Granola Bars

My kids love granola bars.

Who doesn't?

They aren't super expensive, but the cheapest I ever find them is $1.50 for a box of 10. My kids would eat a box every day if they could. I feel like a grouchy bear mom when I hide them in my closet and scrawl threats with a sharpie on every box. 

Today I decided to see if I could make them, and free my family from they Oppressive Granola Bar Tyranny that they have lived under for years.

I used this recipe:

5 C. oats

1 C. chopped almonds 

1 C. coconut

Toast these on a cookie sheet while you put together the rest of the ingredients. Check on it every few minutes, so it doesn't burn.

Take a cookie sheet and cover it with aluminum foil, including the sides. Spray that baby with a nice coat of Pam.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together:

1/2 C. butter / margarine

3/4 C. light Karo Syrup

1/2 C. packed brown sugar

cook until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved the add:

1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla, if you prefer)

1/2 tsp. salt

Pour over  oat mixture, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.

The recipe called for 

 1 C. dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries. 

and 1/2 C. chocolate chips to be added at this time.

If I wanted to eat fruit, I'd eat fruit, we didn't add any fruit. I was also out of chocolate chips and didn't realize it until I had already come this far. 

I used butterscotch chips. 

Butterscotch chips are amazingly good.

I upped the amount to a full cup and added a half cup of white chocolate chips for good measure. 

They melted into the mixture, the recipe said chocolate chips would melt 'a little' but my chips totally melted.

Take the mixture and put it in the foil-lined pan and press it down with your hands. Press it more than you would Rice Krispie Treats, you want these to stay together. Sprinkle more chocolate chips on the top and press them in.

Cool in the fridge for 2 hours, then take them out of the pan and cut into bars.

Store in an airtight container up to a week, but who are we kidding?

 They won't last a week.

They were really yummy and not even a tiny bit healthy. 

The ones you buy at the store are not healthy either, so don't let that stop you from trying these. 

My kids loved them, they were really good and easy to make. 

Domesticity

I am a lover of crafts. 

I just feel calmer and happier when I am in the middle of a project that allows me to be creative and includes a skill that I want to master.  It gives my soul a break from thinking about the things I cannot change and it helps me to feel centered and competent.

 I craft because it is much more effective than therapy ever was, even though it's not actually cheaper. 

Once I find my groove in a project, I tend to be a little obsessed. 

I might possibly be a little obsessed with sewing right now...........

The painter's tape on my fingers to help where I have poked and pinched my fingertips raw may be seen as a cry for help. 

My sweet husband knows it means he chose well when he was Santahusband.

He also knows it's sign that I'm doing better and allowing myself to do the things that make me feel okay.

Yesterday, I decided to teach myself applique. 

There are so many cute things you can make with applique and you can take personalization to a whole new level. 

I started small with a freebie download that looked very simple.

Adorable.

My first attempt was bad.

 The applique shifted, just a hair too far and it was all off, then I wasn't paying attention and realized that I had sewn the tabs of the bib to back of it all and had to cut it off of the hoop.

Oops. 

I thought it was making terrible noises. 

I also.....

FINISHED ANOTHER QUILT.

Just a baby quilt, but I am really happy at how much better the binding is and the patches line up better than my first one. I still have a lot to learn, which means my readers are going to have to endure many more sewing posts. 

Both of these will be mailed to SLC for my sister, Sunnie, who is having a baby in a few months with her husband, Chad. They are a blendy family, too and this will be their first baby together. 

Because I am a Domestic Goddess, I also baked 4 loaves of homemade whole wheat bread yesterday.

Okay, I'm more of a tired schlub who didn't want to go to the store and buy bread, but the ends justify the means, Yo.

I used a new recipe, using vital wheat gluten. I've heard my friends sing the praises of that stuff, but had never used it. I have had struggles getting bread to rise since we moved to New Jersey, so I picked some up, hoping it would help.

It cut the raising time in half and the bread was very light and airy for being whole wheat.

Add me to the vital wheat gluten club.

It was great stuff.

I'm posting the recipe for my friends who asked. 

When I make this again, I'm going to make a couple of changes because my bread was a little more crusty on the outside than I like it. 

The inside had a texture that was similar to white bread though, I think this is one kids will love. 

Bosch Foolproof Whole Wheat Bread

*Makes 6 loaves ( I didn't see that part, and made four. I just NOW realized this. DUH. That explains why it seemed a little overcooked on the outside in order to achieve the perfect inside. Disregard my bread being too crusty, I'm a moron.)

