My Nice, Quiet Weekend

I thought I had better obey Jennifer before she put on her mad face and write about my nice quiet weekend.

I just wrote a LONG article about making chocolate from scratch. Yep. Scratch. Like buying green cacao beans, roasting them and then making chocolate. I DID love the move, Chocolat, but I am not sure I am up for going through all of that to feed the chocolate monster that lives inside me.

I also wrote a tutorial for making the gingerbread houses from graham crackers .

I am making homemade pizza tonight for supper and we are probably going to watch It’s A Wonderful Life . We have a series of movies we watche very single year…Miracle on 34th Street (the original in black and white) for me and then It’s A Wonderful Life (original in black and white) for Marc. Those, being most important are followed in quick sequence with: (let me just add that all movies are original and not colorized if they were done in black and white)

A Christmas Story

Christmas In Connecticut

Holiday Inn

White Christmas

Santa Clause 1,2,3

Grinch (cartoon)

Charlie Brown Christmas

Frosty, Rudolph et al

Bells of St Mary’s

well and more. Yes. We LIKE Christmas movies here. I will soon begin to read to the kids various Christmas stories… and I think this year I am adding Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory.

I think that it is funny but our family seems to be overly interested in the foods of the season. When we are reading the kids will stop me to ask about a food that is mentioned in the book. “Fruitcake? Is that like the one you make, mom? Or is it a different type do you think?” “Mom, What exactly ARE roasted chestnuts?”

And on. I have a family of foodies. They read cookbooks. Seriously.

Anyway..here are some more pictures from the Gingerbread house Party last night. We had 11 kids here (not all were mine) and we celebrated Sean’s 9th birthday at the same time. He requested spagetti and meatballs, homemade french bread with garlic butter,and a spinach-dried cranberry-smoked almond salad with cranberry vinaigrette. At this point my life is nothing but relaxing until Christmas. My shopping is done..my baking is basically done..and I plan on hibernating with the spinning wheel from this point on…except the felt food I am making for four year old Chef Kyrie.

By the way…my house, if you didn’t know, is in a state of restoration. The kitchen has a LONG way to go….keep that in mind when looking at these pictures…

Sean the Birthday Boy!

Shiloh, Nick, and Chef Kyrie get started

Sean, ready for construction

Matt works on his house

Chef Kyrie in Action

We are not sure if Shiloh is eating more or gluing more !

My friend Juanita is serious about gingerbread houses!

Ethan shows off his handiwork…and his goofy expressions.

Shiloh’s house….she MAY have it a day before it is gone…

I hope you enjoyed this small weekend tour of my life.