My Daughter

Our daughter, Kj moved out of the state of Utah a few years ago.  I could not believe that she was going to move so far away.  I remembered how I felt when she just moved 30 miles away from West Jordan to Provo.   That day as I was headed back home after moving her things, I sobbed the entire way and probably should not have even been driving.  

She graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in Elementary Education and taught second grade for one year.  She was a great teacher and everyone at the school loved her, but she stopped teaching after that first year and brought sweet, adorable Jayden into our lives.

I thought being a grandma to one amazing grandson was the best, but being a grandma to two amazing grandsons was even better.  

Then, Mark graduated from BYU and they moved to Cleveland, then Kansas City, then Bakersfield (where Carter was born), then Los Angeles.

They have been in Los Angeles for about two years now and it looks like they will stay there for a few more years, at least.  She LOVES living in California.

I will admit that I like having her live in California a lot better than Cleveland (since it is closer), but it still just tears at my heart every time I have to drop them off at the airport after their visits.  One of the perks of Mark’s job for three years was that they were able to fly to see us at no cost and were able to fly us to visit them.  So, we saw them every few months. 

At the end of June, Mark took a new position with the company because his 3 year contract ended in the division that he had been working in.   When he told me about the process of finding this new position with the same company, I felt pretty proud of him because he has done so well with them and had impressed so many corporate officers that three divisions were going back and forth between each other trying to decide where his talents would best be focused.  Instead of vying for him to work for their division, they were all trying to make sure that Mark worked in the best possible place where his skills and potential could be met.  He truly is a very smart and talented guy.

Kj is a good wife to him and supports him in every way.  He is really lucky to be married to her! 

I feel like my relationship with her has always been a good one.  There were a few times, of course, that we both frustrated each other, but 99% of the time, we get along and are pretty good friends.  When she was younger, we would joke about having ESP because we seemed to be thinking the same things at the same time.

She has grown into a beautiful, successful, talented, amazing, awesome woman.  She is the best mother that her kids could ask for.  I find myself wishing I had been as good of a mother as she is and wishing that I had devoted myself to motherhood in the way that she has.  She is constantly trying to better herself and it baffles me because she is so terrific, just as she is. 

I love talking to her on the phone and texting back and forth, but I will admit that I miss her like crazy and just typing those words brings me to tears.

Now that Mark has his new position, I don’t know how often we will get to see them.  He does not have travel perks anymore.  When I took them to the airport this last time (at the end of June) I almost couldn’t handle it.  Besides the fact that I had a day ahead of me that was already making me want to cry, knowing that they were gone again saddened my heart immensely.    Even though I knew that I was very likely going to go to California at the end of August, I hved no idea when they will be coming back to Utah. 

I do have to admit that having a visit in May and a visit in June was a good way for them to use up the last of their flying privileges and I loved every minute of their time with us.

In May we celebrated Jayden’s birthday, went to the zoo, went to Fat Cat’s, and played, played, played with all of the grandkids.

Super Heroes at Jayden's Super Hero Birthday Party

Fat Cats Mini Golf

Fat Cats Bowling

Fat Cats Breadsticks!

Jayden's chalkboard drawing of all of the grandkids

The Zoo

Brexton's last T-ball Game

Dinner at Chuck-a-Rama with Tyler

In June we played, played, played, swam, went fishing, went to splah pads, and went to the zoo again.  The kids couldn’t get enough of each other!

Gotta have some slip n slide time!

Kj and Tass just love to talk

And then we had some pool time!

At the park

Fishing!

We found some snow for the California boys to play in

Throwing snowballs at Grandma

I was just waiting for him to fall in the lake

Splash Pad!

Feeding Giraffes!

I couldn't resist adding this pic of one of the new lion cubs

We even got Tyler to go to the zoo with us

July 1st Fireworks

Good Things

One of the local, daily TV shows called Good Things Utah put out a request for pizza recipes.  When I heard about it, I thought, "I should send them my Sticky Chicken Pizza recipe!"

So, I did.

In the back of my mind, I wondered if I might be asked to come on the show and make the pizza, but I didn't really think they would be interested in me since I don't have a business and I am not a professional blogger.  Usually, those are the two types of people that they feature on their program.

Right after I emailed them the recipe, I received a reply asking me to be on the show to demonstrate how to make the pizza.  I wondered what I had gotten myself into!  But, I have done a few things in the last two years that have given me more self-confidence and thought this was something that I should try to do.

On June 30, 2016, I was on Good Things Utah for four and half minutes showing how to make Sticky Chicken Pizza.

