Books Read in April 2010

13. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien 4/1/10

14. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis 4/4/10



15. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 4/6/10


16. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis 4/8/10


17. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson 4/13/10


18. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis 4/15/10



19. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead 4/22/10



20. Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis 4/26/10


21. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis 4/29/10

April Cookery

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I've been taking pictures of the food but I lost my camera cord. Next time I suppose.

April 9 - Made crepes with Abby. Strawberries have been on sale like crazy so we cut some up for the crepes. We also had other delectable toppings such as whip cream, coconut, micro-grated chocolate, honey, and powdered sugar. I could probably eat crepes all the time.

April 12 - I made strawberry-spinach salad with homemade poppyseed dressing (without the poppyseeds...does that count?). I also made a pitcher of homemade gingerade! I got this idea from Manda because she was talking about how Allyson's friend Becky's mom used to make it. I thought it sounded worth a try to I made some. And let me tell you - it is pretty good. At least I like it. But I had Lamoni try some and he said it would kill a small animal. It does kind have quite a kick to it. What do you all think? Does ginger taste good, or does it just make things taste like cleaner?

April 18 - I made black beans for the first time. I had the realization that with my food budget, meat is often a rarity. So I tried to think of some cheaper protein alternatives. Beans were the first to come to mind, since they are cheap, store well, and I love 'em. With Lamoni's help I learned that it is a relatively easy, if not long, process that I will definitely be doing again. I also made some rice and tortillas to go with them.

April 19 - Made Chili Potato Fries. Quick, easy, and delicious. There was also a jalapeño dip that went with them but I didn't have all the ingredients for that.

April 22 - I made Brazilian black bean soup. It was really good! I got the recipe from this site. Everyone should check it out. I'm hooked. Thank you April Kim for introducing me to the site:)

April 23 - Made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. They turned out alright.

April 26 & 28 - I made an abundant supply of gnocchi and froze them in individual serving bags in the freezer. Gnocchi forever. Now, I must experiment with more. I think I'm going to make some spinach gnocchi and see how it turns out.

Quality Conversation

These are some old videos from last spring sometime. I was watching Tyler and Aubrey and doing something in the kitchen when Tyler ran in from outside to tell me a story. As soon as he started, I knew I needed to film it because his facial expression were hilarious! He reminds me so much of Brian in these videos.

The premise was that he was a hunter that had a pet T-Rex. This T-Rex helped him with his hunting but the problem was that she (she was a mother T-Rex) was sick and all her babies were sick too. He needed medicine for them but didn't know how to get it. Here is what happened (please excuse my obnoxious voice):

1o minutes later he ran in to tell me this....

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

In between sessions of conference we enjoyed a picnic at the park and an Easter egg hunt. All the children 14 and under participated.

Cousin Maddie playing on the slide.

Sydney and Aubrey are good friends.

A silly picture before the hunt.

Sydney found a surprise with the eggs.

Aubrey was excited to hunt for some goodies.

Home For Easter!

Last night I arrived at home for a long Easter/Conference weekend. It has been quite an eventful day with lots of family. Here are some of the day's activities:

Tyler and I enjoyed a quick game of Twister.

Maddie, Tyler, and I also played a game of Mexican train dominoes. Tyler won.

Then we went to Brian and Susan's to see their newly painted/decorated house and the new dog, Skippity Pete.

And the devil chicken in their backyard.

We enjoyed making a temporary wig for Aubrey with Maddie's hair.

We dyed Easter eggs.

Then Allyson told us the story of Easter with help from the kids.

Aubrey and I took some silly pictures.


We went on a walk before it got dark.

Then we played with the dress-up clothes. Sydney was a princess (as usual) and she was asleep. Tyler was going in to kiss her so she could wake up.

The Southern Belle...sort of.

The cutest cupid ever.

Day one of Easter vacation has been great. Now time for a nap....

March Cookery

3/5 - Made some delicious Mexican style rice with Lamoni's help.

3/7 - Tried a very simple and tasty chicken recipe. Cover the chicken with zesty Italian salad dressing and bake in the oven.

3/12 - To celebrate Aunt Joy's birthday we had a chocolate party (she is the chocolate queen, after all). I decided to make chocolate fruit cups but "painting" cupcake wrappers with melted chocolate, refrigerating, then peeling away the wrapper to reveal, a beautiful chocolate cup! I filled some with pistachio pudding and the rest with cut fruit. For a garnish I made chocolate leaves. Can you tell that I love working with chocolate?

3/14 - made egg tacos for breakfast. A simple yet classic breakfast.

3/15 - Made disgusting soda bread. It was only disgusting because I had a moment of insanity where I wrote down the wrong measurements for 3 key ingredients: salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Let me tell you - salty soda bread w/ too much soda is not so good. The funny thing is that Manda, Sarah, and I were just discussing how we are not very good bakers because we do not follow measurements exactly. In my case, it may just be incompetence. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the 1 1/2 loaves that are left. I am a disgrace to the Irish....oh well, I'll make some more in time for St. Patty's Day!

3/16 - Don't worry. I made two good loaves of soda bread.

3/17 - I went to Abby's and we had a nice St. Patrick's Day meal: soda bread, potatoes, and corned beef. This was pretty much the first time I had corn beef. It was better than I expected. I also brought cabbage but I was warned NOT to leave the cabbage at their house otherwise we may have had problems....

3/21 - Manda called me in the morning and said she was in a predicament. They were going to have fajitas for dinner but she realized they had no tortillas. So, since she knew I love to make tortillas I brought my supplies over to her house and we had a tortillas fest and ate some super good fajitas. I think Isabel & Asher had a good time rolling out the masa for the tortillas too:)

3/26 - I tried to make Marc Anderson's amazing chocolate chip cookies. Apparently there is some type of curse on this recipe because Marc is the only person that can make them as well as he can. Mine were good but I realized that I accidentally substituted baking powder for baking soda (a seemingly favorite mishap of mine). They tasted good but had a different texture. Oh well. Next time.