My 8 year old browsed the colorful cake picture pages in my Cake Mix Doctor cookbook (by Anne Byrn) and picked this winner for her birthday party cake on Saturday. It’s a first for our family but definitely won’t be the last time we feast on this particular recipe! Since I had two requests for it, I thought I’d post it here as well.

By the way, my 8 year old decorated the cake all by herself! (Except for the writing!) It went along well with her cowboy/cowgirl birthday theme…don’t tell her, but I think the “cowboy hats” look like something Curious George’s friend would have worn on his African safari… (smile)

Snickerdoodle Cake

Preheat oven to 350*F, and generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.

• 1 package (18.25 oz) plain white cake mix
• 1 cup whole milk (I used skim and it turned out fine!)
• 8 TB (1 stick) butter, melted (use REAL butter!)
• 3 large eggs (whites and yolks, don’t separate!)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting (recipe below)

Place cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute. Stop machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 27-29 minutes. Remove from oven and place pans on wire racks to cool for ten minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more. Meanwhile, prepare the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.

Place this cake, uncovered, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. Cover the cake with waxed paper and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

–Makes 3.5 cups, enough to frost a 2 or 3 layer cake

• 8 TB (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (use REAL butter!)
• 3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted (I never sift anything and it turns out fine…)
• 3-4 TB milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 TB milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 TB milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Use to frost the top and sides of the cake of your choice.

So hop on over for my musings about summer’s end…Scheduling Interruptions–Luncheon Style.

Want a good recipe for all that zucchini your garden is producing? Zucchini Quiche is the best way to go…it’s easy to prepare, looks quite impressive and most children even like it!

Happy Thursday!

This favorite recipe is a ladies luncheon pleaser! I can’t believe I haven’t thought to share it here before now. I made a batch tonight to accompany my mother’s 73rd birthday lunch here at my house tomorrow! It’s a famous lunch item at our local 1850’s restaurant and one that I make each June for our homeschool mom’s luncheon. Someone always requests the recipe.

Crunchy Chicken Salad

• 5 cups cooked chicken pieces
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 8 ounces sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 1 cup pineapple tidbits
• 1 cup seedless grapes, halved

DRESSING:

• 1 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 TBS sugar
• 1 tsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt

GARNISH: optional

• tomato or fresh fruit, such as cantaloupe

1. Combine first 5 ingredients.
2. In separate bowl combine dressing ingredients.
3. Stir dressing into chicken mixture.
4. Garnish and serve.

I cook a whole chicken in about two cups worth of broth in my crockpot for five hours on high…the meat is so tender and tasty that way. This salad is also delicious accompanied by my mom’s croissant recipe!

Hope you try it–it’s practically too easy to make considering how fantastic it looks and tastes!

ETA: I added pictures! The three lovelies in the photo here are my 4 year old, my mother–the birthday girl!, and my sister!

The best kept secret on milk must be shared here! Okay, maybe I’m the only one in the dark on this.

Hubby had a Braum’s ice cream craving last night…so while in the restaurant, we moseyed over to check out the price of their milk. Only $3.15 a gallon compared to the over $4 that our local grocery store is charging! Wow.

But even better, they advertise on their dairy cabinets that their dairy cows are not given antibiotics or growth hormones, etc…basically this is organic milk! (I’m not claiming that it is, can’t remember the exact details…but still very impressive!)

A while back I chatted with our nutritionist, aka, applied kinesiologist, about wanting to find a local dairy from which to buy raw milk…one with a more natural approach to production. Dr. T said that they are really hard to find because they, for the most part, already have a full clientèle and no one is talking/sharing! She’s been sworn to secrecy as to their source of organic milk, b/c the dairy farmer doesn’t need the headache of more rules and regs and more customers than he can keep happy.

But now I’ve got Braum’s!

Do you have a Braum’s in your area? Psst, a dozen eggs there was $1.43! (Cheep!)

Hat tip to Bethanie for letting me know about this post! We’re a do-it-yourself breakfast family during the summer months, so having flavored homemade oatmeal packets handy for my girls really sounds good! If you want full instructions, a ton of how-to pictures, and a detailed cost analysis, then follow this link to The Simple Dollar, an enjoyable visit is in store!

Do you like oatmeal for breakfast?

I found this recipe two days before our camping trip in a Country magazine at the library…it sounded fantastic so we zipped over to the grocery store and bought the ingredients. Turned out to be even more delicious than I hoped! And perfect for fixing ahead and packing the canned goods along to add at the last minute. Just don’t forget to pack a can opener!

Kettle Cooked White Beans with Rosemary

• 2 cups mushrooms, quartered
• 4 slices bacon, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste concentrate OR 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 15.5 ounce cans butter beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• kosher salt, optional
• 2 Tablespoons virgin olive oil

In a large skillet, cook mushrooms and bacon over medium-high heat, stirring often till bacon begins to brown around edges and mushrooms are tender, 3-4 minutes. Drain most of fat, leaving one tablespoon.

