Grilled Mushrooms

Need something to accompany your grilled steak?

These mushrooms are the answer my friend.

Coated in butter and fresh garlic then seared on the grill.

I prefer these over candy.

 Use portabella or white mushrooms.

Cut in half and coat in the sauce.

Make a bed of foil about three layers deep, so the bottom doesn't burn.

Grill until they are soft.

Look at these beauties.

Just adding this for a mouth watering test. Did you loose?

Grilled Mushrooms

2 1/2 - 3 lbs. of fresh mushrooms

1 cup of butter

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. parsley flakes

Cut mushrooms in half. Melt butter add garlic and spices.

Coat mushrooms 30 minutes before grilling.

Add to foil and grill until soft.

Enjoy,

Hope

Christmas Festivities

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents.

The most wonderful thing about Christmas

this year, besides being married,

was that my sister came home from Bolivia.

It's the first time she has spent Christmas 

with us in five years.

When we were young she was the one

most excited about opening our presents.

One year she cleared the table while we

were sitting there, washed the dishes

and dumped a fryer full of hot oil down the drain.

Dad thought for sure the pipes would clog

but everything worked fine.

Charity and I

My nieces and nephews ready to open gifts.

Sawyer kissing his baby.

I opened a chocolate fountain.

All my sisters and mom.

Then Christmas morning Josh and I opened our presents.
Joshua bought me the Electrolux attachment set,
a new hose, power nozzle and the whole nine yards.
Yay! Now I don't have to vacuum the carpet three 
times to suck up a piece of dirt.
He also bought me a crock pot.

I bought him a dove-tail jig.
A tool that cuts a dove tail drawer for you.
Sorry, no photos.

Trying my vacuum out on his territory of the house.


We spent Christmas lunch at Joshua's home.

Nayda excited about her gift.

Mom forgot whose name she had.

 

 Dad with his gift card to shoot skeets.

Josh had Ryan's name.

Caleb categorizing his tools.

Josh with a dried, mango tongue.

We had a wonderful Christmas

blessed with family and friends.

This cake was a flop.

If anyone has the opinion that things I 
make never flop... they are wrong.
I made two of these cakes and 
both of them sank in the middle.
It was a new recipe that used self-rising four.
The cake tasted good, it was just heavy like
a pound cake and had a crater in the middle.

I call this my redemption cake.
Just like the cake, we are ugly, sunk
and in need of an almighty Savior
to make us beautiful in His sight.
And little babe in a manger makes
our hearts feel warm and fuzzy
but really it should be sobering that
he came down to this ugly earth
to take upon our sins and wash
them as white as snow.
Praise God for his redemption plan.
That's what the Christmas story is all about.


Merry Christmas,
Hope

Vegetable Beef Soup

My hubby was sick last night and today.

I asked him if he was ready for his 

chicken noodle soup and he said,

"How about vegetable beef soup?"

"Honey, that takes a long time,

you have to roast beef and cut

up all your vegetables."

He looked at me kinda disappointed.

With empathy I replied, "Well, I guess

I could make it with ground hamburger."

So in a about and hour or more he had 

his vegetable beef soup.

 The veggies ready to add.

He ate three bowls if that tells you anything.

And here's the dump and pour recipe

I managed to write down.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1 lb. of hamburger, browned

4 medium potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup of carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 medium onion, chunked (not diced)

2 cups of green beans

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 quart of tomato juice

2 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 2 cups of hot water

1 1/2 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. oregano

3 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in water. 

Brown hamburger. Add tomato juice, vegetables and spices.

Simmer for 30-40 minutes until vegetables are soft.

Stir in dissolved cornstarch and cook until thickened.

Enjoy,

Hope

Party Mix

When I lived at home my Dad always

made our party mix over Christmas.

His party mix was good but he added things

I did not like- cheddar fish, mixed nuts and such.

So this year I bought just what I like in party mix.

Regular chex, wheat chex, honey chex,

pretzels, cinnamon bun cereal, BBQ twist,

wheat thins, chicken in a biskit crackers,

cashews, and honey nut peanuts.

Then I customized the sauce recipe.

I have to admit, it's just like I dreamed it would be.
I must have gotten lucky.

Bag it up for a cute, little gift.

Party Mix Sauce

 2 cups of vegetable oil

1 cup melted butter

6 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. garlic powder

1 Tbsp. onion salt

2 tsp. seasoned salt

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

Use one box or can of the items listed at the top.

Half items between two large oven safe bowls.

Drizzle each pan with two cups of sauce

stirring between drizzles.

Make sure everything is evenly coated.

Bake at 250 for 1 hour stirring 

every 15 minutes.

Then spread out on cloths or the counter to dry. Eat all

of it right away or put it away in your freezer for Christmas.

Enjoy,

Hope

The Finished Product

Thanks for your help on deciding.

Four photos received the same amount of votes,

so I picked my favorite two of the four.

Wishing you all very, Merry Christmas!

 Hope

Our Christmas Photos

Today I kept my dear, nephews.

Keeping children all day gives you a 

little taste of what motherhood is about.

After Sawyer cried for a half hour he finally

nestled down for a nap. Big brother, Austy decides 

the basement door need to be closed (slammed) 

and guess who starts crying again.

I hate the dilemma of deciding if you should go 

in and pick them up or just let them cry.

I asked Josh what he thought I should do

a couple times and his reply was, "Well, your the Mom."

Thanks for the help, honey!

He cried for another spell and finally went back to sleep.

I then sent Josh and Austin outdoors to try out Austin's new sled.

When Faith came back to pick up the boys I cabbaged her

 up to take our Christmas photos. I was very happy with

the way they turned out. I have a pretty, skilled sister.

So... I need to design my Christmas card this week.

To get the crowd a bit more involved, I've decided

to let you help me pick our Christmas card photo.

Choose away! 

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5. Sorry, had to add this one. Not a fan of dog kisses.

Photo 6

Photo 7

 Now don't be shy.

Blessings,

Hope

Winter Wonderland

This morning I woke up to a blanket of snow.

I called my boss and he said I could stay home.

So I baked cookies, cleaned house and made supper

for Joshua's family. It was fun to stay home and catch up.

I made Pioneer Woman's festive fruit cake cookies.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/12/festive-fruitcake-cookies/ 

They are delicious... just don't bake them as long as she says.

Try eight minutes instead of twenty.

I was happily vacuuming and decided to check my
cookies five minutes early. Yikes!
Also, the batter is very wet and runny
so I set the dough in the fridge until they 
were a little more firm.

The twenty minute cookies vs....

Eight minutes. I vote for the latter.

She says, "They get better with age." Guess we'll see.

Josh came home from work early, so he went snowmobiling.

Then he took some outside photos for me.

Maybe I should let him take all my 

photos from now on.

Duke our beloved dog.

Come stay in our cozy, guest house.

Oops, sorry it's a very drafty playhouse.

Blessings,

Hope

Heatwole Christmas Photos

I just came back from taking uncle Oren's family photos.

Aunt Cheryl wanted to take them in front of a 

red door and it was a wonderful backdrop.

The siblings weren't too excited about

a photo with just them.

Wasn't it worth it?

Blessings,

Hope

Blue Eyed Brittany

Here are some photos of my first cousin's, little girl.

She didn't want to smile, but we managed to get

some precious photos amongst the tears.

Just look at those ice-blue eyes.

 

 

 

This one is priceless.

I sucked my fingers when I was young too.

Then when I was older my teeth looked like a beaver.

Blessings,

Hope