This & That

You Know What They Say About Idle Hands....

Here's another view of how the work table has looked recently. 

Apparently, despite a desperate desire for order, I can only create in chaos. 

I've worked through more pages of the December album. 

This was the night the girls and I went to see The Nutcracker.

:)

Bryce singing with the Men's Chorus at the BYU Devotional.

And my view during the ward Christmas party. I'm getting there slowly, but surely.

As a change of pace, I'm trying to finish off the 3 remaining small wool appliqué banners. I got behind when I broke my arm and missed September, November and December. My husband and I were looking for a Netflix movie to watch the other night and finally settled on a series about the Unabomber. Definitely history from our era. Anyway, I've been stitching on these while we have that going. We've finished the series, however, so if there are suggestions for something new, send them along.

A 4-Year Old

Sometimes it just about takes my breath away how fast time is moving.

It seems like just a little bit ago that Isaac was this size, and today this boy is turning 4. Holy COW!!!

He is a wonderfully exuberant kiddo who loves sea creatures and Wild Kratts. He activates various animal powder discs regularly. :)

He likes fishing with Grandpa, and falling asleep in unusual locations. He also love the "Stinky Face" books, and Gramma Honey loves to tell him, "I love you, Stinky Face!"

We just generally, all-around love this boy. Happy birthday, Isaac! I love you, Stinky Face!

Fettuccine Alfredo

I'm starting to learn that planning meals for my husband and I is perpetually very fluid. There are at least one or two nights a week that the plan doesn't happen for whatever reason....there's a meeting he forgets to tell me about, it's the last day of duck season so he and the boys must do an evening hunt before the start of The Dark Time, we have more leftovers than planned. It's all very interesting for a militant meal planner. I try to roll over what we miss into the next week, so usually it's not a huge deal.

I ground some wheat flour for the first time in quite a while, and that went into some bread.

As I mentioned last week, my walking buddy had some surgery and I took dinner in. Her favorite meal is chicken fettuccini Alfredo, so I wanted to put some together for her. Call it comfort food, call it chick food, it's good stuff and my poor, red meat-loving, carnivorous husband suffered through it. The recipe comes from one of my Food Nanny cookbooks and is really, decadently yummy.

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and ground black pepper
• 1 pound uncooked fettuccine

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Mix in the cream cheese. Stir in the cream and garlic powder. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat and simmer, stirring often, while you cook the pasta. Cook and stir for desired consistency.

Cook the fettuccine according to package directions; drain.

Stir the Parmesan cheese into the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the sauce and the pasta in a large bowl and serve immediately. Serve with a green salad and hot French bread or bread sticks.

 

 

Around Here This Week

So around here this week...

We've had a couple of days when a skiff of snow blew through. Nothing that stuck around longer than the morning, but at least it gives me the illusion of having a real winter.

My work table pretty much looked like this.

I ventured back to my kids' old elementary school when Gwen invited me to watch her participate in the school spelling bee.

She did a great job! Evan tells that Edward also did really well in his school spelling bee, but I don't have a picture of that.

Marc surprised us by stopping in for dinner one night on his way through town from Point A to Point B. We haven't seen his family since before Christmas, so it was good to see his face. It was also a really good thing he stopped by on this particular day, because the sandwich he's eating was tasty, and there will be a recipe coming for that.  The night before's dinner was homemade tomato soup.... totally not his favorite, so luck was with him.

This little guy stopped in for a visit. He's starting to tell pretty big stories and it's really cute. He's also ticklish. 

Sent to me from the kids this week, was this picture of James, who apparently had wreck with his vehicle. Collin sent it with the caption, "Don't drink and drive...."

The local high school performing choir put on a performance that included songs from "Moana." My granddaughters are huge fans and this was so exciting for them.

Marc also sent me this one of Isaac falling asleep while eating a cookie. We're filing it under "yet another place Isaac can fall asleep."

And then there's this one of Levi. He decided to help himself to a snack and was pretty proud about it. 

Keeping My Hands Busy

It has been wonderfully quiet for the last week or so, giving me the chance to spend fairly large chunks of time in the craft room. This hasn't happened since before the holidays, so I've tried to get going on several unfinished projects.

I finished off the appliqué on a small house block... 

...and forged ahead on the December Daily album.

