Michelle's Cookies

 Don't forget this recipe. It's a winner.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/4 +2 Tbsp white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

**mix till smooth

Add:

1 egg

healthy glug of vanilla

**mix until fluffy

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

**gently mix dry ingredients together on top of the wet to save dishes. Then mix in with wet until combined

Mix in a bag of mini chocolate chips. The ratio will be about 1:1 for dough and chocolate. 

Scoop on to silpat and bake at 350 for 10 mins. DO NOT BAKE LONGER. They won't look done. Just trust the process. They will be so soft. Just take them out of the oven. Do it. Take them out. Please. 

10 minutes. 

Not 11. 

10.

These are practically burnt. I gave them 11 minutes and I hate myself for it. 

Meat Rolls of the Past

Leftover roast, biscuit mix, brown gravy and ketchup

I'm instantly 8 years old and having dinner in Payson. 

Meg and Mom go to Utah

Last time I flew out to visit my mom, I sat by a man that also made trips frequently to visit his parents. We quickly got into heavy conversation about the effects of dementia and ways to protect the mental health of a caretaking child or spouse.  He mentioned that he uses those trips not just to help his mom and dad, but also as an opportunity to take one of his children with him. Having time with just `kid is so hard to get! 

So I took Megan with me! 

She was introduced the the only scenario in which I am happy to wear a mask...no one can see my mouth hanging open when I fall asleep mid-flight. 

Our main objective for this trip is to visit with my mom and have yummy things to eat. Second is to turn this gorgeous abundance of blossoms....

Into this:

For that, we need ALL the people!

Mom is supervising, of course. Without her, I don't think I could've made the decision to "rip them out!"

She knows that making the sacrifice now while we are all in town to help will make it so she doesn't have to do all this prep in the spring. 

She's a wise woman. 

Feels like old times with mom and all her worker bees out in the yard. 

Jay came by at the end of the day and we loaded it all up to take to the dump. 

While we were in town, there just happened to be a Johnson reunion! I haven't seen most of these aunts, uncles and cousins in a couple decades. It was fun to catch up and fun to introduce Megan!

And if that wasn't enough, we snuck out of there with Mom's pico de gallo recipe!

Pizza De Resistance

This is the best pizza dough recipe in all the land!

I cannot rest until there is a copy in the recipe box, online and printed in the blogbook. 

It's a treasure.

Pizza Nirvana

 After 20 years of weird, dinner-roll-consistency pizza crust, we have found the holy grail of crusts. 

I am telling you. 

It's crazy delicious.

(Never go back! Never!)

Stuff we eat: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These are my kids favorite fall snack. So delicious and easy to cut down on the fat by replacing some of the oil with applesauce.

They love throwing them into their lunchboxes!

Artisan Addiction

We have discovered artisan bread. It's crunchy and chewy and soooo soft and it makes the very best toast....assuming there is any left after it comes out of the oven.  And did you know that it literally takes 5 minutes to mix up? Then you let it sit and rise for 24 hours. So, we got wise fast and realized that if you mix up two more loaves while your current batch is baking, you LITERALLY HAVE FRESH BREAD EVERY SINGLE DAY.

These are our very first loaves!!! awwwww.....(mine is the weird one)

Then I did one loaf of plain and one with Everything Bagel Seasoning (garlic, onion, poppy seed, salt and toasted sesame seeds).

When those came out of the oven the next day, I mixed up another plain and a parmesan/cheddar with just a hint of cayenne pepper....yum.

Then I tried cinnamon raisin pecan....mmmmmm

Then cranberry walnut...be still my heart.

I did push it a bit too far and made a loaf of chocolate coconut. It was nasty and it got thrown in the trash. I will not dignify it with a photo.

I made two rosemary loaves for my friends, Lauren and Alisa. They smelled fabulous, but I took them right over so they could get that "fresh out of the oven" experience.

And now I'm back to making mostly plain loaves. They are the most versatile. I'm not sure we'll ever need to buy bread again!

Artisan Basic Recipe

3 cups flour
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 c warm water

Mix just enough that the dough is combined and "shaggy" looking.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave on countertop for 18-24 hours. When ready to bake, place two dutch ovens or corningware dishes in in the oven while it preheats to 450, no need to oil pans.
Turn dough out onto floured silpat and knead just enough to make into a round ball. Set aside until oven is ready. Place loaves into hot dishes and cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes. Done!

Don't forget to mix up two more loaves while those are cooking. Bread is everything.

Stuff we eat: Sweet potato and black bean tacos

Just look into my eyes....and KNOW.

This is very delicious food.

