Winter Wonderland

We had the most amazing snow storm last week. There was at least 12 inches of snow. But what was really amazing is that it has been so stinking cold the snow has barely melted at all. Almost every day for the last week we have had freezing fog. Our trees are frosty and glittery it really is like a fairy land.

So the trail in the picture was made by Sox she won't walk in the grass anywhere but there. Silly Kitties. Jenny and Schauerhamer #2 wins the Blogger points.

So along with Jenny's food list I think we should add somewhere in there probably on Monday or Tuesday after Christmas a Fry Fest and the Missionary Dinner (Everyone makes something from their mission, or if you didn't go on a mission make your favorite food.)

I have been making a list of all the things that I want to do over the Christmas break most of them are games that I want to play, anyway, here it is.

1. major game of DOOM so everyone needs to bring their laptops
2. Card games: Pit, Pinocle, Hearts, Diminishing bridge, Scum, Cheat...
3. Body, Body
4. Fruit basket
5 The chair game where everyone tries to keep one person from sitting down
6. Add on story writing
7 Ice skating, tubing, snowball fight
8 Pass the sign game
9 Bladderdash- as Banner calls it
10 Name games
11. Board games: Masterpiece, Clue, Cranium...
I can't think anymore. So If you have any games you want to play over the break list them.

I think that's all. I'm so excited to be with everyone for Christmas. P.S. Shelley can you bring some pickled green beans down if you have any. I love those things.

Busy Busy Busy

This is probably going to be my last post for quite some time so I have to get a lot into it. First and

foremost My Mission Farewell is December 27th at 1:00pm in the Orangeville 1st ward chapel. We are singing Gesu Bambino there is an adult part and a kid part so everyone who wants to will be singing.  I have completed almost all of my shopping and am packing my bags, I'm ready to be off. My mom has just one more skirt to sew and then she's done for a while. I'm sure she is relieved. I have been doing project after project and I can finally glimpse the end of the line of craftings. I went out with my mom the the pageant sight and trimmed some trees for decoration. They were so dry I decided to put them in the bathtub to soak overnight. It looked like I had an entire tree in my tub. Meanwhile in the opposite direction I dried some oranges in Grandpa's fruit dryer and threaded them with red ribbon. In the morning I wired the tree branches together, hung the orange decorations on them and hung them up in the entree hallway. They turned out really cute. P.S. Wiring trees branches together is no easy bake oven let me tell you. My next project was a gingerbread house. It was so much fun to build and it took me about 3 days. Tenny came down and helped me melt my candy windows with a blowtorch  I think she had a little too much fun with that. Then the next day I started placing all the candy on it. I got through about three movies during this process. I made a nut tree and a little train and a pond. The last thing I did was make spun sugar trees. This was the most fun thing to do by far. For those of you who haven't spun sugar let me tell you the process. I laid down parchment paper and melted the sugar 'til it dripped smoothly from the spoon and then I hurried and placed the pot in cold water to stop the heating process. I had two forks rubberbanded together their tines facing out and a wooden rolling pin. To spin it you dip the forks in the sugar and flick it really fast back and forth over the rolling pin. the faster you flick the finer the sugar strands. So I was in the kitchen flicking melted sugar like a mad woman. Once you have lots of tiny strands you softly pull them off the rolling pin and wad them into a ball. There was one point when the sugar strands were hooked one end to the front of my shirt and the middle to the rolling pin and the other end to the bottom of the plate cupboard. It looked like I had acupunctured my stomach. It was so much fun to do. My other projects are Christmas presents so I won't tell you about them right now you'll see in a couple weeks what they are.We have started "the treat list" of things that we are making for christmas so I guess that that is my next project. We've already made caramels and salsa, lovely combination, and we're slowly checking our way down the list. let's just say that no one will be loosing weight over the Christmas break. I can't wait for all of you to  come down for Christmas I am so excited to be all together. I feel like I am forgetting something. I guess if I remember I'll just do another post.

10 Blogger points to anyone who can guess what made the dent in the grass.

I love Food!

