Starting a new year

This past few months have just flown by so fast that we don't even know what happened. Just in the last 4 months we have changed job a couple times, dealt with the crazy holiday season at work, gotten sick, had district convention, 2-day assembly, had our congregation split & change meeting times (now monday nights & saturday mornings!) and had company. But we have made it through alive and are looking forward to this new year.
We also finally got a home phone and internet, so apologies for not keeping better in touch but we are looking forward to keeping up now. You can contact us through the blog, via email, skype, phone, xbox or instagram- i think that covers them all.
To those in Guam, we would love some "home" recipes! We have been trying to figure out how to make some Guam classics, but it's not going well. That is one thing we really miss- the food! And of course all our friends too!


We just had a recent visit from Gram & Pop Hammey so it gave us a little push to finish up some of our indoor projects on the house. It's pretty much finished now except for some trim painting. Take a look.....

laundry room finally finished -one grammy (the laundry queen) was proud of!

our dining/entry is getting there

the art corner in the laundry room

our guest room

The other day this is what i saw when i looked out the window: 

a buzzard chilling on our fence

Dessert tonight - homemade brownies with coffee ice cream, grammy h.'s hot fudge sauce and whip cream -yummy!

Here are the recipes for the brownies and gram's hot fudge sauce.

Brownies

2 cup white sugar
 2 tablespoons butter
 2 tablespoons water
 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
 2 eggs
 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
 1/2 teaspoon salt
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Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not over bake! Cool in pan and cut into squares.

Grammy Hammey's Hot Fudge Sauce
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups chocolate chips (nestle)
1/2 cup white sugar
speck of salt

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stir continuously till just comes to a boil.
Add:   1-2 tbsp butter
          1 tsp vanilla (real)
Stir until incorporated. Voila!
Serve over ice cream or strawberries.
Makes about 2 cups.

muffin & turkey recipes -(no your not supposed to make them together)

i have a few cooking magazines which i have been trying to make good use of the recipes in them and have found 2 really good ones i thought i'd share. one is a moist yummy muffin and the other is a quick roasted turkey that is so easy.

Tuscan Lemon Muffin

(taken from cooking light magazine may 2011 edition)

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind (i used a little bit more of the rind s well as the juice)

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 egg lightly beaten

cooking spray

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (the big crystal kind)

1) preheat oven to 375 degrees

2) combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), make a well in center.

3) mix ricotta and next 5 ingredients (through egg). add mixture to flour mix, stirring until moist.

4) place 12 muffin liners in tin and spray with cooking spray. scoop batter into sprayed liners, sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

5) bake 16 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. cool 5 minutes in pan then remove muffins to cooling rack.

 Accidental Turkey

(taken from food network magazine november 2012 edition)

salt & pepper

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves

grated zest of one lemon

1 (12-14 pound) turkey

1 large yellow onion unpeeled and cut into eighths

1 lemon quartered

8 sprigs fresh thyme

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter unsalted melted

 (i used all dried herbs and just eyed it to how much i wanted on it)

1) now the recipe says to coat the turkey with the melted butter and herbs a few days before when turkey is thawed, let it marinate in fridge. but i just brushed the butter on and sprinkled the herbs on it just before i put it in the oven - it was a last minute turkey.

2) preheat oven to 450 degrees, make sure oven is clean.

3) place the onion, lemon & thyme in cavity of turkey.

4)roast turkey for 45 minutes. lower temp of oven to 325 degrees and then roast for another hour. 

5) remove from oven and cover with foil, let rest for 20-30 minutes. carve.

hope you like!

Home sickness

at one time or another i think most of us have had home sickness, and to each of us it may mean something different. in the case of my husband it is his friends that he has known forever and the great guam food. so in lew of that i want to ask all two favors. if you can, send josh an email or skype with the latest of guam or even just a hello (i know he hasn't been the greatest about keeping in touch but he is working on it). and if you have any good guam food recipes please send them our way (he is really looking for a short ribs marinade).

he has been such a great person with making sacrifices and being adventurous with coming stateside with me. i really appreciate it all and hope that with some help we can help him make it through his home sickness. 

we miss you all and will post more pictures soon.

chop, chop.....

i know this isn't a very good picture but it's ok for now. i cut my hair!

more pictures (better) to come later.

Fall time

So as you know Guam doesn't really have much of a season change and not so much with Florida, but the temperature has been a little different. It's my first experience in "winter" weather in Florida and I'm quite enjoying it. It has been between 50s to 60s in morning and evening from time to time. One of the days out field service it stayed in the 60s the whole day! I actually have a reason to wear a  sweater now. Aside from that our house is pretty much done! We just need to do finishing touches like painting and decoration. We'll give you more of that later. Here's some pics for now.

At our Circuit Assembly "Safeguard your mind"

The front of our house. If you notice our header picture and this one, the grass is more green now!

Our guest bathroom.

We went for a walk one day on a pier

First few days twisting pretzels at Auntie Annes.

almost done.......

so the house is almost done on the inside and is really starting to feel homey. we just need to hang pictures up and figure out what spaces need filling-my living room is one i can't figure out which way looks best. we also now have a bed in our guest room so all are welcome to come and visit!
not sure if i mentioned it before but josh and i both started a new job working at auntie anne's pretzels, which is working out really good for us and we are enjoying it.

we forgot about you all!..... not really

so sorry for not writing this past month has been crazy! went had c.o.'s visit, convention and job changing. we hit the last convention of the season, it was our friend Casey's so we didnt know that many people there and there were soo many people at it. attendance friday was 5,ooo, saturday was 6,000 and sunday was 8,000!

convention in september

casey & alashia - had to babysit them cause they are dating :)

sitting opposite end of the stage

sitting behind the stage

We also went to a baseball game with some friends in our hall, it was a minor league game that is held in its own field like 15 min. from our place. they host for spring training the major league team of pittsburg pirates. so its a smaller field get to be more up close.

sunset at my parents

Josh was stung red wasp and his hand swelled up and his knuckles disappeared.

here are a few of the meals we have made lately. we are always trying new things...

shark - very yummy would recommend to anyone

pretzels we made at home, practicing for josh since he will be working at  auntie anne's pretzels!