Hollandaise Sauce 2 Ways

I think at an early age I fell in love with Hollandaise Sauce. ;-) Especially on artichokes and asparagus. So amazingly yummy. My mom has the best recipe- it beats out Flemings, Ruths Chris Steak House, and other fine dining restaurants that we've tried it at. Here it is:

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
4 egg yolks
1/2 c butter, cut in thirds
2-3 T lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best of course)

Put egg yolks and 1/3 of the butter in a sauce pan and stir with wire whip on low heat. Once melted add next 1/3 of butter and then next 1/3. Stir constantly. After all melted, continue to heat and stir for 1 more minute. Add lemon juice slowly while stirring and keep stirring until thickened. If sauce is lumpy add 1-2 T hot water and whip well. (WHIP THE WHOLE TIME FOR BEST TEXTURE!)

Looking for a lighter recipe?!? This is it! It really is yummy too and easy to make. Asparagus and Artichokes are in season so go get some and try one of these recipes out!

LIGHT HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c chicken stock
1 T cornstarch
2 T lemon juice
2 T unsalted butter, softened
½ tsp salt

In a small sauce pan combing egg, stock and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and beginning to boil, 5-7 minutes. Boil 30 seconds, stirring, then remove from heat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until combined.

Like Oreos?

...than you are going to love this! Williams Sonoma has come out with a cake mold for your very own giganormous Oreo! YUM! I thought this looked so fun and yummy. Make it with a cake mix or a brownie mix... fill the middle with ice cream or frosting... or even oreo ice cream! Another great project to let the kids help with. It's sure to be a big hit. ;-)
The molds are brand spankin' new and $29.95.
Heids- I thought of you! My sister LOVED oreos growing up... I don't know if she still does?!?

My Husband, the budding photographer!

I really have trained him well. ha ha! He took these adorable pics of Lola at Abby and Chris' Open house in Utah this weekend. More pics from the open house will come soon, but I just had to post these because they are so stinkin cute. Lola is the happiest cutest baby ever. She is always giving cheeser grins that make you instantly cheeser back. ;-) Ger and I tried to take her home with us, but it didn't work!

One more pic... my sister Lissy and her hubby Mark are amazing. Lissy made the cake and all the cupcakes (I helped frost!) and Mark made the cupcake stand! Talk about a talented team- watch out Martha!

Make Yourself a Guest Book!

I originally got the idea to have a guest book from Brooke's parents, the Chapmans. They had a condo up in Pineview and we signed a book everytime we went and stayed and commented on what we did/what fun we had! We loved looking back over the years in the book to see who we had come up with and what we had done and it was a fun reminder of memories made.Then I saw a guest book made "scrapbook style" with pics in Creating Keepsakes by Becky Higgins and loved the idea. I have yet to actually make myself one, but made this one for Heather's parents after we stayed at their gorgeous Newport Beach home for our Diva Reunion. If you often have guests or family come and stay, make one! You will be glad to have the reminder of when you had people visit and what you did together. I know especially with Chris' wedding coming up and guests that visit us from time to time, I need to get one put together for our family. (You could even make a traveling book where you at least document when you go places with one or two pics, though will scrapbook the rest in your own scrapbooks... It will help keep track of where you go when this summer!)
Start out with a title page/addresss/pic of your home! Each page has a pic or two of the guests that stayed and the following info is what I included on every page:
Guest Journal Entry!
Name(s):
Relationship to __(your family name)____:
Where traveled from:
Dates Visited:
Excuse for visiting:
Highlights of visit:
Anything else?!?

Some pages I doubled up and some pages I just had 1 guest info sheet. Make it your own!

You can conclude with pics of the area or whatever! I got this book at Hobby Lobby and used 3M Spray adhesive to adhere my own paper to the back and front covers. Super easy, it just takes time to scrapbook each page. Let me know what ideas you have for documenting your summer or trips!

Shower Recipes

Corn Salsa
1 can corn (I use frozen or fresh)
1 can black beans
5 Roma tomatoes
6 green onions
cilantro
2 avocados
1 pkg Italian dessing mix
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 c. oil (you can omit this if you prefer)

Salt
Pepper

Drain and rinse corn, and black beans, and put in large bowl. Dice tomatoes and avocados; add to bowl. Chop green onions and add. Mince cilantro and add to taste. In a small bowl combine Italian dressing mix, and vinegar (and oil if you want), a dash of salt and pepper. Mix well. Pour over vegetable and bean mixture and stir. Serve with chips.

