My New Best Friend

Yes, it is Erin from B98.7. I ran into her. She had to run over and "flirt" with London. She thought she was beautiful. Then, the cherry on top of the best friend sundae...she said I was skinny! Aren't best friends the best!!!

P.S. I should have taken a picture, but didn't, so I got this one online.

Guess Who's a TEENAGER!

That's right, he is the ripe old age of 13! (I can't find the good pic of him in his Lehi uniform, so this will have to do). Shane and I started dating just after this young man turned 5. After being introduced and saying hi to me, his first comments to me were, "We know what our Dad calls you." (said in a slightly teasing voice.) To which I responded, "What?" He replied, "Suzy." Like it was a special nickname or something. What a cutie pie!

I can't believe how much he has grown and changed in the last 8 year. I also can't believe we have a teenager in our house (other than the foreign exchange students). For Aidan's birthday we wanted to do something special and one day it hit us! He loves everything sports, especially BYU. The Mountain West Basketball Tournament happened to fall right over his birthday. So, we planned the whole trip and didn't say a word to him about it. Even Max kept it a secret. On Friday Shane picked him and Andrew up from school. When they got home I told them to run to the bathroom and head to the car, we have to be somewhere. Andrew opened the car door and saw a cooler and was like, "Are we going camping?" Then we gave Aidan an envelope with Happy Birthday written on it. He opened it and saw tickets to the championship game inside. He jumped out of the car and hugged his Dad. It was awesome. Andrew was still a little confused, but Aidan said, "We're going to Vegas!" Andrew said, "Yes!" It was great! We had a fun weekend and I got a few pictures I will try to upload later on.

DN Project - Recipe #13

Herbed Chicken & Broccoli

For this recipe I won't post it because it just wasn't good. I'll leave it at that.

DN Project - Recipe #12

Baked Potato Soup
5 Cups Potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb. Bacon
1 onion, copped
3 T. Butter
1/2 Cup Flour
2 Cans Chicken Broth
1 Cup Cream
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 tsp. Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Grated Cheese
Green Onions or Chives, chopped

Cook potatoes in salted water, drain and set aside. Do not overcook. Cut bacon in 1/2 inch pieces, cook in fry pan until crisp. Pout about 2 T. of the bacon drippings into a heavy saucepan. Add butter and chopped onion. Saute until onions are soft. Stir in flour to make a roux. Add chicken broth. Stir until smooth, and add cream and sour cream. Continue to stir and cook until mixture starts to come to a boil and becomes thick. Stir in bacon and seasonings. If too thick add a little milk. Add potatoes. Serve with grated cheese and chopped green onions or chives.

DN Project - Recipe #11

For the following recipe it called for marinating the lamb and then cooking it and then making a gravy. I just didn't have time. I decided to bake it with the entire marinade on it as more of a glaze and not do the gravy. I thought it was very good. I have NEVER made lamb. I was very nervous. We had someone give us a lamb roast, so I needed to use it. I know it isn't a leg of lamb, but the roast worked well too.

Minted Leg of Lamb
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/4 Cup lemon juice
3 T. white vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground dry mustard
4-5 pound leg of lamb (or roast)

Mix all ingredients and heat to boiling. Simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over the roast in a roasting pan. I covered with tin foil. Bake at 325 degrees for 2-2.5 hours. Make sure the internal temperature is between 170-180 degrees. Serve it hot!

DN Project - Recipe #10

Cranberry Chipolte Beef

1 - 2/5-3 lb. chuck pot roast
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 - 16oz. can whole cranberry sauce
2-3 tsp. finely chopped canned chipolte chile peppers in adobo sauce (remember the more seeds the spicier)

Trim fat from roast. Place roast and onions in crock pot. Combine other ingredients in a small bowl and then top beef. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Shred beef and serve over rice.

SO GOOD!

DN Project - Recipe #9

Southwestern White Bean Chili

1 Cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. crushed dried oregano
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 - 15.5 oz. cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained.
4 Cups chicken broth
3 Cups chopped, cooked chicken (about 1 pound)
2 Cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Sour Cream (Optional)
Cilantro Leaves (Optional)

Combine all ingredients in a pot except sour cream, cilantro and cheese. Cook until piping hot. You can also cook in a crock pot. Before serving, stir in cheese until melted. Serve plain or with optional toppings.

This is FABULOUS and EASY!

DN Project - Recipe #8

Creamy Italian Chicken

5-6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Pkg. Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mixed with 1/2 Cup Water
1 - 8 oz. Pkg. Cream Cheese
1 Family Size Can Cream of Chicken Soup (20 oz)
1 Cup Sour Cream

I couldn't find the Dressing Mix, so I just used 1/2 Cup Italian Salad Dressing without the water.