Perhaps that top picture requires a little explanation. This was the day of my husband's office party, which always includes a white elephant gift exchange. We often have something that will work here at home, but this year we were at a bit of a loss. So what do you do when you need ideas for a white elephant gift? Why Google it, of course, and this came up. Who knew you could get such things on Amazon? It's just a little scary....

Took some family shots of Eric's family.

The tree decorating, 

...and our exuberant decorators.

Another transparent element in the upper left. I really like those...being able to see ahead and behind in the album.

If I'm being completely honest here,

...I'll say that after a week of doing nothing but this,

I'm kind of ready to move on to something else,

...but I'm determined to finish it off. I don't want yet another UFO (unfinished object) floating around making me feel guilty.

Easy Baked Shrimp

My husband and I had some varied comings and goings this week that made it so that there were a couple of nights we flew solo at dinner time. I had Chorale registration and had to be there early. Despite there being leftovers in the fridge, when I came home later in the evening I found that he'd eaten yogurt and toast. That would be the direction I'd usually take when he's not here, but I was a little more ambitious on my night eating on my own.

I made myself a salad with this and that from the fridge. I did make some honey mustard dressing earlier in the day with this specific meal in mind.

I took dinner over to my walking buddy who had surgery earlier in the week. Her favorite meal is chicken fettuccine Alfredo, so that's what I made, along with some breadsticks and salad. The Alfredo recipe will be coming soon. It's dang tasty.

I did a pan of these Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars, which I cut up and took to the ladies I visit monthly for church, and also to my walking buddy. My husband was pretty worried as he saw them being divvied out onto different plates, but I saved a few for him. He has a sweet tooth the size of Montana.

This week's recipe, though, is for the shrimp here. We are big seafood/fish eaters and this is a really fast way to cook shrimp. Those are green beans from the garden we froze this past summer, and we had Marbled Stuffed Potatoes to go with it as well. I can't trace this recipe back to a specific site. The whole thing was written below the Pinterest picture and when I try to go the site, I get "unable to find" messages. 

Easy Baked Shrimp

• 1-2 pounds large, raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 lemon
• 1 package dry Italian dressing mix

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place butter in a 9x9" or 9 x 13" baking dish, depending on how many shrimp you have. Melt the butter in the hot oven. Remove pan, thinly slice the lemon and layer it on top of the butter. Place the shrimp on top of the lemon slices and sprinkle the Italian dressing mix over everything. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serves 3-6

Around Here This Week

So around here this week...

These came, and they were a bright spot in my day....and a reminder that before I know it, spring will be on its way....followed closely by summer heat, yard maintenance, and garden stuff. And then I was kind of depressed.

This also happened. This is a big deal in the LDS world. With the death of President Thomas S. Monson, the presidency of the church was reorganized. The new president is Russell M. Nelson. Many years ago when I worked as a nurse, I worked on the orthopedics floor of LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. One shift, I got pulled to the post-op cardiac floor to work and Dr. Nelson came in for rounds. I remember that he had an excellent reputation as a physician, and was really good with his patients. I imagine he will be just as careful and compassionate in this next phase of his life.

This happened, too. The new semester of the community chorale I sing with started up. I'm the treasurer, so I'm responsible for making sure there's change for registration, and for getting that money into the bank.

I had some time with Emmett while his parents went to a meeting. He doesn't miss them quite so much if I have something to get him involved with right away, so this time he glued cotton balls into circles drawn on a piece of paper to make a snowman.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, James got a bump on his head that needed an icepack.

Collin also sent me this picture. It was a bit of a deja vu moment for me. With 5 boys, I had my turn digging little green army men and Legos out of the toilets at our house. I think it's only fair that what goes around, comes around.

And this is the culprit that through the remote into the toilet. Who would believe that this sweet face was capable of such a thing?

Guys....Really?

So the other day I had to go trade cars with my son down at his office. He'd gone duck hunting early and taken both Ollie and the truck I used to drive, down to the ponds before work. He'd left his car with me, with the idea that I'd drop his car off at work, and bring the truck, Ollie, and some literal dead ducks back home. My old truck has become a very multipurpose vehicle since I stopped driving it. It has evolved into the "borrow it when my sons need something heftier than a minivan" for various hunting/outdoor/scout/church young men group activities, as well as something for my husband to use when he wants. So, I dutifully headed out to make the exchange. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and found this:

That dried mud on the running board is about an inch and a half thick. I didn't know I'd need to change clothes and shoes when I got done driving it home. And dang! I forgot the requisite camo when riding in any vehicle the males in my family have commandeered. 

