CAKE!!

Black Forest Cake (This was a recipe that Mike's Grandma made all the time and we love it! This is one of my go to cakes when I make one to take to someone for funeral, celebrations etc! It's so easy and yummy!

1 Box chocolate cake of your choice(OR a Cherry Chip or Strawberry cake)

3 Large eggs

1 Can Cherry Pie filling

Beat eggs, add to cake mix and then add can of cherry pie filling and stir. You can make this in a 9x13 but the layered cakes are so pretty! Divide batter into 2-8" cake pans ( A great trick I learned from the Queen of cooking Miss Paula Dean...use a ladle to do this so you can get even amounts in each pan and even cakes. Also spray your pans well and place a square of parchment paper in the bottom and spray that if you have it, if you don't spraying works!)

Bake 35-40 mins. until toothpick comes out clean. Cool a few mins. and invert.

Frost with 1 1/2 cans Chocolate icing (if you use 1/2 of a 2nd. can then you have it in the fridge next time you need another 1/2! ha I just don't think they put enough icing in those cans anymore especially for a layer cake!) and I like to doll up the top! You could sprinkle it with powdered sugar after the icing sets up, or sprinkle the soft icing with any kind of sprinkles, chocolate chips, nuts of any kind but this time I had some beautiful strawberries so I melted a few Tbs. of Chocolate chips and a bit of Crisco in the microwave and dipped those berries and set them on a plate with wax paper and popped them in the freezer! YUUUUMMM!

This baby boy is turning 17 today!! amazing how time has flown....We've spent this year watching him run Cross Country and Track, do alot in his leadership group at school, he loves his Youth group at church and enjoys discipling younger kids, he got his first "real" job including paycheck this Spring, we made a college visit and I think he's decided on that too....Crazy to be doing all this stuff with him when just yesterday we were watching Toy Story 3 and he was singing along with Buzz and Woody! boo hoo....He is a wonderful young man and we couldn't be more proud...I'm so sad he will leave home before we know it but I guess this is why we raised him, to go out into the world and do his thing...and he does a pretty great job!!

Busy with fun....

Well I haven't blogged in a few weeks...I've been too busy having fun!!! We have enjoyed having Spring finally feeling and sounding like Spring around here! We've enjoyed tulips popping up, and the gold finches coming out, and ducks basking in the sun....
We've enjoyed tea parties!! A gal at our church throws a tea for two for mom's and their daughters 1st-5th. grade! So Grace and I went! I've gone in the past with Macy and with Macy and Grace together but this year Macy was a helper in the little ladies boutique....where the little ladies can get their nails done and make up and pick feather boas and fake jewels and fans to wear during the tea!! So much fun!


Here are the girls and I! It was a cold day so we were still wearing out sweaters! The host had three kinds of tea, finger sandwiches and many tasty mini dessert treats! She tells the story of how afternoon tea began.......way back in the day a "fine lady" decided that waiting between lunch and dinner was too long....they ate lunch and then did not eat their evening ten course meal until sometimes 7 or 8:00! So she asked her cook to make her tea and some small sandwiches and treats...soon the Queen began the same and it became tradition! A "high tea" is served with dessert after the evening meal! You don't want to confuse the two! It was a lovely afternoon for the girls and I and I won a door prize with a beautiful set of plates and place mats and TEAS of course! My favorite new tea was Cinnamon Plum! mmm

Mother's day...it was nice and sunny outside and here came my "baby" jumping into my arms and I savored every moment since she's 10 and won't fit in my arms like this much longer!!! What a blessed mom I am of three fabulous kiddos that are the light of my life!!

Not to forget the great daddy who shares in this fun adventure of raising these little ducklings with me! He goes all out to make it special for me all the time!! I love that our Forsythia bushes are in bloom!! a true sign warmth is coming!!

And MY BIRTHDAY.....I am getting to the point where I can remember how old I am turning now on each Birthday! After 40 perhaps you lose count...which is ok, why does it matter? ha My Birthday goes on and on...on the day of my Birthday it was our Weds. night church service so Mike and the kids grilled steak and made a yummy dinner...Then the day after we had a family party! Here I am with aunt Roz's famous lemon cake with homemade Lemon Butter cream icing! OH HONEY! my fav!! that's aunt Roz to the left!! mmm mmm We had a great time! I got an E Reader from my parents! a total surprise, and a long 4 ft. Gold finch feeder I've wanted badly from Mike and the kids with seeds and all! I asked for a real Kick Ball because I love to play kick ball and we play with a soccer ball which hurts my toes!! haha A few gifts of money I'll use to buy flowers to plant soon and gift card, an adorable apron from a good friend, books...lots of cutie little stuff!

