This weekend found us keeping our just turned 6 and 8 yr old grandsons. We cannot say that we babysat the 16 year old, because he would never speak to us again, but we did manage to have him here with us Saturday night and a few hours Sunday morning before he ran off to “go study his music”. At least he didn’t tell us he was going back home to clean up his room as we knew that would have been a total fib. But because we were so busy trying to entertain the little ones and at the same time try to look like the “cool and hip” grandparents that doesn’t get worn out keeping kids for 36 hours, we were almost glad when Jaden told us that he needed to go home to practice his music. Yea, one kid down and 2 more to go. It all started Saturday morning when our kids left town for their anniversary. We figured that we would take them to a movie to kill a few hours, but the only movie on was the Avengers. Jaden told us that he had gone to the midnight showing and that Caleb and Noah would love it and he would even go again with us. So after getting Chick Fila for the gang, we headed over to the movies. Jodi had told us that if Noah got bored because it was a long show, that we could put him in the child care there at the movie house. She said you just go show your movie ticket and they let them stay and play there in the play room. Randy suggests that I take the kids to the Dollar Store to let them buy candy for the movie. So off we go when the kids tell me that they prefer to buy their candy at Walgreens. Why is candy at Walgreens better than candy at Dollar Tree? But being the great Nana that I am I find a Walgreens where they select their candy and of course see the red noses for sale for $1. Each of them got one. On the way home to pick up Randy to head to the movie, Caleb’s nose broke and now there is one red nose that they begin to fight over. I take the one nose away to avoid further arguing. We meet Jaden at the movie and find a seat 4th row from the front. It is packed. Movie begins and I know within the first 5 minutes that I am going to hate this movie. Noah’s eyes get as large as saucers and he leans over to tell me that he wants to go. Well, no problem, I will take him to the child care center. So Noah and I leave the movie and proceed to the child care center where they inform me that if I didn’t have a rsvp, they are sorry but the child care is full and they cannot take him. Noah tells me that if I give him money, (after already spending over $40 to get us all in) he will just play games in the game center until the 2 1/2 hour movie is over. I tell him I don’t think so. So we go back into movie and tell Randy for he and Caleb to ride home with Jaden. We are out of there. So Noah and I head to the Dollar Store where he proceeds to find a hula hoop and several other little toys. Because we are having Jodi and Eric over for dinner when they come back to town on Sunday night, Noah and I head to the grocery store. I went in for 5 items, came out with about 15-20. I had forgot what it is like going grocery shopping with a 6 year old. So we come home with 2 packages of cookies, a carton of ice cream and sodas that I had no intention of buying Saturday.
The boys come home from the movies, but with my energy level quickly disappearing, Geno’s pizza sounds like a winner. But Noah informs me that he just had pizza Thurs night. But that he would take a Sonic corn dog. So Jaden, Noah and I head out to sonic, get the corn dog and then drive to Geno’s to pick up the pizza. We have a nice dinner and bedtime cannot come quick enough. But…the boys tell me that they had been promised that we would all play 5 Crown. Jaden is a trooper for doing all this with us; and we play cards until 9:30. Sleeping arrangements are a little weird. Jaden claims the guest bedroom and Randy agrees to sleep on the couch. Caleb and Noah end up in bed with me. Noah and Caleb refuse to sleep by each other because they claim that each of them kick. They didn’t lie. I end up sleeping between them and have feet in my face and back along with grinding teeth sounds. It is amazing how one can survive with only 3-4 hours sleep, but I just kept saying that if I could get through until Sunday night, I could sleep then. Because they all wanted different foods for breakfast, I made 4 different ones. Caleb and Randy wanted pancakes and bacon.Noah wanted cinnamon-sugar toast and apple juice. Jaden wanted Sister Schubert Rolls. Because I was so busy trying to get the kids fed and dressed for church, I forgot to eat until we were almost ready to leave so I made me a peanut/jelly fold over. Didn’t want my stomach growling during church. During the “down times” when the kids were not watching PJ Mask on cartoon network, they made paper airplane. Lots of paper air planes. about 25 or them. Our house had white paper airplane every where. The paper cuts on the bottom of my feet will hopefully heal quickly.
It is now Sunday afternoon and the kids are running all over the house with the planes, with cartoons blaring in the background. Knowing that their parents will be back around 5 to come to their anniversary dinner here at the house, I suggest that we run to get some balloons and anniversary cards. Of course this means back to the Dollar Store where we achieve our goal, plus find a few other items they can’t live without. As soon as we open the back door to come back in the house, the balloons escape and we run trying to catch them. We couldn’t catch them, so back to the Dollar store for more balloons. They got so upset seeing the balloons fly away, I just didn’t have the heart to not go get more. By this time, we have had conversations about them calling me something other than Nana. Telling them that I think it makes me sound old, Noah suggest that I be Corn and Randy be Dog as Corndogs are his favorite food right now. Caleb thinks I need to be called Lolli and Randy is Pops, but I tell him that we already have those names for some in-laws in our family. So Caleb decides that make I should be called TT because I drink tea all day but then they start cracking up saying that it makes me sound like I’m going potty all day. (They dont know how right they are) So we are back to square one on what my name should be.
