Simplicity by Sabrina

 Around Christmas time when people decorate their trees, some choose to put an angel on top, some put a star, but for some of my life my family has decided to put a bow on the top. I always thought it was cute and I liked the idea, but Travis said that at Christmas a star is what belongs at the top of the tree. I remember sighing and saying that he was probably right, but I like bows SO much.


But now that we have a year round tree, I can put a bow on top of it during the year and still have a star on it during December. I love seeing the daisies and roses popping out of the tree. It makes me think that spring is not too far away.


Happy Valentine's Day!

This year we decided to celebrate by going to our favorite used bookstore in town called Haunted Bookshop. Every time we go there I feel like I could spend a long time there! And I don't think we have ever left empty-handed.


 Here are our spoils for the day:


J is for JumpShot is for Juliet because A Basketball Alphabet is clearly what she needs :) (Travis found it and I thought it was perfect.)

The Agatha Christie novel is for me because it has been a LONG time since I read a murder mystery and this one looked good because it is about a couple who is really into solving crimes and maybe gets in over their heads solving one.

The Jewish Stories was Travis's pick. I admit I was not as excited about this one, but I flipped through a couple of stories and I think it will be cute to read as a family when we celebrate Passover (Yes, we celebrate Passover and yes, I know we are not Jewish, but maybe I will blog about it one day and tell you why we do it!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

And Happy Reading!

As part of our continuous Valentine's Day date, Travis planned the activity that we would do this year while I planned the dinner. We got to go out last night for dinner, which was great! We stayed out late and had fun together.

When I woke up this morning, this is what I saw...


Normally some wives might be mad at seeing the mess, but I was so happy because I knew what it meant--homemade bread!

Travis told me this week, "To you, the smell of bread is so romantic, so that is what I planned for our Valentine's Day date activity." My man knows me well. Haha.

Bread #1:
English muffins
He woke up early and made homemade English muffins and I have to say, they were PERFECT! They were on the griddle when I came into the kitchen, so I got to see him work his magic when he cooked them.



Travis and I were saying that when you see English muffins in the store, you assume that either a baking master or a machine made them and how can one even attempt to make them look as good at home? But, he definitely did it and they looked and tasted great. We made egg sandwiches and they were very good!


Bread #2:
Ciabatta bread
We have made this recipe before and it is mouth-watering good! Ciabatta bread is always a treat that I spring for when we have some extra grocery money, but since we have learned how to bake it, it is totally cheaper, but just more labor intensive. The starter has to be done the night before and it needs quite a bit of work to knead, but it is a great bread with a nice, oily taste.



Bread #3:
Homemade pizza
For lunch Travis planned on homemade pizza, but he pulled out all the stops. We tried a recipe with feta cheese, prosciutto, mozzarella cheese, sweet peppers, and parmesan. Travis also made the tomato sauce from scratch since we had some extra tomatoes, which was also a treat. Travis says it was the best pizza he has ever tasted. The crust turned out perfectly--not too crunchy and not too chewy.


Bread #4:
Homemade rolls
We have tried a few roll recipes and we have some favorites, but Travis decided to try one more for me and he did most of the work on this one since our baby girl needed some loving and attention this afternoon. It is a french roll that turned out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. We had it as an after dinner snack (because Travis also made a good Jambalaya crock pot dinner). He bought a Fontina cheese to eat with it (we have become lovers of expensive cheese whenever we can get it!) and it tasted really delicious!


I didn't think that I would marry someone who loves to cook and bake this much, but he sure did surprise me this Valentine's Day with some amazing bread!

I can't wait for Valentine's Day so we can finish the third part to our date and one of my favorite Valentine's Day traditions for us! Stay tuned for my last Valentine's Day post :)

I have always told myself that if I ever posted a recipe on a blog that I would ALWAYS post the recipe first because who really wants to scroll through your life story before reading the recipe you posted? Has anyone else ever noticed that recipe blogs have WAY too much commentary before you actually get to the recipe? Well, I decided to change things up, at least on this blog.


I don't know if my mother always baked sugar cookies around Valentine's Day, but I have memories of multiple years of her doing it, so I am calling it a tradition. The part I loved the most about it was she would bake what seemed like a hundred heart-shaped sugar cookies, frost them all pink, and write all of our names on them so you knew that you had cookies just for you. I remember watching her get out the cookie decorating supplies and spell our names onto the cookies. I was always particularly impressed with her ability to fit my long name on cookies. As you can see from my frosting abilities, I do not have cookie decorating gear (maybe one day...), but I am here to say that sometimes simple is best!

Since my mom is known as "Grammie" in our house, I decided to call it Grammie's Sugar Cookies. Also, for some reason my mom has not posted this recipe on her blog, so I decided to do it here.



I especially love this recipe because it is easy! I usually half the recipe because it makes a TON of cookies. I made mostly big hearts and I still got 2-3 dozen out of making just half of the above recipe. I also love that this recipe does not require you to chill the dough. Most sugar cookie recipes say that the validity of the recipe depends on you chilling the dough for at least 2 hours, and in some cases 24. Sometimes we just don't have time for that when we want sugar cookies now! This recipe is perfect for that, but if you need to chill the dough then this recipe works just as well for that too. I also like the vanilla flavor of this recipe and sometimes I double just the vanilla part so I can taste it more.


Sugar cookie tips:

If you want thicker, softer cookies then do not roll the dough to a quarter of an inch and instead try a half an inch. Likewise, if you want thinner, crunchier cookies then roll it out thinner.

If you are using all cookie cutters that are around the same size (like you are using a snowman and a star that are about the same size) then use only one shape when you are cutting it out each time. It helps save on space so you don't have to roll it out so many times.

Put all of the same shape and size on a cookie sheet to cook. The cookies will cook more evenly.

Use parchment paper and light colored baking sheet. Parchment paper makes it easy to remove from cookie sheet and light colored baking sheets prevent burning.

Be vigilant when cooking sugar cookies! The first batch might need 10 minutes, but most likely the second will need less time, especially if they are thinner. The best time to pull them out is when you can BARELY start to see a little brown around the edges.

If you are wanting to do multiple layers of frosting, make sure the first one dries completely--it is better to even wait overnight--before adding the second layer. This also makes it easier if you mess up and you can just scrape off the wet frosting while the dry frosting stays!

You don't need fancy cookie decorating equipment to write words. I only used a ziploc sandwich bag filled with frosting. You can definitely tell, but I think it is still worth doing.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

The Williams Family

I wanted to share an idea that I had that we did for Family Home Evening on Monday night and I am excited to use it to count down to Valentine's Day!


It is pretty simple and I already had everything in my house (double score when it comes to crafts!)
I don't know if this will become a tradition, but I am excited to see how much we like it.

Since it was my turn to plan our Family Home Evening, I wanted to do something that would help us express love for each other leading up to Valentine's Day. It is always good to express love to each other as a family and I am excited to be able to teach my kids how important that is. This is also a great literacy activity to get them excited about reading for little children and great to get older kids writing! And for the parents, it is great to express appreciation and love for those little things that we sometimes forget to say.


Materials:

• 7 pieces of colored paper, 3-4 sheets of white paper
• Printer (only using black ink on this craft)
• Envelope Template and Notes Printout
• Scissors
• Glue stick or rubber cement (or glue of choice)
• Cardboard box
• Optional: Brown craft paper, Countdown sign