Your Trial Is Your Greatest Treasure....

This latest interview of Barbara Barrington Jones on Mormon Women was so good!

She was a ballet dancer and coached many young women aimed for the Miss America contest. She often speaks at EFY and Especially for Women...we had actually contacted her about doing a program for our stake RS....her conversion story is an inspiration...

....check out the other interviews on the Mormon Women site! Last weeks story about Liz Shropshire was wonderful too...a composer....she went from working in the film industry to running music programs for former child soldiers in Ireland, Kosovo, and Uganda...just amazing!

This is such a great site to blow away that stereotype of the "typical" Mormon Woman...

Skinny Sloppy Joes....

This is skinniest if you use ground turkey...but I usually get Costco's 12% ground beef, cook it and rinse it with hot water...still pretty skinny! And it's great to double or triple so you have some for the freezer or to share...

Skinny Sloppy Joes

3 T wine vinegar

2 T brown sugar

3/4 C catsup

1/4 C chopped onion (or dried)

3 T Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t mustard

1/2 C chopped celery

1 lb. ground turkey breast

Brown meat; cook with onions and celery for a bit; add remaining ingredients and simmer about 30 minutes....or cook in crock pot (after browning meat) 4-5 hours. Good with chips or tater tots and coleslaw.

Grandma Janiece's Banana Bread

Banana Bread

1/2 C shortening (Crisco or butter)

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1 C squished banana

1 t lemon extract

2 C flour

3 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 C chopped walnuts (if you like nuts)

Cream shortening with sugar; add eggs; beat until fluffy. Add banana and extract. Mix dry ingredients together and mix in. Add walnuts.

Bake at 350 about 40 minutes. Cover with foil if necessary to keep from overbrowning. It's extra yummy if you glaze it with: 1 C powdered sugar mixed with enough lemon juice to thin.

Tater Tot Casserole

Here's another recipe from the past...

Tater Tot Casserole

1 lb hamburger, cooked and crumbled (or even just 1/2 lb.)
32 oz. pkg tater tots
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken rice soup
1 soup can milk
1/3 C dried onions (or chop a real onion and cook it with the hamburger)
grated cheese if you want...



Cook hamburger; drain and crumble; mix soups with milk and onions (if you didn't cook the onion with the hamburger)

Dump half the tater tots in the bottom of a 2 qt. casserole dish. Add cooked hamburger next;
Cover with the soup mixture; Sprinkle with some grated cheese if you like...cover with remaining tater tots. Cover and bake at 350 about 30 minutes. You can make this fairly healthy (ie - lower in fat and calories)...by using only 1/2 lb. ground turkey, fat free soups and milk and not too much cheese...

The Creek is FULL!!!

Maybe being forced to pay for flood insurance will end up being a good thing!

Deliciousness! Chocolate Chip Cookie Frosting

This is based on a recipe from Cookies and Cups...

It would probably be best on a chocolate or red velvet cupcake...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting

First make butter cream frosting....your own recipe or this one:

3 cubes butter

1/2 C white Crisco

Beat these together for 3 minutes until creamy....then add:

8 C powdered sugar

1/2 C milk

Now to change it into cookie dough frosting add:

1 C flour

1/2 C brown sugar

1 t vanilla

pinch of salt

You could add mini chocolate chips, but I just sprinkled them on after piping it on the cupcakes...then the chips show up better and don't clog up the flow of the frosting from the tip(or from a plastic bag you've cut the corner from)

This makes a bunch...more than enough for two dozen generously frosted cupcakes, so you might want to halve the recipe...but it can be refrigerated to use (or eat!) later....

A rainy weekend in Clayton!