I am LoW

If I was one to title my blog entries this post might would be called-

'A Sister, a Man in Make-up and a Recipe'

or

'My Stand Against Rock-n-Roll, Tam and a Refreshing Summer Treat'

or

'Tam-a-lam-a-ding-dong, 80's Music, and a Bonus Recipe'

(anyone want to guess why I don't title my blog entries?)

I recently read someone's blog and she talked about getting a box from her parents home and dreading going through it.

That's so not me.

I love a visit to Memory Lane.

I mean, I love now more, but then was great.

So I cleaned out my closet recently and came across the only two albums I chose to save.

These two-

No joke.

 

I loved me some Boy George back in the day... if mean like, if he had ever met me in person, I'm sure he would have asked me out, totally. 

 

And I loved (and love) 80's music. I had a 'boom box' and I spent my fair share on new albums as they came out.

But when I was 18, I suddenly had nothing to do with the music playing at the time. I had had it with what was on the radio and I was taking a stand.

So instead I listened to my Mary Poppins.

My sister, with whom I shared a room, would crank her Duran Duran up and I would counteract it with some Spoonful of Sugar.

I had this boyfriend that would call the popular radio station at night to dedicate a song to me and I wondered WHY?? I'll never hear it! And he knew that. I was not impressed.

Do any of my kin folk who visit my blog remember this?

Anyways, a year or so after I was married I had a visit with Tamara and she was pleased to find out that I was back to normal and turned the radio on in the car.

