BLT with Egg Sandwich

Kevin at Closet Cooking and I must be on the same wave length tonight. I made this for my dinner too. My only gripe with this photo is the fact that you can barely make out my cute Brandywine tomato that I picked especially for this moment. I was salivating too much, than to draw out the photography process much longer than necessary, trying to get the shot just right, ya know? Believe me, this was amazingly good. You must use Best Foods Mayonnaise (Hellman's - east of the Mississippi) though.


Two slices of bread. I like mine toasted.
2 or 3 thick slices of bacon fried to desired doneness. (Well done here)
1 tablespoon of mayo
2 or 3 thick slices of a really ripe, tomato. Mine are Brandywine.
Lettuce
2 Fried eggs, (Mine were world class tonight)
Salt and Pepper

Put it all together kids, and you have the best sandwich ever created!!!

Marinara Madness

I always, always, always plant loads of tomatoes. They are easy and fun to grow and obviously the payout is spectacular. This year our spring was so wet and cold that our tomato harvest is about 1 month late. I have lots of different varieties. Look at these orange ones called Sweet Tangerine.

I hate waste, and even though my specific recipe did not call for squash, I added two crooknecks; cut into bite sized pieces. I used a green bell pepper from my garden, a store bought onion, and a large handful of herbs that I have been growing on the deck. Basil, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, marjoram and oregano. Oh, and lots of garlic!
I cut an "X" at the bottom of each tomato to ease the peeling process. I dip the tomatoes in simmering water for about sixty seconds. Plunge them in ice water and slip off the skins. Then, I core the larger varieties. Roma's have small cores, I don't bother coring them. This was the yield from about 15 pounds of tomatoes. I just pureed them in a blender. Remind me to blog about my "rocking" blender sometime.
I have always wanted to make my own Marinara sauce. I got out my super huge soup pot that holds at least 5 gallons, sauteed the onions, bell pepper, squash, garlic in some olive oil. I always adjust the seasonings at every step. I did add the herbs once the saute was translucent, to bring out the oils of the herbs. Then I added the tomato puree and let it simmer, uncovered, until the mixture was thickened and reduced by half. Remember to check for salt and pepper. You will lose salt in the reduction process.A good dishwasher does all the jar sterilization work. Keep the jars warm, and ladle in the Marinara, leaving one inch of head space. Process in a pressure canner; 15 pounds of pressure if you live in altitude above 1,000 feet. I am at 5,000 feet so I processed for 25 minutes. Use 10 pounds pressure at sea level for 20 minutes.

Once the processing is done, the air will bubble up in the sauce for several hours and provide a very strong and safe vacuum seal.

I really like the color of my Marinara thanks to the awesome Sweet Tangerine Tomatoes. Here is my quart jar in the midst of my amazing herbs.

Does preserving your own food save money? No. But I absolutely love the feeling I have when I look in my pantry and see it there. It is like love in a jar. I love the entire process from soil tilling season to wiping clean and putting away the last jar in the pantry. Thank you Lord for our plentiful table.

Raspberry-Rhubarb Crisp

I found the most glorious raspberries on sale at two pints for three dollars. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, but I couldn't pass them up. I also had some gifted rhubarb in the freezer. The kind lady who gave it to me said to just cut up about half a cup and throw them in any baked good. I am a very experienced cook, so, I took it upon myself to throw this crisp together without a recipe. Let me tell you... it was a hit with a scoop of vanilla.

For the Fruit:
2 pints of raspberries, macerated slightly, leaving 1/2 of the berries whole with
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of rhubarb, chopped
2 tablespoons of cornstarch if watery (frozen rhubarb is watery)
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract ..if desired.
Gently mix all the above and pour into a small casserole dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Let sit while you mix the crisp ingredients.


For the Crisp:
In a medium bowl, mix together,
1 cup of flour
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of melted or room temperature butter
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (I have oodles of whole nutmegs from Malaysia where it grows like apples on trees do here, it is actually the pit of a fruit that Malaysians drink; and then they throw out the pit--the good part!)

Mix all of this together into a paste. Then using your fingers crumble it over the fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Be sure to place it on a cookie sheet to catch the drips.

To me... a crisp, pie, cobbler etc.. isn't done until it bubbles over and makes the glorious drips on a white baking dish. There is something very beautiful about that to me. The key is to remove it from the oven before the fruit syrup that has dripped over, burns on the cookie sheet.

