About us – Page 36 – Gracious Rain

December 15, 2010January 14, 2022

How The Other Half Lives

This–my friends, is what it looks like to watch an official Jazz game…

from “the box.” You know, the box—

where they feed you amazing, scrumptious food like pork loin and potatoes and cheesecake and soft fluffy rolls.

Oh, and we get to watch the amazing Jazz too. They were fabulous!

We could watch the game on the monitors, just like the folks at home…

or up really close with some hoity-toity binoculars…provided they’re turned around the right way, that is.

Hey, she’s two.

We won cool jackets and T-shirts and backpacks–just for the heck of it…

and then they fed us again!

I always imagined “the box” like a funny little crowded spot where you had to stand the whole time to see anything at all.

Yeah, was I ever wrong.

Certainly the most fun we’ve had in a long, long time–thanks to Bishop Thomas and the folks at Coke/Sprite.

How will be ever be content in the green seats again?

December 10, 2010January 14, 2022

Hanukkah Lights

Lighting the Menorah.

Telling the story of Hanukkah.

Preparing the feast.

Potato latkes–yum!

Family and friends.

Spinning the Dreidel.

The toy feast.

It was a lovely evening.

Thanks April and Jacob.

December 8, 2010January 14, 2022

State of Integrity

Those of you who are familiar with the Wii, will likely know about the polling site that’s quite popular around here.

The idea is that each member of the household will be asked the same random question, with the choice of two different answers. You decide which one is closest to how you’d answer. Then, you are asked how you think the rest of the country will respond. Are most people going to agree with you or disagree with you? A few days later, you can check back and see the results–and if you predicted others answer correctly or not.

So the other day, the question was, “If you found $20 while standing in line, would you ask if it belonged to someone?”

The answers to choose from were: “Yes, but softly,” or “Finders keepers.”

Another feature of the guessing game is that you can click to find out how the rest of the country voted on the original question.

Moral of the story is:

If you’re going to drop your wallet, at any given time…

be sure to do it in Utah.

November 30, 2010October 20, 2023

Scotch Eggs

Saw this recipe online awhile back and was intrigued. Could there truly be something on the Scottish menu that isn’t deep fried or boiled in a sheep’s stomach? I can hear my little Scottish daddy laughing this very minute–because he didn’t think so. But I’m here to tell you that these tasty little breakfast bites are delicious—magnamoniously delicious–without frying.

No. Lie.

Simple ingredients too.

1 lb Bulk sausage

8 Hard Boiled Eggs

Bread Crumbs

Now, if you’re like me, you likely need a bit more flavor than boring old bread crumbs offer.

I had garlic croutons in the cupboard so we used them instead. Any flavor would work well. A food processor would have worked well too. I’m just saying…

Hard boil the eggs. Shell them–I shouldn’t have to tell you that, but I want to be clear. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Beat 1 raw egg in a bowl and set aside.

Wrap a thin layer of sausage around each of the hard boiled eggs. I worried that this part would be hard–but the sausage was quite a team player and stuck to the egg very politely.

For further wise-woman insight, I’ll explain…

I used vinyl gloves for this bit because while the sausage sticks to the egg very nicely, it has a tendency to stick to your hands as well. Hence the gloves. I roll about 1-2 Tbsps of sausage into a flat line from the bottom of my palm to the tips of my fingers. Lay the egg on top of the sausage and roll the sausage around it. Smush it around to cover the top and bottom of the egg. You’ll find that you’ll end up rolling it into a round ball. Now, dip your fingers into the beaten egg and gently spread over the sausage.

Now, roll them in the bread crumbs.

Aren’t they cute? Bake them about 30 minutes–turning each one over after about 15 minutes, so that they cook evenly.

I thought maybe sausage gravy would be stupendous with these babies, but alas, we couldn’t wait. It was all I could do to get this picture before vultures started to circle. Warning Will Robinson–these don’t last long once the guys see them. I’m thinking they would make yummy lunch snacks…if you hide them.

Now go forth…

and make us proud.

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Happy St.Andrew’s Day!

(the patron saint of Scotland–of course!)

Scotch Eggs

Ingredients

Bulk sausage
Eggs
Bread Crumbs

Instructions

Hard boil the eggs.
Shell them.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Beat 1 raw egg in a bowl and set aside.
If you are interested in more flavor you can mix a bit of sage or Ranch powder in with your sausage.
Wrap a thin layer of sausage around each of the hard boiled eggs.
Dip each sausage ball into the raw egg.
Now, roll them in the bread crumbs.
Bake them about 30 minutes–turning each one over after about 15 minutes, so that they cook evenly.

November 29, 2010October 23, 2021

Now We’re Talking…

Woke up to all this–at last, at last!

Finally, Mother Nature actually listened to my chanting and begging for snow—and turned Mr. Frost loose in our neck of the woods. Yee haw!

Of course, you know, my dream is to be totally and completely snowed in–when my whole family is home, of course. That way, we’d just sit around and play games, and cook ridiculously yummy things and goof around and be together.

You know, like the early readers always talked about in grade school.

“One very snowy day, Dick and Jane looked out the window. The ground was white. The sky was white. Everything, everywhere was white. There was snow, snow, SNOW! They could not go out. They had to stay in. There was too, too, too much snow!”