Olympic Fest

Let the Games Begin!!!

On Friday, the 2016 Olympics in Rio began.   To celebrate this, the Julius family got together.  We started this trend accidentally back in 2008 when the Olympics were being held in Beijing.  We got together for a slumber party and to watch the Opening Ceremonies. The kids were small and it was only Chris and Emily.  So we ordered some Chinese, and watched the Opening Ceremonies.  Chris was small enough to sleep in a pack-n-play in their spare room.  Eric and Mike crashed before the Parade was over, while Kathleen and I watched the whole thing.  And a Tradition was born.

The morning of the Opening Ceremonies, I did my toes.  

Jamberry recently released some Olympic themed Jams, like this Rio Vibes, that also donated with each purchase to pay for Olympic women to get to Rio.  I was down with supporting that.  So I did.  

Then we had to figure out what Brazilian fare we were going to eat.  I decided that rather than try to duplicate some of the amazing Brazilian meat dishes, we should just go have lunch at Fogo de Chao.  

I love that place.  We have taken the boys a couple times.  But this time they were in school, so Chris and Sam had to miss out.   

We chose to go to Fogo with the kids that were available, minus the three oldest.   

So we have Sarah, Jacob, Kristin, and John.  

Here's our whole crew by the map of Brazil, or Brasil.  

We had a lot of time for photos, as the restaurant took over 50 minutes to seat us.  And that was With a reservation.  Eric had a meeting at 2, we'd booked for 12.  At 1 they sat us down.  We complained.  A lot.  

I didn't think to get any pictures of our piles of meat as we ate.  I guess we were just too hungry. 

In exchange for our trouble, they brought us free desserts.   

That was nice.  I love the Papaya Cream.  One waiter told us the papaya has some magic enzymes that help to break down the protein so we don't feel the bloat or discomfort.  I tried not getting the papaya once... I was miserable all the way home.  I eat it every time now.  This time Eric only got a chance for about 2 bites, before he had to go to his meeting.  Though Fogo took another 30 minutes to get our bill. It was the first time I seriously considered walking out on my bill at a nice restaurant.  Like Seriously Considered it.  Since we'd picked up Eric, he opted to call in to his meeting from the quiet of the car while we finished dessert and checked out.  They took So Long, that Eric was done with his meeting and picked us up out front by the time we got all checked out.  We should have left.  

How sad is that?!  It took us almost 3 hours, to eat at a buffet.  A good buffet, but still.  We won't be back at lunchtime, the service was Terrible.  

Meanwhile, when I got home, I prepared for our Party. 

For each of our Olympic Parties, we try to drink a Festive beverage from that country.   For example, when the Olympics were in Vancouver, we learned that they provide cranberries for Ocean Spray, so we drank Cranberry juice, as well as ginger ale, and Crown Royal, all Canadian beverages.  But Brazil took a bit more research.  They like fruit, and juice, and sugar, and all the permutations therein. We learned that their national drink is called the Caipirinha.  It is a lime beverage that uses an alcohol called Cachaca.  Cachaca is distilled from sugar cane, much like rum, but rum is sugar cane cooked into molasses first.  Cachaca is a fermented distilled straight sugar cane beverage.  And it will put hair on your chest!   

                             Sooo Mommy made Caipirinhas.  Very Limey, very refreshing.  

I found they needed a lot of ice.   The Cachaca was too strong straight up for me.  Eric thought they just needed a lot of stirring. 

One of the other things we made were Brazilian chocolate truffles known as Brigadieros.

These fabulous little carmelized chocolate balls are made with mostly cocoa powder and sweetened condensed milk.  It turns out Brazilians love sweetened condensed milk, they put it in all kinds of things.  

My Sam helped me roll up the Brigadieros. 

Since the colors of the Brazilian flag are blue, green, and yellow, I thought he'd have a great time rolling in sprinkles with me.  We chose to go with those sprinkle colors because all of them have no Red 40, which means they are just fine for my Sams!

The final product.  