I went a little crazy in the few weeks before I was scheduled to appear.  I made the pizza four times and even wrote a script for myself to memorize.  People have commented that I seem to be shy.  I guess I am.  When I am around people that I don't know, my communication brain cells stop being useful and I get tongue-tied and can't figure out what to say.  So, usually, it is easier for me to just not say anything at all. But, I thought about how to present the recipe over and over again, especially when I was laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep.  I may have suffered from a lack of sleep because of it!

I also bought new pizza pans, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a plate for displaying a piece of pizza, a lot of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and brown sugar, little bowls for all of the ingredients, and a new shirt to wear.  Kj happened to be here visiting from California and she "interviewed" me as if she were one of the hosts of the show.  I think that helped quite a bit.   We had a joke about "hot summer pizza!"  from one of our practice sessions.

I had a great support team that day.  Jer and Hunter Man watched all the kiddos while Kj and Tass went to the TV station with me.  I couldn't have done it without them there. They kept me from getting too nervous before the show started. We laughed a lot as they helped me set up and we tried to figure out what we were supposed to do.

The weird thing was that when we arrived at the studio, we were taken to the kitchen area by the TV station's receptionist and then, we were totally on our own. Camera operators, directors, and producers all knew that we were there, but nobody paid very much attention to us.   I would have thought that a production assistant type person would have been there to give tips and pointers on how best to go about getting ready for the presentation, but there wasn't anybody like that.  If we hadn't practiced and if I hadn't seen many, many episodes of this show, I wouldn't have had any idea of what to do.

Once we had set everything up the best that we could, we started getting silly and taking pictures.

These two would make amazing news anchors!

Not bad for a 50 year old grandma!

Finally, I was told that Nicea would be the host for the cooking segment and that she would come and talk to me for a couple of minutes before the segment started at 9:30 a.m.

I hadn't really planned on focusing on making the pizza dough because it is really the sauce that makes this pizza so fabulous.  When Nicea started making notes about the segment, it seemed like she wanted me to spend a minute explaining how I make my own pizza crust.  That kind of threw me off, but I just had to follow her lead and answer her questions about the crust and then start showing how to make the sauce and the rest of the pizza when the cameras started filming.


I think it went okay.  There are things I would change now that I look back on it and have watched the segment a few times.  But, it was great when Nicea asked, "When you create a new recipe, how do you know if it is good or not?"  My answer was, "If I like it!"  She laughed.   It made me happy when she pointed out that Kj and Tass must like my cooking, too.  I was glad that they got some recognition for being there.

As the segment ended, Nicea had Reagan come into the shot so that she could taste the "magic of TV" pizza.  They both acted like it was delicious and one of the best things they had ever tasted. Then, during the commercial, their announcer Brian came over to get a piece, too and took a video of himself with his phone.

And then my 4 and a half minutes of fame was over.  (Well, really, I had about one day of fame.  Kj posted the pictures on Facebook and Tassie posted the link to the segment, so a lot of our friends saw it and gave nice feedback to me)!

It was fun.  I probably wouldn't ever volunteer to do it again.

But, then again, you never know!

Here is a link to the episode and a link to a Facebook live post, too.

http://www.good4utah.com/good-things-utah/gtu-recipes/sticky-chicken-pizza?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Good_Things_Utah

https://www.facebook.com/abc4briancarlson/videos/1120582201335268/?pnref=story

(if you copy and paste the links into your brower, they will take you to the video).

White Clam Sauce

Hunter Man has loved Linguine with White Clam Sauce forever.  But, we rarely find ourselves at restaurants that have it on their menu.

One weekend, after we had gone out to dinner, he said he sure wished he could have some really good Linguine with White Clam Sauce.  So, I decided to come up my own recipe for it.  I did a lot of research and combined several recipes together and changed the things that I knew I would not like to have in it.   The first time I made it, I didn't know whether he would like it or not, but he really did.  I love it, too. Restaurant versions have clams in shells on it, but my recipe used canned, minced clams. His favorite pasta is Angel Hair Pasta so we usually have it with that instead of linguine.

Then, last summer we went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the 4th of July and ate at a great little Italian Restaurant located on the main highway into Jackson on the south end.  I wish I could remember what it was called so that I could give them some credit. Their menu actually had Linguine with White Clam Sauce on and Hunter Man immediately said that is what he was going to order. When it was served, we were surprised to see that the sauce was topped with roasted tomatoes.  I would have never thought of adding those to this dish, but they added such a wonderful flavor to it!.