The Good Old Summertime

Dave has begun the Duck Hunting Beard!!!

Do you remember when you could do this?
Do you remember when your hips were this small?
The day I stopped jumping is the day my butt grew into the size it is now!

My husband has done a smashing job on the garden this year.
I cannot stop taking pictures of the Black Eyed Susan's. Daryl Alder,
Mr. Master Gardener, said the Alyssum is award winningly beautiful.

This has been one of the best summers in recent memory. I have to admit that I usually dread summer.

• I really don't like the sun all that much. (Not including my cute rusty sun in my garden) . It is too dang bright! Yes you read it right. Too dang bright.
  
• I don't like hot cars.
• I am cranky in the heat.
• I hate getting tan. Yikes, age spots!
  
• I don't like public pools, (mostly cause I am too fat). Too many little kids too.
  
• I hate when my neighbor mows the lawn on my Sunday morning.
• I don't like events, unless I plan them. Too much socializing is bad for me.
• I usually stop exercising in the summer cause there are too many people in my way on the Provo River Trail, and I don't want to smile that many times in a walk or ride at on coming walkers/riders. I want to sweat/huff and puff in freaking solitude.
  
• And you have to get up really early to beat the heat. You all know I am a night owl, and I don't make it out of bed until 10 or 11 am.
  
• Hollywood disappoints me with their S&^ty movies, and I have to take a sweater and socks to keep myself warm.
• I loose stamina in the heat. My will to cook and clean is non existent. Too bad my appetite doesn't go away.
  
• There is nothing good on T.V.
• I have to make my kid go to camp, and make my older kids... go home already.
• Everyone stays up late and gets in my way. Don't they know the night is MINE??!! Why, for the love of all that is holy, do you think I stay up late???? Because there is no SUN!!!
  

Okay, I can probably go on, but I think this is kinda angry enough already and you get the picture. Now remember....I use this blog as a psychological tool. It helps me to get my anger off of my chest; and basically, what I just posted above in the bullets is about as anti-American as even I can get away with. So, what pray tell, has made this the most enjoyable summer in recent memory?

• It is our first summer back in the States.
  
• I have gone out of my comfort zone by leaps and bounds. No, I don't walk or ride the River Trail, but I do get on my elliptical and watch my recordings of Young and the Restless,sometimes. And, I don't feel guilty!!!
  
• I have stopped beating myself up for not liking summer, or summer activities. Where is it written that I have to like summer?
  
• I have put my garden gloves on and grown, and grown, and grown some veggies. I have given away, and put up, and stored food like a Pioneer!!!
  
• I love the 4th of July, and my birthday is smack dab in the middle of summer.
• I have taken on two or three volunteer positions that I know are important to others, and for me.
  
• I have adored the summer softball season with my daughter at center field. I have met other parents who adore it too. I even dealt with the sun at those noon-time tournaments with lots of sunscreen and a huge umbrella.
  
• I have had some fun times with my extended family this year... the little kids are getting so big and cute.
  
• I don't miss the pool.
  
• Jordan, and Malaina and I have taken separate vacations together, and we have had a blast.
  

So, what is not to love about that? That being said, I am full speed ahead for fall, baby. I cannot wait for those clouds to come rollin' in, and those trees to change colors. I am going to get back on the trail, and start cooking chili. I might even go to a movie.

Pickled Jalapenos (Escabeche)

I special ordered "Biker Billy"jalapeno's from Burpee last spring, because they promised they would be super hot. Oh my, they ARE super hot and they grew super great! I adapted this from Elise at Simply Recipes. It was amazingly easy to make. My version only made 4 pints. I adjusted the herbs more to my taste, and the vinegar as well.

"Give", said the Little Stream

Many of us have been following the real life story of C jane and her sister Stephanie (NieNie) and her husband Christian. For those of you who do not know, NieNie and Christian were in a private plane crash about 2 weeks ago and are suffering from critical burns. NieNie has the most burns over 80% of her body. They have 4 young children. According to C Jane's blog, the family are faced with the fact that NieNie will likely not look the same as she did before. They both are suffering through skin scraping surgery after surgery now too, with many more operations to face in the future. Obviously months and months of rehabilition and millions of dollars in hospital bills.

I just cannot take my mind off of the beautiful posts that C jane is posting. I hope you take a look at the very special post No Sting.

