Black Friday on Alcatraz!

Hey look what I found in the drafts!  Fun day back in November!  Everyone should do the Alcatraz tourist thing.  Trouble is you have to get tickets about 2 weeks or so in advance.  Andrew and Michael couldn't make it, so Jeffrey made two women who came for the tour and found them sold out very happy .

Gingerbread - Going for houses someday

Gingerbread Recipe 

 I had to label this so in the event I ever want to make gingerbread houses again, I'll know where to find the recipe when I hit search.

 The reality is gingerbread men, cookies, etc. is time consuming and lots of work for not enough utiles. "Utiles" being a measurement of the unmeasurable such as happiness, contentment, or worth versus the cost of doing something.

Chocolate Chip cookies are far easier, taste better, and don't take up even half or a quarter of the time and effort it takes to make a batch of gingerbread dough, cut it out, bake it and then decide whether or not to take the time to ice/decorate it.  Chocolate Chip cookies disappear faster.  Chocolate Chip cookies are fatal to weight loss.   Soooo.....

I made these gingerbread cookies to give out for Christmas and limited myself to two which is doable (not so with chocolate chip) and found not all recipes are even (unlike chocolate chip which varies a little and all of them work out and taste just fine - too fine).  If you happen to want a soft, little more healthy recipe that puffs up, tastes great - but doesn't always look straight try this one.    If you want a flat gingerbread man try this one off the web. (OK forget it I can't find it again, but there are PLENTY out there)  Now this is the one I'll maybe, someday, not in the foreseeable future make - and of course it comes from Laura Nausin.  She is famous for making houses and having parties with little kids all decorating the cute houses.

Sift together:

5 to 5 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp ground nutmeg

Beat until fluffy:

1 cup Solid Crisco

1 cup Sugar

Add to creamed mixture

1 cup molasses

1 egg (I added 2- maybe mine were too little)

Stir in sifted flour mixture.  Chill Overnight.  Roll dought to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness.  Dough should be no ticker than a graham cracker.  Cut out patterns. Bake on ungreased baking sheet in 350* oven 7 minutes for cookies, 8-10 for houses.   

Do you think it's shopping - or giving a talk?

So this story or "event" started out on Sunday when I had the 'privilige' of giving a talk at church.  I'm fortunate that this privilege comes about every 8 years - maybe next time we could move it to ten.  So I must have knocked on fates door asking for an invitation when I quoted
Richard G. Scott:

"Sadness, disappointment, and severe challenge are events in life, not life itself.  I do not minimize how hard some of these events are.  They can extend over a long period of time, but they should not be allowed to become the confining center of everything you do.  .  The Lord inspired Lehi to declare the fundamental truth, “Men are, that they might have joy.”  That is a conditional statement: “they might have joy.”  It is not conditional for the Lord.  His intent is that each of us finds joy.  It will not be conditional for you as you obey the commandments, have faith in the Master, and do the things that are necessary to have joy here on earth. 

Your joy in life depends upon your trust in Heavenly Father and His holy Son, your conviction that their plan of happiness truly can bring you joy."  (May 96 Ensign, 24)

I basically testified about how happy I find life.

Tuesday I went shopping.  Shopping and I have a love hate relationship and I know it is a necessary thing to do to get "stuff".  I like "stuff" just the effort involved is never ending.   I found this really neat trick is to go with friends!  They always know where to go and we actually have fun!  So on Tuesday we headed up to the Outlet Malls (Roseanne Nieto drove - I didn't even have to do that!) and everybody mentioned what they wanted and then we split up and wove together to look for "stuff".  Fun, fun, fun!  Lots of laughing and checking out, some trying on, it was just fun.  Having four women trying on and looking at pea coats for Rebekah my daughter was hilarious as we decided who was closest in size and what she might look like in it.

But I blew it at the glassware store - sorry I've already forgotten the name - Pyrex?  anyway I stood holding a bag of glass bowls for a little too long and cut off circulation in  a few fingers and over strained my left hand.  I finished up the day buying some really hilarious gifts at the cooking store for my boys and watching the ladies at other stores and just enjoying the camaraderie. 

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, pain was radiating from my left wrist and I ended up going to the Doctors on Thursday where he told me the over straining of the tendons, etc. had resulted in a rare condition of cellulitis (or something like that) a fast acting infection, so he treated it with antibiotics and a wrist splint.  On Friday I was really praying to my Heavenly Father and 'wallah"! on Saturday morning the pain started to dissipate.  My thanks to Heaven, doctors who go to school, and the invention of modern antibiotic!  It is now Tuesday morning and I can function well.   Life is good again!