Cook Off

Last year, we started a cook off with some of our friends for Memorial Day. Our first one was for Chili. Delicious and stinky! We had about 10 different ones to choose from. There was even a vegetarian chili, this one beat ours for the "most enjoyable on a chili day" prize (Yes, pun intended).

Last weekend was our cook off for 2009. This year, we decided to spare everyone the happy after effects of the beans and went for an iron chef style cook off. The ingredient...potatoes. WOW! We had a lot of different entries. This time about 15 different entries and no two were the same. I know, i thought we would have three funeral potato recipes but nope!

Did you know you could make Cookies out of potatoes??? They were great. They kind of remind me of Applesauce dearies. Yummy!! Here is the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.

SWEET POTATO COOKIES
Provided by Cindy Burnham and Carl Valez

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
¼ cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
4 tblsp melted butter
1 ¼ cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix sweet potatoes, milk and melted butter and beat well. Sift and stir in the remaining ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes.

The entry that won "best of show" was for sweet potato wantons. They were amazing. They had a sauce on them that was spicy so you got a bit of sweet and spicy together. AMAZING!

I guess you could say we are "foodies". Thank goodness we have so many great friends that love food too. Everyone had a great time and left about 5 pounds heavier. we will all be hitting the gym a little extra this week to work it off.

Happy Eating!!

Family and Friends

From helping my mom officially move into her apartment, hanging out with my brother in law and his wife, welcoming Baby Max to the world, family reunions, real games and much more, we have had quite the wonderful month: and it is only half over!

In this economic climate, it is hard to find much to be positive about. We are inundated with news of people loosing their jobs, businesses closing, wars and worse. Add in all the health problems and stresses of daily life and it is easy to see why people are having a rough time staying positive.

Ken and I are fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. It is great to be able to get together with friends and family and forget about some of the woes of the day. We are so glad we moved back HOME. Thank you to all of you! We love spending time with all of you.

Baby Max Turner Green (Ken says he will call him Dura Max) is only two days old. Seeing him yesterday reminded me of how special life is. The Green family is surrounded by friends and family that will always be there for them. Max has a whole world to figure out and enjoy. What a gift!

OK, enough sentimental stuff for today. Go - enjoy your day. It is spring - go run in a field singing "The hills are alive..."

What are you waiting for??

GO!!!!

Camping Family Reunion

My family is rather large. We are all going in so many directions it is hard to get together with any consistancy. Nate, the youngest of our family started a family reunion/campout about 5 years ago. It has been great. We normally do it in September over labor day weekend so we can camp Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This year, we have three little girls that will be joining the family in August so we decided to push it up.

Brad and Ashley have a membership to a camping site w/ amenities in East Canyon. They resreved the site for last weekend. We had a blast! Ken and I were not able to make it on Friday but went up Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend with them.

Talk about rain! It rained about 60% of the time. No worries, most of them had rv's so we all hung out in rv's to hide from the rain and stay dry. The rain finally broke in the afternoon and we were able to have some fun! Most of the family is involved in Soccer so a game was inevitable!

Sophie and Ellie wanted to play but they were too little. Katie grabbed their hands and the three of them were one player! They ran the field like pro's!

Eliza was more into blowing bubbles than soccer. Can you blame her?? Bubbles are fun!

Here is my "old man". He was one of the toughest players on his team. Way to go Dad!!

Every child needs at least one weekend when they can play and get dirty and not have to clean it up. Cute Sophie has dirt all over her cheeks.

We only had one person end up in the river, thankfully it was an adult. Nate sacrificed his dry pants for the soccer ball.

Thanks Nate for planning this reunion and keeping it going. Thank you Ashley for getting the site this year. We cannot wait for next year!