Blueberry Dumplings

Since blueberries have been relatively cheep lately, I wanted to share this recipe. I LOVE blueberries, I LOVE dumplings, and the two together are just my sort of thing.

(Curtesy of Paula Dean, so you could just print it off of her website if you want)

1 C flour

1 T sugar, plus 1 1/2 Cups ( I think I narrowed this down to 1 C)

1 t baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened

1/4 C milk

1 quart (4 cups) fresh or frozen blueberries

2 C water

Stir flour, 1 T sugar, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Cut butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or fork. Add the milk to form dough, and don't over-stir. Just until moistened. Set the dumpling dough aside. In a large (wide) saucepan, combine berries, 1 1/2 c sugar, and water and bring it to a boil.. Drop dumplings by they tablespoonful into the boiling berry mixture. Cover pot, reduce heat to low, and cook slowly for 20-30 minutes. DO NOT remove the lid for the first 20 minutes, and don't stir the dumplings. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, or fresh cream (or milk). Enjoy! I'm sure you could do this with other fruit like peaches or blackberries, or raspberries, but I haven't tried. It's kinda like a cobbler.

Happy Birthday to ME (a little early)

First of all, let me tell you something: If you thought that only old people took their garbage out in their pajamas, think again. I did that today. In my bright blue-flowery-with a little lace-pajamas. I remember seeing my old lady neighbor doing that when I was little, and so I would NEVER be the "type" to do that sort of thing. Oh well.

Second of all, we woke up to a great thunderstorm this morning. I love Oklahoma's thunderstorms. Emma was awake at 5:40, and Kenadi slept in. Our day started out early, but slow... I made one of my favorite breakfasts... Sour cream blueberry Pancakes.... and Emma thoroughly enjoyed it. She also loves to watch/"help" me cook. I love a rainy morning. It makes me feel relaxed, and like Kenadi and Emma and I have the whole day to ourselves to do what we want. Hence the pajamas.


Randy told me about this brilliant idea he had for my birthday in October. I was A: Very excited and SHOCKED that he was thinking about my birthday so early! and B: I LOVED his idea. He wanted to get me a vintage bike and restore it. We'd also like to get a double bike trailer that converts into a jogging stroller~ with help from our friend Craig~ were we also found this bike. Isn't it adorable? Randy had noticed any time I saw a bike similar to this one I was caressing it and drooling all over the place. I guess he thought that meant I liked them.

Isn't it the most adorable bike you've ever seen? It's all original too- weighs about 60 lbs, complete with the wide leather seat, speedometer, and a rack in the back.

I love this. (above)

And this. The stripes and lettering are all hand-painted on it.

Randy already has it taken apart. He's going to strip it down and re-paint it- and recreate the "Western Flyer" and stripes (or try), along with helping it run smoother. He's talented, I know he'll do a great job. I just hope it's done before my birthday.

Last but not least is Kenadi. It turns out that all of the pictures I have of her lately are naked ones. We got a trampoline from some friends of ours, and Kenadi loves to jump on it. However, 90% of the time she ends up taking her clothes off to jump. I got some funny pictures of her jumping with the sprinkler on under it while holding a blue inner tube for swimming. I wish I could post it, because they're awesome. Right now she's talking to "Prophet Monson" through my graphic calculator. Apparently he's "not at home, he's at the store. He's going to stay there all night and sleep there." She must think that's a bad thing, because she just gave him the number for 911. Well, I'm going to go enjoy my children and get dressed. I know, it's late.

Revised Recipe

Sorry, I never looked at my banana bread post after I posted it. It turns out that it wasn't posted how I typed it out, and it made no sense at all. I have fixed it now, so you can understand it hopefully. Sorry about that!

Scrumptious Banana Bread

This recipe was requested, and I do requests! Anyway, I got this one from my sister Haley, and it is the BEST banana bread I have EVER had! I did a makeover version with a lot less fat, and so I will give you both versions. The makeover version is just as good.

