Author: Shane

I almost forgot about Valentine’s Day!

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Valentine’s day was more than two weeks ago, and I never got around to posting about it. On a normal year, there probably wouldn’t really be anything to post about, since Valentine’s day isn’t much of a holiday around these parts. However, this time around there was a party!

Valentine’s day fell on a Thursday this year, and Evie wasn’t going to be at school that day. She was a little disappointed about that, since they had been decorating hearts and planning for a big celebration at school, so Sara got the idea to invite a few friends over for a big party.

The morning began with a special proposal. Sara got down on one knee and proposed to her two special Valentines with some homemade, felted Valentine rings:

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The kids didn’t know that we had been furiously decorating the night before after they were in bed, so they were quite surprised to see all the decorations the next day (even though they had helped make some of the decorations).

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I think all of the other attendees were also a bit surprised at the amount of decorations, but I think it made it more fun that we took it seriously (perhaps a little *too* seriously?)

In any case, there were cookies to decorate, and Valentines to pass out, and everybody had a good time. At least so I heard, since I was actually at work during the festivities. To be honest, I think Sara actually had more fun than the kids, putting it all together. Perhaps we’ll do it again next year?

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Quote Monday is a snot

/ Shane / Leave a comment

::Oliver was very sick::
Ollie: “I couldn’t find a [nose] wipe [in the night], so I just wiped it all over everything.”

Oliver: “I love you daddy.”
Me: “I love you too. Even when I’m mad at you, I still love you. Always.”
Oliver: “Yeah, me too. I still love you even when you’re mad at me too.”

::Frontera tomatillo salsa was out::
Me: “Do you have any other tomatillo salsa?”
Grocery Store Employee: “No. But choo can make your own, it’s really easy!”

This is why I love the local produce mart.

Oliver: “Mama, where should I hide this from you?”

Booze (Homemade Irish Cream, Amaretto, and Coffee Liqueur)

/ Shane / 4 Comments

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

It really never occurred to me that you could just like make liqueur. I assumed it could only be concocted in a lab, with lab coats, beakers, and Bunsen burners under bubbling test tubes. Not so; as it turns out it’s actually comically simple. And this (in addition to homemade vanilla extract), makes for some really easy Christmas gifts for hard-to-shop-for people.

P.S. Don’t bother trying to make homemade almond extract. Unlike the rest, almond extract is apparently impossible to make. It is, however, very easy to make homemade almond-sludge-vodka. But then again, that’s really more of a niche market.

The Journey:

Well, the first thing you have to do is to go to Costco and buy some really ridiculously enormous bottles of booze.

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There’s really not much to say here. You do a little boiling, you do a little mixing, and then you bottle it up and save it for  a rainy day. Or, more likely, you bottle half of it up, while “taste testing” the other half right out of the pot.

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The amaretto and coffee liqueur are a little more stable, but the Irish cream has a timer because of the cream. It doesn’t really matter though, because none of these are going to last very long.

The Verdict:

You could drink any of these on the rocks, but I like them in milk, possibly with a little vanilla vodka. Sara finds the coffee liqueur works well in cocoa, and the Irish cream is naturally good in coffee. You can also make a pretty good amaretto sour with just amaretto and lemon juice.

It’s really hard to pick a favorite here, but I think I’m going to have to go with the amaretto. However, you can’t go wrong with any of them.

And even if you do, you still have some really ridiculously enormous bottles of booze from Costco…

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The Recipe:

Homemade Irish Cream from Design Sponge

  • 1 cup strong coffee
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 Tablespoon dark cocoa
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 cups Irish whiskey (we used Jameson, obviously)
  1. Bring the coffee to a gentle simmer in a medium-size saucepan.
  2. Add the cream, cocoa, sugar, honey and extracts, and whisk thoroughly.
  3. Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, whisking frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken.
  4. Remove the saucepan from the heat; whisk in the sweetened condensed milk.
  5. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
  6. Whisk in the whiskey until completely blended.
  7. Store in the refrigerator.

Homemade Almond Liqueur from All Recipes

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 2 Tablespoons almond extract
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1. Combine water and sugars in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the mixture is boiling, and all of the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.
  3. Stir vodka, almond extract and vanilla extract into the mixture.
  4. Store in a sealed bottle.

Homemade Coffee Liqueur from Bon Appetit

  • 2 cups water
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup instant coffee granules
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1. Bring 2 cups water to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Add sugar and coffee.
  2. Reduce heat to very low. Stir just until sugar and coffee dissolve.
  3. Remove from heat. Let stand until cool, about 1 hour.
  4. Mix vodka and vanilla into coffee syrup.
  5. Pour into large jar. Cover; let stand at room temperature at least 3 weeks and up to 6 weeks.

The Saddest Snowman in the World

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The kids have been *dying* to make a snowman. There hasn’t been much of an opportunity this year, since the few times there’s been snow, it’s been too cold and powdery for snowman building. In addition, we got a “frosty the snowman” kit for Christmas from Grandma Kathy, which included a hat, homemade scarf, an actual corn-cob pipe*, a button for a nose, and two lumps of coal for eyes. Believe me the kids were itching to use that kit.

