139/365

Father's Day Card

The kids both put their hand prints in the card, one on each side: Mika on the left and Jack on the right.

Across the top we wrote:

Dear Dad we love you because, and then the kids came up with reasons why. Mika's reasons were written on the side with her hand:

- you tickle me
- make me laugh
- hold me up high

- play with me in the sand

- build lego castles with me

... and Jack's on the side with his hand:

- you help me with Pokemon

- you play video games with me

- you protect me

- you teach me things I need to know

- you tickle me; help me laugh

For the outside I cut out three circles for the letters DAD, and then we used the cutouts for 3 coupons. The coupons are for:
- a kiss
- pick a movie for movie night
- add a $100 to a Dream PC fund

I hope he likes it :)

137/365

June 9th: Manizotti for dinner... I followed the recipe from the box with a couple of changes, the family enjoyed. It's pretty much pasta filled with mushroom and green onions (original recipe called for spinach) in a ton of ricotta cheese.

135/365: Cupcake toppers

June 2nd: Here we go! Mika's birthday party is starting to come together, we have the invitations and most of the paper items designed. These will be the cupcake toppers...

In other news, we came home today to the table fully set and dinner made... all by Jack :) Granted, he made scrambled eggs (6) so some additions had to be made in order to feed us... but still, the kid made dinner :D

126/365: Thinking of mamma

May 19th

Blue hydrangeas are a favorite of my mom's, I think of her every time I pass by these.

This particular bush is on Park Avenue, downtown Tallahassee.

124/365: Death by chocolate

May 17th

So, yesterday was a rainy Sunday... actually, let me backtrack here by first explaining my untested recipe stash. In my daily wanderings on the internet I will often come across recipes that sound interesting enough to try, it is then that I print out the said recipe and stash it... literally

There is a designated place on my cookbook shelf for these slivers of paper, magazine rip outs, quickly scribbled notes.... Some recipes will sit in their spot gathering dust and wilting away for a looooong time but some tug at me, and refuse to leave my mind...

Yesterday, a rainy Sunday, was a perfect day to try one of these; between piles of laundry and episodes of True Blood season 1.

These little babies came from Pioneer Woman and let me tell you: the moment you take a first bite your mind will immediately start playing that -sweet mother of god- reaction you will sometimes see people in movies get. Seriously, I am not joking.

I think it has to do with the fact the the recipe doesn't use chocolate but cocoa that you melt with butter. I didn't use Hershey kisses though, as with most US chocolate I consider Hershey kisses to be an abomination that couldn't be further from chocolate. Instead of Kisses I used blueberries, I had some in my freezer.

I was afraid they might make the cupcakes soggy but no, it was pure perfection. I made mini cupcakes, a perfect bite size for this recipe, and put 3 blueberries in each. The blueberries created this amazing layer of freshness in the cupcakes, just absolutely perfect. I cannot wait to try this recipe with different fruits, blackberries maybe.

Oh, I also didn't have buttermilk so I used the milk with white vinegar trick... and no cream so I used butter to make the chocolate silky. I was fighting using corn syrup in the ganache but with a sad heart I have to admit that the difference in the gloss of the ganache is unmistakable between syrup and non- syrup cupcakes.

117/365: MJ

May 10th

This was my Mother's Day present. Isn't it just perfectly dainty?

It's from The Vintage Pearl.

112/365: Tutus!

May 4th

I had some leftover tulle from Mika's Halloween costume so I made tutus for her daycare. The TomKat Studio had a really good tutorial.

110/365: Nice surprises!

May 1st

Today was a good day! It is Beltaine for one... we went to see Snowhite and the Seven Dwarves by the Tallahassee Ballet. Mika was mesmerized and couldn't stop commenting on what was going after she got used to the setting.

Jack was one of maybe ten boys in the theater that seats close to 400 but my philosophy is "A bit of culture won't kill him"; and to his credit he did sit through it without complaining.

Afterwards, David took us to a place he swore I would absolutely love and he was right. It is on Railroad Avenue in Tallahassee, it is an art park but also a place where the city gave space to FSU Art Department Students/ graduates to open shops.

