And there she goes . . .

With only 1 fatality (or tree cutters with a sense of humor)

I am feeling

High anxiety and sadness and anticipation saying goodbye to me "little" friend.

What do you do

when one thing after another has problems with it? 

 (Scanner, credit card, election, etc)?

You de-stress by sorting candy and setting up the Candy Shoppe.  

Or at least that is what I did.

This is what our house looks

like at 6:45 on Monday evenings.

We host a different Family Home Evening group from our BYU ward each Monday night.  They prepare a spiritual thought or lesson and then we usually do "Table Topics" or other games so we can get to know each other better.

These 18 year-olds are absolutely amazing.  In contrast to the awful presidential election (with so many examples of poor character), these young men and young women give me hope for our country and humanity.  (The next 4 years of whoever wins the election cannot go too fast for me -- but I digress).

For refreshments each week, I've been making pumpkin doughnuts.  Today I also made some caramel dip and put some in little individual glasses.  I'll slice the apples just before it is time to eat and put 2 or three slices in in each glass.

Having these groups of 10 to 16 people each week has helped me justify some of my obsessions -- like going overboard on the little tasting glasses and milk bottles, etc.  I actually use them!   It has also been good because I have to mop my floor and vacuum at least once a week.

Here is our selfie of the group tonight, and the recipes for the refreshments.

Baked Pumpkin Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

Ingredients:

• For doughnuts:
• 1 C + 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 C 100% pumpkin puree
• 2 1/2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 C whole milk
• Cinnamon sugar coating:
• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spritz a doughnut baking pan with a little cooking spray. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, set aside.

3) In a medium separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, melted butter, and milk. Gently fold in the wet mixture to the dry (be very careful to not overmix).

4) Place entire mixture into a large ziploc bag (then cut off a corner) or large piping bag without a tip, and pipe the doughnut dough into the doughnut rounds. There should be exactly enough dough for 6 doughnuts. 

Caramel Dip

1 pkg kraft caramels ( apparently it only works well with this brand)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 stick of butter

Heat in microwave for about 3 minutes and then stir well to combine.