That being said, it was too much for my large 6 qt Kitchenaid to really manage, so if you don't have a house full of bottomless pit young men who will eat 2 loaves within an hour of coming home from school-- I'd cut this in half. It's a huge recipe. 

Whole wheat bread freezes really well, though and you know your visiting teaching families would love you if you brought them some. 

6 cups warm water
2 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
12-15 cups whole wheat flour

Mix 8-9 cups fresh wheat flour and 2 ½ tablespoons yeast together in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl by hand). Add 6 cups warm water and mix to paste consistency. Cover and let sponge 10-15 minutes. Add salt, honey, oil, and gluten. Mix by hand or if using an electric mixer, turn to speed 1 or 2 as motor bears down and add additional flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (be careful not to add too much flour). Let the mixer knead the dough for five minutes. (If using hands, knead for 10 minutes.) Use oil or cooking spray on your hands to form six equal loaves. Take dough immediately from bowl and fill lightly greased (or nonstick) loaf pans ½ to 2/3 full. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap to keep moist. Let the bread rise until doubled, approximately 1 ½ inches above the top of the pan. Place the bread carefully in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 38 minutes. Let cool completely before placing in bags to put in the freezer.

Pumpkin Muffins

My kids have been going a little crazy in the mornings and they've been really overdoing it on the cold cereal.  I don't usually have cereal in the house unless I found a great sale or we have company because the kids will go through it so fast. They will also have cereal as an after school snack, late night snack and eat it any chance they get if we have it.

They went through 8 jumbo sized boxes last week and drank 11 gallons of milk .

Look, we go through an obscene amount of milk in this family, but that was too much, even for our family of Calcium addicts.

 Cereal just doesn't work for our family. 

Today, I made a  big batch of Pumpkin muffins that can be frozen and thawed out the night before so the kids can grab a couple of them and head out in the morning.

They don't look fancy, but they taste really good.

They are probably even better with a nice tall glass of milk, so I may still need to look into purchasing a cow.

Pumpkin Muffins

3 C. flour

1 TB pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp baking soda

3 C. sugar

1 15 oz can pumpkin

4 eggs

1/2 C. veg oil

1/2 C. water

Mix dry ingredients together, then add pumpkin, eggs, oil and water. Mix well. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 way full and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. 

Pretzel Bread

Pretzel Bread.

I know.

 

 

This was a Pinterest find.

Matt's darling cousin, Jenny, had it pinned and it looked really good. I remember in Utah eating pretzel rolls from Costco and how good they were. This bread looked just like those.

How hard could it be?

 

Not even a little bit hard.

 

Almost as easy as that peasant bread I make and it tastes so good.

 It's a giant, salty soft pretzel.

 

 

 Roe had a slice with some cream cheese spread on it and it was fantastic.

I put nasty Velveeta on some and I was in heaven.

I know Velveeta is the Kmart of all cheeses, but I still like it for some things.

 

The boys all just ate it plain and we ate both loaves by the time everyone went to bed last night.

 

Caleb- you want to make this.

 I did it all in my Kitchenaid and it was perfect. Abbie can make this bread, but know that if you have her help make it, you will have to share it with her.

The recipe says it is better warm, so let that be your excuse to eat it all the day you make it.

 

Link and recipe: ( I followed it exactly, turned out perfect)

 

http://www.seededatthetable.com/2013/03/07/sliced-pretzel-bread/

 

 

Sliced Pretzel Bread

Prep Time: 15 (active) 55 (inactive)

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves

Serving Size: 2 slices

!

• 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for topping
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees F)
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
• 22 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
• Vegetable oil (nonstick) spray, for pan and bowl
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cups baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk, beaten with 1 Tablespoon water (for egg wash)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups warm water. Sprinkle the yeast on top. Add the flour and mix with the dough hook attachment on low speed. Once the dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix for another 4 to 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the dough from the bowl, wipe the bowl and then spray with the vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, turning once to cover both sides with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for approximately 45-50 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and adjust the oven rack to the lower third of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with vegetable oil; set aside. (Alternatively, you can use a silicone liner with no spray.)

Turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface or pastry mat. Divide into two equal halves. Shape into loaves and place side by side onto the lined baking sheet. Cover lightly with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

Bring the 10 cups of water to a boil in a large sauce pan or stock pot, then add the baking soda.

