Almond Bark and Chocolate dipped Cherries

I know these are not AMAZING recipes and they don't really stretch the culinary limitations that you so badly want to push, but they are my favorite candies around the holiday's. I have a big party coming up on Saturday so I am getting them ready for everyone :)

What are some of your favorite recipes around the holidays, any home made family candies that you love? Growing up my mom, sisters, my grandma and me would all stand around the kitchen counter making cookies and candies and all sorts of goodies! They really is nothing better in the world than that time spent with the women in our family.

So tonight we're going to go back in time and make it happen!

Almond Bark:

2 cups                               Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate or White Chocolate Chips
2 cups                               Slivered, Blanched Almonds

Melt your chocolate down, either in a double broiler or a microwave, and add in the almonds. Stir until everything is evenly coated and pour out onto a cookie sheet. Make sure it has raised edges or else it'll pour over. Take a rubber spatchula and spread it so that it's even across the pan. 

Let cool. 

Break into pieces and bag up for gifts or simply put it in a plastic container. 

Store in your garage or somewhere cool in the house where it wont melt.

Dipped Chocolate Cherries (2 days)

1 jar                 Maraschino Cherries pitted

1-2 cups          Milk Chocolate

Drain the cherries from the liquid and set liquid to the side. Let the cherries completely dry.

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave and set to the side.  

Dip the cherries in the chocolate by using a toothpick and only dip them up to the hole. Don't cover the hole. PLace the dipped cherries on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Set somewhere cool to dry.

The second day, fill the cherries with the juice you set aside with either an eye dropper or some other fancy thing. Dip them a second time but covering the hole this time. Remove the toothpick and dab a bit of chocolate over the hole. Let sit in cool place till dry.

There ya have it! One of these day we'll get back to making real food, but for now I'm craving my sweets!

Mahalo Family

 

Pumpkin Chai Cookies

Holy goodness! Did you know that Hershey's has a pumpkin spice flavored kiss??? I just found them! I am trying to have self control, OK wait, who am I kidding, I have NO self control! I unwrapped one, ate one, unwrapped one, ate two, etc. Why do we only have the good stuff seasonally??? Seriously, where I work we only have garlic bread during the garlic festival, there is only pumpkin spiced items during fall/winter and for crying out loud, why cant we have the Christmas tree up all year long!? Com'mon, I mean life would be a happier place if there was no such thing as "seasonal".

Done with my rant, onto the coking. So for tonight were going to get into cookie season. Here's what you'll need:

Pumpkin Chai Spiced Cookies

1/2 cup                         Earth Balance butter
1/2 cup                         Brown Sugar (or white)
1 each                           Egg
1/4 cup                         Chai concentrate
1 teaspoon                    Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cup                       Flour
1/2 teaspoon                 Baking Soda
Pinch                             Salt
1 bag                             Hershey's Pumpkin Spiced Kisses

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the sugar and room temp butter until it's light and fluffy. Add the egg, chai concentrate and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Then add you dry ingredients and mix well. Let it sit in the fridge for about an hour.

Once it has hardened a bit roll out balls no bigger than 1 inch. Place them on your parchment covered cookie sheet and continue. You can get creative with these by sprinkling chai powder over them or possibly orange zest or adding crushed nuts to the top. Once you've got them all prettied up throw them in the oven for 12-15 minutes. A little bit of color but not too much.

While they're in the oven unwrap the kisses and try to have self control!!! Don't eat all the kisses because then you wont have any for the cookies, epic fail. Once the cookies are done pull them out and immediately place the kisses in the center of them. Let cool and enjoy!

Got any cookies you love and want to see featured on the blog? Leave a comment below or email me at cbell1(at)comcast(dot)net. We'll see if we can't get them up here, who knows, maybe we'll have a bake off of the best cookie recipes!

Happy Eats!

A Tour of the City

One of the benefits of being in New York is being able to go into the city whenever I feel like it. Luckily, that feeling only comes once in a blue moon. But this was a special occasion! My husband graduated from the Culinary Institute of America! He's amazing, he graduated while working full time, getting married and having to be a husband :) he's pretty awesome. Here's our photo from graduation!

