Snow Days

We have has some serious snow and bone chilling cold this month. Last Friday made it snow day number 6 for our school. We were right in the middle of exams that we had to push back because of all of the snow days added onto our Christmas break. Many fellow teachers and friends have predicted that we'll have at least one snow day this next week. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm ready to get back to a normal routine.

We've been keeping our feeders filled. Our squirrel pals not only eat all of their corn, but also eat the peanuts for the blue jays. We're going through seed and corn like crazy. We enjoy watching all of the activity in our backyard.

Our cat Sebastien has also enjoyed watching the birds and squirrels. He runs from the front living room window to the back porch windows. When he's not bird-watching I can find Sebastien sitting next to Bella in front of the heating vents.

I purchased new curtains for the living room. They really seem to brighten the space and help keep out the cold draft from the windows.

Our Amarilis bloomed in the kitchen. It's so pretty and pink. I wish it would last longer.

We found 10 rolls of film. We got them developed and were so happy with the photos. Of course the majority of them were of Michael. This was from Christmas. He loved his new big boy undies. I'm happy to say he figured out that the undies go under the pants not over them.

I was so excited when my yarn was finally delivered from Deramores. Just look at all of those juicy colors.

And my new crochet book arrived from amazon. Woot!

I immediately put the yarn to good use. My ripply blanket is well under way. It brightens my day and makes me happy as I work each new ripply row of color. The blanket has 227 stitches per row and I'm using 17 colors, four rows for each color. The colors look like waves rolling onto the beach.

No snowy day would be complete without some chocolate chip cookies. Of course the best way to eat them is to dunk them in milk. Yum!

What have you been doing to keep busy during these wintery snowy days?

Keep warm!

Hugs,

HopeAnn

Apple Picking Time

This afternoon, Matt, Michael, and I drove to Burnham's Orchards for our annual apple picking. Since we moved to Vermilion nine years ago, picking apples at the orchard has become a family tradition.

I remember when Michael was no bigger than the goofy looking red apple. He always ran up to the apple sign to see how much he had grown since the previous year. Boy times have changed. This year I practically begged him to stand next to the apple. Being 13 he thinks this is so uncool.

Our next stop on our visit was to purchase the makings of a scarecrow. Michael picked out jeans, a blue and red flannel shirt, and a burlap bag with a happy face painted on the front. We took our materials to the stuffing station where we tied off the legs and arms before filling them with straw. We even received a birth certificate for our scarecrow. The scarecrow enjoyed riding around in the wagon Michael pulled behind him.

From the scarecrow station we visited the bees. I think it would be lovely to have a bee hive in my backyard. There are so few honey bees around these days. We have tons of flowers in our flower beds. I think bees would love to live in our yard. I wonder how difficult it would be to keep them. I purchased a half gallon of honey. Did you know that you can freeze honey? The woman told me that I could keep the large container in the freezer and take it out to refill my small container as I needed it. Learned something new today.

Michael pulled the wagon with the honey and the scarecrow towards the apple trees. We picked Golden Delicious, Johnathons, and Golden Johnathons. Michael was the first to eat an apple right from the tree. Matt and I followed suit. I picked my apple and shined it up with my shirt. The apple was crisp and sweet - delicious.

Our next stop was the pumpkins. Well we side tracked to take a picture with the John Deer tractor for Boppa. Matt and Michael selected some small pumpkins for decorations while I purchased the Indian corn and apple cider. The boys also decided that we needed corn stalks and a bale of straw. We seriously need a TRUCK. We had to put the back seats down to fit the straw bale and corn stalks.

When we returned home Michael and I set up our scarecrow, straw bale, pumpkins, mums, and corn stalks in the front yard. Matt went in the house to fix dinner, chicken and noodles - yum.

After dinner I baked my first apple pie. I'm not too crazy about the crust. It was one of those already made pie crusts. I think it was a little dry. We just finished having a piece of pie with vanilla ice cream. Delicious.

What a nice fall day.

Hugs,
HopeAnn

Ohio Berries Make Yummy Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Father's Day!

I woke up my husband. Once he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and drank his first second cup of coffee, I asked him what he wanted to do today after we went to church. He said the Ohio berries are in. Let's go get some before they're all gone. He's so funny. Like all the berries in Ohio would be gone if we didn't get them today.

After church we headed to Aufdenkamp's Farm Market just outside of Vermilion to pick some berries. However, the Fish Festival Parade was marching toward our car, so we had to make a u-turn and head to Aufdenkamp's via the back roads. Side note: The Fish Festival is held annually in June for three days Friday through Sunday - great food, lots of vendors, and games for the kiddies.

