I am more of a vanilla person so really expected to enjoy this one.
I did NOT. It was not good. Maybe too soon after the rich Belgian hot chocolate? Or maybe it’s just called hot chocolate for a reason? And I accidentally bought 2 packets of it. SIGH. Maybe I can figure out something to do with the other package to make it better.
A Delight
Before baking:
And after:
(Sorry forgot to flip the photos). YUM. Just YUM.
The blueberry French toast bake that Carrie shared was a hit! Mostly with me. To be fair, my husband said it would make a “good side” and that he didn’t care for mushy bread. (NOTE: the bread was not mushy at all. He just isn’t a huge sourdough fan and that’s what I used) J decided he was not a fan of hot blueberries but thought it would be great with other fruit. G just thought it needed something on top. My family is super picky though. This dish is an absolute 10/10 for me.
I made a few mistakes in the recipe like accidentally doubling the seasonings when I halved the recipe but I don’t think that hurt it at all. And not really a mistake but I always add a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg to my recipes with real blueberries.
Everyone was home again yesterday. Today, things are starting to slowly return to routine. My husband and G went off to work though G had a late start. I’m doing a load of laundry and pondering what I might want to do today.
I knew I wanted to put up a blog post. Maybe return to doing winter Wednesdays. So for today, just a few images. Even the nature centers were closed yesterday (and it was cold out there!) but I was craving some outdoor time (and sunshine!). So, a few phone snaps from the back yard to start.
Also, not the best pictures because my hands even in the fingerless gloves were COLD. I also should’ve grabbed the real camera for decent bird pictures because we had a great variety. That said, I do like how this zoomed in phone picture of a junco and cardinal sitting in the oak tree has a surreal painting like feel:
The cardinal a bit more in focus. The sun and wind knocked most the snow off this side of the oak tree so that’s why it looks so bare.
Higher up, the trees looked like this:
The trees were making me happy yesterday along with the bright blue skies! Just the tippy top of the trees in this photo had ice left.
Time to warm up:
On my list of 25 for 2025 (still thinking on that word of the year but leaning toward either savor or trust), try a new hot chocolate every week of winter. So I opted to start out by trying this Belgian hot chocolate recipe.
It was so good and so rich that I couldn’t drink an entire cup (I didn’t even fill this cup full). Half of it is still in the fridge to be rewarmed, perhaps later today.
Definitely a 5 star cup of hot chocolate!
Note, I love dark chocolate so opted for the darkest chocolate I could find that stayed with the parameters of the recipe.
Have you ever had Belgian hot chocolate? Also, if you have a kind of hot chocolate you think I should try, I’m open to suggestions. It doesn’t need to be homemade, if it’s a packet flavor, I’d like to know that as well.
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Now, I’m off to fold a bit of laundry, put away a few remaining stray Christmas decorations, and clean up around here a bit. However, you spend this winter Wednesday, I hope you enjoy it!
Hello, I haven’t fallen off the edge of the Earth or gone sailing around it (oh, that might be fun!). A few days of sickness gave way into a crazy working schedule. All the teachers had a turn being sick with either a stomach bug or a nasty respiratory virus, thankfully not Covid. And I’m glad to have not drawn the stomach bug card at least.
My amaryllis bloomed!
Not sure how many Happy Homemaker Mondays I’ve missed. The first one I missed because I favored sleep over Internet activities. The past few I’ve missed because of working. Quite a few more early (7:00 AM start) shifts than normal, after those…again, sleep over Internet activities).
Today, I get a bit of a break as I don’t need to go into work until noon before returning to an early start tomorrow and another full day on Friday. Spring break is next week for us. My list of things for next week is growing exponentially each day. Catching up with all my blogging friends is absolutely on the list!
Other Happenings and Random Things
Somehow, it’s gone from snow to crocus blooms to daffodils to tiny purple flowers covering the yard and more daffodils. Hopefully, better pictures coming soon. It’s been too long since I’ve properly picked up my good camera.
More daffodil pictures coming soon hopefully! Along with prettier purple flower pictures (squill/glory of the snow flowers)
G made dinner a couple nights while I was sick. Very helpful. French Toast and spaghetti, not at the same time! Once I felt better, J and I attempted spring rolls (his idea) to go with the Korean meatballs. They were semi-successful. Rice paper is a tad difficult. Trying again tonight as accompaniment to our pepper steak. Oh and last week, I tried avocado toast at work. Really liked it so we had it alongside taco salads for dinner last night.
