Here are a couple good recipes....

POTATO CREAM CHEESE SOUP
This is like the soup from Wildflower Bread CO. It is so good!

1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup very finely diced celery
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
3 cups shredded potatoes
3 cups low salt chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
4 oz. cream cheese
2 Tbsp. cooked and crumbled bacon or very finely diced ham
1/2 tsp dill weed
Salt
Pepper

In small saucepan sauté onions and celery in butter until tender. Add flour; stir and cook over medium heat 1 minute. Set aside.

In 3 quart pan combine broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook until potatoes are tender, but not mushy. Stir occasionally so potatoes don't stick.

While potatoes are cooking, melt cream cheese with sour cream in microwave. Add cream cheese mixture to potatoes and broth mixture along with onion and celery. Add dill and bacon. Simmer and stir until creamy. Add salt and Pepper to taste. Thin with milk if necessary.

Serves 5 to 6. Top with sprinkling paprika. Enjoy!


really good meatballs

1 bag of frozen fully-cooked meatballs
1 jar grape jelly
1 bottle of chili sauce.

I usually combine jelly and chili sauce then pout over frozen meatballs in the crock pot. Stir occasionally. Cook until heated through. Enjoy!

Spotlight on Nina Shaw

I seriously don’t have a single picture of just me. I could barely even find a photo with me in it, since I am always taking the pictures. I love the idea of having a spotlight every week. What a great way to get to know some of our sisters. I will have to admit that I wish it was anyone but me this week. It feels weird talking about yourself.
I was born in Michigan but have spent most of my life in Arizona. I definitely am a desert rat. I have a hard time when it is too cold. I lived in Scottsdale when I was young and moved to Payson in 6th grade. I went to ASU for college and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Microbiology-Clinical Laboratory Sciences. I worked as a Clinical Microbiologist in a tuberculosis lab and also for a short while as a Hydrologist (fun).
I have been married 10 years now and we have 2 kids. Aaron is 5 and Hannah just turned 1. I just this year started staying home full time with them. It has been great. My husband is so happy with me staying home, since I have been cooking more now. He's easy.

Hobbies: I have way too many. I love to do yoga. I have been doing it forever. My teacher right now is this 60year old women who is so neat. I learn so much from her. I also like to hike with friends. I had an infatuation with Pichacho Peak for awhile. I would drag my friends their as often as I could. One friend thought I was trying to kill her. If you have ever done that hike you know what she meant. You have to almost rock climb on cliffs and hang onto metal bars. I also like to make things out of glass and metal, I have a kiln to fuse glass. I used to make jewelry and have a mold to make bowls. The metal I would weld. I made some lights to hang on the back porch. The metal and glass I havn’t touched lately but hopefully I will pick it back up when I have more time. It’s a lot of fun. Lately, I have been sewing. I started sewing vintage bibs for friends who are having babies. So, watch out if your pregnant.

Fun facts:

I hate red meat. It disgusts me. When I smell a barbecue going in someones backyard It makes me want to throw up.

I love the 60's and 70's. Anything, avocado green, mustard yellow, or glittery is great.

I am a science fiction nerd. I loved the series "Firefly". So, sad it is not on anymore.

My favorite websites lateley are:
I am a horrible cook and I like these 2 websites. They explain everything in their recipes. Even, why you should add the butter first in mashed potatoes..
Cooksillustrated.com
Americastestkitchen.com

Anyway, Thanks for reading. I'm sure you have had enough.

Hey, how about we hear from Shauna Fuller next friday.

Disney Summer sales

It's me again, and I'm sure you guys are thinking that I shop often. I really don't, but we are celebrating birthday's and baby showers so I'm on the prowl and can't help but share a great deal..

The Disney Store is having its Summer savings right now!

You can get t-shirts for $2.99 and PJ's for 4.99 Plus several toys for 50% off.

Can't beat the price of their pajama's Thought I should spread the good news.

I noticed the Disneywebsite has different prices compared to in store, but they do have a summer promotional code to take off 40% at your purchase. The code is summer40.

Carpet Cleaning

I've been wanting to clean my carpets and my couch for some time now.

Does anyone know of a carpet cleaning business they are impressed with for reasonable prices?

Spotlight on Liz Whitehorn

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Well, here is our first inaugural Spotlight for the San Tan Diva's!!!

