V Day

This year I helped with the Valentine's party in Joey's class—I made scones, which were a big hit.

Here are the kids with their Valentine boxes. Poor Robbie, no parties, notes or candy in Junior High.

Luckily he loves our family tradition of books for Valentine's Day.

And crepes for dinner. New this year is a low carb recipe that I found on Pinterest—they're surprisingly good!

Award-winning Brownies

Alright, I haven't actually won an award for these brownies, but after reading this column by Garrison Keillor, I was contemplating what might possibly qualify me to win an award, and I had to conclude that it would be for making excellent brownies. I haven't made brownies from a box in this century, and very few before that. When I was growning up it was simply because we didn't have brownie mixes on hand, but we did usually have flour, sugar, eggs, cocoa and vanilla. Now I'm just a brownie snob. I'm not even tempted by the boxed versions. I've posted some of our favorite recipes, but not this one:

The photo isn't great—I had just bitten into the very last one when I realized I still needed a picture for the recipe card.

This also led to a fun dinner conversation. When I asked everyone else what they'd win an award for, here's what they responded:

Rob: The Cheesy Mustache Award

Robbie: Reading

Joey: Video gamer

Ellie: Jumping rope

Ainsley: Eating all the brownies

How about you? What would your award be?

Good morning

There were a couple of young women who had to be home last night, so after we watched the movie I drove them home (and got to sleep in my own bed—bonus!) After getting to bed around 1:45, I woke up at 6:45 and headed back to help with breakfast. Although I knew I wouldn't have to worry about traffic on I-15 I decided to go through Heber again and I'm so glad I did. I had to stop at Deer Creek for this photo.
Speaking of breakfast, if anyone wants a fabulous waffle recipe, go here.

In the mail today...

And, dinner tonight:
It's the Pioneer Woman's Spaghetti and Meatballs. It's a little time consuming to make all the meatballs, but so worth it. I doubled it and froze three more dinners. You can use these for yummy meatball sandwiches too. Especially good with the cheese buns from Bakers de Normandie. The recipe is here. Only I used Hot Italian sausage and Mild Italian sausage (Colosimo's) instead of sausage and ground beef.

Unscheduled day=happiness

I try to have one every month—one day with NOTHING on the calendar. Today was that day. It's not that I had nothing to do, but no place that we had to be at a specific time. I could (and did) stay in my pajamas until 11:00 (until someone dropped by and I was embarrassed so I finally took a shower). I caught up on my e-mail and feeds, and did laundry.
I also made bread. I've been doing this January 16th and it is SO much easier than I thought it would be! My first attempt was with a recipe from the local Bosch store, and it was good, but then my neighbor, who has been baking bread for 20 years, came over and taught me how to make her recipe. I forgot to take photos—you can read about that here. Since then, I've only purchased a few loaves at the store. Everyone except Ainsley prefers the homemade bread. It's best to see a demo rather than read a recipe, because you can get a better sense of how sticky the dough should be, and what the yeast bubbles should look like before adding all the other ingredients, but if anyone is feeling adventurous, here is the recipe. It's dangerously addictive for such a healthy food!
If you click on the recipe you can see a larger version. And if you want any of my recipes in a PDF (which is a much higher resolution) just leave me a message and I'll e-mail it.

Recipes

So yesterday for dinner I served Chili, Spinach Parmesan soup and Vegetable Cheese soup. I had a few people request the recipes, and told them that the first two recipes were on my blog already (just click the links). I'm adding the Vegetable Cheese recipe, but the photo is a placeholder, since I forgot to take any photos when I made it. Hopefully I'll remember and switch this the next time I make it.

And my daily photo is very small, on this recipe, which we made for family home evening tonight.

I also added a section on the sidebar that you can click and get all the recipes I've posted.

And the winner is...

Melissa. Let me know what kind and when.

Rob is pretty bitter about not being allowed to win. I might just have to have a brownie party and invite all of you. Rob, you can lick the bowl.

Here's the Martha Stewart Ultimate Brownie recipe I promised. For a long time I could handle the richness, but now I usually cut back a bit on the chocolate and sugar.

Finally

I've been promising to post this recipe for weeks. Thanks for being patient.

Freezer jam

This is so ridiculously easy I can't believe I've never done it before. I picked up a half-case of raspberries at Costco that looked great, but tasted pretty bland, so I decided to stretch my homemaking abilities and make jam. Now that I know how easy it is, our freezer will be stocked. If anyone reading this is just as clueless as I was (and I doubt that), here's the recipe:

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 package Ball No Cook Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin together, then add 6 6-oz. containers of raspberries, crush and mix for three minutes, then let it stand for 30 minutes.

Most of the pectin boxes had recipes with triple the amount of sugar, so this isn't too sweet, but it's yummy!

And on top of a sourdough English muffin...mmmmm!

Annette's Carrots

I'm wanting to work on my recipe binder again, so Rob might get his wish of a few dinners this week.

Anniversary dinner

That last photo was not the photo of the day, since I obviously didn't take it, and it obviously didn't happen yesterday. As I pulled out my camera to take this shot, Rob predicted that fully one-third of my daily photos will be of food. What can I say? I have a simple life, and not very many willing subjects.

