Welcome Baby Boy!

 Taking a break while I’m on a true “grandmother gig.”  Little Lady has a baby brother. After four granddaughters we have a grandson! I’ll be back here in a few weeks. 

Making Up For Lost Time

Farm fun.

We've had extra family in residence since a few days before Christmas. What a glorious time we've had! After so many months of not seeing grandchildren (because of Covid) and more months of only seeing them at a distance (because of Covid) we actually have been in the same house together for weeks. Making up for lost time. 

We have tried to cram in all activities and projects and activities we haven't been able to do in a long time. We sang Christmas carols around the campfire on Christmas Eve, complete with 3-part harmony. It's nice to be in a family of musicians. We celebrated Christmas and birthdays. We've read so many bedtime stories. The girls put on plays and puppet shows. They've had family hikes to the river.

Enchiladas Con Carne from The Defined Dish.

Mommy and J-Daddy have done most of the cooking the entire time, so we have feasted. (I pulled out the bigger jeans this morning.) I should have made photos of the wonderful meals to share with you. But I focused on making memories instead of photos. (Hint: Many of their recipes. including this one, come from The Defined Dish cookbook.) 

Racing down the hay bales.

The not-so-little-anymore girls had great fun playing on the hay bales in the pasture behind the house. Climbing up, running across the tops, jumping from bale to bale. The best kind of farm fun. They also helped Daddy-O feed the cows which includes tractor driving.

Notice the baby blanket cape?

I crocheted it for her mom.

Those same girls have baked. Little Sister made applesauce muffins last week. And this week Baby Girl baked blueberry muffins all by herself. Except for putting them in and out of the hot oven. She did the measuring and mixing. Grandmothers will let little people do more things than the mamas do. So what if part of the ingredients land on the floor? 

They have both worked on yarny things. Little Sister knows how to knit, but I've been surprised that Baby Girl is the one who seems to love needlework best. (And you know that may totally flip next week and Big Sister will be the yarn lover.) She's a whiz with a knitting spool. I got a knitted bracelet for Christmas. And about two weeks ago, I taught her to crochet. Yes. She's left handed. She was quick to learn. At age 7, she bounces between projects and activities, but she would come back to this again and again.

I had so much fun showing her how to get started that I thought maybe I should try a crochet project again. It has been decades since I crocheted anything. Back in the day, I crocheted afghans for everyone. That was before I knew much about knitting. And definitely before I though about keeping a record of all the ones I made. Photographing every thing we did was not a thing. But there were many many afghans. 

Baby afghan I made for Mommy 40 years ago.

I have never known much about crocheting. Just enough to made a ripple afghan, also known as a chevron blanket. which was popular in the 1970s. (You can find a more formal pattern with tutorial for a blanket similar to mine at this website. Look at her gorgeous colors.)  I made striped ones in college colors. I made ones in gradient stripes. I made them in smaller sizes in variegated baby colors. Some were made of beautiful wool yarn. But many were made of the lowly workhorse yarn Red Heart. It's all acrylic. And it lasts forever. I still have one wool afghan here...the first one I ever made. And I've mended holes in it so many times. But these acrylic ones? They look almost new.

Little Lady taking a pretend nap this morning.

Little Lady loves to snuggle up under this old ripple afghan I made for her mommy over 20 years ago. It's been tossed in the washer and dryer over and over. I imagine this afghan will be around long after I'm gone. We have a few baby afghans that were made for Mommy by neighbors who were contemporaries of my mother-in-law who would be almost 120 if she were still alive. Those old blankets are still beautiful and still in use.

Lots and lots of new yarn.

So with all of these memories and thoughts of crochet floating through my head this week, I ordered a boat load of Red Heart yarn to make another afghan. Baby Girl looked at all the yarn and declared, "It will take you YEARS to make a blanket." She might be right. But that's okay. 

Ripple Afghan made for Jessica about 20 years ago.

Here is the pattern that I've used over and over. I still have the sheet of notebook paper where I wrote down the directions so very long ago. It's not the best written one, but I managed with it for years. Because I didn't know the directions could have been better. 

RIPPLE AFGHAN

Hook: size H

Yarn: 12 skeins Red Heart (12 x 260 yds)

Still working from this pattern, written on a sheet of notebook paper over 40 years ago:

Chain 225 sts. Turn.  Skip 2 ch st.  *Sc in next 6 ch st, always working in the back of each stitch .  Make 3 sc in next ch st.  Sc in next 6 chain st. Skip 2 ch st.*  Repeat for length of chain.  Chain 1 at end of row. Turn. Skip 2 ch st. Repeat pattern for remaining rows.  

This is how the side edge looks if you use my very old pattern.

It's not a straight edge.

And guess what? There is a major winter storm predicted to move in tonight! So these folks are staying a little longer. The fun continues.

2022 - The Year Of Low Expectations

Quick & Easy Cake w/One Minute Chocolate Frosting

We are leaving 2021 in the dust and stepping into 2022. The best words I've heard about the new year is to make this the year of low expectations. (Look for @sarcasticlutheran post on Instagram for her full New Year blessing.) Yep. You read it right. Low expectations. We've had two years of things not going as planned and disappointment on top of disappointment and having hopes dashed. So this year, let's start out expecting so little of the world, of ourselves and of others, that when anything at all goes right, it is a reason for delight. I am okay with that.

But we did start our year as we always do. With the traditional black eyed peas and collards meal on New Year's Day. We eat peas to insure we have plenty of coins jingling in our pockets and the collards are for dollar bills—folding money. There were fewer of us around the table this time, so I made fewer side dishes. And we survived.

And again, as always, we celebrated Mommy's birthday. They so often are traveling home on her actual birthday that is has become our tradition to combine the New Year's Day meal with her birthday cake.

I spent a good bit of time yesterday trying to find this chocolate frosting recipe here on my blog. I've made it many times and just assumed (you know what they say about "assuming") that I had posted it here. It was nowhere to be found.

I finally looked in a couple of other places and found a old printed copy, complete with butter stains on the page. This is an old, old recipe that makes a fudge frosting that hardens about as quickly as you put it on the cake. That makes it a perfect match for a 9x13-inch sheet cake. I pour it on and spread it as fast as I can. I didn't even stop to push "cancel" on the timer. 

I found this recipe years ago when I didn't have the ingredients for some other favorite frostings. This uses the most basic of ingredients that I always have on hand. And now the recipe is safely tucked away here in the recipe index where I can find it next time.

ONE-MINUTE CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1 cup sugar granulated sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugar, cocoa, and milk to pan and stir. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Add vanilla. Remove from heat. Cool partially (not very long) and then beat with a mixer for 3 minutes or until spreadable consistency. Spread (or pour) on cake while the icing is still warm. It will get firm when it cools. 

I pour this over the 9x13 cake and work as quickly as possible. Next time I'll beat mine a little less than 3 minutes. 

Here is the cake I make most often. It never fails. 

QUICK AND EASY CAKE

2 cups self-rising flour 
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat until well mixed. This can be baked in layers or a 9x13-inch pan. (Greased and floured, of course. Or, use baking spray.) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and the top springs back when lightly touched.

There are a couple of other easy chocolate icing recipes here on the blog. And we also love the caramel frosting on this cake. We make the cake in layers for the caramel frosting.

I do not consider myself a cake baker, but with this basic cake recipe and these frosting recipes, I can get by.