Easter FHE

It's time for our yearly Easter Family Home Evening. I'm excited because this year the snow is almost gone from the ground and the daffodils, while not blooming, are pushing up through the ground, so it almost feels like spring!! Usually I do the lesson with the 12 hollow eggs that you put scripture references in, along with a little object significant to the verse, but I haven't pulled the Easter box out of storage yet, so I actually have to prepare a lesson. The Ten Commandments was on TV last night, so I'm going to dig out my Gospel Art Kit and teach a combined Passover/Easter lesson. Wednesday night we're decorating eggs, so hopefully I'll post pictures of that as well.

Jiffy Cinnamon Rolls

Time for family night, and that means time for a treat! I decided to whip up Josh's favorite FHE treat tonight - cinnamon rolls!

2 c. flour

2 T. sugar

4 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/4 c. cold butter

1 c. cold milk

1/3 c. softened butter (if you accidentally use 1/2 c., so much the better!)

1 c. packed brown sugar

3 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl put flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in first amount of butter until crumbly. Make a well in center. Pour milk into well. Stir to form soft dough adding a bit more milk if needed. Turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead 8-10 times. Roll into rectangle about 1 cm thick and 3o cm long. Cream second amount of butter, sugar and cinnamon together. Spread onto rolled out dough. Roll up as for jelly roll. Cut into 12 slices. Grease two cake pans. Place six rolls in each pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Turn out onto tray. Glaze with 1/2 c. icing sugar mixed with enough milk to make a thin glaze. Enjoy!

Another Family Favorite Recipe

Here's another one of Grandma Judy's best recipes. This is one of Scott's favorite meals.

Barbecue Chicken and Rice

Sauce:

3 c. water

1/2 c. vinegar

1/4 c. minced onion

1 clove

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/2 tbsp. worcestershire sauce

1/2 c. sugar

1 c. ketchup

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 bay leaf

Put all the sauce ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Thicken with a little cornstarch slurry. Cook the chicken for a couple of hours, until it's almost done. Jack up the heat in your oven to 450 degrees F (my oven is hot, so I do it between 400-425, you know your oven best). Pour the sauce over the chicken, and pop back in the oven for 15 minutes. Take it out and baste it again, then back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Take it out and baste it again, then send the bird back in the oven for another 15 minutes. That's 45 minutes in the oven, with three rounds of basting. (The skin will look really dark, and you will wonder if you have burnt it. If the smoke alarm goes off, then yes, you burned supper, take a bow.) Take the chicken out of the oven, remove it to a platter. Skim the fat off the sauce left behind in the pan, and scrape the drippings off the bottom of the roasting pan. Mix six cups of cooled boiled rice in with the sauce, a little at a time, until it's combined. Serve the chicken over the barbecue flavored rice. Yum!!

Garden Pictures

I just posted some pictures from this past holiday season, hope you enjoy them! Tomorrow I'm going to work on the garden pictures, as I am itching to get my hands in the dirt and start planting as soon as possible. Did I mention it snowed today? Happy Spring from Beaumont, AB!

Grandma's Baked Beans

Scott made the most delicious baked beans to go with our supper tonight. This is his mother's recipe, and it is fa-bu-lous!! Grandma's Baked Beans:

• 3 cans baked beans with molasses
• 1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 c. barbecue sauce (Heinz chicken n' rib)
• 1 tsp mustard
• Bacon, as much as your little heart desires, diced and cooked until crisp.
• 1/4 c. maple syrup

Mix it all together, bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes. Then bake in the oven for one hour at 325 degrees F.

We baked them in the Pooh Bear bean pot the little snappers got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. Thanks, Grandma Judy!!

Spring is just around the corner

Scott and I went for a walk with Jeff and Josh while the older kids were at a fireside meeting. There were signs of spring around, although there is still patches of snow on the ground. Our poppies are poking up in the front yard, along with some daffodils. This picture is one that Scott took last spring when the apple trees in the back yard were in bloom. Looks like we're going to have an early spring here, fingers crossed!