A Little Nostalgia

While we were in Louisiana last weekend, we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner one night and on the dessert bar they had these sugar coated peanuts that tasted just like these pink peanut patties that we used to get as kids. They are so good! I haven't seen them in ages, I'm sure you can still get them out there somewhere. They're one of mom's favorite candies. They're very similar to a pecan praline, but are a little more chewy. When we got back I started looking for a recipe because I was sure someone out there loved them too and had replicated them. I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl yesterday.

Cooking to Soft Ball, still got 40 more degrees to go. It takes a while and seems like it'll never get there, but it eventually does. When it does get there, and you add the powdered sugar, this stuff gets super thick and gooey and it's so hard to stir but you gotta keep it moving so the sugar crystals form. When your arm is about to burst into flames from the burning, it'll finally start losing gloss and then you know it's time to drop them!

I buttered some cookie cutters and filled those first and then just dropped the rest by spoonful on the parchment. I removed the cookie cutters after it had set enough to keep shape but not completely cool and they slid right out and I had some really cute shaped patties. The preliminary tasting was promising, After they had set undisturbed a few hours I ate one and it was amazing! The texture was so close, maybe not perfectly perfect, but really really close and the taste was nearly spot on. The key is to used RAW peanuts, not roasted ones. It makes a huge flavor and texture difference. I think these will have to go on my yearly Christmas candy list. I'm sure the color of them would have been better if I used red food coloring instead of pink and I didn't add very much, flavor and texture was the important part.

Until We Meet Again

Last weekend we made an unscheduled visit to Louisiana because my grandfather had passed away. I was really shocked because I didn't realize he was in bad health, and really his passing was unexpected. Paw Paw Paul and I were never really close, he wasn't a particularly affectionate grandfather, but I do remember him with great fondness and love. Some of my favorite traits and memories about him:

He was an amazing gardener with so much knowledge
His skills were wide and versatile
He always said, "Plant a fruit tree and you'll never go hungry!"
He loved to talk! And I liked to listen.
His laugh was unique and fun

The service was simple and beautiful and I'm glad I had the chance to attend. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel, that though he is no longer here in mortality, that his spirit lives on and that we will be able to see each other again.

100 Posts and 7 Years Ago

I thought it would be fitting to make my 100th post be about Brandon and my's 7th anniversary! I count my blessings every day, and my fabulous, handsome, wonderful, amazing husband is always at the top of that list!

Happy Anniversary to my Darling!

My Cactus is Blooming!

I bought this little guy when we went camping in Balmorhea. It stayed inside for quite a white because I couldn't figure out where to put it where the kids wouldn't be messing with it all the time. It started to look a little unhappy so I finally put it out in the front flower bed and lo and behold. It started blooming! Pretty!

Houston Pony Meet 2012

The last pony meet I have been to before this one I think was 2006 in Maryland. I went with me dearest MIL and we had a grand 'ol time. Since the kids have come along, I haven't done much in the way of pony collecting. I have been really out of the loop but I caught wind of this meet and decided Zoey was old enough to enjoy it so I could use her as an excuse to go. I didn't even tell her about it until the night before (to bribe her to go to bed). We referred to it as the Pony Party. She was pretty excited. As I expected she was really shy when we got there. I think she was a little confused at the fact that she was the only kid there. As people showed up her eyes got wider and wider as the ponies began to make their appearance. We all talked and laughed, watched Friendship is Magic, ate lots of goodies, colored, and best of all, played games and bought ponies!

The meet from a 3 year old's point of view.

Zoey plays with some of her new ponies she bought (with mom's money, lol). She must have had about 20 new additions to her herd. Most of those being the McDonald's ponies she won in the raffle and blind bag ponies, but she loves them!

Ponies for sale.

One of her Pony Plinko prizes.

Me and Zoey with our favorite new ponies.

Pony Plinko. Our host did an amazing job with this game, it was quite popular! I kinda wanted to buy the game itself!

More people and ponies, just all havin' a good time.

Zoey mesmerized by FiM.

Didnt get to take a photo of the cake before it got attacked!

