Swimsuit season, anyone?

I hate swimsuit shopping.  I do it as little as possible (try every 3-4 years) because it is expensive and embarrassing.  But as I was reading a favorite blog of mine (The Meanest Mom) I happened upon a swimsuit give away that she is putting on.  I entered.  If you're interested, here's the link:  http://www.themeanestmom.blogspot.com/

The Ultimate Scone Challenge

From Kelly:  

I can't resist a culinary challenge.  Recently I was given one by my sister-in-law Jill.  She got a recipe for chocolate chip scones from a friend and they weren't quite right.  So she asked me, your local friendly recipe-tester, to see what I could do. 

I started out making the original recipe.  I could see what Jill meant about them not being sweet enough.  Then I made my mom's scone recipe (but added choc. chips) to compare.  That one wasn't quite right, either.  I started forming a hypothesis that the cream of tartar in these recipes lended a bitter taste.  I also learned that cream of tartar+baking soda=the same thing as baking powder.  So I searched the internet for a scone recipe without c.o.t.  Lo and behold, on recipezaar.com I came across a recipe for the world famous Puyallup Fair (Fisher brand) scones which I love so much (and am very attached to since I am from Puyallup).  There were two versions with slight variation, so I made them both and found which one is just right.  These don't have chocolate chips, and I must say these are so good they don't need chocolate, just butter and raspberry jam.  Make sure your oven is hot and the ingredients are cold.

 Here it is, the best scone recipe ever (so far):

 2.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted

2 tsp. baking powder (make sure it's still active)

2 Tbs. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. unsalted butter, chilled

3 Tbs. shortening, chilled

3/4 cup milk (at least 2%) or buttermilk

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Sift and measure flour.  The flour must be sifted, otherwise you'll use too much flour and the scones will be tough.  Put a measuring cup on top of some wax paper and use another cup to shake the flour into the first.  Dump the leftovers on the wax paper back into the container.  This process seems like overkill, but it does make a difference to the final product.

3.  Mix in baking powder, sugar and salt.

4.  Cut in the butter and shortening.  You can rub it in with your fingers as long as they're cold and you work fast.  Or use a pastry cutter.

5.  Make a well in the dry mixture and add the milk, stirring in with a fork, until just moist.

6.  When the mixture has barely come together, turn out onto a floured board.  If there are still dry crumbs on the bottom of the bowl, don't add more milk, just press them into the top of the dough.

7.  Fold over the dough just a couple times--don't overwork!

8.  Divide into two balls.  Form them into domes, then cut into 4 wedges.

9.  Transfer to an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 12-14 min.

10.  To serve:  split in half, slather with butter and raspberry preserves and scarf down like there's no tomorrow.  OR top with strawberries and whipped cream.

****I have pictures but currently this program is not letting me upload them.  Stay tuned!

Trebuchet

Sarah and I built this trebuchet for her science class. Luckally adult help was incouraged. We had a lot of fun even though it took along time. We enjoyed working on it together and I taught her how to use shop tools. It throws it a little more than 6 feet, oh well, it was fun anyways.

Winter Y Hikes

I am trying to figure out how to ensure that pictures can be blown up, so some of these posts are not current current. Kelly and I have decided to hike the Y each month and invite others to join us. So far we have done it twice and we haven't had company yet. Well here are a few pictures of our first two hikes this year... our shadows decided to follow us up in January.

This one is from February.

We are hoping to meet up with some cousins and go this Saturday.

Happy Birthday Chase!

I took this picture of Chase at my surprise party. I really like playing with him. He is about the same age as Carter was when we lived in Arizona. I was talking about it with Kelly and Melinda the other day; It is so fun when little babies start to be aware of their surroundings and recognize their influence on things, like when they know they are makeing you laugh. They are getting experienced enough to really communicate but not so much that they start to cry or complain. It is a lot of fun.

We love these boys.

!!!SURPRISE!!!

As most of you know, Kelly threw a surprise birthday party for me and I was very surprised and clueless to the end. She contacted every family member in the Utah valley area and even some friends. She had it in the works for a few weeks or more. Even some cousins I haven't seen much were there and we all had fun playing games like psychiatrist and a few others. Jaren and Melinda were in on it and "trapped" me at their house to help watch the kids while she did some mid-terms and to this day I don't know how much of that was true... they were all sly. So Jarendrove me back to my place to get Kelly to go to Red Robin and I walked in and "SURPRISE" my house was full of people and people and more people. Jaren, Melinda, JJ, Ryan, Chase, Kelly, Emily, David, Dad Clark, Jenny, Sarah, Amy, Aunt Angie, Lacy, Haylie, Jason, Steve, Erica, Benjamin (their boy), Kaylie, Mindy, Dani, Sam, Ryan, and Jennifer were there... Theyapparently helped Kelly decorate with balloons and crepe paper. We had pizza and lots of candy and ice cream. It was so much fun and it meant so much to me that so many people came even if we hadn't seen each other much over the past 20 years. It was fun. Thank you all for coming and for the enjoyable gifts. Thanks for helping Kelly and keeping it a secret. Here are a few pictures, some might make you laugh a little (there are few guys who like to make funny faces). 

I am so grateful for my wonderful wife, she always amazes me and has the greatest influence on me. She is too wonderful and fun to describe, I wish I could describe it cuz then you would all ooh! and aah! and even laugh a bit, cuz she is funny. She is my key to happiness and joy.