Loralee's Cookbook

Over there, on the right, I now have a list of links; and my new blog, Loralee's Cookbook, is also on that list! Really it's just a website for my recipes; I figured it made more sense to give recipes their own spot, rather than posting them in my blog. So, I'll post a recipe or two each week, and you can check it out. If you make the recipe and like it--leave me a comment! [If you hate it, I don't really need to hear about it.]

Enjoy!

Pedals for Hope

Last Thursday the sixth grade of Entheos Academy, an expeditionary learning school, finished their Pedals for Hope project. Most of my kids attend Entheos, and Lindsey (11) was one of the sixth-graders who worked this year to raise funds for cancer research. [photo: Lindsey after the tour]

It started with an “intensive”—a week where the students do a very in-depth study of one subject. That week they learned about cancer: besides learning about the disease itself, they learned the statistics of how many people are affected by it, and visitors came to the school to tell the kids of their experiences with cancer. The students made a visit to the Huntsman Institute for Cancer in Salt Lake City and to the Make a Wish Foundation. Lindsey said that "The Make a Wish Foundation was a very calming place." She thought it was really neat that kids with terminal illnesses were able to have a life-time wish granted.

The Entheos kids went on to research articles on what others had done to raise money for cancer. As they continued learning about this disease and how it affects people, the sixth grade decided to make a bike tour to raise money for cancer research. This tour would include a campout—they would ride six miles the first day, ten miles the second day, and five miles the third day, camping the two nights between. Pedals for Hope was born.

Sixth-graders began looking for sponsors, seeking to raise $3,000. Some kids went to local businesses to ask for donations, others stayed after school and made phone calls to businesses. Students looked for sponsors who would donate bikes and helmets to use for their tour and they also found a sponsor who donated T-shirts for everyone involved with Pedals for Hope.

The kids also learned all about bicycles: they learned how to repair bikes, what all the parts are called, how they work, bike safety, and how to ride if they didn't already know. The kids practiced riding at the school, going through obstacle courses and learning to use hand (turn) signals. For a month of Fridays they went to the Salt Lake Bike Collective to repair bicycles.

At last the big day arrived! On Tuesday, May 20 the Entheos sixth grade took a bus to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah, where they began their bike tour. They bicycled six miles, then took a bus to their camping spot. Unfortunately the weather was bad; they ahd rain and 30-mile-per-hour winds to deal with. Lindsey says, "It was fun! We were up all night trying to keep the tents from blowing down." They had to come home on Wednesday, but by Thursday the weather had improved enough for them to finish their tour along the Jordan River Parkway, riding 15 miles that day. [photo: Lindsey and her good friend, Sharen. Later that evening Sharen had her hair cut for "Locks of Love."]

When they started the tour, nine girls volunteered to donate their hair to "Locks of Love" if they reached their $3000 goal. The students not only reached that goal, they came near to doubling it! They've raised $5,411.56—and counting.

I'm proud of Entheos for including service as part of their mission statement--and following through in such a big way. I'm proud of our teachers who put so much time and effort into helping our students achieve this goal and have an experience they can remember for the rest of their lives. But mostly I'm proud of Lindsey; she has been excited and enthusiastic about this project from the start. And I'm especially proud of a group of kids who could conceive such a great idea and make it happen. Great job!!

Lindsey's group finishing the ride on Thursday. They were coming fast and I wasn't quite ready for them, so I barely got her in!

Soft Caramel Corn

This one is for Ann, Bruce's aunt, who is old enough to be my sister.
So nobody else can use this recipe!

SOFT CARAMEL CORN

lots of popped popcorn (I popped about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup corn syrup

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla

salt (optional)

Combine butter, corn syrup and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat. Add sweetened condensed milk and simmer, stirring constantly, until it reaches the "soft ball" stage (about 240 degrees). Add vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix well. If you want, shake a little salt over the top of it and then mix it well again. Makes yummy popcorn balls too!

Oh, Pooh! 2004

I’ve just spent the last hour or so in a crappy conversation. Really, I literally have. This morning Kaylie “poop-ed in the toilet”, and I’ve been hearing all about it ever since. Kaylie is the sixth of my eight children; three years old, and as of this morning I think she’s finally potty-trained. Hurrah! (That brings me down from three in diapers to two in diapers. Hurrah!) So, I’ve been hearing the details of how she “poop-ed”, and how she doesn’t need diapers any more, and where she “poop-ed”, and how she is a big girl now, and how she “poop-ed in the toilet”. This is one poopy conversation that I don’t mind being involved in.

Kaylie and Rachel, 2004

It’s the other, more frequent poopy conversations (and play) that I find objectionable. The trouble is that with two little boys ages five and six who are obsessed with bodily functions, and three little girls in diapers our family seems to talk about poop a lot. I try to steer them away from this sort of. . .unrefined talk, but no amount of instruction, begging or threatening seems to help. Brandon and Ryan—well, they are six and five-year-old boys. They like to play “baby”, where one of them is the baby and the other tells the baby what to do and what to say. What to do usually includes lots of raspberry-blowing, long, drawn-out hissing sounds, and belching; all accompanied by giggling and talk about what was found in the diaper. (Are you disgusted yet? I have been.) And since Rachel (age two) and Kaylie play with the boys and hear them, they think it’s pretty funny too. As I said, I’ve tried everything from saying, “Nice people don’t talk like that.” to, “Stop that right now!” but to no avail.

My latest tactic was to try to ignore it, the idea being that if the behavior got no attention it would go away. So we were walking along in Wal-mart (Ryan, Kaylie, Rachel, Jessica (age 1) and me—and half of West Valley City). And Rachel says, “Mama, I fah-ted”. Some of my family found this amusing, but I determinedly ignored it. Instead I talked about toys, books, the baby, anything. Rachel repeated herself for the next three minutes or so, with a determination equal to—no, greater than mine. I finally broke down said, “OK. But we don’t like to talk about that.” An acknowledgement, which was all she really wanted anyway.

Well, in a few years Brandon and Ryan will have outgrown the fascination with bodily functions (I hope!), and Rachel and Jessica will be out of diapers. And hey! Kaylie poop-ed in the toilet this morning! That is worth talking about!

November 2004

Chocolate

I have always liked chocolate—who doesn’t? Sweet and creamy, melting in your mouth, and …chocolatey!

Before I met Bruce I only ever ate milk chocolate. Bruce prefers dark chocolate; and now I do, too. Dark chocolate is smoother, richer, deeper; stronger. Milk chocolate can overpower your taste buds with sugar and cream; hiding its true flavor under too much sweetness. Dark chocolate is still sweet, but not so much that it overwhelms the full chocolate taste. And under that deep, dark wealth you can often taste a light fruit or nut flavor, maybe even a subtle smoky or caramel essence in its depths. I love dark chocolate; delectable!

Bruce is dark chocolate.