Daddy Daughter Date

This Friday we had a daddy-daughter date, since we haven’t had one in a while.  We did it with my Uncle Scott and my cousins, Megan and Jennie.  We went golfing at Trafalga first.  Then we went to Scott’s house and had taco’s for dinner.  They were soooo good.  After we were done, we sat around and played games and told Calvin and Hobbes jokes.  Then we ate the chocolate cheesecake that I made earlier.  It was really nice just to be together. 

Yesterday I did swim practice in the morning for an hour, made a Christmas countdown chain, helped Abbie clean our room, and finished an essay for English. 

For school this year, I am doing high honors again.  High Honors is a 30 hour extra curricular project in a subject area of your choice.  Last year I did a visual arts project.  This year I am doing a foods project.  My Aunt Rachel is going to be helping me because she is a chef and knows just about everything about food.  Tomorrow I am going to job shadow her starting at 5 in the morning.  She is a chef at the new MTC.  I am also going to learn how to cook some basic foods, make meals for my family for a week (for practice), and make a cook book with all my favorites in it.  It’s going to be fun!

Hope you all have an awesome week!

Fall Break

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted.  I don’t feel like retracing all the things we’ve done, so I’m just going to pick up with where we are.  If you want to see what we’ve been doing before this, check out my Mom’s blog.

Ahh, Fall Break has been soooooo nice.  On Thursday we cleaned up the basement and I had a sleepover with Rachel and Becca to help them get ready for their Harry Potter party. 

On Friday we bottled a ton of pears.

Mark and I went to Rachel’s Harry Potter party that night.  Someone *Mark* brought the camera and didn’t take any pictures, but Rachel has some, so I’ll have to get them from her.  The party was soooo fun.  She cooked all day and we had a start of term feast to start off the party.  I had chicken, french fries, jello, mashed potatoes, a roll, apple pie, chocolate truffles, lots of jelly beans, and chocolate frogs. 

It had the wizard card and a frog made of chocolate in it….. just like in the books!!  Then we had a trivia game-which I totally rocked- and then talked the rest of the time.  It was way awesome. 

On Saturday we took a drive in the mountains.  The leaves were so pretty.

We had a picnic up there, and then Mom, Dad, and Neil went to go get birthday pictures while the rest of us went to Rachel’s apartment and watched a movie.  That night Abbie and I made masquerade masks and did makeovers.  It was fun.

Hope you all have an excellent week !!

Book Review

I just finished reading a book called PIE.  It was a very good book.  It is about a girl named Alice.  When her aunt, the pie-making queen, dies, she leaves to her a fat, ornery white cat named Lardo, whom she left her secret pie-crust recipe to.  Soon the whole town, including Alice’s mother, is trying to become the next pie queen.  It is a really cute book, with a really cute ending.  I would diffidently recommend it.  And if I ever get a white cat, I will name him Lardo.   

Recipe of the Week

Black Bean Pie

1 green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of water
10 oz. frozen corn
2 ½ cups shredded cheese
4 flour tortillas

Combine green  pepper, onion, garlic, spices, beans and water. Bring to a boil. Simmer until most of the liquid is gone about 8-10 minutes. Stir in corn.
Layer:  tortillas, beans, cheese (four times) in a glass pan. Bake at 400 until heated through, about 20 minutes. Cut into wedges to serve.  Serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole etc..

Recipe of the Week

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
These cookies are my dad’s favorite.  He usually eats about three or four at a time.

By: Ramona Payne
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups butter
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
5 cups flour
4 cups oatmeal
1 pkg. cinnamon chips or semi-sweet

Cream first 5 ingredients.  Add dry ingredients.  Mix in chips.  Bake at 375° for 8 to 11 minutes.  Let cool on pan for 3 minutes.

*  We usually just half the recipe, because it still makes about 72 cookies.

Recipe of the Week

This recipe is soooo good!  It is spicy and cheesy and warm and delicious!

Cheesy Salsa Macaroni

1 lb. ground beef
12 oz. salsa
1 ¼ cups water
8 oz. macaroni
12 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed

Brown and drain ground beef.  Add salsa, water and noodles.  Simmer about 12 minutes.  Stir in cheese.  Serve hot!

Recipe of the Week!

