Fiber Fool

Yep, that highly controversial holiday is right around the corner. But just because the media bombards us with images of extravagant gifts and fancy dinners out doesn’t mean those are the only ways to show our love (romantic or otherwise) on Valentine’s Day. Here are ten of my ideas, most of which you still have time to do! It was a bit a of a stretch for me to come up with ten, but like any good stretches the results were worth the effort I think.

1. Curl up in some blankets with your sweetie, a schmoopy movie and some popcorn. Speaking of schmoopy movies, do you have any recommendations? It’s been a while since we watched a new to us one!
2. Instead of a cut flower arrangement or bouquet, give a kitchen/windowsill herb garden to “spice things up” a bit.
3. Cook a meal together, maybe using a new recipe or new ingredient you haven’t tried before.
4. Tuck surprise notes around that your Valentine will find throughout the day.
5. Make a special dessert to share.
6. Keep both of your hearts healthy by getting the blood pumping doing some new cardio activity together like renting a tandem bicycle, going for a hike, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, etc. There’s a bonus if you try something new because learning new things keeps our minds younger!
7. Get all dolled up for dinner, even if it is dinner in. Dust off that fun dress, pull out the lipstick. All the prep can up the anticipation factor. Plus, putting in the effort that you did early in your relationship can make an otherwise normal dinner feel quite special.
8. Even if you aren’t in a relationship (or even if you are) pamper yourself a bit with a pedicure or other salon service, or DIY it home. A spot of color on my toes always makes me smile, even if I only see it when I shower.
9. Enlist the help of a friend and go get some pictures taken together at some of your favorite places. Aside from engagement and wedding photos, a lot of couples rarely get their pictures taken together without the whole family. Plus, you are ordered to smooch, hug and gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes!
10. Cliche as it is, the devil is in the details. It doesn’t have to cost a lot, but amping up a little everyday detail is a nice touch. One year DH surprised me at afternoon fika with a tea that was pressed into little hearts that opened up when the hot water was added.

I have many fun Valentine memories from childhood. My mom has a real knack for making things special. I always had crazy elaborate Valentine boxes for the classroom - a “love boat” with tug boat made from milk cartons (a half gallon for the big boat and a school lunch carton for the tug boat) and a gumball machine with a fishbowl filled with real gumballs to share with the class are two standouts.

Of course with the holiday landing in February I had at least two years in elementary school where I missed the classroom party due to illness. On one of those occassions my dad (who was never into doing his own gift thing ever) decided to perk me up with a gift, but also knew that if I got something my sister would need something too even if she got to go to school and take part in her classroom party. He was at the grocery store which had relatively recently added a floral section and saw a pair of cute hedgehogs wearing some red fabric with teeny white hearts and grabbed them, not realizing they were a “couple” until he got home. When he got home mom realized that “pair” were not going to work as a gift for both of us and ended up chasing him back into town. I don’t recall what he ended up getting my sister, but I know they didn’t have another pair of hedgehogs. The poor guy just couldn’t win. While I have no clue if I still have those hedgehogs, the effort he put in has stuck with me and is a wonderful memory. It wouldn’t matter if those hedgehogs were $1 or $100. Do you have any fun Valentine memories?

Looking for more Valentine’s Day inspiration? Visit Carole’s blog and follow everyone’s links to their own lists and share yours while you’re at it!

*sigh* It has been one crazy start to the week. It made coming up with things to be thankful for a tad rough. Although I suppose that means you need the exercise the most when that happens!

1. Bleach! Yay! You really do not want to know. Trust me!
2. Chris’ Misadventures in Stock Photography - no matter my mood, this one always brings a smile and likely a few chuckles along the way. Do be warned that it is not for grammarians!
3. Snow, even if it was more or less gone in less than 24 hours.
4. Our oven - the source of yummy homemade pizza, breads and of course doughnuts! Of course, with the added baking skills of DH and myself.

How about you? What are you thankful? I hope it was a tad easier for you to find your things than it was for me today!

Wow. It has been a week. What can I say? I’m looking forward to the weekend. I know those of you in the northeast are looking at a very snowy weekend. We have some snow forecasted, but it isn’t looking like it will amount to much, which kind of makes me sad. I hope by Sunday morning we have more coverage than in the photo above from two years ago. For one, we could really use the moisture. But it has been a not very wintery winter so far. There is still hope though. Traditionally February and March are our two snowiest months so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Our house will be the honorary “Clubhouse” this Monday evening, so there will be a good bit of cleaning and a little bit of kitchen prep going on at our house this weekend. I’ll be making my whole grain chai doughnuts in mini form, prepping the dry and wet ingredients on Sunday so when I get home from work there is minimal more work to do to get them in the oven. I think I’ll also make a spiced up version of this Wasabi Soy Spread/Dip (I typically double or triple the amount of wasabi, though I am working with powder so that may be why I need to boost it) I’ve brought to knitting before. That does means lots of prepping of fresh vegetables to accompany it. The rest of the food will likely be ready to eat stuff – a cheese or two, some crackers, and a fruit or two. If I’m super motivated I may make up my homemade chai concentrate, but I’m not promising it!