It's not as fancy as pinterest, but they were really tasty.  

They were a big hit with the kids.  And the perfect sweet break for all the limey tartness we were having, and cheesy bread that we were enjoying for supper.  

The other drink I made was Brazilian Lemonade.  

I found a recipe online.  Turns out Brazilian Lemonade has no Lemons!  

It's Limes and Sugar.  Literally. They love them some Limes and Sugar! 

And sweetened condensed milk. 

It's pureed sliced limes with sugar water, and sweetened condensed milk.  It's so Refreshing!

When Eric tasted it, he said, "It tastes like liquid lime sherbet."  

It really did.  

We got right down to business with Olympic Opening Ceremonies as soon as it got started.   

6 kids, and all kinds of crazy!

My three patriotic sweetboys.  

The Opening Ceremonies started before I remembered to take pictures.  

So, as is usually the case with my sweetboys, if there's a screen, they won't look at me. 

I found these great Carnivale style flowers on sale, and picked one up for every child. 

The kids thought they made great swords.  Doesn't everything?

During a break of the Parade of Nations, we held our own Parade.  

Emily and I rock our festive Olympic nails!

Jamberry had some really cute Olympic themed nails. Even Chris put some on  his toes.  

Sarah didn't make it through the Parade of Nations. 

Kathleen was still awake, but she was having a hard time with a sweet little hotbox on her. 

Eric didn't make it through the Opening Ceremonies.  

His snoring was a only a bit disruptive though, not as bad as usual. 

Oh, and Jose Carioca is from Rio.  He's a Disney Character from Saludos Amigos.  

Though anyone from Rio is a Carioca. 

Kathleen and I wore this shirt the next day. 

We'll be supporting our Olympians and the Cariocas for the next two and a half weeks! 

Joy of Love, Day 3

Today's assignment was Then and Now, a transition over time. And also today, Chris helped me make Strawberry and Rosemary Scones. Now of course, since we've been stranded in the house the last three days, I didn't quite all the required ingredients. We substituted the kids' whole milk for heavy cream, and instead of powdered sugar I concocted a mix of lemon juice, splenda and corn starch.

Tastes Scrumptious!

I'm exercising extreme willpower by not eating every single one of them. In the mean time, I took a couple pictures of Chris helping me cook...and eat. Today's focus was changes over time, with a particular focus on getting in close, and/or cropping afterwards. I did a bit of cropping and created this collage using Picasa.

Strawberries that the boy helped pick back in spring 2009, we made jam, and then used that jam as an ingredient in our Strawberry and Rosemary Scones.



Fun and Tasty!

Blue Popcorn

We got a treat last week from our Bin People, Blue Popcorn. It was advertised as having a thinner hull, thus easier on the system. I thought that would be Perfect for Chris, since he LOVES popcorn, but it doesn't love him, the blown kernals tend to irritate his sensitive colon.

Plus it came in Colors. ;)



So I cooked it at home. I've never Popped Popcorn on the stove at home before. I can remember my parents making it on the stove when I was young, mostly the Jiffy Pop. So I had to look it up how to cook it.



First I put 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan with 1/4 cup of kernals. The website told me to put a couple kernals in and when they popped put in the rest. When I did, they blew up so fast (I think it was too hot) that it burned. Ever tried to put That down the garbage disposal? I think it was popping even after I threw cold water on it. There were a couple kernals that didn't burn, and they were pretty. Tasty too. ;)



So I tried again: 1 Tablespoon of oil and a 1/4 cup of kernals. When my 3 kernals popped, I pulled it off the heat to add the mass. Then reapplied to eat, constantly shaking the skillet so as to not let it burn. As I was doing this, I totally had visions of my parents standing by the stove making us popcorn, so that Must be the right way.



That worked So Much Better! This time it didn't burn, and turned out quite nice. I added a little sugar and salt to it, not enough for Kettle Corn, but just a hint for flavor because really, just the popcorn and canola make it taste so Light.



