Good and Faithful Servant

Jared's Home!!!!
Those of us that were able, went to the airport today for Elder Boren's return. 

He's still got that classic Jared smile

We had to wait for a couple of hours until Darvil, Teresa and Jason's flight came in.

Here they are.

Then we went to Shaleice and Dustin's for some food.

Shaleice and Breanna put together a cute table with good food and cute candy!

The four Boren kids (and one husband) are together again!

And check out this cute gallery wall Shaleice and Dustin made. Their house is so cute.  So newlywed.  She's a great decorator to be so young.  I'm jealous.

We're all happy to have our Jared back.  Darvil and Teresa and Jason had a great time in Chili.  We're looking forward to his report in a couple of weeks.

UPDATE

A few weeks ago, I posted about the beautiful orioles that occasionally visit our back yard.  I wanted to make sure they stick around, so I googled them and found they love grape jelly and also the sugar water, like the hummingbirds drink.  I found out there are special feeders for them, so I ordered one from Amazon.  It is endorsed by the Audobaun Society.  We hung it in the tree in the back, after filling it with sugar water, and the special places that hold the grape jelly.  Well, now the birds visit several times a day, the male and the female.  Yesterday, when the female visited, she brought her kids with her.  Little birds that are shaped and make sounds just like their parents.  They are small, but cute.  I am SO proud.

Cool and Refreshing

This recipe is easy, quick and adaptable to whatever you have on hand.  It's sure to cool you off on a hot afternoon!  Just fill your blender about 3/4 full of ice.  Put about 3/4-1 cup of any juice or liquid you want, add sugar if needed, and blend for about a minute until it's the consistency of an icee.  If it won't blend well just add more juice or a little water.  We've made them with fresh lemon juice and about 1/2 c. sugar for a frozen lemonade - so yummy. Lime juice with a few maraschino cherries was a cherry lime delight.  Yesterday we tried a can of pineapple with juice, about 1/2 can of coconut milk and some sugar for a pina colada that everyone loved.  I think next we'll try lime juice with a little sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar, and maybe a little vanilla?  Doesn't that sound yummy?  Try it out and see what kind is your favorite!

A Yummy recipe

Bev, thanks for posting your recipes. Yes I have thought I'd like to have rolls with my dinner but thought it was too late.  I'm trying that roll recipe!  I think we should spend the rest of June submitting recipes to share.
 I pin alot of recipes, but do I ever go back to them and make them? NO.  But when I saw the pictures of myself on my San Diego trip and saw the fat face and rolls on my neck looking back at me, I said " What the heck? What happened to you?"  So I decided to try cutting my calories and excercising regularly for the first time in my life.  I'd like to lose about ten pounds.  I've been doing it for a few days now and it's not too bad.  I'm really not as hungry or craving fattening things like I thought I'd be.  So when I saw this recipe on my board I thought I'd try it.   Someone figured out that it's about 130 calories per serving without the tortillas or fixings.  I put mine in a whole wheat tortilla.   It made my house smell really good all day, everyone commented on how good it smelled and kept taking peeks at it.  It was quite tasty and made good leftovers the next day.  You could double it if you wanted to make more.  It's quite juicy, so you could cut back on the liquid a little.  Give it a try:

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 sweet peppers, sliced
1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs
½ cup chicken broth
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cumin
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
Squirt of lime juice
Tortillas
Fajita fixings

Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or on High for 4-6 hours). When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on tortillas with your choice of fixings.

Last night for dinner, Phillip grilled us some hamburger patties and I topped them with that black bean salsa recipe I posted a few weeks ago.  It was quite delish.  You don't even miss the buns and mayonnaise.

Go forth and cook, grill, slow cook or bake and then post about it!

 

 

 

Recipes for you to try

Ok so I guess if anyone's going to post on this blog it'll have to be me!  I thought I'd tell you about a few recipes I've used lately.  Yummy ones!  The first one is for a very good, quick, and easy roll recipe.  What makes this recipe different than any other roll recipe is that it is quick and makes a small batch.  Have you ever wished you would have thought ahead and made a batch of rolls to go with your dinner you're having that night?  But now it's 4:30 in the afternoon, so it's just too late, right?  NO!  These rolls are done in 1 hour, start to finish.  And it only makes about 12-14 rolls, so it's perfect for one meal, with no leftovers to tempt you the next day!  Here's what you do:

Mix 3/4 warm water, 1/4 c. sugar, 1/4 c. oil, and 1 1/2 T. (2 packets) yeast and let it set for 15 minutes.  Then add one egg, 3/4 tsp. salt and 2 1/2 c. flour.  Knead for 6 minutes.  Shape into rolls, place in a greased pan, and place the pan in a cold oven.  Turn your oven on to 375 degrees and set your timer for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush the tops with butter.  (I found that the tops got a little dark by about 18 min, and through my glass pan I could see that the bottoms weren't quite done, so I covered the pan with foil and let them bake another few minutes.  Next time I will put the rack lower in the oven or cover the top with foil once they look golden.  But the rolls were light and delicious!)

