One of two of my Greatest Creations!

I've been missing my kitchen lately due to Life's little emergencies. My Baby contracted RSV so my attention has been focused on him understandably. He's on the mend and will be fine, but he's still on the Oxygen for a bit longer. Anyway I just had to share this cute picture I caught of him. Tubes don't slow down this baby, he's still trying to run and play with his older brother. I walked out of the room for a minute and when I came back both boys were laughing on the floor. They must have been spinning in circles or something because he got all tied up! lol.

A Little Fancy Touch
Pasta & Sauce

So we've been a bit sick at my house, so I thought it'd be nice to dress up dinner a bit just so I could feel like I accomplished something besides cuddling babies and wiping noses all day. My hubby was at work, so this dinner was made for me and my toddlers, but who cares right?! Why wait for special company or a special occation to dress up the dinner plate?

We had Penne pasta covered with a Garlic and Herb type sauce with seasoned hamburger pieces (seasoned with black pepper a and Cilantro), and white onions. A bit of freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, Green bell pepper slices, Black olives, and a small bunch of purple grapes (my son's request). Pictured below is the bread plate, White dinner bread with Butter. We practice the old saying "You break bread with friends, and cut bread with enemies" (unless it's for sandwiches tehe). Finished with a fresh lemon water. This is my son's place setting.

Medieval Gelato!

Okay so this last weekend I was the Host to the Historical Arts event in the Medieval group I'm in (MCRS). It was stressful, but successful, and lots of fun. My husband was the Feast steward, and boy did he put on a Feast. I'm just sorry I was to busy to snap some shots of the food. I had entered into the Bardic Tournament singing acapella "Veni Veni Emmanuel" completely in Latin taking Second place! The way exciting part for me though was my son Orion (age 3) won First place in the Children's Historical Arts entries with his Gelato! It all started when he said he wanted Ice Cream about a month ago, and I thought it'd be fun to make it ourselves. I was also debating a topic for my Historical Arts entry. It was decided that I wouldn't put in an entry and I'd help my son to do so. We looked up the history of Ice Cream and found all sorts of fun interesting stories. I then got all the fixings to make our own Gelato according to the Medieval time period. It's a simple and fun activity to do with kids, with yummy results. We ended up serving the Gelato as the Dessert for the Feast that night. Okay so enough talk... this Gelato was made with: Snow (shaved ice), a little bit of sugar (like one tablespoon or less), cream, and this particular one was made with Almond Flavoring. (It's traditionally made with a variety of Fruit juices, although Almond is a very period flavor as well)

Onto the picture! Here's a picture of my son in the making process and other of him being way excited about the prize he won.

YHappy Valentines Day!Y

I made my sweetheart's favorite meal for Valentines. It takes a bit to make so I don't usually make it but for special occasions now and then. This is the table spread of the dish... from Left to Right: Navajo Fry Bread, Avocado, Red/Green Bell peppers, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream, Shredded Lettuce, White Onion, Tomatoes, and Chili.

Here's a Picture of it all put together. You can put it in any order you want really, but I've found it works best if you put the Chili on top of the fry bread first, then any toppings you desire. This time we added a bit of Tabasco sauce to the dish, the boys gave a funny bright red face every time they came across a drop of it, but they kept asking for more. They must be related to me tehe.

My Men enjoying their Valentine Chocolates

YValentines in Chocolate Z

This year we're celebrating Valentines a bit differently. Go ahead and roll your eyes lol, because we're doing it as the Japanese do. Girls give guys the chocolates on Valentines, and one month later Guys give gifts or chocolates to the Girls on White Day. So here are the hand made molded chocolates I made for the men in my life.

Done in both White and Milk Chocolate I painted red chocolate into "Love" impression, and then Wrote the name of the person receiving the chocolate on the back.
Here's a simple variation, I painted their name into the mold, again with red chocolate. The ones done this way were given to my husbands family, he requested the more simple looking heart.
This is how I wrapped them up. I used the non-zip sandwich baggies tied off with Red and Pink ribbons.
Again packaged the same way.
This is the heart I made for my husband. I was a little sad at the scratch that appeared in the chocolate during the cooling process, but it still looks great and I'm sure he'll love it. I had a lot of fun painting the flowers with Red chocolate, the leaves and stems with Green chocolate, and the "Love" with White chocolate. This chocolate ended up being a lot larger then I thought it would be, but that's okay my husband has his "time of the month" when he craves chocolate like non other, so I'm sure this will satisfy that craving. *smiles* We'll be sending out more chocolates to all our Women friends for White Day next month. I'm hoping to have some new molds by then, so look forward to seeing more chocolate next month!

CHOCOLATE!

In the spirit of Valentines I decided to try my hand at making my own chocolate! I didn't have the funds to buy all that was needed to make milk chocolate, so I made Dark Chocolate. I didn't have the ability to roast my own Cacao beans so I started with the Nibs, which are the beans already roasted, lightly crushed, and winnowed (shells removed). Again not having a food or coffee grinder I used my husband's mortar and pestle.

8 parts Cacao Nibs with two parts Sugar were placed into the mortar. Then Grind! Grind! Grind! Once the nibs were a powder I placed the mortar in the microwave to warm it up a bit. Warming the Mortar made it a little easier to grind the nibs to a more liquid type state. Just as it was starting to look liquid I added a dash of Cinnamon and Cardamon for flavor. 2 hours and some very sore arms later the chocolate was about as smooth as I was going to get it. There's no way to get it as smooth as the chocolate bars from the store unless you buy the machine for that kind of finishing.

At this point you can ether serve up the chocolate or... you can put it in a mold. I chose to mold it. I filled a 2"x 2" Tupperware with all of the chocolate made... it was about a quarter of an inch thick. It was then placed in the freezer for about 5 minutes till hardened. I broke it up into pieces which makes it easier to see how it's more grainy then store chocolate. A lot of work, but it was yummy. Next time I think I'll grind the sugar a little finer beforehand, and add a little more of the chosen flavoring. My arms would also thank me greatly if I get a food/coffee grinder to do the initial grinding lol.