Another Delivery to the Fehries

During dinner tonight the doorbell rang. Cannon ran to answer it assuming it was for him (as it usually is). Instead he found a huge bag of Flour Fehry supplies - 25 lbs of Flour and 8lbs of sugar to be exact. Viv had to get out her wheelbarrow to move it all into the pantry! Wow! Thanks wonderful Fairy, whoever you are!

We started this little project as a way to spend time together and build lasting memories, which it has but something has surprised me. I'm overwhelmed by the power of gratitude. First of all this has become a way for us to acknowledge the people that are special in our lives, which is not something we do often in crazy busy life. Secondly, we have been amazed at the gratefulness shown back to us, not expected or solicited but surely thankful.

THANKS ALL!

Delivery #29

This was out first deceptive delivery. It was to Cannon's piano teacher, whom he loves, especially her cool games on group lesson. So here is how it went down. He ran up to they door, took the picture, ran the camera back to me. Then he went into his lesson and said "Oh I found this on your doorstep" lol. Anyhow, we both love that this teacher is creative in her teaching and motivation.
Enjoy!

THE PIE!

Ok I have to admit two things; I don't like pie crust (making it or eating it), and we did roast a beautiful pumpkin with every intention of making it into a pie BUT I got to making YUMMY pumpkin soup over the weekend and ended up using all of our pumpkin so this actually came from a can.
I asked for Grammy's help with the pie crust because every time I try to make it it ends up tasting like the crust in those nasty frozen chicken pot pies. So her and Cannon made this batch and I forgot to ask for the recipe so I will post it later. Here are Cannon and Grammy hand mixing the crust over at her house.

They made the pie dough on Sunday then we kept it in the fridge until today. Whatever they did, it worked, the dough rolled out perfectly.

Viv, Kai, and I decided on making mini-pumpkin pie cupcakes. Kai is beating the eggs.

We just used the recipe off of the canned pumpkin.

Look how cute they are!

Delivery #28 Close to home

We all agreed o who this delivery should go to. Jason (dad to the Fehries) loves roasted pumpkin seeds so we put a surprise delivery on his pillow. He is the man that makes it possible for us to Fehry around all day, you could say he is the Sugar Daddy(because what is a bunch of flour with out some sugar). He is an awesome dad who carves out time each night to spend with every kiddo. We think he is the best! Viv delivered this an I took the picture and guess what...we didn't get caught this time.

Pumpkin week extended

Well the biggest thing we had planned for pumpkin week was gutting a pumpkin and making a pumpkin pie from scratch but we just now got around to finishing it so I guess we added a couple of days to the pumpkin week. First we got all the guts out.

Then we washed the seeds, mixed them with butter and seasoning, then baked them until they were crunchy.

Delivery #27

Wow! I'm really late in posting this. This was Cashel's choice and he was really having a hard time deciding (he thinks out his recipe and deliveries very carefully). He spent all morning before school worried about who he should give his goodies to. He finally decided it should be someone at school but he couldn't decide, deciding turned to tears, finally he told me to just decide for him. Well in all the stress and drama, I forgot to put his lunch in his lunchbox (and Cannon's homework and snack). About an hour later I get a call from the front office at the school saying Cashel was quite upset about his lunch not being in his pack. I brought it to him later and heard the story of him coming to the office in tears, not knowing what to do without his lunch.
I grew up in a tiny school, the same school that my mother had attended. There were 6 kids in my class. Everyone in the school knew everyone. My aunt was the special-ed teacher. My English teacher was one of my grandmother's favorite friends. My bus driver had a farm just down the hill from us. I was always watched after, known personally, and was never just a nameless face or number. So, now living in a larger city, I had really worried about my kids being lost in their school. I worried about them not getting a sense of community and I worried they would just be a nameless face or number in an overcrowded sea of kiddos. Not so.
I love that the school my kids go to has that same small town feel and that the teachers and staff try to get to know the kids. LOVE IT!
So this delivery was to the person who called me and then told Cash that she KNEW his mom would take care of his lunch ;)
Viv and I were the delivery Fehries and of course we were caught that seems to happen every time I am involved.

