She's 10!!

 She's Ten

She's sweet as pie

She's cute as a button

She's a budding artist

She's growing up far too fast

She's my Noa!

She looks like her momma

She made me a Grandmother!

I am so proud of this beautiful little person ...

Her cake request was hockey theme

because she LOVES playing hockey with her besties.

Ice cream cake

Stay sweet, stay lovely and always know

who loves you more than you could ever imagine ...

These young ladies are growing up too fast.

Until next time ... make every moment matter. Enjoy those moments!

He's Seven!

Today's the day.

He turns SEVEN!

"My Little Love"

Photo credit - his Daddy

 Birthday blessings to my sweet, kind, huggable, sensitive, and gentle little man.

I hope YOUR day is as wonderfilled as you are

and that all your wishes will come true.

I am so proud and thankful to be your Nammie.

You always bring joy to my heart.

Love you more than you'll ever know.

God bless you and keep you.

He "ordered" an oreo cookie cake with hotwheels

Can't wait to celebrate YOU today!

An update:

Burgers and Milkshakes for the win!

Our only regret is that your Poppa won't be here to celebrate with you.

He will be spending his 75th birthday in heaven and looking down on this day.

When you were 3 ... and he loved you so much!

We enjoyed a nice Easter weekend with few photos

but no lack of delicious food and meaningful fellowship...

Poolside on Easter Sunday

Onion skin dyed eggs made in the nick of time for Easter

Coffees on the deck is in full swing.

Till next time ... stop and celebrate life's blessings.

Wagons, Wheels, and Monster Trucks

 And now He's Three!!!

And Bouncy Castles

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!

WE LOVE

 Your kind sweet spirit,

Your warm, heart melting hugs,

Your determination,

Your love of the outdoors,

Your blue, blue eyes,

and everything about YOU!

So glad we could spend a bit of time with you on your special day.

Blessings to you always ...

Our hearts!

The cake:

I think this is the yummiest chocolate cake recipe I've ever made - fudgy and moist!

I baked it in three 6" X 3" round cake pans - saving one of the rounds for

the farmer's upcoming birthday.

The recipe is by "Live Well Bake Often" - a great motto to have.

It was fun to create the Monster Truck Tires (with licorice tread) - or almost anyway.

Till next time .... feeling blessed!

Platz Therapy

I finally made some platz!

The peaches on the back porch were ripening rapidly and needed to be used.

Platz - Peach Platz (I love saying that)

was calling out to me and I've always wanted to try making this.

Of course, the only recipe I needed was Lovella's

and it is a winner!

This recipe was posted 9 years ago, even before I knew about the

Famous Mennonite Girl's Can Cook ladies!!!

I enjoyed reading the comments on this past post.

What a blessing they have been to me on so many levels!

Since my last post on July 13th - SO much has taken place.

Huge Amish Sale

Annual Family Picnic at the Freeman's Pond

A few days of camping with dear friends!

Sunsets at my favourite Lake Huron!

A new baby great niece was born - Maia Star (can't wait to meet her)

A new little neighbour was born - Jack (can't wait to meet him)

Vee, a favourite blogger friend has decided to stop blogging.

I understand her need to do this and sometimes it makes me think this might

be what I should consider as well?

And all the while ...... actually since mid-May

I've been fighting a very nasty virus that just keeps rearing it's ugly head

in different ways.

This includes intense congestion, constant coughing fits, pink eye,

loss of smell and taste senses, angry rashes, fever, low energy levels, and weakness.

In one way my wish to slow down the summer days has been fulfilled,

however, not in quite the way I had expected.

After two visits to the emergency dept. and several doctors appointments I 

feel like I'm finally seeing some improvement.

I am thankful to be feeling a bit better and am determined to regain my health.

Baking a peach platz today gave me some much needed "baking therapy"

and it feels good to once again be inspired to cook and enjoy eating.

Thank you Lovella for this tried and true recipe, one that I hope to make often!

In the meantime, our little love bug turned Two. 

We love her so much ... there are no words!

Papa's little love!

Till next time - August blessings to you all!

My August chalkboard message!

Whoopie Pies

Apparently Whoopie Pies are considered an Amish Mennonite dessert/cookie/cake

and recipes for them appear in many Mennonite cookbooks.

I don't recall my mom ever making these but they truly are delicious.

