It doesn't get zestier than these....

I am in a new apartment this semester, and with a new apartment has also come some nice appliances. I am a fan of the huge washer and dryer (with it's own room), and the shower works exceedingly well (though I still can't figure out why plumbers assume that showerheads should reach about chin-level for my percentage of the population. Being 5'8'', I think that's a pretty significant number, but oh well).
The apartment asset I speak of today is actually the t.v., and what it inspired.

Normally, I am not really a fan of tv. In my last apartment, we didn't have the "noise box," and that was a-o.k. with yours truly. In my current situation, I don't watch all that much of it. But there is one channel that we get that has always had me hooked--from even high school days, when weekends held the only tv privileges. The channel is--you guessed it. The food network.

Once or twice a week, I turn on the food network and get pumped on recipes, tips, and turns of hand that make me want to be a better cook. I love to try new things, and when I heard about this recipe, I was completely taken aback. I tried it that very weekend (with the fun help of Michelle and Melinda. These are so good, that my roommate Whitney and I have since made them again). You'll need two lemons.

Lemon Ricotta Cheese Cookies

1. 1/2 cup softened butter
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 15 oz ricotta cheese
5. 3 TB lemon juice (fresh)
6. zest of one lemon

7. 2 1/2 cup flour
8. 1 tsp Baking Powder
9. 1 tsp salt

Glaze:
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
zest of one Lemon
3 TB lemon juice

Whip butter and sugar (about 1.5 min with hand mixer) and add in eggs, one at a time. Stir in ricotta, lemon zest and juice.

Add dry ingredients (already combined) in thirds.

Bake on Parchment paper at 375 for 15 minutes. While still hot, spread a spoonful of lemon glaze on top.

Allow to cool (if you can).


Honestly, I didn't know what I was expecting, but what I got was a very moist, extremely lemon-y cookie with a crisped outside and inner--I hate to say sponge, but a moist and fluffy interior.

Recommended with 5 stars and Celeste's seal of approval.

Now, as to "Balsalmic Vinegar Truffles" that was also on that same show, I don't know if I'll ever be brave enough to but vinegar in my chocolate, no matter what kind of a "kick" she said they have.

My Class's Read-Aloud after lunch

This book, "Key to Rondo," is one I picked up at our school's book fair a couple of weeks ago. I have to tell you, from the back it looked interesting, but once reading it aloud to my class, I am a huge fan.

The book takes you into a world within an heirloom music box, where cousins Mimi and Leo learn more than just liking each other--they learn how to work together to try and save the world their family has both rescued and condemned. Full of secret passages, surprisingly familiar characters, and a refreshing twist on the "Jumangi"-like elements, this book is one I would recommend to anyone from Sarah to Aunt Janet, and everywhere in between.

This video won't load for me to the blog...

...but if you click on the link, you might get a laugh. Thanks to John for asking me to be in their talent show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoEXiRF63tk
Hope it makes you laugh!

Classroom Christmas Tree

Duly reprimanded and actually really honored to Katy's shout-out in her sidebar list, I am including some more teaching ideas on my blog.

Christmas decorations and fast finishers--the perfect blend. Above is a picture of a tree you can make with kid's handprints. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the one my classroom made, as it really outdoes this picture, but you get the general idea.

My suggestions, and what made our tree fantastic, was this:
1. Outline the desired tree shape with masking tape (we made ours on our door, but any wall will do)
2. Show kids how to cut out hands. Some of them will get brilliant and realize that you can cut out about ten hands at a time. Depending on how long you make this activity, you might want to let them do that. For me, I said that five at a time was the limit. I had the paper pre-cut into hand-sized rectangles.
3. Tape the hands so that the fingers are at the bottom (unlike this picture, where the hands go up and out). Make fringed rows of handprints to create the illusion of a fir tree. The picture I have here (from online) has maybe 50-60 hands. In my classroom, we used well over four hundred. It looked as real as a paper tree could look.
4. Your students make the ornaments on the tree. This was a fun activity they could work on whenever they had finished their work early. We also scheduled in some time for completing the tree before Christmas.

The first of many pictures to come...

Here are some pictures from this Christmas Break. More will come when I have uploaded them from my new camera...including my first pictures of Rueben and Co...

But to get the party started:

Annual Family Christmas Pageant Cast



Joseph, Mary, and the Baby (also sometimes known as the Johnsons)


My first Nephew and Neice (Spencer and Emma)


The Cummings' sisters (Four consecutive girls) in Washington, D.C. (Pre- Messiah Concert, post-White House tour, Museum of Natural History, and Spy Museum).

Spoon Me

There's a new place in Provo that has gotten me completely suckered in... Spoon Me. It's the best Frozen Yogurt place I have been to-- as my old roommate Ashley would put it, when you finish your bowl of acai berry swirl, "you feel better, not guilty." I took Michelle, Melinda, and Ashley there in the middle of exam week in December, and we shot these photos.

Spoon Me may sound a little scandalous... and it probably could be. But there are two things I really love about that place. Number 1: its frozen yogurt. Number 2: The inscription next to the door: "No Spooning on Sundays."