Daily Thoughts

30 Somethings

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Yesterday our son, Cameron celebrated his 30th birthday (which is actually Wednesday, but since that is a work day I guess he figured that he needed a few more hours to celebrate other than just after work). Cameron was 9 years old when Randy and I married but he was so easy to love that I felt like he was one of mine from almost the beginning. His wife, Mandy is pg with their first child, due on Randy’s birthday, July 2nd, but after yesterday it is hard to believe that she will actually wait until July 2ne to give birth. This 8 month pg girl planned an all day celebration for Cameron which ended last night at their home with a back yard barbeque for 20 of their closest friends. And us. The old geezers. We were the only ones that was over the age of 30 and well, we are way past the age of 30.I felt so old, I almost made Randy go to CVS to buy us a package of Depends.  As we drove away at the late hour of 8 p.m., headed home to dive into our jammies, we recapped the days events. We had met at a restaurant around noon to begin the celebration and once again, being the only ones over 30 we were allowed to listen in to how they felt a birthday celebration should be held. I wish I had recorded the conversation. These poor kids, barely past college, think that the years are all about them. Most of them are just married or engaged and don’t realize that this might be  the last year that they will actually be allowed a party until their little ones, are given away in marriage.  Just when you think that maybe after raising your children for 18 years life can be about you again, life and celebrations become about grandkids. Randy proceeded to tell Daddy Cameron to enjoy turning 30 and to make the most of it because the next year, their money will all go to giving “Princess Payton” her 1st grand birthday celebration and all he will be doing is cleaning up the cake from the floor that Princess will be throwing, trying to capture the once in a lifetime event on video and taking out the dirty diaper pail. Cameron laughed. Poor guy, he just doesn’t realize that his life, as he has known it, is over.

When we gathered at their house last night with their friends we noticed several things. The guys that didn’t have babies yet were sitting outside with a celebratory cigar and holding a beer. The ones who were already “dads” were inside, squatting beside their little darlings, cutting up the hot dogs on animal shaped paper plates trying to get the little ones to hurry and finish so they could join their friends outside. As soon as the little ones discovered the “doggie door” which led to the back yard, the dads spent the entire evening getting the kids unstuck from the doggie door, which the “undads” just looked on and laughed and gave thanks that they were still allowed to sit and “party down”. Well, we were informed that in the past these sweet couples who bonded while in college would party until the wee hours of the morning. This party ended at 8 After all, most of them had to take the kids home to put then to bed, which made us look pretty good. We weren’t the only ones that needed to leave early. As we stood around last evening it gave us reflection of years gone by. Years when we were the ones going from newlyweds to parents and thinking that we had the whole world ahead of us. Did we feel old last night? A little, as we would listen to stories of childbirth and problems with day care and schedules and being tired all the time we listened to the moms talk about things their little darlings would never do, well, I just smiled. Bless their hearts, can’t wait to hear some of their stories a few years down the road.  But it also made us grateful that we are blessed with some incredible kids. That in spite of our mistakes, failures and not so perfect decisions, God has given us adult children that we enjoy being with as not only family but as friends. Also on the ride home we talked about some of the dreams that we had for our kids and realized that they are now the ones who will be going down that path of wonder and acquiring dreams for their kids. It is great to watch them begin to realize that life is full of promise, full of hope and that in each season of this life, we create memories, not only for ourselves, but for those who are now watching this new generation grow into the dreams that we had for them.

It makes us happy to see that our children have learned that life is to be celebrated, whenever given the chance…take it! All the celebrations make the best memories. So when Randy and I really are in Depends and too old to actually attend celebrations, we will have the best of memories. Thank you Cameron and Mandy for including us.

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Chocolate thumbprints

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Am trying to write blog from new phone and cannot figure out why it will not post the picture

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Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

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Cookies that I posted on Wednesday! Delicious but next time to get more of a caramel flavor I will use caramels instead of caramel filled kisses!

