Summer in a Jar

Yesterday at our family dinner I decided to serve homemade whole wheat bread.

It was the perfect addition to grilled chicken and broccoli.

Alyssa jumped up and grabbed the raspberry jam.


It's flavor is inspiring.

However, Court jumped up and said, "We need our heaven in a bottle."

What is 'heaven in a bottle' you may ask?

This:


Watermelon jelly.

It has the flavor of summer and the delight of candy.

Kalie and I decided to have a jam making day this past summer and we wanted to try a new recipe...watermelon jelly.

We got the recipe online and began.

Even though Kalie and I boiled it as long as the recipe indicated, it never really set up.

In short, it's runny.


Because of this, I have never introduced it to my family.

The other day, I accidentally grabbed a jar of watermelon jelly thinking it was raspberry jam and popped it open.

I realized my mistake, put a lid on top and put it back into the fridge, not ever thinking about it again.

Until Sunday.

Court introduced us to a bit of summer heaven. He simply got out our small bowls and poured the jelly in and we dipped our bread into the liquid yumminess.

It was reminiscent of all things warm and lovely.

So if you want to remember this:


Even after this:



Try this:

Sweet Relief

Ahh, I have spent the last two days up in Eden with our friends, the Stenquists.

They have a condo in Wolf Creek and every year they invite us up for the weekend to eat, play games, watch movies and RELAX.

On our way up we decided to try Taggart's, a restaurant up Morgan Canyon.

Their food is great, but let's talk for a minute about their desserts.

They have two glass cases full of desserts that you can stare at on your way into the restaurant.

Sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies, the biggest piece of carrot cake I've ever seen, flourless chocolate cake, cheesecake.......

The list goes on and on.

I know it's hard to drag my thoughts away from the desserts but I must.

I haven't relaxed much in the last month, with working on our family room and living my regular life.

So going up to the condo was a much needed break.

The only problem? Every time I sat down to watch a movie, I fell asleep.

It became embarrassing.

I finally resorted to peanut M & M's to keep me awake.

In case you are wondering, this resulted in extreme gastric distress, especially when I packed in a piece of flourless chocolate cake from Taggarts on top.

What a bad idea.

Nonetheless, we were able to get in several games.

And I slept so well.

Lunch Date

I got together for lunch with two good friends today.

We drove up to Ogden to eat at Rooster's Restaurant.

If you haven't been to Rooster's may I suggest going there.

NOW!!

Their soups are to die for...if they have a kind that appeals to you.

Today was tomato rice. That didn't sound good.

So,I had pasta salad and a rustic turkey sandwich.

YUM!

The best part of all was spending time catching up and laughing and watching Marie try to get her granddaughter to eat one bite of grilled cheese.

I'm sure I'll be there soon myself...trying to convince a grandchild to eat something, anything.

I'm grateful for good friends that love me despite me.

Sleepy Heads

I came upstairs the other day and this is what I saw:


It made my heart melt.

Howling Good Fun

We had such a fun-filled Halloween.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Having adult children figure out their own costumes is such a stress reliever.

They decide on their own what they want to be and need only a little help from mom.

It's great!

Brock decided to be a Charlie Chaplin sort of character. He was missing the hat and cane so people mistook him for something else but I thought he looked good.

He had Court spray paint his hair black which was so funny. It was a little patchy and had light spots everywhere. But with Kalie's help they got it right.


Kevin and Kalie came and spent the day.

Here is Isaac in his "first Halloween" outfit.

Adorable!


For dinner we had mummified dogs, baked beans and fruit salad, all of which were given Halloween names by Kalie.


Our dessert were these darling cupcakes that Kalie brought. Not only did they look good, they tasted great!


It rained and rained that night and the trick-or-treating was a little sparse. Now we have tons of candy left over.

What a bummer...

We finished off the evening with mildly scary movies and granny smith apples dipped in caramel.

Try it. It is the perfect combination of sweet, tart and crisp.

Now it's time to get ready for the holiday season to begin!!!