Love is in the air and it is T minus 1 day and counting until Valentine’s Day.  Do you have something special cooked up for your loved one?

SPH and I aren’t big fans of going out on Valentine’s Day.  Many restaurants have only set menus with limited offerings, and quite frankly, they inflate the prices since the demand for special Valentine’s Day meals is huge.

Why not make something at home that will “wow!” your special person?  Here are my top 5 Romantic Dishes, all of which are fairly simple to make:

1.  Slow Cooker Orange Chicken:  The flavors here are vibrant, yet smooth and fresh.  Prep this recipe in the morning and you can have it cook all day, giving you time to spend with your loved one, instead of working in the kitchen.

Back when I was a graduate student the first time around (working on my first graduate degree in creative writing), I lived in a very snowy, very cold part of upstate New York. I had arrived in Binghamton, NY at the beginning of January, deep in the heart of winter, and not long after a big snowstorm had blown through. The shuttle from the airport left me off at the bottom of a hill near the main campus building, and I had to make my way from there to graduate housing in the dark, just me and my suitcase, winding my way through what seemed like mountains of snow. I spent weeks and weeks of my first year there trudging through tall snow drifts back and forth between classes, and marveling at how it could possibly be so cold that the tips of my hair would frost, and the inside of my nose would feel as if I'd sniffed in a handful of fresh snow. 

There was, more often than not, snow everywhere that winter. The flipside was that the weather drove us indoors--into the library, or each other's apartments for an impromptu gathering, or TV watching session, or if it was near the end of the week, into the campus bar (you have to love a campus that comes with a bar!) . We graduate students would sit and dissect that day's writing workshops, and any gossip we could pass around, feeling all the while oh so set apart from the rest of the world.

Before I was a mom, my career was rooted on top of a hill.  Capitol Hill was the destination of my daily work commute (and what a commute it was--I do *not* miss the DC traffic!).  Never a political animal, instead I loved being in the middle of so much history and history-in-the-making.

One of the most famous recipes from my old office place is Senate Bean Soup.  No one really knows for certain how the recipe developed, but it is served daily on Capitol Hill.  It is the Soup du Jour, every day.

My version can be made with or without bacon, but I do prefer the smokiness of a little bacon, smoked turkey, smoked sausage or ham hock in this soup.  If I close my eyes while eating it, I can almost sense the Capitol Rotunda in the midst.

Slow Cooker Senate Bean Soup

3 - 15 ounce cans Navy beans, drained -OR- 5 cups cooked Navy beans

It's Friday! It's Friday! Sing it with me-- it's Friday!

Do you have any plans for the Super Bowl on Sunday?

If you're in the same neck of the woods as we are (and care about football-- because let's face it-- not all of us do), you're busy planning where to watch the Pats trounce on the Giants.

Excuse my biased opinion-- like I said, we live in an area with LOTS of Pats fans. Like, diehard Pats fans. Anything less than that is considered a crime. :)

(Red Sox and to a lesser degree, the Bruins, fall into the same category.)

However, although I am excited to watch the game, there is something I'm even more excited for.

Snacks, of course!

Isn't that what the Super Bowl is really about? (Or, in my opinion, should be about?)

I'm excited to see the spread on Sunday, and in celebration, I'd like to share a few of my favorite snack foods/appetizers/desserts:

-- Seven Layer Dip: A given, obviously!

-- Potato Skins: With cheddar and bacon of course. Everyone needs a little pork while the pigskin is getting thrown around!

-- Nachos: No game, I repeat, NO game is complete without nachos.

--Chicken wings: Some people like 'em spicy. I like 'em on the sweeter side.

Country Apple Dumplings: No, really. If you haven't had these, you must, I repeat must make them for the game. They will not last until halftime.

We are starting the fourth week of the new semester, and I'm already horribly behind. The kids are both fighting head colds, and getting them up and going in the morning has taken double the amount of work (triple for L.). We can't seem to make a dent in the laundry pile. The stack of quizzes to grade doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, and the papers are piling up. Although I would love a day to stay in bed, I have been fantasizing lately about having a day to catch up--no students, no course prep, just me in my office, working my way through the grading, and crossing off things on my to-do list. 

Oh, the bliss of it all, such a dream.

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On a lighter note...ever since I discovered that I can buy a gigantic pillow-sized bag of chopped, pre-washed kale at Whole Foods for only $4.99, I have been in kale heaven.

