Strawberry cake - yum!

A few weeks ago Val from Yarnigras posted a recipe for a strawberry cake she likes to make for her family. Both Nature Girl and my husband love strawberries so I tucked that recipe away for later. When my in-laws came to visit last week I decided to make the cake for desert. I didn't layer my cake so it's not as pretty as Val's, but it was absolutely delicious!!! My husband loved it. Me too, I have to admit I ate a piece for breakfast one morning. Yummmy!
Nature Girl like the frosting but didn't eat much because it wasn't ice cream cake. I should have remembered this. I made birthday cakes for the first 4 years of her life decorating entire cakes with little stars of frosting to create pretty cakes. Despite getting claw hand each time from the hours of decorating she would only eat ice cream and not a single piece of cake. For her 5th birthday she got an ice cream cake and her 6th birthday was a cheesecake. It takes me a while to catch on but eventually I learn! Anyway, when I asked her if she liked it she said it was missing something. I asked what and she said it needed chocolate sauce all over it. I think it was perfect as it was and didn't last long before it was all eaten. That's a sure sign it's good! I think the frosting would be delicious on cupcakes too. Click here to see Val's post and get the recipe.

Lunches?

I've enjoyed being home all summer! Now, as much as I'm fighting it, fall is headed this way. That means school is just around the corner, in fact classes start in a week. Nature Girl will enter first grade and for the first time will attend school for a full day. This will be a big change for her. We've done our back to school shopping. She's equip with her school supplies, a new backpack and lunchbox.

A full day of school means she'll need to have lunch. I work in a school and can't imagine that the school lunch will be any better than the lunch at my school, so she'll be bringing her lunch. That said, here's the problem, I don't know what to send! She eats peanut butter sandwiches, ham sandwiches, bagels, salad, fruits, veggies(not peas or green beans,) mac n' cheese, tomato soup, grilled cheese, cheese sticks, yogurt and cereal. She's not much of a meat eater but loves fruits and veggies. But what does one send for school lunch? It has to be something that she can open and eat independently without having to heat it. We bought a reusable water bottle and a thermos for keeping things cold or hot.


Being a teacher I should know what kids bring for school lunch but I don't. At school I have bus duty not lunch room duty, so I'm lost here. What would you send to feed this sweet little face?

Banana Bread

I had some left over bananas after making waffles topped with bananas, strawberries and whip cream for breakfast the other morning so I decided to make banana bread. I own tons of cookbooks but the one I reached for was this one my mom made for me. Can you believe she wrote and illustrated the whole cookbook by hand? I have lots of cookbooks but this is my favorite because I know all the love she put into making it! Not only did she make one for me but she made one for each of my siblings - that's four handwritten cookbooks!

I love the first page of the cookbook! If you read it you'll see that cooking with 4 children was a challenge especially when the utensils were outside in the sandbox being used as shovels and the bake-ware doubled as a sled on the snowy hill! True story! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.
This cookbook is something I treasure! I hope one day to make one for Nature Girl. I think it needs to include photos of us in our matching aprons as we cook! She drew a picture of us in matching aprons in the Mother's Day book she made for me this year. But I digress!
I've shared a zucchini bread recipe from this cookbook a few years ago but this time I wanted to share the banana bread recipe with you.

So here's the recipe for making banana bread. The recipe has a cooking time of 45 minutes but I found it took about an hour to bake. It makes one loaf. Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread

Summer means fresh veggies and zucchini. Zucchini means making zucchini relish and zucchini bread. Yum!!!!! I love the foods of summer!
Summer cooking and baking gives me another reason to wear an apron. I've enjoyed wearing all of my aprons this summer. It makes cooking so much more fun when you're wearing a pretty apron!

Delicious!

From this,

To this,

To this,

Then finally this . . . DELICIOUS!

Blueberries for Sal or Nature Girl

Blueberries for Sal is a classic book. We always pull it out when we go berry picking in the summer. What can I say it's the teacher in me, I have to included some type of educational link in each activity. As you can probably guess, we went blueberry picking this week. The berries were big, juicy and YUMMY! We planned to go early in the morning to beat the heat but didn't make it to the blueberry farm until noon. It got pretty hot standing under the sun picking berries. Nature Girl and her 4 year old cousin M. helped me pick. The two kids ate and picked before getting too hot to pick any longer. They ended up sitting under the blueberry bushes for a break. I picked as fast as I could trying to fill my bucket. Here's the tally of pounds picked by each of us; M. - 1/2 pound( I think he ate more than he picked,) Nature Girl - 1 1/2 pounds( she also ate a lot of berries as she picked) and me - 7 1/2 pounds. So what does one do with almost ten pounds of blueberries?

