More food

Our Relief Society had the owner of Sun Oven come speak to us about cooking with solar ovens.  A few years ago, my In-laws gave each of the families a Sun Oven, but because I felt intimidated and unsure how to use it, it stayed in it’s box.  Until now. 
The day after the presentation, I opened up the box and put it to work.  I used the pans that came with the oven and filled them with chicken drumsticks, carrots, and onions.  After I pre-heated the oven (in the sun!), I put the food in.  It cooked all day in the sun, and it was absolutely delicious!!  And super easy.  See? Moist, tender chicken and cooked veggies.  Yum! 
Since dinner was outside cooking, I decided to make a treat indoors.  Mini fruit pizzas that we could share with our friends.  Easy and yummy. 
The next day, we decided to have Family Fun night…Iron Man style.  I made little Iron Man meatloaf and we watched the first Iron Man with the kids.  
We like food.  Yessiree. 

Chips, doughnuts, and crepes

Our awesome Canadian friends sent us a fun care package…Ketchup chips, Kinder-eggs, candles, and a painted seashell.  The Moses family stayed with us earlier this year, we had a blast, then they sent this as a Thank You…so nice!  

At school, we had a Pastries and Parents morning.  We all came to school one morning and had doughnuts and juice with our kids, it was delish.  Our PTA does some pretty cool things.  Koko had a Culture night for Young Women’s, so naturally, she spoke about France.  We made some crepes, she wore her beret, and brought some of my mission pictures to share.  Bon appetit!

Food can be fun, don’tcha know?!

Italian Village Fun

The food at Italian Village is delicious and delightful….see?
My pizza bender is so happy!
So is Annie,
So is our little Toothless. She lost her two front teeth!  Nice photo-bomb, Colin.
It’s a happy family restaurant!

New Years Eve

We decided to host New Years Eve this year.  It came quickly and suddenly it was the day before the party and we didn’t really have a plan.  I made an executive decision that we would have a fondue party…FUN!! 
Only one problem.  We don’t have a fondue pot.  No problem, we’ll just grab one in the morning and be all set.  I looked it up and found the one I wanted available at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I printed my coupon and was on my way.  I took Koko with me and we got there right when they opened.  We went in when the doors opened and found fondue pots right in front…awesome!  Except these were a lot more fancy and a lot more expensive…nope, that’s not going to work for me.  I tried finding someone to help me, but unfortunately all the employees were up front getting a pep talk about doing better customer service.  Ironic.  I tried to get their attention, but they were too busy learning how to treat customers to come help me.  So I left. 
Spoons and Spice to the rescue, we got our fondue pot and some groceries and went home.  The kids helped clean up the house, they are my best helpers (most of the time).  Some took longer than others, so we left them home to finish while we went to lunch.  So mean, I know.  Dakota stayed home with the other helpers and we took Emma and Annie to lunch with us. We got ready and people started coming about 5:00.  Not everyone came, there was some sickness and some previous engagements, but we had fun with our group.  Peach and Heather and their kids came.  Jake brought most of his kids, poor Bridger wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home with his mom.  Mark and Sue came.  We came. 
The kids played Temple Run boardgame with the Dads while we finished getting the food ready.  Time to eat! 
Joe surprised me with a second fondue pot when he went to get ice, so we had cheese fondue in one and broth to cook chicken in the other.  Yum-a-licious!  There were lots of things to dip…broccoli, pickles, crusty baguettes, shrimp, potatoes, and more, plus yummy desserts and salads too. 

The kids played more games, we took pictures, and played Kids Vs. Adults and The Noun Game.  So fun!





Everyone writes down four or five nouns.  You break into two teams.  The first team picks a spokesman and they have to get their team to guess the word on the paper without saying any of the words on the paper.  You pass the words through the team until everyone gets a turn.  Round two, you swap papers with the other team, but this time you can only say one word to get your team to guess.  Round three, swap again with the other team, this time, no words, only actions to get your team to guess.  It was very fun!
Poor Annie got an owie from scratching her face on the garland. 



Little Mark had his first Stake Dance, so they left early.  Jake wanted to get back to Liz and they left early.  Mark and Sue stayed for a bit, then left.  We drank some sparkling cider and watched the countdown with the kids.  We actually watched the News for a minute because they had a countdown to the end of the year back east (10:00 our time) when Congress was supposed to agree on a solution to avoid the fiscal cliff, but close enough.  We counted down and sent the kids to bed.  This is how I like to celebrate the New Year, because that means not everyone is grumpy the next day. 
It was a great year full of ups and downs, full of family and loved ones.  Happy New Year Everyone, goodbye 2012, hello 2013!!  