After the graduation we went to lunch at the Italian restaurant on campus. And so began the weekend of gorging ourselves... I seriously only wanted liquids after this crazy weekend of constantly shoving food in our faces! 

After lunch we headed down to the city. We decided to stay in NJ instead of the city because it's a lot less expensive, for reals.While we were in Jersey we decided to go to the Cake Boss... it was fun :) it was cool to see the place but honestly, the pastries were terrible. Between the lack of flavor and how horribly made they were I wasn't impressed. But it was a blast non the less. I think everyone should go and see a cool famous TV show spot at least once in their life. 

And no lets get to the tour portion of the blog:

Good Morning!!! Or not... here we are at the start of the day. Is my head really that big in real life

 

this is my mom and my step dad, they look much more awake than the hubs and I

And m beautiful sister in law, she deffinitely looks like she's struggling along with the two of us!

On the tour bus around the city! I learned some really fun things that I never knew about NY. Did you know that the man who started to build the Brooklyn bridge died in the process of it being built and it wasn't his son who finished in but his daughter in law... and she was only 22! What an inspiration! And they didn't think that it was stable enough to walk on so a leader of the circus decided to have a parade across it and that when people started using it... after all the elephants crossed and it didn't break! Craaazzy.

One of the tribute towers... such a breath taking experience

One of the pools of remembrance for all the victims of 9/11

 

They call this the "survival tree". It has survived three major catastrophies including the 9/11 attack and a huge fire that wiped out hundreds of buildings.

 Lady Liberty!

Welcome to Elise Island... looking much more awake!

Hahaha ok I know this is inappropriate but I couldn't resist! How hilarious is this sign!!!!

Has anyone ever seen When Henry Met Sally??? Anyone, anyone? Ok well you know that scene where the lady says "I'll have what she's having." {watch here} THIS IS THE PLACE!!! And oh by the way, it was a phenomenal place! It was such a fun atmosphere and the food is delicious! I got the pastrami sandwich and it was as big as my head! so yummy.

Here's me scared shitless on the top of the Empire State building 

So there ya have it! Our fun tour of the city!!! Some how I managed to not get a single photo of my in laws which is amazing to me... but rest assured I will get them in a photo!!! Hope you enjoyed your cyber tour of the city :)

Happy Tuesday

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first ever blog giveaway! Congratulations to Lila Dalton!!! I will be making you snowmen hot chocolate gifts and sending them to you by next Monday! 

On a smaller excitement scale I completely bombed my chicken pot pies last night! I guess you can't always win at the game of cooking. I honestly have no idea what went wrong? Luckily it still tasted good, but the crust got way too brown on some parts and undercooked on others and the filling didn't thicken. I think it was just supposed to be a "take out" night lol. 

Alright, when I get home tonight Im going to be getting back up on the blogging horse! Tonight you'll get to meet some of my wonderful family and see the city of NY!

This is a GREAT week!

Let me just start off today by saying I do not hate you, and I am not avoiding you :) This week is a very happy but very busy week for the Bell house! The hubs graduates with his associates from The Culinary Institute of America on Friday and so we have had the wonderful luxury of family coming in town! We love our family!

With that said I noticed I did not plan the first give away properly. So since it didn't start on Monday, I will start it today and we will go through the weekend! Since the holidays are coming up and we all have parties to go to or little gifts to give out so I'm going to start the Holiday giveaways. This weeks giveaway is Snowman Hot Chocolate :) I'll be making homemade hot chocolate and sending out the gift to the winner.

Remember, you MUST be a follower of this blog to play. If you haven't clicked on the blue "join this site" button on the side -----> than you can't play, so sorry! Makes it better for the 8 girls who are! To enter follow the steps below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Also, stay tuned! I will be taking some pictures of our awesome weekend! Finally, a little look inside our crazy life! Also on the menu for the week: Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with butter creme frosting, homemade hot cocoa and one more surprise :)

XoXoXo

Vegetable Tortellini Soup

Aaaannnd for tonight's post! Wow, two posts in one night, it's like Christmas in my head right now and my fingers are these tiny little elves making wonderful toys for all the boys and girls. Haha I work in a weird world where conversation like that is normal, please don't judge me :)

On the map for tonight were taking a left turn at dumplings, heading strait for Tortellini and stopping at vegetable stock! Clearly I am starving right now! Who wants to make me dinner? I promise I'll teach you something cool while you do it!

