Oh! Hey There!

Huh, true to my nature, I've stopped writing for ages now.  One day I'll get myself together.  It's been a lot of ups and downs, but we're still trucking right along.
 
   We just started our 5th year at the garden!  Had a few things to work out.  We had to re-size our plot to keep in line with the rest of the gardeners.  As it's a large raised bed, it was a lot of work.  Unfortunately there's plants that had to be uprooted in order to get the work done, and a lot of soil to relocate.  I put my delphinium back in the ground, but it's still up in the air if it survived or not.  My gigantic thyme plant that's large enough to declare itself a sovereign country is looking pretty sad.  Hopefully I'll be able to put her back in the ground soon, and give her a good haircut, get her feeling all refreshed.  And then there's my lavender.  When I first got the plot, there was one big lavender plant.  I took a dull, somewhat rusty shovel and split him in two.  Both halves survived and thrived at opposite ends of the garden.  But now, his twin had to be dug up for this move.  However, she's seeming to survive the uprooting just fine for now.

   So far all we have planted, that isn't a perennial, is peas, onions, and a couple leeks.  Two years ago I put one little bitty strawberry plant on the south end, and now it's taken over most of that half of the plot!  'S okay though, there's plans in place to add a new strawberry box they'll be moved to so they can be contained.  I still have the gigantic rosemary plant that used to be planted in a McDonald's cup as a natural air freshener in my car.  Thing is chest high to me now, and I'm 6'2"!  At least one of the dahlias have begun to poke out of the ground.  It's going to take some cleanup to find if the others are still kickin' under there.  For some reason my crocus' only gave me leaves, never flowered.

   Other things going on this year... I met my Grandfather!  I'm turning 38 this year and have finally met my Grandfather.  It's a long story, and as it affects so many still living I'll not get into it, but it is what it is.  It's as simple as this... I grew up with the understanding that I had two Grandmothers and three Grandfathers.  All but my maternal Grandmother and birth Grandfather have passed on.  The opportunity to meet and know my Grandfather wasn't there for various reasons.  But this year we all were finally able to say "to Hell with the reasons" and make it happen.  I couldn't be any happier!  I swear he and I are so much alike it's scary!  There is no way this trip would have happened without the help of my parents.  I couldn't afford it on my own, and so they foot the bill.  My husband also helped out... he dipped into his retirement fund to make sure I had any spending cash I needed to be comfortable.

   It was a fantastic trip!  I haven't ever really flown alone, so I was terrified.  I've flown many times, mind you, but never alone.  I've always had family, friends, or shipmates to hold my hand.  Heck, I've even been on a flight where mid-air we lost an engine and hydraulics, but I had so many folks with me I wasn't nearly as terrified as I was to get on this commercial plane all by myself.  I did have the doc prescribe me anxiety pills, but apparently just knowing I could take them was enough.  There is so much to the travel and meeting that I should write an entire separate post about it.  Maybe I'll finally get to it.

   My eldest has bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  That kid is growing up way too fast!  He's still bright, happy overall, and so smart.  The Twinnies are getting huge as well.  They'll be starting Cub and Girl Scouts this summer.  We're even starting a Girl Scout troop just so that we can ease scheduling for other Scout families.

   Eldest Son is about to have a birthday, and this year we're camping as a family where normally it's his boys only trip.  But as this year his birthday falls on a weekend, when the whole family had a chance to make a trip he's been dying to make happen, we're doing it.  He's asked for a red velvet birthday cake... we've readied the dutch oven.  ;-)

   I've had my share of health problems.  I have medications for my migraines finally, but if I took meds for everything I would have an all out pharmacy going on every day.  That doesn't sound appealing.  I had heard of elimination diets and how they can sort out if food is your trigger.  I'd done some reading on them a while back, but was irritated by the "lose weight fast" angle, or the gazillion celebrities backing it, or, God Forbid, Dr. Oz puts his stamp on anything.  And nothing made sense just right, and I knew no one I could ask about it.  So I pushed it aside.  Recently a dear friend brought it up because it's what she had to do to regain her health.  I've been able to personally see much of the difference it made for her.  So now I'm looking into the format she tried.  Autoimmune Protocol.  It's pretty extensive, and giving some of those foods up for even a while breaks my heart, but I am still considering it.  It makes sense, and I'm loving the people writing about it, their qualifications, and their experiences.  And I've not seen a bunch of money making, celeb backing, Dr.Oz waving or the rest of the crap that distracts and annoys me.  And I have been able to ask my friend if I have any questions.  As of now, the plan is to slowly phase out some of the no-no's to brace for impact, but to actually and officially start January 2.  Why so late?  Time to prepare for one.  My garden is reason two.  I don't have the willpower to give up my tomatoes and peppers while I'm already growing them.  And then there's travel and holidays, it's awfully hard to stick to anything new during those times.  So January 2 is my goal date.

   Of course there has been so much more going on, but trying to cover it all at once is impossible.  So basically I'm writing to catch the basics and hopefully remind myself to write more later.  ;-)

I Finally Made An Awesome Cake!!!

