Book of Mormon Project

Today is the 2nd Annual Book of Mormon YouTube Project.  Please watch this video sometime TODAY between 12:00am-11:59pm and then share it with your friends and family to also view today.  You can repost this video on websites, email, Facebook, blogs, etc.  Our goal is to get at least 250,000 views today.

And while you watch the video, please enjoy the music by my own EVMCO and OCMCO!  The CD of this recording is going to be released on October 25th, so mark your calendars!

Corn Soup: French Fridays with Dorie

I was so proud of myself when I finally got a French Friday with Dorie recipe done before a Friday ... I finished my corn soup on a Tuesday and we all enjoyed it for family dinner, but ....  then I never posted my photos & results.  Ack!

So here we go ... the Corn Soup.

I've always loved corn soup of the Amish variety with potatoes, bell peppers, freshly diced tomatoes, and other good stuff.  While I was in Salt Lake City this past summer, there was a super yummy cafe basically across the street from where we were rehearsing, performing, and recording, so we (my friends & I) stopped in several times for lunch and dinner.  They had a corn soup there that I tried and kept going back to get ... it was soothing to my tummy after sitting for way too many hours and before nerve-racking concerts.  The corn soup in Salt Lake City had pesto swirled into it that I totally loved.  Even though I was hesitant to try a different corn soup recipe cause I already have one that I enjoy, I was hopeful that it might taste like that corn soup up in Utah.

I decided to hunt down some corn on the cob here in hot AZ.  It was not easy to find, but I did it and payed too much for it.  The kiddies and I made our corn soup along with some of my pesto.

I enjoyed the soup, but it more closely resembled my Amish corn soup, but without all the veggies, so I kinda missed my chunky veggies.  I did decide that if make a smooth corn soup again, I'll definitely make pesto to go with it again!

Creamy Cheesy Garlicky Mushroom Rice: French Fridays with Dorie

I have lots of cooking and family posts to catch-up on.  I have photos on my camera going back to the beginning of the year that I still haven't blogged about.   Ahhh.  And today's post will have to be quick because I have two concerts at ASU's Gammage this weekend.  If you're in the Phoenix area, please come ... I'll post a video at the end of my post that has more info.

This week's recipe was another simple one that I'm glad I made the effort to try.  The only ingredient that I didn't already have in my home was the risotto rice (I've never made risotto before) and since I was out & about, I decided to get a nice block of Swiss cheese. 

The recipe called for spinach,which I had here at the house, but I decided to try making my dish with sauteed mushrooms instead of cooked spinach cause I'm not a huge fan of soggy spinach.  I LOVE mushrooms and they were great in this rice dish.  The only thing I wasn't totally in love with in this dish was the Swiss cheese.  I think the "nice" Swiss cheese was a bit too strong and stinky.  It was still good, but I think I'll try a different cheese next time. 

Dorie suggested making stuffed peppers with the rice.  Stuffed peppers are a favorite food at our house and I think I'll try adding a little cream and mixing my shredded cheese in with the rice instead of sprinkling it on top of the peppers the next time we make our stuffed peppers.  This time around, my kids talked me into one of those rotisserie chickens cause I had a coupon for one from Sam's Club and I'm usually a mean mom and say no every time my kids plead for one of those chickens.  We also had cauliflower and lots of cold watermelon to finish off things off for a quick & easy dinner.

Excited to see the results of other Doristas!

Info for my concert in Tempe, AZ:

Get tickets for tonight or tomorrow night's show HERE.

Lamb of God

I will be performing in the symphony for Lamb of God on September 9 & 10 at Gammage in Tempe, AZ.  Both shows start at 7:30pm.  You can not afford to miss this and you should be able to get tickets for less than the cost of going to a movie.  This will be uplifting and you will get to enjoy the talents of a great choir, incredible soloists, and a professional-level symphony ... that's hard to find at the movie theater!  You will not be sorry for making the effort to be there. 

