Clif Bars

I can't believe I've never posted this recipe!! This is my all time favorite recipe for granola bars. They are super duper tasty! I make them every couple weeks. You can really tweak it to whatever your taste likes, as long as you have some sort of "glue" to hold it all together.

HOMEMADE CLIF BARS

1 and 1/4 cups crisp rice cereal (Rice Krispies are fine)—I used cocoa krispies for a little chocolate flavor
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (flaxseed meal)

2 tablespoons wheat germ
½ cup dried coconut or ¼ cup finely chopped dried fruit (e.g., raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, etc.) and ¼ cup finely chopped nuts or seeds
1/2 cup honey

2/3 cup nut butter (preferably natural, well-stirred, but creamy is fine, too) try to use low sodium, it’s a fairly obvious flavor if you are limiting your salt intake
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 scoops of favorite whey protein powder (if using a vanilla flavor, skip extract)
Optional: 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine the syrup and nut butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until melted and well-blended (alternatively microwave in small microwave-safe bowl 30-60 seconds until melted). Stir in vanilla until blended.

Pour nut butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until coated (use a wooden spoon at first, then get your hands in it. It will be sticky, but this way you can really coat everything. Just scrape off your hands when you're done). Press mixture firmly into an 8-inch square pan (lined with parchment paper) using a large square of wax paper (really tamp it down). Cool in pan on a wire rack and chill at least 30 minutes to help it set. Cut into 12 bars. (Wrap bars tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator).

***Cocoa krispies with the coconut taste a lot like somoa Girl Scout cookies***

Spiced Muffins

Ian and I are leaving so early these days with school and work that neither of us have had breakfast in a couple weeks. So today I decided to make some muffins to help us have something quick to grab as we leave. The only problem: these are so delicious they might become dinner and we'll just keep not having breakfast!!

I adapted it from a recipe found here: Spiced Yogurt Muffins

Ingredients:
2 C all-purpose flour
1 C light brown sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp allspice
2 large eggs
1 1/4 C vanilla yogurt
4 TBSP butter, melted
1/4 C cinnamon applesauce
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 24 muffin cups with paper or foil liners (sprayed with cooking spray) or thick coating of shortening. In a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and pulse to blend; transfer to a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, butter, applesauce and vanilla. Fold the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18 minutes, until the muffins are springy; let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These were so yummy!! And the shortening (I didn't have the paper so I experimented) gave the outside a nice crunch without the burnt taste! And they pulled away from the edges so well that I was able to just lift them out of the pan! The middle is spongy and it's so tasty!! Just look how yummy they are!

Burrito Filling

Okay, so Easter at my house is nowhere near conventional. Yesterday we went out for Chinese instead of using the money for baskets and candy. Today we had burritos for dinner! I like this. It could become tradition :)

Burrito Filling


8 chicken tenderloins
1 can cream of chicken + 1 can water
1 onion, chopped
1 can Rotel sauce (it's new to me, but it seems like just pureed rotel)
1 1/2 cups rice
2 cups water
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilis
1 can each pinto and black beans, drained and rinsed

Put the chicken, cream of chicken and water, onion, rotel sauce in the crockpot on high for 3 hours. Add the rice and 2 cups of water and the whole tomatoes. Just before the rice is done add the beans so they warm up.
Put all this on a warm tortilla with a dollop of sour cream.
Die and go to heaven.

Enjoy :)

BBQ Pork Chinese style (Char Siu)

Hello my lovelies! Come over to my other blog and check out BBQ pork Chinese style. Last weekend we went for pulled pork, this weekend is all about the chinese food! Mmm, I've made the sauce and it smells delicious. I can't wait to cook it tomorrow afternoon!! I might not even invite others so I can have it all myself!!

Spicy Chicken with Peanut Sauce

So I just posted this on the other blog I was talking about last week. I am so excited to eat it!

http://somanyspices.blogspot.com/2011/09/spicy-chicken-in-peanut-sauce.html

Get over there and read all the delicious recipes, and cook them! I hope you enjoy them all!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Last night I decided it was time for a party up in here. So I got myself a pork shoulder and a bottle of coca-cola, and some rolls.

I called all my friends because it was short notice and put it up on facebook.

This morning at 5 am I placed an onion I had chopped the night before, a pork shoulder roast (fat side up) that I had liberally salted and peppered, and a cup of soda in the crock pot and put it on high.

