Abby's Blessing Recipes

A sneak peek...



We blessed Abby a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful day and I still need to post about it, which I plan on doing very soon. We had a fabulous dinner and I have had several requests for recipes. I think I have finally gathered them all from the various parties and am ready to share.


***I know it's a bit corny and cliche to post recipes on a blog, but this is faster and easier for me than getting copies of the different recipes to the folks who wanted them.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Pork Loin Roast
Kraft Original BBQ Sauce
Kraft Honey BBQ Sauce
Kraft Catalina Salad Dressing
Brown Sugar

**This is my dad’s recipe. He just adds everything and doesn’t really have set quantities, so this is the best I could do.

Slow roast the meat and shred it. (We cooked ours for about 10 hours on low.) You will add the sauces in a “parts” ratio. 3 parts Original BBQ Sauce, 2 parts Honey BBQ Sauce, 1 part Catalina dressing. We’ve always just made it in mass quantities, but I’m guessing for an average size roast to just feed a basic family, you would probably use 1 to 1 ½ bottle(s) of Original, ½ to 1 bottle of Honey, and ½ bottle of Catalina dressing. Add a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to taste. Serve on rolls or hoagie buns. Enjoy!!!


Cole Slaw
From DeAnn Anderson

1 bag of Cole Slaw (found by the bagged salads in the produce section)
1 bottle of Poppyseed salad dressing
1 bag of slivered almonds

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy! (You probably won’t use the whole bottle of poppyseed dressing. Start with about half and add to taste.)


Grandma Vone’s Famous Potato Salad

Mix together:
5 lbs potatoes (Peeled, cooked, and cubed)
1-1/12 dozen eggs (Hard-boiled and sliced)
2 cups mayo
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 can evaporated milk
1 bunch green onions
2-3 Tbs. mustard
Salt & pepper to taste


Corn and Bean Salsa
From Karen Luthi

2 cans of black beans (rinsed with water)
4 cans of Mexican* tomatoes (I blend them up in the food processor or blender with the cilantro)
*You can use whatever tomatoes you can find--even fresh.
1 bunch of cilantro (washed up)
1 red onion chopped (you can use a yellow or sweet if you don't have or like the red)
1 small bag of white sweet corn (or any sweet corn)

I add in a few drops of Tabasco or chop up some hot peppers
Start with 1 tsp of cumin then add what tastes good
about 1 to 2 tsps Lime or lemon juice ( I use fresh if I have it)
salt and pepper to taste.

You can leave out the corn and black beans and just do the salsa. You can use diced or dice up fresh tomatoes if you like it chunky. You can add jalapeno or other hot peppers chopped up too if you like it hotter.

This makes a big batch so you can either 1/2 it or quarter it for a really small batch.


Crab Dip
From Janalee Anderson

1- 8 oz. imitation crab meat, chopped

1/2 cup mayo

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1- 8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup celery, chopped

1/4 cup green onion, chopped

Mix together and chill. Serve with crackers. * Is also good to wrap in wontons and fry for crab wontons


Oreo Dessert
From Aunt Claudia

1 small pkg. French vanilla pudding
1 cup Milk
1 large tub of Cool Whip
1 pkg. Oreos

Mix together pudding and milk. Fold in whipped topping and crushed Oreos. Refrigerate and enjoy! (Seriously the world’s best treat! This is always a hit whenever we take it to parties or potlucks. We usually double the recipe.)


Chocolate Mint Cookies
From Mal Pal and Aunt Becky

1 Devil’s Food cake mix
2 eggs
½ cup oil
1 cup chocolate chips
1 package Andes mints

Mix all ingredients (except mints). Roll into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and place 1 mint on each cookie. Spread mint with a knife when melted. Chill in fridge or freezer.


Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
from Jandi Shorts

1 box brownies (Make according to package in 9X13 pan. Bake and let cool.)
Peanut Butter Frosting:
¼ C butter
2 ounces cream cheese
⅓ C peanut butter
½ t. vanilla
1-1½ C powdered sugar
1 T milk
Mix well and frost brownies.
Then top with crushed peanut butter cups and crushed peanuts.
(Optional - 1 sliced banana)
Then drizzle with chocolate sauce (I use melted chocolate frosting).