No matter your religion, please come and partake of this amazing music.

Learn more about Lamb of God and the composer Rob Gardner HERE.

Buy tickets online HERE.

Grasshopper Bars: Baked Sunday Mornings

I made my Baked recipe a couple of weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now.  I have mixed feelings about this recipe.  The recipe was somewhat hard to follow and not clear about a few of the steps.  The recipe said things like, "whisking occasionally until mixture comes to a boil and has thickened...."  My thoughts after reading this were, "How thick is thickened"?  Or mix until proper consistency ... uh ... what is proper consistency??  My buttercream filling did not turn-out.  I tried hard to follow the instructions and do as I was told, but even after refrigerating my buttercream for an hour, it was still runny and then it started to kinda separate and get clumpy.

I do have to say, the flavor of everything was great and I loved the fudgy brownie bottom, but after seeing the results, I didn't feel like I could share this treat with Hubby's office as I had hoped.

I will include a close-up photo of my filling ... I'm open to suggestions!

A Preview...

This is the first real sound that we've gotten to hear from our MCO recording session in Salt Lake City ... excited to hear the whole CD!

Cheap Dinner

EVMCO Registration is Open

Photo by Steve Porter

For my friends in the East Valley who have been considering the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization ... registration is currently open and new participants are being accepted.  Kids can start as young as 4 years old and adults are welcome to audition and participate in the adult choir or orchestra.

Children, adults, and families of all faiths & backgrounds are participating and enjoying top-notch musical experiences.  I've done a lot of music stuff around town and nothing comes close in comparison to the EVMCO.  I could go on for pages with reasons of why you should participate and I'd be happy to talk with individuals who are contemplating the idea.  I think kids (4-18 yrs old) can attend a rehearsal for free and with no commitment, if they'd like.

All three of my kids will be participating this semester and they are counting down the days until the first rehearsal.  This organization is one of the very best things my kids have in their lives right now, so we hope you'll join us!

Simple Slow-Roasted Tomatoes: French Fridays with Dorie

This week I actually got my recipe done before Friday!  On Tuesday, we made pistachio & mozzarella ravioli to go with our simple slow-roasted tomatoes.  This was a super-easy recipe ... just tomatoes sprinkled with salt, pepper, olive oil, and other herbs or seasonings of choice ... I chose to just use garlic.  My tomatoes roasted in the oven for about 3 hours and they made the house smell great!!

To see what other Doristas did with their simple slow-roasted tomatoes, go HERE.

Frolicking Night Owl's Pesto

It's hot here. 

Very hot! 

Excessive heat warning kind-of-hot!!

No one wants to make lots of hot food in this kind of heat, so we have to get a little creative.  Sandwiches & paninis are a great way to beat the heat & we recently enjoyed our's with a green salad & a fresh fruit salad.

Ciabatta Rolls ... fresh mozzarella .... sliced tomatoes ... chopped olives ...  fresh pesto

I looked at a lot of recipes for homemade pesto and after I had some ideas, I made up my own recipe as I went along.  I want to record what I did for future reference and if you have any comments or something to add, I'd love to hear!

1. Preheat oven to 350* F.  Evenly spread about a 1/2 cup of nuts out on a baking sheet.  (I used walnut pieces.)  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until nuts look and smell toasty.  I saw recipes that used pine nuts, walnuts, or almonds ... use whatever you like.

2. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Wash a bunch of fresh basil (I used 2.3 oz to be exact).  Dunk the basil into the boiling water and use the back of a wooden spoon to submerge all the basil leaves.  Don't leave the basil in the boiling water for more than 5-10 seconds.  Quickly drain the basil leaves, rinse them with cold water (if you can find some in AZ), and then pat-dry the leaves with paper towels.

