{So Good}

This weekend I attended a bridal shower for one of my young women I taught a few years ago.  She is a true kindred spirit and I wish her all the love and blessings life has to offer.

We were asked to bring a copy of a recipe or two to be put in a book for her, and these are the ones I gave her.

They aren't ones I've made my whole life, but they are my current favorites.

So, in order to post a quick little something on my blog, I decided to share with you.

I love PeaDub.

She's my hero.  Watch her show on Saturday mornings on the Food Network.  It's fun!  (That's my plug for her for my posting of her recipes.)

Anyway, this is what I gave Lindsay, & if you make either of these things, let me know what you think!!

_________________________________________________

Nicki’s notes:  These are my two favorite things to make when I have a party to go to, or if someone is having a bad day and needs something to cheer them up, I will make one of these.  (Or if I am having a bad day.  Because that happens and sometimes you need something salty or something sweet and uber-chocolatey to make it all better.)

(See www.thepioneerwoman.com – She’s awesome.  And funny.  And she goes through each of her recipes with a step by step photographed process so you simply CANNOT mess it up.)

 

Olive Cheese Bread

Added by Ree on July 16, 2009 in Appetizers

Prep Time 10 Minutes Cook Time 25 Minutes

Servings 12

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

·         1 loaf French Bread

·         6 ounces, weight Pimiento-stuffed Green Olives

·         6 ounces, weight Black Olives

·         2 stalks Green Onions (scallions)

·         1 stick Butter, Room Temperature

·         ½ cups Mayonnaise

·         ¾ pounds Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated

Preparation Instructions

Roughly chop both black olives and pimiento-stuffed green olives. Slice green onions into thin pieces.

Combine butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined. Spread mixture onto French bread that has been sliced lengthwise. Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning.

Mixture can also be refrigerated (up to two days) and used as a dip. Great with crackers.

 

  

The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. Amen.

Added by Ree on July 31, 2009 in Cakes, Desserts

Prep Time 20 Minutes Cook Time 20 Minutes

Servings 24

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

·         FOR THE CAKE:

·         2 cups Flour

·         2 cups Sugar

·         ¼ teaspoons Salt

·         4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa

·         2 sticks Butter

·         1 cup Boiling Water

·         ½ cups Buttermilk

·         2 whole Beaten Eggs

·         1 teaspoon Baking Soda

·         1 teaspoon Vanilla

·         _____

·         FOR FROSTING:

·         ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans

·         1-¾ stick Butter

·         4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa

·         6 Tablespoons Milk

·         1 teaspoon Vanilla

·         1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Note: I use an 18×13 sheet cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

Cut into squares, eat, and totally wig out over the fact that you’ve just made the best chocolate sheet cake. Ever.

{And If You Have A Minute}

I have had this song stuck in my head for days and days.

It makes me wistful for some reason.  
Maybe because they used it in the preview for the new version of the Winnie the Pooh movie and that takes me back to my childhood.
Maybe I'm just a baby.
Maybe I just want to feel wistful.
Maybe I just love it so I thought I'd share it.

I have had several thoughts throughout this week, and wanted to share.  Unfortunately, I can't think of what they are now.
I'm thoughtless.
So-
I will share this quote from my Dad's Gospel Doctrine class yesterday.
"I have sometimes wondered what would have happened if Nephi had asked the Lord for tools instead of a place to find the ore to make the tools. I doubt the Lord would have honored Nephi’s request. You see, the Lord knew that Nephi could make the tools, and it is seldom the Lord will do something for us that we can do for ourselves."  (L. Tom Perry)

It sure made me think.
I know I ask my Heavenly Father for many things to help me get through life as a single mom.  I just hope that I have not been asking Him for things that I can do for myself. 
amen.


p.s.- no, I don't know why there are the weird alien guys in the video.
p.p.s.- Here is the Glee version if you would like to compare.  It's lovely.

{Pictures & Stuff}

I was going through my phone and the pictures it holds and pulled off a couple. 
I was slipping away from being a decent blogger again and thought that I needed to at least try to do one once a week. 
So - although my past week was just filled with work and home stuff, I would fill you in on a few highlights. Well, highlights from the past couple of weeks. 
I just had to throw in the picture I took as I was walking to my car from work one day. I LOVED the colors that were in the sunset! Breathtaking! I know that we are blessed with some really spectacular ones here, but there are some days when I really appreciate them - the way they should be.

Glorious Idaho Sunset.  Seeing this as I leave work is such a nice way to end the workday.

Mom and Dad do Addison favors sometimes by hiring him to do some projects for them.  He likes to do "manly" jobs where he can wear his tool belt.
Anyway, this job entailed him taking out the recessed fluorescent lights in their kitchen ceiling, rewiring in this new fixture, and then putting in drywall to patch up where the old lights were.  It took him all day and he worked hard at it.  He even cleaned up his mess when he was done!  Mom and Dad got home right about when he needed help holding the new light up so he could mount it, so Opa was glad (?) to help.  
And I was glad not to have to go over there and do that part.  

Addison and Opa hanging the new light fixture in the kitchen.

Viola!!  New lights!  It looks really good.  He still has to go back and smooth the drywall seams and refinish the ceiling stuff, but it had to settle or something.  Plus my friend Marnie hired him to help re-do one of her bathrooms.  So he has been trying to get some of that work done as well.
I'm so thankful that he has the reputation of being a good, smart, and a hard worker.
I'm thankful for the talents he inherited from his dad, Opa, & Great-Grandpas.
My Mom says that her Dad would be (is) super proud of him.

