoul

Laughing 'till it hurts

Snowstorms (if you're warm, and cozy, and safe, of course)

Source: whimsandsighs

Mommy-Son lunch dates

Fairies, fantasy, imagination and belief

Source: Marie via Pinterest

Homemade French Bread

 Oh, how I love our dog parks!! Denver is such a great place to own a dog. Our favorite park is the giant one up in the mountains, but for our day-to-day visits there is a smaller park a few minutes away. There's always a fun bunch of dogs and owners there, and we have LOTS of fun watching our Beastie and her antics. Yesterday was hilarious! There was a giant Labradoodle that apparently fell in love with us, because he kept coming back, sitting down, and leaning on me. The boys were both attached at my hips (literally) after one too many knock-downs by crowds of dogs, so he would just snuggle right into our group and just sit there. Eventually he started snuggling up against Joe, slowly overbearing him till he was on the ground with a giant dog sitting on him! It was SO funny, I laughed till I couldn't breathe. A good day.

Homemade French Bread (adapted from Alli-n-Sons)
Printable Recipe

2-3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cups warm water
1 Tb melted butter

1 egg white
1 Tb water

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Stir in the water and melted butter until well blended. Stir in 1-2 cups more flour, till you get a slightly shaggy dough, not super sticky. (I ended up adding 1 1/2 more cups of flour)

On a lightly floured surface, knead in enough flour to make a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Knead for about 8 to 10 minutes total. (Or in a mixer with a dough hook) Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, grease the top of the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth. (I like to spray the dough and bowl with cooking spray) Cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 30 min to an hour.

Punch dough down, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover, and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough into large rectangle. Roll up, starting from a long side. Moisten edges with water and seal. 

Line or grease a large baking sheet. Place loaves, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. With a very sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts about 1/4 inch deep across top of each loaf. Cover with a damp cloth/plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled, 35 to 40 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Beat egg white and water together and gently brush over the top of your loaf. Bake for 20 minutes. Brush again with egg white mixture. (The egg white mixture will make a harder, crunchy crust. You can also brush with butter or olive oil instead, for a softer crust) Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bread sound hollow when tapped. If necessary, cover loosely with foil to prevent over browning. Remove from baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack.

And now you have a lovely loaf of crusty, fluffy french bread, super cheap and pretty darn easy! Mine looks a bit squashed, I let it rise a little too long. No worries! It's very forgiving.

Next time I think I'd try brushing the crust with butter, because while the egg whites made it nice and crunchy, it didn't really add much to the flavor. I tried multiple recipes, and this one was definitely good enough to share!!

Nice and warm, smeared with butter, delicious!! I love bread. :) I'll be making this one again!!

Marmalade Cake

This is just one of those posts that is plain painful (but also kinda fun) to write. My cake is a flop. Delicious! But literally, flop. It's not my fault. I can't prove it yet, but I will!! I will have justice!

I made it first yesterday. Golden, gorgeous, couldn't wait to get it out and cooled off... then the center sank. Right before I pulled it out. Sigh. So we ate some. It was scrumptious, truly, but there was no way I was going to post pictures of a sunken cake! This is a food blog, after all, I take these things seriously! So I bought some more oranges.

Today, I baked this cake 2 more times. Once, I adjusted the temperature. Flop. Then, I adjusted the leavening. Flop with a capital F. Halfway through the third cake's baking... Lightbulb! Actually, all of mine flickered. For the zillionth time that morning. You see, my friend who used to live upstairs *sniff* just moved out. They wouldn't let her renew her lease because it was time for that apartment to be re-furnished and become as beautiful as mine (teehee!) and this morning they were working on the kitchen. Which is right over mine. As in, taking out flooring, and cabinets, and appliances, and stomping and banging and who knows what else. But it was shaking my whole kitchen. I suddenly remembered that you're supposed to be very gentle with cakes, or they fall!

And so, I blame my cake-flopping on the guys upstairs. Ha!! And I'm posting it anyway (even though I debated long and hard, and considered posting something else instead) because it is yummy. Even if it isn't pretty. *cringe*

Marmalade Cake (adapted from The English Kitchen)
Printable Recipe

175g unsalted butter, softened (a bit more than 3/4 cup)
175g of caster/ultrafine sugar (slightly heaping 3/4 cup)

zest from 1 orange
3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla
175g self raising flour (1 cup plus 2 Tb)
1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp salt
3 Tb chunky Orange Marmalade
2 Tb milk

Glaze:
3 Tb chunky Orange Marmalade

or
1-2 cups powdered sugar

zest from 1 orange

2-3 Tb freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F/ gas mark 4. Butter and line a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper and set aside.