3. I then put the basil, toasted nuts, some coarse salt, a little fresh ground pepper, 2 garlic, and some freshly-grated Parmesan cheese (I just dumped some in but I would guess that I used 2-3 Tablespoons of cheese) into my handy-dandy food processor and pulsed until everything was combined, chopped, and was beginning to look like pesto.

4.  With the food processor running, add a scant 1/2 C of extra-virgin olive oil.

5. Serve immediately.  I used mine as a spread on my sandwiches.

I would guess I ended up with about a cup worth of pesto.  It was enough for sandwiches one night and then we has some with garlic bread and ravioli the next night ... and I still have a little left.

*Tip: If you want to try a sandwich similar to what I made, don't do the ciabatto roll.  It got too hard and crusty in the panini press.  I think some slices of ciabatta bread will work much better.

Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt: Baked Sunday Mornings

This is not my mom's recipe ... just what the Baked Boys called the recipe, but this recipe belonged to a neighbor of Renato's (co-author of the cookbook) mother-Annette, a lovely French woman from Marseilles, France. But Renato's mother baked it so ofter it became Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt!  My initial excitement level for this cake wasn't that great cause I wasn't really in the mood to try another French recipe this week and olive oil in a baked good sounded kinda yucky.  And when you hear the word "bundt", I think many of us go to this:

But I decided to try the recipe.  My husband and 8 yr old daughter both came in the kitchen to help and while we were mixing the ingredients, we couldn't get enough of the wonderful smells coming from this batter.  The good smells continued as the bundt baked.  I was surprised how much I like the flavor of this cake.  I couldn't taste the olive oil at all.  We shared some of our cake on Sunday night with some of our new neighbors.  One man called us around 9pm that night to tell us how much he enjoyed it, that the recipe was definitely a keeper, and one that we should pass on to our kids and grandkids someday.

We enjoyed our bundt for Sunday night dessert although I think it would be wonderful for a brunch or morning-time baby or bridal shower.  Next time I think I'll serve it with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  It was a little hard to swallow.  I don't know if I'd say it was dry though ... just kinda thick.

Citrus Terrine: French Fridays with Dorie

One of my favorite aspects of Around My French Table is the introduction that Dorie gives to each recipe.  Dorie's intro for this weeks' recipe starts out, "While Americans of all stripes tend to turn snobby at the mere mention of gelatin...."  Yup, I am one of those Americans.  I am not a fan of gelatin, Jell-O, or anything like unto it.  I do not buy it for my kids and when I went shopping for this week's ingredients, it the the first time in my life that I bought gelatin.

I wish that I could say that after trying this recipe that I had finally found a form of gelatin that I like, but nope.  Gelatin is still ... weird.  While making it, I had to mix the gelatin with hot orange juice ... the smell was not desirable.  It bought back memories from when I was 8 or 9 years old of stinky horses in Havasupai.  When all was said & done, I was brave & tried a bite of my citrus terrine (I opted to leave the expensive berries out and use them on my waffles) and I liked that it was flavored with orange juice, but I just can't get past the whole gelatin thing. 

I'm guessing it will be a hit with the kids when the get up from their naps.

Next week's recipe, slow-roasted tomatoes, is more up my alley, but I'd love some ideas of how to serve them!!

Peacock's Spotlight

On Sunday, Peacock was spotlighted in Sunday School. A few weeks ago, they asked her to fill-in-the-blanks on a questionnaire type thing and then the kids had to guess who the spotlight child was.  Some of Peacock's answers were somewhat amusing, so I wanted to make sure to journal about it so she can go back & read it again when she is older. 

Peacock's Spotlight on July 24, 2011: (underlined words & phrases are her answers)

* I came down to Pittsburgh from my Father above.  (ahhh... close ... should be South Carolina, but Mom & Dad lived in Pittsburgh when she was born.)

* My home has 5 people and no animals to love.

* I like to play chess & go out to eat with my family.

* If you see someone with brown eyes and black hair, it could be me.

* I like learning about math when I go to school.