Carefully place one loaf in the boiling water for 30 to 40 seconds, turning once. Use a large slotted spoon or spatula to remove from the water and return to the pan. Repeat with second loaf. Brush the top of each loaf with the egg wash then sprinkle with kosher salt. Use a sharp knife to score a shallow "X" on the top of each loaf.

Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown and the sound of tapping the loaf is hollow (approximately 20 to 25 minutes.) Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

Notes

If you do not plan to consume the bread the same day, then I would suggest freezing immediately after they hit room temperature. The more fresh they are when you freeze them, the better. Throw them in a freezer bag and freeze up to 1 month. Reheat in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes (until heated through). This is what I do, and they taste just as fresh!

 

 

Peasant Bread

 

I've seen this recipe make the rounds on Pinterest a lot lately.

No-Knead Peasant Bread.

 

 

No knead? I love to make bread, I am good at making bread, but I have just enough OCD that I hate hate hate having to get my hands all gunky to knead it. It's not so much my hands, but the gunk that gets under my fingernails and in my ring and.....

Wow, this post got gross all of a sudden.

Anyway, this was delicious.

It was crazy easy and had really good flavor. That might be due to the fact that it bakes in a pool of butter, but what's the point of baking if it doesn't involve butter?

Make it.

It's yummy.

 

 

Peasant Bread

4 C. flour

2 tsp. salt

2 C. lukewarm water

1 TB sugar

2 tsp (or 1 packet) yeast

1 stick margarine

 

In a small bowl, mix the sugar in the water until it dissolves, then add the yeast. Stir with a non metal spoon and let it sit until it's foamy- usually about 10 minutes.

 

In a larger bowl, sift together the flour and salt.

 

Once the yeast is all yeastified, add it to the flour and salt mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.

This will make a really wet and sticky dough.

Cover it with plastic and let it rise until doubled.

 

Once it has doubled, punch it down and get two bowls that can withstand baking. Pyrex is just perfect. Divide the margarine in half and grease your bowls generously with the butter and then just leave the rest of the stick of butter in the middle of the bottom of the bowl. If you don't want all of that butter, then only grease the bowl and skip the glob in the bottom, but know that I am sad for you.

 

Divide the punched down dough in half and put in the bowls.

You'll get messy unless you are more  OCD than I am and can manage to accomplish this with a couple of forks like the woman on Pinterest did.

I about dropped dough on the floor when I tried, so I just used my hands. It's still super sticky and wet dough.

That's okay.

Cover and let it rise until double again.

 

A good rule of thumb when having bread rise- always rise until double that first time, don't rush this by not letting it actually double. The second rise tends to take half as long as the first rise. I have a knack for having my bread rise annoyingly slow, so even if the recipe says rise for an hour or until doubled-- wait until it is doubled. I have had that 'hour' take 3 hours before, and I never regret just letting it take as long as it needs to take.

 

Anyway----once it's doubled again- bake the bread in a preheated 425 oven for 10 minutes, then turn the oven to 375 and bake for 22-25 more minutes.

 

When you take it out, smother butter on the top.

It should slide right out of the bowl and you will see how it soaked up all of that heart clogging butter from the bottom.

You will think to yourself "I love Chris. I love her so much."

 

And if it doesn't turn out....then blame Pinterest.

 

Blah Blah Blah and Cookies

The kids have half- days all week until Thanksgiving.

That gives me 30 minutes to blog this afternoon before my Supermom powers need to be activated again for the day.

Lately, it seems like they are needed all of the time. That's not a bad thing at all. I love being a mom, it just means I am not able to spend time on the blog. I have this idea that my posts should have some sort of point, however, life doesn't always provide me with a clear, easy to blog about point, so I just put off posting. I think I was happier when my posts had no point and I didn't pressure myself. I need to find the balance still.

Isn't that just the story of every one's life? You struggle to find balance, you struggle to decide what the focus needs to be and to juggle it all. You don't want to let  go of the other things that you still hold dear, you just can't put them at the top of the list for awhile.

My life is still making progress, going in a direction that I believe is good, it's just busy.

And, even though they are noisy and they leave Go-gurt wrappers all over the house and 'forget' do do their homework every single day--I prefer to have the kids here at home than anywhere else. I love half days, I love school breaks and I love having the little beasties around.

It wasn't so fun when we had no power, but that didn't last forever, thankfully.

Zane has been gone a lot lately, helping crews from the church clean up the areas that are still living a nightmare in our area. He's always sunburned and covered in dirt, but I could not be more proud of him.

In stake conference last month, we gained a new stake president, but 'lost' our dear Bishop in the process.

