It's Fish Friday!

Did you know that Village Inn has unlimited fish and chips on Friday nights? Well, ours does anyway.

It's one of Bruce's favorites, so at least one Friday a month you can find us down the street at VI. Eating fish.

P.S. iPhones are great for spontaneous pictures! But you probably already knew that...

Oreo Rice Krispy Treats

You can't beat a good Rice Krispy Treat, right? Well, you can make it even more yummy if you add chocolate and Oreos! These are so good...

Oreo Rice Krispy Treats- 9x13 pan
3 Tbsp butter
6 cups marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups cocoa krispies
1 cup crushed oreos

Pour the rice krispies and oreos in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat until melted. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and add the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are mostly all melted (this will take a few minutes--low and slow is key for perfect texture). Add in the vanilla and black food coloring (keep adding until you get the color you want) and finish melting.

Once fully melted, take them off heat and pour over the rice krispies. Stir to combine. Dump everything into a 9x13 pan. Allow them to cool about 20 minutes. Enjoy!
 

I got this recipe from this site. This lady is obsessed with Rice Krispy treats and has recipes for just about any flavor combination. Interesting.

Moonrise

Last night, after I had jumped out of the shower after washing off the horsey smell of riding, I happened to look out the window to see the moon about to rise over the mountains to the east of our house.  I ran downstairs and set up my tripod and camera outside on the patio. I missed the moon actually coming over the peaks, but this was still a nice sight:

A Nervous Nelly

Last Saturday, Snoopy and I rode in a clinic at the barn. He was a very good boy and I was a Nervous Nelly because my trainer decided I needed to put my big girl pants on and jump bigger jumps. (Breathe, Barbara, breathe).

I bribed one of the girls at the barn to take a picture afterwards.

Snoopy is cute, don't you think? BTW, I have a new phone (!) and I'm sure you'll be seeing more phone pictures in the future.

And yes, my jacket says Shannon on it.

Butterfinger Popcorn

Want to see a bunch of teenage girls inhale a bowl of treats in record time? Then make this Butterfinger Popcorn and take it to a Young Women's meeting. This is remarkably tasty stuff!

Butterfinger Popcorn
 6 cups popped popcorn
10-15 Fun Size Butterfinger Candy Bars
1/4 cup butter
4 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:
Pour popcorn into a large mixing bowl.  Coarsely chop Butterfingers into small pieces and fold into popcorn.  Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  When butter is melted, add mini marshmallows and stir until constantly until smooth.  Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and candy bars.  Gently mix until popcorn is evenly coated and candy bars slightly melt.  Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Darn Those Bad Guys

I, along with 110 million of my closest friends, shopped at Target during the 2 weeks after Black Friday. Were you among the ranks?

I've been watching my bank account, looking for "unusual activity." Nope, nothing happening there. Then Target announced that the bad guys might have more of my information than they had previously thought. Time to order a new debit card. Wells Fargo was very accommodating, since they'd been replacing cards hand-over-fist for a few weeks now. They even had instant cards on hand that could be used right away. I am now called Wells Fargo Customer until my new card comes in the mail.

Bad guys can make life so difficult.

Best Calendar Ever!

I've been a bit slow showing you my 2014 calendar. Retro Disneyland Attraction Posters!

 January: the Disneyland Railroad. So cool!

If I remember, I'll show you each month's poster and I'm thinking that I might frame some of these pictures when 2014 is over. :)

Josh Groban Visits Kid Snippets

I've shown you Kid Snippets before. I think they are so funny! I was surprised when Josh Groban visited the KS crew. Maybe you think this is as funny as I do...

Breakfast Sauasage Casserole

I'm a big fan of breakfast casseroles. They feed a lot of people, and if you can make it the night before, that's just a bonus! This one fits all of those requirements, and the boys heated up the leftovers later- always a good sign.

Breakfast Sausage Casserole- 9x13 pan
1 lb. ground pork sausage
1 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. milk
6 slices white bread, toasted and cut into cubes
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
Crumble sausage into a skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly brown; drain. In a medium bowl, mix together mustard powder, salt, eggs and milk. Add the sausage, bread cubes, and cheese, stir to coat evenly. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover with foil and bake 45-60 minutes. Uncover, and reduce temperature to 325. Bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until set.

Bruce liked it too!

