Heidi's Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Here is the recipe for the bread I made earlier today--it is a great treat!

Heidi's Cranberry Pumpkin Bread
(makes 2 loaves)

2 1/4 cups flour (you can use 1/2 whole wheat flour)
1 TB. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 cups sugar (you can use cane sugar)
1 3/4 cups pumpkin pie puree (or 1-15 oz. can)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)
1-2 cups fresh or dried cranberries (Heidi made it with fresh at Christmas and it was delicious! I had to use dried today and it is still very good. Just make sure to try it with fresh when cranberries are in season.)

Combine all ingredients and spoon into 2 greased bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Snow Day!

It's a snow day! It's not actually snowing too much but the wind is loco (crazy), gusting between 35-45 mph. It's been the perfect snow day. I started out with a run (I started the marathon training plan today!) and then enjoyed a nice breakfast and cup of coffee. I was then able to make a bread recipe my sister-in-law shared with me (Pumpkin Cranberry Bread-delicious!). While that was baking I did some fun reading ("Crazy Love" by Francis Chan). Then my roommate Lisa suggested we play a game and Tom came over to join us. Although I lost terribly, Phase 10 was yet another point in the day that created fun and laughter. :) What a good day.


Ashley and Jill being good students. Don't worry, the rest of us had our homework done ("us"=Lisa, Tom, and me)

Power Granola

My sister-in-law, Heidi, recently shared this "Power Granola" recipe with me. I tried it out this weekend and LOVE it. So, now I am sharing it with anyone I think might enjoy it. It is delicious with yogurt, milk, or plain! :)

Power Granola

2 c. regular oats
1/3 c. ground flaxseed
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. chopped slivered almonds
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. orange juice
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. canola oil (I used safflower oil.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cooking spray
1/3 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Combine orange juice, honey, and brown sugar in a sauce pan and heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add oil and vanilla.

Pour honey mixture over oat mixture until coated. Pour mixture into a jellyroll pan coated with cooking spray. Make sure mixture is spread out and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Stir well and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Pour into a bowl and add dried cranberries. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy!

How Do We Cook?

Well, it seems this semester I have lacked in my cooking abilities (there weren't too many before, actually :) It's more so been that I haven't been organized enough to make time to make meals and therefore eat a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. So, one night Tom and I decided that we would make lasagna together. Neither of us had made it before but didn't think it seemed too complicated. It turned out to be delicious! The best part was that it lasted four days! :)Getting the ingredients at Cashwise!
Tom's pretty good at knowing when the noodles are done, so that was his job. :)
I made the sauce.
The finished product....delicious!

Here's the recipe we used! (It's my aunt Myrna's.)

1-8oz. box lasagna noodles (we used whole wheat...a little better for you and you can't even tell a difference)
2 pkgs. spaghetti sauce mix
12 oz. can tomato paste
2 lbs. hamburger, cooked, drained, and seasoned

Combine sauce and hamburger. Simmer while noodles cook. Drain noodles in cold water.

16 oz. mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Grease a 9x13 pan.

Layer:
1. noodles
2. hamburger sauce
3. parmesan cheese
4. mozzarella

Top: Sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and let stand for 15 minutes to set.

Tessa's Wedding!

(Above Tessa and my cousin Tiana)

On January 1, 2010 my friend Tessa Kvidt married Derek Zimney! Tessa and I grew up living right next to each other and have been friends since we were little. It was an honor to be in her wedding and to be a part of the process of getting everything ready. Congratulations Tessa and Derek!
Ingrid and cousin Tina.
Me with cousin Brittany
Me with cousins Tiffany and Tina (Tina is the mom of Tiffany, Brittany, and Tiana...Alika was busy dancing with friends)
The Bridal party: Karen, Kari, me, Tessa, Derek, Alan, Tony, Nick
The cake topper. :)

Kitchen Improvements

For Christmas Mom and Dad got a new set of pots and pans from us kids. Because Mom doesn't have a lot of storage space Aaron made her a new pot rack. It works just perfectly! Good job, Aaron.

Rapid Renovations

If you know the Espes you know that there are generally quite a few projects going on at our house (make that my parent's house-Sheldon and Val). :) Recently though, they have been very busy and accomplishing a lot of projects in a short amount of time. I was so impressed when I came home. Good work Mom and Dad. A couple friends asked to see pictures of the new upstairs built in bed unit, so here they are. The first two pictures are just of the living room at Christmas. I thought it looked very "homy" so I decided to share them, too.

This is what you see when you first arrive at the landing coming up from the stairs.
The bed! Mom put her pew/bench thing next to it with a little coffee table in front of that for another sort of sitting room area.
On the far right you can see the storage/closet area that is attached to the bed part. Very cool work done by our family friend, Bob.