Welcome Summer

Summer is officially in full swing.  Yesterday we had a extravaganza (yes you must fan out your hands like fireworks and say extravaganza with enthusiasm)  for all the kids on the mountain to welcome summer.  My friend Rebecca made the giant sign so the children could break through the sign to start the party and welcome summer. We had food, jumpy castle, pinata, water balloon dodge ball, cotton candy,  and cupcakes.

 and what I was most excited about, we let every kid make their own cup of ice cream with liquid nitrogen. 

The first question is, how do you make ice cream with liquid nitrogen? You put everything into a cup that you would put into ice cream, then you add liquid nitrogen; you stir it up while it bubbles and boils, toils and troubles,  and walaw! Ice cream! 

Now the second question you might be asking yourself is, how the crap did you get liquid nitrogen?  That I can not entirely divulge, but you need to know a chemical engineer who is just a big kid, I happen to know someone like that.

There are all kinds of complicated ice cream recipes, which I intend on trying all of them when I get a conventional, plug it in the socket ice cream maker (my birthday is Aug 23rd hint hint) but we stuck the basics, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla. Or to be more basic, half and half.

Ice Cream Base

6 c half and half

2 c sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

I poured two inches of this into a Styrofoam cup,  add let them put in some mix ins, various candy bars, caramel, chocolate etc.  (of course they all picked gummy bears and marshmallows) Then I poured in liquid nitrogen, some had to come back for a little more nitrogen, but after some stirring, they had ice cream. I saved the best mix in for the mothers, lemon/pineapple, which I will divulge at a later blog post.

So welcome summer! I am in love you! and not just because I can sleep in and tell my kids to make their own cereal!

Memorial Day

I love to go to the Provo Cemetery on Memorial Day. It is so beautiful to see all the mums and fresh cut lilacs scattered over the ground. 

I even know any dead people, but I love to go anyway. Normally, I go with my parents because my mom's dad was buried there after he killed in plane crash when she was 12. Her grand parents are also buried there. So those are the graves we always visit. This year I had the children pick wildflowers from our yard. We put the flowers in mason jars and headed to the cemetery.

Can you believe this is my view? I am so lucky, that's our new dog Rock . . .Rock Obama

For the first time both Fairb and my parents are out of town. That is no reason not to celebrate, so I went alone with the kids.  Because of this, I had no idea how to find the tomb stones.  Find the freaky lady tombstone with the weeping eyes, go north east. We wandered and wandered and wandered. The kids were getting a little testy, so I said, just put your flowers on a sad looking grave with no flowers. Which they did and we proceeded back to the car. Just as we were leaving, ancestory! Parley Larsen (my great uncle) right before our feet. I shuffled the kids to go "retrieve" their flowers off the sad little graves, we found family!

I am having so much fun with my pasta maker!

I love to play with toys, my pasta roller is giving me glee. Although I have yet to ravioli.  I am also on the quest to bake a french baguette, it may be futile but it is sure fun to try.  I'm not there yet. Stay tuned.

Another from the Worldwide Cookbook

Sunday's are so lame without Fairb. I can handle the weekdays, but the weekends stink. So last Sunday, I spent experimented with recipes. I made another cinnamon roll recipe from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, "Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls" on page 28. What is cool about this recipe is that it is very simple, and can be made into a "mix" to be given away, the woman who wrote the recipe would use the mix as a young woman fundraiser.  Luck for everyone involved, my brother and sister and their respective families showed up on my door step to enjoy the warm cinnamon rolls. Making Sunday not so lame anymore.

Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls

1 white or yellow cake mix

2 pkg yeast (or 2 tablespoons, I would use instant yeast if you are going the "mix" route. Yeast you know is good)

1 t salt

2 c flour

2 1/4 c warm water

3 c flour

butter (about a stick)

brown sugar 

cinnamon

Combine the first 4 ingredients. Add  water and mix. Add 3 c flour (switch to dough hook) and knead till well mixed and smooth.  Put into a greased bowl and let raise till double.  Push down and shape into a rectangle. Spread with butter then brown sugar, then cinnamon.  Roll into a long loaf and cut into 1 1/2 inch slices.

Let rise until double and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes about 18 rolls.
Now I topped the rolls with my sour cream glaze:

1/2 stick butter melted

big spoonful of sour cream

about a 1/2 bag powdered sugar

splash of vanilla

milk to thin accordingly

If you don't know how to turn the above into frosting, find a movie on youtube.

