B K's Quilt

I had the wonderful opportunity of seeing another grandchild baptized. I loved making this quilt with him. He choose his 15 favorite Primary songs all by himself. He had very definite ideas about what he did and did not want on it. I love when people have opinions that they can express. As long as they don't have to have a fit about it. But he is a darling boy and we had a good time designing it. I love him and am so proud of him. Here is the quilt:

He wanted many of the same songs as L. (click here to see L's quilt) so I only made up a few new squares.

I know My Father Lives

As I have Loved You

For some reason he loves the Kona Hawaii temple. :)

B is interested in computers, loves his scriptures, always wants a dog and is very good at sports so that is how I came up with his center square. 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Trifle

I am a nostalgic fool. Almost anything that reminds me of the past, especially of my parents, I feel like I need to save. My mother passed away 12 years ago and now my Dad is suffering from Alzheimer  He still remembers me and my siblings and things from his childhood but very little of anything else. I was going through my old recipes, the ones that are kept either in a shoe box or loose among the pages of your favorite cookbook. I found a slip of paper with my dad's handwriting on it. I knew immediately what it was. One of my favorite dessert recipes. Written on this same piece of paper is the info about my cousins baby. That baby is now 34 years old with two children of her own. Dad had called Aunt Eda to get the recipe for me and found out that her daughter had just had her first baby. So before writing the recipe down he got the baby's important info, i.e. weight, length, name. Just a scrap of paper, but also a scrap of history now. Crazy. But this recipe is crazy good! I did change out the chocolate pudding for pumpkin pudding for fall. You gotta love it.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Trifle

Crust:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Combine flour and sugar. Cut cool butter into flour mixture as you could a pie crust. Stirr in nuts. Pat into a 9 x 13 dripper pan and bake @ 400 ºF for 15 minutes. Crumble crust. Set aside.

Pudding
Part 1:
2 cups milk
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
8 ozs. cream cheese room temp

Combine cornstarch, sugar, salt and spice. Pour milk into a saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat. Whisk in cornstarch mixture. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool. When thoroughly cool beat in cream cheese until smooth.

Part 2:
2 sm. pkgs. instant vanilla pudding
2 cups milk

Whisk together and let sit until thick. Add. . .
6 ozs. cool whip thawed. Fold until combined.

To assemble trifle, cover bottom of dish with some of the crumbled crust. Spoon on some of the pumpkin pudding, then more crust. Spoon on the vanilla part of the pudding, then more crust and repeat with the pumpkin part. top with cool whip and crumbles.

Shortcut: Combine parts 1 & 2 of the pudding and just layer with the crust. Or layer with Cool Whip and crust.

Spoon Bread

Bread, bread, bread. You can never have enough bread. That is what my taste buds say over and over. My body doesn't always appreciate my insatiable appetite for the warm, make-the-house-smell-like-a-million-dollars comfort food. But my Zumba teacher knows that is what really keeps me coming back to class. So I should really say that it's the best of both worlds because I do love Zumba as well.


Here is the latest bread that I tried. It is something I found on Pinterest. It is very similar to my Artisan/bucket bread but it is stickier and you just spoon it into a pan as soon as all ingredients are stirred together. So I call it Spoon Bread.

1 Loaf Recipe

1 3/8 cups warm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 3/4 cups flour

Measure flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside. Measure warm water (not hot and not, not cold), into a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top of water. Add dry ingredients and stir with a large wooden spoon until all are combined. Spray a regular loaf pan with Pam. Spoon dough into pan and tap lightly on counter. Allow dough to double in size rising to just over the top of the pan. Bake at 350º F for 35 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Brush top of bread with butter and try to wait 10 minutes before cutting it.

4 Loaf Recipe

5 1/2 cups warm water
7 teaspoons instant yeast
2 Tablespoons salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
11 cups flour

Same directions as above except divide the dough into 4 loaf pans that have been sprayed with Pam or well greased with Crisco.
 

Warning: Only make 1 or 2 loaves at a time because you will eat it all in one sitting. If you should have any left over it does make terrific toast. :)

Crunchy Pumpkin Parfait

While I was still in the middle of my pumpkin craz this fall, I happened upon this recipe on Pinterest. I wanted to make it as soon as I got home. Well I am also in the mood to use up any leftovers I have so I made it a little different and a lot easier. And everyone in my house loved it. We ate the entire recipe while we sat around the counter deciding if we really loved it or just liked it. Such good times. Here is what I did. First I made some Pumpkin pudding:

Pumpkin pudding:

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 pinch of salt

3 cups cold whole milk

3/4 cup canned  pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Measure cornstarch, sugar, spices and salt in a bowl and stir with a whisk to combine. Measure milk into a sauce pan. Turn heat to medium high. Stir in dry ingredients and whisk until mixture starts to boil and thicken. Add pumpkin and whisk until completely smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Let cool.

