Goodbye 2008

This past year has been a great year. We went on an extended honeymoon in March and sailed around the southern tip of South America. We spent time visiting family in Ohio and Illinois, We spent plenty of time in the air, in the car and on a ship. Park City was the spot we chose to spend our first anniversary together and it will be on the list for future anniversary celebrations. However nothing we did in the first eight months prepared us for our move to Mantua which ended up taking almost four months to complete.

We wouldn't have been able to make the move if it hadn't of been for our families pitching in and helping remodel our house and for allowing us to crash at various locations while we were making the four month commute.

We want to wish everyone a safe and happy New Years and wish only the best for you and your family in 2009.

2008 has been a bit crazy for us and we are looking forward to things calming down in 2009.

Bring on the sun!

The sun came out today and we were able to get some more pictures of the snow. Here are a few pictures of us digging out the snow.

Did someone say snow?

This past week has been full of snow for us. It's been fun to watch it snow out of our big picture window in the living room. When Quent and I got up on Christmas morning we had about 12 inches of snow on the ground from previous storms and the wind blowing it all around.

The snow continued throughout the day on Christmas and when we went to bed Christmas night it was still snowing. We now have about 36 inches of snow on the ground and Quent now has the task of plowing the hatchery grounds so he can get down to the raceway building.

Merry Christmas!

Quent and I have had a busy couple of days. We spent Christmas Eve with Quent's family, going to Christmas Mass, out to dinner and opening presents. Quent's sister Nancy & her family are in town for the holidays and have enjoyed the snow and hitting the ski slopes. We are looking forward to having them up at our house one of these days for a good old fashioned snowball fight.

Christmas morning brought more snow to Mantua and of course Santa. Quent and I opened our presents to each other in the morning and my family spent the afternoon at our house as Quent had to work today and couldn't be more than 15 minutes away from the hatchery. We had a fun lunch and everyone spent the afternoon playing with Christmas gifts and enjoying each the holiday.

Ashley helps T.J. open a present

Joy & Morgan are opening Morgan's pajamas.

Alyssa is enjoying her brownie sundae.

Morgan got her new Christmas shirt a little dirty at aunt Cindy's.

Everyone enjoying the holiday festivities.

The extended table for Christmas dinner.

Alyssa is excited to open a present from Grandma and Papa.

Christmas Eve at the Bradwisch's. Mitchell and Megan loved the blankets "Aunt Quent" made for them.

Mitchell & Megan showing off their presents.

The original 5.

Gingerbread in the house.

The Edman family Christmas party (minus Dele's family) was held tonight at Joe & Joy's house. And keeping with the tradition started last year, we held the second annual gingerbread contest, although this year everyone was a winner. The party was complete with princess castles, gingerbread houses and of course plenty of candy.

The festivities kicked off with a potato bar for dinner and then after a quick clean up, the real mess began. Joe and Steve got in the action this year helping Morgan and Alyssa decorate the Disney Princess Gingerbread Castles complete with pink frosting and candy wreaths.

We decorated a basic house this year as did Ricky and Ashley. Slim and Melissa took their time creating their masterpiece. All-in-all it was a lot of fun and we all left Joe and Joy's house on a sugar high.

Cindy & Quent's final masterpiece.

Even T.J. had a great time helping out.

Slim and Melissa concentrating on their house. I think Slim used all the gum drops.

Rick & Ash and their final house.

The mess!

Morgan and her pink castle.

Steve and Joe got into the action mixing the pink frosting.

Steve & Alyssa's pink castle.

Blue sky and the sun.

We are finally getting a chance to see the sun after three straight days of cloudy, snowy weather. We were hit with about eight inches on Friday and then the wind blew most of Saturday. I would guess we got an inch or two yesterday but it was really fine snow that blew around more than came straight down.

Today is the calm before the storm and we're slated to get another round of snow starting on Monday. It looks like we're in for a white Christmas! YEA!

Do you know what figgy pudding is?

Tonight while Quent and I were playing dominoes and listening to Christmas carols the song We Wish You A Merry Christmas came on and we were signing along having a good time when Quent asked me what figgy pudding is. I said I don't know I assume it's pudding made with figs. So after he beat me twice in dominoes we decided to look up what figgy pudding is.

The following is from the wisegeek.com website:

It's amazing what a brief mention in one Victorian-era Christmas carol can do for an obscure little dessert called figgy pudding. Every year, thousands of people around the world become curious about the figgy pudding mentioned in the secular English carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Apparently, the party-goers mentioned in the lyrics refuse to leave until they get some figgy pudding from their host. This must be some seriously good pudding.

In actuality, figgy pudding is more of a cake than a pudding. There have been recipes for figgy pudding since the 15th century, although its popularity as a Christmas dessert probably reached its peak during the late 19th century. Several factors have significantly hampered the wholesale expansion of the figgy pudding industry, including an interminably long cooking time, an exotic ingredients list and a cringe-inducing dependency on saturated fats for texture.