Vegetable Soup: 

1 tablespoon                                     Oil
2 each                                               Yellow Onions*
2 each                                               Celery Ribs*
2 each                                               Carrots*
1 each                                               Garlic Clove (smashed)*
1/2-1 cup                                          Baby Bellas*
1 tablespoon                                     Tomato Paste
1 teaspoon                                        Black Pepper corns (whole/cracked)
5 cups                                              Water
TT                                                    Salt

*Always use fresh vegetables. Using pre packaged ones or ones that are not in good condition will yield bland and flavorless stock.

The best part of this soup is making your own vegetable broth for the Tortellini. If you want you can absolutely just fill up a pot with vegetable stock and heat it up and drop your Tortellini in there BUT you're missing out, and your cheating yourself. I bet you, you can look on the back of your stock box and not be able to name or identify at least 1 ingredient, if not more (especially if you're using Swansons). How many of the ingredients listed above do you have questions about? 

To get started go ahead and small dice all of your veg (except mushrooms and garlic). The small dice allows for the water to hit more surface area allowing for more flavor to be drawn from the vegetable. Next, crush your garlic, literally take your knife, lay it on top of the garlic clove and press down until it's crushed. 

Take you stock pot and add the oil to it. Bring it to temp and add your onions, carrots, and celery. Cook until you begin to smell their flavor. Add your garlic, cook for 30 seconds and add your tomato paste. Stir the items around until your tomato paste is aromatic and rich/deep in color.

Add the remaining item and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes. You don't want to cook it too long because you can cook the flavor right out of it. For extra flavor throw in a fresh bay leaf or sprig of thyme about 15 minutes before it's complete. Constantly taste for flavor. Add salt to season it, be weary of adding pepper since you already have some in there. Strain and set to the side.

Tortellini:

1#                              Flour
4 each                        Eggs
1-2 teaspoons            H2O (only use if necessary)

You can get the basics for making pasta {here}

Decide on your vegetables and get them in a sautee pan. You're going to cook them ALL the way through. You want them fully cooked because when you go to cook the pasta you don't want to have undercooked vegetables and over cooked pasta! No bueno! For my pasta filling I chose to do onion, garlic, eggplant, spinach and roasted red pepper. I roasted my red pepper on my electric stove btw... no haters. I finely chopped them once they were completely cooked through (removing the skin from the peppers) and then placed about 1/2-1 teaspoon into the center of a square piece of pasta dough. I then folded two corners together and then grabbed the remaining corners to meet each other opposite the other two corners. Resembling something of a rounded triangle. If you're confused, Google images for Tortellini pasta :). You can also turn your vegetables into a paste by pureeing them if you feel like that is the texture you're going for.

Once I assembled them all I brought a giant pot of SALTED water to a boil and dropped them in. It took about 3-5 minutes for them to be done. Once they float to the top they are most likely done. Remove one and taste it. If it tastes done, looks done, and smells done... then it's probably done. Don't second guess yourself and over cook the pasta. It's a waste of time and ingredients and you'll be disappointed with your dish.

** I also want to encourage you guys to go out on a limb. Maybe don't put fresh herbs in your stock or your vegetables, maybe cut it up and put it in your pasta dough. Try cooking the pasta in your stock instead of salted water... what I'm saying is, experiment, see what avenue you like best and then run with it. No one has the same taste buds and I'm sure we all have a different opinion on how food should be made... so prove my recipe wrong and make a better one that you are completely coo coo for! Love you!

Blessings Ohana!

Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumpligs!

I am sooo sorry! I can't believe this didn't post last night, don't hate me! You can still have this for dinner if you eat late dinners or live on the West Coast! Lol I am sorry. Well here is YESTERDAY'S post:

Everyone knows that Chicken noodle soup is everyone's favorite. It is quite possibly the reason why Campbell's came up with the phrase "MmmMmm Good"... either that or they somehow knew about Tim Tebow or Channing Tatum way before the rest of us! Just sayin'!

