Come What May and Love It

This year for Christmas I decided I wanted the kids to make each others presents. They have decided on their own that they wanted to give each other 2 gifts. They have for the most part made one and bought one. There will be more about this later. Along with making gifts I decided to make them be crafty and I bought brown paper from Home Depot. I then told the kids that they had to do something creative with their wrapping. They could do anything they wanted as long as what they used was in this house. I did collect craft paper and ribbon and jute etc. from around the house. We found some sites that had fun packages. Here are a few links, #1 and #2 . I told the kids to use their imagination. :) We also found some bows and flower patterns and this is what we found. #1 and #2 and my favorite #3 then the one that blew my mind. google crafts made out of TP rolls and you can be blown away too! #4.   We pulled out scrap paper and paper from an old book that was going to go to the...

It has been a while since I posted a new recipe because I have been on a cooking slump! I found this recipe and it looked easy and good, So I did try this for dinner tonight! Yumm! they turned out great! I used red potatoes and boiled them whole and unpeeled. When sticking a fork in them, they went in easy and they slid off they were done. They cook a little more in the oven. For the seasoning I used salt, dill, and garlic. After cooking them, I sprinkled a little Parmesan cheese on top. Click here for the recipe.

My teenage daughter was laying on the floor last night working on her Christmas list. I did not think anything about it until after she had gone to bed. My husband handed me a paper and said look at what I found in the garbage. (Her list) ~~~~~~For: (my brother)~ that he will understand math. (my sister)~ That she will get good grades. (My Dad)~ To have a day of doing what ever he wants. (My Mom)~ to get her vacation with Dad. My family ~ to have peace My Dog ~ to not go blind (My Friend K)~ to have a day without worry. (My Friend A)~ To not feel lonely at her house. (My Friend K)~ To find a good group of friends. (My Friend A)~ To have her Dad back. (My former friend J)~ To understand that we might be able to still be friends. Grandma ~ To not hurt WORLD PEACE To let those people who have no house to have a home. To let those who have fought for America years ago know that they are America's hero's. To let the wars going on stop and just let everyone love each othe...

Can I just say, YUM!!! I really like this soup. It is a meal that eats like a soup but does not come from a can! L has not really always loved it. Her first year doing potato harvest she was needing to take dinner with her. We had some of this soup left over. I told her to take it. After working 1/2 her shift and it was getting cold, she took a dinner break. She took her soup over to the microwave and heated her soup. She said the smell wafted out of the microwave and everyone else could smell it. They asked what she was eating and she said Tortellini soup. They said "Turtle soup?" lol well she took a bite and it hit the spot. It is now one of her favorites. In fact every year that she does potato harvest she requests this soup so she can carry it with her. :) 1 (3.5 ounce) Sausage 1 cup chopped onions 2 cloves garlic, minced 5 cups beef stock 1/3 cup water 1/2 cup red wine (Sometimes I omit & sometimes I substitue 1/2 c grape juice - 1T then add 1T vinegar.) 4 t...

when the harvest season is here and the temperature has dropped it feels like soup season to me! We love soup. I have about 4 soups that I like to make but one of them is not chicken noodle. I do not even try chicken noodle. Why should I when my sweet husband makes the best chicken noodle soup I have ever had. The first one I like is Tomato. I like tomato soup out of a can so when I found this I thought how can it not taste great. It is now my favorite soup. The can of soup is no longer as good. One thing about this soup is I do not really care for big chunks of green pepper. So I like to puree or mince them in my processor. If you just leave the peppers out it tastes totally different. I found this recipe in this cookbook on amazon.com. I do change it up a little bit from the original. 2 cup chicken broth (I use 2 herb-ox cubes, it does not have MSG and 2 cups of water) 1 small onion, minced 2 T minced green pepper 1 T chopped celery (I use a little more.) 1/2 tsp garlic po...

Growing up with a patriotic father, I love my country. I love everything that we have here. On 9/10/2001, I lived in a false sense of security. Thinking that we would never be attacked on U.S soil. I thought that everything my Father and Grandfather had fought for had given us freedom from that fear. The next morning I became aware of a new reality. I knew that we were under attack. It ripped my heart out. In the next few days, I watched the country come together in our grief and sadness that such a horrible thing could happen here. I have watched Americans sacrifice. On 9/11 many loved ones who have died. After effect of 9/11 of our soldiers going to war. Including the personal sacrifice of my sweetheart leaving our home for a year. In the years since, I have watched our country forget. Forget that unity we once had. Forget what our country was before 9/11/01. I wish I could get that security back. I wish my children could live without fear of being attacked on our homeland. I watched...

