More Cooking with Dominic

Last week dominic and I made quesidillas. (case-a-de-as) I put on the sour cream and then I passed it to Dominic who put on the cheese. Last, Dominic put the finished quesidillas on a pan.

P.s  I turned on the heat after he put them on so he would not burn himself.

 

 Such a sweetheart.

 He wanted to stay a fair distance away from the flam.

Stuffing cheese in his mouth.

 Stuffing more cheese in my mouth.

 

Dominic will never fail to say cheese for a camera, even with lots of mozzarella in his mouth. 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving all my blog readers. How long did you guys spend in the kitchen cooking,cleaning, and having panic attacks about what ingredients you forgot at the grocery story? I spent about nine hours total the day before Thanksgiving in the kitchen, and there was mom, me, Sarah, and Landon in the kitchen at the same time. Now can you imagine families leaving ALL the cooking and cleaning to mom? Thats not fair.

What did you have at Thanksgiving dinner? I had turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, some sort of corn dish, stuffing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, pecan pic, apple pie, banana pudding dessert, and punch.

 

Be thankful for what you have, count you blessings and write them down on a piece of paper and put the list next to your bed.

Joseph’s Pop Vocabulary

We have a co 2 machine that we hook up to a bottle filled with COLD water and shake until it’s as fizzy as you want it then you’r done “fizzing” as all the boys call it.  Next we put soda stream flavoring in it and there you go. There is about 8g of sugar in it and about 35 calories.  Now Joseph loves this stuff and he has it about three or four times a week and one day he walks up to me and says “Maria will you fizz?” and looking at his adorable face with his pretty please face on and can’t say no, so I start to fizz and I notice a ssssssssssss sound coming out of the machine and I think it must be leaking to I take the bottle off and taste it and it is not very fizzy.  So I tell Joseph the machine is leaking and his water isn’t very fizzy but he tastes it and says “Oooooooooh Maria it tastes very romantic.”    

 

 

Trip To Chicago

We went to Chicago last weekend.  First we went to the Aquarium then to the Field Museum which I carelessly left my camera in the car for the museum so NO pictures.  It took us ten hrs to get there.  

  This was on the way there the mountains were beautiful.

   

The next day after the aquarium we walked to the sears tower from the aquarium which is like 3hrs of walking.

 This is the aquarium selling.    

 Fish in the aquarium eating another fish.

 Thats what I call a smart fish.

 This is the best picture of a beluga whale I could get, you are not aloud to use flash in the aquarium so excuse the bad pictures.

 

 A giant jelly fish can you see the tentacles go so far back.

 Look at all the little fish.

Sarah Landon John and I got a separate room from the a joining room.  

On the way home we stopped at the science and industries museum.  This is Landon’s hand and you can see his veins.

Then we went home, and are living happily ever after.

 

Trip To The Butterfly House

The butterfly house got a touch pool with sting rays and little sharks.  The first time we went to the butterfly house I did not touch anything, but the second time I went with two friends and I touched every thing.                                                                                                        

A sharks tail and a crab of some sort.

 There is a more clear picture.

 Jellyfish.

 The lion fish the most poisonous fish that I know of. 

 This plant is unheard of  to be sean in SD, it grows in Hawaii. 

 

The second time we went is bellow.

  The one on the left is Hannah and the one on the right is Gretchen.

Daniel got lucky. 

 

Garden Tour

For the second year in a row Sarah, grandma Becky, and I have ben to to the garden tour.  

All the picture I am posting I took with care.

 

  The first house was mostly fruit and veggies.    

 And everything was growing out of mettle cans.  

 Can you see the black wasp. : ‘ (  very scary.  While I was taking the pictures I knew it was there.

 Water lilly.

  I think the snap dragons are my favorite flower.  Wich one is your favorite. 

4th Of July

This 4th of July was special we got to ride on my granddad’s four wheeler, Landon and Sarah even got to drive.Landon and Sarah gave rides to.  Landon gave me a ride first but no pictures.

