2009 Young Women's Camp

This past week, my daughter and I were privileged to be able to go to Young Women's camp with our church girls. I can't believe it, but my daughter is actually old enough to be one of the ADULT leaders! We had a great time. We were both in charge of crafts. We made all kinds of neat things--key chains, journals, and the girl's favorite--duct tape flowers.

Here is our home away from home. We spent 5 days and 4 nights in this tent. It was actually really nice sleeping outside. It did get a little chilly the last night, though, because we had gotten a HUGE rain storm the day before, which cooled things off--from the mid 90's to the low 60's at night!

Even though we had only 36 girls to show up, we still had a very spiritually strong group of girls. These girls were from South Eastern Arkansas, North Eastern Louisiana, and Western Mississippi. They were troopers! As mentioned above, we had a big storm that came through, and several of the tents were flooded, and it really never got to the girls, they just kept on going. My daughter and I were among the lucky ones, we did not get much water at all in our tent.

The theme of the camp was Luke 1:37 "For with God nothing shall be impossible." We had a Hawaiian theme, which the girls really enjoyed.

We stayed at a Boy Scout Camp in Southern Arkansas. It was a really beautiful place. On our hike, we hiked between two of the three lakes that are there.

There were all kinds of activities--hiking, archery, canoeing, swimming, crafts, etc.

Thyme In The Garden Recipes

Here's a few of the great recipes we had at Thyme in the Garden:

Crusty Herb Rolls

Combine:
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 T wheat germ
1 T chopped fresh rosemary (I have also used Thyme and it was yummy too)
1 t paprika

In the frozen food section, you can purchase prepared dough rolls. Take the frozen dough rolls and roll each in olive oil and then in the rosemary combination. Put onto a greased cookie sheet, and cover and let rise till double in size. Bake rolls at 350 till lightly brown. Everyone will think you slaved over these. Of course, if you really want to, you can make your own rolls, I just like the easy way out....


Oriental Dill Salad

2 pkg Ramen Noodles any flavor (do NOT cook)
1 lb cabbage finely chopped
1/3 cup red onion finely chopped
1 sweet red pepper finely chopped
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 T dried dill
2 T fresh parsley (chopped)

Break up noodles and place in a large resealable plastic bag.
Add remainder of ingredients. Close bag and refrigerate.
Just before serving, add the following dressing:
3/4 to 1 cup oil
1/2 cup mild vinegar (rice wine or white wine)
1/2 cup sugar
seasoning packet from both noodle packages
toss salad and dressing in the bag
serves 8


Pecan Fudge Pie With Raspberry Sauce
1/2 cup butter
2 one oz squares unsweetened chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 t vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup chopped pecans toasted

melt butter and chocolate in small sauce pan over low heat stirring constantly. remove from heat.
beat eggs at medium speed with electric mixer for two minutes. gradually add sugar. beat until well blended. gradually add chocolate mixture, flour, vanilla and salt. beating until well blended.
stir in pecans, pour mixture in a lightly greased 9" pie plate. bake at 350 for 25 mins until center is firm.

Raspberry Sauce
3 T pure maple syrup
2 T sugar
1, 16 oz pkg frozen raspberries (do not thaw)

cook syrup and sugar over med heat stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.
add raspberries and cook, stirring constantly, for ten mins or until thick.
pour mixture through a fine wire mesh strainer. press with back of spoon to squeeze our sauce. discard solids.
top with Devinshire cream which is a mixture of a little bit of sour cream and a little bit of powered sugar.

The brownie part is just as good without the raspberry sauce, and is a very quick and easy dessert to make.

Thyme In The Garden

This past Wednesday, the neighborhood ladies went to a really neat place. Thyme in The Garden is the name of the place. It is run by a really nice lady who is a master gardener. She specializes in herbs. She has a number of opportunities at her place. You can come and tour her garden, take a cooking class, have a luncheon, or just come by and purchase some of her unique herbs.

There was about a dozen or so of us. When we first arrived, we took her tour. She has all kinds of plants, anything from fennel, several types of basil, lemon grass, some herb that is suppose to take away a migraine, and my favorite--chocolate mint, yumo!!! The chocolate mint smells just like it too.

After our tour which took probably 45 mins or so, we went in to her dining area, and were treated to some of the best food I've had. Spring Thyme Soup, Oriental Dill Salad, Crusty Herb Rolls, Chicken Salad Pie, and last by not least, Pecan Fudge Pie with Raspberry Sauce. Everything was delicious. She even gave us the recipes. I've been looking over them, and they are actually easy enough that I will be trying them out, in fact, I have my grocery list ready. I will be heading to "Wally World" today after I drop my youngest son at a Boy Scout campout tonight. I just can't wait to try them out.

Happy Mother's Day, Ya'll!!

Today is Mother's Day. My husband had to work. He usually does not have to work on Sunday's, but today started the annual outage at work. I can't believe they scheduled it on Mother's Day...oh well, no biggy. I just know there are a lot of mom's out there that would have a problem with it. I was able to spend the day with two of our four children (the oldest lives in another state, and the other one is out at school--also in another state).

Yesterday, I went with the ladies at church to the Baton Rouge, LA Temple, and had a nice time. Even though it is a good four plus hour trip (one way), it gives us time to visit and get to know each other a little better.

When I came home, my dear husband had carefully arranged a dozen yellow roses in a vase for me. They were absolutely beautiful! I love yellow rose, especially with babies breath. They were so pretty, that I just had to take a picture of them and share them with you all.

Newest Project

Girls camp is coming up in a few weeks, and it got me to thinking about some of the neat things my daughter made for and at camp when she was going to. One of the things she made that was a big hit with the girls was a bag made from a pair of old jeans. Now, I am not much of a sewer, but I was able to find a set of pretty easy instructions to make this handy bag for camp. In a couple of weeks, our girls are going to make these so they can have something to lug their camp books and other camp essentials around in.

I pretty much followed the instructions, but did have to change things a bit. They had you sewing everything by hand. First off, my hand stitches are not that strong, and second, I have very week hands and fingers, and did not think I would be able to push a needle through some of the layers of denim. So, I used my machine. Also, I had to do something a little different with the handle. The handle would not be long enough the way they had you do it, so I took two strips and sewed them together to make it longer. Now, don't look too close, because, like I said, I am not much of a sewer, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome, and can't wait for the girls to make theirs!

Here's the instructions: http://www.threadbanger.com/post/2642/how-to-turn-old-jeans-into-a-sweet-new-purse