These are veggie tacos, people. VEGGIE....as in, vegetables. And Mark loves them.

They look like a lot of work, but they are absolutely worth it, because they last in the fridge for over a week and a single serving can be whipped up in about 4 minutes.

Recipe first!

One slight change....I have replaced the oaxaca cheese with shredded monterey jack. It's melty and perfect for these tacos. The cotija cheese is like a salty, dry mexican cheese you can buy at walmart in a bag...it's SOO good and it gives it the salty element that works so well in these tacos.

So...the salsa....it's fairly self explanatory. The only tricky thing is roasting the corn and poblanos.

If you have a gas range, just pop them in the flame for a few minutes, rotating them to get a good char.

The corn comes off when it looks good to you, the poblanos need to be pretty black, but not so much that they turn to ash. Once they have a good char, you put them straight into a ziploc baggie and let them sweat for few minutes. Then you can take them out and peel the black off with a pairing knife...its super easy...just lay it on the cutting board and scrape the side...they slide right off! Then cut off the top and scoop out the seeds.

Chop the corn kernels off the cob and dice up the roasted peppers....add to the rest of your salsa ingredients.

Dice the sweet potato and coat in olive oil, salt and pepper...roast in the oven for about 30 min....it took longer than I thought when I wrote the recipe.

Open a can of black beans and rinse.

Combine your cheeses.

So you'll have 4 different containers with these different elements. Just keep them in the fridge and you can throw together a yummy lunch.

Now...this is important...you need to do this...I promise you it will make these tacos your very favorite thing.

1. Heat up a pan...non-stick, cast iron, whatever....just make sure it's a pan you trust. Spray down some canola.  Sprinkle a little pile of cheese right on the pan....two if you're hungry.

Then put corn tortillas right on top. In a minute...lift up the edge and look at the cheese.

When it gets all crunchy and golden, flip it over!

When the other side is nicely toasted, just pop those beauties onto your plate and add sweet potato, black beans and a spoonful of the corn salsa...I like a couple slices of avocado too....

RIGHT????

Ridiculous good.

Stuff we eat: Fat sticks

This is one I don't want to lose: Mom's Fat Sticks recipe...sooooo good.

Day 3 - Finding Kylie

We dropped in to Wasatch Crossfit, just down the street from Jim and Ameli's house. They dethroned Crossfit Mayhem in the team competition a couple years ago and so we had to bask in the glory! It was a great box and we needed to work off a few road trip calories. 

We didn't snap a photo while we were there....so Mark took care of it with a little photoshop magic. Bonus points if you can spot the real photo later on!

With that all done, our number one task was to get to Temple Square before noon so we could find Kylie and give her a big hug! We found her in the South Visitor's Center!

And the girls spent the next 40 minutes attached to her.

 We asked her some questions and she demonstrated her knowledge of the Salt Lake City Temple and dazzled us with fun facts.

We snapped a picture and promised her we'd come back after Bear Lake and take a tour with her and her companion. She seemed happy and thriving. We miss having her in our daily lives, but we're so proud of her!!

We popped across the street to the Crumbl shop inside of Deseret Book. Jim and Ameli's son, Seth, was working there and we got to spend a few minutes in awe of his height and awesome blue hair.

Megan looked longingly at the piano in the back section of Deseret Book. She was already going through withdrawals....we promised her we'd have time for her to play when we come back for our tour next week. We grabbed a four pack of Crumbl cookies and headed back to Jim's to let the kids play while we did the grocery shopping for Bear Lake.

2 buckeyes and 2 raspberry cheesecake. I would have chosen 4 different kinds, but splitting 4 different cookies between 8 people can get tricky. Fight WILL ensue. Much easier to narrow the choices and give everyone 1/4 of each kind. This is wisdom, my dears.

We dropped off the kids and found a Walmart. The bread aisle held the key to carb happiness!  Why can't we get Grandma Sycamore's bread in Kansas?? WHY??

When the shopping was done, we remembered that there wasn't a square inch of extra space in the van. No room for a cartful of groceries. Perhaps we packed too many ukuleles?

It was decided to leave the boys behind to ride up with Jim and Ameli. We would go ahead to Bear Lake tonight and bring the girls and the food. But we couldn't leave until we had dined on Ameli's fantastic Beef Ramen Noodle Soup. It was epic. Someday I will try to make it. When I'm feeling super brave.

We took our last slurps of ramen and jumped in the van. We needed to make it up to the Bear Lake house before it got too dark. Driving in those canyons can be dangerous. Deer do not yield to oncoming traffic.

We made it safe and sound. And we were rewarded with a gorgeous place to stay and room to spread out. Tomorrow we play!