Sugaring-off Party (aka syrup party)

My friend Jared Burke lives in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee. His family are the care takers of the compound owned by the Marriott family. They have maple trees and invited some people for a sugaring-off party. the drive was beautiful and the day was nice. They still had quite a bit of snow but it was a lovely day.

This is a small Creek that flows through the property.

Daniel McMurtry and I went for a walk around the compound. He had been there before so he gave me a walking tour. We came upon the bird house and I thought it was cool looking and how lucky are the birds to have such a nice place.

This is the biggest house and it was gorgeous. It is so big that I couldn't get it all in one picture. An aerial view might have done the trick. This is one of about 5-6 houses on the compound.

Here is another view. I loved the red on rock look. This is the only house that looks like this the rest were a blueish grey color you will see in a picture down a bit.

A tree house this looks like a fun place.

When I saw the tree house I thought if we would have made an actual tree house growing up it would have been something like this. My dad would have designed something out of the ordinary.

There is a view of the lake. It still had a layer of ice on it. Close to the shore lines the ice had melted but out further still frozen over.

I got to tap a tree. I took this hand drill and drilled a hole in the tree to have the sap start to flow out so we could collect more.

My hole drilling skills. The hole I drilled is the one in the center. You can see three holes at a diagonal line and mine is the middle one. The I got the hammer in the spigot and hook and hang the bucket to start the collection process.

This is a very big maple tree and it had a ton of holes all over in it.

There is my bucket mounted I mounted the bucket on a different tree than the one I drilled the hole into.

You can see buckets on lots of trees.

The sap collected from the trees. It takes 32 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Did you hear me say liquid GOLD? No wonder the real stuff is so expensive. But oh so goooooood!!!

The blue barrel holds the sap and it goes down the tube and into the boiler

Here is where they boil the sap for many hours to get it to be just right. There are 4 different grades of syrup and you get the different grades depending on how long you cook the syrup for.

It was a fun experience to be able to see the process and to participate it in. Even if it was just a little.

Jared's dad made pancakes and we all ate pancakes and homemade maple syrup.

One thing they do with the Maple syrup to make another treat is they will take drops of syrup and put it on snow and it will turn the syrup into a candy like treat. It was very tasty.

Carson's Birthday Weekend

The weekend of March 4, 2011 I was able to go out to Enoch, Utah and see my family. My parents and 3 sisters were going to be there so it gave me an opportunity to be able to see the majority of my family all in one visit. Carson turned 8 so we had a birthday party for him on his birthday and the following day he was baptised.

Paityn with her curly hair.

Dad (John), Steve, Kaden and Paityn

Mom (Dianne), Dad, Kaden

Marilyn and Dave Carpenter

Carson with his CTR towel from Aunt Connie

Most of the girls.

Briana, Martha, Amelie, Sarah, Sierra, Paityn

Look at that, isn't she adorable.

For the day of Carson's birthday we just had cookies and ice cream rather than a cake because we had cake the day of the baptism. Kaden was patiently waiting for his cookie. What a cute boy.

Kaden and I playing around, I sure do love these kids and miss them every time I have to leave.

Dad and Mom

This is Olivia's camera skills she wanted to take the picture of the two of us. She got most of us in. But hello faces.

There we go that is a bit better not so close. Cute sisters!

Amelie and Martha

Amelie is an exchange student from Belgium she fit right in with the family. It was fun to meet her and get to know her better.

Kaden and Martha. This was our goodbye hug the morning he had to go.

Mom, Martha, Dad

My mom made these hats for all the kids. Kaden had just smashed his hand so he wasn't wanting to stand with the kids so Christine was helping him to stay a part of the group.

Back: Briana, Kaden, Emma

Middle: Hannah, Paityn, Sierra

Front: Ben, Asher, Carson

Steve and Carson

Steve, Sarah, Carson

Carpenter Family

Carson and I

Paityn keeping busy as we waited for the baptism to start.

Sarah and I had the task of dishing up cake and ice cream for everyone after the baptism.

The kids spent a lot of time out on the trampoline. It was a lot of fun and we were lucky to have nice weather.

Christine was practicing her photography skills.

Then entire group, Carpenter, Knopp, and Paxton Families

Me with the Knopp Family.

It was a good time to be able to see everyone. I just wish that Rebecca and Elizabeth could have been there so I could have seen them as well. It is crazy to see how much everyone has grown so quickly.

Italian Night

My friend Daniel McMurtry and I like to host a dinner every once in a while and we like to do a themed dinner. We have done a variety and this time we did an Italian Night. I made Baked Chicken and Shrimp Tortellinni Gratinati.

I had the Tortellini at a Bertucci's and I loved it and so I thought I would figure out how to make it myself. I found the list of ingredients online and then just add what I think looks good. It didn't call for Shrimp but I decided to add some in and it is delicious. Daniel made bread sticks to go along and it was all really good and we had a good turn out.

If you would like to try your hand at making it here is the ingredients you need.

TORTELLINI GRATINATI

cheese filled tortellini -I get this from Costco and it comes with two packages and I use one package per batch. One package is about 24 oz. I boil the Tortellini and throw in frozen shrimp about the last 3 minutes it is boiling to thaw the shrimp. 
chicken breast (cooked & diced) 
cream (I use Whipping cream, about half a pint) 
Ricotta cheese (I use about 1-2 heaping spoonfuls)
shredded mozzarella 
Romano (this is a very strong cheese so I don't use a lot)
parmigiano (Parmesan cheese) 
Alfredo sauce (1 bottle)
diced tomatoes (how ever many you want) 

I mix the Alfredo sauce, cream, and cheeses together in a large bowl. I then add in the chicken, tortellini, and shrimp. Then I add the tomatoes. Once everything is stirred together I dump it in a casserole dish and cover it with cheese I combine the mozzarella, Romano, and Parmesan. Again I use very little Romano because it is very strong. 
Bake in oven at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until bubbling.

For dessert I made Italian Raspberry Almond Meringue cookies. I decided to add some chocolate to the cookies. Below the Raspberry preserve I put a layer of Nutella. Everyone loved the cookies and I took some of the leftovers to work and everyone there loved them as well. They all said the chocolate was a nice surprise. You didn't expect it to be there and when you take a bite it was a nice surprise. These cookies were fun to make and were a new experience. It took a little experimenting to get it to look just right.