Dec. 4

We made snowflakes, the kind you make in 1st grade where you fold a square of paper and just cut away. This was so fun, I loved how different they all turned out.

Dec. 3

We bought our tree the day after Thanksgiving, we just couldnt wait any longer. I love love love our tree this year, it's my favorite one we've had so far. It makes our house feel so festive and cozy, I turn the lights on first thing when I get home. If i had my way it would stay up till April. We have a few special ornaments that family members have brought back from trips. This little lovely came home with us from Kauaii and now lives happily on our tree branch. :)

Dec. 2

Day 2 - "Go to the Utah Valley Symphony Christmas Concert"
This was also a cheat, we found out the concert was on Wednesday so we did some switching and this was day 2 of our Christmas fun :) we are so lucky that papa Rytting conducts the symphony (major perks ;)) and they put on a wonderful concert

Advent Calendar day 1: Dec 1

So we filled our advent boxes with fun activities to do every day to celebrate the Christmas season. Like the rest of the world we are so so busy with school, work, and church callings that we hardly have time for anything else. This is a fun way to take a small break every day and spend some time together. Day 1 was "make a gingerbread house" we kind of cheated and put that one in for Dec. 1 cuz we knew we would be making gingerbread houses with some friends that night. This is what we came up with:




This was so much fun! and I'll be honest those sweet tarts did not last long at our house.

The Ryttings take on a craft

This craft/activity came about rather spontaneously. I was looking around for advent calenders and hadn't really liked what I saw. I saw this idea for a homemade one on the buzzings of a queen bee's blog. I loved this idea and told Mckay about it, he's usually enthusiastic about my craft ideas but he really jumped on board with this one. We had it nearly finished by the end of Thanksgiving break. It was so much fun especially with Husband helping me :) He did the more manly things like cutting the wood for a frame and spray painting the boxes. I realize spray painting isnt really a manly job but I was a little scared to use it and mess up everything, hence, its a manly job.

The idea for this is pretty simple. We bought paper mache boxes at Roberts, I had no idea what these were or if thats what they were really called but I found them at Roberts pretty quick. The boxes came in different sizes and shapes so we got twenty five boxes in different shapes, one for each day. These boxes can then be decorated however you want, which is the fun part. You attach the magnet to the back of the box, paint a piece of sheet metal with magnetic paint and fit the sheet onto a frame.

This picture should be at the bottom of the post cuz its one of the last things we did but oh well. Once we had finished with all the boxes for the calender we figured it would be hard to find a frame to fit the exact dimensions of the sheet metal, so we went to Home Depot, bought a piece of moulding and Mckay cut it into a frame.


The boxes we chose to use were the middle-ish size, there were some smaller which would have worked too but they didnt have the variety of shapes I wanted. We spray painted the bottoms of the boxes a cranberry red.

Then we layed out the boxes and arranged them how we wanted and covered the lids with Christmas scrapbook paper.

We bought a piece of sheet metal from Home Depot and cut it to size, we painted the frame and thats it! I love it, and I love even more that Mckay helped me with it :)

Turkey Trot etc.

This Thanksgiving we started a new tradition. My cousin Jamie helped put together a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning. When she first asked us we kinda said no, waking up at 9 during the break did not sound like our kind of fun. Then she told us they were doing it to support cancer research and that all the runners would pay a fee to run the race and that money would go to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. We both said yes. With Mckay's dad currently fighting cancer and my mom being a breast cancer survivor (and conqueror! :) this was something we thought was so important, and a way to show our love and support to our wonderful parents. It was a perfect morning to jog/walk and the site of the run couldnt have been better. If you run around the Timpanogos Temple grounds 4 times its 5K. We had such a good time. The experience was so meaningful to us, we will definitly be doing this next year.

Our family who joined in the fun, my wonderful parents, Aunt Shellie, Cousin Jeremy, Cousin Jamie.

This year was a Rytting year for Thanksgiving. We had such a fun time gathering with the Rytting clan! It's always fun when we get together, the food was great (I ve discovered I kinda like going to other peoples houses for Thanksgiving, it means no leftovers, which I love....a little too much, so I'm happy to say we really didnt over indulge....except on pie but that doesnt count) then we got to go to my parents house and play with our family for the rest of the night. Our family is feeling kinda small right now with Adam and Marty both out on missions. Thank you family for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now... Its Christmas time! :)

This is a MANS breakfast...