Around nine I added another 1/2 cup or so of soda. At about 12:30 (after church and inviting some more friends!) I pulled the biggest fat chunks off and started shredding the meat. It came apart with tongs and I left the bone in. I hear it has more flavor that way.

At 4 I pulled the bone out and added a bottle of honey bbq sauce. I've kept it on high this whole time, but turned it down to low when I added the sauce. It was amazing tasting before the sauce, but I love sloppy pulled pork.

I had another bottle of sauce for when it was served which was nice because it gave everyone the opportunity to make it even messier!! Ian had brought home some macaroni salad and potato salad, so it was a full meal! I also made my chewy lemon cookies again. I figured it was a nice flavor balance with that!

Recipe


1 pork shoulder roast
1-2 cups of coca-cola (any soda will work, it just has to be regular, no diet)
1 yellow onion, diced
salt and pepper
1 bottle of favorite bbq sauce


Lay the onions on the bottom of the crock pot and then put in the meat fat side up. Pour one cup of soda over the meat and put the crock pot on high. Let cook 4 hours and add more soda. Cook another 3 hours and shred meat. 4 hours later add the bbq sauce and put on low or warm until you are ready to serve.

Total 11+ hours



It was so much fun having people over today. And now that I'm going to start posting to this blog (go check it out!!) I'm going to be having even more recipes. A friend started it and it's going to be awesome! I can't wait to get cooking, though most of mine will probably be on the weekends, that's the easiest for me to have time to try new things!

Banana Cake

So good!! Dang, I am delighted. I scarfed two pieces before work. 


The directions say to put it in a freezer after you bake it but I didn't have room in my freezer or time to do it. But all the reviews say that it is a great idea. Ok, all the reviews I read...okay, the two I read hahaha. Anyway, if you make this, try the freezer step and let me know how it goes!


I've copied this from the website Allrecipes, but I'll paste it here with the things I did differently.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 1/8 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (buttermilk substitute)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 
  
• Glaze: (A recipe for pound cake glaze I found)
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 tbsp. Milk
• 3 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Mine took about an extra 20 minutes but I hate my oven!
4. For the glaze: melt butter, add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together and whisk until smooth. Pour over HOT cake. 

And I didn't do the dries with the dry ingredients and then alternately add them with the buttermilk. I didn't mash the bananas either, I like them a little chunkier so I just broke them up. I used 3 large bananas. I have no idea how much that works out to. 

It is so divine. Enjoy!!!

Anniversary and Willy Wonka

So hello there friends :)

I went back to work on Monday and holy busy!! I am going to enjoy my weekends (which I have so far) because work is KILLA! But I'm so lucky to have a job and especially to be given a job back after I walked away. I discussed what I was having a hard time with and things have been or will be fixed (of what we can do). I feel so much better now. And, shame me if I must, but I'm happy there are like 3 people newer than me there...I like not being the new person!

Our anniversary was last Saturday. I can't believe it's been a year!! We did NOTHING haha. Well, I made homemade cinnamon rolls in the morning, then we rented a bunch of movies (Eat, Pray, Love; How to Eat Fried Worms; Mars Needs Moms; and Rango), and Ian set up tv in our room so we could just lay around all day. We had nachos for lunch with this AMAZING white cheese sauce and then we went out to dinner. There was lots of pepsi and root beer drank that day. It was perfect haha!

On Sunday Ian made beef wellington (with a few tweaks) and mint risotto. He is incredible! He really should cook more often because he's super good at it :) And of course some sparkly for celebration!!

Then yesterday I decided to go get a hair cut. Ugh Ugh Ugh! On the left is what it was supposed to look like, on the right is what she did! I was SO mad! I showed her the picture, showed her on me where I wanted it to hit, and she still cut it like a bowl all around my head. And I said to be sure there is no step in the back with the layers....guess what....THERE IS! It's not even like it's a random photo that she could have messed up...IT'S ME! ugh. And we're taking staff pictures next month. I am so mad. 

I don't even know what to do to fix it. Any suggestions?? Should I cut it shorter so it looks like it's supposed to be short and not a bowl or how can I style this so I don't look like friggin Willy Wonka?! 

Should I just get myself a top hat??

Best zucchini EVER

Oh my gosh, I'm still smiling from this stuff and I ate it over 30 minutes ago!