Pumpkin Week Day #4

This was Kai's day but he wasn't feeling well and ended up going to bed early so Cash took over. Grammy brought us a fun new toy - a mini donut maker, so of course we had to try it.

It was just Cash and Grammy on this one, he wanted to surprise everyone.

Grammy had to crack the eggs because the Egg Crack Queen was not around.

Sprinkles!

Yum!

Baked Pumpkin Donuts

2 cups flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 eggs

2 Tbl. milk

¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. Cream together the brown sugar, canned pumpkin, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract until the butter is well incorporated. With your mixer on medium low speed, slowly add the dry sifted ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until just barely combined. Be careful of over mixing.

Spray the donut pan with cooking spray and fill each donut mold halfway with the pumpkin batter. Bake at 375 degrees for 6 – 8 minutes or until the exterior springs back when touched. Allow to cool completely and top each donut with cinnamon glaze.

Cinnamon Glaze

½ cup powdered sugar

1 Tbl. milk

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Mix until smooth and creamy. The glaze should pour easily from a spoon. You may need to add additional milk or powder sugar to get the right consistency.

Delivery #26

Another neighbor with a bunch of cute boys! Tonight Cash and a neighbor buddy made the delivery.

Pumpkin Week Day #3

Cashel's day and once again he has a vision. Graveyard cake is on the docket. Since its pumpkin week we made a pumpkin cake as our base.
We had a special guest baker today...Grammy! She was lead Fehry for the cake part.

Cashel figuring out how to use the can opener.

We love our KitchenAid, it was a wedding gift from Uncle Cody, thanks OhCo, you've gotten your money's worth on this purchase.

Coolest graveyard cake EVER!

Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.
Total Time: 40 minutesIngredients:
•2 cups sugar
•1 cup vegetable oil
•4 large eggs
•2 cups all-purpose flour
•2 teaspoons baking soda
•2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 cups pumpkin puree or cooked mashed pumpkin
•cream cheese frosting, below
•1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preparation:
Directions for pumpkin cake
Combine sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl; stir into oil mixture, beating well. Stir in pumpkin puree.
Pour batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round layer cake pans. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Turn out onto racks to cool. Frost pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Cream Cheese Frosting

•1/4 cup butter
•1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
•1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl; beat well until smooth. Makes enough for 2-layer pumpkin cake.

Delivery #25 WOOOOOOOWOOOOO!

This delivery was Vivian's choice, she chose her babysitter. This sweet gal just started babysitting the kids this year but we have known her since she was 4 years old. Her mom was the first mommy friend I had met that had 4 kids, it seemed like sooooo many kids. I always loved her practical and simple parenting advice so its fun now to see her kids years later and how awesome they have become. She is my mentor mama, hope we can do as well with our kiddos.
ENJOY!
Viv and I were the delivery Fehries because the big boys were at school and Kai was asleep in the car. We were lucky that no one was home because we were very slow getting back to the car! This was also delivery #25, 1/4 of our goal! So after school we went to celebrate (see pic below the delivery pic)

Pumpkin Week Day #2

Viv's day and we have a bunch of new sprinkles so she wanted to make cut-out cookies to decorate. We found a recipe for pumpkin cut out cookies. We had another guest baker today. Darth Vader stopped by for a few moments.

The Egg Queen again separating eggs.

Playing army with the pumpkin cookie cutters while the dough chills.

Cutting them out (this dough was beautiful to roll out)

Pumpkindilyicous!

Pumpkin Roll-Out Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and orange zest. Stir in the pumpkin. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt; stir into the pumpkin mixture. Chill dough for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes and place onto an unprepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Decorate with frosting or candy.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Week Field Trip

You have to make a trip to the pumpkin patch on Pumpkin Week!

Cannon was our driver.

A bunch of ghouls!

Farmer Kai

Our little pumpkin

The whole crew - Check out Cashel's super freaky blue/green pumpkin.

Delivery #24

Mom's choice today and she chose a friend that she KNEW liked pumpkin cookies. She has the cutest little family ever. The live right by the pumpkin patch we went to so it worked out perfectly.
The big boys made this delivery, they did great!

