All in the family

Russ' sister Kirsten started a blog. This makes me very happy. It is mostly to share with us the huge renovation they are doing to their home in Washington, which we will get to see in real life come June. We are having the family reunion there and even though it is only scheduled for a weekend we are going for about 9 days. To say I am excited would be an understatement. I can't wait to see them and the rest of the family in that beautiful state. But that is not what I meant to write about. Sorry, I got side tracked. 

So Kirsten wrote a post about Grandma Clara and it was so lovely. In it she shared Clara's pie crust recipe. Russ became very sentimental after reading this post and decided that we needed to make these pies for FHE and talk to the kids about their Great Grandma. I thought it was a perfect idea.

I bought some apple pie filling at Trader Joe's and made the crust just as instructed except I used lard instead shortening and it worked fine except I should have refrigerated the dough for awhile before I rolled it out so the lard would set up a bit. We have made them again* since then and refrigerating it did the trick. 

They were delicious and perfect for taking in your lunch the next day.

We will make a tradition of this, making pies on Grandma Clara's birthday. I love learning about our family before us. And I love Kirsten for sharing her memories with us.

*if you know how little I bake you know this is a big deal.

Snap out of it.

I have kinda been in a weird funk lately. I have had a slight cold and the biggest effect it has had on me is making me really foggy headed. I have wanted to get in a good routine ever since school started, but it just has not happened. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that, I have figured out the whole taking and pick up William thing so that it works with Joseph's naps (at least sometimes). But I feel like most other things in my life are done pretty sporadically and there are probably a lot of things that should get done that I don't even think about (like my car, good heavens it is a mess). I have been doing 2 (count them 1. 2.) stretches in the morning and counting it as my exercise. Granted that alone has helped my lower back feel much better (perks of living with a PT, he knows what stretches I should do).

Anyway, what I am trying to say is, I am ready for a new system (or just starting up something I have done in the past.) But I am going to wait a few weeks more because of the changes that are coming. Remember when I was really discreet a few posts back about some changes and decisions? Well, Russ has excepted a new job and Banner Gateway hospital. Like most things there are pros and cons but the biggest reason for the desired change is, HE WILL ONLY WORK 40 HOURS A WEEK! And if he works more he will be paid overtime. I can not tell you how excited I am to have him home more. To have him home for dinner with us - to have Family Home Evening at a decent time (or just have it) - to put the kids to bed on time - for him to have more time for yard work (maybe we will even start a garden!?) - more time to play with the kids. Like Elder Uchdorf said in conference the way you spell love is T-I-M-E (or something like that).The point is I am happy. WE are happy. There was a lot of going back a forth with this decision. Russ and I love where he works now. And the people he works with, well they just don't come any better. But the hours were too much for us. We would rather have less money and possibly less fun/more stressful work environment and more time together. Cause for us, our family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are what it is all about. He will start there in a little over 3 weeks.

 Today (per kids request) we had a picnic and Russ trimmed the branches of our lemon tree. And I was reminded again how much I love my family. 

I love how he bends over his bowl to look in it

perfect little profile

grilled tuna sandwiches (adding grated and sauteed carrots, celery, and onion makes these bomb)

Absolutely Gracie's favorite skirt made by my mom

Joseph was just crawling around with some bread stuck in his mouth. 

Thirsty!

this boy is 6, what else can I say?

he helped himself to some ice in daddies cup and loved it

choppin down the heavy branches

it hurts my heart to see so many lemons go to waste

I love all the trees in/surrounding our yard

manly man with a chainsaw

Joe was concerned

It was a nice evening (even though I still did not clean out my car). 

Also when re-reading this post I realized that I may not sound very grateful but I thank God everyday that Russ has a job. And this job opportunity found him, and it works good for our family so we are happy about that.

Hi there!

Joseph wanted to show you what he can do and how chubby his legs are.

He also wanted to show you are kitchen floor. We love the black and white checks, but it shows everything (dark or light) and with this little guy around it is cleaned everyday (that is not normal for me).

I (Debbie) want to show you the awesome lunch I had the other day.

Flat bread with edamame humus, tomato slices, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. Everything is from Trader Joe's (except I got the mozzarella at Costco this time).

Put it in the oven (or toaster oven) and broil until cheese is nice and toasty. Then eat a piece before you remember that you wanted to take a picture of it to share. 

I could eat this everyday for lunch.

The beginning of a loooong weekend

So I guess it wasn't the start of the weekend since it was Thursday, but it felt like it. Our awesome friends the Reyna's offered us tickets to go see the Decemberists with them. We didn't really know the band, but it was a  night out with great people so we were all over it. Connie came to babysit and played a game of Harry Potter spells before we left.