He'll be a great Stake President, though,  that's for sure.

Yesterday, they called the new Bishop.

He is absolutely awesome.

 I cannot say enough good about this man.

We are so excited that it was hard not to cheer when the announcement was made.

Our new Bishop was one of the first to extend a sincere and loving hand of friendship to us when we moved here, he and his wife absolutely radiate joy and are a ray of sunshine. They are honest people, hard workers and spend so much of their time serving others that we are humbled to even have such wonderful people in our lives, to count them as friends.

We love their children and spending time with their entire family, we love how our new Bishop has always looked out for our sons, even making sure he connected with Parker when he was here this summer.

 His friendship and heart that is turned to the Lord reminded me of what it was like to have Jeff Kendall as our Bishop in Taylorsville. Jeff Kendall changed out lives forever, he changed our family and I personally learned that no matter what the storms may be around you, that with the Savior, the words "peace , peace be still" and turning your life towards Him will bring you comfort and joy. He taught me how to find peace, that I deserved it and to embrace it. It was a new concept for me as I spent the first 30 years of my life just trying to outlast the storms. Come to Jesus and there will be still waters.

That knowledge changed my life for good.

My heart is filled with happiness over the calling of our new Bishop.

He is the best of us, an example and this man is a blessing to everyone who meets him.

We (already) love Bishop Hawkins.

 

When the announcement was made that a new Bishop was called and we'd find out on Sunday who it was, we were all wondering who it would be. We were speculating on who we thought was already kind of playing the role, who would bring specific spiritual gifts to the ward and having a lot of discussion about how leadership is chosen in the church.

We talked about how sometimes you 'click' with a leader, sometimes you don't. Sometimes leaders make mistakes and screw up and it's hard to know what to do with that. Personalities can clash, mistakes from the past can rise up and surface and weaknesses are often exposed in both the leaders and the congregation. People are not perfect.

In church this week, one of the speakers shared a quote she'd heard and I loved it:

"Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners."

Sometimes when there are leadership changes in a ward, we forget that those who are called have their own struggles and trials,too.

Always, the Lord has something for you to learn.

Always, there is a purpose.

 

There have been leaders that, in all honesty, I could not stand on a personal level. Sometimes it was really hard for me to pick out the good from when they said when it was being drowned out by who was saying it.

I had a choice.

 I could decide that the leader was a jerk and therefore, none of the counsel applied to me, or I could decide that I wasn't going to let someone else's annoying personality or bad choices decide whether or not I felt the Spirit.

I would pray that I could hear the message that God had for me, instead of the grating voice of the person who pushed my buttons.

In every instance where I asked the Lord to help me get something out of a meeting or an interaction I was going to be having with that leader, the Lord helped me out. I left the encounters surprised that I wasn't angry or upset and I had a good spiritual experience, in spite of the fact that a person I thought was a total jerk was delivering the message.

I didn't leave with a burning desire to invite them over for dinner, but I did leave with the comfort that God knows what he is doing and even when there are a lot of problems, he sees a bigger picture and he will make sure that everything is okay.

 

(I'm not writing that because there are any concerns or problems with our new leadership change, it's just a topic we have been discussing in our home this week.)

 

Also....

I made these cookies:

 

They were ohmygoshsogood

Chewy and crispy.

This one goes in my cookie rotation for sure. It uses a lot of butter, but oh, it uses it well.

Enjoy.
 

Butterscotch cookies

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized slices plus 2 Tablespoons butter, softened

1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2- 3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

 

Sugar Dredging Mixture

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

           2 tablespoons sugar

 

1 Preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Vigorously whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside. Mix together the sugar dredging mixture in another bowl and set aside.

2 Place 10 tablespoons of butter into a thick-bottomed skillet over medium heat. The butter will foam a bit before subsiding. Once the butter takes on a tan color and begins to smell nutty take it off of the heat. Add the other two tablespoons of butter and mix it in until it melts.

3 Pour the brown butter into a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the brown sugar and salt and mix. Add the egg, egg yolk, soft butter, and vanilla extract and mix together, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl at least once. Add the flour mixture in three increments being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom once or twice. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. The dough will be very thick, the texture resembled gingerbread cookie dough.

4 Take 1/2 to full tablespoon-sized pieces of dough (you can make them a bit bigger or smaller to your liking, just make sure the pieces of dough are all the same size) and gently roll them into ball shapes.  Roll them in the sugar dredging mixture until well-coated.