I was inspired to make some for our Easter gathering and for

an upcoming curling banquet - they sort of look like curling rocks, right?

Here is the recipe I used:

(It comes from the "Stack Your Dishes" recipe book published

by Conrad Grebel University College)

Whoopie Pies

Makes approx. 35 whoopie pies

1 Cup shortening

2 Cups sugar

2 eggs

1 Cup sour milk - I used Buttermilk

2 tsp. vanilla

4 Cups All-purpose Flour

1 Cup Cocoa Powder

2 tsp. salt

1 Cup hot water mixed with 2 tsp. Baking Soda

Blend the shortening, sugar and eggs. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix together the flour, cocoa and salt and blend into the wet ingredients. Dissolve baking soda in the hot water and add to the creamed mixture - beating till smooth. Chill the batter for a few hours (I chilled mine for 1 hour). Drop by tablespoonful (or use a cookie dough scoop for consistent size) onto greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 400F for 8 to 10 minutes. They puff up nicely into soft muffin top shapes. Cool completely.

Traditional Filling:

1 1/2 Cups shortening

6 Cups icing sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla

Milk to moisten

My Filling:

I couldn't bring myself to make a filling with that much shortening and icing sugar so I found this recipe that worked great and tastes wonderful:

2 egg whites (I used pasteurized liquid egg whites since raw egg whites are not recommended for small children)

I will be using this for my Paska Spread as well.

2 Tbsp. vanilla

4 Tbsp. All-purpose flour

4 Tbsp. milk (I used light coffee cream)

4 Cups icing sugar - divided

1 1/2 Cups butter - softened

Beat egg whites till stiff. Mix in the vanilla, flour, milk, and 2 Cups of the icing sugar. Cream for 2 minutes. Add the butter and remaining 2 Cups of icing sugar. Beat until fluffy. When cakes are completely cool, spoon or pipe filling onto half the cakes, cover with the remaining cakes to make a "sandwich". They freeze well.

Today I also buckled down and finally baked the Easter bread (Paska).

I used Lovella's recipe from The Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

I think it's famous!!!

Post update - here are the finished "rocks" (I don't think anyone recognized
them as curling rocks - sigh...) I could use some decorating tips!

Till next time ........ preparing my heart for Easter.

The Walnut (no walnuts) Cake

The Walnut (no walnuts) Cake

This is the cake that my mom so often made as a birthday cake!

Her children and grandchildren remember this cake well.

It was called Walnut Cake but she never used walnuts,

in fact, she often decorated the top with pecans!

I have her hand written recipe which says it came from "Mrs. D. Schwartz",

her sister-in-law - Dad's sister Esther!

I wonder sometimes if my cousins, Laura Ann, Irene, Florence, David, and Wayne

remember their mom making this cake and if so how it was different.

Did Aunt Esther actually use walnuts or raisins???
Did she put brown sugar icing on it like Mom did???

My daughter, Becky, turns 33 today - I simply can't believe it

and this is the cake she requested - eek!

I know that my sister Evelyn has mastered the recipe (with it's scant/no instructions)

but I will give it a try.

After all, it has been so long since I've been able to bake a cake for Becky

on the day of her actual birthday.

In the past years, her birthday was celebrated by telephone or FaceTime while she was living in Alberta!

Sometimes I would bake a cake anyhow for the farmer and I - 😏

I began bravely, after consulting with my sister, putting together the ingredients.
On one of the recipe cards she had written "mix in order and alternate milk and flour".

First I greased and floured the actual cake pan that she always used for this cake.

Somewhere I found a recipe for greasing cake pans that is used by professionals so I mixed up a batch, greased the pan and floured it.

Cake Pan Grease:
Equal parts vegetable oil, shortening, and flour.
Beat till well blended and store in fridge for up to 5 months. This stuff really works well.

The cake baked beautifully (much to my surprise) and came out of the pan perfectly.
I didn't know what temperature to bake it at or how long but used 350F and baked for approx. 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean.






Now the icing (the cake with the "brown" icing) as requested by my birthday girl....
I wonder if this is why they all loved this cake?

Mom's Brown Sugar Icing (as written by her)

1 Cup Brown Sugar - packed

½ Cup Sweet Cream

“Boil till it forms a soft ball in bottom of a glass of cold water.  Add vanilla and a nice (walnut size) piece of butter.  Take off heat and stir till cool and creamy.  Lots of luck, Sarah”

I believe a walnut size of butter is about 2 Tbsp. - I used a heaping 2 Tbsp.

