Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not big on things like Valentine's Day, but, I still can't let it pass completely uncelebrated. I think that, if you can avoid being sucked into the marketing and materialism of the day, it's a wonderful thing to make a special effort to let the people you love know it. :) That is what I did today. I wanted to get Joel one of his favorite treats.

Way back when I was pregnant and in the States Joel and I found chocolate covered pretzels. I don't know if he had liked them for long, but, we both fell in love with them while we were there. There is a store in South Haven- The Chocolate Company, I think it's called, that makes the chocolate covered pretzels that are to die for. They are what made me gain 10lbs AFTER I gave birth to Beni when I was missing Joel.

Anyway...sometimes you can buy pretzels in Angola, but I've never seen chocolate covered ones. That wasn't going to stop me though. Turning pretzels into chocolate covered pretzels is pretty easy. So, on the weekend, I looked in all the import shops for pretzels and couldn't find any. Dang. I still wasn't going to let that stop me. So I looked up recipes for pretzels. And here we go...

I made the dough, let it rise, and then used my fancy electronic kitchen scale to measure out 1 oz balls of dough.

Then I rolled the dough into snakes...

Then I boiled the dough for 30 seconds...oh and yeah, some of the snakes got made into hearts...

more boiling...

Then they got an egg wash and salt and went in to bake... (they got bent when coming out of the boiling water...)

I melted chocolate and butter in a double boiler and then spread it on parchment paper and rolled the pretzels in it! Then I added hearts and sprinkles for Valentine's day! :)

They aren't all that pretty- well, the hearts are nice, but, not so much the rods... but they taste ok. The first batch was in the oven too long and came out quite hard all the way through, not just on the outside. I took the second batch out just two minutes sooner and they are softer all the way through- more easily chewable, but more like a soft pretzel than a hard one. Ah well, the chocolate makes both edible! :)

Joel is also getting a second present... on Saturday I have booked a baby sitter so that he and I can leave the house together alone! Our dear friend Monica (and probably her fiancée Donovan) are going to watch Beni for a few hours... just long enough for us to grab a coffee and see a movie, basically. Monica is going to come over a couple of times this week to hang out some more, but ultimately, Beni does know her, and since we'll be back by bedtime, I think they'll do fabulously.

I have come to realize that people expect parents to "be adults" after babies go to bed...that is, people expect dates to happen at night! Well, I'm just not comfortable with that because the truth is Beni still needs me at night, plain and simple, and I'm ok with that! But then I thought- there is no reason we cannot have a date in the afternoon! So, Beni is going to have her first real babysitter. She did stay once with my mom for about an hour, but that hardly counts. :) We were hardly gone. :) And Joel and I are going to be alone together for the first time in over 9 mos. And we'll get to see a movie, which is something we mostly only get to do on long flights these days. :)

Also, just in case anyone is wondering, Joel did give me a present as well... a massage. :) Yay! I'm really looking forward to it- with all the working out I've been doing my sore muscles will really enjoy it!

Also just in case you're wondering, Beni just cut her second tooth, but it's not very far through yet. She is still crawling and cruising and loves to walk while holding someone's hands, but isn't venturing into standing or walking on her own.

Oh what the heck...here's a few pics... :)

Mmm...lens cover... mmm...

"Oh"

So serious...