5 Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have browned a bit. Be careful not to over-bake. Allow to cool on the sheet for one minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.



 

 

Granola, Eaten In Moderation....

Granola is such great stuff.

My grandmother's granola was the best, I've never had anything that quite compared to what Grandma Westfall use to make. I know that time and memory have probably transformed her granola from being simply great into the most amazing marriage of oats and coconut ever to occur on this planet.

Don't get me started on her peaches.

Romy and I love granola more than others in this house. 

When I buy it, I know that as much as I want to eat an entire box, it will have consequences.

One does not simply eat an entire box of high fiber cereal.

I will spare you the story of the Great Cracklin' Oat Bran Girls Camp Disaster of 1988.

Romy has been told to go easy on the granola and she has been told the reasons why, but she just caved in the face of temptation. 

She ate nothing but granola for almost 2 days, until the box was empty.

Live and learn, Kid.....

She wanted to miss school and I told her we do not miss school for tummy troubles due to eating a horse-size portion of grains. I gave her some Kaopectate and sent a note to her teachers, telling them that Romy was NOT sick, but she was over-fibered and if she asks to use the restroom, to please let her go as often as she asked.

(taken yesterday, NOT on  Fiberday)

She was mortified, but she survived.

She vowed to NEVER eat granola again........until yesterday, less than one week after her fiber fiasco.

I made granola yesterday and she's having a hard time finding anything else to eat because it's so good.

It's my own twist to a recipe that was just a little too bland.

Olson Peanut Butter Granola

2 cup light Karo Syrup 

1 cup peanut butter

Microwave for 1 minute, blend together

add 4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mix together

add

6 C quick oats

1 C chopped peanuts (I used dry roasted, the kind you snack on because I like salty and sweet)

1/2 c sliced almonds

1 C coconut

Mix it all together in a big bowl until all of the dry ingredients are coated. 

Divide between two cookie sheets and spread out. 

bake at 275 for 40-50 minutes, take it out and stir it every 15 or the bottom and edges will overcook and burn.

I do not like fruit in my cereal and this granola is not overly sweet. It's a crunchy nutty granola with a subtle peanut butter flavor. Add whatever you think will make it yummy to you. If you want a ton of peanut butter flavor, add another half cup or full cup of peanut butter. It's granola, you can't screw this up. I'm going to add hot cocoa mix next time and see how that goes. 

Eat it, it's good.

Just don't eat it all in one day. 

Muchas Cupcakeitas

Last night was Taco Night at the Olson House.

We don't have a standing, weekly Taco Night, but I've read of such things on blogs and Pinterest boards.

Okay, I just made that up, but I needed an excuse to say 'Taco Night' because it's fun to say and I didn't want to mislead anyone into thinking it's an actual thing here. 

We were not up to ending the meal with a pinata, but I did make these cupcakes and they were ah-may-ZING.

It was a semi homemade-esque recipe I came up with myself.

Sometimes my cupcakes run on the dry side, these were moist and muy fantastico.

Enjoy:

Sticky Dulce de Leche Cupcakes 

1 box yellow cake mix

1 package instant butterscotch pudding

3 eggs

1 stick soft butter or margarine

2/3 c. milk

1/3 can dulce de leche (you will use the rest later)

1/2 c water

1/4 tsp orange zest (Thank you Lisa!)

--

Whip all that business together. 

batter should be fluffy and airy, the pudding makes it have a more foamy texture than regular cake batter. 

full cupcake cups about 2/3 full and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until done

icing:

1/2 package cream cheese

1/2 stick soft butter

another 1/4 tsp orange zest

dash of cinnamon

1/3 can of dulce de leche

1/4 cup milk

Whip that together, then add powdered sugar until it's the consistence you like- I used about 2-3 cups.

With remaining dulce de leche, microwave it until it is a liquid. I mixed a little caramel syrup we had for ice cream, too. Needs to be 'drizzle' consistency. (I poured mine into the empty caramel syrup bottle.)

Frost the cupcake and drizzle fo'shizzle.

Yeah, I just said 'for shizzle.'

What?

Don't judge me, Dawg.

Make the cupcakes and then remember why you put up with this from me. 

Taco Night will never be the same.

Baking...Like a Boss

I cannot express how much I love this new season.

They call it "fall" here.

(Not my picture, but one of our town )

It's amazing.

I know you have autumn in Utah, but to tell the truth.....not like this.

