For The Love Of All That's Irish

Although it is merely mid-February, I am hopeful spring is on the way. Yes, I am looking out at the farm blanketed in a fluffy, glistening layer of fresh snow, BUT there is hope that this weather is on its way out. Today, we release our St. Patrick's Day-inspired soaps: Irish Heather and Irish Tweed. If we are releasing St. Patrick's Day soaps, that means March is near. If March is near, that means we are one step closer to spring. And that, dear reader, is how my little brain works. Do you follow my logic?

Many of you are fans of our Irish Heather and Irish Tweed soap. I considered creating something new, but I fear many of you would be unhappy with my decision, so I went with what I know you love. Irish Heather truly is a delightful scent. If you love florals, especially lilacs, you will adore it. It is a beautiful oil that I look forward to using each year. The colors are bright, happy, and mindful of spring.

For a more masculine vibe, we offer Irish Tweed. Irish Tweed has notes of Dublin ivy, violet, and verbena, with woody middle notes and warm sandalwood and amber dry down. It is very masculine, very upscale, and very fragrant. The colors remind me of an upscale Irish boutique in Dublin.

As with all our products, the Irish-inspired soaps begin with our fresh, raw goat's milk. We add skin-loving oils and Tussah silk fibers to elevate your bathing and skin-soothing experience. Like a rainbow, these beautiful soaps are fleeting. I gently encourage you to order while supplies are plentiful. The Irish Heather and Irish Tweed are two of our most popular seasonal scents.

In honor of President's Day, we are offering a sitewide savings of 20%. This discount includes Irish Heather and Irish Tweed. However, it excludes merch, subscriptions, and the weekly special. Use promo code PresDay25 at checkout to save 20% on your order.

On this snowy, blowy, bitterly cold day, stay safe, be smart, know that spring is coming, and keep washing your hands.

The Bibbed Wonder's Valentine's Day Truffles

My bib overall-wearing buddy is multifaceted. He is not only one of the most capable men I have met, but he is intelligent to the point of intimidation; he can talk literature with me in-depth, as well as high-level math (which is like speaking a foreign language to me), he is an endless source of useless facts and interesting anecdotes. He's funny and charismatic, and he can cook. If I'm being transparent, he is a better cook than I am. There are dishes I delegate to him because he makes them so much better: mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed hamburger (aka sh** on a shingle), poached eggs, and BBQ. However, his culinary prowess does not end there. He can also make truffles. That's right, he is excellent at confections.

He made me divine chocolate truffles on our first Valentine's Day together. He made a big production of making truffles with a "secret" recipe...which was total nonsense. I am unsure where the truffle recipe originated, but it is a photocopy of an extensive recipe from an old cookbook. His secret recipe ended up in my Tinkerbell folder of recipes. When I pulled it out and asked him if the recipe in hand was his recipe, he said, "Hey! Where did you get that? That's my secret recipe!" Sigh, he's so much sometimes.

Today, dear reader, I will share The Bibbed Wonder's "secret" recipe for chocolate truffles. If you have some extra time, these truffles wow their intended audience. It's a delicious and thoughtful way to show your love this Valentine's Day.

Ingredients:

12 ounces Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate

1 Cup Heavy Cream

3 Tbls. Grand Marnier or Other Liqueur

Chocolate Covering

1 lb. Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate

2 ounces of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Directions:

1. To make the truffle mixture, Heat the chocolate and heavy cream in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted.

2. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. Stir in the Grand Marnier.

3. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours until it is firm.

4. Cover a baking sheet with wax paper. Using two spoons, scoop the mixture into small mounds, about 1/2 to 1 teaspoonful. Refrigerate overnight.

5. When cold, loosen the mounds from the paper and use your fingers to round them. Refrigerate until ready to coat.

6. Make the chocolate covering: In a saucepan, melt the chocolate in a very low oven.

7. When the chocolate is melted, stir it well from time to time as it cooks to body temperature.

8. Spread the cocoa powder evenly on a chilled jelly roll pan or a chilled plate.

9. Remove the truffles from the refrigerator and drop two at a time into the chocolate coating. Using two forks, turn the truffles, coating them well with chocolate. Lift a truffle with one fork, tapping it with the other to eliminate excess chocolate. Then, drop the coated truffle onto the pan containing the cocoa powder. Using a spoon, quickly roll and coat the truffle with the powder, then push it to the side.

10. When the truffles are firm enough to handle, transfer them to a bowl and refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve.

