Our Date

We were both stuffed at dinnertime so Rex volunteered to make dinner after I put the kids to bed. Here's the smoked salmon plate he whipped together while I was reading The Velveteen Rabbit.

Another Thing to Do

I love coffee. But when I drink it regularly, my energy is zapped by mid afternoon. So after a month or two of daily cups I gave it up cold turkey.

But then this came in the mail.



It's a box full of green coffee beans. Rex finally decided to try roasting them himself.



Apparently our old popcorn maker can double as a coffee roaster.

Here's the beans before they were chaffed.



Of course I had to try some. This particular bean is grown by a secluded Indian tribe. The beans are washed in a river, transported to the distributer by canoe and then public bus and supposed to have a finish reminiscent of watermelon Jolly Ranchers.

I didn't taste the Jolly Ranchers, but Rex said he got a definite hard candy taste after the coffee cooled for a while.

In the Kitchen

We managed to get in one batch of cookies this season using this recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies with crushed candy cane added on top for a little holiday flavor. The kids were helpful and it turned out to be a no stress operation. Sylvia picked out the dress she's wearing because it reminded her of chocolate with sprinkles on it, the kind of cookies we originally set out to make. Alas, the Fresh Market does not carry multi colored sprinkles...too bad.


When the cookies were done, we took a plate into the family room, spread out on the rug and listened to The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol recorded from StoryNory.


And now I've got about 8 quarts of tomato and meatball sauce slowly simmering on the stove-top. This with some parmesan cheese, whole wheat pasta and a bottle of red wine is one of my favorite meals. The kids are doing arts and crafts at the kitchen table and Millie's napping. It's been a peaceful and productive day.