Creme Brûlée Fudge

A few weeks ago Olive Garden, my place of work, came out with a new Caramel Brulee Martini.  It is delicious!  Ever since trying it (Being a Mormon, I tried the non-alcoholic version my manager told the bartender to wing) I have been craving creme brûlée.  So, when my sister told me she found a creme brûlée fudge recipe on Pinterest, I just had to try it!  I went to the page and found 3 recipes all with a review alongside them.  The third recipe was the best according to the blogger, but the measurements she used were milliliters and grams... yikes!!!  So, I converted all the measurements as accurately as I could.  It called for 200g of marshmallows, which I didn't have.  I did, however, have a jar of marshmallow cream which said 198g on it, so I just used that.  Here is the recipe with the Americanized measurements.

1 can (5 oz) evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 small jar (198 grams) marshmallow cream
Most of a bag of white chocolate chips (the entire bag, minus 1/4 cup)

1. Grease a pan, I used an 8x8 cake pan and the fudge was a little thick to my liking, so a 9x13 would probably be perfect.
2. In a large, heavy based pot dissolve sugar in the butter and evaporated milk.  Increase heat to medium and, using a thermometer, heat to 238*F, stirring constantly.  It will take quite a while, so you might want to pull up a stool.
3. Remove from heat and immediately stir in white chocolate chips and marshmallow cream with a wooden spoon.  Once it is all mixed together and creamy, pour into your prepared pan.
4.  Let it set for 20 minutes or so, then sprinkle some white sugar on top and torch it.  ( I used a lighter... which took forever!  If you have a small propane torch I would recommend using that.)

It took probably an hour for my fudge to completely set up, the original recipe said it set up pretty quickly so it might be because I used marshmallow cream instead of marshmallows, but it is tasty nonetheless!  My husband hates fudge and he is insisting on me making another batch of this because it will be all gone by the time his family comes to visit.

Tips and Tricks for Cloth Diapering: Week 1

Cloth Diapering Week 1

This is a lot easier than I was expecting.  I washed all diapers on Monday, and didn't have to wash them again until Friday...  That is 5 diaper covers (2 lined with fleece so you can't really reuse them and 3 that aren't so you can wipe them down and reuse them), 13 tri-fold organic inserts, and 7 microfiber "stay-dry" inserts, and 12 wipes.  There were inserts and wipes left over, but the covers really needed a washing.

I figured there are probably a lot of you out there who kinda want to try cloth diapering, but have no clue how to go about it, what you need, and what to do with the poop.  That is why it took me so long to get started, so I thought I'd blog about it.  Give advice from things I've learned along the way.

First things first:  There are 2 types of closures I've found so far: snaps and velcro (also called hook and loop?).  I only have 1 snap diaper right now.  The problem I have found with velcro is that if there is any gunk left on a dirty diaper when you throw it in the wash it is bound to get stuck in the velcro.  Velcro, as you know, sticks together.  As the diaper is rolling around in the washer, the velcro finds other velcro and sticks, trapping any gunk inside.  For that reason any additional diapers I buy will be snaps.... (I ordered 3 off of zulily.com and I'm super excited to get them).  Has anybody else come across this problem and/or have a solution?  Right now I'm thinking I'll just have to get a diaper sprayer.

So, here are my supplies so you can get a glimpse of what they look like.  

From left to right you've got the tri-folds, the microfiber inserts, the velcro diapers, and the organic re-usable wipes (which I LOVE).

Second things now: How to choose a type of insert.  I prefer the organic tri-folds personally.  There are a couple reasons for this: 1, I don't like the way the microfiber feels on my hands.  It seems to catch on every little piece of loose skin.  2, the microfiber doesn't seem to be as absorbent.  You have to use 2 or 3 microfiber inserts in one diaper for it to last more than an hour or 2, let alone overnight.  You can get the gist of what they are above.  Here is a picture of an unfolded tri-fold: It's essentially 3 inserts in one so you don't have to dirty 3 at a time.

If anybody has any questions or advice on cloth diapering, please feel free to share!!!

We are Converting to Cloth

The other day on CNN I saw a segment about a woman who started a business during the Recession and how well it's doing.  It's doing well because it's a niche market that also helps people save money: She makes cloth diapers.  She stated in her interview that using cloth diapers instead of disposables will save a family an average of $900 just on the first child.

I had considered switching to cloth before, bought a couple diapers and used them even.  But I found that if you are going to switch you really need to switch all out to make sure you have everything you need for a successful cloth diapering experience.  So I quit. But after hearing it can save $900 I decided to add up how much we spend on diapers.  Averaging 4 diapers a day, we probably go through one economy pack of Huggies a month (The bigger the size of diaper, the less in the box so that probably accounts for the newborns going through 10+ a day well enough).  That is $35 per month.  My daughter is 19 months old, which puts us at $665 we have spent on diapers so far.  You could probably add more, seeing as the size 1 diapers only hold 70 more diapers; and boy do those newborns go through them!

That is $700 that could have been spent on food, insurance, clothes, or even put in savings!  $700 that could have been put toward our food storage or a new windshield for my car!

