Conference Weekend Bliss

I love General Conference Weekend, especially when we get to stay home to enjoy it! I had big plans to deliver hot, homemade cinnamon rolls to my visiting teaching ladies in the morning, but the recipe didn't end up making enough to supply all of their families so I had to adjust my plan. I opted to deliver some to our next door neighbors and to my ward friend Cathy's family instead.


When I got home and ate one of the rolls myself I was rather disappointed. They were tasty, but not as light and fluffy as I'd hoped. I had made the dough the night before and then put it in the fridge for the night, and even though they had 2.5 hours to raise in the morning they didn't really get there.


I loved the morning session of conference and couldn't believe how quickly the time flew by (that's not always the case). I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk. (He is always a favorite with me.)

• Slow down a little, steady the course and focus on the fundamentals when facing life's turbulence.
• It's rather easy to be busy. (This is profound isn't it?! I think this is an epidemic among people today, and love how he basically said we're choosing to be too busy.)
• We sometimes over complicate our lives. (Who doesn't know someone guilty of this...which means we most likely are too.)
• Any virtue can become a vice. (Yikes!)

• Focus on the things that matter most. (Apparently this is a reminder I need often.)
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
• Turning our ways to His ways is the beginning of our wisdom.
• We need to master the fundamentals.
• Our relationship with God is most sacred. Our lives become more stable and secure as we grow closer to Him. We need time alone with the Lord.
• We must place importance on our time with our families. We need to talk with, not about each other. We should approach God together through prayer, scripture study and church worship.
• Our relationship with our fellowman is important. We should listen to and love others.
• We need to have a good relationship with ourselves. Some people can't get along with themselves (so sad and true). Learn to see yourself as heavenly Father sees you.
• Strength comes from being settled on a firm foundation.

I was so determined to make good rolls that I ended up starting over after the morning session of conference. This time I made raspberry filling instead of cinnamon. They definitely turned out better, but still weren't like the rolls the woman I got the recipe from makes. Then again, it was only my 2nd time ever making them so I'm cutting myself some slack.


The raspberry filling sort of bubbled up and oozed out, so there was barely an essence of raspberry in these. I still at 2.5 of them, but they weren't what I'd been dreaming of.


While Randy and Landon were at the Priesthood Session, Whitney, Lori and I went to Michelle's house to join her cousin Emily, Eva and Lucas for their traditional donut-making night.


When I asked Emily why she was wearing two different socks she informed me that these are indeed a match because they are the same shade of blue and have both lost their sock partner. That seemed like good logic to me.


The donut dough was taking a long time to rise, so we just hung out talking (and knitting) while we waited.


Marc and Max came home and told us the highlights from the Priesthood session and Marc typed his favorite quote from the night into his iPhone. (The quote was from President Uchtdorf.)


Michelle stood over the hot fryer and did all the cooking, Emily did the glazing, and Lori and I stood ready to receive and eat the hot donuts...we were so helpful.


This was the first time they had tried a chocolate glaze, and Marc basically called it an abomination. It was alright, but the regular glazed donuts were a bit of heaven on earth!

**Did you do anything for your visiting teaching people?
Do you have sweet-roll making skills?
What was your favorite talk?
Have you ever made donuts?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Today was a high-calorie day for sure!

Half Baked

Saturday was a glorious stay-home day.
I slept in until 8:45.
Had a phone appointment with Betsy (woohoo).
Spent an hour or so blogging.


It was delightfully snowy outside (finally) which added greatly to the holiday mood.
I had a long, hot shower (so nice not to have to rush to be somewhere).

{Our chocolate covered lips}

Then Whitney and I spent much of the day making treats for our ward Christmas party and then cookies for the next day's teacher appreciation time in primary.


Amazingly, after spending the day in the kitchen I was feeling rather festive and actually wanted to go to the Christmas party. I'm usually such a homebody and always feel so "done" by the end of the day that I never want to go anywhere, so I was pleasantly surprised. (Notice my new mixer, it seems mighty deluxe after having the same one for 15 years!)


The primary kids sang a couple Christmas songs (which were so sweet). Landon was a shepherd as part of the Nativity scene so he didn't have to sing. He ended up being a rather serious and overheated shepherd though, only cracking a smile when this little 3 year old kid was making us laugh by taking pictures of everything.


This little guy was so funny. He totally knew what he was doing with the camera and was running around taking lots of pictures.

He took his job seriously and when he saw me taking pictures of him, he turned the camera on me. I'm afraid of the pictures he took, hopefully his mother deleted them.

Whitney waited in line for a long, long time to talk to Santa. He grunted when she sat down! She didn't notice, but I was laughing. She is a solid girl, and he had been visiting mostly with little kids. She was very concerned about telling him what she wanted (dinosaur and animal toys) even though she knew he wasn't the "real" Santa.


Landon surprised me by talking to Santa too. He waited until the very end of the night to talk to him, and I'm assuming he swallowed his pride to do so just in case it would help the chances of getting the Nintendo DS Lite that he wants so badly.

**Have you done any holiday baking yet?
Do you like Christmas parties?
Is talking to Santa serious business for your kids?**

The New Recipes

I don't love cooking and baking, but every now and again (usually at Christmas time or when I'm hosting something) I get the inclination. For book club this week I ended up making a bundt cake recipe from Kelly, a cookie recipe from Jenn and a hot chocolate recipe I got online. They all turned out great, even though my 15 year old mixer died while I was making these.

Kelly's Peppermint Truffle Cake

Filling
1 (6-oz.) package (or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips.
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk – you want the sweet, sticky stuff)
½ teaspoon peppermint extract

Cake
1 (18.25-oz.) pkg. devil’s food cake mix
1 (8-oz.) container nonfat sour cream (you can use the fat kind, too)
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs

Icing
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ oz. cream cheese, softened
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
6 hard peppermint candies, finely crushed

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan (or bundt pan). (Pam with Flour makes this sooo easy.) In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine all filling ingredients. Microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds; stir until melted and smooth. If necessary, microwave an additional 10 to 20 seconds. Set aside.

2. In large bowl, combine all cake ingredients; beat with electric mixer at low speed until combined. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Spoon into greased and floured pan. Drop spoonfuls of filling over batter, keeping filling away from sides of pan.

3. Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean and edges begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto wire rack. Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. (Center of cake may sink slightly during cooling.)

4. In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese and 1 tablespoon of the milk; beat with wire whisk until smooth, adding additional milk until of desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle icing over cooled cake. Sprinkle with crushed candy. Store in refrigerator.

HIGH ALTITUDE (ABOVE 3500 FT): For cake, add 2 tablespoons flour to dry cake mix. Decrease oil to 2 tablespoons and increase eggs to 4. Bake at 375°F for 40 to 45 minutes.


Jenn's Honey Drop Cookies (These taste like ginger snaps)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add honey and eggs, beat until smooth. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly to wet mixture.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.
Place 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Let sit for 2 minutes on cookie sheet and the remove to wire rack.


Creamy Hot Cocoa
(serves 4)

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn't scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

**Have you made any of these recipes?
What are your holiday favorites?
What kind of mixer do you have?