What Shall We Give?

Christmas Music Video--Do You Have Room for the Savior?

Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Rejoice and Be Merry: Nativity Play

The Real Gift of Christmas

The church has created a Christmas website that you may enjoy looking at.

The see the website click the picture or HERE

Ruth's Salad Recipe

A few people asked for this recipe -

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Running Sisters

Some of our sisters recently ran in the Sil.ver Co.met Marathon this year.

Very impressive ;-)

If you want more information on this marathon - Click here

Food Storage Tip

I had an abundance of eggs and decided to freeze some to free up fridge space and prevent them from spoiling. Here's what I did. Since most recipes call for 2 eggs and I whisk mine before adding them to almost any recipe, I put 4 eggs in my mini food processor and whisked them up (this eliminates that ooey gooey egg white yucky stuff) and then poured them into plastic containers. You could use zip lock bags, I just have lots of little containers. I put an equal amount in each container so that each container has 2 eggs in it. I did this to about 2 dozen eggs. If I want to make scrambled eggs or use the eggs for something other than baking I just take what I need out of the freezer. I suppose you could also do up containers of just egg whites or yellows. It was really easy and if you get your eggs on sale you can buy extra and freeze them. Jean.

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salted roasted peanuts, divided
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (about 3 ounces), divided

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8x8x2- inch metal baking pan. Whisk 1 cup flour, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl to blend. Melt 1/2 cup butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; add sugar and whisk until smooth. Cool mixture 2 minutes; whisk in eggs and vanilla. Using flexible spatula, stir in flour mixture, then half of peanuts and half of chocolate chips. Spread batter in prepared pan; sprinkle with remaining peanuts and chocolate chips.

Bake blondies until golden, tester inserted into center comes out clean, and edges just begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover tightly and store at room temperature.

Cut blondies into 16 squares; serve.

Click here to find the recipe online

Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Fresh Beries

INGREDIENTS

Crust:

• 9 whole graham crackers
• 5 tablespoons butter

Filling:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Fresh berries

PREPARATION

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Fold 16-inch long piece of foil to 8x16-inch strip; place in 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan, leaving overhang on 2 sides. Repeat with another sheet of foil in opposite direction, lining pan completely. Butter foil.

Place graham crackers in heavy-duty plastic bag. Using rolling pin or mallet, crush crackers finely. Melt butter in medium skillet over low heat. Remove from heat; add crumbs and toss to coat. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until deep golden, about 12 minutes. Cool crust while preparing filling.

For filling:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and sour cream, then lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Spread batter over crust.

Bake cheesecake until slightly puffed and set in center, about 30 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. Chill cheesecake until cold, at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.

Using foil overhang as aid, lift cheesecake from pan. Cut into 16 squares; arrange on platter. Top each square with berries. Chill until ready to serve, up to 3 hours. Serve chilled.

Click here to find the recipe online

Gingerbread Bars

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 7 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup light (unsulfured) molasses

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 15x10x1-inch baking sheet. Place 2 cups flour in medium bowl; transfer 2 tablespoons flour to small bowl and reserve. Add spices, baking soda, and salt to flour in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and 6 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then molasses. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat to blend. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Sift reserved 2 tablespoons flour evenly over batter, then sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake gingerbread until golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 22 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. Cut gingerbread crosswise into 4 strips, then cut each strip into 6 pieces, forming 24 bars, each about 31/2x13/4 inches. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead.Store airtight at room temperature.

Click here to find the recipe online

ENRICHMENT

Please join us

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17TH at 6:30pm

for our

QUARTERLY ENRICHMENT

Come learn about ways to serve those in our ward and others throughout our community!

Refreshments will be served

Simply Prepared

This is another good website for recipes and info.
Cheryl is an wonderful person and puts a lot of hard work into her website.

www.simplyprepared.com

Thanks.
Jean

What does food storage for ONE YEAR look like?

It looks like this...







Click on each "picture" and it will enlarge.

Hill Cumorah Pagent

One of our sisters recently participated in the Hill Cumorah Pagent

For more info on the Hill Cumorah Pagent click here

Emergency Preparedness

Past Service Project

36 HYGIENE KITS & 2 QUILTS

You are amazing

Stake Humanitarian Project

In preparation for our Stake General Relief Society meeting in September, we are making 7 school kits that will be sent to the Church’s Humanitarian department in Salt Lake. Material for the bags has been provided, but we need a few sisters to sew them together. We will also be collecting the following school supplies to fill the bags:

• 4 unsharpened pencils
• 1 pencil sharpener
• 1 box pre-sharpened or unsharpened assorted colored pencils (approximately 7" long, about 12 pencils to a box)
• 1 pair blunt-nosed scissors with metal blades
• 1 rubber pencil eraser (approximately 1" by 2")
• 1 straight edge ruler—not to exceed 12", with metric measurements
• 450 pages of paper in glued or spiral-bound notebooks or letter-size legal pads, all with lined sheets. Sheet sizes 8 ½" by 11", 8" by 10 ½", and 8 ½" by 11 ¾" are acceptable

Gardens

Matt and I have done a raised bed garden for the last several years.  We added a second bed and a herb garden this year.  We have even started our second planting from where our sugar snap peas and cucumbers were planted.  I also included a close up of some of the Pink Eyed Purple Hulled peas that are my families favorite.

