my website

I now have a website! :)

https://sites.google.com/site/fenteco/home

New Info

I have some up-dated info about the Black Island Farms on Thursday. See last post for the up dates.

Great Week at Snowbird/Next Weeks Activities

I just got home from a GREAT week at Snowbird! It was so fun(and at time crazy)to have all of you up there with me.

Thanks for all of your help. I couldn't have done it without you(driving my car up, un-packing and re-packing my car, putting stuff away, decorating, sharing, doing dishes, cooking, planning, activities, cleaning and more)!

I am hoping to be better at blogging.....so pictures to follow :D

More fun to come.

Summer, Bryan, Andrew, Logan, and Hannah are going to Delta today. They will be back up here Wednesday-ish, Summer's word, not mine. Here is a list of activities for Oct. 27-30.

Wed. Oct. 27th
4pm
***pumpkin patch (I will let you know where) to buy pumpkins(bring your camera)
6pm
***Dinner: Lasagna, salad, and caramel apples
7pm
***pumpkin carving

Thurs. Oct. 28th
11am
***Shopping-I still need to get Dad something to wear for the pictures, and TaiPan
5pm
***Dinner: Italian Chicken, rice, and salad
6pm
***Black Island Farms Corn Maze/Hay rides and more
3178 S 3000 W Syracuse
-dress warm
Combo pass $15 for adults, $10 for kids. I have $2.00(new info) coupons

Hayride and activities-adults $8,and kids $5 (new info)
Children 2 and under are FREE (new info)
Fri. Oct. 29th
11am
***Disney store University Mall
5:30pm
***Halloween Party! Wear your Halloween Costume
Dinner: Soup, Salad

Sat. Oct. 30th
10am
***Family Pictures
Please wear jeans/denim with fall color tops(orange,brown,dk red, gold/yellow and green)
Meet at Exchange Place (between State St and Main at 350 S.)

Gardner Village

6pm
***Dinner-Pizza
7pm
***Trick or Treating in So Weber
Wear your cute costumes(dress warm under your costumes)

Sun. Oct. 31 Summer and Family head back to Washington

Party!!

I bought a Pinata for my birthday party and Kevin and Tena's. Here are some fun pictures of the kids trying to break it open!



We made Andrew go last. We told him to go get a blind fold, so he brought out his church pants and tied them around his head!!!

This is what we did with Andrew and Logan in Island Park. We had a lot of fun!!

North Shore

Isn't this a great picture?!

Papa and Andrew at Snowbird

Thompsons' Turkey Day in Washington!

I know it seems a little early to be talking about Thanksgiving in August, but we wanted to invite y'all to our place for some turkey and pumpkin pie (and lots of other yummy things!) this year. Brothers, sisters, kids, grandmas and grandpas and aunts, uncles, cousins, are invited too. The more the merrier! Stay awhile and see Seattle too!

We hope you can come!

Releif Society "Hand"out

I taught a Relief Society lesson a few weeks ago. The lesson was Pres. Uchtdorf's conference talk from April 2010, Sunday morning: "You Are My Hands" It is such a great talk and I love to listen to Pres. Uchtdorf talk. So I made a movie of him giving his conference talk. I watched it and read it a few times, picked about 4 places that would be a good place to stop the movie and talk about what he just said, ask a question, and hear answers from the Relief Society sisters. I handed out the questions before the lesson so that everyone would have a chance to thick about their question. The lesson went really well. Just the right amount of time. So many of the sister contributed to the lesson. It was GREAT! You of course couldn't do this a lot. But i think every now and then it would be good.

I decided for the handout I would make hand sugar cookies put into little bags tied with a ribbon and a tag.

I seem to have a few problems with making sugar cookie dough. So after the dough was made and had rested in the fridge for the appropriate time. I made a test cookie, and baked it off. Well, it spread all over the cookie sheet and did not look like a hand, maybe a baseball glove but not a hand. So I put all the dough back in the bowl and add 1 cup of flour and mixed it well and put back into the fridge. For the most part the cookies all worked after that.

