Checking things off my to-do list

A while back I started a to-do list of some unfinished projects I had laying around the house that I wanted to get done before the baby was born.  It's taken a couple months but I'm finally checking some of those things off and finishing some projects.  It feels good to accomplish something tangible and to see the results of just a little time and effort.  Here's a 12x12 Salt Lake Temple picture craft that I bought the photo and board for a while back but wasn't quite sure how to do.  I finally painted the wood black, modge podged the picture on and waited for it to dry for a few days and then finished it with another coat of modge podge to seal it and give it a textured look.  It looks so good up on my mantle!

This was an unfinished wood board that had a metal plate glued on it and 4 pegs for hanging stuff.  I got a couple of these at a 90% off sale at Roberts, so for like $3 each, and I finally found a use for one.  I painted it black like the wood frames above it and put it in the entry way by the front door for Abbie to put her backpack and coat on when she comes home from school.  We put little notes or pictures on the magnet board and it just really goes with the black and white pictures that I already had hanging there. 

I've had mending pile a mile high sitting in the corner of my bedroom for a while and slowly but surely I've been getting those things done.  One of the fun things that I've done is convert a bunch of my old maternity pants from just having a low band to having a stretchy, over the belly, tight, smooth band that is more popular these days and they are way more comfortable and stay up better.  I've changed almost all of my old maternity pants and skirts to have this and it's nice having things that fit better and that I can wear the whole pregnancy through.  I even wore one of my favorite pairs of jeans that had this type of band for most of the time between having Porter and getting pregnant with baby #4 so I'm sure I'll be getting lots of use out of these in the next few years.

This wasn't really on my to-do list but it was a fun project to do with the girls and they loved helping me sort colors and make new crayons.  It was an idea I saw a long time on a blog and it was so easy.  You just peel all your old, broken crayons (that took the most time), sort them into pretty combinations and similar colors in a muffin tin, and melt for about 15 minutes at 350.  Then let them harden overnight (or in the freezer) and pop them out when cool!

 Again, not something that was originally on my to-do list but I thought it was pretty cute and creative.  I'm the primary president in our ward (yeah, I know, not quite what I had in mind when I moved to a new ward and am expecting a fourth child) but anyway, we needed to come up with something for the kids for their birthdays for the year.  I found these cute silicone bracelets that say CTR and Choose the Right on the other side (the primary theme for the year) and then I found these Jolly Rancher "Chews" that were the perfect size for the bracelets to fit onto.  Each kid gets one on their birthday (the bracelets come in 10 different colors) and hopefully they like them. 

Since I'm getting bigger and growing a little baby, I'm hungrier more so I've been cooking and trying new recipes lately.  I found this recipe for cinnamon rolls that are really similar to Cinnabon that were delicious and pretty easy to make.  I've never really liked any of the homemade cinnamon rolls that I've made in the past but these were to die for.  I made a few changes to the recipe after reading some of the reviews but overall it was pretty similar. 

Here's my recipe, enjoy!

Soft, Moist, and Gooey Cinnamon Buns

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Ready in: 3 Hrs 35 min
Servings: 24

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
4 Tbsp melted butter
4 Tbsp water
1/2 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 cups flour
1 Tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Icing
4 tsp milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. In a bread machine pan place the milk, beaten egg, melted butter, water, vanilla pudding mix, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Select the Dough cycle.

2. When cycle is finished, remove the dough and knead for 3 to 5 minutes.  Roll out to a large rectangle.

3. Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Spread over dough.  Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and raisins, if desired.  Starting with the widest end, roll the dough into a log.  Pinch to seal seams.  Cut into 1 inch slices and place in a greased 9x13 inch pan.  Place in a draft-free space and allow to rise until doubled (I turned my oven on to 150 degrees until warm and then turned it off and let the rolls rise in it for about 30 min). 

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  To make the frosting mix the milk, powdered sugar, softened butter, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Spread over warm cinnamon rolls.

Grasshopper Pie anyone?

