The Hustle....

I substituted for my mom today, who is a dance teacher.  So, for several hours I saw myself, in spandex, in front of some big mirrors.  The whole time I was dancing in front of all these cute little girls, I thought, "my bum is totally jiggling right now.  gross.  my mom's bum does not jiggle.  it is made of steel."  Talk about a wake up call.   I feel so fat.  Time to call the carbohydrate police because that is so much my weakness right now.

But I digress...

Family Home Evening was fun and fast.  

Brinley gave a lesson on bullying.  She used this article from our church children's magazine, The Friend:

So one example she gave of bullying was rolling your eyes and laughing at someone.  Nathan proceeded to act that out, only he did it in such a dramatic way that it made us all laugh.  Then we laughed at how we were "bullying" Nathan for the way he was acting out bullying.  Oh funny.

A great scripture in this article was Mosiah 2:17, which reads:

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

For an activity, we stood in a circle and danced to Disco music, one of the songs being "The Hustle", which is from my birth year, 1975.  Woot Woot!   We each came up with 8 counts of music and put it all together.

I chose a super fast activity because we needed to get to bed!

And our treat was one of my favorite cookies ever!

 Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

1 egg

1 c. mashed bananas (3 medium)

1/2 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 3/4 c. sifted flour

1 3/4 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Mix together and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.  Makes 2 dozen.  These are so soft and yummy.

 Aw, man.  They are FULL of carbohydrates.

Pearl's Stuffing

 I had this a few years ago, when we lived in Montana.  Several families joined together to have Thanksgiving dinner at our church, and my friend Miranda Lotz provided the yummiest stuffing!  It is made with french bread, which provides a wonderful texture!  She explained that "It makes too much! Like feed a whole ward amounts."  So, I may cut it in half :)  But this is what I am making for the Thanksgiving dinner this year, along with Grandma Jolley's Jell-o salad, Grandma Farner's soup, and Brinley's chocolate pie!

Pearl's Stuffing
3 large loaves french bread
4 large yellow onions, chopped
1/2 head of celery
1/2 bunch of parsley
4 small packages of Jimmy Dean sage sausage
3 cubes of butter
2 cans of chicken broth
1/2 can of water to rinse each can

Poultry seasoning, thyme, oregano, garlic powder (not garlic salt), salt and pepper--all to taste

Cut the bread into 1/2 inch sized cubes. Set aside to dry overnight. Cook the sausage and add bread directly into the meat and oil-- don't drain. In a large pan melt the butter and saute the onions, celery and parsley until tender. Then add broth and spices to the sauteed vegetables. Bring to a boil to allow spices to infuse the broth with flavor. Then pour the liquid mix over the bread/sausage mix.


"I think it's best if you make it a day ahead and then put it in a crockpot to reheat it. If you don't it tends to be kind of dry, but if you like it dry make it Thanksgiving day."-- Miranda

French Bread

This goes great with any pasta dish, and makes 2 lovely loaves.

It comes from a sweet little cookbook called "What's For Dinner?"

2 T Yeast
2 1/2 c. Warm Water
1 T Sugar
1 T Oil
1 T Salt

7 1/4 c Flour
1/4 c Cornmeal
1 Egg White
1 T Water

Mix first 5 ingredients.  Add 4 cups flour.  Add enough flour to make a stiff dough and mix well.  Cover and rest for 15 minutes.  Knead 5 minutes.  Let rise until doubled.  Divide in 1/2.  Shape into 2 loaves.  Place on greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal.  Cut diagonal slits 1/2 inch deep, 1 inch apart on top of loaves (I use kitchen shears and snip the dough).  Whisk egg white and water together and brush on the loaves.  Rise until doubled.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes (until loaves are golden brown).

The Temple

Cory took me to the Idaho Falls Temple today.

I walked through the green glass doors,
rushing water flowed out.
I carried with me carpet bags,
full of the cares of the world.
I dropped these at the feet
of those holding the cleansing authority,
standing in white before me,
who speak the tongue of Angels.
Take my chains, peel off the husks of pride
distill me down to my pure beginnings.
As a child I come to the altar
and offer
my whole soul.
Break my heart
and pour in the healing balm of Gilead.
Cover me in armor,
strengthen my weak limbs.
Lead me back through the green glass doors,
where with the water I rush
to the battle of the day.

