Saturday Baptisms

Jon, our Burmese family, and Sisters Dodge, Ahern, and Evans

(and the smudge Taelyn left on my camera lens)

I honestly don't know what to say. I just can't find the words. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that we have had to get to know this family.

RS Cooking Class 9

We had another cooking class last week. We focused on Thanksgiving Desserts.

I did a quick demo on my mom's Pumpkin Pie Cake, which is already posted on my blog. [As a side note: the Pretzel Salad and the Pumpkin Pie Cake are holiday traditions in my fam.]

In addition, Jen taught Tarheel Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Better Pecan Toffee Pumpkin Pie. I'm a huge fan of the Tarheel Pie and we will be making it as part of our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Butter Pie Crust
2 1/2 c. flour
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 c chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
6-12 Tbsp ice water

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Add butter cubes. Pulse in processor or mix with hands until coarse meal forms. Gradually blend in enough ice water to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball. Divide in half. Form into 2 balls, flatten into discs, wrap each in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight. Makes 2 crusts, either 2 bottom crusts or a bottom and a top crust.

Tarheel Pie
1 c chocolate chips
1 stick butter, melted (and still warm)
1 c chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
9" unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350. Mix butter and chocolate chips in saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Blend all remaining ingredients, then stir in chocolate mixture. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Best served warm with vanilla ice cream

Perfect Pumpkin Pie
1 (15 oz) can pure pumpkin
3/4 c (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of ground cloves
3 large eggs
1 1/4 c heavy whipping cream

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 375. Spray 9" diameter deep-dish glass pie dish with nonstick spray. Roll out dough on floured surface to 13" round. Transfer to prepared dish. Fold edges under and crimp, forming high border. Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans [for weight]. Bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Bake until edges are light golden, pressing crust with back of fork if bubbles form, about 7 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350. Reposition oven rack to center.

Puree pumpkin in processor. Mix in next 6 ingredients. Add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing after each addition. Gradually add cream, processing, just until blended. Process 5 seconds longer.

Pour filling into warm crust. Bake until edges are puffed and center is set, about 1 hour. Cool completely on rack. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

Butter Pecan Toffee Pumpkin Pie
Perfect Pumpkin Pie filling (recipe above)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 c pecan halves
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp water
1/4 c toffee bits or chopped toffee bars (such as Skor or Heath)

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pecan halves, brown sugar, and water; stir until sugar forms glossy coating over pecans, about 4 minutes. Transfer to sheet of foil; cool. Chop 1/3 c pecans and combine with 1/4 c toffee bits or chopped toffee bars. Sprinkle over baked crust. Pour in Perfect Pumpkin Pie filling; bake and cool as directed. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. cover; chill. Sprinkle 1/4 c toffee bits or chopped toffee bars around edge of pie. Garnish with remaining pecans.

RS Cooking Class 5 recipes

For those of you with reader, I've fixed the column mess on the ingredients for Jon's recipes.

RS Cooking Class 5

I still have a few classes I haven't posted. I'll get to it eventually!

Jon actually taught this one (back on the 1st of October). I appreciate him being willing to do this. Unfortunately I was watching Taelyn and couldn't really help. I did try to keep him mindful of the time every chance I got.

These recipes are Jon originals. Getting him to measure everything out so I could write down a recipe was like pulling teeth. If anyone ever does try any of these, I would be very interested in your feedback.

Stuffed Pork Chops

½ tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp rosemary
5 pork chops
2 tsp water
¼ cup craisins
2 tsp olive oil
½ cup diced green onions
¼ cup chopped pecans
½ box PORK Stovetop Stuffing
1 Granny Smith apple

Heat garlic and 2 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. Add rosemary and cook until mixture smells roasted. Brown both sides of pork chops in mixture. Set pork chops aside.

Plump craisins by putting 2 tsp water and craisins in microwave for 30 seconds and set aside. Grate apple and set aside.

