Pecan Pie Mini Muffins

These are not healthy muffins like some are, but these are certainly yummy! The Princess got this recipe from her Grandma Carol. Last time we were at Carol's she had baked a batch of these and we put a pretty good dent in her bag of muffins. When Mom and Marv were here we baked some. Evidently not enough though, because Marv said we could make a couple hundred more of them!

Pecan Pie Mini Muffins

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 cup pecans, chopped

2/3 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and pecans; set aside. Combine the butter and beaten eggs. Stir into the brown sugar mixture. Fill greased and floured miniature muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350* for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan to cool.

Grandma Hahn's White Fudge

Letter Grandma sent me with the white fudge recipe.

Close up of the recipe part of the letter. You can tell by the stains that we have had this on the counter several times trying it out!

The King told me twelve or fifteen years ago that the only Christmas sweet treat that he really liked was Grandma Hahn’s white fudge. I asked Grandma Hahn for the recipe. I have made it several times, it has never turned out! She wrote me a letter and told me it is the same as chocolate fudge, only leave out the chocolate. You give the recipe a try and see if you can do better.

2 cups sugar
½ c milk
¼ c syrup
1/3 c cocoa (leave out for white fudge)
butter – size of walnut
1 tsp vanilla

Put all in kettle. When boiling cook 5 minutes. I don’t know if the next step says stir while cooking or while cooling. Add nuts if desired.

The first time I tried to make it, the fudge turned out real runny. When I told Grandma what happened she laughed at me and said I had too much butter. If I remember right, the King said it tasted the way it should, it just did not set up.

The following year it was really gummy. By that time Grandma Hahn had died, so I could not ask her what I did wrong. I think we ate a few spoonfuls of it, but threw the majority of it out.

The year after that it turned out hard as a rock! Grampy spent a whole Sunday afternoon getting that stuff out of my pan. Luckily I poured it in a glass baking dish because he would run water in the pan, put it in the microwave for a minute, and then scrape off whatever would scrape off. He spent the whole afternoon repeating that process! That gets brought to my attention every Christmas!

If I remember right, I took a year or two off and didn’t even try making it. A few years ago, I got brave and gave it another whirl. That time it turned out the best out of all of my attempts. It was not as white as the King remembers his Grandma’s being and it was kind of grainy. We could eat it though!

I think it was two years ago that the Princess tried to make it. I will have to ask her how that one went. I think it was some what close, but still not fudge consistency. I have not decided if I will try it this year or not.

I have made him other white fudge recipes, but he does not care for them. He says they are too sweet. The ones I tried had marshmallows, marshmallow crème or white chocolate in them.

If you know of a white fudge recipe that resembles Grandma Hahn’s, let me know about it! I will give it a try.

She has two sentences in her letter that are sad. It makes you realize that we won't always have all of our loved ones around. She writes, "I always made the recipe I gave you for Dan and Dad. Now nobody." Dan was her son-in-law. He is on a restricted diet and cannot eat sugar any more. "Dad" was her husband, he passed away a week or two before the King and I were married.

Pudgeless Pumpkin Potatoes

Fall Colors

pic courtesy of Mom

I know, pumpkin and potatoes sound weird together, but they are yummy! I found this recipe several years ago in my Blue Ribbon Recipes cookbook. Now I make them once or twice every fall.

Pudgeless Pumpkin Potatoes
(12 servings)

10 medium size potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed (I never peel the potatoes, the skins are good for you)
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
½ cup fat-free sour cream (I always use regular sour cream)
¼ cup (1/2 stick) light margarine (I use butter)
1 to 2 teaspoons garlic powder (I crush a couple of fresh cloves)
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of paprika
pinch of dill weed

Preheat the oven to 350*. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, pumpkin, cream cheese, sour cream, margarine, garlic powder, and salt. Place in a 9x9-inch baking dish, sprinkle with the paprika and dill weed, and bake for 30 minutes. This recipe contains approximately 6 grams of fat per serving. (I don’t know how much fat it contains when I make it, just eat less!)
~ Peggy McFeeters, Morton, Illinois
Pumpkin Festival, Morton, Illinois

I made this at Mom’s house one night. She made patties the next morning out of the leftovers and fried them. They might even be better that way than the first time you eat them! If you try them, let me know what you think.