Mormon Messages

The Church has created a special YouTube link called Mormon Messages to share our message with the world.   Click here to take a look at the great videos the Church has produced to share with your friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MormonMessages

Joe & Chris' Garden

These are pictures of my "Earthtainer" Tomato Garden.It looks like I just planted some tomatoes in Rubber Maid containers but the containers have been outfitted with a self-contained watering/fertilization system constructed with simple parts,mostly from Lowe's.

Bart found the plans through a blog at

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/.

I have never had such success with so many large tomatoes growing rapidly and conserving water.

And no weeding!

We can't wait for them to start to ripen.

The fabulous 'fruits' of their labor

How does your garden grow?

For years now, prophets have told us to grow a garden.
Blessings of so many kinds flow from following this admonition!
There's nothing quite like picking a fresh tomato for a salad,
and working beside your children will build relationships
that you can't come by any other way.

If you've thought about digging in the dirt yourself,
it's never too late to start here in Georgia.

The Provident Living website
has great information about gardening.

You can also use the "Square-Foot Gardening" method.

It's amazing what you can grow in just a small space.
(This was our inspiration!)

Check out this website for more details!

We are blessed with a long growing season here in Georgia,
so it's never too late to get started.
It's a perfect time to get your garden ready
for a fall crop of pumpkins,
sweet potatoes, broccoli and lettuce.
Here are a couple of websites to help you out.

http://www.gardeningingeorgia.com/

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B577.htm

If you're clueless about what to do when, there's a great
gardening calendar produced by the County Extension office.
Click here for the calendar

Our family has a little raised bed of tomatoes and herbs, and we've planted a grapevine along our ugly chain link fence that's seems to be doing pretty well - nothing fancy or elaborate, but we have little green tomatoes growing, and I can't wait for them to ripen! Now it's your turn - let me know if you're gardening this summer.

Check out this sister's to see her raised beds!
You'll find her link on the RS blog, too.)
Send me a picture or two and we'll post them on our blog.

Happy gardening, and have a great week!
Love to all!

Sister Goodwin

CREATE

A sister in our ward has a fabulous food blog.

Click on the image or take a look HERE

for some wonderful recipes and to see who it is ;-)

The link is also listed under MENU HELPERS

Atlanta Temple Renovations

The Atl.anta Georgia Temple
is slated for a complete remodel of the interior
beginning July 1, 2009,with construction
lasting 15 to 18 months.

For more info on the ATL Temple - Click HERE

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Colum.bia South Carolina Temple

Information on the Colum.bia South Carolina Temple

You will not need to call for appointments for endowment sessions, but to do sealings and initiatory you will need to make appointments.

You will also need to make appointments for live ordinances.

If you have a few family file names for baptism they will try and work you in with youth baptismal groups.

The temple is adding 5 sessions to their regular work schedule. They could use additional ordinance workers.

• Workers would be useful particularly on Saturday

• They would like you to be able to work two shifts a month, but there is some flexibility particularly if you have worked in another temple previously

• They will be happy to use all veil workers – not sure if you will need to go through specific training or not but would assume so

Session times are as follows:

Tuesday 5:30, 7:00 PM

Wednesday 9:00, 10:30, 12:00 Noon & 5:30, 7:00 PM

Thursday (same as Wednesday)

Friday 4:00, 5:30, 7:00 PM

Saturday 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, 11:30 AM & 1:00, 2:30 PM

On the 3^rd Saturday of each month the 1 & 2:30 sessions are designated Spanish Sessions.

Information on Motels will be coming

For more info on the SC Temple - Click HERE

The Reins are Passing!

Well, Sis. Amber Jensen has officially passed the blog onto the Relief Society Presidency as she makes her transition to the Atlanta area. I'm just learning about this blogging thing (although I've enjoyed reading many of your's), so bear with us as we learn our way around. Check by in a week or so and see what changes we've made.

New Food Storage Websites

Hello all!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2009. This year we will be focusing a lot on PREPARATION--in all of its forms.

On the side 2 new link to websites/blogs have been added under preparedness...check them out. They can be very useful!!!