I am a blessed lady and May is a month full of celebrating for me! Mother's day, my Birthday and my Anniversary which is next week...22 years of wedded bliss to my honey!!

I hope you're all having a fabulous Spring!!

Apricot chicken and noodles

I am a huge fan of Apricot flavored foods so this chicken dish was so good over noodles!

4-5 boneless chicken breasts

Olive Oil

1 ts. garlic, minced

salt

pepper

1 18 oz Jar Apricot Jam/preserves

Serve over No Yolks or Whole Wheat Egg noodles

Heat 2 Tb. Olive oil in a large skillet (I use an Electric skillet so it fits all of it but if you don't have one that large cook the chicken in batches. Salt and Pepper chicken and saute' in Olive Oil (add more oil if you do this in batches) until browned and put lid on pan for 10 mins. on med/low heat. Remove chicken to a plate and add 1 ts. garlic to hot pan and stir about 1 minute. Add 1/2 C. hot water to pan and turn heat to low....After chicken has sat for at least 5 minutes cut into large chunks and add back to pan. Spoon 1/2 a jar of Apricot jam into pan and let simmer on low for 5 minutes until thick and bubbly. Serve over Noodles or Rice! This would be great with red peppers in it but I didn't have any one hand, you can saute' the red pepper after your remove the chicken for a few mins. and then add garlic and proceed as the recipe says.

HAPPY SPRING!

Easter....family and food!

We had a wonderful Easter again this year! We colored eggs, and did baskets but most important we celebrated the TRUE meaning of Easter! Jesus dying and rising again!!! HE IS RISEN!!! My kids will never be too old to get Easter baskets and I still hide them and they still look! Here are the girls checking out what's in their basket! Jordan was slower on the go Easter morning...he isn't as enthusiastic about finding his basket as he gets older! ha

Jordan did help me make chocolate bird's nest cookies! I'll share the recipe below! they are such a yummy treat and so cute for Easter/Spring!

I should have not made them for Easter though...we had TOO much food and too much dessert to really enjoy them! haha We ended up with EIGHT Chocolate bunnies!! It makes me cringe that I know they are in this house....they call to me all day!! and sad to say I've downed one whole Crispy bunny since Sunday!!! oh well.....perhaps it's out of my system! (yeah right!)

We bought a Tie Dye egg coloring kit this year! it was fun and made really cool looking eggs! I always love to crack the eggs open for devilled eggs or egg salad and see the colors that leaked through the cracks making a cool pattern on that bright white egg! Jordan didn't join in the fun this year.....I can picture him in college in a few years WISHING to come home and color eggs with his sisters...so I can wait him out!

Easter Sunday I cooked for 13!! my mom and Mike's aunt helped bring food! as always it was all delicious and we had lots of fun! The sun was shining so it made a nice day for all of us! It's a blessing to all of us to have grandparents join. My Grandma has a tougher time getting out easily so we missed her this year but Mike's Grandpa was able to join us and he was in great spirits Easter Sunday! We were laughing at him getting into the Easter Candy! I suppose once a sweet tooth always a sweet tooth! He's thin so he can afford it! We played some games including "Headbands" it's alot of fun so he was a good sport and played along!!

We treasure our family times together and the laughter we all share rings in mind for days after!! Hope you all had a great Easter!!

Birds nest cookie:

1 bag Chinese crunchy noodles (these are the cracker type noodles, they are crispy and you usually put them over chow mien)

1 bag chocolate chips OR butterscotch chips

1 ts. Crisco

1/2 C. mini M & M's

Place waxed paper on to two baking sheets. Pour Mini M & M's into a bowl. Melt chips and Crisco in a glass dish in the microwave until melted. Stirring every 25 seconds until completely melted. Pour 3/4 bag noodles into a large bowl and pour chocolate over that and stir until coated. Spoon by Tbls. on to baking sheets to form nests and put 3-4 M & M's into center of nest. Chill in refrigerator or on the counter overnight!

Good words....

from Jesus Calling(devotional) I am training you in steadiness. Too many things interrupt your awareness of Me. I know that you live in a world of sight and sound, but you must not be a slave to those stimuli. Awareness of Me can continue in all circumstances, no matter what happens. This is the steadiness I desire for you. Don't let unexpected events throw you off course. Rather, respond calmly and confidently, remembering that I am with you. As soon as something grabs your attention, talk with Me about it. Thus I share your joys and your problems; I help you cope with whatever is before you. This is how I live in you an work through you. This is the way of Peace. Psalm 112:7; Isaiah 41:10

Crispy Oatmeal Raisin cookies...

