Gingerbread Houses

Everyone has been posting pictures of their gingerbread house and since I don't have a blog I am going to use this one to brag about my gingerbread house. My dad made gingerbread at Thanksgiving and I cut out the pieces and baked them. Then this weekend I made the frosting all by myself and dragged Cassidy to the store to buy candy and decorate the houses with me (he doesn't get too excited about Christmas - at least not yet). This is what we got a private community complete with a lake. It makes me mad that when we were at the store Cassidy acted like he had no idea what candy to get or how to decorate and then he was more creative than me, he came up with the palm trees. Anyway enjoy!

JAR BREADS, CAKES, and BROWNIES

This is a recipe for Jar Cakes, Breads, Brownies
(This is MY kind of food storage)
These will actually keep for over a year just on a shelf. The trick is they can NOT be made with eggs. Instead, you use a recipe for an egg replacement with gelatin. You can bake pretty much anything you would normally bake. Some things come out of the jars easily and some things need to be spooned out (like the brownies)..at least, my brownies had to be spooned out.

The following information can be found in a booklet by Wendy DeWitt titled "Everything Under the Sun." She also has a food storage DVD that you can open and watch in the following website: http://www.theideadoor.com/ (you have to hunt a little bit for it.) It is an AWESOME DVD. I would encourage anyone with an interest in food preservation to watch it. I think it is about an hour or maybe an hour and a half.

The egg replacement recipe is this:
"Eggs from unflavored gelatin" (Knox) You can buy in bulk @ bulkfoods.com
The gelatin has an indefinite shelf life.

One egg=: Combine 1 tesapoon of unflavored gelatin with 3 Tablespoons of cold water and stir until dissolved. Then add 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of hot water and stir. When using your own recipes, decresae the liquid called for in your recipe by about 1/4 cup to compensate for the added water from the "egg."

JAR CAKES & BREADS. Breads, cakes, muffins, cornbread, brownies, cookies, cinnamon rolls sealed in jars. This is a great idea for food storage and the solar oven, but you must be
VERY SURE TO BOIL ALL YOUR JARS AND LIDS to make sure they are free from bacteria. (I boil the jars for 15 minutes, the lids only a few.) They can also be washed & then sanitized in your solar oven. Jar foods are cooked in canning jars WITHOUT THE LIDS in your solar oven or regular oven. (I place my jars on a cookie sheet to bake.) The food will slip out of the jars easily if you use the straight-sided jelly jars or wide mouth jars, but any kind of mason jar will work. Using a pastry brush, grease the insides with shortening (No Pam or Baker's Secret). Fill it 1/2 to 2/3 full with your batter or dough & bake as usual. (Let your breads raise in the jars and then bake.) Some foods rise more than others, so practice with these amounts so you don't waste space in your jars. If it bakes too high, cut the top off your bread or cake before sealing the jar. Just be sure your jar edge is clean & your lids are hot! Immediately after the food is cooked, place your heated lid on the hot jar & tighten the ring. (Use hot pads!) Within a few minutes, the lid with "plink" & the food will be sealed. This food can sit on your shelf witn no refrigeration or freezing for several months. (The more moist the recipe the better.) With this method, you can cook jar foods on bright sunny days in a solar oven and have fully cooked foods waiting on your shelves for that occasional rainy day.

BROWNIES (The liquid has already been adjusted in this recipe)
(Makes about 4 pint jars.)
1 C butter flavored shortening
2 C sugar
2 C white flour
1 tsp Vanilla
4 "Eggs" (Use egg replacement recipe for these.)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: 1/2 - 1 C. chopped nuts
Make your "eggs". Mix shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg mixture and mix. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, & vanilla and mix. Bake @ 350 for about 45 minutes (or until done.)

I found this recipe on http://www.mormonchic.com/ and it works great in the jars and slides out easily and keeps together while slicing.

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 can of warm pop (cannot be diet) can use 7-UP, COKE, etc.
1 Tablespoon SAF yeast
Stir together. Divide into 3 wide mouth pint jars. Let rise. Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes (until done.)

Reunion Info

Dear Family:

It is now time to do some detailed planning for our family reunion at Three Rivers Resort July 26-29. Hopefully you have all made your reservations.

Meal planning is probably the most important thing at this point -- we all like to eat. Please pick what you would like to do from the following list and let me know by May 25. I will then put out the schedule. LaWayne, why don't you team up with Jerri?

We need breakfast Mon, Tues, Wed...snack Mon, Tues, Wed and Dinner Mon, Tues, Wed.