My twins turned five yesterday.  WOW how time really does fly.  I don't think you really grasp that concept until you're watching your kids grow and it seems to be far too fast.  But, growing is what they do best.

I love watching the differences between the two.  My Littlest Prince woke up ready to party.  All he wanted to know was where the party, cake, and ice cream would be.  The Princess, on the other hand, woke up FURIOUS that she'd not become a full grown adult overnight.  She ran right into my bedroom to see her expected overnight transformation in the full size mirror, and was greatly disappointed to say the least.  She got over it.  ;-)

Usually every year I bake all three kids a cake from scratch.  (If we do a celebration outside the house, however, I go with a second cake.  A trusty and dependable store bought.  Mostly because my cake skills are 50/50.)  But I have always wanted to bake cakes from scratch for birthdays, if I ever had kids, and so I do.  This year, the twins wanted strawberry and pineapple in their cake.  I found a great strawberry cake recipe (not using boxed mix) a few years back when the Eldest had requested one, and it turns out excellent every time.  With a little searching, I found a second recipe that included pineapple and orange, but used a box mix.  So, with a little tweaking here and there, I combined both recipes to make this amazing, tropical, strawberry-pineapple loaded, moist and delicious cake.  Here is the recipe as I had used it.

Strawberry-Pineapple Cake

2 cups white sugar

1 3oz package strawberry flavored Jell-O

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs at room temp.

2 ¾ cups cake flour, sifted

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ cup whole milk at room temp.

½ cup strawberry puree from frozen, unsweetened strawberries

1 8oz can crushed pineapple with juice

2 tsp (or so) fresh orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.  (Or whatever pan you’re using.)

In your mixer, cream butter,  sugar, and dry Jell-O mix together until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is well mixed in before adding the next. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.  Add flour mix a little at a time, alternating with milk.  Add in the strawberry puree and pineapple.  Pour evenly into cake pans. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool cake in pans on wire rack at least 10 minutes before removing cake to cool on rack completely.  Do be careful, this cake is soft and breaks easily. 

I fully admit I have not done well making my own frosting, so I used store bought.  I used lemon frosting for the center, between layers, and white frosting for the entire outside.  Pat some sweetened, flaked coconut on the outside to complete that tropical theme.  :-D   That being said, this recipe as written is super sweet, so it's really perfect on it's own, without the frosting.

On the other hand, if you are going to frost it, it really is super sweet.  I would seriously recommend reducing that sugar considerably.  Either way, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  

A Simple And Delicious Way To Kill Some Time

   Thanks to Jeremy and Leon, I was inspired for a little project… making our own butter.  It’s as simple as a little heavy whipping cream and a jar.  You fill the jar ½ to 2/3 full, seal it, and shake like mad for a while.  After a while it stops sloshing…. Keep shaking.  Eventually you get a ball of soft butter in a pool of buttermilk.  Drain off the butter milk, and basically you have butter.  (Seriously, this is the point where we tasted it, and it was NOTHING like the store bought.  SOOOOOOOO good.)

   So we all took our turns shaking.  It was primarily the Eldest Son’s job, but each of us got several tries.  The kids were so cute finding creative ways to keep that jar shaking.  Plus, with the littlest ones struggling to learn to share and take turns, this was great practice. 

   When the butter ball was finally formed, I took out the sealing lid and replaced it with cheese cloth, and screwed the lid rim back on.  (You know, those two part canning lids?)  Then I simply let it drain for a while as I put some ice in a metal bowl.  When I got as much of the butter milk out as I could, I plopped the butter ball into the bowl with the ice, and used a plastic spoon to smoosh and smoosh.  While the ice helps firm up the butter, the melting water helps remove the last of the buttermilk.  (Buttermilk left in the butter makes the butter spoil faster.)  As the butter released less and less water, I added chopped garlic, removed the ice, and packaged it all up for the fridge. 

   This so sounds like a ton of work, but it really isn’t.  And it’s soooo worth it!  Tonight, we’ll be slicing open sandwich rolls, and using the butter to griddle the insides nice and toasty… to serve pulled pork on.  Yeah, this ought to be super good.

The Gals Are Gonna Love/Hate Me Angel Chicken

2 lbs of chicken meat of your choice, skinned

8oz sliced mushrooms

1 medium sweet onion, chopped into chunks

Chopped garlic to taste

1 packet Italian dressing mix

1 8oz tub chive and onion flavored cream cheese

½ cup… or so… of dry white wine (I like Pino Grigio)

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter

Chopped green bell pepper

1 can of Golden Mushroom soup

Onions, bell pepper, and mushrooms to the bottom of the crock pot.  I like to leave my chicken slightly frozen, because I use chicken breast which dries easily.  Chicken plops on top of the veggies.  In a small sauce pan, melt the butter.  Mix in the dressing mix, condensed soup, wine, and cream cheese.  Cook until well mixed, then pour over the chicken.  Cook in the crock pot for about 4-5 hours (Supposedly on low).  Serve over rice or pasta.  (I like rice.)