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A Conservative Look at Valentine's Day

I’ve always had a problem with Valentines Day.  No, I never had a terrible experience once upon a time, and no, this isn't another "over-commercialized" rant.  If you really love her, Valentines Day is a waste of a holiday and I’ll explain where you guys are doing it wrong.

The popular consensus for February 14th seems to be that you bring home expensive roses, some chocolates, and whatever half-decent card you found in the checkout aisle for one passionate, romantic night.  Sounds great, right?  I mean, how bad can a little romance be in a relationship?

The problem I have comes from the importance we place on this holiday and thus how unimportant the rest of the year becomes.  A solid relationship is not built on a crazy passionate night once a year—or even twice a year.  A relationship is grounded on pursuit.  Guys, when you first met her, you ferociously pursued her.  As time passes, this attraction has a tendency to fade and we start relying on a special holiday in February to light up the passion once a year.  Valentine’s Day becomes a crutch to hobble through a stagnant relationship.

But wait, I can already hear you saying “But it’s a good thing to show my girl how much I love her!”

I’m not saying it’s the wrong idea.  Every relationship needs long-stem roses now and then.  But if Valentine’s Day is the only time you bring home flowers, what are you really showing?  Nothing, because it’s already expected.  You’re insulting her by manufacturing demonstrations of your affection.

So you brought her flowers on February 14th, good for you.  You also took out the garbage can on Tuesday night so it gets picked up.  Because really, what’s the difference?

When you proposed, when you married her, you committed to a life-long pursuit of her.  It won’t be the same as when you were courting: life continues, kids throw you heels-over-head, the economy tanks, etc.  But through everything, she’s still there at your side and deserves better than a $6 Hallmark card once a year (seriously, that much for a freaking piece of paper?!).  Don’t insult her love like that.

This year, instead of trying to find the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, try something that won’t be gone in a week.  Commit to pursuing her like you did before.  Commit to being the person you were before you were married (just learn from your life lessons since!): be creative, be passionate, be the person she fell in love with.

Instead of waiting for one day of the year, make EVERY day Valentine’s Day.  Surprise her with flowers every couple weeks, just because you love her.  Bring her chocolates after she’s had a bad day.  Leave a handwritten love note on the bathroom mirror before you leave to work in the morning.  She deserves it for putting up with you.

That is why I dislike Valentine’s Day so much.  I shouldn’t be forced to show my love.  I should be treating her with the care and respect she deserves all 364 other days of the year as well.  Don’t put my love in a box for one day only.  She deserves the same attention and affection every day.

Welcome Gala for Michelle Anthony

A few weeks ago, we held a welcome gala for the new first lady of Hume Ministries: Michelle Anthony.

As the first welcome to Hume, I was commissioned to do two large 'edible arrangement' type fruit displays for the dessert table, and whatever other creative garde manger (pronounced "gar meh-zhay" in the French) fruit displays my mind could conjure up.  Needless to say, with free reign handed to me on an oval platter, I dove right in.  My final order consisted of mint leaves, green onions, red leaf lettuce, whole carrots, butternut squash, strawberries, grapes (red and green), pineapple, watermelons, whole cloves, bamboo skewers, and two new spray bottles, to name just a few things!

Four whole days of prep work later, and it was the big gala day.  I started a full 8 hours before the scheduled start, and finally accomplished pulling everything off.  See below for the photos!  I did everything except the actual food items.

Wide angle of the dessert table.

Flower vases on the appetizer table.

Close-up on edible arrangement.

Watermelon rose.  Enough said.

Two of them!

Melon swan with ladybugs.

Above said swan with ice bowl of melon balls, grapes, strawberries, and cherries.

Edible arrangement #2.

My Music

I'm not sure if I've ever posted this on here before, but here's the link to my music page on facebook!  You should be able to find your way around from there, right?

Hume Lake Mother/Daughter Conference 2011

I only caught the tail end of this conference, as we were gone on our honeymoon.  But I still got to do one carving board!

The media guys would kill me if they saw me butchering the Hume logo like this...  I blame it on the pineapple.

I was frustrated with tomato roses... so I decided to try melon roses.  Pretty impressed with how well they came out for a first time.

Close-up.  The colors are messed up in the photo.  Why does everything look better in real life?

