Cherry Chocolate Pie/Chocolate Cheesecake

This is as good as any cheesecake I have had from The Cheesecake Factory!  I LOVE IT!  Yummy!

I will give you the link if you would like to watch the video, or try any more of their recipes.  The link is. . . www.v.gd/BZrysh.  This is the ACH Food Company, INC.  You may recognize some of their products, Karo Syrup, Argo Baking Powder/ Cornstarch, Fleischmann's Yeast.

Anyhow, the recipe is as follows:

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup
2 eggs
1/3 Whipping Cream
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1- 9 inch graham cracker crust
1 can Cherry Pie Filling (I have used strawberry and just plain whipping cream, still great!)

Melt- Chocolate in small saucepan over very low heat, stirring until completely smooth.  Set aside.

Beat- cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer until creamy, then beat in melted chocolate.  Gradually add corn syrup, beating until well blended.  Add eggs one at a time, beating just until blended.  Mix in cream and vanilla extract; pour into pie crust.

Bake- in preheated 325°  oven for 40 to 45 minutes until center is almost set.  Cool on wire rack.  Cover and refridgerate for at least 3 hours.  Top with cherry pie filling; slice and serve.

Prep Time: 20 min--  Bake Time: 40-45 minutes--  Chill Time: 3 Hours-- Makes: 10 servings

Another Great Series of Books to Read!

This is second series in the Percy Jackson books.  They are called "The Heroes of Olympus".  There will be five of these books as well.  So far, only two are out :(   The first book, "The Lost Hero," is about Jason, Leo, and Piper.  Three new heroes we will learn about.  Percy is mentioned, but only the fact that he is missing.  He has been missing as long as Jason has been present and Jason can't remember anything before that period of time.  They have a great mission to save Piper's Father, who has been kidnapped and another very important person, who has also been kidnapped.

"The Son of Neptune" is back to Percy who finds himself also in a different place, other than camp half-blood, with a whole new group of friends.  He, Hazel, and Frank will also be placed on a new quest to kill the impossible, release a monster, to save camp all in a short period of time.  Hopefully all of this will restore Percy's memory and old live.

These were both wonderful books! Loved every minute of them. I could hardly put them down. Now, I have to wait until this fall when "The Mark of Athena" will be released.





I have not read this one yet, but there is also "The Demigod Diaries" available.  It is a book of several short stories of the various demigods, such as Luke Castellan, Percy, and Leo Valdez.  Sounds like it could be fun too!

Book Four is Scheduled to be released Fall of 2013! (No name announced)

Book Five is Scheduled to be released Fall of 2014! (No name announced)

~Stacy~

Boys Ties

For Christmas my sister in law made these darling ties for her boys.  I wanted so badly to learn how, so I looked up on Pinterest, and this is what I found...

 They are so easy!!!  I was able to finish all of these in 2 hours, and that included taking 3 phone calls, helping 2 people, and taking caring of my sons needs.  I thought that was pretty good.  I think they are so CUTE!!!

Pinsperations!

I LOVE pinterest! Greatest thing ever! Of course there are a lot of Valentine Day ideas floating around out there, but for those of you who have not been converted yet...I thought I'd share some of my fav's that I've found!

You can find this here

You can find the tutorial for "the husband gift" here

And here are just some yummy cute treats you can make...

Easy Peasy..

Love crepes found here

You can make some lovely hot cocoa

Lots of food hearts shaped ideas found here

Aren't those just the funnest cupcakes!? LOVE them!

And if you have kids and want to come up with cute saying for the valentines in class you can find them here

And I just think this is AWESOME! "The Game of Love" You can find how to do it here

Hope this gives you a couple ideas if you are stumped!

Happy Valentines Day!!

--MIchelle--

Couponing!

