no pink and green nursery for #2

Here's the note I just sent to a friend, with our very exciting news of the day:

I went to an appointment with Dr. H this afternoon (because of the previous c-section, to discuss birthing options and such), and after measuring and weighing me, he said "I have a surprise for you." He opened the door, pulled in a portable ultrasound, and I got to see the baby! It was lovely. The wee one didn't stop moving, and of course, looked perfect in every blurry and black-and-white way. Then the Dr. asked "What is your child that you have at home?" "A boy," I said. "Well, you're going to have another one!" And I clearly saw his bits, so I'm confident that there won't be much pink around here anytime soon. :) Yay!

Speaking of boys, here's a smart one:

No kidding, he loves letters and their sounds and finding out what everything spells. It's fantastic. And makes for lots of entertainment when we're out and about.

recipe-a-week #34: herb-cheese palmiers and the 1000th post winners!

Yipee, it's time to announce the winners! Random.org chose comments 1 and 13 to be the soap giveaway winners, so congratulations to Amber and Lauren! I don't think I have either of your addresses, so please e-mail them to me at birchbarksoap [at] gmail [dot] com, along with your preferences for soap types, which I will do my best to accommodate. If I have your addresses before noon tomorrow, your beautifully fragrant wonder packages will be sent out in tomorrow's mail, and if not, it will be next Monday before they'll be sent off as I'm going away for work for the rest of the week. I hope that you enjoy them!

And here is a super-easy, delicious recipe which I took to our civilized ladies' get-together on Friday (where we primarily discussed killing rodents and giving birth). It was a lovely and relaxing time. The recipe is from the current issue of Everyday Food. (There's no 'after' picture, and these were gone in no time. Sorry about that.)

Herb-cheese Palmiers

1. Preheat oven to 375, with racks in upper and lower thirds. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 sheet of thawed puff pastry to a 10"x16" rectangle. Brush with 1 tbsp olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup extra-sharp cheddar, 3 tbsp grated parmesan, 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (such as thyme, sage, and oregano) and 1/4 tsp coarse salt. Fold dough lengthwise into thirds (like a letter), then fold in half. Refrigerate until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Cut dough crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. (*I used fresh grated parmesan, fresh chives, and dried thyme. I think they would have been better had I used some cheddar as well.)

2. Place slices on 2 large baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. (To store, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 day.) In a bowl, combine 1 large egg yolk and 1/2 tsp water. Brush tops of palmiers with egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes (mine took just under 20), rotating sheets halfway through. Yum!

recipe-a-week #33: cranberry lemon muffins and what I would love in my kitchen

I had fun taking some pictures of these delicious muffins, the recipe for which I got from my mother-in-law, who also happens to be here for a visit. A great was to use up some cranberries at this time of year! Like most muffins, these are definitely best right out of the oven and warm; if you make them the night before and save the glaze for the next day, that would be okay, too. If the glaze sits on them, though, it kind of melts and makes a sticky mess.

Cranberry Lemon Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries


Glaze:
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
3-4 tsp lemon juice

Muffins:
Combine first four dry ingredients./ Combine egg, milk, oil, honey, and lemon rind in large bowl. Add dry ingredients. Stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.
Glaze:
Combine ingredients, adding enough juice to make a smooth spreadable consistency. Glaze muffins after they've cooled a bit. Make sure the glaze is not too thin - then it will just run off of the muffins. *Tip - lay a piece of waxed paper under your cooling rack before glazing, that way it will catch the glaze drips, and you can easily peel them off and eat them. Umm, I mean, it makes clean-up easier.*


Best dustbin ever. (Doesn't 'dustbin' sound so much nicer than 'garbage can'?) Seriously - if you know where I can find one on this side of the pond, it will be my Christmas present to myself. I suppose I could look for a smaller galvanized one and paint it... but I don't think I've ever seen a small one.

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win some of my soaps! I'll be drawing a winner on Sunday.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing, quiet 'dinner and a visit' evening with some civilized ladies. I'm making some herb and cheese palmiers for an appetizer (they're all put together and just need to be popped in the oven) and I think they'll be fantastic. I'll be sure to share the recipe if they're as good as I think they'll be! Have a lovely weekend!

1000 posts! You know what that means...

Hey, it's me! Adam took the pic the other night as I made some long-awaited chocolate fudge cake. My belly's getting significant.

Secondly, Phillip and I made these lemon cranberry muffins last night. They were (yes, were - we did share some, though) delicious. And the pictures were fun to take. I learned a lesson about ISO settings, which was kind of fun, too. Can you tell I'm excited? I get all rambly when I am. Speaking of rambly, I know that I've been posting a LOT about food lately. I am hungry all of the time, and food tastes SO good. I had forgotten how amazing it is when you're pregnant. Something connected to the heightened sense of smell, I'm sure. Mmmm.

On to even more fun...

What craziness! 1000 posts. You would think that I had something to say! The 1000 posts are from here and Frenchy's Finds combined. (As a side note about something that's been driving me crazy since then, but I don't know how to fix it: for some reason, when I copied those posts over here and moved to my new bloggy home, the search bar in the upper left corner of the blog doesn't seem to work at searching those older posts; just the ones originally published here. Strange, but true! That's why some of my links to previous posts take you back to the old blog.)

Giveaway goodness: Because I have so much fun blogging, because I'm feeling generous, because I won something yesterday*, and of course because this is post #1000, I'll share the love with a little giveaway! Two lucky winners will each receive three bars of my gorgeous soaps. Depending on what I have on hand after I get some orders together, you may even have some choice in the matter! I'll draw the winners from the comments on this post on Sunday, around noon Atlantic time. I would love to hear what you like best about my blog, so be sure to mention that in your comment. Tell all of your friends!

Hope you're having a lovely week!

*I've mentioned a million times how much I listen to Martha's Sirius channel when I'm driving for work. Last year, when Martha Stewart's Cooking School was released, I called in to one of the shows, in the hopes of winning a copy. And I did. Last week, I called a show to both ask about using yogourt in soups and also with the hopes of winning a copy of Dinner at Home, Martha's newest book. They called yesterday, and I won! Yipeeeee! Now if I could just put that luck to work at winning the lottery.