Place Chicken and Italian Seasoning mix and water in crock pot. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Remove chicken from crock pot and cut into bite size pieces. Pour juice or drippings from crock pot into blender along with cream cheese, cream of chicken soup, and sour cream. Blend until smooth. Pour back in crock pot and stir in chicken. Heat until hot. If sauce is too thick you can add a little milk. Serve over rice or Pasta.

Super Yummy!

DN Project - Recipe #7

I have made scones before with left over bread dough or courtesy of Rhodes Rolls. But, I wanted to try something new. This one intrigued me because it rises in the refrigerator!

Refrigerator Scones
1 Qt Buttermilk
2 T. Yeast - dissolved in 1/2 Cup warm water.
2 T. Sugar
2 Beaten eggs
6 T. Oil
8 Cups Flour
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add buttermilk, eggs, oil and yeast mixture. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate. Let rise. Roll out into flour and cut. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

DN Project - Recipe #6

Homemade Bread in 1-Hour

10 1/2 Cups White Bread Flour
1/2 Cup sugar
1 T. Salt
3 Rounded T. SAF-INSTANT Yeast
3 T. Liquid Lecithin (Available and Maceys or online)
4 Cups Hot Tap Water

Mix dry ingredients. Add Lecithin and water. Mic for 1 minute. Dough should be sticky. If too dry, add more water. Mix for 5 minutes. Spray counter or cutting board with Pam. Remove from bowl and place on counter. Divide in 4 portions. Shape into loaves. Spray bread pans with Pam. Place dough in pans. Cover with dish towel and let rise 25 min. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread 25 min. If using a stand mixer, make half the recipe.

For Whole Wheat Bread: Use same recipe except add 1 more T. Lecithin. Add 1 Cup Applesauce and only 3 Cups hot tap water.

DN Project - Recipe #5

Oven Stew

2 lbs. Stew Meat
8 Carrots, peeled & sliced
1 onion chopped
Celery
8 Potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 Can cream of Chicken Soup
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1 Can Tomato Sauce
1 Qt. Stewed Tomatoes
1 Pkg. Lipton Onion Soup

Place all veggies in roasting pan. In a bowl, combine soups & tomatoes. Pour over meat & veggies, Sprinkle with onion soup. Cover and bake 8 hours at 250 degrees. Stir occasionally.

I used my crock pot instead, and generic brand onion soup. Roasts were also on sale, so I bought one and cut it up instead of spending the extra money on stew meat.

DN Project - Recipe #4

Cherry Lime-Aide Slush

2 - 6 oz. cans Frozen Lime-aide Concentrate
3 Cups Sugar
8 Cups Water

Mix together and freeze overnight in ice cube trays
When ready to serve, combine the ice cubes with 2 - 2 liters cherry 7-up.

I did it 1 - 2 liter at a time with half the cubes. The cubes puff up and are beautigul and yummy.

DN Project - Recipe #3

Artichoke Spinach Dip
1 Can Artichoke Hears (Drained & Chopped)
1/2 Red Onion, Chopped
1 - 10 oz. package chopped spinach (thawed and drained as much as possible)
1 - 8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 Cup Mayonnaise
2 tsp. Garlic Salt
1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Blend cream cheese, mayo and garlic salt until smooth and creamy. Stir in spinach, artichokes and cheese. Mix well. Put in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until hot. Remove from oven. Top with a little more cheese.

TASTY!

DN Project - Recipe 2

Filafel in Pita with Yogurt Dipping Sauce
By: Guy Fieri

2 tablespoons canola oil, plus extra for frying
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (14-ounce) cans chick peas (garbanzo beans), drained
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 egg
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons flour
2 cups freshly chopped parsley leaves
3/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro leaves
Pitas, for sandwich
Toppings: shredded lettuce and chopped tomato, sliced cucumbers

Put 2 Tbsp. oil in pan and sweat onion. Add garlic and pepper.
In a food processor, mix the rest of the ingredients until they pull from the side or you like the consistency.

I did more than sweat the onions. I like onions to be tasted, and not chomped into. I also did not have the pepper, so I did without. I pulsed the ingredients in a food processor and I let it get quite mushy. It was like hummus on steroids! Really, it was not as smooth as hummus. I also would only do the salt to taste. I felt 1 T. was too much salt. I then grabbed little amounts of the mixture and just dropped them into 350 degree oil. He says to roll it, mine was too mushy. I did them about 1" around and 1/2 inch thick, or whatever is your fancy. I fried them on both sides and then let them sit on paper towels. I stuffed them in pitas with the toppings and the following yogurt sauce.

Yogurt Dipping Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro leaves
2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

I would actually add the chopped up cucumbers right into the sauce instead of using them as a topping. They just fit better with the sauce.

This recipe was AWESOME!

