Baking and other things

Sunday is my day off from milking. Sena and Aiyana milk Opal, while Ed watches them and does chores at the barn. I stay at the house, have my coffee by the fire, and then make pancakes for everyone to eat when they come in from milking.

Sena milks while Aiyana holds a bucket to hand her when she needs it. Olive is watching in the background.

Sena's been doing some baking at Christmas time. These are "cornulete", a treat mamaia used to make for my sister and I in Romania. Sena made the dough from scratch, all nice and buttery, and the filling was elderberry jam, made from elderberries growing by the river. Quite a treat.

Aiyana with the Christmas tree. This year, we had a proper tree, as opposed to a bunch of branches tied together, which is what we usually do. This tree was from our new property in Willington, and it had to go, because Ed was clearing some land for cow pasture. He saved it until Christmas, and then he and the girls cut it down and brought it home.

Sena's birthday party was small and sweet. Here she is sitting between two of her very good friends, after blowing the candles on her cake. Aiyana made the candles out of beeswax at my sister's house, and my sister made her amazing icecream cake, with homemade vanilla icecream and cookies and chocolate, as requested by Sena.

Sena and I made this traditional Romanian Christmas cake, called "cozonac". It was my first time, and hers as well, and although we had some setbacks with the yeast (it was old and did not rise), all in all, the cake came out pretty darn good. It had a filling made with pecans, cocoa, maple syrup and a little lemon rind. Can't go wrong with that. While baking, it filled our whole house with a sweet aroma that I remember from when I was a child.

Peace