Beautiful McCall

While my parents were here over the holidays, Steve and I managed to escape for an overnight in McCall, Idaho. McCall is North of Boise and a beautiful drive. We hadn't been to McCall in about six years, so we were both really excited to head out. McCall reminds me of Maine in a lot of ways - - the landscape is much different than where we live. It is a resort town, situated on a lake, and near a ski hill, so it is a popular vacation spot.

Beautiful!

Steve, humoring my foolishness along the way

Dinner (and beer) at the McCall Brew Pub

The lovely Hotel McCall - - I'd always wanted to stay here and am so glad we finally did!

The next morning, Steve got right up and went cross-country skiing. I opted to walk around town in the snow, take pictures, sip a delicious mocha from the Fogglifter Cafe, and soak in the jetted spa tub. I took a picture of this little bench at the Hotel because I want one just like it. Anyone want to build me one?

We then enjoyed a lovely lunch at Ruperts, and then headed over to the McCall Community Congregational Church, to see our friends Dennis and Tanya get married. The perfect end to a perfect getaway.

Cooking With Julia

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year came from my husband. A copy of the movie, Julie & Julia, and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking box set.

I think I've mentioned here before, how much I love this movie. I'm not too into giving my endorsement on movies, because whether a movie is good or not really depends upon what a person does or does not like in a movie. For me, this one is right up my alley. I love the food, cooking, blogging, history, relationships, etc. - - I absolutely loved it. I adore stories about people who follow their passion, no matter what. As for the two-volume cook book - - I'd never thumbed through it until Christmas Day. Really, the cookbook is amazing. I tend to prefer a cookbook with a lot of pictures so I know what my end result is supposed to look like. These books have no pictures, aside from a few pencil drawing here and there. What it does have is explicit instruction. Explicit. I really believe even the most novice cook could pick a recipe from these books and produce a fabulous dish.

I had my heart set on making Boeuf Bourguignonne (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms) for New Year's Day dinner, and I'm happy to report that I did just that. Not only that, but I also decided to tackle one of Julia's desserts, too - - Reine De Saba (Chocolate and Almond Cake). Mind you, I was in the kitchen for almost the entire day, but I loved every minute of it. I do believe that at one point, Steve came in to check my progress, and I jumped up and down and clapped because I was having so much fun.

Here's the "boeuf"....

....and the "bourguignonne"...

The end result was a dish that I never would have guessed in a million years that I could have produced. The flavors were amazing and I must admit that it was completely satisfying to enjoy a meal that I spent such a long time preparing. It was so much fun!

Part of the process was to learn to properly brown-braise pearl onions...these smelled soooo good while they were simmering.

I also learned that to properly brown mushrooms, you cannot crowd them in the pan. Yes, those mushrooms are swimming in butter and oil...yum.

As for the cake...it was also a delight to prepare, although I didn't think it was very pretty to look at, unfortunately. I think the cake decorator in me expects to see high, perfectly decorated end-result. What I learned is, a cake does not have to look like it came from a bakery to taste divine. This cake only contains a half-cup of flour, and therefore results in a texture similar to a chocolate truffle - - smooth, creamy, and bursting with chocolate (and rum, I might add).

Next on my list? Coq au Vin (Chicken in Red Wine with Onions, Mushrooms, and Bacon). I'll let you know how it goes.

A Merry Little Christmas

Oreo Truffles

Okay, so recipes for Oreo Truffles are all over the Internet, but they are so yummy, and so easy to make, that I had to post the recipe here. If you like Oreo cookies at all (who doesn't??), then you will find it hard not to eat these until your stomach aches.

Oreo Truffles

1 package Oreo cookies

1 package cream cheese, at room temperature

white or milk chocolate candy coating

(if you want to use a color, then you can also use Wilton candy melts - - they come in all kinds of colors and can be found at WalMart and at Michael's craft stores)

Crush Oreo cookies in food processor until finely ground (there should not be any chunks of cookie at all). Put into a bowl. Add softened package of cream cheese and blend together with a hand mixer. Roll into walnut-sized round balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or parchment. Refrigerate for one hour.

Melt chocolate over double boiler until smooth. Using a toothpick, dip each ball into the melted chocolate. Place back onto cookie sheet and allow to harden. If not serving right away, store in the refrigerator.

If you want to get all fancy, you can put some of the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag. Cut a very small hole in the corner of the bag and then squeeze a zigzag design on the top of each truffle.

Weekend Projects

What a lovely weekend we had!

