Halloween Carnival

All ready for the elementary school's Halloween carnival! I hate going to that thing, but the kids love it!

Pics I like

This is how we spend our time:

Beastie is such a cute goalie:


Dressing for downtime:


Making some yummy cookies:

Eva's visit

My sister is here from Puerto Rico!!! I took Beastie out of school and we made the trip to Idaho Falls to see her and her family. I love my family. On Tuesday we went to Island Park to see the grandparents, we fed the fish, and we went to Mesa Falls. I love my sisters and was sure glad to see her.




Aren't our boys so cute? They are going to be best buddies, if they don't beat each other up.



I just like this picture.

Trip to Utah with Marcia

Every year, TJ's aunt, Marcia, takes each cousin and their family to do something fun. This year we decided to just go hang out with her for a weekend. We ate a lot of food and shopped and went to the Aquarium (yep, my kids are nerdy!) It was lots of fun. Marcia, Beast, and TJ got to feed the stingrays. Beast was a bit nervous, but she did alright. TJ, though, got bit. He must taste good!




Afterward, we went to temple square.


Thanks for a fun trip, Marcia!!

This isn't a food blog, but.....

What is so good I have to hide it under a pan from my kids?

There aren't many things that I will freely admit I am good at, but I have a sixth sense and knack for one thing - I can find and make dang good desserts. Nothing else, really, but I rock desserts.

These Raspberry Ribbons are some of my all time favorite cookies, not to mention easy and fancy looking (I made them for Christmas last year). Did I also mention they are easy? So easy.



I originally found this recipe as bars that you cut into fancy sticks at allrecipes.com, here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Ribbons/Detail.aspx

Here it is in cookie form:

Raspberry Ribbons

Cream these:
1 C Butter (no substitutes), softened
1/2 C Sugar

Beat in these:
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine these:
2-1/4 C All purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt

Gradually add dry ingredients into the butter mix. It could look like crumbles and you'll think, "what the...?!" But just knead it for a minute and it'll clump together.

Grease a cookie sheet or cover it with foil. Roll dough into small-ish balls. Use your thumb to make a thumbprint in each. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. At seven minutes, remove from oven and put a small spoonful of your favorite jam (the recipe recommends seedless, but I used my home-made strawberry-blueberry jam) into the thumbprint depression. Put back in the over for 3 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on the pan for 2 minutes. Remove to cooling rack.

In a small bowl mix this for the glaze:
1 C Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp Evaporated Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Glaze your cookies. Eat then and there- angels will sing! So amazing and decadent!!!!!!

This last picture? Can you see B sneakily sneaking the frosting? Ha ha ha ha!