I have this goal to become a domestic goddess/master chef :) I love cooking for my honey and for others, it's been so much fun finding and trying new recipes and learning new things. But I have this nasty little habit, I'm a food blog junkie. I have a substantial list of food blogs I check daily, and if i see a recipe I want to try, I print it off, which has led me to a 6 inch high stack of untried recipes. Its like a disease, I know, and Mckay thinks Im nuts. But sometimes I hit the jackpot and find some really yummy things. So I'm in the process of weeding through all these recipes, and depending on Mckays reaction they either get tossed or go in the black binder. To get put in the black binder means yep that recipe's a keeper and has a place in our Rytting Family Favorites :)

Im rereading this post and realizing that I sound pretty lame, but whatever. I made this recipe Saturday morning. It was cold, and Mckay had been helping some family move all morning, so this recipe came together, inspired by one of those many food blogs and it made us both happy campers. I didnt really measure anything so these are just estimates, but this recipe is pretty basic and hard to mess up

Breakfast Skillets
-inspired by fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com

5 red potatoes cut into bite size pieces
1/2 C. Sausage cooked and crumbled- this is a guess
1/4 C green peppers diced
1/8-1/4 C. diced onion
eggs
garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, - sprinkle to taste

Boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes, till they're somewhat tender. Cook sausage in a skillet and drain on a paper plate. In the same skillet cook the potatoes on about medium heat, adding a little butter or olive oil. Season the potatoes with desired seasonings. After about 10 minutes the potatoes will start to get crispy, add the peppers and onions. Cook for another 10 minutes, reducing the heat if things start to burn. In a small skillet crack however many eggs you want. we had sunny side up by cracking the egg into the skillet, melting an icecube for a second and then pulling it out and putting the lid over. This steams the top of the egg and cooks it so you dont have to flip it. Srinkle egg with salt and pepper. Spoon some of the potatoes into a bowl, and slide the egg on top.

-- the thing I love about this recipe is you can add or take away whatever you want. You could add in any vegetables you want or have it with scrambled eggs instead, meat or not meat. This was so good and kept us full forever!

Sorry for those who might think these recipes are boring....but this is what happens when there's not much else to blog about :)

MTC and some Pumpkin Bread

Wednesday we dropped Marty off at the MTC, which means I now have as many brothers out in the mission field as I do at home. and I am one proud big sister :) and after the sending the third brother out on a mission it hasn't gotten any easier, although this MTC experience was a lot less drama. Rather than having the whole family watch that orientation type program and video and then have to watch all the sad mamas cry this time we just pulled up to the curb, dropped him off, hugged good bye, and that was it, sort of like a bandaid, a short painful goodbye rather than a long drawn out one. Marty will be serving in the Perth Australia mission, the land of NEMO! and boy are we excited for him. It's a little bittersweet because he'll miss Adam's homecoming by 5 short months. We are so proud of our missionaries and so grateful for the missionary program in the church!

This recipe for Pumpkin Bread is a Rytting staple during the fall. Lysa would send it to Mckay in the MTC and it would still be warm when he opened it. This is easy and really really good. It also makes two loaves so its a fun treat to share :) or not...

Pumpkin Bread

Lysa Rytting

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 16 oz can pumpkin

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

3/4 tsp ginger

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

31/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips-optional :)

Blend sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. Add spices. Mix together flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add to the moistened ingredients. Add water. Optional: add 3/4 cup chocolate chips per loaf. Bake at 350, 60-65 minutes. Makes two loaves. After it has baked, dust top with powdered sugar if you like. yay :)

Recent Wanderings and some Mexican Love...