Haley's Banana Bread

3 C flour

1 1/2t baking soda

1/2 C butter

1 C oil

1 1/2 t vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 t salt

2 1/2 C sugar

3 bananas, mashed

1 C buttermilk

1 1/2 t almond extract

OR

Makeover Banana Bread

1 1/2 C white flour, 1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

1 1/2 t baking soda

1/2 C butter

1 C applesauce

1 1/2 t vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 t salt

2 C sugar (you could even go less probably)

3 bananas, mashed

1 C buttermilk

1/2 t almond extract (Randy doesn't like it)

Mix it all just until moistened. Pour into 2 greased bread pans and bake at 350 for 60 minutes. (I start checking it at 45 minutes so it doesnt over-cook)

Glaze

3/4 C sugar

1/4 C orange juice

1 T butter

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract (I left this out~ but I REALLY do love it with it in)

Combine all of the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and boil it for 1 minute. Pour half of glaze on one loaf and other half on 2nd loaf right as they come out of the oven. Let them stand 15 + minutes (until they have cooled quite a bit) and then take out of pans.

Our 5th and final trip post!

I am going to keep this one to a minimal amount of words, since most of this is time with my family again. While at my parents house, we got to see Randy's other sister Jolene. We had a good visit with her, and this time Kenadi talked more. (our first time seeing Jolene, Kenadi wouldn't talk to her AT ALL. I felt bad, but I guess Kenadi was in a bad mood since it was nap time)

My brother Kyle came to visit us for a few days, it was so good to see him.

Randy and I went on a short bike ride, I wish we got go more often. It was fun.

We did our beautiful hike again. This was Randy and Haley and Reid's first time going up there.

My dad and Chase, the middle brother who is getting ready for his mission.

A family picture, with most of the family. Left to right- Jenna, Kayla, My mom, Reid, Randy, Kenadi, Me, Emma, Nick, and Haley.

Kenadi riding Mom's horse, with Kayla's help.

More jumping on the trampoline...

Reid's baptism.

Reid and Dad before he got baptized. He was nervous because he thought that he'd be under water for a long time or something. He was fine after it was over and he realized that he was still alive and breathing.

We went to Northwest Trek and saw lots of animals. Skunk, bison, cougar, bob cat, deer, elk, wolves, etc. It was beautiful and neat.

The last leg of our trip Haley and Nick came to my parents house too. It was so nice to hang out with them. Haley is the cutest pregnant lady ever, and is due in October with a girl.
Okay! I can now move on with life! Sorry it took so long. If you can't tell, we had a great time and LOVED every minute of being with our family. Can't wait to see all of you again!

Oh, I need to write a disclaimer: On our trip we saw many fine friends, and took pictures with most of them. However, since I forgot to take pictures with some, I will not post any pictures of the friends we saw, just family. Sorry friends, it doesn't mean that any of you mean less to us!

Zucchini

I can't seem to get back into the groove of things and post my Food for Thought Friday ON Friday. Oh well, at least I'm doing it.

I love having a garden because I love having the best, freshest, produce right out my back door. I have a few favorite things to do with the produce that we grow, and I think my favorite is this recipe. Actually, I've never seen a recipe for it, but my mom did it for us growing up, and I do it for my family now. It is my favorite way to eat zucchini and yellow (summer) squash.

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Saute

1 or 2 meduim zucchini

1 or 2 yellow squash

3-5 slices of bacon

3 big somatoes

Garlic Salt

Oh, and I also added fresh green beans from the garden too. They were yummy in this dish!

First, cut the bacon into chunks and cook it in a large frying pan until it is almost crispy. Next, slice up your zucchini and squash-just use how much you think you'r family will eat. Drain out a bit of the bacon fat, if there is too much, and then add the squash and zucchini (and beans if you have them). Sprinkle with garlic salt to taste, and cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stir, and check it/stir it once in a while. You willl slice the tomatoes and add them at the end so that they flavor the dish, but they're not all mushy. I do them with about 2 minutes to go. Okay, so I know this is a very vague recipe, but it is really easy and worth it! The dish is done when the squash and zucchini are tender, but not squishy. I LOVE this, so you must try it! I eat it as a side dish or a main dish, depending on how hungry we are.