This salsa is authentic salsa from a hispanic friend. My girls like it. 2 jalapeno peppers blanch till the pepper skin is a little darker kind of olive in clor, pull off steam, then cut and seed. (Avoid touching your face or use gloves.) 6 tomatoes cilantro chopped 2 cloves of garlic blanch tomatoes and pull off skin. blend jalapenos, add tomatoes, garlic and salt, and continue blending. add cilantro. This is the basic recipe and I like it but I have been know to make adjustments. Sometimes I add salt or vinigar or lemon or lime. I have also added sliced green onions. No matter how you make it, it is YUMMY!

This is D's favorite salsa. But then again she likes anything with avocado's in them! Avocado Tomato Salsa fresh tomatoes, diced 1/4 cup onions, chopped 1/2 avocado, cubed. 1 green chili pepper, seeded and chopped. 2 tbsp snipped fresh parsley (I do not always use this) 1 tbsp red wine vinegar. 2 tsp grated lime peel. 1 tsp lime juice Directions: Combine tomatoes, onions, avocado, peppers, parsley, vinegar, lime peel, and juice. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

This really is a recipe that I shoot from the hip. I do not follow anything. If I have More of something it is okay to put more in. If I do not have something like the green chili's or jalapeno, it is okay to make it without. Sometimes I make it with Lemon juice instead of vinegar and lime. You really can change this up each time. Here is the basic recipe we like. 6 Roma tomatoes, diced 1/2 sweet onion, minced 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1/2 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped 1/4 cup fresh cilantro 1 jalapeno pepper, minced 1 can green chili's, drained 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar salt to taste Directions 1.In a bowl, combine all the ingredients, add jalapenos 2 teaspoons at a time, tasting after each addition to see how hot the salsa has become. Jalapeno peppers vary in heat, so it is important to taste the salsa to ensure you do not make it too hot to handle. When working with the jalapeno, you can blanch the pepper in hot boiling ...

Corn Salsa. I really like this salsa. I could eat it by the spoon fulls by it's self. Shhh don't tell anyone. I found this recipe a long time ago. How long do I have to make the item for it to become my recipe? Or do I still need to claim it belongs to the person I got it from? I use this salsa on anything you would use regular salsa on, Chips and dip, Taco's, enchilada's, burritos, Nachos etc. You can also use it with chicken or fish. 2 (15 ounce) can yellow corn, drained 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, drained 1 bunch finely chopped cilantro 5 green onions, finely sliced 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 red bell pepper, diced 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1/4 cup lime juice 1 avocado, diced 2 tablespoons olive oil 1.Stir the yellow and white corn, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, green onion, red onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a large bowl. Gently mix in the lime juice and avocado. Driz...

I love food at the harvest season. They just taste better! This recipe is one I found a few years ago and during the time Leif was gone to Iraq, we made lots of different salsas. We made the chunky salsa with the normal ingredients. We got a traditional Mexican salsa recipe and made it. We made corn salsa (one of my favorites). We made salsa with black bean's and one with Avocado chunks. We made Mango salsa and Strawberry mango salsa. You could say it was the year of the salsa, or I was on a salsa kick. I will share a few of these recipe's with you. The first I am sharing is the strawberry/mango salsa. At first I thought what do you eat it with. Duh chips. It is really good with just a bag of chips. you can also use it with any of the recipe's you would use a mango salsa with, Your Mexican fish/shrimp dishes would be a great paring for this MANGO/STRAWBERRY SALSA . I do not use as much of the mango. My family likes more strawberries and less mango's. Enjoy!

My husband loves to make pie. His favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, because he can eat pie. He has made, peach, chocolate cream, coconut cream, bannana cream, Apple, Apple carmel, and many more. I however am not a huge fan of pie. Last Thanksgiving he asked me what kind of pie I wanted because he wanted me to have a pie I like. I thought about it and I remembered a pie at a restaurant that I thought was okay, sour cream lemon. I did a search and found a recipie for it on the internet. We made one for thanksgiving and it is now one of our families favorite pies. It has a few steps to it but all in all it is a good pie. Oh and do not even think of substituting lemon juice for a real lemon. It is not the same. Well I guess you can but it does not give the same flavor. . Click here for the link

So refreshing on a hot august day! This is so much easier to make than it seems. If you do not already have a little hand juicer they are real cheap at Wal-mart. 4 lemons fresh squeezed 1 cup sugar 1/2 gallon water. mix and enjoy!

