Oh look, we found snow! Jen, her mom, and I headed out to Stowe for a winter snowshoe up Smugglers’ Notch. This road is closed in the winter (a must to drive through in the Fall). I’ve never walked up to the notch this way and it was just beautiful. We passed a lot of others sledding, skiing, or snowshoeing.

This was a very lovely way to spend a Monday off work, even though I should have been doing a lot of other things. I’m heading out of town for a long weekend in Boston and the laundry still isn’t done.

This was a celebratory dinner for Jen and her mom, who was visiting for the weekend from Washington state. Their birthdays are a day apart in December, but they didn’t get to celebrate them together this year.

It turned into a Downton Abbey finale, belated birthday celebration, completion of my longest run in months, absolutely EPIC Sunday dinner and dessert.

The menu:

• Julia Child’s French Onion Soup, complete with cognac (do people even drink this anymore?) in the soup. Topped with toasted bread rubbed with garlic and layered with Gruyère cheese, then broiled until all gooey. Damn!
• Giada de Laurentiis’ Brussels Sprout-Leaf Salad. For some greens. I also can’t get enough Brussels sprouts.
• And red wine.

And for dessert….

Quadruple chocolate, Triple Layer Cake. This was Jen’s brilliant concoction. Let me break it down.

• Epicurious double chocolate cake. This is Jen’s favorite chocolate cake recipe to date. You melt the chocolate in hot coffee. Let’s just sit with that for a moment. It’s magical.
• Dark chocolate ganache. This is the easy step. Just melt dark chocolate with heavy cream. I like this recipe.
• French silk filling. Her mom’s friend’s recipe. Must get it from Jen. It’s easy to make – except I had to use the mixer FOREVER – and tastes like a fluffy light chocolate cloud (or what I imagine a fluffy light chocolate cloud to taste like).
• White chocolate buttercream.

It was a sight to see all together. Check out how tall it was! (I used my hand for reference.)

We ate our cake while we watched the Downton Abbey finale. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the show and/or discovered its brilliance yet. Of course, I am happy how it ended with Mary and Matthew. Matthew believed Mary when she told him about the Turkish fellow, “It was LUST Matthew!”

I also think Daisy redeemed herself in the end. That was sweet, the way things went down with William’s father.

My friends and I were in unanimous agreement that season one was much better than season two. It incorporated more of the history of the time period, and allowed for richer character development. It wasn’t so choppy and random.

Like, what was the point of the Patrick character in season two? He appeared and disappeared randomly. He had fake amnesia and a fake Canadian accent? Whhhhat? Edith’s storyline was beyond weak. I sort of forgot about her. Why did Lavinia have to die so dramatically and with a broken-heart? Come on. I hated Jane. I didn’t even know who she was, much less how she seduced Lord Grantham. Was her sole purpose to make me not like Lord Grantham? It got all soap opera on us.

I’m being knit-picky. I still watched, most eagerly every week. I just hope that season three gets back to the awesome elements of season one.

How long must we wait for season three? The torture.

For now, I’ll just keep watching my favorite Maggie moments.

After work on Saturday, I went to my first roller derby game.  It took me a while to catch on to the rules – I had no idea there were jammers, blockers, pivots, and so many refs. And it is super hard-core. It’s fun to watch, but as someone who is clumsy and not very aggressive, definitely not my sport.

It did make me want to go roller skating though.

*I loved the gal’s hair on the right.

*I wanted this photographer’s lens. WOW.

*They score the points.

*They try to block the opposing team’s jammer from scoring the points.

*It gets aggressive.

*But ends well.

Happy Monday. I had to work on Saturday (part of it involved making masks, which was pretty fun) so it was nice to have off Monday for Presidents Day.

Two of my friends had moms in town, so I tagged along for a roller derby game (my first!), Church Street shopping, a few lunches, a truly incredible Sunday dinner, and a gorgeous Monday snowshoe in Stowe. I heart moms!  So I still have all of the root vegetables just chilling in my fridge,  but I have a cake to share this week that was EPIC. I took a lot of pictures this weekend, most of which I still need to go through.

