What We've Been Doing

Wow it's been a while since I've posted!  My life has gotten even busier than normal and there never seems to be enough hours in a day.  I'll try to get caught up on a few things.

Last Friday we had some friends over for dinner, the Smith family.  Before dinner most everyone went ice skating at Liberty University's ice rink.  It sounded like they had a really good time.  It was great to spend some time with this special family.

Over the last few weeks it has been snowing on and off but we haven't had any snow that amounted to much lately. 

On Thursday nights I am attending a girls Bible study with people from the college and career class from our Church.  We always have a good time and we are going through a really great study of Ephesians chapters 1 and 2.

I've also been working on my new website design which has taken a lot of my time.  If you'd like to take a look you can go to http://www.ashleyscreativecakes.com/

The kids have been keeping up with school and their music lessons.  Today I helped them make gingersnap cookies for their cooking class. 

With the cold weather it's been encouraging for me to hear everyone start talking about our beach trip comming up this spring.  Yeah!  There's an end in sight for winter!

A Bunch of Baking

We have been doing a lot of baking this week. On Monday we cut out and baked pieces for your gingerbread houses. Yesterday we assembled the houses but we wont decorate them until Thursday night. Trey also went over to Grandma's house to help her with some baking. Today we will be getting some of our food ready for Thanksgiving. This time of year is so much fun!

New Cooking Supplies

To add to the fun of cooking for school, we went to the store today and bought
individual cooking supplies each of the kids. They got to pick out a basket to keep their own supplies in. Then we purchased measuring cups, spoons, a cutting board and their very own knife. Amber, Trent and Trey really got a kick out of having their own utensils. It didn't cost much ether to buy the stuff because we purchased the items at the dollar store.

After we got home the kids were so excited about their new things they wanted to start cooking right then. So, we put together an Oreo cake complete chocolate garnishes. For dinner we made "potatoes au gratin". Everything turned out delicious and we had fun making it too!

Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Well, here is the recipe for the cinnamon rolls, just liked I promised.

Ingredients:
1 package dry yest

4 1/2 cups white flour

1 cup lukewarm milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 eggs

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup raisins

Milk

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Stir the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water and let stand for 5 minutes to dissolve. Add the dissolved yeast and 3 cups of the flour to the milk and blend well. Cover and let rise in a warm place until light. Add the granulated sugar
, salt, cinnamon, eggs, butter, and 3/4 cup of the flour and blend. Turn out onto lightly floured board and knead gently, slowly adding the remaining 3/4 cup flour until the dough can be easily handled. Knead in the raisins. Pull off pieces of dough the size of medium lemons, roll each about 8 inches long, and wind it into a coil. Arrange on two buttered 9-inch cake pans, cover, let rise until double in bulk, then brush tops with milk. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F(190 C). Bake rolls for 25 minutes. Mix the confectioners' sugar and vanilla with 4 teaspoons warm water to make a glaze, and spread a thin layer on rolls immediately after removing from the oven.

*Note: if you like you cinnamon rolls on the doughy side you may want to use less flour.

Yesterday Mommy and Trent spend the afternoon making cinnamon rolls. It looked like they had a fun time and the cinnamon rolls tasted great! Everyone liked them!

Baking Beef Brisket

Yesterday Amber, Trey and I made dinner together. Recently I found this great recipe for Beef Brisket so we made that together. It was a nice time to bond together as a family. It was also a good learning experience for Amber and Trey. The meal turned out very good. Everyone loved it! The meat was very tender and it's the kind of stuff you just can't stop eating! Below is the recipe for those interested.

Beef Brisket
Ingredients
• 4 lbs beef brisket
• 1/3 bottle liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon salt
sauce
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 cup brown sugar
Instructions
Directions
1.Best if this is done the day before serving: Rub brisket with liquid smoke and salt.
2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
3.Bake covered for 3 hours.
Do not rush, as this will insure the meat tender.
Cool and refrigerate several hours until firm (or overnight).
This makes it easy to slice. (I usually do up to this step the day before).
7.Slice meat very thinly and cover with sauce.
For sauce: Combine all ingredients in saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.
Place meat in baking dish and cover with sauce.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until heated through about 30 minutes.