Beat the butter until nice and creamy. Add the sugar gradually, then continue to cream together until pale (nearly white) and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down sides after each. Add a Tb of the flour with the last egg. Sift together the remaining flour, salt and baking powder into a medium bowl. Gently fold dry ingredients into the batter. When thoroughly combined, stir in the marmalade and milk until just incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Let cool for a few minutes, then gently run a round bladed knife around the inside of the pan to loosen and then carefully turn the cake out onto a wire rack. Invert onto plate or serving platter. To top, either gently warm the marmalade to loosen it up, and brush it all over the top of the warm cake, or wait till it cools completely, whisk zest, juice, and sugar together till smooth, and drizzle over the top.

As you can see, I used the glaze, because it's pretty. And I love orange zest. And I was out of marmalade after 3 cakes. But that's okay, because the glaze is delicious! Oranges are so fantastic right now. The Geologist is addicted to Cuties, those little tangerine things. What are they, exactly? Clementines?

This is the perfect "teatime" cake. At least, what I think they're supposed to be like. Not terribly sweet, not super-frilly and fancy, just a simple cake. Buttery and soft, with tangy-bitter chunks of orange and a creamy, bright glaze. 

It's certainly worth making, even if it sinks in the middle! Sometime after they're done upstairs, I'll try it again. Until then I'll keep cutting slivers off of this one and feeling guilty for breaking my diet. Maybe I can just skip dinner... :)

Braised Short Ribs & Potato Parsnip Mash

Thank you for your lovely comments yesterday! It's nice to be missed. :) It's also very nice to be back in the swing of things! I'm sorry for posting so late today, there was supposed to be a cake to post, but it needs a do-over, so you had to wait till I was done with dinner! And oh, what a dinner it was. I'm still stuffed. I can't remember the last time I allowed myself to be this full!! Remember that gorgeous Chicken Casserole with White Wine a few weeks ago? This is another from that same culinary master, my dear friend Mary from Inside a British Mum's Kitchen, one of my first blogging friends ever!! If you haven't stopped by to look at all her fabulous recipes, perhaps this one will convince you. Every recipe of hers that I've tried has been positively mouthwatering. Go, take a peek, you won't regret it!!

Braised Short Ribs & Potato Parsnip Mash (adapted from Inside a British Mum's Kitchen)
Printable Recipe

4-5 lbs of bone in beef short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper (I like to use kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper)
1 teaspoon of cumin (ish)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced/pressed
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
¼ cup of Dijon mustard

about a teaspoon of fresh thyme
1/4 cup of soy sauce
¼ cup of red wine
32 oz beef stock/broth
1 tablespoon of melted butter
1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Trim any excess fat off your ribs (I took off all the thick outside layers) and sprinkle them generously with salt, pepper, and a bit of cumin.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch Oven or oven-safe pot on medium high heat.

Adding in a single layer, brown the ribs until they have a nice crust, turning with tongs to brown each side.  You'll probably need to work in batches, so remove browned ribs to a plate and cover with foil while you do the rest. Cover them all with foil till a bit later. Lower heat to medium.

Saute the onions and carrots for about 5-8 minutes, till softened. Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds-1 minute. Add the sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, wine, thyme and mustard, stirring to thoroughly combine

Place the ribs back into the pot. Gently pour the beef stock over everything. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover with a tight fitting lid. (If you don't have an oven-safe pot, you can do all this in a regular pot or saucepan, pour veggies and sauce into a deep baking/casserole dish with a lid, then place ribs in, cover with broth, lid, and place in oven)

Place in the oven and bake for approximately 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bones. Remove from the oven, spoon the ribs out of the pot and place on a warm serving platter and cover with foil.

Skim off any fat from the sauce in the pot. (I was impatient and didn't skim mine as much as I should have)

In a small bowl mix the butter and the cornstarch to a paste. Add a tablespoon of the sauce to the cornstarch mixture and combine well. Add this back to the sauce. Stir thoroughly and simmer for 5 minutes.

You can serve this all separately  you can serve all together on top of mashed veggies, we poured the gravy over the ribs and spooned them out onto the mash on our plates.

 

Potato Parsnip Mash

6-7 large red potatoes (or about 4 large baking potatoes like Russets)

4-5 parsnips

1 stick (8 Tb) butter

1/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes and parsnips and cut into 1 inch or smaller chunks. Bring a pot of water (with a generous pinch of salt) to a boil. Add the veggies and cook until very tender. Drain, add the butter, cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Mash until fluffy (I just use my mixer), adding more salt and pepper as needed (and perhaps a bit more cream, if you use big veggies!)

I'm not sure if I've ever had parsnips before this. If I have, I've forgotten! But it was definitely the first time all three of my boys had tried them. And They. Were. AMAZING!!! Creamy and rich, with a bit of sweetness, I am officially a fan!! Only one of the boys didn't like them, but he's the picky one anyway. 

