It's Been A While...

I guess two new pregnancies does that to us. :) A couple of weeks ago I was asked to teach a class at Enrichment about quiet Sabbath Day activities for children, focusing specifically on activities for sacrament meeting. I don't know why they chose me to teach - my little girl frequents the foyer during sacrament meeting - but I'm glad they did because I learned A LOT. One of my friends introduced me to this website, which has print outs to make simple file folder games. We are currently making a few for the little lady. She really loved using her friend's during church the other day. I also found this website, which has a ton of great resources for a lot of things, including sacrament meeting quiet activities. There's a gospel ABC quiet book that we LOVE. It's already made, you just have to print it out and put it into a binder. Because Miss C is learning her ABC's, it's been a great Sabbath day activity.

So there you go - my two cents. We'll see if the activities work at keeping us in the chapel on Sundays. :)

Kneaders Cranberry Sauce

The best recipe EVER! Just ask this little lady.

You will find the recipe here.

YUMMMMMMMMY!

First of all, thanks so much to Danielle who has been on a creative tear lately! I have enjoyed so much reading about all your creative pursuits. We haven't done much on the creative side lately, but I did want to share a recipe that we really liked and that would be great for fall. It's Butternut Squash-Leek soup. I have to warn you, it looks awful when you serve it, but it is DELISH. Matt even liked it, which really surprised me. Enjoy! Happy fall!!!


INGREDIENTS
• 1 whole garlic, head• 4 tsp olive oil• 6 cup(s) leek(s), thinly sliced• 4 cup(s) butternut squash, cubed and peeled• 2 cup(s) chicken broth, low sodium• 1/2 tsp salt• 1/2 tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or seperate cloves). Wrap head in foil. Bakeat 350 fro 1 hour, cool 10 minutes. Seperate cloves, squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins.2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add leek, saute 5 minutesor until tender. Stir in garlic, squash, 2 cups water, broth, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil.3. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until squash is tender. Place half of squashmixture in blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over the opening of the blender. Blend and serve in bowls.

By the way, I got this recipe from www.youvegotsupper.com. They send you five dinner recipes with side dish suggestions every week. It's been kind of fun to try some of them out.

Marshmellow Fondant

For instructions on how to make marshmellow fondant (the kind I use on my cakes), go to Marshmellow Fondant 101. You can make them too!

Baby Shower Cakes

This is the cake I made (with a lot of help from Christine) for Emma Walker's baby shower. It's a triple chocolate cake; chocolate buttercream frosting on the bottom layer, vanilla frosting on the top. Marshmellow foundant covering the whole cake and embellishments made out of dyed foundant.
Minutes before taking this picture, Mark (my bro) made the SURPRISE call telling us he was engaged! Wahoo!

Christine (my mentor!) and I made this cake for our friend Katie's baby shower. Christine made the duck family out of gum paste. I frosted it and made the bubbles. Together we made the "barrel" out of wafer cookies. So cute!

After making 2 cakes in 2 consecutive Friday nights, plus crochetting 2 blankets in during those weeks, I told Michael I reached my creative limit!

I really love making cakes though. And crochetting. Just not all at once.

2 Blankets Crochetted

I crochetted (I really can't figure out if that's how you spell it... oh well) 2 blankets in the past couple of weeks. This one was for my sweet new niece, Sukai. The other was for Emma's new baby boy, whenever he arrives. They both looked like this, but Sukai's was yellow, blue and pink. Baby Walker's was white, yellow and blue. It had a lot of fun making them. After finishing them both I felt a little weird without a project, so I've decided to keep making them to donate to a hospital or shelter. They're the perfect size for a small baby and really warm for Boston winters. It's a little way I can continue to give to those around me AND continue my "therapy." Crochetting is good for my soul and mind, like yoga but on the couch.

Michael modeled Sukai's blanket: This is how Sukai feels when using it:
What a wonderful husband!

Baking Day

So I've stolen the idea of a Baking Day from Money Saving Mom, a blog I follow. She shares a lot of excellent recipes, some which are from Tammy's Recipes. I've mainly bookmarked the recipes from MSM and haven't searched Tammy's site on my own, but everything looks delicous, simple and affordable.
Anyways, the idea of a Baking Day is baking lots of goods you'll use throughout the week for meals. Muffins, waffles, bread, pita bread, etc. She freezes some to use at the end of the week or in future weeks. I like the idea. I don't really have a "baking day;" I tend to do it on an as need basis. Right now I bake bread when we're out, make waffles for breakfast one morning and double the batch to freeze the leftovers, make muffins while Lilers is napping, etc. We don't have a lot of leftover freezer space to freeze weekly things. It's currently full of veggies, fruit, homemade chicken stock, and freezer jam, plus meat. Maybe someday we'll get a small extra freezer, but until then, I do mini-bake days all the time. I make muffins and waffles to stretch out our cold cereal or when we don't have any on hand since there haven't been any decent sales. Soooo, in the spirit of baking day:

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
(Not in the least bit healthy, but Michael loves them)

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking pwdr
1 1/3 c. mashed ripe bananas
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 c. chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil, and egg. Sit into dry ingredients until just moistened. (Over-stir and they won't rise) Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. Makes about 1 dozen.

Possible variations: I add 1/2c. whole wheat flour and 1 c. all-purpose to make it a lil healthier, and no one's the wiser. I don't add a 1 c. chocolate chips; more like 1/3- 1/2 c., if I even add them at all. Could possibly substitute applesauce for vegetable oil-- haven't tried it, but next time I have some applesauce on hand, I plan on trying it out.

Recipe is from Hilary Grant in the Frisco 1 ward cookbook.