The Wreath

One of my New Year's resolutions is to make more crafts! My first craft of the year was one I've been wanting to do for a while- a coffee filter wreath. The girls wanted to make one too. Girls crafting! Sadly, I hugely underestimated how complicated this wreath would be. It wasn't hard, but it took a while to get everything ready to assemble.

As in, I hand-dyed 400 coffee filters. In gradient colors.

They dried on twine lines in the laundry room. Looks like a gypsy carnival, doesn't it?

Then the actual making of the flowers took a while. A long while. Here's the tutorial.

But, when everything was ready to go, the actual wreath making went quickly! I added some berries and greenery to mine, and I really like how it turned out!

 Maybe I'll pick something a little less complicated next time. :)

But Do I Dare Wear It In Public?

It's been years and years and years since I've sewed any piece of clothing. When the kids were little, I sewed all the time- Sunday dresses for Shannon, Halloween costumes of all sorts. So, it was kind of a tangent when I picked up a skirt pattern in the sewing isle at Walmart.

Bruce and I get to go to Hawaii in a few weeks, and I need clothes. Sewing a simple skirt seemed like a good idea at the time, so I gave it a shot. I went really slowly, taking my time, putting in a waistband and a zipper. And while it's far from perfect, it might do in a pinch:

Gus enjoyed the whole process, from the crunchy pattern pieces to dive under, to the paper instructions to sit on, to watching the needle on my machine move up and down. Then there was this night when he wanted to take a nap on my machine when I wanted to sew with my machine.

See- his claws are even out. And that evil look! Bad kitty.

Saltaire Shirts 2014

This will be year #4 that I have been in charge of the yearly shirts for the barn. I admit, this year I somewhat copied a design I'd seen on another shirt in Estes Park. I am a copier, with not many original ideas in my head. I think they look great:

I've taken this rack of shirts to the barn with order forms. This rack usually lives in my horse show trailer to hold clothes in the tack stall at the horse shows- as evidence by the packing tape repair on the vertical bar. Horse show things get used and abused.

Every time I do shirts I'm afraid that no one will order them, but they always do. This year we have baseball shirts, t-shirts and hoodies. Here's what the design looks like on the black shirts:

Another year, another shirt order!

A Turkey For Shannon

Shannon had to work on New Year's Day. But before you feel too bad for her, consider that she worked from my house, with a mobile phone and her dad's laptop. Sure, she was taking customer service calls but she could do it from the relative comfort of her mother's kitchen and not from an empty GetawayToday office.

When she saw that I was going to cook a turkey for dinner, she announced that she was taking over. She cleaned it, inside and out, and pulled out all the gross packages of innards. Then she tucked it in it's little bag and put it in the oven.

Now she knows how to cook turkeys with ease!

Corrine Onion Dip

This recipe's real name is Vidalia Onion Dip, but since I used my BIL's onions from Corrine I changed the name. "Cause that's how I roll. This was creamy and onion-y and super fattening. But it had vegetables in it, because onions are vegetables. Oh- and only 3 ingredients. Can't beat that.

(Not my photo. Hmm...)

Corrine Onion Dip

2 cups mayonnaise
1 pkg.  (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Italian* Five Cheese with a TOUCH OF PHILADELPHIA
1 large  Vidalia or Walla Walla or Corrine onion, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix all ingredients until well blended. Spread into 8-inch square baking dish. Bake 30 min. or until golden brown.

We dipped tortilla chips, but you could dip absolutely anything in it and it would be delicious. You should make this. Maybe for a Super Bowl party??

And The Winner Is...

Don't you love it when you find a recipe that people just love? For our Christmas Eve buffet, this was the most popular of my new recipes with my boys. The leftovers lasted maybe one day. And don't forget to make the sauce- it's really good. 

Cream Cheese Sausage Balls with Creamy Mustard Dipping Sauce
1 lb. sausage, uncooked. (You can use regular or hot or Italian)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 c. Bisquick baking mix
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients until well combined. I ended up just using my hands- the dough is sticky stuff. Roll into 1" balls. Bake on a foil-lined tray for 20-25 minutes or until golden. I made these ahead of time and froze them, then thawed and reheated them.
Dipping sauce:
1/2 c. mayonaisse
1/2 c. sour cream
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
2-6 drops hot sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
Combine all ingredients. Chill.

Big Blue

Last Saturday night we all went to freezing Logan for dinner and a USU basketball game. I really don't know how my kids survive up there in the frozen northlands! I was lucky to get my picture taken with Big Blue-

In reality, he was kind of sweaty.

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year!!