Almond Roca Tutorial

Creative Circle Almond Roca Night!

Belinda Kortekaas shared her famous recipe with us 

and shared with us the tips to making it ourselves.

Tip #1 Use Costco's salted butter (she said unsalted is also okay)

Tip #2 Freeze the butter

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter (or 2 sticks)

Almonds (crushed) takes about a bag and a half of the Costco Almond Bags

Now that I think about it, we made four batches that night so you don't need that many almonds if your are making just a single batch.

1 1/2 cups of semi sweet or milk chocolate chips

(or you can use 2 chocolate bars)

Instructions:

Put a splash of crushed almonds in a pan (she used less than 1/2 cup)

Add sugar and butter. 

Cook on stove top on high heat stirring (actually blending with a twist of your wrist)

 regularly until mixture becomes the color of peanut butter. 

NEVER LEAVE YOUR PAN!

If the mixture gets too separated, add a little bit of water.

  

  Here the mixture has reached the color of peanut butter.

Spread foil on a cookie sheet. 

Spread the mixture thin or spread thick if that's how you like it, onto the foil.

Sprinkle your chocolate over the mixture and spread with the backside of a big spoon. 

 Cover the mixture with crushed almonds.

 Lightly pat/press the almonds down with a baggie.

Cool in the refrigerator and when it's ready, peel and break it off of the foil.

She placed fairly big chunks into a bowl and then pressed down to make smaller pieces.

Here is everyone!

Such a great activity.

Thank you Belinda for being such a fabulous hostess and teacher.

Family Weekend for Arthur/Grandpa

All of our children made the journey to attend their Grandpa's funeral services this weekend.

Shannon's family arrived first. Brian's grandmother who lived in Florida passed away and her services were the same weekend. He went to Florida and Shannon came here. 

Friday night was family McDonald's time.

Corinne's family arrived Friday just in time for dinner.

We had a taco bar. Here is Richard looking like a teenager.

 Spencer recently started wearing glasses. I think they look good on him. He looks more studious. 

 Meals went pretty smoothly. It seems like we always ate in waves. 

 Scott and Jess arrived about 6:30ish. 

I love how the families mix together.

 These two were born one month apart. Clara was born first.

Being a boy - Graham is a bit bigger, but they are equally so 

CUTE, CUDDLY AND HAPPY. 

 Up close and personal checking each other out.

 I think M is enjoying having another girl cousin in our family.

 Henry here has really matured over the last year or so. He is such a sweet boy.

He did a great job getting Graham to laugh with his silliness.

 Corinne and Scott's families were able to sleep at the Daly's home. We were glad for the extra space. Unfortunately between babies not sleeping well and an air mattress that didn't stay inflated - not a lot of great sleep was had by parents and babies. I so admire my children that they are all willing to sacrifice time and comfort to support family time.

Saturday was the funeral for Arthur/grandpa.

The weather was beautiful for the day. 

Fred and Sharlotte planned such a wonderful tribute to their Dad.

All the grandchildren and great-grandchildren sang

 I Am A Child of God. 

Fred and Sharlotte both shared memories.

I love all of these pictures of the pallbearer's. 

This is a very sweet picture that Jess took of Sharlotte and Fred.

We drove to Panguitch for his burial.

It was a little cold and windy, but the sky was beautiful.

 Corinne had a few moments with her Dad here. 

 The day was very much about these two. They have been working together as best as they could over the last few years making so many decisions about how to best provide care for their parents. 

It was a very emotional day for them. 

A little more family time on Saturday evening.

 Some video games for the big boys.

 Father and Son and Grandson here.

 Corinne and Scott's families headed home on Sunday morning. They both had work to get back to and a long day of driving. Shannon's family was the only one able to attend church with us on Sunday.

It was a wonderful weekend even though there was some sadness.

I feel such a relief for Arthur and know he has reunited with a couple of his brothers, parents and other family members that he loves. 

I am so thankful for our children and their desire to be here to show their love for the grandfather.

We are truly blessed. 

Las Vegas and Phoenix

Fred and I reserved three nights at this Westgate Resort.

We've stayed at two other Westgate properties and this was the first time that a 

staff member escorted us to our room. When we got to our room, 

she opened the door and it felt like walking into a hot flame. The temp in the room was 98. 

So something wrong there.

We walked back to registration and got a second room. 

We walked to that room and opened the door and it was like walking into an ashtray. 

Walked back to registration and headed to the third room. 

Third times a charm.

These are photos from their website, but this was what our room looked like.

I did use the big jacuzzi tub after we walked around all evening.

I did not wear walking shoes. I really really liked the tub.

So after we got our stuff in our room, we pretty much turned back out the door to catch the hotel shuttle to the strip. This is us waiting. That shuttle was life saving. 

We never had to drive on the strip or worry about parking. 

Our hotel was about 5-7 minutes away from the drop off at Treasure Island.

We had tickets for the Righteous Brothers at Harrah's Resort.

Bobby Hatfield the original other brother passed away in 2003. 

Bucky Heard is the replacement and he sounded just like him.

One of the backup singers is Bill Medley's daughter.

The two of them sang a song together.

It was a very nostalgic performance. 

A few songs were a bit unfamiliar, but they performed all the classics.

After the show we stopped by a Ben and Jerry's next door.

It was okay, but not terrific. I was a bit disappointed.

Across the street at the Mirage is this free "valcano show". 

This is outside the Venetian.

It really quite amazing how beautiful these resorts are. 

I took a few selfies instead of Fred operating the camera this trip.

There was this bakery in the Venetian. These dipped apples were as big as BIG grapefruits.

We walked through the shops in the Venetian by the gondolas.

Friday morning we took our time getting back to the strip.

We bought tickets for the High Roller and then looked for food.

We picked this BBQ place.

The food was not so great and expensive. 

The two side came in tiny bowls with about a 1/4 cup of food in them.

For $40 it was a big disappointment.

We walked right onto the High Roller. The entire rotation lasts 1/2 an hour.

We are taking pictures of each other here.

Here are a few view pictures.

This is on the way down. You can see we are no longer above the resorts.

I wanted to tour the M&M and Hershey's stores.

Nothing too exciting. Meaning I didn't see anything I wanted to buy.

These are big piggy banks. 

The strip really is amazing to me. The store fronts are cute as well as authentic looking.

We saw this TGI Fridays the first day we arrived. 

We haven't been to one in probably 20 years.

We were not disappointed with our burgers. 

Our Oreo ice cream sandwich was EH.

So we got a call from Scott letting us know he was being called as their Ward Executive Secretary on Sunday. We were a couple hours closer than usual, so we left a day early and drove over there.

We got there around 5:30pm. 

A super short visit, but we loved it.

I took several pictures of Fred with Graham. 

I find I didn't get any with Evan. Oops.

This is Graham on the pew next to me. I got lots of Graham holding time. 

It's always hard to stay later after church when you have babies and toddlers. 

I think Evan held it together pretty well. 

It's reassuring to me as Mom and Grandma knowing these challenging few years when they are little, don't last. It gets so much easier and enjoyable and lots more fun even.

Such an exciting time for Scott and Jess right now. 

Moving into a new house in a couple of weeks. 

Scott's new calling and growing these two boys.

It was a wonderful weekend.

Spontaneous was fun.