Steak and Babies

Don't these fillets look delicious?  We had them last night with a whisky peppercorn sauce and they were so good! The occasion was our regular Sunday night feast with Paul's flute teacher, Sara, and her boyfriend, Warren, made even more fun this week with the additional presence of Ben's friend, David.   Warren and David are both great cooks, so they helped Ben and me as we seared and then baked these lucious three-inch steaks and finished the sauce.  The inspiration came from a recipe which calls for stuffing the steaks with crab meat.  That seemed a bit excessive, so we just stuck with the fillets and the sauce and it was mighty good.

David made this fabulous berry tart.  What a perfect guest, yes?

Today was Valentine's Day in Story Time at school, but I couldn't find any Valentine's books that I liked, having read the heartwarming Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch just last year.  (You can enjoy a great reading of this book at the Storyline Online web site.)  Since babies are so loveable,  I decided to read about them instead.  It was quite a treat to look at Marla Frazee's colorfully detailed pictures of babies doing pretty much everything babies do during their first year of life -- being dress, eating, being carried, making noise, playing games, making friends, crawling, and walking -- and to read Susan Meyers rythmic verses.  

Of course, babies aren't always so wonderful to have around the house, so we also read Mail Harry to the Moon, the story of how one big brother decides that his baby brother, Harry, is too loud, distructive, and messy.  Even worse, he takes over big brother's place on Grandma's lap.  After each of Harry's transgression, big brother tells his parents to "put Harry back in Mommy's tummy," "stick Harry in a zoo," or to "mail Harry to the moon."  But when he thinks they did actually mail Harry to the moon, he misses him and courageously sets off to the moon (in a laundry basket turned space ship) to bring him back home where he belongs.

We have a busy few days ahead of us because on Friday we have to be ready to have the dining room and hallway painted and the kitchen ceiling sanded and painted.  That means clearing the decks --packing up china, decluttering, and general clearing out of stuff -- so the painters can work.  The result should be wonderful but the journey to get there not so wonderful, and the journey is going to take more than three days, including the weekend.   Should be fun!