How To Choke, Cry, and Laugh Simultaneously: Otherwise known as "The Name Game"

If you want to laugh harder than you have for a long time...
If you want to prove that sisterly minds think alike.....
If you want to play a game that doesn't involve finding dice or a deck of cards with four whole suits....
Or if you simply are tired of all the games you generally play, this game is for you! :)

It has an innocent title that scarcely belies it's hilarious propensity: The Name Game

Here are the rules:

• Divide all the players into two teams- if you have two different families, it's hilarious to put siblings on the same team. We communicate with almost a different language, and the points really rack up :D
• Each player takes four (or more) different slips of paper and writes a different name on each- These can be names of friends, famous people, people from history, well-known characters from books or movies, etc.
• Put all the names into a bowl
• First Round starts- Choose which team goes first. A player on the opposite team has a stopwatch, egg-timer, etc. Set for one minute.
  The team going first chooses one player to start. That player takes the bowl of names and picks a slip of paper, and once the timer starts, begins to describe the person on the slip of paper. They cannot use any part of the person's name. When the teammates guess correctly, the player picks up another piece of paper and continues.
  This goes on until the time is up. Save out your pieces of paper- they're important! :)
  Play moves on to Team Two. Keep playing this way until all the scraps of paper are used up.
  When the bowl is empty, count your slips of paper- these are you points. Replace slips of paper in bowl and get ready for Round Two! :)
• Second Round starts- In this round, the rules are the same as charades. You have to get your teammates to guess the name on the slip of paper without using any words, sounds, or props.
  Play continues with same rules as first round, until the bowl is empty. Tally points again. Replace slips of paper in bowl and prepare for the last and Final Round! :)
• Third and Final Round starts- In this round, you play the same general rules as former rounds, only this time you have to get your team to guess the names by saying one word. Example: (I draw a slip of paper that says "Collin Firth" and I could say "Darcy", hoping my teammates would understand.) Once more, play till the bowl is empty. Tally up points, and whichever team has the highest score, wins! :)

There! It's an easy game, and absolutely hilarious! :) By the third round it's pretty easy because you are simply recycling the same names through all the rounds. :)
If you are anything like our family, you will find yourselves yelling and shouting out answers, and looking ridiculous! The charades round is definitely the funniest. Let's just say we were crying we were laughing so hard when we played it this afternoon! :)
At the beginning I mentioned that playing with siblings on a team is the most fun. It is also a disadvantage to other players, because especially with the one-word round, you have associations with people that might afford you a quick way out and other players wouldn't understand! :D
Example: One time the name on my slip of paper was "Doug Philips". Earlier in the game someone had misheard the name and thought it was "Bug so-and-so", so that by the third round all I had to say was "bug" and Sarah could guess correctly! :)

A Movie Review on The Inheritance

We have discovered a new favorite family movie: "The Inheritance"! It is sweet story of a young lady, an orphan, named Edith Adelon (Cari Shane). She lives as a companion for the daughter of the very wealthy Hamiltons. A distant cousin of the Hamiltons, the false and nasty Ida Glenshaw, comes to stay with them, as does a young man, Mr. James Percy (Thomas Gibson). As Edith finds herself learning to love Mr. Percy, Ida Glenshaw sourly reminds her that she will "never be one of us" (meaning born to wealth) and so Edith puts away her love, believing that did she marry Mr. Percy, she would forever make him miserable and bring shame to him. Then Mr. Hamilton finds a trunk full of his deceased brother's things, and unearths some very surprising news..... I won't tell you what!

This movie was based off of a book written by Louisa May Alcott as a 17 year old young woman, and is absolutely wonderful! The movie is quite different than the book, but kept the same message, which I greatly appreciated. Louisa May Alcott certainly had some strange beliefs, but the core messages in her books are something to be admired and imitated by anyone who reads them!

The Inheritance has perhaps a rather predictable story-line, and a classic heroine: an orphaned young woman named Edith Adelon. But Edith is a girl worth admiring. She is sweet, and good, but not in a way that seems syrupy. And her heart is just a lovely as her sweet face.

Mr. Percy is also admirable for his courtesy, gentlemanly and respectful treatment of all the movie's women, and his character.

I believe one of my favorite things about the book, and the movie, is the great character displayed by the hero and heroine. At one point in the movie when Mrs. Hamilton is entreating Edith to keep Ida Glenshaw away from "plain Mr. Percy", Edith speaks up:

"A person's face will change over time, but a person's heart will not. Mr. Percy's seems to be a good and pure heart, and one that I think would be worth winning." Such a remark is quite rare coming from a pretty heroine!

And in the book, when a young man is describing Mr. Percy and says, "Few could lead as pure a life as he. His brother was his dearest friend who he watched over with all a father's tenderness and care; but at last a fair young cousin came to live with them, and both the brothers loved her. Neither knew the other's secret till Walter, our Lord Percy, heard his brother whisper the dear name in sleep, and then he nobly put away his own joy, and strove to win for his younger brother, the heart he loved so tenderly himself, and he succeeeded. "

Beat that for selflessness!

The story is unbeatable, and has a great message-namely that the only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.