Heat 2 tsp. olive oil, green onions, and pecans in frying pan until it smells roasted. Remove from heat and add stuffing, craisins and apple. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Cut pork chops to form pocket (Note: can also cut down side and hold together with toothpick, if needed). Stuff stuffing mixture into pork chops. Place pork chops on a pan and broil for 7-10 minutes (until top quits juicing). Turn pork chops over and broil for an additional 7-10 minutes.

Highly recommend serving with sauce recipe below.

Sauce (optional)

¼ c craisins
2 tsp water
3 tsp olive oil
½ tsp minced garlic
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 dashes nutmeg
2 dashes cinnamon
1 Tbsp brown sugar
½ Tbsp water
1 cup apple sauce

Dice craisins. Place in microwave safe container and plump by adding 2 tsp water and microwaving for 30 seconds. Set aside.

In frying pan, heat olive oil and garlic until smells roasted. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar and water. Stirring constantly, heat until caramelized (be careful not to burn it). Add craisins and applesauce. Serve with or over pork chops.

Santa Fe Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2 cans Rotel Tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp minced garlic
chili powder (if desired)
1 ½ cups black beans
1 cup corn
1 ½ cups prepared rice
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
5-7 chicken breasts

Completely drain moisture off of tomatoes into a separate container and set juice aside. Spread tomatoes in an oven safe pan, and broil until most of the moisture is gone (~10 minutes). When done, they will look dried out and there will be no remaining moisture on the bottom of the pan. Jon claims this condenses the flavors.

*In a frying pan, cook olive oil, garlic and a few dashes of chili powder (optional-to increase spiciness) until smells roasted. Add a few spoonfuls of broiled tomatoes and tomato juice that was set aside. Drain moisture off of black beans into sauce. Cook for one minute and remove from heat.

In separate bowl, combine black beans, broiled tomatoes, corn, rice, salt, and pepper. Add additional salt and pepper, to taste, if needed.

Cut chicken breasts to form pocket (Note: can also cut down side and hold together with toothpick, if needed). Stuff stuffing mixture into chicken breasts.

Pour sauce in pan and place stuffed chicken breasts in sauce (ugly side up J). Broil. Watch closely-whenever chicken begins to look dry, use spoon to drizzle sauce over chicken. Repeat drizzling until chicken breasts have broiled 8-10 minutes. Turn chicken breasts over. Repeat drizzling process until 2nd side broils for 8-10 minutes (or until chicken is completely cooked).

Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese.

Santa Fe Stuffed Portabella (an adaptation of the recipe above)
Broil tomatoes, as described above. Remove stems from mushrooms, dice stems, and set stems aside. When sautéing garlic and olive oil, *as described above*, sauté cap side of mushrooms for 1 ½ minutes, then set mushrooms aside. Finish sauce and rice stuffing, from recipe above. Add diced stems to rice stuffing. Stuff mushrooms and broil mushrooms in sauce for 5 minutes, drizzling sauce, as described above. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with cheese.

A Busy Missionary Week & Good News That Follows

Last week was a very busy missionary week. As I mentioned before, we have sisters missionaries in our area. We have been helping them teach two families in our ward. Last week we actually went out with them four nights. Three of those, we saw both families; the other we took one of the families to temple square.

It kept us busy. In fact, Taelyn got so used to going out to see the sisters every night that when we left the house last night she started signing 'missionary'. We had to explain that we weren't going to see the sisters.

Anyway, I had a message from the sisters this morning when I checked my phone. One of the families committed to be baptized and set a date. It was the best news and totally transformed my lousy morning.

What a wonderful day!

Why So Many Posts in One Day?

I talked to Terri on Sunday night. She is a dear friend that I met and taught on my mission. She really does deserve her own post. I need to make time to write it all down. For now, we'll just say that she got to know my parents over the phone while I was in North Carolina. She even asked my dad if he would baptize her when my parents came to get me at the end of my mission. She has been adopted into my family.

Anyway, Terri informed me that I hadn't posted any pictures of Taelyn lately and I needed to fix that. I appreciate the reminder. My goal is to not need to be reminded again. At least not for a few months, anyway.

Cinderella

She helps cook:

She helps do laundry:

And she cleans up most of her own messes:

We think we'll keep her.