C jane says she is starting to believe there are no tragedies. "There is only opportunity for growth and you should accept it. The reward overcomes the sailing of the hardship." If you ever needed encouragement to go on, or felt oppressed with burdens, please go see the post, No Sting. I promise you will feel inspired by the truth you read there.

I don't have permisson to post a picture of NieNie or her beautiful family, but we have been given permission to post this button if you feel you can give.

Eclairs Extraordinaire!!

Tony Tahhan and Meeta K. were in charge of this month's Daring Bakers Challenge. My third challenge, thank you very much.

From the acclaimed pastry chef Pierre Hermé I proudly present my interpretation of Chocolate Éclairs!!
We were allowed to change the fillings as we pleased as long as we incorporated Chocolate! No problems there right?

I decided to make a strawberry filling. I pureed fresh strawberries to create a coulis, or thick sauce. Then I added the strained mixture into some whipped cream until it was the color and flavor I liked.This version also had a really nice almond flavored glaze that I made. The secret is to mix in about 1 tablespoon of very soft butter into the powdered sugar, then add milk to desired consistency, and almond extract. This really imparts a nice flavor.
You can see I also made a lovely chocolate version too. Here below.
Éclairs Elements I learned:

• French pâte à choux
• Pastry Cream--a mixture of milk, egg yolks, bittersweet chocolate. This recipe I will make again.
• Chocolate glaze. I will use this on ice cream. But I think I have a better recipe in my own collection that would have worked better here.
  

This recipe took me only a couple hours to put together. It was positively a joy to make. I asked myself why I had not attempted to make these before? Compared to last months challenge , the Filbert Gateau; which was extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming, this was a walk in the park, a walk I will take any day of the week!!

Mo Betta in Moab

Malaina and I made a last minute dash to Moab this week. Here we are on the trail with our Mountain Bikes in tow. I have to say, I am certainly glad I have been moderately active with my elliptical machine or I would have died on that trail! What a fabulous day I had. I live in the BEST state for mountain biking and I could kick myself for not getting on the trail more often. My husband gave me a great bike hitch for my birthday this year and I absolutely think it is the best gift he could have ever given me. Take note of this everyone....

....I am going to do Slick Rock (at least the practice run) next year. I start my training now.

Who needs the Grand Canyon when you can have Canyonlands, Utah!
This is the view from Dead Horse Point State Park

What mother couldn't love this photo? My middle child starts her Junior Year at Brigham Young University on Tuesday. I loved spending these last few days with just her in God's country. This is Delicate Arch, located in Arches National Park. Probably Utah's most famous landmark other than the Great Salt Lake. We were the only Americans up at the arch that day. With our weak dollar, the Europeans were having the run of the place. You can see the clouds from a forest fire in the nearby La Sal Mountains that started just that morning by a lightning strike.

We also made a detour to Nine Mile Canyon
a 70 mile stinking dirt road detour! *@#$%& But as you can see it made my child happy.
I really think she should change her major to Archaeology. She won't do it because of all the Chemistry she has already taken for her Micro-Biology Major. This is a very famous Petroglyph Site called The Great Hunt.

This is just a cute lizard I caught on digital. Too bad I cut off his tail, so to speak.

I have a great family. My husband didn't blink an eye, when I said my girl and I were going to get away. Thanks Dave for loving us so much, and keeping watch over Tiny. And thanks to Jordan for doing the dishes for Daddy and Tiny, you are the Alpha when I am away.

Thanks for spending some time with me, while I ooh and ahhh over my fantistic trip to one of Planet Earths most wonderful locations. I think I am a good judge of making that statement too having seen a lot of the earth.

Do you ever have one of those days where you don't want to leave the house? You would be perfectly happy to sit on the couch and eat, read or doze the day away? I am sure most of have days like this. But tell me if I need to seek help; sometimes I dread having to leave the house. Like today, I know I have to go get Tiny from tennis and then head up to the mall to look for some outfits. I am not looking forward to it. Seriously though the highlighted phrase I just marked reminds me of one of my favorite movies.


This is one of those movies that is a "Mockumentary". It is about The American Teen Princess beauty pageant being held at the local small town level and the crazy women who are involved. This movie takes place in a small town in Minnesota, so all the actors have learned the local twang. All the contestants and pageant leaders are being filmed documentary style while someone is killing off the contestants one by one.

Kirstie Alley steals the show with her over the top performance as the director/mother to the one of the contestants. She does everything in her power to place the crown on her daughters head, even if it means trampling over anyone to do it.

