Lots of Junk!

I decided to blog my yard sale purchases since Al and Emily both did.  I am still not very good at being selective at yard sales and I end up buying junky stuff.  Andrew really liked it when I set up all of the stuff on the porch.

Abigail went with me since the boys were at the Father/Son Camp-out -  I realized that you buy more junk if your kids go with you because they will want to buy random things that you never would.

Here is what I got (favorites 1st):

New with tag - size large black board shorts - for my post-pregnancy summer - .25

Conair hot sticks - these made the best curls for Abby's dance recital - 1.00

Race car ramp - I thought this was junky, but it has been entertaining the boys for 3 days now - .50

Bucket of dublo legos - $3

Barefoot dreams blankie for Lilly - $0.25

Cloth diapers for Al - $4

Newborn sunhat - .50

yellow rain boots for Anthony - .75

picnic basket - .25 (this was Abby's purchase)

Wired flowers - .25 (Abigail picked these, too)

Polly pocket clock - .25

lizards and snakes - .50 (she picked these out for the boys)

books - about $2 - some are not pictured

red umbrella - .25

hot chocolate maker - .50 (I already have one, but maybe I can leave it in the trailer)

baby backpak - $1 - why did I buy this? - I allready have a nice one - maybe Cathy wants it

Not pictured - some really old, junky barbies that Abigail picked out - .50

BBQ Pork

The last few times that I have made BBQ pork, I have not been happy with the results, using recipes that are basically a piece of meat slow-cooked in BBQ sauce.  These recipes are easy, but do not have very much depth of flavor.  They were also a little too sweet for me. Here is what I did: first I read a few recipes in cookbooks and online.

BBQ Pulled Pork

4-5 lb pork roast (I used a shoulder with bone-in) - remove as much fat as you can before    cooking 

Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and place in crock-pot.

Add:

1 chopped onion

about 1 T Worcestershire sauce

a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar

1/2 c cider vinegar

1/2 - 1 cup BBQ sauce

Then fill with water to just about the top of the meat.

Cook on low 10-12 hours.

After it is cooked, take meat out - remove bones and fat and shred.

Dump out most of water - reserving the onions to mix with meat if desired.  Leave a little liquid to keep shredded meat moist.

Return shredded meat to crock pot.

At this point you can simply season with salt and pepper and let each person add his or her own BBQ sauce. Or you can add BBQ sauce to the crock-pot, mix with meat before serving.

Hamburger Buns

Last week I made pulled pork sandwiches w/ BBQ sauce for dinner.  Paul thought it was funny because I said I didn't feel like going to the grocery store (with all the kids) to buy buns, so I just made some instead.  He said usually it is the opposite - people buy things at the store because they don't feel like making them.

I looked up a bunch of recipes online and combined them a little and adjusted the recipe to be made with the food processor.  I think they turned out pretty good.  They are not as soft and airy as the $.98 8-pack of buns you can buy - but these were bigger and had much better flavor, and they held up good with the pork and BBQ sauce - they would be great with a burger, too.

Here is the recipe:

Hamburger Buns

650 g. All-purpose flour
13 g. salt
30 g. sugar
1 ½ tsp instant yeast
200 ml milk
2-3 Tbsp butter or 30 g.
230-240 ml water

1 egg yolk + 1 Tbsp water

In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter. Heat over low heat just until butter melts – before milk bubbles. (This is a similar method as the Cinnamon rolls and Lion House Rolls – the reason to heat the milk is to break down the milk enzymes that can inhibit yeast production – you can also increase the water in this recipe and add powdered milk). Let milk mixture cool.

Put flour, salt, sugar and yeast in food processor and pulse a few times. Add cooled milk mixture with machine running. Then add enough of the water so the mixture comes together into a ball. Process for about 45 seconds to knead the dough. The dough is soft and feels similar to roll dough.

Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise about 2 hours until double. Divide risen dough into 12 pieces. Form into 12 balls and flatten slightly on the pan. I baked these on a jelly-roll pan lined with parchment paper. Let proof about 45 minutes. Before baking, brush with egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with seeds if desired.

Bake at 400 degrees in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Slice and serve.

St George and Zions

We had a fun time last week in St. George.  We went down to celebrate Grandpa Hatch's 60th birthday.   It felt great to escape the spring snow storms and enjoy the warm sunny weather of Southern Utah.

We were glad to have Pete, Cathy, and their 2 cute kids with us.  The kids loved being able to swim so much.  We also had a fun hiking adventure at Zion National Park.  See Cathy's blog for a funny video of Phillip hiking.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew is now 4 years old!

We had such a fun time on his birthday.  For his Star Wars party, Daddy and Andrew both dressed up as Darth Vader (which made some of the kids nervous).

Here is my first attempt at adding a video to my blog:

Curacao Trip

We just got back from a fun week in Curacao. It is a small island in the Caribbean just north of Venezuela. It is owned by the Netherlands just like Aruba and Bonaire. These pictures show some of our highlights from the fun week: (We got a new digital video camera and I thought it would be neat to add video to our blog, but when I tried to upload the video the computer kept crashing....I guess it is time to upgrade to a Mac. like Al, Cathy, Emily, and Cheryl.)In Willemsted - Punda district. The kids loved all of the colorful buildings and the floating bridge.

They got their faces painted with a Curacoan Flag at the Kids Club.

Jumping on the floating trampoline with Daddy and Grandpa.

Sailboat snorkel trip.

Andrew and Abby were so brave to snorkel all by themselves.

Kayak rides and searching for crabs.

Playing at the beach! (Anthony's favorite activity)

Abigail's favorite part of the trip: doing "tricks" in the swimming pool.

This is the kids enjoying their last "Miami Vice" drink before we left. (mix of Strawberry daquari and Pina Colada). Andrew said that was his favorite part of the trip - drinking lots of Miami Vices.

Al's got me sewing

Last year, Al posted a blog called "Becca's got me baking," so I thought "Al's got me sewing" was an appropriate title for this post.

This all started when I was shopping for spring clothes for Abigail and frustrated because I did not really like any of the styles at stores like Gap, Old Navy, and Target. They were a little too sassy and seemed to old for Abby. So Al convinced me that we could sew something for her.

We had a crazy day yesterday sewing together. The kids were fending for themselves and Alison's house got a little messy. But we had some cute results.

It took me all day to make the blue twirly skirt and the white biker shorts. The shorts are for Abigail to wear under her dresses and skirts and were made with an old maternity tank top. We drafted a pattern off a similar pair of shorts that Abby had. We used the bottom part of the tank top as the bottom of the shorts so we didn't have to hem or finish them. (That was not my idea - it was Al's)

Alison made the cute yellow dress - she designed it, drafted the pattern herself, and sewed it. She also made the green under-shorts (from an old navy Tshirt) in about 2 minutes. Abby loves this dress because it is long, ruffly, and very comfy. And if you know her personality, you would agree that this bright, sweet, springy dress is perfect for her.

Al had some great projects going on yesterday: making new covers for a baby swing and car seat, and some cute summer shirts for Maryanna. Check out Al's blog for all her great sewing projects. I know there is no way I could have made those 2 items without her help. Thanks.