Picnic in the Park

Friday, March 20th 11:30 am (after the Mom and Me fire station activity) at the park between the homes.

Come celebrate the last day of Winter! Bring your picnic, a blanket or chairs, and sunscreen.

Pass the word on and See you there!

Calling all Ladies!

Doesn't ice cream sound good?
Spanish Fork Cold Stone
TONIGHT(3/05) 8pm
Help spread the word and carpool!

Santa Fe Soup or Chili- Sheia

This one is for you Sara-glad you liked it!

1-1 ½ lb. Ground beef
Brown with a medium size onion-diced
2 small cans shoe-pegged corn (drained)
1 can red kidney beans (don’t drain)
1 can black beans (don’t drain)
1 other can of beans (or 2 of one of the above beans)
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
2 envelopes ranch dressing mix
1 large can whole tomatoes (can chop or puree)

Dump everything into a crock pot and cook for approximately 2 hours.

Serve with sour cream, grated cheese and Frito scoops, or corn bread.

valentine glazed sugar cookies.......................Courtney

I saw these on the channel 2 news and thought they looked really good. I'll be making them sometime from now and Saturday.

7 cups flour
1 cup butter
2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup dairy sour cream
1-8 oz package cream cheese
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together.
Cream together butter, sugar, and cream cheese.
Add sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Blend to incorporate.
Add flour mixture and mix until combined.
Chill in refrigerator.
Roll out, cut in desired shape and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.

Cookie Glaze:

1 stick butter
½ cup milk plus 3 tbsp
¼ cup light corn syrup
32 ounces powder sugar (2 pounds)

Melt butter in a large microwave safe bowl.
Add remaining ingredients and mix together until smooth.
Dip cookies in glaze and place on a wire rack. Allow glaze to set for about 1 hour. Enjoy!!!

Here's the site if you want to see the video or at least what the finished product looks like.

Abuela's Macaroni & Cheese - Erin Abrams

8 oz. bag elbow macaroni (I usually cook up more than 8 oz.)
1/2 cup butter
6 Tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
1/4 cup more milk
8 oz. grated cheddar cheese (or about 2 - 2 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese (can use powdered kind from can or fresh grated)

Cook macaroni as package directs. Make a white sauce by melting butter in small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and add flour. Return to heat and when it has the consistency of a cream, add 2 cups milk. Continue to stir on stovetop until it has the consistency of a thick sauce. Remove from heat and add cheese. Back on fire till cheese is melted completely. Add the extra 1/4 cup milk. Salt, pepper and garlic salt the macaroni before pouring the cheese sauce on. Mix well. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Serve!

Oven French Toast Sticks - Sheia

In keeping with the breakfast theme I had to post another of Sheia's delicious recipes that our family tried tonight!

8-9 pieces Texas Toast
1/4 cup melted margarine
4 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup orange juice (drinking strength)

Using pizza cutter, cut each slice of bread into thirds to make "sticks." In bowl, mix margarine, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and orange juice. Dip breadsticks into mix. Place on greased cookie sheet. Pour any remaining dip over the French toast. Bake 25 minutes at 350. Turn sticks once half way through the baking time.

We enjoyed these dipped in Nauvoo Syrup - also a recipe I got from Sheia (see below.)


NAUVOO SYRUP/BUTTERMILK SYRUP

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cube margarine
1 tsp. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together (except vanilla) in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla

*Can use 2 Tbsp. powdered buttermilk + 1/2 cup water. Since I didn't have either of these I used 1/2 cup evaporated milk + 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice.

Chickie Pig Eyes-Sheia

Chickie Pig Whats???
So that is the name our family came up with for this breakfast creation, which you may have had a variation of at some time in your life.To make Chickie-Pig-Eyes you need:
1 loaf Texas Toast bread
1 egg/person (and a little milk if you prefer your eggs scrambled)
butter or margarine
ham slices
cheese slices
salt and pepper
a biscuit or circle cutter
a griddle

Butter one slice of toast per person on both sides.
Cut out a hole from the middle of the toast with the circle cutter and save the centers.


Cut out 2 ham circles and one cheese circle per person.

Heat griddle to about 350-375 degrees and get ready to assemble FAST when griddle is hot.

Lay the bread on the griddle and start filling the holes in this order:
1 ham circle
1 egg (just crack it in there or pour in some eggs scrambled with a little bit of milk-enough to almost fill the hole)
salt and pepper the egg
1 cheese circle
1 ham circle

Let it toast on that side for a couple of minutes and then carefully flip over and toast on the other side. Toast your bread circles at the same time.

Wall-Ah! Chickie-Pig-Eyes!


Can serve with hot maple syrup. Works well to cut pizza style with a pizza cutter for little fingers to dip in syrup.

Let me know what you would call these and other variations you have heard of!

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup - Kristy

This is for Sarah.

1 med. onion, chopped
3 cups vegetable stock or water
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 (15 0z) can black beans, drained
2 cans (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tb curry powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
20 blades fresh chives, chopped

Saute onion in some oil - 5 min. Add broth, tomatoes, beans, and pumpkin. Stir and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to low and stir in cream, curry, cumin, and cayenne and salt to taste. Simmer 5 min. and serve with chives.

*This is a thick soup and is very Indian tasting. I think you could also serve over rice and it would be really good.

coconut bread-----------Emily Pressley

Coconut Bread
3 sticks butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

1 cup brown sugar

6 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp. coconut extract

½ tsp. almond extract

3 cups flour, sifted

½ tsp baking powder

1 cup coconut milk
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Grease and flour 2 loaf pans or a bundt pan
Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar
Beat in eggs 1 at a time, mix well
Add coconut and almond extract
Stir in separate bowl flour and baking powder
Add flour to dough alternately with coconut milk
Pour batter into pan filling no more than ¾ full
Bake in middle rack of oven for 60-70 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. (check after 45 minutes)
Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on wire rack

When I make this, I don’t actually worry about the eggs being room temperature. At the Relief Society dinner I put icing on the top to make it prettier, but the bread tastes great without as well. To make the icing, just use your favorite cinnamon roll icing recipe, but instead of vanilla extract, add ½ tsp. almond extract. Put the icing on after the bread has cooled.

Pumpkin Soup from RS Dinner - Olia

I don't have the exact measurements for this, but it's really easy to make.

This recipe is for 5 qt slow cooker, and it’s easy to scale it down.
I cooked half of a small onion in some butter with some garlic powder over medium heat until soft. Put into the slow cooker.

Add chopped 1lb (or less) smoked ham,
2 large cans (29 oz each) of pumpkin puree,
1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp rosemary, and salt to taste.

Then I just filled the slow cooker to the top with chicken broth (I used chicken broth cubes and water); that way you can make the soup thicker or thinner by adding liquid to the pumpkin puree.

This time I cooked it on High for 4 hours, and I think it was too long because the ham cubes turned out a bit hard. All it really needs is to be heated through so that all the flavors combine.

Serve with cream.