Ranch Dips Spinach Dip

1 Package Ranch Dips

16 oz. sour cream

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and chopped (or you can add fresh equivelant)

1 can water chestnuts, chopped

Mix ingredients and chill for one hour. Serve with crusty bread, crackers, pita chips, or veggies.

Spinach Salad
Spinach
Bacon, fried and crumbled
3-4 hard boiled eggs (to taste)
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Dressing (I use half this recipe for one salad):
1 c oil
1/3 c ketchup
¾ c sugar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ c white vinegar
½ tsp salt
½ -1 medium red onion, chopped (to taste)

Put dressing on mixed salad right before serving. YUM!!! This is always a favorite.


Cha-Cha Chicken Salad
2 16-oz pkgs Linguini (I will add less pasta next time)
1 bunch asparagus, blanched, cut in bite-size pieces
1 c soy sauce
2 c small grape tomatoes
1 green pepper, diced
2 pkgs finely shredded cabbage (or 1 head)
1 red pepper, diced
6 carrots, finely shredded
1 pkg Chinese pea pods
4 seasoned chicken breasts, grilled and cubed
Cha Cha Chicken Salad Dressing (Asian food isle)

Cook linguine for 10 minutes, then drain. Mix all ingredients together and pour dressing on just before serving. But... NOTE: This serves an army. Seriously. It was a hit at the shower, but if you are making it just for dinner, cut in 1/4 to serve 4-6 people.

So many things to make, so little time!

Ok, so I never found silk at Hobby Lobby OR Walmart, and never made it out to JoAnns so I never made my silk dyed Easter Eggs. Next year for sure. I so wish I had time to just make and bake all day! Lissy, if you lived close we would for sure... She is amazing in the making and baking category. BUT I love this website called I "heart" Cuppycakes! She makes all sorts of crazy yummy creative cupcakes and this is her latest creation... The Rainbow Cupcake!

(This would be a super fun activity for kids to help with- they love mixing colors into frosting and even experimenting mixing colors together and seeing what color it makes. They would love designing their very own rainbow cupcake by deciding how much of each color should go in each cupcake liner too... My kids LOVE being creative and messy so this is the perfect project to do with them!)

Doesn't look too hard- she made a recipe from scratch but you can just use a box mix and divide it into however many bowls for the colors you want to use...

Spoon a scoop of each color in your cupcake liners...
And cook them up- voila! An easy fun treat and a surprise to eat.

I'm off to do dishes for now, but hopefully me and the kids will find some extra time to make these... sometime soon!

True Religion Jeans Anyone?!?

This is the most random post... I got some True Religion Jeans at Neiman Marcus Last Call in TX. Got them home, fit just a little bit too big and I can't return them! I am just selling them for what I paid- $130 for $200 jeans! Tags still attached, brand new, size 28. If you want to come take a look and try them on, just call me, email me or leave a comment. They are SUPER cute and I feel like they really make me look skinny. ;-) I ordered another pair of the exact same ones- super comfy since they have the stretch in them. The inseam is 35" and the waist measures 15" if laid out flat. I am firm on my price since I know I could sell them on Craigslist or ebay. (If you want to sell them on ebay you could buy them from me for $130 and make some money!)

What's for Dinner?!? Pasta Primavera!

Yum! This is a favorite spring/summer recipe. You can just use whatever veggies you have available to you and leftovers are great even eaten cold. I watched Giada De Laurentiis make this on the Foodnetwork years ago- it's rated 5 stars with 251 reviews so you know it's got to be good!Start out with sliced veggies, a little olive oil and Italian seasonings... Roast for 15-20 min...

Add some fresh tomatoes once the veggies are roasted... toss in some farfalle pasta...

and top it off with parmesan cheese. Wow. It's making me hungry just looking at it!

Pasta Primavera
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients
3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips (above I substituted asparagus and sugar snap peas)
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence (I actually prefer the subsitute of 1 tsp each of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme!)
1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta- I like more veggies so only add half)
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Super easy and super good. When I make this, I make the whole batch of pasta and only add half like I noted but serve up the rest to my kids with marinara and cheese so I have a meal ready for them too! Yummy served up with Foccacia bread. (Note: You can also add chicken to the veggies about half way through roasting- I have used the cooked Costco chickens in it and it's super good and adds the meat to your meal.)