What are you planning this weekend? Do you have any exciting knitting on your needles? I need to knit vicariously through you! :-)

Here are some links that caught my eye this week that you might find inspiation from:

Food

• Chocolate Avocado Pudding - still pretty high calorie, but there are at least really good fats and fiber going on
• Homemade Black Licorice (via The Kitchn) - I’m not likely to ever do it, but that is one of the last things I thought about being able to make at home
• Orange and Cardamom Iced Coffee - cardamom & coffee, need I say more?
• Cardamom Lemon Soda Bread - whole grain even, be still my heart!

Craft

• Gorgeous Lacey Tank Top Knitting Pattern
• Free Knitted Truffles Pattern - calorie free!
• Coconut Oil Skin Polish
• WildCraft Face Cream

Health

• Stretches For a Sore Neck
• Ways to Burn a Few Calories During Regular Daily Tasks

What has inspired you this week?

I have a falsely inflated book list this week. I read two non-fiction shorts that I had gotten as Kindle freebies at some point in the last few years, both on dealing with ones shoulders. Both, sadly, were kind of lacking. At least if you’ve ever done any PT or worked with a massage therapist who prescribes stretches. Then the other two titles were nearly finished last week. I really haven’t read much this week at all, just little snippets in an Elizabeth Peters cozy whenever I could catch a few minutes. I’ve been pretty exhausted in the evenings so there has been no before bed reading.

As I’m a bit squashed for time this week I’m going to keep it brief.

The Trouble with Cowboys by Melissa Cutler (1st in the Catcher Creek series) – 4 stars – WorldCat. A time tested plot and believable characters come together well in Melissa Cutler’s Catcher’s Creek series debut. I’m waiting with baited breath to see who ends up the subjects of the next book in the series and to hopefully peek into Amy & Kellan’s new life together. See the full review on Goodreads.

Release Your Shoulders, Relax Your Neck by Howard VanEs – 2.5 stars. Decent content for reminding myself of stretches and exercises for the neck and shoulders, but reads like a first draft riddled with many copy errors. See the full review on Goodreads.

Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Foods with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen by Alex Lewin – 3 stars – WorldCat. This book covers a lot of fermented foods in very little space, plus has many detailed photographs. As such, it is a great starter reference book for those new to fermenting their own foods and beverages. This is especially true if you are not sure if you are just looking to dabble. See the full review on Goodreads.

How to Help Your Shoulder Pain by Jody Story – 2 stars. Again, nothing new was contained in this title and I found the descriptions of the exercises confusing and several of the supporting photographs were severely out of focus. See full review on Goodreads.

Please tell me you had more satisfying reading this week! Have any recommendations on quality titles for shoulder/neck tension and pain issues? I’m all ears!

Oh, dear readers, I tried to have a new recipe for you today for a refrigerator or icebox cookie. I find making such cookies meshes with the work schedule well. I can quickly whip together the dough one evening and bake it the next. Or even just slice and bake fresh as needed if I freeze the roll of dough.

My goal for this recipe was to have something semi-healthy, only slightly sweet, and sized so I could have 2 or 3 for a reasonable calorie count with my coffee for mid-morning fika. I find, even if small, I’m more satisfied mentally with multiples. I hit all those marks. They are good. They are about 50 calories a piece. But, they taste “everyday,” if that makes sense.

I can’t help but feel the recipe isn’t quite ready even though the results were met with much praise at knitting Monday night. The baggie (yes, an inelegant baggie, because if I had run the 2.25 miles to The Clubhouse with them in any other container they would have been refrigerator crumbs and not cookies) made two loops around the already laden table. Amanda was the only one to offer up a suggestion for improvement and that was to dip them in dark chocolate. And let’s get real, what isn’t improved by a quick dive into a pool of rich, dark chocolate? Very little if you ask me!

I do have a few ideas rolling around in my head for possible enhancements without resorting to the magic of dark chocolate. I haven’t settled on one yet. I may have to try a couple of the ideas. If waistlines in our house are to maintain their smaller dimensions I’m not making more than one batch a week! Okay, maybe I will and we’ll just bake as needed so we can taste test side-by-side. I may also need to coerce more taste testing from the knit gals to help me pick the best version.

I want to be able to present you with an easy, satisfying and somewhat special recipe, not an “everyday” one. I definitely do not want to post it as is just because it is Wednesday and I don’t have anything else food-related to share this week. I won’t promise to have it for you next week either. Maybe. But know it is coming soon!

What kind of cook or baker are you? Are you always tweaking, trying to make things better or do you follow all recipes as is and just forget them if it doesn’t really suit you?