Some of these were hard to got because I had to take the picture and FAST get out of the way.   The speed limit was 10 to 15 Mile per hr. 

Proof she was moving.

 

Sarah with John.

Dad a little bit later tried to do a wheelie.                                         I get a driving lesson next time we go.

Dominic had this worried look on this face after supper.  Then he saw that he was getting attention and stopped, then he did it again stopped and did it again.

This is the only picture I could get I videoed the rest, and could not figure out how to export them on to my blog.

 But I got Alex with a sparkler.

 

 

 

 

Trip to the zoo

        

                                            Our grandma took us to the zoo for a valentines present.  And the zoo added a dinosaur exhibit.   All the statutes of the dinosaurs could move.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        In the bird area all the birds were yelling at us, I even had a conversation with one.                                              This peacock was walking right by me. They must be aloud to walk around the zoo.                                                                                                                                This is the dinosaur exhibit.   He even smiled for me. This picture was difficult for me to get because it was moving.                                                                                                                                            The eggs were so cute they moved there heads like a real baby chick would.   There was a dying, and other dinosaurs on top of it,                                                                                                                       and it was very realistic.                                                                                              The ducks were fun, Daniel for the first time fed the ducks.  If you look closely you can see (above) the Geese’s  beak sticking out for the food.

                                                                                     Just look a at this poor bird.  It is a plucker!  He did that to himself.    The baby monkey was teasing us.  He’s got a carrot.   The last time we were here he was more than half the size he is now.                                                                                                      That’s his mom.  Look at those arms.  She was feeding the baby when we got there.  The entire time were there the dad just sat in a corner.  But we got to see two of them  fight                        

 

   Dominic was out by the time we were at the duck.  The ducks are on the way out.                                                                                                                      

 

          

Truffles

I made some homemade truffle and they turned out great.  I will give you the recipe.I made like 57 of these.                

Rum Balls:

1 1/2 cups (150 grams) toasted pecans, finely chopped (hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds can be used)

1 1/4 cups (125 grams) finely crushed vanilla wafer cookies

1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners sugar(powdered or icing)

2 tablespoons (15 grams) cocoa powder(Dutch processed or regular unsweetened)

2 tablespoons light corn syrup (or liquid glucose syrup, golden syrup, or honey)

1/4 cup (60 ml) rum

Toppings:

Confectioners (powdered or icing) Sugar

Finely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or pistachios)

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Melted Chocolate (Dark or White)


 

Rum Balls: To toast nuts: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Put the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool completely and then chop the nuts finely with a knife or place the nuts in your food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl.

Process the vanilla wafer cookies in the food processor until finely ground. Add the crumbs to the finely chopped pecans. To this mixture add the confectioners sugar and cocoa powder and stir until combined. Add the corn syrup and rum and mix well. Add more rum if necessary. Chill the batter and then shape into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls.

Then roll the rum balls in confectioners sugar, finely chopped nuts, or cocoa powder. If dipping in chocolate, put about 4 ounces (120 grams) of chopped dark chocolate and 1 teaspoon of shortening   (YOU MUST USE SHORTENING I, MARIA FOUND OUT THE HARD WAY.)   in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Once melted, remove from heat and dip the balls, one at a time, in the melted chocolate, making sure the entire ball is coated with chocolate. Then, with two spoons or a dipping fork, remove the rum balls from the melted chocolate, allowing any excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Place the chocolate covered balls on a baking sheet. When all the balls have been dipped in the chocolate, place in the refrigerator until the chocolate has set. Once the chocolate has hardened you can drizzle the rum balls with 1 ounce (30 grams) melted white chocolate.

Can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Makes about 40 rum balls. Preparation time 30 minutes.

Reference:

Maria’s tips: I used honey. Add 1 more squirt of honey.  And I left the balls in the fridge over night, and put them in the freezer 30 min before rolling in to balls.  Dipping them in dark chocolate I think is the best.

You can watch the video if you click the link below.




Read more:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/RumBalls.html#ixzz1rqS5qb7C