Merry Christmas!

We hope you are all having a great holiday season. Ours is very busy which is why I haven't been blogging. Just wanted to take a moment though to post this and wish you all a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from David, Kristyn and kids!

Some 5* Perfected Recipes

Wow, this month really went by fast and the holidays are upon us. But these photos don't go with December, so here's my final fall post.

I like chili, but I didn't love it until I tried this recipe. I have tried making a few chili recipes over the years, but this is now a favorite that we make often. I'll officially call it Aunt Donna's chili since David's mom got it from her sister, but we call it Grandma Hansen's chili. Funny how recipes get re-named after the person who gives it to you. I add 2 more cans of chili beans when I make it so that it goes further for my family, and I like having leftovers. I have never remembered to buy bay leaves, so I haven't ever put those in, I usually use dried diced onions if I don't have fresh, and I add more chili powder.

Aunt Donna's Chili

1 1/2 to 2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, chopped

Brown, then add:
1 can chili beans
1 can diced tomaotes
2 small cans tomato sauce plus 2 cans water
1 pkg. spaghetti sauce mix
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. chili powder
2 bay leaves
Cook slowly until thickened, usually about 1/2 hour, uncovered. Stir often. Remove bay leaves.

Somewhere in our move 4 1/2 years ago, I lost my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I had tried others with limited success (especially the batch David helped Stauney make where they added powdered sugar in place of the flour and wondered why it wouldn't thicken.) So in a search last Christmas for a great sugar cookie recipe I found this one on Allrecipes. I love that site because I love to read the ratings and see how people liked it and what they would change. I recently made these to take visiting teaching in November. I will post my favorite icing recipes also. These are iced with royal icing that I outlined and flood-filled, but I have a favorite soft frosting recipe also from Allrecipes. These cookies are crispy on the outside, but soft and melt-in-your mouth on the inside. And they are really easy! The royal icing hardens up just enough to place them on a plate without the cookies sticking together, but stays soft inside. The green ones in the photo are still wet and that's why they are shiny.
My Grandma Lindsay's sugar cookies will always have a place in my heart, my recipe binder, and my stomach, but these are my favorite sugar cookies for decorating. Try them and enjoy!

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar (can add up to 1 more cup for a sweeter cookie if you don't plan to frost them)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour in the fridge or overnight. (I throw it in the freezer for 1/2 hour).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
Bake 6-8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. (I bake mine up to 10 min. depending on the thickness. Bake until the edges start to turn brown.)
Makes about 4-5 dozen depending on size.

Royal Icing

8 tsp. merengue powder + 8 Tbsp. water = 4 egg whites (I've always used the powder for food safety)
5 cups powdered sugar (plus more for thickening)
1/2 to 1 tsp. lemon extract
food coloring to tint
Whisk the merengue powder and water until smooth and bubbly. Add powdered sugar and extract. Separate some into another bowl to thicken for outlining. Add more powdered sugar until it will hold a peak on your spoon. The flooding frosting may need to be thickened some more also so it will run together, but not be too runny. Place in decorating bags with a small round tips. (The lemon extract makes this fabulous, so don't go without! The only real trick to this is to get the icing the right consistency for outlining and filling. Outline and let dry before filling.)


Sugar Cookie Frosting
allrecipes.com

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup shortening
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
food coloring
Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually add milk and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes.

Sorry, but I forgot to take a photo of the next recipe, but I'm sure you know what a pumpkin roll looks like.

For the Stake Presidency/visiting speakers dinner after Stake conference last Sunday I was assigned a dessert to make. My last food assignment had problems and was a flop (only to me I'm sure), so I was determined to show the other wives that I could cook. I searched allrecipes.com again for a 5* pumpkin roll recipe and found one that looked promising. Actually I found 2, but used the ingredients from one (Granny Kat's) and the directions from the other(Pumpkin Roll II). I made this recipe 4 TIMES last Saturday before I finally felt like I had it perfected and good enough to present. So I took the best 2 to the dinner and took the other 2 to Thanksgiving to share with my family, who could care less what they looked like. Turns out, once you slice them, they look pretty, and they taste so good, who cares what they look like! But I feel like I redeemed myself. I dusted powdered sugar on the plates, put a slice of pumpkin roll, some chocolate shavings, and a scoop of Dryers Vanilla Bean ice cream. Oh boy it's good!
So here's the combination of recipes, and my instructions so we'll call it:

