True Love!

We got to take care of our dear friends' dog...

*Izzy*

 for a few days.

It was seriously true love from the moment she came to us..

We adored her and we are pretty sure she loved us back!

Lots of love...

Perfect timing for Valentine's Day!

And speaking of Valentine's Day, 

Luca's kindergarten class was encouraged 

to make/bring a card for everyone on Thursday.

In the spirit of more love (this time of chocolate!), 

the kids and I wanted to try and make ganache-filled heart shaped truffles...

I followed this recipe (minus the gold dusting)

and it wasn't very hard to do...just a little messy...

I poured tempered melted chocolate into my mold--

making sure it coated the whole of the inside of the heart-shaped mold.

I let that cool and then spooned in a large teaspoon of ganache...I let that cool and then poured more of the melted chocolate over the top of each heart to seal the deal...and with a bench scraper, I tried to clean things up a bit...

Messy.

My tempering technique obviously needs some perfecting--as you can see..

Those white-ish markings below are what happens 

when melted chocolate solidifies and it hasn't been tempered properly.

Looks funny and is definitely not perfect, but still tastes good!

And my wrapping technique needs some work, too...but who cares about that!

They tasted AMAZING!!

Meanwhile, while everything was either melting or cooling...

The kids got busy with their home-made cards.

The supplies: awesome clip art printed from here.

An amazing collection of everything vintage you could ever want...

Luca did a great job with his cards!!

He made one for each of the kids in his class.

These are some of my favorites.

And, not bad--after all was done:
there even managed to be a few truffles left over for his parents!

LOVE!

Yes, so, lots of love all around!  

We hope Izzy will miss us as much as we miss her..

But I am pretty sure she is happy to be back home.

Lot's of love to you and yours...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Magda turns 8! Let's ice skate!!

Magda wanted to take her friends ice skating for her 8th birthday party this year.  

Our town has a great little outdoor rink--

so we bundled up, laced up our skates and hit the ice!

There is nothing as fun as skating 'round and 'round
with your best buds to fun pop music
outside on a cold winter's day

...


with your Dad!! 

We put out a little spread...

warm chicken noodle soup and butternut squash soup for lunch.

(Greg's idea...SUCH a good idea!)

And hot cocoa for the Zamboni break.  

The outdoor outlets came in very handy, as did the crock pots!

For party favors, each girl got a little gift bag with a mug, 

filled with a serving of hot cocoa mix

and a home-made marshmallow--with how-to instructions.

(That now that I read them, the instructions aren't really that great..

but the card is cute!)

For each girl, I also made for their gift bag: a little hand-embroidered felt mitten--

because I am insane.

Luca was a total pro; 

he has never ice skated before but after a few tries, 

you would never know it!  

He was so good and now he is obsessed with wanting to play hockey.

(great..)

Hot Cocoa/Warming Station--those tissues came in handy, so did my coffee!

Home-made marshmallows; So so good and easy. Recipe here.

Paper bags filled with popcorn...for a quick snack!

Coconut cupcakes, that I think, were my best yet!

Recipe from Ina...Kind of hard to go wrong with Ina.

Happy Birthday My Precious Girl!!
We love you and are so proud of you...can't believe you are 8 years old!!

To see what we did when Magda turned 7...click here!
And when she turned 6...here!

Canning on Labor Day

For a third year in a row, Magdalena and I have canned with Grandmom.  

This year, we processed 40 lbs of tomatoes which 

yielded about 18 quarts of raw-packed tomatoes.

The boys were a big help!  

And 20 lbs of peaches, which made about 12 pints of sliced peaches in a light, sweet syrup.

Hard working ladies...

Our kitchen was like a hot, humid swamp...fun!

But so worth it.

Peeling & slicing up tomatoes..

Then filling up jars--

Doesn't Magda look like one tough girl?!  : )

The peaches are sweet and bright and great over vanilla ice cream.

And nothing is as great as pulling a jar of tomatoes
off the shelf in the middle of January that you canned in the summer...

Thanks Magda and Grandmom for all your help & hard work!

Chomper and Our Last Night

Our friends had never been crabbing and while it would have been fun for the kids, 

the nearest place to do so easily was kind of far away...

Plus it was hot and we were hungry.  

So, instead a brilliant idea was hatched:  

when Greg and Jonah went to the fish store,

they bought tuna, clams, steamed crabs AND one live crab...

whom the kids called...Chomper.

The plan was to set him free in the bay, but first--

it was dinner-time.

We had clams, steamed in white wine, butter and garlic with some good sourdough bread.

The kids shucked corn and it was delicious.

We had perfectly cooked and seasoned tuna steaks.

Then, there were the steamed crabs...

(sorry about your cousins, Chomper!!)

There is always a demonstration and instruction on how to best go about devouring whole crabs.

(Magda is a pro!)

Sometimes it's nice to get a little help!

 Crabs are messy.

A little after-dinner run-around and then it was time to set Chomper free.

It was a joint effort.

You never saw a crab move so fast in your life!

That little guy was in the water before we could practically blink.

There was almost no time to say good bye!!

Unfortunately for him, he left behind a leg...but check out his new digs!!

Pretty lucky little crab...

I loved doing this and want it to be our new annual beach tradition...

Kind of how the White House pardons a turkey at Thanksgiving.

From now on, we will set a crab free every summer...

Thank you so much to our friends who came such a long way to be with us...

We had such a wonderful time and we love and miss you even more.

Until next time....