Family Home Evening

Around here, when it is your turn on Monday to make the treat for Family night, it is akin to a Secret Mission.  You get alone time with mom, you don't tell anyone what you are making, and all others are banned from the kitchen.  I'm not sure how it has evolved into what it is, but it is such.

I'm actually grateful, because I'm always thinking how much I need one on one time with my kids, and this is a for-sure mommy-child date that happens when my other ambitions fall through.  We enjoy looking at recipe books and whispering and giggling about what we are to concoct.  Some times we hear shouts from other rooms, guesses at what we are making, but we always act like it is heavily guarded, to be unveiled at the end of Family Home Evening!
Now, usually, we are not very fancy.  I'm talking throw together graham crackers with frosting or make brownies out of a box (of course we can make up fancy names for these things, though).  But occasionally we have time to make something special, like Nathan's Rainbow Bar Cookies! (Sugar Cookies, sans cutting out)

 

Oops!  I didn't include the sugar in the recipe when I first posted this.  It is included now.  Also, if you shake sugar sprinkles on top of the frosting that makes them even more delicious.

These are divine!  (They are full of fat, so how can they help but be so!) 

My mom found the recipe.

Sugar Bar Cookies:

1 c. butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, & egg until frothy (Nathan said, "what's frossy?") (4 minutes)

add vanilla and almond, beat 1 minute.  Mix dry ingredients together, then add to mixture.  Beat another 2 minutes.  Spread on ungreased cookie sheet, (it seemed like it was in between cookie and cake batter consistency) bake 20 minutes at 350.

Note:  While we were making this, I let Nathan pour in all the ingredients.  Of course I had been doing the gathering, measuring, cleaning up spills, etc.  I said, "you are sure doing a good job!"  He said, "Yeah, I'm doing all the work on this.  You can just sit and relax while I make these cookies"  Ha Ha!

Frosting:

1/2 c. softened butter

4 oz. cream cheese

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

2-4 Tbls. milk

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

Beat all of this for 2 minutes.  And if you are Nathan you'll want to separate it into 4 bowls and color them each differently.  

We had fun today.

Here are some pic's from another home evening:

This is an activity I remembered doing as a kid.  When Saxton couldn't think of one (it was his turn), we pulled out the old stand by:

Can you...

Hold a clothes pin to your nose

While standing on a chair

And drop it into a quart jar below...

While standing up straight, Brinley!  ha Ha

Daddy almost did it, but Ellie was the only one to make it in!  We each took 2 turns with 3 tries each.

And here is Levi ready for the closing prayer:

 

I love my family.  We need Family Home Evening!

Breakfast Pull Aparts

16 Rhodes Rolls

1 sm. package vanilla pudding (cook & serve)

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. butter

Grease bundt pan really really well.  place frozen rolls in pan.  Sprinkle with pudding, sugar, and cinnamon.  Melt butter and pour over it all.  Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and put in oven.  Let rise overnight.  Remove covering, turn oven to 350, and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Turn out on a plate.

I have a family of 6 who could easily eat a double batch of this.  Next time I'm going to try it in a 9X13 pan and make more.

Yummy!

Birthday Treats

 

These are treats for Saxton's small class, with their initials on them :)

I love melting chocolate and making shapes with it!  Melt chocolate chips in the microwave until they are soft.  Stir and put in a baggie and snip the corner.  Draw shapes on waxed paper and freeze.  Great for decorating cakes!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Ellie made Egg Rolls tonight. She did such a good job!
Later, she gave a great FHE lesson on how Heavenly Father answers your prayers. She drew illustrations of scripture stories and had siblings hold the pictures while she read the verses. The most hilarious one (though we didn't laugh out loud at the time, of course) was a picture of Nephi shocking his brothers "because they wouldn't help him build the boat". We are blessed to have such a sweet girl.

For our activity, we played Sardines! You'd be surprised to find that there ARE
places to hide in 600 square feet!


Brinley's Banana Pops:
3 Bananas and two Hershey Bars
"Mix the, wait no... Put the hershey bars in a glass bowl, and put it in the oven. Wait! Not the oven. The Microwave! And then you get your bananas and split all three of them in to two. After you split them in two, you get the Hershey bars out of the microwave. And you put the bananas in the bowl, I mean! not the bananas in the bowl. You get the spoon and put the melted Hershey bar on the bananas. And then you put them in the freezer for two and a half hours. I mean one and a half hours! It's awesome when you eat it!"