Easter 2014

Holidays are fun with a toddler. It's funny to explain to him what it is and why it's a special day. He's often like...another holiday??? Haha and you know we love to celebrate anything and everything. It's interesting as Freddie gets older to figure out which traditions we will focus on and which we will ignore as a family! We also aren't tied down to any specific things though. If we don't get to something...who cares! The most important thing for us on Easter was to consistently talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means to us individually and as a family.

This year we went to the Easter pageant at the Mesa Temple, dyed eggs, and attended church together Sunday morning. That morning the kids got Easter outfits (that was fun for me!!) and got cards and little gifts from grandparents. And I made some delicious Easter cookies. Recipe here: http://cookiesandcups.com/cookie-sticks/#_a5y_p=1312222

After church we had a 3 hour family nap (we were OUT. I haven't slept that well in a while!!!) and then had our favorite meal, Chicken Tikka Massala by Mrs Harding cooks, here: http://mrshardingcooks.blogspot.com/2010/05/chicken-tikka-masala.html?m=1

I was REALLY wanting to be around family or friends that evening. My family was out of town and we were missing them and Collins fam like crazy. So we went over to a friends house with a few other families and had dessert. We got there and only had an hour before everyone was leaving but we had a great time talking with other adults. We are grateful for good and welcoming friends in our ward family. Heavenly Father really takes care of his children. It was a beautiful special family day. Love my so husband and children and kittens so very much. So thankful for the Atonement  and Resurrection of the Savior and for my sweet Mia Maid class. They have strong testimonies and teach me so much. 

I'm SO OBSESSED with these pictures and this happy boy!!!!!!!! He loves life!!!

Iced pumpkin cookies

Iced pumkpin cookies, yummy yum!!! Here's a good recipe I found: 

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/10033/iced-pumpkin-cookies

Fred LOVES to help in the kitchen. He loves to stir, measure, hold pan handles, turn on the mixer and on and off the lights. He even settles for watching sometimes...rarely...okay maybe once. He loves to help cook, and loves to help eat! 

Ingredients

Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar

• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Icing
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
  Directions
• 
  
• 
  
• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
• 
  
• 2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
• 
  
• 3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
• 
  
• 4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.
• 
  

up to? up to?

So Freddie got a big nasty bump on his head a week ago. Last Monday was really nice in the evening so we went for a little family walk. We were chilling on a bench and Fred went to get down by just jumping off (instead of turning around and climbing down) and SMACK went his knees, hands and then big smack---forehead on the cement. He was screaming and crying instantly, and when I turned him over to look I was actually startled at how bad it looked. But Collin and I stayed calm, hugged and kissed, asked him to count the trees and he was slowly but not too difficultly distracted. We knew he would be ok. He thought it was cool that he got an ice pack (and now regularly asks for "ice,") and by dinner time, he was regular ol' giggly happy Frederick again.

Midnight cravings

Last night at 11pm I was sooo hungry and craving waffles. I went to my go-to recipe blog, Adventure in Cooking, and of course Eva did not let me down! 

Here's the recipe for her strawberry whole wheat pancakes (which I just threw into my waffle maker.) They are very healthy too (besides the ton of syrup I put on them. Hehe.)

http://www.adventures-in-cooking.com/2011/05/whole-wheat-strawberry-pancakes.html?m=1

Craving satisfied. 

More summer

It's gotten to the point where we can't really go outside anymore besides swimming. Yesterday was 118 and some meters read 121. Photos are from the last couple of weeks.

amazing BBQ pizza!

The other night we made this delicious pizza! Here's the super easy recipe...

Collin's incredible homemade sweet BBQ sauce with crockpot Pulled Pork recipe here

Get your favorite dough. Years ago we used to make our own, but we've found that lots of restaurants will sell you their dough for super cheap and that's a lot easier for us. When we lived in Provo we got it from Pizzeria 712 for like 2 bucks. That was amazing. Lately we have been using a really good whole wheat dough from Fresh and Easy that's under $1.50. Either way, grab your favorite dough.

