Rice Pudding

Image compliments of Google.

Since Neil is the Rice Pudding magician around here, I asked him if he uses a specific recipe.

He said he had one once but that he couldn't find it so he mainly improvises. 

Well, I found this recipe online and asked him if it would work and it did but then he added some twists.

So, here is the recipe we used/ made up.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups of uncooked white rice
• 2 cups of Milk
• 1 tablespoons of butter
• 1/3 cup of white (regular) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg yolks (beaten) OR 1 whole egg (beaten)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

Directions:

1. Bring 1 & 1/2 cup of water to a boil in a saucepan; stir rice into boiling water. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. 
2. In a different saucepan/small pot, combine 1 1/2 cups of the cooked rice, 1 & 1/2 cups of milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy (15-20 minutes). 
3. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup of milk and beaten egg(s).
4. Cook 2 minutes more stirring constantly. 
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. 
6. Garnish with  nutmeg and cinnamon as desired. 

You can serve rice pudding hot or cold. I, personally, prefer to eat a nice warm bowl of rice pudding. 

Enjoy!

Christmas Festivities

Date nights and shopping trips, were mainly all about Christmas last month. 

We bought "The Polar Express" one day and decided it would be fun to snuggle up, watch the movie and for a treat, RICE PUDDING. 

YUM. Neil is one master chef when it comes to rice pudding. (He's a master chef in regards to many dishes, but that is besides the point.)

Then, it was that magical time where we got to shop for and set up Christmas!!

Our intention was to have a real tree but that fell through for some reason...I can't really remember why. Anyway, we bought a fake tree at good ol' Wal-Mart as well as some purple and gold ornaments.

Purple and gold was the main color theme for Christmas. We loved it. :)

I snagged all of this at Tai Pan trading. The trees totaled $17 ish and the sign was $6.You know how they always have trees up and they say, "Do not remove decorations from trees" ? Yeah, they only had two of those believe signs in the store and they were both on the same tree. Boo. I did what anyone would have done and took one off the tree. So there.

This frame was a wedding gift and I write seasonal messages on it. For Christmas I had Luke 2:11

Probably my favorite wreath so far. I bought the tinsel for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby, wrapped (but did not glue) it around a 97 cent piece of plumbing wrap-or something like that- from Home Depot, and the sign was $3 from Tai Pan. Because I assembled it this way, I'm able to reuse both the tinsel garland stuff and the sign and the foam tubing. It's grand.

Our first Christmas tree!!! I'm sad you can't tell what it looks like because it was so pretty if I do say so myself. Purple round ornaments with sparkly gold (but not tacky looking) reindeer ornaments (also compliments of Wal-Mart-$3ish), more of that tinsel garland stuff I used for the wreath and a twig wrapped star (Tai Pan-$7). It was just so awesome to set up a tree with my husband for the first time ever! We put the tree in the corner because we have a corner window (actually two-the cause of our heating problems but we'll get to that in  a later post) and corner windows are REALLY COOL display windows.

Variety of Christmas Parties

With work, school and church, we were bound to have a few Christmas parties to attend. 

On December 7th we had the ward Christmas party.  Food, fun and friends. 

Neil also played the piano for the talent show! It was fun to hear him play/see him perform. 

I was having too much fun to take pictures except for a couple. 

Here they are:

The next week, there was a Christmas (but really it was a going away party) for my work. We lost 6 employees. That hasn't happened in the 3 years I've worked here! Two left for internships, one left because she enrolled at Dental Hygiene school, two left for missions and one left for another job that fits more with his major/intended field of work. 

It was really sad to see everyone go and it's been exciting/exhausting/educating training all of our new team members but the party we had was for all. Old and new. It was fun to be with everyone outside of work just relaxing and eating really yummy food. 

It was a lot of fun. :)

Kick Off to Christmas

On December 2nd...

We had a marvelous little Olsen Christmas Party complete with prime rib, presents and the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. 

Presents for our White Elephant/Dirty Santa (whatever you want to call it) game.

The Dinner set up.

Neil reading us How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Christmas Mad-Lib. A tradition.

Sasha was enjoying all of the Christmas stories, too!

 

At the Christmas Devotional.

Temple Square. :)

I was able to get a handful of tickets so the Olsens AND the Andersens got to go. 

 

AS WELL AS some really dear friends of ours.

It was a great second day of the month!

Kick Off to December

Well, December 2012 was quite the month for our little family. 

Travel, parties, shopping, blogging (haha, okay, that didn't really happen) "fun" car problems, no heat...

It was a great month. Really!

On December 1st, however, me and the sisters (all but Michelle) decided it would be fun to hit up City Creek Mall. 

And fun it was! 

Just shopping with them and going out to eat and catching up was a nice little refresher from the norm. Plus, Lauren and Elyse were down from Idaho (for the Devotional the next day) so it was really fun to see them. 

In the car on our way to City Creek!

The fancy drink Julie and Kimberly got. It was tasty.

I would just like to say that each one of those chicken pieces was the size of my face. It was yummy but I took half of that plate home for Neil.

Sisters. :)

New Posts

I have finished the work week. 

I am free now to catch up on blog posts.

I will get on that ASAP! 

I have a new computer now so it can handle new posts. 

NEW POSTS TO COME!!

The Day After Thanksgiving

I struggled for awhile as to what this post should be called...

"The Most Rewarding Act of Service"
"Fabulous Friday"

"Musical Medicine"

"FREAKIN' AWESOME DAY!"

I decided that though those titles represent exactly that the day after Thanksgiving held for Neil and I, it was probably best to stick with something simple. 

The day after Thanksgiving is the beloved by many, though not really myself, "Black Friday". 

Neil and I did our Black Friday shopping earlier, meaning late Thursday night, with Anna and Kyle at the Wal-Mart in Ephraim. (Pandemonium, by the way...)

No crazy day of shopping for us! Nope! We were given an opportunity to serve and I am so grateful for it!

Neil and I were given the opportunity to present a musical program at "Friday Forum" held for the inmates of the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, UT. 

They were respectful, responsible and very kind.

I can't express how absolutely spiritual the experience was. They had their choir sing two songs and it was beautiful. They brought a strong spirit with them to the forum. So much so that it became hard for me to sing, which is rough because I sang two solos.

A few of them bore their testimonies and said how grateful they were to be in prison. To have a place that they can be to work and to learn and to repent. They were grateful for their bonds because they knew someday, those bonds would make them free.

I was uplifted and so grateful that Neil and I agreed to go. Our closing song was hymn #93 Prayer of Thanksgiving the last line of the hymn says: "Thy name ever be praised, Oh Lord make us free."

That line lingered with me. It touched my heart. All of these men in prison singing to the Lord to make them free. Not judges, not the officers of the prison but the Lord.

It was just really cool to be there and experience that.