Rainbow cookies were Zoey's favorite, I'm pretty sure she ate at least five. My favorite were the lemon bars!

Once she won this color with water activity book she was pretty content for quite a while. We left around 2:30 when she started getting restless. She lasted much longer than I expected.

The few things I bought for myself, except the twins I won in the raffle, woohoo! And my absolute favorite purchase, the hand dyed roving! Look at that stuff, isn't it beautiful?!

I was so excited to start spinning after my crash course at the meet that I threw together a makeshift spindle. It's pretty ghetto but it still gets the job done. I'm pretty awful at spinning, but I guess practice makes perfect. I can't wait to get my real spindle in the mail. My arm hurts like crazy today from all the unfamiliar effort of drafting and spinning on a drop spindle.

We had a really great time and hope we can go to another meet in the future. Maybe next time I'll be better versed in the ponies. Either way, pony people are lots of fun to be around!

Spoiled

Sometimes you just gotta give the kids a treat to make it through a shopping trip. For Zoey, she chose some bubbles. For Ian....

Nothin's sweeter than a crown of fresh broccoli.

Dinner from Scratch

I was feeling a little bored about 2:30 this afternoon and decided to make some marinara sauce from scratch using all the tomatoes I had ripening on my counter from the garden. This is quite a lengthy process, the longer you cook it, the better the flavors. Last summer was my first attempt at this, and it turned out ok but not great.

First, blanch fresh ripe tomatoes for 1 minute. Cool in ice water and slip the skins off.

Core and cut out bad or tough spots, cut tomatoes in half or quarters and squeeze out seeds and juice. Crush the meat. This is a pretty messy process.

Yep, all over the floor and myself too. I'm happy this year I can put all the "waste" into my composters to go back into the garden. I love my composters.

Saute some onions, peppers (from the garden), and garlic. Add the tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes at least. Add some fresh herbs like basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme from the garden.

Keep cooking! You can finally see a reduction of liquid. Add salt and pepper and taste and adjust.

Once it has reduced enough to start sticking if you don't watch it, puree in a food processor. I only did about  90% cause I wanted a few little chunks of seasoning for texture. Add some more fresh herbs and cook until you're ready to serve.

Serve with some oven fried eggplant (also from the garden) and fresh bread. Yummy Yum. It still is hard to believe this is the end result of tomatoes from my garden. Lots of work but very rewarding!

The Little Red Rooster

One of Zoey's little friend's mom decided it might be a fun idea to have a bunch of 3-year-olds put on a little play. They went over twice to make their props and rehearse and then the moms all came to watch. Zoey gets pretty shy in front of a crowd, but she was so cute anyway. Zoey is the cat. It's hard to tell from this video but she did say her line once. Ian was sitting in my lap and got pretty restless towards the end. I was told during rehearsal when Zoey was being prompted to say her line "Not I!" she instead responded "But I want to help." hahah. cute.

Memorial Camping

Our neighbors and good friends invited us to go camping with them the Friday before memorial day weekend. I like camping, I always have, but it sure can be miserable when it's so hot outside. I don't remember that ever bothering me as a kid...or maybe my parents were just smart enough to never go camping when it was so hot. We decided to drive up to Lake Livingston state park and camp there. The place was totally booked, but we only planned one night anyway since we all had to be back for church on Sunday, Brandon and I were due to give talks in sacrament meeting.

Ian was well targeted by the bugs, notice the large lump
on his forehead and the Dopey ear.

The kids really seemed to have a good time playing in the woods, finding bugs and sticks and making giant piles of leaves, bark, and sticks to throw into the fire (which we never let them, haha). The adults tried to have some fun but with half of us not feeling too great and kids constantly needing attention, it was difficult to fit in a card game, but we had good company all the same.

On Saturday after breaking down camp we had a picnic lunch at the lake, it was really pretty and nice and breezy. Too bad the kids started melting down before we could rent canoes and spend a little time there. Ian was asleep before we even got back on the highway. Oh well, at only an hour away, we can make plenty more camping trips in the future,

Ian is just oozing with enthusiasm. He had just been woken from a nap.