Okay, so I'm a little late with this post, as girls camp was the first week in July, but better late than never.

I had the best time at camp with these girls! I truly love the youth in my ward. These girls have so much spirit, and so much love for each other that you can't help but feel it.

Highlights from camp -


"Chinagins" Skit


The view on the hike (5 miles!!)



Unpredictable rain showers that require you to hold a tarp over the fire as dinner finishes cooking :)
(holding the tarp took two hands, hence no pics!)

Listening to happy girls giggle well into the night.

And lastly, ending the week with everyone still smiling -

I have Gir-like outbursts. But who could help it its so cute!

Don't know who Gir is? See the following -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSM59xfZZFM

Gir is a character off of Nickelodeon's animated show "Invader Zim". The cartoon, while meant for the 11- 15 year old age range, holds my interest rather well :)

It's based off of characters by Jhonen Vasquez who also wrote the graphic novel of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, who insists you can call him "nny" for short. It's very dark but incredibly amusing.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you do something you would ordinarily recognize as a bad idea? You know, those moments where all logic leaves you? I had one of those yesterday. I filled the dishwasher with dishes, and added the detergent. But wait, what's this? The liquid container gave that final last gurgle that convinces you it really is empty. I reached under the sink for another container, alas there is none. So what's a girl to do? I looked around frantically for a substitute, and then I saw it, that innocuous looking purple gel. Have you guessed it? Yep, I used some regular dish washing detergent. *Le sigh* My logic had left me in that moment. A few minutes later I walked by my amazingly quite dishwasher only to notice a giant puddle of bubbles on the floor!!


Obviously not my kitchen but this is exactly what happened. So it was an exciting afternoon.

On an accomplishment note...I've managed to figure out my blackberry download manager and have even installed a whole set of scriptures on it. Yay me! ;)

My Mother-in-Law passed this recipe to me this morning, just knowing David and I would love it! And since we've been invited to the bishop's house for conference tomorrow, what a good time to try it! It's currently cooling on my counter, but I just know it's going to be amazing! Here's the recipe-


Ingredients
Shortbread:

* 2 sticks butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for preparing pans
* 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for preparing pans
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1/2 teaspoons salt

Caramel Layer:

* 2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
* 2 tablespoons butter

Chocolate Topping:

* 3/4 pound good-quality milk chocolate

Shortbread:
Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare 2 (8-inch) square non-stick pans with butter and coat with flour, tapping off excess. Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse once. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles peas. Press the shortbread mixture into prepared pans and bake until golden brown around the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool completely.
Caramel Layer:

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium-low heat, combine the condensed milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously. Continue stirring over the heat until mixture becomes thick and amber in color, about 15 minutes. Pour the caramel over the cooked shortbread and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Cool to room temperature.
Chocolate Topping:

In a glass bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Once chocolate has melted, pour it over the cooled caramel layer. Cool at room temperature for about 10 minutes, and then place in the refrigerator to cool completely allowing chocolate to slightly harden but not set hard. Cut into 2 inch squares and enjoy, or store in an airtight container at room temperature or my favorite - keep in the fridge for a yummy sweet and cool treat!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/millionaires-shortbread-recipe/index.html

Update- Dave and I couldn't wait any longer...This stuff is amazing!!

Okay, so I finally got around to grinding all the meat that was clogging my refrigerator. Here's the step-by-step.

I started with bottom round roast, bought at the commissary for 1.30/lb. I cut it into strips that would fit into the grinder chute.


Next I fed the strips into the chute at the top of the processor.


The result from the first grind -


To get a better mix, and make sure the fat is more evenly distributed (you want your meat to have a little fat) run it through a second time. This will take a little longer than feeding the strips in because you actually have to use the plunger to push the ground meat down the chute. The final product -


As for the time constraints, I processed about 12lbs this morning and it took about an hour and a half. I used the coarse grinding plate that came with the grinder.

I figure if I'm saving at least $2/lb, it'll take me 20 lbs of grinding my own to break even with the price of the attachment.

Wow, it's been awhile...

I'm really excited this year about our patio garden, I started some seeds about a week ago and already the garden beans and cucumbers are ready for transplanting. It's still too cold to leave them outside but what a start, compared to last year!



