Birthday, carnivals and soup

Maybe it was a little ambitious to say I'll post every week. But we'll keep trying.

Last Sunday was Hailey's 14th birthday. 14. It sounds a lot older than 13, don't you think? I would post some pics of her b-day breakfast of german pancakes, but she had curlers in her hair. You'll have to trust me that she got some cool stuff. Why were curlers in her hair? Because she got the awesome opportunity of speaking in church on her birthday. In her words "Worst birthday present ever!" She did a wonderful job and looked gorgeous doing it. She asked for chicken tortilla soup for dinner and Better Than Anything cake for dessert. (You may know that cake under a different name, just substitute 'anything' for how babies are made, hee hee.) Pretty lame pictures this year, sorry Hailey! We ended the night with watching "Father of the Bride", one of her favorite movies, and which she happened to get on dvd.

We are so blessed to have Hailey in our family. She is a joy and is turning into an amazing young woman. I am so proud to be her mom.

The kids had their annual carnival at their school on Thursday, and once again it was full of pandemonium. Each of the kids did a song or dance this year, and here are a few pictures.

Kindergarten sang "Hush little baby", 2nd grade did "Witch's Brew" and 5th grade did "YMCA". I know the pictures are lame, sorry kids! There were so many people there, I had a hard time getting to right in front of my own kids. Trent was a cowboy, all of the kids were dressed like members of the Village People, it was cute.

On to the recipe of the week. I should have started out last week by saying that none of these recipes will be low fat. I don't make them very often, and most nights I do my best to cook healthy dinners. These are saved for Sunday nights or when company is visiting.

Dee's Potato Soup - 6 servings
6 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 lrg onion, chopped
1 C chopped carrots
1 1/2 C chopped celery
2 lrg cream cheese, cut up
1/2 C cream
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes, onion, carrots and celery till tender. Drain most of the water off. In separate pan, put cream cheese and cream together. Melt and stir until smooth. Add to vegetables, along with enough milk to get it to the consistency you like. Add bacon, if desired. Salt and pepper to taste. (I always add the bacon, it gives it a great flavor.)

You can add clams to this and make clam chowder. I've also had it with cheese. My very picky kids love this and get so excited when I tell them I'm making Grandma's soup. Enjoy!

Fall is in the air

I love this time of the year in St George. It's considerably cooler than our summer but it hasn't turned cold just yet. Kids can still get away with shorts if they wear a hoodie in the morning. Since it is the desert, we don't get a lot of foliage changing, and I have to admit I miss that. But I can't complain; we went on a walk tonight, all of us in shorts, and we weren't the only ones. It's fun to see families out enjoying this glorious time of year.

Something I love most about Fall is cooking. I feel like I can turn my oven back on without turning the rest of the house into an oven as well. I've made an apple pie and two batches of soup already. It might not be called for yet, but hey, the calendar says it's Fall, so I'm pretending it's chilly.

I've decided that through November I'll post my fav Fall recipes each Sunday. You might notice pumpkin as a recurring theme. I discovered about 10 years ago that it's good for other things besides pie. So here's my first entry and it was a huge hit.

Colonial Pumpkin Squares
3/4 C butter
2 C white sugar
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 10x15 jellyroll pan or large sheet cake pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into the pumpkin mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 min, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese (half a bar), softened
1/3 C butter, softened
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C powdered sugar

Mix together cream cheese, butter and vanilla, until smooth. Slowly add sugar and beat until smooth. Spread over pumpkin squares. Cut into bars.

It has a very cake-like texture and is perfect to plate up and share with friends. It also has a mild pumpkin flavor, so if you like things with more kick, go ahead and play with the spices or even add more pumpkin. Convincing my kids to try anything new is a miracle, so I wasn't going to push it this time. And I can't take credit for the recipe, it's from allrecipes.com, a site I regularly frequent. I've tweaked the frosting for my own pallet, and I'd love to hear what you think if you make it.

What are your favorite things about Fall?