I made these potatoes tonight for supper with pork chops. We don't have any leftovers to fry for breakfast, though.

Baked Cranberry Pudding

Rain clouds moving in.
Pic courtesy of Mom


I tried a new recipe yesterday. I thought it was really good and worth sharing.

Baked Cranberry Pudding

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons melted shortening (I used butter)

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

2 cups cranberries

Hot Butter Sauce

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a mixer bowl. Add the shortening, milk and egg. Beat for 2 minutes. Stir in the cranberries. Pour into a buttered 9-inch square baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cut into 3-inch squares. Serve with Hot Buttered Sauce.

Yield: 9 squares

Hot Butter Sauce

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup light cream or milk (I used milk)

Melt the butter in a double boiler over hot water. Add the sugar and light cream. (I didn't use a double boiler. I used a sauce pan and kept the heat low).

Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Yield: 2 cups

~Friend of the Shipwreck Society

Treasured Recipes From The Shipwreck Coast

I bought this cookbook several years ago while on a family vacation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There are quite a few recipes I use from this book on a regular basis.

Cheese Burger or Cookie?

A few weeks ago Mom and I made the snacks for church. I saw these cookies in The Best of Country Cooking cookbook. Each cookie uses two nilla wafers, red frosting, yellow frosting and a mini York peppermint patty. They were kind of putzy to make, but went fast with two of us working on them. As soon as we had them put together, I put the whole pan in the freezer to help them set up before the patty could slide around on the frosting.

Next time you want a fun, sweet snack for a picnic or for children, make these. The kids loved them.

Weekend Activities

The Princess and the rest of the mission trip team arrived home safely Saturday. Thank you God. She was able to call home every day she was gone, but it was still nice to see her. The team was split up to do several different tasks: spending time helping in Kids Club (like our vacation Bible school), spending time in a nursing home visiting with the residents and scraping and painting a home for a single Mom. I am glad to have her home safe and sound, thankful that she was able to experience what a mission trip involves. Thank you to all of you who prayed for her while she was gone and who helped financially. She took many pictures, I will show you some during the week.


Dan and Carol came over for the weekend, too. Carol and I went to two quilt shops and two book stores Saturday. That could qualify as a perfect day in my "book". No pun intended! I bought a few Christmas fat quarters in the second shop. I don't know what my addiction is to Christmas material, but I have a hard time resisting it. We ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant, gotta love that. Oh yeah, we went to the bulk food store, too. I bought a cantelope that was almost as big as a basketball! It was huge. And so sweet! That was the best cantalope I have had this summer.


As a welcome home dinner, we had spaghetti and garlic bread. Any kind of pasta dish, and the Princess is happy! I tried a new recipe from the Menonite Girls blog. I changed it up some, but you could do a hundred things with it. Take a loaf of French bread and slice down to the bottom crust, do not slice all the way through. Make your slices about every inch. Put a slice of cheese (I used mozzarella) inbetween each slice. Melt a stick of butter and add 2 tablespoons crushed garlic; pour over the loaf and cheese. Wrap in tin foil, leaving the top exposed; bake at 400* for twenty minutes. The cheese gets all ooey and gooey; and is on both sides of your bread! I would not have needed the spaghetti, I would've been fine with just the bread!

We are trying to get the pictures in but are experiencing technical difficulties so you will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvience!!!

Today's Activities

One tiny rose bush that showed up on the side of our driveway this year. Only one rose this year, maybe more next year.

We had a fun and busy day today, but now that I think about it I don't know if we got anything accomplished! I just remembered, we did do some cleaning in the sewing room. Mom and Marv brought me up a storage container with drawers for all of my fabric, kits and patterns. It was nice to get that organized.

The rest of the day we bummed around, went out to lunch by the Princess, made supper together and went for a walk. We made city chicken for supper. We both remember my great-Grandma (Mom's Grandma) making that for supper. Mom has made it before, but I never have. City chicken is pieces of pork and beef put on a skewer. Dip the skewer filled with meat in fine bread crumbs, in a beaten egg and back in the bread crumbs again. Then fry them in hot olive oil. After they are browned on all sides, put in a baking dish with a little water, cover and bake for one hour at 350*.

I don't know what the plan is for tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be fun. I just remembered, we bought flowers today. Tomorrow part of the day will be spent with Mom planting flowers while I make sure she is doing it right!! Ha!Ha!

