Memories

Libraries and Emotions

| shannonmw11

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My mom and I went to the library a lot when I was growing up. The one near our house had two levels, with a large children’s sections I can only describe as a smaller library inside the main one. It was magical. We’d spend hours browsing books and always check out more than we could read in three weeks. I remember one time we had designated tote bags to fill full with new lives and interesting stories. Even in college, we would make trips together.

My current library has a free home delivery service, something I have fully taken advantage of since I learned about it. However, between home delivery and the library’s extensive e-book collection, I haven’t spent much time in an actual library since I got my Kindle three years ago. Not that I’m complaining, I love my library e-books and audiobooks.

But tonight I happened to return a delivered book on time while the library was still open. I spent a good forty-five minutes browsing the shelves, shamelessly judging each book by its cover and taking notes on potential picks for book club. Then I started to grab books I couldn’t live without, once again checking out way more than I can realistically read in three weeks. I realized this was the first time I actually parused a phsyical library in the two years since my mother passed away.

It was nicely comforting. I’m reaching a point in my life where I can no longer readily imagine what her advice would be for particular situations because we never discussed my problems as an almost thirty year old adult with almost thirty year old adult concerns. So much has changed in the past two years and there’s so much I wish I could discuss with her that it was nice to feel a small connection.

I hate the sense that I’m feeling sorry for myself by writing this, but I wanted to document some nice library memories and the emotional significance lirbaries hold for me. But now I need to stop dwelling and get cracking on the massive pile of books I have to read before November 19.

Bed and Breakfast Scones

| shannonmw11

Bed and Breakfast Scones

My husband and I stayed at the best bed and breakfast for one night on our honeymoon, on our way up to the Smoky mountains. One of the things they served for breakfast were chocolate chip scones, which we thought were one of the most delicious things we’d ever tried. The Inn actually has their own blog full of all kinds of delicious recipes, but I haven’t seen their chocolate chip scone recipe yet (if you find it please tell me!!!), so I was left to rely on the Internet for the second best thing. I’ve made these so often they are practically the dessert mascot for our marriage. I found the following recipe here and here and sort of combined the two techniques for shaping the scones.  I believe it’s originally a Hershey’s recipe. I’ve copied it below, with the technique I use for getting wedge-shaped scones.

 

Ingredients:
  • 1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  •  1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp. butter, melted
  • Additional sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; stir to combine.
  4. Toss in the chocolate chips and stir to blend.
  5. Add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, stirring just until a dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.
  6. Knead the dough very briefly with well floured hands to ensure even mixing.
  7. Take dough ball and place on baking sheet. Flatten it out into a circle and slice into 6-8 triangle wedges, separating wedges from one another so they bake as individual pieces.
  8. Melt butter and brush onto each piece and then sprinkle extra sugar on top.
  9.  Bake 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned (original recipe says 15-20, but with my oven it always needs  a little extra time).

 

I’m making perfect potato soup tonight with these for dessert. It’s the newlywed special since I made this so often in the first few months of our marriage. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year!

Perfect Potato and Leek Soup

| shannonmw11

This soup is so so good. It doesn’t photograph well, so I chose an image that represents how I feel about it instead. I first made this when my husband had his wisdom teeth taken out (2 days after we got back from our honeymoon!). I modified and mixed a few recipes I found on the internet and I’ve been meaning to document it because the only record I have of this deliciousness is a crumpled page of a magnetic note pad/my memory. This soup is NOT low-calorie. I specifically changed it to provide nutrition for my husband who couldn’t chew, but that’s also what makes it so good. A few ingredients can be substituted for healthier alternatives, however. This soup is not rocket science, things can be changed and added and it still pretty much tastes amazing. In fact, with how many times I’ve made this in the past 5 months, I’ve subbed vegetable broth for chicken broth, added too few/many leeks/potatoes, and have been completely off by the amount of broth needed and it’s still awesome each time. There’s something about the creamy mixture of potatoes and leeks.

Ingredients:

  • 2 strips of bacon
  • 1/2 cup butter (one stick)
  • 1 medium sized onion (it doesn’t really matter what kind)
  • 3 leeks (or two giant leeks or 4 small leeks)
  • 3 large potatoes
  • 2 cans (14.5oz) of chicken broth (about 3 cups?)
  • 1 1/2  cups milk (or cream if you really want to be bad)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions!

  1. In a large sauce pan (I use a ceramic dutch oven) cook the bacon on medium heat until it’s really crispy. It should be crispier than normal bacon that you’d eat for breakfast. Take it out and let it cool off for a bit and then chop it up in to tiny bacon-bit pieces.
  2. Turn the temperature down to low and melt butter in the bacon fat (you can use less butter if you want), and toss the bacon bits back in.
  3. Chop up the onion and leeks and stir into pot. Cover and cook for 20 minutes
  4. Chop up potatoes and stir in. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
  5. Stir in broth, milk, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil.
  6. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (soft enough to be cut with a fork).
  7. Remove from heat to cool slightly.
  8. Lightly blend the soup so the potatoes get mushed up a little bit and thicken the sauce (you still want chunks). This is not a pureed soup so don’t blend too much! I use my kitchen-aid stand mixer with the ceramic triangle attachment – for about 30 seconds on a slow speed – a blender or food processor can work too.
  9. Return to heat for a few minutes just to warm it back up.
  10. Serve in bowls with cheese on top. This recipe serves 4-5.

Engagement

| shannonmw11

On October 16, 2010 Alex proposed! It was amazing. I still can’t believe it. Since my wedding website won’t last forever, the following is what I wrote for the “our story” section (while I was supposed to be studying for comps, but I don’t regret it one bit!)

We met in the first weeks of our freshman year at UCF in 2005. It didn’t take long for us to declare ourselves an official couple on Sep. 5, 2005. Since then we have become each other’s best friend. We’ve been through a lot together and cannot wait to make it official!

We love Disney (if you couldn’t tell). Alex proposed at the Magic Kingdom during the big Watson-Family-Reunion-Disney-Trip. He called Shannon’s parents earlier that week and asked for their permission. He wanted to ask them in person, but he figured he would call so he could propose that weekend and make it as special as possible.

The “cover story” for the proposal was that we were going to take the Watson family Christmas photo by the castle. Shannon’s mom decided the side of the castle would be less crowded than Main Street (where it had been taken before). We had to wait, for what seemed like an agonizing eternity to Alex, for the entire Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party to pass before we could make our way to the photo spot.

When we got there, Shannon’s mom whispered into the photographer’s ear, “this is going to be a proposal, so take LOTS of photos” while the rest of us were yelling at her to come join the group for the photo. Only Shannon’s parents knew what was about to happen.

Then, as the photographer started taking pictures, Alex knelt down on one knee and proposed! The music from the street party was still playing so the rest of Shannon’s family couldn’t really hear and were still smiling at the cameras. We joked about this later, and we think it’s cool because we had a soundtrack for our proposal. Shannon was so surprised!

Side note: Alex went to guest services at the park entrance while I was in the bathroom to get special “Just Engaged” Disney pins for us to wear after he proposed. Again, it was perfect.