For My Peeps

Earlier this spring, my mom showed me a picture she had saved from a magazine of a sunflower cake using Peeps for the petals. (Here are the original instructions from Taste of Home.) I thought it was really cute and when my mom decided she was coming down to visit for Mother's Day, it was the perfect opportunity to make it. I had picked up a couple boxes of Peeps on deep discount a couple of days after Easter and instructed Keith not to eat them, so I was ready to go.

On Friday morning I baked our favorite chocolate cake (the instructions use a box cake but there is just nothing like a homemade cake, right?) and once it cooled, I iced it with peanut butter icing. Because let's face it, chocolate and peanut butter just belong together. And this is where the problems started. I always have some trouble icing this particular cake because it is super-moist (which is why we love it) so I made the icing a little thinner by adding more milk. Now it looked like a Dr. Seuss cake, all lopsided, wonky, and runny.

I wasn't too bothered by the state of my cake, and figured making the sunflower on top would distract from all manner of frosting fiascos. So I went about putting the Peeps around the top of the cake, leaving them connected as instructed. But I found my icing was too runny, and the Peeps were ready to take a backslide off the edge of the cake, dragging peanut butter icing with them.

I implored them to stay put, but they refused to listen, leaving me no choice but to impale them with toothpicks.

Now all the Peeps were lined up around my cake, looking oddly like synchronized swimmers about to do a backflip.

I was ready to start adding the "seeds" to my sunflower, in the form of chocolate chips. If you looked at the magazine photo, you would notice that the chocolate chips are placed in a meticulous, Fibonacci-approved spiral. If you are looking at my cake, it is pretty evident that any pretense of perfection is long gone and the Cake Boss would have already sent my resume through the shredder, so I simply poured my mini chocolate chips on the top and spread them out.

Then, fearing my backsliding Peeps would be rock hard if left in the open air, I put the cake cover on, only to find that it smashed all those Peep beaks back into their poor little faces. But at least they weren't going to fall off the cake or dry up.

While it certainly isn't the prettiest cake ever made, I didn't hear any complaints in the taste department.

Here's the chocolate cake recipe I used, which is a family favorite from Keith's aunt and mom, along with the peanut butter icing recipe.

Hershey's Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling coffee or water

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans or a 9 x 13 pan (or this recipe can make 25-30 cupcakes). Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling coffee or water. Batter will be thin. Bake 30-35 minutes for cake pans, 18-22 minutes for cupcakes. Cake will be very moist and freezes well.

(My brother and niece report that if you leave out the hot coffee or water, the batter works well in a cake pop maker.)

Peanut Butter Icing

1/3 cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4-1/3 cup milk

Beat together, adding milk slowly to achieve desired consistency.

Salad, Anyone?

Looks good doesn’t it?  It’s a little different than your normal garden salad though.  It’s got apples, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, bananas and grapes.  It’s very colorful.

But, to be fair, I wouldn’t recommend eating this salad.  Why?  Well, I should probably list the rest of the ingredients.  Dandelions, meal worms, shrimp, crickets, white fish and chicken.  To be clear, Tara and I don’t eat this salad and no, we don’t feed it to Bert.  It’s for Cash, our turtle.  You can take that sigh of relieve now.

If you’ve never met our red-eared slider, here’s a little background.  We bought Cash at a local fair about five years ago.  He cost 15 bucks and was about the size of a quarter.  When we brought him home he was in a tiny tank and ate only store bought turtle food.  We figured he would only make it a week or so but I have a thing about taking care of pets.  I figure, I’ve made a commitment and it’s only fair to the animal. 

As Cash grew, he continued to need larger tanks.  First a five gallon, then a ten, then a twenty.  Now, he’s in a 65 gallon tank and he could just about swallow a quarter whole.  All that growth took more than just store bought food.

About a month after we bought him I started researching about how to best care for a red-eared slider.  I know what you’re thinking but better late than never right?!  I discovered that turtles need more than just the store bought pellets.  They need real food.  So, I decided I would make meals for Cash.  But, I certainly wasn’t going to make meals for him twice a day, that’s crazy talk.  Once or twice a year sounded more like it.  Fast forward to the present.

I spent a recent weekend making food for Cash.  I cooked the fish and chicken and the meal worms, crickets and shrimp were bought at the pet store (canned).  The fruits and veggies came from our local farmers market and got steamed to soften them up.  The dandelions came from our very own yard – a benefit of not spraying our yard with weed killer. 

I mixed all of the ingredients together, sprinkled the not-so-appetizing mixture with a powdered calcium supplement and packed a few freezer containers.  Last year’s mixture, according to the dated label I put on the package, was made on May 8, 2011 – just shy of a year.  I made a bit less this time but I think it should easily last six months.

