Composting Valentine’s Day

Confession: I love all the hearts and flowers and corny cards associated with Valentine’s Day.  Instead of thinking of it as a money-making holiday created by the candy and greeting card industry, I much prefer to remember it as the Catholic feast of Saint Valentine, a Roman priest martyred for marrying Christian couples.

I’ve got plush heart pillows on my soafs and pretty hearts hanging in my windows and of course a sparkly red wreath on my door.  Of course I’ve already made heart sprinkled sugar cookies and spent an entire episode of Downton Abby (just started season two) putting candy in mini bags with pretty red ribbons for my girl’s ballet pals.

So I made these lovely little Linzer tarts (tortes?) for my loved ones this weekend.  They are essentially a crisp almond meal cookie filled with raspberry jam.  I’ve got my own secret recipe but this one is similar. There is minimal compost from cookies naturally, but they are so pretty I had to share.

The cookie-making bucket looked like this.

What you can see (clockwise from the top):

• brussels sprouts trimmings (really questionable quality sadly)
• shallot skins & stem ends
• eggs (for the cookies!)
• carrot sticks (left over from lunchbox)
• blueberries (left over from lunchbox)
• In addition to the Linzer tart cookies, I also made a some quickly seared hangar steaks with this sauce paired with roasted brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes.

Here is the bucket for both Valentine’s Day family dinner and Sunday Supper.

What you can see (clockwise from the top):

• lots of egg shells
• lemon halves
• bits of wilted salad greens
• tea bag
• orange peelsshallot skins & stem ends
• espresso grounds
• WhatI made with all of that:

Valentine’s Family Dinner

• Scallops with Fresh Linguine
• Caesar Salad with homemade croutons
• Sunday Supper
• Rich Vanilla Pudding with Strawberries & Lizer Tarts

My middle boy was a bit under the weather so our intended meal with friends and family was cancelled.  A sensible idea but when I cancelled dinner I didn’t make the meal… which resulted in hungry mouths at  seven wondering “what’s for dinner?”

Frittatta to the rescue.  These never used to be in my rotation since I made my fair share of quiche and scrambled eggs, but quiche needs a crust and scrambed eggs really screams breakfast.  Enter the frittatta.  Made in my ten-inch cast iron pan with eggs, milk and whatever bits and pieces I have on hand, this meal is fast, fresh and super easy.

The Sunday frittatta included smoked salmon and shallots sauteed  in butter and some    almost old mozzerella.  A quick simmer on the stove and a minute under the broiler and dinner was served along with a quick Caesar spin-off, some sesame bagels and more Linzer tarts of course.

Hope your heart was happy this weekend.

 

Strawberry Compost for Valentine’s Day

Are you one of those Valentine’s Day lovers or haters?  I’m firmly in the “love it” camp.  What’s not to love about pink and red in the middle of the winter?  I decorate my house accordingly with lots of hearts in every nook and cranny and get excited about making treats for kids’ classmates, family, friends, and neighbors.

As a matter of fact, until last year, my daughter hosted a “Craft-tea Party” where she and her girlfriends could make Valentine cards and crafts (get it, craft-y?), eat sweet treats and drink tea out of pretty cups.  Sadly, those friends are now at the age where they would prefer to host a dance with b o y s, so we keep the crafting to ourselves.  Small sigh, but it’s okay.

And then there was the snow.  Four days off from school pretty much cancelled all Valentine plans, but we didn’t lose heart!  Remember those brownies and cookies from yesterday’s snowy buckets?  We decided to wrap those up and spent a satisfyingly long time crafting pretty little tags and delivered these to all of our neighbors.

Obviously, we did not create much in the way of kitchen scraps that day.  Here’s the daily haul:

What you can see (clockwise top to bottom):

• spent primrose leaves (from cheerful primrose plants on my kitchen counter)
• onion skins & stem ends
• TAZO teabags (I hate that the tag is upside down, and yes, I took it off before composting)
• strawberry tops
• garlic skin

What I made with all of that: Cherry Heart-Shaped Valentine Pancakes with Strawberries and the traditional Valentine’s Day Two Bean Chili.

Ok, so chili is NOT traditional, even in my house, but we had a scheduled soccer game that night (even with a week out of school) so I knew a fuzzy holiday celebration was not in order.  Good call.  After a freezing night watching from the snowy sidelines we were ready to celebrate a big win with warm cups of chili.  It’s always good to trust your instincts!