Best. Syrup. Ever.

WARNING. The following recipe is highly addictive. It is truly the yummiest yummy stuff. Ever. Like, you lick your plate clean. Like, you look around for something, anything to put it on and then contemplate just drinking it. It is that good.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon vanilla

Bring butter, sugar, and buttermilk to a boil, stirring regularly. Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla and baking soda. (It will foam up a LOT, so even though you don't think you'll need it, prepare this in a large stock pot.)

This can be used on pancakes, waffles, french toast, as a dessert sauce over something like a blonde brownie or ice cream, or as a tasty teaspoon tonic! ;)

Cherry Macaroons!

I love these cookies! They are flavorful, chewy, and festive. I especially like them for Christmas or Valentines because of their color.

Cherry Macaroons

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups shortening

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 cup coconut

Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add cherries, extract, and coconut and mix. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

*Sometimes I add cherry-flavored chips to the dough if I have them as well.

Grandma's Orange-Apricot Freezer Jam

If you have an apricot tree like we do, you know how precious the apricots were this summer. It has been years since an ill-timed freeze or hailstorm didn't destroy the blossoms or crop. And, if you have an apricot tree like we do, you also probably had way more apricots than you knew what to do with.

Here is my grandmother's recipe for apricot jam. It's not your ordinary apricot jam; I made some of that, too, but also wanted to switch things up a bit.

Orange-Apricot Freezer Jam

5 cups ground apricots

2 cups crushed pineapple

7 cups sugar

2 small packages orange gelatin

Boil fruit and sugar together for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the gelatin. Cool, then put in containers and freeze.

The Easter Table

One of my children's favorite Easter traditions is the making and eating of Resurrection Rolls. (Super easy:  wrap a ball of thawed frozen roll dough around a large marshmallow, pinch ends together well, place on a greased cookie sheet, brush top with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, bake. These are awesome visual, edible reminders of an empty tomb.) We've often had these for breakfast Easter morning before church, but when there is 9:00 a.m. Sacrament Meeting, I sometimes move them to the dinner menu.

Since this is one of those 9:00 a.m. years, and with an 8:30 choir practice, I need something already prepared. But cold cereal (the usual Sunday breakfast) is so lame for Easter morning. Enter the French Toast Easter Bake and Scripture Scavenger Hunt from My Computer is My Canvas that is a great way to get the kids involved preparing a meaningful Easter morning breakfast the night before. I can't wait to try it!

I'm also excited to make some place settings for our Easter table using the M&M Easter Legend tags, also free from My Computer is My Canvas.  (I also sent this to my missionary and his companion and made some for the sisters I visit teach.)

The last 10 months of my life have been a series of unexpected events and I have been handicapped in so many ways. I'm super thankful that others share their ideas so that when there is a year like this has been I can still pull off some fun and meaningful holiday touches at the last minute.

Scripture Cookies!

"Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."  (2 Nephi 32:3)

Need an activity that gets your family FEASTING on the scriptures? Scripture Cookies!

3/4 cup Psalms 55:21 

("smoother than___")

1/3 cup 2 Nephi 26:25

 ("buy ______ and honey")

1-1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20

 ("the ____ from a far country")

2 of Isaiah 10:14

("as one gathereth ____")

1 teaspoon Exodus 30:23

("and of sweet _____")

1 teaspoon Matthew 5:13

("ye are the ____")

1/2 teaspoon Matthew 13:33

("the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto ___")

3 cups D&C 89:17

("____ for the horses")

1 cup 1 Samuel 30:12

("clusters of _____")