Grecian Squares and Beef Fajitas

Here is the third square in my block of the month quilt. This one is called a Grecian Square. I actually completed this quite some time ago, but never got around to showing you. I still have the fourth and fifth squares to go. I'd best get my rear in gear, I think it is almost time for the next square to come out.

How come blogger never puts my paragraphs the way I want them when I have a picture? Does any one else have this problem? Any tips? I usually type while I am uploading the picture. I might have to start doing the typing in Word and cut and paste. Cheri gave me that idea when I first started blogging, and it works pretty good. I just never wanted to mess with it when I was inserting a picture. I doubt that the couple extra clicks would kill me though!

Mom wanted a recipe for fajitas yesterday. I gave her this recipe out of my Mexican Fiesta cookbook and she said they were pretty good. So good, in fact, that she ate two! Give 'em a try and tell us what you think.

Beef Fajitas

1 3/4 cups (16-ounce jar) Salsa

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided (I would use olive oil)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound sirloin steak, cut into 2-inch strips

1 cup (1 small) red bell pepper strips

1 cup (1 small) green bell pepper strips

1 cup (1 small) sliced onion

Flour tortillas, warmed

Sour cream

Combine salsa, 2 tablespoons oil, cilantro, chili powder, garlic, cumin and salt in large bowl. Add beef; cover. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Heat remaining oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onion; cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until onions are slightly golden and peppers are tender. Add beef mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.

Serve in tortillas; top with sour cream.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Memories and Soup

I finally got around to cutting some lilacs and bringing them in the house. When our Princess was born, the lilacs were in full bloom in southern Minnesota where Mom and Marv live. They came up the day she was born with a five gallon bucket full of lilacs. You could smell them in the hospital hallway four rooms away. I have always liked lilacs, but ever since then they bring back to memory a very special day. The vase you see in the picture came from my Aunt J. When I moved out on my own, she gave me a couple boxes of things, one of those things was this vase. Do you remember that vase J? Oh yeah, I also came home with a kitten from their house that day. His name was Duke. Duke would sit in the recliner with The King and eat potato chips and olives! The doilie under the vase was made for me by my secret sister at church several years ago. She was a tremendous lady and is now at home with her Lord and Savior.

One night this week I made an old soup with a new twist, or splash. The King said it was okay, but I don't think he liked it as much as the traditional way. I thought it was pretty good. You'll have to give it a try and see what you think. The recipe came from my Taste of Home's BIG BOOK of SOUP cookbook and Brigitte Schultz of Barstow, California, submitted the recipe to Taste of Home.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used a beef roast)

1/4 teaspoon pepper, divided

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) beef broth

2 cups cubed peeled potatoes (I never peel potatoes, the peelings are good for you!)

1-1/4 cups water

2 medium carrots, sliced

1 tablespoon onion soup mix (I used a tablespoon of beef bouillon and a chopped onion)

1 tablespoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup white wine or additional beef broth (I used the white wine, that was the new splash!)

Sprinkle steak with 1/8 teaspoon pepper. In a Dutch oven, brown steak in batches in oil over medium heat. Add the broth, potatoes, water, carrots, onion soup mix, basil, tarragon and remaining pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and wine or additional broth until smooth; stir into soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Yield: 7 servings.

That is the end of the recipe - but I added dumplings. What is a pot of soup without a bunch of dumplings floating around? I think my supper was broth and dumplings that night. Maybe a piece or two of carrot or potato got in my bowl.

Kind of Awkward

I stopped at the gas station in town Monday to gas up the van. As I am waiting in line to pay I notice there is a new lady working at the counter but don't think much of it. At least I didn't think much of it until I realize she keeps looking at me. Now I am trying to discreetly check my zipper, hoping it's not down, wondering if there is leftover lunch on my face or if there is something else going on that I am missing. The gentleman in front of me pays and I step up to the counter. The cashier says to me, "You don't remember me, do you"? Well, ummmm, how do you politely say, "Nope"! I apologize to her and ask her if I should remember her. Come to find out, it was little Rachel! I was a waitress during high school and Rachel's Mom was the cook at the restaurant I worked at. At that time, Rachel was probably eight or nine years old. Quite often she had to wait in the restaurant for her Mom and I to close the restaurant and clean up. Once the restaurant was closed and the customers were gone, Rachel would scurry around and help us clean up so we could all get out of there quicker. It was nice to visit with her for a minute and catch up on her life. She is now married and has a seven year old son. That didn't make me feel older at all!