* When I grow up, I want to be Princess Tiana.

* In my spare time I think twirling & reading are fun.

* And I like to eat cookies & cupcakes when the day is done.  (That's my girl!)

* I like the color purple when I am making art.

* When I read the scriptures, The Book of Mormon is my favorite part.

* On Sunday, CTR 4 is the class I go to.

* Singing Pioneer Day is one of my favorite things to do.

*On Halloween you can say "Happy Birthday" to me.

Does anyone know who I could be?  Thanks for getting to know me!

Vacant Lot

Sooo... we are still working on the lot that we found several weeks ago ... working on making it our lot.  We go over to visit "our" lot several times a week and we even went on a bike ride to our lot one night as a family because it's super close to where we are renting right now.  It took me a week or two to find and decide on a lender for our lot loan.  Very few lenders are offering lot loans in AZ because of the economy here and when you do find someone willing to lend some money, it's only some ... they want significant down payments.  This was not music to my ears and caused me a lot of stress because I wanted to be able to put down as little money as possible and keep my cash in the bank, but if this is where we want to be and what we want to do, we have to make the sacrifice.  :)

Sometimes I hesitate saying anything about the lot on my blog because for some reason or another it might not work-out, but we are hopeful and so far everything looks good.  I suppose if it doesn't work out, we can be sad together, right?  I've also had some questions about how to go about building a custom house so rather than answer a bunch of emails, everyone can just read it here.  I also want to track the progress of everything we do over the next year or two as we work on turning this lot into our little piece of paradise. :)

Kiddies ... July 23, 2011 @ Vacant Lot. 

Penguin 8 1/2 yrs old, Peacock 4 3/4 yrs old, Turkey about a month shy of 4 yrs old!

Coconut Lemon-Braised Chicken: French Fridays with Dorie

It's that time of the week again ... French Fridays with Dorie.  For anyone new around here, we (the members of an online cooking group) are cooking our way through Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook, Around My French Table.

I have to admit, when I saw this week's recipe, I intended on skipping it.  I'm not into cooking meat and pork didn't sound appealing in the least bit.  I thought I'd rather spend my time & resources trying a different new recipe that might be more interesting for my family & me.  BUT Hubby saw the recipe and got excited about it, so we decided to team-up and give it a whirl.  We made ours with chicken breast instead of pork and I made Hubby do all the cutting and cooking of the meat.

We went to 2 different grocery stores and couldn't find some of the ingredients so we improvised a little bit.  I wished that some of the flavors were a little stronger, but overall everyone really enjoyed this recipe.  We decided to serve ours on top of rice instead of egg noodles and I'm glad we made that choice cause the rice soaked up some of the juices and that was my favorite part!

To read other reviews of this recipe, go HERE.

s'mores cake

For quite some time I wished & wanted for the Chocolate Cakes cookbook.  I finally caved & bought a copy for myself when it went on sale about a month ago.

Tonight we have an activity at church for all the ladies and I'm supposed to bring a favorite snack to share.  Instead of bringing a favorite snack, I decided to try a recipe out of my new cook book for s'mores cake ... s'mores seem to be very popular these days.

The recipe turned out pretty good, but  I wish I would've bought regular size marshmallows instead of the mini marshmallows.  (I should've read the recipe more closely before I went shopping!)  I tried adding extra mini marshmallows, but when all was said & done, I wanted more marshmallow in each bite.  I think I'll also try adding the marshmallows earlier in the cooking process next time so that they get a little more well-done ... I like my marshmallows burnt and chewy!  Oh, I and also subbed bittersweet chocolate for the milk chocolate which made my cakes pretty rich, but milk chocolate is kinda blah to me these days.

I give this recipe 3.5 out of 5 stars but I think I could give it more stars if I play with the marshmallows a bit.  This would be a way fun recipe for a child's birthday party or for a backyard camp out.

To try the recipe, go HERE.

