Good Morning Minionville 2017

[Jeff Marinelli]

time to set the clocks back this weekend!

[Jeff Marinelli]

Going to a Holiday Party tonight; the lady hosting the party had asked that everyone bring some food or other stuff for Noah's Blessing Box, which is obviously very cool.

[Jeff Marinelli]

Hadta restock the Blessing Box. Damn its cold out.

[ajsuff]

Well tonight after a pretty good week, I decided to make an unusual Italian dessert - Chocolate Gelato.

For some, Gelato is thought to be ice cream in Italian. It's kind of close but not exact. Gelato is different than Ice Cream. One, Gelato has far less butterfat. And its generally made with whole milk than cream. Another difference its churned slower which less air into than ice cream. In Italy they have Northern Italy recipe and a Sicilian one. The recipe I am making tonight is the Sicilian one which uses no eggs nor cream. It uses as it’s base what is called a crema rinforzata, which is made from milk, sugar and cornstarch. The Gelato which we will make will be lighter and have more intense flavored than regular ice cream or even Northern Italian gelato (made from an egg based custard). And its better for me with less cholesterol. The recipe is easy and uses 5 ingredients but you need an ice cream maker to make it. We'll refrigerate it overnight and then tomorrow make it in the ice cream maker. Light, wonderful, and I can't wait.

Were having guests over in a few weeks and we are experimenting with a few recipes which we make -one is a Sformato di Parmagianno and Prosciutto. This is an elegant but simple dish which can accompany a roasted or other meats. This dish is cooked in a mold (ramekins), then unmolded to serve. This dish has prosciutto laid inside the ramekin and also over the outside edge. Then cooked onions, eggs ,milk, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, with a little nutmeg is placed in the ramekin and overhang prosciutto is then put over the inside mixture, baked, with water half up ramekins sides. This is a truly a delightful appetizer!

We'll be having the gelato with family tomorrow night to see what kind of job I did.

[Jeff Marinelli]

Hugely giant storm on its way in.

[Jeff Marinelli]

Today was a pretty good day actually.

[ajsuff]

January thaw was a relief. We had some good snow so far - 18" on that one snow day. It's all gone. Deer have been back feeding on my thornless blackberries. About 7 of them and good size. If hungry enough they will eat much of my Burning Bushes - 3 I have in a hedgerow on my western side.

Snowed yesterday for the 25th time this year and according to my schematic we have 8 days of snow left. Not much, so this year I could be very wrong. But I seen Februaries and March and that were true pussycats here. Back in 12/2002, it snowed just about every day that month. And winter started on 12/21 and we had 90 more days to go. But the rest of the winter was a piece of cake. So you never know here.

Valentines Day is Ash Wednesday and the Easter season begins. Early Easter 4/1/18, early spring as they say. We'll see.

[Jeff Marinelli]

Good morning all right!

[Jeff Marinelli]

Off to the mines shortly

[Jeff Marinelli]

Blessing Box donations keeping up at a steady pace, going out pretty regularly too!

[Jeff Marinelli]

A fine Easter morning; off to Suzanne's sister's house for dinner.

Gave away over 50 Easter Baskets yesterday from Noah's Blessing Box, plus Easter dinners too. A very successful day!

[Jeff Marinelli]

Nice day at last, time for the first cocktail o' the season on the front porch!

[Jeff Marinelli]

Gonna be plenty hot for Father's Day! Cod beer and grilling in the offing!

[Jeff Marinelli]

Damn hot out today!

[ajsuff]

Salvation Army store closing downtown and Adorn also has closed its doors. We learned that Adorn owner is still in business on line and offering her jewelry on line and at regional arts & craft programs and other events. A new family member has forced her to resort to a new way in business. I hope here all the success. We went there often, going to miss it. She was very creative and had a nice layout and warm store. Salvation Army wanted to move its store several years ago (due to needed space). However demand for them being downtown was overwhelming.