STAY AWAY!

These are evil. And when I say evil, I mean totally tasty. So tasty and evil that once you start, you can't stop. mmmmmm.

A friend told me about them. I saw them. Bought them. And love them. I 've suffered through baked chips before and they aren't so tasty. But Old Dutch got it right. Lots of flavor. Lack of grease.

And guess what? You can eat 27 chips to equal a serving. Hello.

Sorry my American friends... I think these are only available in Canada. But maybe the USofA will get something right and start importing these. ha.

The fruits (and vegetables) of our labors.

My parents have a pretty amazing garden. And they were kind enough to plant potatos, peas, carrots and beans even though they would be out of the country to partake of the bountiful harvest.
Or help with the weeding or harvesting... hmmm.
how convenient. too convenient.


I spent an hour in the hot sun, battling bugs and thorns and weeds to get these beauties-

Pretty sure it is all going to be worth it when I have a yummy
baked potato and green beans for dinner.
And some raspberries and ice cream for dessert.

Thanks Mom and Dad! I love you!

Super Delicious Yummy Ham

I got this recipe from Rose- a lady on my mission. So I call it Rose's Ham. But you can call it whatever you want. It is super delicious and yummy. So feel free to call it that.

I tried to take pictures throughout but of course didn't get pictures at the beginning or the end...

First step is to bake ham frozen, with skin on at a low heat (about 150 to 200 degrees) "all day". My ham wasn't frozen so I was a little worried about cooking it all day. Plus my oven would only go as low as 170 degrees. So I put it in the oven before leaving for church and it was "done" when I got home- 3 hours later.

Take out of oven- remove skin and fat.

Now comes the delicious part.

Mix together:
2 cups brown sugar
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
3 or 4 shakes of soy sauce
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup or less ketchup

(my ham was pretty small so I halved the glaze recipe)

It will be pretty thick- paste the glaze onto the ham. Cover the ham as best you can and just pour in the rest of the glaze.

Return to the oven- but this time at 400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes- basting it with the glaze a few times.
I tried to baste it about every 5 minutes. The glaze becomes very liquidy and easy to spoon over the ham.


I made this to take to my sisters for dinner. So I just put it in a container, poured over the glaze- it travelled perfectly.

Just before eating we sliced it, poured some glaze over the slices and dug in. Pretty sure my brother-in-law ate half of it.


My sister also made a plain ham (that was HUGE) so there were lots leftover. I took a few pieces, put them in my container with some glaze and enjoyed it the next day.


Try it. You will love it.

Dorm Food.

Living in a dorm for 3 weeks is an interesting experience. Especially when you only have a mini fridge and microwave (and have to share a bathroom and showers with 9 other ladies). My friend/roomie Rachel and I decided to do a lot of experimenting with her sandwich maker. or Snack Master as she likes to call it.

Here is what we made-

Pizza Sandwiches. Pretty tasty. Put sauce, cheese and desired toppings (we enjoyed ham and pineapple) on a piece of bread. Top with another piece of bread... and enjoy.


Have you seen that infomercial for the GT Express 101? She makes something called Stuffed Soup so we decided to give it a try too. You mix stuffing, chicken and cream of chicken soup. It was pretty messy as you can see... But it was tasty.


We were pretty good at making breakfast... We made eggs which were probably my favorite. I don't know that I will make eggs in a frying pan ever again.


This is when we made eggs the first time. The next few times we added cheese and ham. Mmmmm.

We also made pancakes. Rachel loves sausages so we added them to her side.

Here is the final product... So yummy. Not sure if I will ever make pancakes in a frying pan ever again either.

Here is Rachel enjoying the goods.

We made cupcakes. I saw this mix a couple months ago and knew it would be perfect for our dorm living. And it was. While they don't look like cupcakes they sure tasted like them. Especially with yummy cream cheese frosting.

My battery died so I didn't have a chance to take pictures of everything we made. Other breakfast foods included muffins. And other desserts like brownies and cookies.

We made breakfast for our class one morning. It was so fun feeding 10 people a meal of muffins, pancakes, sausages, and eggs all made in a sandwich maker.

Now I need to go purchase one for myself.

Remember me?

Holy Schmolies it has been a long time since I lost blogged.

It has been a CRAZY month.

-I finished my 5 week teaching assignment and found out that a GYM teacher was getting the position. I don't want to talk about it.

-My parents left on their mission. And should now be in the Philippines although the last time I heard from them they were in the Taipei airport. Really hope they aren't wandering aimlessly.

-Celebrated Canada Day with some of the family. Yummy breakfast. Delicious BBQ. Too bad I was just recovering from the 24 hour flu so I didn't get to enjoy as much as I would have liked to.

-Started 2 online classes. Statistics and Research Methods. There are about as fun as they sound. Luckily there are only 2 weeks left of them.

-Unluckily they happen the same time as my 3 on campus classes. Yup. I am living it up in the dorms again. I am enjoying the delightfully fresh produce available in Washington. I am not, however, enjoying the fierce wind that comes with being in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Wind is my least favorite element. I would take snow, rain and of course sun over wind any day.

-What am I talking about? I have been enjoying the produce of Washington before I even left Alberta. I seriously think I have personally consumed at least 6 pounds of cherries in the last 2 weeks. Mmmmm.

