Lowcountry Tour

Down here they have a term for the area, Lowcountry. It's sort of whimiscal. Anyway I have been coming back to the blogging world and found some good ideas for my blog. With that said I am attempting to come up with topic's so my family and all my wonderful friends can find things easier. I hope anyway. I also thought with trying to get some pic's of our new "home" that it would be great to give you all a tour of where we live. I will call it "Lowcountry Tour". I hope it will help my family back home see all we are up to. It will also give you a great view into our lives.

We will start the tour with the new house. This particular one will host the trail on the back fields. you can see how outgrwon things have gotten. It takes us about 20 min. to walk it. I have yet to get out there with a pedometer to figure out the milage for my workouts. We have been training the puppies to walk with us using this trail. They are in some of the pic's.

Deer tracks, I think this one is a Fawn and her mom. These are all over the trail behind the house.

This is looking towards the house somewhere in the middle of the field

A Deer stand put there by the Hunters club that used to rent the land for that purpose

This is towards the back field. Austin is ahead walking Kenai on a leash while the little puppies follow

This is towards the right field. Great shot of the pups with Kenai

Next time I will be showing the grounds and house. See ya'll later. (lol)

Weekly happenings

Boy has this been some week. We started out by finishing up out mini unit on Thanksgiving. We only did it for a week and really didn't do all that much in it but it was fun and the kids and I learned alot about thanksgiving. We then started some initial work on a Christmas unit that I am sort of throwing together as we go. The history Channel has a great video on the history of Christmas. I am gathering links and such so I can share all I have found. I am really going to try and make it fun.

Tuesday brought my Birthday. I am officially 33 yrs old. I don't really feel old but I do feel like certain things aren't within my capabilities anymore. Or maybe that is my mind playing tricks on me. I do know that I have outgrown a few things say like judging others. Ok I'm not perfect at it but to a big extent I no longer find myself judging someone when a friend tells me about said someone and what they did. I now think to myself what is the other side of that story? I had been doing this for a bit now. We did a very low key Birthday. Well a couple of months ago Dh felt inclined to get me a dachshund and two days later another one. They were to be my Birthday present. Let me say I really really enjoy these little guys. Honestly until they came I considered myself a cat person. I mean cats aren't all over you all the time, they don't slobber on you. they generally don't scare anyone either or hurt them in any real way or at least none of the cats I have had. You are on your own with any you have had. We have had numerous animals throughout our marriage and with that came a few dogs. They all always loved Dh and then loved Colin. None of them seemed to love me, they liked me sure. More like they put up with me. Anyway these guys genuinely seem so happy to see me and love on me that they officially have me wrapped around their fingers (or would that be toes? )Are you ready for the cuteness if not turn away now this is a warning of severe cuteness. Here are my dogs Sophie and Snoopy.

Sickening isn't it how cute they are?

Wednesday Austin got his braces installed. Is it installed or just on? I never had braces so I don't know. He has had a heck of a time refiguring out how to eat. We have a pet peeve about seeing people chew their food. During dinner I saw all of Austin's food and so I asked him to please try to chew with his mouth closed. He ended up in tears. I officially felt like a crumb . It was not my intent to hurt his feelings but he is aware of our rules and when they don't follow I can be rather unnice especially since he is almost 13 I feel he knows better and I expect more from him.

Thursday Dh had his finger amputated. More on that on my well spouse blog.

Friday we had to go to co-op. I really didn't want to as my emotions were all wrought. I felt like I would spring into tears at an inopportune time and I did. Luckily I have a very good friend there who has such a big heart. She prayed with me and I was comforted and inspired and very impressed. I don't come from a big religious family. As a matter of fact I come from a family that believes that whatever you do in church you can do at home just as well. It used to sound like a good theory but since I have been going to church more lately I find that it doesn't work because those people don't do it at home its just said. kwim? I really felt better and really really appreciate my friend. One day I hope I can return the favor or perhaps spread a bit of Karma by praying for someone else in need. Co-op went great. The kids got to launch their rockets (mini rockets). They also got to meet a detective and he talked about his job and gave all the kids a miniature pin. It is a replica of the shield they carry. They also got to work with the science of architecture. They formed groups and built a building out of marshmallows and spaghetti. They had a blast.

