MaeLyn's Musings

On Saturday, our bishop and his family picked a whole lot of apples from a tree owned by a friend of theirs. They came home with the back of their Excursion full of apples. They posted this picture of the back of their car on Facebook. I happened to be at their home when they were unloading the apples ( One of their sons is a Webelos and we went on a hike that morning. ) and so they gave me two large boxes full of apples to take home. The two boxes I brought home barely made a dent in the number of apples they had left. What do you do with two large boxes full of apples? Box #1 Box #2- after making a boat load of applesauce.   Several of them were eaten as snacks. We spent much of the rest of the day making applesauce. We still have a huge box full of apples, plus a bunch of bottles of applesauce. This morning I encouraged the boys to take apples to school as snacks. I also made applesauce muffins for breakfast. I'm thinking of dehydrating some apples slic...

It's ten-o-clock in the morning, or three in the afternoon. Your belly starts vibrating - it will need some food very soon. You search the refrigerator. What's quick and easy to eat? What is the most convenient, most tasty and delicious treat? Strawberries, oranges or peaches, cookies or crackers or chips, toast or raisins or popcorn or veggies cut up, served with dips? Pretend you need to be sneaky, to hide so no one will know. Remove all trace of snacking. Allow no evidence to show. Never open a new package. Never finish something off. Avoid foods that are messy or that make you sneeze, burp or cough. Don't leave any dirty dishes for others to discover. Seal up bags, jars and boxes. Remember to close the cupboard. Clean up any crumbs or messes on floor or chair or table. Don't even think of eating food with someone else's label. Chew your food very quietly - no crunches, munches or slurps. Don't create smelly odors in microwaves, ovens o...

What was one of your favorite treats as a child? I have always loved ice cream! I remember going to a Thrifty drug store with the family and getting a double scoop of cylinder-shaped ice cream on top of a flat bottomed cone. I imagine that the ice cream there was really inexpensive - maybe a dime or a quarter per scoop for our family to be able to afford to all go there on a regular basis. I think it must have been a reward for doing chores or something. Our family would troop into the store and line up at the ice cream counter, peering through the glass at the buckets of ice cream, trying to decide which flavors we wanted most. They had the standard favorites: chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and cookies and cream, but one that I really liked, and haven't often seen since I was a child, was black cherry. They also had rainbow and orange sherbets, which I remember as being really sweet. I remember watching the attendants use the cool scoop, that was so different from any other sco...

This was my Photoshop art project yesterday. I was so busy drawing this, that I forgot to eat lunch and almost forgot to pick up the kids from school! (They get out early on Wednesdays.)

Last night was our Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet, which in our pack doesn't mean a full meal, but it does mean that each boy makes a "Dad and Lad" cake and brings it to share with everyone. The cakes brought are frequently quite elaborate, and this year included such things as giant Legos, a four story hotel, a motor cross track (complete with chocolate donut tires), a pokeball, and a basketball court, all made (supposedly) without female assistance.   Josh chose to make a "bear" cake since he is a bear scout. His and Steven's cake turned out really cute! We transported it safely to the church, where the pack meeting was held, and enjoyed the evening. Josh earned a geology belt loop, and the Webelos that Steven and I have been working with performed a puppet show and received their Readyman, Showman and Citizen pins. Our cake was not entirely eaten during the evening, but the ears, nose, and part of the head did disappear. When we got in the ca...

We have lived off our food storage for a while now, and there are several things I would suggest to one who is building up their food storage, even if you don't foresee yourself unemployed anytime soon. (You very rarely get sufficient notice, so it is always a good idea to start early!) Store the things you need to eat the things you like. Make a list of the meals that your family eats, and store all ingredients needed for those meals. Don't forget about things like side dishes and desserts.  Make a menu plan for several meals that you could eat if you only had your food storage to live on. (A couple years ago our Providential Living Specialist suggested planning 19 days of meals, and acquiring all the ingredients needed to make each of those meals 19 times for a one year supply.) Center your meals around inexpensive grain/starches like rice, pasta, or potatoes, add a tasty sauce and vegetables. Meat is more expensive, and not necessary for every meal. Breakfast for...

We've come a long way since the first time we ever cooked a turkey. See here for Steven's account of that. In spite of that discouraging beginning, we persisted in trying. A couple years ago, we came across an article in the Denver Post (Shaw, Tucker. "Get it Perfect." Denver Post [Denver] November 17, 2010, Features, D-01) that gave us a lot of good ideas. Searches online gave us some more ideas of how to do it. ( Unfortunately I don't have the references for those anymore. You can do your own search. ) The last couple years we have still had our hang ups, but once the turkey was cooked, it tasted wonderful! So here's what we do: 1. Saturday before Thanksgiving: Remove turkey from freezer, place in refrigerator so it can start thawing. 2. Tuesday morning: In a clean ice chest just large enough to fit turkey, mix 1 gallon cold water with 1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, and some thyme, pepper, garlic and bay leaves. Unwrap turkey, remove any giblets from n...

In the last couple days since Halloween, I've noticed something. People eat candy in different ways. Some people save their candy, and ration it out at a rate of one a day. Some people eat it slowly, savoring each piece. Some gobble it down as fast as they can, hardly waiting until the taste from one has diminished before popping the next in their mouths. And then there are my kids. They like to play with it before they eat it. Here are a few of the creations I've seen in the last couple days.

(Cat not included) John built a tower with some of the cans of corn. Earlier this week I received a phone call from a sister in our stake. She will be moving soon, and was wondering what to do with her extensive food storage, and she said my name came to mind, and she wondered if I would be interested in any of it. I thought about our food storage- which we have been using for the last year or so, and how much it had dwindled to little more than just the basics - still lots of wheat, but little left of anything else. Our food bills have been rising as I've had to purchase more and more food items that we have run out of. I told her, "Yes!" and so on Thursday, Steven and I went to her home to take some of her collected food off her hands. I was grateful that Steven was with me, because the food was in her basement, and it took him many, many trips up the stairs to get it all out to our van. By the time we had all that we thought we could use, the back of our van ...

Thanksgiving. The holiday begun by Pilgrims and American Indians giving thanks for surviving their first few seasons in the new world has become so much more. It is a time for food, family, and for some, football. This year we had the feast at our house. At my sister's halloween party I found out that my Mom was coming to Colorado because my sister in Colorado Springs and my sister-in-law in Boulder were expecting little bundles of joy to arrive just before and just after the day of feasting. At the time I didn't expect that I'd be seeing much of her, because after all, I'm not one of those having a baby. As the time drew closer, I learned that my sister in C.S. was planning on having Thanksgiving dinner for everyone in the family in Colorado at her home, and that my Dad and unmarried siblings in Utah were planning on coming out to join us for the holiday. Thinking that it would be a bother for her and her husband to host a Thanksgiving dinner for so many people when s...

This morning we were driving home after dropping my older two children off at school, and my four year old son asked me, "When we get home, can we have lunch?" I looked at the car clock, and realized I hadn't changed it for Daylight Savings Time yet. It read 7:42. AM. Joshua had just finished eating his breakfast maybe forty minutes before. I hadn't even gotten around to clearing his cereal bowl from the table yet! I've been a parent for about eight and a half years, and I'm still trying to figure out kids' eating habits. Here are a few rules that I've found apply to most kids. Remember that all rules, especially ones that pertain to children, have plenty of exceptions, usually when it is most inconvenient. Rule #1: Any time is (or should be) snack time. Kids always seem to be hungry. It doesn't matter if they just ate a huge meal half an hour ago, or if dinner is in five minutes, they are hungry now . A few days ago I was putting the finishing to...