Not Much to Blog About...

...so here's a picture into our week.

I made this yummy White Chocolate Mix - popcorn, pretzels, m&m's, frosted cheerios & heath bits (Mmmm) and all held together with melted white chocolate chips. My new favorite munchies - good thing I sent half of it to Brianna to try because I'm the only one eating it here. :)

Tiffani made this Ham & Cheese Omelet Roll for dinner Sunday night. One of our favorites. YUM!

Must be a 'breakfast for dinner' week. Tuesday night we had an Oven Apple Pancake. The pancake is made like a German Hot Cake. I was a little worried about it since we usually make it an 11x7 pan and this was baked in the deep dish baker - but it worked. As soon as the oven door was opened it started to fall so this picture doesn't show it's FULL size.

The recipe then called for frozen escalloped apples. What...? Never heard of them, couldn't find them at Winco or Paul's. Searched for a recipe online and made our own... The one we picked was a little bland/sour - not enough sugar & too much lemon juice. But it was good. So after the pancake comes out of the oven you put these warm escalloped apples right on top of the pancake. A new twist on German Hot Cakes, but next time a new apple recipe is called for.

(Escalloped, by the way, means, to bake (food cut into pieces) in a sauce or other liquid, often with crumbs on top) Kind of what we figured, just never heard of it and we were even more perplexed when we couldn't find them in the store. O'well...

This next set of pictures is Simba in the kitchen while Tiff was baking. He is never too far away from her...
Simba's looking for food - Tiffani was making the omelet. Tessa was right there, too, just kept turning her head & didn't want any pictures (takes after Tiffani, I think!)

Just loved Simba's tail in this one.

Also discovered that Simba does NOT like the flash on the camera. He was sitting by Tiffani and I picked up the camera and he backed up a bit...

...and again... before it even flashed... I decided I had enough pictures of him. ;)

Every morning Tiff and I (and the dogs) seem to have the same routine. Simba of course sticks as close to Tiffani as possible. Comes down long enough to eat in the morning and then heads right back upstairs while Tiff gets dressed. Tessa, at this point can be just about anywhere and stays there until we are done eating. Simba comes down with Tiffani, goes outside & then back up with Tiffani. When I go back up to brush my teeth, Tessa comes up and keeps me company.
She will follow me into the bathroom and lay on the floor while I do my hair and teeth. Not sure why she started that, but as soon as I turn the lights out she follows me out of the bedroom and finds a spot to curl up at upstairs.

Simba, as soon as Tiffani starts getting her jacket and backpack runs downstairs ahead of us and into his kennel and waits patiently to be kennelled for the day. He knows when everybody is gone that's his spot to curl up.

Ice Cream

Our love of ice cream comes naturally. Thanks Dad! :) So in honor of Dad's birthday on Friday I made some homemade ice cream. I decided that I wanted to try and make some Mint Chocolate Chip. I followed the recipe that came in the ice cream maker book, but added my own twist (thanks to Alton Brown) by chopping up some Andes' mints (and mini chocolate chips) and mixing them in at the very end. Also one of the many discussions on homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream online was the type and amount of mint flavoring to use. I ended up with just a half a teaspoon of peppermint extract and made the four quart recipe. It turned out really good, I think. The Andes' mints just "make it" though. Mmmmm. Les isn't a big fan of that flavor ice cream and Tiffani has yet to try it. But Grandpa Ron approved and he is the one person that I know that loves ice cream as much as Dad did.

Tiffani's Cake Class

This month Tiffani took a Cake Class at Michael's. She was excited about taking it until the first class... There were nine students plus the teacher in a little room and the person who sat next to her smelled like she just finished smoking before coming in. So she didn't have the most pleasant experience. All that aside, she did go back for the last 3 classes and did learn some things and did enjoy it. Although if she takes the next class she will go to JoAnn's because we've heard that their classroom is much bigger!

The first class they practiced making little stars and then decorated a cookie with the stars. Tiff did Bri's name and a few others but she wouldn't let me take pictures until we got home so I only got the one. They also learned how to make frosting.


