Tag Blankets

Madden got a cute boy tag blanket! Its oh so warm to!

This is what you do with it!

Some of you were wondering what a tag blanket is. Well, some ingenuous person, probably a mom with children, decided to make a blanket with a bunch of tags around it(ribbon). because children like to suck on the tags on there toys and blankets. So there you have it.

Eazy peezy nice and cheezy

Cherry cream cheese strudel

And since we were making strudel, Z decided to dress like a German boy! He just would not put pants on, he wanted his shorts! Maybe to show off his new shoes.

All done! And yes it was good!

Cherry Cheese Danish Braid
Ingredients:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cherry pie filling
1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations
3 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Method:
Heat oven to 375°F. Spray a baking sheet with a little non-stick cooking spray.
In small bowl, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla extract and set aside.
Unroll dough onto baking sheet and press into 13x7-inch rectangle.
Spoon cream cheese mixture lengthwise down center third of the dough. Then, carefully spoon pie filling on top of the cream cheese.
On each long side of dough rectangle, make cuts about 1 inch apart from the outer edge up to the edge of the filling. Fold opposite strips of dough over filling and cross in center to form a braided appearance. Seal the ends so that the filling doesn't leak out. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top.
Bake 22-24 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool for about 15-20 minutes and dive in!

Craft night

Craft night was super fun! My sock dog looks a little retarded and nothing like the picture in the magazine, but hes cute!

Clam Chowder

This is my version that I kind of throw together, its quick and easy, like most of the stuff I make!

Chop up a small onion, saute in a little olive oil until tender and translucent. Chop up a large potato and add to the pot. Stir it a bit. Then add 3 small cans of chopped clams, water and all. Bring to a boil, turn to simmer, put a lid on it and let cook until the potato is tender, about 10-15 minutes depending on how big your potato chunks are. Once the potato is tender add two cups of milk and a sprinkling of pepper to taste, heat until hot . That's it! If you want to make it real rich and fattening you could use 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup cream(for those days you just don't care about calories!)

Justin LOVES this soup, I guess its a man kind of soup.

Rock on!

Justin got Rock Band for"Christmas", but needed it for a work "team building party?" So we had to open it and play with it. The kids love it! I like the drums, getting good. Don't tell people at church I wouldn't want them to call me to be drum player or anything! This is probable the only game I play on the xbox, the only other game I am good at is Ultimate Fighter, which we don't have, probable cause I can whoop Justin, so he just doesn't buy that one so he wont lose!

We are thinking of getting a wii, Justin's says I will like it, that and I can use it to work out with. Any of you have the wii fit? Do you like it? Am I gonna have to try it for y'all?

Speaking of Christmas I am getting started early this year,we put up the tree and I have started shopping. We put the tree up because I am leaving for thanksgiving and by the time I get back it will be well into December, and that is just not enough time to enjoy the tree, which is my favorite part. I hope to get 90% of the shopping done by the time I leave, so when I get back we can enjoy the busy month of December.

Speaking of shopping, all you Utahan's(is that right?) Where are there cool places to go shopping up there? I think my brother and I are going to go up to Park City, any other good places? And it better snow when I am there! My kids will be said because they won't be able to see or play in it but Madden will! And I want to see some! So make sure it snows next week!

Speaking of snow, no its not snowing here, never does. We have had some cold nights(40's) So I started on the soup making, I made clam chowder last night while we decorated the tree for FHE. I will post the recipe as soon as I get the kids from the bus stop.

Speaking of the Bus stop, I have to leave in 10 minutes and both the boys are asleep! Why? Why do they never take good naps and the one time I have both of them down its time to leave!!!???

Speaking of I gotta go!

Gourmet Baby Food

Reminds me of that movie Baby Boom!

I had picked up Tyler Florence's new cook book at Costco. It had a lot of good things in there that I wanted to make, when I got home and took a better look at it I found that he had a section on baby food he makes for his own children, I was so excited! I hate buying baby food, I had made baby food for the other kids but it was just dull mushed up stuff, so now Baby M gets the good stuff! I even think they taste good. His trick for sweeter and taster? Roast the fruits and veggies! I don't know why I never thought of that! Of course they taste better then steaming(like I was doing!)

Roasted apples and vanilla bean(I added the vanilla bean:)

BEFORE

AFTER, Mmmmm this is good! The other kids are gonna like this apple sauce to!

