The morning I woke up before my love

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here (call first though).

I'd been up since 5am. That's not normal, at all. But I was awake, and I mean AWAKE. So I got up. I got ready for the day. I took some photos. I checked Facebook. I jogged up some ideas for blog posts. I tried not to make any noise. I waited for my love to get up so we could have coffee together and it would be hot for him. I enjoyed watching the sun rise. It's the beginning of a beautiful day.

The sun is UP and so am I!

I'd been up for 1.5 hours. I was ready to see him!

(sorry it's fuzzy, I'm still learning) - He's only on his first cup of coffee. I love him.

Confession: We ran out of half-and-half

Don't Judge :)

I love my flatware.

It's love. 

It's called Michelangelo, by Oneida. Love It.

  

It’s perfect for everyday use and it’s beautiful enough to set a formal table. It’s well balanced, sturdy, nice to hold, and pretty. Everything you need, right?

My love and I received several individual pieces for wedding gifts (A shout of THANKS to the Gift-Givers) and we lucked out on a full 8-piece set on sale right after we got married. We were set, until I started thinking about my “need” (rein it in?) for more pieces of both the everyday forks and spoons, and a few Iced Tea Spoons (I’ve loved Iced Tea Spoons since, forever. I grew up stirring my Nestlé Quick with an iced tea spoon – they have long held a special place in my heart). Since Small Group has been meeting at our place, more people are using the utensils more often. I’ve been saying to my love that we might actually *need* more pieces.

Recently, though, more have been appearing in the stack. Yes, my love does occasionally come home with extra flatware from the workplace for me to wash. These extras aren’t what I’m talking about. Without purchasing anything for the set in three years, we have more. Needless to say, I’m delighted!! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank whomever it may be that is secretly adding to our collection. My love says it’s not him. Perhaps the Lord saw our need and thus provided? I am so thankful!! Whoever it is, they place it right where it should go, as if nothing were different. Only my occasional OCD counting reveals the addition. I want to cry with joy when I count to even one higher number.

Thank you, Secret Flatware Giver. You make my heart smile.

-GH

Not Another Recipe - Bread Making: HartStyle

We purchased a book on clearance a few years ago from one of our fa-vo-rite kinds of stores: Used Bookstore.

For real, used bookstores are like a pirate’s treasure trove to me. I love the smell, the lighting, the owners and the workers. I love the vast array of someone else’s stories all over the shelves. Used books are cool, for one reason, because they tell two stories: One, what the original author had intended. Two, the story of previous owners with underlines, dog-eared pages, tear stains, and sometimes food stains if you can get your hands on a well-loved cookbook.

Speaking of the well-loved cookbook. My Love and I could spend hours and hours perusing the shelves of just about any used bookstore. Generally, we find ourselves right back, smack in the cookbook section for a significant portion of time. Mosty, we converse like this: “oooh, ahhh, oh check this one out…” but we don't purchase unless it’s a “must have”. And, by “must have,” I mean, we usually “must have” at least one book upon each trip to a used bookstore. Hence, many, many a bookshelf in our home looks like this:

and this: 

Time to Rein It In and get to my point:

We purchased the book 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood a few years ago. And, just a few weeks ago I opened it up to see what I could do – I made  a wonderful Brie Brioche. It was gooo-oood!  I have some things to learn, but I’m quite proud of my first try! So, this week, my love decided to try his hand at breadmaking. He began with the first recipe: White Bread. Oh. My. Goodness. I could eat that bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … second breakfast, elevenses, tea time, snack time, whatever: It. Was. Good.

Then, he made the second recipe in the book: Crusty Cob. It’s early, I’m waiting for the coffee to finish brewing and my honey to wake up before I bust into it … today (we’ll talk about yesterday in another post). This bread: less olive oil, more butter. So Good.

These recipes will become basics to us. We’re gonna learn ‘em. You know, like really learn ‘em. Like, we won’t need to carry around a book forever because these recipes will be so, um, learned. ...Can you tell I’m really looking forward to bread number three?:: Batch Bread, which is described as “A very old British recipe, mainly baked during the eighteenth century, when white flour was prevalent. This sweet white loaf was favored by the ‘upper crust’ of the country!”

Please sir, may I have some more?!!!?!!!

-GH