Creamy, Delicious Alfredo Sauce

Sauteed veggies with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese nestled up to our creamy alfredo sauce poured onto chicken tenderloins and delicious Amish noodles=one delicious meal that I felt guilty eating the whole time.  But I didn't have too, all that guilt I could have saved up to use on Leo or Baxter later, wasted over this sauce.  The basic alfredo is cream, butter, parmesan cheese.  This sauce is chicken broth, garlic, light cream, light butter, CAULIFLOWER.  It is delightful! 

I did weight watchers points plus program, they assign "points" to food, 1 cup of rice is 5 points while 1 cup of pasta is 10-10 WHOPPING points for pasta!  I found these Amish noodles that have only 5 points-delight!  Grill the chicken seasoned with pepper and garlic salt, delight! Add this delectable sauce, perfection! 

The sauce recipe:  Bring 2 cans of non-fat chicken broth to a boil, add 1 medium sized head of cauliflower chopped into pieces and cook for 10-15 minutes, the mushier it is the better it will blend.  In a separate sauce pan, saute 1.5 TBSP minced garlic, freshly ground pepper and 1 TBSP butter then add a splash of cream ( I used about 1/4-1/3 cup). Throw the cauliflower in the broth and the cream mixture in a blender until it is smooth and serve over your noodles or pizza crust or whatever tickles your fancy!

My Favorite Goodies (all on one plate)

Since September I have been baking, every fall it is the same ol' story, I bake for four months straight and try to perfect my favorite recipes.  This year I tackled chocolate cupcakes with peppermint butter cream frosting, sugar cookies and royal icing and something that I refer to is "ooey gooey deliciousness".  I am going to share the recipes with you now, you can stop salivating and start cooking. 

I don't mind work but I am super busy with everything I have going on so I like to find the easiest way to do things.  There is nothing easier than this recipe. 

Mix together in large bowl:
6.5 Cups Rice Chex                   
6.5 Cups Golden Grahams
1 Cup slivered almonds
1 Cup coconut

In a large saucepan combine:
1 Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup corn syrup
Bring to a boil and boil for 3-4 minutes, pour over the combined dry ingredients in portions, I normally pour on 1/3, stir, add another 1/3, stir, add the last 1/3 stir.  Lay out on wax paper to cool while stirring occasionally.  Go ahead and steal a few bites before it is cool, the burnt tongue is totally worth it!

I found the recipe for these sugar cookies at this amazing blog. These are the easiest sugar cookies I have ever made and delicious!  The only thing I will say is that I use salted butter so when doubling I only add a single portion of salt otherwise it is just too much.    The cookies are beautifully buttery, a simple yet comforting flavor, a delightful crisp texture and are so fast and easy to make.  I doubled the recipe and made about 30 cookies a little larger than a softball and decorated them in just under 2 hours.  The best part is no refrigeration time! 

Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt (remember to only use a single portion when doubling if using salted butter)
2 cups flour

Cream butter, add the rest of the ingredients in order.  This is a soft dough but if you roll it out on a lightly floured surface it will form perfectly and be a great texture, if you add too much flour it will be dry and brittle.  Roll out to about 1/8"-1/4" thick and cut. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes, cool and frost as desired.

I have always made my own frosting without measuring, I just add ingredients until it looks and tastes right.  A few TBSP melted butter, about a TBSP hot water, a splash of vanilla and a mound of powdered sugar, yum!  But I wanted to try a more finished look so I wanted to use royal icing.  Royal icing is gorgeous, it can be a finicky medium but if you work quickly- and with some practice- it goes rather quickly.  I use Alton Brown's recipe.

Royal Icing

3 oz (6 TBSP) pasteurized egg whites beat until light and frothy
add 1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (add gradually until you reach the thickness you want)

The best way to check the thickness is to allow some of the icing to drip back into the bowl, if it melds back within a few seconds you are good to go.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Butter Cream Frosting, is there anything more Christmas-y and refreshing?  I love these little babies!  I am going to disclose a recipe that won me second place at the Brown County Fair last September.  Since then I have tweaked the recipe a bit and I won't disclose it here just yet as I am competing with it again next year, but I will give you the original.