Roasted squash, zucchini and potato(he said use a gold potato but I didn't have one)
BEFORE
AFTER, with fresh grated parmesan. this was good to if you like your veggies all pureed! And the parmesan gives it a little salt and flavor.

I already had made the Banana, Brown rice. And the Oatmeal, roasted apple and cinnamon. both are good:) Sorry no pic's, it was last week and I just forgot to blog about it!!!

There are a couple more I am going to make so stay tuned!

Oh! I am putting them in little baggies and freezing them!

Tag! You chew now!

The boys let me do some sewing this morning, I was able to make this adorable little tag blanket for a friends little girl, now if I can just make a cool looking boy one!

And Just in time for Thanksgiving, Hannah's apron she won, hope she likes, she said her favorite color was purple. I really should make my self one! Its on its way girl!
So does any one want to come craft with me on November 20th? In the evening sometime. I want to do appliqued shirts or sock dogs and it would be fun to do with other people. I'll even make some goodies to eat! Probable something chocolate! Call me if you are interested in coming over and crafting with me!

FHE

For Family Home Evening tonight we made Pretzels, this recipe is so good! Tastes like the ones at the mall!

Z watching the dough.

Look Justin's having a good time, he thinks hes the master at this pretzel making thing!
I'm in a picture!
Cute little pretzel makers!
All done!

Justin's perfect little pretzel!

We had a great time! And they came out super yummy!


The recipe comes from AllRecipes, and it's no wonder it has so many wonderful ratings. The recipe is perfect!

Ingredients:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.

Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.

After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.

Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

Yo Yo Yo Yo

It's yogurt! In the crock pot! It worked! And it is good!

It's not as thick like the stuff you buy, they put stuff in it to make it thick. When it was done I added a little unflavored gelatin to see if that would thicken it a bit more. I'll let you know! I also put a vanilla been in there to flavor it, I think it came out good, the real test will be on Annalyse when she tries it. I got the recipe from here.
Jen, this is a vanilla bean, you buy them like this and then when you are ready to use it, you split it down the middle and scrape out all the vanilla seeds inside and add it to what ever. The seeds are where all the flavor is and is so much better then regular liquid vanilla. I am also addicted to vanilla, like I am to chocolate! I try to put it in everything, even oatmeal. Right now I have vanilla beans, vanilla paste(the vanilla seeds and a thick syrup) and a huge bottle of vanilla from Costco, in my cabinet.

I will let you know what the all around verdict is after A tries it, to see if I will be doing this again.

Look at these

Cute little tags.

For goodie bags.

Look Ma! We do to have a Fall here in Texas!

These are down the street from us. I am hopping to get to Lost Maples this year, there trees are gorgeous right now, probably the only place in Texas that looks like fall! With lots of different colored leaves. I want the kids to gather some to use on our thanksgiving table decorations. And there are some crafts to do with leaves, these pictured are not the big leaf keeping kind, just some kind of scrubby tree, but pretty non the less, I love seeing the few trees that we do have change colors! That is also a creek down there that has been dry all summer!

The week end

Friday, made some Mac and Cheese from here.

Zander layed out his outfit for trick or treating, he cracks me up! Every time he gets dressed he will lay out his stuff like this! Makes me smile :)
Went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then trick or treating in a near by neighbourhood, we don't have it in ours cause everyone is like 100ft + to the next house. We had Hannah Montana and Batman, Little M had a shirt that said "I love my Mummy!" Didn't snap that though.

Saturday, Annalyse had her last game of the season, they lost but she played good.

She loves soccer so we will see if we do the spring season.

My Cute little girl!!! (I think she is cracking her knuckles?!)

Madden J loves food!

Gotta love those teething biscuits! So messy and sticky! Trying to figure out where it went!

Not sure what was going on here, Sunday after church we were all getting dressed, or undressed out of our church clothes, and this is what I saw, I think he was playing with his feet! Boys and church clothes just don't mix! No matter how late we get Z ready, by the time we get to church his shirt is always un tucked!

So there you have it, our weekend. I didn't make some of the things on my list last week so they are caring over to this week, like everything else! I did make some(I thought) yummy banana bread Sunday morning, the kids were all up at 7am(which was actually 6) So I had time to make a real breakfast before church at 9am! GO ME!