Create

This month's evening Relief Society meeting was all about creating.

We started the evening with a yummy dinner, 

followed by an art lesson from Rachel A.

We all created these gorgeous pieces of art!

JoAnn taught us how to frost a cupcake with a decorator tip.  

The cupcakes were delicious!

We all went home with a decorator tip and icing bag 

so we may create more lovely frosted cupcakes at home.

Jamie taught how to upcycle old t-shirts into beautiful new flowers.

We have so many creative people in our ward 

and it was wonderful to share the evening with them all!

Sisters Squared

The Relief Society and Young Women had a delicious square dinner of sandwiches on square rolls, with squares of watermelon and pasta salad . . .

. . .followed by an entertaining evening of Sisters Squared (aka Hollywood Squares).

With our lovely hostess, Burnt Sparks.

Thank you to Laura, Marianne, Jamie and everyone on the meeting committee for the delicious dinner and lots of great fun.

And a special thanks to Ashlee for letting us have the event in her backyard!

I Dare You To Eat It

Last week's Relief Society meeting was not your typical meeting
about Food Storage.
Liesa Card, author of the book

"I Dare You To Eat It:  Designing Food Storage You Would Actually Want to Eat"
shared her humorous story of developing a food storage system that has worked for her family as well as many others.

Sister Card's website:  www.idareyoutoeatit.com states it this way:

There are all sorts of pre-conceived notions about food storage and the people who promote food storage. I do not fit that mold. I’m a working mother who has successfully run my own business for over twenty years; I’ve raised five daughters; and I’ve served in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am living proof that food storage doesn’t have to be your life in order to bless your life. Rather than a set of practices that complicate life, I see food storage as a divine program that has simplified my life. My message is that food storage is part of the whole gospel plan and an opportunity that any bright individual wouldn’t want to miss.

After many years of trial and error, I found the course that works for my family: it involved 1) gradually building a year’s supply of basic dry goods suggested by the Church, and 2) designing thirty meals and purchasing a three-month supply of canned, dried, or bottled ingredients for those meals, with fresh ingredients added as necessary and as available.

Now my family has food storage we’re comfortable eating on a daily basis. It slices! It dices! No, not really. We’re still just talking about mostly canned goods.  But once I figured out how I could design and regularly use my food storage there was an actual shift in my lifestyle. I was prepared with the things my family was used to eating, I knew exactly how to cook with the supplies I had stored, and I began reaping the numerous blessings of that preparation.

Visit Sister Card's website:  www.idareyoutoeatit.com and then click on the "Strategy's" tab at the top left hand side of the page to read about her 3 step process for using your food storage in your daily life.

For more information on becoming self reliant please visit the Church's Provident Living website:  http://www.providentliving.org   You might especially be interested in reading this pamphlet:    Prepare Every Needful Thing: Family Home Storage.  (Also called "All is Safely Gathered In:  Family Home Storage")

Pres. Uchtdorf's Relief Society Talk

Relief Society Activity

Please Join Us this evening, Tuesday, January 25th

 for a

Relief Society Activity

at 7 p.m.

We will learn how to make simple changes in our preparation for Sunday that will help us save time so we can focus on what's important.  Topics will include: Simple Menu Ideas, First Aid for your laundry and Sacrament Meeting Strategies for Toddlers to Teens.

Please bring your favorite simple Sunday entrée to share, along with copies of your recipe.

No Nursery Provided

We Want YOUR Finger Food Recipes!

Tuesday evening many of you brought your favorite finger foods to share at our Relief Society Activity.  They were FABULOUS!  Please send in the recipes, bring them to Relief Society, or give them to a member of the presidency or to Lisa so we can post them for everyone to enjoy.

~ hungrily yours ~

The R.S. Presidency

Lois

 

Lois was born in Lehi, UT.  She worked for Channel KDYL until 1960.  In 1960 she moved to California where she worked at a law firm for 27 years.

. 

She returned to Salt Lake City and has done volunteer work for 21 years at the Utah Historical Society.

Lois just recently retired and is enjoying life!

"Lettuce" Celebrate!

Purify Your Heart - February RS Activity

Flower Arranging with Libbie Archibald

“The Earth Laughs in Flowers” Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings and health & brighten people’s day. So, in the spirit of this month’s theme, to purify our hearts by sharing love through flowers, Libbie taught us the art of flower arranging.