A tired worker.  Satisfied with his work though.

As for this next picture, it represents a good and a bad thing.
This past Christmas had some bad parts to it.  We lost our Maya on the 23rd, and then Christmas night, we came home and found that our fridge wasn't as cold as it normally is, and so I made some adjustments, made sure there wasn't any lint or dog hair clogging anything, etc. - and went to bed.
The next day however, we realized that it was about dead.
We ended up throwing out quite a bit of stuff, and what we could salvage, we put in boxes and coolers in the garage.  Of course, we were also having an unseasonable warm spell so I had to check temps out there quite a bit.
Anyway,  I didn't know how I was going to part with the money I needed to get a new fridge, but, I said a prayer, - several -, and a couple of days later, we received a nice bonus from my work.  One that I was not expecting in any way since they had given us some nice gifts already.
Can we say "Tithing Blessings"?!?
We were soooo grateful.
We made several calls around town and in Twin Falls and found some good deals, but the first store we went to in Burley had one that was perfect.  
Perfect size for us two.
We don't have a water hook-up where it has to fit in the kitchen so I didn't need an ice maker or water dispenser, so this one didn't have that and that made for more freezer space.
This one was the color I wanted and less than what the bonus money I had to spend on it.  In fact, it was marked down!
Let me tell you, it was great to go to the first place, see it, know that that is The One, give them some moola, they loaded it in our pickup and strapped it down, and we were done!
New fridge!  It's sooooo niiiiice.
I even had these cute sticky things I'd found awhile ago at Tarjay.  One is a calendar, and the other is a dry erase board.  S'cute!!
Anyway, I am thankful for Tithing Blessings and for wonderful people who listen to promptings of the Spirit.  

New refrigerator!  Already "magnetized"!

This last picture just makes me smile.  This little Bella of ours just loves our little infrared heater.  (It is wonderful, energy-saving, and heats most of our house!)
She loves to sit in front of it and stick her face in it.  Then she will stick her paws up on the little ledge in front - one at a time - like she's warming them up.  
Too cute.

Bella fascinated by the infrared heater.  Warming her paws.

So, there is a little rundown of some goings-on in our life.
I am thankful for those friends and relatives who are still blogging along.
You make me smile.  I know I have been bad at commenting on so many because I usually read them here and there on my phone, but it's a pain to comment so I usually think I'll do it later when I'm on my computer.  But I don't always.  
Just know that I love to hear about your lives and am so thankful for all of you dear people who are part of my life. 

{It's New To Me}

I don't have any pics to add yet since they are on my phone and I am so behind on getting them to the computer - along with the ones from my camera.

Sooooo sleepy. I haven't gotten a good nights sleep like I used to for weeks now and it's getting old.

Totally rambling here.

So.
New for me:

Got a new calling today. Activity Days leader. So excited!! I've never had that calling before so I am looking forward to the challenge!

A new/different kind of sacrament meeting today. It was awesome. Our bishop had seen it being done in other wards and wanted to try it. It's like testimony meeting only it's based on the hymns. The counselor who was conducting today stood and explained what was going to happen (he had talked with the organist and chorister earlier in the week) and then started us off. He just said what his favorite hymn was and why and then we sang the first 2 verses. Then he turned the time to the congregation and people just took turns going up and saying what their hymn was and why. Some were short and some had more explantion, and like when my dad got up and explained why the "Spirit of God" was special to him,he asked for the 1st & 4th verses to be sung. A few people did that. 2 specific verses, but most were just the 1st 2 in the hymn. We never had a second of dead time. In fact, for the last few hymns, we only sang 1 verse because there was a little line waiting their turn in the front bench. The Spirit was strong and it was a great respite from the norm.

New favorite quote. We went to see "War Horse" yesterday for a matinee. Oh. My. What a long movie and I could write a whole post on why I didn't like it, but I won't. There was a scene though, when the husband and wife are talking and he is so depressed at the choices and mistakes he's made and telling her that he wouldn't be surprised if she hated him, etc. She says to him (unofficial quote since it's from my muddled memory) - "I can hate you more, yes - but I can't love you any less." Loved it. I mean, I'm sorry, but when families are close, we - at least I -feel that way sometimes. Especially when someone has made me mad or disappointed me. Truth there.

Not-so-new addiction: Vampire Diaries!! I've watched it on Netflix the past few weeks. LOVE. LOVE. L O V E. I thinks it's because of Stefan. Or maybe Damon. Yah. Stefan and Damon.

Anyway, more on this later.

I know that there were a couple more "new"s I wanted to share, but my brain is shutting down now, and I need to get some sleep. Got a board meeting first thing in the morning.
Yay me.

{Another Moon}

Just refracted light in ice crystals in the sky. But look how pretty the double rainbow halo is around my moon-friend tonight!
These were taken with my iPhone here, so they are not great or edited at all, but I just had to take a few!
You know how I am about the moon, right?

On another note:
I haven't been blogging lately because it's the busy time of year for quarterly reports, tax prep, and cleaning.
Also, I hate the new blogger dashboard thingy.
Makes me grumpy.
Along with quarterly reports, tax prep, and cleaning.

{Happy!}

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Partied with the family.
Got a new dog - gifted to us by some friends.

Ready for a new year full of new possibilities
and new trials,
new blessings
and new memories!
Here's to twenty-12!

Peace & love to all!

{*Merry*}

Merry Christmas!!

I will post the happenings of the holidays in a day or two. 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas tomorrow!!

Loves to all!!