Clam Chowder

I know that it is a little late in the season here is Sunny Las Vegas to be eating Hot Soup, but we happened to have some clams left in the pantry and I wanted to use them before it got any hotter. Since this recipe is a family favorite I might as well post about it right?

This recipe is the ONLY one that I like (at least of the ones I have tasted). It came from my Mother-In Law Sheila and my kids LOVE it. It has become a regular in our household during the cooler months.

Sheila's Clam Chowder

2 cans (6 1/2 oz.) Minced Clams

2 cups frozen potatoes (the frozen square hash brown kind)

1 cup frozen chopped onions

1 cup finely chopped celery

water

In a medium saucepan add the potatoes, onions, celery and clam juice. Set clams aside. Add a little more water to almost cover the ingredients. Boil until everything is tender.

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

1 quart light cream (sometimes I just use milk)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. sugar

pepper to taste

In the large pot melt the butter, then slowly add the flour to make a paste. Add milk and stir well with a wisk until thick.

Add in the other pot of veggies and the other remaining ingredients. Boil everything together for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Super Easy!

Tradition

Spring brings many TRADITIONS to our family as you may have noticed from some of our more recent posts. But the TRADITION that is most looked forward to is Hands Down our trip to Coral Pink. The Mohler Family has been camping in the pink sand each spring for 23 consecutive years. Coral Pink is a TRADITION that I married into and LOVE. Mostly because my kids enjoy it SO MUCH. So what makes this camping trip in the sand sooo much fun??

Maybe because the trip starts with a stop at The Pizza Factory in St. George for Garlic Bread Twists and Pizza.

And later leads into our kids each getting a turn Driving on the dirt road.



Then it turns into 5 days of constant, non-stop fun outside with an entire campground filled with family and friends. I mean what kids wouldn’t enjoy riding their bike, scooter, motorcycle, skateboard or Jeep around and around a big circle connecting the campgrounds? All-Day!

Grandmas Candy Store for picking up trash is a definite reason.

Along with the Tee-Pee shaped jumper house Grandma brings each year.

For the Big Boys their midnight Gooseberry ride on 50’s is a BIG reason. (This year Jason climbed into bed around 5 a.m.)


And I even enjoy taking Jason’s 4-wheeler for a ride or two! (He says it’s mine, but I don’t know that I would go that far.)


Or maybe it’s the constant attention the kids get from Grandma & Grandpa all week.




But for me it is usually some of the smaller things like sitting around the campfire on a gorgeous evening. Taking a walk with Jason, or one of my kids. Visiting with family members and friends that I don’t often get the chance to. Having my kids zonk out the minute their heads hit the pillow because they have played so hard each day. And this year a BIG reason for me was getting to just sit back without a baby and just enjoy watching my kids have fun.

Whatever the reasons may be, I am grateful to apart of this TRADITION!

Banana Bread

A favorite thing we like to do with Bananas when they start to get brown spots on them is make Banana Bread. I know that there are probably lots of really yummy Banana Bread recipes out there, but this one comes from my Grandma Batt who passed away 6 months ago and I LOVE it. My mom always made this recipe, and I have also. So if you’re looking for a good one, try this.

Grandma Batt's Banana Bread

5 large bananas

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

4 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Beat bananas to a liquid in a blender. Add eggs, blend. Pour in a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Beat well. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes at 300 degrees.

* A little trick I learned from a friend the other day is that you can FREEZE bananas, in the peel. Just put them in the freeze if you don't think you will be getting around to making banana bread before they get too rotten. Then just pull them out a few hours before you are going to use them, and they are just fine. I tried that this time and it worked great. The peels did get a lot darker while they were thawing, but the inside color did not change. Pretty cool I thought. That way you can just freeze 1 or 2 at a time, until you have enough for bread.

Gotta Love Him

Most of you who know my husband are very aware of his liking of certain parts of the female body and will not be a bit surprised of this.

Each day I usually look forward to Jason's midday phone call to check-up on us and find out how things are going, and also to hear about his day. Sometimes though he is busy and will just send a text with I Love You or something else sweet.........not today!

I opened my text and this is what I found

// (. Y .) \\

With a message that read: How yoou doing?