And the Boys loved it. I got maybe a cupful, and the boys Downed the rest!



A perfect addition to movie night (and our dinner).

Cara Cara Study

This week the Bin people sent us a new kind of orange, one I'd never tried.

Cara Cara Oranges.

Imagine my surprise when I opened them up and found this pretty pinkish red inside.



Almost like a grapefruit in appearance, but the size of a small orange, and so tasty.
Sweet fruit. And So Juicy.



A Scrumptious Breakfast!

Get Moving

249/365

Well, since yesterday was Labor Day, it seemed only appropriate we continue with our weekend theme, and keep working.

Instead of Eric helping other people move, he did some work for us. We got a bunch of boxes from helping our friend Emilie move back into her house, so my sister came over and Blessedly helped us get cracking on our own moving project.

Tell you who had the most fun? The kids. Not much is more fun than playing in boxes!



I have a lot of Clutter.

There I said it. I must confess, it was hard for me to actually get rid of stuff. Lisa wanted to subdivide: Keep, Box Up, and Donate/Trash. My sister was quite the nazi when it came to toys and stuffies, forcing me to choose. I did really well for a while filling a bag of stuffies, with beanie babies, and things that I remembered the kids getting, but the kids could've cared less about. But when Lisa said, "You're doing really well." Well, then I cried. Pretty sure I lost cool points with that one, because then she started with Really? Really? You're Crying? Really?

Yeah, I was. It was then I realized that I'm more tied to the Stuffies than the boys, and when I looked in Chris's room I realized that the two largest stuffies, that occupied the most space, were mine. It was time to get rid of them. I hope they find a good home with someone who'll treasure Pooh and Fnerf's extreme snuggliness.

Meanwhile, as we're trying to work on Sam's stuffies, the kids come in and start pulling toys out of the bins. Hard to put things away when the kids want to play with them WHILE I'm packing them. And there were a few I was glad to be rid of.
You'd think it would be ok for me to pitch the Pink Pig. But I just couldn't do it, too many memories of that thing. Glad I kept it though because minutes after I made the decision to keep it, the kids pulled it out of the box, and Chris was entertaining Charlie with it. And she was smiling all about it. OK, Gotta Keep that one.



In addition to loading 20 boxes of Crap from the basement, heavy boxes topped with keepable stuffies. ;) We did some work in the Kitchen. Given my Bounty from Saturday, I spent my spare time on Sunday snipping up green beans. Then yesterday started off with cutting up my newly acquired sweet potatoes to make Sweets and Beets, or at least to attempt them. Every time we'd put in the sweet potato and beet "chips" they'd come out a little different, we changed thickness, temperature, length of time cooked. We only had to outright pitch a dozen of them, and the rest were still a little less chippy, less crunchy. But still yummy. Didn't stop us from snacking on them, you know, to Test. Lisa brought a recipe for Sweet Potato bread, actually it's a recipe for an apple bread, that uses a cup of shredded X: apple, sweet potato, zucchini, what have you, it was YUMMY!
And then just about supper time, I started canning the green beans, or at least cooking them. We sampled them for supper, and then I canned them, got 5 quarts from 2 small $2 boxes of Seconds.



Turned out Pretty Good too!

After all that, we were exhausted! This moving thing is going to Wear Me Out!

Bountiful Harvest

247/365

An Amazing Day! The weather was gorgeous, high of 72, puffy clouds on a peaceful blue sky. I am so blessed to have friends and family who make us feel so loved. Eric helped his parents move. Obviously the boys and I would only have been in the way of that, so we figured we'd be just chilling. Instead, my friend Alexandra and I took our kids apple picking today. More pics to come on that when I'm not exhausted. We picked a 3/4 of a bushel for each family, so I rounded it off by picking up another peck of gala apples, and caught a great deal on some green beans and peaches. I thought I was going to have some fun making goodies tomorrow!

