Harvest Salad (with Barley)

I don't have many varieties of grains in storage, mostly because I don't know how to use them. I made this salad this week and everyone actually ate it, so now I have at least one way to use barley. It's good for you, too. You could probably use dehydrated apples and green onions if you wanted, but I didn't.

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 Tbsp. Honey or Honey Powder
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

Mix together with a wisk. Add:

1 carrot, shredded (about 1/3 cup)
2 unpeeled apples, chopped (about 1 cup) - whatever variety of apple your family likes
1/4 cup sliced green onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup corn (if you use frozen corn, thaw it. If you use canned corn, drain it.)
2 cups cooked barley (the kind I used said 'pearl barley' on the package)

Toss it all together and serve.

Cooking the barley took about an hour, so plan ahead a little.

And the book of the week is: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
My Ward book group read this book. It's a memoir of Jeanette's life. She had it really hard, but the book isn't whiny. I actually found myself laughing at a lot of the stuff in the book, even though it doesn't seem like it should be funny. Some bad bad things happened to this girl. It made me really evaluate how well I'm doing as a Mom. Fortunately, compared to these people, I stack up pretty well. Her dad has quite the potty mouth, and a few boys try to put her in rather compromising situations, so it's another book not for young readers. However, when my teenagers whine about what a bad Mom I am, I'm going to hand them this book and say "Read this. Let's talk when you're done." It was definitely worth reading.

New Year / Pancakes

Here is one of my New Year's Resolutions: Find recipes that my family likes to eat that use up my food storage. My parents live in Houston still, and when Hurricaine Ike came through, some of the people they know ended up being without power for 3-4 weeks. Ouch! It reminded me of why it's such a good idea to have stuff (not just money, but food and hygiene items) stored away. Just in case. And to have a way to feed my family without an oven. I'll try to include my best food storage recipes on my blog. Here's the first one:

Pancakes

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. dried eggs
2/3 cup powdered milk
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

I mix this all together the night before. Then in the morning all I have to do is add:

2 cups water (more or less depending on the consistency you want. I like to add a tiny bit more)
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Cook them up and serve them with syrup. It's a good way to get kids to eat whole wheat.

While I'm at it, I'm going to try to do a book of the week. And the book of the week is . . .
Marley and Me, by John Grogan. I LOVED it! 5 stars! It was one of the funniest books I've ever read, but it was also thoughtful and, in a way, romantic. It's about 13 years in the life of John and his wife Jenny. The book begins and ends with the life of Marley, the world's worst dog. But it includes so much more! The births of their children, job decisions, things they went through as a couple during the years they had this dog. And, did I mention, the book is very very funny. It has some adult content (like when they're trying to have a baby or deciding whether Marley needs to have a certain surgery) so don't let your 10-year-old read it. But read it yourself.

Christmas

I took the kids to see Santa at the Mall. Santa said "what do you want for Christmas?" Ethan said "My Dad's getting me a Wii." in a very dismissive tone. I think Santa's feelings were hurt.

On Monday the 22nd the Ortons finished arriving. I don't have room for everyone at my house, so we went to a hotel for a few days so we all could be together. Here is some of what we did:

The kids made ornaments and decorated a tree.

We played a lot of card games. This is Ethan playing phase 10. My parents got Texas themed playing cards for everyone, so we played some Texas Nertz as well. (is that how you spell Nertz?)

Papa tried to sleep, but Brenna didn't want to let him.

This is Taylie, Brenna, and Brooklyn bothering Blake.

The guys took the bigger kids sledding at this cool place. They drag you up the hill on your tube, then you slide down. Super fun!

We did our Christmas Eve traditions on Tuesday night so everyone could be there. This is Bridget enjoying aebleskivers. They're Danish pancakes and we've eaten them every Christmas Eve since I can remember.

Next we acted out the Nativity. Eric, with his PDA scriptures, was the narrator. Behind him is the Christmas Tree we decorated. It's made of butcher paper. Very, very classy. Bridget was the angel, and she did a great job. The best part was when she announced to Joseph that he needed to flee into Egypt because the wicked King Jared wanted to kill the baby Jesus. Bad Jared!

Taylie was a lovely Mary (with the hotel towel), Blake was a sweet baby Jesus, and Uncle Mikey was a great Joseph. Let's not forget Ethan, who practically deserves an Oscar for his portrayal of the donkey.

Wednesday Morning we opened presents. Brenna likes her Curious George toy.

The good news is that I got lots of good pictures. The bad news is that the battery in my camera was dead when we went to the Mayfield Family party. Dang! We had a lot of fun there too. We ate a very yummy dinner, opened presents, and just hung out together watching the cousins play. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to keep that darn camera battery charged. I'll go do that right now. Merry Christmas Everyone!