Family Photo Recreation

The highlight of our 2015 family reunion was recreating a childhood family photo:

It was so difficult to not laugh during the photo shoot. Here are the out takes:

I wish we had the audio file of our mom laughing in the background! Best time ever!!

Lagea's Thanksgiving Bread

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is a turkey sandwich. Our family friend Wendy taught us how to make the perfect one. Here's the list of sandwich fixings: bread (duh), turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing & bread. I decided to make a bread that taste like the classic Sage Stuffing. 

This recipe took me two years to perfect. At first I was going to keep this Top Secret then I thought "What's the fun in that?"

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup warm water
•  ¼ cup butter softened
• 5 Tbs Celery Flakes 
• 5 Tbs Onions minced  
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbs sage ground
• 1 ½ tsp thyme ground
• 1 ½ tsp rosemary ground 
• 2 tsp marjoram 
• ½ tsp dough conditioner or enhancer   
• 2 Tbs vital wheat gluten
• 2 ½ Tbs chicken bouillon granules (best is Augason Farms)
• 4 cups bread flour
• 1 Tbs yeast

 I use my bread machine to combine all the ingredients on the dough cycle. Place the items in the bread machine pan in the order listed above. Once the cycle is complete, turn the dough onto an oiled counter. Knead the dough just a little and form into a oval, cover with plastic wrap or a cotton towel, and let rest for 10 minutes.

After resting, turn dough bottom side up and press to flatten. Then fold dough into shape you want. Place on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan dusted with cornmeal or I just put it into a bread pan. Cover and place in a warm spot to rise, approximately 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  After rising, slash the bread with a very sharp knife. Brush or spray the top of the bread with cold water (this keeps the dough wet so that it won't form a crust from the heat of the oven, thus allowing the bread to get a good "oven spring: during the first 5 minutes of baking) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

***WARNING*** 

Your house will smell so yummy you will want to eat the bread immediately! Just wait! You've waited this long, an hour or more won't kill you ;o)

FYI: I get all of my spices from this wonderful local store: Crystal and Spice Shoppe

Chocolate Bing Cherry Cobbler

I've been spending the majority of my time on Facebook but I wanted to share the recipe with everyone.

I recently bought 52 lbs of delicious Washington State Bing Cherries. We ate some; froze the majority but than made this yummy cobbler.

I adapted Williams-Sonoma Bing Cherry Cobbler recipe to a Chocolate version.

Ingredients:
For the filling:
5 cups pitted fresh Bing cherries or other sweet
  cherries (about 3 lb. unpitted)
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, strained
3 Tbs. sugar

For the topping:
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbs cocoa (I used Ramstadt-Breda Rich Dark Cocoa from The Prepared Pantry)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 375°F. For individual servings, place six 1-cup ramekins or custard cups on a rimmed sheet. For a large cobbler, have ready a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie dish or baking dish with sides at least 2 3/4 inches high.

To make the topping with an electric mixer, in a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the butter pieces. Beat on low speed until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas, about 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the buttermilk mixture and continue to beat just until combined and a soft, sticky, evenly moistened dough forms.

Drop the dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the fruit, spacing it evenly over the surface. The topping will not cover the fruit but will spread during baking to cover it. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the dough.

Bake the cobbler until the fruit filling is bubbling, the topping is browned, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the topping comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm. Serves 6.

 

 

Eagle Eye!!

One of the many perks of being stationed at LA Air Force Base is the opportunity to work with the film industry. Eagle Eye is Tommy's first experience as a movie extra. We had lots of fun watching his world premier last night :) That's my baby!!

~~ Lagea

Birthday party

We had great fun at Lexi's 6th birthday party :)

Sooo Cute!

Jaiden loves his Gea!!

Hairdos

Our boys are so funny!

New Additions to the Family

Our neighbor couldn't take this adorable kitten to their next location sooooo Lagea couldn't resist :) and Tommy can't resist Lagea ;)

Since our 5 kids aren't getting any smaller, we upgraded to a 2008 Tahoe. It's great to have a generous step dad with a GM employee discount. Thanks, Al, you rock!!

Tommy loves to spoil Lagea!

Summer 2008

Finally we have our family together again! Here are a few shots from our first week of summer break.

Best Nana Ever!

Wow, we have the best Nana ever! Lagea's mom flew down to LA to care for the boys while we went on our retreat. Today she flew to Phoenix to care for Jason's kids while he & his wife are on a missions trip in Africa. She rocks!

Hume Lake Couple Conference 2008

We had an amazing time this past weekend! We were one of 38 couples that attended from our church. The conference speaker, Gary Gaddini, gave us tremendous words of wisdom on having strong marriages. Tommy & I returned from the trip encouraged & inspired.

BTW: Who wants a "Buzzword" rematch?? I'm sure all the guys do :)

Belated Honeymoon :)

Tommy & I will be spending the weekend at a marriage retreat up north. See all of our friends up there! We will have pictures later.

~~ Lagea

The New Place

Here are the promised pictures of the new place. The first floor of this beautiful 1700 sq ft townhouse has the kitchen, dining room, living room, office/gameroom, laundry room, & 1/2 bath. The tile floor throughout the kitchen & dining room is my favorite feature.

Next round of pictures will be of the upstairs which has the 3 bedrooms & 1 bathroom for children plus our spacious master suite with 3/4 bath.

1st Birthday!

This past weekend we got to celebrate our favorite neighbor's 1st birthday :)

Happy Mother's Day!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! We are officially moved into our new place. We'll show pictures later! The youngest boys have a view of the ocean :)

The baby's haircut

Kalesha showing off the baby's hair cut.

Our oldest is such a good neighbor!

Our Favorite Birthday Card

The card from our friends who are obviously much younger than us :)

Birthdays

This week Tommy & I will be celebrating our birthdays. We were going to have a party with all of our neighborhood & church friends but instead we'll be packing boxes. Oh, maybe we will do a Housewarming Party.... We're so excited to be moving to a 4 bedroom / 3 bath townhouse! Well, I better get ready for our inspection tomorrow :) Yeah!

~~ Lagea

Naughty Dog

This is Sophie in a time out after getting into the trash :) She did this all on her own. Goofy Dog!