Home Depot contest!

I haven't posted on here in AGES! But I thought that just in case there are still some faithful people that check in occasionally....I'd post a link to a contest that I've entered Jon and my kitchen into. It's a contest with Home Depot. The winner of the contest will win $10, 000 in Home Depot gift certificates. Please check out my "story", and we'd really appreciate every vote that we could possibly get! Thanks everyone!
http://www.homedepot.ca/ Click on the contest picture in the top right corner, and we're on the contests homepage. Our kitchen is under the username Girlie and the title is "Stuck in the 50's"

Gluten-free eating

I've just recently gone on a gluten-free diet for Isaiah's sake. I'm actually finding it pretty easy to pass up temptations to eat gluteness foods like bread, cookies, cake, etc. Because I know that if I do I'm not the one that'll pay for it later...Isaiah is, and that's just not fair to him. However, as I've never had to watch out for ingredients with gluten in them, I'm finding it tough to find/catch them. Also, there's so many of them!!! Did you know that there could be gluten in vanilla. What the heck???? Anyways, I made a cheese cake for Trish's wedding shower last night. Because I didn't want to be scaring people by staring at them and drooling on their cheese cake while I sat with an empty plate....I transformed a recipe to be gluten-free. Now, not only have I NEVER made a cheese cake in my life, I altered the recipe to the cheesecake I've never made! I snatched the first piece at the shower so that I could warn people if it was nasty. ha ha. Thankfully it turned out great, a definite make again. Which is why I'm going to post it on here. I'm the type of person that doesn't really tend to follow a recipe and then forgets what it was that I put into the food to make it taste so good. :) So here's the Gluten-free Cheese cake recipe.

Triple Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake

2 c. finely crushed gluten-free chocolate cream filled sandwich cookies. (I found these at Walmart actually, and chopped them up super fine with my pampered chef chopper).

3 Tbsp. Butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. Cream cheese, softened

1 can Sweetened condensed milk

4 Lg. Eggs

1/3 c. Gluten-free All Purpose flour mix (I used the Kinnikinnick brand)

1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract (Gluten-free)

2 sq. Semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine cookie crumbs and butter; press firmly on bottom of 9-inch springform pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add eggs, flour and vanilla; mix well. Divide batter in half. Add chocolate to one half of batter; mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Top evenly with vanilla batter.

3. Bake 50-55 minutes or until center is set, cool. Top with Chocolate Glaze. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Glaze: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt 2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate with 1/4 cup whipping cream. Cook and stir until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat; spread over cheesecake. Makes about 1/3 cup.

Ha Ha Ha...

I saw this a few minutes ago on some site I happened upon. I couldn't help but post it. It made me laugh. Enjoy the remainder of your week everyone.

lions and tigers and BEARS....OH MY!!!

Yesterday Jon went down the Rowlands Ranch to do some bear hunting. He came home with a HUGE grin spread across his face, and this story to tell.....
Jon and Ryan were sitting in the bushes along the tree line on the hill watching the oat field below them, because they'd been told the bears love that field. They sat there for an hour or so, dead silent and just watching, when all of a sudden a big black bear stood up in the middle of the field. It had been bedded down in the field that whole time. He was about 300 yards away from them, which was farther than Jon would have liked, so he belly crawled down the hill and into the oat field. It took him probably 30 minutes to do this slowly and quietly so the bear wouldn't see him. He got to be about 100 yards away from the bear and was trying to get a shot at him. By the way...when the bear was on all fours his head, neck and the tops of his shoulders were above the oats. When Jon stood up in this field the oats were up to his chest. (That means this bear was 6 feet tall on all 4's....YIKES!). The only time Jon got even the slightest chance at a shot at this bear was when the bear stuck his head out once, but Jon didn't take the shot. He was hoping for a better opportunity. When it was just about dark and getting to be past the legal shooting time, Jon stood up and yelled...."HEY BEAR!!!!!" Now if you know Jon, you know that he can yell extremely loud. However, the bear completely ignored him and laid back down in the oats. Since it wasn't legal to shoot anymore, Jon headed back up the hill to where he left Ryan. Once back at Ryan, Ryan asked Jon if he'd seen the second bear that was coming down the fence line, saw Jon and took off.
Needless to say....I'm going to be husbandless on weekends until he gets this bear. :)

I have sat down numerous times in the last few weeks, planning on updating my blog and writing something new for you. But every time I try....nothing comes of it. I have many thoughts on what to tell you but I'm horrible at putting my thoughts into words, I even wrote and deleted the "title" for this post 3 times before giving up and leaving it blank. One post I attempted in the last few weeks was about how quickly B's growing up, and how different it is for kids these days.....laptops and cell phones. Those were only in futuristic movies when I was her age. Others were about my summer. How quickly it flew by. Isaiah...how gigantic he his, and how quickly he too is changing. But since I'm no good at saying all these things, I'll just show you in pictures.
Enjoy!

Jon and Micah going duck hunting.

Home from duck hunting....all tuckered out.

B and Hayden....first day of school.

Isaiah. Getting so big.