It snowed on Saturday, enough to cover the ground - - and it is still out there, as I type. I don't think it will be around for long though, as there is rain in the forecast this week.

On Saturday, we all found ourselves working on projects. Steve's project came in the form of trying to repair a 55-year old pocket door. While pocket doors are really nifty (we have one as a closet door in the living room, and one that separates the kitchen and dining room), they are not easy to repair, as it turns out.

Can't you see how absolutely thrilled Steve was, to be spending his day, wrestling with that thing? The good news is, the door is back on its track. The bad news is, it is very difficult to open or close now. Guess that's another project for another weekend.

Most of Camden's and Griffin's weekend projects involved snow. They must have gone in and out approximately four times on Saturday afternoon. You can see here that they are hard at work on their snow angels.

Camden also spent quite a bit of time working on a new Lego masterpiece (a ship, of course). If you look closely, you can see that Griffin spent quite a bit of time working on annoying his older brother. He's a rascal, that Griffin.

As for me, I worked on some craft projects. I love the idea of being crafty, but as is the case with cooking, I have a hard time doing something that doesn't come with specific instructions. Somehow, I have managed to break out of my cooking rut, and am finding that I can, in fact, create a lovely meal without always following a recipe. It is very liberating, I tell you! Now, I am also learning that I can find all kinds of neat ideas in books, magazines, and on the Internet, and then come up with my own versions of what I've seen.

For quite a while now, I've been infatuated with fabric brooches. I've seen them all over the Internet, on blogs and on Etsy. So the other day, I got some scraps together, and just wanted to see what I could come up with. It was so much fun! In the end, I took a fleece hat that I bought at the Dollar Tree, and then made a flower out of red fleece that I had on hand, finished it off with a polka-dot button, and sewed it to the hat. After that, I took some more of the fleece and tried my hand at making some fingerless gloves for myself. I'd bought a pattern to do this last year, but alas, the pattern was too complicated! Instead, I traced my hand and made my own pattern. They came out exactly how I wanted them to. Let me tell you, if you are a novice seamstress such as myself, polar fleece is extremely forgiving. I have a feeling that I may have to make everything from here on out, from polar fleece.

Cookies for Santa

It started with this post. Then, I read this. The end result: some cute little gifts for my

niece and nephews...

Super easy, and fun to make. The boys and I made a batch to "test" the recipe. The verdict:

Yummy.

Hey Stranger

Well now. That was officially my longest blogging dry spell ever. Hello? Anyone out there??

All I can say is that for some reason I have had zero desire to write about anything lately. I think it has something to do with short, cold days, being cooped up inside, and all that goes with that. Yeah, that's the reason!

Here is a brief pictorial of what we have been up to....

Enjoying the first snow of the season. Yes, all you New Englanders...that mere dusting you see behind Griffin was a Major Deal for the boys. Sad, but true.

Wasting toilet paper. Just because.

Loving on the World's Greatest (sweetest, smartest, most wonderful) Six-Year Old

Eating lots of Candy Cane Tootsie Pops

Inheriting Older Brother's hand-knit sweater set (and then insisting upon wearing it wherever he goes)

Receiving beautiful, hand-made jewelry in the mail from someone who seriously needs to open an Etsy shop (thank you, Kate ~ you so made my day today)

Not napping.

Napping!!

Drinking hot chocolate, eating chocolate covered donuts, while sporting a good old-fashioned case of Winter Hat Head

So, as you can see, we've been kind of busy here, enjoying life as it happens!

The Winner (and Thanksgiving Dinner)

I am so sorry in the delay of letting you know who won my "Random Acts of Kindness" giveaway! I didn't forget about it, but rather, haven't been near my computer much in the past 48 hours or so. This was my first completely unassisted turkey, so I was a little nutty. I think I had to call my parents 3 or 4 times for instruction. Alas, I'm happy to report that the bird was completely cooked, and it was nice and moist (thanks to the brine, I am sure!).

