Christmas Morning

Okay, so for the real good stuff! Christmas morning pics and vids!

I love wrapping presents and making them look beautiful!  I consider it part of the decor for Christmas.  As soon as I buy a gift, I must wrap it and put it under tree ASAP.  It works for now, but I can only imagine it becoming a pure crime waiting to happen when I have children old enough to know what it means to sneak a peek.  Until then, they will be beautiful!

The morning started bright and early at 7am.  Little children coming from a time zone 8 hours ahead definitely know how to wake early for Christmas morning, even without understanding the excitement of an early Christmas.  We taught Maya & Ethen the traditional Kimball song, "Here we sit like Birds in the Wilderness" as we waited to go in to see what Santa brought.  My grandmother learned this song as a child and taught my dad, who made us sing it 3 or 4 times while we waited and now the new kiddos are learning it.  What a fun, strange, tradition!

And then to the presents!

 Star Wars characters cookie cutters and pancake molds

 The super cute purse I got my mom.  Totally impractical so she would never buy it for herself, but she loved it!

 Ethen playing with his remote control car... for ages 8 and up.  He's almost 2.  Such a little man

 Maya got a Little Mermaid princess dress and fin suit.  But don't the forget princess heels!

 Shirlee and Ethen

Dave and the kiddos

Christmas

This year was an "on" year for our family during Christmas.  Unfortunately for me, the siblings now have old enough children that they all prefer to do Christmas morning at their own homes.  This would leave me and the 'rents only.  Don't get me wrong, I love my parents, but Christmas without kids is only so fun for so many years.  But... this year my brother and his family are between homes (more specifically between countries) over the holidays so we had a few more bodies for Christmas morning! 

But, before the awesome pics from Christmas morning, let me humor you with something totally awesome from Christmas Eve!  Because of the "on" year, we had a big Christmas Eve dinner, complete with a crown roast, unique stuffing, delectable salads, mashed potatoes, and my dun... dun... dun... cherpumple.

Success!
Can you believe I finally pulled it off after a mere 3 tries?

 

Sadly, the two hours following my successful construction were spent eating dinner and chatting.  During this time, the weight of the two top layers took out the bottom layer so you can only see the top two in the above picture.  Regardless, it was totally awesome!  Probably not worth the time, but awesome nevertheless!

I would maybe consider a "pumple" again in the future, but not all three layers.

For all you ambitious chefs our there that might possibly want to make this, or part of it, here is how you do it.

1. Bake frozen pies as directed on the box.

2. Let cool really long.  For instance, put in the fridge over night.  This avoids loosing the pie during the cake transfer.  Trust me...

3. Mix the cake batter just as directed on the boxes.  You can make a combination of any that you prefer.

4. Cover the bottom of a greased 9" round cake pan (extra high sides) with cake batter.  Carefully transfer the cooled pie into the cake pan, without the tin of course, and pour a layer of cake batter over the top.

5. Bake the cake for 1.5 hours at 345 degrees.  TAKES FOREVER!

6. Let cool, or better yet, put in freezer to solidify.

7. Carefully remove from cake pans and stack using cream cheese frosting between layers and around the edges.

8. Cut soon and serve your awesomeness!

Next post, the legit Christmas pics.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Love, Rachel

Kitchen Successes & Failures

Wow!  Has it really been almost a month since my last post?  A lot sure has happened since then.

First, you should all know that I got released from being Relief Society President in my ward.  It was a long, but fantastic 2 years!  Now I get to relax a little.  Haha, who am I kidding?  This is me we're talking about it!  It only took one week before I'd completely filled my life with new adventures.  There is just something about feeling productive and busy that makes me happy.

On my list of new adventures, I decided it was time to try honing in on my cooking skills.  I've never done a whole lot of cooking for lack of time and desire, but that has changed now.  In Oct/Nov, I spent a couple Saturdays with my mom and sister, Rebecca, and her son, Gus, canning applesauce from our very own Golden Delicious Apple tree in the backyard.  I haven't done any canning since I was a wee child, and let's be honest, I probably didn't do much then either, except maybe create a mess for my mom...

Blueberry sauce and me as a 1 year old probably aren't the best mix :)

This year was different though.  We canned a whopping 40 or so bottles of homemade, perfect applesauce.  It is the most delicious applesauce!  My mom prides herself on the fact she doesn't put ANYTHING in to sweeten or preserve the applesauce.  It is as pure as applesauce can be.  Let me tell you, its the best I've ever hard!

Note: I've chronologically placed my pictures from canning more for my remembrance in future years than anything else...


