FHE Treat

Hot.Buttery.Deliciousness

CTR Pretzels
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2- 3 cups flour
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
melted butter

1. Mix the first 5 ingredients until they form a ball. Then knead dough until smooth and elastic. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

2. Pull off sections of dough and roll into long ropes. Form ropes into the letters "CTR" or other desired letters or shapes.

3. Put the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and bake 8-10min. at 450F. Top with kosher salt and melted butter.

I had to make a second batch last week because we gobbled up the first one so fast. Simple, fresh, and ultra yummy!

Soure: January 2012 "The Friend" magazine page 19

A "Heart"y Meal

heart shaped raviolis courtesy of Costco, heart shaped garlic bites, and corn

Fun V-day themed straws complete with Strawberry Crush soda- the soda was the highlight of the meal considering that we never have soda in our house.

And other Valentine's Day fun

Candy heart graphing and sorting

1 o'clock Church

This was at 6pm last Sunday night. This Sunday he fell asleep in third hour on his teacher's lap. Poor little guy, 1 o'clock church is rough on us all.

Better late than Never

RJ's birthday was quite a while ago, but she kept insisting that we have a party for her. We did a small get together on her birthday with family only and I thought that would suffice. Little did I know that RJ was going to consistently ask me for a "friend" party. I'm trying to tone the whole birthday thing down over here, if you haven't noticed. KJ's party was a real "eye opener" when there were kids running around everywhere. I think I'm going to follow the example of others and have a friend party every once in a while. (I still haven't decided what that means.) Hey, I like parties, but not all the stress that comes with them.

The Cake- I'll admit, this is the main reason why I like having parties, I love making and decorating the cake. A four layered strawberry cake

Presents and friends are always lovely too

Having daddy dress up like a princess with you- Priceless

Superstar

KJ received the Principal's award last Friday at a special assembly for outstanding work during the second quarter report card period. Great job KJ!! Keep working hard (I blotted out the name of the school on the computer)

A little bit of Sunshine

Orange Pineapple Jam
• 5 oranges
• 2 cups crushed pineapple (20 oz can)
• 1 cup water or 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 (1 3/4 ounce) box dry sugar-free pectin
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon butter

Directions:

1. Peel the oranges.
2. Put the peels in a small sauce pan. Cover with water and simmer for 20-minutes or until the peel can be pierced with a fork. Drain and rinse til cool and chop the peel.
3. Remove any extra thick, white pith from the peeled oranges. No need to remove it all. Cut the oranges in half, then quarters.
4. Slice out the white, center membrane strip and discard.
5. Puree the peeled oranges in a food processor.
6. Into a heavy saucepan, measure 2-cups orange puree, 1-cup chopped peel, 2-cups undrained, crushed pineapple, and the water or wine.
7. Gradually stir in the dry pectin.
8. Bring to a boil, add butter, and boil for one minute.
9. Add the sugar. Bring back to a boil and boil hard for one minute.
10. Ladle into seven, half-pint jelly jars, seal and process.