This Week’s Menu
Monday: I grilled bbq chicken and garlic butter chicken (saved for later) that I picked up already marinated from the grocery store. *I worked 7 to 1*
TUESDAY: taco salads and avocado toast *I worked 7 to 3:45*
WEDNESDAY: pepper steak, rice, spring rolls *I work 12:30-3:45*
THURSDAY: Leftovers plus I picked up a cookies and cream pie for Pi day (3.14) *I work 7:15 to possibly 3:45, need to clarify* Mom’s Night Out! (If my work day is short, I might make a quiche for dinner instead to keep with the pie theme)
FRIDAY: fettuccine alfredo with garlic butter chicken, salad maybe? *I work 10:30-4:30*
Reading/TV watching
Didn’t do much reading while I was sick or I can’t recall much of what I read. Casually read an early 2 book series by V.E. Schwab, Vicious and Vengeful. They were just okay. Her later books are so much better. I’ve just started a promising book called The Secret Life of Flora Lee by Patti Callahan Henry.
So much yet so little tv watching. Since I felt a bit like a zombie, I rewatched the first season of The Walking Dead and part of the 2nd season as well. Watched the new Rick and Michonne series, need to catch up on the last episode. Can’t decide, any other fans out there…what do you think? For all the hype, I think to start the Daryl Dixon series is way better.
Husband and I watched The Voice, of course now that they have their teams I’m probably done.
And once I started feeling like a human again, I was happy to watch Next Level Chef and see that the Spring Baking Championship is back (hooray, one of my favorite shows!).
Movies? Hmmm…Oh, I rewatched the original Jurassic Park just because. And the last half of the Oscars ( I was at Target/waiting on J’s band practice to end for the first half). So, I’ll end this section with my Oscar look via my silly phone game.
What do you think of my red carpet look? Ha.
Winter Wednesday Weather
Did you know today is the last Wednesday for this season? Our winter weather to see out the season calls for a high in the 70’s (again, yesterday was the same) followed by a chance of thunderstorms. Oh, how I hope we get some rain. Last night the rain missed our local area. Such a strange winter we’ve had! Makes me wonder what’s in store for spring and summer.
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Stopping my not a quick post after all here. Thanks for reading my rather lengthy update if you’re still here.
Time for me to go get ready for work. Tell me what’s the weather look like where you are?
Sometimes it feels like February is the longest winter month. I know we all start getting a bit antsy for spring this month. And it doesn’t help with days of warmer spring like temperatures teasing. Then, the temperature likely plummets and here comes some cold. This is typically our coldest month. We’ll see what happens. And it always feels like the longest winter month to me as well.
However, we also get sunrises that look like this:
And there are things to do to keep the February blahs at bay. Though some do take intention.
Fun Things in February:
Groundhog day! (He didn’t see his shadow, so early Spring. Of course, here it was a sunny day so hopefully all our groundhogs slept through and didn’t see any shadows that way)
My husband’s birthday (Maybe you have family/friend birthdays to celebrate this month?)
Galentine’s Day…this is tonight for me. Getting together with girlfriends at the Cheesecake Factory for a fun dinner and exchange of small tokens of friendship.
Super Bowl Sunday! Go Chiefs! It’s more fun to watch when your team is playing but I still watched many years when neither of the teams wore red.
Pancake Tuesday. I’m all about holidays involving food!
Mardi gras
Valentine’s Day. Just pass me the dark chocolate and we’ll be fine.
President’s Day, a holiday is a holiday and a day off work for this one!
Chinese New Year is Saturday, it’s the year of the dragon!
And of course, there are 29 days in February this year as it’s a Leap Year.
A Fun Photo:
I took this reflection of the sunrise in the window of my husband’s truck this morning. It captured the sunrise colors better than my proper photo.
After so much cold and rain, the clouds parted, the Chiefs won (again!), and the warm sunshine arrived. It’s been a busy start to the week (work-wise) over here so not much time to post. This post is going to be short as well. Hopefully, I’ll have a minute to catch up on Friday. Just two photos for today.
Walking in Sunshine
(And mud, I took a picture but the computer doesn’t want any muddy pictures. Not sure why it won’t load. I did enjoy squishing into the mud while wearing my boots though)
My Kind of Winter Day
We went from the arctic blast to cloudy and rainy to 62 and sunny today! Welcome to Midwest living. How’s your weather?
The January blahs or blues or whatever you want to call them hit hard today. We’re on day too many of not seeing the sun. It’s foggy, damp, and depressing outside. The snow is in the stage of no longer pretty and half-ice mounds and half-muddy mess. A few snowmen (not ours) are hanging on around town at least.
For my attempt at winter appreciation today: Earl gray tea and a slice of cinnamon bread for an afternoon snack. Maybe I’ll see if I can sneak in the latest Percy Jackson episode before we leave for J’s class.
Oh and in a that’s just the way the day is going: While I was in the library, someone crashed into the transformer (they were okay) outside cutting off power for a lot of that block. SIGH. So much for escaping the blahs that way.
How do you cope with the winter blues when it means being stuck inside?
(If you are wondering why I didn’t go for a walk, it’s because I’m thinking based on my last walk, it’s most likely an icy mess right now)
Just finished an entire week in review blog post and then, decided it was so boring I’m not publishing it. So, here we have try two with the photos I downloaded for the deleted post. (I’m also counting this as my winter Wednesday post even though it’s Friday.) I’m just going to list some random items from the week.
