little woman

This weekend has been insane. Baby, family craziness. This morning we had a Father’s Day brunch at Abbie’s house. I hate buying things. I only want to make things. And we needed to take things. After my very mediocre attempt at sourdough bread yesterday, I thought I was all “made” out for the weekend. But I woke up this morning with muffins on the mind… with lemon.

I could only find half of a lemon that Paul used earlier in the week for a beer. I couldnt zest it very well. I didn’t have blueberries but i started to make this recipe anyway. In the middle of that I switched gears and wanted lemon with rosemary. So I made this recipe… kind of.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan, combine the milk, rosemary and lemon peel. Bring to a simmer; cook and stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; cool slightly. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until foamy. Stir in butter, sugar and milk mixture until combined. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

I say kind of b/c my lemon supply was pretty poor but i managed to get just enough zest. Also I had already put the sugar in with the dry ingredients per the other recipe instead of mixing it with the wet. Oh well. They turned out alright! I will make another attempt at these sometime. YUM!

Paul and I are going up north next weekend to hang with my dad for Father’s Day. We are going to a Rangers game. Should be fun!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY ALL! AND HAPPY MIDSUMMER! Make a bonfire!

From History.com…

On February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.

Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families.

To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.

Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”

For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to @neilhimself for sharing this on twitter…

Today we woke up and made french toast with strawberries… yummy!

Then I made chocolate covered strawberries to have after dinner tonight.

This was my first attempt at chocolate covered strawberries. I used a homemade double boiler to melt the chocolate. Towards the end of the strawberries, I found the chocolate not wanting to stick to the strawberries and not melting smoothly like it had at first. Oh well, I got some good ones… won’t show you the bad ones!!

On to dinner at Gypsy Italian Bistro on Barton Springs… We split a bottle of merlot and each had a wonderful pasta dish. Then we walked around the Palmer Center to see the Ballet Austin’s Hamlet. Modern ballet and costumes and Hamlet set to music by Philip Glass = insane! But it was good. We came home and had the strawberries, coffee/tea and Star Trek… great day!

well i cant make bread to save myself…

but i have managed some very tasty homemade butter and strawberry preserves.

this is the process i followed for the butter:

Homemade Butter

Homemade Butter

This is a fun recipe for kids to try.

2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream, chilled
Pinch salt

You will also need a 2-quart jar with a tight lid, a marble, a strainer, a 2-quart bowl, a measuring cup and a wooden spoon.

Chill the jar and the marble in the refrigerator for at least one hour to help the butter form more quickly. Place the strainer over the bowl and set them aside. Pour the cream into the jar, drop in the marble, and fasten the lid tight. Shake the jar. At first you will hear the marble moving. After about 15 minutes, the cream will get so thick that you won’t hear or feel the marble. The sides of the jar will be coated with thick cream. Continue shaking the jar. After another 15 to 30 minutes, butter will begin to form.

First you will hear the marble moving again, then the coating of cream will disappear from the sides of the jar and you will see lumps of butter in a milky liquid. The liquid is buttermilk.

Open the jar and pour the butter and the buttermilk into the strainer. The buttermilk will flow into the bowl, and the butter will stay in the strainer. Pour the buttermilk from the bowl into a covered container and store in the refrigerator. You can drink the buttermilk or use it in another recipe. Rinse the bowl with cold water to remove all of the buttermilk. Turn the butter out of the strainer and into the bowl. Cover the butter with cold water and then pour the water off through the strainer. Do not save this milky water. Keep washing the butter this way until the water you pour off is clear. You are washing out the buttermilk — buttermilk that is not washed out will turn the butter sour.

Use a clean wooden spoon to stir and press the butter against the side of the bowl. Continue pressing the butter against the side of the bowl to work out any liquid that is left in the butter. Pour the liquid off. You may add the salt, if desired. Chill butter for 1 hour before serving. Makes about 6 ounces.

From “Kirsten’s Cook Book,” The American Girls Collection

Thursday, March 09, 2000

and here is the recipe i used for the strawberry preserves. i only did 2 cups of strawberries as i was just trying it out…

i made some baking soda biscuits one saturday morning that turned out… somewhat. some where flat as pancakes… some were light and fluffy. but i got a little buttermilk from making the butter so perhaps i could try my hand at buttermilk biscuits again… even though all of my attempts failed while i was living in houston… perhaps it was the humidity??