There are numerous recipes for figgy pudding, from a traditional steamed version similar to modern bread pudding to a pastry-covered blend of figs, dates, fruits and spices. Nearly all figgy pudding recipes call for three or four hours of steaming. This is accomplished by placing a metal bowl with the figgy pudding mixture into a larger bowl partially filled with boiling water.

I found the following recipe for figgy pudding just in case you want to try it.

A traditional English steamed pudding served during the Christmas holiday. This version calls for butter and shortening instead of suet, a solid white fat from the loin and kidney regions of meat animals.

Figgy Pudding with Custard Sauce

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons rum extract (or flavored extract of your choice)
• 1 apple, peeled and cored and finely chopped
• 1 pound dried figs, ground or finely chopped
• Grated peel of 1 lemon and 1 orange
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 cups dried bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 large egg whites, stiffly beaten
• Custard Sauce(recipe follows)
• Sweetened whipped cream (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 325*F (160*C). Generously grease an oven-proof 2-quart bowl or mold; set aside. Cream together butter and shortening. Gradually add sugar, egg yolks, milk, extract, apple, figs, lemon and orange peel. Add next 6 ingredients, mixing well. Fold stiffly beaten egg whites into mixture. Pour into prepared bowl or mold and place into large shallow pan and place on middle rack in oven. Fill the shallow pan half-full with boiling water and slowly steam pudding in oven at 325*F (160*C) for 4 hours, replacing water as needed.

Custard Sauce:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter

In saucepan, scald milk and allow to cool. Mix together remaining ingredients, except for butter. Add to cooled milk. Cook over low heat until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in butter, mixing well. Serve pudding warm with custard sauce or sweetened whipped cream. Store unused portions in refrigerator. Makes 12 servings.

So there you have it....Figgy Pudding.

BRRRR...It's Cold

As of 8:20 p.m. tonight it was just 5 (five) degrees at our house in Mantua. I haven't seen weather this cold in a few years and Quent hasn't seen this in over five.

I want to say the coldest it got in Big Water this past year was maybe 29 and that was an overnight temperature.

I'm excited for all the snow, I'm just not sure I'm excited for the cold and the wind. I guess we'll see just how cold it really gets this winter in Mantua.

Bring on the snow!

As predicted the state of Utah got snow this weekend and now that we are in the north end of the state we were on the receiving end of the snow. We had about six inches yesterday and maybe another two today, it's hard to tell as the wind has been blowing so much that it has drifted all over the place.

Quent spent the weekend working and I spent the weekend in the kitchen. Quent requested various holiday treats so I decided that it was time to do some baking. Last night we decorated some sugar cookies and will take some to the neighbors tomorrow night.

Friday night we had some friends drive up from Salt Lake to see the new house and we celebrated the holidays with a mexican fiesta. It was fun to see Aaron, Vanessa and their kids, we hadn't seen the whole family since our wedding.

With Quent working so much we still have some Christmas shopping to do, we hope to have it all wrapped up (no pun intended) by the middle of the week. We are just trying to stay warm as the temperature has dipped into the teens and it's only going to get colder.

It's all about the Idaho!

There are a lot of reasons why I am enjoying living in Mantua and tonight I was reminded of this fact as I was eating an Idaho baked potato. While I was at Wal-mart the other day I noticed the only potatoes avaliable were "true" Idaho potatoes, I was in seventh heaven let me tell you, the big decision was do I buy a five or 10 pound bag. When we lived in Big Water, we did most of our shopping in Page, Arizona and Idaho potatoes were few and far between and when the store did have them they charged an arm and a leg for them, but believe me it was well worth the extra money. Let me explain:

Growing up in Salt Lake City, I thought all potatoes were the same. It's true we only bought Idaho potatoes but 20 years ago in Salt Lake I don't know if there was anything else available. It wasn't until I was in my late 20's or maybe even my early 30's that I realized that there was a difference between Idaho potatoes and the "other" potatoes.

The truth is that one very cold night in Toronto, Canada I was invited to eat dinner with the Jazz coaching staff. We made our way across the street from our hotel to Coach Sloan's favorite steak place in Toronto (he has a favorite steak house in every state I've since learned). When the waiter came to take our order I proceeded to order a baked potato with my steak and the waiter asked if I'd like an Idaho potato for a $1.50 more. Being my usual quiet self (insert laugh here) I said no thank you. And Coach Johnson piped up and said, wait a minute Cindy are you sure? The only true potato is an Idaho spud, and the fact is that Coach Phil, as I like to call him, is a native of Grace, Idaho so I knew he would know something about potatoes. He told the waiter to "upgrade" my potato to an Idaho spud knowing how disappointed I would be if I were to get one of the "other" potatoes. So that night I continued on my journey of only eating Idaho potatoes, still not believing there was a big difference.

It wasn't until I moved to Big Water that I really took notice that a potato is not a potato. When I was forced to buy an Oregon potato or a potato with no claim to a state, it was then that I realized the Coach Phil was right, the only true potato is an Idaho spud.