You gotta try these

One of Randy's employees requested my bread-stick recipe after randy walked around the bank offering bites of his dinner leftovers. How embarrassing....

Anyway I tried to just write down the recipe but it was hard to put it into words. It is not a hard recipe it is just different than most bread-stick recipes. I decided to make them and take pictures to try to explain the recipe then email it to her. Since I am feeling nice today I decided to share it with y'all.

Not to toot my own horn but these are DANG good. I have to physically restrain myself so I don't eat the whole pan...by myself...before dinner.

Jenny's Bread-sticks

I use my bosch mixer but you can use whatever mixer you like.

3 cups very warm water (not hot just very warm)
1/4 cup of sugar
2 heaping TBS of Instant Yeast (Make sure it is instant yeast)
2 tsp salt

Give all this a quick mix just to dissolve the yeast and sugar then add:

5 cups of flour

Let that mix for a few minutes

You dough should look like this...VERY STICKY....in fact you will think how in the heck is this going to work. Please just trust me it is going to work

Then heavily dust your counter top with a good coat of flour

Then melt 1/4 cup of butter and pour it into a 9x13 cake pan.

Dump the dough on your counter. This dough will make a little extra that I end up tossing so don't worry about the stuff that sticks to the sides of your bowl. Since the dough is so sticky you have to work pretty quickly through these next few steps. I usually spray my hands with some Pam spray before I start handling the dough too so don't have to fight with the dough.

With your hands (not a rolling pin) push the dough into a sort of rectangle shape. A little bigger than your cake pan.

Using a pizza cutter I trim the sides to make a rectangle the size of my cake pan (just toss the edges in a pile) then with the pizza cutter I cut the dough into bread-sticks. I cut 3 at a time and then line them up in the buttered dish. If you cut more then three bread-sticks they start to stick together without the butter.

I throw away the excess dough. I made the recipe with too much dough on purpose. Since you need to move fast I hate trying to get ALL the dough out of the bowl and then have to get the rectangle pushed out perfectly. If you are just sickened by this method of throwing away you could put them in a cookie sheet pan ( I have tried this and the taste okay but they don't rise as pretty) or you could scale down the dough a bit.

After you have all the bread-sticks lined so pretty in the dish. Melt another 1/4 cup of butter and drizzle it over the top of the bread-sticks. Then I shake the pan a bit to coat all the sticks evenly. (Don't worry about adding this much butter. If you were to make rolls you would add oil or butter to the dough and then slab butter on the rolls after you baked them. It will all be okay. I promise)
At this point you can add whatever you like to the tops. My favorite topping is a HEAVY sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. You can experiment however you like with the toppings.

Then I let them sit on the counter for about 20 minutes. These raise really fast. I think that is why I love this recipe. They are easy and fast.

Bake them in a 375 degree oven for about 16 minutes. Depending on your oven. They should bounce back up when you touch the middle of the pan.

I let them sit for at least 10 minutes before serving. They pull right apart and are divine.

They go with any soup, any pasta or just as a snack with a little bowl of marinara on a Sunday night. Yummy!!!!

Try them and then tell me what you think.

Taking advantage of all this SNOW

Steven and Kari were in Cache Valley for Kari's family Thanksgiving. We got to spend a little time with them while they were here.

Steven brought a HUGE diesel tire from work and we headed for the nearest hill. It attracted every kid there. We had total strangers climbing aboard the tire beast.





Brad went down and ran up to the top. I could not believe how many times he went down.





Claire brought her own personal princess coach. She never got off. She would ride down then someone at the bottom always pulled her safely to the top. How would that be???

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving with the Fischer family this year. Randy's mom was nice enough to make it a lunch instead of dinner. I had to work on Thanksgiving night so it was nice of her to make it work for our family. Of course the food was awesome and we all were stuffed.












Kendra made a pie in a bag. It was a recipe that she got from her Grandma. You are supposed to bake it in the bag then leave it in there until you serve it. The anticipation of getting the first look was intense. We had several moments of weakness where we almost opened it prematurely.




I made a pumpkin pie with Claire's signature finger print. She sticks her finger in almost everything I bake.


Brad stayed outside most of the morning. He loved the fresh new snow from the big storm. He spent hours working on perfecting his stilt walk.






I think Papa needs a bigger recliner.



