Best Breakfast

I love it when Mom makes her sourdough cinnamon rolls. And there's really only one way to eat them.
First: Choose your favorite tea cup and fill it with milk or hot chocolate (or pick two cups and opt for both.)

Next: While you allow your hot chocolate to cool, pick out the biggest prettiest cinnamon roll you can find from Mom's most recent hot batch. Then, drizzle frosting all over your cinnamon roll. Don't hold back. No one is judging you.

Lastly: Throw all caution to the wind and take as many large, gooey, melt in your mouth bites as your Christmas spirit tummy can hold. Show no knowledge of ettiquette and make loud yummy smacking and finger licking noises. It will make your experience complete.

These are always so good and have been a family favorite for years. (I've even made them several times for roommates. Now THAT'S how you make friends out of strangers you have to live with.) Anyway, my grandma taught my mom how to give these rolls their beautiful shape. And if you happen to be at the house when Mom is making them, you will get a free lesson too—as I'm sure to which some of you can attest (Ahem, Megan.)

Fairy Houses

We spent one of our afternoons building houses around the yard so the fairies would have somewhere to stay during their expeditions outside of their lands.
They usually send out a scout to find these places…and then the scout reports back to all the fairies. Somehow the scout who visited our house got a hold of my contact information (Tinkerbell must have given it to him) and he sent me the little recording he made to show the other fairies. I was so surprised to see it in my email!
View it below with the password: rest here

FairieHouses from Anna Zenk on Vimeo.

Below are the construction sites.

With a braided roof and a tall airy opening—this is the perfect cool place to stay in the shade during the heat of the day.

This dwelling has a lovely staircase leading to a comfy bed of leaves. The whimsical woven star help the little sprites easily see the location from above.

Almost like a resort, this hut will make the fairies feel like they've discovered their own little tropical island. The woven mat inside is quite exotic and there's a great view of the area from the lookout platform.

Extremely homey and quite lovely, the fairies probably won't want to leave this vacation location. It's spot on with everything a fairy would want in a home.

Have the fairies stayed anywhere yet? Oh yes. They usually leave little tokens behind as a thank you. I am told they have napped here and there have been several overnight visitors to the other locations as well.
Music: Dearly Beloved: Kindgom Hearts II

Hobbitses….

The second Hobbit movie came out and as you know mom LOVES the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies. In her words she is "totally captivated by them." Dad gave her two book volumes detailing the story and the costumes which she was totally thrilled with. It's not surprising either—she was after all a theater major. And likewise, it is not surprising that for this year's Christmas dinner we had Hobbit food.

We set up the table with whole and raw ingredients and used pottery mom had throughout the house. She had some AWESOME large bowls that came from Dad's side of the family—the ladies used to make bread in them. This night we put veggies in it.
Below: A Salad fresh "picked" from the Hobbit garden. Each person ripped off their own greens to make their own salad.

I set the little'uns with their own table. They were particularly excited about the flower in the center of the table. (Whew! No room at the adult table…didn't want them to feel left out. No complaints at all.)

We had:
Real apple juice
Fresh hot bread from the bakery, and no knead bread from Dad
Sausages
Large cubed veggies, potatoes, carrots, turnips, brussel sprouts, onion
Whole beans
Roast
Mom's pumpkin bread

And a savory blue berry citrus gallette and apple crumble pie which Hayden and her Mom made. Yummy and beautifully fitting for the meal.

It was a Merry Christmas in the Shire!

Gettin' Greeky

I am procrastinating doing my business taxes, and to show you how BADLY I don't want to do them I am going to blog about our family themed dinner from LAST YEAR. Let's get GREEKY!

In the movies at least, it seems Grecians are pretty proud, showing their flag colors everywhere—what Greeks! We took our cues from Hollywood and pulled out the blues and stripes for decorating.

Dad and I spent a few hours looking up Greek recipes. Here are the ones we decided on because they were actually in English:

Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki Sauce—click for the 5 star recipe. (Little 1.5 year old Malaika was so cute walking around saying "Tzatziki!") Bread and a 10 ingredient salad that Hayden's parents brought were also served as sides. (I don't remember the name of the salad or I'd post a link…Dad?)

As a main dish we had Pastitsio—Click here for the 5 star recipe.  Warm and filling. My photo does not do it justice. It's cheesy, creamy, the meat is lamb with just a hint of cinnamon. I had forgotten about it until now. I think I might have to make it sometime soon.

We tried to find a Greek drink for the family but of course the only drinks listed online were wines. However, upon my searching I found an article that said, "When Greeks get thirsty they drink water." Boom! Done. Dad bought sparkling water—no one liked it.

Dessert was Ekmek-Kataifi—recipe and way better photo here.

Some of the ingredients were ultimately impossible to find. But with a couple of substitutions it still turned out! It's worth giving a try and then tasting it to see how you would tweak it.