The Perfected Pumpkin Roll

1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
(1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice = 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger, 1/8 tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. cloves)
powdered sugar for dusting

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 10"x15" jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the paper completely.
Cream eggs and sugar about 2 minutes until fluffy. Blend in lemon juice, pumpkin, spices and baking soda. Slowly add flour and blend just until mixed. Pour the mixture into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake for 15 minutes. (Here's where I had problems with my first 2. Bake until the top starts to brown slightly and springs back to the touch. I didn't bake the first ones long enough and they stuck to the towel. I baked my perfect one about 21 minutes, but it depends on your oven.)
Lay a linen towel on the counter and sprinkle it generously with powdered sugar (not lightly like they tell you). Turn the cake onto the towel. Carefully roll the towel up with the cake in it. (Lengthwise if you want a small roll, widthwise if you want a big one). Place the cake-in-towel on a cooling rack and let cool completely (no peeking, that's where I messed up #3, it cracked. Mine took about 40 minutes).
Make the icing in a bowl with a mixer.
When the cake has cooled, carefully unroll it, spread the icing on it, and re-roll it without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate before serving (or it squashes) or you can freeze it for up to 2 weeks in foil. (I froze mine and let them thaw on the plates while we ate.) Cut the cake in slices, thick or thin. Serves about 10-15.


I hope you try and enjoy my recipes! I also made Apple Carmel Sundae Tart from kraftfoods.com for our friends' Pie Preview the night before Thanksgiving. Everyone brings pie and we sit around and chat and eat WAY too much pie, but oh, how we look forward to it every year! Anyway, this pie is very simple and quick to make, very tasty and will be added to my favorites. The Cherry Danish Dessert is also a 5* favorite of our family.

I'm thankful for good food, but mostly for my wonderful family and friends I have to share it with. You're the reason I enjoy baking.

Fall Projects

I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of my fall projects. I have more projects in the works, but here's what I have done so far:
When we first moved in this area leading up to the front door was overgrown with huge rosebushes that you could barely walk past without getting scratched. We took those out and I cut the grass out and added a few flowers, but this spring I sprayed the grass the rest of the way to the sidewalk to add this path. David and the kids helped me dig and till for many evenings. We tried to get the rocks laid before we left for Hawaii, but ran out of time, then fair, school, etc., so I finally got back to this project and spent days pulling the weeds that had filled it in and getting the rocks in. I'm really happy with it. I pulled some perennials out of my summer pots and put those in the ground and a neighbor gave me some starts of peonies, and coreopsis. Next spring I'm starting phase 2 of the front yard landscaping which will be to make a courtyard near the front door and I will move more flowers to this bed from that area.

Then I took a fun break for UEA weekend and went to the Ogden dinosaur park with the kids. We love going around Halloween to see the fun decorations and it's such a pretty fall setting. In the museum a man spent around 30 minutes teaching us about rocks and gemstones. Logan, Stauney and I were fascinated by all he taught us. Noah and Evan were a little impatient. Evan was looking out the window at the dinosaurs and said, "If we don't get out of here soon, I'm going to break this window and jump out to get to those dinosaurs."

Posing by the pumpkins. After the dino park, we went to Smith and Edward's in Willard to look for Halloween costume items. The kids had so much fun trying on the old military surplus stuff. They thought it was the greatest store ever. For those of you not familiar with the store, their motto is "We have it if you can find it."

I'm so glad my Mom was up and helped Evan and I pick the grapes from our neighbor's grape vines. There were a lot. It was a cold morning and we were freezing, but Evan was so excited about helping to pick them.
I got about 30 quarts of grape juice from them. This was the first time I have done white grape juice and the colors are so weird. These bottles are from the same batch. They started out light and got darker toward the end. The grapes were really sweet though and the juice is great.

