My new blog - Jeni's Recipe Box

I have had so much fun finding and trying new recipes I thought I would start another blog showcasing these recipes. I don't know how big it will be but I wanted a place to post links and share some of my favorite yummy recipes. I don't really need another project or to-do list right now. What I really need is another 24 hours in my day! But I have found so many great recipes that I don't want to crowd out my family from my family blog.

So here it is, my new blog,
Jeni's Recipe Box.

I hope you will stop by and check it out when you are looking
for something yummy to feed your family!

Menu Plan Woes....

I failed at my meal planning this week! And boy have I been lost without my menu plan! I have my menu calendar filled out, but I didn't post it and so I haven't even looked at it, feeling guilty! Big mistake. It is the act of putting it on the blog and posting it to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday that helps me stick to it and remember to follow it. It truly makes dinner time easier! I enjoy making dinner when I have a plan. I have enjoyed finding and trying new recipes.

So, during my surfing tonight I came across a great, easy recipe at Solomon Family Delights. I can't wait to try it and I think the family will love it. I will have to double or triple the batch, I just know it! Check it out!

Pizza Pull-aparts

This is a fun site. You will have to check out her personal site and her photography blog. She does some great photography!

Fair Food & Music

Tonight my mother and I went to the Western Idaho Fair. It was the busiest I have ever seen the fair and I think it was all becuase of this group, Chicago! The lines to get into the parking lot had traffic backed up both directions down Chinden. Then to buy your tickets, the lines were almost out to the road, a 45 minute wait, easily! We lucked out and hopped on to the free shuttle that took us around to the backside of the fair, the Livestock entrance, and we were inside in short order! Of course we had to indulge in some of the oh so nutritious fair food! I have a list that I have to have each year and then life is good again! I must have a Pronto Pup(corn dog), roasted corn on the cob, sliced caramel apple with the warm caramel poured over the slices and sprinkled with nuts.

With food in hand we went to find seats for the show! People had arrived at 6pm to get seats and we were trying to get seats at 7pm! Ha! But my mother persevered and found us seats. We had to sit separately, but only by 2 people and an aisle. The concert was fun. It was great to hear all the old songs by Chicago! One of my favorite albums in high school was Chicago 17. I think I need to get that album from iTunes for my iPod!

My Summer Favorites.....

Some of my summer 2008 favorites are....

My Wave Petunias by my front door....

My tomato patch....
My children sitting peacefully together watching a show....

Menu Plan Monday - August 18th

Monday - Spagetti Bread
Tuesday - Chili& Rice
Wednesday - Roasted Chicken & veggies
Thursday - Shepherd's Pie
Friday - General Tso's Chicken - Chef Steve
Saturday - Porcupine Meatballs
Sunday - Spud Special Soup & Bread Bowls

Our new addition, although not a new occurance in our home, is adding a night for Chef Steve to cook on the weekly menu. He is an awesome cook and enjoys making the Asian faire. Plus, that is a night I don't have to cook. I will be sure he has the groceries he needs and it is all his! I have chosen Friday as his day and therefore that will be our Asian night. Yum!

What year do you belong in?

I just got this link from another blog friend, Angie! Thanks Angie, this is fun!

You Belong in 1950

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Carson chills....

The other night I was in the office at my computer and I hear music coming from the boys' room. The lights are off in their room and they are in bed. Carson had his sister's CD boom box on his bed playing a Hillary Weeks CD, Katie's all-time favorite.

I guess he wasn't really asleep....
I'm busted again capturing blog-able photos!

Emily loves....

Emily loves.... her new,bigger than life, bath-duck. If you squeeze it's bill it will quack.

Emily loves....

Katie and her goofy acts making her laugh.

Emily loves......plums from Grandpa & Grandma Murphy's tree. She was actually able to eat some of the plum with her new bottom teeth! She spent over an hour on her first plum that she hijacked from Katie.

Funny shots...

Steve has this long arm, magnifying light on his desk in the office. He will often use this in removing slivers from the children's feet and hands. He will also use it in his electronics projects that are very small. He also likes to play with Emily and put his face on the magnifying side so Emily sees Steve in ginormous size. The other night Steve and Katie were also trying to show that their eyes are really the same color. I love these shots!

Great deals at a great store!

Have you been to this store? It is my new favorite store! The prices are amazing! EVERYTHING in the store is $9.98. I just bought my girls down jackets for yes, $9.98! And they are machine washable too! You can find clothing for the entire family from the smallest/youngest to the biggest/oldest! They have summer, beach wear to business attire. Even the teenagers can find their stuff too, the store is filled with the teenagers shopping! They have school uniforms and back packs too! The store is along the lines of Old Navy. Sarah Jessica Parker has a clothing line exclusively at this store. I recently bought a pair shoes from her shoe line and they are cute and comfortable too! I just bought cute tennis shoes for Kristina, $9.98! Love it! I am all about finding a good deal! This store is at the Karcher Mall in Nampa. It is an easy stop off of the freeway now with the new exit 33A.

Menu Plan Monday - August 11th

I didn't get a menu plan posted last week but I did have one in my planner. As I come across recipes or menu ideas I fill in my monthly calendar and so I have menus done a few weeks ahead of time. And as weeks get crazy some nights change when we eat over at my sister's house or somewhere else.

Monday - Mom's cooking at my sister's house
Tuesday - Rolled Lasagne
Wednesday - Crockpot Thai Chicken (I keep rolling this over, I have yet to make it)
Thursday - Spagetti Bread - Video Recipe Box (I just use my own bread recipe)
Friday - Panang Curry - Chef Steve
Saturday - 5 min Southwest Layered Salad
Sunday - Hawaiian Haystacks

Words that every mother loves to hear....