The rest of the time was spent staying warm and cozy, relaxing, visiting, looking at the Black Friday adds, laughing, and then saying an early goodbye.

Our visit to SLC

We came down for Thanksgiving a bit early so we could miss a BIG storm that we didn't want to travel in.

While we were there we went and saw my Grandpa Reimann who has been in the hospital for a MAJOR infection that he is trying to fight. It has been so hard for me to watch my grandparents age. It was hard to see him in that condition. My grandpa is a pretty cool guy. I was lucky to be the oldest granddaughter so I knew him when he was young and feisty...now he is old and feisty.
He has done some pretty amazing things.

Have you ever seen this in the middle of the desert in Utah??? My grandpa built it with the help of his sons. It is called the tree of Utah. I remember staying in a Hotel while they were building it and I thought it was a REAL vacation.


He also did all the edge brick work on the Logan Temple renovation.


He did all the yellow colored edging. He also did all the precast work on the entrance of the temple.



Have you ever seen this fountain at Temple Square? Yup he did that too.

I used to go to work at the plant with him on occasion. I watched him build a double sided bench. He named it the Jenny Bench. I am still to this day flattered that he named it after me. I really need to get one made for me now that I have a new house.


He also makes bust sculptures of Book of Mormon heros. For those of you who have seen them know how amazing they are. I wish I had a picture of them.

We are praying for him to pull through this infection. We are also praying that my grandma will have the strength and energy to endure all that is going on. She is also an amazing woman.

We spent a little time with my mom. Claire was so happy to see her cousin Corbin. She couldn't keep her hands off him.



One of the days the Fischer girls went to lunch and did some shopping. It was so fun to hang out with them. I lucked out in the sister in law department. I consider them my best friends. I love to spend time with them. They introduced me to the wood connection. Holy cow I didn't know that place existed. It is going to be a no no store for me.

Okay this post is getting rather long so I think I will stop here. I like to visit SLC but I am always happy to be home.

Claire's Birthday WEEK

Every kid deserves to have a birthday week...RIGHT???

To kick off the celebrations we took Claire to her Special Birthday lunch with just mommy and daddy. This is a tradition Randy had growing up and it has been so fun to continue with our kids. We took her the day before her birthday.

When she found out she was going she said "Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? My own special lunch?" I wish I could type the tone in her voice. It seriously cracked me up.

When I asked her where she wanted to go she QUICKLY responded. "I want to go to Chili's because I want chips and salad". I was a little bit shocked. I thought for sure she was going to pick McDonalds. When we got there she really did just want chips and salad.





That day she got a card in the mail from her Nanny and Papa. They sent her a paper doll. It was cute. It entertained her for almost 2 hours. She loved it.

On the morning of her actual birthday day she picked banana pancakes for breakfast.


Brad was right by her side as a backup candle boy just in case Claire could not extinguish the flames on her own.
He was also on standby to help her unwrap her gift in case the tape or paper became too difficult to rip. I couldn't tell who was more excited Brad or Claire.



When Randy got home from school we let her open her gifts from us. We gave her a new kitchen play set and some new dishes. Claire calls it her "cooking stuff". She love to play baker/chef/cook.





That night my parents and my brother Eric and his wife Natalie came to spend the night in Logan with us. We went to the temple in the afternoon then came home and had a pizza party. Bean and Claire's birthday are a day apart so we got to celebrate both their birthdays that night.



It has been a while since our kids have been with their cousins. I am glad they made it.

I think all the kids wore Grandpa Moose out. He slept through all the noise.



On Monday night we drove down to SLC for Thanksgiving. Why not celebrate some more??? We had a little birthday party on Tues night with the Fischers. She begged me for a butterfly cake. I didn't like the end result. The cake just kept falling apart. I gave up on the sides. At least Claire is not old enough yet to be judgmental. She ate it. She was spoiled rotten.






Nanny made her an apron to go with her new kitchen.







Happy 3rd Birthday little girl. We are so proud of all that you have accomplished. You bring your mom and dad so much joy. We love your wit and charm. We love your giggle and your ability to say the funniest things. We are so happy that you are ours.

Just a little FYI... We went to see Dr. Shakula while we were in SLC for Claire's yearly checkup. She is still OFF the charts in height and the 90th percentile in weight. She is the size of an average 6 year old!!! Can you believe how tall this girl is. Amazing.