 

They say red-eared sliders can live 20 years or more in captivity.  Cash is five now.  That’s a lot more food!  Tara’s a great cook so I can’t even make the joke that the turtle eats better than I do, but you have to admit, he does eat well for a turtle.  And, to be honest, the money we spend on making real food for Cash amounts to much less than it would cost if he ate only store bought food.  Real food; better for Cash, better for our cash flow.

I should note that we learned our lesson and did extensive research on caring for children before Bert came along.  Eh, he didn’t eat real food for months anyway. 

Speaking of real food, want to stop over for dinner some night?  I promise we’ll skip the crickets.  I can’t promise anything about the shrimp though.

Blog-worthy Breakfast

My mom came down to visit for the Mother's Day weekend, and Keith treated us to a delicious and beautiful breakfast Sunday morning. The menu: french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, and hash browns, with grapes and parsley for garnishes. Keith's years working in kitchens certainly paid off as far as I am concerned.

Bert enjoyed his french toast, egg yolks, and grapes too.

Keith said the deal was that he would cook and Bert would do the dishes, but Bert didn't hold up his end of the bargain. So Keith did the dishes too while my mom and I took a walk with Bert. What a lovely way to start Mother's Day!

Pillow Talk

I'm not sure why, but lately I've been enamored with silhouettes. Maybe because they seem so classic and timeless, I have been itching to capture Bert's profile with one. I played around and did a small one out of paper in a tiny frame I had laying around, and it was ok. But it didn't quite cut it for me.

Then I was checking out this blog and saw these adorable pillows. I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" Then I thought, "Hey, that would be great for my mom for Mother's Day!" It was a pretty simple project. The hardest part was actually getting out of the house and to the fabric store (which is just sad, because the local Mennonite fabric store is less than five minutes away) and choosing two, and only two, fabrics. Because had I had more cash in my wallet, I might have gone on a fabric binge. If only I sewed more, I might be able to rationalize loads and loads of pretty fabric. Alas, I settled only a quarter-yard of each of two fabrics, a yellow and a blue, to match the guest room (my old bedroom) at my parents' house.

I started off by opening a photo of Bert in profile in Illustrator, making an outline of it, and printing it out. You could trace or freehand a profile too. I'm pretty sure that my kindergarten teacher sat us in front of the light from an overhead projector and traced our shadows. But Bert doesn't sit still so that was out.

Since I had already ironed my fusible interfacing onto the fabric I wanted to use for the silhouette, I had to transfer Bert's profile. I took a soft pencil, traced over the outline, flipped it over onto the fusible interfacing, and rubbed it on. If I hadn't already ironed the fabric on, I probably could have just traced the silhouette through the interfacing.

I decided I wanted a roughly 8" square pillow, so I cut two 9" squares of my yellow background fabric (making them the right size for a 1/2" seam). Then I cut out the silhouette and ironed it to one of the squares.

Then I pinned the squares together, right sides in, and sewed it, leaving about three inches open to stuff the pillow.

Before turning it right-side-out, I clipped the corners so they would be nice and neat when I turned it. Then I turned it, and ironed it one more time.

Then it got stuffed. Since it is just a decorative pillow, I didn't worry about getting a pillow form and making a removable, and therefore washable, pillow cover.

Once it was stuffed to capacity (and I really filled it so that it would be nice and plump, just like Bert in real life), I hand-stitched the opening. And now Bert's face is on a pillow.

I almost wish Bert had a brother or sister so I could have made a sweet little pair of these with two kiddos facing each other. But if there were two kids running around here, the chances of me getting any kind of project done, let alone two of something, would be slim. Really slim.

Jack and the Bean Trellis

For the past two summers, we grew our beans up old concrete clothesline posts that are no longer used.  It worked great the first year, but the rabbits were on to us last year and got all of our beans.  We knew we had to try something different and we thought one of the new beds we built this spring would be the perfect place since it’s fenced in.  But, we needed a way for the beans to grow up.  Enter: the bean trellis.

Now, for those of you who know me, you know that I only want to have to do/build something once whenever possible.  So, I wanted a way that the trellis could be easily stored for the winter to keep it out of the weather.  I had an idea in my head about what I wanted it to look like and how it would go together.  But, I had never built anything like this and I had no directions so I was, as usual, just winging it.  Here’s how it went.

I started with 8’ 2x4s cut into 5’6” lengths.  I needed four of those to be the legs of the trellis.  I determined the height using the most scientific approach I could think of – I stood next to the garden bed and figured the top of the trellis should come, approximately, to the top of my head.  I’m about 5’7” and the bed is raised about 6”, taking into account that the trellis would lose a few inches of height when spread open.  I always hated math in school so I didn’t figure out exactly how many inches it would lose based on the angle.  It didn’t need to be that exact – it’s just a bean trellis.

Next, I lined up the boards in pairs and drilled holds 6” from the top.  I put a bolt through each pair, which will allow the boards to swing open and closed.  This will make it flat and easy to store in the garage for the winter.

