Draco floats!

This weekend I was determined to see if Draco can swim or not. I figured part of the requirements to being a "real" dog is being able to swim. Yesterday after church, we took off for a nearby lake.



We had to keep him on a leash, so we decided to just walk him out into the water into it was deep enough for him to float. So far so good! He didn't mind being in the water at all. But as soon as he had to start swimming, he turned around and headed straight for the shore. He knew how to swim alright! We felt a little bad forcing him to swim, when he was clearly distressed out there. We didn't get it on film until about the 3rd time. By then, he knew what we were trying to do to him! So he resisted at first, but eventually went out to sea. Enjoy the video!

Julia Child

About 6 months ago, a movie came out called Julie & Julia which tells the true story of a young American lady's quest to cook her way through Julia Child's prolific cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Heather and I both loved the movie! It motivated us to seek out some original Julia Child materials. We went to the library and found a DVD of her cooking show The French Chef and enjoyed it very much! She was a very wonderful, fun teacher and many of her recipes are quite practical...and delicious looking! We also found her cookbook at the library and thought it would be fun to look through it and make a few things!!

This long weekend proved a good time for trying some new things!
Heather made this beautiful apple custard tart. Just think Mom and Dad, Heather's awesome apple pie but cranked up a couple notches! Didn't think it could get there? Add a homemade crust to die for, and a rich, hand-whipped custard and here it is.



After a little dusting of powdered sugar, this thing was beautiful...and delicious!

This morning for brunch, I made something called Rapee Morv Andelle which is a Gratin of potato, ham, and onion.



We still have a few recipes to attempt, including: Mussels, Fondue, Ratatouille, Chocolate Mousse, hollandaise & bernaise sauces, lady fingers, and steak with a red wine sauce. YUM YUM!!! While no Julia Child, we are really enjoying trying some new recipes, and expanding our repertoire!

So much fun in Nashville!

Hey y'all! Here we are with yet another blog entry. I know, we could almost make this a regular thing! We can dream right? So what's new in Nashville...

We survived the great flood of May 2010. In a span of 2 days, Nashville received somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 inches of rain. It is one thing to imagine a blanket of 15 inches of water falling all across middle Tennessee, but then to realize that water runs to low areas and ends up as 10 feet of water here and there is an entirely different concept that very very quickly became our reality. Fortunately for us, our apartment is on relatively high ground so we were spared from the quickly gathering water. While all of our windows leaked (to the tune of using ALL of our towels to mop up water!) and we had some wet carpet in the coat closet, and losing power about half way through the weekend, we were spared any major damage. Without power, we were no longer able to monitor the storm and its devastating effects. The true scope of the damage would become clear to us in the next few days. Catching glimpses of the devastation in the news and driving around town was eye-opening to say the least. Several neighborhoods just 1/2 a mile from our apartment were essentially destroyed. Houses, while still standing, needed to be completely gutted. Now there are gigantic piles of debris, sheetrock, and cabinets in front of each house. Clean up has begun, but will take a great deal of time to complete. In all of this, two things have been made very clear. First, the grace of God is with us always and we thank Him for sparing our home. And secondly, the Nashville community is wonderfully resilient! Community outreach has been extensive and fundraisers are everywhere. I'm sure in a short while, all of Nashville will be back to full strength and better than ever! One last thing to give some scope on the amount of rain, the previous 2-day record for rain fall was a little over 6 inches. Yes, this more than DOUBLED the previous record!! Needless to say, this is easily the wettest month in Nashville history, by far.

Well, I see that this is already getting pretty long, so I think I will try a "Nicole", and break this up into several smaller posts! Up next, cooking with Julia Child, and Draco takes a swim!

See Draco on Youtube!

Hey everyone! We put up our first video on Youtube yesterday of Draco watching other dogs on our laptop. It was just too funny to keep to ourselves! Hope you enjoy!