This chicken is one of our favorites. I got the recipe from Jen Brewer, and it's super easy. Just mix 12 oz. Homemade brand Chili sauce and 16 oz. Bernstein's Restaurant Recipe Italian salad dressing in a gallon size freezer ziplock bag and marinate the chicken overnight (that's enough marinate for about 8 breasts). Then have your husband grill it. And don't ever learn to grill, because then it won't be quite as easy. :)

Super-power Brownies

I've posted this recipe already, but since I've decided to change my format to 6x6" (so I can either make cards or put recipes in a smaller binder), I'm posting it again. 


I made these last night for Family Home Evening, and they served as inspiration for Robbie's homework assignment to write a short story. Check it out, it's awesome:

What if my mom’s brownies gave you powers? 

By Robbie Marsh 

“Brownies!” Joey shouted.
“Yippie!” I exclaimed. They were fresh out of the oven. I immediately asked for one. Joey wanted a brownie too. They had a mouth-watering smell, and they tasted scrumptious. All I could do was think of the taste. Just looking at these brownies makes you feel like you’re starving. I closed my eyes, thinking of the brownies. Why, they were so good, they could make you fly or…
The moment I thought of ‘fly’ I hit my head on something. I opened my eyes wondering were I was. I looked down. There, was the kitchen, all of it. Maybe I was imagining things, but it was a birds-eye view. I could see the oven, sink, stove, pantry, dishwasher, and best of all, the brownie platter. I could see Joey’s fingers sparkle a flash. I instantly knew it was lightning. I thought a moment, and my eyes grew wide. I had been thinking about what Joey just did. I wondered if I could fly at…BONK! I felt it immediately. The wall. Sizzle. It rushed past me. Another miss.
“Stop it Joey!” I called to him.
“No! I’m a super-villain now, and you can’t stop me from taking over the world!” he shouted back. He didn’t know yet. I had the element of surprise on my side. Sure, he can throw lightning. I just have to fly at the speed of light to save Mom and get back here. As soon as you can blink I’d accomplished this and had a plan.
“Why don’t you eat another brownie to become stronger Joey?” I asked
“Good point” he said. So he ate another brownie, and evilly laughed. He tried to hit me with lightning but he couldn’t. I took the last brownie so he wouldn’t get his power again. I lost mine. So if you ever ask for a brownie, make sure my Mom didn’t bake it.

Joey was initially quite upset at being cast as the super-villian, but since then he has embraced this role, and he really does want to rule the world. ;)

Spinach Parmesan Soup

Last night I took this soup to Enrichment, and had several requests for the recipe, so I'm ending my long break from recipe posts (and from cooking, for that matter). I love this soup. It is delicious, and sophisticated enough to serve company, but so easy I'll even make it for lunch on a cold day. Don't cheat and try to fix it with dried onions or garlic or "fake" Parmesan cheese. I recommend the fresh shredded Parmigiano Reggiano from Costco. Mmmm!

Dodo Salad

Because we've been living the Stringham lifestyle (read "cereal diet" or "food is optional") Rob's worried about getting too skinny and my recipe book has been neglected. I did make this for the fourth of July, however, and I highly recommend it. If you read the commentary at the beginning of the recipe, you'll also see that it's a great wedding gift idea, along with some salad bowls.

The salad that launched a blog

This really doesn't qualify as a recipe, unless your name is photo scrooge, but it belongs in our family favorites book, especially after Robbie wanted to start his own blog just to post this. I was hesitant to let the boys start a blog (I can't even keep up with my own!) but Rob encouraged them, and helped set it up, and now I'm looking forward to getting more of the boys perspective on our family doings. Credit goes to Anne for introducing us to this yummy combination at Bear Lake. And speaking of Anne, congratulations to you and Matt! We can't wait to meet little Clara!

Shell's Spaghetti

I now have photos for more recipes than I have time to type up, and frankly, I don't need to reference this recipe to make it, but it needs to be in my book just because it's my very favorite meal, and unless you count cereal, the one I've prepared most often. Mmmmmm...

Brownie Cake

I'm not much of a cake fan, but love brownies, so it's no surprise that my favorite cake ever is called Brownie Cake. Thanks to Judy for introducing me to this recipe, and for giving me the Junior League cookbook as a wedding shower gift. My cookbook practically opens to this page (or the breakfast casserole page) since it's got splatters and smudges to prove that we love it.

Crepes

Crepes for breakfast has become a general conference Sunday morning tradition. Mmmm...

Penne Alla Telefono

I am a pasta snob.  Sorry, it's true.  One of the side-effects of living in Italy.  And I love this recipe.  Even Ellie will eat this, so it passes the I-don't-eat-anything-but-cereal-and-bread-picky-eater test too.  Best of all (as explained in the last post) if you've already prepared and frozen the Tradional Italian Tomato Sauce, you can have this on the table in about 15 minutes.

Traditional Italian Tomato Sauce

Because pasta never goes out of season.  This recipe is the "starter" for my next post, Penne Alla Telefono.  I make this and then freeze it in 2 1/2 cup containers, so when I need a quick dinner (like tonight) I can pull it out and have it on the table in 15 minutes.