A little about me: I was born in Ogden Utah but consider myself an Army brat where I’ve lived in Utah, Arizona and Colorado. I’ve estimated moving more than 20 times during my entire life thus far. I am the second oldest to seven children and I am a twin with my brother who was born a half an hour later than I. No, we don’t have some phsycodelic power where we feel each others pain when he or I gets hurt.
I met my husband in Tucson at the Institute while I was home for the summer away from college. It was that summer where I believed in love at first sight. Less than six months later we were married in the Mesa Temple in December of 2000 and have enjoyed 7 ½ years of wedded bliss. Ben is a former expat having grown up overseas his whole childhood. I took him to his first high school football game. He’s lived a total of 7 years in Brazil, two were from his mission for the church. His four years of high school were in Portugal, 6 months in Taiwan and 6 years in Hong Kong. Needless to say we have lots of fun conversations of his unique childhood.

We now have three children and I truly enjoy staying at home being a wife and mother to them. Abby is four going on five in September and is anxiously looking forward to kindergarten. Christian is three and I’m thoroughly enjoying his imagination right now. William is 16 months and I’m counting down the days for him to go into nursery .

Little random tidbits about me…

• I don’t like to eat peas, they make me gag, root beer floats and yogurt do the same thing too.
• I consider myself a fruit snob. Ever since I was pregnant with my first, if the fruit is not the right texture I can’t stand finishing the peach, apple or banana.
• I have gotten better but I am a reality show fanatic. The latest shows I am watching recently are: So You Think You Can Dance, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Hell’s Kitchen, Americas Next Top Model etc..
• I don’t partifculary like swimming, it’s the cold water. But with weather being a 110 it easily warms the water and then I’ll go out.
• I love board games
• I’m not a breakfast fan. I know it’s the most important meal of the day. But unless its hashbrown and pancakes or something really warm I don’t like to eat breakfast.
• I graduated Magne Cum Laude from ASU with my teaching degree.
• I've attended all major universities in the state of Arizona and all the small community colleges in between. It took me six years to complete college, getting married and having two kids in the midst of all that will do that to ya.
• I’ve been to France, Italy, Portugal, England and Taiwan and I hope the distant traveling doesn’t stop there. I love to travel. I’m hoping for something tropical next.
• I used to love ice cream. But with all the silver in my teeth I can’t stand it anymore.
  Speaking of silver teeth, I’ve had two root canals in my life. One when I was seven years old, I equate the bad teeth to not having enough calcium since I was a twin.
• Ben and I disagree where the thermostat should be set; apparently its easier to put on a sweater.
• I was surprised my senior year that I made Voices Unlimited in high school. Its a small group of singers where you try out to sing and dance.
• In high school swing dancing was all the rage and I loved it!!! I would sneak into the Institute to learn new swing steps with my older brother and I even had a consistent swing partner. Mt. View even asked if we could perform for the school.
• I get a natural high when I empty a container of something like shampoo or lotion. I don’t like to waste anything, but can’t wait to try the next one.
• If I had it my way, I wouldn't ever want a pet, but I know that’s not going to happen; however not any time soon.

Spotlighting a cleaning product that I’ve come across in the past two years that I have loved and wished I had known before are :

Kaboom and Rain-X
I swear by these products to keeping your shower floor clean and your glass doors on your shower clear.

Rain –X can be found in the car department, it acts as seal on your shower window and drips off when hard water comes hitting down on it. Love them both!!

I'm in love with this next product!!

It's Sally Hansen's Just Feet Deep Callus Remover.
It deeply penetrates and breaks down even the most stubborn calluses and thick, hard skin buildup. There really are amazing results in just minutes!
You do not leave on longer than a minute and I rub with a pumice stone on my feet and presto my feet are as smooth as if I took them to go get a pedicure.
You can buy the bottle at any grocery store for I think $7 and it has lasted a long time.

Last but not least I’ve happened upon this website these last couple of months and it has impressed me how it is helping Abby along with her reading. Thought I would share!

Starfall.com

I want to hear from Nina Shaw for next Friday’s spotlight!! I guess we'll have to get that account up and going like we talked about now huh.

Summer Savings at Gymboree

I was really impressed with the great sales and large stock they had on hand at Gymboree this weekend. I was hoping to catch some great end of summer sales for the new school year, and sales we did find. I got Abby a few denim capri pants for less than $10.00 a few shirts for $5.99 and more great sales! I was walking away very happy and thought I should spread the good news.

Fun Friday!

In hopes of getting to know each other better I'd like to start a recurring post each Friday and I hope you'll join me. We'll call it "Spotlight!"

Please consider posting fun facts about yourself, things that we might not already know about you, so we can all get to know each other a bit better. You can include a picture of yourself too, but only if you want to. : ) You could add a fashion trend that you regret, or a fun or embarassing childhood memory to liven it up.
Last but not least have you ever thought to yourself when you bought a a great cleaning product or beauty product you love and swear by and wished you knew about before. Here's a great opportunity to share your great find by sharing your favorite Beauty product/Cleaning product and or great find such as website or all three!

I'll go first! starting this Friday!