-I had the opportunity and blessing of staying with some Virginia friends who are now living it up in Spokane. I was hoping to get pictures with all of the friends I was reuniting with this summer but forgot to take a picture. But I did get a picture of the cute little welcome gift Megan left on my bed. So fun. (and my battery just died as I was loading the pictures on to my computer so it looks like I won't be getting any other photos either since I forgot my charger at home).

-Amidst all the studying and paper writing I have had a few opportunities for fun. Like shopping at Target and Grocery Outlet (I seriously LOVE that store), going to the Seattle Temple (which p.s. is the MOST confusing temple I have EVER been to. And no workers to direct you), eating at Sonic and Chipotle. Mmmm. We were told about this amazing thrift store on Mercer Island in the Seattle area. Apparently the island is quite hoitey toitey and everything they donate is too. It was pretty impressive. But I was surprised how many clothes were stained/dirty. Apparently their maids didn't wash the clothes before donating them. And apparently no one on the island is larger than size 12.

-And my friend Anna (who I knew from home but married a guy from around here) had me and my friend/roomie Rachel over for dinner last Sunday. It was so nice to get out of the dorms, have real (and mighty delicious) food, play fun games and do lots of catching up.

-Today starts the last week of my on campus classes. I am more than overjoyed. We have a new professor each week and our professor for this last week is goooood looking. Pretty sure our class of 18 ladies isn't going to have any problems staying awake.

Mmmmmm.... Pie.

Over 3 years ago I said that I would share a recipe for the greatest pie EVER and never did! I am not a big pie fan but this one is delicious. It tastes like cookie dough/chocolate chip cookie. Mmmm. The first time I had it, I was in LOVE. I asked my friend for the recipe and he was kind enough to share it. I have made it 3 times since then (3 times in 3 years... there is something serwiously wrong with that) but for some reason it doesn't taste AS amazing as it did the first time. Maybe he is like the lady on my mission that would leave out an ingredient whenever she shared a recipe with someone so that theirs would never work out and hers would always be the best. Funny. But mean.

So anyways- it is really yummy. And I will just have to keep making it until it is as delightful as the original.

*Note: okay... so I did some research looking up other pictures and recipes online and it is indeed supposed to be gooey in the middle (like I remember). I am not sure why mine always turns out more like a cookie. I will do some experimenting and get back to you. But in the meantime- give this a try. It is still mighty tasty.




Kentucky Derby Pie


1 pie shell
2 eggs- beaten
1/2 cup butter- melted & cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 cup pecans- chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix eggs & cooled butter.
Add sugar & flour, then vanilla , nuts and chocolate chips.

Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes.
(watch the crust & cover with foil if getting too dark)




I made little tart size for our family's monthly birthday celebration. What says Happy Birthday more than a sparkler in a tart?
Not much.
Not much.

Adventures in Organizing

Here is a glimpse into some of the organizing I have been doing the past 2 weeks. There is a great pantry in the Foods Lab... but it is FULL of stuff. Every shelf was completely packed. And dusty. Oh my. So here are some before and after pictures. Sorry they are not the exact same shot but hopefully it all makes sense. And it is a small room so hard to get a lot in one shot.

The top left side- before:

Top left side- after: Bottom left side- before:

Bottom left side- after:

Top middle- before:

Top middle- after:

Bottom middle- before:

Bottom middle- after:

Right side- before:

Top right side- after:

Bottom right side- after:

It is SOO much better. Pretty sure there was stuff in there that hasn't moved since I was in high school. I love just walking in there and looking around. It makes me smile. Shout out to my sister for helping me out with the final touches!

J-E-L-L-O

I love Jell-O. I don't know if it is necessarily the taste of it. Or more of what you can do with it. (especially with the fabulous molds/jell-o cutters out there).

It is almost always a side dish for our Sunday family dinners. Some like it with fruit. Some like it without. So we have to have 2 different kinds to please everyone. The kids tend to eat more jell-0 than the "normal" food. But who can blame them?

Not me.

For our today's Sunday dinner I made everyone's name in Jell-O.

It was a special Sunday for 2 reasons.

1) It is Father's Day. (Hi Dad! I love you!!)

2) It is the second last time my family will be all together for 18 months. (my parents leave in 8 days for the Philippines -via the MTC of course!)

9 batches (or 18 boxes) of Jell-O later we were blessed with this:

plus one more table that I didn't get a photo of.

And me. I was actually short an S so I had to steal one from my sister Kristi for this photo.

Until I ate the evidence I was known as Helley.

(Please ignore the nasty hair and makeup. I was in a rush this morning- hence the waves and I bought new powder that apparently makes me look like more of a freak!)

To make jell-o Jigglers you need:

4 boxes of jell-o (the normal 4 serving size)

2 1/2 cups boiling water.

Mix and pour into 9x13 pan.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes (the longer you refrigerate, the more solid it gets)

In my adventures of making 9 batches of jell-0 I learned a few things.

*halve the batch when making lots of different colors (so 2 boxes & 1 1/4 cups boiling water in a square pan)

*mixing the power and water in a separate bowl (or liquid measuring cup) and then pouring in your pan creates better jell-o. Not too sure why- but it does.

*the recipe says to place the bottom of pan in warm water for 15 seconds to aid in getting the goods out. I found the greasing the pan with a little cooking spray works much bigger wonders.