Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Dear Jonathan:
We hope you have a wonderful 29th birthday. Here are a few pictures of you we like. We love you.

March 1981, League City, Texas

Marty and Jon 1981

The carrots you grew.

First Day of Kindergarten. You were supposed to wear brown but you didn't have any so mom made you a brown cloud with "brown" embroidered on it.
















Jon and Peepers.

Your baptism day.

Teenage years.

At the MTC.

Your wedding day.

We hope you have a great birthday, we love you, dad and mom.

President's Day Visit

Tuesday morning (Feb. 9th) Sam called his aunt Kathy and told her they were packing the car to come and visit.  Kerry, Sam and Lily arrived on Wednesday.  Steve flew in on Thursday.  Kristin decided it sounded like a party, so she arrived late Friday.  Jon and Michelle decided a six-hour trip was worth it, so they arrived Friday night too, right along with Indie, their Maltie-Poo.  Suddenly everyone was here.  And what do Grantie Patti and Grantie Peggy insist on whenever everyone is together--you got it, dude! Pictures! So we decided to take pictures....

The Martin Clift Family 14 Feb 2010

Peggy 'n Marty sittin' [in] a tree...

Nice Johnson Family Picture

Jon, Michelle and Indie (that little ball of white fur)

Sam, Kerry, Steve and Lily posing for the camera.

Our five grandkids and Kristin making faces for the camera.

They all left by Monday afternoon. Sigh. It was WONDERFUL to see everyone! Thanks!

Uncle Bob's Cardamon Rolls

Peggy's grandpa (Uncle Bob's dad) was a Swedish baker. They had a shop in Berkeley, CA, until around the depression time. So the Swedish bread making should run in the family. Hmmm. One of our favorites was Uncle Bob's cardamom rolls. Peggy sought the recipe from him, but somehow, they never turned out the same as his.  He passed away a few years ago, taking the mystery of how he made his rolls with him forever.

Peggy worked for a long time trying to duplicate his rolls.  She developed this delicious recipe for cardamom rolls, but, admittedly, they still are not quite as good as Uncle Bob's, but they are sooo close! His original recipe is located at the end of this blog (well the recipe he gave us anyway).

Here is our recipe for use in a bread machine: 

Here are the ten ingredients of our recipe:

• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2¼ teaspoons yeast
• 3/8 teaspoon cardamom
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup raisins
• 1 cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 1/3 cups flour

Put the butter into the milk and microwave for 70 to 77 seconds.  The butter will be mostly melted.  Pour into the bread machine basket (which you've taken out of the machine so you don't get flour and junk in the machine itself).

 We like to avoid getting dishes dirty, so we beat the egg in the measuring cup we just used for the milk.

Put everything else into the bread machine EXCEPT the raisins, set them aside. (Make sure the salt is separated from the yeast--put the flour between, so the yeast isn't killed too early by the salt).
Set the bread machine to "Dough" and start it. 

After 90 minutes your dough should look like this:

Coat a 9"X13" baking dish with shortening, and while you're at it, coat your hands too.

Take the dough, plop it into the baking dish.  Form a depression and dump in the raisins. (Raisins too early gives too much of a metallic taste to the dough.)

Fold the dough over the raisins and stretch the dough and fold it over itself.  We do this a bunch of times until the raisins are evenly distributed.

Then pull the dough apart into equally sized pieces, 15 in this case.

  

Stretch the dough around itself a few times and pinch it closed on the bottom to smooth the rolls out.

Then we cover the rolls with a non-terrycloth kitchen towel and let them rise for a couple of hours.

Like so (maybe even larger would be fine):

 Put them in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  And this is what you get:

And finally, break apart a hot roll, put a little butter on it and...

It's too bad you can't smell and taste this on the blog!

Here's the original recipe:
UNCLE BOB’S RAISIN ROLLS

• Scald: 2 cups milk.
• Pour over: 5/8 cup shortening and
• ¾ cup sugar
• Mix in: ¾ to1 cup raisins
• Add in: 8 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon cardamom
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
• Add in: 1 cake or 2 Tablespoons yeast dissolved in ¼ cup warm water

Knead until elastic. Let rise in bowl greased with shortening until doubled. Punch down dough. Form into balls. Let rise again in greased pan until doubled. Bake about 18 minutes at 375º.

And Speaking of February and Mnemonics...

Do you know this one:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
Thirty-one the others date,
Excepting February, twenty-eight;
But in leap year we assign
February, twenty-nine.

Cami's Birthday Present from Peggy

Camryn Terry is Peggy's "genetic" granddaughter (okay, she is Patti's granddaughter, and Patti is Peggy's identical twin).  Cami and family were at our house for her ninth birthday.  So Peggy crocheted these two little hats for her.

Directions to follow soon.

Articles of Faith Mnemonics

Kathy just got called to be the first counselor in the primary presidency. That made us think about our primary class of 10-year-olds (who are now 13!). We developed a mnemonic to help us memorize the Articles of Faith:

Number One: ONE Son of God who was sent to earth to save us:
1 WE believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

Number Two: TWO people, Adam and Eve:
2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.

Number Three: THREE crosses on the hill when Christ was crucified, so this is about the atonement:
3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Number Four: FOUR first principles, and FOUR counted phrases are in this article:
4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Number Five: FIVE fingers on your hand--picture putting five fingers up. No put your hand how you would for laying on of hands:
5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

Number Six: SIX offices in the primitive church, which is the "same" as our church, so over emphazise the "S" in your mind and say SIX--SAME), "same organization". Then count "six" offices (there are six if you count "and so forth" as one of the offices--a little stretch here, but we don't mind).
6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

Number Seven: SEVEN gifts. Picture opening seven gifts, each with a gift of the spirit, including "and so forth."  (Things you say and things you see are plural--so the sees and says are plural--tongues and visions, all the others have no "s" on the end).
7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

Number Eight: "8" sort of looks like the letter “B.” “B” stands for Bible: Now turn the 8 on its side. It turns into an eternity sign. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are linked eternally.
8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

Number Nine: NINE rhymes with “Mine”. What do you do in a mine? You dig things out, you reveal things, God reveals things:
9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

Number Ten: TEN lost tribes (there were twelve original tribes) of Israel.
10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

Number Eleven: ELEVEN--Put your hands up with your pointer fingers up, other fingers down, the pointer fingers of each hand together, side by side, sort of like the double set of doors found on many different kinds of churches, even other churches that worship differently–so worshiping how, where or what they may:
11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Number Twelve: TWELVE jurors in a jury–must be about following the law and who is in charge:
12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

Number Thirteen: THIRTEEN, it's just the last one that is the longest article of faith. You are on your own here: But there are four sets of 13-word phrases with the fifth set having 14 words; six virtues are listed; then follow the admonition of Paul; next, believe hope and endure. Then four more virtues at the end to seek after.
13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.