 We went to a yummy Thai restaraunt on Main (can't remember the name) and got some really, and I mean really, good food (can't remember the name). I do know that is was not the "Evil Jungle Princess" although the name did tempt me. I think I got Pad See Ew?? Anyway, it was so good (and your welcome for being so helpful with my stellar memory).

Then we walked over to the Mesa Arts Center for the show. 

Waiting for the show to start. Isn't Jessica beautiful? True story - she is in Young Women's with me and when one the young women saw her for the first time she said, "Who is she? She's Hot!"

At any rate the show was great. Way better than listening to their recordings (not that the recordings are bad), they are definitely one to see live. We also had great seats on the balcony in chairs! With no one in front of or behind us! (besides the dancing usher) So we never had to stand. That made me happy and that makes me sound old, but guess what, I am. Thanks again Abe and Jess, for keeping us cool. It was fun.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Breakfast - nearly every morning. Either on Alpine Valley spelt bread or Trader Joe's organic whole wheat bread.Lunch - Pesto Tuna sandwich

Mix homemade pesto with tuna and put on favorite bread with your favorite cheese. This is fontina on mine (Nice cheese is much less expensive at Trader Joe's, and I love me some nice cheese). Tomato with a little salt on it and some greens. Made for a yummy lunch.

Dinner - Apple Gorgonzola pizza

I actually got this recipe from Trader Joe's (I love their sample foods) I altered it a little. You get some whole wheat pizza dough (make your own of get it from TJ's like I do) and put alfredo sauce on it. Top with pieces of apple (they used pear at TJ's but I didn't have any) and sliced avocado and sliced onions. Then put 1/2 cup of gorgonzola cheese on top. Don't do more like we did...it is too strong. You could also use feta or something like it. I think the recipe called for some mozzeralla on top also (fresh of course) but I forgot to get some so we put all the gorgonzola on and it was very strong, but still good.

bake as long as it takes for your dough to bake or until the cheese is golden.
Let cool and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar. If you don't have any, don't fret it is good without it.
Now for my alfredo sauce recipe. You can use some from the jar, but if your like me you don't like that.

1 cube of cream cheese

1 cup milk

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Now some have been known to put a stick of butter in it also, but as I realized that the butter is mostly for the smooth consistency I could do without it and have a sorta grainy alfredo sauce. You could add butter in little increments if you think you need to. Russ also likes to add a bit of ricotta cheese if we have any left from when I do lasagna. We eat it about once a month on whole wheat pasta with steamed broccoli and chopped tomatoes. Yummy.

I realized while typing this that I wrote Trader Joe's a lot (which I will now refer to as TJ's). I do this because it is where I shop. I don't get my produce there I get it at the Superstition Ranch Market and then everything else at TJ's and we spend about $70.00 a WEEK on groceries (When I first typed this I wrote $70 a month, which I believe would be impossible and still be nourished. Sorry for the extreme error:). I am not sure if that is good or bad, but we can budget that much and feel like we are eating healthy and well. Sometimes if I am going to go to a regular grocery store I will get milk and Tilamook cheese:) And if I get a Costco card the we will probably spend $150 a week on food.

Food

So there are some gradual changes that have happened with me and food over the years. And it will continue to happen. It all started with pregnancy. I wanted to eat better for the baby but I also realized that it was something that I wanted to do for myself. I have learned bits here and there about how to eat better.
I'm in no way perfect, but I try. I think I have expressed somewhere on my blog(s) that I have cut way back on meat. This happened with my last pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage. I had known that I wanted to eat less meat, but I was stuck in a routine and menu plan. With that pregnancy I wanted nothing to do with raw meat and since I was the cook I would look at my menu plan before I would go to the store and substitute a vegetable that sounded good for the meat. Then we moved in with my sister who also doesn't eat a lot of meat and now I rarely buy it and I LOVE IT. I no longer have to wash the knives and cutting boards in between items and worry about getting everything the meat juice touched disinfected. I am not a germ freak unless it comes to the meat ones that can KILL. I also spend less money on groceries - awesome. and I am eating more veggies - double awesome.
Not too long ago I stumbled upon raw diets. People who eat everything raw and don't cook anything. I was confused when I first heard of this and didn't see how it was possible, but when I learned more I became very interested. Mainly because one of the things people on raw diets claim is to have more energy. I want that. It is a huge lifestyle change (tons of props to my friend Lauren for doing it) and one neither I or my family is ready for.
This is my plan:
breakfast -
oatmeal or 1 egg in a frame - egg in a piece of spelt(half the calories and carbs) toast.
Snack -
Green smoothies (which consist of fresh fruit a leafy green and a small amount of apple juice water and flax.)
Lunch -
Whatever it is half the plate will be raw veggies
Dinner -
Again half the plate will be raw (or almost raw;) veggies. (This one will take time to build up to because I don't believe in doing things all at once, it takes time)

And drink LOTS of water.