I've told you the pros, and now I must tell you just a couple of cons:

Ida Glenshaw, the falsely charming cousin, is the villain of this story. And as such, some of her dresses are..ahem...rather low in the neck. So we were ready with our ever-trusty piece of paper to cover her up the several times she came onscreen in those particular costumes.

Then, there is another villain, Mr. Frederick Arlington, who falls in love with Edith, and tries to kiss her very much against her will, until Mr. Percy comes and rescues her. Those are the only undesirable things in the movie, and, I am told that Feature Family Films has somehow cut out that part, and raised all of Ida's dresses, and replaced one not-so-great word, so that the movie is perfectly clean for even the strictest viewer. All in all though, this is a movie everyone in the family will enjoy! (Daniel watched it, liked it, and the only criticism he passed was, "it was a bit predictable"! :) And if you don't end up watching the movie, please, please, please, read the book! I read it last year in one afternoon, then loved it so much I started over and read it aloud to Leah! One of my top favorite books for sweetness! I can't remember the exact quote, but in the end of the book Lord Percy says something like: "I do not care for your money Edith, for the purity of your heart is the richest inheritance I shall ever be given." Love it!!! :) -Rachel

The First of The Zucchini

Zucchini is a desperately misunderstood vegetable. ;) It exists in most peoples' minds as something their parents made them eat. Katie Wilson and I remember it as something our mother's threw on the grill on the way down to Clayton, GA, and that we ate with plugged noses. (For shame! :) I like it now. But did you know that some people don't even realize it is a vegetable? Abigail insists that the reason we don't like going down to the beach in the summer is because there are lots of immodest ladies walking around in zucchinis. Poor vegetable, it has such a false reputation amongst modest little girls who unbeknowst to themselves, daily tend it in the garden! :D All this to say, I have found two recipes in which even the most picky of eaters would fail to detect the presence of zucchini. The first is something Benjamin begs me to make each year. So yesterday, with the first zucchini from our garden, I made it: May I introduce you to:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake!

2 1/2 c. flour 2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa 3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. orange zest

1 tsp. salt 2 cups shredded zucchini

1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 c. milk

3/4 c. softened butter 1 c. nuts (optional)

Combine dry ingredients. Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, zest, and zucchini. Alternately add dry mixture and milk. Add nuts. Spoon into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes. Frost with Chocolate frosting (recipe follows)

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. softened butter

2/3 c. cocoa

vanilla to taste

3 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. milk

Cream butter and cocoa. Add vanilla. Add milk and sugar, alternating. Beat till smooth.

Sound good? We ate ours with fresh strawberries. Here is a picture. (Isn't that hand most mysterious? I wonder who it belongs to? ;)

And the other, equally great recipe that I don't have a picture of:

Zucchini Spice Bread

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups grated zucchini

2/3 cups melted butter

2 tsp. baking soda

1 pinch of salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 cup raisins or nuts (optional)

Mix the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together. Add zucchini and butter. Sprinkle the soda and salt over the mixture, and stir well. Add flour, one cup at a time. Add spices, raisins, and nuts. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes.

Enjoy the recipes! They were super good! We ate the cake last night, and the bread for breakfast this morning! :P -Rachel

Recipe For Foccacia Bread

Hey guys! I was making foccacia bread yesterday, and I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys! (I don't know if anyone pays attention to recipes anyway, but I'll try this time! ;)
Okay. So here is the basic recipe:

Rachel's Focaccia (foe-cotch-a) Bread Recipe:
4 1/2 tsp. yeast
4 cups warm water
4 tsp. natural cane sugar
5 tbs. plus 1 tsp. olive oil
4 tsp. sea salt
8-10 cups white-wheat flour
By the way, this makes enough focaccia bread that our family of 11 ate it for dinner last night with left-overs, and there is still a pan for lunch with my grandparents today. If you are a small family, just cut the recipe in half or so! :)

Okay. So I started by grinding out white spring wheat in our Whisper Mill. There's nothing like freshly ground wheat!

Then I combined the yeast and the sugar in one cup of the warm water. I let this proof for about 5 minutes. Think it's puffy enough? :)

I added the yeast mixture, along to the remaining water, oil, and salt in our mixer. Then I slowly added the flour until it formed a nice ball of dough. At this point I turned it out on the floured counter, and kneaded it till it was... well as we say, "smooth as a baby's bottom". :) I made a nice, smooth ball and put it in a greased bowl to rise on the warm front porch for an hour or so. Meanwhile, I crammed some more of Ivanhoe. (Still trying to finish it! :)

When the dough is done rising, you grease two pizza pans, and dust them with cornmeal. I didn't have any, so I used flour. It works the same way.

Here is the dough after it has risen!

You then divide the dough in half, and roll each piece out to roughly the size of your pan. Plop that in the pans, and cover it. Let rise again for about 1/2 hour or so. After that is done, comes the fun part! You get to poke a bunch of holes all over the top and dimple it. Brush the surface with olive oil.

Here's where I go off the recipe: I like making a mixture of dried herbs to go on the top. So I just grab whatever is in the cabinet, and make up a mixture that is spicy and tasty enough to suit Daniel and Dad! :) I think I used basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder this time. Sprinkle whatever you decide to use on the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

So here it is when I took it out of the oven!

And here is a piece after it is cut! This has become a favorite recipe in our family! Hope you enjoy it! :) -Rachel