The kids and I also picked 2 bushel of pears from our tree, but I can't seem to find those photos so I think they are on a different memory card. They will have to wait until I get well enough to make them into jam.

Mario Party 6

I stayed up until midnight finishing grape juice because the next day was our Ward Halloween party and I had to get costumes made. Noah came up with this idea when he said he wanted to be Mario for Halloween. It just ballooned from there and we ended up with the whole family as Mario characters: Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, Wario, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. We won best costumes at the party, and while I was sewing Logan made David's Aunt Donna's chili recipe to take and won 2nd place in the chili cook-off. I'll post the recipe later, it's really good and easy!

The rusty railing before.

I've been wanting to re-paint this railing since we moved in and a recent spell of warm weather convinced me it was time to get it done. Since I hadn't used the textured paint before I under-estimated how much I needed and ended up running to the store 3 times to get more.

The finished railing!

I used Rust-oleum multi-colored textured paint and I'm really happy with how it turned out. But I could have used 2 instead of the 6 cans I ended up using if I would have painted it brown first with the textured paint over that.

The dresser before.

My SIL Karen has started refinishing furniture and had bought this dresser but decided not to use it. She sold it to me and told me what I needed to buy to refinish it. It was a pale green color and was in good shape other than the old paint finish. It was a little scary at first to start sanding it, but after I got the hang of the sander I really enjoyed doing it. The paint went on well, and with Karen's great tips it all went good.

And here's the finished dresser.

It was my husband's idea to do it pink. Stauney loves it! It is a really sturdy dresser and will be great for her room. It was missing 3 handles, so we found these cute small ones to put on the top drawers and I painted all the handles with a brown hammered steel paint.We are going to do her room in pink and brown soon. I sold her full-sized bed to my parents for their guest room and we are going to get a twin bed for her room so she'll have more space.

We are thinking of starting a little business re-finishing furniture, so tell me what you think of it. She did a similar dresser and mirror in a lime green paint with brown stain that is just beautiful. Thank you Karen for sharing your knowledge and experience with me.

More than a cold

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm sick. Turns out it wasn't a cold though. I have a really bad case of strep throat. It came on suddenly Friday afternoon and I have been out of it ever since. After waking up Sunday morning to a horrific looking throat and bad fever, I went to the doctor and got a pennicillin shot. I should start feeling better soon.
I'm writing this to thank my husband for all he has done for me lately. He has been coming home from work early to take the kids places, going in to work late and taking short lunches to get kids to school, cooking the meals, running kids to the store and parties, and canceling meetings all weekend long to stay home and take care of me and the kids.
Yesterday he got up early to arrange for the Stake President to teach for him in a Ward conference so he could take our kids to church. It was our Primary Program, and I'm a Primary teacher, and I was so upset to miss not only my own kids in it, but my class also. Then he made blueberry pancakes, got the kids bathed and ready for church, took me to the doctor, fed everyone lunch, started dinner and headed for church. He has been so amazing and wonderful.
My kids have been helping out so much also and I am so grateful to them too. They've been bringing me chicken noodle soup in bed, refilling my water bottle, helping David with meals and supplying me with movies to keep my mind off my illness. I have such a great family and I am so thankful for them. I love them so much. I am hoping and praying now that none of them get sick.

Too Old for Parties

It's sad. I now have a 14-year old, and he's too old for parties.

Being the party-planning mom that I am, I began asking Logan months ago what he wanted to do for his birthday party this year. None of my suggestions were enticing him, and he wasn't coming up with anything on his own. (His sister picks her next party theme the day after her birthday.) So in frustration during another brainstorming session I suggested that we just forget a party and David and I would take him to dinner and a movie. Finally I got some excitement from an idea! So that's what we did.

On the Saturday night before Logan's birthday we had Stauney babysit and we took him out. He picked Marie Callendar's for dinner (so he could get pie with dinner). With an entire menu to choose from, anything he wanted, no price limit for a change, what does Logan get to eat? A hamburger. Teenagers. Then we went to see The Fly Boys. This was an independent movie filmed in St. George that I had heard about on the KSL Movie Show. (Two pre-teen boys stow away in an airplane owned by a mob boss.) It was only in select theaters for a certain amount of time. There were only David, Logan and myself and one other couple with 2 kids in the entire theater for the movie. WE LOVED IT! Everyone else was missing out. It was funny, adventureous, exciting, and heartwarming, and I highly recommend it to those over 13. It was PG-13 for some language and intense excitement that had me screaming in the theater.