I bought a yellow zucchini at the farmers market last week and I finally got around to cooking it today. I've only ever made it sautéed, which is cool, but it just doesn't have a big umph to it.

So I umphed it.


I took the zucchini and peeled it. I am not sure if you're supposed to peel them, but it worked well for this. After peeling off the top layer and throwing it away, I continued to peel. I peeled and peeled and peeled. It looked like fettuccine! I stopped at the seed layer. I am sure (now) it would work to go all the way through, but it was a big zucchini so stopping at the seed layer was plenty for the two of us. I sauteed them with olive oil and butter (I'm not sure why but it's just better that way). I put on a few healthy shakes of italian seasoning.

After they sauteed down for a bit I added a magical can of Rotel tomatoes. Oh. My. Goodness. I let it all cook together and then I dug in.

Oh, and I topped it with shaky cheese...um...I mean...parmesan cheese. I know it's wrong, but I don't like "real" parmesan. I like the stuff that comes in the plastic bottle with the green lid that you toss on spaghetti. mmmm... so good!

Thank you to my new favorite website, mybakingaddiction.com.

I was assigned to make a treat for the birthday of a girl in Relief Society today. I didn't know what to make but I know I always get a lot of chocolate on my birthday (not that I'm complaining!!!) so I decided to get a little bit of a fresher, cleaner taste.

I have made lemon sugar cookie before but it was crispity crunchity icky uckity haha... so I specifically looked for chewy. I HATE CRUNCHY COOKIES!!

Mmm, don't they look delicious?? Question...when I used my cheap practically paper thin metal pan they were puffy like the picture. When I used my expensive air insulated cookies they were thin. They are still good, but why do I have the expensive ones???


Anywho, here's the recipe!!

Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies

adapted from Rock Recipes

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one large lemon, finely minced
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. 

    Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

    Makes approximately 24-30 cookies depending on size

Copyright © 2010 My Baking Addiction. All rights reserved. www.MyBakingAddiction.com

Cheesy Zucchini and Mint Risotto

I had an emotionally trying day today so after church and a bowl of mac&cheese (seriously, that stuff is comfort food to me!) I took a long nap. I had a friend coming over with zucchini today and I really wanted to see her, but I just couldn't stay awake anymore! Seriously, why does crying drain a person so much?! 


I woke up to the delicious smell of zucchini cooking. I couldn't place the other smells but I knew there was zucchini in there and that was enough to get me out of bed! Ian wouldn't let me in the kitchen, not even to clean up afterwards (win!!) so I waited in the living room trying to figure out what it was. I couldn't do it. All I had was zucchini haha!!


I found this on my plate. (Ok, not really. This is a picture I jacked from someone else's blog because I was too hungry to take a picture.)

http://fivechefsandamom.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheesy-zucchini-and-mint-risotto.html

And as long as we're being honest, I'm just grabbing what she typed about it too. I'm tired and it's already there!!

You'll need:
1 small zucchini
1 small bunch of fresh mint
1 4oz. of buffalo mozzarella
1 small red onion
1 stick of celery
5 oz. risotto
1 3/4 c. vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 medium fresh red chili
1 oz. Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Place a large saucepan on low to med. heat.
Dice onion and celery
Add a tablespoon of butter to the hot pan with the onion and celery, a splash of olive oil and a splash of water.
Cook over a low heat for around 5 min., stirring occasionally, until softened.
Bring the veg. broth to a boil in a med. saucepan, the turn heat down to low.
Trim the zucchini ends and dice.
Pick the leaves off the mint stalks and put them to the side. Add the stalks to the saucepan of the broth.
Finely grate the Parmesan.
Once the veggies are soft (not browned) add the risotto to the pan.
Stir and fry the risotto for a min. until translucent, then add the wine and keep stirring until all the wine has been absorbed by the rice.
Turn the heat under the rice up to med. then add a ladle full of hot broth, avoiding the mint stalks (only in there for flavor).
Stir constantly and continue adding brother, a ladle at a time, waiting for the risotto to soak it all up before adding the next ladle full. Contunil until you've used 2/3 of the broth.
Finely chop the mint leaves and the chili. (keep seeds if you like it spicy)
Stir the diced zucchini into the broth and keep adding the broth by the ladleful until the risotto is just cooked and had a nice oozy consistency. If you run out of broth, use boiling water.
Take the pan of the risotto off the heat.
Tear the ball of mozzarella into pieces and stir into the pan with half of the chopped mint.
Stir through half of your grated parmesan.
Taste the risotto and season well with pepper and a pinch of salt.
Serve onto plate and top each one with the remaining parmesan, a sprinkle of chopped mint and fresh chili and then tuck in.
Enjoy!
(photo credit: http://www.imnojamieoliver.com/?p=460)
(recipe credit: Jamie Oliver 20 Min. Meals iPhone App)

