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Random things about me, part one

Prince Ranier, Princess Grace and family about the time I met themRandom assortment of facts. Let me know what surprised you, made you laugh or shake your head . . .

*I met Princess Grace and Cary Grant at the palace in Monaco

*I never finished high school. I “dropped out” and went to college, where I graduated with a degree in nursing at age 19.

*I’ve had training in and sometimes certified in: childbirth ed (through ICEA and Hypnobirthing), doula work (through DONA), doula instructor, 40-hours on becoming a lactation consultant, infant massage instructor, professional midwifery, master gardener, master food preserver, fetal heart rate monitoring, neonatal resuscitation, parenting attachment-disordered children (multiple trainings, actually). (And I’m an RN) See a pattern here?

*I took childbirth educator training from Penny Simkin in Seattle.

*I was an adjunct professor at BYU for several years.

*I am a morning person.

*I pull more all-nighters now than I ever did in college.

*I have ADD (no, really!?)

*I collect dolls from all over the world. The first doll in my collection was from Vietnam and was given to me by my Dad who flew reconnaissance during the Vietnam War.

*I’m an Air Force brat.

*I have two brothers that went to the Air Force Academy. Both are now in the reserves. One flew an F-15 Strike Eagle in the early days of the Iraqi war.

*My first boyfriend was French. (I was living there at the time.)

*Real French bread will make Americans’ gums bleed.

*I love dark chocolate until it gets so dark it sets your teeth on edge.

*Russian chocolate has got to be the worst in the world.

*I’ve been on an airplane with chickens as carry-ons.

*I love to sew, but avoid zippers whenever I can because I don’t feel like I’ve ever quite mastered them.

*I love to cook and try several new recipes every month – sometimes every week.

*I have been to 28 countries (unless I forgot some), including at least one that no longer exists.

*I have kids from 8 countries.

*I love to read. Love, love, love to read. I’ve resisted digital books because there is just something so REAL about holding them.

*I was terribly shy and unsure of myself when I married my husband. Oh, how times have changed!

*I’ve been married (to the same man) for over 1/2 my life.

*I had an LDS mission call to Quebec Canada, French speaking, humanitarian mission. However, 4 months between call and reporting date proved to be about 2 months too long and I was engaged to Greg half-way through.

*My first date with Greg was to Burger King. The day I got my mission call.

*I worked full-time graveyards while dating Greg and for the first couple of years we were married.

*I’ve been in 3 roll-over accidents.

*I used to be an avid skier and even went spring-skiing in a swimsuit and snow pants.

*I’m allergic to milk and most milk products. Bummer.

*I’m also allergic to gluten. That’s a REAL bummer!

*We have over 3000 books and probably at least 1/3 that amount in videos/DVD’s . . .

*I am the oldest of 6 kids – girl, two boys, girl, twin boys.

*I used to wash out poopy diapers in the toilet for my mom. Oh the joys. Even after that, I tried cloth diapers myself on child #7. I lasted about 2 months.

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Cranberry Chip Cookies

English: cranberries grown and harvested in Ma...

English: cranberries grown and harvested in Massachusetts, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We LOVE these cookies! You can use fresh or frozen cranberries but pat the frozen cranberries dry after chopping and don’t overmix. Also, pick through your fresh cranberries carefully – I discard any squishy ones, even if they still look whole because one rotten cranberry will spoil your whole batch. Believe me.

1 C white sugar
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter, softened
1/4 C milk
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 egg
3 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 C coarsely chopped cranberries
1 C chopped pistachios
1 C chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Mix sugars and butter. Stir in milk, orange juice and egg. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Carefully stir in cranberries, nuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfulls about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. About 5 1/2 dozen. Oh, and you can’t double this one in a regular Kitchen-Aid – it’s too much for it.

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Execution in the grocery store

12 yo: Mom, have Mikey tell you about the person who was executed out of Macey’s (a grocery store)?
Mom: He was WHAT?
Mikey: Do you mean “escorted”?
12 yo: Oh yeah.