To make my own roasted tomatoes, I line a baking sheet with foil, place tomato pieces on it, brush them with olive oil, sprinkle them with Mrs. Dash garlic and then place the baking sheet in the oven on 200 degrees until the tomatoes start to shrivel up like dried tomatoes.  This could take two hours or more--you just have to keep checking them. Then, I put them in a freezer bag and defrost them whenever I need some.  Last summer, I used whatever tomatoes came off of our garden plants--Romas, little yellow pear tomatoes, etc.  Whenever I have tomatoes that we aren't going to use fast enough, I roast them!  The house smells so good while they are roasting.

I decided to make Angel Hair Pasta with White Clam Sauce as a Father's Day dinner this year.

Here is the recipe.   My picture does not do it justice, but trust me--it is good!

(Remember:  I am not a professional cook or chef or anything like it, so don't hate me for using dried herbs and for not using real garlic, etc.).

ANGEL HAIR PASTA WITH WHITE CLAM SAUCE

Prepare Angel Hair Pasta according to package directions, depending on how many people you are cooking for.

This clam sauce recipe should serve about 4 people.  We love it so much that by the time we are done eating it, we only have about 1 serving left.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 c butter
1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic paste
10 oz sliced, fresh mushrooms
4 cans minced clams with juice (tuna fish sized cans)
1 T parsley flakes
1 tsp dried basil
1//2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 pinches red pepper flakes
1/4 c cooking wine
4 T lemon juice
1/4 c water mixed with 2 T cornstarch
1/4 c Parmesan cheese.
1 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Over medium heat, melt butter.  Add olive oil.  Saute the mushrooms with the garlic paste until the mushrooms are tender.

Stir in clams, juice, and herbs.  Then, stir with  a whisk to incorporate the clam juice and the butter/oil. You will know that you have stirred it enough when there is no separation of the liquid and the oil. When the mixture starts to bubble, reduce the heat to medium low and add the cooking wine and lemon juice.  Again, stir with the whisk to make sure that the liquid does not separate from the oil. Add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir until it begins to thicken.  Reduce the heat to low and add the Parmesan cheese and cream.  Let it simmer for just a few minutes.

At this point, you made need to do some tweaking.  The sauce might get too thick and you may need to add some water or milk to thin it.  Also, make sure you taste it and decide whether it needs a little bit more garlic, Parmesan cheese, or oregano.  My favorite part of making this sauce is taste-testing it!

Serve over the prepared Angel Hair Pasta and enjoy!

JACKSON PICTURES

Redneck Pool

I came across a snap side swimming pool that had probably been in a box for about 10 years, but never used.

I thought it would be great for my grandkids to play in this summer.  We were babysitting for the weekend and luckily, it was hot enough to swim in the yard.

We had a TERRIBLE time getting the sides of the pool to stay up!  We would get one side to stand up and it would seem like the water was going to hold it up while we held up another side and just as soon as we moved, the first side would start falling down.

But, my grandsons and I persevered and we thought we had it.  The pool was full, but the water was cold, so we hoped by the next day, the water would be warmer.  Then, overnight, the sides fell down and the water drained out.

The next day, we tried to fill it up again and had the same problems.

As I was looking around trying to figure out what to do to keep the sides from falling down, I saw 3 plastic garbage cans on the driveway that my husband uses for recycled items and I thought that I could put them in the pool and put rocks in the bottoms of them to keep them in place.  Then, the cans could hold up the sides of the pool.  It worked!  We did find that we also had to put water in the cans to keep them from floating, but we were finally able to fill the pool all the way up and the boys had fun!

I was pretty proud of my Redneck pool!

This looks like it is not going to turn out well for Brex!

They had a lot of fun!

While I am patting myself on the back for my ingenuity--did you know that a 12 x 12 parachute makes a great fort?  I had ordered one when it was on sale on Amazon and thought it would be fun to play with, but then when the boys wanted to build a fort to sleep in, I thought of using the parachute!

Usually, we set chairs up in a circle and put blankets over them and then the inner area of the fort is not very big.  But, with the parachute hooked to two bar stools in the front and to two chairs that were standing up on the coffee table in the back, we had a great fort for a sleepover!

Decorating

We have a big screen TV mounted on the wall.  I had one picture hanging on each side of it, but it just seemed to look awkward.  I wanted to do something to make it look better, but I had no idea what to do.  Usually, I just decorate with whatever I happen to have (pictures, gifts, things we have had forever, dead animal heads....).

Here is how it looked on one side of the TV.  (I put this picture back up and took this photo so that I would at least have a "before" to show).