The next day was Sunday, and Logan's birthday. He was ordained to the office of a Teacher at church that day. Logan picked lasagna for dinner, and a cheesecake for his birthday cake which I bought at Sam's Club. We ate, he opened presents, we ate cake, and that was it! No balloons, no cute party plates, no invitations, no custom cake masterpiece. I really didn't have much to do for his birthday except make dinner. I think I liked it! Logan was perfectly content, we had a great time spending some time with just Logan, and the other kids are thinking that dinner and a movie with mom and dad might be funner than a party. But, being the party-planning mom that I am, I won't encourage it, until they get too old for parties too.

Top Nine List

I seem to always be about a month behind on my posts. We went to the Utah State Fair in September, but I just have to post this.

First, I have to give you a little goat lesson. As we sit in the barn for the goat shows at the State Fair, multitudes of students, groups and families come through to see the animals. We soon found out, the first time there, that many don't know anything about farm animals. We always get asked questions about the goats, but one question we get 98% of the time, "What happened to their ears." The LaMancha breed of goats have little stubby ears. It actually looks like they have none. And most questions and comments revolve around their ears - or lack of.

Here's a picture of a LaMancha.

Most people think of Nubians, with Roman noses and long floppy ears, when they think of goats, and probably don't even realize that there are other breeds.

Anyway, enough goat lesson, here's what I wanted to post:

The Top Nine List of Funny Comments We Heard About Goats While Sitting at the Utah State Fair.
(Sorry, I only had nine, not ten.)

#9 - Abt. 15 year-old girl: "I have to take pictures of all their butts! They're so weird."

#8 - Abt. 9 year-old boy spots brown LaMancha across the barn: "Hey look! They have a llama."

#7 - Abt. 6 year-old girl: "Mommy, do these lay eggs?"

#6 - Abt. 15 year-old boy: "Hey, a Billy Goat!"
Owner: "That ain't no Billy Goat. Look underneath her, see the udder?"
15 y.o.b.: Looks confused at word 'udder'. "But it has little horns."
Owner: "They all have horns."

#5 - Grown man: "So, are these the goats?"

#4 - Mentally challenged man points to a blank white banner hanging from the ceiling and says confidently, "See that? It says 'goats'." Other mentally challenged adults in group look at banner, nod approvingly, and walk away. Only one man stays behind and looks at blank banner confused. Steps around to look at other side of blank banner. Finally shrugs his shoulders and walks off to join the others.

#3 - Abt. 10 year-old boy to his classmates looking at a LaMancha: "Yep, they cut the ears off. They use animal parts to make things."

#2 - Abt. 8 year-old girl referring to the teats: "See those? You have to touch those and push them up in to get milk out of them. They do it to cows too."
Her classmate's response: "Eww!"

#1 - Grown man with wife and four young children: Confidently, "The boys have ears, the girls don't."


Logan and Stauney raise Oberhasli's. Here's a picture of them at the State Fair. They did really well in the 4-H show with Logan getting 4th and Stauney getting 1st in their age groups in Showmanship. Then Stauney's goat Penelope got 2nd place Jr. Kid, and Logan's goat got 2nd place Dry Yearling, and Jr. Reserve Champion.
In the open show Penelope got 1st place Jr. Kid, and Ruby got 3rd place Dry Yearling. I won't go into detail of what that all means, but it's really good!
(Stauney is actually showing Clover in this picture, and if you read my previous goat posts of why she no longer owns Clover, I'll just add that despite her recent cosmetic surgery for which we dubbed her 'FrankenClover', she hilariously won 1st place in the same show she got disqualified in last year!)

And finally, I had to show a picture of these awesome tigers that were in a show at the fair. They are from the Marcan Tiger Preserve Tigers of India show. They were so beautiful!

The State Fair is a lot of work and effort, but very entertaining and rewarding in the end.