If you can't tell just by LOOKING, this is a very hearty meal!! Since the Geologist and I have been trying to eat lighter lately, we agreed this would make a perfect meal for company. Or when the boys approach teenager-hood and hoover everything in sight. This would fill them RIGHT up!! 5 lbs was a bit much for our little family (we've got enough leftovers for 2 more meals!) so you may want to adjust for your family size!

Filling or not, we loved it. The beefy, deeply flavored, gorgeous sauce, amazingly tender beef, sweet and savory carrots (they soak up that sauce, after all!) and the slightly sweet, creamy veggie mash. Heaven. I think we all agreed the parsnips were a revelation, but I can't imagine separating these two, they're just so delicious together!!

I can usually take or leave carrots in a dish like this, but I found myself looking for one in every bite, they turn out so yummy! For our first beef meal in weeks, we sure picked a winner!

Shared at Tasty Tuesdays and Wow Us Wednesdays

Weekly Menu Feb. 4

Source: lovely-mountain-flower

Hi everyone! Sorry for going MIA on you last week, it turned out to be more overwhelming than I expected, so I took a break. All better, and excited for a brand-new week! There is much excitingness this month!

This week we have:

Homemade French Bread

Braised Short Ribs & Potato Parsnip Mash

Marmalade Cake

Cherry Almond Scones

Fudgy Cream Cheese Brownies

Source: tinywhitedaisies

For today, Feb. 4...

Outside my window... Partly cloudy, not horribly cold. It's supposed to be in the 50's this week, but sunny 50's and cloudy 50's are two different animals! I'm determined to walk to pick Stephen up from school every day this week!! Maybe even in the mornings if they aren't frigid... or if we get ready on time!

Around the house... Joe is watching The Polar Express, Bracken is moping because we cut back on her food a bit. She needs to lose a few pounds, and her lazy mommy isn't helping at all!

I am thinking... I need to spend a bit more time with my boys. They're pretty independent, and they don't need or expect me to play with them every minute, but I've been a little too attached to my ipad and computer. Which is ironic, since I am on the computer right now... Anyway!! I need to put them down more often and be a bit more invested. There's always something to work on!

Source: weheartit

I am pondering... Isn't it wonderful that every single day is a chance to start over? Even in the midst of trials and challenges, dark times and tragedies, every morning is a chance for change, growth, and a new beginning. It doesn't mean it all gets better overnight, but you just might find a bit more peace, strength, motivation, glimmers of joy... Or in my case, yet another chance to be a better Mom, wife, and Me! Establishing better habits, closer connections, more productive days. That's what I'm going for this week!

I am going... Oh my goodness, this day can't go by fast enough for me! Tonight is our very first adoption step, the information/introduction night!! We've waited weeks to finally get started, and tonight we can! We'll find out our timeline and options, next step, and finally get this ball rolling!

I am thankful... So thankful for The Geologist's awesome work schedule! He gets every other Friday off, and has TONS of vacation time already! He was able to take care of me this weekend, and we still had time to have fun on Saturday and Sunday! It's wonderful.

Source: alifefullofsouthernserendipity

I am reading... The Two Towers. I'm going to the library today to pick up new books, but still stuck in Middle Earth. This is my favorite of the LOTR trilogy, because of the Ents. I love the way they just rip Isengard to shreds, and the trees from Fangorn swallow up all those Orcs. Go Trees!!! And then Saruman tries to enchant Gandalf and his companions when they come to talk to him, but it has no effect on stubborn Gimli and faithful Eomer. I love that part. :)

I am looking forward to... So many fun things this month! Information night tonight, going to the cabin next weekend, and after that my parents are coming for a quick visit! I can't wait!! I usually see my Mom about two or three times a year, but I never see my Mom and Dad together unless we go visit them! We'll have so much fun, and Dad is already requesting recipes. :)

Source: dreamer's den

Something new about me... Have you seen the movie "Signs"? The one with the aliens, and Dennis Quaid, and the little girl who leaves half-full glasses of water all over the house? *raises hand* That's me!! I rarely finish a drink. My house always has half a dozen glasses of water here and there. Drives the Geologist nuts. Looking around, I can see... 4 from here. I have no idea why I do this! Lets just call it a quirk. :)

Guilty pleasures... Anime. I am an anime nut. The Geologist thinks it's completely dumb, but I love it!! I love the over-dramatic story-lines, I love the art, I love the music, I love the humor... Love. I go through anime phases about once a year, where I find new series (or re-watch old ones) every day for a few weeks. My brother and I share quotes from one of my favorite series ever. It's so random. Random is my favorite kind of humor. 

Source: whimsicalities

Favorite Things... Pussywillows!! They're so soft, and fuzzy, and adorable, and they're PLANTS!! How much more awesome can they be!?