These were SO good! I'll make them over and over I think....I love an oatmeal cookie that is crisp and stays that way the next day! (I love the Quaker recipe too for Vanishing Oatmeal cookies when I'm in the mood for a soft cookie too)

Crisp Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 C. shortening

1/2 C. butter (1 stick)

1 C. packed brown sugar

1 C. white sugar

2 eggs

1 ts. vanilla

2 C. flour

1 ts. baking powder

1 ts. baking soda

1 ts. salt

1 1/2 C. rolled oats

1 C. Raisins

Nuts Optional

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease cookies sheets.

2. In a large bowl, cream together shortening, butter and sugars. Mix in the egg and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into batter until well blended. Mix in the oats, and raisins until well distributed. Scoop with med. cookie scoop or

1 1/2" rounds and place on baking sheet 2" apart. Press dough with a fork to flatten cookie (this makes a bigger cookie!)

3. Bake for 12 mins. or until edges are browned.

Makes almost 4 1/2 dozen.

You could add chocolate chips, chocolate covered raisins, nuts, M & M's, coconut ......dried cherries...the combinations could be endless!! enjoy!

Spring break....

We just had Spring break last week and it was one of the best we've ever had....We didn't go anywhere warm and it was plenty cold here during it! but the sun was out alot! The best part were the late nights and LATE mornings! Very restful! One of the days we went to the Henry Ford Museum. My kids and Mike have been on several field trips there but we haven't been in ages as a family...as a matter of fact I think I haven't been since I was a child. There's also a Village there but it won't open for another week or so! Check it out here if you are interested...we found that buying a family membership was the best route to take since it's good for a year!

The railroad was a cool exhibit and I LOVED this stage/train...I could just picture Ma and Pa Ingles riding on to visit Mary and Adam in Sleepy Eye!! can you imagine how bumpy and dusty it would have been.......however, it would have been so exciting for those mama's and daddies that yearned to visit their children and have a means of faster travel! I can't even fathom those big fat dresses they wore and the bustles....imagine that in summer! yikes!

The flying exhibit was very neat!! When you see some of those early planes you just can't imagine anyone would fly in them safely! Some with no enclosed pilot seats...I don't know how they didn't get sucked right out!! Amazing to see how far we've come with flight (and yet...I still do not like to fly! haha) We read an interesting tid bit that Amelia Earhart sold her piano to buy flying lessons as a young woman! pretty amazing....

We met our good friends Dan and Leanne and four of their kids there. That was the highlight for my girls!! haha and ME! Leanne and I had fun watching our little Cherubs walk around filling their minds with great history and interesting facts! I loved her commenting on Grace walking around with a notebook writing down facts...she said "Grace is every homeschooling mom's dream writing this stuff down!" haha Grace enjoyed that alot and there was a rubbing drawing you could make at each exhibit so she did them in her notebook!

Here we are about half way through...watching some of our kids cranking a power source that lit up the harder you cranked. Macy and Lydia were wore out from cranking! haha We were in the big engine section....amazing how some of those old machines ran on those gigantic engines!

I took a picture of a bus that was there but I can only add a limited amout of photos here. We sat on the bus that Rosa Parks sat on when she was taken off and arrested. I was so moved hearing her story.....The tour guide was explaining that actually she was seated in the black seating section but a white person came on and the bus driver asked her to move and she stood her ground. She was 42 years old.....I am 42 years old...could I be that couragious? I hope so....it made my heart ache as the guide told us how the black people had to pay their dime up front and go to the back door of the bus to get in and sometimes the bus driver would take their money and drive away when they got out to go to the back door.

During the time the guide was talking to us a high school aged group of kids got on the bus and there were many African American kids in the group and I just watched their faces as they listened to a recording about this time in history and I prayed they would have courage, that they would be seen as equals ......I said to my kids after that and after we saw some exhibits about slavery "it's awful to think God created people and somewhere along the way someone decided one group of people was less important than other"! how did that happen! I pray things are greatly changed today!!!

Here we are .....the two original Oscar Mayer Wieners!!! hahaha OK some facts about the Wiener Mobile ...it was created as the first commercial vehicle to premiere a product on the streets! It was in many parades through the years and you should have seen all the Oscar Mayer Wiener stuff you could buy in the gift shop! We did buy a Wiener whistle!! I tried to get Jordan a deck of cards but he declined!! haha

We hope to go back to the Village outside when it gets warmer outside. They have a working train and in the Spring months there are some weekends that the train is "dressed up" to look like Thomas the Train! I thought that would be a BLAST to see, however no one in my family said the same! ha

It was a fun time!

We had a great break, good food, dear friends came to visit from out of town and fun was had by all!!!!!!