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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

The Holy Ghost and the Liahona - F.H.E.

I recently found this article from an old "Friend" magazine, and gave it as our Family Home Evening lesson. It was PERFECT for my young kids, but could be discussed at older levels as well. We made our Liahona and talked about the scriptures and questions inside it. 
This was a super simple and darling lesson our little family enjoyed! 
I hope your family will feel the spirit as you give this lesson. Let the Spirit guide as you discuss the importance of the Holy Ghost, and how it guides us like the Liahona guided Lehi's family. 

Happy Family Home Evening!






Here's a suggestion! 
Have a Golden treat after the lesson!

or
You could mold the balls into what you think the Liahona would have looked like!

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

We were going around the dining room table last night asking each other questions over dinner. My husband asked us all what our favorite treat/dessert was. The kids rattled off brownies, and doughnuts, then I said my most FAVORITE treat, is COOKIES! 

I know, I'm weird. Most people want cheese cake, ice cream, ice cream cheesecake, and while all those are SCRUMPTIOUS, I am a classic cookie girl. I love a glass of ice cold milk with warm cookies. Give me ANY cookie WITHOUT FRUIT like Raisins and I am one happy girl. 
Don't get me wrong, I love dried fruit on it's own, but it DOES NOT belong in a cookie, don't taint perfection.

So then, after dinner and dishes were done, I had MAJOR cookie brain, and I had to make some! I have never found the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe I could claim as "THE BEST." So I looked up a new one and thought I would give it a try, who knew this lady named Betty Crocker would have the best one!? ( Ha ha.) I based my recipe on hers with two minor tweaks that truly make these PERFECT!


Brooklyn and Betty's PERFECT Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c. Granulated Sugar
3/4 c. Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 c. Butter softened
1/2 c. Oil    (I use Olive Oil)
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 egg
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2 1/4 c. Flour  (If you live in a hight altitude place like me, add an extra 1 T. flour)
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 bag of Chocolate Chips (about 1 c.)

Optional - 1/2 c. Chopped Nuts
________________

Preheat oven to 350

Mix sugars, butter, oil, vanilla and egg in a large bowl.

Add and mix flour, baking soda and salt. (Dough will be stiff)

Fold in Chocolate chips and nuts

Place on a parchment paper lined or a greased cookie sheet. 
Place by rounds 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden edges start to appear. 

Take out of the oven and cool for a couple minutes on the pans -  then use a spatula and place them on a cooling rack.


DEVOUR with a cold glass of milk! DELISH!



http://cookandcraftmecrazy.blogspot.com/2013/01/cookies.html

Monday, January 8, 2018

Italian Bottle Candle

Ever since I was a little girl, I have ALWAYS wanted a bottle candle while eating Italian food just like "Lady and the Tramp!"
Well, I FINALLY MADE ONE! (Only 20 some years later.) My kids were thrilled and thought it was super cool! They can't wait to use it for Halloween as well for our witches table. Once we drink some more sparkling cider I will make more bottle candles, but for now, one is awesome!

It was super easy to make and took me literally 20 minutes, only because I had to wait for my tea candles to melt. It would have taken 5 minutes otherwise.

Make one or two for Valentines Day!



First things first... LAY SOME FOIL ON YOUR COUNTER!
This is a bit messy and you don't want to clean wax off your counter!
I crafted on a paper towel and some of the candle wax went on my counters, so I had a few minutes of scraping it off with my spatula. Learn from my mistakes, craft on FOIL! 

Put your candles and bottle on the foil you laid out.

The narrow opening of the bottle wouldn't allow my taper candle to fit, so I took a sharp knife and shaved off the bottom sides. 
(I went up a little far, you don't have to shave your candle up as much as I did.)
(I didn't know the candle was white underneath! I thought I was safe!)

I took some little tea candles and let them burn so the wax was melted.

I then poured the melted wax on the candle and bottle.

To hide the white candle I shaved down to, I took a match and simply melted the green taper candle up and around to make the white look less harsh.

PRESTO! BOTTLE CANDLE!

Easy clean up, throw the foil away!

I can't wait to build up the wax on the bottle over time! It will be SO FUN!