I found my hand cookie cutter at Orson H. Gigys in Salt Lake. I love that store. I go there when I have to make a wedding cake. I had seen the wall o cookie cutters so I was hopeful. I was rewarded for the drive to this fun store.

Here are some hands all cut out ready to go on to the pan. I baked up about 60 or so cookies only one finger broke off. So I was happy about that. After they cooled completly it was time to pipe and flood.
Summer is much better at this piping and flooding than I am. I free handed the hearts, no really I did. You say they look perfect, you are soooooo nice. I just picked some that turned out ok. Then I flooded the the hearts. A side note here DO NOT ADD FLAVORS LIKE VANILLA TO THE ROYAL ICING. IT WILL NEVER SET UP ALL THE WAY. Just something to keep in mind. :D

Then I piped the hand and flooded the hands. They turned out ok. It is pretty hard to out line the hands with the royal icing. Then you have to thin the royal icing out so that it will flood the cookie. I put the thinned icing in a bottle with a pointed lid (these bottles are usually used for catsup and mayo) instead of using the pastry bag and tip. This worked really well.

One of the stories that Pres. Uchtdorf told of a women that compared herself to a used $20.00 bill. This looks pretty real don't you think?

The other side is a quote from his talk. "I often picture Him with hands outstrected reaching out to comfort, heal, bless, and love. As we emulate His perfect example, our hands can become His Hands, our eyes, His eyes, our Heart His Heart." Pres. Uchtdorf Ensign May 2010

Then I put all of the cookies in a big basket. I passed the cookies out half way through the lesson, and told the sisters to think of five ways their hands could be His hands as they ate the cookie.

It is always good to get out of your comfort zone and teach. I don't like it, but it is good for me.

When you look at your hand think of 5 ways that your hands can become His hands.

Northridge High School

What do you think of when you think of when you hear Northridge High School? Some of you think of graduation, some think of special teachers, others think of dinner theatre, musicals, dances, friends, classes, grades, wrestling, and extra rolls for lunch.

This is a Chatelaines picture when Danny performed with this group. Summer and Jenny also sang in Chates. Summer was in Excalibur too. Summer, Justin, Jenny, and Danny sang in A Cappella. Kody was in Men's choir and wrestling.

I have those same memories too. But I have other memories. I was the PTSA President at Northridge for two years. I helped choir students with fund raisers-mostly hot cocoa. I wonder how many cans of hot cocoa I gave out?

Went to 2 almost 3 full seasons worth of wrestling matches, went to 14 years of choir concerts (at least 4 per year plus at least 10 Exchatilation concerts). Decorated the stage for Christmas and sometime help take it all down.

I cooked all of the the dinners one year for Dinner Theatre in the lunchroom kitchen. I also did decorations, sets and costumes for 3 dinner theatres. I decorated sets for 5 or 6 shows, worked on costumes for 3 shows, did make-up for all of those shows (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man, Lil Abner, Miracle on 34th Street, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, 42nd Street, and the King and I). I helped with Thoroughly Modern Milly. I was an usher for Le Mes and did a pre-show luncheon for Beauty and the Beast.

I was a chaperon 3 times; Nashville, Tennessee and Anaheim, CA twice.

I planned 7 choir trips; 2 to Seattle WA; 1 to Manhattan, New York; 1 to San Francisco, CA; 1 to Anaheim CA; 1 to San Diego, CA; and 1 to Los Angeles, CA. The San Francisco trip included the band and orchestra.

I made DVD's for 5 of the 7 choir trips.

I prepared luncheons for 3 or 4 State competition for the judges, road countless buses to choir concerts and Elementary Christmas tours, organized 7 years worth of volunteers for the choir department.

I helped with 4 graduation all night parties, helped with a few tailgate parties and sidewalk decorating for Homecoming.

Kevin and I even chaperoned Prom one year.

I know Northridge High Schools school song better than I know my own high school song.

I am not listing all of these activities to brag about myself. I am listing them because they were all wonderful things, incredible memories, that I got to do to help my amazing children while they where in high school. Some of the things I did even though none of my children where involved. But I wanted to help make Northridge a better place for my students and for all students that attend school there. But doing these things where a blessing for me, more than I helped anyone there. I learned so much, and did so many things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do if I hadn't volunteered.

