Fall in Florida

My sister asked me the other day if it was still warm enough to swim... well, I'm not getting in there! As you can see from Annalee's face, the water is c-c-c-c-cold :) We took the temperature a few days ago, and it was a cool 78 degrees. It feels a lot colder compared to the 90's in the air!







Here's Gabe taking a big jump into the pool... I think the little ones were in the water for a total of 10 minutes! Just enough time to get thoroughly chilled to the bone.




I broke down and bought the kids a pumpkin. Halloween is not my favorite holiday, and I've been known to try to let it slip by unnoticed... but, this year we have a jack-o-lantern! The three older kids took part in the destruction of this perfectly good pumpkin, but Gabe had nothing to do with it. It is a pretty warm day, and he said he'd rather stay indoors.





Annalee digs in! The girls were in charge of removing the "slime", as the kids called it. Noah was the operations manager and stood around watching until it was time for the face...





Elena's turn to dig out some "slime" :) The pumpkin was her idea, so she was expected to get a little dirty!





Watch out! It's Noah with a permanent marker!




Annalee and her pumpkin-covered dress...




Even Nibbles got into the carving. She cleaned up all the "slime" that the kiddos dropped!




Noah gave the pumpkin a "stinky face". We will put our new friend on the front step tonight to scare the neighbors... and hope that he doesn't rot in the heat before tomorrow night!

My favorite part of pumpkin carving.... toasted pumpkin seeds! I baked them at 250 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, turning them every 5-10 min. They are crunchy and delicious :)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

An Adventure at the German Butcher

I remember as a kid my mother used to keep a crock of bacon fat on the stove. I never really knew what it was for, but I thought it looked pretty interesting... Well, I have looked into it, and rendered pork fat is a traditional German food. In fact, schmaltz is eaten on bread, just like butter! Being from a good German family (on my mother's side), I thought this topic was worth further investigation.


Weeks ago, on my quest to locate leaf lard (the fat from around a pigs kidneys, and the most nutritional fat from a pig), I stumbled across a German Butcher shop in Port Charlotte, Fl. A friend had told me about this shop because they had inexpensive ground beef- the freshest she had ever eaten. I looked it up online and the list of good German products was amazing: bratwurst, schnitzel, cheeses, wines, chocolates! All the meat products were made without fillers or preservatives- nothing but MEAT. I decided to ask if they sold any lard...


Barbara, one of their amazingly friendly employees, told me that they occasionally have "schmaltz". She described it as rendered bacon fat- from bacon that they make themselves. She tells me it is fantastic for frying potatoes. It can also be used as a salad dressing!


I went to Kallis German Butcher just last week and got a plethora of meat products- their bratwursts were the best, and they went perfectly with my homemade sauerkraut! I was sad to hear that they didn't have any schmaltz on hand, but I'm told the ladies will cook some up soon.


When I got home, I researched online and found recipes for pork, goose, chicken, butter and vegetarian schmaltz (really?? what is the point of vegetarian schmaltz????). It looks as if onions are involved in most of these recipes, and sometimes crunchy pork skins are mixed in for added flavor- yummy! I am so looking forward to trying this German delicacy very soon- I'm ready to jump as soon as they have a batch at the store... or I might just try my hand at rendering some!


This post is part of Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist

Rock Band!!

As a family, we loooove to play Rock Band together! Andy is the guitar/bass player, Noah likes to sing and drum,-Gabe drums, too! Elena is content with watching :) And I sing, but only when it's Bon Jovi or something similar- hahaha!

In this video, Annalee tries her hand at the drums. Wow. I think she's got the beat, because she scored in the high 90's every time! Her screen is on the right- if you haven't played before, the bars are for the foot pedal. I am very bad at this, so I guess she got her talent from Andy!

Fall Weather

We have had some wonderful weather lately! It has been in the 80's for the past three days, and we've been spending a lot of time outside :) Here's some pics of the kiddos having fun in the sun...




You won't see Noah outside without his shades :) Notice his new haircut! He's had a mohawk for the past four months, and Andy finally cut it off!







Elena is my purple girl. She has been collecting shells the past few days, and we still have about 10 being bleached in my laundry room sink! I'll get it back someday...

Daredevil Annalee like to do things a little differently... She is now into making her dolls clothes! (I just wish I had more experience with sewing.) I gave her a few old shirts that had holes in them, and she has recycled them.

Gabe is a shoeless wonder... he is always "losing" his sandals so he doesn't have to wear them! Oh, he learned how to ride his bike this week, but he had a little spill and skinned his knee. We have not been able to get him back on yet...