After figuring this out I decided, enough is enough!  We are switching to cloth.  My husband is not too excited about it, but he has agreed to it.  I went to Cotton Babies and stocked up on the Flip diaper system (that is what I decided I liked best when I half-heartedly tried it before) with the organic tri-fold inserts.  While I wait for them I only have enough diapers for one day... once what I've ordered comes I'll probably have enough for 5 days or so.  I figure 2 days of the week she goes to daycare so she can stick with disposables those days.  So far she doesn't like them much.  It takes her a minute to break them in so they move with her, so she waddles around for an hour until they soften up.  It's funny... Hopefully she'll get used to them!

Women in the Mormon Church

Another problem people seem to have with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that women are treated "unequal."  Women within the church have said this, including a very public blogger and author, Joanna Brooks.  Most of these women believe in most of the doctrine of the Church, but not all of it, and are not completely active members.  From what I have noticed the people who claim this have not been to the Temple either.  I think for most of them a trip to the temple will help to ease their minds on this subject.

The reason people don't think women are equal in the Church is because they cannot hold the Priesthood (Same reason people think Blacks were discriminated against).  In my last post about Blacks and the Church I stated I believe the reason it took so long to give them the Priesthood was because white men weren't ready for it.  I am going to give a very similar explanation for the Woman problem, except slightly different.  This is something I remember being told when I was a teenager by my Seminary teacher.  This is not doctrine, but an explanation a single person came up with that I happen to think might be accurate.  Men NEED the priesthood more than women do.

Ask anybody in any religion; I think most of them will agree that women are more spiritual beings than men.  They are just more in tune to the spiritual side of things; whether that is because they can show emotion more easily or the fact that they create and care for life somehow brings them closer to their own Creator, that just seems to be how it is.  Because of that women are constantly connected to their spirituality.  Men function differently, they are very physical beings, in tune to the physical world of sports and work and providing for their families.  Women provide spiritual/emotional nurturing, men provide food and shelter (traditionally.  I know there are plenty of exceptions to this rule, especially today, but traditionally this is how it works).

Because of the different way men and women function, men need a little something extra to connect them to the spiritual side of things.  That is what the Priesthood is for.  It helps them to stay on the right path and stay connected to their spirituality.

Except there is a secret.  All those people who say women don't hold the priesthood are wrong.  Watching Rock Center: Mormon in America interview the Hunstman daughter who left the Church (Did you know the Huntsmans are Mormon Royalty?  I had no idea.... In fact the only Huntsman I really care for is Jon Huntsman Sr.... hmmmm.... weird.) she said she hoped one day women would hold the priesthood.  If she had visited the temple she would know THEY ALREADY DO!!!!

What happens inside the temple is a sacred thing, not secret.  We don't talk about it for that reason, but there really is nothing that extravagant that goes on in there that we need to tell the world about.  There are ceremonies and learning that happen.  Women actually use the Priesthood in the Temple during these ceremonies.  The women and men do their own separate things for most things, therefore it is the women performing the ordinances for the women.  The women doing the blessings and everything.  The women DO actively use the Priesthood inside the Temple.

In fact, outside the Temple women can use it too.  Sure they may not be ordained to the office of a Priest, but in the absence of a Priesthood holder women can call upon the name of Christ in their need and effectively use the Priesthood.

Women are in the clergy of the Church too.  The Relief Society and Primary Presidencies are both made up of women.  There are Branch, Ward, Stake, and General Relief Society and Primary Presidencies all over the world.

You may think, "well then what's the point in giving the Priesthood to the men if everyone can really use it anyway?"

It's kind of like the Holy Ghost.  We  believe that when we are confirmed members of the Church we are given the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  This means he will always be there to lead us and help us make decisions.  Everybody has the Holy Ghost already; most people call it your conscience.  The difference between having the Holy Ghost with you and the Gift of the Holy Ghost is the sensitivity and responsibility that comes with it.  Having the Gift of the Holy Ghost just means that he will be an active presence in everything you do if you want him to, but you have to be responsible to keep him there.  If you fall away you won't be able to hear what he is saying as well.

The same goes for the Priesthood.  When a man is given the Priesthood he is ordained into certain "offices" in the church and given certain responsibilities. In order to exercise his Priesthood he has to live worthily and fulfill the duties he has in his office of the church, otherwise the full extent of his Priesthood is inaccessible to him.

Long story short: Men and Women are equal in the eyes of God.  They are equal in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We are all children of God and He loves us all.

The End.

So, No Spend Month is finally over!!!!  Wooo hoo!  Overall it was a success, although the last week we did spend some money because school was started and we needed a few supplies.  We spent about $300 less than we usually do.  We lived off of sandwiches and pasta for the last week or two of the month, but we did it!
There is one thing I feel I should warn anyone who wants to embark on this adventure about, however. Make sure you are completely stocked up on your food/emergency preparedness storage before you start.  We had decent food storage, but we were pretty low on toiletries by the time the month was over.  We ended up going out and spending $100 just to replenish our toiletries the first day of the month.

I hope we continue doing this every year.  August was hard because it included our anniversary and the beginning of school, so it will probably be September next year.  September we will have our garden producing in full force and we shouldn't have to spend money for textbooks and the like since that will be taken care of in August.  We'll see if we remember to do it, but I think it was really good for us and taught us a lot about what we can do with what we have.