Ernie ways, I love chicken noodle soup... it's good for the teenage soul, ha... but no really. It is such a comfort food from my childhood that I could never turn my back on it. My mom makes the BEST chicken noodle soup. There is no competition, and even if there is, there isn't. She puts fairy dust in it I'm certain, or opium, either way it's mesmerizing. Unfortunately I am not as good of a cook as her and I hope I never will be because I always want her to cook for me when I go home, instead of me cooking for her.

Tonight, though, I'm going to spin chicken noodle soup. I'm going to throw out the classic soup with noodles and insert dumplings and *bonus* even a recipe for gnocchi! BAM! I just blew your mind, how do you feel?

Chicken Noodle Soup (Class act)

1 Tablespoons                              Oil
1 each                                 Yellow Onion
2 each                                 Garlic Cloves
2 each                                       Carrots
2 each                                 Celery Sticks
1 each                           Chicken (about 3-4#)
1 quart           Chicken Broth (Please don't use the kind that has a ton of preservatives in it!!!)
1/2 quart                                Cold H2O
2 sprigs                               Fresh Thyme
1 each                                    Bay Leaf
1/2 teaspoon                             Sage
TT                                     Salt and Pepper

Start off by getting your soup pot on the stove and heating it up. Add the oil (I suggest olive oil) and get it to temp. Add the onions first, sweat them, aka leave them in the pot till they become tender, NOT browning them like you would if your were caramelizing them! Add the garlic and then follow suit with the carrots, celery and bay leaf. Stir those around for a couple minutes, you just want to start to tenderize everything, and then add your chicken stock. 

Cut your chicken into about 8 pieces** not removing a lot of the excess fat (it's good for flavor) and then add your water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Skim the fat and grease off the top of the soup continually to avoid gelatinization of the soup when it's cooled. When you're about 30 minutes out add your sage and then at about 15 minutes out add your fresh herbs. Adding your fresh herbs too soon will kill the herb and the flavor and that really sucks. 

** You can also cut your soup time in half or more by buying a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and shredding it and adding the chicken meat to the soup, warming it through and just cooking the vegetables and developing flavor. OR you can go back and make your crock pot chicken by clicking {here} and shred it and add to the soup only having to worry about cooking the vegetables.

Here is where you would usually be boring and add your egg noodles. NOT TONIGHT ladies! You're going to be fun, and exciting and daring... ohhhh yeah.

Dumplings:

2 cups                      Flour
1 teaspoon               Salt
                                Cold Water

Mix the salt and flour together in a bowl. Move the flour around in the bowl so it looks like a doughnut with the flower on the outside and a blank ring in the middle... Oooo I want a doughnut now, Boston Creme with chocolate glaze to be specif, shoot... pouring about 1/2 cup-3/4 cup into the ring, incorporate the ice water and flour together. Kneading the dough so it becomes well incorporated but not over worked. Cause then you have cement dumplings and those aren't good for the dentist bill. Let the dough sit for a couple minutes, about 7-10.

DO NOT ADD DUMPLINGS TO THE SOUP UNTIL YOU ARE SURE IT'S DONE COOKING.

You can not stir the soup once the dumplings are in there or else you're going to end up with no dumplings and very floury tasting soup. Once your soup is ready grab a teaspoon, you know, the kind you eat your coco puffs with in the morning, and start scooping out your dumplings. Remember, you want them to be bit size, not too big not too small.

Once you get the dumplings in gently swirl your wooden spoon in the pot to make sure all the dumplings are getting cooked evenly. This does not take long, 3-4 minutes max. Once your dumplings come floating to the top they are done. Cooking them too much will also result in no dumplings and very murky floury soup. Remove from heat and ladle into your favorite soup bowl! Enjoy!

**BONUS**

Gnocchi

2#                            Starchy Potatoes
3 each                      Eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup                       Flour
                                Salt

I honestly can't explain it better than this recipe, so I'm going to redirect you now. If you want to know how to make Gnocchi the click {here}

I hope you all enjoy this recipe passed down from many, many women and onto the next generation. I pray it brings you some comfort on these beautiful fall days!