We missed trash day on Wednesday! The trash truck usually always comes around 9:30 in the morning but for some reason they came at 6:30 on Wednesday. Thankfully, we didn’t have too much trash this week and should be okay to make it until next week.
Sickness also found J on Wednesday so he missed the start of his college classes this semester. Shouldn’t be too bad as Tuesday was a snow day.
A blue jay for my blue Wednesday
Did you know blue Monday meant that it was supposedly the most depressing day of the year? I had more of a blue Wednesday but really haven’t been super depressed this winter (yet). Getting outside makes such a difference!
Snow flowers?
I watched Trolls and School of Rock on Wednesday afternoon, both older movies and yet somehow I’d never seen them. Go watch them if you’ve not seen them yet, worth your time. Light and fun as well.
Want to know something that works good for sifting powdered sugar onto things if you don’t want to break out the entire sifter? A slotted spoon! Probably one of those I’m the last person to know that kind of things but thought I’d share it in case I’m just the second to last person to think of it.
I went to the grocery store twice this week. Once on Monday and again yesterday, both times to prepare for cold and snow. Yesterday was more about getting birdseed and a few snack items for the weekend.
A Few More Items
My editing stuff says I need a subheading, so there you go.
Don’t discount the mental and physical benefits of a snowy hike. Not a snowy workout, just a walk on the snow covered trail admiring the season.
If you line your pan with foil to avoid a mess from a sticky sauce, clean said pan before the sauce cools and “glues” the foil to your pan. Ack! What a mess. SIGH.
Let myself say no to work a few times this week, why is it so hard to prioritize my own plans even if they aren’t “big”?
Excited for G who has a job interview coming up in a couple of weeks. He’d been a bit discouraged so this helps.
Started the week with laundry and here I am ending it with more laundry? How?
Weekend Plans
None really. More laundry, cleaning and clearing of clutter for today. And some paperwork. Ugh. Waiting to see how J feels when he wakes up and whether he’s going to his classes (they don’t start until 2).
Football watching on the agenda for the weekend mostly. Go Chiefs! Go Packers! (or am I supposed to say Pack? Carrie?) and Go Lions! Not sure on who I’ll cheer on for the fourth game. Maybe a walk on Sunday if it “warms” up a bit more.
How was your week? Any plans for the weekend that might be more exciting than mine?
Very briefly and early this morning, the sky showed blue and the sun lit up the snow covered tree branches.
Zooming in didn’t work quite as well as just opening the door, bracing from the cold, and taking a longer shot.
The middle two pictures were out the back door and the top and bottom ones are outside our front door.
They make me want to get my snow boots on bundle up and trek through the woods. However, no snow day today and it’s back to work for me later this afternoon. Perhaps tomorrow morning I’ll get my chance. The weather people predict more snow for us on Thursday afternoon into Friday. They also predicted more snow for Sunday (along with very cold temperatures starting on Saturday or was it Friday?)
I’ll leave this post by asking only one question:
Do you want to build a snowman or sit inside and drink cocoa? Both is a valid answer.
These posts helped me enjoy winter a little more last year so I thought I’d bring them back for this winter. Just a quick one tonight as I ended up working today. Photos from a walk I took on Tuesday. It wasn’t freezing cold but warm isn’t the adjective of choice from my walk either.
Some areas of water, some areas of mud, and some ice.
For reference, this is what the area above looked like in late October:
More ice from the stream:
Winter robins:
What’s the difference between a spring robin and a winter robin? The seasons, I guess. I don’t really know.
New year so I took a new trail:
And had a bit of a different view of the lakes.
We’re supposed to get some wintery weather over the weekend so perhaps next Wednesday’s views will be a bit more snowy but who knows. Either way, I’ve decided it’s good for me to be outside no matter the weather as well as chase the sun in the winter.
Before we get to my final winter Wednesday thought, have you ever had an entire post just disappear? *POOF* Gone, not even a draft of it seems to exist. SIGH. Annoying.
And of course, I can’t remember exactly what I wrote.
The Weather
Maybe the wind blew my post away? It’s (don’t hate us) currently 62 degrees out there but I can hear the wind picking up. Also, cloudy though we had a decent amount of sunshine earlier. Tomorrow, however, we’re supposed to get rain that transitions to light snow by Friday morning.
My Goodbye Letter To Winter
Dear Winter,
It’s been such a nice visit with you this year. Thank you for the snowflakes and especially for those surprisingly warm and sunny days. However, spring is on the way already having sent through some luggage covered in daffodils and tiny purple flowers. Please make sure you remember to pack up and take all your weather with you on your journey to the southern hemisphere. I’d really hate for you to have to turn around and collect a forgotten snow storm late in the spring. I’ll look forward to your return in December when you’ll perhaps bring us a white Christmas?
Wishing you snowy safe travels!
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I’ll skip trying to remember the rest of my post and just share this fun meme:
How are you spending your last Wednesday of winter?