This is one dvd that I have watch over and over and still giggle with glee at some of the humor that I didn't catch the first time. There are some funny cameo's in the movie too. One is by Adam West, television's first Batman, and he appears as himself as the loser he is in real life. He comes off as this really creepy dirty old man, but in a totally funny way. Will Sasso, from MadTV has a great part as the local town "retard", their word not mine. He is hilarious in this role.
Anyone who has spent time in a small Midwestern town will appreciate this movie, and anyone who wants a good time will like it too. The movie does have its share of foul language, No F words that I recall. No sex.

Edward and Bella

Spoilers in this post!

Okay, several weeks have passed since the release of the book, and I would like to get your responses. Please vote at my new poll, up at the top right of the blog.

I really liked the first 2/3 of the book. This was full of the wonderful romance and sweet fluff of the like, that girls love to read. I loved that Edward and Bella had such a wonderful honeymoon. He couldn't get enough of her, and she was more than happy to oblige. Obviously the sex was great enough to break the furniture! What girl doesn't dream of that happening right? I even loved the part where Bella suspects something is going on in her body that is totally foreign. But a vampire hybrid? Wow! Talk about the pregnancy from hell. I always worried that Bella wanted to jump into her vampire life too soon. I asked myself, what about babies? Every women at one point thinks about motherhood. How could Bella deny this part of herself? Even Christina, who swears she is adopting Japanese babies, has confessed that she wonders what it would be like to carry a baby to term.
So Bella, disregards all reason to save her mortality and chooses to incubate a half vampire baby. She goes through the most miserable pregnancy imaginable. Pain, broken, ribs, stretch marks from hell, bruises a linebacker couldn't imagine, and the unthinkable.....drinking blood to nourish herself and the fetus. During all of this mess, Edward is inconsolable with guilt and grief that his beloved is going to die because of his manly lusts.
I loved the creepy "Alien" like birth scene of Bella and Edward's baby too. I had no idea Stephanie Meyer had such a creepy imagination as to write such a sick, sick scenario. But it kinda makes sense. This baby has to get out to save itself. Her mother cannot carry her any longer and now it is survival of the fittest. Baby wins out, and baby chews it's way out. Okay, baby gets help chewing its way out of Bella by Edward, her father(But I can't think about that too much or I'll throw up a little in my mouth). Bella's spine is broken, she is losing massive amounts of blood, the pain sends her into shock and she is dying. Edward has no choice but to turn her into a vampire. He injects his own venom into her heart and and proceeds to bite her and lick her all over. Yes, all over. He is desperate to save her, and he knows the only way is to make her like him. Bella endures an excruciating 3 days of transformation while her body slowly kills itself off and accepts its new vampire self. Wait is this a Young Adult Book?!?!

I loved that Bella who eventually is a vampire turns into this sexy enchantress, whom Edward can't keep his hands off of. Now they can really proceed to "trip the light fantastic". They are madly, passionately, head over heels obsessed with each other, and then Voila! The baby can communicate with them, she sleeps through the night, she never cry's, she can even probably change her own diapers, if she needs to,(she is half human after all). So now the newlywed vampires can spend the entire night( remember they don't need sleep) sexing each other up in ways I have problems comprehending. I have one question..."Where do I sign up for this gig?"

The last third of the book was excruciating for me to get through. I don't care about all of these characters she introduces in some sort of editorial, get possible sequels, type of frenzy. I could care less about the Volturi, and their power issues, and I was not convinced that they were really going to do vanquish the Cullins or their friends. I don't think Stephanie Meyer is done with this money making vampire train yet, not by a long shot. So gentle readers you can expect to see much more of this series. I am certain! Bella and Edward will show up with child and Jacob in tow as background characters in many of her future books. I suspect there will be prequels as well. I would like to learn more about Alice and Jasper, Rosalee and Emmit, and Carlisle and Esme. Stephanie Meyer left the book wide, wide open for a whole series of the Jacob and Renesmee story line as well.

So, as I close this post of how the Vampire Kingdom Turns, I hope you are intrigued to vote at my post. Let me know if my review of the book has been fair, and really, what did you think of the book.

I Think I Am Fatter This Year

This one is from last August.

Jordan's childhood friend Trent and Dave, the son he never had.

We were at Jordan's best friend, Ashley's wedding reception. I have to say this was the nicest outdoor reception I have ever been to.