Cupcakes

Sift together:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Add:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla

Slowly pour in 1 cup boiling water and mix well.  Pour into pans, bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes (I like to lightly touch the top and if it is still a little soft but bounces back it is done and not too dry).  I also like to pour the batter into a pitcher for easier pouring.  This will make a 9x13 pan or 2 dozen cupcakes.

Here is the deal folks. I do not have frosting recipes.  I mix and measure and add until I like it.  I will tell you about how I do it and hopefully you will find success as I have.  First I cream about 1 cup of room temperature butter until it is light and airy.  Then I add about 1.5 cups2 cups of powdered sugar, a little milk, a little more powdered sugar.  If I had to guess I would say I end up adding 3.5 - 4 cups of powdered sugar total.  I then smash up 6-8 peppermint candy canes in my tiny handy food processor and add it to the frosting for flavoring. 

I hope you enjoy your frosting and the rest of your goodies.  PLEASE tell me how they turn out! 

A New Song for Your Listening Pleasure

Toby Turner's The Sideburn Song

I was just introduced to this by one of my seminary students and oh. My. Gosh.  I have watched it a few times and downloaded it from itunes.  It cracks me up!  I never really thought to much about sideburns not having them myself and I love how Mr. Turner has taken a mundane, everyday inanimate object such as side burns and writes a song about it.  This may or may not be the best link for me to post as you will undoubtedly think, "Wow, this girl is ridiculous!" and you will never look at my blog again, but to myself I must be true so I am going to share this slice of comedic heaven with you.  Smile big ladies and gents!

A New Year, A New Goal

Hi all!  It is a new year and I am adequately jazzed!  I am going to try to change the tone of our family blog instead of just being my insights to the events that happen in our lives to a review of projects, recipes, activities with the family, books, music, etc.  Hopefully you will find something here that you enjoy and will bring a smile to your face.  I love to create and make, but I am also a little lazy (honesty-just one of my best qualities) so I aim for all things simple.  I turn to pintrest for inspiration but tend to simplify things just a bit or tweak them to make them my own.  I hope to share with you through out this year some of the things that I love about being a mom and housewife.  I am looking forward to the recipes I will share with you (all will be tested and Jamie approved- I see no point in passing on sub par info, only the best from me!) and hopefully we can laugh and giggle a little together.  Next week I am planning on posting a recipe and hopefully some pics from a project I am going to do.  See you next bat time same bat place!

Family Update

I love my life.  I have a sexy husband and an incredible little boy, great brothers and sisters on both sides of our family and amazing parents (both sets!).  We live in a comfortable home with great neighbors, we are blessed to have our needs met.  We are learning about being apart and hating it, so that's always a good sign, yes?  B is growing and learning so much and I love watching him, he is different every day.  I am so blessed.  Heavenly Father takes wonderful care of us, supplying us with what we need, compensating for our shortcomings as individuals and parents, I am thankful for a God that is present and aware of our family.  Leo works so hard and has been blessed with a firmer, fuller understanding of his studies as he is preparing for his boards.  I have been blessed with projects and the ability to work on school for myself while Leo is working on his degree.  I do miss my family in UT but I am finally realizing that I do know what I am doing and I am a competent person that can do all with God on my side.  I am thankful for the experiences that I have had in my life to prepare me for this grand adventure that I am on with my eternal family.  We genuinely enjoy each other.  That is a huge blessing to me and one that I don't take for granted.  I love it all.  Every moment of responsibility and the "payoffs" that come after fulfilling that responsibility.  I wouldn't change a thing about my life (except maybe having Leo home more).  

What a delightful 9 months

Baxter is such a big boy! We can't believe how much fun we have with him and the joy that he brings to our lives. This is his Halloween picture, at playgroup he dressed up as a bear and for trick or treating he was a monkey.
Baxter is also doing great at growing his teeth, getting his haircut, army crawling, and (dah-dah-dah-dah!) pulling himself up! He has been trying for a while but on Friday he finally did it and since then he has pulled himself up on toy boxes, his walker and the couch! What a big fella!