Preheat your pizza stone in the oven at 550 degrees. You'll want to preheat it and then let it sit at that temp for at least 15 minutes to get nice and super hot. This will take a while. At some point sprinkle a little flour on the counter, take your dough out and let it rise on top of the flour for 20 minutes.

In the mean time, cook your chicken. We used boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces. Heat your skillet on the stove with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Cook the chicken for 3-5 minutes on each side, pour some BBQ Sauce in with it. Cut into the chn pieces to make sure they are cooked through. Set aside.

Roll out your dough; poke it with a fork a couple of times; rub it with some olive oil; sprinkle a little garlic powder around the crust. Then get it on your pizza stone and cook it for 6 minutes.

Chop up 1/4 to 1/2 of a sweet onion. When the dough is done, take it out, put on the onion, then the cooked chicken pieces, then pour a bunch more BBQ sauce all over and top with mozzarella cheese; be generous. Grind salt and pepper over the whole thing, then stick it in the oven again for about 5 minutes. Just watch it and when everything is melted, switch your oven to broil on high for just a few minutes till the cheese gets a little brown.

Take it out (turn everything off) and enjoy!!!!!!

My last supper

Tomorrow my sister, Ashley, and I are starting THIS, so tonight I made these for my last supper (of fattening junk food)...



Wooooo they were good. And only took an hour!!!! Pinterest recipe success, here!!!!!! I only had one and a half and then we went around and gave some to my moms neighbors-spreading a little holiday cheer.
But tomorrow is the day! We can do it, Ashley!!!!
NEMS

Homemade chai spice recipe without black tea leaf

5 tablespoons cardamom pods

2 tablespoons whole cloves

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Cinnamon sticks – about 6-8 sticks, 2” long each

1/8 to ¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

2 whole star anise

1-1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

Combine all of the ingredients except the ginger in a non-stick ungreased heavy skillet. Over low to medium heat, toast the spices for about 3 minutes, until fragrant.

Add the ginger and blend. Now you have to pound everything, enough to crush the spices coarsely. I used my magic bullet but you can also do this with a mortar and pestle, in a spice/coffee grinder, or put the spices in a plastic bag and pound with a mallet or rolling pin. Transfer to an airtight container where they’ll keep nicely for about 4 months.

You can brew this into tea, put a little into your hot chocolate, or bake it into a cake like I'm going to do.

Autumn Puff Pancakes

Autumn Puff Pancakes:
(adapted from recipes from Rockstar Diaries blog and Martha Stewart)
(makes 2)

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour (you can use white or wheat. I splurged on white flour since it was General Conference weekend)
pinch of salt
2 pinches of cinnamon
fresh lemon juice from half of a lemon
1/2 tablespoon butter

preheat oven to 425 degrees.

You can use a pie or cake pan, small skillet or sauce pan. 

while the oven is preheating, first spray your pan with pam and then melt the butter inside. 

put all other ingredients into a bowl and wisk together
pour the batter into the hot melted buttered pan.
bake for 10 minutes (or until the pancake is firm and has has pupped up
the pancake will shrink down a bit after coming out of the oven.
top with fresh fruit, powdered sugar and syrup and serve immediately!

song

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/music?lang=eng#d

Click on Does the Journey Seem Long?

Its very beautiful.

General Conference was very meaningful to me this past weekend. I received answers to things I was praying for and revelation for myself, my marriage and my family. It really softened my heart. It reminded me that God is mindful of me and that he loves me and wants me to be happy. I have to do my part and he will make up for the rest. Plus ANOTHER Temple in AZ! Tucson! And the missionary age lowered for both  men and women! So exciting!! I'm grateful for a living prophet. God continues to love his children by giving them modern revelation today. Lds.org for more info.

Photos from Conference and the weekend


 

 

 

 

 


downtown adventure with May, Pete, and Francie Costa


 

 

  

 



 

 

Puff Pancakes recipe here.

 
pictionary got intense