XoXo Family

Soup Week!!!

Welcome to Soup Week! I love fall, as previously stated, and with fall comes soup and hot drinks! Since I already got y'all started on the hot cider I'm going to move on to soup. And then maybe next week we'll do winter light casseroles!

Sorry about the long stretches on the weekend between blog posts, I usually do Friday but this week it just didn't happen and the do it yourself Monday this week was a carved pumpkin! Although super fun, I'm not sure if everyone needs a step by step on it. Non the less I will have those pictures as part of the blog tomorrow night!

Also, I'm going to start doing giveaways as part of the perks of being a follower! In order to benefit from the perks you HAVE TO FOLLOW this blog... this means clicking on the little blue button to the right that says "Join This Site". Unfortunately the website doesn't show people who only follow by email so for me to be able to confirm that you're a follower you have to be seen :) The first give away will be on Monday 10/15, and you just have to wait to see what it is! I promise you wont want to miss this! I love the holidays!

Ok so back to business. Soup. Tonight it is pretty cloudy outside and pretty "fall" feeling. So I'm going to start with a good ol' beef potato soup.

Beef Potato Soup:

1 1/2 #                             Beef chuck roast cubed
1 Tablespoon                   Olive Oil
3 each                              Potatoes (Medium Dice) <---- I realize this is another soup recipe but I needed the picture
4 each                              Carrots
1 stalk                              Celery
1 each                              Onion
1 clove                             Garlic
1 1/2 cups                        Beef broth
2 each                              Bay Leaves
TT                                    Salt and Pepper

Turn on a skillet and get it super hot. Add your olive oil and let it come to temp. Once you can feel the heat by placing your hand over the skillet add you beef cubes in and get a nice caramelization or searing on every side. This will hold in the flavor of the beef so you don't loose it in the stew. Next, remove your beef and set it to the side then add your onions and caramelize the onions. Pay close attention to them so that you do not burn them. There is a fine line between stirring them too much to where you're only sweating them and not stirring them enough to where they burn. After they are caramelized add your garlic till it becomes aromatic. Add the tomato past to the onions and garlic and let it cook, constantly stirring it, until the paste becomes a deep red, about 30 seconds-a minute. Take everything out of the pan and remove the fond at the bottom of the pan with an ounce of red wine or a little bit of stock. Personally I think the red wine adds a nice flavor to the meal and since you're exposing it to so high a heat you will cook the alcohol right out and just be left with the delicious flavor. 

Take the meat, onions, garlic and fond and get it into a slow cooker. You can use a crock pot or a dutch oven, either one works nicely. Peel your carrots and celery and rough chop them or make them evenly diced. I like my stews to have a more rustic look to them so I just give everything a rough chop making sure that everything is approximately the same size so you don't under cook one item and over cook the next. Add all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and turn it on. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 10-12 hours. 

** You might want this soup to be thicker more like a stew, for that to happen take it out of the crock pot when it's done cooking and place it in a soup pot and you can add a slurry to it, bringing the pot to a slow boil and adding it in slowly stirring constantly until well incorporated. Also, you will want to keep the potatoes out so you don't break them up. I would recommend making mashed potatoes and serving it over them or egg noodles :) yummy!

This goes deliciously with olive bread or a nice french bread :)   

Happy Eating!!!

 

Chicken Pot Pie

Who doesn't LOVE chicken pot pie?!? Actually me, ok well I do now but I used to hate it! I would rather eat a bowl of brussel sprouts than eat a bit of that nasty thing! I don't know why, they are so delicious now! And easy!

The thing I absolutely love about them is that they can be made into individual size portions. You can make a huge batch freeze them and then have them for at least a month. Talk about grab and go, so easy. Annnyways. The one's that we made last night were Ah-mazing... literally worth risking your life for. No drama there!

Here's how it goes. First you need to figure out what you want in them. Do you want sausage, shredded meat, cubed meat, no meat. Do you want corn, broccoli, brussel sprouts (gag!), carrots, celery, etc. The filling is clearly the most important part of it so you have to make sure it's everything you want and more!

