Popcorn Popping.

The popcorn rock experiment was concluded yesterday.  The vinegar is completely evaporated and there appears to be popcorn on the rock.  Let me take you through the process...

We began with the rock in a bowl full of vinegar.

Please read the instructions carefully.  Don't ever get hungry while doing this experiment.  The popcorn rocks could break your teeth.  Did we really need that particular order?

After just a short matter of days, popcorn began to grow.

And grow.

And, wow!  Look at that.  It's really growing now.

And here we are today.  A dry rock with beautiful popcorn all over it.  I still think it resembles cauliflower more than popcorn.  But still.  I'm just so happy it "popped".

In case you were wondering what the bowl looked like after this little dealio, there is popcorn growing all around the edges.  And a bit on the bottom, too.  I just hope I will be able to use this bowl again for real food.  No more of this popcorn that will break your teeth if you eat it stuff at our house.

Some Updates.

Update on the Popcorn Rock...  Actually, I think it looks more like cauliflower than popcorn. What do you think?  The vinegar is almost gone.  So the kitchen doesn't smell as bad as it once did.  Yay.

Update on food storage...  I got honey powder to add to long term food storage.  I made some up and put it in the honey bear.  It's darker than non powdered honey, but tastes great and will last for a long time and goes much further than the little honey bear!  Plus, for storage sake, it won't crystalize.  I like that.  A lot.  I will be investing in powdered honey.

Update on cooking...  I have been using plain Greek yogurt in my cooking for a bit now.  It replaces sour cream.  I have also replaced cream cheese in my crock pot chicken recipe.  It's zippy and tangy and very healthy.  I tried adding some fruit and honey to it to eat, but I think I'll stick with flavored yogurt for that. 

Update on sick Vegeta...  Not sick anymore.  This is the penicillin bottle.  He had one shot a day for 5 days. By yesterday, day 5, he was so not getting stuck with that needle again.  Poor Vegeta.  Daniel would get the needle into his neck (where goats should receive their intramuscular injections) and then Vegeta would swing his head away, taking the needle out of his neck before the meds were injected.  So by the time he finally got the meds, he was bleeding and sad and wouldn't come out of his hiding place in the tall grass for quite a while.  That'll teach him to get sick again!

The Rules Of Summer Vacay.

I have 3 kids. We've been on summer vacation for 3 weeks now. Besides the fact that we get bored easy, no one was brushing their teeth. Or eating breakfast. So I made some rules.

This is the initial rule list. Eating breakfast MUST happen by 9 am. Otherwise they are out of luck and are hungry until lunch time. And lunch happens when I say it happens. Mean mom. But we have clean teeth, full tummies and things are generally more tidy. Oh. I'm also making money off my kids' lack of following the rules!
I had to throw some limits up for every day. And some ideas for boredom. Sometimes we forget that there are fun things to do. I threw in the $5 for reading a grade level chapter book on a whim. My summers as a kid were filled with book reading. So I'm making my kids read. And it will help Ruthie and Sammy earn faster for their DS systems. My goal is for them to have money to buy before we travel to California for our Disneyland trip.

There are other things that should be on this particular list to do this summer. Then I realized last night that the Manti Pageant ends next week. We won't be going this year. One big highlight is Lagoon. We have been going once a week since it opened and I now feel we have earned the right to never have to go back. Ever. But it's fun and we only spend a couple of hours each time. We will be going to Lagoon-a-beach with Daniel next week. The movie deal this year still includes our wonderful friends Kim and Jessica. But they've been added to. Cute EmmaLi is here. She's new from China and we think she's a doll. If we make it to all 12 summer movies (think really cold theater with soda and popcorn when it's 100 degrees outside) we get 4 free movie tickets each! We are looking forward to Autumn movies.

I'll let you know when we do the KOA Kamping. We have a destination, just need to find the dates.

Tomorrow we will add Vegeta to our pasture. We are so excited!

A Reward.

So this morning I began by washing windows. Then I went to the school and worked in 2 kids' classes. Then I came home to a message from my friend that she couldn't make it to lunch. So I washed more windows. Who knew the sky was so blue!

So to reward myself I went to Target and bought myself a dress. A black dress. It was on clearance and it would need some help. So I bought it for under $7 and went to Seagull book and got one of those shirt thingys you wear under so I now have sleeves. Must have sleeves. That was $10.

So to make the plain black boring yet cheap dress with the shirt underneath for sleeves more appealing, I got some fabric out and made these:They're scarves. I can wrap them around my neck in many ways to add color. See the orange one up at the top right? I'm so not an orange girl. I'm more a purple and blue girl. But I'll wear that one on Halloween. And here I am wearing one of them.