Tiffani didn't want any pictures, again, but I took one from behind while she was working. :) That little table she's at, they put 4 people at to spread out and decorate! This night there was only 3. This 2nd class they learned how to frost a cake and then decorate with lines and dots (& elongated shapes).


I got a picture of Tiffani with her completed cake. I told her Grandma wanted to see it & her so she agreed since it was for Grandma! (A. Avy, will you make sure Grandma sees it, please.)


The 3rd class they had to bring 6 cupcakes. Then frost and decorate them with the flowers they learned - drop flower, rosettes, shells, pompom flowers and leaves. I loved her top middle cupcake - if it had been blue frosting it would've looked like cookie monster. :) And the leaves on the bottom right are amazing.


A close up of the leaves.


Before her last class we got out her left over frosting and practiced making the flowers that she had learned. I need more practice but it was fun to do!


The last class they had to bring a cake that was frosted and then they learned how to make the ribbon rose and then wrote on the cake and decorated it. Kinda ran out of time allowed in the classroom so she didn't get any leaves put around her roses. The cake looked pretty good. No pictures till we got home - mostly because I forgot the camera and couldn't sneak any pictures in of her making the roses.

New and improved cabinets

I guess, technically, it's not new cabinets - just improved. Les has been busy in shop building pull out drawers to increase the space and accessibility in the lower cabinets. He's got one done (2 drawers) and 3 (6 drawers) more to go.

This is not actually the first one he did, but I didn't get a before picture before he started. But all four of the lower cabinets have two doors into it, but the center part was in the way to put one drawer across the whole space. So first that had to be cut out.

He first attached the right door to the center board with a corner piece and then made a straight cut at the top and bottom of the center board to cut it out. We couldn't just get rid of the center piece because there would have been a gap between the doors then. So this was his best solution. Works for me! :) He also had to raise the side support up to get over the lip on the edge of the cabinet.

Here's a close up of the corner strip on the door.

The doors closed.

Now I have two full size shelves/drawers that pull out. I am so excited about this! :) Let me tell you!! I had to get the 9x13 out this morning and instead of getting down on my hands and knees, move the front stuff out of the way and "wrangle" it out of the back corner, I just pulled out the drawer, lifted the stack, got the one I wanted and pushed the drawer back in. Ahh the simple things in life!

Waiting on some more wood and time for the next set to be built. Only 3 more cabinets to go...

Thanks, Les!

New Year's Eve

Awhile ago I joined this group called groupons. They send you daily coupons to your email that are at greatly discounted prices to businesses in your area. I've bought a few of them. Most are a 50% savings. One to a cupcake place in Eagle that you buy the "groupon" for $8 and you get a coupon to get $16 in cupcakes - basically 6 cupcakes for the price of 3. We'd been wanting to go there and check out a cupcake cake store & just hadn't made it to Eagle to do that. So now we have another excuse to go - gotta use the coupon by June. We also bought some to a place called Smashburger. Wow! Those were good hamburgers!! And the french fries were great, too. That was another 50% savings deal - pay $5 get a $10 coupon. Oh and that was a popular one. They had 2,500 of those for sale. In the 24 hours it was available to buy they sold over 2,200 of them!

But the best deal, turned out ok, but wasn't as good as it seemed... We bought a package deal for the Steelheads hockey game on New Year's Eve. The deal was 4 tickets for a luxury suite for $25 each (regular $65 each!). Brianna ended up at a friends house and Grandpa Ron was in Washington, so we asked Grandma J to go with us. This great deal that was suppose to include chips, cheese, salsa & popcorn was very enticing to alot of people and the rooms that were available to us were crowded and we weren't able to sit and watch the game. Stood the entire time. The snacks were on a table in 2 of the 3 rooms and to be shared with everyone and no refills. We asked about getting more chairs but were told they'd brought in all they could. So we went to the least crowded room, pulled the curtain back and looked through several panels of glass to the game. When some others that were standing watching the game left, we went and stood in their spots and were at least able to see the game better. Now, overall we did have a good time, but it was frustrating! And I'm very thankful that we didn't pay $65 for each of those "luxury seats" we got! (And I think the worst part was sitting in the parking garage for an hour (not kidding!) waiting to get out after the game! Though we were entertained by a couple of teenagers in the car behind us. They got out and danced around to their music, dove into the car through open windows, and climbed in/out of the sun roof window.)