This is the actual depression glass cake plate that Mom always used to serve her Walnut Cake!

With a little fiddling and much needed practice with the icing technique,

it's iced and ready to go.

Pecans - no walnuts in the house, and Mom's apron
Just maybe she never had walnuts around either and used pecans instead? Who knows?

I'll come back later and let you know how it tasted and whether the "Walnut Cake"

 made the grade....

I think it was a success ...

The cake was a tad too sweet - but not as sweet as this girl of ours!
Happy Birthday Becky!

Oh, and one more thing - exactly 5 years ago I posted my very first blog post - Wow!
Here is the link .... (for some reason the pictures did not show up except for one)?
http://rhubarbandroses-rosella.blogspot.ca/2011/11/60s-here-i-come.html 

Till next time ......... Thanks Mom for being the wonderful mother you were and for making amazing memories for us all!!!! I miss you always.

Noa's Smash Cake

It made quite a mess in the kitchen but it was so much fun

creating a "smash cake" for Noa's party.

I used the Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe from this link:

http://www.gretchensbakery.com/vanilla-sponge-cake-recipe/

We wanted a smallish cake to "smash" so I cut two smaller circles from the baked layer cakes.

The remaining cake was cut into chunks, frozen,   and will be perfect for my next Trifle!

Okay, now came the icing - oh my.

Here is where my inexperience comes in ......

I totally had the kitchen upside down as I mixed not one but two batches of

butter cream icing - colouring the icing in three stages

to create an ombre look to the cake.

Do you make a mess when mixing up icing or cake for that matter?

This picture does not do justice to the mess!

It wasn't perfect but I hope Noa likes it.

We'll find out tomorrow at her beach party.

Well, tomorrow happened and we had a lovely party.
Our darling Noa had quite an exciting day and the birthday cake was far too sweet for her taste.
Much credit to her mommy who has kept sugar out of her diet.
It was so funny to see the look on her face and the shutter and cough after a wee taste.
She is sweet enough without all that sugar - that's for sure.

"No cake or baby were harmed in this experiment"

Sometimes we can hardly believe the love that we feel for this little person!!

A gal and her best friend ... on her first birthday.

Till next time ......... welcoming August 2016 - how the time is flying by!!!!

Mini Things!

Sometimes it's the little mini things in life

that are the sweetest!

My wee mini daffodils and violets are finally blooming.

I love to pick them and fill my mini vases

(this happens about once a year)

Tea Cup added for comparison of size

I've been busy creating mini quilts (well not totally mini but baby size quilts)

There are some very special friend's babies on their way (one set of twin boys no less)

and a God Daughter's baby.

For the twins!

For a sweet little girl?

If it's a boy I might have to 

whip up another ....

The sewing bug was extended to my sweet daughter where I just returned

from a mini visit with her mini family in Alberta.

Her first sewing project! She's a fast learner.

But, I must say that the best mini in my life right now is my darling granddaughter ....

oh what fun and many cuddles we had!

Loved like Crazy by Mommy 

And Daddy!!!!

Becky dubbed this picture "Me and my Mini"

Story Time with Grammie

Noa's Office - notice the mini knee pads for crawling baby!

Saying good-bye for now ...

It has been a fulfilling month and the mini things were the best!

Meanwhile, back at the homestead - we are preparing for the farmer's big 6-6 tomorrow!!!

I found this apple cake recipe and thought I'd give it a go.

It's an Ina Garten recipe so it's got to be good!

I didn't have Granny Smith apples so I substituted with 3 Cortland apples.

Recipe for Apple Cake "Tatin"

Ingredients

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the dish
1 1/4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced into 12 pieces
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners' sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Generously butter a 9-inch glass pie dish and arrange the apples in the dish, cut side down.
Combine 1 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color, about 360 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Swirl the pan but don't stir. Pour evenly over the apple slices.
Meanwhile, cream the 6 tablespoons of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and, with the mixer on low speed, add it to the butter mixture. Mix only until combined.
Pour the cake batter evenly over the apple slices and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. If an apple slice sticks, ease it out and replace it in the design on top of the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Till next time .......... trying to catch up with the "home" work - mini steps!

(I'm so far behind reading my favourite blogs dear friends - I'll try to catch up this week)