Gone fishin'

We took the kids fishing this morning at a family fishing spot, Rowland Pond, outside McCall. It took some time to get set up and once the poles were cast Jillian could be heard asking questions such as "When is the fish gonna eat the worm?" or "Can I reel it in now?" Evelyn was very patient and when she got a pole cast she sat pretty still waiting for the fish to nibble. Poor Gordon just wanted to reel the thing in constantly and he made a mess of at least to reels before he went home to take a nap. Maybe next year kid.

Jillian caught her first fish on a pole that Grandpa had cast and he let her reel it in. It's a small rainbow trout and it happened to be tagged by ID Fish and Game. Jill wasn't afraid to hold the worms or take a picture with her fish.

About an hour later Evelyn also caught her first fish on a pole grandpa cast (thanks grandpa). She was startled by her wriggling fishy just as I took this photo, so I figured it would be best to hold the line for her.

 Just as we snapped the photo my brother-in-law let me know that my pole had a fish. It was a real beauty too, about 9 inches or so...well it was a kids pond (no teasing Tyler). After we caught our fish we went and looked at other fishing spots around the pond but instead we found a huge swarm of mosquitoes that wanted to eat us. After that the girls decided it would be more fun to go home and get some food. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cluff for helping the girls catch their first fish!

My Favorite "Bdessert"

A few years back Shaunie tried out a dessert recipe (or, if you are one of my kids, bdessert) that she found in a cooking magazine. It's called Éclair Torte and, as you can see in this photo, it is incredible.

Every time we're invited to a dessert party we bring this and the reaction is always very positive. It's become my favorite dessert and I request it every year for birthday rather than have a cake or a pie (yes, birthday pie, it's an incredible thing!).

Mmmmmmmm, don't you want to eat your computer screen right now? In case you want to try it sometime, here's the recipe:

Éclair Torte                           Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients: 1 cup water, ½ cup butter (or margarine), ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 cup flour, 4 eggs, 1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, 2 3.4oz pkgs vanilla pudding, 3 cups milk, chocolate syrup, 1 container cool whip.

Bring 1 cup water, ½ cup butter, and ¼ tsp. salt to a boil in a saucepan (you can substitute margarine if desired). Add 1 cup flour, stir until smooth. Add 4 eggs, on at a time, beat well after each addition. Spread into greased 13x9 pan bake @ 400º for 30-35 min. until puffed & golden brown. Cool puff completely. In a mixing bowl mix 2 pkgs (3.4 oz. each) of vanilla pudding and 3 cups cold milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, beat 1 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese until very smooth. Slowly add the pudding to the cream cheese while stirring.  Spread over puff. Refrigerate for 20 min. Spread cool whip on top. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.