If you can give me an idea of your meal plan, I can let you know if there are duplicates.

I will bring the paper plates. We will also need volunteers for napkins, cups, silverware and dessert plates or bowls.

The cabins do not have ovens, but do have a refrigerator, sink and two burner stove. We will also have two cook set-ups like Terry had last time (two burner propane stove and griddles). Also Terry is again furnishing his canopies to provide shade.

We plan to take a raft for use on the rivers, there are hiking trails nearby, a swimming pool and of course, there are three rivers to fish. We will have some life jackets, however if you have room and have another available, please put it in.
If everyone is able to attend there will be:

30 adults
10 children

Marty and Sonia were unable to get time off from work, so will be attending in spirit only.

We will plan to go as far as Lewiston on Saturday and on to Three Rivers on Sunday. If you have any questions, please call or e-mail us.

We look forward to seeing everyone and spending quality time adding to the memory bank.

Love, Raedene and Dave

I just have to write and tell you how much I love my children. We just had spring break, and each of them had their turn running a fever, and having the sniffles. But... each of them had a great attitude, and they played so well together, and we had fun. To tell you the truth I was kinda dreading the week because I wouldn't get any "free time", but I found it quite enjoyable to sit in bed and snuggle them each morning as they watch cartoons, because that was the closest thing to sleeping in mom could get. I also loved that they check in with you as you are doing your daily work, and that they want you to watch them climb the ladder to the slide (even if it is the 700th time today). I love their smiling faces, I love their excitement, and most of all I love that they love me wether I am a good mom or not. I think I do okay, but I love that I am kissed each night, and I am the only one(besides dad) that know the secret goodnight shake. I love that they run to me when they are hurt, and that they want to snuggle me. I love Juany's ,"I want to snuggle you." I love Marios's "I need a hug". I love Franny's, "Mom, I want you to watch me in ballet, and I want to be with you. I LOVE MY KIDS!!!!!

At the fear of this blog site being forgotten and because I am too busy (or lazy :)) to create my own blog I will add another post about the excitement that is Randi's life. This week I graduated the corrections academy which is big news because now I am officially sworn in to protect the constitution. It only took 11 weeks of training that included more push-ups than I can count, getting sprayed with OC spray (pepper spray times like a hundred, I don't recommend it), numerous tests on the criminal code in Utah, and a ton of other random things like doing a crime scene investigation and searching cells at the prison (thank goodness I am not a guy so I didn't have to do the strip search on the inmate before we searched the cell). Anyway I am done and back to my normal job as therapist, but now I have a badge! Here are some pictures of me in the uniform I had to wear to the academy, me and my new badge, and some of the friends I made while I was there. At the ceremony I sang the national anthem with 4 of the guys from my class and missed, getting the academic award by one point (the story of my life whenever I am in school my class is freakily smarter than all of the other classes). Can't wait to see you guys this summer at the reunion and I hope you are all doing great and enjoying the unexpected turns life takes, like becoming an officer :)




These are pictures of me in my uniform and my boots. I had to take a special picture of my boots because I never thought I would ever own a pair of combat boots
let alone be so excited at how shiny I can get them.



My badge, don't pay attention to how out of proportion my face looks in this picture.




A fun picture of me in swat gear when we did forced cell entries. This was my team of 5, one to hold the shield one four others, one for each limb.



So I am not smiling, but this is at graduation with two of girls from my class that I became pretty good friends with. We are all therapists and now workout buddies so we can stay in shape after the academy forced us to get that way with an hour of physical training everyday.

New Car

Aunt Raedene told me that I needed to start a blog so that everyone can keep up with what is going on in my life. I told her my life is not that exciting and nobody wants to read a blog that says i got up went to work came ate and then went to bed so I won't be starting one any time soon. This post is tell everyone about the one in a million exciting weekend that I had. LaWayne and I finally caved in and bought expensive tickets to the Jazz game on Friday night where we watched the Jazz destroy the Oklahoma City Thunder. The most exciting part of the evening though was driving to the game in my brand new car. My Dad came for a funeral and we went to look at cars with the intention to buy next weekend. However I found the car that I have dreamed of getting adn there was a $1000 rebate if you bought it during the month of January. So I bought. It is a 2009 Pontiac Vibe (much newer than I ever thought I would be able to afford) with 13,000 miles. It has a lot of cool features in my mind, but the coolest that I will mention here is the outlet to plug in my computer or curling iron or personal DVD player or anyhting else. Here is a picture of this milestone on my right if passage into adulthood.