this is how chocolate is meant to be savored

Valentine's Day

Liam and I have been doing Valentine's related crafts for the past week or so. He really loved potato stamping these sheets of paper (and, yes, he is wearing only a bib).

Those sheets of paper turned into these Valentine's cards. Liam helped me glue them together.

We spent Sunday afternoon preparing all of the makings for our special valentine's family dinner, which, of course, meant a dessert preview. Liam helped me lick the pan clean of all the leftover smears of chocolate ganache that dripped off the boston cream pie.

yummy

Gabriel and Liam worked together to fill and shape our ravioli.

The dinner was awesome:

Heart-Shaped Ricotta and Basil Ravioli

topped with

Hearty Beef Ragu Sauce
served with

Roasted Broccoli

and

Heart-Shaped Biscuits

We overstuffed ourselves, and barely had room for the barest smidgen of a slice of the boston cream pie. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to eat more of the dessert tonight...

Ikea trip

Well, we finally made it to and from Dallas. My mom stayed home with Liam, and it was amazingly wonderful to go on a road trip just Gabriel and I again. Thanks, Mom.

We left early Saturday morning (5 am...) and drove straight to Ikea. Aside from some problems with faulty toll booth bill changers, the drive was a breeze. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it only took us 4 1/2 hours to get there.

Have I ever mentioned before how much I love Ikea. Sure, some of their stuff is not the best quality, but it's all oh-so-practical and you can't beat the price. We spent a good 4 hours browsing through and loading up a cart with everything on our list. The goal was to get everything we needed to change Liam's nursery into a room for two brothers. We were able to get everything we wanted and even had extra money leftover... Special thanks to everyone who gifted me with spending money for my birthday.

the loot:

• a big boy bed and mattress for Liam


• two sets of sheets for his new bed


• a blanket


• a pillow and pillowcase


• coordinating fabric for some sewing projects in their room


• two small chairs for the craft table


• organizing tubs for a new storage/diaper changing station we're going to build


• a Liam-sized mug


• pots and pans for his play kitchen (birthday gift...)


• a picture frame


• a step stool (for the Grays...)

After Ikea, we hopped onto yet another toll road and zipped further down into Dallas. I had a gift card to Teavana that I was itching to spend. The traffic leading up to the mall was bad. Taking over an hour to go 3 blocks bad. At this point, Gabriel had an I-want-to-be-anywhere-but-here meltdown, but I was determined to make this stop. This was the nearest store to our home, and I really wanted that tea. So, we endured and were amazed at the crowds inside the (quite swanky) North Park Center Mall.

I ended up with 2 ounces each of loose leaf Assam Golden Rain, Masala Chai, and English Breakfast, all of which are hearty black teas (it's getting to the point where I need that caffeine fix to get me through the day...). Thank you, Ben and Carolyn, for such a thoughtful gift. I will continue to enjoy it with each and every sip.

After we made it out of the crazy mall madness, we stopped at Toys R Us to buy Liam an Elmo. Yes, an Elmo. I have been letting Liam watch Elmo on the computer, and it has reached the point of infatuation for him. He talks about Elmo all day long, sings with Elmo, and even talks about Elmo in his sleep. We decided he needed an Elmo of his very own. So we got one.

It turns out my mom got him one, too.

Except hers blows kisses and says Elmo loves you. Clearly, her gift trumps our non-automated Elmo... So, the Dallas Elmo will be going back to Toys R Us, and Liam is still loving his verbal Elmo. Thanks, Mom.

After a stop at Whole Foods for some not-so wholesome pizza and gigantic slices of cake, we drove home.

It was a long, but so enjoyable, day.

Liam is a big fan of Ikea, too: everything has to be assembled. He helped Gabriel hammer together his new chairs and kept saying, "Fun!"

The big boy bed

We had planned to buy a twin-sized mattress and just put it on a slatted base directly on the floor, but we were pleasantly surprise to discover that Ikea carries inbetween youth-sized beds. It's bigger than a crib/toddler bed, but smaller than a twin. And less expensive. The mattress and bed, including the slatted base and guard rail, all totaled less than $100! That's an Ikea deal for you.

Liam loves his new bed. Especially the frog blanket. He is sleeping in it as I type. We'll see how the rest of the night goes...

firewood

The truth about wood stoves:

They gobble up a lot of firewood.

We have had a hard time keeping up with its demands and have already gone through all of the humongous stash we'd accumulated in the carport, along with several "refills."

So we decided it was finally time to purchase our own chain saw for serious cutting action.

Gabriel's carpool buddy, Mark, generously offered us felled trees on his property, and since it was his first go-around with the new chain saw, Gabriel wanted Liam and I to tag along just in case.