In the end we didn't pick our berries. We purchased a flat, eight quarts, of fresh just picked today strawberries. Matt decided with so many berries that we should not only bake strawberry shortcake, but also make strawberry preserves. It's father's day, and I said we would do whatever he wanted to do today. But that's a different story for a different blog post.

Once we returned home I began baking the strawberry shortcake.

I want to share the recipe for strawberry shortcake with you. I adapted it from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Here goes:

Ingredients for the cake:                         

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk (I used coconut milk.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for cream filling:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ingredients for berry filling:

• 2 pints (4 cups) ripe strawberries, sliced in half
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour 9 1/2 x 12 baking pan.

To make the cake: 

In a small bowl, combine the self-rising flour and the all-purpose flour. Set this aside for the time being.

Using a mixer on medium speed you cream the two sticks of butter. This should take about 3 minutes. The butter will look smooth. 

Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until fluffy. This takes about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one is added.

Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla extract. With each addition beat until it's incorporated. Do not overbeat.

Use your spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and make sure all the ingredients are well blended.

Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for one hour.

To make the cream filling:

In a mixer, whip the heavy cream with the sugar and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form. (I only make enough whipped cream for the number of pieces of cake I'm going to be serving. The cream melts, and I don't like to refrigerate cake because it dries out.)

To make the berry filling:

Gently toss the berries with the sugar until they're evenly coated.

To assemble the cake:

Cut each person one piece of cake, about two inches by two inches. Next slice the piece of cake horizontally through the middle so that you have a top and bottom. Spread a good amount of whipped cream on the bottom piece of cake. Add some of the berries to the whipped cream. Place the top of the cake on the whipped cream and berries. Finish off with whipped cream and berries on the top of the piece of cake and serve. 

YUM!

It was delicious. I hope you enjoy some fresh Ohio berries before they're all gone. Have a wonderful week.

Hugs,

HopeAnn

Cake Pops Yummy Yummy

Last Saturday I made cake pops (cake balls since I didn't place the cake onto sticks) to take for coffee fellowship at our church. I was tickled that people kept asking who made the cake balls. Adults and children both seemed to really like them. They were so easy to make. Here's how to make cake pops.

Here's what you'll need: a boxed cake mix any flavor. I used Devil's Food. One container of frosting. I used dark chocolate. I was in a chocolate mood. Can you tell? A 32 ounce bag of dipping chocolate. I dipped the pops in chocolate that I purchased from our local candy shop, Brummer's. It called for 32 ounces of chocolate, but I didn't end up using it all. You'll also need a 9 x 13 inch pan, two cookie sheets, a one inch cookie scoop, wax paper or parchment paper, a microwave safe bowl, and a spoon. 

Simply follow the directions on the back of the boxed cake mix. Mine called for eggs, water, and oil. 

Mom, if you're reading this...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mixer! My Mom gave me this mixer for Christmas three years ago. I've been a baking fool ever since.

Bake the cake in a 9 X 13 inch pan. When it's done let it cool. I baked this cake in the morning and let it cool all day. 

Once the cake is cooled cut it into fourths. Taking one fourth at a time crumble the cake into a bowl. Michael wanted to help with this part.

The crumbles need to be small. Once one fourth is crumbled add the next fourth and so on until the whole cake is in crumbs. 

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the next steps because Michael and I were having such a good time making the cake pops. Once the cake is in crumbs add three fourths of the jar of frosting. Mix the frosting into the crumbs well. All of the crumbs should be moist. Don't use all of the frosting or they will be sickeningly sweet.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. Use a one inch cookie scoop to get the pops the same size. I didn't do this the first time. Oh well. Roll the cake into one inch balls and place them on the cookie sheet. Once the cookie sheet is filled place it in the freezer for 15 minutes and then move it to the refrigerator. Keep the cake balls in the refrigerator and only take out a few at a time for dipping.

Next, melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. I found that when I let the chocolate cool just a bit it was easier to work with and covered more evenly. Drop one ball at a time into the chocolate. Using a spoon cover the ball with the chocolate. Don't stir the cake ball around since it might leave crumbs in the chocolate. Scoop the ball out of the chocolate with the spoon and tap the spoon on the side of the bowl. This helps the chocolate cover evenly. Let the cake pop slide off of the spoon onto the cookie sheet. Allow the cake pops to cool. We ended up with 72 cake balls.  I let them sit on the counter until the chocolate was dry and then covered them with parchment paper. The next morning I placed them in an air tight container to transport to the church.

TA DA!

These were so easy, but the process does take some time. I already purchased some sticks to make the cake pops next time. I also purchased some small cookie cutters to mold the cake balls into shapes. Easter is coming and I can see cake pop eggs, bunnies, peeps, flowers, and butterflies. 

Have fun making cake pops!