Our Church....Fresh Life

Here's my first post about our Church. If you ever have some extra time and want to listen to a sermon then I highly recommend our Church, Fresh Life. I'm so glad we found this Church in Kalispell. We are involved in a small group and I love it! It has been a great way to meet friends and I'm so thankful for them. I also help out at the Kids Ministry as a sub and I have enjoyed that so much.
Anyways, Levi is the pastor and he is a great speaker. Each sermon I learn so much and look forward to the next week. Fresh Life has an app which is so nice because I always watch sermons on my iphone while working out. :-)
Here is the link is you ever want to watch one: Fresh Life Church

With Snow comes Homemade Soup

Being from California I'm still not used to it snowing October 22nd when in California it was 85-90 degrees. Crazy, huh? Well we had snow for about a week and had to shovel the decks every morning. It got me a little worried that it cam so soon, but it has now melted and been raining a lot, which I'm fine with. But the summer clothes had to go away and the warm winter clothes, rain boots had to come out. I always look forward to visiting California or Texas for the holidays to get some warmer weather,but I do look forward to snowboarding here.
When it snows I always want to make some kind of soup and I had been craving one in particular for a while: tomato soup with a panini margherita. It is a weight watchers recipe and it makes so much that we had leftovers for about five days and I still froze some (FYI.....it freezes great).
Here's the recipe:

Fresh Tomato Soup:

¼ cup unsalted butter

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, finely chopped

4 lb. tomatoes, peeled and chopped

3 cups chicken stock

1 fresh basil sprig

½ tsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 ½ cups fresh white bread crumbs

1 cup light cream

salt and white pepper

2 tbsp. shred basil leaves for garnish

1 tbsp. sugar, if tomatoes are less than their best

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onion, carrot and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, basil sprig, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Discard bay leaf and stir in bread crumbs. In small batches, puree the soup in a food processor or blender. Force the puree through a strainer using a wooden spoon. Return the puree to pan, stir in the cream and warmed bowls and garnish with the shredded basil.

Panini Margherita

16 slices tomato

8 slices rustic French bread loaf

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

12 fresh basil leaves

8 tsp. olive oil

Divide tomato slices evenly among four bread slices, and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cheese evenly over tomatoes. Arrange basil leaves over cheese, cover with bread slice. Drizzle olive oil over top of each sandwich; coat with cooking spray.

Place a grill pan or skillet over medium-high. Place sandwiches, oil sides down, in pan. Drizzle 1 tsp olive oil over top of each sandwich, and coat with cooking spray. Place a piece of foil over sandwiches in pan; place a heavy skillet on top of foil to press sandwiches. Cook for two minutes. Turn sandwiches over, repeat. Then serve with tomato soup.  

Enjoy making it!

Homemade Laundry Soap

For those of you out there who want to save some money each month then this is the blog for you to read. The best part is you only need to take about 15-20 minutes out of your time. I found this homemade laundry soap recipe on pinterest and it's from the Duggard's Family website (I give them all the credit).
Ingredients:
Borax - about $2.99 a box
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - about $2.99 a box
Fels-Naptha Soap Bar - about $1.50
5 Gallon bucket with a lid
Essential oil drops
laundry containers

They say it costs about $11.54 and that will make around 640 loads which comes out to a little more than a cent a load! AMAZING!

Here is the recipe: http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/02/make-it-homemade-liquid-laundry-soap-1/

You wont be dissappointed! My hudband and I have very sensitive skin and we've had no reactions or issues with it.

Here's a picture of me melting the soap bar over the stovetop.

College Football and Mississippi Mud Fudge Pie

Last weekend my Mom, Ron and Chloe came to visit us and we went to the OSU-TCU game in Stillwater. We had a great time! We tailgated, ate some yummy food, made new friends who brewed their own yummy beer and watched the game. Mom and Ron are TCU fans, as you can see in this picture. I need to get some more OSU gear, I had a Go Pokes scarf, but it got warm in the sun so I looked very neutral...

One of the fun things that my mom did for my sister and I last Christmas was get us each a subscription to Southern Living Magazine. Which is my favorite. It's fun to get it each month, drool over the home decor and recipes, then talk about it with each other. So about two weeks ago my mom was saying how she wanted to make one of the Mississippi Madness recipes in the Fall issue of Southern Living. Since they were coming to town, I decided it was a great time to try out the Mississippi Mud S'Mores Fudge Pie.

It was amazing and probably one of my favorite desserts, I'm craving some right now. It was sweet but a little salty with the graham cracker and butter crust. So delicious! I had also just bought a spring-form pan on clearance at TJ Maxx (Only $5—yeah!), so it was perfect timing to break it in with this recipe!

So here is the recipe —

Ingredients:
2 cups grapham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter melted
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted and divided
1 (4oz) semisweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups regular marshmallows, cut in half horizontally
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Chocolate Frosting (recipe at the end)
1. Stir together first 2 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar; press on bottom and 2 inched up sides of a shiny 9-inch spring-form pan. Sprinkle 3/4 cups pecans over crust.
2. Microwave chopped chocolate and 1 cup of butter in a large microwave safe bowl at HIGH 1 minute or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30-second intervals.
3. Whisk flour, next 4 ingredients, and remaining 2 cups sugar into chocolate mixture, whisking until blended. Pour batter into prepared crust.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes (I start check at 45 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven cool on  pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes
5. Preheat Broiler with oven rack on lowest level from heat. Place pie  (in pan) on a jelly roll pan. Toss together both marshmallows' mound on pie, leaving a 12 inch border around the edge. Broil 30 seconds to 1 minute or until marshmallows are golden brown. Remove from oven,and immediately remove sides of pan. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, prepare Chocolate frosting. Drizzle over marshmallows; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup pecans.
Chocolate Frosting
Cook  1/4 cup butter, 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa, and 3 Tbsp of milk in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, 4 minutes or until slightly thickened; remove from heat. Whisk in 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until smooth.

The Final Product. Enjoy!

-Court

2 New Recipes

Well it's that time again to catch up on blogging and give two more recipes: creamy avocado salad dressing and a paleo chicken curry recipe. No they don't go together whatsoever, but I tried both recently that were SO good and I think you might want to try something new.
I was overdue to try a new salad dressing and finally decided to make one I found on pinterest and it was AMAZING!
Recipe:
1 avocado
1 jalapeno, seeded
1/4 cup cilantro
1 lime, juice
green onions
3 garlic cloves
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup mayo
salt and pepper
Put everything in a blender and serve over a salad.

(This is a picture of our delicious candlelit steak dinner with the creamy avocado dressing)

Paleo Crock Pot Chicken Curry Recipe. This is a great one to make when you're busy and want to throw everything in the crock pot and let it cook all day. So simple, delicious and super healthy!
Recipe:
3 chicken breasts
1 can coconut milk
4 garlic cloves
1/2 onion
green pepper
red pepper
curry powder
basil
garlic salt and pepper
Add everything in the crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. I served it over quinoa and siracha and there were no leftovers.