Mormonism Unravelled: Blacks and the Priesthood

So last night I watched Brian Williams Rock Center: Mormon in America on NBC.  After watching that I decided I need to take it upon myself to clarify the many misunderstandings about my religion.  While I definitely don't have all of the answers, I can at least find answers to most questions I believe.  Right now I want to talk about a problem a lot of people have: that Blacks were denied the priesthood until 1978.

Many people say the Church is racist because of this, which I think is ridiculous.  No on really knows where the Priesthood Ban started, oddly enough.  This tells me one thing: It was not necessarily a commandment from God.

Let's go back in history for a minute to the time of Joseph Smith.  He was a very caring man who believed all men were created equal and that slaves should be free.  He actually ran for President on an Anti-Slavery agenda and told the Abolitionists that their extremist ways of getting things done were not helping the slaves at all.  He said everyone was to be allowed in the Kirtland Temple regardless of gender or race and many blacks were expected to work inside the Nauvoo Temple.  In 1836 Joseph Smith, himself, ordained a black man to be an Elder, meaning he received the Priesthood.

Later this black man, Elijah Abel, was to receive his washings and anointings (a temple ceremony) in the Kirtland temple and he did Baptisms for the Dead as well.  He was also ordained a Seventy, which is a General Authority of the Church.  However, when he made the request to receive his Endowment in the Temple, Brigham Young denied him.  He was later denied a second time by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Abel is not the only black man to have been baptized and receive the Priesthood in the early church, but he seems to have had the most 'authority.'

Many people speculated for the reasons blacks could not receive the Priesthood (although a few actually did through out the 1900's).  One reason that was perpetuated, but never accepted as doctrine, was that they were decedents of Cain, so they were denied the Priesthood as punishment.

In 1900 President Lorenzo Snow stated that he wasn't sure if the explanations for the Ban were revelation or just personal opinion.

Keep in mind, while all of this is going on African Americans are unable to get fair treatment ANYWHERE in the country, it is not just the LDS Church.  Remember in Arkansas the National Guard was sent to prevent black students from entering the high school.  Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus.  And who can forget Dr. Martin Luther King Jr leading the march on Washington and giving up his life for civil rights?  This all happened a short time before the revelation came in 1978 to allow blacks to have the priesthood.

I do believe the Priesthood Ban had a reason, but I do not believe it was because Blacks needed to be punished for who their millionth great grandfather was.  I do not believe it was because Blacks are unequal to whites.  (Joseph Smith also said that the only reason Blacks were inferior was because the racist environment made them that way.  He said that if they had been allowed a level playing field, they would be on exactly the same plain as whites.)

Are you ready for my explanation?

 ****DISCLAIMER*****  

This is completely my opinion and could be completely wrong.

I believe the Priesthood Ban came into play because certain white men had personal opinions that blacks were inferior.  The Gospel is perfect, the Church is perfect, but the people who are running the church are only human.  They make mistakes just like the rest of us.  Okay, so why did it take so long for this to be undone?  One reason, I think, was that it was a test of faith.  Another reason was that the people in the Church were not ready to allow blacks the Priesthood.  We are taught that we receive revelation 'line upon line, precept upon precept.'  This means that we only receive additional revelation, or information about certain things when we are ready to hear it.  The people in the Church were not ready for it, and those black members who stayed faithful even though their white peers were imperfect were obviously much stronger in their faith than all of those who weren't ready for equality.

Moral of the Story:  The Gospel is Perfect; the people in the Gospel are not.


(The facts in this blog were taken from this website, or they are stuck in my head from past studies)

9 days left...

Not spending money is getting harder and harder... but with just over a week left it makes me want to finish it more than ever.  The best thing about this month so far has definitely been the lack of food waste.  I just read an article that said Americans waste 40% of their food on average, including leftovers that never get eaten and veggies that sit in the fridge and rot before they are used.  I know my husband and I are guilty of a lot of food waste and I hope this month helps us to be more careful in the future. Because we haven't bought any food (besides milk) we have been much more careful about using our veggies before they go bad and eating leftovers the next day.  Our chickens get whatever veggies we don't eat, so it does get to us eventually too.

We ran out of bread toward the beginning of the month, so I decided to try my hand at baking some.  In the past I have tried to use the bread machine that my mom got rid of and it just doesn't want to work for me.  I can't figure out why... maybe it's the flour I use?  Anyway, I took this opportunity to really bake break.  I made this recipe last week and it was delicious, but not good for toast or grilled sandwiches.  Because of the way you roll it into a log it tends to fall apart in swirls when crispy.  I do think it will make an amazing cinnamon swirl bread, though.  Can't wait to try that!  Yesterday I tried a new bread recipe.  Today I used this bread to make me a grilled cheese sandwich using provolone cheese and a fresh roma tomato from my garden.  It was delicious!  The crust seemed a tiny bit thick, but it tasted oh so good!  I think next time I will just slice the bread a little thinner and that problem will be fixed.

Does anybody out there have a bread recipe that they just love???