This was after the 1st period ended. This team of little hockey players got to play until 1 of them made a goal. Pretty cute.

This picture kind shows where we were. The far left is where we pulled the curtain back to watch through the windows. There were 6 bar height chairs up against the opening there. There was the couple on the end, then Les, Tiffani & Grandma J standing and then 4 other people in the chairs. We could've pulled up the table chairs, but then your looking at the shelf to set your drinks/snacks on & can't see the game!

Then there was the drive home... Didn't realize everything closed down on New Year's Eve. Tried to find a place to eat and nothing was open! So we took Grandma J back to Tracy's house to get her car (minus a headlight...) and Tiffani drove her home to spend the night out there. Les and I went to Winco and got sour cream and came home to eat leftover taco bake while watching Dick Clark's New Year's Eve. (Exciting, I know.) We warned Tiffani to take it easy with the missing headlight, beings it was New Year's Eve and after 11pm, the cops were going to be out in full force. Sure enough, she got pulled over in Middleton for the headlight!! Grandma J said she handled herself just fine. :) So she brought in the New Year driving the back roads to New Plymouth. Tiffani didn't say anything to us about it, but Grandma J had texted Les. So I sent her a text asking how the drive was, her reply was "Fine, eventful..."

Christmas 2010

Some favorite pictures from Christmas morning:

Tiffani was excited about her new desk chair - no more old kitchen table chair! Les bought it at IKEA on his first trip to Utah for work this fall. It'd been in the garage for about month or so!

Brianna was was excited about the beads she found in her stocking. And even more so about the box of multi-colored seed beads from Tiffani

One of the gifts Brianna looks forward to each year is the addition of a nutcracker to her collection. Depending on what we find sometimes she gets to add multiples - like this year. I found the penguin one first, but on another shopping trip out we found the skier & that was, of course, a must have!

Tiffani has a nutcracker, too, though doesn't really collect them like Brianna does. She's been on the lookout for a baker - a female baker nutcracker - but we have yet to find one. But this particular one was perfect for her. A countdown nutcracker with a cupcake for a hat. And as Tiffani pointed out, he's holding a peppermint lollipop and her other nutcracker is totally peppermint themed, so they go together quite well. (Note to self - the yet-to-be-found female baker nutcracker must have a peppermint something on it!)

The one time of year the dogs are allowed in the living room... Tiffani was trying to get Tessa interested in the stocking. Tess knew there was something good in there, but the plastic bag the treats were in are a big discouragement to her... Once the treats were out, it was a different story all together though! :)

Poor Simba wasn't sure what to think of all the commotion in the living room. He mostly hid under the piano bench. When we got the treats out though he took his and retreated to the kitchen.


After making 18 hard boiled eggs into deviled eggs and making a potato casserole, we loaded up the trailblazer and headed to New Plymouth. We also brought out fudge, cookies, and of course the Christmas Tree cupcakes - made out of spice cake with cream cheese frosting - YUM!! (see previous post for picture)

One of the girls favorite gifts every year is from Tracy. She makes them t-shirts and Brianna was actually looking forward to that and hoping that she made a t-shirt this year. Score!! The t-shirts are a hit and the girls both love them. :) Thanks Tracy.

Tabbi's Wedding

Wisdom teeth pulled on Monday, Maid of Honor on Thursday - no problem!!! Really, Brianna did great & the majority of her swelling was gone & no visible bruise at that point. Whew!

Tabbi and Brianna before the wedding.

Being brave - didn't shed a tear. :)

All done. Whew.

The wedding party - Girls (Tabbi, Brianna, Sam, Cassie) Guys (Aaron, Kyle, James, Jake).