DN Project - Recipe 1

Bow Ties With Mushrooms & Spinach

8 oz. dried pasta
1/2 C. Chopped Onion
1 C. sliced portobello or other fresh mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced fresh spinach
1 t. snipped fresh thyme
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 T. shredded Parmesan cheese

OK. For this recipe I had to adapt a little bit. I didn't use bow ties because I had left over pasta. For the mushrooms I used baby portobellos because they were on sale. For the fresh spinach I used about 6-8 oz. of the frozen spinach, thawed and drained. I used dried thyme, just remember don't use as much. I had to use what was on hand and it was FABULOUS!!! One major note: Do NOT use grated Parmesan from the can. It is not the same without the shredded Parmesan. I buy it on sale and freeze it.

Divine Nature Project

For my Divine Nature Project I decided to focus on the kitchen. What I mean by that is that I get in a rut sometimes as to what to make for dinner. You know how you have your staple dinners that you have over and over? I recently watched the show "Worst Cooks in America" and I was inspired to try something new. I need to be better and I need to have some new ideas so our dinners don't get boring. I did 14 days of new recipes. Some of them I have done similar items, but I knew the recipes would give me a new way to do them and possibly make them easy enough to do on a more regular basis. So, I will post all 14 of the recipes and tell you how they went. Try some, especially if I list they are yummy.

More Sweet Moments

I need to do a better job at writing down the moments that we have. I often get too busy and then I don't remember if I have put them down or not. So, I wanted to add a few of our recent moments with Max.

I just bought him some new undies. He opened the package and started running into the next room. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Showing Alex the best undies in the world!"

We were listening to primary songs and the song "He Sent His Son" was on. It came to a part where it says, "He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath." Max said, "This is where I always get sad." I asked him why and he said, "Because he died for us."

The other day is was on this kick of needing to play school. I used to do this when I was younger, so he is definitely my kid. He played it with me and Little Lady and then when Shane got home he wanted to play it again. He sat us down in his room and told us that we needed to learn a letter, color and number. We learned red. Then he got out his treasure rocks and gave us each one to jiggle (juggle). He said rock starts with R. Then after letter time we did counting. He gave us some of his money to count. We each got the same amount and had to count them. After this he read us a story. After story time we went downstairs so I could go to Young Women. He continued to have snack time with Daddy and Little Lady.

I am constantly amazed by my kids. They are so special and I wouldn't trade any of our moments together.

Little Lady's Video

For Little Lady's birthday party I made a short slideshow of some of the pictures I have from her first year. I thought I would share it with everyone.

New Names

I would love to use new names for everyone. London, Max, Aidan & Andrew just aren't doing it for me. I just want to make sure they are names that grow with the kids. We call Max, Mr. Man. We call London, Little Lady. We also have nicknames for Aidan & Andrew, but they are little names. Once I figure out what to call them on the blog I will change the names.

London's Birthday Dinner

On London's actual birthday we took her out to Chuck-a-Rama. This is a favorite for her because there is so much she can eat. She had a great time and so did we. Aidan and Andrew weren't able to be there. London shares a birthday with Aidan & Andrew's Mom, so they were celebrating with her that evening. Maybe next year we'll get some cute pics with the whole family.

Elvis also joined us, which Alex couldn't get over, so we had to take a picture!

Ice Cream Anyone?

The other night we were rearranging some things and Max was watching a "kid show" (this is what he calls any children's programming on tv). Shane walked upstairs into the kitchen to find him there instead. He had out 4 bowls (besides London there were 4 of us home that night) and the ice cream. He was trying to dish up ice cream for everyone. So grownup!

Andrew's Fifth Grade Program

Awhile ago we went to Andrew's school program. They talked about the flag and when the different states were brought into the Union. He was part of Virginia, which he wasn't too excited about. I don't know why, really most of the states didn't do much. Anyway, he would mouth along with all the parts. They did a great job and it was short and sweet. Just like I like it when I have a 1 year old and 4 year old with me.

1st Birthday Party

The Saturday after London's birthday we had a birthday party with our families. My boss was kind enough to let us have it in the kitchen at work. It was simple, but cute. Here are some of the pictures from the event.

The cake looked better in person. I did it with a rough finish, so the picture just makes it look undone. It could have been a little better, but my week was a mess, so I had little time to make the cake.

London's Last Day At the Hospital

I finally got all my pictures off my camera. Talk about a pain! Here are a couple pictures of London the night she was released from the hospital. She was SO happy!

A Racist?

I received a little Highlights sample in the mail the other day. Today Max was sitting there working on one of the pages. It was a puzzle page. The missing pieces of the pictures were stickers in the shape of puzzle pieces. The child could then do the puzzle.

He came to me so frustrated and said, "Mom, there is a dark face and a light face on the picture and it makes me so mad!"

I said, "why does it make you mad?"

He said the faces should be the same and they are not. I was getting a little worried at this point and asked him to show me the picture, which he did. To my relief and humor, I saw what he was saying. One of the puzzle pieces had half of a child's face on it. The other half was on the original picture. Because they had been printed on different media and at different times, they didn't match exactly. So, this little girl had half her face a little more tan than the other half. LOL!