A Tasty Little Resturant

On Valentine's Day weekend, my parents took David and me out to a lovely cafe, Onesto Pizza & Trattoria. Located in South City, Onesto is nestled back in a quaint little ginger bread style neighborhood (one street over from my friend's house who recommended it to us!)   White twinkle lights welcomed us into the lively, family-friendly restaurant. While waiting for the meal, we enjoyed tasty pizza dough knots and a family bowl of the house spinach salad.  Our favorite entree was the award winning smoked chicken pizza with a "thin (but not too thin) crust...chicken smoked in-house, a rich, tangy barbecue sauce, roasted jalapeños, bacon, caramelized onion and cheddar and mozzarella cheeses" (River Front Times.)  The restaurant made the Post Dispatch's Top 10 New Restaurants of 2008 list. Onesto Pizza & Trattoria makes a memorable night out and is well worth the drive if you don't live nearby! (Well, maybe not for you out of state people! ;) 

For dessert (not that we were particularly hungry after our delicious meal!) we shared these rich expresso molten cakes from December's Cooking Light: 

Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes

Ingredients

• 3.4  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
• 2/3  cup  unsweetened cocoa
• 5  teaspoons  instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  cup  unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3  cup  granulated sugar
• 2/3  cup  packed brown sugar
• 1  cup  egg substitute (I used 4 eggs)
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
• 1  (2.6-ounce) bar dark (71% cocoa) chocolate finely chopped (I used dark chocolate chips)
• 2  tablespoons  powdered sugar

Preparation

1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sift together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt.

2. Place butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 1 minute. Add granulated and brown sugars, beating until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add egg substitute and vanilla, beating until well blended. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture; fold in chocolate. Divide batter evenly among 10 (4-ounce) ramekins; arrange ramekins on a jelly-roll pan. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 2 days.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Let ramekins stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Uncover and bake at 350° for 21 minutes or until cakes are puffy and slightly crusty on top. Sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar; serve immediately.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

260 (28% from fat)

Fat:

8.2g (sat 4.5g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.2g)

Protein:

5.1g

Carbohydrate:

43.9g

Fiber:

1.8g

Cholesterol:

12mg

Iron:

2.3mg

Sodium:

189mg

Calcium:

63mg

 

Seven Months!

My oh my-the days are flying by! Blaise is getting so big and is already seven months! This has been an exciting month filled with lots of activity and several firsts:  

• He crawled/scooted all the way across the kitchen floor yesterday. But he did it backwards, since he hasn't yet figured out how to move forward. When Blaise tries to move forward, hee just kicks his legs in the air like crazy! 
• Talking and singing are some of his favorite activities-"a dadadadada" is his newest tune. 
  
• He has tried some baby food. He's OK with the brown rice cereal - we give him a few bites then usually have to water it down because he LOVES to drink and hold the glass on his own.  He's also tried sweet potatoes - which were not a big hit.  Last night's avocado was the most successful so far! 
• He pulls up on his co-sleeper or crib when sitting and tries to climb out of his bathtub! 
• He now gets upset if he drops a toy or if I take something from him that he wants to suck on! 

He loves to smile for the camera-he really was not this excited to eat the mush! 

Pulling up on the crib

On a warm winter day, we went to the zoo with Aunt Lynz, Chase and Ellie! Blaise loved the penguins! He was face to face with them & he got really excited.  Notice his arms flapping in the picture above like a penguin.  The waterfall in the elephant area was also a big hit. 

He also loves....

• When daddy comes home! We wait at the top of the stairs and he flails his limbs frantically with a huge smile! So fun. 
• Bouncing in his exersaucer.  He'd probably do it all day if we let him, but we try to limit it to 15 minutes. 
• Church-the music, stained glass windows, and people.  So much to take in!  
• When Mimi and Grandma come to visit.  What a blessing to have the grandmas come weekly! Grandpa Harold comes every week or so on his lunch break since he works right across the park. 
• Tags! Whether on clothes, rugs, washcloths, or a blanket- Blaise finds them and loves to suck on them! I guess that's why some genius invented the "taggie!" 
• The light streaming in through the window in the morning-it makes him smile and babble (and buys us a few more minutes of "sleep" too!) 
• Other babies and children-they are so entertaining! 

