American ??? day 47

10,508 steps 

Dio's dinner was amazing! For the main dish, he chose braised beef in red wine & rosemary sauce from an Italian cookbook. It looks like beef & potatoes...but explodes with taste. You marinade the beef in red wine, garlic, crushed peppercorns, onions, carrots, & celery. Then you sear the beef with bacon fat and braise for 3 hours in the marinade + rosemary. Then you concentrate and thicken the braising liquid. 

We accompanied with beef with mashed potatoes...but not just regular mashed potatoes. No way. These potatoes were mixed with browned butter and sour cream. Zari kept sneaking her spoon into the bowl to snitch another taste, and another, and another. 

For dessert, Dio chose a 3-layer ice cream cake with a cookie crumb bottom. We made the dark chocolate cookies from scratch but bought the ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, mint chocolate chip). 

We all ate too much. Then we got invited to be taste testers for a "Great British Baking Show" episode featuring a Victoria sponge sandwich cake. Our neighbors are competing (virtually) with other friends. I shared a few bites with Zari. The cake was filled with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam & buttercream icing. 

Don't worry; the kids found plenty of room in their dessert stomachs! 

Also Inga had a soccer game today and scored the only goal in her team. That's all for now. Bonne nuit!