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Monkeys

I asked the kids to go get their pajamas on, and this is how they came back. The three of them are always trying their best to do something silly together. I love when my kids are happy and having fun.

Conference Tradition

(Sorry for the crappy Pictures, they are taken with my phone camera.)

On Conference Sundays we have a tradition of making Cinnamon Rolls. I have a couple Cinnamon Roll recipes that I Love and so I alternate the ones I use. For this time I chose this recipe because it makes the most. About 2 dozen. That way we would have some to share. So here it is:

Cinnamon Rolls

Put 9 cups of flour into Bosch, and set aside.

Put 3 cups of milk in a saucepan and cook on MEDIUM heat until really hot, but NOT boiling.

When milk is hot, turn off heat and stir in ½ cup sugar, 4 teaspoons salt, and 1 cube of butter. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

While the milk is cooling mix 1-cup warm water (not HOT, just slightly warm to the touch) with 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved then add 3 packages Fleischmann’s yeast. Set timer and let set for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes the milk will also be cooled enough. Pour the milk mixture and the yeast mixture into the flour. Mix until the dough pulls away from the bowl.

Grease a large bowl and put the dough in it. Cover with a Warm Damp towel. Let rise for 45 minutes.

After that, knead the dough for 1 minute then separate into 2 parts. Roll each part out into a rectangular shape. Spread butter evenly over dough then sprinkle with the Filling.

Filling

1 Cup packed brown sugar
2 T. cinnamon

Roll up starting with the longer side of the rectangle. Cut into 1 1/2 inch slices with dental floss. Place on greased cookie sheet. Cover them again with a Warm Damp towel and let raise for 1 hour.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, then lightly cover with foil and bake about another 5-10 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Frost while still warm.

Icing

6 T. margarine, softened
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 oz. cream cheese or ¼ cup
½ tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

Spring, Spring, Spring

Along with the Nice change in weather and Spring Break also comes SPRING CLEANING. Or in our families case it has been more like Spring Organizing. So though our to-do lists are still 10 miles long we decided to turn our attention to some much needed organizing. Starting with the garage. When we moved in, all the stuff that we were not quite sure where it was going to go, all got put out in the garage. And those piles in the garage have just seemed to get bigger and bigger as more stuff has just been tossed into them mostly by me. Also the other motivation to get the garage organized has been that summer is quickly approaching, and I would like to be able to park inside the garage before the heat is turned up. So after some long days, lots of shelving, lots of trash, and a few trips to the Desert Industries drop-off it is finally complete. Though we still have TONS of stuff, at least the stuff is organized.

The Before...

The only reason the above picture looks like there is some extra room, is because all of these were also in there.

And the After...

Next came the Van. Before it made its grand entrance into its new home in the garage, I decided that it also needed a big spring clean. 6 hours later I had taken out the seats which allowed me to clean down in all the nooks and crannies that I can never get to. Shampooed the carpets and rugs. Cleaned and moisturized all the seats. Scrubbed all the scuffs and stuff off the walls. Cleaned the dash & windows, and now the baby looks brand new again. Hopefully after the big threats to my kids about not eating in the car, not leaving papers, toys, shoes, jackets, trash or ANYTHING in the car it will stay reasonably clean.

Along with the change of season also comes the change in wardrobe so our closet was the next project we tackled. It would have been nice to have some fancy, schmancy custom closet look going on but this is what we had to settle for. It does the job right? And is way better than the 1 rod that was hanging from end to end. Jason’s side still needs some work putting everything away in its spots. He was too busy hanging a ceiling fan on his side of the closet so that he wouldn’t get hot while he was getting dressed each day, and I could wait no longer for the picture.

And last but not least is a little project that my Handy, Dandy, Husband did for me. I don’t know about anyone else but at our house there is always this pile of shoes by the front door. We have used different baskets and bins to try and make it look less tacky but for us it never seems to do the job. So we came up with a little idea to do in our laundry room, since I can now park in the garage and that will be the door in which we will enter and exit. We drew up the plans for these cute, yet strong little drawers and Jason built them for me.

So with a few major springtime projects checked off our list we are ready for summer.

The Mom Song

One of my sister-in-laws sent this to me, it is SO funny.