When life gives you snow....make brownies!

My backyard looks like this today
So I made these

We are expecting 18-24 inches of snow this weekend. We are not expecting BeanieDaddy to make it home from work tonight. So, to get us through the afternoon and into tomorrow I decided to make brownies. Brownies seem to be the forgotten child of the chocolate dessert family. At least they are here. I'm more apt to do a cake, or cupcake or candy or something else. Brownies are usually an afterthought for some reason.

But I knew I had the ingredients on hand (at least I was pretty sure) and a page from my Southern Living Christmas Cookbook with a menu for a coffee and chocolate party has been taunting me for weeks. However, I had to make some alterations. The recipe calls for bittersweet baking chocolate and I had semisweet. After doing a little investigation, I learned that you can add unsweetened cocoa to the semisweet chocolate and you would have something closer to bittersweet. Also, the recipe calls for 2 cups of semisweet chocolate morsels. I have had a bag of raspberry chocolate morsels in the pantry waiting for a home so I used them instead. The result: pure heaven. It turned into one of those desserts that is so yummy but a little too rich to eat too much at one time. The hope is that these will last a while.

Here is the full recipe with my changes.

Dark Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from 2008 Southern Living Christmas Cookbook
1 cup butter
8 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate squares
2 cups raspberry chocolate morsels, divided
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, toasted
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt

Microwave butter, bittersweet chocolate, and 1 cup morsels in a 4-quart bowl at high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted, stirring mixture every 30 seconds. Whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Toss together walnuts, 1 Tbs flour, and remaining 1 cup of morsels. Stir remaining four and salt into sugar mixture. Stir in walnut mixture. Spread batter into a greased 13- x 9-inch pan.

Bake at 350-degrees for 30-40 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from pan (a wooden pick inserted in center will not come out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

In addition to the brownies, I made this pulled pork marinade recipe from The Naptime Chef. I doubled the recipe and added 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper and a little more than a pinch of red pepper flakes to give it a little more of a kick. And wow did it add kick. The smell of the pork roast cooking in the crock pot all day is amazing. I think this will be my go-to marinade/barbecue recipe from now on. Too bad Dad won't be home tonight, but there will be plenty when he returns.

Yes, We are Still Here

So my big plan to document the Christmas season fell by the wayside thanks to everyday life. Then, like in the past, I got to a point where I hadn't posted in so long that it got harder and harder to make myself get back in here.

This post is simply a photo recap of Christmas, which took place exactly a month ago today.

Jilly and I saw the Rockettes at the John Paul Jones Arena. It is a show that I have been wanting to see since I was a teenager. I have always loved the Rockettes and their Christmas show did not disappoint me. Jilly enjoyed it, as well. She sat in her seat and was excited by all of the spectacular dancing, music, costumes and decor. It was an event that I hope we can continue as a holiday tradition.

One of the holiday craft projects JillyBean and I did this year was to make these cute Christmas trees using styrofoam cones and candy. This one was made of gumdrops and we did another using mini candy canes and one with round peppermint candy. We placed the trees throughout the house.
And, of course, we had our regular Christmas tree, times three. The tree we placed in our living room (the "official" tree) ended up being filled with some older ornaments that mom gave me last year. These were glass ornaments that we used on our trees as a kid. I tied silver, red, green and gold bows on them to spice them up a bit. Also on the tree were the brass ornaments that BeanieDad received each year as a child. It was fun looking at the years that were engraved on each one. Then we included all of the special ornaments that Jilly has received. This year her Auntie Pam in New Mexico started a 12 Days of Christmas ornament collection for her. It will be wonderful to add a new one to the tree the next 11 years. By the time these "family" ornaments had been added, I was left was a crate full of ornaments that needed a home. Most were Santas. Not being able to stand the thought of an unused ornament, I decided to get another tree and place it in the dining room. I am happy with my decision. And finally, I bought a pre-lit, 2-foot tall pink tree to put on Jilly's night stand. We decorated it with silver glittery bulbs and tied sparkly green ribbon to them. It was super cute. I actually haven't taken it down. Right now it's covered with Valentine hearts and next we'll put Easter eggs and bunnies on it for spring.
We traveled to Tennessee the week before Christmas and got to see Nana, Auntie April, Ma, Granddad, PawPaw, Sweetie and a lot of other family. While we were gone, a major snow storm hit home. While we missed the loveliness of watching the snow fall, there was plenty left for Jilly to enjoy.
Jilly tromped through the massive piles of snow, made snow angels and a snow man. It was fun and perfect for our first Christmas at home.
Grandma and Uncle Jimmy came for Christmas. On Christmas Eve Jimmy dressed up like Ol' Saint Nick and he and Jilly delivered cookies to our neighbors. The kids were a bit surprised to see Santa so early.
Christmas morning was a whirlwind. Santa brought Jilly a baby stroller, a baby high chair and a horse barn with horses. In addition, she got an Olivia doll, Olivia DVD, and lip gloss since she is no longer wearing diapers and doing a great job going potty by herself.
One of Jilly's favorite gifts was an Elmo plane given to her by Uncle Sean and Aunt Casie. She actually got three toy planes. Maybe she'll take after her grandpa and be a pilot some day.
Naturally, no major event would be complete in the Beanie household without Jilly's bestest bud and his family who came over for Christmas dinner. We set up a kids' table in the kitchen while the adults enjoyed ham, butternut squash, corn pudding, broccoli, and a bunch more good stuff in the dining room.

It was great being able wake up in our own home on Christmas morning and have Jilly walk down the stairs to see all of her gifts. And now we're just trying to get back to normal but have a third birthday to look forward to soon. Yes, planning has already begun...