Jodi and Eric make it in town and we had a great dinner, celebrating their anniversary, but really, Randy and I were celebrating that our babysitting weekend was drawing to a close. We survived. No emergencies, no melt downs, (us or the kids) and the kids actually looked a little sad when they got in the car to go home.
We have decided that in spite of being exhausted, it was great knowing that the kids had a great time and that hopefully the memories that were made, will be remembered for a long time. Maybe in about 6 months when we are rested up, they can come spend the night with us again.
Month: April 2018
Blue Ribbon Carrot Cake
I have made this cake twice in one week. The first time I made it was for a friends birthday and used some of the batter to make about 6 cupcakes so Randy and I could have some. Having a new neighbor next to us, 3 of the cupcakes went to her and so I got one and Randy had two. Well, I can tell you that just having one simply was enough to leave me with a craving for more carrot cake. This recipe was handed to me back in 2002 when, at a company picnic, Randy was talked into being in a dunking booth and all the employees bought tickets trying to dunk him. If you know Randy, you will know that the Penny loafer-Polo shirt wearing, brief case carrying man was not in “hog heaven” that day. But I walked away with this great recipe of a cake that one of the ladies from the office brought to the all day picnic.
Today there were 8 ladies at the house for a salad luncheon and since I had not yet satisfied the carrot cake craving, I decided to make it again. All I can tell you is that it always gets rave reviews and as several of the ladies and a couple of the husbands who were taken a piece said, “this is the best carrot cake” It is simple and wonderful.
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
2 teas cinnamon (I added an extra one to make 3 teas total)
3 eggs, well beaten
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 teas vanilla
1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots
1 (3 1/2 oz) can flaked coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/3 cup orange juice
Combine flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Combine eggs, oil, buttermilk,sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Stir in flour mixture, pineapple, carrots, coconut and nuts.
Pour into well greased and floured 3 (9″) pans.
Bake at 350 for about 23-28 minutes or until cake tests done. If you use one 9×13 pan, remove enough batter to make about 4 cupcakes and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until cake tests done. Cupcakes will only need about 15 minutes to bake.
When cake is done, remove from oven and using a pastry brush, brush each layer with the orange juice allowing it to spread over each layer. Let cool for about 10 min and remove layers onto sheets of waxed paper or cooling rack.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (1 lb) box of powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 oz) softened cream cheese
1-2 tables orange juice concentrate (I bought orange juice concentrate and allowed to thaw so that it gave the frosting a stronger “orange” taste.
Combine the powdered sugar, butter and cream cheese and mix until well blended. Add the orange juice concentrate to make frosting a spreading consistency.
Divide the frosting between the 3 layers, saving enough to frost the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle more very finely chopped pecans or walnuts over top of cake.
German Chocolate Sheet Cake
We are having friends over for dinner tonight and I know they are chocoholics so was wanting to make them something that I haven’t made them before. Looking through my old recipes, I came across this and since I had everything needed, it became the cake for dessert tonight. Whipped up some whipping cream to spoon over the top because, well, it has been several days since I have had whipped cream and a girl can only go so long without it. Taken from a Southern Living Magazine several years ago…
1 box of Duncan Hines German Chocolate Cake mix
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 3/4 cup water (I used milk)
Beat all above ingredients for 3 minutes and pour into a greased 15×10 jelly roll pan. Bake get 350 for about 15 min or until cake is done in center.
While cake is baking, combine the following:
1 (14 oz) can of Sweetened Condensed milk (eagle brand)
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup coconut
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (the recipe didn’t call for these but I added them and am so glad I did)
Stir eagle brand, coconut, pecans and chocolate chips and spread over cake when it comes out of oven and still hot. Spread evenly and broil on lowest rack in oven for about 2 minutes or until bubbly. You can add a frosting if desired but I just sprinkled over a homemade hot fudge topping over the top after cooling the cake for about 15 minutes.
Serve with ice cream or whipped cream or both.
Grandkids, Grandparents & Guns
Two Blondes In New York
I didn’t say real blondes, but nonetheless, we came, we saw and we left…FAT!
By the pictures we posted, everyone kept asking us if our main intent of being in New York City was to eat our way through. Why else do people come here?
We would get a text from a family member asking us if we were going to The Met. our response was…we were headed there but we got sidetracked when we walked by Angelos Pizza. A friend of my daughter’s texted her and ask her if we were going to go see a Broadway musical. We were so excited to hopefully be a part of the crowd at Times square where everyone gathers to get last minute available seats to the shows. But as we walked by this great Middle Eastern restaurant that we had heard had the best hummus and spanakopita, we didn’t make it in time to get tickets.