This was my first time couponing so I have to do the famous coupon post! It was so much fun! I have been wanting to start for a couple years, but it just seems so overwhelming...but I finally did it! And by big numbers were....The total came to $62 and I spent $27 for:
1 Gallon of milk
6 boxes of cereal
1 box fiber 1 bars
5 zone bars (all free :)
4 bags m & m's
15 propel
3 bags cheese
I was pretty happy and can't wait to do it again! These are the sites I used to figure it all out, and I get the 5 Sunday papers for the coupon inserts, and Grandma & Grandpa gives me one too.

http://www.couponmom.com/
http://athriftymom.com/category/albertsons/
http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/category/albertsons

--Michelle--

Baby Giraffe rattles

Melanie got me started and now obsessed with Pinterest, thanks a lot MEL!! haha!  I do love it, just spend a bit too much time pinning.  But the other day I saw these darling little giraffe rattles, so I had to make some!  There are many, many women in my ward that are pregnant at this time, so I thought I would whip up some cute baby gifts.

 I think they turned out really cute!  I just put a little rattle in them, so as not to annoy the parents, but still entertain the babe.

Rachel

Christmas Wreaths

This is a wreath idea I got from a girl I work with.  It is made out of a simple wire hanger, about 60 shatterproof ornaments and a big, festive bow.  I made two of them, however, I did not get them made before Christmas was over and I did not get to hang them on either side of my garage!  Next year, it will look amazing!  

Here is a closer view. . . 

1.  To make these fun wreaths, find a nice wire hanger, like the kind you get at the dry cleaners. 

2.  You will untwist the hook part of the hanger with the rest of the hanger and bend and shape until you have a nice circular shape at the bottom.

3.  Go ahead and start putting on the bulbs in any order you'd like, adding from the non-hook end.  Don't worry about arranging them because they will arrange themselves and change whatever you did.  For mine with the two tones, I tried to do about 2 or 3 gold for every 2 blues.  I also used different sizes and I think it turned out really well!  Just a side note, this part can be a little frustrating towards the end because the bulbs will start to pop off of their hooks as you get close to having a full hanger.  Don't give up though, it will look amazing!

4.  Once you are satisfied with the amount of bulbs you put on there, go ahead and re-wind the hanger back together.  You will notice I went on and bent the top hook of the hanger all the way down so it would fit nicely onto either a doorhook or a nail.

5.  If you are good a making bows, make a nice, big bow to cover the hanger at the top.  If you are not as talented in that area, it is ok, there are many beautiful bows at any of the department stores throughout Christmas time for a reasonable price!

6.  Last but not least, show off your unique wreath for all to see!

Filters

So I've been meaning to post this for a while but just keep forgetting. I have found and heard of a couple good filters for your home computers. There is a lot of crap out there on the computer, and I think these are great for protecting your families. This first one, OpenDNS is a filter on your router so it will protect any device that is used on it, (computers or phones or whatev), you can click here for the first one. It's easy to install, just follow the instructions.



The second one is called K9 web protection, and it just goes on the one computer you install it on, and that one you can find here.


On both of these you can create your settings of everything you want blocked. You can also put in certain website you'd like blocked. However you'd like to customize it to your own families needs. And as the women of the house I think it's good for you to be the one to put it on, and to be in charge of the passwords and blocks and everything, just for preventative measures. But that's my own personal opinion. Anyways, take it or leave it, but just thought I'd share.

--Michelle--

Here is one just for the kids!  It is awesome and it is just $4.99 for THE YEAR!  www.kangaplace.com.  Try a free 30 day trial and if you don't love it, no worries, don't pay the $4.99.

Basically, you can either have this set as your home page or just have the icon on your desktop and teach your kids where to go.  You follow the steps and build a "pouch" for each child in your home with their favorite games, ones you already approve of and know are safe, and then when they want to play the computer, they log onto their pouch and can play any of the games in there.  It is brilliant!  If there is a website you know is fine and is not in their preapproved games, they have steps to add that too. 

These are my friends who created this website and I am so proud to recommend it.  It really is fantastic.  My kids LOVE it and so do I.  I feel completely confident they are safe while playing the computer now and they know what they can do.  We have added websites they play at school to so they can do school stuff as well.  I hope you enjoy this too!

--Stacy--

Scripture Reading

So all through seminary and religion classes I would for the most part read the sections (Book of Mormon Part 1 &2 Old Testament, New Testament etc. ) we were studying, so with that being said, sadly & embarrassing to say I've never read the Book of Mormon all the way through until I was 22.  And I really have to make goals to read everyday, because I slack off a lot. So I was on Pinterest at the beginning of the year and found this...