Sleepless

It's nearly 1 a.m. and I can't sleep because Christmas is two-and-a-half weeks away and I haven't finalized my dinner menu. Crazy, huh? I have been lying in bed the past hour with my head spinning. I figure that the only way to calm it down is to come here and type out my thoughts.

Last year I was inspired by an episode of Food Network host Nigella Lawson. Her entire menu for a holiday menu looked scrumptious and I swore that was what I was going to make for Christmas dinner. It is still my plan, for the most part but I feel that I need to add more. My mother gave me the latest edition of Southern Living's Christmas Cookbook and it has a couple of recipes in it that I plan to use as well. So, in order for me to get my head straight and feel better about a dinner that is more than two weeks away, here's my menu, or at least my menu at this point in time.

• Cream of Curried Peanut Soup

• some sort of salad with pomegranate or cranberry in it to give me something "red"

• Ginger Glazed Ham

• Spiced Peaches

• Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese (I actually made this last year and it was delish) OR

• Sweet Potato Casserole (can I have both?)

• Garlic Green Beans (my own recipe)

• Yeast Rolls (not homemade since we have a fabulous Mennonite community here and they make better bread than I could ever dream of making)

• Individual Fudge Cakes

My dilemma: for some reason this doesn't seem like enough. Maybe there needs to be another vegetable or I'm thinking too much of dressing that normally accompanies a turkey dinner. Maybe some broccoli spears? That is something my grandmother always had for Christmas dinner, with her fabulous cheese sauce, which I have yet to master.

Obviously there isn't much that I can do about this tonight. It's 1:01 a.m. and I really need to try to sleep. Hopefully getting all of this down will help - for now.

Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Jilly seems to be realizing that there is something between Halloween and Christmas. Our little ritual of writing down something each morning that she is thankful for is beginning to sink into her teeny little head.

We will be spending the afternoon with close friends. I have been asked to bring nothing, but that goes against the whole point of Thanksgiving. We did contribute the turkey, although we're not cooking it - just used our grocery store points for a free one. However, I am making my "famous" pecan pie. I am making it because no one in our house likes pecan pie and if I want to eat it, I have to make it for someone else.

I will turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning and hope that Jilly takes a minute to watch, but if not, that's OK. I always enjoyed watching it with my dad when I was a kid.

We wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope that you take a few minutes to realize the many blessings in your life and not dwell on the challenges.

today Jilly is thankful for the candy Christmas trees we made together last night

Dinner Bell

A friend of a friend recently started a new blog that I am following. Bringing Dinner Back chronicles one family's goal to eat at least one meal together every day for 53 weeks. Their journey interests me because eating as a family is extremely important to me.

As a kid we almost always had dinner together; even during the years that I played softball and the week was filled with either practice or games. And both of my parents worked outside the home. My memories of the ritual are not all happy. In fact, I tend to remember shedding a lot of tears because my father would torture me by making me eat peas, lima beans, or some other nasty stuff. As an aside, I will not put a pea anywhere near mouth today, yet my child cannot get enough of them. Still, looking back, family dinner was important because no matter how many battles I lost in regard to the food I ate, it was a time that we were all together and could talk without distractions.

According to my husband, his mother read an article recently about parents who believe that children should "earn" their way to the family dinner table. The information from the article comes to me third hand, so I may be taking it out of its original context, but essentially the story said that some families make their children eat separate from the rest of the family until they learn the proper way to sit and act at the table. This idea appalls me. Since I view the dinner table as an extension of the family, I do not believe that anyone should have to earn their place in that family. Plus, how can a child learn the proper way to act at the table unless that child sees it modeled for them? I understand that some families have crazy schedules and it simply does not work to hold dinner, but no one should be cast aside.

The ritual is not always easy with a toddler. I am lucky that Jilly is a pretty good eater. I do not make it a habit to make a separate meal for her, though I usually include at least one thing that I know she will eat (I'm usually safe with peas and green beans). I admit that there are nights when she has gone to bed without eating dinner. I am OK with that because I do not believe that children will allow themselves to starve and that they go through phases when they simply aren't hungry at dinner time. However, I do break the rule and prepare something different for her when I'm in the mood for a dish I know she won't eat - like spicy shrimp creole.

Each Friday I compose a weekly menu, which is when I do my weekly grocery shopping trip. I make a list each week of what is needed for each meal along with staples (milk, bread, cereal, etc.) and buy only what is on the list, unless there is some super special (the store where I shop often has buy-one-get-one-free deals on meat so I'll buy even if it's not on the list so I can build it into a future menu). This can be a pretty daunting task over time. I tend to get bored with certain dishes but they're easy and I know everyone will eat them. It is also very hard to be the main person who sets the dinner agenda every single day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year. But by doing this, we are able to wrangle our grocery budget and I'm not staring at the inside of the refrigerator at 5 p.m. each night trying to figure out what to make. The list is on the refrigerator door so even BeanieDaddy knows what to expect each night. It also keeps our household budget under control with fewer dinners/lunches out since BeanieDad doesn't mind taking leftovers to work. I buy fresh and usually organic vegetables, and we don't do prepared foods. Therefore, coupon clipping doesn't help much with the bottom line. Still, I get away with spending between $70 and $90 each week and that includes at least one meal with fresh fish.

My hope is that not only will Jilly be exposed to all kinds of food and develop a diverse palate but that dinner time is when we can connect as a family. I know that sitting down together each night may become more difficult as Jilly gets older and has her own social calendar, but hopefully putting this practice into place now will make it easier.