I love the stuff. I also seem to crave it, with an intensity that I thought was only reserved for chocolate. But I truly do. This makes me happy, because it's proof that the more good things you put into your body, the more your body wants them. In fact, I eat so much kale these days that T. has dubbed me "Kale Monster" and she took this picture of me the other day, standing over a tray of roasted kale. The added bonus is that T. loves kale, too, and my heart does little jumps of joy when I see her stuffing the rich, green kale leaves into her mouth as an after school snack, or at dinnertime. If I could only get L. to eat kale I would be truly happy and, while Scott will eat kale when I prepare it, he has confessed that he likes spinach more.

I’ve figured out a way to get R and G to try a new food:  have someone else offer it to them.  In the last year, we’ve gone from “no way!” to “yes, please!” on two foods for R and G, just because one of their grandparents offered it to them
 

For G, a trip to Grandpa and Grandma’s house has yielded a loyal devotion to Asiago cheese.  Apparently my parents offered him some and my usual cheddar cheese-only boy willingly tried and loved Asiago cheese.  Months later, we rarely are without Asiago in our refrigerator!
 

For R, it was Pop who convinced him to try a potato.  For some reason, R had never been willing to try bake or mashed potatoes, and when we did manage a small taste, he usually turned up his nose and said, “no thank you.”  We didn’t lose any sleep over his potato pickiness, but we were surprised when Pop’s Potatoes turned our son into a baked potato fan!
 

On Monday I shared one of our favorite ways to get dinner to the table in about 5 minutes flat.  Using fresh and ready-to-eat ingredients, you can enjoy Refried Bean Tacos without turning on your oven or stove.  Today I share my favorite way to get dinner to the table fast, I call it Ploughman’s Dinner.
 

Before we had children, SPH and I lived in London for several months.  It was an amazing experience, one for which I am forever grateful.  He was working full-time for his employer near where we lived.  My wonderful boss allowed me to take a leave of absence, as long as I was able to work for several hours a day to stay up on my workload.  So with the time difference, I would wake up with SPH and when he left for work, I would walk or take the Tube (the London subway) to explore new corners of the great city.  All I needed to do was to be back online by around 2pm to have a few hours to stay on top of my work.
 

Each day as I explored, I would often be out and about for lunch.  Ploughman’s Lunch is a popular lunch in the UK, one that consists basically of bread, cheese, ham and some fruit.  It is a quick, easy and popular way to power up at lunch time.  Why not use this same concept for your dinner plate?
 

It's been a long time since I've put up a recipe post. It may seem like I haven't been busy much in the kitchen, but I have. I got this new cookbook for Christmas, and I've been enjoying meal planning each week, and looking forward to trying out the recipes. But sometimes the camera is out of batteries, or the meal/dessert is so yummy I forgot to snap a picture before it's all gone, and then another food post opportunity has passed me by.

I made a scrumptious seitan and mushroom recipe, simmered in red wine and shallots. Scott was thrilled I made a dish with mushrooms. I'm not a huge mushroom fan, but I do like them cooked in a nice hearty sauce, and mushrooms and a red wine-based sauce do go particularly well together. 

I also made stuffed tomatoes with orzo, and a hearty and healthy dish using chickpeas and broccoli rabe, and brown rice.

And once a week I've been baking this simple but satisfying bread, which conveniently makes two loaves at a time. It's perfect as toast, and freezes well, too. I substitute non-dairy milk and the recipe works out just fine.

If you think any “bake” or “casserole” has to be bland and creamy, this make-ahead bake recipe will change your mind!  Enchiladas are a great make-ahead bake and you can use yesterday’s Tuesday’s Tip and make an extra tray for future use.  I developed this recipe to cater to my son R’s love of olives.  Use this recipe as a launching pad and cater the flavors to your own family’s tastes!

“Where is all the snow?!”  “Doesn’t God know it is WINTER?!”

My boys love the winter.  The snow angels, the snow days, the snow fort building, snow ball fights and the sledding...especially the sledding.  So with our very mild, not-even-an-inch-yet-of-measurable-snow-winter, they’ve been incredulous each time the mercury creeps up on the thermometer.  I try to appease their frustration, but to be completely honest (and I know I may regret writing this if/when we get a long, large and uninterrupted blast of snow!), I want some snow too!

Not only is snow beautiful to me, but I do like the idea of “hunkering down” during a big snow.  It is during snow storms that I love to play outside with the boys and then come inside for a big mug of hot chocolate.  A fire in the fireplace and a pot of soup on the stove when the snow is falling makes me feel all cozy inside.