For April Fool's Day this year we had some friends over for dinner so I decided to play this joke on them. One of these slices of pie is not what you think it is. Can you guess which one is not real and what it might be made of instead?

Scroll down for the answer...

It looks pretty real, right? The fake pie is made out of mashed potatoes, crushed oreos, and food coloring! I gave our friends and Jared a slice of the mashed potato pie and me the real one and as we ate it, I started saying things like "Oh, this is so good, yum, etc" and Jared took a bite for good measure also (he was in on the joke). After 1 or 2 bites, we said "You don't have to eat any more, April Fools"! It was pretty funny and our guests took it well. They said they were prepared to eat the whole slice, just to be polite so I'm glad we stopped them. Of course, I got out the real pie and we all enjoyed eating that after laughing about it and seeing how similar the real and fake slices look.

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I can't take credit for this joke, though. We had this played on us by some other friends a few years ago and I've always wanted to try it so this year it worked perfectly. Did you or someone you know play a good joke on someone or get April Fooled? Tell me about it, I might want to try it next year (not on you, though, don't worry)!

When life gives you lemons...

Make lemonade!

Abbie's been begging me for weeks to make lemonade and let her sell it outside like they do in a Max and Ruby episode and so finally we gave in and let her make a stand inside (since it was too cold outside at the time and I don't think anyone on our street would buy it anyway). Anyway, here she is, open for business!

Pouring some lemonade for Leah. We used a recipe that Abbie had in a "Little House on the Praire" cookbook and it was pretty good.
Leah paying her a penny (we're pretty cheap around here!)

My little entrepenuers!

Enjoying the "fruits" of their labors. Abbie had to pee twice as much as usual that day since she drank so much!
Now if I could only turn that enthusiasm for selling lemonade into cleaning their rooms and finishing their dinner...hmmm.

Harvest Time!

I finally got around to picking all the rest of the vegetables from our garden before the frost hits and here's our bounty! I had picked a lot of tomatoes over the last month or so and made salsa with them but these ones never turned red so I thought I would just have to throw them away. But then I found out from my SIL that if you wrap them in newspaper, they will ripen indoors. So I did that and already, a week later, I've got 4 red ones and 2 more yellowish red ones that are almost ready to eat. Anyone up for more salsa?

As for the carrots, they tasted marvelous, so much better than store bought ones. I made a beef stew last weekend with half of them and we could totally taste the difference. Then yesterday I made this delicious carrot cake with the other half and oh my gosh, it was the best carrot cake ever! Try this recipe if you have carrots you're trying to use up, even if they are store bought.

Carrot Cake
4 eggs
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Cream Cheese frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.


Because this was our first year of having a successful garden and actually getting something out of it, I thought I'd show it's progress from start to finish. We did a row of corn and carrots and then sections of tomatoes, green beans, and lettuce. This is planting day, May 31st, 2008.


1 month later, July 3rd

2 months later, Aug. 3rd

2 1/2 months later, Aug. 22nd

3 months later, Sep. 4th

4 1/2 months later, Oct. 18th

It's sad to see our little plot all barren and dead but we're excited for the spring when our tulips will come up and we can start it all over again!

Oh, for the love of salsa!

How do you go from this?

To this?

It's a little thing called salsa!

I made this delicious homemade salsa from fresh tomatoes from our garden last night and it was heavenly. The only problem was the jalepenos! I had made the same salsa a few days ago and didn't have any problem cutting the jalepeno bare-handed so I figured it was fine to do it again. About an hour after cutting and seeding 1 jalepeno, I started to feel burning in the fingertips of my left hand, kind of like a bad sunburn. After running my hand under cold water and using an ice pack, the stinging just seemed to get worse, spreading down my fingers and under the nails.