They were really thoughtful, though....supplying me with a little something to snack on in case I got hungry. 

Keeping My Hands Busy

It's been quite a while since I've had some dedicated time to work on my ever-growing list of projects. Since the holidays have passed, and life has settled down some, I've had a chance to do a bit in the craft room.

This project was one I hadn't anticipated. I made an index of the recipes I've posted here on the blog. Sometimes the Typepad search function doesn't work so well for me when I'm trying to find old recipes to link into new posts, so I decided I needed a comprehensive list. It entailed me going to the "Recipes/Cooking" topic link and listing all of those, and then going through the blog archives month by month  to see if I'd missed any I'd forgotten to tag. I was shocked to find there are something close to 300 recipes. 

I started working on my December Daily album. 

Every year I have the internal debate with myself about whether to do this project or not.

And every year I get sucked in by fun product. That, and the kids do enjoy going back through them when I get them out. I used Cathy Zielske's video tutorial on how to make a see-through journaling block for that right page.

I got this photo from my sister, who was in the "Savior of the World" production.

And I included the program from Bryce's Christmas concert we attended.

Sunday the 3rd was a busy day, as we had Ephraim's baby blessing, David's 1st birthday and the annual Christmas devotional.

I like the see-through elements that appear occasionally. Day 4 was a picture of Isaac and Levi with Santa, and Day 5 was all about the homemade vanilla.

I've also recently worked my way through an older Simon Says Stamp card kit. Used to be that I would agonize over these kits, trying to do a bunch of different designs. I've got too many backlogged, so I just pick a simple design and try to get through as quickly as possible, making multiples of the same design with slight variations.

That said, I am unable to shake my OCD tendency to use up every little scrap I can, so this is what happened with the leftover bits and pieces.

Awesome to feel a little creative again.

Pepper Jack Potato Soup

I got this food-related picture from Collin's wife, Alison, this week. She made these easy fish tacos for dinner and now I want some. Maybe this coming week.

With Bryce, my daughter and her husband leaving to go back to school, it was just a little strange to be cooking for just my husband and I again. I used up the last of the Christmas ham in some ham & asparagus quiche and we had a church event with pie afterwards.

I made a couple...one that was pecan, and the other caramel apple.  I also tried this new recipe. Totally deadly. It almost takes "favorite" status away from our favorite baked potato soup. I'm thinking it's a dead heat...really, it's that good. Even my carnivore husband thought so, and that's saying quite a bit. When we had a clean-out-the-fridge dinner earlier this week, I hid this so I could eat it for lunches. I found the recipe in one of my Food Nanny cookbooks. She has an interesting approach to meal planning...doing it by themed nights. So, Monday is comfort food, Tuesday is Italian, Wednesday is fish, meatless, or breakfast for dinner, and so on. While I don't totally follow that format in my meal planning, there are certain things that do appear weekly in my rotation, depending on the season. I always have a soup night during the fall and winter, there's often some kind of sandwich meal. In warmer weather we have more stir-frys, and dinner salads. All that to get back around to the fact that this soup is really good. I tweaked the recipe just a little, to accommodate what I had on hand, and I've included what I did in the recipe.

Pepper Jack Potato Soup

• 3 strips bacon
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced (I'm not a big fan of how green peppers taste, so I substituted a yellow pepper)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups cubed russet potatoes (I had 1-1/2 leftover baked potatoes in the fridge, so I substituted them and skipped the step where the potatoes get cooked.)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated fat-free milk (I had some whole milk leftover in the fridge, which I used instead.)
• 8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded (I had leftover pre-sliced-for-sandwiches pepper jack cheese which I diced up. It worked just fine.)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme (regular leaf thyme works just fine)

Fry the bacon until crisp; drain. Crumble and set aside.

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and the green and red bell pepper; cook and stir until the onions are soft, Add the broth and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until the carrots are cooked.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in a medium saucepan until they are just tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and add to the soup with the bacon. Wipe out the pan if necessary and use it for the next step.

Melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and turn the heat up slightly and whisk until the mixture is bubbly. Add the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. (I always do this step in the microwave...so much easier.) Add to the soup.

Stir in the cheese and continue to cook until the cheese melts. Do not boil. Add the white pepper, salt, and thyme. Ladle into soup bowls and serve. Serves about 6