Chocolate Sunrise Surprise

No way!!!! 8:30 am on a Saturday morning and the kids aren't upstairs begging us to make breakfast yet!  Uh Ohhhhh!!! I vaguely recall hearing cupboards and jars and other random things being opened and sounds like they were happily working together on something.  8:45 am a smiling daughter comes up and then a smiling proud son.  "We made breakfast for you Mom and Dad!"  How could we not get up and go try it.  Luckily I was first so I could do the small taste.  A plastic bowl full of chocolate something. "Dad, we didn't put eggs in it like the last time so it's good." That explains the slime consistency a couple weeks ago of a similar mixture.  I had to leave the room before Mom had her big spoonful.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! from the kitchen as she tasted it.

Ingredients that we know of:  Mustard, Chocolate Quick powder, Hershey's chocolate syrup, Grated Orange peel, freshly juiced Orange juice, 8 drips of Cholula hot sauce, water, vinegar (not sure what kind or how many kinds), maple syrup, instant apple cider pack.

Mom's perfect Rice Krispies Treats!

Strangely enough, we know several people who say they can't make the super-easy rice krispy treats and have them taste good;  they turn out rock hard or strangely flavored or something!   Well, Mom has a few tips that make hers turn out perfect every time:

• use miniature marshmallows (they melt faster, so don't cook as long, so the mixture stays softer)
• use fresh Kraft marshmallows
• use the "old" recipe that has a bit more butter than the newer "healthier" recipe
• DON'T overcook the marshmallows!!
• coat the tray in butter not Pam to avoid the "fake" taste
• use the Kellogg's Rice Krispies, not a knock-off brand, for the best taste
• measure the marshmallows and cereal ahead of time so you can just dump in quickly and avoid over-cooking.

1/4 cup butter
4 cups miniature marshmallows
6 cups rice krispies cereal
butter to smear onto pan/tray

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat (not the high heat Dad usually uses!!).  Add the marshmallows and stir just until completely melted (no more!).  Remove from heat.   Add the cereal and stir until well coated.   Pour and press into a buttered 13x9 pan.   Wait until cool to cut (but feel free to snitch around the edges while it is cooling!!)

For holidays or special events, sprinkling colored sugar crystals over the top makes them "fancy" and gives a little crunch when eating!!  You just have to sprinkle the sugar on when it is still warm so the sugar will stick!!

Yippee Skippee!!!! Mom's Frosting Recipe

Cameron seems to call for this recipe about once a month...  it's probably time to post it!

Mom's Buttercream Frosting

about 2/3 cup butter (3/4 of a stick)
about 3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of almond extract
dash of salt
4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter until fluffy with a hand mixer.  Add about half of the powdered sugar.  Mix well.  Add the milk, flavorings, and salt.  Mix well again.  Add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  Add a bit more powdered sugar or milk until frosting is desired consistency.

Mom's Sugar Cookies Recipe

Suzanne makes awesome sugar cookies.  They take time and have to be done correctly.  This is one of those recipes where doing it right matters and one of those recipes where I fail when I follow the recipe.  I don't do it right somehow so mine can be reminiscent of playdough dried in the sun but when Suzanne makes these with the same recipe, they are the best and softest.  They freeze well and ship well in care packages to Utah and Hawaii.  Making these in the Utah altitude and Hawaii humidity might cause some need for modification though.  So here is the recipe and good luck to both of my college children.

 For frosting, call mom because that's another one of those things I just don't do right.

Also a note when letting your younger siblings help.  Have them wash their hands and blow their noses first and put theirs on a separate "special" pan to cook if they are coming in from a hard days play to "help".  The "special" pan is for them.  Ones that are "not special" and fine for anyone that they make don't need to be on the "special" pan. hahaha.... was just thinking of having them make a "special" set to send to college after an afternoon touching starfish and sweating from playing with friends at Sealife at Legoland.  Extra salt and misc. "flavoring" and textures are easily hid with frosting.

Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings

There is way too much to say about Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings.  I just don't have the time right now.  BUT, I keep forgetting to post this handout Suzanne did years ago that works for both.  She makes amazing orange rolls and her hints are from experience.  This year we did our traditional Tea Rings but didn't have time for separate orange rolls so we used double the orange roll filling and used it to make a couple of the tea rings and it was so much easier than making individual rolls and cleaning out all the muffin tins, that I thnk we may do the orange roll Swedish tea ring hibrid from now on,(or at least if I'm making them alone.)

