Halloween Costumes

It's not Halloween yet, but we dressed up for Trunk-r-Treat at the church tonight.

Alayna as . . .

Lavagirl

Cavell as a . . .

Knight

Lex as a . . .

Monkey

Our fun kids.

Scharffen Berger

Lately, Paul and I have noticed that our tastes in chocolate have changed.  The easiest way to describe this change?  The darker the better.  Paul would pick up a bar of darker chocolate every few weeks until one day, while enjoying a Lindt 90% Cocoa Bar, we discussed how disappointed we were whenever we splurged on a normal candy bar.

According to The Pioneer Woman, and her Great Baking Chocolate Debate, Scharffen Berger is THE best chocolate to use when baking.  While Paul was in PA doing some training he ran across some Scharffen Berger at the local grocery store.  Wanting to be a good husband, and not having much luck on the Penguins memorabilia front, he picked up a few bars for me.

The Nibby Bar.

Semi-sweet chocolate with crunchy, toasted cocao beans (nibs).  This was nibbled over the course of two weeks while we debated the best way to use our other bars.  Each taste reminded me that whatever I made with the others, it would be sublime.

70% Bittersweet Chocolate

I made gourmet chocolate ice-cream.

14 oz can Coconut Milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 Cup Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
3 oz bar Scharffen Berger 70% Bittersweet Chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla

Combine milk and salt in double boiler to 170°.  Whisk together sugar and egg yolks.  Temper with coconut milk.  Return to double boiler for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  In a bowl break up chocolate bar (snag a piece to taste) and add vanilla.  Strain custard mixture into chocolate.  Stir 'til combined, and cool overnight in fridge.  Then freeze in the ice-cream maker.  It is so thick, this only took 6 minutes.

Paul and I loved this ice-cream!  It was crazy thick.  But, because there was not enough time for the ice-cream maker to churn in some air, it didn't make "as much" and was gone very quickly, which made us wistful for more, except it was extremely rich and we probably couldn't have handled more if it had been available.

82% Extra Dark Chocolate

Today I am making ice-cream with the last bar.  I have doubled the recipe, except for the chocolate bar, since I only have the one.  I also added half of the sugar to the coconut milk in the boiler at from the start.

We recently found Scharffen Berger chocolate at Central Market.  We purchased the cocoa powder.  I will be making our "magic shell" recipe (at the bottom of the Peanut Butter Ice Cream post) using this.  Freezing it into a thin layer (on wax paper), I am going to break it up and add while churning, to make our ice-cream Double Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

Spanish Ice Cream Project

Alayna's new teacher has her students turn in projects on a very regular basis. This teacher is is very excited about using technology in the classroom and for homework. She's applied for and won grant money to bring computers, iPods, and other electronics into the classroom. What I appreciate is that she confessed that she is not a computer expert but she is convinced of the importance new technologies in a modern student's curriculum. One of her goals for her students this year is to help them with 'Digital Storytelling'. Instead of writing papers or making posters, she wants her students to create movies, slideshows, and audio demonstrations of their knowledge.

Alayna's first big assignment was to show the class something that she has made. Alayna decided she wanted to show the class how she makes Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream. Stacy took pictures of all the steps and than Alayna helped us build the slideshow you see below. Alayna did the layout and design of each of the slides on paper and Stacy mirrored that in Photoshop. Alayna than did all the typing to get the text on to each of the images. You can view the final product below.

More Hair

This time it is the boys. Lex is almost a year and a half and has a little trouble peeking thru all of the hair in his eyes. Not that you can tell from these pictures since I had just moved it to the side.

Cavell went first to show Lex that it would be okay, and because we have let his hair be too long for too long.

Lex had a lot of fun watching him from the other car. 

 Then it was his turn in the fire truck.

 Lex smiled when she used the clippers.

 He was more concerned about the steering wheel than the scissors.

Instead of a baby boy, we now have a little boy!

New Beginnings

Alayna is very excited for school to start Monday. Today was Meet the Teacher. Alayna wanted her hair to look good, so I took her to The Loft Salon. How did she want her hair? I'll give you a clue. We just read this book.

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School


...


...


Any guesses?

...


...


One more chance.

...

...

She said none of her friends recognized her when they saw her tonight!

While it is shorter than she wanted, she decided that sending her hair to Locks of Love was more important.

