Ahhhh...FOOD!

The only non food picture in this post. This is when Elena is at her best. Isn't she adorable?
This was at the Colombian bakery I told you about. We had Colombian tamales which are completely different then Mexican tamales. First of all, they're wrapped in banana leaves, and they have lots of vegetables in them. They were quite tasty. However, the winner last night was the empanadas. SOOO GOOD!!! I love the beef ones.
Leo said he had a weird flashback, because a bunch of Colombianos came in the store and he said it was weird to hear that many people talking with a Colombian accent, he felt like he should be back in Colombia.
Ana had a hard time picking out what she wanted. So much to choose from.
Then we went to a Colombian grocery store that was relatively close by the bakery.
They actually didn't have that much more than we can find at random other stores around our house. Leo didn't find his favorite treat, so he was a little disappointed.
He did get these. Chicken flavored potato chips. Not bad actually. I can't say anything anyways, because I'll just get mocked for ketchup flavored potato chips.
The heavenly empanadas. We bought more to bring home and we ate them tonight with dinner. Delicioso.
Millhojas--haven't tried these yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
Sorry for all these out of focus photos, I'm pathetic. These are panderos, so weird to eat a cookie that tastes like black licorice. But then, I'm no fan of licorice.
This is what Ana chose out for her and Elena. They seemed to enjoy them.
Ahhh, I love Colombiana. It's my favorite pop ever. Ask Amy (my sister) she's had one and likes it too. Anyway, it was really fun to drive down there. It was in Chicago by NIU. It was so cool though because we drove by about five or six blocks of stores and places like these: Assyrian American Association, Indo-Pak Immigration Law Center, Jewish Community Center, Sahara Medical Center, Tahoota Restuarant, Fiza Palace, Chandra Exclusive, Patel Brother's Grocery, Hookah Lounge (9.99 all day every day), Tel-Aviv Meat Market, and Al Nahrein Meat. I felt like I was in a different country every other store we passed. Now I know where to go if I ever need to buy a sari (there was at least nine stores for them).
And this is what I was doing today. I tried out three different truffle recipes and made a double batch of fudge.
These are definitely going to be made again. Trust me, the picture is bad but these taste heavenly. Celestial even. Nutella hazelnut truffles. The smell of the roasted hazelnuts was enough to make me want to make them again.
This was the truffle recipe on back of the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag. I'll have to compare them to the recipe below once I'm detoxed from all the chocolate I already ate today. So far, I can't say which is better.
These are the truffles made from the Joy of Baking website. They definitely were creamy. Have to love that. But like I said above, the jury's still out. Anyway, I love Christmas chocolates even more now. Leo since we met always said he hated Christmas, but this year he said he loves Christmas because of the chocolates I make. Woohooo!!!! They've worked their magic. Gotta love that.