Tailgate reward

Early in the season, we volunteered to help out with the tailgate dinner.  Every Friday after practice, Colin’s little league team has a tailgate to get ready for the big game the next day.  Since we got ours over with early, we’ve been enjoying Friday dinners at practice.  We’ve had pulled pork sandwiches, pizza, chili dogs, nachos, sloppy joes, hamburgers, baked potato bar, and tons of yummy fruit, salads, chips, and desserts.  It’s been great to have Friday dinner prepared by someone else!! 
Look at these happy faces!

We love tailgate night!

Tailgate Party!

Our cute Gremlins practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  After practice on Friday, we have a tailgate dinner with all the players and their families to get ready for Saturday’s game.  Each family signs up with another family to prepare and serve the dinner one time during the season. 
It was our turn.  We decided to have a baked potato bar with chili, broccoli, sour cream, cheese, etc.  We had watermelon, cookies and cupcakes (shaped like footballs and colored green for our Huskies!), and lemonade.  It was a lot of work getting it set up and ready to go, but it was worth every ounce of effort….our Gremlin family is awesome! 
Now that our turn is over, we get to come on Friday and enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor!  Like I said, worth all the effort…I don’t have to make dinner on Friday until after the season is over.  Hurray!

Mmmmm

My new favorite football (or anytime) snack. 

Do I have a problem?

Or do I just like the way food looks?  When I downloaded my pictures, these are all the food pictures I had on my camera.  Don’t worry, I had a few pictures of my kids and stuff, too.
Ok, I like food. 





I guess I’ll make a few entries on the family cooking blog….soon…

One thing I know for sure:

Annie loves salsa.

She loves it by the forkful.

Yes, she does!

Lil’ helper

Sometimes Annie just wants to help me out in the kitchen. And sometimes Dakota just wants to take a picture of it. And sometimes we even drop some food for the dog.

And sometimes, it’s the best homemade mac and cheese you’ve ever tasted!

Ribs vs. Religion

The decision is obvious, but it's not supposed to be that hard. We did go to church...

Archibalds - Date Night

This would fall under the "no idea where to eat, let's stop here" category. Archibalds is a restaurant located at Gardner's Village. I have no idea why I ordered the surf and turf. Marci had a turkey sandwich. I should have went with the pot pie or fish and chips...I have no excuse. Marci had to hit the chocolate store after...it helped us recover well. The shops closed at 8, so we didn't shop.

Cost: $15-25 per person
Kid Friendly: Yes
Taste: 1 star (out of 5)
Service: 3 stars

That's it for "Heugly, Party of 8"

Date Night at Mizumi

This falls in the Can't Miss category. If you have little time and want great food...try Mizumi. Tempura is a must, all grilled items are very good. Sushi is great!

Cost: $15-25 per person
Kid Friendly: No
Taste: 4 stars (out of 5)
Service: 3.5 stars

That's it for "Heugly, Party of 8"

Happy Mother’s Day to me!!

On Friday, I got my Mother’s Day gift from Joe. We went on a super fun date…first, dinner at Franck’s. Oh my goodness, it was good!! French cuisine with amazing service. How have we never been there before??

Yes, I took pictures of our food. No, I didn’t get a picture of the fondue, I was too busy eating the best fondue I’ve ever had. Ever!

After dinner, Joe took me to the Desert Star theatre for a little Sheer-luck Holmes. Hilarious!!

Sherlock, as they’re chasing the bad guys: Should we take a train or a ship?

Watson: No ship, Sherlock.

Joe even arranged for the babysitters. It was a fun night out with my honey.

Not only did I get spoiled by my hubs, with six kids I got quite the windfall of Mother’s Day booty…bubble bath, cards, job coupons, trivets and hot pads, a book, a necklace, and a fruit bouquet…

We had nice meetings at church…it was Fast Sunday so we got to hear a lot of nice testimonies about Mothers. And of course, the kids sang, “I often go walking in meadows of clover, and I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue…” The chorister gave each child some blue flowers to give to their moms. With four kids in Primary, I got quite the bouquet! Plus a rose from the men…

I was missing my mom a lot! She’s 7 hours ahead, so her Mother’s Day ended long before ours. Thanks goodness for e-mail and modern technology, hopefully I will be able to talk to her this week.

We had a nice (yummy!!) dinner with Mark and Sue and Justin, prepared lovingly by Joe…bbq ribs, blue cheese salad, baked fontinas, and haricots verts. Nothing says “I love you” like Joe’s home-cooked ribs. It was a very lovely day and I enjoyed every “Happy Mother’s Day”, every hug, every cuddle, every kiss.

But this is what I enjoy most about Mother’s Day…the real treasures!

Thanks kids, for letting me your mom, there’s nothing I would rather do!!