 

~~~ 

 

Around the same time that I was un-hooking from the radio I was hooked on my Mother's Orange Julius.

The youth group in my church had a fund raiser and sold cook books and so here I bring to you, the recipe, from one of the cook books from back in the day-

 

I made this today but used pineapple juice. Both are great.

 

Look at the frothy goodness.

 

 

A cool refreshing drink for a hot day.

 

Julius, Boy George and Tamara.... oh, and Naomi. 

What a combo.

 

Deconstructed Fruit Pie A la Mode

 

You know... I am a foodie. I think I've made that clear. I'm very serious about food and creativity in the kitchen.

So I had this extra cookie dough and some fruit in my fridge and a Family Home Evening dessert to make.

 

That may sound like a daunting task to some but for me, well, psht.... I had this one at "extra cookie dough".

 

So it's as simple as this. With my creativity I cut my dough into strips and baked them.

(And because I am so stinkin' creative, when I didn't have the right tools, I looked in the kids play dough bucket. Scoured a tool clean and made it work. Genius, I know.)  

 

With my food expertise I decided to cook in a pan about 6 nectarines in 1/3 cup of butter.

Then I plated the fruit.

(fyi- plating is a food expert term for putting the food creative-ly on the plate) 

Then I took about 1/2 cup of berry nectar and 1/4 cup brown sugar and cooked that in the same pan until the sugar dissolved.

I scooped some madagascar vanilla ice cream and slapped it on the nectarines (like it was nuthin'), poured some sauce over that, added some fresh raspberries and topped with some of the cookie strips.

The presentation was fabulous if I say so myself. It tasted like a delicious fruit pie that was al a mode (Gary's fave).

I served, I accepted all the expected praise.....

It was beautiful.

And that's what I do.

 Beautiful food.

 

 

I create beautiful food.

 

 

It's just what I do.

 

 

I understand that we can't all have this talent of creating dishes.

I'm sure you are good at something....

 

I rock.

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

Beg your pardon?

What?!

 

You've seen this dish before?

 

You just saw it on Better Homes and Garden's August's edition cover page?

 

 

Oh.... ha..... haha..... I uh.... I was about to say that......seriously.

 

Some people say that they "adapted" a recipe from another recipe..... if I used my left over Sugar Cookie dough instead of pie crust.... does that count as me 'adapting' this new recipe from someone elses?

No?

 

And you think my 'crust' looks like french fries?

 

Yeah... that's what my kids said too.

And BH&G called this dish Skillet Peaches a la Mode, I changed the name, isn't it way more cool??

Oh.

 

But it tastes good.

 

Just sayin'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come back tonight and see what I do with left over sugar cookie dough, a toy, and some fruit.

 

I bet the suspense is killing you.... 

The Results!

My whole time was spent in the kitchen, with the exception of taking my youngest two out so they wouldn't be cooped up all day. So the Youth Conference itself.. other than the food part, was described to me by Rae as, "The best day of her life."

I do know they did a service project for the local Habitat for Humanity,  a panel discussion with the Stake Presidency (which I heard bits and pieces of and sounded awesome), a Dance, a Devotional and a Testimony Meeting.

 

In the meantime, on my side of the building, there was whipping and stirring and baking and slicing and chopping and you get the picture.

 

And all the while my two youngest were with me photographing things from their perspective.

 

The sack lunches - the one with the Temple Cookies - the cookies that I was worried about, not so sure they were obvious Temple Cookies.

The Cookies that I heard more than once as the youngin' looked into their lunch sack, "Oh look! Temple cookies!"

 

 

The sack lunches and the cookies.......

That Nolan didn't want his picture taken with.

 

 

The sack lunches and the cookies that Rae and friend did want their picture taken with

Rae- "I'll totally put this picture on my Facebook!"

Friend- "Totally, and tag me!"

 

 

And this chick right here....

 

The one who kept saying I was the boss....

Wouldn't listen to me and undermade the Lemonade.

She said something about "It's not that I don't trust you, I just don't believe you."

 

The nerve!

 

 

I think I'm gonna have to fire her.

 

 

"Liz, you're fired!"

 

But the next time I'm asked to do the food, will you come help?

 

If you do, I'll share the recipe for the Spanish Rice with you.....

This is my friends recipe. She is the one that I used to help cook for such shin-digs. Then she moved. When I consulted with her about this day I told her I was making her Spanish Rice and asked how many pans to make. She said, "Let's face it, kids are not going to pig out on the rice, only make 5 pans."

 

Boy was she wrong. Out of everything I made, I heard most about the rice.

So one could say I undermade rice, but it wasn't my fault. :) 

 

 

Proof my kids are taking the pictures.

 

 

 

I think Del Monte, Tabasco and Country Time need to send me a check. Just sayin'.

 

 

And let's end this here blog post with dessert.... that's fitting, right? Since that's how this night ended. 

I watched these youngsters get their cake. I said, "You can pick up a fork and use it to get your cake" (or something like that, whatever) and I declare 99% tried to get a piece by stabbing it.  

 

The blond in the background? I've noticed her since she was in Primary and I swear, I look at her and can see what Naomi will look like at in the future. And they finally got to meet yesterday. And she agreed that Naomi looked like she did when she was a youngster. 

 

I now declare the Bake-A-Thon over.

 

Phew!

 

Bake-A-Thon Update

 

Alright, I am calling it a day.

I've written a list of what needs to be done before I leave in the morning, and what I need to bring.

I sure hope I thought of everything.

And I hope I don't have anymore pretend nightmares tonight.

 

;-)

 

Nighty-night.

 

Bake-A-Thon Update

 

Yo.

 

So here is the deal. I am cranky and tired of this silly idea of me keeping everyone posted on what's up with my baking. Who's cotton pickin' idea was this anyways??

 

So I found this stupid box that's like the official bakery boxes that would be so cool if I cared right now. Wait, I got a slight twitter in the heart feeling. I reckon that means I still care some.  

And I have a feeling that after a good nights rest I will care even more.

 

I took a picture of the cookies in the stupid bakery box but screwed up putting it on the computer.

 

Oh well.

Bake-A-Thon Update

 

I have 99 cookies. I was asked to prepare for 100. Gosh- dare I chance it and go with just 99? Because I only do 99 will there surely be the 100?

 

I want to go to bed soooo bad.

 

I'm thinking of a bubble bath.

 

All but 18 cookies are frosted.

 

Must get back to work. Push through it. I'm too tired to put on my game face.

 

I still need to do some organizing in my head about how things will go down tomorrow.

 

I remember hearing before that one has to be superduper careful when baking and doubling a recipe. And I even had a feeling I should not double and make my sugar cookie recipe batch by batch. But then I started thinking it was SO dumb that I had to so I wasn't going to anymore and I doubled.

 

And now my Temple cookies are starting to look like dinosaur tracks.

 

Wah! WHY?!?!

 

Here are the pictures of the moment....

 

 

I thought of a way to make these cute a little too late. They are cuter in person, there is a very sweet shiny sugar on top that the camera isn't showing.

 

And they are pre-doubling of the recipe.

 

The dining room is looking more messy than full now that the cookie decorating tools are out-

 

And I do mean messy-

 

 

I must be getting snippy. Gary just entered the kitchen for a snack very cautiously.

Bake-A-Thon Update

 

I'm on a roll..... I have my game face on. You know, the one with the wrinkled chin that I inherited from my Ma.

 

I am so desperate to have the little one's occupied that I let Zoe make watermelon soup.

 

Rae took the pictures.

I would have swept the hair from her face but my hands were covered in dough.

 

That's better.

 

The latest dining room picture

I'm considering offering my kids payment to not help.

 

By the way, can you tell I also use the dining room as an art studio? The black paint has been on there for years....

 

The sit down break has been nice.... but I gotta get back at it.   

 

Bake-A-Thon Update

 

Okay- I gotta make this one quick.

 

My table looked like this after loading the car for the stuff to drop off

 

Then on the way home I picked up some produce from a little side of the road farmers thing-a-ma-bob.

 

And if you didn't notice, the watermelon farthest from you has a large crack in it. That's because Zoe "had to help" and dropped it.

The good news is that we discovered that the watermelons is gross.... fruit is usually a mystery in that way but it's known now.

The bad news is, now what???

 

But we staked out the Stake Center's kitchen and saw this-

 

It's good to go.

 

But it was funny, we stopped at Sam's Club before the Stake Center and Liz said, "Haven't we done this before?"

I think this is time #3 for us working on food in bulk together.

 Fun stuff, fun stuff.

Last time I asked her to help she asked me why I keep asking her. I said, "Because we work so well together."

silence....

 

"Right???", I waited..... 

She agreed. After hesitating.

 

We did a lot of this-

 

And laughing with Liz is always great because she laughs like a baby seals bark.

I swear it. It's hilarious.

 

But then when we struggled finding a Japanese joint for linner (that's a lunch and dinner combo) and couldn't find one open, we looked like this-

 

HAHA!! That face is making me laugh like a baby seal barks!!!

 

 

Gotta get crack-a-lackin'. I am WAY behind schedule. There is no schedule, but either way, I'm behind it.