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Halloween Tricks and Treats

Here are my three favorite Halloween treat recipes:

Pumpkin Cookies

1 1/2 C. butter
1 1/2 C. Sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 C. canned pumpkin
1 1/2 t. vanilla
3 C. flour
1 1/2 t. soda
3/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
3 C. chocolate chips (optional)
2 C. chopped pecans (optional)

Cream butter sugar and egg. Sift together and add dry ingredients. Mix well, and drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet. Bake 350 10-12 minuets. Yeild 4 dozen ( trust me, it won't be enough)

I love to leave out the chocolate chips, add extra pecans and top with maple frosting.

Maple Frosting

1/4 C. butter
2 C. powdered sugar
1/4 t. maple flavoring
evaporated milk to spreading consistency

Warning this next one should be illegal.

Carmel Popcorn

4 bags butter flavor microwave popcorn
popped and sorted.
Mix all of the next ingredients in a heavy sauce pan,
heat at high/medium till boiling , boil three minuets,
stir constantly. Pour over popcorn(and 1can mixed nuts, if desired)
1 C. butter
1 C. white sugar
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 C. Karo Syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Try not to eat the whole batch yourself.

This one is my favorite, now, to me sugar cookies is all about the word sugar. I like the cookies thick and the icing thicker and I think they're better the next day when its all had a chance to blend together in to one big sugary pastry.

Sugar Cookies

1 C. Shortening
2 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. butter milk or
1C. evaporated milk
1 T. vinegar added to
butter milk or evaporated milk
2 t. vanilla
cream above and add
6 1/2 C. flour
1 t. salt 2 t. soda

Roll out 1/4" thick, on floured surface,
cut into desired shape.Bake 350, 8-10 minuets.
Cool and frost

Butter Cream Frosting

1 C. butter
8 C. powdered sugar
evaporated milk to spreading consistency.
1/2 t. food coloring

There you have it my three favorite treats. the trick is not gaining 10 lbs. in one day. You are only laughing if you haven't tasted them.

No Cookies Today

I found a diet thats supposed to target women fat caused by to much estrogen in our bodies. Turns out that estrogen or estrogen mimicing chemicals are given to animals so they are in dairy and meat and it is in pesticides and to much of it in us causes our bodies to store and excess of fat in bellies, hips and thighs. So I started it yesterday lots of fruits and veggies (especially cruciferous ie. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) and nuts and water and plain yogurt, fish and eggs. Then whole grains and beans in the evening. Nothing unusual just a good healthy dose of the Word of Wisdom. So tomorrow I will make Pumpkin Cookies for my crew it takes me a day or two with nice results on the scale too get strong enough to bake and not eat. This morning after one day down 3 lbs. Yee Haw!

Golden Delicious Autumn

Autumn

I love this time of year. It's finally cool enough to enjoy all the outdoor things I love, I can give up on weeds, and watering and I get to bring all my potted plants in doors. My apple trees had an off year in 2007 we got just enough to feed us and the birds and to share a few with the neighborhood children. I think that by the time I calculate the cost of spraying to prevent worms, and the extra water so they are big and sweet, and all the yelling I have to do to keep the kids from climbing the trees, picking them while they're green and turning them into baseballs, I doubt it's worth growing them but when my son takes a 'national geographic' photo of my apples for a school project or when I walk out and pick a golden golden delicious apple and take the first mellow crisp bite it sure seems worth it. How funny! Just as I am sitting here blogging about how I love this time of year the handy man, for the old people condos that my yards backs up to, came over to tell me that the old people who live there want me to cut the climbing roses out of the fence we share. Oh dear I hope as I grow old I never want to cut someones wild roses. Sadly it's not my immediate backyard neighbor sweet Ruby who tells me "I'm to never cut them because they make that ugly old fence beautiful". Well off to trim roses at least the weathers nice and I get to enjoy my MOST favorite Autumn activity tonight...little league football.