11. To serve, mound the truffles in a serving dish. They are delicious at room temperature or cold from the refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy The Bibbed Wonder's recipe for truffles. On this sunny but cold Valentine's Day, stay safe, be smart, eat delicious food, celebrate those you love, and keep washing your hands.

Ah, Love

Yep, that's my dream guy.

Ah, love. Some love love, and then there are those who say things like, "I told you I love you the day we got married; anything after that seems redundant." Sigh. In our relationship, guess who is who? I have learned a lot in the last fifty-plus years, and probably the most important thing is love looks nothing like I thought it did when I was young. It took one handsome little bib overall-wearing farmer to show me what true love looks like.

I can remember sitting with my friends as a kid and imagining my life as an adult. I would marry a handsome, wealthy, athletic professional who wore expensive suits and bought me expensive gifts. I would live in a big fancy house in a city, and my marriage would be filled with romantic evenings, fancy meals, and daily gifts of flowers and jewelry. As a teenager, I had unrealistic expectations for boyfriends. Imagine teen boys don't behave like love-crazed romantics from the movies. Weird. As I got older, reality set in that the imaginary husband of my childhood would go the same route as my imaginary friend, Teddy. He did not exist.

As a young adult, Valentine's Day was often disappointing. Yes, there were nice meals and lovely gifts, but the big scene of being swept off your feet with some grand romantic gesture was missing. More accurately, the feeling of being head over heels in love was missing. On Valentine's Day, it always felt like whoever I was with was going through the motions of love. Hollywood, Hallmark, the flower, jewelry, and the candy industry set us up for failure. I concluded early in life that Valentine's Day was just a holiday made up by a card company to improve sales.

I was jaded by the time The Bibbed Wonder and I got together. I was 29, and he was 21. Truthfully, I viewed him as a good time, but nothing that would last, and I was okay with that. He was intelligent, fun, and witty, could carry on a clever and interesting conversation, was handsome, thoughtful, considerate, and honest, and had integrity. Spending time with him was refreshing. I thought I would enjoy it while it lasted, not get too emotionally attached, and when it was over, I would remember him as someone fun I spent time with for a short while—end of story.

Well, you can see how that turned out, dear reader. Twenty-two years later, I continue to laugh, enjoy witty and stimulating conversations, and think I am the luckiest woman in the world to be with such a good man, and just when I think I may strangle him, I find my love for him is stronger. Don't get me wrong, our relationship is not without its challenges. I mean, he is lucky enough to be married to the Mary Poppins of wives: Practically Perfect In Every Way. (I can't even write that without laughing it's so far-fetched!) But I have to put up with his mouth, his constant barrage of gas attacks, his ability to make up realistic but outlandish stories that I continue to believe, his crass sense of humor that is often at my expense, and his dream-crushing logic. I mean, why can't we buy all the houses on our road, open a school for 100 people to learn old-fashioned life skills, build a stone root cellar on the side of a hill, turn our pond into a swimming pond with a liner and sand, remodel the house, and build a new goat barn by spring? He's so uncooperative! Do you see how I live, dear reader? No, our relationship is far from perfect.

All jokes aside, he has taught me that love is not grand gestures, expensive gifts, and superficial acts. Love is feeding my geese and goats in the winter so I don't have to go out in the cold. It is picking up a Cadbury Egg with each trip to the gas station because he knows they are my favorite. It's making dinner on the nights I'm too tired to think clearly. It's making sure I feel safe and well-cared for. It's being an incredible dad and setting an excellent example for our daughter. It's talking me down when I feel overwhelmed and making me laugh when all I want to do is cry. Love is being honest, even when it hurts. It is having my back when I can't stand up for myself. Love is respectful, kind, gracious, appreciative, and considerate. It's following all my crazy dreams and making them a reality. Love is a million little things that are greater and far more impressive than one grand gesture.

So, no, my dream guy doesn't wear expensive suits and go to a big office. We don't live in a fancy house in a city. I am not dripping in diamonds and don't receive a dozen roses daily. Instead, I can say I am truly happy for the first time in my life. I feel cherished, seen, and heard. My dream guy wears bib overalls, is bald, and works alongside me at our farm in the country, making soap, milking goats, and making all my visions a reality. By the way, he does say things like, "I told you I loved you at our wedding; everything else seems redundant," or when I kiss him goodbye, he says, "Didn't we just do this twenty-two years ago? You are so needy!" there is always the ever popular and romantic, "My first wife did_________________________ (fill in the blank with something annoying), and they never found her or her teeth." Sigh, so there is that.

On this Valentine's Day Eve, stay safe, be smart, appreciate the reality of love, don't get caught up in unrealistic expectations; reality is better than anything imagined, and keep washing your hands.