Surrendered

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Struffolli... Dana-Style

Struffolli... Italian Honey Balls

Dana-Style

1. Have your Luke pour sugar into the sugar jar (from a milk jar being used for storage because when Tony bought groceries a couple of weeks ago there were no small bags of sugar so he bought a 25 lb bag and we poured the sugar into milk jars for storage -take a breathe now-)

2. Dump sugar and cornstarch into your blender and make some powdered sugar (not a necessary step if you aren't out of xx sugar like we were)

3. Heat up your oil in your Kitchen Kettle (you need one of these... really, they are great, really versatile, etc... made by Presto). Heat the oil to, oh, say, 375? Yeah, that sounds good. Use a bland oil (like canola or vegetable) not peanut (unless you like that flavor) and remember olive oil is not good for high heat frying.

4. Have your Caleb wash a half dozen eggs. (in other words, scrub the poop off the shells... hey, it's real life and real life isn't always pretty!)

5. Into your mixing bowl put six eggs, 1 c sour cream, 1 c sugar, 2 sticks of butter and a glunk of vanilla.

6. Mix all the yumminess together! Add the baking powder and the flour one cup at a time.

7. Here ya go!

8. Dump the dough onto your cutting surface.

9. Divide and conquer.

10. Roll into ropes and cut into chunks.

Okay, now here's where I depart from the recipe given to me by my New Jersey Italian Friend Barb who is married to a Greek Guy... Barb says the ropes should be 1/2 - 3/4 inch in diameter and cut into chunks the same size and then rolled into little balls. She assures me that if you make them that size this recipe will yield a 'gazillion' balls.

I trust her.

Really.

I just don't have time for that. I have the hungry children egging me on... are they done yet? Are they done yet?? So chunks it is for us!

11. Arrange neatly (roflol) in your fryer basket. Not much more than one layer or they will not cook as well.

12. Plunk them into the yummy hot oil goodness.

Plunk gently... hot oil splashes and burns because, well, it is hot.

13. Somewhere along the process have your Molly make a light powdered sugar glaze. Here we depart again from Barb's instructions... at this point you are supposed to do the honey thing. My children don't like honey... so we improvise. Sorry Barb!

14. Remove from the fryer when they are deeply golden brown. Let them hang around for a minute or two to drain.

15. Gently scooch them over into the glazey goodness...

16. Gently toss and remove from the glaze.

17. Since you want to impress your husband's coworkers with half of this batch... have your Luke and your MaryVance roll some of them into neat balls. There, Barb, does that make you happy. I know, I know, they are still too big...

18. Place on a somethingorother to dry a bit.

19. Enjoy.

These are yummy fresh from the glaze.

They are yummy the next day.

After they cool you can store them in an airtight container until they are all gone!

And, whatever you do... do not call them donut holes. Trust me, just don't do it. If you do... my New Jersey Italian Friend Barb who is married to a Greek Guy will look you up... and it won't be pretty...

LOL!

Here is the original recipe from Barb!

Struffolli...Italian honey balls for lack of better descripition...no one seems to know what the real name is unless they are Italian

this recipe makes a gazillion

2 lbs flour (8 cups i believe)

¾ t baking powder

6 eggs

1/2 lb butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 pint sour cream

1 c sugar

1 bottle honey

vegetable oil

those little round sprinkles...not the long ones that go on ice cream (spritz?)put all ingrds in a mixing bowl except the flour and mix well

add flour slowly till well blended

roll out dough on a well floured surface into roped about 1/2 in to 3/4 in thick, 18 in long

cut into 1/2 in to 3/4 in balls

heat a large pot of oil/crisco and fry the balls until lightly browned

drain on paper towel then

put in a bowl...add some honey to each batch and mix well

sprinkle with the spritzie thing...if you want to be artistic, have a blast we usually put them in a big red bowl in the middle of the table with a spoongreat warm with coffee

recipe hint...do ALL the rolling and cutting first...unless you are used to the whole process or have an "assembly line" sort of thing going, you'll burn batches....not that i would know that

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Nehemiah... signing and talking...

He was distracted by the cd player... he loves music!

So... do you 'know' us?

I received a very sweet email from someone who was very dear to me during my youth years. I sent him a sort of update note and thought I'd share part of it here with y'all Ü
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We are all great here. We love living in Florida and are blessed with a wonderful church family -- that is really like family to us :) Tony enjoys his job (still with the SSA, he's the manager of the Marianna office).

We are still homeschooling and loving every minute of it! Caleb (17, grade 12) loves astronomy and got a telescope for his birthday. He is also very interested in and studies a lot of Creation apologetics.

Molly (15, grade 10) is very interested in photography. She and Sam have a photography blog (http://www.samollyphotography.blogspot.com/) and have sold several of their photographs. They have also each won several awards for their photographs. Molly is a delight to me, she is my left arm :)

Sam (age 13, grade 8), in addition to his enjoyment of photography is quite the bird lover. He enjoys watching and photographing them and is working on a little 'hideaway' spot for bird viewing. He is the 'go-to' guy for messy jobs and he, Molly and Caleb take care of all the critters on our little farm.

Luke (age 11, grade 6) is an avid reader (as were the older boys at his age) and just informed me that he read The Hobbit last night before bed. He's going to have one long book report due tomorrow! LOL He is such a blessing and an 'in the flesh' miracle to so many who prayed for him after the accident.

MaryVance (age 9, grade 4) loves school! She's a great big sister to 'all those little boys' :) She loves all things crafty and has a very tender heart for the elderly.

Elijah (age 7, grade 2) is the boss the the little boys! He loves to direct their dress-up / imaginative play and is very creative. He also loves to draw and is quite the little artist.

Isaac (age 5, grade K) is tender-hearted and loving. He goes along with Elijah's plans (most of the time!) and enjoys school and playing.

Joseph (age 3) is the first boy about whom I would say "he is all boy"... I never understood that phrase until now. LOL He is on full-steam ahead All Day Long. He is so much fun and I enjoy his energy and antics so much.

Nehemiah (age 1) is just such a fun, happy little boy. He is talking so much, he loves Daisy (our dog) and he's the first child who looks like me (for whatever that is worth... lol)

We are very active and involved in our church and homeschool community here. God has blessed us so much! I am pretty good about keeping my blog updated (http://www.tonyanddanalewis.blogspot.com/)... not so good about keeping our website updated (http://www.tonyanddanalewis.com/). Molly is good about keeping her blog updated (http://www.lewischildren.blogspot.com/). We also have a couple of home businesses that keep us all hopping.
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I hope you enjoyed that little blurb and learned something 'new' about our family Ü. We do love to have company and love to open our home to others. If you are ever going to be traveling down/up this way please let us know!!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

MeMo and "SeeSee"

Can you see those new choppers? Ü

Nehemiah loves, LOVES, Daisy!
He says 'Daisy' like he's saying 'See See'.

She's sooo good with him!

LOVE...

No! No, no licking the dog!

A little snuggle time ... taking a break from reading...

Back to the story... it's a good one!

Nehemiah loves books. He will sit for the longest just looking at books. And he loves to be read to... he has such a long attention span for books!

A little more snuggling...

Friday, December 11, 2009

A new ice cream flavor...

In honor of the 44th President of the United States , Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new flavor: " Barocky Road " Barocky Road is a blend of half vanilla, half chocolate, and surrounded by nuts and flakes. The vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient. The nuts and flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow. The cost is $100.00 per scoop. When purchased it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone, but then the ice cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you. You are left with an empty wallet and no change, holding an empty cone with no hope of getting any ice cream. Are you stimulated?