Ian made some obvious edits to the recipe, like leaving out the wine, and he didn't know we had any broth so he used cream of chicken soup plus some water. He's so cute :) He also didn't have mozzarella so he used cheddar. He left out the onions because he hates onions, and we don't have any celery. And no chili because I can't do spice. And we don't have risotto rice so he used regular long grain rice. OTHERWISE it's exactly the same haha!!

I love my husband...he's such a good cook. He just doesn't do it very often! Maybe I'll start taking more Sunday naps!!!

Mmm pasta salad

Today was a bit of a disappointment: I got rejected again from donating plasma! Every time I go in there is something else that happens. This time they said my pulse was too high. I HAD TO PEE!!! I was anxious because something always happens and I really had to go but they wouldn't let me! And then I was getting upset...not great ways to relax haha!!

But a great friend is staying with us so that's awesome, and tonight I made lemon pepper chicken pasta salad, so that's awesome too.  So overall a great day!

Pasta salad

Lemon juice
Pasta (I used rotini, I think)
Chicken
Frozen peas
Cheddar cheese
Lawry's Lemon pepper marinade

Dice the chicken up into small bits and cook on medium heat, covered, in a couple splashes of lemon juice.

In a large bowl add the frozen peas with a couple spoonfuls of the pasta water to warm them up. Don't use too much water though!

Make pasta according to directions but rinse on super cold water. Like COLD!! Add to the peas, and drain of the liquid from the chicken. Add it to the pasta and stir quickly to cool it off with the COLD pasta.

Cut the cheese (hehe) into small, tiny, itty bitty pieces. Make sure the pasta and chicken are not hot and add the cheese. Squirt in some marinade and toss it all together. Chill it all for about 10 minutes our until you can't stand the wait anymore!!

Pineapple Rice and Pork Chops

Yeah, that stomach bug SUCKED! I lost six pounds though!

Sunday to Wednesday...ugh had barely any food! But things are getting back to normal; I'm eating so that means I'm cooking!!

Today for lunch I made broiled pork chops and pineapple rice! I found out that broiling is basically indoor grilling (you get the same cooking results) so that is our cooking method of choice lately!

The sauce we got at the store a few weeks ago and I wasn't too sure about it at the time but it sounded delicious today. It's from Kikoman (my favorite brand of sauce) and it's the garlic and green onion flavor. And call me superficial but I think the bottle makes it look fancy too. What can I say, advertising works on me!

Mmm, doesn't that just look delicious??

thank you kikoman website for the fancy picture

Pineapple rice is easy to do! I learned how to do it with mandarin oranges when I was a kid. I make my rice at a 2:1 ratio of water to rice. I use a can of pineapples (fresh pineapples are great but canned come with the juice, unless you want to buy that separate) and separate the juice. Just replace the water with the juice until you reach your ratio or run out of juice, then use water. I use a rice cooker, I don't know how to cook rice on the stove without destroying the rice and the pan. 

Like I said, I've done it with other juices like mandarin, and I really want to try different ones. A friend suggested coconut milk but I've had a bad experience with coconut rice. It was at a restaurant that was a semi-fast food place so it was not even made to order rice, but it was a little scarring. I bet lemon would be good, and a peppered steak or chicken breast. Mmmm. Or I wonder if I could do something like an apple rice for rice pudding?? Hmm, that would be good I think. Nice thing about rice? It's CHEAP! So if it doesn't come out well get rid of it. Or have your husband that tries anything eat it while you pout and have a bowl of cocoa krispies...um....yeah....that's happened a few times. 

And for dinner? Boxed mac and cheese. Yeah. It was delicious. Deal with it ;)

Recipes

So I updated some posts with recipes.

Go here if you want a filling dessert-for-breakfast Gorilla Bread!!!

Easiest Pizza recipe EVER can be found here!!

My mom's amazing homemade bread that I thought was going to be the hardest thing to make but it wasn't!!