Our's went like this:

2 each                       Ears of Sweet Corn
4 each                       Carrots
2 each                       Chicken Sausage (I used garlic chicken)
1 cup                         Chopped Broccoli
1 sprig                       Thyme
1 sprig                       Rosemary
1 each                       Medium Yellow Onion
4 each                       Yellow Potatoes
2 each                       Garlic Cloves

I cut everything into a small dice so that it was easy to eat. Don't you hate how sometimes you will only get a bit of one ingredient because you can't fit more than one on the spoon. Yeah, me too. Once you have everything chopped up boil the corn, potatoes, broccoli, and carrots for about 15-20 minutes (until potatoes and carrots are cooked). If you don't boil the veg before you cook the entire pot pie you will have raw veggies. If that's your thing than go for it! If not boil them first. Strain the veg out and set to the side. Caramelize the onions until they are a nice golden brown, it gives them a great flavor and a little bit of sweetness. Once they are to the color you want them add the garlic and cook until you can smell the garlic. Throw the chopped up herbs in the onion and garlic mixture and cook for like 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and mix all the veg together. 

In a saute pan cub the chicken sausage and get a nice sear on it. If you're cooking with another type of meat you don't necessarily have to sear it, I just like the flavor of it. Next make a roux and add milk to it to make a basic bechamel sauce to use as the creamy part of your mix. You can use oil in place of butter, you can use gluten free flour or if you are against it you can thicken your milk with corn starch. Clearly if you use the corn starch your meal is going to have a different texture to it, but it's your choice :) 

I used almond milk and I loved the way that it came out, it was so yummy. Get it to the consistency you want. It shouldn't be runny like a soup but it shouldn't be so think that it's more like a gravy. A nice in between is a good place to be. Once your sauce is to the consistency add all the vegetable and the sauce together. Mix well. Please make sure that you season everything. It will give you a better end product if you season your boiling water for the vegetables and season the bechamel sauce also. Once you add them you shouldn't really have to adjust the seasoning too much. 

Once everything is mixed roll out your crust and cut it out. We decided to cut out dove shapes and they turned out so lovely. I wish I had a picture but unfortunately I forgot my camera and my phone isn't uploading... I'll figure it out, stay tuned for a picture of the end result.

This recipe for the dough is fully Robin's doing. She had it made before I even got over. P.S. if anyone is in the Hudson Valley or NY area this girl can bake some amazing cakes and pastries! For the reals. 

Pastry Dough:

3 cups                      Flour
1 tablespoon            Sugar
1 teaspoon               Salt
1/2 cup                     Shortening
4 ounces                  Butter
1/2 cup                     Cold Water

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Cut in the butter and shortening until small balls start to form. Finally add the cold water a little at a time until it's fully mixed. Wrap it in plastic wrap for about 2-4 hours and then bring it out. For a flakier crust you can do different amounts of "folding". Basically you let the dough rise, bring it out roll it, fold it, put it back in the fridge and let it rise again. Repeat that step anywhere from 3-6 times. The more times you do it the more flaky the crust will be. Think about 3 as a pie crust and 6 as a semi flaky pastry... croissant gets like 40 folds.

Once it's done rising, roll it out on a well floured surface and cut out the shapes you want for you pot pie. Assemble your pot pie by placing the veggie mixture is first and the the dough on top. Place in an oven at 400 degrees and bake for about 15 minutes or until dough starts to brown. 

Let cool and enjoy! Be proud of what you just made and truly enjoy it!!

Happy Eating Family

Homemade Apple Cider

I love the fall. I love the changing of the colors in the leaves and the way the air smells. Waking up to an overcast sky with a hoodie on and then it turning into a semi warm but still autumn chill day. I love drinking apple cider and wearing sweat pants while snuggling with my love on the couch. And I love that all of our shows come back on with new seasons! How could you not love this season. 

