Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

 

I saw this cute idea on Pintrest.  It's more fun than I thought it would be.  First, I cut out a TON of 3" pink hearts (thanks, Cricut. . . again!).  Stacked them in four stacks.  Then I put initials on each heart per stack (H for Heidi, Sean, W for William and C for Charlotte).  Then I had a little family meeting to explain the game.  I got out a large clear vase and told them we were going to see how much we can fill this up before Valentine's Day.  In order to fill it up, we needed to hand out hearts to those we love in our family.  But, it needs to be a surprise!  When you give someone a heart, it's like saying, "I love you!"  When you get a heart, you drop it in the vase and that's how we fill it.  I swear you can't help but smile when you find these hearts in the least likely of places.  William usually will set one on my pillow or on the floor in front of my door.  Sean has been more creative.  I've found hearts on my Diet Coke in the fridge, inside my Nook cover, and even in each shoe!  I've handed my share out and helped Charlotte.  We've put them in toy boxes, Sean's jacket and cover, William's Wii controller, under car keys, etc.  It's been great and our jar is almost half full already!  I totally recommend this game to anyone.

Recipe of the Month

Here's a rib sticking, tummy warming, favorite.  Homemade manicotti!  It's so easy to make and is a real crowd pleaser.  This is especially a good meal for taking to someone sick or home from the hospital.  You'll need a couple of things you might not have on hand so it may require a special trip to the grocery store.  You'll need:

2 cups of shredded pizza cheese (I use the kind in a bag.  Remember I'm lazy!)

2 tubs (32 oz each) of ricotta cheese (I use whole milk but if skim would work too)

2 Tbs dried basil

1 1/2 tsp salt

Combine all of the ricotta and half of the pizza cheese with the basil and salt.  Then spoon the cheese mix into  a gallon sized Ziploc bag.  Set aside.

Now get a baking dish or roasting pan and spray the bottom and edges with Pam.  Then spoon your favorite pasta sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.  I used Italian Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.  (You will eventually use 2 24oz jars of sauce.  If you make your own make sure you have about 48 oz of it). Get a large stockpot of water on the burner.  Salt the water and bring to a boil.  While that's heating up get the pasta ready.  I used:

1 pkg. Lasagna Sheets (found in the the dairy dept. or by the other refrigerated pasta)

Lasagna sheets are thick flat sheets of pasta that just need to be blanched.  If you don't have the sheets, I guess you can use manicotti tubes and fill those.  You'll need to follow the package directions about preparing them and skip to the part about the filling.

Cut your sheets in half so you have 16 squares.  Drop them in the boiling water, one at a time, and boil for about 1 1/2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then drain and transfer to a large bowl of ice water 30 seconds.  Remove and set aside.

Now you're ready for the filling!  This is a basic cheese filling but you can add stuff to it.  A box of frozen chopped spinach would be tasty.  Maybe some chopped sun dried tomatoes. . .

Line up a few at a time on a large flat work surface.  Get your cheese filling bag and snip the bottom corner with some scissors.  Pipe cheese filling down the center of each square.  Roll and place, seam side down, in the sauced pan.  Fill the pan then coat more sauce all over the top of the manicotti.   Cover with parchment paper on top of the sauce and then foil on top of that.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes.  Then take off the foil and parchment and cover with the rest of the pizza cheese.  I love me some cheese so I put some extra on for good measure.  Put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.  Your kitchen will smell like you've died and gone to Italy!!  After you pull it out, let it rest for about 15 minutes and serve with extra pasta sauce.  Salute!

Happy Wii Day!

William has wanted a Nintendo Wii for YEARS.  Ever since he first played one at my sister's house he's been hooked.  At first he was too young, then we didn't have a proper TV for it, then blah, blah, blah.  We just kept putting it off.  Well, William had decided  months ago to save his money for a Wii.  He has a large money jar and little by little it would fill up as he earned money or saved it from birthdays or grandparents.  Some of his chores include vacuuming the kitchen floor, unloading the dishwasher, cleaning his room, dusting, and helping with putting laundry away.  These go for 50 cents a job.  He has also done a couple of big ticket jobs like clean and vacuum the car (for 2 dollars).  Sean and I have also helped him out by putting loose change in his jar when he wasn't looking.

Well, today was the Day of Days!  William finally had enough to buy his Wii.  He was so proud.  Sean took him to the bank to change out his coins.  He made sure they went at a slow time so the tellers would be more cooperative.  He had over $50 in change alone!  Then they headed to the store so William could pick out the box and pay for it with his own money.  What a big guy!

Apparently the box was super heavy so William couldn't keep his smile going!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from William and Charlotte!

Ward Christmas Dinner

I have a lot to catch up on.  I'll start with the event that took up a lot of time in the last few weeks, our ward Christmas dinner.  Here's the story behind the event:

First of all, in the middle of October, our ward made the choice to exhaust the entire rest of the year's budget to charter 2 buses to take families to the DC Temple.  It was a controversial decision but it was Bishop's choice to make.  Anyway, it was announced in Relief Society that our Christmas dinner would be a simple potluck and the Young Men's auxiliary was in charge.  It was an effort to teach us a lesson in sacrifice, ie. we sacrificed our fancy party for a trip to the temple.  I was shocked!  The Christmas dinner should be the nicest event of the year!  I heard the chatter from other members who felt the same.  We were all troubled over the dinner and how it might turn investigators, friends, and family members off.  Anyway, after stewing over it for a week or so, I volunteered to help with the decorating.  With a ton of planning, shopping, and countless hours on Pintrest for inspiration I was able to make this party look great in spite of the simple potluck.  Here's what I did.  I had the food lined up in the overflow and shut the partition walls 2/3 to hide the potluck-y-ness of the food tables.  Also, I had Sean string lights all across the cultural hall so we could dim the lights way down and have an intimate setting.  I brought all of my Christmas decorations including my trees, wreaths, centerpieces, battery powered lights, and even my Santa collection.  

 

 

 

 

But I think that set this party apart was the Hot Chocolate Bar.  I was so excited to do this.  I had 3 Crock Pots full of hot chocolate and an assortment of condiments including

Crushed Peppermint

Mini Marshmallows

Mini Chocolate Chips and White Chocolate Chips

Peppermint Stirrers

Chocolate Sprinkles

Cans of Whipped Cream
Marshmallow Peeps on a Stick
Cinnamon
Chocolate Powder for Dusting

Gingersnaps (for dunking)

We had a Santa suit but no one to fill it.  So Sean, being the best helper ever, volunteered for the job.  To make things run more smoothly, we had Santa make his arrival while people were eating.  He went around to visit each table for photo ops and have his elves (the Young Men) hand out a special treat bag for the kids.  This way, we didn't have a huge lineup after the dinner and we could end the evening on a more spiritual note.  It worked like a charm.  Sean was a great Santa in spite of not really wanting the job to begin with. 

 

 

  Then we had a variety of performances from members including a piano duet, singers, and poetry readings.  We ended the night with some Christmas carols and were done by 8pm.  I was so exhausted by the end of the night.  Good thing my kids didn't mind being left with another family for most of the night.  Thankfully, we had a ton of help with the clean up and we were home a little after 9pm.  It was a ton of work and I had the biggest headache the whole day and night, but hearing the people tell me that they had never been to a nicer Church dinner made it all worth it.  Although I won't be throwing another party for a good long time, I'm looking forward to it.