I tried a new breakfast recipe the other day. Both the Trucker and Princess said it was worth making again. I did not think to take a picture for you, guess I still am not used to all of this blogging stuff! Now you will just have to make it yourself and see what it looks like! This recipe came from the Taste of Home Cooking School 50th Anniversary Cookbook. I did not know Taste of Home had been around that long.

Baked Peach Pancake

2 cups fresh or frozen sliced peeled peaches

4 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3 eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

Ground nutmeg

In a bowl, combine peaches, sugar and lemon juice; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Add flour, milk and salt; beat until smooth. Place butter in a 10-in. oven-proof skillet; bake at 400* for 3-5 minutes or until melted. Immediately pour batter into hot skillet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until pancake has risen and is puffed all over. Fill with peach slices and sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve immediately. Yield: 4-6 servings.

We must have bigger eaters in this house because it only fed three of us! Good thing the King had already left for work!

Church Stuff

The King and I were teaching Sunday School to the 3rd - 5th graders yesterday. We were talking about all of Jacob's sons and one of the students asked if there were any daughters. Being a dork, the King said there was, and her name was Betty. Betty? Who knows what made him spout out that name, but whatever. One student, S., kept laughing and laughing. The rest of us are looking at him because it was not that funny. Finally, S. says to the rest of the students, "Do you guys know what that means?" He goes on to tell them that means a crabby old lady! I think he was thinking of an old biddy, rather than Betty! The King and I had a good laugh then.

I made a chocolate cake with a butter frosting for church the other night and I got a few compliments on how good the cake was. Seeing as how it is easy peasy to make, I thought I would share the recipe with you for the next time you need something yummy and quick.

Crazy Chocolate Cake

from the Three Links Family Favorites cookbook

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

6 T. baking cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 c. cold water

3/4 c. oil

2 T. vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla (I used real vanilla that Mom brought me back from Mexico!)

Combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into 9x13-inch greased pan. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. ~ Cathy Draves

Butter Frosting

from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

(I don't know if I should say New Cook Book any more either, I got this for a bridal shower gift from one of the girls I worked with at the time. That was almost twenty years ago, so I am sure they have published an updated version by now.) Any way, on with the recipe...

1/3 cup butter or margarine (I only use butter, no margarine in this house)

4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Milk

In a bowl beat butter till fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.

Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk, if needed, to make of spreading consistency. Frosts tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch cake layers or one 9x13 cake.

Eatin' Good In The Neighborhood...

and I'm not talking about Applebee's! Applebee's does have some good eating, though! This is a recipe I took from my 9x13 The Pan That Can cookbook. I made this one night last week and we had an unexpected dinner guest join us, not a problem. I just boiled a few more parsnips as a side dish and everyone liked supper.

Cajun Chicken Lasagna

16 dried lasagna noodles

1 pound cooked andouille sausage or smoked pork sausage, quartered lengthwise and sliced (I used bulk pork sausage that the King and his step-Dad made)

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I used 3 heaping teaspoons)

1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed (I didn't have any sage, used poultry seasoning instead)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper (is there a difference between a green pepper and a sweet green pepper? If there is - I don't know which I used, but it was green)

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 10-ounce containers refrigerated Alfredo pasta sauce *

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (6 ounces)

*I made my own Alfredo sauce. When I got to this part of the recipe, I substituted 1/4 cup butter, 8 ounces cream cheese and 1/2 cup milk for the jar Alfredo stuff.

1. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking pan or baking dish; set aside. Preheat oven to 350* F. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain well. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Place lasagna noodles in a single layer on a sheet of foil; set aside. (Putting noodles on a sheet of foil is too putsy for me, I left them in the strainer until I needed them and supper still tasted good! But if you want to lay them out on a sheet of foil, have at it.)

2. In a large bowl combine sausage, chicken Cajun seasoning, and sage. In a large skillet cook and stir chicken mixture about 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken mixture from skillet, reserving drippings in skillet. Set chicken mixture aside. In the same skillet cook onion, celery, sweet pepper, and garlic in drippings until vegetables are tender. Return chicken mixture to skillet; stir in half of the Alfredo sauce and the Parmesan cheese.