PUMPKIN WEEK

This is pumpkin week! Plus we had a cute little red-headed guest Fehry today. Kai chose cookies so we found a high rated pumpkin cookie recipe.

We made a double batch (in case you were worried about the volume of butter being added).

Then some pumpkin.

The batter gets a thumbs-up.

Really light and yummy!

Pumpkin Cookies I
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Then mix in the butterscotch chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool for a minute on cookie sheets before transferring to wire cooling racks.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Delivery #23 A Dog Napping

This delivery we picked because they are new to they neighborhood and have a bunch of fun sweet boys for the kiddos to play with. But we also wanted to tell a funny story. We just got home from our trip Thursday night so I had left our suitcase open on the master bedroom floor until I got around to emptying it. We had kids friends over yesterday and they had a blast, running in and out of the house. I went in the master bedroom around 2 pm and noticed that the kids had gotten into the suitcase and dug to the bottom until they found the leftover crackers I'd put in from the cabin. Wrappers and clothes everywhere. Friends were over now so I stuffed the clothes back in the suitcase and closed the flap, I'd wait to get after them until after their friends were gone. Then I shut the bedroom door. Around 5 the kids were playing hide and seek and opened my bedroom door. About 5 minutes later the neighbor's dog comes running out of my bedroom. Weird, someone must have left the back door open downstairs. Took the dog home and the their boys said she had been gone for a while. Not until I got home and noticed that the suitcase had been freshly excavated, did I realize what had probably happened. Doggie must have come in with the kids earlier in the afternoon. Saw that comfy pile of clothes, had a snack and took a nap in the suitcase. In the meantime I come in pile clothes on top of her and shut the flap and bedroom door. Few hours later she escapes from the suitcase and then the bedroom. LOL, I'm just glad it wasn't a kid I unknowingly stuffed in a suitcase all afternoon...I think you can go to jail for that! At least she had some snacks in there. Anyhow, hope she isn't too traumatized!

Soft Pretzels!

Miss us? We took a little mini fishing trip to Flaming Gorge...fun stuff! I made this recipe yesterday when we had friends over and it was such a hit that the kids wanted to make them again today.
Add the salt to the bread maker (I know we are cheating a bit).

Then the flour

Viv and Kai love to watch the bread maker mix everything up.

Listen to the Fehries ask when its going to be done for 1 hour 20 minutes then cut into small strips.

Stretch and twist.

Make some agave mustard dipping sauce.

Delish!

Soft Pretzels from the Bread Machine

Ingredients:
•1-1/2 cups water
•1 tsp. kosher salt
•1 Tbsp. firmly-packed light brown sugar
•3-1/2 cups flour
•2 tsp. active dry yeast
•2 quarts water
•1/3 cup baking soda
•kosher salt
Preparation:
1.Place the first five ingredients in your bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer.


2.Set the machine to the dough cycle.


3.When cycle is complete, turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface, and let it rest a few minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Get out two baking sheets, and place a rack over a third baking sheet.


4.Divide dough into 12-14 equal pieces. Roll each piece out to a 15-inch rope.


5.Make a U with each rope, then cross the ends. Pick up the ends and twist, then fold up to make a pretzel shape. Pinch to seal. To see what this looks like, check out this step-by-step tutorial of how to make soft pretzels. Place the pretzels on the salted baking sheets.


6.Place the 2 quarts of water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add the baking soda, then reduce the heat to a simmer.


7.Slide 2-3 pretzels at a time into the baking soda bath. Let them simmer about 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pretzels. Transfer to the cooling rack. Sprinkle with kosher salt.


8.When all of the pretzels have come out of the baking soda bath, transfer them to the salted baking sheets.


9.Bake 8-12 minutes until golden brown.

We got a special delivery!!!!

Grandma Fehry surprised us yesterday with a box FULL of fun baking ingredients. She is the original thoughtful gift Fehry and always knows exactly what we would love. The kids were SO excited (seriously better than Christmas), they would open an ingredient then say what they could make with it (the cornmeal stumped them). Such a fun and relevent surprise. Thanks Grandma Fehry can't wait until you come help us bake.