I started seeing people talk about gallery walls on local TV shows and saw pictures of them on Pinterest and I wondered if I could do some kind of big screen TV gallery wall.  

I looked and looked at pictures of gallery walls, but every idea gave me the feeling that it would look too cluttered around the TV.

So, started going to stores like Michael's, JoAnn's, Gordman's, and Hobby Lobby to look at decorating items that I might be able to use on a gallery wall.

The first thing I found was a square sign with a saying on it that really touched me because of the struggles and trials that we have gone through in the last six years.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot,

Thou hast taught me to say...

It is well,

It is well, 

With my soul.

So that sign became my starting point.

I thought that some black and white canvas prints would look good on the left side of the TV.  But, canvas prints are expensive, so I searched online to see if I could find a way to make your own canvas prints.  Sure enough, you can make canvas prints with with canvas from the craft store, 8 x 10's from Sam's Photo, and Mod Podge.  

The top photo is me with my sons.

The second one is of three of my grandchildren.

The third photo is me with my daughter.

And the fourth one is of the other two grandchildren.

I hung the canvases with Command Strips so that I can change them out as often as I want to (since they are so cheap and easy to make).  

I knew that something needed to be above the TV, but it had to be something that seemed open and didn't fill up the space.  

I found some shelves at Target that seemed like they were perfect and I was so happy when I came home and held them up there and thought they looked exactly like what I had in mind.

I had a metal letter B (to represent our last name) that had a rusty finish.  I thought that metallic silver would fit in better with the black and white theme that just kind of happened.  So, I spray painted it along with a wooden arrow that I had.

I think I made a pretty awesome gallery wall.

Even with a moose head sticking his big nose into it.

Dirt Fishing

Hunter Man has a new love.

He used to be all about hunting and fishing.  He still is.

But, in the last few years, he has become even more enamored with metal detecting.

He calls it dirt fishing.

It has become his passion.

He is even the president of a club of metal detecting nerds.  ha ha

They kind of compete at their monthly meetings for who found the best things during the last 30 days.

This makes him want to metal detect as much as possible.

One day, a few weeks ago, he came back after metal detecting with the best thing he has ever found. At least he acted like it was.

Since the name of this blog is My Crazy Life as a Hunter's Wife, I thought I should post something about this new thing that occupies his mind and heart most of the time these days.

Here he is with the find of his life (so far):

It is a rifle from the late 1800's.  

Sticky Chicken Pizza

I love buffalo wings.

I love  sticky chicken fingers from Wingers.

I love pizza.

I love pizza and wings.

One day, I had a brilliant idea that combined these two delicious things.

Here it is:

Sticky Chicken Pizza

If you love hot wings and pizza, then this is the combo of your dreams! With a sweet and spicy sauce your taste buds will go for a ride. Add blue cheese dressing or ranch dip to your plate to feel like you just sat down at your favorite restaurant for some chicken wings!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Toppings
1 ½ Cups Chicken Pieces (from a Rotisserie Chicken)
1 ½ Cups Sliced fresh Mushrooms
1/3 Cup Blue Cheese or Feta Cheese Crumbles
2/3 Cup Sliced Olives
1 ½ Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Sticky Sauce
½ cup Franks Hot Sauce
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
2 cups Brown Sugar

Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
 2 Cups or more flour

Instructions (for 12” pizza)

Pizza Crust:  (You can use pre-made crust but home-made crust is like the icing on the cake!)

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Wait for it to bubble up. Add canola oil and salt. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Knead dough for a few minutes until it is soft. Place in oiled bowl, turning the dough until it is coated on all sides. Cover and let rise until double. When ready to use, punch down the dough and form into a pizza crust.

When using a home-made crust, make sure that the edges of the crust are higher than the main part of the crust to keep the sauce from running off the sides. Pre-bake the crust on a foil lined pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray for about 6 minutes on the top rack of the oven.

Sticky Sauce:

Pour 1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce into a small saucepan. Sprinkle in 2 Tbsp cornstarch and whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved. Place saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar,
3 Tbsp light corn syrup, and 2 cups brown sugar. Stir until the brown sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low.  Continue to simmer until ready to use, stirring occasionally. 

Put it all together:

Spread 2/3 cup Sticky Sauce over the crust. Top with chicken, mushrooms, Blue cheese, and olives. Drizzle a little bit more Sticky Sauce over the top. Then, cover with the Mozzarella Cheese.

Bake at 425 degrees on the center rack of the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.  

Serve with carrot and celery sticks and either Blue Cheese or Ranch Salad Dressing.

ENJOY!