New little Halloween Witches will be in

THe ShOp

Today

P.S. Don't forget to sign up for the Halloween Giveaway.. several posts below this. :)

Halloween at The Rock Loft...

Every change of season I love to visit The Rock Loft in Fruit Heights Utah and see all the fun Holiday decorations.
They go crazy! It's like a festival!

... and you really shouldn't miss it.

The July 4th decor this year was amazing...

I love Halloween too...

... and Christmas is right around the corner...

Bun Basket.. A Favorite Spot...

The other day, some of us around here got talking about the fabulous treats there are right in our backyard. So I thought this week, I might highlight a few. The Bun Basket has many of our family's favorites... yummy mint/choc. brownies, the best ever veggie sandwiches, amazing Cheezy Potato Soup, the cutest shape sugar cookies. They also sell amazing wheat breads, my favorite Blue Cattle Truck Mexican Vanilla, some great local jams & honey and fabulous cinnamon roll mix.

Sinful Brownies...

My basic brownie recipe is adapted from Better Homes & Gardens...

Fudge Brownies
1 cup butter
4 squares semi-sweet choc. squares (I use Baker's)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. good Mexican Vanilla (Blue Cattle Truck is my favorite)
1 1/2 cup unbleached flour

Melt choc. & butter over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in remaining ingred. Bake in a 9X13 pan for 30 mins. at 350 degrees. (Do not over-cook)

That's the basic recipe.. and it's fun to play with. You can melt a bag of Guittard mint chips and spread that and then some choc. frosting over the top.

You can add milk, semi or dark choc. chips. I love Guittard choc... it's the very best and this dark choc. is no exception. So how about adding 1 cup dark choc chips to the batter and 2 cups of whole pecans. ... Sinfully delish.

Halloween Starter Kit... Giveaway...

Kit includes: Candy Corn Love Box, Candy Corns, Chocolate Pumpkins and Eyeballs, a set of Dracula Teeth, Halloween sticker, Spinning Spin Top Spiders, Caramel Apple Pops, a book mark to hold your place in a scary book, spider rings and a black notebook and pen to make your Halloween plans in...

Instructions: Everyone is welcome to enter by...

making A SINGLE comment in the comments section

Winner will be drawn Monday Midnight EST

GOOD LUCK!

Michelle is the winner!

Congratulations!

Aggie Ice Cream...

While BYU and UofU wage a football war.. The Aggies easily slip away with a more important win. THE MOST AWESOME ICE CREAM EVER!

My Visiting Teacher brought Treats...

Marshmallows dipped in caramel, dipped in rice crispies... If you made these yourself.. Oh the creative possibilities.. They were so cute, but we ate them. Thanks Emily!

Comfort Food...

Easy Meatloaf:
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 egg
1 onion chopped
1 cup milk
1 cup dried bread crumbs (I used good wheat bread toasted and finely crumbled)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
dash garlic powder

Topping
2 T brown sugar
2 T prepared Mustard
2/3 C ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine beef, egg, onion, milk, bread crumbs, Worcestershire sauce & garlic powder in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Place in a lightly greased 5X9 loaf pan.
In a separate small bowl, combine brown sugar, mustard & ketchup. Mix well and poor over meatloaf.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 min.

I like to serve this with green salad, steamed broccoli and yellow garden squash. And, I like to quarter some new red potatoes and put them in a ceramic covered dish which I place in the oven beside the meatloaf and then add a touch of butter and some parsley flakes.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com

Method Water Flower Foaming Soap...

I love this stuff. Elegant and doesn't chap. It's one of those happy little luxeries.

Why Giving Matters...

Thanks to Janice, who passed this along. This is a brilliant article by a Catholic Economist...
Hope you'll read it. HERE...

"Americans give a lot. In 2006 they gave about $300 billion to charity. To put that into perspective, $300 billion is more than the entire national income of Sweden. Seventy-five percent of America’s families give every year. Fifty percent volunteer their time, and Americans give in myriad other ways that are not captured in data.
The most charitable state in the United States is Utah, where people give approximately twice as much as the second leading state. I’m tempted to say that that should make Utahns proud. But I suppose that’s not the right word. However, it should make you pleased—and determined to keep it up. "

Art Of Andrew Daniel...

I like THIS artist very much and had a small print framed from my new yellow hall.

Salsa Fresca & Cholula Chicken...

Slow cook these ingredients, shred chicken and it makes a healthy and delicious meal served over rice with steamed veggies and a salad.

Outliers...

