Luau and Dinner Rolls

Tonight is Relief Society and it's our ward's annual Mother/Daughter night. Each one is more fun than the last. Last year was a "Night in Paris" and Dori, Trevlyn and Tessa attended with me. Tonight is a luau. Trevlyn and Tessa will be my darling guests. Wouldn't it be fun to have all my gals and grandgals with me!!!! Maybe that's a dream that will come true someday.

I've volunteered to make homemade dinner rolls for tonight's dinner. Here is the recipe I'm using that I got from sweet friend Audra. You may want to try it, recommended, just be prepared for it makes a very large batch! The recipe came straight from Audra with her notes included - I just added (or butter) - you know me ;)

The Spicery’s Rolls - a restaurant in downtown Glendale, Arizona

1 1/2 c. boiling water

1/2 c. margarine (or butter)

1 1/2 t. salt

1 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. additional water (not boiling)

6 oz. evaporated milk (small can)

1/4 c. yeast (that is correct)

9 1/8 cups flour

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over margarine. Add salt and sugar and stir well. When margarine is melted, mix in additional water. Stir in evaporated milk and yeast. Let bubble. Slowly add flour. Turn out on a floured board and knead about 10 minutes. Next, grease a large bowl thoroughly, put the dough in it and turn it over so the surface will be greased. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, punching down twice, about 1 hour. Form into dinner rolls, let rise until doubled. Preheat oven to 375* 20 minutes before baking. Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 36 rolls. (These rolls are HUGE! I made these for preschool, but didn't have time for them to "double in size". They were still good. Very sweet compared to my dinner rolls.)

msk notes: after forming into rolls place in buttered pans, cover with tea towels to rise in warm location.

Happy day, msk

Dutch Oven Cooking

This week I so enjoyed our Relief Society Enrichment night. We were treated with demonstrations on dutch oven cooking and then feasted on the delicious meal. Good friends Kent and Noelene are so good at this and also make it very fun. And yes, Kent, if this is your pose I'll post it.

The wind about blew us away. Here's Noelene putting together the cheesy potatoes with Bob and Cheryl in the background. Hurray for the men that show up for our ladies night to haul tables and chairs outside and do the clean up. We not only appreciate them we know they are smart because they get fed well.

The barbecue area behind church is so perfect for this activity. You can see the mound of briquettes burning and the first 2 of 6 ovens cooking.

Getting my sourdough biscuits made and into 2 ovens. Thankfully Kent did the cooking and I only made them.

Noelene's yummy apple and cherry cobblers being assembled.


Vivian demonstrated outdoor grilling and then served us delicious vegetables, potatoes and banana dessert. Vivian and Noelene have huge reputations as wonderful cooks.

Dinner cooking.

In spite of the wind the great sisters showed up and were not disappointed.

Darrel is always smiling and I don't know how I could have captured him without.

The biscuits were also a hit and there were no leftovers. And yes, I did bring butter for them but forgot my freezer strawberry jam.

The Sandi/Sandy's.

My funny friends and their tongues. Love you Cheryl.

Thanks Cheryl and Robin and Cammacks for all your planning and work. It was such a fun and great night of feasting.

Sewing / Relief Society

I really like this photo of some old, wooden spools of thread I picked up at a garage sale several months ago. I love them. They are such a good memory from my childhood. I still have a couple of wooden spools of green thread I used to sew my Girl Scout badges on my sash.
This week our Relief Society met to sew lap robes for seniors at a care center that don't have much. I toted Mom's little, black Singer to church and was thankful for such a trusty, portable machine. It was such an easy project to do, fun to visit with the sister's while sewing and knowing it will keep chilly knees warm is gratifying. That little machine got some good attention too. It brought back fun memories for others. Good friend and knowledgeable seamstress Virginia helped me patch part of my fabric to make a large enough piece for a second robe. I love that I learn much from my sister's and Relief Society.

Sweeping

As a young, married mother I loved attending the midweek Relief Society meetings. Usually my favorite lessons were the cultural refinement lessons. We learned about the lives/lifestyles of women in other countries. I have never forgotten that in so very many countries usually the women swept and even washed the sidewalks in front of their homes and/or businesses daily. This was mentioned more than once, impressed me and hopefully has kept me motivated to keep my walk clean.

Today was a typical morning for me and after Kirby and I walked and I did a lot of watering I got to cleaning the walks and patio in the front and back. We have trees that seem to drop leaves year round and are always messing up the yard and walks etc. This tender memory of other women and men around the world cleaning their walks flooded in and it was good. I was united in an honorable pursuit.

Now I will admit that most of the time my trusty broom is replaced by my rechargeable hand held blower; I love it. Just my size, fast and easy. I still broom sweep too and will always have my brooms around. Maybe hard times will make it so I can't recharge my blower and I'll be back to strictly brooms. I'm prepared.

And as I've always thought...how nice the world would be if we all just swept our own walks. Happy, clean day. 3, Mom

My Week...So Far

I've been blessed to be part of a most wonderful group of sisters, ladies from church that were putting on a big Mother Daughter Enrichment Night - 3rd annual - with a princess theme. I've been rounding up costumes and tiaras. We even have young gals at church excited to dress up as the princesses and they have waistlines!!! Small ones. The little girls loved the princesses. We gathered Tuesday morning to set up tables and chairs for 75 (we should have set up for 80-85 such a good attendance), decorate and fix a light dinner that was mainly finger foods. Such cute sandwiches cut into hearts, diamonds, flowers and angels shapes. Fruit kabob assembly was sweet fun. Many friends made mini pink cupcakes, assorted cookies and brownie tarts and I made the requested broccoli salad. We mistakenly thought there would be several who didn't like such a salad and I was told to only make enough to serve 50. Mistake again, we ran out. For those of you who asked, the broccoli salad recipe is at Knight's In The Kitchen - just another testament that if you put enough bacon into anything, people will love it. After frying 2 1/2 pounds of bacon the house smelled delightful but the washing and breaking into small florets 9 heads of broccoli put me horizontal for a couple of hours. It was a great evening and I was thrilled that Trevlyn and Tessa joined me.