Poppyseed Cake
from Jan Phillips

Mix for 4 minutes:
1 yellow cake mix
½ c. warm water
4 eggs
Add:
½ c. warm water
2 pkgs. Instant butterscotch pudding
¾ c. oil
2 T. poppyseeds

Bake in greased, floured Bundt pan at 350 for 45 minutes.


Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats
from Lacey Kvarfordt

Mix together 1 c. corn syrup and 1 c. peanut butter. Stir in 6 cups of rice crispies and press into a 9x13 pan. Melt a bag of chocolate chips and a bag of either peanut butter or butterscotch chips in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Pour on top of rice crispies and refrigerate until frosting hardens.

Garrett's First Horse Show

Garrett and Airplane participated in the Black and White Days Horse Show on Saturday. It was so fun and the little cowboy sure made us proud!

Aunt Chelsea helped to get Airplane all prettied up and ready for the big event. (While Garrett helped get Chelsea all prettied up and ready for the big event.)
Proud parents with our boy.

The show! It was pretty thrilling and consisted of Greg leading Garrett around the arena about a million times. They were moving targets and good pictures were hard to come by.

This poor kid! His dad thought they'd show everybody up by riding bareback. Great plan--until the pony bucked the kid off about ten times. Luckily he didn't have too far to fall!

More riding action.

Garrett's very own cheerleader and biggest fan.

We put Abby on the horse to get a picture with Garrett. Garrett took his job of holding Abby very seriously and grabbed her right around the neck and held on for dear life. It was pretty funny.

Well look at that! They even won a blue ribbon--YEEHAW!!! (Okay all of the kids won a blue ribbon, but we won't tell that to Little G when he's older.)

The victory lap!

For your viewing pleasure...

"He's our little cowboy, until the day the fences can't hold him and he'll ride away..."
Name that song! Anybody, anybody???

It's About Time!!!

So sorry to my faithful--it's been awhile! I'm happy to report that our Internet is connected (YAY!) and I am rejoining the blogging world. (Although our computer has a few strugs at the moment, so who knows how long it will last.)

Here's a catch-up of the past month or so of life with the Greg Phillips family.

WARNING: Mega-long post with about a billion pics. You may want to pop some popcorn and get yourself a soda (preferrably a caffeinated one) before you begin reading.

We started April off with a bang by visiting Chuck-E-Cheese for my baby brother's birthday. (Don't worry-he was only turning 26.) For the past several years, Brett has always said he wants to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday and that's all he wants and wants to do. This year we decided to make his dreams come true, so his wife planned a surprise party for him. What made it even better was that the Sunday before the party (which had been planned for weeks at this point), Brett cut some Chuck-E-Cheese coupons out of the newspaper and put them on the fridge at my folks' house with a note that said, "Happy B-day Brett." He even disguised his handwriting and claimed to know nothing about it. We all got a good laugh behind his back just knowing what was coming for him! The party was a blast and we had the pleasure of visiting our favorite Party Mouse a few weeks later for Brooklyn's 6th birthday. (Imagine being 6 years old and going to Chuck-E-Cheese a few weeks before your birthday. Nothing else--with the exception of Disneyland--could compete, so we went again!)

Garrett had a blast and LOVED the Chuck-E-Cheese character, but he refused to take a nap that day and was so tired. He was having fun and didn't want to leave, but it was serious business for him and smiles were hard to come by.

Having Miss Abby in our family has been such a joy. Here she is catching a few ZZZ's with Grandpa Willy.

Well crap--Easter came...and went...and in the craziness of moving and everything, the Easter Bunny kind of forgot to tell Garrett's mom and dad he needed to make a stop at our house. OOPS!!! Thank heavens Garrett is only 2 and didn't seem to mind, but I still felt bad about it. Grandma and Pops redeemed us by having the grandkids over for an Easter egg hunt a few days later. At this point, Gracie and Brooklyn had been to about 15 Easter egg hunts and were approaching the "professional" status of egg hunters. Garrett--the novice--wanted absolutely nothing to do with it and threw a huge fit when I put one of his eggs in his borrowed Easter basket (since I also forgot to buy him one). He did finally warm up to it a little bit when he realized there was candy in the eggs.

Gracie-the queen of Egg hunts! We had to hide the eggs over again about 5 times for her. She just couldn't get enough.