We can proudly say that we ate in Little Italy, Hells Kitchen (which by the way is totally different from what I use to know as Hells Kitchen, which was my moms, because she got in such a bad mood when she had to cook), Manhattan and the Theatre District. My husband has promised to take me back in 2 years so we can experience restaurants in Soho, the Bronx and Juniors’ cheesecake in Brooklyn. Because Jaden was hungry after he finished with the concert, we even got food from a street vendor. We dined at a Japanese restaurant, my first. Loved it. Had the most awesome experience of dining one evening at Del Frisco’s across the street from Radio City Hall. Do not get me started on all the food we had at The Plaza.
Not only was our waist growing by the day, but our feet were so swollen our shoes were tight. I guess when you walk as much as we did, all the food goes to your feet.
The laughter and the memories that we bought back were priceless. I remember seeing a credit card commercial of two people taking a trip and the memories which were made. That is how we felt. Each day gave us so many new memories and so much laughter.
Our reason for going was that Jaden, our 16 year old grandson plays in an orchestra which was invited to play at Carnegie Hall last Friday evening, March 30th. Jodi and I were the ones who were so blessed to be given this trip by our husbands. So we packed our suitcases and off we flew to New York. This was Jodi’s first trip, so I wanted her to be able to see as much as possible.
They say (whoever they are) that your kids don’t see us for who we are and that they don’t want to see their parents aging. This saying became very real to me when we would come to a intersection and the light would say that we had 3 seconds to get across 5th Ave. Jodi would grab my hand and say, “come on mom, we can make it” and then run across while 35 yellow taxi’s were headed straight for us. Then there was the night when, after crying, seeing Jaden up on the stage at Carnegie and all the emotions that went along with the pride and excitement, Jodi tells me, “Mom, we only have 15,000 steps on my Fitbit, it’s only 11 p.m., let’s take Jaden to the Empire state Building” Thank God the Empire State building stays open until 2:00a.m. Why what if it didn’t and we would have been forced to go back to our room by 11 and get more than 5 hours sleep? She was always so sweet to remind me that we can always sleep on the way home and that she would even let me fall asleep on her shoulder, unless she fell asleep before me, using my shoulder as her pillow.
The last morning before leaving New York, we were so excited to wake up to a snow storm that had blanketed Central Park. Of course, we had to walk to see this amazing sight. As we walked the 2 blocks to CP, guess who stepped into a slush puddle of melted snow? Of course I didn’t have boots on so the rest of the morning as we took pictures, in the 34 degree weather, my socks had frozen to my feet. Don’t feel sorry for me, with them frozen, it helped me not feel the pain of the blisters that had formed on my feet from walking 17,000 steps the day before. On a normal week, I don’t reach 17,000 steps, much less a day.
But because taxi drivers had told us that we looked more like sisters than mother/daughter (yes, I know they were just going for a good tip, but at my age you take any compliment you get) and one taxi driver told us that the ride back to our hotel was on him, (we did finally find our credit card so we could pay him) We actually never took the wrong subway anywhere, with lots of help from the locals.
We were two blondes in New York, trying to see as much of New York as possible, via the subway. Scary thought. Learning the subway at the age of 67 was a little intimating. How do they even make those subway maps so small? We did learn that train Q doesn’t run on the weekends from Brooklyn. Thank goodness, train N & R do. But our cute little subway map didn’t tell us that or if it did, it was in such small print we couldn’t see it. Next trip I will remember to take a magnifying glass with me. The laughter, the experiences, and the memories gave us so much to be thankful. It was wonderful knowing that we could spend 5 days together and still leave laughing and already planning another trip.
Yes, the bond between mother and daughter is absolutely one of the richest blessings of life….the joy and laughter, the memories, the love…are all real, even if the hair color isn’t!
Vanilla Cream Fruit Tart
Wow, this is delicious. Because I had ladies over this morning for Bible Study, it is so exciting to me to look for new things to make for them. When I ran across this Taste of Home, 2017 magazine the other day, the picture of the fruit grabbed my attention. I did vary it just a touch as I didn’t have pineapple juice in the house so just substituted orange juice. It was wonderful.
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 pkg (10-12 oz) white baking chips, melted and cooled
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 pkg (8 oz) softened cream cheese
1/2 cup pineapple (or orange) juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tables cornstarch
1/ teas lemon juice
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh strawberries (I didn’t have strawberries I used blackberries)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
Preheat oven to 300. Cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in flour. Mixture will be crumbly. Pat unto a lightly greased 12″ pizza pan.
Bake until lightly browned, 25-28 minutes. Cool
Beat melted chips and whipping cream until smooth. Beat in cream cheese until well combined. Spread cream cheese mixture over cooled crust. Place in fridge while making the topping.
In a small saucepan, combine fruit juice (pineapple or orange), granulated sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Cool.
Arrange all berries over cream cheese layer; brush with pineapple mixture. Refrigerated at least 1 hour before serving.
Chocolate Castles 