Knot Just One

August was a busy month for me this year.  We started off with a big carnival production at church that consumed much of my time for the 2 short weeks that we had to put it together and pull it off.  That was followed closely by my 10th wedding anniversary, and then a 9 day family vacation in no-man's-land near Paradise, MI (delightful, but quite the packing extravaganza) and we returned a mere 38 hours before I had to have my oldest daughter at the bus stop, starting public school for the first time (second grade) AND home-schooling my kindergartener while my 2 littlests tear my house to shreds.  There was also soccer registration, reading group sign-up, ballet enrollment and tuition deadlines, doctor's appointments and the usually housework and groceries....  But the most stressful thing BY FAR that I have had to deal with lately has been sending my biggest girl off to school.  

 That week was full of physical, mental and emotional stress for all of us as we adjusted to the new routine, and fear on my part as she ventured out into a peanut contaminated world with her Epi-Pen at her side, but without me there to protect her.  It all got me thinking (look out). 

10 years ago I didn't just "Tie the knot" as they say.  I don't think that, in any successful marriage, you can simply tie THE knot.  It's not just one.  One knot can't hold you together through stuff like this (and the other things that we've come through and the much BIGGER stuff that we will face in the future).  Your wedding ceremony is just the FIRST knot.   That’s a BIG DAY!  It’s the FIRST DAY of your entire future together, and you stand there at the alter stringing two lives together with a tight bond that matches it’s metaphor well.  You tie a knot.  It's undoubtedly the one that starts them all, the one that none of the others can do without, and you could certainly argue that it's the one that is the MOST important.  It says, before God and men, "I love you and I promise to always be with you." But it can't stand alone for long.  Each trial that your marriage comes through ties another.  When you graduate college and tackle the job search, when you move to a new home, when you face failures (that WILL come), when you find out you're going to be a parent for the first time, when you fight like only two people who love one another passionately can... and then apologize and more forward... each one ties a new little knot, a little further down the line, but connected all the same.  Knots that say “I still love you,” and “I’m still here.”  

Then you welcome your first baby, you change careers, you face financial hardships and deaths in the family, and your baby becomes a big sister... and still you keep tying.  It's the little things, those knots.  The dinner on the table after a long day.  The date night that you set up at home after bedtime.  The hug when it's needed the most.  The "thank you."  The "I'm sorry."  Suddenly you find that you have a little net.  It's stronger than the lone knot.  It can hold more.  It can stand up to bigger things.  You buy a house, baby 3 comes along, and you keep tying. Knots of “Hang in there, we’ll get through this.” and “Look what we did!” and “You were right, I was wrong.”  Stringing them together, knot after knot.  Sacrifices for one another, that reinforce your net.  You buy a new car, you get a promotion, you start home-schooling... and keep tying.  “Let’s do this together, I’ll help you.”   Your net is able to handle these bigger changes/stresses that are thrown at it.  Baby 4 comes along, you drop into bed exhausted at the end of every day.  And still you keep tying knots.  “We’re a team.”  And your net grows.  

It grows strong enough to hold back the temptations, the heartaches and pain of a fallen world.  All that life throws at us, our net can stand against.  So that, when we're staring down a week of highly stressful changes like the one we just came through, we know that it will hold.  We will have the little things to deal with, the stuff that slips though the holes; lunches to pack, school clothes to wash, fears to conquer, confidence to build, routines to adjust...  but those are the opportunities for new knots, and we don't have to worry about the big stuff.   Because the big stuff isn’t as big as what we’ve built (with God’s help and direction for sure) for ourselves.  

Just by tying little knots.  Every.  Single.  Day.  

Season-Ending Sweets for my 2 big girls!

Spring Soccer season and a full year of Ballet came to a close on the same weekend for me last May (and I'm just now getting around to pulling the pictures and videos off of the cameras - YIKES!)  Along with counting time to routines, delicately packing leotards and tu-tu's, curling hair, perfecting stage make-up, repeatedly reciting steps to memory, de-mudding cleats, mending shorts, memorizing field maps, NIGHTMARE PARKING, doctoring scrapes, scrubbing jerseys, coordinating practices, pictures, rehearsals and review, don't forget the water bottles, 1-2-spin-plie, home/away, who's bringing snack today? WHERE ARE THE SHIN GUARDS, and driving ALL OVER THE COUNTRYSIDE.... (whew) I just HAD to make these two girls something special for their big days.  After all, I was about BURSTING with pride over my beautiful little athletes.

