Pecan Crusted Salmon

YUM! If you love salmon and pecans you will LOVE this recipe as much as we did. The kiddos prefer just the cedar planked salmon over this, but you could easily bake theirs up without the pecans and honey mustard sauce. I found the recipe on Allrecipes- it's rated by 692 people and is a 4 1/2 star out of 5 star recipe! It is easy and pretty quick to throw together too...
Alaska Salmon Bake with Pecan Crunch Coating

3 TBS Dijon Mustard
3 TBS Butter, melted
5 tsp honey
1/2 c fresh bread crumbs
1/2 c finely chopped pecans
3 tsp chopped fresh parsley
6 fillets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
6 lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl mix together the mustard, butter, and honey. In another bowl mix together the bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley.

Season each fillet with salt and pepper. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush with mustard-honey mixture. Cover the top of each fillet with bread crumb mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, measured at thickest part, or until salmon just flakes when tested with a fork. Serve garnished with lemon wedges.

Remember these?!?

If you read my blog last year, you probably saw these goodies grace a post. ;-) And they are back this year and just as yummy as ever! They are one of the easiest and fastest holiday treats to make. The kiddos can help and they LOVE them. Dip them in any color chocolate and add sprinkles, crushed candy cane, drizzled chocolate, whatever your hearts desire. I even dipped some Oreo's with the red frosting inside and they looked so pretty.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

I swear I go through sugar cookie recipes faster than any other recipe. I am constantly trying to find a better one... and this recipe is my latest fav! So I thought I would share it... very moist and a little chewy and SUPER easy. Gerron and I are in charge of the Cookie Frosting Booth every year at our Neighborhood Christmas Party, which brings in 300-400 people! I made 6-7 dozen of these cookies last Friday and they were SOOO yummy. I think I had about 4 for lunch. ;-)Give them a try today- your kids will thank you! Sugar Cookie Cutouts
2/3 cup butter softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 TBS milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with a mixer on medium high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, vanilla, until combined. Beat in flour. Divide dough in half. If ncessary, cover and chill dough 30 minutes or until easy to handle.

On a lightly floured surface roll half the dough at a time until 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake on 375 for 7-8 minutes, or until edges are firm and bottoms are VERY lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool. Frost if desired.
This recipe makes only about 1 dozen so I usually triple it. They were a huge hit at playgroup. I let the kiddos go wild with the sprinkles and frosting and they LOVED using lots of colors as you can see. Wow. I think they used every last sprinkle- ha ha!

A Little Piece of Heaven...

Sedona is one of the most gorgeous places we have ever been. Majestic red rock everywhere that is absolutely breathtaking! Our family tradition is to head up there every Thanksgiving. And with everyone healthy and well, we were thrilled for the chance to get out of town and spend some time playing and relaxing together. If you don't like travel logs, don't read on... it might bore you- ha ha! Out of 800+ pics, here are a few... WARNING: THIS MIGHT BE MY LONGEST POST EVER!!!

This is Soldiers Pass- an amazing Ranger Ride with lots of hiking trails!The weather was amazing while we were there- beautiful days and crisp nights. The air up there is so yummy and clear to breath!We found a reindeer just in time for Christmas! The next morning we headed out on Broken Arrow- our favorite! It is incredible. The full 360 view up there is gorgeous red rock and mountains and lots of trees... You can't tell but we hiked to the top of a huge red rock that overlooks everything!

The kiddos all took a turn practicing their photography skills...wow we spent all morning there and then had a fun picnic lunch on the red rock. The kiddos dug in the dirt, made their own firepit, found rocks in the shape of phones, threw sandstone rocks and watched them break into pieces, enjoyed the amazing views, hiked around some more, took a few scary steep trails in the Ranger, just loved every minute of it...Then we headed up Schnebly Hill- incredible views as well and it takes you over the mountain to Flag if you drive the whole thing. We stopped and hiked a lot...Lovin' the Ranger...Up Schnebly we had our own campfire dinner! Hot dogs and Smores. We even heard Elk close! It was so much fun though we stunk horribly after and were literally covered in a thick coat of dust from playing in the dirt all day! The perfect remedy for dirty cold kids? HOT TUBBING! ;-)

The next morning we hiked up Bell Rock. Ger picked the hike and I totally thought he was kidding when we pulled up! It was straight up- like rock climbing straight up. You can see how steep it is to make it to the top from this pic! And this pic... but there were trails going around the Bell Rock so we just thought we would just do that... but the kiddos kept going up and up and up...

