My Favorite Things . . .

I love to participate from time to time in the photographic essays over at I ♥ Faces.

Usually I will post my entry over at my other blog site, Just me the Picture Taker, but today I thought I'd post it here - where it belongs - right in the middle of things.

These are . . .

A Few of my Favorite Things:

While I could probably go on and on and on . . .

• books
• my garden
• cleo, conan, kia and minny
• temples
• chocolate & peanut butter, separate and together
  
• flowers
  
• family games (our favorite "settlers of catan"
• a handful of cosmetics
• moose tracks ice cream
  
• homemade salsa (recipe here)
  
• the prophet
• my camera
• rascal flatts (they make almost any chore infinitely more pleasant)
• baking cookies
• february in st. george with mom & dad
• autumn in alpine
• guide dogs for the blind
• quilts
• fireworks
• diet coke
  
• the fruit from my garden
• house boating at lake powell
• cilantro dressing
• the deer that pass through my backyard
• scriptures
• my daily dose of hot chocolate
• the streets of paris
• my husband - he IS the greatest
• each and every one of my children and children in law and future children in law

Yep, I think those are top on the list.

I ♥ Faces is an entertaining place to visit, stop by sometime.

More treat images at i♥faces. You're sure to love it!

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GC Weekend . . .

We look forward to it for weeks.

It's like a favorite holiday.

We all anticipate and plan our favorite General Conference Weekend food for days and days.

The kids all come home so we can cook, visit, play games and partake of a inspirational feast that fills us up both physically and spiritually.

Saturday morning comes and in our PJ's, we all pile on the couch and every available chair and eat breakfast and watch the morning session of General Conference.

It is wonderful!

We had an especially terrific and unexpected treat this weekend. Karianne and Greg just happened to be passing through Salt Lake City on their way home from their delayed honeymoon in Hawaii. We thought we were just going to take them out to lunch during a four hour layover but instead we got to bring them home with us - hip hip hooray!

A Favorite GC moment - I know I take my proximity to the temple for granted, sad but true. It was just delightful when President Monson announced a new temple in Fort Lauderdale FL, and Kelsie's roommate, who is from Fort Lauderdale literally jumped up off of the couch and cheered! I'm humbled . . . I need to be better . . .

Here is one of our favorite GC weekend foods: What are some of your favorites?

Did you have a favorite inspirational message?

So many good thoughts, but I so enjoyed Elder Bednars message on showing and expressing love to family members. To parents, and children, for everyone. "We should remember that saying 'I love you' is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need to consistently show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love." A wonderful thought! I don't think there's anyone who couldn't relate to his antidotes concerning the FHE and scripture study episodes of his family. We're all so similar in so many ways . . .




Streusal Blueberry Muffins

1 C. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
2 c. flour
1/3 c sugar
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c. frozen blueberries

Topping:
2 T. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 T. brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

Slightly beat egg, add in all ingredients except for topping. Fold in the frozen blueberries. Turn into prepared muffin cups or muffin liners. Prepare topping by cutting butter into dry ingredients until crumbling. Top muffins and bake at 400 degees for 18 mintues. Makes 12 large muffins.

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It's a Party . . .

It's a party around my house today! I've had so many wonderful friends sharing all their great 50+ stories and thoughts with me, that I've really arrived in a festive place. So we are celebrating at my blog today!

We have balloons!

Any my favorite dessert recipe of all time - this is soooo good, you are just gonna die almost when you try it.

Macadamia Fudge Torte

NGREDIENTS:

---

Filling
1/3	cup low-fat sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1/2	cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cake
1	(18.25-oz.) pkg. Pillsbury® Moist Supreme® Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 1/2	teaspoons cinnamon
1/3	cup oil
1	(15-oz.) can sliced pears in light syrup, drained
3	eggs
1/3	cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans
2	teaspoons water
Sauce
1	(17-oz.) jar butterscotch caramel ice cream topping
1/3	cup milk

DIRECTIONS:

---

1.	Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 9 or 10-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. In small saucepan, combine filling ingredients; cook over medium-low heat until chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally.
2.	In large bowl, combine cake mix, cinnamon and oil; blend at low speed for 20 to 30 seconds or until crumbly. (Mixture will be dry.)
3.	Place pears in blender container or food processor bowl with metal blade; cover and blend until smooth.
4.	In another large bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups of the cake mix mixture, pureed pears and eggs; beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Spread batter evenly in sprayed pan. Drop filling by spoonfuls over batter. Stir nuts and water into remaining cake mix mixture. Sprinkle over filling.
5.	Bake at 350°F. for 45 to 50 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool 10 minutes. Remove sides of pan. Cool 1 1/2 hours or until completely cooled.
6.	In small saucepan, combine sauce ingredients; cook over medium-low heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until well blended, stirring occasionally. Just before serving, spoon 2 tablespoons warm sauce onto each individual dessert plate. Top each with wedge of torte. If desired, serve with ice cream and garnish with chocolate curls.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Add 1/4 cup flour to dry cake mix; increase water to 1/4 cup. Bake as directed above. If you think it sounds familiar it is! It won the grand prize for the Pillsbury Bake off several years back. It is soooooo easy to make. And now . . . as a special treat, I'm heading over to Carolyns to read a great story entitled the "Mormon Vegas Wedding" I can hardly wait. She is a great story teller!

Keep your eye on Pickled Pepper Photography today, I'll be posting a fabulous engagement preview of Cory & Sara!