So I turned to the internet for what to do (http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/7275.html) and started trying all sorts of interesting remedys to help with the intense stinging. I tried a baking soda paste several times, rubbing alcohol, milk, salt, honey, soap, Neosporin, Ibuprophen, and even Desitin (diaper rash cream). Nothing seemed to work except the milk, as long as it was cold. As soon as my hand dried or the milk got warm, it started to sting again. After a couple hours of pain, I finally gave up with all these crazy options (some of the ones I didn't try was orange juice, toothpaste, olive oil, mud, vodka, urine, gasoline, and paint thinner!) wrapped my hand up in a towel with an ice pack, and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and guess what? No pain! I couldn't believe it! I don't know if it was just the time passing that finally worked or something I did that helped but it feels so good to have my hand back and not be in so much pain. The inconvenience of using gloves while handling peppers is much better than dealing with that pain and I didn't even have it that bad, compared to some of the people on the website above. Now for those of you who would like to try my salsa recipe, here it is. But you have to promise me you'll use gloves!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

4 tomatoes, chopped and drained
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 green jalepeno, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Mix everything together and add more peppers, garlic, and salt to taste if needed. Chill for 1 hour. Makes about 4 cups.

Grandma Reita's Bread

In my family Grandma's bread is lengendary. We all grew up smelling it as soon as we walked into her house and eating big rolls of it with butter and honey. I finally tracked down the recipe, through a sister who got it from another sister who watched Grandma make it and estimated how much of this or that she threw in since Grandma never used measuring cups. It could be that some if the ingredients were just something she happened to have on hand that day and wanted to use up. Nevertheless, I tried it out the other day and it turned out pretty good! Mind you, this isn't like your typical sissy fluffy white bread that most people make. Grandma was a serious health fanatic and it was only whole grains and natural ingredients for her. So here is the recipe, try it if you dare!

Combine and let sit for 5 minutes:
3 cups warm water
2 Tbsp yeast
1 cup honey (seems like a lot, I used 2/3 cup)
A big handful of oats (approx. 1/2 - 1 cup)

Blend together and add to above:
2 eggs
1 whole potato, mashed (approx. 1/2 - 1 cup)

Add:
2/3 cup oil
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 Tbsp salt
8 cups red wheat flour (I used white wheat because that's all I had but red is better, preferably freshly ground)

Add more flour or water as needed to get a nice firm dough and let rise until double in size, about 1 hour. Punch down and form into loaves (about 4) and place in greased bread pans and let rise until double in size again. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Eat warm with butter and honey!

Picking Peaches

So we couldn't stop with just one fruit picking excursion, we decided to up the ante and try peaches this time. There's this great little orchard about 45 min away called Erie Orchards that had some good prices on fresh peaches and also had a little store with other produce, donuts, cidar slush, jam, honey, etc. They also have a little petting farm and hay barn for the kids to play in but we didn't have enough time to stay for that this time. Anyway, we were there for about 2 hours (probably about 30 real productive minutes of picking time between rounding up the kids and make sure everyone was happy), but I got 26 lbs! I made this peach cobbler http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Peach-Cobbler/Detail.aspx with about 1/4 of them and it turned out great but now I need some ideas with what to do with the other 20 lbs. Are there any other fruit picking enthusiasts/food storage cooks out there with any ideas? I don't have any canning jars or a pressure cooker so canning slices or making jam is out. I have room in my freezer, though, so that's an option or I could try drying slices if anyone knows of a way to do it in the oven. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Blueberries, blueberries, blueberries!

A friend and I went blueberry picking last week with our kids and had a great time. Abbie and her friend each had their own bucket and did so well filling them up by themselves. They probably ate as much or more than what was in their bucket.

Leah stayed busy playing in the dirt and turning herself into a puppy dog!

I picked about 4-1/2 lbs in 2 hours, which is pretty good considering I had to stop about every other minute to go find one of the kids or get them something to keep them happy. The blueberries tasted great and we had fun eating them raw, in pancakes, and ...

In a yummy triple berry crisp that I made over the weekend. It was really easy to make and was so good, with a little whipped cream on top. Here's the link to the recipe if you want to try it out: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Triple-Berry-Crisp/Detail.aspx. I used blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries and did twice as many berries and half as much butter, per some of the reviews. Also, I used wheat flour and Splenda and it still tasted great. Go try it out!