It's a blue T-shirt, not the dress with the shirt for sleeves.

But I now have a total of 10, count 'em, 10 "outfits" for Sunday under $17.

Tonight Daniel will be ordained and set apart. I think I might wear one.

But then again this might be the only time you'll actually see me in one.

I'm fickle like that.

Make A Treat.

I had a few people ask for my Cinnamon Bread recipe. It's actually just a quick bread recipe that I believe I've posted before, and I just decided one day to add cinnamon and sugar and butter to it. And it worked. So here it is....

You need a Kitchen Aid or a Bosch for this bread recipe.

Put 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp salt, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 2 cups HOT water and 2 cups of flour into the mixing bowl. Mix on low for 1 minute.

Add 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast and begin adding 3-4 cups more flour until the dough doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. Then mix that baby on high for 8 minutes. Yes, set your timer. I have to stand by my mixer with my arm over the top so it doesn't shimmy off the counter. It's a lot of fun!
After the timer goes off, stop the mixer and reset the timer for 5 minutes. Let that stuff rest for 5 minutes! It needs it after the beating it just got. Get your bread pans (2 of them) sprayed with non stick spray and get your cinnamon, sugar and butter and rolling pin ready!

After the timer goes off again, cut the dough into 2 pieces and "spank" them to get the bubbles out. Lay one out and roll it the width of the bread pan and about 12 inches up and down.

Then spread the melted butter on. Then put handfuls of sugar on. Then sprinkle cinnamon on. Do it like you love cinnamon more than anything in the whole world. You'll appreciate it later. I always add another sprinkle of sugar over that. I don't know why. I just do.

Then roll it up like you were going to make a short roll of cinnamon rolls. Pinch the bottom and tuck the ends under. Put it in the bread pan. Before I put it in the bread pan, I roll the top in the extra butter, sugar and cinnamon on the counter.

Put it in a preheated 170 degree oven for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, change to oven temp to 350 without taking the bread out. Don't open the oven! Reset your timer for 35 minutes and enjoy the aroma that fills your house. Can you smell it yet?

Butter the tops of the bread and set them out to cool.

I enjoy eating it plain. I enjoy putting it in the toaster and then buttering it. I now enjoy it made up as french toast like Kim suggested. That's what we had for dinner last night.

Mmmmm!!

Enjoy your Cinnamon Bread and please use my name!

This is one experiment gone completely well!

Therapy.

For therapy this week I decided to make something for my presidency and the new presidency. A thank you and a congrats and good luck!

A few weeks ago while making a quick couple loaves of bread, I decided to try something on one loaf. I spread it out just a wee little bit and put melted butter, sugar and a whole lot of cinnamon. Then I rolled it up like a big giant cinnamon roll and baked it as a loaf of bread.

You know, cause it's a loaf of bread.

The result was a yummy smell wafting from my kitchen. Like cinnamon rolls on steroids.

Oh Yum!

And then we ate some. Oh, holy hannah in a handbasket.

It was delish!

And then we tried making toast out of it.

Oh good heavenly days!

So this is what I did with the early half of my week...

I baked.

And baked.

My house smelled delicioso!

And the feedback has been like salve to my soul.

Not that I need salve.

But I am feeling a little jealous of all those people who get to just go to Primary on Sunday.

Saturday Something.

I wanted to title this something snazzy to catch your attention. But, what the heck?! It's a post from me! Of course you're gonna read it. And this is a good one, too. I found this juicy laundering tidbit from THIS blog. And I've been giving it a try since she posted it. And now I'd like to share it with you! This is 1 part fabric softener and 2 parts water and some sponge halves. Instead of putting however much fabric softener you put in each load, you throw the sponges into your dryer. Here's how it works...
I started with 6 sponges and 3-4 capfulls of softener and the aforementioned 2 parts of water accordingly. I started with 2 sponges, wrung out, in the first load going into the dryer. Now this was very difficult for me. I am a fabric softener junkie. Oh yes. I am. And when that first load came out I smelled it first thing! And it didn't smell. It was like I had just washed a load with only detergent and no softener or dryer sheets. Oh, and these should take the place of the dryer sheets. So the next load I put 4 sponges in. Ahhhh.... Much better. So I used far fewer caps of softener with the appropriate amount of water and it has gotten me through many many many loads of laundry. So even though I would really love to go back to using a half capful with each load (minus towels, obviously) I will stick with this. Maybe I'll even go to 6 sponges in each load. It's cheap. It's easy. And I love the way my hands smell when I do laundry!

Smell? What Smell?

So last night when the kids and I got home from Old McDonald's, we could smell the yuck in the laundry room. Or kitchen. I'm just not sure... I have been searching for days!! I washed all the rags and kitchen towels. That helped. But then the smell came back. I always take garbage out and even searched the underbellies of the kitchen sink. Who knows? So today I remedied the problem. I baked!

