Bosom of My Family

"...the happiest moments of my life have been the few which I 

                  have {spent} at home in the bosom of my family."

Thomas Jefferson  penned these words in a letter to a friend over two hundred years ago, but they still ring true to me today.   With Spence at college and the kids growing older,  it seems like the days of our family all being together are fleeting and  much fewer and further between than I would prefer.  That's why I cling to days like today, when our entire family is together.  I feel an overarching sense of warmth and peace when we are all together under the same roof again.  

Our Thanksgiving this year was quiet…in a good way.  We spent the morning listening to Christmas music on Pandora, while we all cooked and cleaned and prepared for our Thanksgiving feast.  Every person made their own contribution to the meal and it seriously warmed my heart  this afternoon to look up and see almost my entire family working together in the kitchen.  

Glen made and carved our bacon-wrapped turkey and then made delicious gravy out of the drippings! It was our favorite turkey recipe yet and I have a feeling that this will be making a repeat on our Thanksgiving menus in the future! 

Emma made the fresh cranberry sauce that ended up the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Cami made the stuffing from scratch, including using homemade bread. Then her and Adam also worked together and made the lemon meringue pie.   Cami may be a cupcake baker extraordinaire, but it was cute to see how darn proud she was of that pie! 

Emma made the mashed potatoes, chocolate pie, and cranberry sauce.   AnnaLisa brought the sweet potato rolls, peanut butter pie, and roasted brussel sprouts.   Cami made the stuffing and lemon meringue pie. Adam helped peel the potatoes and was general kitchen assistant.  Glen made the turkey and gravy.   Ellie made the pumpkin pie.  And I made the apple pie (and cleaned….a lot).    Spence was the only one who didn't do any cooking, but lucky for us he brought his charm and appetite to the table.   

I felt kind of dumb when I glanced at Glen's Facebook page this afternoon and saw all the fancy place settings, complete with nametags and napkin rings, that most people do for Thanksgiving, but what can I say?   We are about as UNfancy people as you get and the fact that we actually used {mostly} matching table settings instead of paper plates was a huge step up from normal for us.
…and I should probably stop peeking at Glen's FB!  

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving (blogpost is coming) this past weekend with my local siblings and their families, so AnnaLisa and her roommate, Sandi, were our only two guests this year.   They were delightful company and with all the delicious made-with-love food, it really was the kind of day that memories are made of.  My heart is overflowing and I wish you the same sense of contentment and peace that we felt today.  

Happy Thanksgiving!     

Halloween 2014

  Usually Halloween festivities around our house take a couple of weeks.   We have our church's  trunk-or-treat the Friday before Halloween, then the kids go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween, then sometime in the week after Halloween we finally celebrate Emma's birthday properly.    This year we decided to do things a little differently for a change.   

We still started off the fun with our ward's annual chili/pie cook-off and trunk-or-treating.   We made my sweet potato black bean chili and 4 pies.   Emma made a pumpkin pecan pie, Ellie made a cookies and cream pie with a cookie crust, and I made mango-lime cheesecake pie and my famous apple pie.  

The kitchen was completely thrashed after all the pie baking, chili making, and pumpkin carving...

but I am pleased to say that the apple pie shown above was the grand prize winner,

as was Adam's super scary spider pumpkin (below) in the pumpkin carving contest.  

which means that we are now the proud owners of a spray-painted golden pie plate and a pumpkin carving trophy that we get to store at our house until next year, so it was totally worth it!  

Ellie has been bubbling with excitement for last month for an opportunity  to wear her new Rapunzel costume.  She had debated between going as Rapunzel or Elsa, but in the end opted for the one she thought would be less popular.   She also entered the pumpkin carving contest with this Harry Potter pumpkin she designed and carved completely by herself.   

Abraham Lincoln made a second appearance and Princess Emma was a last minute throw-together costume when her other costume idea (Annie) didn't come together the way she'd hoped.  The dress is Cami's orchestra dress.  

The next week we did our Halloween art project and made these cute little cardboard haunted houses with flickering tea lights in side.  

Then at the last minute, we made a bold decision to forgo trick-or-treating this year. 

 Our whole family has been trying to eat healthier lately and it just seemed silly to go out and bring more candy in the house.   Emma immediately got excited and started planning a small birthday party with a couple of her friends for Halloween night.   

Emma spent most of the day making her own homemade candy to share with her friends so they didn't feel too gypped for not going trick-or-treating.   She made homemade twix bars, homemade peppermint patties, gummy worms, and candy corn.  It was actually pretty amazing to watch how much fun she had baking all day long.  My attention span is too short for that much kitchen time! 

At the party they also made their own caramel apples and Cami did some face-painting. 

Glen was hard to take seriously the rest of the night with that freaky face.

The homemade gummy worms ended up looking super realistic, so the girls had fun tricking Emma's friends into thinking they were eating real worms.  It was quite funny to see their reactions.  

Finally this weekend, Emma got her birthday dinner of choice--

 pumpkin soup, rolls, salad, and smoothie.  