It has such a lovely communal feel, we scrounged through a vintage store and I found a couple of really cool broaches. It is a also a place where the original Cosmic Cat is and since today was a National Free Comic Day we grabbed some free comics too. There's also a rock gym, a co-op, a bike shop and those are just the ones we had time to visit. We will definitely be back. The peace art is from there.



Later this evening we also found out that Macak, our cat that wondered off about a year ago is back.

The second lovely surprise came when David entered the shed only to have a bird fly out and just barely miss his forehead.

On the shelf where I keep all of my gardening stuff and empty planters a mama bird decided to make a nest in one of the empty planters, as you can see she is keeping busy. I'm not sure how she managed to survive the cats so far and I worry how to protect the little birdies from them....

107/365: Samo za Zivu part 2

I feel like a disclaimer is needed here: it is not my intention to turn this into a cooking/ baking blog. This blogs' intention doesn't change, it is still a Project 365, daily photo diary first and foremost.

My reasons for baking are the same as for cooking 95% of our family meals at home. I want to make sure my kids eat the best they can, even when it comes to sweets.

Who is Ziva?

Ziva is a very good friend from Croatia who has been asking me to share some of the recipes I use for a while now. Since none of these were created by me, but were found online and tweaked through trial and error, I don't see a problem in sharing them (I will try to reference where I got them from when possible).

I hope this explains why recipes will show up here and there on the blog.

Onwards to my most favorite cookie EVER, no joke!

CHOCOLATE CUT- OUT COOKIES
I found these by literally googling "Chocolate Cutout cookies" and I cannot find the site I found them on, for the life of me....

11/2 CUP flour
3/4 CUP cocoa powder (unsweetened)
11/4 TS baking powder
1/8 TS salt
3/4 CUP butter/ shortening (I use shortening because I cannot successfully soften butter, without melting part of it )
2/3 cup brown sugar (in muffins, you could substitute brown sugar for honey, but I don't recommend it here)
1 egg

In a mixer bowl: cream shortening and sugar, beat in the egg. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly start adding to the mixer bowl. In the end, you will be left with an equally moistened mixture that will be on the dry side and not completely cohesive.

I really like playing with flavors so I will usually add a flavor to the original recipe before I start adding the dry ingredients. For these cookies I like adding orange extract, or raspberry: about 1 TBSP since you don't want to water the dough too much.

You will need to kneed it a bit for it to be cohesive. Split the dough into two equal parts, wrap into plastic wrap and refrigerate for AT LEAST 2 hours.

I usually don't have time enough to do this all in one go, so I will leave the dough in the fridge overnight; take it out the next day about 3 or 4 hours before I'm ready to start rolling it out. This dough does tend to break easily but trust me all the frustration is worth it in the end. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness, bake for 8 min at 375F.

Once the cookies cool I will usually melt some dark chocolate, spread over the cookies and add what I feel like on top, i.e. shredded coconut, almond slices..... play with it

101/365: Cuppy cakes:)

April 22nd

I've picked up these baking cups a while back and decide to use them this evening. I attempted to make filled cupcakes and they seem a success.

The cups are cute and have a potential to be striking but definitely cannot be used for actual baking. If I can find lime green ones I'll use them for Mika's birthday party.

Cupcakes are lemon, filled with blackberry jam and chocolate icing.

100/365: Golden treasure

Sticking to chamomile tea with honey today. The fever is gone, but I'm sticking to bed as much as possible.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be able to go to work.

98/365: Good food!

April 19th

I'm not going to even pretend I have photos for the two days of weekend. We were really busy, Saturday Mika and I went to a Young Actors play; it was Blue's Clues scavenger Hunt and she really enjoyed it. Sunday, Mika and I went to a Snowhite's Tea Party held by Tallahassee Ballet and she had an absolute blast.

David and Jack were at the Brogan, enjoying the American Indian Art Exhibition. Overall, a very full, entertaining weekend. Unfortunately this means I sort of, kind of forgot to take a project picture :o I took a lot of photos just none really project worthy.

Today, I simply couldn't help myself: I had to take a photo of our beautiful dinner. I loved all the colors, even if my hands are completely red right now :D

On the menu: pasta with turkey and green onions, sated egg plant and Romaine/ beats salad. Yum! yum!