We made blueberry pancakes of course! They were so delicious!!! We also made a blueberry crisp which looked a little funny because the crisp part was blue but tasted wonderful with vanilla ice cream. Of course blueberry jam is in the works today. Let's hope it turns out.

Long Time No Blog!

Well long time no blog!!!! Nature Girl and I are still here. This summer has been busy and it feels like we're just finally starting our summer vacation. With two teaching conferences, our usual family vacation and a lot of rain it seems like summer just started last week. The scary thing is that it's almost August and school will begin again on August 26th. This past year was a flurry of activity with learning to balance teaching, being a mom and a wife. I have missed blogging and reading all the wonderful blogs out there. I hope to get reading so I can catch up with everyone. Thanks to all of you who have checked in on me during my long absences. I hope to post a little more regularly this year. In the meantime here's a fun summer treat . . . frozen bananas. Yum!


We use Wilton milk chocolate candy melts, bananas, sprinkles, wax paper and popsicle sticks or lollipop sticks. To make frozen bananas start by peeling the bananas then cut them in half. I place wax paper on a cookie sheet(I used a paper plate here since the freezer was full) then I put a stick in each banana piece and set it on the wax paper. Next I melt the chocolate candy melts according to the directions on the bag. I hold the banana over the bowl and spoon chocolate over it until it's covered. Next shake sprinkles on the banana and place on the wax paper. Once your bananas are covered place them in the freezer for a few hours. Serve them on a hot summer day, they're delicious!

A Recipe Treasure

My summer is ending so I'm doing some summer cooking while I can. Tonight I was shredding zucchini, peppers and onions to make zucchini relish. I had some extra zucchini so I decided to make zucchini bread using my mom's recipe. Several years ago my mom took the time to handwrite and illustrate individual cookbooks for my siblings and I. As I searched for the zucchini bread recipe tonight this apple crisp recipe fell out of my cookbook.

This was the recipe my classmates and I made in kindergarten 31 years ago! See my signature. Since there's a jumble of letters and names, I highlighted it with an arrow. It's neat to have this recipe sheet as a reminder of my younger days and my first school experience.
I'll have to try this recipe with Nature Girl this fall. I think I'll send home a recipe sheet like this with my preschool students this year so maybe they'll look back in 10 or 20 years and remember cooking in preschool. I think my kindergarten teacher would be happy to know this recipe is still floating around and in use again!
As I post this I smell delicious zucchini bread cooling in the kitchen. It smells so yummy!!! Tomorrow the house will smell like pickles as I can the zucchini relish. It's a little stinky but worth it to have a stash of zucchini relish all year!

A Surprise Package and a New Swap

It's been a week since I blogged, not because I didn't have anything to blog about. I haven't blogged because I've been busy. We took in a play, a magic show, story time, a jewelery party and a family adventure this week so we've been busy! I also finished packages for 4 swaps this week and have three more in the works. I can't show you any of those things since they were just mailed out Friday and haven't reached their final destinations yet. I'll share pictures next week once the items have made it to their new homes. I also have another simple sewing tutorial for kids that I hope to share in a few days.

This was a surprise package that arrived from Pattie this week. Pattie has a wonderful blog called Attitude Changes Everything! She had a blog contest this summer and I won a nine patch quilt block. Pattie sent two blocks and this fabulous Chenille making kit to us. Did you know you can make Chenille? I didn't. It looks like a lot of fun and Nature Girl and I can't wait to give it a try! She's picked out a cat quilt block and I've picked out a sheep block to make.
Did you notice the sign Pattie included for me? "Finished is Waaaay better Than Perfect!" I've been planning to make a sign for my desk that says "Progress not Perfection." Pattie knew that and included this sign for me. This sign is going to go up in my work area once I clean it up and organize it again. Thanks Pattie!!!

My bloggy friend Susan is hosting a Strawberry Swap. You need to make one handmade strawberry item and the rest of the items can be purchased. You also include a strawberry recipe with the swap. To get more info or to sign up go here. This is one of my favorite strawberry recipes.

Strawberry/Spinach Salad


1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
1 tbsp. poppy seeds
3/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp. Paprika
Spinach
Strawberries

Mix all together let stand about 24 hours mixing occasionally throughout. Put spinach in a bowl with strawberries, mix. Mix in above dressing just before serving.

