My Hubs Has My Back....sort of.

So this morning we hemmed and hawed about going to church but finally decided to go. I got dressed and asked my sweet husband if I looked ok. He said yes I did. Now, I know that sometimes this is a loaded question with one required answer. However, usually when I am asking I want to know if I actually look ok.

We got to church, got the kids checked in and went to the service. We were in the balcony singing along with the songs when I thought "huh, the buttons on my shirt feel weird". I reached back and discovered the tag of my shirt poking through my hair. I leaned over to my darling husband and said "well, I know I asked if I looked ok this morning....I am going to the restroom to TURN MY SHIRT RIGHT SIDE OUT!".

The moral of the story here boys is if your wife asks you if she looks ok you can give the required "you look fantastic" answer but if something is inside out please tell her! ;)

{TWD:BWJ} Catching Up

 

Once again I am behind in posting. I got a gym membership and my laptop broke. Being the social person I am I don't want to hang out in the room with our computer by myself. I would rather hang out with my kiddos and hubs. Hence the lack in posting lately. Anyway, this week's recipe (on time) for Baking with Julia was Popovers. I make Pop up Pancakes on a fairly regular basis so these were a breeze to whip up. They did take quite a bit longer to bake though as you are drying out the center. My family loved these even though all of the popovers had craters in the middle. That made them perfect for filling with blueberries! For the recipe you can pop over (see what I did there?) to Vintage Kitchen Notes with Paula or Bake with Amy. Both of their batches of popovers turned out beautifully. Clearly my custard cups were too big. :)

 The last recipe I missed was Mixed Berry Galette. I think I missed this in the first book as well. But I finally made it. I may have mentioned once or 600 times that my hubs and my girl do not like cooked fruit. At this point I think it is just words. Both of them loved this delicious tender treat. The recipe did say to use only a few strawberries as they are typically too watery. However, I didn't read that part before going to the store...you think I would learn. So this is blueberry and strawberry galette. :) This week was hosted by Lisa of Tomato Thymes (whose post was pinned on Pinterest) and  Andrea of the Kitchen Lioness who has fantastically gorgeous photos on her site and a lovely 100th birthday tribute to Julia Child.

 The recipe that I missed before that was Nectarine and Blueberry Pie...which I still haven't made. I bought nectarines and my daughter ate them all. What can I say? She likes fruit...raw fruit...perhaps it was a conspiracy so I didn't cook the fruit.... It will get made eventually. However, you can still see lovely photos and get the recipe by visiting Hilary at Machengo's Kitchen (who really made a summer fruit pie or Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake.

Last (or first, I guess it depends on how you look at it) but definitely not least was Semolina Bread. I miscalculated my rise cycles and ended up having to instruct my sweet hubs on baking this while I went to teach a class.  It was a little flat and a little crunchy on the sides but dense and chewy on the inside (not my hubs fault). It was pretty tasty but the kids thought it was a little salty. Hm..I may have to try this one again. Anyway, the hostesses with the mostesses were Anna of Keep it Luce and Renee of The Way to My Family's Heart. Both are lovely blogs and their bread turned out fluffier than mine.

Onto another week and more baking! Make sure to check out the LYL to see how other bakers around the world enjoyed this week's popovers!

Happy Birthday Julia Child

 If you were on Google yesterday you know it was Julia Child's 100th birthday. Since I have been cooking through Baking with Julia (don't worry, there is the mother of all make up posts coming soon) I decided to celebrate by making Julia Child recipes for dinner last night. In true me form I hadn't made any of these before. I decided first on Coq au Vin or chicken in wine. If you know me at all I am not much of a wine drinker. Red tends to give me a migraine after the first couple of sips so I generally don't partake. Yesterday I was running around like crazy and didn't get to the liquor store until after I picked my son up from school....Awesome...I looked like the alki mom who drags her kid into the liquor store. I did ask before I took him in though to make sure they wouldn't get in trouble for him being in there. They said as long as he wasn't buying it would be fine. If only the grocery stores in Tennessee sold wine, this would not be an issue. Anyway, the recipe called for red: Zinfandel, Merlot, or Pinot noir . I had no idea what I was looking for but found an inexpensive bottle of Mad Housewife. After reading the description on the bottle I decided it was the one. :)

 I finally got my son home and started trying to get some preparation done. Before I knew it we needed to be out the door to get my girl. Once we were home it was on to cooking...finally. I whipped up Julia's Chocolate Mousse and was able to get that in the fridge to chill. Then prep began on the Eggplant and Zucchini Gratin. This was not difficult to put together and actually came out quite tasty. I think I may have eaten eggplant one other time in my life and before yesterday had never ever bought an eggplant. Munchkin really liked this but picked out the tomatoes. Bobby liked it but (tried them first) picked out parts of the egg plant. It was all I could do to get Little Man to eat just the zucchini. So, a fun recipe to try out and a success overall. It did call for Herbs de Provence, which Walmart did not have. I called Publix to make sure they had them before I made the extra trip. They did but the lady on the phone said "oh, you mean her-bs dee province?"......yeah.

 Once the veggies went in the oven it was time to work on the chicken.

That is my kitchen up there and looks pretty good. Of course that is when our house was on the market. Now, see if you can picture this: I went on one of those we are out of everything and anything grocery runs yesterday. Perishables were all put away but the cereal, crackers, all the junk full of preservatives were all still in the plastic bags next to the cabinets on the left. My son was sprawled on the floor next to that doing his homework, The sink (and the counter next to it) was full of the dishes from the mousse and the stove had several pans from use as double boilers and for blanching bacon. That corner over there under the open cabinet has all of my hoarded cookbooks and food network magazines. Needless to say, there was not much room for cooking. But, I made it work. I made Bobby go next door and have our wonderful neighbor open the bottle of wine for us...note to self go get a corkscrew that actually works. You may remember when I tried to open a bottle with a corn cob knob...not useful! Anyway, even without much space this turned out fantastically. My pictures are horrible this time since they are cell phone pics but you get the idea. The Coq au Vin probably could have browned a bit longer but it was quite tasty. Both my hubs and my daughter devoured it. My son took a little more convincing because the Mad Housewife turned it purple, but once the chicken was off the bone he seemed to like it pretty well. He held up an onion and asked  (rather whined) what it was. We said an onion and he looked like he was going to protest. I then said the magic words which were "There is chocolate mousse for dessert!". He popped the onion right in his mouth!

Last but not least we pulled the mousse out of the fridge. This is one of those recipes you cannot go wrong with. Bobby and I both loved it. Munchkin ate some and said there was a bit of a bitter taste to it. That could have been the rum or the coffee.  (I said rum and she pushed it away, she is reading Treasure Island and one of the pirates died from too much rum.) I assured her that the alcohol had burned off as I cooked it.

Overall, this was a very satisfying meal. The only thing that could have made it better is if I had had time to make some french bread to go with it. There is always next year. Happy birthday Julia!! :)