Until we reached the very top!!! All the hikers along the way were SHOCKED! There were no other kiddos hiking it beause it was so intense. The kiddos are monkeys and LOVE to climb so we just chased after them the whole way up. (Colby nearly ended up off the edge of a cliff a few times!!) At the very end they got tired but LOVED it. It was such an accomplishment to make together as a fam! And the view was absolutely breathtaking. So incredible. After that we headed fishing at a fun fish farm up Oak Creek Canyon. The kids had a blast. Sydney caught one on her first cast! Colby took about 30-45 minutes to catch his but they loved feeding the fish and the whole experience. We took the fish back to the condo and never ended up cooking them. I love the top pic of Colby talking to his fish- it was hysterical! Oak Creek Canyon is GORGEOUS!!! The kids loved throwing rocks in the river, playing with the fall leaves, having sticks race down the river, hiking around, etc.So pretty- you can see the red rocks in the background!We tried to set up the camera to take a fam pic and it was pretty humerous! I forgot my tripod so this was about the best we got...We treated ourselves to dinner that night at one of the most amazing restaurants- Oak Creek Brewery and Grill- lots of variety and we have never been dissapointed. Cedar plank salmon for me- YUM!Ger said their ribs are the best he has ever had. As you can see, Colby wouldn't even stop eating his yummy dinner for a pic! The restaurant is located in this really cool Arts Village- the kids love imitating the statues every time we go.

Colby was so excited to jump on this elk... The next morning we couldn't find a muffin pan so ended up with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones. They were SOOO good. Ger thought I should start making them this way at home! (Mia had no idea I was taking a pic!)

Adventures for the day? Indian Ruins, Grand Canyon, and our Polar Express Train Ride to see Santa! The Wuptaki Ruins are outside of Flag and are amazing!

We stopped at two seperate ruin sites...The kids were FASCINATED. They loved learning in the Visitor Center about how the Indians lived and then checking out the sites...It was definitely getting chillier the farther north we went! It even started to drizzle so we put our coats and hoods on...And when we made it to the Grand Canyon it was SNOWING!!! The kids were SO EXCITED to see snow- we thought they were just going to jump out of the car while we were driving.They have a really cool tower with Indian paintings that has an incredible view at the top of the Grand Canyon... here's the girlies by a pic inside... Warming up by the fire!

WOW! Ger and I were in awe of the view- the kids thought it was pretty but definitely thought the snow was more exciting!

They threw snowballs and chased each other around, giggling and sqealing! It was so fun. We had to drag Colby to the car for every view point.

One of the highlights for the kiddos of the Grand Canyon was making snow men on the rim! Colby would NOT leave his. He finally gave it 100 kisses and hugs, talked to him, blew him kisses as he was carried to the car, and waved frantically. He had serious love for his little cold and wet guy!After a yummy dinner on the rim of the Grand Canyon it was straight to Williams for the train ride to the North Pole! We changed the kiddos into their new Christmas Pj's...

met Mrs. Claus...wrote letters to Santa...

and after mailing the letters jumped on the train!!!

Everything from the cocoa and cookies to singing and reading the Polar Express book is so much fun.

The highlight of course is getting to see Santa and getting their bell. They were thrilled!

Whew. Ok. We drove back to the condo from the Polar Express and the next morning we just packed up and rode bikes and played at the park!

We went to the park several times while we were there and they LOVED having their bikes there to ride...We decided we have the best kids in the world! They are at the best ages to take anywhere and everywhere and were so happy and great almost the entire trip. They constantly make us laugh and it was so fun to snuggle and cuddle with them and watch movies and play games together at night... It was just the perfect vaca and none of us wanted to come home! Lots of relaxing and lots of adventure! Can't wait for next year!

Christmas Countdown

This is the funnest craft for toddlers and up! Have them color and cut out this bell and then you attach a paper chain to the bottom, with one chain for each day until Christmas. The younger ones can use a glue stick to make the paper chain... the older ones love to use a stapler. Each day they can take off a chain to countdown until Christmas! I will post pics soon of Colby's and the girlies- Colby made one at preschool today and when the girls saw his after school they immediately got to work on one of their own! If your girlies babysit, this is a great project to take to do with the kiddos! Easy and minimal mess...
Website: www.freekidcrafts.com/countdown-christmas-bell.html

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

WOW! The Holiday Season is off to a great start... Last night the girls had their school Christmas Concert and it was FABLOUS! The have an amazing choir director and they have been working so hard on all the songs. They each performed three songs and it was so fun to watch. Both Sydney and Mia were grinning from ear to ear almost the entire time- they LOVED it. I had to share these pics- the girlies looked beautiful! Such a fun night... We hope each of you had a fabulous Thanksgiving! So many things to be grateful for... I will be posting a few pics soon from our Thanksgiving Getaway to Sedona soon. It was so much fun none of us wanted to come home! Hope your holidays are off to a great start too. ;-)