Lena's in the Kitchen!

Finally I have been able to sit and post some new pics. Lena had been wanting to bake cookies so we ran to Wal-Mart and bought the necessary items. I DO NOT like having chocolate chips cookies in the house...because we eat them all! And that's really bad when there are four dozen cookies here ... that's a dozen a person! TERRIBLE! Hence, we don't do it very often.

But first... I went in to check on Lena the other evening. We did a late night Sonic run. She went to her room and was just too quiet. This is what I found.
My baby with her Purple Luck and Mimi knocked out on the floor. Too precious!
So Thursday after work Lena begged me to make cookies. We are practicing her writing in cursive, so to just add a little sugar on top, she wrote on her homework, in cursive, bake cookies. How could I say no to that?

My baby LOVES to cook and bake. She loves being in the kitchen and helping! I love that she loves it!

My baby loves to pose as well!

Just look at those chubby hands! Just like her Nanny Kia and her daddy! My mom said she fell in love with those chubby fingers! I love to kiss them when she sleeps!

She can crack the eggs perfectly!

With no shells!

One more pose...

It's a fight to keep everyone out of the ready dough...

My Lena-pooh... (wearing her cute shirt from Nanny Kia and Papa Vitaly from their visit to Jerusalem)

The finished product!

They are good!

The last batch came out around 10:30 p.m. Not fun when I have to wake up at 5:30 for work...but she was so excited and that makes it soooo worth it!

Next week we are supposed to go to Lisa's house for a small Christmas dinner. I think we will make shuba. Lena loves to make shuba. It's quite a process but we love to make and it we really love to eat it. Shuba is a traditional Russian cold salad. It's made with smoked herring, shredded potatoes and carrots, eggs, onions, shredded beets and topped with mayonaise. It sounds not too good I know, and it looks like a beautiful cake when it's done. But just the thought of a purple fish salad sounds scary, but lord it's not!

Thursday night we found a red bump under her right breast. Another spider bite! By night time it grew bigger. I put benadryl on it to see if it would get better. Friday morning it looked the same pretty much, just a bit bigger. I put more benadryl on it. When I came home from work at 1 it was HUGE! HOT! and RED! I went to the doctor immediately! The P.A. said it's her first time seeing a real spider bite. She drew a line around it and said if it goes outside the line to go to the ER or back to the doctor's office. They gave her an antibiotic. I filled it, she took her first one around 7 last night. By this time she was out of the line, but she hadn't had any benadryl or antibiotics so I wanted to get that in her and see if it impoved. Now, I'm not being lax about this. I KNOW it's serious. But I also know that it is NOT a brown recluse. Because.. when she was bitten by a brown recluse a few years ago, the bite area started turning purple and black from the necrosis, the death of the tissues. I see no necrosis, so I feel better about that. HOWEVER... she just woke.. the bite area is huge! At the doctor it was measuring 3.5 x2.5. Now it's measuring 3.75 long and 3.5 wide. It's not as red but it's hard and protrudes and it just scares me. She took her second antibiotic. I'm going to give her another benadryl and if I don't see a marked improvement she's going to the ER.

Ahhhh... this is the start of my weekend. I was planning a nice weekend with the girls, but with Lena's tummy and now Emil.. the stores keep calling him for rush sizings.... the love of being a jeweler's wife during Christmas... his phone NEVER stops... it just rang again now. Rush, rush, rush jobs...! I don't like him to go to the stores alone during this time of the year. So, I drop him off in front of the store, wait for him to come out and pick him up in front, go to the shop, size the ring, shorten the bracelet or necklace, engrave whatever.... rush back to the store, pick up whatever new they sold.. ok.. here we go. They just called... we have to go now and have it back asap! Uh! Christmas is just stress for jewelers!

Tiramisu Brownies

This week at Kellys Korner she is showcasing desserts. This is by far one of my most favorite recipes... Tiramisu Brownies.


I first made this for a Girls Night In and it was a success. I did make a few minor changes this time and I think it turned out better, but I will be listing just the regular recipe and notate my changes by the pictures. And there are many pics after the recipe...so scroll down!


The recipe:

12 squares (1oz each) semisweet chocolate
1 cup butter softened
*******
1 1/3 cups plus 1/4 cup sugar divided
*******
8 eggs
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1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup instant coffee granules or espresso powder
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2 cartons Mascarpone cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*******
1 teaspoon baking cocoa


In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt chocolate. Stir until smooth; cool slightly. Beat in butter. Gradually beat in 1-1/3 cups sugar. Add six eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.Combine the flour and instant coffee granules; add to the chocolate mixture. Beat on low speed just untill combined; set aside.

For filling, in a small bowl, beat the cheese, vanilla, and remaining sugar and eggs until smooth.

Pour 4 cups of chocolate batter into a greased 13-in. X 9-in. X 2-in. baking pan. Spread with the filling. Top with the remaining batter, spreading evenly to completely cover filling.Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set and brownies begin to pull away from the sides of pan. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with cocoa. Cut into squares. Store in the refigerator. Makes 3 dozen.


12 1-oz squares of semi-sweet chocolate

into the bowl

and then melted

add the softened butter

6 of the 8 eggs

beat in one at a time

even the girls got in on the fun

they love to cook

this is the rest of the sugar and instant coffee.. (I added 1/2 cup instant coffee instead of 1/4)

pouring the flour mixture into the chocolate batter

we were supposed to me mixing with the mixer but I forgot and they turned out just fine

the mascarpone cheese

the cheese, other 2 eggs, vanilla (here I put 3 tsp and 3/4 cups of sugar)

I remembered my mixer....

spreading the 4 cups of chocolate batter into my pan (see how loved my pan is?)

the cheese mixture going on top

spread evenly over

the remaining chocolate batter over the filling

out of the oven and dusted with cocoa

ready to eat

These are so easy to make and so very delicious. I found this recipe in the Christmas dessert section of one of my cookbooks. I think it fits the holidays just perfectly! You will be sure to get many, many compliments.

I took some to work today and it was a huge hit! Everyone loved them and kept coming up to me to tell me how good they are. When I came home there were only about ten brownies left!

I use a slightly larger pan to bake them in because I like them a little thinner.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! I hope you enjoyed it. And I can't wait to read all of your delicious recipes!

Interesting

I have no pics today. I don't really feel like fighting with this and posting.. but I don't have any to post anyway.

Today was a pretty good day. I only worked four hours... went in at six and off at ten. I felt like I pretty much had the day off. It was so nice. HOWEVER.... I fell asleep on the couch with Emil around seven and woke up after eight. Not a good idea. I hope I still sleep well tonight.

We made tarragon chicken breasts, brown basalmic rice and Emils Korean cabbage salad. Delicious!! I am posting the recipe for the salad later on. I need Emil to translate the exact measurements for me. He found this Korean recipe on his Russian website... Imagaine That!!

I just put a batch of brownies in the oven. Sierra usually makes brownies but she's been kinda grumpy about it lately so I did it on my own. And the batter tastes pretty good!

While mixing the brownies I was listening to the channel Emil had on. I heard the most interesting thing I've heard in a long while. The chef was talking about figs. Emil always told me about the fig trees all around him growing up in Armenia. Anyway, the chef was saying that wasps have something to do with the pollination of figs. He said there are over 900 different varieties of figs and over 900 different types of wasps. If one species of wasps became extinct, the particular type of fig they pollinate would become extinct as well. Imagine That!! How very, very interesting!!

Ok... just wanted to add that here before I forget... I am on my tenth post now. Wow! I feel so proud. And they are coming not months apart! There is hope for me yet!