A Passion for Excellence

Here is a great little video clip from the MCO trip to Salt Lake City, UT.  My photos are still all on my camera.  The back of my head can be spotted around 0:38-0:40 ... hot pink shirt behind soloist George Dyer, but I know no one cares about me when George Dyer is in the picture! :)

Cold Melon-Berry Soup: French Fridays with Dorie

We've had a good, but busy week at our house ... movies, swimming, trips to the library, homemade ice cream, more swimming, some review work for school, working on the purchase of the lot we hope to call "ours" soon, pizza party, and lots of other fun summer activities.

I was kinda thankful for an "empty" day on the calendar today.  We are having a somewhat lazy day, but one can't ever be too lazy with 3 little kiddies! :)  After we had a little breakfast this morning, the kids helped me make this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe.  The recipe consisted of pureed cantaloupe, strawberries, a little lime juice, and a smidgen of salt.  I decided to add a handful of pureed strawberries and a 1/2 of a banana, which was also pureed, to my cantaloupe juice for some extra flavors.

For the kid-version, we added a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream to their soup and blended it in with everything else to make a yummy summer treat.

Back in my college days, I used to like to run to Jamba Juice a lot for their smoothies.  Most of their drinks were way too sweet for me, but I did find a favorite ... their cantaloupe drink.  If I remember correctly, they used frozen vanilla yogurt, frozen cantaloupe, apple juice, and some ice to make my favorite smoothie.  This week's recipe reminded me a little bit of a Jumba Juice smoothie & my kids certainly enjoyed their special drinks.

Salmon & Tomato En Papillote: French Fridays with Dorie

This week's recipe for our French Fridays with Dorie group was just devoured by my family for our Friday night dinner.  I was worried that I'd get mixed responses ... even a little worried about what I'd think of it, but we all loved it!  The salmon & tomatoes en papillote (foil pouch) was very quick to assemble and mine cooked in about 12 minutes.  I have to admit that I cheated a little bit too.  Instead of buying a large fillet of salmon, I bought frozen individual-sized fillets from Sam's Club.  My family enjoys tin foil dinners and this was a similar meal.  My 4 yr old Peacock ate 3 kid-sized plate fulls of this dinner and Hubby went back for seconds, too.  Definitely a winner!!

Blackberry Pie: Baked Sunday Mornings

I finally made my blackberry pie for my Baked Sunday Mornings group.  I have to admit that I didn't finish gathering up ingredients until about midnight on Saturday night so there was no way that I would've had it done for Sunday morning and this afternoon was the first time I had a some free time for a project like this.

For some reason I always dread making pies, but once I get going, I always wonder what I was so worried about.  The crust recipe for this pie was great!  The instructions were very clear and easy to follow and it produced a dough that was easy to work with ... I didn't lose my temper with it a single time! :)  My 8 yr old Penguin helped me get the dough all mixed up and into the fridge.  It rolled out perfectly and went right into my dish with no tears or tugging.  My Penguin also helped me mix-up the filling.  Another relatively painless process.

My 3 yr old Turkey woke up from his nap just in time to help me with the cookie cutter part of the pie.  I saw a fellow blogger's pie who had cut-out star shapes for the top of her pie instead of a traditional upper crust.  I loved her beautiful pie and wanted to try to do something similar.  It was simple and I love how it turned out.  I don't normally brush eggs on top of my crust, but it did add a special touch and I love the large, chunky sugar on my stars that the recipe recommended ... they taste good too. :)

After reading the complaints from fellow bloggers about the pie turning out too soupy, I tried doubling the amount of flour in my filling, so I did 2/3 C flour instead of 1/3 C.   The pie was juicy as I expected, but definitely not too soupy.  I wish the bottom crust was a little more crispy, but it wasn't terribly soggy ... I just prefer a crispier crust.  I might try baking the crust a little bit before putting the filling in next time.

All in all, great recipe!!

Go HERE for the recipe.