The tall one's in the back are "garden beans" which are like string beans without the strings. Just in front of those are the cucumbers.


This little guy is a green pepper, this is a new one for us, I'm really excited to see how it does.

Also just after my last blog, I experimented with grinding my own beef. It was way cool! I can grind my own for about 1.50 a pound, thats way cheaper than I've found in the grocery store. And I get to use my kitchen aid for something other than fattening cookies/brownies! Amy - I know what you're thinking, but really it's easy and it only took me 30 minutes start to finish. If you feel like trying it, you can use any cut of beef that's inexpensive, you'll want it to have a little fat, cut it into strips and feed it into the grinder attachment. I ran mine through twice just to make sure everything was nicely blended. I'll take pictures when I do it again this weekend. :)

The Wedding photos are finally here!! You can find them at the following link-

Wedding Photos

Why is it that our first real snow doesn't come until almost spring? I couldn't believe how fast it came down.

Here's a quick measurement I took on the deck, around 9pm.


This morning I took another...



I think we actually got more than the 4 1/2 in my pic, the snow didn't fall very evenly :)

I woke up this morning thinking, "I'll wash the slip cover on the futon today" It's been a long time and the cover sorely needed it. All went well until I pulled it out of the dryer, "huh, still wet." So I checked the lint trap, sure enough, full, but not your average nicely compacted sheet of well organized lint, no. I had loose fuzzy lint that was still stuck down in the chute.

I thought about using a metal coat hanger but didn't want to go through the trouble of bending one. So in a stroke of genius I thought, rubber spatula! Perfect right? Bendable, and most importantly gave me more reach. All went well until that darn thing slipped right outta my hand, and I heard it hit the bottom of the lint trap! "can I reach it?" I wondered as I stuck my arm as far as it would go, no such luck.

In a brief moment of panic I thought, "I'll call the landlord" and then imagined my embarrassment as I explained how the kitchen utensil ended up in the dryer lint trap. Nope. That wasn't an option. Next option, take the thing apart myself. "Well what's the harm in taking the cover off to see how hard it would be?"

I went on a hunt for tools. Unfortunately my Husband likes to keep his tools in the car, I thought about the nut driver set I got him for Christmas one year, and how perfect it would be. But it wasn't to be, and this was all I had...


I pulled out the dryer, and was slightly embarrassed by the mess behind it...but in the nature of journalism, and fair and balanced reporting here's what I faced-


By a sheer miracle I found the right size socket and started. For my first trick I took off the back panel, okay not so bad-


Now, the spatula had to be in the black chute on the left...but how to get it off? Ah more screws. Okay what's four more? After those came out I still couldn't get the chute off. Here's why-


Anchored at the top. So with that done, I was victorious! I could see the spatula!




The offending tool!


I took the opportunity to dig out all the lint, and sand (!) that had collected in the chute, it was pretty amazing! All clean!



And sure enough, back together and working wonderfully!



I took all the pics as proof! I can't wait for David to see this post when he gets home! So even though my pride won out, and I'm very smug in the fact that I won't be the fodder for one of those "You can't guess what the lady tried to clean the lint trap with!" stories. I don't mind sharing this story because I learned how to dismantle the dryer all by myself, and probably saved a ton of money by not calling a repairman! Huzzah!

Here are some pics of the place we stayed in Lake George NY.

The weather was a very nice 17 degrees our first day, -2 overnight. But it was a "dry" cold so it was good. Somehow I remember it feeling a lot colder when I was younger


Dave especially loved the big screen TV above the fireplace, and we arrived on Superbowl Sunday, so that was a bonus!


I loved the kitchen!


The bed was huge!!




It was a struggle every morning to drag ourselves out of this most comfortable bed!! The view made it even more wonderful.




We spent the majority of the week just hanging around and relaxing. We did go to Plattsburg on Tuesday to see my family. On Thursday we went tubing at West Mountain, and Saturday we went to the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival. The Theme this year was "Pirates of the Adirondacks".





They even made a pirate ship to match the theme! Unfortunately our photos didn't come out very well

This is our first official entry in our first official blog! This is just a post to say hello and announce our presence to the online world. I'll be updating shortly with wedding and vacation photos!!