I used two 2x4s on each side as “cross bars” to hold the legs together, making sure to screw them to the correct legs or they wouldn’t swing open.  Tara decided she wanted one outside and one inside leg to swing the same direction (rather than two outside legs going one way and two inside legs going the other).  I measured to ensure that the entire trellis would fit inside one of the new raised beds.  That made the trellis 42” wide.  I used some Rust-Oleum, self-drilling wood screws that we had left over from the new garden bed project.  At the time, I was a little annoyed that I had to choose between a box of around 50 screws (which wasn’t enough for that project) and a box of about 250 screws (which was WAY too many for that project).  But, I’ve found that they are just one of those things that are nice to have around because I have already used the extras on a handful of other projects.  And, they go into wood like a hot knife through butter.  Without having to pre-drill holes, the project time is cut dramatically.

I used a smaller 1”x2” board as the third cross bar on each side (in the middle) in an attempt to save some weight and make the trellis easier to carry.  (I could have used the 1x2 boards for all of the cross bars but I didn’t have enough.  Again, it came from a scrap pile).  For the beans to grow up, we stapled wire fencing to each side of the trellis.

          

Once the fence was on, the trellis was ready for garden duty.  The last step was to place a small piece of chain on each side of the trellis to prevent it from opening too wide (or falling open in the wind).  This is the final product.

It folds up nicely and is easy enough for me to carry myself, plus it should be convenient to store for the winter. The beans will grow up the outside of the trellis and should be really easy to pick as they come on.

You can see a plastic tube on the top right of the trellis; that's a rain gauge we got for Christmas.  We thought it would be the perfect location since we can see it easily from our kitchen window. And thankfully, we are finally getting some rain in it.

The Same Old

Is it just me, or does it seem like Keith is the only one who gets anything done around here? If you have been reading the blog over the past week or so, it certainly appears that way. And I have to give him a lot of credit because in addition to his 40-hour-plus week at work, he manages to really crank out the projects on the weekends.

Judging by my posts, all I do is read. In my defense, I spend a lot of time reading while Bert takes a half hour to eat breakfast, another twenty minutes for a morning snack, half hour at lunch, and twenty minutes again while eating his afternoon snack. Because I really shouldn't leave him unattended while he's eating. Right?

Lately, it feels like I do a lot of the same things. And I do them over and over.

I wash the same clothes. And towels. And diapers.

I do the dishes after lunch. And after dinner. And dinner? I feel like I'm using the same old recipes, over and over again.

I change diapers and clean poopy diapers. I clean the toilet (but probably not as often as I should.) I get the mail and pay the bills. I straighten up, tidy up, clean up. Endlessly.

Sometimes it is hard for me to find motivation in the midst of the mundane, to be creative when there are a zillion little things to attend to (and one big thing, known as Bert). But I have found time for some little projects, some that I'll share with you soon and some that aren't really blog-worthy but still give me some satisfaction. And I have a few new recipes I want to try and I'll be sure to post them if they measure up.

I watched a Hallmark movie the other night called The Magic of Ordinary Days. The movie was sweet (I'm a sucker for Hallmark movies) but what really sticks with me is the title. The magic of ordinary days. When I think about it, I can agree that there is some magic in caring for a little human all day, every day. And there is something special about cooking a meal for my family, even if we have had it twenty times. And there is something satisfying about baskets of clean clothes, neatly folded. The ordinary days do have their charm.

But if I'm being honest, there's nothing magical about poopy diapers and scrubbing toilets.

A Promise Kept

Promise Me

How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer

By Nancy G. Brinker with Joni Rodgers

(I originally said May is Breast Cancer Awareness month but Keith clued me in that it is actually October. Somehow a room full of women got that mixed up when we decided this would be the perfect book for May. Maybe we were thinking that May means Mother's Day and we all want our mothers and grandmothers to be cancer-free.)

The book club at the library that I participate in chose Promise Me as our May book. We all know the name Susan G. Komen, but prior to reading this book, I had no idea it was her sister, Nancy G. Brinker, who founded the organization to raise awareness and fund research for breast cancer treatments. Brinker weaves the story of her life, of her sister's devastating diagnoses, and the birth and growth of the foundation in an informative and moving memoir.

Despite centering on the heartbreaking topic of breast cancer, Promise Me is hopeful and engaging. Each chapter about the sisters' lives is balanced with a shorter chapter celebrating the researchers and survivors of breast cancer or honoring those who have died of the disease. Clearly, Brinker views the fight against breast cancer not just as a personal one, but as a universal cause. Brinker writes honestly about the struggles in her life, with her relationships, her own diagnoses of breast cancer, and the differing opinions of effective treatments and research in the search for a cure.

The one part that really sticks in my mind is that though Susan G. Komen is in it for the long haul, they haven't constructed their own building for the organizations headquarters because they have no intentions of needing to be around for decades. They expect to find a cure.