But WAIT, there's MORE! Then my friend Amanda had a hit on some veggies, and she hooked me up with Tomatoes. I went to her house to get them, and while the boys played, she hooked me up with tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and a small assortment of hot peppers. It may take me weeks to get through all of these fruits and veggies. Check out that Bountiful Harvest overflowing my kitchen counters. Oh Boy, are we going to have some fun!




n the meantime our presence was requested by more family and friends. I can't tell you how much it means to me, that my friends and family value our presence so much. I was so bummed we'd be lonely or bored, doing nothing this weekend. But No, we're so blessed with people that love us, that share in their bountiful harvests, that just want to be with us. That love just surrounds me and overflows. Not just in my kitchen...but all over me.

The P/C/S is not a POS!

55/365

For Christmas, the boys got me the Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. I tried to use it and it was a Massive Fail. It pummeled my apples into Mush. I ended up having to try sift through the mushed apples to save what I could. I tried a few apples before surrenduring entirely, and doing the batch of applesauce by hand, and ending up in pain. I was quite discouraged, thinking that this expensive new toy was a piece of crab...a pos.
So, after asking around on Facebook, my friends suggested different apples. So when the Bin Guys (Farm Fresh Delivery) were giving us apples last week, I opted to kick it up a notch and try again. We got 1 1/2 dozen Pink Lady apples.

And I hooked them up on the P/C/S. And started to peel. And it worked!



Look at how nicely it cuts! They have to be small crisp round apples, otherwise they turn to mush.



I was amazed at how pretty the spiraled slivers were.



Even prettier in the pot!



Happy Applesauce Making Day!

*On a sidenote, as I was writing this and posting pictures, I recall a dream I had when I was pregnant with Chris about wanting to stay home with my baby and make applesauce, this was a very Deja Vu sort of thing, writing about this.

Gettin' all Domestic

How exciting is that Bin of goodies that we got last week. I haven't eaten so many fresh fruit and veggies in a couple whiles. Last night Eric used our recent gift of Collard Greens to make dinner. He wrote up the recipe, but I just have to say it was so yummy, and pretty too, I meant to take a picture, but I was too busy eating it that I didn't even think about it, till the dishes were empty.
Now, our dessert Watermelon, I did get a picture of that, because boy howdy when Eric hacked into it, it looked like a picture watermelon.



You know what I mean? Picture perfect, the reddest red of watermelon juicy-ness, with the prettiest green watermelon rind. Twas lovely in taste also...


Then for dessert Chris and I made M&M cookies. Been trying to perfect my recipe, but this one wasn't too shabby.





The awesome part, was how much Chris loves making Cookies, and of course, how awesome my mixer is to make them. It was my first batch of cookies since Sam was born. Sam loves to watch us work in the kitchen. It felt good to get baking again. We cooked up about 1/4 of the batch, and froze the rest in tiny dough balls to throw in the toaster oven for snacks as needed....which seems to be about 10 minutes after naptime each day. If 7 o'clock is the Witching Hour, 4 is the BeWitching Hour.

I got a Bin!

Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!
I got a bin!

No, I'm not referring to the way Chris pronounces his best friend Bryn's name, Bin, I'm happily referring to something new that we tried this month.
Last year, one of my sister's hippy friends was talking about this organic produce delivery service that she uses. We were intrigued, and found the place online.

Farm Fresh Delivery

It's very exciting, we can special order items, or just go with the "Bin" of the week. $35 worth of organic produce is plopped on your door. Since we weren't sure about how much we would go for, we started with the minimum amount for delivery, and opted to go every 2 weeks. Tonight was our first delivery.



What a haul!
We received: a small watermelon, cherries, white nectarines, pluots (my favorite fruit!), tomatoes, green pepper, broccoli, lettuce, collard greens, and kale.

Anyone got any great suggestions what to do with collard greens and/or kale?

Chris snatched a white nectarine off the counter as soon as I snapped a shot of the mass bin contents, he called out, "MY APPLE!" and went to chair with it. Imagine his surprise.


He took two bites and was done.

Then he decided that playing in the BIN was Much More Fun.



Happy Friday!