The next recipe is one I made for Rob for Father's Day.  He looooves Key Lime Pie.  He orders it in restaurants when he can, and I've made a frozen version, which was really good, but I've never made just a real key lime pie.  So this recipe is a combination of a few different ones I found online, and I have to say it was quite delicious.  Rob said it was the best he's ever had, but then again he might be a little biased.  You could either use a store-bought graham cracker crust, or make your own like I did by mixing 1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs with a little less than 1/2 c. sugar and 5 T. melted butter.  Pat the mixture into a greased 9-inch pie pan.  Bake it at 350 for about 15 minutes or until it just starts to look golden. Remove from oven and set aside.  Next, zest about 10-15 limes.  The zest makes it extra good.  Then juice the limes.  You need 1 c. of lime juice and about one tablespoon zest.  Next, mix 2 cans sweetened condensed milk with 2 eggs, the cup of lime juice and 2 tsp. of the zest.  Pour mixture into the crust and place back in the oven for 15 minutes or until it just starts to look set in the center.  Allow to cool, then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.  Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with the remaining lime zest and/or sliced limes.  Pretty and delicious!

Who else has a yummy recipe?  Becky?  Dad?  Mom?  Darvil?  Shaleice?  Anyone?  Anyone?

Dow Update

For those of you who remember how bad I hated my dishwasher last year, you'll remember that I finally resorted to hand washing my dishes and was considering pulling it out and buying a new one.  I thought for sure we had the worst dishwasher there was.  Nothing I tried seemed to work to make my dishes come out clean.  Or if the dishes were clean, the silverware hardly ever was, or the glasses would be spotty.  Well, I'm happy to report that I now LOVE my dishwasher.  No, we didn't get a new one.  I just changed a few simple things.  Here is the formula:  Fill your soap dispenser as far as it will go.  Add more soap to the inside of the door, almost as much as is in your dispenser.  Then add about a tablespoon of Lemi-Shine to your pile of soap.  Then fill your rinse agent dispenser with rinse agent every time.  I used to only fill it when it indicated it was low.  I have done this formula for about 3 months now and my dishes, glasses and silverware are sparkling and beautiful every time.

Rob and I are about half way through watching the mini-series "Hatfields and McCoys" on the History Channel on the computer.  It's got Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton.  I don't know how much of it is true and how much is Hollywood, but it's amazing how prideful and unforgiving those people were.  Reminds me a lot of the Nephites and Lamanites.  The show is very well done, so much so that I forget Kevin and Bill don't really talk with southern accents and have beards!

Last night we hosted a farewell party for a family moving to Texas.  About 50 people were here.  I made some of the food, but the main coarse was GOAT.  Yes, you read that right, goat.  Remember the goat Colby raised for the 4-H fair show in April?  Well, we ate it yesterday.  He and his buddy Wyatt roasted it in a big barrel roaster.  Why, you ask?  I'm not sure.  I guess because if you're done needing a goat to show in a fair and you don't want to keep feeding it and taking care of it, you have it slaughtered and you eat it, that's why.  What did it taste like?  A cross between beef and lamb, I'd say.  It was good.  We also had pork, for those who were freaked out by the goat.  And pasta salad, and homemade rolls, and watermelon, and warm garlic artichoke dip.  And chocolate cupcakes and brownies and rice crispy treats.  So no one went hungry if they were a little goat skiddish.

Brady is working as a wildland firefighter now.  He and his friend Tanner.  They just got back Saturday from being gone for a week to Colorado on the fire they had there.  They made some very nice money, were fed well and even had showers each day, but it was hard work.  They came home with blisters, sore achy muscles, and some sunburn.  They had to get up at 5 and went to bed at 10 each day.  The only time they sat down was during their 45 minute meal breaks.  Other than that it was lots of hiking and climbing and digging and chain sawing and carrying heavy equipment up and down hillsides and mountains.  They are happy to be home, but could be called out on a moment's notice to another wildfire anywhere in the country.  They have to have their "red bag" packed with clothing and essentials for as long as 14 days, the longest they could be sent at one time.  I have new appreciation for all those people who work so hard to put out all those fires that burn every summer.  They leave their families, work hard and are put in harm's way just because of sometimes careless people who start fires.  Thank a firefighter today!

I'm working for Rob's receptionist Jennie this week, so I'll be gone everyday all day this week, I'm glad I don't do that all the time...I guess it'll be ramen noodles for dinner this week!

WHAT'S IN YOUR BACKYARD?

I first saw one this kind of bird when 3 of them flew into a window in our room in the back yard.  Two were dead instantly, but one was stunned and lifeless.  I put him in one of my bird cages, and brought him in the house.  After awhile, he revived and was ready to go back outside.  That was several years ago, and since then they come back to visit every year.  I had no idea what kind they are, but found out they are Hooded Orioles.  They migrate from Mexico - where they spend the winter - and after the summer- they go back to Mexico.  This year, we have seen a few.  They like nectar, but have a hard time drinking out of the hummingbird feeders, since the holes are too small.  So, they don't stick around for very long.  I wanted to find out what we could do to make them stay and be happier in our yard.  I googled for information, and found special feeders are made for them, and these birds also like oranges cut in half that are secured to something---and they love grape jelly.  So, we're going to try these things, and maybe they will stick around long enough to even make a nest close by?????? The males are the bright yellow color and the females are paler and not as showy.  Go figure. 

So-----have you seen them in your yard?