I was debating in what order I was going to write the blog, chicken pot pies first or cider first! But cider won out on the start of the week play. It is so simple to make and so yummy. I can't wait for the Halloween party, you know it's going to be the beverage of choice :)

Here's the recipe for homemade apple cider:

10 each      apples (I use gala because they're sweeter)
1/2 cup       sugar (you can use brown or white, i prefer brown)
4 Tbs          Allspice
4 each        Cinnamon sticks
15-20         Star Anise (optional)

Quarter your apples up, don't worry about coring them or peeling them, just cut them in quarters and place them in a pot. It's got to be big enough that after you put the apples in it that you can fill it to the top of the apples with water. In a cheesecloth make a sachet of the cinnamon sticks and allspice (include star anise if you choose to do so). Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and sachet to the apples and water and bring to a boil. 

Boil for 1 hour and then turn it down to a simmer. Let simmer for about 2 hours (it should start to smell very aromatic) and then shut off the heat. Let it cool down for about an hour. Mash everything together and then strain. Once it's strained take the mashed apples and put them in a doubled up cheesecloth and drain over your put of already strained juice. If you don't want any pulp in it you can rinse the cheesecloth out afterwards and strain it again over the cheesecloth. 

Your apple cider WILL BE CLOUDY and mucky looking. That's what happens when you have unfiltered unprocessed cider. Don't think your failed. It it smells good and tastes good that I'm going to go with it is probably good. 

Enjoy your evening with the family and you Apple Cider :))

A Little Piece of Childhood

Ah I love being a kid. Nap time, snacks, playing outside with your friends (or at least that's how it used to be). It breaks my heart that kids don't really play outside anymore but instead stay in the house and play online with "friends" or just play on the TV or internet. Unfortunately, though, that is a discussion all in its self. Oh well, I was one of the lucky kids! 

Tonight the hubs and I finally got to spend some quality time together. Thank you God. So here's how it went. I came home from work and we immediately turned on Bones. We LOVE and I mean love that show. Addiction at it's finest folks. After watching Bones we watched Revolution. OK so I wasn't so sure about this one, the Hubs loves it. It's a new show about all the power going out and then the government falls and then there's an uprising of sorts and after that I'm lost :) but it's actually pretty good. So far there's only 3 episodes so I plan on getting caught up tomorrow. If you have nothing better to do on a Monday night, which you don't, than you should tune in... or be cool and get HuluPLUS for about $8 a month and watch it at your earliest convenience :)

Wow, anyways, back to us spending quality time together. I have convinced my love to work out with my, or at least 2x a week when he's off work. So after watching our shows we got up and did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I get so board on level 1 so I did it for about 2 days and went strait to level 2 <---- click here for full levels on youtube. Tonight was my first night of level 2 and holy batcave batman... that s***s crazy hard! I was sweating up a storm. Funny story, I kept encouraging the hubs by saying things like "Com'mon babe, 30 more second" or "You got this, we're almost done"... unfortunately those we directed more at myself :) I'm a little bit of a wimp. OK but seriously, a plank jumping jack... are you for real... no, no way! But we finished and we were so sweaty and then we decided to die. So now we're dead.

Juuuust kidding. Actually we decided to play a game... and then decided that the games were too far away so we settled for coloring. BEST CHOICE EVER!!!! We had so much fun, and so much fun talking :) it's amazing how much adult conversation you can have while being a kid! So fun. If you want to survive the first 2 months of marriage, ask for a coloring book for your wedding! Best way to get serious conversations out of the way. I mean, who can be mad while coloring. It's like the best feeling in the world! Where was the chapter on coloring in our pre marital book? Nowhere... lame-o's. 

Here are some fun pictures from our night... we look like a hot mess and yeah, it's awesome!

 This is the hubs after the workout... super thrilled

 Family meet Blaze... he is truly our child! The only difference is I can't put him in a lei wrap and his doctor bills are ridiculous!

 Look at the size of that head!

And for the awesome "time to embrace your childhood" photos!

Our picture turned out so pretty!!! I can't believe it lol

So may I suggest finding something fun and childish to do :) seriously, it takes away so much stress and you feel so calm afterwards! Big shout out to Aunt Char for being awesome and getting us these crafts for our wedding! You're Ah-Mazing!

Aloha Wau Ia Oe Family!!!