And I am hoping to get better at doing this menu so that by the new year we are eating much healthier and it will be a breeze because we are so used to it. Lets hope. Lets alos hope that we will be in our new house with a garden and our own chickens.

Pictured is what some call cowboy caviar or Texas caviar and I add it to fresh romaine and a few chips and and dressing. It is yummy and a great way to eat half a raw meal. I will try and share other good food ideas I have.

Beautiful day

Today is a beautiful day. So many wonderful things. Like these mothers day flowers.

A new basil plant, thank you Trader Joes

And hot out of the oven homemade bread from a friend. Delicious.
Not to mention that when I came home from running errands Russ had mopped the kitchen, unloaded the dishwasher (one of my least favorite chores) and vacuumed.
Oh, and my children are napping and I am going to work on a dress I making for myself while I listen to a confrence talk. Yeah, it is a beautiful day.

Pie night

Mimi had to do some sort of school project that required her to watch Pushing Daisies. No complaint here. So lots of ladies came over and we had pie and ice cream and watched the beloved pie man and his ladies beloved wardrobe. Lauren made her first apple pie and it was delicious and very pretty.
Just like Lauren.
We will have to do it again. But Lauren moved again. I am going to miss her smiling face.

Breath of fresh air

That is how this weekend felt. My aunt and uncle came down from Idaho and usually they bring us their honey (which William eats everyday!) but this time they brought more! Apples, plums, grapes and tomatoes, all from their own yard. My aunt and my mom have been busy making plum jelly and applesauce so yesterday and today I had one of my favorite childhood meals for breakfast -whole wheat bread with applesauce and milk. (I pored the milk on after the picture) Today I am going over to make some more applesauce with them using a all natural sugar substitute stevia. My mom used some brown sugar and Cinnamon which is much better that the high fructose corn syrup that is in like 90% of the bottles at the store.
I got a request to make a doll house tote on etsy, but she kinda wanted it to resemble a castle and I had to get it done super fast to make sure it got to her by her daughters birthday. It kinda stressed me out to have that pressure but once I finished it, I felt good.

But the freshest of the air came when I got to watch and listen to General Conference (a conference that our church holds twice a year where our apostles and leaders speak to us). I welcomed it with open arms. You know you are growing up when each session ends and you say, "that's it? its already over?" This wasn't the first time I felt that way but it makes me laugh to think about how long it seemed when I was younger.

On Saturday we watched Conference at my in-laws and that evening Russ went to the Priesthood session with his Father, brother, and nephew. Then we had dinner together. Sunday we got up early (ok, we were actually late) and went to my parents. While I watched both days I got a Christmas present half way done! This is a big deal. I decided that this year all the Christmas presents I give will be hand made, so you can imagine that I have a lot of work to do. I had one gift that I feared would take a lot of time, so to have it half way done feels very good. I will spending pretty much all my spare time from now on doing Christmas presents. Whoo hoo! Christmas!

J'adore

I adore everything about this show, and I don't really watch TV. I keep thinking of the many things I could write as to why I love this show, but I won't. Just know I adore everything and can't wait until tomorrow night.

I owe a huge thank you to Connie for buying the first season so I could fall in love and be all caught up. Come over to our place if you want some pie. I am going to be working on pear and gruyere, I'll let you know how it turns out.

So yummy

A few days back I was not sure what to make for lunch and so I started pulling things out of the fridge and using what I had to make a yummy grilled cheese sandwich. Now I am going to make sure I always have this stuff to make it. The camera happened to be sitting next to me on the table so I picked it up to take a picture of this new found creation.
Here is how I remember making it:
chopped up about half a bunch of green onions
sliced 3 or 4 baby Bella mushrooms
and then I sauteed that in olive oil (I may haved minced garlic into the mixture)
then I diced two thick slices of a tomato and threw it in when I turned the heat off.
I stirred it around and then put some cheese on some bread and then added the vegetable mixture and then a little more cheese on top and then grilled it like I always do. Turned out very good and I can't wait to make it with some awesome soup.