97/365

April 16th

Making dessert for dinner tonight, chocolate dipped strawberries. Yum!

Obviously, this was still the prep stage; on their way to the fridge for the chocolate to harden. They looked even nicer when served :)

96/365

April 15th

We went back to try and find the hands of Mika and friends. Unfortunately, the banner was broken so even though we found Mika's class only the hands of two of the kids were actually still a part of it :/

93/365: When you're happy and you know it...

April 12th

Children's week at the Captiol

One of the festivities is hanging of hands sent it from daycares all around Florida. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's three levels of hangings... hands as far as eye can see. There are so many we couldn't pinpoint Mika's daycare or her group :)

90/365: Ache

April 9th

This is a detail from a photo album I am trying to make using the photos from our first family summer in Croatia, two years ago now.

I have about 10 pages so far and about 20-30 to go. The reason it's taking so long is because every time I start I end up breaking down in tears. No one can explain to you what it feels like to be separated from the people you love until you experience it first hand.

Now that I am a parent myself, I respect my parents silent acceptance of my marriage even more. Obviously, they see our happy little family and that makes them content, or maybe just not worried. But now knowing first hand what it feels like to not have your child next to you (no matter how old) I am in awe how brave they were, to just hug me and love me and wish David and me well even though their hearts were breaking inside.

To not have your child near you, your family, is like...... someone takes a piece of your heart and nothing you do can ever fill that void. It doesn't matter how happy you are, how well things are going... despite of it all you walk around with a part of you hollow; there is no filling it, there is no replacing it.

My parents knew this feeling, they knew how much every day apart would hurt and yet they never, not once, spoke against my marriage. David and I have always had their full support and for that I will always respect them and love them beyond words.

89/365: Inspiration

This photo wasn't taken so much for the azaleas as it was for ideas.

I am on an idea hunt for Mika's 3rd Birthday Party. Her birthday isn't until end of July but I have to churn things in my head for a month or two, and then when I have it all worked out I can actually make the stuff fairly quickly.

I fell in love with this color, I know I want strong colors for this party: lime green and powerful dark pink, orange and red. Did I mention it will be a bug party?

Mika's crazy for all things animal but I thought narrowing it down a little will work better so it's a bug party: D Lady bugs, butterflies, dragon flies you name it.... Ideas I have so far:
- dessert and regular food table will be under trees next to each other so we can hang pom poms and big breezy butterflies above....
- mason jars!
- pink and green lemonade, if you have ideas on how to make them be that color please let me know...
- desserts: sugar cookies and raspberry ice cream for ice cream sandwiches, cupcakes, mini cheesecakes with fresh fruits....
- regular food: mini sausages, puff pastry maybe, carrots, cucumbers, cheese sticks...
- felt crowns for all the kids
- big felt flowers all around the yard
- felt bugs for goodie bags
- bug coloring pages with crayons
- chalks (I hope the $ store has these cheap)
- bubbles!!! ($ store again)

I will have to stop by the $ store one day next week, they should have plenty of Easter merchandise I could use for this.

Please let me know if you guys have any ideas.

87/365: The Brogan

April 6th

Visited the Mary brogan Museum today, we had to drop off Jack's registration forms for summer camp. This year he chose Lego robots & Oceanography.

I knew he will go for the robots but the oceanography surprised me, I thought he would choose space or camping/ survival. It was a very pleasant surprise, and I really hope he will enjoy himself this summer. I'm glad the oceanography one includes a field trip to the Marine Lab as well, to connect with people who actually do this for a living.

Hopefully, Jack will finally get hooked on a hobby that he can dedicate himself to. Last year he was attending space/ astronomy camps but wasn't really interested to do anything more with it.

Unfortunately, drama camps have really weird times so he can't attend those...

We'll see

85/365: Eggs

April 4th

84/365: Sweet things

April 3rd

This is part of why this weekend was so hectic... Spring cupcakes and cookies!
The cookies turned out rather well for my first attempt in decorating them this way, don't you think?

I also made some "flower cookies" for day care. Not sure why is Blogger posting this one vertically, when I 'm uploading it as a horizontal photo, oh well...