*I remember playing with this pipe when I was a kid. Mom, why did we have a corn cob pipe, and were the ’80’s such a different time that we were allowed to pretend to smoke? My how things change.

So finally the conditions were right, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

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Not pictured is Evie, who was having a sobbing fit.

Poor Evie. On the days where she goes to school and then has to stay in aftercare until I can pick her up, she is completely wiped. She can barely hold it together for the few hours until she goes to bed. In this case, the snowman was just too much. (And to be fair, I’m not necessarily at my best either at about 6:00 after a hard day of work and a long commute.)

The thing is, I know she really wanted to make a snowman. All winter she’s been asking about it. But first her snowpants didn’t feel right. Then she didn’t know that Sara and Ollie had already made the snowballs, and she was pretty upset about that. We offered to make a second snowman with her, but that wasn’t really good enough. We offered to let her put the accoutrements on the snowman, but that wasn’t good either. She didn’t understand we were trying to help her, trying to make it better, and honestly I don’t think she wanted to be helped. I think she just needed to have an emotional outpouring in the form of an absolute meltdown.

So, instead of a fun little thing to do in the snow, it ended in nobody really having a good time, and Evie being carried inside kicking and screaming and making grand declarations like, “I HATE THE SNOWMAN! I’M GOING TO GO BACK OUTSIDE AND RUIN THE SNOWMAN!” Ollie was just kind of confused by all of this.

::sigh:: This is such a hard situation, and one we haven’t really come up with a good solution for. When a kid is that tired, absolutely nothing is going to go right until they get some sleep. If something fun, like making the snowman you’ve been dying to make all winter, goes this poorly, you can imagine how well something like taking a bath or eating dinner goes. On the other hand, it’s not really appropriate to scream your vocal chords out or hit someone or break something because the snowman didn’t go the way you wanted it to. By nature I am very no-nonsense about this kind of behavior, so even though I know it is the result of over-tiredness, I have trouble going lightly on the poor girl (for anything) (ever).

Unfortunately, this is not such an uncommon way to end the evening at our house these days. I can only imagine what it will be like when she’s going to school 5 day s a week…

Meez Meals

/ Shane / 3 Comments

I don’t consider myself or Sara to be lucky people (I mean, aside from being born in a country where people are more worried about their cell phone data plan than if they’re going to have anything to eat tonight) (which is actually kind of relevant to this post, now that I think about it). So it is always a pleasant surprise to actually win something.

And that’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago, when Sara won 3 free Meez Meals courtesy of the West of the Loop blog!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, we used to do Dinner by Design and Dream Dinners to stock up food prior to having a new baby. Meez Meals is sort of similar to that, except even better: you get all the ingredients to make a home-cooked meal, but instead going somewhere and assembling the meals, they actually deliver it to your door! (and for roughly the same price)

Some people might wonder why you would pay to have someone deliver food that you then have to make yourself. It’s a valid question, I suppose, but it’s sort of like having all of the upsides of cooking yourself (adjust the salt, add chicken, make it spicier, etc.), without the downsides (chopping all the veggies, having a million different preparation dishes, running out of a key ingredient, etc.). And the food they offer is much more healthful than your average take-out meal.

Some people might also wonder about the price. If you’re cooking it yourself at home anyway, isn’t it a little pricey compared to home cooked meals? Well yes, it is, but it’s not comparable to making dinner at home; you have to compare it to going out to eat. It requires infinitely less effort than planning a meal, shopping for the food, and doing all the preparations.

Still, it’s a fair criticism. It’s not cheap, especially for someone like us who very rarely go out to eat. I wouldn’t advocate abandoning all food-making and only eating from Meez Meals from now on, but I will say that the week we got our 3 free meals, it was a life saver. It could certainly be invaluable now and again. There is no price too high to place for not having to plan meals, and it’s also nice to add a little variety into dinnertime to avoid getting stuck in a rut.

Alas, I wish I could tell you that the food itself knocked my socks off, but I thought it was only okay. However, my main complaint was that a lot of it was somewhat bland, which is probably something I could actually do something about. Oliver, on the other hand, couldn’t stuff spaghetti squash in his mouth fast enough, literally, eventually abandoning the taco part altogether:

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Oh, two more things I want to mention!

First, we saw some complaints that the food comes in a million plastic bags, which was true, and it did kind of drive me and (especially) Sara crazy. Sara boycotts entire brands for using too much packaging. However, we heard that in Chicago the bags are recyclable. We haven’t confirmed that yet, which is why we have a huge stack of what looks like trash sitting next to the dishes.

Second, this email:

We’re Sorry!We’ve heard from some members that the Moroccan Tacos are delicious, but the portion was smaller than we intended.Please have a meal on us next time.  Go ahead and place your next order the usual way, then send us a note with your pick for an extra meal.  We’ll get it all together for you.

How’s that for customer service?? We found the portions were more than generous and had plenty for leftovers, including the Moroccan Tacos. So that was really going above and beyond if you ask me.

So anyway, special thanks to Meez Meals and West of the Loop for hooking us up. We’ll have to do it again some time (I mean, except not for free) (unless you’re open to that, because I would definitely not turn you down).