pretending it's spring

Despite what our pretty, floral wall calendar tells us, we are still looking at a sea of white in our yard. All that snow is still lingering and today, while sunny, was a whopping 27 degrees accompanied by 20 mph winds. We are all a bit stir crazy and wishing spring would actually show its face around these parts.

In a bid to lift our spirits, tonight we had a quintessential upstate/western NY spring-summer BBQ. We grilled chicken leg quarters using the perennial favorite Cornell Chicken recipe and boiled us up some Syracuse salt potatoes that we dipped in a melted butter/parsley mixture. (Recipes for both the chicken and potatoes can be found here.) If you have yet to try these regional New York State favorites, you are truly missing out. Around here, this is your standard church or fire department barbecue fundraiser and a long time staple at the State Fair. Alongside we had watermelon wedges (way out of season courtesy of Costa Rica and our local grocery store) and a simple arugula salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. To drink, of course it was lemonade. To finish it all off, it had to be strawberry shortcake.

The girls are so desperate for spring, they were outside burying fallen branches in the ground in the hopes that they will suddenly sprout blossoms or leaves.

dutch baby

We ate a Dutch Baby for breakfast. It was delicious! And no, this isn't some kind of cannabalistic ritual. A Dutch Baby is an egg-based oven pancake that you top with powdered sugar and a good squirt of fresh lemon juice.

I used this recipe from the folks over at Cooks Country. The basic concept is you mix together eggs, milk, and flour. Pour this very loose batter into a pre-heated skilled (I used my cast iron skillet) and bake. While baking, it puffs up and starts to climb out of the pan, which makes it kind on fun to watch.

After you take it out, and begin its sugar and lemon juice treatment, the baby shrinks a bit. The texture and taste is somewhat like a thick crepe. We ate ours with fresh sliced strawberries!

In related news, we are cooking up another kind of baby here, too. Not a Dutch baby, but an American baby with a pinch of Irish, Welch, English and a sprinkle of Italian and French. And no, we won't eat this baby. He or she is expected to arrive in mid September. The girls are hoping for a little brother (and so is Tim, secretly, though he claims he has no preference). Me, I'm partial to girls.

snOMG!

Another snowstorm is coming for us tomorrow. The weatherpeople are calling for 12-18 inches more. We already have plenty, thank you. The girls are outside now enjoying the 3 feet of white stuff in our front yard while Daddy snowblows (yes, we got about 4 inches today). Mira wanted me to come to her ice museum, but I had to take a raincheck since I was in my slippers.

In other news, Abby turned four last week!

On her birthday on Thursday, we had a little ice cream cake as a warm up for the bigger extended family birthday party on Saturday.

The birthday cake this year was what is known as the Elvis Cake around the internet. Banana cake layers spread with chocolate ganache and filled and iced with fluffy peanut butter frosting. The flavor combination was really different in a good way. The peanut butter frosting was a standout. (You can make it  by creaming together 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup cream cheese, 1 cup peanut butter and about 3 cups powdered sugar. Then you beat in about 1/4 cup of heavy cream and whip until you get a fluffy spreadable consistency.) It would be really good on a chocolate cake.

i believe you have my stapler

Mira put this sign on my office door a few weeks ago. In case you can't read 1st grade English, it says, "Do not come in. I am frustrated. But you can talk to me." She put it there when she retreated to my office for some alone time after something upset her.

I've decided to leave it up because the message pretty much applies to me on a regular basis while I'm working: I'm frustrated, but you can still talk to me. In fact, I'm sure you can relate to this message too and you should probably post a similar sign on your office door to serve as fair warning to unwitting coworkers. I like the way the note conveys one's current state of mind in a straightforward way, but also says "I'm dealing with it. I'll take your calls anyway and we'll have a civil discourse." I like it a lot.