Now to assemble the parfait. I didn't have any granola so I found some granola-like cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats. I wanted it to be a little healthier than a normal dessert and since I had some vanilla yogurt that I needed to use up I quickly had my other 2 layers. When the pudding was cool I layered the pudding, then the yogurt, and topped with the cereal and repeated those three layers. So delicious. It was great for a dessert and breakfast the next morning was easy and yummy. I wouldn't suggest that these be made very far in advance as the cereal will go soggy.

Corn Salsa

Nothing like home grown garden tomatoes. I didn't used to say that but I do now. I can remember my grandparents walking out into their gardens, picking tomatoes off the vine and then taking a big bite out of one. As a kid I thought that was so gross. Now I can't eat a hamburger or salad without one. What would be the point of a hamburger or salad without their favorite sidekick! This corn salsa is not something I had as a child but with all those tomatoes needing to be used up it is a creative, delicious and fun dish. You can use any fresh veggies you have in your garden and any spices from your garden or cupboard. You might even like to add fresh fruit even though the corn itself is quite sweet. Right now my favorite spice combination is cumin, lime and cilantro so that is what I used. Have fun making your own combinations but try mine first.

1 1 pound bag frozen petite white corn - thawed

4-5 tomatoes diced in large pieces

2-3 avocados cubed

2 15 oz. cans black beans - drained and rinsed

cilantro

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/3 teaspoon onion salt (or 3 green onions diced)

1/3 teaspoon garlic salt 

2 tablespoons lime juice

Mix all ingredients together and try to let it sit for 30 minutes. If you're like me you won't be able to wait that long. But if you start eating it right away don't add more salt of any kind or it will be too salty in 30 minutes.

Eat with your favorite tortilla chips.

Primary Compassion Quilt

I am LDS and every 6 months our church has a 2 day conference with meetings for the entire world wide church. On Saturday evening the men and young men 12 years old and above have a special meeting. They go to the church and watch it.We have a special meeting for women the week before General conference and it is amazing. But on the night the men have meetings we do something fun. We women affectionately call this 'Ladies Night'. It has always been a fun time for me and my girls. We will go out to dinner and a movie. Go shopping. Sometimes we stay home and watch our favorite 'chick-flick' Anne of Green Gables. Now that my family has grown and we have 7 women and lots of children, we stay home and have a potluck meal and do a craft. With the grandchildren getting older I thought we should have a fun, yet meaningful activity for them (which helps to corral them for a minute, but just a minute.) Six months ago they made quilt squares by painting their hands and pressing them on to pre-cut fabric. I was amazed at how careful and patient they were. I had had images of paint all over my house. Then they turned their hand print into something like butterflies or turkeys or flowers, etc. They and their mothers were so creative. Our plan was to give this quilt to a sick child at Primary Children's Hospital. They signed their names and wrote sweet little 'get-better' wishes to the child. But the squares sat and sat on my counter until I finally moved them into the sewing room.

Between the guilt and needing another activity for the littles to do, I remembered the quilt. I sewed the squares together, added a back and batting. Then all that needed to be done was to tie it. Well, 7-year-olds are not the best knot tiers. They seem to be able to tie everything else in knots but when it is time to tie a real knot it just wasn't happening. I was a Cub Scout leader for years and taught many a little boy to tie square knots. I guess there is a reason that they start when they are 8. But the littles were so darling and careful as they worked. When we were finished and the quilt frames were put away I checked their knots. Most of them were just half knots like when they are tying their shoes. So maybe it was more my instructions than their skill. So I simply retied the stitches and had a fun time looking at all their squares again.

Pumpkin Chocolate Waffles

I am posting this recipe again and with good reason. My son came home from college this weekend. It's always a wonderful treat for me so I wanted to make some treats for him. I made these yummy pumpkin waffles for breakfast because I'm still in my pumpkin craze. 

I thought it would be so special for him. When he came in the kitchen he inhaled deeply so he could get a really large dose of the yummy smell. When I presented him with the waffle he wanted to know where the chocolate chips were. He had made these last week but added chocolate chips to the batter. It shouldn't have surprised me that he would add chocolate chips after all I always had to add chocolate chips to his pumpkin muffins. What did surprised me was that he had actually taken the time to make them at his own apartment.

So the top picture is my waffle with lots of butter and the above picture is his with chocolate chips in the batter and then again on top. We both had Apple Cinnamon syrup. I was surprised that even with the large Ghirardelli Chocolate chips they didn't stick to the waffle iron. It seems like my children are always teaching me new things, even things that I thought I was pretty good at doing. Gotta love them.