Chocolate · Cookies · Desserts

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

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Before leaving Phoenix last Saturday, we stopped at a place called Kneaders to grab a bite, and a sack of cookies, just in case something should happen and we were trapped in the desert for a couple of hours with no chocolate in the car. The chocolate caramel cookie with sea salt called my name and I gladly took one with me. Whoa….a great deep chocolate flavor with melted caramel sprinkled with crushed pecans and sea salt. Why had I not tasted it before leaving the parking lot to where I would have known to buy 2 dozen of them to get us through the desert. I savored each and every bite. I told Randy how great it was, but I was not about to offer him a taste. I wanted the whole cookie to myself. (I reasoned that if he would have wanted one, he should have bought it instead of the boring oatmeal cookie)

Immediately after arriving at home, I began a search for a deep chocolate cookie that I could combine with caramel and sea salt with pecans. Am making them this time using Hershey’s Caramel-filled kisses, but next time I will use Kraft Caramels which I will cut each on in two and place in the indention when the cookies come out of the oven. By George, I think we have it. I found in my Holiday Cookies a deep chocolate thumbprint that I will use as a base…here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teas baking powder

1/4 teas salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 teas vanilla

1 egg yolk

bag of Hershey’s Caramel-filled kisses (Have them unwrapped and ready to place on hot cookie)

Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 325. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.. Set aside.

Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Mix at medium speed with mixer until creamy. Add the egg yolk and mix until well blended.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture. When flour is completely mixed in with butter mixture, shape dough into 1″ balls.

Place 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Make indention with Thumbie (which can be purchased from Chocolate Castles for $5 plus s&h) or finger (which will get cookie dough under your fingernails, which in turn will make you wish you had ordered a Thumbie)

Bake in preheated oven 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven and place a caramel kiss in center of indention immediately. As the kiss begins to melt, sprinkle with sea salt and crushed pecans.

Makes approximately 3 dozen

 

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Dutch -Processed Cocoa Powder vs Natual Cocoa Powder

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

I have been baking for more years than I care to reveal but have just learned something about cocoa. Being a true Paula Deen follower and a admitted chocoholic, I thought I knew more than I ever wanted to know about cocoa. It just goes to show you that there is always something to learn in the world of chocolate. Our daughter, Christi had just brought me a couple of new magazines from Orlando a few weeks ago. One of the magazines is Amazing Cakes & Cupcakes and I have had a ball finding new recipes that I had not seen.

In the back of the recipes I found  a section called, “What’s The Difference?, where it gives info between unsalted butter vs salted, etc. The cocoa vs Dutch Processed caught my eye immediately. The author says that the two are not interchangeable. Here are the facts:

“Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder-is made from cocoa beans that have gone through a treatment process to neutralize acidity. This process darkens the color of the powder and leaves it with a milder flavor/ It should be used in recipes that call for baking powder because they have both been neutralized.

Natural Cocoa Powder-is made from beans that have not gone through the acid-stripping process. It has a lighter color but a more intense flavor. It should be used in recipes that call for baking soda because the cocoa powder helps balance out the acidity in the baking soda.

Dutch-processed Cocoa Powder and Natural Cocoa Powder should never be substituted because the acidity levels in each need to be balanced out with the proper leavening agent-baking powder or baking soda. Use the ingredients called for in the recipe.”

Daily Thoughts

Woad (oops, Road, sorry, Ive been around grandkids to long) Wisdom

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Our friends back in California sent us home with this blessing last week, “we are so glad you are going home before we all sound like Paula Deen”. Seems that our friends there pick up the southern words of ya’ll and all ya’ll quickly. Stopping back by Phoenix to break up our trip, (who am I kidding, we stopped to see the grandkids)I found myself leaving Arizona sounding like I was 4 yrs old again. Randy looked at me kind of funny when I ask him if he wanted me to pack some “sammies” (sandwiches) for the woad. The first 100 miles driving out of Phoenix I was humming “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog” from Mickey’s Club House. Of course, Randy picked up a few of the grandkid habits also. He wanted to know how old is too old to run around the house in underwear, but I assured him he pasted that age many moons ago. 