Tiffani seeming rather bored at waiting for those involved to sign the certificate.

But all it takes is Les to make faces at her and she'll smile her big Tiffani smile! :)

The very happy bride & groom.

More of Tiffani's Cupcakes

We've been on a cupcake baking spree this month. Tiffani made snowman cupcakes for her yearbook class party. We made skeins of yarn for complete with knitting needles for my friend Julie on her birthday and we all helped out in making a Christmas Tree to bring to Grandma J & Grandpa Ron's for Christmas Dinner. Now, for some reason there aren't many pictures of the process of making the creations this time, but at least I remembered to take a picture of the completed yummies!

Here are the snowmen - I did get a picture of the hats, made from chocolate wafer cookies and then the little end was stuck into the side of the cupcake.

Tiffani is imitating the snowmans little "O" mouth.

The bunch of snowmen.

The Skeins of yarn and the little balls of yarn. The needles are pringle sticks dipped in white chocolate and topped with a smartie. The yarn cupcakes - 100% edible! :)

And finally - The Christmas Tree. It has been the easiest to make - not a lot of parts & pieces, but it was definitely the most difficult to transport! Yikes. We bought the cupcake display thingy just for this tree, but it will sure be nice for other cupcakes, too. Also gotta love the 40% of coupons to JoAnn's! :) The 'pine needles' are green melting candies from JoAnn's also, just melted and then piped out into zig zag lines on wax paper. Let that harden & then break into pieces and place around the edge of the cupcakes. White sprinkles for snow and cinnamon candies for lights. We were going to use mini m&m's so we'd have colored lights but we couldn't find ANY!! The group effort - Brianna frosted, I sprinkled snow, Tiffani did the pine needles and Les did the lights. :)

Tabbi's shower

The Friday before Thanksgiving Brianna came home from college. Saturday morning we did the 1st annual Turkey Trot put on by the KHS SADD program. (It was snowing and cold, but we walked it anyway!) Then we had a few hours to put together the shower for Tabbi.
Tiffani is making the cupcakes (Friday night) and Brianna is making the hearts out of Almond Bark.

Brianna working on the hearts. You may notice the top corner of the wax paper says "back" perfectly legibly... Well we'd drawn the hearts on the wax paper, melted the bark and had intended on turning the wax paper over to "trace" the hearts we'd drawn. The "back" was written on there to remind us of that. Didn't happen! (My fault - I was so excited to try one...) Brianna made all those hearts and when we peeled those wonderful white hearts off the wax paper there was brown sharpie marker coming off with it! :( So we went back and redid all those hearts again - on the right side of the paper!!

The finished product. Tiffani really doesn't like to use a lot of frosting and with most of her cupcakes it is just used as "glue" to hold the candies and what-not onto the cake. These were just the fancy, piled high with frosting cupcakes with sprinkles or hearts on them. So in that sense these were the hardest for Tiffani to make!!

Tabbi and Brianna sitting in the Bride's chair while the guests played a game about how well they knew Tabbi.

I forgot to take a picture of the table before people came out to start filling their plates... So I snuck in and got these few... Tabbi's colors are Caribbean blue, olive green, chocolate brown. Those colors must not be in season (really!?) because the only decorations we could find were in the blue. We lucked out there because the blue plates, forks, etc were actually called Caribbean blue. :) Anyway, we add a little splash of the olive & brown with punched out flowers and sprinkled them on the table. Then we bought blue sprinkles and decorated the edges of the serving plates, too. Zurchers sells individual colors of sixlets (Tabbi's favorite) so we bought a bag of white and blue and served that instead of mints and dipped pretzels just because we had all that almond bark melted. And that's what disappeared the fastest.

Tiffani made the little candle decorations, too. The blue sparkly balls were on tree branches and we just snipped them all off, mixed them with a handful of coffee beans & then pushed an LED votive candle into the middle. I found the little glasses at the craft store for 1/2 price and the branches were 88 cents each for 3 of them. We "borrowed" the coffee beans from Les.

Tabbi and Brianna relaxing after the shower.