Have a look at this

Remember last week, when we had no electricity and I spent the afternoon with my dear buddy? This is what she did...

purdy, isn't it?

She had warned me about not using Vitamin E cream on it, because it would fade it faster... well, I realised last night that despite my carefulness (or so I thought) I had been using something with some in it, thus it's already fading... boohoo...

Santa Paws has really started. So far, I know these bloggers were visited by Santa Paws:
- Brave Astronaut (read about it here)
- Greenduckies (read & view here)
- Lizgwiz (read and view here)
- Purple Pigeon (and and view here)
- and moi! I received a notice to go pick up a parcel at the post office, so Sunday I made my way there. I had to stand in line for over 45 min. to get to the counter. Thankfully, the one staff that was there was efficient despite his looking slow. When I saw the box (who it was from) I knew Santa Paws had arrived. This is what I found when I opened the box.

The paper alone was exciting to me - come on, little paws like that, you have to admit they are cute! Then all this chocolate... geez... this person knows the love story I share with chocolate, and then among it all lay a little black box with "Secret Santa Paws" on it.

Look at this beauty:


I LOVE it! Thank you SoOoOoOooOOooo much!
It's beautiful and such a mixture of you and a touch of me... I'm touched.
This is great!

As you may recall, my husband is of Hungarian descent. His parents were both born in Hungary. He was raised "Hungarian" but in Montreal. When we first started dating his mother had made kocsonya, it was a traditional meal they would have this time of year. When Hubby would describe it I didn't know what to expect, but I was willing to try it at least once. His description of it is "like Jello but with pork in it" - appetizing, isn't it? The first time I had some at his parents, his mom had assumed I wouldn't try it "because every other Québécois she knew didn't like it", I proved her wrong. I actually enjoyed it.

Hubby always wanted to know how to make it, so when his aunt offer to do some with us (because she never had made some either) we agreed. Saturday was "Kocsonya Making Day". What a day! It's fairly easy, it's just a long process. Long story short, we had a lot of meat and somewhat impatient and ill prepared people. Cooking this is long, then it has to congeal. It takes time. Good thing one of our neighbors is away for a few months, I used her fridge to cool things down, because at -20°C they were freezing outside.

Yesterday morning when we got up, we realised they weren't congealing properly. We threw everything back in a pot and continue to cook them. This time we made sure it was done with the time it needed. This is the final result.

Good thing we have a big fridge! Guess what we'll be having for dinner tonight!