Rock Climbing Adventure:

I meant to post these pictures awhile ago but never got around to it. Back in September we went rock climbing with Tara and Janson up big Cottonwood Canyon. It was so much fun! Me and Tara both doubted we would get to the top, but guess what... we did! and as a reward we got Pei Wei :) I hadn't really been climbing since high school so I was a little worried, actually a lot worried. Me and Mckay and never been real rock climbing, like outside, where if you fall you don't land on a springy padded floor. I am proud to say all four of us made it to the top, some more quickly than others...but thats okay. I also got to belay?? Mckay when he climbed, it was soo funny, they had to anchor me to a tree and he started coming down so fast that I actually lifted off the ground! But he did make it safely to the ground. We had so much fun and we cant wait to do it again sometime. Although, next time I probably wont wear running shorts, they didn't work so well with the harness...yikes.

HaLLoWeeN WeeKenD:

Halloween weekend we got to play here...

the famous Rytting cabin. I have heard about this cabin for 5 years and we finally got to go Halloween weekend. I originally thought it would be fun to go up for Halloween weekend because what could be spookier than watching scary movies in a cabin thats surrounded by trees and sort of in the middle of nowhere? So I was bummed when the scary movie we brought happened to be the funniest scary movie ever...we laughed more than anything. It's alright though, we had such a fun and relaxing weekend.

This is the river right outside the cabin. so beautiful

And now.. I couldnt end this post without a recipe and this one's a doosy. We've had this four different times in the last 5 days, once for breakfast even. okay that was just me. so I guess you could say this recipe was a success. I found it on one of the many food blogs I love reading, Im such a total food blog nerd but this just sounded so good and since we had almost all the ingredients at home already it was a definite weeknight dinner.

Chicken Fajitas from fortheloveofcooking.blogspot.com

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp vinegar- (i think they meant white, we only had red wine and that worked great.)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chili powder, paprika, oregano, cumin, black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 lime, juiced

2 chicken breasts, sliced into think bite size pieces

1/2 sweet yellow onion, sliced thinly

1/4 yellow pepper and 1/4 red pepper thinly sliced (we used red and green)

combine all marinade incredients in a bag and mix thoroughly. Add chicken, onion and peppers. Marinate for 5-6 hours. Heat a skillet over medium high heat coated with cooking spray. Once the pan is HOT, add chicken, onions and peppers. Saute for about 7-8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Cilantro and Lime Cole Slaw Salad: (this made the fajitas!)

2 cups of green cabbage shredded

2 tsp olive oil

1/2-1 lime juiced

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper to taste and a dash of garlic powder

Make this salad right before you serve the tacos so it stays crunchy. Combine all ingredients until mixed thoroughly.

other ingredients ( i wish this would single space)

corn or flour tortillas ( we like flour but we had some small white corn tortillas left over from making dinner for the Ryttings and we thought this was extra good with the corn tortillas

cotija cheese-this is a must

sour cream, guacamole, Salsa

this seems kind of long, but really this recipe was sooo easy, Mckay even made them one night! and they were yumm.

mac and cheese

I've noticed a trend emerging in my posting, food.

Gramma Claire's Macaroni and Cheese
from Ruth's Diner in Salt Lake City

Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked macaroni noodles
1 cup diced onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/2 cups grated Cheddar
2 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack
1 cup cottage cheese

topping:
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Cook macaroni, drain do not rinse.

In a large saute pan, saute the onions in butter. Add the flour to make a roux and cook for 1 minute. Add the milk, bay leaves, paprika, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring often. Mix the 2 cheeses together in a small bowl. Once the mixture is at a simmer, add 3 cups of cheese mixture and the cottage cheese. Stir well, remove from heat, and remove bay leaves from mixture. Add macaroni noodles to milk mixture, mix well.

Pour 1/2 of macaroni mixture into an 8 x 8 baking dish, cover with 1/2 of the remaining grated cheese, add remaining macaroni mixture and cover with the remaining grated cheese mixture.

In a small bowl mix together the topping ingredients and top the macaroni. Place into the oven and bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes.

*** Rytting's version- for the bread crumbs I used Panko and I ended up using closer to 1/2 cup. and I added some grated parmesan cheese in to the topping, cuz a little extra cheese is a good thing. The recipe says to cook it for 45 minutes. We like our pasta saucy so we cooked it for about 30 minutes to keep it from drying up and then turned the oven to broil to toast the crumb topping.
This is yum.