Baby It's Cold Out There!

OK let me clarify… For Riverside California…it’s cold out there. We had a couple of storms come through that brought us cold rain and stormy weather but as the clouds cleared out and that cold front dropped in we’ve had a bit of a chill going on. Snow levels dropping and some area that their last real snow fall was in 1941 got to make some snow angels in their front yards.

No snow for us but close to freezing. Low thirties here...really? I kissed Glenn goodbye at about 5:45 this morning as he was leaving for his Sunday meetings. Next thing I know he’s coming back in grabbing a rubber paint scrapper. His windshield was iced over. Who’da thunk you needed an ice scrapper in your truck here?

I couldn’t help but snap a quick picture of him scrapping his windshield before I darted back into the warm house.

But the sweetest thing was this… when I left for church at 8:45 this was on my windshield just in case I needed it. The sun was up and I didn’t but what a sweet guy.

I pulled over and took this just before I turned left into my tract on the way home from church today. As you can see the snow level is lower than normal. What a beautiful view

February 14, 2011 aka Valentines Day

Glenn and I have never been into doing something “big” for Valentines Day. My girls can testify that I have said more than once that I would rather have someone who shows me that they love me by things they do every day of the year then to have a big production a couple of times a year. We knew someone like that and it didn’t work out so good for their marriage.

For us it is the little things that we do for each other everyday that speak our language of love. Like how I mentioned in passing during the last rain that I needed new wipers on my car because mine were not cutting it. A couple of days later I turned on my wipers and low and behold they were perfect. Glenn had gone by Auto Zone, picked up new ones and exchanged them out without ever saying a word. Now with every swish of the wipers I was reminded what a great guy I have and how much he loves me. I could go on and on but you get the idea.

So no big plans for the day but since Valentines Day fell on a Monday and that’s usually a night we get together we decided to just spend the evening at home and watching a movie. I didn’t want to make Glenn sit through a “chick flick” love story so on recommendation from Rebecca we rented “Red”. It was a great couple movie. Plenty of shooting and things blowing up for the guys and an underling love story for the girls.

I did do up some homemade chocolate dipped strawberries because strawberries were on sale and they are one of my favorites. We really splurged on the calories for the evening and had some of the peanut butter pretzels cookies that I made yesterday too.

A quite evening home with my sweetie, watching a movie, eating strawberries… a perfect evening, any day of the year!

Sweet and Satly

Who knew that these ingredients....

Mixed like this...............could be this good

Really… pretzels and white chocolate chips with a sprinkle of sea salt on the top in cookies? Yes really!

I have found a new favorite cookie. I won’t be making these very often, mainly because…I will eat too many of them! I LOVE the sweet and salty mix. They satisfy many cravings at once. I will be making a recipe card for the file on these. If you want to make your mouth and mind (but not your hips) happy, try this sweet and salty cookie recipe.

Double White Chocolate and Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies…with Sea Salt
1 stick softened butter (8 tablespoons)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips, to melt
1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter (reserve 2 tablespoons to add to melting white chips)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup broken pretzel pieces
1 Cup additional white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Melt white chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons peanut butter over a double boiler until melted. Add melted chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter to beaten butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Place flour, baking soda and salt in bowl; mix to combine. Add to wet ingredients until just combined then pour in pretzels and additional white chocolate chips. With a cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. With the palms of your hand, gently press down each cookie to about 1/2 inch in thickness. Sprinkle each cookie with a touch of sea salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges become golden and slightly crisp. Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before removingfrom baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Healthy Love

This is such a cute idea and such a healthy way to say I love you this Valentines Day. Glenn and I are trying to eat healthier and that’s always a challenge around Valentines Day. I have printed these out and have stuck them on all the fruit hoping it will make it a little more appealing.

I’m sure I will be making us a little treat for the day but having the valentines fruit to snack on will make the holiday healthier overall and I won’t have to feel so guilty when we do splurge on a little treat.

For the printable download go to this blog link:
http://www.twigandthistle.com/blog/2011/01/naturally-sweet-diy-valentine/

Groundhog Day

Well today is Groundhog Day. Though, not a true holiday still a fun day to give us something to look forward to as the Holidays are over and the cold days have set in and spring seems so very far away.  Now here in California, we have some cool (but still sunny) days nothing to complain about and nothing compared to what the rest of the country gets in the winter so an early spring is probably more important to them… we here just have fun with the idea of a groundhog being able to predict the weather.

Every February, millions of cold Americans anticipate the emergence of Punxsutawney Phil from his Pennsylvania home, Gobbler's Knob. Phil then has an important decision to make. If Phil sees his shadow, he returns to his hole, to face a longer cold winter. If no shadow, spring will arrive early! That always seemed backwards to me as if the sun is out and he see his shadow it would seem that the sun is going to be out and therefore an early spring, but since when do things have to make sense. Well today 2/2/2011 Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, so come on spring!

I am not a Bill Murray fan but love the movie Groundhog Day. In it Bill plays Phil, a weatherman who during a hated assignment of covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney. He finds himself repeating the same day over and over. After much self destructive behavior he finally does some self reflecting and when the loop is finally broken he is a much different man on February 3rd then he was on February 2nd.

The plan for tonight is bagel pizzas and watching a showing of Groundhog Day. Glenn has no scheduled meeting so unless something unexpected comes up I might get a quite evening home with my honey. (A day I wouldn’t mind repeating over and over!) Hope you have a wonderful day and don’t forget to thank Punxsutawney Phil when spring comes early this year.

**Both photos from Wikipedia