She also got her birthday cake made by Cami. 

Her cake is worth a post in and of itself, so stay tuned later this week for all the sweet details on that bit of deliciousness!

Becoming Reacquainted with Pi(e)

I am proud to say that I remember what these formulas mean and how I can use them.

A = π r2                     C = 2 π r

After a couple of decade hiatus from ever needing to use them, this year I have become  reacquainted well with the ubiquitous mathematical symbol, pi and its formulas.   Apparently fifth graders do a lot of finding the circumferences and areas of circle in math and being a homeschool teacher means I get a front row seat on how it all goes down.

Not that homeschooling has given me any greater insight into WHY I would use these formulas in a real life situation, but just in case any of you ever wants to find out the area of your  dinner plates or the circumference of your hula hoop,  you know who to call!

March 14th (3/14 = 3.14 = π) rolled around this year and between my newfound pi using prowess and my new kitchen, I figured I had better reason to celebrate Pi Day than I ever have before.
So we made pies.   Lots of them.

I helped my sister, AnnaLisa, make a few pies for her Pi party.  Then I made a pie for a friend.   Then I made a few more to share at our homeschool cultural night.

I made apple, lemon meringue, and chocolate.

Emma made a banana cream and  Ellie made her own caramel cheesecake--both without recipes I might add.

It was a fun and delicious way to celebrate and although I never once thought about using π while I was making pie...

but at least I know I could have if the need had arisen.

I Get an "F"

I totally deny that on Thursday:

• Went to an Enrichment meeting all about prioritizing your time wisely

• Promptly drove straight from said meeting to grocery store

• Bought 9 lbs. apples, 5 lbs. sugar, 5 lbs. flour, 3 lbs. Crisco

• Went home and stayed up until 2:00am

• Using every last ounce of said groceries

• So I could make six of these for National Pi(e) Day.

and then cried and grumped around all day on Friday when I realized that I got an "F" for prioritizing my time wisely. It's possible that the 4 hours of sleep combined with PMS may have had a little something to do with it too...

...But then again, none of this ever happened anyway.

Now go check out MckMama at My Charming Kids to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Need some election day comfort food?

What could be more comforting (or celebratory) than some good old-fashioned apple pie? So here's an illustrated tutorial on how to make my favorite apple pie with perfectly flaky crust just in time for election night blues and Thanksgiving!

Pie Crust--this crust was a Maryland State Fair winner from 1979. After experimenting with a million different ones over the years, this is by far my favorite (and everyone else's too)!

1 cup shortening (Crisco)
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg + enough ice water to make ½ cup liquid

Directions:

Cut shortening into flour and salt until the size of peas. Add egg/water mixture and stir with fork until just barely clinging together. Knead with hands for thirty seconds just bringing in some of the loose crumbs. I think the crust handles best when used right away, but you could cover and refrigerate the dough at this point. Yields two 9” crusts.

Divide the dough into two equal sections. Then on a generously floured pie mat (mine's from Pampered Chef) or piece of wax paper, use your hands to pat the dough down until relatively flat. You'll want to flip it over a few times, reflouring the surface each time.
Making sure you start with both sides of the dough and the mat well floured, use the rolling pin to form the crust into a somewhat circular shape. Make sure that you rotate the whole mat a few times while rolling out the dough to ensure that the thickness is even throughout.

After rolling it out to your desired thickness, carefully lift the entire mat into a centered position in your pie pan. Be careful when removing the pie mat/wax paper, so that you can try to minimize any rips or sticky spots in the crust.
Whew! The hardest part is done! Now it's onto the filling part...

No Fail Apple Pie--seriously this is SO easy!

1 ½ cups sugar divided
¼ cup flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. ginger
6-7 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
2 Tbs. butter

Start with the pie crust rolled out into a 9” pie pan. Sprinkle ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup flour, and a pinch of salt over the crust (this step seems weird to a lot of people, but I promise it turns out fine. I forgot to take a picture, but basically you'll just pour the flour, sugar, and salt into the empty pie crust and stir it around lightly with your fingers).

Then fill crust with half of the apples. Sprinkle on another ½ cup sugar, then add the rest of the apples. Then sprinkle on another ½ cup of sugar, pinch of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Cut butter up into small clumps and place evenly over the top of the apples.
Roll out top crust and place over pie (using crust directions from above). Cut half an inch from the edge and tuck and form as desired,(I use the extra dough to cut out seasonal shapes with cookie cutters to adorn the crust)Make sure to poke a few holes to allow steam to escape, then brush the top with some milk, then sprinkle with about 1 Tbs. sugar.

Bake at 425° for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375° and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Watch the pie carefully the last 20 minutes or so, being ready to place some foil over edges or top if they are browning too quickly. The filling will bubble out slightly when the pie is done.

Serve warm with cool whip or vanilla ice cream and voila....you've got comfort for the most depressing of election days.

Oh and I guess I should tell you that my bishop informed me that my calling and election were made sure after I brought one of these pies to him....

I wish it were only that easy, but I'll take what I can get.