Making art from artichokes

I am obsessed with artichokes in every form.  It is hard for me to walk past artichokes in the grocery store without buying them.  Artichoke dip,  in pasta, marinated, steamed, sauteed, and today for the first time stuffed. 

Tonight the artichoke was the main attraction. I love to have a simple dinner of just vegetables and fruits (my children hate it obviously, too bad for them.)  

The hardest part of artichokes is turning it to art, which means you have to remove the choke (I am so proud of myself for coming up with this clever pun!)  The choke is the little pokey fur in the middle of the artichoke.

First cut off the stem so the artichoke can sit flat in the pan.  Then saw off the top with a big serrated knife. Using your fingers loosen up the leaves, and with a melon baller scoop out the center white leaves, along with the pokey choke.

Now artichokes brown really fast, so have a lemon on hand to rub on the bottom and squeeze a little juice on the inside and rub it around with your finger. Now that your artichokes are art, get about 2 inches of water boiling in a pot big enough fit your artichokes single file.

Time to prep the stuffing:

3 T approx. fine diced onion

2 cloves garlic fine diced

2 T butter

1 T olive oil

2 c approx. fresh bread crumbs (I put a hoagie roll into the blender, use whatever old bread you have don't use the store bought bread crumbs)

Big handful of shredded Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

In a saute pan add the butter, oil, garlic and onion and saute till fragrant, careful to not burn the butter Season with salt and  fresh ground pepper. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs and cheese. Add onions and garlic mixture.  Season with a little more s and p. Combine well with your fingers. Stuff into the center of the artichokes and try to get some in between all the leaves.

 Put into the pot, the water should go up a little less than half way up the artichoke.  Steam them on medium heat until you can poke the bottom and it is tender ( it takes awhile between 30-40 minutes). They are so delicious!

marinated cucumbers

So remember when I said I cooked for ward temple night and served marinated cucumbers. Well actually, I totally forgot I prepared them until the dinner was almost over. I opened the fridge, and there they were, staring me in the face. So I pulled them out so everyone cook see how pretty they were as they were reaching for their dessert. All I can say is they missed out. Luckily, the are soo good day two.

Marinated Cucumbers

Washed and half peeled cucumbers sliced ( I like the English cucumbers)

red onion sliced

Rice vinegar

apple cider vinegar

olive oil

sugar

salt

fresh pepper

water

Now I am truly sorry to say, I don't have measurements, but measurements doesn't matter. Do equal parts rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar and water.. Give a couple swirls of oil, a good sprinkle of salt pepper and a liberal amount to sugar according to your tastes.

Brandon's wedding

So my brother-in-law Brandon is getting married in three weeks, its a miracle! Brandon is only 1 year younger than me (Fairb "robbed the cradle" according to the ward clerk who told my husband that when he was going over our records when we were first married. We are six years apart) but he feels like 10 years younger. Sorry Boo, no offense.  So we are thrilled, and his fiance Michelle, is so great and its going to be so weird to have Brandon off the "kids table".

Anyway, because they are mostly paying for the wedding themselves, as a wedding gift, I offered to cook for the wedding dinner and host the wedding in my parents backyard. 

So there is an easy way to feed 100 and then there is the good way to feed for 100.  I just can't bring myself to do "ward party" fare, it is not in my DNA. It has to be special.  So I have come up with a menu, now mind you I compromised here, I wanted it to be more special, I wanted beef tenderloin with a little salmon portion, but alas, as Fairb reminded me, we aren't made of money and no one but me will really care what we eat. So this is my plan, please feel free to comment on this.

First, to help pay for girls camp,  I am hiring the YW in my ward to come help me. For a starter, I will do a lettuce wedge of some sort (do most people like Gorgonzola?, I actually hate it, but it is so pretty, maybe just feta).  I will have ranch, should I do another dressing option? Balsamic perhaps? Then some nice crusty bread that I will buy from Costco. Meanwhile, we will be busy in the kitchen plating food as pictured above:

London Broil

Roasted Asparagus

and
Seasoned mashed potatoes

Which is the following

Cooked potatoes, ran through a potato ricer

BIG spoonful of sour cream ( I am talking BIG)

HUGE handful of shredded cheese (I am talking HUGE)

Lawry's season salt

fresh ground pepper

a little milk

Then garnish the plate with some pretty strawberries.

So can I pull this off? I have plenty of big pots, two ovens and two outdoor grills.