Easter Sunday!

Mom! These are for you! She was wondering when pics from Sunday would be posted... :-) It was a perfect Easter Sunday! Just a great day... Church for us is 8AM so luckily we got off on time after checking out what the Easter bunny brought!

Syd and Mia actually picked out their own "Easter Outfits" this year! They did a GREAT job!

We just hid the baskets with all their eggs and everything this year- just hunting for their baskets but not for eggs!

They all got body boards to play on at the pool and hopefully the CA beaches sometime soon! Colby was loving his as you can see in the above pic.
Then the stickers and Pez and playdough eggs etc. were stuff I got 75% off after last Easter. Go buy your Easter for next year today! ;-)And I didn't think it was a big deal to have a chocolate bunny in their basket, but Ger said they definitely needed one so we picked up just little ones on our date night Saturday. Boy was he right! Every kid needs a chocolate bunny in his basket!

The afternoon was relaxing and so nice to spend together as a fam. Our Bishop is our home teacher and brought over homemade rolls and fresh eggs from his chickens! YUM! What a treat! Then that night we had friends and family over for Easter ham and the full spread. It was all perfectly delicious. The weather couldn't have been any better either- we just sat on the back porch and chatted while the kiddos ran around and played. So grateful for such great family and friends!

Happy Easter!

" At this Easter season of hope and renewal we testify of the glorious reality of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The empty tomb brought comforting assurance and provided the answer to the question of Job, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).
Because of the Savior’s resurrection we will overcome death and become the beneficiaries of His mercy and grace. In a world of trouble and uncertainty, His peace fills our hearts and eases our minds. Jesus is in very deed “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We give our sure witness that Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human family He stands as our Advocate, our Savior, and our Friend." 1st Presidency Message

Elder Hollands Conference Message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

CONTACT AZ LEGISLATURES!

If you live in AZ you know about the cuts to Education that the Arizona Legislature is making. It is seriously shocking and so sad that our state legislatures would willingly take away billions of dollars- $27 million from our Gilbert District alone- from Education! Crazy. We are predicted to drop from the 48th state in funding schools to the 50th. Yup- that's right. We will be the state who gives education the very least amount of funding. The final cuts will be made in the next few months, but involve cutting teachers, cutting salaries, cutting teachers assistants, cutting extra programs, cutting all day kindergarten, etc. Out of all the things to cut, the leglislature will be hurting every single child in the state AND teachers whom already don't get paid enough or get enough credit.We got a letter today from the principle of our school with the link we can go to and write our Legislatures! Go do it!

http://www.azleg.state.az.us/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp

Martha Eggs ;-)

I just love!

She is actually a little obnoxious really but has some great ideas. lol. As I folded laundry today I watched a recorded Martha episode from sometime this week and can't wait to make these eggs. They looked SUPER easy. This picture doesn't even do them justice- they turn out amazingly beautiful, especially if you use pretty bright colored silk. It's amazing how the pattern is perfectly imprinted on the egg.

You just get silk material (buy it or use an old tie or scarf), wrap it around the egg and tie with twist tie, wrap a heavier material around the egg to prevent it from bleeding and twist tie it, then place in pan and boil! Fun and kid friendly. We will be trying these out asap- I will show you the results!

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/silk-tie-easter-eggs?autonomy_kw=silk%20egg&rsc=header_2

Give your Easter eggs a one-of-a-kind look with this simple silk-dyeing technique.

Silk-Dyed Easter Eggs How-To:

Tools and Materials:

Large or extra-large raw eggs

Glass or enamel pot

Scissors

Silk pieces and scraps -- including cut-up silk ties, blouses, or boxers -- large enough to cover an egg

Squares of undyed cotton or pieces of old white sheets, pillowcases, or tablecloths that are large enough to cover silk-wrapped eggs

Twist ties

3 tablespoons white vinegar

Warm water

Tongs or spoon

Cooling rack

Vegetable oil

Paper towels

1. Cut silk into pieces large enough to wrap around a raw egg.
2. Tightly wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, making sure the printed side of the material is facing the egg. Secure with a twist tie.
3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of undyed cotton and secure tightly with another twist-tie.
4. Place egg(s) in an enamel or glass pot. Fill the pot with enough water to cover eggs completely. Add three tablespoons of white vinegar to the water.
5. Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 40 minutes or longer.
6. Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon, place on a cooling rack, and let cool.
7. Remove silk from cooled egg.
8. For shiny eggs, wipe with a paper towel dabbed in vegetable oil.
ResourcesMartha used half-yards of printed silk from Mood Designer Fabrics. Silk goods such as ties, blouses, and boxers can be purchased at rummage sales or thrift stores. Silk pieces can be reused multiple times to dye eggs. Special thanks to Jackie Blais for sharing this craft. For more Easter crafts, decorations, and recipes, check out these Easter ideas from "The Martha Stewart Show," and visit our online Easter Workshop.

a little Easter snack...