Hint: I add the dressing to each individual bowl of salad so the leftover salad doesn't gets soggy and I can eat it later.

June Recipe Box Swap

It's time for the June Recipe Box Swap. This month there wasn't a theme. The task was to post your favorite recipe. Okay that's just too hard! I have so many favorites how can I even begin to choose. I don't know about you but I'm much more likely too try a recipe when I see a picture of the dish. Since I don't regularly take photos of my food that limited my choices. I snapped a few pictures of last night's side dish, Cheesy Thyme Potatoes. These are a favorite around here. Before you start to wonder if I overcooked them let me tell you that these are perfect! Those dark crunchy bits on the sides of the dish are the best part. It's worth scrapping the sides and fighting over the last bits. Trust me!

Cheesy Thyme Potatoes

Ingredients:
Peeled & sliced potatoes
Thyme
Extra sharp cheddar cheese
Butter - approx. 1/2 stick

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. In a casserole dish layer the ingredients. Place some of your peeled and sliced potatoes in the dish. Cut butter into smaller tabs and add to the top of the potatoes. Sprinkle with extra sharp cheddar cheese and thyme. Continue to layer the ingredients till your dish is filled. Cover and place in oven for one hour or until potatoes are tender. Enjoy!



For a favorite dessert my husband suggested Tuxedo Brownies. This is a Pampered Chef recipe. Instead of strawberries we use fresh red raspberries. They are super yummy! Sorry no picture of these. We haven't made them in a while, but I'm drooling just thinking about them!

Tuxedo Brownie Cups

1 package (19-21 oz) fudge brownie mix (plus ingredients to make mix)
2 squares (1 oz each) white chocolate for baking
2 tablespoons milk
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup thawed, frozen whipped topping
1 pint small strawberries, sliced (or raspberries)
orange zest, mint leaves, melted semi-sweet chocolate for baking (optional - we don't use these)

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray cups of mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Prepare brownie mix according to directions for cake-like brownies. Using small scoop, fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake 14 minutes or until edges are set (do not overbake).

2. Remove pan to cooling rack. Immediately press tops of brownie with tart shaper to make indentations. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Loosen edges and gentle remove the brownies from pan. Cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter.

3. Microwave white chocolate and milk, uncovered on high 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in white chocolate mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

4. Pipe mixture into cooled brownie cups. Arrange strawberry slices(or raspberries) on top. Garnish as desired. Place in airtight container and refrigerate 1-3 hours before serving.

Cracking the Eggs

Here are the thrifted drapes I talked about yesterday. I don't know why but I love them and can't wait to cut them up. I purchased two panels and a valance type piece. They'll have to wait a few days before being re-purposed.
Nature Girl and I are heading off to visit my mom for a few days. We're planning to attend an auction and hope to bring back some treasures. We also hope to visit Dog Mountain and get Stephen Huneck's latest book.

I spent the night cooking and prepping for our trip. We'll be celebrating my mom's 58th birthday so we baked a cake. Nature girl cracked the eggs herself. It seemed a bit risky handing half a dozen eggs over to a 4 year old, saying "Sure you can crack them yourself." She did an amazing job, not a single shell in them! I decorated the cake myself then made ham ranch BLT wraps and fresh salsa for the birthday luncheon. We're looking forward to the party and the visit with my mother and grandmother. We'll be back in a few days with pictures and hopefully some treasures. Wish us luck at the auction!

The Recipe Box Swap

Over at i have to say there is a recipe box swap going on today. Well who couldn't use a new recipe so I thought I'd join in the fun. Today's shaping up to be a sunny 50 degree day just like spring. Of course there is still snow on the ground so I decided to do one more winter soup before putting my soup pot away for the summer. So here's what we're having for dinner...
Hearty Slit Pea Soup and homemade bread. Before you say yuck I have to admit I've never been a fan of pea soup until this recipe. Now it's a favorite when paired with warm bread and butter. Delicious! The recipe comes from Steph's Country Kitchen Goodness.

Chopped and ready to go into the Crockpot.

It doesn't look like much yet but it's going to be yummy!

HEARTY SPLIT PEA SOUP

1 package (16 ounces) dry, green split peas

4 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 pound cooked, finely cubed ham

1 large potato, peeled and diced

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 celery stalk, sliced

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. dry thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

Rinse split peas in cold water. Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven or large sauce pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 1-1/2 hours. Remove bay leaf. Yield: 6 servings.

*Useful Tip: If soup is too thick, add enough water until soup reaches desired consistency. Soup thickens upon standing, so leftovers will probably need more water before re-serving.