Our trip part 4

You guys are lucky. At this very spot I had a picture of me and the girls in our bathing suits, at a pool in Moses Lake. I couldn't do it, though. I couldn't post a picture of me in a bathing suit. So, it was deleted, and you don't have to worry about seeing that one.

Part 4 of our trip was at Randy's Mom and John's house. We enjoyed visiting them also. I felt like the days went by so fast with everyone we visited. Anyways, while visiting it was John's busy time of the season, so we mostly hung out with Randy's Mom and John's son Joe and his two girls. Kenadi loved having 2 built-in GIRL playmates. We did a lot while we were here too.

One of my favorite things that we did was go to this water park in Moses Lake. We were there most of the day, and we all loved it. Kenadi loved the little slides that looked like animals. Finally, a slide that she felt comfortable on that went into the water.

Emma always loves swimming, and she couldn't get enough of it. She would really love to crawl away from me into some water too deep for her and scare me to death. I wouldn't let her though. I know, mean Mom.

I wish you could have seen us try these things. Well, I was basically a pro from the beginning.... Just kidding. I got on this body board and went strait to the bottom and had to start over. I figured it out after that, though.

Woops, this is in the wrong order. Here's Randy Crashing. He did the surfing thing a bunch, and actually was starting to figure it out.

There we go... Don't fall honey! (look at that farmers tan. Don't worry, I have one too. We definitely fit in with our families-everybody sports one)

I was impressed.

This is Kenadi's little cousin Dakota. He was born the same day, same year, as Kenadi. Look how big he is compared to her! Cute little kids.

We had a barbecue with some of our step-siblings and their kids. It is always fun to get together with their family.

Kenadi and Emma loved their Grandma!

I love the location of their house. Well, I guess all of our parents have completely different locations, but I love all of them. See the water in the back ground? It makes for picture-perfect sunrises and sunsets. They live right on a lake. My parents are out in the woods, and Randy's Dad's is on the edge of a cliff. Beautiful places.

Oh, back to the barbecue. The little girls enjoyed playing dress-up. I thought it was so cute to watch them. Little princesses. These are some of Kenadi's cousins that she got to play with. She loved playing with the girls.

On one day we went to Wanapum dam and it's museum. After we were done we ate lunch at this great burger place (with real milkshakes) and saw this. Anybody know what it is? It's 1 blade to a wind turbine. See the little semi pulling it? That blade makes the semi look like a toy. They are SO big, but who would have known they were that big?! If you look in the hills in this area, they have wind turbines set up all over. It's a neat sight. They have them in Oklahoma too.

This is Kenadi and Grandma at the museum. We wanted to go down the fish ladder. but I guess you have to sign up months in advance to do it now. I think they do background checks on you or something. No, I don't know about that one, but it is done for security reasons since 9-11. The museum was neat, though. We learned all about the Wanapum tribe who lived there before the dam.

There''s this little bike at Grandma's house, and Kenadi LOVED it. She did pretty good too!

One night Randy's mom babysat so Randy and I could go on a date. That is one of the reason's I would love to live closer to family. It was so nice to leave the girls at Grandma's house and not worry about when to come home.

After our time was up there, we had to go and say goodbye to Randy's Dad and Anna before we left to the other side of WA.

Had to get some shots of the girls with Nana and Papa.

Here's the hot rod that Randy's dad fixed up. He did major magic to get it to look like this. IT was originally 2 different' trucks in so bad of shape that he had to mix and match parts to make 1 good one. The awesome part is that he did ALL of the work himself. Body, motor, interior, paint, etc. The only thing he didn't do was install the glass.

Kenadi wanted a ride. I got to even drive it home from church on Sunday. Another thing to make me feel powerful.

Emma and Anna- had a few good laughs before we left. I thought it was cute.

We got to stop and see Randy's sister Sara and her new baby Gia, and Peyton.

Kenadi and Peyton. They kinda look alike, don't they?

Randy with baby Gia.

Wow. I knew that these posts would be long, but I didn't know they'd be this long! One more still to come. I needed to document this trip, and you are my audience.