3. Arrange four of the cooked lasagna noodles in prepared pan or dish, cutting as necessary to fit. Spread with one-third of the chicken-vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with one-third of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers two more times, starting with noodles and ending with cheese. Top with the remaining cooked lasagna noodles. Carefully spread remaining Alfredo sauce over.

4. Bake, covered, about 1 hour or until heated through. Let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

*I did not end with noodles and Alfredo sauce, since I had all of the Alfredo sauce with the chicken and sausage. My last layer was mozzarella cheese.

If you try this out, let me know what you think. Our Princess was not home for dinner the night I made it, and it was all gone by the time she got home, so I am going to make it for us again tonight!

School is closed today due to the weather! I don't know as if I remember ever having a snow day this late in the season. I think the students will take them when they can get them though! It is still snowing out now, but we are only supposed to get another inch. Trucker said we had ten or twelve inches of snow in the yard since Sunday night! Spring in the northwoods, gotta love it! Tomorrow they are predicting 49* and sunshine, that will make the snow start to disappear again.

Warm Banana Bread Cobbler

I got a new cookbook yesterday called 9x13 The Pan That Can, put out by Better Homes and Gardens. I don't know about you guys, but I love cookbooks. I can waste away a whole day looking through a new cookbook, I almost proved it today! I like to find things that I think different people in my family will like. This time I found a breakfast to make for Mom and Marv next time we are together; Tropical Breakfast Ambrosia. What do you think, Mom, will this help get you over not going to Mexico this year? The ingredients are fresh pineapple, mandarin oranges, mango, cherries, amaretto, bananas and coconut.

The Trucker already found a new recipe in there last night that he thought we needed to try. He just goes right to the desserts and looks for what he thinks we need to test out. I start at the beginning and read every page. He came up with Warm Banana Bread Cobbler. I did not eat any of it yet, but he put away two pieces of it with three scoops of ice cream last night while it was still warm. I had to laugh, the recipe said to let it cool for thirty minutes before cutting into the dessert, so the Trucker sets the timer for thirty minutes so he would not be late! As he was eating, he never said a word to me, but I did get the thumbs up, so I assumed that to mean it is worth making again. The Princess and the King also ate some last night and I didn't hear any complaints out of them, either. Seeing as how you aren't hear to share some with us; I will give you the recipe and you can try it out for yourself. Let me know what you think.

1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 medium bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup butter

1. Grease a 9x13 inch-inch baking pan or baking dish; set aside. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. In a medium bowl stir together the 1 cup self-rising flour and the granulated sugar; add milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Spread evenly in the prepared pan or dish. Top with sliced bananas.
3. In a large bowl combine oats, brown sugar, and the 1/2 cup self-rising flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/2 cup butter until crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over bananas. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned and set. Cool in pan or dish on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

I think I might go try my piece now before Trucker gets home from school and polishes the rest of the pan off!

What more could a girl ask for today? I had a new cookbook to look through and a gorgeous day outside for walking with the hound doggers. It is in the upper thirties, sun shining, blue skies and a warm breeze blowing. God is good!

Good Stuff

The Princess made some kind of yummy sandwiches for our lunch today.

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

She put this into a blender until well blended. This pesto mixture was slathered onto both pieces of bread. Onto this she added sliced turkey and mozzarella cheese. Put the sandwich together and butter the outside of both pieces of your bread, then grill just like you would a grilled cheese sandwich. We all liked them. Toad even enjoyed the part of Trucker's that he stole when Trucker sat his sandwich down on a stool to do do something else for a minute! As she was making the sandwiches, she said she wished we had some tomatoes to add to the sandwiches. They tasted good just as she had them, but a slice of tomato on there certainly would be worth trying!

