Remember the Fudge

Remember that one time I said that I pour my fudge into a pan lined with tin foil? Remember how I said it makes it sooo much easier to take out of the pan?

 

I found something even better.

 

Parchment paper. Do it every time now. It is more expensive than tin foil but you can re-use it :) and it doesn't leave little squiggly lines on the bottom and outside edges.

Parchment paper + fudge =

 Awesome, smooth, pretty and delicious.

Ham

 

Whenever I go to Costco I buy ham. I buy two packages and separate it into 4 baggies. We go through ham pretty quickly cause Zac likes his "ham-burgers" but freezing them ensures that we don't have anything go bad. I used to just freeze the pieces how they came packaged, flat on top of each other. This meant some more intense thawing time or the microwave if I didn't notice we needed a new bag out.

 

 

So, once, I tried rolling the individual pieces.

 

 

I'm never going back. 

 

Even when the ham is frozen it's easy to pull out one rolled piece.

This rocks. It does take a tad bit more time in the initial phase but is so worth it.  

 

 

 

Bread

 

 

So, I make a lot of the bread that we consume. Whole wheat bread, rolls, bread sticks, pizza dough, bread stuff. I love having homemade bread things for dinner but baking them while cooking dinner is so stressful. So, I'm sharing an AWEsome trick I learned when I was younger. You can make your bread in the morning, or the day before, form it into loaves or rolls, whatever, and then stick them on the pan, covered with saran wrap, in the fridge. This prevents them from rising. This means I don't have to worry about timing the rising of the bread just right with when dinner will be ready. BEST thing ever! It makes for super yummy, homemade meals and less stress :)

 

One time I tried a whole wheat roll recipe. It was good but I still like white rolls better.

 

 

I used Active dry instead of Instant yeast. So, this is the initial rise.

 

 

Punched down! I LOVE doing this part!

 

 

I grease my pans with butter stick wrappers. I like it better that way.

 

 

I stuck the rolls in the fridge and took them out several hours later and this is what they looked like.

 

 

 This is after they warmed up and rose.

 

 

I used half of the dough to make a spaghetti braid for dinner. Though I didn't adore the whole wheat rolls. This was awesome with whole wheat.

 

 

 

 

 

Fudgy Fudge Fudge

I love fudge! It is so yummy and oh, so, easy to make!

I've used several recipes and threw together my own because nothing was perfect. This still isn't perfect but it's so close that it's okay.

• 3 1/2 C sugar
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 bag mini marshmallows
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 C butter
• 1 C semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 C milk chocolate chocolate chips
• 1 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Cook the sugar, milk, and marshmallows in a large saucepan on meadium high. When it comes to a rolling boil (must actually be rolling!), set a timer for 10minutes and keep stirring. Make sure it doesn't burn! When the timer goes off remove from heat and add the vanilla. Then add the butter and chocolate chips and stir/beat it for 5 minutes. You wanna make sure the chips all melt.

Line a baking pan with tin foil, pour the fudge in and stick it in the fridge to cool. Once it's cooled, pull on the tin foil lining and the fudge will pop right out! This makes a much easier clean up and your fudge won't stick to the pan. Cut and enjoy!

 

 

Swiftie

I've said this before but.....I adore Taylor Swift's music. She had a new CD come out today. On my birthday :) It's entitled Red.

 

 

 

I Love some of these songs. I am such a Swiftie (an eternal Taylor Swift music fan).

I haven't listened to all of the songs yet but so far I love Stay, Stay, Stay, Starlight, State of Grace,22, Holy Ground and The Lucky One. This made me one happy birthday girl.

Yucky Bath Toys

 

My kids love their bath toys. They both try to bring them out of the bathroom to play with them when it's not bath time. They particularly love the animal kinds that squeeze, suck in water and then you can squirt it out. I didn't used to like those toys because they get mold inside of them because I can never get the water all the way out.

It makes me wonder what other people do. Do they throw them out? How do they clean them? Do they care?

Anyway, my husband and I figured out that if you suck up bleach into the toys and then squirt it out, it cleans out all of the mold! Sometimes we let it sit over night in the sink just to be extra bleached. This is the best thing ever cause now we don't have to throw away and replace bath toys and they stay sanitary. 

The Yummiest Sandwich

In April during General Conference we threw together a sandwich with random ingredients from our fridge. Best Sandwich Ever! My 2 year old ate his whole sandwich. He's a picky eater so this was very impressive.

 

 

 

 

First, set the oven to broil and then lay out sandwich bread on a baking sheet, slice some  tomatoes and lay them on the bread.

 

Then, you slice up an avacado and lay the slices on top of the tomatoes.

Then, you put a generous amoount of mozzerella cheese on top of the avacado and tomato.

 

You can skip the step with the meat or not. It's good both ways. The first time we made these sandwiches we used bacon. When I was taking these pictures we used ham. Both versions are good but with bacon is the best.

 

Then, you sprinkle some seasonal salt on the sandwich. This makes all of the difference! So good!

 

Lastly, put your baking sheet with your yummy sandwiches in the oven to broil. Broiling goes really fast so watch the sandwiches carefully. I took pictures of this side because the other side of the sandwich is a bit more crispy because I didn't watch it closely enough.

 

Anyway, broil on one side for about 3 minutes then flip the sandwiches - the cheese makes it stick together - and broil for 2 minutes on the other side.