Today I delivered the DVD's to A Cappella choir of our choir trip to Los Angeles, CA. I am done! This feels so strange, in a few weeks I will start thinking about our next choir trip and then remember that I am not doing that anymore. It is a bitter sweet feeling. I will miss the choir director, Lindsey Snarr Partridge, I will miss the students, I will miss the planning and organizing. Most of all I will miss the blessings that come from helping others and doing service.

So I will always have many fond memories of Northridge High School. It will always be my high school. I hope you have good memories too.

Mother's Day

I had a GREAT Mother's Day this year!

It started out with Justin, Emily and Emma coming to church with us. Then they came over to our house for a few hours before they had to go to Emily's family party. They gave me a sweet picture of Emma

Kevin got me a new outfit for Mother's Day. It is always fun to get new clothes!

Danny and Spencer came over after church. We visited for awhile before they had to go to Spencer's family. Danny and Spencer got me a piece of Lia Sophia jewelry, but it hadn't come yet. It is a slide to go on my Deb collar.

Summer called from Ohio, and I talked with her for about an hour. It is a good thing that we are both on the same cell phone service.....She had some pictures taking of Andrew, Logan and Hannah in their cute purple Easter clothes. I am looking forward to seeing those.

Jenny, Tyson, Blaine, and Eli came over just as Danny and Spencer were leaving. Tyson had to go to work so he left before dinner. Jenny and fam gave me some pictures of Blaine and Eli.

Kody and Brooke came over after being up in Hyrum with Brooke's family. Kody and Brooke got us some lights for our waterfall. I love them!

Then Papa and Grandma Thompson came. Grandma and Papa are so cute they sent me an e-card. It was fun to watch and read.

Thank you for all of my wonderful gifts. Most importantly thank you for spending time with me and Dad. Time is the best gift of all! You are all so thoughtful, I love you all!

We had a nice dinner of Malibu Chicken, a green salad-thanks Brooke, cut up fresh fruit-thanks Mom and Dad, and frog eye salad. For dessert we had a yummy chocolate cake. You can find the recipe here http://familytree-thompson.blogspot.com/2010/05/chocolate-baumkuchen.html

I picked up these flowers at Wal-mart.......the W store on Saturday. They went with my dishes.

I got some table cloths and matching napkins awhile ago. So I decide to use my napkin folding skills that I acquired on our Disney Cruise. First I tried the fan fold, but my napkins had not been starched and it just wasn't working. So I went with the candle fold. I think that they look like a candle. Anyway it was something fun to do.

Now I know my table isn't set as nicely as the tables here at Stonegable http://www.stonegable.blogspot.com/ but I am trying. By the way if you love dishes she has so many fun sets! Something for every event. I love looking at her blog.

Anyway, thanks again family for making my Mother's Day wonderful.

Guess Who's One!

Happy Birthday Eli!

We Love You!

Chocolate Baumkuchen

This cake was so much fun to make. I cleaned out all of my recipes, and was looking through all of the little recipe books that I have and I came across this yummy dessert. The recipe is from Nestle Morsels Sweet Celebrations! It is under the Grand Finales chapter.

The picture in the booklet just looks so good. So I decided to make the cake for Mother's Day. It only took about an hour to do the mixing and baking. I did the first part Sunday morning before church, and finished it up Sunday afternoon.

The cake is made up of thin layers of yummy cake and is topped off with a sour cream topping.

I am sure that you are wondering how I made all of those layers. When I tell you, you will think no way.......you "broil" each layer. That's right BROIL! Crazy I know.

Don't let the instructions scare you away from giving this recipe a try. It really was fun, and pretty easy, and it taste sooooo good. Everyone enjoyed this cake. It is a heavy textured cake, some people thought it kind of tasted like cheesecake. It does seem to have a creamy feel in your mouth. I think that is from the sour cream topping. Your guest will be impressed, and wont believe you when you tell them that each layer is broiled. So give it a try. I know that I will make this recipe again!

Pre-heat your over on broil and grease your spring form pan. Make sure that your oven rack is as close to the broiler as it can get and still slide the spring form pan in.

