A few of my favorite Recipes!

I have had a few requests for a couple of my favorite recipes. They are simple and easy and I have one each that have been passed down from my grandmothers.

The first one is from my Grammy Wilson (My Mom's Mom) who I adored as a kid. My mom would make her Yam Casserole for every major sit down dinner celebration and I always wondered why she bothered until my taste buds matured and I wondered why I had been such a dope. Katie who just turned eight surprised me by maturing already. She loved it this year. It is supposed to be a side to your Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter meal, but really it is dessert during dinner. It is really that fabulous. So here we go...

Yam Casserole

3 Cups Mashed Cooked Yams ( I just use them from the can, but you can do freshly baked)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1/4 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix it together with your mixer until ingredients are incorporated. Then scoot the mixture on over to a 13x9 pan. Then mix your topping up...

Topping
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Flour
1/3 Cup Butter, Melted
1 Cup Chopped Pecans (can be optional, but really if your not allergic, it isn't)


Mix topping and spread that yumminess over the top of the yam mixture.
Bake at 350, uncovered so it gets a bit crunchy on top, for 35-40 minutes till it is a rich brown color on top.

Even if you have your Christmas meal finalized, go get the ingredients and make it, you won't be sorry. I will post pictures later because, if I make it now, it will be gone before Christmas.

The next we were given from my Grandma Rawlins (My Dad's Mom). She had it years ago at a friends house for an ice cream topping and then used it on us...for PANCAKES!!! What a wonderful woman she was! She spoiled us when we would visit her. Hot breakfast in the morning would consist of pancakes with Carmel syrup and bananas sliced the long way, fried in butter. It is great on many things. I just have great memories of this breakfast with the Carmel syrup in a pitcher that WE got to pour. That is one great memory....so onto the recipe.

Carmel Syrup

1 Cube of Butter
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 T Caro Syrup
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring all of the ingredients to a boil for about 5 minutes while stirring CONSTANTLY!

WARNING: VOLUME TRIPLES! So do NOT use a small pan.

Let it get a nice Carmel color in the bubbles and then turn it off. It is fantastic!

I will get you some pictures of this too. I really should do this for Christmas breakfast! I could do cinnamon rolls with Carmel syrup topping, that might be a bit much, but we can always try!

Hope you enjoy. Really, you should try them!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and we love you all very much. Since we have the blog, you can discover as much as you would like about what we did this last year. Or not.

At this Christmas time, I would love to leave this beautiful video with you about our Lord, Jesus Christ. We feel so blessed by his birth, his example of love, and his sacrifice. May your Christmas be bright and surrounded by those you love!

Love,

Those Crazy Marchese's (i.e. Mike, Cherylann, Katie and Christian)

Prelude to Christmas.

The other night we got together with the rest of the Young Women's Presidency (the women currently in "charge" of our girls youth group) to have a little Christmas Family Home Evening. We had a yummy dinner, a lesson that my shy Katie actually did in front of the whole group (she even volunteered), decorated cookies and visited. It was a lot of fun! Here are a lot of the kids icing their cookies. Yes, some have icing on their faces.
Katie loved the chairs that the Hatch's have. You can actually play on the furniture!

Here is Christian looking like he is starting to slip into a sugar induced coma. Close to being true. :) We had a lot of fun with the families and I would love to do it again sometime. I love big family gatherings and we don't get many of them down here. Coming from a big family I miss the noise and energy from a large group.

Christian has been pushing for helping in the kitchen more lately. So one Saturday morning we were making scrambled eggs and Christian brought over a chair and offered to help his Dad. It was really cute. He was very intent and concentrating. (And yes, he has had a hair cut since then.)

We finally remembered to break the wishbone from our Thanksgiving turkey. This is the first time we have done this, especially since we usually go home to California for Thanksgiving and my sister does the turkey. The kids had a blast. It was almost a split down the middle, but Christian ended up with the bigger half of the wishbone. He is keeping his wish a secret...

We have been really busy and I plan on posting more in a while. December is just flying by and I can't believe we're almost to Christmas. So many things to do, like watch Christmas movies and make the rest of my Christmas Pizzelle cookies. But I am glad that the kids are out of school, even if they are sick too. I am just glad I have a good stash of medicine.

Merry Christmas!

Another Sunday Thought...True Discipleship

We have listened to this clip many times. It is like a condensed capsule of wisdom. To read the entire talk here is the link.

A Sunday Thought...

There are some very talented people out there that have put some amazing videos together that are on YouTube. Here is one that really touched me. Thanks Brian for sharing this on your blog...

Next week there is another one that Mike and I have really made us think and want to do better. I know your are just chomping at the bit...so stay tuned. :)

A Love Letter to my Dad...

I learned today that my dads cancer is starting to get worse again. It has slowly been going down hill for awhile. Over Thanksgiving it got bad enough that he hasn't yet gone back to work. This troubles me much more than I am willing to type or explore, because I am am much better at burying my feelings than bearing them. Know that this is not an obituary, but a love letter to my dad. Honestly, we never know when we will be taken from this earth and I could be hit by a bus tomorrow (although probably not, since I am almost never around them). So...here we go.

I am thankful that two years ago, when you were in the hospital, that the Lord saw fit that you got to stay with us longer. We literally weren't sure you were going to make it out of the hospital alive, but you did. Not only that, but you have traveled, been on cruises, and most importantly to me, made it with no problem to our family reunion this summer.

I am thankful that my kids love you (even when you are a bit surly :) ) and that they know how fiercely you love them too. Have I mentioned that they want to move next to you. (Hey, it is actually getting affordable.)

I am thankful that you always were willing to have mom come and stay with me for 2 weeks after my babies came so that she could help me know what I was doing and take care of us. I know how much you hate not having her home, however you always let her go cheerfully.

I am thankful that you are such a great example of faith in the the gospel of Jesus Christ. You never wavered in front of us and I am forever grateful to you for that.

I am thankful that you were strict with us. Okay, you could have lightened up maybe a teensy bit. :) But as a parent, I now understand the weight and responsibility of teaching your children right from wrong.

I am thankful for your work ethic. You always have worked hard for what you believe in.

I am thankful for your sheepish grins, when you know that you are "in trouble". They are the sweetest things.

I am thankful for your devotion to your marriage. What a great example you are to us. I remember going shopping with you when I was a teenager/college student at OSH (a hardware store). There was an attractive looking woman in front of us in the checkout about your age (at the time) and I watched you to see if you would even notice her, like I had seen so many other men do. As she finished her transaction, the only acknowledgment you gave her was to see if she was moving out of the way. I was proud to be your daughter that day. It also taught me that the world was wrong when they said all men look. Now, I have that in my husband and am glad I waited for the right one.

I am grateful that you loved Mike from the first time that you talked to him over the phone. I remember you met me at the front door of the house when I got home from shopping with Mom and told me I had to call this guy named "Mike" back because he called. I rolled my eyes (I wasn't interested yet...silly me) and you were persistent until I called. I think you have liked all of your girls husbands right from the start. I guess you are a good judge of character. :)

I am grateful that you love to work with your hands and do it well. I know now that it is a talent and that not everyone is blessed with that.

I am grateful that you are my dad and that you love me just the way I am. Not that you can't or couldn't see what I could become, but you always loved me where I was too.

I love you dad. I don't talk to you on the phone as much as I do Mom. But, I do love all the same! My prayers are with you and will be fasting and praying for you this weekend.