So, on Wednesday evening, I paid a visit to Random.org, which is a great tool to use if you have a giveaway on your blog. I went to the comments for the contest post, and removed all the comments that didn't say "done". You guys did a great job, I'm so happy that so many people participated, and some of you, repeatedly. Anyway, at 5:42 p.m. (Mountain Time), I entered in the parameters, and number 5 was the number generated, which means Jenn is my winner! Congratulations, Jenn! Please go to my profile and send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get your package off in the mail to you. I will edit this post later today to show you the loot that Jenn will be receiving, but I'm in my jammies at the moment and I'm going to stay right here in my recliner! You may know Jenn from my sidebar - - she has a blog about her life and her experiences with new motherhood that I enjoy reading. She also happens to be my cousin, or more accurately, my second cousin (her mother is my cousin, Susie). I have many wonderful cousins, but growing up, I was particularly fond of my Boothbay cousins. My brother and I loved to play with Margaret and Janet - - we were all very close in age - - and I just loved it when Alan would come to our house for a visit. I was particularly infatuated with Susie and Cheryl, though. Their weddings were the first weddings I remember attending, and when they each started having children, I was obsessed with babysitting. Not quite old enough to do so, but I wanted to so badly! Imagine my thrill, a few years later, when Susie had me come down to her house to spend the night and watch Jenn, Kristi, and Trent for her. It remains one of my earliest and best babysitting memories.

I would love to ask those of you who participated, to share your random acts with me, if you feel comfortable doing so. I will keep them anonymous in the post - - just sort of a bullet-point list of the little things that can make another person's day - - I figure we can all use some inspiration! So, if you'd like to share, just go to my profile and send me an email with a brief description of your experience(s). I'll be sharing some of mine, too.

We had a lovely day here yesterday! Today, I will begin sorting through the leftovers and coming up with a plan of attack. I see some turkey pot pie in our future. Okay, I see a lot of turkey dishes in our future. We were lucky to have Steve's parents, Rex and Kasey, and our nephew Banzer here for the day, and we had a great time. Steve's folks have been here for the past three months, but will be heading back to Maine this morning.

Thanks again for participating in my challenge!

A Challenge

Photo: www.power-of-giving.com

A Random Act of Kindness is defined here as "the good deeds one does because their heart moves them, not because society or Miss Manners expects them. These are acts based purely on giving and sharing. When someone practices random acts of kindness, they are doing so with a clean heart, a skip in their step, a “warm fuzzy,” if you will, and they have no thoughts of retribution, recognition or duty." I bring this up because I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about how closed-off society in general has become from one another, and it is pretty sad. There are probably a multitude of reasons that people would give as to why they don't smile and greet people they meet on the street, stop for people in crosswalks (oh wait...that's a law, isn't it??), practice common courtesy on the roads, give each other the benefit of the doubt, and so on. The fact of the matter is, none of us are perfect, but it sure would be nice if we could all try a little bit harder to be pleasant, wouldn't it?

A Random Act of Kindness can be something as simple as holding a door for someone when you would have otherwise let it shut behind you, to surprising someone with an unexpected gift. From feeding a random parking meter that is about to expire, to cooking a meal for a friend in need. From looking the grocery checker in the eye and sincerely telling him/her to have a good evening, to paying for the person behind you in line at the coffee shop. The possibilities are endless, really.

Now, for the challenge. After you finish reading this post, go about your business as you regularly would, but really think about your interactions with those around you. Make an effort to make some one's day. You'd be surprised at what a difference a very small act of kindness could make in another person's life. For each Random Act you perform, come back to this post and simply post the word, "Done" in the comments. You may do this as many times as you can between now and next Wednesday, November 25th at 5:00 p.m. (mountain time). The more entries you have, the better your chances at winning.

The Rules: Your random act may be anything that has a positive effect on another person. It does not need to be elaborate. However, take this opportunity to be creative. Really think about how you interact with those around you. Your random acts can be directed at friends or strangers. Try to do both. The most important rule: You may not tell anyone at all about your acts. Not your spouse, not your friends...not a soul. You must perform your acts without any expectation of being thanked or recognized (thus, the simple "done" in the comments section). Out of all the entries, a person will be chosen at random after comments are closed on the 25th. That person will then receive a lovely package in the mail, full of treats. This will be my thank-you to you for participating in my little experiment. Have fun!

Farm Fresh Eggs

See these little lovelies? Today, I was the lucky recipient of one dozen farm-fresh eggs from my sister-in-law Kasey's hard-working "girls". See the blue-green ones? Those are my favorite. Call me weird, but I've gone to my fridge more than a couple of times just to look at them. Now, I must decide what to make with these wonderful eggs. It seems like it ought to be something special...maybe a quiche?

Halloween Recap

We had a wonderfully awesome Halloween...so much fun! The festivities kicked off on Friday, when I had the pleasure of helping out at Camden's school party. The kids paraded up and down the hallway in their costumes - - so happy that I was able to see that.

On Saturday night, Rex, Kasey, Banzer, Rod, and Candy came to our home for a little Halloween party before we headed out for trick-or-treating. Kasey and I sure had fun preparing ghoulish appetizers and treats for everyone. I'm already looking forward to next Halloween!