This is my favorite soup!  It is perfect for the cold weather we had last week.

Corn Potato Chowder

3 cups water
6 to 7 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/2 a green or red bell pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. chicken bouillon
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

8 oz. frozen corn

1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
8 oz. cream cheese

Boil the potatoes, onion, peppers, and seasonings in the water about 10 minutes. Add frozen corn and return to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Whisk the corn starch into the milk and stir into the soup. Add the cream cheese in small chunks and stir until the cream cheese it melted and the soup has thickened.

*Sometimes I add more peppers or corn depending on what I've got in the freezer. The taste of the peppers with the cream cheese really give this soup its tasty flavor. (I use the Neufchatel cream cheese.) Sometimes I have to add a little more salt.

Recipe of the Week

I want to start a little thing where I post one recipe a week, because my Mom has the greatest recipes.  Here is the one for this week.

Buttery Crescents

1 Tbsp. yeast (1 pkg.)
½ cup hot water
½ cup warm milk
½ cup butter, softened
⅓ cup sugar
1 egg
¾ tsp. salt
4 to 4 ½ cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water.  Combine in mixer milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt.  Add 2 cups of flour mix for 2 minutes or until smooth.  Add remaining flour and yeast mixture and knead for 6 minutes.  Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Punch down and divide in half.   Roll each half into a circle on a floured surface (about 12-inch circle).  Cut into 12 wedges.  Roll up wedges wide ends first.  Place on greased baking sheets.  Cover and let rise about 30 minutes.  Bake at 375 for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush with melted butter if desired.  (I just cut a stick of cold butter (still in the paper) in half and use the cut end to gently rub over rolls.)

Makes 24 rolls.

We always double the recipe, because we can never seem to have enough of these little guys.

Cheesecake Cookies!

Some of my friends wanted to know this recipe, so I will just post it on here so that you guy’s can read it to.

Cheesecake Cookies

· 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

· 3 ounces cream cheese (I use 1/3 less fat)

· 2/3 cup sugar

· 1 tsp vanilla extract

· 2 cups All-Purpose Flour

· Toppings of choice: Chocolate Cookie Crumbs, Mini Chocolate Chips, Sprinkles, Cinnamon Sugar (the possibilities are endless)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Mix in vanilla extract. Stir in the flour until well combined.

Refrigerate (or freeze) dough for 10 to 15 minutes so that it is easier to handle.

In small bowls, place several topping options. Here we used chocolate cookie crumbs, cinnamon sugar, mini chocolate chips, and sprinkles.

Scoop the dough and form into 1" balls. Let the kids roll in topping of choice so cookie is covered. Place covered cookie balls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.

Cool on the pan for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Just some fun stuff!

Here I am, sanding boards for some shelves for my room!

I have been practicing my food photography.  How does this look?

Here is the afghan that I was working on during the Owlz game that we went to.  I finished a green stripe.  The Owlz mascot came and tried to take it away from me so I would watch the game. 

Rachel and I shared a delicious glass of strawberry orange julius. 

Yum!

Last Activity Day’s

For my last activity day’s we had a mother daughter date.  We had taco salad for dinner and then played a game.  It was a type of jeopardy where the mom and daughter filled out little answer sheets about their  favorite things on different colored pieces of paper.  The leaders would tell the color of paper and the question, and the person who got asked the question would tell the answer.  If the person with the answer on the paper  had written down the same answer then they got a sticker on their score card.  Every star they had on their score card at the end was worth one topping on the dessert, which was Ice Cream Sundays.   Mom and I scored nine out of ten!  

A Day “Jammed” With Fun!

Today is jam day.  We have four flats of strawberries, seven able workers, and some empty containers.  The goal is enough jam so that we can to through one every two weeks.  That’s a lot of jam!  Here are some pictures of me!

I was the sugar measurer. 

Funny pictures are awesome!

Neil loves to help Daddy!

Mashed up strawberries!  Yum!

Tada!  The finished product!

We had mac and cheese and corn for dinner.  Very tasty!  Neil helped us eat the corn.  It was pretty darn cute!

He also LOVES to pop gum bubbles!

We finally graduated from sixth grade!  Here’s Tori and I in our masks.  She made a butterfly and I made a zebra.

I am having a wonderful weekend so far, and I hope you are too!