I've posted our favorite banana, peanut butter, chocolate treat before... but here it is Easter style! YUM! The kiddos love it and it's mostly healthy, right?!? If you haven't made this snack before, you just inside out a sandwich bag and scoop peanut butter on the inside, right side it out, and cute a small corner off to squeeze the PB out. I hope that makes sense! It's great to let the kids make it by themselves too- let the peel the banana, cut the banana with a child safe knife, squeeze out the PB, and stick the M&M's on top. They are always so pleased with themselves when they can make their own snack and usually eat it better when they do!

Are you ready for Easter?!?

Ever since our cute babysitter Sarah brought plastic eggs (filled with M&M's!) for the kiddos to find, they have been really into Easter! They found their ears from last year and played bunnies for half the week. Colby was especially hilarious- you can see how thrilled he is with himself! He and the girlies have been hopping around... hiding eggs, eating off the ground like a bunny, making bunny homes, etc.

Their favorite show lately is about two rabbits, Max and Ruby which is super cute (on Nickolodeon I think). So Colby has been Max, Sydney has been Ruby, and Mia has been their friend Louise! Ger and I have been just laughing out loud at their cute bunny play. I just love kids imaginations! (Note: I picked up these ears for $1 last year at Target- Mia is sad in the picture because hers are dirty and she wants new ones! Hopefully I can still find them there this year...)

I think we are set for next week though... I shopped the deals last year and stocked up on some fun things so don't have to do much shopping this year- phew!

Congrats Jeni!

YAY! Jeni had her baby last week- just one week after her baby shower. Congrats! Their first little girl. (I blurrified the invite so I don't get any stalkers- ha ha!) It was a great turn out with lots of fun friends- we had a great time chatting and hanging out.

Lots of yummy food...
I just love my jars and use them all the time! I used organza instead of tulle to cover the brown velvet tableclothes... Hobby Lobby is still my go-to craft store and it was on sale of course!

Isn't Jeni gorgeous! She was practically 9 months prego and still looks fabulous. AND- this was the cutest gift idea- instead of tissue paper for a baby gift, stuff your gift bag with a lot of brightly colored receiving blankets. It looked so cute and you always need lots of those blankies!
This is Jaime- my cute craft friend with another cute gift idea. She sewed ribbon to the bottom of burp clothes and they were adorable. She said it was super easy! I should have taken pics of all the adorable bows and headbands she made.

Abby was feeling the love...

As I debated what colors to do for Abby's Bridal Shower, I just couldn't go too fancy schmancy or use dull and boring colors... Abby and Chris' personalities are so bright and colorful and spunky! So this is what jumped out at me- a lot of fabulous bright fun colors!
The invites were sent out... (I am such a copier. I LOVE looking at invites online- I have about 15 sites that are great that I will have to post about sometime. I see what I like and do my best to copy it.)

And all the guests arrived! This was last Saturday...And LOVE as definitely the theme...

I have the best friends in the world- they helped with flowers, food, paper goods, and the cute "LOVE" and heart signs. (A HUGE thanks to Susie, Kay Lynne, Jaime, and Mary!)The desserts were so yummilicious- chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, homemade oreos, and chocolate dipped strawberries...A great decorating idea I have learned from friends is to use tulle, which is super cheap, and ribbons.We had bright colored tulle over all the table clothes, under the food dishes and beverage jars... I will post the recipes we used since a lot of people have asked! Everyone was extremely generous and Abby got some great gifts. She was definitely spoiled and has some amazing friends and family- it was so fun to meet them all and hang out!

My Mom was in town all that week and I couldn't have done it without her! She did laundry and ironing, grocery shopping, playing with kids, cleaning, and the day of the shower got up at 6 AM and made food straight until the shower started at 11! She is one amazing lady and was so grateful she came down to help. Love you Mom!

We can't wait until you're officially part of our fam Abby!