Brother's Graduation

The day after my lovely Bride and I returned from our honeymoon was my brother's high school graduation.  I was elected to do the fruit carvings for the dessert table.  Without further ado, the pictures:

First try at watermelon carving.  Just need to work on my freehanding numerals...

Cantaloupe swan.  The flowers are kinda sparse in this one...

And I messed up the wings.  But oh well.. next time I'll get it right.

Just a little table filler at the end.

May Day, 2011!

Down to the Wire!

Wedding plans are in full swing!  Family is up and working on last-minute projects, and the chain is getting shorter!

Not So Chained Up...

Days until the wedding!!!!!!!

Hume Lake Firefighter Couples Conference 2011

After a dinner shift, a dinner shift plus snack shift, immediately followed by a 5:30am breakfast shift, our firefighter's conference is finished.  This week I was able to raise the bar a notch on my garde manger.  I'm actually starting to get the hang of this!  Next step is to get those special knives because there's quite a few things I'd like to try, but can't without the proper tools.  A paring knife and razor blade can only go so far...

Hopefully next week I'll have the knives and some more cool stuff to pull out of my trick bag!

Friday night dinner's carving board.  I kicked off the weekend by doing a fancy squash bird on a fruit basket on a kale-lined board.  I added dill and asparagus to the grapes to blend it into the kale and draw the attention to the bird.

Saturday night dinner.  A swan carved into a single cantaloupe, with beet flowers.  I really enjoyed using the beets in this piece.  Although they were hard to cut (and I feared for my fingers the whole time), they were a glossy, deep red when freshly cut with rings of dark brown running through the flower.  A new favorite.

Sunday lunch.  Fruit basket reincarnation.  This one didn't come out nearly as well as I was hoping it would.  I had originally intended to do a pineapple something display, but last night we used up the last of the pineapples to serve the cheesecake lollipops, so I was forced to begin plan B.  Then, (back story warning: beginning tomorrow all meals will be in the second dining hall while Pondy is shut down for a month to install a new dishwasher) when I went to see what fruit I actually did have, I found that everything had already been transfered to Cedar Hall for the upcoming week, so I only had a couple lemons and zucchini I'd pulled but hadn't used from the previous night.  In a near panic (not really), I scraped together enough usable fruits and veggies to make this, and throw it together with 5 minutes to spare!

Hume Lake Spring Women's Conference 2011

This last weekend we had our spring women's conference up here at Hume Lake.  Despite snowing on the last day, everything went smoothly and we heard a lot of good reviews.  Saturday night I made the alfredo sauce for our alfredo bruschetta chicken and it turned out delicious!  Someone even used "life-changing" in conjunction with it.  Although I hope the alfredo sauce was the least of the life-changing events last weekend, I'm posting the recipe below anyways for your culinary enjoyment.


Since the beginning of our spring conference season this year, I've kind-of inherited the role of garde manger chef.  I've been put in charge of preparing the garnishes for our carving boards and buffet lines, which I've fallen in love with.  I'm still stuck with a paring knife and razor blade as my tools, but our head chef said she'll bring her set in so I can use on the weekends.  Even so, I've found ways to be creative with the materials on hand.

One of my carving boards.  A true fruit basket!

Here's a link to my ongoing album of work, which I keep updated as I make displays.
My Fruit Displays (Facebook)

Alfredo Bruschetta Chicken Sauce

Makes 2 gallons

1 ½ lbs. bacon

1 ½ lbs. ground Italian sausage

1 c. minced garlic

2 lbs. cream cheese

2 lbs. grated parmesan cheese

1 ½ gallons heavy cream

1 gallon milk

¼ gallon heavy cream

1) Render bacon and sausage together in own grease over medium-high heat.

2) Add garlic and saute for 5 minutes, or until garlic is lightly browned.

3) Reduce heat to low.  Add cream cheese and parmesan cheese.  Stir frequently until melted.

4) Add cream ¼ gallon at a time, stirring to incorporate completely before next addition.  Add ½ gallon milk and stir in completely, then add remaining half.

5) Bring to low boil, stirring often and scraping bottom to prevent burning.  Reduce by ¾ gallon.

6) Blend well using immersion blender.  Finish with remaining ¼ gallon cream.

More Snow!

Getting into your house - not for the claustrophobic....

We're running out of places to put the snow....