Conferance Weekend

This Friday I made Cinnamon rolls for all the primary workers in our ward. My loving husband (albeit exasperated) recognizing that I had, as usual, given myself an overwhelming assignment, spent an hour and a half cutting cellophane, wrapping it around a cinnamon roll on a paper plate, and tying cute little bows around the top. He even got Joseph and Isaac to be his helpers and so when I got back from the store (for the tenth time that day) to get paper so I could make a little appreciation note they were all wrapped. Jacob drove me around Saturday morning to deliver them all, we watched Saturday morning session ran to Costco ( I swear we were just here yesterday) hurried home put potatoes in the oven to bake, cleaned the kitchen, watched the afternoon session of Conference, went to Mom and Dad Smith's for dinner and Priesthood session and our traditional homemade ice cream, dropped the kids off at home, went halfway back to Springville (thanks for meeting us halfway Mom and Dad) to get everything we forgot, including my purse which just didn't work because we needed to stop once more at the store to get a few more things so that we could have friends over for Sunday morning breakfast and watch conference and make soup and go to Steven and Erica's for dinner and hurry home and clean up so that we could have everyone ready for monday. Now throw a football practice into that somewhere and you'll know why I don't blog everyday.

Cinnamon Rolls
serves 12 - 15

1 cup warm water- 105-115 degrees
2 packets active dry yeast
1 tsp. granulated sugar
In small bowl, mix together warm water, yeas, and 1 tsp. sugar. set aside.

1 cup milk- warmed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup butter- melted
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs- slightly beaten
8 cups all purpose flour
In large bowl mix milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup melted butter, salt, and eggs; stir well then add yeast mixture. Next add 5 cups of flour and mix until smooth. stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough stiff enough to work with (dough will be sticky). next turn dough out on to well floured surface knead 5-10 minuets then place dough in a well buttered bowl, cover. Allow dough to rise until doubled in bulk, 1- 1/2 hours. Punch dough down and allow to rest 5 min. roll out on well floured surface into a 15" x 20" rectangle.

1/2 cup butter - melted
1/4 cup sugar (I use brown)
3 Tbls. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, pecans (if desired)
Sprinkle evenly over dough. Roll dough up to form a Jelly roll. Cut into 12 to 15 slices

1/2 cup sugar(I use brown)
2/3 cup butter
Mix together and coat bottom of largest Pyrex cake pan ( next size above 13" x 9") or, 13" x 9 " and 8" . Place rolls in prepared pan/pans. Cover loosely with saran wrap allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45 mins.
Remove saran wrap. Bake at 350 degrees for 25- 30 mins. until rolls are nicely browned. cool slightly.

2/3 cup butter- melted
4 cups powdered sugar
2. tsp. vanilla
6 Tbls. evaporated milk
Mix powdered sugar and butter together with milk add milk to reach desired consistency. spread on slightly cooled rolls.

Enjoy.

Joseph

Husbands

I have been watching my husband over the last few weeks and just thought I should mention how beautiful it is to see a man sacrifice and give his all for his wife and children. Richard has incredible stress at work and we've all been sick with a bad cold, including him; everyone ended up at the doctors office and the cost is stressful enough then medicine and worrying about his loved ones and having at least three children in bed with us every night. He just keeps going he just keeps loving and working and striving to make a difference in our lives and the world. He of course was the last one seen at the doctors office and insisted he wasn't sick. He carries children back to bed ten times a night just to have them start crying or coughing and have to go back in and get them. He has to figure out how to love and encourage his 16 year old and his 3 year old and 5 in between. I remember when our older ones were the babies and I had a hard time with his parenting because he wasn't more like me. I hope I've learned to let him be a man and love and teach and parent like a man because heaven knows we don't need two PMS'ing, bossy, always have to be right women in this family. I have loved watching Joseph who has always been my little mommas boy fall in love with his Daddy. I love how much my own love deepens every day. Men are wonderful especially Husbands and Daddy's.