Food Storage 101

The LDS Public Affairs has asked members to blog or email etc... about how they utilize their food storage

I quote:

14 August 2008

"Church Public Affairs is asking Church members to share their experiences with maintaining and utilizing food storage by posting video, text or other content on personal blogs, video-sharing sites like YouTube, social media sites like Facebook, or other Internet sites. Members can then e-mail a link to their story to publicaffairs-slc@ldschurch.org."

I had to give a lot of my food storage away when we moved to Malaysia. It was not safe to keep jarred items I had preserved myself, or canned goods for so long in a storage unit (our movers would not take them anyway). I did keep the dry pack large cans though. I have been rotating through as many of those items as I can. I have noticed that some of the dry pack flour is getting a bit stale though. So I have basically started from the beginning getting my food storage back up.

Here are some tips I have used for years, and what has worked for me when storing food (in no particular order).

• grow a garden

• you can never preserve enough tomato products

• watch the food ads and buy in bulk what your family eats, most of my cereals were bought for only 1.oo a box never more than 2.00 a box.
  
• rotate though the food you store
• keep some sort of record of what you have in storage ( I draw diagrams)
  
• learn how to do your own canning
• teach your children to grab the older products for use first
• you need more than food in your storage, think soap, tampons, antibiotics, water, pet food etc..
• use your storage like a real grocery store. Don't buy 1.00 tuna when you have some in storage that you only paid .50 cents for last spring when you bought it in bulk
• get rain checks at the customer service center if your store is out of something you want
• you may need to shop early in the week, some stores won't do rain checks
• keep a file of successful recipes for your canning. I have found that not all salsa recipes are worth my time for instance, we do have a favorite. But. I will try a new hot dog relish this year that will utilize all the green tomatoes I know I am going to be stuck with because of our slow Spring thaw.
  

Our intention when we came home was that our adult children would not be living with us, and we would turn that extra room into a huge pantry for food storage, Now I have to stuff it under the stairs, what a nightmare...but having said that...

Can I just say how fulfilling it is to open up a jar of food that I have grown, and preserved myself?

Here's to Michael Phelps

8 GOLD Medals
in 2008

These are the best Olympics I have ever watched.
(vote on my new poll up at right)

I'll Ask The Blogging World

We recently uploaded all of our photographs (thousands) to our external hard drive. But we didn't think before we deleted them from the hard drive of the computer. Now my Photoshop Elements 6 doesn't know what to do. It wants to reconnect every single picture one by one to the external hard drive and it wants to search through every single file on the computer to do it. Aghh! I am distraught. Please someone tell me how to correct this seemingly simple fix!

Beautiful Flowers

I got these Gi-normous orange sunflowers at Smith's yesterday.
Simply stunning.

Black eyed Susan Cookies and Flowers (link to recipe)
Probably my most favorite flower.

One of my all time most loved people in the world was Julia Jacob.
This is her most precious grand-daughter. This 9 month old is the daughter of another of one of my most favorite people.

My Brain Might Burst

If you can answer these questions, you're smarter than me! (These came to me via email)

Only in America ... do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America ... do people order
Double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America ... do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America ...... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America ... do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America ... do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America ... do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

EVER WONDER ...........

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?
Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Activity Day Footsteps to Repentance

Sin is like a cloud over our heads.


To get out from under the cloud of sin we need to repent.
Here are the (foot) steps to Repentance.

1. Recognize the sin.
2. Confess our sin to God, and the person we offended.
3. Make up for my wrong.
4. Forsake my sin.
5. Obey and live like Christ.

The clouds of sin are lifted, and our lives are alive with hope.

To help us remember the foot steps to repentance, we made these flip flop sandals.

1. Cut slits every 1/2 inch in the fabric provided. Tear don't cut the fabric. Tear as many pieces as you think you need.
   
2. Tie the fabric on the flip flop using a double knot. 3 or 4 strips of the same color look the best.
3. Trim the fabric to about 2/3's of an inch and the fabric will stand up and look frilly.
   

I Feel Like a Pioneer

Okay kids, by now you know all things for me are food related. Will you just look at all I got accomplished today!

Look at what came from my garden today.I bought some incredible peaches at the Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park. I made this dynamite Lavender Peach Jam. (I grew the Lavender, thank you)

I even had the energy to make Tiny and her crew some homemade chips, and guacamole.
Tomorrow I sleep in.

Reminder to vote in the poll. Upper right hand corner of this page.