                                             

You can find it here. And I'm so excited! I've been doing awesome! You read about 7 pages a day. And that's the other funny part, is when I would read my scriptures I would usually just read like a chapter or a couple verses, whatever I had time for. And now doing this it's easy ready that much at a time. So that's my resolution this year...to read all of the scriptures! I just printed off the schedule and put it in the front of my scriptures and mark it off everyday. So i'll send out the invite for whoever wants to join me in my endeavor! :)

--Michelle

Christmas Jars

A couple of years ago a neighbor gave us a book called "Christmas Jars" by Jason F. Wright.  I immediately read the book and loved it!  I had Austin read it and he loved it and the idea behind the book.  So we started a Christmas Jar.  At the time we were poor residents hardly spending any money at all, but that first year we were able to give away about $60 in change that we had collected.  And WOW! I cannot tell you how wonderful of a feeling it is to help someone else like that.  Seriously.  It is such a good lesson for a family.  My kids are SO excited every single time they add money to the Christmas Jar.  Every year about a month before Christmas, during Family Home Evening, we challenge the kids to think of someone to give our Jar to, and this year they had a suggestion that night.  It had already been on their mind and they had been thinking of who could use it!  I was so proud of them.  We used their suggestion and they were again SO EXCITED when it came time to deliver the JAR.  What a wonderful lesson for children. 

I HIGHLY recommend this book to every family. 

Neighbor Gifts

This is what we did this year for neighbor gifts.

We gave the root beer to our neighbors that we didn't know very well

And gave the gum to our friends.

--Michelle

Tortilla Pizza

We had these tortilla pizza's at my mom's house this past visit.  They were delicious and so easy.  The boys loved it because they could make their pizza just how they like it and felt like they had a HUGE pizza all to themselves. 

Ingredients Needed:

Flour Tortillas (two per pizza)

Pizza sauce (homemade or your favorite canned)

Cheese

Any other toppings you like:

Pepperoni, Sausage, Olives, Mushrooms, Peppers, Pineapple, etc

You start with one tortilla on your cooking sheet.  Add a small layer of cheese, followed by your second tortilla.  Add your pizza sauce and build the rest of you toppings to your preference.  They take about 15-20 minutes to cook on 350°.

The Pizza Sauce we used, I got from www.allrecipe.com.   The direct link to it is: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/exquisite-pizza-sauce/detail.aspx.  It is called Exquisite Pizza Sauce.  I thought it was really tasty.  I did not have any marjaram or cayenne peper on hand so I did not put any in it and it was still delicious.  It calls for:

1 can (6oz) Tomato Paste

6 oz Warm Water

3 Tbsp Grated Parmasean Cheese

1 tsp Minced Garlic

2 Tbsp Honey

3/4 tsp Onion Powder

1/4 tsp Dried Oregano

1/4 tsp Dried Marjoram

1/4 tsp Dried Basil

1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/8 tsp Dried Red Pepper Flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Enjoy- Stacy

Raspberry Jello Dessert

This Jello recipe was given to me by one of my sisters, Heather!  It is so yummy and easy!    I just took a double batch to our church's Christmas Party and is was gone fast!  I thought is was kind of festive too!  Here is the recipe and I hope you enjoy too!

1 Small pkg Raspberry Jello

1 16 oz Container of Yogurt (raspberry flavored if you can find it, if not strawberry or vanilla)

1 container of cool whip

1 16 oz bag frozen raspberries

First mix the yogurt and the jello together.  Then fold in the cool whip.  Finally, just before serving, add the raspberries. 

I have not tried it with other flavors but I bet would be delicious with others like strawberry!

Stacy

Christmas Gingerbread Houses

So my family has a tradition each year that before Christmas, we decorate a Gingerbread house for a family night.  We let the boys do all of the decorating after we have pieced it together.  This year, I found this cute 5 house set at Walmart for about $10.00.  What a steal!  The boys each got to decorate their very own and we still had some left over that we decorated with friends later. 

~Stacy~

Mary's Baby Shower

Here are a few pictures from Mary's Shower. It turned out really nice.

Hope everyone had a fun time!

Add more photos if you have them!

Enjoy!

Rachel