He says "Hi" and "dada, daddy, dad". He waves and can even walk when we hold onto his hands. The other day we went in to get him out of bed and he was trying to stand up so we had to move his crib mattress down.

We also went to see Santa yesterday and he loved it! He was quite taken with Santa's beard and kept smiling at him. We are getting excited for Baxter's first Christmas season and can't wait for him to get to open his presents and play with the paper and boxes but leave the actual gift for next year.

Baxter is HERE!

On Monday, March 28 I had the most amazing experience, one I had been hoping and preparing for my whole life, my sweetheart and I welcomed our first child to the world.

It was an incredibly spiritual experience. I was blessed throughout my pregnancy to be surrounded by people who helped me look forward to labor and delivery as a divine experience. For the few days leading up to the experience I listened to hymns and talks about motherhood and God's mercy and love. I prayed that everything would go well and that Baxter would be safe. When contractions became regular on Saturday night I borrowed a page out of a book by pioneer women and made strawberry freezer jam. Yes, it is more simple than everything else that super women have done through the ages, but I was still pretty excited about getting it done.

We went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon to find out that I was still only dilated to a 3 and were sent home. I spent a lot of time in the shower that day to ease the contractions. We tried to relax and wait for the inevitable. On Monday morning the contractions were about 6 minutes apart lasting just over a minute we went to the hospital and they monitored me for an hour and I dilated from a 4 to a 5 and admitted us!

We got cozy in our room. After about an hour I was a 6 and wanted to go for a walk. We walked around for and went back to the room, the doctor told me that I was giving labor a bad name and he couldn't believe that I was walking around dilated to a 6 and not on an epidural, then he broke my water. I waited about an hour and the anesthesiologists came in to give me the drugs. They tried 10 times to get the epidural to stick. The needle they used to administer the local anesthetic couldn't get to where it needed in my spine and I felt every single twinge and movement as the epidural needle snaked through my spine. For just over an hour that was my life. I lasted about 45 minutes before I started crying and Leo came and stood right in front of me instead of to the side holding my hand. He looked right at me and every once in a while I saw his eyes dart to watch what the doctors were doing. He told me after that he watched as they pulled my tissue and blood out of my back as they tried over and over. Finally we all agreed it wasn't going to work and I was going to hit it all natural.

Another hour passed and I was informed that it was time to start Pitocin. After an hour on Pitocin my contractions were lasting about 90 seconds were coming every minute or so, I was still only dilated to a 7. Leo sat with me and rubbed my back, I thought I was in back labor but now I think it was just the injuries from the failed epidurals as I also had intense contractions in my front. 6:15 pm came with no progress in dilation and I started feeling like I needed to push, the nurses helped me breathe through it while Leo held my hand and told me how well I was doing. Finally around 7 pm I was an 8. At 7:15 I started pushing without being able to stop it and I told the nurse to call the doctor, I wanted a c-section. I couldn't stop myself and I knew that if the baby pushed up against the cervix it would swell and block Baxter's way out, most likely sending him into distress. The nurse checked me again at 7:30 and I was FINALLY to a 10 and ready to push! She and Leo held me as she showed me how to push and I did 3 practice pushes, right as I finished those the doctor came in, covered up and we started working with the contractions and the urges. I pushed for 10 minutes and Baxter Leo Bay came into this world at 7:57 weighing in at 7 pounds 7 oz and 19.75 inches long. My doctor told me that I handled natural childbirth better than some of his patients who had planned for a natural birth. It was an amazing experience full of hope, love, darkness, excitement, anxiety, pain, elation, and peace. The experience was not what I had planned, but one that I had been prepared for. A few weeks before I went into labor I was inspired to look at techniques for if the epidural failed. Leo and I had discussed the possibility of a natural birth because I wanted to see if I could do it. I was able to be calm with Leo (for the most part) and only once make a slightly awkward demand on him. I felt things that cannot be described and was filled with so much love for our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the women who came before me and my eternal family. That was just the tip of the ice burg as love overwhelmed me and still does when I look at my husband and my sweet little boy. We did this together. We waited, we sacrificed, we prayed and now we have come to the beginning of the next stage of our journey. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. It was a privilege and a blessing and I would not change a moment about it.