First off, I had a dream that the entire family sang the Hallelujah Chorus at my farewell,  and when you guys were done the congregation got up and applauded you so that is why this music is on my blog.
I have been experimenting with new foods. In a magazine that I have been getting recently there are some  beautiful delicious meals that I have wanted to try. So, after stake conference the girls and I made an "English" meal. We had 4 courses. Banner and I set up the dining room with all sorts of dishes that we rarely use. It started with some homemade mushroom bisque and then a lovely little salad. After that we had a main course of Beef wellington, Potatoes and Veggies and Yorkshire Pudding. The Beef wellington had a really good flavor which I suppose was kept in by the pastry wrapped around it but, even though they turned out really pretty and tasty I think we all agreed that the breading was a little much. After all that we had individual traditional Trifles. AND THEN we all had to take a ceremonial nap. Actually we had to lay down to create more room in our stomaches or risk implosion. It was worth it though. This last week I made a cornucopia which was really cute. However, the it did involve the de-feathering of a bird. I asked Whit to get me some Pheasant feathers not knowing that Jim would have to rip the entire behind off the poor little bird. I guess that the bird is now safe from the hunt. Unfortunately my mom can't look at my cornucopia because it makes her cringe.

I have been trying to eat a lot of veggies and try to put them in every meal. And I just thought that I would share one of my Favorite creations.

Les's Grilled Veggie Sandwich

1pkg fresh mushrooms
2 medium  zucchini
1 Yellow bell Pepper
1/2 red onion
1 Lrg. tomato
1 Avocado
1 pkg. Ciabatta rolls
A few slices of Mozzarella
1/3 cup ranch dressing
1 1/2 Tbs. pesto

Slice the vegetables in thin slices so you can layer them easily on a sandwich. Saute mushrooms with a little oil and garlic. Grill all the rest of the vegetables except for tomatoes and avocadoes. While the vegetables are grilling mix the pesto and ranch and set aside. Open the Ciabatta rolls and lay cheese on one side and broil in the oven for 2ish minutes. Put some of the pesto dressing on the Ciabatta and then layer you grilled Veg., mushrooms, and tomatoes and enjoy.
You can add a little grilled chicken to the meal but that just adds weight watcher points. It's better without the chicken, but if you feel that life just wouldn't go on if you were deprived of your meat then put it on. ( I had a slight confrontation with one such carnivore so I thought I better put in the notes that if you are offended by just vegetables please feel free to add a little chicky to the recipe.)

And Guess where...

P.S. Tenny & Banner the second song on the blog is for you

oh yeah

I meant to put this on my last post but somehow it didn't get there so... here is the kicker

Happy Halloween

About a month ago my mom commissioned me to paint her little china cupboard like a Mary Engelbreit book. Two seasons of smallville later this was the result.

Today was cleaning/craft day/ decorating. Banner came down last night and made wreaths with me. they turned out really cute. This morning I decorated with our latest craftiness. Later in the afternoon Tenny and I tackled the scary basement room. I'm pretty sure we were harboring mice this last year. As we went through things we kept finding evidence of our little friends. It was confirmed however, when I found that the Indian corn that we set out for Halloween was nibbled on. Some of the ears were completely empty. While we were down there we also came across the Halloween costumes, and you Tenny, any Photo opportunity... well, lets just say that at one point she was going to be a pioneer cavewoman impersonating Elvis. While we spent a lovely few hours buried in camping gear and Christmas decorations my mom made four batches of rolls, two dozen cinnamon rolls, one dozen orange rolls and the rest just regular rolls. She got "Super Pumped" for baking after she watched the Lion House Bakery CD that came with her new cook book. She sent most of them over to the Sharp Family though. Good thing I think all I had to eat today was BREAD in some form. I feel like Paul in Trust in Thelma's way. This is what it must have felt like being baked into a loaf of bread.

RANDOM PICs

This is when Tenny And I were "cleaning" up the apples. More like we were  having a flinging competition to see who could fling them furthest into Richard's yard

And this is... Guess