Baked Oatmeal

I absolutely love breakfast. I am always on the hunt for new recipes to try for breakfast-I get bored pretty fast of the same old same old everyday breakfasts. I found this recipe on my kitchen cafe's blog and I knew I had to try it. It is a spin on regular old oatmeal. Or better yet it is oatmeal on yummy steroids. It makes a ton so I cut the recipe in half. I have also tried it by cutting the oil in half and adding half applesauce to cut down on the fat and I couldn't tell any difference in the taste. You could probably cut it even more fat by using fat free egg substitute (I rarely have that on hand so I haven't tried it yet). The second time I made it I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon and cut up an apple and it was delicious. You an eat it plain or with milk or put berries on top or do both. It is even good the next day. Give it a try and you'll find that it is a great way to start your day.

Baked Oatmeal

(mykitchencafe.blogspot.com)

6 cups oatmeal
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups milk
4 beaten eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 9X13-inch baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve warm with milk....or not.

Home Progress

We went out to Lincoln to check on our house a couple of days ago. It looks great. They've framed out the whole thing and even hung the front and back doors. It is so exciting to see the progress they've made. The next couple of weeks they are going to be working on the electrical and plumbing. We have a "dry wall walk through" on August 3rd and they will start dry walling after that appointment. I can hardly wait.

Garage and side of house.

Front door, den behind Dan and dinning room in front.

Kitchen. The framing in the middle is an island.

Front of house. Dan and Marston are waving from the master bedroom window.

Day at Tahoe.

Marston knee walking.

Daniel and Marston in the icy water.

The path at Tallac.

Sleepy baby. It's hard work ridin' in this thing.

SAND!!!!!!

Yummy chocolate ice cream cone!

Yesterday we spent the day up in Lake Tahoe. It was a wonderful day. We rode our bikes to Tallac and walked around the old houses there. I love those houses. It's fun to imagine what it would be like to vacation at Tahoe in the 1930s. We then found a little sandwich shop and ate sandwiches on the lawn while Marston took a nap in his new bike trailer. We hopped back on our bikes and rode to a beach and played in the sand and water. It was a great day.

Mama...no...Dada

Marston has his own sense of humor. I think he thinks he is really funny. Okay, I think so too.

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July. We ate a pancake breakfast, watched a flag raising, swam, ate watermelon, went to the Folsom rodeo and watched fireworks. Everything a 4th of July should have.

Chocolate Chip Cookies-YUMMY

Okay-I may be considered a cookie snob. I love cookies. But they have to be of a certain caliber for me to eat them. I found this recipe on a blog I read called my kitchen cafe (mykitchencafe.blogspot.com) and I just love these delightful morsels. I have been looking for a good, no, great, chocolate chip cookie recipe for a very long time now and I think my search is finally over. These a thick and chewy and soft, everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. The best part is you can freeze them for up to a month and they are just as good as the day you made the dough. I made this batch a couple of days ago and only baked a few. I used my handy dandy cookie scoop and froze cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet for a couple of hours, then I just threw the dough balls into a freezer bag and put it back in the freezer. Today I baked a couple more cookies and they turned out great. I highly recommend this recipe.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Cook's Illustrated
Makes about 30 cookies

2 1/8 c bleached all-purpose flour (about 10.5 oz)
1/2 t table salt
1/2 t baking soda
12 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 c brown sugar (7 oz)
1/2 c sugar (3.5 oz)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 t vanilla
1-2 c chocolate chips

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions (I just left the oven racks where they were). Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

Form dough into balls and place on parchment or silpat-lined cookie sheets. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)

Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking (I just did 1 cookie sheet at a time), until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes. Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time. Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Lance's Funeral

Heavenly Father loves ALL of us. He has a plan for ALL of us. There have been many questions asked in the past week or so and it all comes back to the simple fact the He loves all of his children and wants us to be happy. Why did Lance have to pass away and leave Beth before they were sealed for eternity, I do not know. But I do know that Heavenly Father loves both Beth and Lance and wants them to be happy.

The morning of the funeral, I woke up to a cool breeze and birds chirping. The sun was shining and it was going to be a beautiful cool Idaho summer day. They held another viewing about an hour before the services were to start. We got there at about 10:30 and there was still a line out the door for people wanting to say their last good byes to Lance. It started a bit late due to the amount of people who came. The funeral was beautiful. Lance was an incredible man. The kind of man to give his candy to his sisters at halloween and get his eagle scoot award at the age of 13. The kind of man that would do anything for his family and for Beth. He was an example to everyone he met. Beth was brave enough to get up (not originally on the program) with his sisters to talk about a few memories they have of him. As soon as she started talking our whole family started crying, even my brothers. It's hard to see our littlest sister hurt and not be able to fix it. But it was so sweet. She spoke about how he had a real hard time keeping secrets and she could get anything out of him. She also talked about how much she loves him and will miss him. The services were very sad but also very inspiring. It makes me want to be a better daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend. It makes me want to be more giving, kind and patient. It makes me want to be a better member and missionary. I think Lance has left an impression on all who were there and for that I am grateful.

Remmy say "cheese"!

Marston and Remmy are only 1 month apart. This last trip was so much fun to watch the two play together. It was amazing to see how much they loved each other even at this young age. They would follow each other around and give each other hugs. I absolutely loved it! This is a little video of them playing on Bethy's bed. Remmy says "cheese" every time someone pulls out a camera.