How was your week?

Vanessa

Does it count?

For a few days we took our non carved pumpkins and baked them, cut off the flesh, ran them through my kitchen aid(I love this machine) grinder and then put them in thin towles to squeeze the juice out. then we weighed 16 oz portions and froze them. I had wanted to can them but only have the pressure canner, which I have yet to use. I don't have the water bath one but boy it sure would have been nice to not take up all that room in my freezer with the upcoming holidays and turkeys and what not. The boys all helped although Austin very grudginlly. Conner was my biggest helper he loved the grinder and happily volunteered for this job. It's funny because generally anything that involves work makes conner run for the hills or throw a three year old tantrum. As a matter of fact my niece has sensory integration disfunction and my sister always tells me I should get conner tested because he tends to fall into many of the same categories. Anyway that is a whole nother story. We started with 4 pumpkins and I got 11 16oz containers in the freezer. I still have one pumpkin to go. Can I count this for school? and what is it considered other than cooking which is an elective?
Pumpkin puree is very messy affair

My work space

The finished product before freezing. I even saved the seeds to roast.

I hosted game day for our hs group and decided it was too messy of a job and took too long so I didn't finish it that day but I intend to this weekend, as matter of fact I should probably be doing that now. At game day we played this strange game called Quelf. Have you heard of it? It's not our game so I hadn't and it was so strange there didn't seem to be ryme or reason to it. There is no strategy so really no way you can cheat. I would explain it to you but that would be hard so I will give you a couple of examples. For one card you will need to choose from two categories say candy bars or movies that won an academy award and everyone goes around and names one until you get to a person that can't name another one. On another card you will need to hold your lip and say the card in a random way. Another card may make you act something out in alternative dance. Let's just say it was a strange game but we really enjoyed it and the kids are asking if we can get it. Hmm mabey Christmas?

I made my favorite Tiramasu cake for game day. Once upon a time I used to get recipe cards in the mail and they made several binders. I never did get them all but I have quite a bit and this is one of their recipes that I made once and I was hooked. I promised I would share the reicpe so here it is.

For the cake:

1 package (18 1/4 oz) white cake mix with pudding

1 tsp instant coffee

1 cup strong brewed coffee

1 TBlsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the filling:

1 container(8 oz)mascrapone cheese

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 TBsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the frosting:

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

2 TBsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the garnish:

cocoa powder

Chocolate curls


Making the cake

Preheat ove to 350. Grease three 9 inch round cake pans. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide two thirds of batter between 2 pans. Stir instant coffee into remaining batter, pour into rmaining pan. In measuring cup, combine brewed coffee and coffee liqueur;set aside.


Making the filling

In a small bowl, using a n electric mixer set on low speed, combine mascrapone, confectioners' sugar and liqueur. Beat just until smooth, Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Making the frosting:

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat cream, confectioners' sugar and liqueur until stiff. Fold 1/2 cup of crem mixture into filling mixture.


Assemling the cake:

Place one plain cake layer on a serving plate. Using a thin skewer, poke holes in cake about 1 inch apart. Pour one thrid of reserve coffee mixture over cake, then spread with half of the filling. Top with coffee-flavored cake layer; poke holes in cake. Pour another third of coffee mixture over the second layer and spread with the remaining filling. Top with remaining cake layer; Poke holes in cake. Pour remaining coffee mixture on top. Spread sides and top of cake with frosting. Place cocoa in a sieve and lightly dust top of cake. Garnish with chocolate curls. Refrigerate at least 30 min. before serving.

Note: You can substitute mascrapone with ricotto but you must make very smooth and it doesn't taste quite the same in my opinion although it is still a heavenly cake. I also substituted chocolate morsels as I don't have a huge chunk of chocolate to make curls from.

Mmmmm. It even looks pretty

See I need to work on getting the sides smoother and the morsels should be chocolate curls.

All the layers of the cake.

a little slice of heaven. MMMMMM





Vanessa