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Just Making a few Changes Around Here

It's been a time of changing seasons around here. Not only are the leaves just beginning to turn to beautiful Autumn colors, but things are changing in a seasonal way around the house also. Kelsie leaving for college, Karianne getting married, Dustin & Cami moving across the country. Cory & Sara getting engaged . . . (oh! did I forget to mention that Cory & Sara got just recently become engaged! Well, that is a topic for a whole 'nother blog!)


Just this week I have started to look at things and see them in a different way. And it looked to me like I needed a little something new in the girls bathroom. So off I went to Ross. Sometimes, you gotta love that place! Not much money to spend . . . and this is what I came up with.

It used to look something like this -





Couldn't resist the frog! So green became the NEW color . . . then I found some delicious smelling Rosemary Mint hand soap that just makes you want to wash all day! (Great inspiration with flu season coming up to just keep on washing those hands:)



A set of new towels and a pretty bathroom rug later, voila - the room has a bright new look.



When the girls left, thankfully they took the 20 bottles of opened shampoo, conditioner and various body scrubs with them! So I picked up my very own choice of shampoo, conditioner and soap to have on hand when someone stops by. I can hardly wait to be a guest in my own bathtub, perfect for a relaxing morning.



I found some inexpensive artwork and a new basket to store extra towels. But the one thing I couldn't bear to part with is this little piece that contains one of my favorite bathtub thoughts . . .

It reminds me of all the days we had a tubful of cousins, bubbles and tubby toys!
(In case you can't read it it says-)

There's too many kids in the Tub
There's too many elbows to scrub
I just washed the behind
Of one that's not mine
There's too many kids in the Tub!

Yep, like I said, sometimes I just love Ross for an inexpensive updo! You never know what you're going to find there, but for me this week - it worked!

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50? No Thanks, I'd REALLY rather not . . .

As much as I keep trying to avoid it, my birthday is coming up next week. And I will sadly leave my 40's behind. They have been such wonderful years. Some of my very favorite I think. (Like if I have to pick an era to be the favorite - it's certainly up there in the running.)

So it is with much denial, procrastination and prolongment, that I am hanging on to 49 with my toenails. Which are badly in need of a pedicure by the way. Really, one year shouldn't make such a difference. Just one more year . . . I don't expect to wake up on Sept 28 and feel 50 for heavens sake!~

I think I'll just keep pretending that the amazing lunch we had last week, the one where we ate divine panini's, yummy salads, Paula Deen's Savannah Hot Fudge cake and homemade ice cream (recipe below) was really just another super duper day. And not some big celebration in

honor of my 50th. Even though I was paid some of the highest compliments of my life! My sweet friends, they just made me want to cry. EVERYONE should get compliments for their birthday. I am going to remember that. Anyone have a birthday coming up?

I think I'll just keep pretending that the wonderful friend who took me here (where we experienced heavenly food that I didn't even know existed in the world!) to celebrate my 50th, was really just thinking dinner out together with our husbands was an outstanding way to spend a Saturday evening. Which it was, and not another celebration of that unmentionable 5 . . . 0 . . . anniversary of the day I came into the world.

Oh, and thank you wonderful family, who all gathered together at mom's house today and prepared the most delicious BBQ, complete with all the trimmings, and brought such lovely gifts, special just for me, that I will treasure! I know it wasn't meant to remind me of that unusually high number of birthdays that I will soon (like in another 10 years I think) reach, but instead to express just how much they love me, which I did so much enjoy and cherish and will remember for always.

Oh well, I'm actually feeling so blessed, so nourished and so filled right now. If this is 50, maybe it's not so bad after all.

Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

3 ripe bananas

juice of 2 lemons

juice of 3 oranges

5 cups of strawberries or raspberries

2 C. sugar

2 C. whole milk

4 C. heavy cream

1 1/2 t. vanilla

Process the first four ingredients in food processor to desired chunkiness (Note - do not process raspberries, but leave whole).

Add sugar and continue to process.

Stream whole milk and heavy cream into the processor and continue to blend. Add Vanilla.

Process immediately according to directions in homemade ice cream freezer with ice and rock salt.

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Tim Mcgraw - Chicken & Dumplings

I don't know who to thank for this one. It would be either TIVO, because without it I would have missed this one, or Oprah, because it was on her "All Time Favorite Recipes Show" which I finally got to watch today and laughed my head off, or Tim Mcgraw. Simply because he is a very handsome man in an apron. (Sorry honey, you look awfully sexy in an apron as well!)

But anyway, if you're looking for something for dinner tonight and you have some chicken in the refrigerator or freezer, or you just want a little cooking inspiration or a good laugh, you better watch this over at Oprah.com.

Tim McGraw's Chicken and Dumplings

Courtesy of Tim McGraw

Tim McGraw made his grandmother's chicken and dumplings for Faith Hill when they were dating! They go perfectly with Faith's cornbread.

Watch Tim and Faith make this recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken
• Water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter shortening
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Boil chicken in a pot, adding salt to taste. When tender, pull chicken from the bone and return to the pot, adding broth.

In a bowl, combine shortening and flour, mix together with a pastry cutter, then add buttermilk to form a doughy consistency (similar to how you would make biscuits). Sprinkle flour on cutting board. Pinch off part of the dough and roll into a thin sheet and cut into squares. Drop one square at a time into broth. Continue this until all of the dough is used. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer until tender.

Allow the dumplings to thicken the broth for 2 hours until it is a creamy consistency.

Hope I made you smile: And now you got something for dinner.

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