In about January we started talking about our summer fun. We talked about going far away, or maybe somewhere that we could fly. We had a limited budget for our trip. I looked at airplane tickets and at the time the cheapest flights were to Denver Co. for $250 per person. Now that is not much per person but when you times that by 5, I knew that would be over 1/2 our budget. We still wanted to take the kids on a plane ride but did not know what to do. Leif and I talked about it and decided to stay local and bump it up. We decided to do things within driving distance and use our money for fun things that we never do because of no money. There were many many things that were on the list but we narrowed it down to the following: The first thing was we booked a 1 hour flight for the kids to fly around the Teton Mountain range. L sat in the front and flew the plane for a few minutes. That was thrilling for her. That night we went to Bar J Chuckwagon. I don't love the fo...

I really like Sloppy Joes. They are yummy. In fact I do not even mind the Manwich brand. However my oldest has never ever liked manwich's. About 5 years ago I got a ward cookbook and a lady had submitted a sloppy joe recipe that I thought I would try. L loved it. She now says she does not like anyone elses sloppy joe's. Only mine. :} 1 large chopped onion 2 lbs ground beef cook onion and beef together then add 1 1/2 c catsup 1 tsp mustard 1 tsp vinegar 4 tsp sugar (I do use only 2 tsp) 1/2 c water 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp chilli powder simmer for 10 minutes. put on buns add your favorite toppings, lettuce, cheese, pickles, or nothing at all, enjoy.

A Thomas family Tradition. This is a salad that my mom use to make for family gatherings. It is now one of my family's favorites. Cabbage Salad 1 head of cabbage 3 green onions sliced. some sesame seeds and almonds. (you can use cashews also) dry ramen noodles (to be put on later) Dressing 1/2 c sugar (I use a little less) 1/2 tsp pepper 2 tsp salt 1/3 c rice vinegar ( rice vinegar has a mild flavor I have used white and red also) 3/4 c oil. Mix the dressing till the sugar is dissolved. If I am taking it to a gathering I usually leave the dressing in the bottle. When I am ready to serve I pour the dressing over the salad, crumble 1/2 package of ramen noodles mix and serve.

Photo fun #5 Day 21: Micro , Upclose. I tried to take some photo's of up close things. I went around the house and took of knobs, and corners and you name it I took it. I did not like how any of them were turning out. So I gave up and just posted a photo that was a close up of a bird. So yes I gave up. But it was still in the back of my mind. I still took a few more photo's of close ups. In the end I like how this one turned out. Day 22: Landscape I really wanted to find a place to take a photo of the Tetons with a cute old farmhouse. I told my family I wanted to go on a sunday drive. We got in the car with my husband at the wheel. He took off in farmland. He pointed out some landscape that was interesting and I said yah I like that, but he kept going. After about 4 times he said well where do you want to stop. I said I thought you would stop at the last 4 places. He said you did not say stop. lol I guess me agreeing with him that places looked good, it was not good enough. So...

Here I go again on #4. Day 16 Glass Jar . Okay so it is suppose to be a mason jar or jelly jar. I have these antique jars that I love. I decided to use them instead of finding a mason jar. I lined them up in my kitchen window and liked the effect. The first jar to the left is a coffee jar that came from my Grandpa Jacobson's house. The second photo is a little mustard jar we found on a trip to Utah. The third jar is a really cute milk jar. You can't see it really well but there is a picture of a cow being milked, in the glass. The last jar was a really cool glass jar that we found in Oregon. It has a few words on the bottle. I came home and looked it up and it is a perfume bottle. I meant to only get kitchen stuff but oh well it is cool looking anyway. So it sits with the rest of my kitchen antiques. Day 17: Bokeh When I read that word I had no clue what that even meant. I had to look it up. This is what I found. It is a homemade filter you place over your lens. I watched a ...

I hope you are not getting tired of these but I am going to be deleting them from my FB page so I thought I would save them and the story of each, here on my blog. Day 11: sihlouette This is a photo I took last summer when we went to Oregon. When I took the photo, you could still see the kids in their clothes. After I got this challenge I worked on making them a little darker. I like how it turned out. Day 12 Sun Flare I had no idea what a sun flare was when it pertains to photography. I had to look it up on the net. Then I did not want to get a purple streak across my camera lens like I have in the past. So I looked it up on the net how to do it in a correct way. So this is what I came up with. I think it looks pretty cool! Day 13: Reminds you of your childhood . Black Cherry Koolaid reminds me of my childhood and my Grandpa Jacobson. But how do you take a photo of a package of koolaid?! So I went to my childhood home looked around and did not really find much. There...