The Art of Clumping

1. Select your container. Anything will do from a terra cotta pot to a short vase.
2. Line the container with cellophane or even a large Ziploc bag. Just cut off the zipper.
3. Get some pre-soaked oasis. Cut it with a knife to fit your container. (It is ok to use 2 or 3 pieces if needed.) Be sure you have soaked the oasis for several hours in water. Let it stick out of the top of the container a little bit.
4. Select your flowers: take off some of the outside petals (roses) so the flowers don’t have dark spots and are uniformly sized. Cut the flowers on the bottom with a slanted cut. Libbie prefers a knife, some people use clippers. Cut the flowers with 4-6” long stems (but this depends on the size of your arrangement).
5. Poke each flower into the oasis and arrange.
6. Trim the cellophane so it is within ¼ of the top of the container with scissors after all of your flowers have been pressed into the oasis in the container.
7. Use decorative moss to cover the cellophane. This moss may be purchased at craft stores. Press the moss into the space between the edge of the container and the cellophane covering the oasis (to hide the oasis).
8. Nice flowers to use: roses, sunflowers wrapped with twine with apples at the bottom

Flowers to clump in a clear vase:

- ranunculus, carnations, roses
- Hold the flowers in your hand and add another flower one at a time until you have a lovely mound of flowers.
- Cut off all of the stems at one time at just the height so the blossoms sit right on top of the container.

- Trick: to hold all of the stems together, use a clear plastic hair elastic
If you don’t like the look of stems in a vase when you are not using oasis (or if you are) and you would like to hide them, use big leaves on either the inside or outside of the vase wrapped horizontally around the oasis. Or, you can take moss and wrap it around the outside of the vase. Or you can take a really wide ribbon and wrap it around the outside of the vase.

Taking Care of our Hearts and Bodies with Sarah Ingebretsen

Sarah gave us some tips on how to stay healthy with some simple exercises. She recommended mixing strengthening exercises into a training program that works for you.

Examples of Strengthening Exercises:

Lunges – alternate forward and backward
Push ups – normal and staggered
Squats
Arm curls
Hamstring curls
Tricep extensions
Calf raises / jump rope
Up downs
Stabilization – front, sides and back

When creating YOUR training program, she explained that you should plan your exercise days of the week and stagger how hard you intend to train. It is important to always give yourself time to recover from hard workout days. For example, if on Monday you walk for 15 min (a light day), Tuesday you walk for 45 minutes (a medium day), Wednesday you walk 60 minutes (a heavy day), Thursday you should either take off to rest or walk only 15 minutes (a rest day or light day), Friday walk 30 minutes (medium day), Saturday walk 15 minutes (light day), Sunday (rest day). By so doing, you are able to give your body time to recover from a harder work out. This same type of pattern applies to running longer distances.
You should always remember to stretch out before and after each workout. And remember to allow time after your workout to bring your heart rate back to a normal level.

From our Hearts to Yours Service Project

We had the most wonderful outpouring of love from the Relief Society, Primary and Young Men/Young Women of this ward! We were able to put together 3 dozen care packages to be delivered to the Gundry’s inner-city mission ward. Each care package contained fresh fruit, jello, canned protein, canned fruit, canned veggies, and a treat. What a wonderful little treat to be able to send.

** By this Sunday, we had received a wonderful hand-signed card (many of the notes were in Spanish) from the Gundry’s ward thanking us for the sweet little treats. We were told that each little care package was received into homes where the impact was greatly needed. Thank you to each of you who contributed to this effort!

Quilt for Nick Massey

A beautiful quilt has been pieced in honor of Nick Massey, injured in Afghanistan, recovering at Walter Reed Hospital. Inspirational quotes are being collected and written on the quilt. We will be donating it in his name to the V.A. Hospital.

Red Velvet Cake

Here's another delicious recipe from Maria.

She didn't get to make it during our activity but she highly recommends we all give it a try.

Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting


1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle (1 ounce) McCormick® Red Food Color
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire rack.


Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar

For the Frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fill and frost cooled cake with frosting.

Cherry Chocolate Torte

Cherry Chocolate Torte

1 box devil’s food cake baked according to package directions in two 8 or 9 inch cake pans
1 recipe white chocolate mousse ~OR~ one 8 oz container cool whip
1 large can cherry pie filling

Level cake tops first, then let cakes cool. Take bottom layer of cake and place on dish. Top with 1/3 -1/2 of the white chocolate mousse. Then top with about ½ can of pie filling. Repeat process with top layer of cake. You can reserve some mousse for a border decoration on top of cake.

Mixing up the pie filling before adding it on top of the mousse.

Repeat on the next layer.

And Viola. . .

A beautiful and tasty cake!

Raspberry Frappe

Raspberry Frappe

½ of half gallon raspberry sherbet
¼ of half gallon vanilla ice cream
½-1 Cup 7-up
Fresh raspberries

Let ice cream and sherbet sit out until softened enough to work with. In large mixing bowl mix together ice cream and sherbet until thick milk shake consistency. Then add 7-up to thin it out a little, add as much or as little to your taste. Serve in fancy glasses and top with raspberries for an elegant and easy dessert.

Warm Your Heart Night Meeting

Open Your Heart

See You Tomorrow!

Remember, tomorrow is our 2010 Visiting Teaching Conference. We can't wait to catch up with each of you personally, find out how visiting teaching is going, and have a little breakfast. We are meeting at Kathleen's home: 2075 Sierra View Circle from 8:30 - noon. You should have received a reminder call about your appointment.

See you tomorrow!

Kathleen, Connie, Stephanie & Loralee

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