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Cooking with what?!

I do my canning outside on “Camp Chef” cookstoves, which run off of propane. My 12 yo daughter says to me a few years ago:

“Mom, why do you cook with cocaine?”

Propane, child, propane.

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Gigolos for dinner?!

Colorful Jiggles

Jigglers

12-yo daughter: Ooh – fun! We’re having gigolos for dinner!
Me: No, we’re having Jell-O JIGGLERS for dinner . . .

This is the same one who asked me why I cooked with cocaine and wondered about someone executed at the grocery store . . .

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An “ability cord”?

Project 366 #184: 020712 Hangin' On The Telephone

An ability cord?

From a 12-year old daughter: Mom, why do we an an ability cord?
Mom, rolling her eyes: It’s an UMBILICAL cord.

Great job teaching your kids the facts of life, midwife mom. Although now that I think of it, an ability cord might be a great thing to have……

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Orange rolls

Heavenly Yumminess

Heavenly Yumminess

Oh-so-good. These are the best orange rolls we’ve ever made.

We used 1/2 batch of our normal bread recipe, or the equivalent amount of dough required to make two loaves of bread. You can even use frozen bread dough.

Filling:
5 TBL butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 TBL orange juice
1 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp grated orange peel

Orange Glaze:
3 c. confectioner’s sugar
1/3 C orange juice
1 tsp. orange extract and/or grated orange peel

Mix filling together. Roll bread dough into approximately an 18 X 12-inch rectangle on a surface sprayed with PAM spray. Spoon the filling onto the dough, spreading the filling out to touch 3 sides, leaving the long edge closest to you free of filling. This is to help it stick when you roll it later. Once filling is spread out evenly, begin to roll the dough towards you, jelly-roll style. Once dough has become a long cylinder, pinch the edges of dough together.

Slice dough in 3/4 inch increments, using a piece of thread. (Cut about a foot of thread. Slide the thread under the dough. When you have the thread where you’d like to make the cut, cross the two ends over the top of the dough and pull them in opposite direction. You now have a perfectly cut slice of dough that was not squished by a knife.)
Grease a 10 X 15 pan and place the rolls inside, touching each other. Cover with plastic wrap or towel and let rise in a warm location for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Once ready to bake, set temperature on oven to 350 and bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned.
While baking, mix up the glaze. Once they are out of the oven, glaze immediately. You can pour or spoon the glaze over the rolls. Serve warm or cooled, your choice. Enjoy!

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Just one of those days

charliebrownToday is just one of those days.

After 10 days off, the kids all went back to school – or were supposed to. Joshua overslept and missed his bus and since we currently have no way to transport his power chair, there was no way to get him there.

Katie’s bus was super late and after 25 minutes in 2-degree weather, she came home for me to give her a ride.

Kristiana’s ride forgot to stop by to get her, she got her fingers slammed in the car door and she was almost 1/2 hour late. [Read more…]

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Buttermilk Syrup

Buttermilk syrupAnother easy-peasy recipe. We love to have this one with pumpkin waffles, but it goes great on regular waffles, pancakes, French toast, or from a spoon. (Of course, I would not know that from first hand experience – I would never, ever, dip a spoon into a jar of syrup and lick it off. Ever.)

We make a quadruple batch and I think we might have to go to sextuple, but for normal families, here’s the recipe for one batch. [Read more…]

This type of “cake” used to be called “coffee cake” but since we don’t drink coffee in this house, we started calling them “breakfast cake” years ago. This version is our very favorite. I have substituted the apples with strawberries, a strawberry/banana mix, peaches, and more. The texture is slightly different when you use more […]

This type of “cake” used to be called “coffee cake” but since we don’t drink coffee in this house, we started calling them “breakfast cake” years ago. This version is our very favorite. I have substituted the apples with strawberries, a strawberry/banana mix, peaches, and more. The texture is slightly different when you use more […]