We did gather quite a bit of wisdom on this trip. Here is some that you might want to print up to take along on your next adventure around the states.. We traveled another 3600 miles in the last 25 days so we feel that we are almost “travel experts” after having now put about 9000 miles on the car since February. Of course you don’t have to take our advice, but if you don’t you might just be very “sowwie”.

1. Do not spill M&M’s in your car. They might not melt in your hand, but trust me on this, they do melt in the car.

2. Do NOT, I repeat, Do NOT, eat spicy green chiles while on the road, the trip home will take double the normal driving time.

3. Use your grandkids as needed,. I had a chocolate craving while on the road so into Wallyworld we went. When the cashier was checking us out, she stared at me as if to think, “lady, your shorts are already to tight, I don’t think this is really what you should be buying.” To take the focus off me I causally mentioned that we were on our way to see our grandkids, she smiled and said, “of course you don’t want to show up there without candy, do you?” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that candy, plus another stop for candy would never make it to Phoenix. It wasn’t my fault that she thought the candy was for the precious little darlings.

4. Be sure to pack the next larger size of clothes that you have in your closet. We learned that eating fast food 3 times a day, plus all the snackies that we brought along, does tend to put a few ounces on our well  tuned bodies…

5. When staying with our kids/grandkids, you need to remember that the television will never be tuned to anything but cartoons so have your favorite TV shows recorded at home. You will NEVER have the opportunity to watch them until you return.

6. Eat at all the restaurants that you have been dying to try while driving. Once you get to the grandkids house, you will need to buy TUMS to help digest McDonalds or Taco Bell that completes their daily diet plan..

7. Increase your data plan on your smart phone before leaving. The little sweet darlings only love us for our phones and thus, every game app has now replaced all my exercise and health food recipes app.

8. Take lots of plastic zip lock bags. Because several tubes of cosmetics “blew” driving from 6000 ft down to 1000, we had such fun cleaning up shampoo out of everything in the bag.

9. Be sure you have lots of Kleenix on hand as you walk out the door to head home. No matter the different life style that you have to adjust, it is just never easy to leave grandkids, twust me on this. Maybe singing a little song will help, “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog.”

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Blueberry Salad

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While we are here in California friends here are being so thoughtful to fix us dinners and have us over, which blesses us so much! The other evening some friends, Barbara and Ray came to dinner at the Welches home, where we are staying for a few nights! Before we dug into Bonnie’s cherry pie, we dined on steak and salad, which Barbara brought!
The salad was scrumptious! Very different and even Randy who is not a big salad that has fruit in it person, are every bite on his plate!
The salad consisted of:
Fresh blueberries
Mandarin oranges, drained
Avocado
Butter lettuce
Bacon which was broken up into pieces
The dressing was a mix of mayo, a little sugar, sour cream, crushed onion and blueberry balsamic vinegar!
As soon as I can I will get exact measurements and post the recipe! Thanks Barbara for introducing us to blueberry balsamic vinegar! What a treat! Am loading up on healthy California food before going home to chicken fried steak! Hopefully our bodies will absorb more of the salad than the steak!

Desserts · Fruit

Cherry Pie

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We are  here visiting friends here in LA LA land where Randy is getting treated to his favorite cherry pie. The friends house where we stay is home to her famous cherry pie. Last night, Bonnie went to the kitchen to make the pie so we would have it for dessert tonight so I followed her into the kitchen to see what her secret was. I learned that she uses tapioca instead of cornstarch to thicken. So now I have the secret ingredient which I will share with you. It makes so much difference. Between the 4 of us, in the past, we have just cut it into 4 slices and have eaten the whole pie in one sitting. It is that good. Thanks Bonnie and Arnie for the great meals, the hospitality and especially the pie. Randy is exited that he is getting his fruit for the month tonight as he downs the cherry pie.

