Iced Coffee Season Approaching

I'm almost tired of drinking hot coffee, believe it or not.  So, I'm hoping after this next cold snap I can switch over to Iced Coffee.  I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman blog on how to prepare a whole mess of iced coffee; like enough to last a week or so. 

(photo from The Pioneer Woman blog)

 

She starts with soaking coffee grounds in fresh water overnight, straining through a cheesecloth then storing this black gold in a vessel in the 'fridge.  You just fill up a glass with ice, add the coffee and however much milk or flavored syrups and drink up.  Can't wait to get started on this!

Valentine's Day Dinner at Home

I don't know about you but we like to do something special for Valentine's Day.  We have always exchanged cards but we don't always exchange gifts. Sometimes we agree to just have a nice meal out or save the money for an upcoming vacation.  Several weeks ago I thought about making a gourmet meal at home with heart-shaped everything but as the Day neared I decided I didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen.  I've been seeing some good recipes come across Facebook lately and since it's been a cold, snowy winter the idea of hot soup on a Friday night, by candlelight, in the living room, watching the Olympics....sounded pretty good to me.  And because I couldn't decide on which recipe we'd like better I decided to try two new soups.  Both have similar ingredients to it'd be just as easy to hover over two pots on the stove as it would be for just one, AND in the end I'd have two meals to save for later in the freezer.  Score me! (for planning ahead).

This photo is the Pasta Bean Soup.  It's broth, tomatoes, cannellini beans, spinach, shell pasta, herbs and I added homemade Italian meatballs.  I always make my own meatballs.  It's very easy and takes less than 30 minutes to bake them in the oven so there's no mess.  Anyway, this was more of a brothy soup and while I really liked it I think the next time I'dd add a second can of beans as the recipe called to mash most of the beans so the ones left disappearred.  I would also add smaller pasta and less of it.  It's definitely a keeper though!

The soup below is Tortellini Soup.  This is the one I've seen all over Pinterest and FB lately.  A couple of my friends have tried it too.  This soup was delicious!!

Like the Pasta Bean it also starts with broth, tomatoes, spinach and herbs but you add cheese tortellini (or whatever kind you want to) and a block of cream cheese.  Now I could not bring myself to add the entire 8 oz of cream cheese.  I tasted the broth after it simmered for a while and I just didn't feel the soup needed all that fat.  I only used 4 oz and it turned out fine and had less fat. At first I only added half of a big package of fresh tortellini but as the day went on I decided to add the entire package. This made for less broth but it was very good.  This soup had a much different taste than the other soup even though the ingredients were similar.  After sampling all day I couldn't very well eat two bowls of soup for dinner so I chose to eat the Tortellini Soup for my meal and fished out some meatballs from the other one to add to my bowl.  Very good idea!   We had our soup with some crusty bread and olive oil and a little shaved parm on top. 

 It's just not possible to have a special dinner at our house without dessert.  I have a horrible sweet tooth!  I decided to go light and easy this year.  These parfaits were so yummy!  I used fresh berries, torn up angel food cake, lite cool whip and heated some raspberry jam to thin and use as a sauce between the layers.  Then I had some leftover melting chocolate from Christmas so made heart shapes on wax paper and used the hearts as a garnish (see below).  The parfaits were Robbie's favorite.

I mentioned above that we usually only exchange cards for V-Day but this year Bob surprised me with some new jewelry.  I got new marcasite earrings which are fancy, dangly and very pretty.  I hadn't taken a photo of them at the time I completed this post but I'll get one up here this week.  Bob's such a sweetie!

Picture Update

Fluffy doesn't like to be cold so we oftentimes find her hanging out near, or on, the heat vents in the house.  Bless her heart!

This is our (the cats') new water fountain.  It runs continuously recycling and filtering their water so it stays fresher longer.  Lucas LOVES it and nearly always drinks from the fountain part. Sheba drinks from the bowl area and we've yet to see Fluffy drink from it at all hence the brown cereal bowl next to the fountain so she does not dehydrate.  High maintenance. 

Bob's best friend...aka this old house's coffee center.  Bob cashed in his Visa Rewards points for this bad boy and I bought him the Kcup carousel for Christmas.  After we told Brock about this he found that he had enough rewards points and got one for their house too.  We bought one of the adapter cups so you can use non-Kcup coffee if you want to.  I've tried it a couple times and find that I do prefer my freshly ground beans vs. the Kcups.

Robbie's new work area in the laundry room that I mentioned in my previous post.

Ahhh, my new favorite liquor...not that I drink much anyway, but this Kinky stuff is really good!  I found it last summer at Sam's Club liquor store and thought it sounded good.  We didn't open it until New Year's Eve and it was delicious.  I actually added a splash to my champagne but it is also good on the rocks. 

If you cannot read the label it says vodka with mango, blood orange and passion fruit.

Makes me want to hurry up spring to get here so I can sit outside and sip on a little while I watch the birds. 

February 2014

Our 2014 has started off as much fun as 2013 ended.  We've spent time with friends and family and worked on some small projects inside of this old house. When I'm done writing this post I'm going to walk around the house and take photos to upload next week about the happenings here. One project was my cleaning out some space in the laundry room (my sewing area) to make a work/study area for Robbie. Once all the crap we've been piling up there was cleared away, I found a great work space that even I might make use of when he's not.  The thing about the laundry room this time of year is that it is the warmest place in the downstairs.  There is an open vent and the heat just pours right in and it is nice and toasty versus my designated office space next to the window.  I wish I would've taken a before photo because it sure was a mess! 

I'm still on a mission to try to make the best coffee I can at home.  We're on our 4th electric coffee appliance (6th coffee making element if you want to count the two French presses I've purchased).  Since I started drinking coffee in 2007 we've purchased an espresso maker, espresso/coffee maker, coffee maker and now a Keurig.  The Keurig is actually Bob's baby; he got it with his Visa Rewards points before Christmas and he's lovin' the thing!  I'm on the fence as I  continue to struggle try to find the right combination of Kcup, water and nonfat creamer to satisfy my desire for "the perfect cup".  The coffee aisle at the store is a place we spend a lot of time as we look to see any newly released flavors or ingredients to adorn our hot drinks.  I continue to go to Starbucks a few times a month.  I may have to become a part-time barista so I can continue to buy the good stuff but with an employee discount.  Right now I save all my rolled change to use for my coffee addiction.  ha ha!!

Robbie still plans on moving out when the next school year starts.  We have a day trip to Western coming up to tour, meet with a business office rep and hopefully an advisor.  Robbie has discovered that community college isn't for dummies like he originally thought.  I think he finally understands it IS college, just on a smaller scale, so I think he has been putting in more study time and realizes no matter where he goes to school it is not easy.  He also juggles a fairly busy work schedule but still seems to find time to play Xbox.  ha ha!

Bob and I are excited about our trip to Yellowstone this year, of course!  Some friends of ours visited Jackson Hole and Yellowstone in the fall of 2012 just based on our experience the two times we've been out there.  Both of them say it was the best vacation they've ever taken :)  I was very happy to hear that from people who actually seem to enjoy warmer climates when they travel.  We've all talked about wanting to visit the Yellowstone area in the winter so hopefully in a year or two we'll be able to plan that trip.  An investment in super-warm clothing would be necessary....it was -46 near West Yellowstone earlier this week!!

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the snow our area has received this season....I was happily surprised when I woke up to see snow covered streets again this morning! Yesterday when I was out working I really enjoyed the ice covered branches.  Everywhere the sun shone was sparkling.

Well I'm off to take some photos. Check back in a few days for more updates.