In an interview with Malcolm Gladwell, the author claims that his research has debunked American Individualism, "Americans like to believe in the myth of the `rugged individualist' that pulls himself or herself up by the bootstraps for this is a part of the American credo." Yes. It is.

And, after reading this book, I still believe in pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. Why? For those of you who've read the book, you know that Gladwell's theory is that everyone CAN succeed if given opportunity. He talks about how amazing it was that Bill Gates was given almost unlimited access to a computer at a time when the only other people with the same access were those attending the elite universities in the land. He talks about the significance of the early birthdays of hockey players and elementary students. He makes some great points about opportunity and how vital it is to success.

But the bootstraps exist in the 10,000 hours.. and in desire, creativity and effort. Everyone at Bill Gates highschool was given access to this amazing computer, not to mention those attending the elite universities and yet there is only one Bill Gates. I'm sure that among the kids who attended Bill Gates' high school, there are many high achievers. They had opportunity like Gladwell points out. They obviously had a great deal of community backing for their school, parents who were willing to donate time and money to improve things and to provide opportunity. The smart kids took advantage of those things and learned something, but for many it wasn't computers.

When I was a kid my dad purchased a Steinway piano and found a good teacher for me who also taught at a local university, an amazing opportunity. I learned to play the piano in a very basic way. Given time, I can read the notes and can play something very simple. I'm no Mozart.

Americans often refer to their country as "the land of opportunity". The idea being that we are free to pursue those options that interest us. No one tells us what to read, to watch or how to spend our time. Time is where the "rugged individualism" comes in... time and effort.

The Homestead Act provided a great opportunity for those who were "rugged American individualists". Here is a piece of land. It's all yours.. you just have to make something out of it... make it livable and profitable and do it in three years. For those who had a bright mind, a healthy body and were willing to work from morning until night without ceasing, this was a great opportunity.

Did I play the piano from morning until night? No. I love music, but it has never been my first love and there were days and days that I simply forgot to practice. I may have been a better pianist if I had been forced to practice for hours, but I don't think I ever would have been great because I wanted something else.

Gladwell is right that no one is self made. Even if they don't get a lot of help along the way, there are circumstances and influences. But, when you have a passion, people have a propensity for finding themselves in the way of opportunity.

There are so many lessons to be learned from this book. One, for me as I look at the current political climate, is a concern that the public's desire for greater government control of almost everything discourages opportunity and therefore success. Another lesson I learned is that time is the great equalizer. We all have the 10,000 hours. How will we spend it? How will we encourage our children to spend it? This book proves, if we didn't know it already, how precious every moment can be.

Tim Hawkins is sooo funny!

Watch this and his other videos HERE

Waterpik...

I'm an anti-gadget person.. because it just gets to be too much, but I have to admit... these are cool. They seem more effective than floss to me.

Inherit the Wind...

I don't believe in Darwin's theory, but I still love this film. As a Christian and a person of faith.. I can't take the side of religious fanatics or the atheistic character of Hornbeck the reporter.

Members of the L.D.S. Church live by the articles of faith. Number 11 states: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

And, if people want to believe they are descended from monkeys, that's OK too. But, I claim the right to believe that my ancestors are better looking than theirs.

The point is that we have the right to believe what we believe in this country and that is something that even after The Constitution and The Bill of Rights were drafted and signed we still struggle with.

Thankfully not as much as when intolerance, bigotry and ignorance caused so much violence and misery for so many different groups of people in this country including my Mormon ancestors who were forced from their homes and communities several times before coming to Utah.

Even when we don't believe the same way, we may be able to look and learn from someone whose background is very different from our own.

A Korean family moved into our neighborhood several years ago. They are the most delightful people. Their sons are gifted, gracious, thoughtful, polite and always cheerful. They are doing something wonderful with their children. I am grateful they moved here.

Tolerance is as important as fighting for what we believe in. You can do both and and do them at the same time. You can fight hard and be respectful of others at the same time.

I think these words are really the crux of the film:

"Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!"

Anyway, I like this film quite a lot. It's well done.

Recent Love Boxes added to the SHoP...

SHoP

The Greatest Game Every Played...

Darling film.. We all loved it. The caddy is great!

Dido & Aeneas...

... was fabulous! Thanks Jackie!

Hallway is sooo close...

About 2 months ago, the city informed us that we had a small water leak... almost imperceptible.
We looked everywhere, but couldn't find it... until one day I was in the hallway and looked up.

.. the ceiling had sunk. Ooops. The swamp cooler hose had sprung a leak.

Bummer, but when life hands you lemons.. do the best you can to make lemonade... so we painted the hallway bright yellow!

It's still not quite finished, but sooo close.

We are really enjoying another bright, happy color.