Brooklyn was so sweet to share her Easter basket with Garrett and use her old one.

Abby hung out with Pops while I tried unsuccessfully to get Garrett to pick up his eggs.

Garrett did end up with a good loot--notice the blue mouth from the ring pop.

Our buddies, Kaleb and Jenna, came to visit and enjoyed a nice wagon ride.

This is Garrett's new favorite activity--standing on the deck and watching the tractors work their magic.

Cousin Guimo came to visit and the kids enjoyed a lovely tea party.

Garrett is finding all sorts of new places to play .

He wants to be outside exploring 24/7.

We celebrated Sparky's big day. Brian found him this golf club cart and it was a big hit--especially with the kids.

Abby zonked out with cousin Kyle.

Some of our favorite buddies from our Provo days, Lea and Lisa, came for a visit. We had such a fun day--complete with the best banana cream pie I have ever tasted. I'm not kidding--it was amazing! Thank you, Maddox!

Garrett had a rough couple days of an upset stomach and a nasty diaper rash. He pretty much lived in the tub until he got better.

Garrett loves to climb in the soaker tub in our master bathroom and send his toys down the "slide" (aka--the armrests). He came up with that one all on his own. Funny kid!

He also discovered Abby's tub and thinks it makes a great recliner.

Garrett says, "Go see daddy," all day, every day and can't wait for him to get home so they can play/work. I try, but I'm just not nearly as much fun as daddy.

Garrett loves to "help Mama" and measures everything in the house about 50 times daily.

We made the trek to Provo for Mal Pal's graduation. She got a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from BYU and graduated with the last name of Phillips. I've never been prouder!

Miss Annabelle looked so beautiful in her fancy dress and loved playing with Abby-cakes.

Our sweet little punkin!

Greg really enjoyed the ceremony.

To say I looked like crap this day would be a major understatement. I finally went to bed at about 2 AM the night before, woke up at 6, drove to Provo while Greg and the kids slept, walked through the pouring rain while carrying a sleepy kid, and didn't even have a brush and elastic to pull my hair back. Like the country song says," Every dog has his day, dog, and today, dog, just ain't yours."

Good thing it was Mal's day, though. She was absolutely stunning and by far the coolest graduate in the whole nerdy college of engineers. (Just kidding about the nerdy engineers, Brian.)

Garrett loves to do "rock-a-bye" with Grandma and is sometimes even lucky enough to catch a swig of her DC. This particular day he was even tired enough he fell asleep on her lap. He's such a sweet boy.Abby Baby checking out Aunt Paula.

Garrett helped Kyle blow out his candles.

The windstorm of the century hit one night and blew the sprinkler pipe from all the surrounding fields into our/our neightbors' yards. It was INSANE. The lane in and out of our house was completely blocked by pipe and we couldn't even get out of our driveway. I was supposed to substitute teach that day and had to call and tell them I couldn't come. The wind/pipe combination wrecked total havoc on our neighborhood and stuff was everywhere. The poor farmers spent the next several days trying to get their pipe moved, fixed, and put back together.
My sweet mom came and arranged all of the china in the cabinet. I had no idea where to even start and was totally overwhelmed by doing it, so I was so thankful when she showed up one afternoon and told me she was there to arrange the china cabinet. She did a great job and it's so pretty! Of course, I made her pose for a picture.

Speaking of stunning pictures of me...WOW! We've been sick this past week and sleep has been hard to come by. I think this picture just about adequately captures the level of my exhaustion.

Check out Garrett's new shoes.Abby discovered that her zipper makes a great pacifier. What a smart girl!
Speaking of pacifiers...
Abby enjoyed spending Mother's Day with Grandma Jan.
Meanwhile, Greg and Garrett got a good wrestling match in.
"Mommy's Lil Angel." That's my girl!

We surprised my mom by getting her grandmother's wedding ring fixed up for Mother's Day. It is really old and needed some major repairs. She was thrilled and didn't have a clue it was coming, so it was really fun. Too bad I didn't get a picture of her face, but the ring is gorgeous!

Next up: two major events worthy of their own posts.

1. Abby's Blessing (Complete with the requested/much anticipated recipe collection!)

2. Garrett and Airplane's Horse Show Debut (Quite possibly the proudest moment of my life as a mom.)