2 cans cherries (not cherry pie filling), drained, reserving juice

1 teas almond extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tables tapioca pearls

1/3 cup of the cherry juice from can

2 unbaked pie crusts (she uses the Box of Betty Crocker pie crusts which I have started using. Great pie crusts. Much better than the frozen ones. Flakier and has more flavor.  Follow directions on the box for using two crusts.

In a large bowl, combine the cherries, tapioca and sugar. Stir until well combined. Stir in almond extract. (tapioca pearls will dissolve when pie is baking)

Pour the cherry juice in and stir before pouring into unbaked pie shell. Top with top unbaked pie crust. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Thanks Bonnie and Arnie for your friendship, hospitality, and especially the cherry pie.

*She sprinkled a little granulated sugar over the top crust before baking, It makes it so good. 

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

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We are traveling again back to California to see friends, stopping at our kids home in Phoenix, AZ.  As soon as we walked in the door my SIL(son-in-law) met me with,”when are you going to bake and what are you going to bake?” I bypassed him to grab my sweet grandchildren and trying to sit and catch up on their latest episodes of Spongebob, SIL walks over to tell me he had the oven ready for baking. I have been in their house for 10 min, but know that if I’m going to get a minute to sit with my babies, I’m going to have to go bake something if for no other reason than to stuff it in SIL’s mouth. When I discover that their brown sugar is as hard as a piece of iron and there is no flour or granulated sugar in the house, I quickly pull out a chocolate cake mix. 

Realizing that I need to bake something quick and something that will hopefully enable SIL from making any more demands, I remembered that the kids always have peanut butter in the house so I throw Noah off my lap (anything for SIL to keep him happy as we told him that since he got Jodi on discount (she was, after all, over 25)she could not be returned thus, making it necessary for us to keep him happy so we don’t open our front door one morning and find Jodi standing there with 3 little hellions, oops I mean precious little grandchildren waiting on our front porch! So off the couch and into the kitchen! I made the chocolate cake according to directions for the 2 layer cake! After the layers are cooled I sliced them in half horizontally making 4 layers! Setting layers aside mix up the following:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 stick butter
1 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cream or half and half ( 1 tables at a time)
Mix these ingredients until well blended. Spread between the layers but not on top ( making 3 layers of peanut butter filling). Frost top and sides with chocolate frosting:
1 1 lb box of powdered sugar
1 stick softened butter
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teas vanilla
Cream to make desired spreading consistency
Mix all frosting ingredients together and mix until all limos are gone and mixture is well blended. Spread over sides and top of cake. Store in fridge until ready to serve.

Cakes · Desserts

Yogurt Cake

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Taken from Gourmet 2009, this cake has to be healthy because of all the Yogurt! Refreshing, light with just a hint of sweetness. Since I got the recipe out of the gourmet magazine I thought I had better make the description sounds a little bit gourmet! 

Cake

3 cups sifted cake flour (not self rising) * shift before measuring

2 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

2 sticks unsalted butter softened

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs warmed in shell and Warmwater for 10 minutes

2 cups well stirred plain whole milk yogurt not Greeks style at room temperature for 30 min.

Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

3 table light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teas vanilla 

Cake

preheat oven to 350° butter a 9×13 pan;  

then line bottom with parchment paper and butter parchment.

dust with flour knocking out excess.

sit together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

beat butter, sugar, and vanilla with mixer at high-speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.

Beat in eggs one at a time at medium speed. At low speed makes in flour mixture and three batches, 

alternating with yogurt beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined.

spread batter evenly into pan and rap  pan on the counter to eliminate air bubbles.

bake until cake pulls  away from pan and test done when pic is inserted in center and comes out clean;about 35 to 45 minutes.

cool in pan about 10 minutes then run a knife around edge and invert onto a rack and discard parchment. Call completely about one hour.

frosting

sift together powdered sugar, corn syrup, cream, and vanilla until smooth.

place cake on platter and poor icing over-the-top, allowing the icing to drop over the side.

allow to sit for 15 minutes before cutting