Adventures in Food

I've really struggled with mashed potatoes. I've never quite gotten them right. That's why this was a notable event: DOUBLE BAKED POTATOES!

We had double baked potatoes at our Bishop's house, and they were DIVINE! So I thought I would make some too! My problem was the mashed potatoes. They always turn out terrible when I try to make them! Who doesn't know how to make mashed potatoes? I felt like such an idiot. Everyone says they are so easy but what in the world do I do wrong? I asked Linda to teach me. We made some and they were yummy. When Thanksgiving rolled around, it fell on me to do the potatoes. wow - the heat was on. I put sour cream and cream cheese and milk and all the works into those ones. They turned out just mush (although everyone liked them). But how could I make them just fluffy?? So when I made these baked potatoes I used a masher instead of a hand mixer, and added only butter, salt, pepper, and milk. And TA DAA! They turned out fluffy and yummy!! I was so glad that I could finally make fluffy mashed potatoes that I made some more the next day =) haha. It's one of Morgan's favorites. What a relief! Another great tip Linda gave me was to use a baggie with a hole cut in the corner to squeeze the mashed potatoes into the shells. It made it very easy to make the potatoes look nice.

These are the pumpkin pies Emmie and I made for Thanksgiving:

An amazingly beautiful apple pie made with Lindsey's crust recipe. I spread milk and sugar on the top before baking (A tip from Julie's cooking class).

And this is an amazing pumpkin desert recipe that my aunt always makes. It is WONDERFUL! I could eat 2 pans of this stuff. I'll leave the recipe below:

Pumpkin Desert
1 large can pumpkin (or 3 cups fresh cooked pumpkin)
6 eggs well beaten
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 13oz can evaporated milk
I like to put all these ingredients in the blender so it comes out really smooth (fresh pumpkin is always stringy). I start with the eggs and blend them up. Then I add all the other ingredients. Then pour this mixture into a 9x13.
Box of yellow cake mix
1 cube of butter
Sprinkle the yellow cake mix over the pumpkin mixture. I like to cut the butter into thin slices and place on top of the cake mix, leaving only small parts of cake mix exposed. If there are large parts of cake mix that are not covered with butter then that part will still be powdery after it is cooked.
Cook at 350 for 70 minutes, or until knife comes out clean.

Christmas Decorations

Next year I'm not even going to worry about waiting until Thanksgiving to put up Christmas decorations. November 1st it is! Last year it was all I could do to take everything down in February (or was it March?). It's so nice to have it all up! The decorations help bring that happy peaceful feeling at Christmas. The Christmas music on the radio and the heater blowing make me happy too.

A Week of Canning Apples

I've never canned anything before! I've only enjoyed the fruits of other people's labor (The best ever was Shelly's apricot jam). My neighbor Linda decided to teach me. We went to Lindsey's grandpa's house to get apples. Wow we got a lot of apples.

The first day we pealed apples by hand. Pretty quick we realized there had to be an easier way. So I went and spent the best $25 ever and found this awesome apple pealer! It peals the apples and cuts into a cool spiral shape:


Linda holding up a cool spiral apple. She had to teach me how to use the apple pealer. I had no idea.


Kaia loves being a helper =)


This is a pot of sliced apples for apple sauce. I was surprized at how easy and yummy the apple sauce was. We put the cooked apples into the blender and added cinnamon and sugar and other spices. Tasha used just apples and a little condensed white grape juice for a sweetener. I really liked that! We even canned some as baby food for Elizabeth. When I was little I was always jealous of my baby sisters who got to eat super yummy mush like apples and peaches baby food. But now I that I know how to make my own baby food I can eat all I want muahahaha!


We also made some apple marmelaide that turned out a little more like syrup. Tasha and me canning:

Cool picture with Julie and canning jars:

Just a few of our jars of apple pie filling:

We made a few pies to give away. YUM! I've NEVER made apple pie before. These turned out pretty nice.

Trying to sit up

Elizabeth likes to sit up. But she needs quite a bit of help. One day she tried really hard and this was her first try:
This was her second try:

Then she was almost there!!

And she did it! Yay! She watched me make dinner sitting like this. And she loved it. Sometimes when she's laying down and can only see the ceiling she cries. She likes to see the action.

This is her pretty outfit she got at the baby shower:


More pictures of Elizabeth in November

Elizabeth and her daddy

Daddy can stick out his tongue, too.

And bundle Elizabeth up like a burrito.

Baby totem poll =).

Ashley's Pie Crust

Ashley is one of the best cooks that I know! She came over and taught me and Emmie how to make flaky pie crust. It was not that hard! I've always been kinda daunted by pie crust because it is rare that it turns out alright. So she came and taught us to break up the shortening into really small pieces and keep them coated in flour. Then add water very slowly until it all clumps together. The whole time we try not to touch the shortening or it melts and the crust won't be flaky. I'm so happy that I know what I'm doing now! Emmie and I made apple pie and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Lindsey also gave me a great recipe for pie crust that uses oil rather than shortening. I really like this recipe, although it is not necessarily flaky:

2 1/2 cup flour
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk

You can use your fingers and press this into a pan, but it also works rolling it out. This is how I made the crust for the apple pies that we made on our canning week.

Baby Progress

A couple weeks ago I turned around and saw Elizabeth looking at her hands! She had then together in front of her face and it was so adorable! Since then I've seen her do it a lot. Morgan even got a picture of her doing it! I think she's finally learning that those small little hands that always hit her in the face are actually hers... and she can control them!

She loves to sit up and look around her. It's funny how she moves her head around so much like she's trying to take in everything around her, but at a speed that is too fast for her neck to move her head. haha! She likes to be sitting looking away from me so she can look at everything.

She is starting to love her rattle! She still can't grab it, but I'll shake it in front of her and she follows it with her eyes and never gets tired of it. What could she be thinking?

Elizabeth is getting this super cool ring stacker for Christmas from us and from her grandma. This was the first time we showed it to her:


Maybe she'll grow to like it...

Cherie got her a fun little bear outfit to keep her warm from the cold. She also wasn't so sure she liked it... but she was sure cute in it!!