You see these? I just whipped up a batch of yeast dough. Then put butter, sugar and cinnamon in each cup and then 3 little balls of dough in each cup. Then I put more butter, sugar and cinnamon on top. Then I baked them.

There was so much butter that it all overflowed into the oven. So I really can't smell the gross stuff anymore. When they came out, I put icing on top. Ruthie and her friend, Jonathon, thought they were yummers!! "You are a really good cook, mom!" was one of the comments.
Actually I just got this off of one of the things on my Google reader. Have you ever gone to Pioneer Woman? Oh...the chocolate sheet cake and now these, I love her.

This obviously wasn't my first. Or my second. But I won't say any more than that.

But I can't smell the grossness anymore. I may have to bake something every day.

But Daniel will be home tomorrow night. Then I'll put him to work.

Bored?

I think I must be. All over my Google reader, I keep seeing Advent Calendars. Must be something about the beginning of December. So I thought, hmm, I could make that one! Really. Plus Daniel is out of town. I'm bored.

So I went to the basement and got some felt. And then I started just doing this... Then I started doing this...You know, sewing little pockets. Then I made all the 1s. They were the easiest. Except for the holly. Then, amazingly, I made all the other numbers. I just did tons of 0s and cut a little around them to make the 3s 6s 8s and 9s. So, you know. At least I know what they are. So I'm officially advented! Our 1 was getting "Night At The Museum 2" and watching it for movie night and 2 was going to McDonalds for dinner. I need to get some papers in the rest of this week. Then, because I have nosey kiddos, I will only be putting in the rest a few days at a time. That's called smart parenting! In case you were wondering.

Now I wish Daniel would come home so he can figure out what died in the laundry room!

Oh, and I need a dowel and ribbon so I can hang the thing!

Let's Go CoCoNuts!

Several weeks ago I had some of my kids with me while grocery shopping. Usually when that happens, we come home with a box of Twinkies or something. It's all about bribery. But this trip we came home with something different. A coconut.

You see, I watch Survivor and they are always eating and drinking these things. My kids saw something about coconuts sometime and wanted to know more. Usually when coconut is needed I buy it in a bag. Shredded. Sweetened. Yum.

So we bought a coconut.

Daniel cracked it open.
We drained the milk. No one wanted to drink it. It smelled like sun tan lotion.

Daniel pried it open. Isn't it lovely?

Then he set it down and we had to work out the meat.

Look at it! Isn't it beautiful? We got the hard shell off the outside of it. We also rinsed the stuff off.

This little one was willing. The other little ones were not willing. She liked it. So did mom and dad. Although I'll take a bag of shredded sweetened stuff any day!

So our little coconut experiment was fun. It was an great experience for us all to see what's inside the ugly hairy coconut shell.

Coconuts are so funny looking!

Mid-week experiment

So I was thinking this morning that Wednesday is one of the hardest days of the week. It's short day at school, so I have to get Sam (K) there earlier than the rest of the week. Then they get out at 1:15 and there isn't a whole lot of time to get a lot done while they are at school. Then, of course, there's the trouble of filling the time once homework is done, laundry is folded and rooms are clean (don't get me wrong, sometimes, there isn't enough time in the day to get it all done!!) It's also the middle of the week, 2 more days to go till the weekend.

Blah, blah, blah. So I thought today that we would start a mid-week experiment. You know, find a science-y thing to try and experiment with. So I found a great website and chose one for today. But then, as the boys got in the car after school, they both about had a heart attack because I wasn't willing to go right back in with them to the Book Fair (don't get me wrong, I'm all about the Book Fair, just not today). So I made a deal regarding homework, etc, and took them to the Book Fair. They were doing a "buy 1 get 1 free" deal so I let them each choose 2 things. The boys each chose a Science Experiment Kit (did they read my mind?) and Ruthie got her own kit with nail polish and a nail polish book. (They did each get a book to read, as well.)

Today's experiments:
Ruthie got her toes painted and then was found under the table painting her fingers....not something I allow, but she did a great job and nothing got on the floor. Experiment complete and successful!

Sam chose to do Experiment #1 in his kit...finding True North with a magnet. It swung right to north. Experiment complete and successful! (Honestly, this is the best face he did!)
Isaac did Experiment #1, 2, 3 and then just skipped around to others he liked. His kit is for electricity. He had fun making the bulbs actually light up! Experiments complete and successful!
Needless to say, my experiment idea never happened. It was a fun afternoon, though. And hey, the best books I have found recently are the Skippy jon Jones books by Judy Schachner. So funny and you will talk with an accent in no time!