Images of Today

Bible Lesson Plagues on Egypt Exodus 10-11

Rearranged the kitchen a little. Removed a cabinet door to display dishes. Idea from Better Homes & Gardens.

Erica made Pineapple Upside Cake for dessert.

Gorgeous fabric I won-Sweet  Lush by Patty Young for Michael Miller. Deciding what to sew with it.

The Christmas Snack Carrier

A great way to deliver caramel corn and snack mixes.

Cookie Baking Fun

This year they chose fun bright colors for the frosting~~

Warning: Proud Mom Post

Fine Art Entries: Josh's Blue Jay and Isaac's Beavers

Lego Projects

Josh's Awards

Isaac's Awards

This year the boys wanted to enter Lego projects in our county fair. I figured that it wouldn't be too much more trouble to enter a few more categories.  Of course,the prize money was a good incentive.

Josh got a blue ribbon for his market hog, and he got first for his peanut butter bars and also best of the Jr. division. 

Isaac got a red ribbon for his Lego structure, an honorable mention for his drawing and blue ribbons for his monster cookie and zucchini muffins.

It was a good experience for them and I anticipate them entering more projects next year.

Baking for the Fair

The boys baked for the fair this year. They also drew, painted and built Legos. I just don't have any pictures  of those projects yet.  Josh made Peanut Butter Bars and Isaac made Monster Cookies and Zucchini Muffins.  Their inspiration: They hope to win and get rich :)

Images of a Spring Morning

24 Years? How can it be?

We drove down to Columbus on Saturday to celebrate Andy's birthday. I can't believe that I have a child that is 24. Time really does fly. After a little shopping, we went out to eat at Red Robin. FYI: You can get a free gourmet burger on your birthday by signing up here I got the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad that was on special. It was really good. We stayed overnite and attended church with Andy on Sunday. It was so nice to get away for the weekend.

Isaac displaying his new "funny" face. Camera shy sisters.

Erica made Andy his favorite lemon cake (see recipe below)

Lemon Miracle Cake

1 sm box lemon jello

1 cup boiling water

1 pkg cake mix (we used lemon)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1T lemon extract

4 eggs

Glaze

Combine until smooth:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

7 T Real Lemon Juice

Dissolve lemon jello in cup of boiling water; set aside to cool. Mix cake mix with oil, lemon extract add eggs one at a time on low speed-then add cooled jello and pour into 9x13 pan. Bake at 350○ for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and punch holes with fork all over hot cake. Immediately pour glaze over cake.

This recipe comes from our church cookbook. A very dear lady always brought it to every potluck.

Josh Makes Cookies

Josh wanted to make cookies today. I tried to talk him out of it because I was baking bread and we had Awana at church tonight. But he insisted-so I gave in. Here he is carefully measuring the brown sugar.

Erica lends a helping hand. The recipe made more than they thought it would. Next time we'll use the larger Kitchenaid mixer.

Rolling the dough in sugar.

Just out of the oven.

Mmmm!

Here's the recipe: Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

2 c shortening

2 c peanut butter

4 c brown sugar

4 eggs

5 c flour

2 t baking powder

3 t baking soda

1 t salt

Cream shortening, sugar, and peanut butter. Add eggs and mix well, then add dry ingredients. Bake at 375 degrees until set, but not hard. Don't bake until brown or cookies will be hard.

We rolled ours in sugar before baking.

From: "Family Favorites from Our House to Yours" Matthew & Marlene Troyer and Family

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I have been on the lookout for more copies so I can give one to each of the kids when they leave the nest.

Pocket Pies

Pocket pies made by Erica. She makes the best pie crust (a skill she did not inherit from me). These ones were apple.Yummm!
We got her this for Christmas at Williams-Sonoma. They have some neat items! They can be a little pricey but I can usually find a few treasures that aren't too costly. Plus, I know that she'll use this for years.

Another Day... Another Birthday!

Yesterday Isaac was 8 and today Erica is 21. So we are celebrating another December birthday! Of course, we had to get Erica a box of her favorite treats!

She always enjoys receiving a holiday baking magazine.

The perfect gift for a Florida Gator's fan!

It was especially appropriate for today's weather. It was only 10 degrees out this morning. Brrr!

We all enjoyed a yummy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake made by Sarah.

Erica is such a special gift from God. She is always calm and patient and she is such a help to me around the house. She is attending a local college full time. She is great with kids and is planning on being a teacher to those with special needs. Happy Birthday-We love you!

Birthday Blessings and Surprises

My birthday was yesterday. I woke up to surprise birthday streamers in the kitchen.

A surprise box of rolls from our favorite bakery. My Mom and Step-Father dropped these off for my birthday and the two we have next week. They were also a thank-you gift for carrying up many boxes of christmas decorations for them.

A gorgeous surprise! The most beautiful silk flower arrangement delivered to my door. They are from a very dear friend who lives far away.


The girls made a beautiful centerpiece on the kitchen table. They incorporated my floral gift and the birthday dessert. So pretty! The picture doesn't do it justice.

I was spoiled. Now they won't know what to get me for Christmas. A new sweater, earrings and an ornament from the girls. The guys got me an ironing board, steak knives and an egg slicer. Practical gifts that I've been wanting. Have you ever tried ironing on an ironing board that is bent? Needed a new one! Josh broke my last egg slicer so he got me a snazzy new red one.



For supper the girls tried out a new recipe: Tuscan Chicken. It was very good!

A sweet little dessert. Chocolate Peppermint Tassies.

Thanksgiving Creativity

I found this Mayflower craft here. The boys did a great job making it. Each family member got 5 slips of paper to write what they were thankful for. It was fun to read them all!

We got the idea for these fall cookies from Woman's Day Magazine here.

But, we used Tim's Aunt's recipe for the cookies. This recipe comes highly recommened. Nice consistancy, good flavor, and no chilling time.

Cut-Out Cookies

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3 scant tsp. baking powder

3 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time-mixing thoroughly between additions. Add vanilla. Mix flour and baking powder together and mix with butter mixture. Roll 1/4" thick and bake at 400 degrees for 4-6 minutes. Do not overbake. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

It's the BIG one!!

Today is the BIG game between Ohio State and Michigan. For some reason, my girls really enjoy football. They always plan out a party with lots of goodies. They are so creative! Cut-out sugar cookies, buckeyes, helmet-shaped finger jello, fruit kabobs and nachos. Wow! Can you tell which team they root for? And me, well I plan on sewing. I just got new orders in my shop :)

Try Outs...

I recently added Mennonite Girls Can Cook to my blog list. Since then I've had people ask me if I had tried any of the recipes.

The perfect opportunity arose when I had pork chops to use. I tried the recipe for Pork in Sour Cream Sauce. I also made Oven Mushroom Rice They were both very good! Because the pork chops were cooked in a skillet on the stove top, I used the stove top version of the Mushroom Rice. I cooked the rice even longer than the recipe stated but it wasn't tender. I believe the problem is in the type of rice I used. (This happened previously with another recipe.) The flavor was really good.

I really like it when we can produce our own food. It's nice to know the origins of what we eat. The pork was raised this summer by my seven year old. (Which is why he wouldn't eat any.) The green beans were grown in our garden and home canned. The dinner roll was a left-over made by Sarah. We also tried Strawberry Delight This recipe used strawberries that were picked and frozen this past June.

I would highly recommend Mennonite Girls Can Cook I thought it would be a winner since most of my favorite cookbooks are Amish or Mennonite in origin. They tend to use common ingredients and the results are very family friendly. I can't wait to try out some more of their recipes. There are a lot to choose from and they keep adding more :) Let me know if you try some too.