Church Picnic

I love church picnics. There is something so old fashioned about them that warms my heart. Last Saturday was our church picnic. We showed up rather early with a bowl of German meatballs to share, my husband's specialty ready to eat. While my husband found a spot for his meatballs, I found a table for the three of us near the kids section. For over two hours we sampled food from around the world, a great thing about being at a Catholic Church Picnic and watched our little daughter play. The highlight for my husband and I were the Vietnamese vermacelli bowls, while my daughter enjoyed cupcakes. If you've never been to a church picnic for your church or at all, I encourage you to go. It's an opportunity to eat great food, play games, listen to music and a chance to  get to know people you see every Sunday.

Gardening

I have a black thumb, really. Everything I attempt to grow fails to thrive. My mother -in-law used to buy me silk plants and flowers so that I could have some sort of vegetation in my house. Yet, with all of the above being true, I find myself yearning to do yard work around my house.  My husband and I live in a small bungalow with a rustic yard and up until about a month ago, we barely touched it. Maybe I 've been inspired by fairy tales to create a patch of land where my daughter can frolic in nature, maybe I want to invite the sprites for tea in my garden.  Whatever the real reason,  I go out into my yard every day for almost an hour weeding and pruning and it feels me with peace.

Leprechaun Turds

For St Patrick's Day, I made a lovely batch of almond cookies, or as I like to call them, Leprechaun turds. This recipe was give to me by the brownie that lives in our house. Brownies can be very helpful in the kitchen.

Ingredients :
-3/4 cup of powdered sugar
-1/4 cup of brown sugar
-6 tablespoons of butter
-1 1/2 cups of flour
-2 eggs
-1 teaspoon of almond extract
-1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
-1/4 cup of shaved almonds
-10 drops of green food coloring
-orange sprinkles

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine the sugars, butter, and both extracts using a mixer on medium speed. Gradually add the flour, eggs, and almond shavings. Once the dough is complete, have fun and add the food coloring.

Place the green cookie dough on a cookie sheet, using parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes. When the cookies are done, let them cool on parchment paper while adding the orange sprinkles.

Little Dacha

I wanted to share my Etsy shop with everyone who reads my blog. My shop is called Little Dacha and I have two items for sale, one is a collection of books all wrapped up with three clues on the cover and the other one is five hand stamped cards ready for Easter. I will have more items in the future.

Owls at Rucker Pet Supply

On Saturday, February 21st, our family went to see the owls, my daughter's favorite animal at Rucker Pet Supply.  This event was a meet and greet, not a flying exhibit. It was a wonderful to see the Owls up close. Carter definitely enjoyed herself. Mom and dad loved it, even though it was crowded. My only critique is that if Rucker Pet does this next year, they work on organization of the crowds. A part from that a good time was had by all. Thank you Rucker Pet for having such a great event. We will definitely be back.

Scottsdale Farms

Today, my husband took myself and our daughter on an adventure to Scottsdale Farms in Alpharetta. I was shocked that I did not know this gem of a place considering I grew up in Alpharetta and my parents still live there. Scottsdale Farms is a beautiful nusery and an enormous gift shop in a timber-framed barn. Since it is January and neither my husband nor myself have a green thumb we decided to look around the shop and try out the Bella Luna cafe. I thoroughly enjoyed my iced Americano and Carter loved her cookie. When we finished our treat we walked around a little bit and greeted the pig and the chickens there.

I highly recommend this beautiful place, even if nurseries and planting is not your thing. The gift shop and the grounds are absolutely beautiful. Take a friend and go there for lunch, it will have a better atmosphere than most cafes. I also learned that they have activities for kids. This might become a favorite place for me and Carter.

enjoying our treats

Winter Cranberries

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, I decided to make a real treat for my little
girl as well as Mama. In the Winter 2016 issue of Faerie magazine was a picture and a recipe of sugar and spice cranberries. They looked divine, in fact they looked like they came right out of the faerie relm and dropped on earth. Well I got inspired and decided to make these sugar and spice cranberries using ingredients I found in my own pantry.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon cloves
1 cup cranberries
1 cup sugar (for dusting)

I started with a simple syrup of water and sugar, once the sugar was melted I added the cinnamon and cloves and let it soak in a simmer for about 10 minutes.
Once the syrup was cooled to room temperature, I removed the cinnamon sticks and cloves and added the cranberries in batches.
I soaked the cranberries for roughly 2 minutes and then dried them on a wire rack for an hour.
In a bowl of sugar, I rolled the cranberries around until they were covered in sugar.
When they were covered with a sugar dusting, I moved them once again to the wire rack and let them sit for an hour. After that I placed them in a covered dish and moved them to the refigerator. I found they last refrigerated for a week.