Stir in garlic, fennel seeds, and mustard seeds. Cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add tomato paste and let cook for 30 seconds.

***the above I did ahead of time and froze for the camping trip in a small Gladware container–then I just took the rest of the ingredients with me and added them to it when we were about ready to eat***

Add undrained tomatoes, rosemary and balsamic vinegar. Bring to boiling. Gently fold in the beans. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for ten minutes. Remove rosemary, season to taste with salt and drizzle with oil. Serve or pack in a gallon sized ziplock and keep chilled. Makes eight 2/3 cup servings.

I doubled the whole recipe, wanting enough to feed the five of us and the eight in my friend’s family. Our plan A was to camp together, or at least have them come to our campfire for one of the meals. Alas, the rain kept us from camping, but we enjoyed the beans anyway…along with bacon cheeseburgers, salad and watermelon! And for the record, I’m pretty glad it rained. The nearest campsite to our friends was forty minutes away, and we girls wouldn’t have had near the capacity for heart-to-hearts…not to mention the time and gas wasted in commuting to and fro.

Anyway, this would be a perfect side for a fourth of July picnic!

As promised, my gleanings from three days spent with a super-mom of six!

Some may consider a family with six children smallish, especially when contrasted with broods of ten-sixteen…but in my book, six is big. Consider the conversation I had the other night with friends at the pancake feed benefit for my s&bil. I was surprised to hear the husband admit that they were done (and glad to be!) after two children. I kind of gave him a hard time before sharing that I’d really like to have more. This is a Christian couple. I knew this guy in high school and he was ALL gushy over kids and babies. I thought he’d have a passel.

Anyway. *I* have always been somewhat intimidated by the idea of expanding my apron strings times six, so this visit to Jana’s was my chance to see how the pros do it!

First of all, I have to totally commend Jana and her husband for a job well done. Consistent in their expectations? Check! Scheduled? Check! Loving and fair? Check, check! Prayerful and always seeking God’s leading for their family? Definitely, and she’d honestly tell you she’s had to hang on tight to God, it’s been far from easy.

A little background, this lovely Christian couple have four biological children and are adopting two that they’ve fostered for two years. Both of the foster boys are high-maintenance, to say the least. We’re talking fetal alcohol syndrome, attachment disorders, etc. It’s been a long, tough road, and knowing their background, I half expected them to melt-down by the minute, but wow! I have such high admiration and respect for how far they’ve come with my friends’ dedication and persistence in training, and by the Lord’s grace on this special family.

How this family blessed me…

Something blossomed in my heart at each mealtime. There is something about fixing three hearty meals a day for nine children (hers and mine) that makes mothering take on an old-world worthiness again. I cherish my mental inventory of all these beautiful children seated around my friend’s island/bar and her table, waiting, smiling expectantly as Jana and I “dished” their plates up with steaming, rib-sticking fare. Like little birds. Oh the thought and time that went into preparing these three squares. After each meal, the troops would make their way into the kitchen, and file by the dishwasher inserting their plates and silverware into the appropriate racks. We always had one little guy who would gladly finish up anyone else’s scraps, interestingly, this boy was too picky to eat anything when Jana first welcomed him into her home. He’s since learned to be grateful and to branch out. You should hear the stories…can it be the same child? It didn’t happen by magic, people!

If challenging children suffering from neglect and FAS can be retrained this successfully, the rest of us have no excuse to put up with bad behavior from our sons and daughters.

A few of tricks that I learned:

On keeping track of details…

1. Big families need a “cup system”. With that many thirsty kiddos, a dishwasher could get dizzy. My friend solved this problem neatly by giving each child a place on the counter for their cup, with their name neatly labeled on masking tape at the counter’s edge. (See picture, and nope, t hose aren’t her kids’ names) This way they can keep drinks straight and use the same cup all day. Handy, huh? I decided to implement this one, even with my paltry three…mostly because I like the idea of 3 yo learning to recognize her sisters’ names…
2. Each child has different colored socks, for sorting ease at laundry time. I’ve also read about mom’s of many children marking a “dot” on the outsides of their sons’ tube socks with a different colored permanent marker for each boy.
3. Jana keeps a breakfast menu on her refrigerator…they’ve given up breakfast cereals (except for oatmeal) and now everyone knows what to expect Monday-Sunday. And breakfast is at 8:30 am every morning. This keeps her from serving breakfast for two hours as each child wakes up and straggles into the kitchen. She confided in me that she’s recently nixed the morning snack, realizing that a healthy breakfast really will carry a child till lunch. This is true, and I’m going to nip morning snacks in the bud as well. Afternoon snacks are different, the stretch between lunch and supper is quite long and needs broken up, but I’ve found that morning snacks usually work against you when lunch time arrives!
4. At each meal, Jana would have one or two helpers. Patiently she would show them how to chop potatoes or strawberries, or let them mix up ingredients. Likewise, her husband is so good about varying the children he takes with him to check pasture or ride along to a job site. Each of these six are getting quality mom and dad time.