"Mom, can I help my brother?"

My next book...

It is hard to move on from the Twilight series that is so fresh in my mind. But life must go on! So on to the next book, I feel lost without one or two with a bookmark in them. My sister gave this one to me for my birthday. This book is set during the Civil War period and is based on a true story. This book has a great website with all kinds of fun stuff.

Another great book...

Steve got this book for me for my birthday. It sat on my bedside table for a few months as I read through the pile of books. I don't know why I waited so long. I started reading it out loud to Steve while we drove to Seattle for the 4th of July. I had a hard time reading because I would get choked up. The inside cover it says:

My name will mean nothing to you, but my story is a retelling of the greatest story ever told and should mean everything to everyone. If you interpret my words as fiction and fiction only, you will miss out on truths that are both historical and spiritual. Search the scriptures. There you will find evidence of my existence recorded in ancient sacred writ, overlooked for millennia. My story comes forth now because now is the promised day when satanic doubt spreads like black ink, threatening to blot out His very name, to reduce Him to nothing more than a teacher, to erase the eternal truths He taught and lived. That cannot happen. Jesus was who He said He was. I know because I was there in the shadows of His holy footsteps. His miracles were real. I know because I am one of those miracles.

You can read the first chapter here on the Deseret Book website. I absolutely loved this book. This is one I will read again. This author does an awesome job of telling what we know from the scriptures of the Savior's life and filling in the gaps with a few fictional characters that are true to the times and customs. It really brought this time period to life for me and made me think and feel more of what the Savior's life means to me.

Yum....

Last Saturday I tried another great recipe, Philly Cheesesteaks, from Sara & Kate's cooking blog, Our Best Bites . They were awesome! Steve likes spicy so I stepped it up a notch into the spicy category by using cheddar jalapeno rolls from Walmart! Highly recommended! I bought enough meat and rolls for 4 sandwiches, two for now and two for later. The kids love corn dogs so that's what they got! Everyone was happy.

I also tried the Lime-Cilantro with Pineapple Rice recipe they have and it too was so good! The kids were all drooling from the smell as I was preparing the rice. They have not had much fresh cilantro and so they were a little picky about that, but loved the pineapple. We will make this again, the cilantro will grow on them with more exposure! (sounds like a disease)

Breaking Dawn...

I went out on Saturday morning to find the last installment in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. I went to Walmart figuring they should have plenty, wrong! They were sold out within minutes after the midnight release the night before. So I called down to Hastings and they had 18 copies out of 200 from the midnight release party they had. I was so worried I was going to have to chase around town trying to find one. I was so glad to get my copy and to start reading. I was just going to read one chapter Saturday morning and 150 pages later I came up for air. Just couldn't stop. I would have read non-stop but I am a mother with 6 kids that need me no matter how good the book is. I finally finished on Wednesday morning. I would try to hide away but they keep finding me (in the bathroom)!

I loved the book! I read the first three books the first few weeks after Emily was born. The story just sticks with me after I read. I have to remind myself that these people are not real, just fictional characters. I love reading because it all becomes so real to me, like I could drive somewhere and see these people.

I hope the movie won't be disappointing. They have chosen exactly who I have seen in my head. Not necessarily the specific actors, just what they looked like in my head anyway. I can't wait until December.

I rarely read books a second time. The stories really stick with me and so it bores me to read them a second time. However, this series I just might!

Uh oh.....get the licorice!

Emily is on the move now. She squirms to get down and play with her toys and she can do the army crawl at lightening speed! Especially when she sees something that she wants! Well the licorce bucket was on the floor at my sisters house and Emily saw this as prime opportunity for her to score a treat! She threw one piece down and helped herself to a new one only once. We decided to put a bib on her and let her enjoy!

Grease Monkey

Steve has done a few repairs to my van recently and he needed some extra help. Katie was willing and in the right place when Steve needed some small hands to help under the van. She slid right under the car and was a great help to Steve. Of course I had to run and get my camera! Can't lose any photo opportunity! She's so cute!

The Twin Falls Temple - Part II

Steve had to work, so he is absent from our photos! But not our hearts! I sent him photos instantly from my cell phone. I wish I would have had Steve's camera too, my little digital just can't do it all justice! I would have loved to get the view looking north from the Temple, it is beautiful. This is just a beautiful Temple, as all Temples are.

Twin Falls Temple

Yesterday we packed up the kids and headed to Twin Falls to attend the open house for the new Temple. We had all been sick over the weekend and I wasn't sure that we were going to go until the last minute. It was quite the struggle to get everyone in church clothes, gather kids from their friends and be sure I was presentable too. My sister got lunches ready, we loaded up two cars and away we went. It was a beautiful day for the drive and the visit.

When you get there you wait in the chapel until it is your time for the tour and they do a short video presentation in another room on the history of Temples and the history of the Twin Falls area. Then you proceed to the Temple. This Temple is just beautiful! There is so much natural light that feeds into the Celestial room through the stained glass windows,it is breathtaking! They used the Syringa, the state flower, as a motif in the glass and other designs around the Temple. The fountain on the west side is a double fountain representing Twin Falls. The artwork in the ordinance rooms reflects the local geography as well. I am glad we took the kids to see this new Temple. It is just beautiful. They have all been inside either the Boise and/or the Seattle Temples when they were sealed to us. But they were all so young they don't really remember anything but what they have seen in their scrapbooks. I am hoping that the good feelings they felt yesterday will stick with them and help them want to return.