Christmas Gifts

Well Christmas is finally over. I can't believe how fast it flew by. Mike keeps saying that our Christmas isn't over yet because we have spent every night over at my parents. This year I decided to make the presents that we gave our fathers. This was so much fun. For Mike's dad I embroidered the name of his biker gang. This was my first time and this is how it turned out. I was so excited!

For my dad I went to the best fabric store ever. The name of the store is called The Fabric Center. It has every kind of fabric that you could possibly need. The UofU patterned fabric is polar fleece and the back is rosebud cuddle fabric. As my friend Katie would say it is a little piece of heaven. I then tied it with cross-strich thread. Click here if you would like to find out more about The Fabric Center.

I was reminded this year that the best gifts are not determined by how much you spend but by the thought that went into it. My husband gave me the best gift this year. He framed our marriage license (which has been rolled up sitting on our dresser for almost 4years.). I was so touched I cried...which isn't that uncommon for me these days.

For our dogs we got these matching sweaters from Old Navy's Black Friday sale.

Goal # 4

My mom made all of the grandkids hats this year. I am so amazed by my mom. So I have made learned to crochet my next goal. For all of you who have kids I found the neatest idea to help your kids make things out of yarn. Family Fun has lots of great ideas, if you would like to find out more follow the link.

To go along with my previous goal I also made Christmas cupcakes for the ladies that I visit teach. I used the same pumpkin spice recipe that I used for the pumpkins but I loaded two colors into the piping bag and put a star tip on the end.

I also put chocolate frosting on some of them. I actually preffer the chocolate to the vanilla.

This year my family started a new tradition. Instead of drawing names and exchanging gifts with my siblings we did a family bake-off. My mom baught a plate and then put vynal on it that said "Jensen Family Bake-Off Head Chef". All of us made deserts (even some of the kids got in on the action and made their own deserts.) and then we judged each desert on presentation (10 points), originality (20 points), and taste (20 points). Then the adult winner won the plate and the kid winner won a special present which was markers. Next year we are going to make the voting blind so we wont know who brought what desert and for the kids next year we are going to make them a chef hat that we are going to emboider. Each year the previous adult winner will bring back the plate and it will rotate around the family. Here are some pictures of this years bake-off.

Here all of the deserts being presented.
Teresa brought these nummy cookies.

Mollie made the BTS cake

This is the desert that I contributed. My favorite holiday treat is peppermint bark. So I used my favorite sugar cookie recepie and added candy cane and white chocolate to the mix. Then I made a white chocolate peppermint frosting for the top.

Miles was the adult winner with his flourless chocolate cake.

Shannon's was my favorite. She made a chocolate pecan turtle cake.

My niece made up this recipe and was the kid winner this year.The Barrick kids made salt water taffy.

Everyone was truely winners with this fun activity. We had lots of fun making, tasting, and judging.

This month we were able to go to the temple with a group of our friends to go along with my goal. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple which is absolutely beautiful!

Another activity I did to go along with my cooking goal is that we made spudnuts. It was so much fun and it made enough doughnuts for an army. I was able to give some to my neighbors and to my family. If you have kids this is a great activity to do with them. They can help glaze or cover them with cinnomon sugar or powdered sugar.

My next post will be about setting good New Years goals.

Thanksgiving is OVER!

Last week was a busy week. On Thursday we went over to my parent’s house for dinner. We had planned on going over at noon and spending all day playing games and eating. Because I am the person that I am I wanted to make as many delicious things as I could. Of course I didn't want to make anything a day early to save my sanity so my husband and I spent all morning cooking. We didn't finish until noon and we both still had to get ready. We ended up getting to my parents at 1:45, 15 minutes before dinner started. It turned out wonderful though and everything was delicious! I didn't take any pictures but this is what Mike and I made.

Apple Pie (I used store bought crust which I will never use for pie again...GROSS!)
This is from last year with my own crust recipe. So much better!
Pumpkin Pie

These are the pies Mike made last year. They look the same just the different crust this year.

Cinnamon Rolls (this was the best! Mike's mom's recipe is the best!)
Empanadas (also used store bough pie dough and it turned out delicious)
Corn
There were many other delicious things on the menu. One of my favorites my brother and sister-in-law made stuffed mushrooms. The recipe is SO SIMPLE!
You take the stems out of mushrooms and hollow them out so all your left with is an empty cap. Then you mix cooked Collosimo's Sausage (taken out of the casing) and mix it with cream cheese (it would also be delicious to add some ptarmigan regiano cheese). Fill the mushroom caps and cook in the oven at 350.

On Saturday Mike and I went to dinner and Temple Square with his brother Rob and his kids. It was so much fun and reminded me of our wedding day. I love Temple Square during Christmas time. This led me to my next goal:

Burnie all bundled up for our walk around Temple Square

Goal # 3
Go to the temple once a month

Mike and I were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Friday and it was wonderful. We were supposed to go with my family but our wires got crossed and we ended up at different temples. We got a laugh out of it because what other place in the world could you say "lets meet at the temple" and end up at two different temples. We are so blessed to have so many temples around us and we haven't been taking advantage of this great blessing.

  If you would like to find out more about The Church of Jesus Christ go to this website http://www.lds.org/

Cooking For My Hubby

Goal #1
I want to make a nutritious meal at least 5 times a week.

Goal #2
I want to learn how to pipe decorations for cakes and cupcakes.

I recently bought an amazing book called Hello Cupcake. I decided to make the punkpkin cupcakes for my family dinner tomorrow. They didn't turn out half bad. I need to work on my coloring for the frosting though. I used the recepie in the book for their punpkin spice cupcake. It is delicious and very easy. Most of the recepies in the book start out with a boxed cake mix and then you just add in a few other flavoring. This is how my cupcakes turned out.

Why The Blog?

So I have decided to start a blog. Not to document all of the "awesome" things I do, but more of a goal tracker. I don't know about you but I get down on myself a lot because I can't do everything. My mom often tells me "you can't eat the whole elephant at once, you have to eat it piece by piece." I was inspired by one of my best friends Katie. She continues to be such a great example of achieving her goals. If you would like to see Katie's awesome blog follow this link: http://www.favoritesandthings.blogspot.com/
So for any of you who get excited about finding great deals, crafting, reading, and cooking this blog will list all of my frinds, sucesses, and failures. WELCOME :)