Delicious lemonade can be found here!!

I'm sorry if I've messed anyone's readers up with reposting things. I thought I could tag posts without having to republish. But hey, it's all good right :)

Gorilla Bread

So this morning I woke up grumpy as all get out. I decided that the only thing that was going to make me happy was if I started cooking. So this morning I made monkey bread. Complete with pictures for your viewing pleasure :D

I don't know what my computer is doing, but it said the pictures weren't actually on my computer after I uploaded them so these are unedited from my phone. Sorry!!!

So I took a couple recipes from online and made them my own. I got the dough here (baking bites) and the topping here (pioneer woman). I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post their recipes in here, so just go there and find it!

I added honey to the dough, just a squirt, because I think that yeast works better with a little sugar. Everything (and everyone) likes a little suga' hehe!

Our house is COLD in the morning! We leave the windows open at night and needless to say, it is not the ideal dough rising situation first thing in the morning! So while I was making the dough I preheated the oven to 200º and then when the dough was mixed I turned off the oven and put it in. It wasn't too hot to cook it but warm enough to get the most amazing rise ever! Oh, and don't forget to grease your bowl...it will stick!

If you're anything like me and you have a hard time with yeasty breads actually rising, take a moment to ooh and ahh over your bread. It's going to be amazing. Knead it a few times and think to yourself, "Dang, I did such a good job!"

Tear the dough into small bits and flatten. Then grab a little piece of cream cheese (use a knife if you're a wimp) and slap it in the middle. Then roll it up and stick it on the counter.

The recipe I used made about 35 dough balls, and almost an entire package of cream cheese.

In a gallon size bag mix the cinnamon and sugar like the pioneer woman recipe says and toss the dough inside. Be careful not to squish any of the balls too much, you don't want to squish the cream cheese out!! You'll have extra cinnamon sugar at the end, but that's okay. Just save it to put on top of toast!! 

You're supposed to use a bundt pan, but I don't have one so I tried a loaf pan. Yeah, you should try two loaf pans or something else. Or a bundt pan haha! On top of the dough balls goes a mixture of butter and sugar (and the little left over bit of cream cheese). It boils over so you have to put a pan under. A smart idea would have been to line the pan with aluminum foil so I don't have to figure out how to scrub all that caramelized sugar off of it!

I HATE OUR OVEN! It burns everything, no matter the temperature, the height of the racks, the time I cook it, or anything! But yeah, it's okay. It's only the top that burnt.

Anyway, that is it. I loved the look on Ian's face when he bit in. He thought it was GRAND!! And it is!!

Pizza night!

I decided today that it was a baking day. I had the day off and started to make banana bread...my bananas were dead. Graveyard dead. (Funniest quote from an old tv show. It was like COPS but for ambulances. A mom calls another mom saying that the girlfriend killed her son dead, graveyard dead. Sad situation, but really, is there another level of dead I was not aware of??)

Anyway, after watching some Ugly Betty, LOVE THIS SHOW!, I decided brownies were a safe bet. And they were awesome! I love making them in a slightly smaller pan then suggested and have less thicker brownies. Why have more if they are wafer thin?!

For dinner I still wanted to cook but I didn't want to heat up the house too long so I made homemade pizza! It was amazing! I didn't wait the full hour for the dough to rise but it did great in the 30 minutes I gave it. We didn't have lots of toppings, ok any, so I did bbq chicken and pineapple. It was yummy! I've never cooked at such a high temp though and ended up burning the crust. I will try again though, it was so good and easy!

Well, I'm going to go read some more of my book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It's fantastic and sad!!!

Oh and cross your fingers and toes and eyes and whatever else, Ian happened upon a really great opportunity for me that would be life changing. I'll keep you posted if anything comes of it!

Recipe: (from cooks.com)

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

Printed from COOKS.COM

3/4 cup warm water or flat beer (105-115°F)

4 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 to 2 1/4 cups bread flour

Combine the water, sugar, and yeast together, then then salt, oil, and flour (I only use 2 cups), and let it rise. Spread it on a baking sheet and top. Bake at 455º for about 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the dough is cooked.

4th of July

Today we woke up late (ps, I didn't fall asleep until 4 am!! Not cool!) And then we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Ian made that while I made my very first loaf of bread! It's my mom's recipe and it was seriously the easiest thing ever!