Each little girls was greeted and given her own tiara. The centerpieces on the tables were vases filled with star topped wands for each little princess. And at each place setting was a Dis.ney princess spiral notebook that the little princesses got the big princesses to autograph.


We love Snow White.
and Ariel - who also blogs at The Miller Family and so fun to read.
and Cinderella
and Belle! I love having Princess Tessa on my lap.

Many girls and several mom's also came as princesses. Adorable Becca with daughters. You can read her blog Daily Grapefruit , I do regularly and love it.

Another darling friend, also a Becca, with cute daughter. I think they are into the Macaraina (spelling?) dance here. I also regularly read her fun blog Becca and Fam.

This could be the hokey pokey. It was fun to watch. We were too shy to dance. That's okay, "she" came.

This is for you Noelene. This is just a little compared to all the help you have so wonderfully and generously given to my kiddos and me. Noelene and the MOB (mother's of brides) cater our wedding receptions. We give of our love, service and abilities and consider it a privilege. I couldn't be more grateful. I spent today making about 140ish dinner rolls for her sons wedding open house tomorrow. I should also give credit to her husband Kent who works right along side her expertly. Good friend Audra is also making rolls and we used her recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog Little Moments Like This. I recommend it...the recipe and her blog!

I know you noticed the missing rolls in the center of the pan but really, I had to test for doneness. Don't you????? And of course you test with a very little pat of butter also.

I'll show up at the C's house early tomorrow to finish food prep, serve and stay to the very end until all is cleaned up. That's just what friends do.

Wrinkle Weekend

There was just so much I was smiling at/over this weekend that I'm sure my wrinkles have increased. I thoroughly enjoyed my activities and have a very grateful heart and that feels good.

I was blessed to be in the Mesa Temple to see dears Myrna and James Z. and their recently adopted 5 children sealed to them for eternity. Wow, a forever family. What a privilege to witness such a sacred and awesome event. I'm so happy for them...and still smiling.

I was thrilled and motivated by my attendance at the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was actually held on Saturday in SLC, Utah but our stake taped it and then rebroadcast it on Sunday for our attendance-I think hoping that more sisters will come and participate on a Sunday evening. There were many multi generational families of woman at my stake center. I was a bit envious and wished my girls, sisters and nieces were living close by and we too could attend arm-in-arm but I reminded myself that no matter where we were in attendance, we were together and the tears flowed again and the smile wrinkles were back. I can't tell you how much I love this woman's organization in our church. To be part of something that teaches, inspires and gives me tremendous opportunities for growth, development, education, spirituality and service is unparalleled. I was fortunate to know "someone" who was very kind and gave me a copy of the broadcast so let me know if you want to borrow it...yes, I know you can find it on the internet and eventually get a copy of the talks but I do love watching it on the tellie. There were times during the talks and musical numbers that I cried, smiled (more of the good wrinkles) and though I didn't I wanted to stand up and cheer, saying something like "I get it" or "Yes!". There is such wonderful diversity in the Relief Society Presidency pictured above.

Julie Beck- (middle) President: As a child she learned to speak Portuguese when she lived in Brazil with her parents and 10 brothers and sisters while her father served as mission president.

Silvia H. Allred (left, 1st Counselor) is a native of El Salvador and mother of 8 children.

Barbara Thompson (right, 2nd Counselor), an unmarried sister who most recently has been working as the executive director of an international assessment center for abused and neglected children.

I've posted fuller bios at Butte-iful Sisters if you want more interesting facts about these great gals.

I also got to help provide refreshments for the evening and put together a few recipes to create a coconut cookie. At the risk of sounding boastful, and I don't want to be, you just might want to get the recipe off Knight's In The Kitchen and make these. Soooo good.

I smiled when I caught a young lizard in the family room and transplanted it outside under the bushes. I love my lizards and am always glad when they don't drop their tails, as they can do to escape harm, when I catch them. It's creepy to see a dropped tail wiggling by itself.

I smiled as I went through some of my summer Oregon pictures and chose this one as a backdrop for my computer screen. I took the photo at the Portland Oregon Temple. It's fabulous full size. It really makes me smile.

I'm wishing you all find many smilables in your day!!

Laboring

I hope you have a "day off"!!! SL and I are laboring to ready the yard, pool, house and grill for a young-single-adult swim and barbecue here today. These events always turn out so well and the young adults are so impressive that it is a pleasure to host them.

I'm also very connected to the news reports on hurricane Gustav that is hitting the Gulf states this morning. It looks not as bad as potentially reported downgrading to a cat 3. I hope we are all remembering the people in this area in our prayers.

Today is also a sort and sift day pertaining to my Relief Society notebook as I was released from my calling yesterday after almost 3 years. Yesterday was very emotional and teary and love filled. Sandi V. told me to expect that but that Monday would be better. She's right, as usual. I must give a shout out to Cheryl W., Sandi V. and Claudia M. who completed the presidency currently for being most awesome. Our love and friendship will never end. Kimberly M. and Kathy S. (aka kms) were previously in that presidency who also have my undying love, respect and friendship. What huge blessings await us as we give service to our Savior and His Kingdom. This has been a privilege!I'm also posting a wonderful poem Jody gave me at Butte-iful Sisters. I hope you check it out.