On child training:

1. Jana taught her children the “stop, look, and listen” rule. She says they even had a sign up concerning this for a while–most of this type of training she had to do b/c she was starting from scratch on manners with the two foster boys. Basically, the stop/look/listen goal is to teach awareness of conversations going on, to keep the kids from interrupting when adults are conversing. Occasionally when we were chatting, one of the little ones would interrupt, and she’d remind them “Stop, look and listen!” and they’d place a hand on her arm and wait till she was done to speak. (Btw, having your child place their hand on your arm when you are busy talking to someone is a great way for your child to let you know that they need to tell you something w/o them barging in rudely. In turn, you cover their hand with yours so they are reassured that yes, Mom knows you are there, and she will give you her attention as soon as she is done with that thread of conversation. We learned this trick from Gary Ezzo’s Growing Kid’s God’s Way series)
2. You know how children sometimes chatter non-stop, or keep asking the same question as if they didn’t hear you answer them the first time? Jana has a really unique way of dealing with this, and again, she’s had to figure out ways to crash-train two little boys who had absolutely no training in how to be civilized before they came to live with this family. She has them cover their mouth. For however long it takes for it to sink in that they were running off again. What a concrete way to reinforce self-control that may be lacking in this area.

All in all, I was so impressed at Jana’s training and love for her family. In spite of all her protesting, she and her husband are amazing parents, with incredibly big hearts for God and family. If every child out there had parents half so dedicated and serious about their mission…I only wish we’d had more time there. What I glimpsed was just a drop in the bucket of what this couple’s commitment to the Lord, and to each other is being reflected in each of their children’s lives.

Proof of this? I left there wanting more kiddos. Suddenly everywhere I go I see pregnant women rubbing their bellies or young moms with baby carriers in tow. How can three days spent with a family of eight affect me so strongly? Dimpled, angelic smiles and wholesome happy faces could charm Snow White’s wicked step-mother into changing her M.O. It’s the families with one or two rude, bickering, spoiled children that make so many people want to stop at two. Families like Jana’s are the exception, folks. And I’m convinced with big families, so much more is required of every individual to make things successful, that responsibility, thoughtfulness, and gratitude almost come about naturally.

I want in. How about you?

Need a delicious brunch recipe? Or simply want to spoil your overnight guests? My friend fixed this for our first morning at her house…she prepared it the night before, slick!

Baked French Toast

• 1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange the slices of bread in the bottom. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture.
3. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

This dessert was a hit our first night at Jana’s house! Even my hubby who is not a chocolate person, told me to “get this recipe”! Jana served it warm–it makes its own fudgy sauce–with vanilla ice cream! To-die-for! And well worth leaving my diet and exercise plan at home, lol! (I gained three pounds but promptly lost it! Whew!)

Crockpot Cake from Jana–thanks, girl!

*Ingredients that say plus 1/3 cup are for the second part of the cake. Happy eating.

• 1 c all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 6 TBSP butter
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate (or 1/3 c choc. chips)
• 2/3 plus 1/3 c sugar (white granulated)
• 3 TBSP plus 1/3 c Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 TBSP vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c hot water
• Whipped cream or ice cream (Ice cream is definitely a must with this. It melts on it and tastes sooo good)

Coat the inside of crock pot with cooking spray. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave and mix well. Whisk in the 2/3 cup sugar, 3 TBSP of cocoa, vanilla, salt, milk, and egg yolk. Add the flour mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour the batter into the slow cooker and spread it evenly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining white sugar (1/3 cup), cocoa (1/3 cup), brown sugar (1/3 cup) and the hot water until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture over the batter in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high for 1 1/4 to 2 1/4 hours, depending on the size of the crock pot. Even when done, the cake will be very moist and floating on a layer of molten chocolate, but you’ll know it’s ready when nearly all of the cake is set and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pot. ( As you check, try not to let the condensed steam from the lid drip onto the cake.) When it’s done turn off the power and remove the lid. Let it cool for 25 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings. I haven’t cooked it the full 2 1/4 hours. It usually takes less. Uncovering is important when done as it still keeps cooking.

YUM. Hope you all enjoy!

Want an icy treat to keep handy in your freezer for family and unexpected guests? I’ve got the perfect recipe for you! Go to Weekend Kindness and read about my “Slush Shop”…

And I apologize for not getting much blogging done here lately. In between finishing up the school year, nieces’ graduations, traveling to nephew’s wedding, painting my house, helping dh build a chicken house, and keeping up with all my CHICKEN CHORES (good grief the little ladies are a full-time job!)…well, and all the time I’m spending working out (I’ve lost 15 lbs!!)…

More than blogging, I miss reading your blogs! Hope and pray  everyone is having a wonderful May!