Blaise is so fun and interactive-what a great stage! We're so thankful for our little bundle of energy! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!  What will/did you do to celebrate? 

I wanted to share one of my favorite love verses with you.... do you have a favorite love verse or poem? Do share it if you do! 

Ephesians 3:14-21 

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Over Night French Toast

Here's a fabulous breakfast dish you can make, if you so desire, for your love, friends, or family on Valentine's day. Our friends the Donohoes made it for us when we visited them one time in KC-and we fell in love with it. It's so scrumptious!

Over Night French Toast

Ingredients:

1 loaf (8 oz.) French baguette, cut into 1 in. slices

4 eggs

2 c. milk

½ c. firmly packed brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 t. ground cinnamon

2 c. fresh or frozen fruit

¼ c. butter

¼ c. firmly packed brown sugar

Directions:

1. Arrange bread into greased 9x13 pan. In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and 1/2c. brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour mixture evenly over bread; turn slices as needed to coat completely. Cover and refrigerate over night. (We sometimes put the slices into 2 dishes and freeze one for later.)

2. Just before baking, sprinkle berries over bread (make sure they are defrosted if using frozen). Heat butter with the ¼ c. brown sugar over medium heat until bubbly. Drizzle over berries.

3. Bake at 375° for 25-30 min. until set & crisp. If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!!!

Snow!

Yea! We finally had a beautiful snow fall & Blaise finally got to try out his new snow suit! We went out for just a bit and he didn't know what to think.  He wasn't too thrilled about sitting in the snow-probably because he could barely move in his marshmallow suit! Laying down worked much better.  The second day, when it was much warmer and sunnier, Blaise got to eat some snow.  This brought a huge smile to his face!  So sweet! (Unfortunately, I didn't snap a picture of it...) 


 

On the Fourth Day of Christmas....

Finally- the last of the Christmas pictures! And it's already FEBRUARY! Wow.....

Blaise's first Christmas!  We spent the night at the Baca house and spent the morning with Gma Suz,  Gpa Harold, Aunt Shar and Uncle Paul. I realized we videoed and didn't take too many pictures all together! Oops! 

Ohhh-a power tool! Blaise was quite fascinated with it! 

After our morning with the Bacas, we headed out to St. Albans to have a delicious, sweet & savory brunch and celebrate with my mom's family. 

Our first Christmas as a family

Happy baby! (Gma Suz gave him this adorable little outfit!) 

Mimi 

Blaise with gma and great gma! 

Yet another family photo (Yes, we over did it!) I'm sure we'll take this many with child #4, right?! ;)  

Christmas was a lovely day, and the view of the Missouri River from the bluffs was so pretty ! 

Daddy love

Blaise chatting with Ellie (who napped almost the whole time!) 

 

My mom snapped this beautiful twilight over the Missouri picture....

Well that's it for the Christmas pictures! (There would have been even one more Christmas get together-with Harold's fam-but it got canceled!) It's a blessing to have all our family near, and we love getting together with them over the holidays (and other times as well!). We know as our family continues to grow, we'll have to cut back-5 celebrations is a lot!  We realize that so much business can take away from why we celebrate in the first place-Christ entering our world as a babe. The challenge for us (I'm sure it's this way for all believers!) is to make Him the focus admits all the hustle and bustle. 

In closing, I want to share one of my favorite Christmas hymns...

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Come Thou long-expected Jesus 
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's strength and consolation, 
Hope of all the saints Thou art; 
Dear desire of every nation, 
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King, 
Born to reign in us forever, 
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit Rule in all our hearts alone; 
By Thine all sufficient merit, 
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.


Charles Wesley, 1744

Christmas has come and gone, and there's always a twinge of sadness putting away the decorations and thinking about how long it will be until it comes again.  But I'm reminded that the joy of Christ leaving his throne and coming to earth as a babe (then living a perfect life and sacrificing himself for us!) should be remembered and celebrated daily. Even without the tinsel and lights!   May our hearts daily turn to Him and be at rest because of his entering our world to redeem us- and rejoice at his promise to come again!