Sunday, November 30, 2014

Recipe for Clacita

Clacita (pronounced Klachita), also known as blintzes is a Berry family tradition from my Mom’s Yugoslavian side. Clacita is the Romanian word, Palatschinke is Serbo-Croatian. She has been cooking these for us all of our lives. She grew up in former Yugoslavia and cooked Clacita for workers in the field, by the hundreds, when she was just a little girl. She would cook them over a wood burning stove and ended up burning her arms many times. Thanks Mom for all your sacrifice. She is a true cook, which means she has no clue what proportions are needed, she does things by feel. I experimented until I believe I got the recipe down. Here it is:


2 cups of white flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
-mix dry ingredients with a whisk
2 eggs
-break egg yolks into dry ingredients
2 1/2 cups of water
-pour water into other ingredients and mix thoroughly 

**as you are assembling your dry ingredients get a crepe style pan and turn it on medium high (2/3 full flame), let it heat up for the 3 minutes it takes you to get your stuff mixed together
**brush on some sort of vegetable oil in between each Clacita. This is an important step. If you use butter or spray it will mess up the flavor. 
**use 1/3 cup of batter for each Clacita, placing the full amount in an upper third of the pan and roll the pan around after its placed to get a nice full round shape. 
**I place each Clacita on a plate and cover it each time with a cloth/small towel to help them all be warm when served.
**it is a great fun for the kids to be given little corners as they are made. Preferred verbage is “bring your lips over her.” :)
**These can be served with whatever you want: eggs, jam, sour cream, nutella...consider it a poor man’s crepe, because that’s kind of what it is. I know I know, nutella isn't too poor sounding but it tastes good. 
**They are traditionally rolled and eaten whole. 



Tuesday, July 29, 2014

When Grandma comes to visit...

Just about the best thing about Grandma Berry visiting is this:

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Summer Reading

We've been on a reading kick at our house the last couple of weeks because Ruby has feverishly been trying to finish her summer reading program.  Every summer our local library puts on a program for the kids: they read a set number of books or certain amount of time and then they win prizes.  Our girl had gotten a little behind but was determined to finish.  So Bobby has been taking the kids to the library and checking out insane amounts of books.  His latest tally: 23 books at once.  I laughed when I saw the stack he brought home.  But Ruby has finished and is very proud of herself.

And in that latest stack that came home Bobby mad sure to get quite a few books about cars, trucks and airplanes.  And this is the result:

He can't keep his hands off them.

A visit to Grandma's and Grandpa's

Bobby had a stint with the national guard in San Antonio, so we took the kids to see my parents while he was gone for a couple weeks.  It was an easy way to pass the time and the kids were quite occupied.  Yes, they missed their dad terribly, but they were having enough fun to make those two weeks fly by.  Jack's favorite thing to do was play with Grandpa's tractor.  This car loving boy was in heaven and climbed on every chance he could get.  Ruby didn't mind it either.
My sister was there for a few days when we first arrived and Ruby and Jack had a great time playing with their little cousin.
And let's face it...little miss Lisi is an adorable girl.

We also visited Grandma Berry and saw a few more cousins while we were at it.
And went hiking up Grandma and Grandpa's canyon.  Ruby wasn't too thrilled with the idea of just walking and walking for no apparent reason, but when we let her choose the trail the second day we hiked, she thought that was pretty amazing and miraculously found the stamina to walk for a good 45 minutes.
And Jack bonded with uncle Rob and enjoyed some bro time with another male.  Gosh, that kid is so cute.  I just want to squeeze his adorableness!
We went to Leatherby's for ice cream one night, and while nothing to write home about, this boy was just about in heaven when his "ice cream cone" was brought out.  Yup, I just ordered a little kid's cone for him and this is what he got.
Another highlight was the Museum of Curiosity, a new childrens museum in the area.  The kids had a blast exploring and learning.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a wonderful vacation!  We can't wait to come back!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Catching Up

Sorry for the lack of updates lately...my blogging app has been giving me trouble and I haven't had the motivation to fix it until now.  Hopefully all will be well with this new one and we can get back to showing you the latest from our family.

Let's start with Ruby....She graduated from preschool and hated it, 


but also enjoyed it.



And all of a sudden she found a love for posing for pictures.



And Jack turned two and his cuteness became his secret weapon.



Seriously, can this kid get any cuter?



Sunday, April 6, 2014

Trying to be like Ruby...

Jack and a Ruby have a blast together and Jack often tries to imitate his big sis. Like when she puts her feet up in the tub.








Yup, he's just not big enough yet.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Thursday, February 6, 2014

All Tied Up

This is Ruby's latest obsession that is starting to get on our nerves. She loves to tie things up:


Any shoelace or spare bit of string, Bobby's ties or any belt that is lying around is not safe. She twists and ties them up so well that it'll take us a good 5 minutes to unwind them. The shoes are especially annoying because we usually don't realize she's done it until we need to put them on when we're leaving.






Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Sledding

We got quite a bit of snow last week and invited some friends to go sledding with us on Saturday. We had so much fun. This was Ruby's first time really sledding and she loved it, she even went down by herself. There were a few tears shed when she hit a ramp and flew off her sled and face planted in the snow. But other than that she had a blast. Jack, on the other hand, did not have fun at all. He spent most of his time in some stage of an emotional breakdown. He cried when snow got in his face going down. He cried when we were pulling him back up the hill in the sled and he fell over. He cried when we put him down on the ground so we could help Ruby. You get the idea.

This picture may document his only halfway happy moment. We buried all the kids in the snow and he was quite content moving the snow around with his hands.


Needless to say, we didn't stay too long at the sledding hill. But we did come home to doughnuts and hot cocoa.


And that made Jack one very happy boy.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Snuggles in the morning...

Ruby often asks to climb into the crib with Jack when he wakes up. There's usually sweet snuggles and lots of cuteness.









Sunday, January 12, 2014

A little snow fun...

We woke up to snow last weekend and Ruby was thrilled. Our last few snows have been on days she couldn't play outside for different reasons and she was getting annoyed at being thwarted out of snow-playing. And since it was Saturday Bobby was home and was able to play with the kiddos.

YouTube Video

We think we have to get a real sled to play with.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Making Doughnuts

I've made a few batches of doughnuts from recipes I've found online and they all originated from the Top Pot Hand Forged Doughnuts cookbook. So I made a little mental note and dropped a few hints that I wanted the cookbook for Christmas. My sister pulled through for me! And so far I've made blueberry cake:


And apple fritters:


We all loved them. Especially Ruby and Jack. We had the apple fritters for dessert last night and there was one left. Bobby and I were cleaning up the kitchen and I heard some commotion from the kiddos in the family room. I turned to see Jack running like mad around the sofa, apple fritter in hand....Ruby chasing after him screaming, "I want a bite! Can I have a bite?!"

Our next recipe to try is Boston Creams. Yum!