Halloween

Today I went to a cute school Halloween parade and figured, hey ... might as well get as much use out of the costumes as possible. So I took Bryce and Chad in their costumes, and afterwards, they were so happy, that I thought that I would get the costume photoshoot out of the way. Can I tell you I got so excited when I got these darling pictures!
Bryce is a Horse, and Chad is a Cowboy. We live on a ranch and so the back drop couldn't have been more perfect!
Hope you're costume photoshoot goes great!
M

Addressing Envelopes?

So typical mailing Etiquette says that when sending cards your envelope should have the recipients address "Handwritten"

But if you ask me, it really doesn't bother me when you have a label. Maybe it is because I am always trying to simplify my life. I am trying to determine if I take the time to self address my Christmas Cards this year, rather than put the typical "typed" label.
So my question is ... is it a classy thing, "old fashioned" thing? Or have times changed ... can we do the label thing?
Let me know what you think!

Salsa Recipe

I have had a few requests for the Recipe for the Salsa that we made.
Here you go!

SALSA!!!

1/2 bushel tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and quartered.
Place tomato's in a large pot. Crush tomato's with hands

In a Food Processor chop:
25-40 Anaheim peppers, take stems off, cut up a little - depending on how hot, you can use all the seeds or none. (I like mild so I don't do any seeds)
10 Jalapeno peppers - depending on hotness, all sees or none (I don't use the seeds.
** WARNING - I suggest you get some safety goggles and some gloves. The peppers are a KILLER to cut before putting into food processor.
5 large onions
Add the the pot of tomato's. Then add:
1 cup white vinegar
1 T. Cumin
2 T. Sugar
1 T. Oregano - dried flakes or ground
1/2 cup canning salt
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1 T. minced garlic
1 T. Cilantro

Stir and cook for 3 Hours until desired thickness.

Place in Jars and process.

Pressure cooker: Bring to 10 pounds of pressure, then turn off.
Water bath: Heat lids before putting on jars. Process - 20 min. for pint jars, 30 minutes for quart jars.

Good luck!

PLATE WALL!

So I have been collecting plates for MONTHS, trying to create a little "color" in my kitchen.

To my surprise yesterday, I got the last couple of plates, and was able to complete my wall. I AM THRILLED!

So you might ask, how does one do a plate wall? First, look up Google Images, and type in PLATE WALL. It will give you LOTS of really awesome pictures. Next, you pick a color scheme, then you look, & Look, & LOOK! EVERYWHERE! Some of the plates were as cheap as $.50 others were $8.00. It was REALLY fun to do. Hope you love it as much as I do!

M

It's about time ...

As I drove to Park City, Utah this past weekend, I noticed the BEAUTIFUL fall leaves and wonderful crisp air. I love the fall ... I love the meals cooked, the deserts made, the excitement of change. So first I decided to change up my blog header.
Next was change something in my house. I FINALLY convinced Adam to let me change out the rug in my kitchen. My mom let me use one that was in her house for a while, however, I am ready for a change ... and to make my house a little more of my style. I am pretty excited for the one I found! I found it at Target for a fraction of the price of other rugs I was looking at, AND it seems to be a great quality rug!I think it goes pretty great with my new colors of stools, Don't you think? Next I need to finish up my plate wall (I will be sure to post) and change out my chair cushions. I can't decide what color. Any ideas?

Next, we changed how many bottles of Salsa we canned this year. Last year I learned to can salsa with two of my sisters. However, our families were very disappointed when the salsa was gone in a month! We split one batch of salsa ... So this year we all decided to do our own batch of salsa. The Jalapeno's were so strong last year, that we changed our way of doing it this year. Safety goggles changed our life! After an entire day's workWe canned 106 bottles of Salsa! Wish you were here to try them. Adam tells me I have to quit giving them away to people, but I can't help it! It is SO good!

Next to last is the AWESOME products Doodlebug Designs sent to me today. Remember how I am organizing my recipes ... Remember that I am going to be doing something crafty? This just changed my complete perspective on the cuteness of what my recipe book may become. I can't wait to get going on this project!

Fall

Last night I decided to make this AMAZING Chicken Pot Pie for dinner.
A few weeks back I bought my dear friend Camille's cookbook, that I told you about a few weeks ago. It has all the portions for a single serving of food and has become my inspiration to want to cook again for my family.

Adam was home last night, so I decided to make the "Pot Pie" for my little family. So I made a few adjustments so that I could make more than one dish, and it turned out AMAZING! Such a great fall food addition to our family meal list.

I have been going through recipes lately and really trying to find the best way to organize everything. Do you struggle some weeks to figure out what to cook like I do? I am on the search for finding a great way to organize my recipes and so it is easy to find great things to cook for dinner, both nights when Adam is home, and for the nights he is at school. I would love to hear your suggestions ... and in a few weeks, I will unveil my conclusion of how I decide to organize! (Don't worry, you can expect it will be something cute :)

Mandy

PS ... Got a call yesterday from Studio 5. It looks like the voting worked after all. Although I didn't win the contest, they have invited me to come on the show and do a segment on November 16th! I am THRILLED and will be sure to post the details when I know more!

Family Photos

So a few weeks back, I had a great friend of ours, Jon Brown take some great photos of our family. He currently in Georgia getting his Masters Degree in Photography. Here are a few of my fav's

The Fruit of the Spirit

So I have been given a calling in my ward ("congregation") to help the Young Women in our ward to complete a great self improvement program called Personal Progress. We have almost 60 young ladies that I am over, and often it gets overwhelming.

When I was serving a mission for the LDS church in upstate New York we would be serving the people in many different areas. Often times people would fall away from the church and it got overwhelming for the Bishop to find everyone that was a member of the LDS church and a member of their congregation and encourage them to come out. So in one area, we decided to do a Missionary Blitz. We took 2 hours one night, all paired up with another ward member and went and tracked down these members. We wanted to see if our records were correct, and that they still lived in the place that we had on record.

I have been overwhelmed, trying to come up with ways to keep track of all the Young Women and see how they were doing on their Personal Progress. So I had this memory of the type of blitz I did while on my mission come to mind and decided to re-create it as a "Personal Progress Blitz". We teamed up with the leaders that are over these sweet girls and took 1 hour after church to visit each girl at their homes to see how the were doing.

I came up with these little treats, and thought it would be a great idea for many Christians to do for an encouragement to their Youth, so I wanted to share!

First I cut out the cute little die cut of a fry box (Sizzix). Then I went and got my most FAVORITE candies ever ... Frooties. We placed them in a little cello bag and tied a bow. On the front of the box I used a scallop circle and a regular punch to quote the scripture in Galations 5:22 - "The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness..." The hand out I prepared to slip behind the candy. It explained to the girls when they work on their Personal Progress, the Spirit of Christ will come into their life.

It really turned out great and it reminded the girls that Personal Progress is more than just goal setting and trying to get an award, it is something they can do when they experience trials as a teen and can still enjoy happiness.

Just a great little thing I wanted to share with you. Hopefully it inspired you, even if you don't use the idea "religiously"
:)
M

** Note : I accidentally made WAY too many and have about 50 extra pre-cut boxes. I would be willing to sell them to anyone at the cost. Contact me if you're interested! skierdouglass@gmail.com