Otherwise, it was pretty low key. I ran and watched Downton Abbey. The usual.

This was my last winter CSA pick-up. That went fast! Rachel and I decided to continue on with the spring one, so only one week off before it begins.

I’ve been trying to train Merlin not to get on the table, which he does pretty well. He gets a little off track when I photograph all of my CSA goodies.

The bread proved too tempting for him to resist.

This is raspberry apple cider syrup. Very excited to try it with whatever waffle I’m making this weekend. Ha! I’m sort of obsessed with waffles this winter.

And, we had an international potluck at work. Fun!

I had a Bosnian soup, with a little bit of everything else. I mainly took pictures of all the pretty desserts, you know, my favorite course.

I’m all for work-day fun: red pants, chocolate-covered strawberries (at a meeting), and flowers at work (passed out by a coworker).

Lentil soup, wine, music, and chocolate chip cookies with Jen. We made the New York Times cookie, which rock. They really do get better if you let the dough rest. Years ago, stuck in Vermont for a few extra days because my flight got canceled home for the holidays, I “tested” batches every 12 hours. Nutty, but fun. Check it! Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment: First 24 Hours, Final 24 Hours

Happy Valentine’s Day! More pics from Friday’s gallery reception for Sarah Ryan + Creston Lea’s hand painted guitars. Too pretty not to post.

*For the record, mayyyyybe I’m getting sucked into Valentine’s Day cheese. I’m wearing red pants, red socks, ate chocolate covered strawberries in a meeting, and got a pretty flower at work. And, I’m off to bake cookies with a friend!

In case you might forget, it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow.  I know this because I was on the couch for most of the weekend, bombarded with the Food Network’s special “Valentine’s Day!” episodes or “Valentine’s Day!” movie marathons with movies like Can’t Buy Me Love (80’s flick with Patrick Dempsey that’s surprisingly entertaining).

I rate myself low  – very low, maybe a 3 out of 10? – on the romance scale, so I find the holiday sort of cheesy. Most of the time it makes me uncomfortable, the same way going to a fancy restaurant does, in that it doesn’t feel authentic or real-life enough for me.

But it IS nice to celebrate something sweet, either for yourself or someone else. I’m all for that.

For me, brunches are where it’s at.

It’s a nice way to start the day. It’s hard to mess up. Cheesy rules can magically be broken.

Cut out heart bananas.

Make pink waffles.

There’s no penalty for these things in the brunch world. It somehow, magically, all works.

Since I have an abundance of root vegetables and penchant for pink foods, I made red velvet {beet} waffles, and topped them with bananas, pomegranate seeds, and maple syrup.

Make it pretty, but keep it real. Can that be the new Valentine’s Day motto?

Red Velvet {Beet} Waffles

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Waffles

I am a big fan of this pumpkin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. They are soft and fluffy, but have a good height to them. Earlier this year, I discovered that beets can be substituted for pumpkin quite easily from making the (never home) maker’s beet and/or pumpkin pizza dough quite often. I added a bit of cocoa powder to the waffles to make them red velvetlike – and cinnamon, just because it’s a favorite spice of mine – but feel free to play around.

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (You could also just use 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour if you don’t have whole-wheat pastry flour.)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk {I just used skim.}
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/2 cup pureed beets {I add a little bit of water when I puree the beets.}
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• toppings: fruit, maple syrup, whipped cream, or a cream cheese glaze would also be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. In a medium size bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and vinegar. Let stand five minutes. Whisk in the beets, butter, vanilla, and egg yolks. Add in dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated. The mixture will be hot pink and awesome to look at.
4. In another bowl (so many bowls – I know! – but this is worth it), whip the egg whites until they reach soft peak stage. Very gently fold in the egg whites into the waffle batter. I use a spatula and this technique.
5. Each waffle iron is different, but I used a heaping 1/3 cup to measure my batter for each waffle.
6. Top with your preferred waffle toppings. I love fruit, maple syrup, toasted nuts, whipped cream….

*Note: This recipe makes a lot! I got 12 large waffles out of it.

Other Beautiful Brunches.

#1: Lemon Cornmeal Waffles