Chocolatechic

Did someone say Stromboli?

People go to the fair for many different reasons.

Some go for the rides.

Some go for the animals. This little filly was just the sweetest thing. The only other person in the horse barn thought we were kooks! He just didn’t appreciate how much I love horses.Just how gaga I am over the soft sweet noses, the smell of their sweat, the beauty of them running in a pasture…yeah! I’m a kook!

Some go for the arts and crafts

and quilts

did I mention that there were quilts there?

Me?

I go to the fair for one reason

and only one reason.

Greasy french fries, funnel cakes, deep fried snickers, and Stromboli.

Why do you go to the fair?

Because I just know that you all are about to crawl out of your own skin with curiosity about my life, I thought I would show you something that blesses my heart every Monday through Friday.

As you know the boy and I wog (I walk, he jogs) every weekday morning.  He laps me a couple of times, cause he jogs, and he is faster.

I stand at the center of this intersection and wait for him to get to the top of the hill.  Sometimes I am slow and he waits for me. Sometimes he is slow and I wait for him.

It is the top of that hill, by the way, that I take most of my sunrise pictures.

This one is taken from the top of that hill.

Aaaaanyway, we have this tradition…we wait for each other, wave our arms wildly to each

and if I should fail to wave to the boy, he becomes so melancholy that I have to promise to never forget to wave again, kiss his feet, and purchase him lots and lots of espresso.

It blesses my heart to know that I mean so very much to him, that if I don’t wave., he is truly crushed.

I love my boy!!!

It used to be funnel cakes, then it moved on to Italian Sausages, then to the fries. After they came out with deep fried Snickers….well, you just gotta understand….chocolate + batter + deep frying = one very happy Chocolatechic!!!

My Friday Burning Question is what is your favorite fair food?

The other day the boy and I were bored to tears. We fought over took turns with the camera.

I decided to do a montage of the many faces of the boy.

What? Are you kidding me? I’ve got things to do, places to go, people to see!!!

Come on, son, just a small smile?

There! That’s much better.

I’m done now mom. Please. put. the. camera. away!

He really just wanted his turn with the camera and I was being selfish motherly and suggested he go do those things, find those people, go to those places, if he wouldn’t let me photograph him! Or at least go make me another apple pie!

Do you have a front porch?

The boy is entering sour dough bread and  apple pie into our fair this year. This will be the 3rd year that he has entered food stuffs and I pray that this year he will win.

I  have the fortunate agony of taste testing all manner of apple pies so that he can choose the best one to enter. Don’t you all feel so very sorry for me?

His latest one is a recipe from King Arthur Flour . It is a fabulous recipe. Not nearly sweet enough for me, but with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce, it is great!

One thing that I just have to say is that his crust is literally melt-in-your-mouth flaky! It is almost sinful.

How do you like your apple pie?  sweet? cinnamony? double crusted? with a crumb topping?  saucy? with ice cream?  a piece of cheese?  I must know!!!

Sunday we returned to our decorating class to decorate cupcakes.

Once we were there I realized that I had committed a grievous error. I had forgotten my camera. I am so ashamed of myself. So ashamed that I sat and sucked the icing out of all the tips and couplers. It wasn’t pretty.

When I got home, however, I took pictures of the lovelies that I decorated.

This is my clown. (we are going to pretend that I wasn’t lazy and didn’t want to put more icing in a bag to give him a base of icing to sit on)

This is the boy’s clown. He has an cloud of icing to sit on. His is better. I know it, and I am so ashamed. Pass the icing please.

They were just absolutely simple to make.

And so were these. We used these for the daughter’s birthday. She didn’t have any because she is allergic.

She had

a baked apple with pecans and cinnamon instead.

Next week, we will tackle something else. I don’t remember because I was to busy consoling myself with icing.

What is your favorite kind of cake?

There are some lessons that every girl must learn early in life.

First and foremost,

chocolate tastes good!

Helping other’s pays off.

Multitasking is inevitable.

Big brothers are important!

It doesn’t matter

how cute your hair is from one day to the next,

you will still have a bad hair days.

And last but not least…maybe, just maybe…

your dreams will come true.

Happy Birthday my beautiful girl!!

Going along with my naturey theme, the other morning when the boy and I went out for our wog,

this is what I saw.   I just had to turn around , go back into the house and get the camera!

2 blocks away from my house, as I crested the hill, I beheld this.  It makes the hill that I just heaved myself up worth it all.

If you look closely, you can see the boy at the bottom of the hill.

Are you willing to get up early to watch the sunrise?

You couldn’t tell by looking at me, but I am a nature girl. Meaning, I love looking at nature~~sans bugs~~not living out in it, or camping in it, or even nature hiking in it. Why? Because it is dirty!

Aaanyway…I am trying to document how fast the leaves are changing in this area. I love maple trees for 2 reasons…….they are the best shade trees, and they are the most beautiful in the autumn.

Remember this from 9/13?

This was yesterday.

Here is my view from the back deck this morning. Look at the sunrise. Aaahhhh! Sometimes I feel like God created this beauty just for me.

Thank you God for your handiwork.

What is your favorite tree?

Gas. It must be gas. It has to be gas. I can not live without gas!!!

I have always been a nosy sort. Just ask my parents. I would ask them questions and they~~especially my dad~~would just call me “niby”…short for nib nose. It was their way of telling me to mind my own business. I have never been able to learn that one. I don’t think I ever will.  I am nosy…plain and simple.

Because of this wonderful trait that I have inherited from my mother’s side of the family….Friday’s will now be “Burning question” day.

So! My Friday Burning Question is….

Which do you prefer, a gas or electric stove?