Eggnog Truffles, Chewy Caramel and some Windsor Pilates

Once upon a time, Mama, Annalise and Madeline spent the day together. They had a lot of fun.

First thing in the morning, they went to the gym for Mama's yoga class. Uneventful and nice. Then they came home and Mama showered and dressed.

After lunch Mama looked through her recipe book and tested her candy thermometers. Both were found to be inaccurate, so she poured a cold glass of water to test the candy in the old school method.

First, the truffles. With a recipe for eggnog truffles, she was so excited to start. She was suppose to use 90% cocoa for the chocolate but only had semi-sweet in the cupboard. In the end, after the truffles were rolled in powdered sugar and lightly sprinkled with nutmeg they were found to be a disappointment. They were smooth but there was no eggnog flavor. And Mama was so excited about this recipe because of her brother, Adam, whose ambition for a while in life was to create ChocNog, a eggnog flavored chocolate. She was going to send them to him but not now. Maybe she'll try it again. Mama still wonders....Was the wrong chocolate the reason? She doesn't know. But just like a woman, she assumes it is her fault and not the recipe's.

Next the caramels were made. Now Mama has attempted a caramel recipe before but ended up with very tough toffee, instead of chewy caramels. So Mama was a little skeptical of her ability to make good caramel. She enlisted the help of her two sidekicks, Annalise and Madeline. They helped Mama stir the caramel (which took about 40 minutes of stirring) and the outlook for the caramels is still good.

After cleaning the kitchen (because Mama's Mama always said, 'A good cook always cleans up her mess'...) Mama thought she could introduce the spongy minds of the two girls to Pilates. The three enjoyed pilates to differing levels. They all engaged their power houses. Ambitious Annalise (who was really trying hard to learn) and naked Madeline (who was in and out in her interest) put forth excellent effort.

They all enjoyed the day together, with Annalise at one point saying, "This is the best day ever!"

The End.