Don't worry about tempering @Mien, just cheat and roll them in cocoa powder with a hint of cinnamon.
I make ganache balls by melting chocolate, adding a bit of cream, chopped nuts and dried fruit (I'm not a fruit in chocolate fan but some people are), then forming them into balls and dusting with cocoa. They look and taste amazing, and are super easy.
I'm juggling work, kids, and now 2 kittens. 2 ten week old kittens from the same litter, they are settling in nicely. And they love food, they went nuts over a bit of leftover mutton. They'll fit in nicely!
They really are adorable. We figured because of lockdown we aren't going to be traveling anywhere anytime soon, my kids are 8 and 10, so this is the one opportunity to have kittens when they are kids.
Yep. That’s how we picked ours. He recently rediscovered his love for paper bags. (When he was small, we used to leave some out for him to play with, with a snipped handle for safety.)
Just not “small” any longer.
We try to keep him inside as much as possible these days - the baby birds are just leaving the nests.
But apparently there’s no better place to snooze than my herb garden. You should have seen the indignant look when I placed a pot on his favorite bare space. >.<
Paper bags! @Stephie I totally forgot cats and paper bags, I'll have to get some out. My 10 year old son designed and built a cat castle from cardboard boxes and tubes, and they love that too. Cost nothing but time, and it was worth it
Not implying anything! Just saying that for example have to be careful. I cook as a coping mechanism for stress. And I am reasonably good at it. Which leads to too much too good food around in tough times. And... you get the idea.
@Cerberus As a matter of fact, we had pizza for lunch the other week, from our local pizza place in the village. But truly home- and handmade pizza with slow-risen dough and all the fixings - not in a long while.
@Cerberus The distinct scent of warm cardboard is part of the experience, isn’t it?
@Cerberus A pre-made frozen one from the supermarket, or one from the local pizza joint?
(Confession: Life has been so hectic lately that we have been serving more convenience food that ever. But each child can plonk a pack of fish fingers into the oven and stir up mashed potatoes from a box. Plus minor 2 will actually eat that.)
Positive side effect of the Corona semi-lockdown: The minors have to cook. Or in other words “ensure there’s some kind of lunch on the table”. That includes being involved in meal planning, shopping lists and all that.
OTOH, we expect minor 1 to leave the nest and go to university (or abroad or...) in as little as four years. He’s still got a lot to learn to become self-sufficient until then.
Minor 2 suffered from the isolation, minor 1 has his friends online.
So we bit the bullet and allowed her to meet her friends, accepting the risk that comes with socializing.
We said no earlier, but that was when both Hubby and I were still suffering from a severe respiratory infection and pneumonia, plus the aftermath. (No, not Corona, we were tested.) Absolutely didn’t want to catch that on top.
@Cerberus nope. Some virus, apparently, because antibiotics didn’t do anything. According to my GP, we had a true wave of something nasty this year, and when we mentioned that we had to get well asap, he burst out in laughter, (I have known him all my life, family friend) and bluntly said to expect two to three weeks minimum. Boy was he right!
@Cerberus thankfully, yes. They meet about once a week now.