Step 1: Pick apples            Step 2: Slice the 8 boxes of apples

 

Step 3: Render (or boil down) the apples

 

Step 4: Smash the apples in the cool tool that I can't remember its real title

 

Step 5: Pour into many bottles and place the lids on tight

 

Step 6: Seal the bottles in boiling water, then carefully remove so they don't break



Step 7: Let cool and finish sealing.  Long day, but the taste is worth it!  No added anything, pure applesauce.
Day 1 is complete!

 

Mom and me in the kitchen

 

Gus "washing" the apples.  Aka, dropping them in the water

 

Day 2 finished products, including three cinnamon applesauces


Also on the "Must Bake" list is the incredible Cherpumple. The name stems from a combination of CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE.  I saw this on msn.com one day and thought it would be fun to try. 
A Cherpumple consists of a Cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a Pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake, and an Apple pie baked inside a spice cake.  All 3 layers are to be stacked and cemented together with cream cheese frosting.  In a perfect world, it would look like this.

Apparently someone did have a perfect world, and therefore a perfect cherpumple.  Just not me!

Here is the history of Rachel's Cherpumple attempts

• Attempt #1 - A complete and utter disaster!  Ended with cherry pie filling dripping down the side of the countertop and down my front (reminder: ALWAYS wear aprons!).  Also not where it belonged was the pumpkin pie strewn across the floor and down my mom's front  Sitting on the countertop were two seperate bowls of cake batter, mixed but then untouched, and burnt cupcakes forgotten while cleaning up the pumpkin pie. On the up side, the apple pie was a hit at my FHE Pie Night after I decided to scratch the idea of continuing this cherpumple!
• Attempt #2 - Two weeks later and surrounded by friends for a hilarious night of grilled tri tip dinner and dessert.  My cherpumple came close to awesomeness, but ended in a presentation failure!  Sure tasted good, but the look left much to be desired...and a lot to be cleaned up. 
• Attempt #3 - Has not happened yet.  But, the list of those wanting to see the completed masterpiece is growing.  Before I know it, I'll have the whole ward waiting for the grandiose completion or the comedic destruction of my 'tri-pie' #3.

Documentation of my failure...

Camera Time

Here's the scoop.  I really want a new camera soon, but I don't know enough about cameras to make a good choice.  Plus, I need to know how much I'll be spending so I can save it up, which is why I'm asking now instead of later.

Please Help!

 I feel so camera-challenged

Let me tell you what I want out of a camera; and those of you that know your stuff can tell me what to look for! 

1. Super Red-Eye Reduction, or just complete elimination!
2. Anti-shake
3. Good zoom
4. Small enough that I don't feel like I'm lugging my life everywhere, yet big enough that when I take pictures randomly people don't think I'm a creeper with a hidden camera (such as at ward activities)
5. Crisp color and lines (I know this has a lot to do with the photographer, but I'll work on that!)\
6. Good low-light pictures - mine goes super grainy

This is how ancient my current camera feels to me, only lighter!

What's wrong with THIS picture?

You think I should have maybe looked in the mirror just ONE MORE TIME before heading to work this morning?  I sure do!

Don't mind my ugly hair in this pic.  It was pulled back for ease of finding my mishap. :)

What I Love About Halloween

Halloween always brings out another side of people.  There is always the guy who doesn't dress up, the girl who simply puts a hat on, the guy with the same costume every year, the girl with little clothing on and calling a costume (ridiculous!), and then there's the "go get 'em" people.  Personally, I think Halloween says a lot about the person... ya know, the way they choose to "transform" themselves, becoming their alter egos.  But all in all, its mostly just fun to see the variety of costumes!

Pictures from Deb's annual Halloween party, courtesy of Sarah

This year I went as Medusa and took my friend, Andrew, as Perseus.

Then of course, we all dressed up at work and invited the entire building to come to our office for treats and kids to trick or treat.  It was a fun Friday!

The two receptionists on the left were each other.  It was great!  We're also missing a few people in this pic.

Fall Beauty

Monday morning, as I was driving to work, I actually opened my eyes and realized just how beautiful the drive to work is these days.  All too often I forget to look around while I drive.  Instead, I'm watching for cops to show out of no where or I am anxiously waiting for the light to turn green after the slow driver in front of me has finally turned right.  But this day, beauty could not be hid.

Sunday night's windy rain/storm created the most beautiful natural sight.  The leaves had blown off the trees and were scattered across the road, some still in the trees, and the mountain tops were tipped with the first light snow of the season.  From where I was driving I could see the mountain tops through the tree lined street.  I drove it again on my lunch break.  Unfortunately, by the time I was finally able to break away from work, the leaves had blown back to the side of the road by the wind of the passing cars and the morning light was no longer glistening off the snow.  But the sight was still picture worthy.

Utah really is a beautiful place!