a million pictures!

Nathan goes and visits his sister ever so often. I sent the camera with him one day and told him to bring me back some pictures. These were just a few. The girls from Uncle Nate's eyes:-)

I made one of the hundreds of recipes we collected for that recipe book. This was the meatball soup. My friend said it was really yummy. So I tried it. Everybody LOVED it! It will be a new family favorite. The flavor of the soup, made Mike very happy. Nathan knew there were onions in it, and loved it to!

Erin and Jon are such awesome parents. They have little parties with the girls. They let Issy pick out a cupcake pan for their party times. She was excited to pick square cupcakes. She had a friend over and they decorated their own cupcakes.

The puppies came back to our house this week. One had a gross little accident and I had to bathe her so I got them both. They looked so cute!

I decided I really needed a new hobby this week. I went with a friend and her mom to a really cool little knitting and quilt store. They had some great stuff!

I love quilts but as of this time I have no desire to get into this tedious little difficult hobby!

 I would like to try my hand at knitting. A friend of mine Kim just started and loves it. I am going to try and see if I can even do it!

                                  These are the cute puppies.

                           This is Mike holding them after their bath. I bathed them but he was tired?:-)

We love facebook. It has helped us be in touch with so many friends. A long time friend from Arlington found us last week. We found out they lived in Utah too. So they came over last night for dinner. I tried a recipe I had not made in forever. Mike and I have to eat more protein so I'm having to get a little more creative.

I decided to make Swiss Steak.  Ana makes it with this little jar of chili sauce from the grocery store. I am now on more of a budget so I freaked when that little jar of sauce was $3.

I bought a large can of crushed tomatoes and decided to find a recipe to make my own. I did and it was really good and made a lot more than what was in the little jar!

 

I am going to have to find more uses for it!

Then I don't have a clue how to pick or cook steak.  I decided to approach it like my steak was tough. (Oh on a side note, Swiss Steak is not named for the country. It is a process of making tough meat tender.)

I treated my steak with salt. you completely cover the meat in salt, where you can't see the meat. Let it sit for 15 minutes to an hour. then rinse it all off and pat it dry. I seared it and threw it in the crock pot.

I covered it in half of the homemade sauce, and a can of tomatoes. Then I added 1 gianormous sauteed onion.

sauteed green peppers....

I saw a few recipes that added carrots so I tried that.

And then I added a little water to the last of the chili sauce and cooked it all day. I forgot to take a picture of it finished so just picture this last picture a lot darker. That's what it looked like finished. Mike almost loved the vegetables as much as the steak:-)

Great friends, good food, it was a fun time!

                                                                      

It's been so long...

It's been so long since I have posted anything, I kept on waiting to go back and fill everything in. but that wasn't going to happen so I'll just go forward from here.

I spent a zillion hours trying to find recipes and ideas for a cooking Relief Society meeting we were having. I video taped ladies cooking their easy recipes. Then I had a lot of ladies at church send me their easy recipes. I cooked a ton over the past month. It felt good, I really enjoy cooking. The recipes we gathered were easy so people would get back into the kitchen and start cooking again. It has really worked for me:-)

Food is my thing. I am learning how to approach it in a different way, but I do enjoy it. We had some sadness recently. I was sad for a  few families, in the neighborhood. I didn't know what to do but knew I wanted them to know we cared. So I decided to make a quick soup. Well long story short I had to make a humongous batch and it turned out just so-so. I was so disappointed. I just had to pray that it would taste better to them, and remember for myself it's the thought that counts! It also felt good to go visit them all, as we dropped it off and tell them we loved them.

But I made them these yummy rolls rolled in mayo, butter, and parmesan cheese. I also made cake and substituted buttermilk for the water and melted butter for the oil. I hope the cakes were good at least!

When I came out of the bedroom to go to church Mike said wait right there. He went and got something and then ask the boys if they saw what he saw.

Mike thought I looked like Sarah Palin! hahaha It was just the shape of my glasses, which I got before anybody knew who she was!

We celebrated our 27th anniversary.

My parents were here for 4 weeks during Christmas, we had a great visit with them. My dad helped on a few projects. One for Mike and one for me!:-)

A loft for Mike for all of the Christmas stuff.

And another set of shelves in my pantry for me! i love them . Thanks Dad!

The puppies have grown and are super cute.

So are the girls......., super cute!

Issy called me and said "Hi Gamma, you and papa come to my house." I told her when I got her papa from the airport that afternoon we would be there. Who could tell her no!!!

It's been a good month!