Now we are 2/3 of the way done baking six cakes! Do you think we can eat all six before the night is over?!! Just kidding, they are for a Sunday school class tomorrow (3rd - 5th graders). We will be talking about Jacob working seven years for his wife, and the Father-in-law giving him the wrong wife! Now Jacob is going to work another seven years for the wife he wanted to begin with. How he must have loved her to work fourteen years for her. I will be talking to the students about serving the ones we love. Or working fourteen years for the ones we love! What does all of this have to do with baking six cakes you ask? I'm getting there! Every day is a good day to serve the ones we love, but Valentine's Day is a good reminder for us. So, we are making the cakes tonight and the Sunday school students get to decorate them tomorrow for someone they want to show love to. We have some cake decorating gel for them to go along with the sprinkles and frosting. The students will have to find a verse that has to do with love and write that on their cakes. They cannot keep the cakes for themselves, but must give them to someone else of their choosing; a family member, neighbor, pastor, friend, Sunday school teacher!!

If I remember, I will ask the Princess to take her digital camera to church tomorrow. Maybe we will have a few pics to show you on Monday.

The King and Trucker got home from ice fishing a little while ago and told me it is participating out now. (We think they mean precipitating). By the time that freezes on the roads, there might not be many little tykes in Sunday school tomorrow. Maybe we will be eating a bunch of cakes ourselves!!

Do You Want To Be Successful?

Then study the life of Joseph.

The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. Genesis 39:2,3

These two verses stood out to me last night as I was reading. There are so many areas of my life that I want to be successful in. I want to be a successful wife, mother, daughter, friend; and that is just the start of my list! I think I will be spending some time studying Joseph and seeing how he lived. Not only do I want to be successful in the areas I mentioned but I would also like people to notice that the Lord is with me. I don't always let His light shine as well as I should. I think our actions can speak much louder than our words. I became a Christian because of my step-grandpa. He never said a word about the Bible, God, Jesus or being saved. I knew he went to church and he prayed before his meals. Other than that, it was his actions that drew me to want to know more about Christ. He was a very calm, patient, kind, loving man; I never heard him swear or saw him sin in his anger. I did see him get annoyed or frustrated at times, but he always dealt with it in a way that got things taken care of rather than making his problems worse. I have seen others, myself included, deal with issues in a poor manner; quite often making the matters worse than they were before!

I don't know if I was able to get this across in an understandable way for you to read, but I know what I need to work on. And whose life I will be looking into more. How about you? Do you have anyone that you are using as an example for your life right now? Are you doing a study from the Bible on someone's life? Maybe it isn't someone from the Bible, but still someone who inspires you in some other way? There are many biographies out there that we can read and learn from! That is my sermon for the day!

The Princess made us some tasty truffles last night. She looked at a recipe and then changed it up to what she wanted and to use up what we had on hand. You will need:

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 ounces cream cheese
3/4 - 1 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries

Melt the chocolate. Blend cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar together. Add the chocolate to the cream cheese/sugar mixture. Taste and see if this is sweet enough for you. If not, add a little more sugar. Next add in the cherries and put in the fridge until firm and easy to handle. Roll the dough into small balls and roll in sugar. Refridgerate again for 1/2 hour. Enjoy!

The King's Cookin'

We went ice fishing on Saturday. It was warmer than when we went on New Year's Day but this time the fish didn't want to play! I came home after a couple of hours, then "the Prince of the house" went out to fish with his Dad, the King of the house. When they got home they had four nice northerns. What is up with that? I sit out there and nothing happens, I leave and all the fish in the sea come out to play!

The King cleaned them and said he wanted to try a fish boil with some of the filets. I was looking in a few cookbooks for a recipe for that. Is it like it sounds, do you just boil the fish? Or do you have some seasonings in the water, too? Or lemon juice? I never got to find out. The King told me to get out of the kitchen, he would take care of it. I love it when he kicks me out of the kitchen!

This was some mighty fine tasting fish he made us. He poured a little olive oil in a glass baking dish, then sprinkled some Cajun seasoning in with it. He put the filets in the olive oil/Cajun seasoning mixture and turned them over to coat both sides. Next he loaded each filet up with some (a lot) of fresh crushed garlic and dumped a can of chopped green chilis on top of the garlic. On top of this he threw on a dash of cayenne pepper. Put it in the oven at 350 - 400 for twenty minutes and it was supper. It had a little zip to it but nothing you can't handle.

Today is the first day we have had temps in the twenties for a while so I am going to take all the King's horses (I mean dogs) out for a walk now!

I almost forgot, happy birthday to J. and Uncle R. I hope you both have a great day and are blessed with many more happy, healthy years.