All of the chocolate in this recipe is melted semi sweet chocolate chips. I melted them in the microwave. Watch your chip melt, check them every 30 seconds. You don't want to burn the chocolate.

While the melted chocolate is cooling, separate your eggs. You will use both the yokes and the egg whites.

Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside. Place the butter into you mixing bowl and cream, add the sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add the egg yokes one at a time. Slowly add the flour and cornstarch mixture-beat in slowly so that you don't have flour all over your kitchen. Then take half of the batter out of your mixing bowl and place it in another bowl.

Mix the cooled melted chocolate into the remaining batter. Remove the chocolate batter to another bowl. Then clean your main bowl and beater.

Pour the egg whites into the mixing bowl. Beat the egg white until soft peaks form.

Gradually add the remain sugar to the egg whites.

Beat until stiff peaks form.

Divide the egg whites between the two batters and fold in. The batter may look a bit curdled but that is OK.

Spread a scant-not a whole 1/2 cup of chocolate batter into the bottom of a greased spring form pan.

I love using my spring form pan. It is so easy to get the cake or whatever you make in it, out. The hardest part about a spring form pan is getting the bottom into the sides of the pan right.

I used the back of a large spoon to spread the batter. Use a different spoon and measuring cup for each batter.

Slide the pan into the oven and set the time for 2 minutes. When the time goes off remove the pan from the oven. Remember the pan will be hot. Spread a scant 1/2 cup plain/vanilla batter on top of the cooked chocolate layer. Cook again for 2 minutes. Repeat until all the batter is gone. You will have about nine or ten layers of cake.

While the cake layers cook mix the sour cream mixture, it needs to be ready when all of the cake layers are cooked.

Spread the sour cream mixture on top of the cooked cake and broil for 1 minute. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. The cake will pull away from the sides of the spring form pan as it cools. Remove the sides of the pan and cool the cake completely.

When the cake is completely cooled, melt the chocolate chips for the sour cream frosting. This recipe doesn't make a lot of frosting but it makes plenty for the cake. It is good with leftover strawberries too.

Frost the side of the cake. This is so easy with the bottom of the spring form pan still holding the cake. Place some of the frosting in the center of the cake plate/stand, and place the cake, spring form pan bottom and all on top of the frosting. The frosting will hold the cake in place on the cake stand.

Wash and dry your strawberries, slice the stems off of the strawberries and cut in half. Place on top of the sour cream topping.

With a large star tip in your in your pastry bag, load the bag with the remaining frosting. Pipe the frosting onto the top of your cake. I piped some frosting around the bottom of the cake, but I think that it would have looked better without that.

Here is the complete recipe.

1 6oz cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (1/3 cup for cake)

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

7 eggs, separated

2/3 cup flour

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

Sour Cream layer

2/3 cup sour cream

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Chocolate Sour Cream frosting

2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Garnish

Fresh strawberries, halved

Cake:Preheat broiler. Melt 1/3 cup chocolate chips in the microwave or on hot, not boiling water, cool. Beat together butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Add egg yokes, 1 at a time, beating well after each yoke. Combine flour and cornstarch; stir into butter mixture. Divide batter in half, leaving half in mixing bowl. Mix in cooled melted chocolate chips. Set both batters aside. In a clean mixing bowl beat egg white until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Fold half the beaten whites into each portion of batter. Spread a scant 1/2 cup of chocolate batter in bottom of greased 9-inch spring form pan. Place pan under broiler and cook for 2 minutes. Spread a scant 1/2 cup of vanilla batter on top of chocolate cake layer. Broil for 2 minutes. Repeat until all batter is used. Spread top layer with sour cream mixture and broil for 1 minute. Cool 15 minutes, remove sides of pan and cool completely. Frost sides of cake with chocolate frosting. Arrange strawberries on top of cake. Pipe remain frosting onto top of cake between strawberries. Chill. Serves about 10.

Sour Cream layer. Combine sour cream, sugar and lemon juice.

Chocolate Sour Cream frosting

Melt 2/3 cups of chocolate chips and butter, stir till smooth. Cool for 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream and vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until frosting is smooth and spreading consistency.

Enjoy!