This Post is for Grandma

I'm sorry for doing this photo dump, but Grandma Connie hasn't seen Tae for over a month. Actually not too sorry. I do love looking at pictures of her. And her dad doesn't get to see them unless I post them. So here they are. Enjoy!

Halloween

So I'm slow in getting these up, but I totally have an excuse! I forgot to take pictures, my fault, and I was waiting for the pictures from the Stake Trunk-or-Treat to be posted.

We had planned on being Rainbow Brite, her Sprite 'Twink', and Murky Dismal.

Tae and I wore our costumes on Friday so we could Trick-or-Treat at my work. I had intended to do Jon's costume and put the finishing touches on Tae and my costumes on Saturday. It didn't happen. Here is what we ended up with. Tae was not thrilled to take pictures, but the second one isn't too bad.

Instead of finishing our costumes, we did a last minute runaround to gather up teeth, face paint and material for hooded capes for a family that lives just around the corner from us. The kids sure had a blast and it made the mad dash and quick sewing job totally worth it.

I wasn't going to post this last picture. It is not at all flattering...but it does give a better idea of what Tae and I looked like. We were just wrapping up the Trick-or-Treating at my work on Friday. My rainbow belt was falling apart from carrying her, and I had taken my sleeves off because it was too hot...but you get the idea.

Prepping for the RS Cooking Class Tonight

We are making rolls tonight. For the first time, we are holding it at my house. Prep consisted of cleaning, baking, and cleaning again. The clean up afterward wouldn't have been nearly as bad if I had remembered that my mom's roll dough recipe is ALREADY DOUBLED!!

I knew that she always doubles her recipe. I was excited that my new Bosch would hold a doubled batch (my old mixer didn't). Then I doubled her already doubled recipe. Note to self: my new Bosch does not hold a quadrupled batch! Tae cried when liquid flour/water mess started seeping out around the lid, all over the counter top, down the front of the dishwasher, and onto the step stool she was standing on. She loves to help cook, but she is a clean freak and momma is a messy cook-especially when I do stupid things like this. The situation got worse when I found out that I had enough flour for a doubled recipe-or even a tripled recipe-but not for a doubled-double batch.

To make a long story slightly shorter, like happens all-too-often around here, Jon swooped in and saved the day. He left his meeting and ran to the store to get me flour (and powdered milk, shortening and sugar because my massive amount of dough used every bit we had and I need more for tonight). He then came home and stayed up with me until 1:00 a.m. baking and cleaning. When all was said and done, we found out that a quadrupled batch of roll dough makes: 30 basic dinner rolls, 16 croissants, 12 lucky clovers, 6 fan-tans, 6 clover leafs (or is it leaves? I really don't know on this one), and a large loaf of bread that we made in a desperate attempt to get rid of the last of the dough.

RS Cooking Class 3

So this happened back on the 10th of September, and I'm just now getting around to posting the recipe. I wish I had an excuse, but I really don't.

One of the reasons I started this class is because there was a lot of interest in learning to make K's bread. For our 3rd class, that is what we did. Wouldn't you know it, K and I were the only ones in attendance. Goes to show you never really know if anybody is going to show up.

I did learn some tips from K that I never knew. If you place plastic wrap over your dough when letting it rise, it actually helps the yeast. Also, if you like a crispier crust, remove bread from pan immediately after baking; if you like a softer crust, leave it in the pan to cool.

Basic White Bread

1/2 c low-fat milk
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 c warm water (105-115 degrees F)
5-6 c all-purpose flour

Place milk, sugar, salt and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. DO NOT let it boil! Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups flour. Mix about 1 minute. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 2 minutes or until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead about 2 minutes longer, or until dough is smooth and elastic. Dough will be slightly sticky to the touch.

Place dough in greased bowl. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down and divide in half. Roll each half into rectangle, approx. 9x14 inches. Starting at a short end, roll dough tightly and pinch dough to seal seam. Pinch ends and turn under, then place, seam side down in greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

[K rolls hers out because that is what the recipe says. I'm not a fan of the extra work, so I just formed it the way my mom does basic dinner rolls, except on a much larger scale.]