It was a balmy 34 degrees here on Saturday, so Liam and I bundled up, packed some extra blankets and hot cocoa, grabbed some books to read, and went to watch Gabe reduce a tree to manageable rounds.

He did great with the chain saw, except he is still learning how to make the cuts without getting the saw pinched. It happened numerous times, leading to the most muttered cursings I have ever heard escape from his mouth...

Liam thought the day was a wonderful adventure. He climbed on the rounds, played with sticks, met the farm dogs, and saw cows in the neighboring pasture. But whenever the chain saw was going, he stayed glued to my legs. The sound was pretty scary.

Going at a big trunk:
Success!

Time for a little exploring.

Happy boy.

mystery book

I received an unexpected package in the mail a few days ago:

A Kid's Herb Book by Lesley Tierra

I have no idea who sent it for me since it came by way of Amazon. I didn't order it, but I don't think I could have chosen a better book. I have been wanting a resource to help me incorporate more natural remedies into our daily life, and this book is full of them. The pages offer kid-friendly uses for a huge assortment of herbs: everything from medicinal balms to fun crafts. I can't wait to start trying them out.

To the mystery giver, thank you!

slightly-healthier popcorn balls

I made popcorn balls for the first time today.

I never liked them as a kid, but last night they were all I could think about. I needed them.

So today I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (the only one out of my 2 dozen or so cookbooks to actually have a popcorn ball recipe...), and set about making some modifications:

We buy our organic popcorn kernels from the bulk section at Ozark Natural Foods. I popped them on the stove-top in our hand-cranked kettle corn popper with just enough oil to keep them from burning/sticking.

Instead of refined white sugar, I used Sucanat (dehydrated cane juice...also from the bulk section at our co-op). In recipes it can be used 1:1 for standard granulated sugar. Sucanat gives the candy a lovely caramel flavor and color.

I'd like to try this with agave nectar instead of the corn syrup, but since we were out of the former, and I randomly had some corn syrup, that's what I used.

It's finished with a splash of vanilla extract. I use Frontier's fair trade organic vanilla.

The result is delicious. They are caramelly, not too sweet, and just the right amount of salty. And I made them a more manageable golf-ball-size instead of the baseball-size-monsters I remember from childhood.

Slightly - Healthier Popcorn Balls

ingredients

• 18 cups popped popcorn (roughly 1 1/2 cups unpopped kernels)
• 2 cups Sucanat sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup corn syrup (or agave nectar...there's always next time)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Softened butter

equipment

• Roasting pan or other large oven-safe container
• Large, heavy saucepan
• Candy thermometer
• Stirring utensil
• Parchment-lined (or lightly oiled) baking sheet

instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Pop popcorn and transfer 18 cups of it to a lightly-oiled roasting pan or other oven-safe container. I made a little extra, which Liam and I snacked on while we finished making the popcorn balls. Place pan in the oven to keep the popcorn warm.
2. Combine Sucanat, water, corn syrup, vinegar, and salt in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil, about 5-6 minutes.
3. Clip-on candy thermometer and reduce heat to medium (or whichever temperature your stove needs to keep the mixture at a gentle rolling boil...mine was more at medium-low). Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 250 degrees, the "hard ball" stage. This takes about 20 minutes.
4. As soon as it reaches 250 degrees, turn off the heat, remove the thermometer, and stir in the vanilla. Remove the popcorn from the oven and carefully pour the candy mixture over the popcorn, stirring gently to evenly coat.
5. Allow it to cool just enough so you can handle it. Don't wait too long because the candy hardens as it cools. I took a quick potty break, 2-3 minutes, and it seemed just the right amount of time.
6. Rub butter on your hands (this mix is sticky...) and quickly form the popcorn mixture into golf-ball sized rounds, placing them on the parchment-lined baking sheet as you go. You have to work quickly to make it through all 18 cups of popcorn before it is too hard to stick to itself. It's not difficult to do, but you can't take a coffee break in the middle of the shaping...
7. They are ready to eat right away. I put mine in the cookie jar, or you could individually wrap them as treats to share.

Potty training update

Liam has good days and bad days:

On the good days, he goes on the potty every time.

On the bad days, the potty doesn't get a drop, but the floor gets nice and wet.

But we had another potty training first the other day. We were eating out, and Liam was wearing a diaper. When he told me he needed to go, we rushed into the bathroom, took off the dry diaper, and he peed while sitting on the edge of the big potty. Up until that point, he had refused to go on a full-sized toilet. Apparently, he really had to go.

Needless to say, he got a treat from the candy vending machine. Another first for him.