For a pretty good Almond Filling I put 2 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of almonds, 2 teaspoons of almond extract and 1 cup of melted butter in the Cuisinart until it basically becomes almond paste.

For Swedish Tea Rings, I also frost them when cooled with an almond frosting and then sprinkle sliced almonds over the top if I have them.  Blackberry, Raspberry, or Boysenberry Jam with butter for a filling with or without sliced almonds mixed works well for filling too.  Let them rise about 30 minutes or more after shaping them.

FREEZING: I used to make these with cinnamon, orange zest, or almond paste and freeze after cutting the dough wrapped in plastic wrap and then in gallon ziplocks.  They were easy to thaw and bake leaving out overnight.  Instead of detailing the process, here is a similar to same process that I used to to and it has pictures. Freezing cinnamon roll dough to bake later

"Two Egg Cake"

Here are the versions of our most used cake recipe because we never used mixes.  Use any one of them at your own discretion.  One of them really does work but its up to you to figure out which one.  I am not listing the sources but I bet you can tell which one I WON'T be using again.

OK, most of my siblings that were around when we had the rule that everyone had to try at least 1 or 2 bites of whatever creation any of us made for the family should remember the "Best Two Egg Cake" I made.  All mom and I could figure was that I must have mixed up the Flour and the Baking Soda with reversing the amounts of each.  I put something like 2 cups of soda into it and really thought I was following the recipe so well.  It was the basic cake recipe we used through the years for most birthday cakes and cupcakes and seemed to always work without fail.  SO, how did I make it so awful that one time and have it be one of the continuing family jokes through the years.  I can still taste how awful it was and at the same time how funny it was that everyone had to eat some.

The answer came about a year ago when I was looking up the recipe online and soon after visited Mormor and Papa and was able to get a copy from the old family "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book" from 1976.  It is so worn and

stained and covered in years of pancake and other batter spilled and wiped off from 9 plus kids using it as THE cookbook until mom bought the Fanny Farmer Cook

book when I was maybe in high school.  I was surprised to find the old book still around.

 I copied the version from the cookbook but also found online one version of the cake listed "2 1/2 cups of Baking Powder/"  I vaguely remember that mom had bought a paperback version of the cookbook when I was young because it was the NEW NEW version and our older one was kind of worn way back then.  I also vaguely remember how she got frustrated with it and threw it away saying she was staying with the old one because the new one just didn't have things work right.  Well..... it now seems that the edition I think she threw away had at least one major error in one of our most used recipes and the terrible cake I made was from that edition.  Kind of nice after more than a couple decades to find out I followed the recipe correctly and it really wasn't my fault.  To all my siblings that had to suffer, this was one time that I didn't play a joke on anyone.  Yes the toothpaste frosting and that time I did the terrible Tabasco sauce Popsicle were real jokes but at least the salty cake wasn't.

Family Night Charts

This past weekend at Taft's house for Lilly's baptism, I saw our old Family Night Chart from years ago growing up.  It was a long cut out of a train for a family night chart that I'm pretty sure had hooks eventually for all 11 of us.  Papa cut it out of an old piece of plywood and we helped paint it.  The hooks were just teacup hooks and Mormor cut out circles from old margarine lids and wrote our names on them that we would move each week. 

Mormor put it up high enough on the wall so the older ones could change it but the little ones wouldn't constantly change it.

Grandma and Grandma had a flower pot with flowers that changed for each Family Night assignment.

Go figure, my family had a train for a chart with all the boys and mom's family had a flower pot with all the girls.

The template here is for what became our Family Night chart.  As I post it right now, it is kind of ironic that I took a broken clock to make our Family Night Chart since my sense of time is pretty much a broken clock.

Well.... I took a broken clock and cut out a circle with the assignments on the back and glued it in place.  Next I cut out a smaller circle with the names and pictures for each of us placing it over the minute hand so that it rotated when we used the thin

g on back to change the time.  I don't know if I'm explaining it right but its worked pretty well for us for years.  When I get to the point of taking a picture and uploading it, I'll attach a picture of it. 

So... Mom grew up with a flower pot... I grew up with a train... My kids grew up and are growing up with a broken clock... what will each of my children use for their kids???  I wonder what each of Mom and my sibblings use for their charts???

If any family gets a chance to take a picture of your own family night charts, I would love to post them.