Recipe from my mom :)

2 c milk, scalded
6 TBSP butter
4 tsp salt
6 TBSP honey
2/3 c boiling water
2 TBSP yeast (2 packets at .25oz)
8 cups flour

Combine scalded milk, boiling water, butter, salt, and honey. Cool to 100º (warm to the touch). Add yeast and let it get all bubbly. Add 4 cups of flour and mix with spatula. Add dough hook to mixer and add remaining 4 cups of flour. Oil the bowl and let rise for 90 minutes or until you just cant stand it anymore haha! Beat the bread a few times with your fists and separate into two loaves. Rise again for 30 minutes. Bake at 325º for 28 minutes. Don't mess with the time, my mom has perfected this over the years!! Butter the tops when they come out of the oven.

This is amazing, thick hearty bread. Try with some cinnamon sugar (like the extra from here) on toast in the morning. Or afternoon. Or middle of the night. It's PERFECT!!!



We were going to make burgers today but we filled up on fresh hot delicious bread :) Things could be worse haha! Tonight we are going to watch the fireworks from a spot I think my friend brought me a few years ago, but I don't remember exactly. But it looks like a good spot from the map anyway! I'm excited to go because Ian is...I personally don't like fireworks that much! But they weren't bad last year and Ian was there, maybe he's my good luck charm for fireworks too...he is for everything else!!

Thursday: my weekend

So I generally work 6 days a week, with Sunday off. Tuesday and Thursday I only work a couple hours in the afternoon, so they become my weekend days. Ian and I both had today off of work today so after he finished class we went to the temple.
I went in for my friends' wedding back in April and I had been there when I lived here last, but Ian and I have never gone through together here. It was wonderful.
After we finished we took a couple pictures because we haven't taken any for a while, but they are still on the camera.  We went to lunch and filled up on all you can eat pasta and salad and then hit the grocery store. I was painfully full (how come I never notice how bad it is until I start walking around?) but it kept it grocery buying to a minimum! We ended up saving almost 50% just with in-store savings and coupons. Go us!
We hung out around the house and all of a sudden it was 9! How does that happen? Where does the time go?  Back to two jobs tomorrow for both of us! Two more days of work and then the 4th of July! I think I want to make chocolate dipped strawberries...white chocolate and then dipped in blue sugar. Maybe with the daycare kids!! I usually only have a couple on Saturday afternoon. Hmmm, I liked that idea!

So, catching up...

I know I'm a baby, so don't feel the need to remind me haha! I had the "stomach flu" wednesday...it was really something else but it has the same effects haha. Then thursday I woke up with pink eye. Friday night I went to a drive in movie with chloe and ian and that hurt my bum. Saturday I went to first aid/cpr training and I bruised my hand.
I'm falling apart!!
But all is well, so no worries. Ian started his job at radio shack so I'll be able to get health insurance through there! It includes vision and dental!! Woohoo!!!
I had my birthday party last week. Ian surprised me (but it was too good a surprise and I stayed late at work). I missed the first 2 hours if the party, but they saved the cake til I got there!
And I made homemade lemonade!!
1.5 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup fresh lemon juice (with pulp)
6-7 cups water
Bring the sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil, stir to dissolve sugar, then let it cool to room temperature. Then cover and put it in the fridge to get cold. I'm not sure why both of those steps, just follow the directions ;)
Juice the lemons, scraping some pulp in there too, and mix everything together. It's not super sweet or tart, but it's refreshing. And it doesn't have the syrupy feel that concentrate has, or grit that powdered has. It's just delightful :)
Well I guess thats all.
Oh I don't know where the picture is going to show up (I'm trying a new app on my phone) but I made chicken parmesan for ian on fathers day and it looked like a heart haha

Recipe: Cranberry Orange Chicken

So I made the most yummiest dinner last night. (I'm working on my humility haha!) Mom and I even said something about taking a picture, but I got distracted as I was reaching for the camera.

A warm, hearty, rustic meal that's easy enough to make at home but feels like you're eating out!!

5-7 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup orange juice
1 can whole cranberry sauce
2 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 small red onion, chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp ginger, chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 TBS brown sugar
2 tsp garlic powder
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3 TBS flour
2 TBS cold water
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Combine all ingredients in a deep cast iron pot. Cover and cook on high until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium for 1 hour. Combine flour and water and mix into pot. Cook on low for 15 minutes uncovered.

Serve with roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes, rolls...