Happy Birthday, Cavell!

For almost a full year Cavell has been telling us that his next birthday will be his "Go Diego" birthday. Thanks to a lucky find at Hastings and a little dedication from his Mama, Cavell did indeed have his Go Diego birthday.

Some cupcake toppers for his playdate with a friend.  Only one friend (Happy birthday to you too JackJack!) and the siblings, but they were too cute not to use all of the toppers.

Lex thought Cavell NEEDED a Diego doll.  I think he was right!

Almost all of his Diego gifts were interactive, as Go Diego should be.

The Finale was the Go Diego cake.  When asked what flavour he wanted, Cavell would always answer, "Go Diego"  We decided on chocolate cake with a dulce de leche ice-cream layer.  I made the top using a frozen buttercream transfer.

Will It Finally Happen?!?

This morning Cavell ran down the hallway towards his room. Moments later he exclaimed, "I pee on potty!"  I walked over to the bathroom and see his pajama bottoms and his discarded diaper on the floor.  Cavell is sitting on the toilet, beaming, and still telling me he peed on the potty.  And, there was pee in the potty!

I quickly created a Go Diego potty chart for Cavell to put his reward Go Diego stickers on.  He already has two stickers from this morning that he earned on his own, without any help or encouragement.  He is also making additional, unproductive, trips to the bathroom of his own volition.

Words can not express how excited we ALL are for this new step to be taken.

**Update: Cavell had only two accidents that first weekend.  After that it has been over two weeks with no accidents.  We can confidently say Cavell potty trained himself, quickly . . .  if you blissfully forget the numerous attempts I had made since he turned 3 that he didn't really participate in.

Peanut Butter Cup

A couple weeks ago we were in the freezer aisle buying spinach, Alayna was scoping out the ice creams on the other side.  She wanted the Peanut Butter Cup.  Except we were making "Purple Cow" flavour that weekend.  Instead, we bought some peanut butter cups to store in the freezer for the next week's ice cream.  It was very worth the wait.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice-Cream
1 Cup Peanut Butter (we used the creamy Jif Natural)
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-14 oz cans Coconut Milk
20 mini peanut butter cups, most chopped into sixths but save a few to only chop into quarters)

Beat peanut butter, sugar and salt till smooth.
Stir in coconut milk.  Cool mix in fridge for an hour.
Churn mixture in the maker.  Transfer to a container, stirring in peanut butter cups.  Freeze overnight.

As if that wasn't yummy enough, Paul made his very own "Magic Shell" type of chocolate topping.

Crispy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate topping.
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Powdered Sugar
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder

Microwave oil quickly, like 15 seconds, to melt it.  Stir in sugar and cocoa.  Drizzle on top of frozen ice cream.

Lex

Mostly thanks to Cavell, we have some pictures of Lex this month. I thought I would share them with everyone.

Chillin' over breakfast.  Kix and raisins.

Hangin' at Carl Shurz while Alayna gets her certificate for completing 1st grade.

A little walk before bed.

Ice Cream!

For Christmas this past year, Paul bought me this Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker!  Even better, he got it on sale for half the price, including the shipping.

Since December we have been making ice cream almost every week.  Our first try was vanilla, custard-style ice cream with bits of our gluten free brownies for the mix-in using the recipe book included with the machine.  Since then we have branched out and made our own recipes.  We have had many successes, some repeats, a few that need fine tuning and one failure.  What we haven't done is written them down.  That needs to change.  So, I will start with our most recent success.

Orange Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 - 14 oz cans of Coconut Milk (we use Thai Kitchen)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• orange zest from two cutie oranges

• 10 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 6 oz orange juice concentrate

Directions

• While stirring, heat first 4 ingredients in a double boiler to 175°
• Whisk together egg yolks and second 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• Gradually temper egg yolk mixture with 1 1/2 cups of milk mixture
• Incorporate the tempered egg mixture into the remaining milk in the double boiler
• Stir and heat for 3 minutes

• Place vanilla in a separate bowl and pour in the milk/egg mixture.  Stir, and place into the fridge overnight.

• Freeze ice cream mixture and orange juice concentrate in the maker.  Transfer to a container and freeze overnight.

The kids liked theirs served in some cutie peels we had saved in the freezer.  Paul even found some Orange Creme Magic Shell for our citrus treat.