I grew up in Arizona. There is not such thing as Autumn/Fall. It's too hot to wear long sleeves when you go Trick or Treating and sometime in November, it's finally not like living on the surface of the sun. You might even need a sweatshirt for the months of December -February. There are no piles of leaves to jump in and your jack-o-lantern starts to rot if you carve it more than a week before Halloween.

Don't get me wrong, it was great to be a teenager in the land that heavy winter coats forgot. 

When I moved to Utah, I was delighted to have Spring and Fall.

Seasons!

However, those seasons are what I referred to as Sybil Time. You'd start off the morning freezing, by noon it would be so hot you considered just leaving that coat you wore in the morning by the side of the road, it was too hot to even carry the stupid thing. Sometimes it would freeze early and ruin your garden and just as you were pulling out the sweaters and accepting the cold weather, it would be 85 degrees again for a few weeks.

The weather in Salt Lake had multiple personalities most of the time. 

Summer, Winter and "Mother Nature has a hangover, so she'll just put on whatever looks clean."

Here, we've had this GROSS humid summer.  It's awful. Cooking is terrible because even the crock pot makes the whole house seem to heat up. I used my oven as little as possible and every time I did, we paid the price. Our electric bill was insane. It was way worse than any bill I'd had in the worst Arizona summers. we were all dehydrated and the summer weather was a huge shock to our bodies and we had a lot of migraines and stink.

Then, September came and slowly the weather has been cooling down. One morning there was a crisp breeze and it practically smelled like Autumn. I was expecting it to be a fluke, but every day it's just a little bit cooler and the air feels a little more clean and the leaves are slowly changing color. In Utah, you have window of about 1-3 weeks where the leaves all turn and you make sure to load up the kids and drive to the mountains if you want to see all of that "autumn" stuff in nature- at least, that's how we experienced it. 

The house is pleasant. The weather outside is amazing. Cool enough to wear jeans now, but they don't become denim sauna pants by late afternoon. It's comfortable and I can cook now without my whole house going into shock.

I promised Zane I'd make pumpkin roll. It's his favorite dessert I make and I don't blame him. It's as addictive as crack. Sweet pumpkin and cream cheese flavored crack.

I made one today, but it looks bad. I used the wrong pan, so the cake was too thin and even though it tastes like orange heaven, it looks like an orange poo.

So I'll post a picture of one that another person baked.

Someone who cooled it the right way and used the right pan and who sifts her powdered sugar so it doesn't look like clumps of carpet fresh.

The recipe I use is the one you find on the inside of the can of Libby's Pumpkin. If you haven't made this- DO IT. Everyone you share it with will want to kiss you after they are done licking the filling off their fingers and singing songs of praise. It's so good.

I also made a new recipe today.

We're having pasta for dinner tonight and since I was feeling extra bake-y I made bread sticks.

They were so easy and they are super good.

I got the recipe from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, Mom's Best Recipes.

The think that makes these amazing is that they are quick and simple and you cook them in a pool of butter.

I know!

Buttery Bread Sticks

1T Yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1/2 t. salt

3 C flour

1/2 C butter

---

Preheat the oven to 350.

 Take your stick of butter and put it on a shallow baking sheet and pop it in the oven until it melts.

put yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and let it do it's thing for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix flour & salt, then add yeast mixture.

knead until it's firm and elastic. I just did it all with the dough hook in my mixer, it worked great. I think I let it run about 5 minutes. The recipe says hand knead for 10. 

Whatever floats your boat.

Let the dough rest and raise for about 10 minutes, then divide it into 12 balls- roll and shape like bread sticks.

Take your bread stick snakes and roll them in the melted butter in the pan.

I sprinkled garlic powder on mine, if we had Parmesan cheese in the house I would have used some of that, too.

Let the sticks rise in the pan of buttery goodness for 15-20 minutes.

Then brush on some more of the butter, just to make sure it's going to make your heart stop beating for sure.

Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Pinch yourself that they were that easy and they are so freaking good. 

Olive Garden has nothing on these, I'm telling you.

 It's my new favorite roll recipe.

The bottom is soaked with butter and has a light flaky crust on it, but they are very soft.(

 I turned one upside down so you could get an idea of how much butter those babies soaked up, but it looks burned in the picture. It's not burned, just too much of whatever Instagram effect I used/)

They took about an hour start to finish. It makes 12 bread

sticks, but I can't count so I only made 8. The story I'm telling the family is that it only made 7 though because I was hungry, Yo.

There I go again with the "Yo."

That's my cue to stop typing and eat some pumpkin roll.