Now that we had everything prepared for daddy’s birthday, we invited daddy back upstairs (did I mention that the cake and soup was a surprise) to take a break from working on his dissertation. He smelled the French Onion Soup simmering and was immediately excited for his birthday dinner. I was not exactly sure what the soup was supposed to look like and taste like, but my husband told me that French Onion soup tastes and looks like the soup I had made (I personally think it is kind of weird because it is basically just stringy onions in broth). … Continue reading →

After the cake finally baked and was cooling, I turned my attention towards making the frosting. The whole time my son is following me around pulling chairs up to the counter to help stir and help taste. We had a minor crisis when my son wanted to taste the baked cake; he found a butter knife and dug it into one of the layers putting a hole all the way through. I was a little perturbed at my son’s need to take matters into his own hands but after a short nursing break with my daughter, we got back to … Continue reading →

On Daddy’s birthday I awoke early hoping to slip out of the house to buy some french bread from a local bakery. Alas, my son heard me getting ready to leave and insisted on accompanying me to the bakery. We got into the car and drove the three miles to the bakery. I got a loaf of bread and my son, thanks to his good looks, got a free chocolate chip cookie. We headed home to make daddy a special birthday breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and french pressed coffee. As I got the pancake batter prepared, daddy and daughter woke … Continue reading →

I did however find the somewhat rare swiss gruyere cheese with relative ease. In addition to our weekly groceries, I also needed to find Vermouth for the French Onion Soup. We checked out and headed home to continue with our birthday preparations. Once at home (and after the groceries were put away), I started on freezing the ice cream in one of those very trendy no ice and no salt ice cream makers. With my ice cream base chilled nicely, it only took about twenty minutes for the ice cream maker to work its magic. With the help of my … Continue reading →