So.  Even though they're not my finest work (prepared rather frantically at 1:00 a.m.)

Congratulations Abby and the Yellow Bumblebees on a great season!

And your Parakeet Polka was BEAUTIFUL Lily!

You both make mommy so proud!

PIES!

Warning: This is NOT my strong suit!  I'm still learning how to make a good pie.  I tend to make them a little dark.  But here's what I've picked up so far:

For my sister-in-law's annual 4th of July cookout, I volunteered pies.  Perfect opportunity to practice, right?  :)  I decided to make 3 pies.  Two would be flag-patterned with blueberry in the corner and cherry and strawberry-rhubarb for the rest.  The third would be apple.   I wanted to avoid the canned pie filling when possible, I LOVE a good cherry pie and don't really care for the taste of the canned stuff.  So I started hunting for filling recipes.  Here's what I decided to go with:

I found my cherry pie filling recipe on My Baking Addiction.  Great baking blog, check it out if you have a chance!

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling: 
(mybakingaddiction.com)

5-6 cups of fresh pitted cherries
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. almond extract

"In a saucepan over medium heat, combine cherries, water, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.  Stir in almond extract.  Cool slightly before using as a topping."

I set right to work on the cherry:

Note: Properly pitting cherries is harder than conquering the western world and leaves your hands rust-colored for about 3 weeks (or until your nails grow out and you managed to exfoliate your palms).  I broke about 15 toothpicks, stabbed myself a few times, crushed dozen of the slippery little devils and practiced a great deal of restraint to keep from swearing multiple times.  I finally got the hang of it, using a straightened paper clip.  Good luck.

Next I tackled the blueberry, with a recipe I found on allrecipes.com

Homemade Blueberry Pie Filling

3 pints of fresh blueberries
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. cold butter cut into pieces
1 pint of fresh blueberries

"Cook and stir 3 pints blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon in a saucepan with water over medium-low heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is slightly thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and add butter and remaining 1 pint blueberries; stir gently so blueberries stay whole. Allow to cool."

I followed that with a strawberry-rhubarb filling recipe from I-don't-know-where, that spent years tucked into my recipe box, ready and waiting for this day.  :)  

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Filling:

2 1/2 cups chopped fresh red rhubarb
2 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. Minute Tapioca
1 Tbsp. All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together all ingredients.  Pour into prepared pie crust.

I finished with my mom's apple pie recipe.

Mom's Apple Pie Filling:

8 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced (about 6 cups)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of Nutmeg

Combine all ingredients.  Pour into prepared pie crust. 

For my crust I used a double batch of my mother-in-law's recipe, from her mother...  ;)

Grandma Colman's Pie Crust:
(makes 5 crusts)

5 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. icing sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups shortening
3/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tsp. vinegar (I use red wine vinegar)

Sift together dry ingredients, cut in shortening.  Mix water, egg and vinegar.  Pour over dry, combine until a soft dough forms.  

Then the fun began.  

Using a star shaped cookie cutter and a paring knife, and constructed myself 2 flag pies and one star-covered one.  :)  

The pies were yummy, but my kids wanted to make some just for us.  Only, they each wanted different flavors, and that was a LOT of work and makes a LOT of pie...  So using the leftover ingredients, I invented (or at least I think I did) Teacup Pies!

They turned out GREAT!!!  It was an idea worth sharing.  :)

"Wonderful"

I know that I probably say this a lot, but, by God’s blessing, my life is REALLY wonderful.  I don’t mean the kind of wonderful that describes your favorite movie or the decadence of  Double Fudge Brownie Blast ice cream.  It’s a word that has become part of our daily vocabulary; for use in every pleasurable situation, from scoring a deal on cereal to reconnecting with a dear old friend.  Those things are nice, entertaining, tasty,  convenient, and enjoyable.  Some may even fit the word correctly, but are degraded by it simply because of it’s over-use.
       “Wonderful” is defined as an adjective meaning “excellent; great; marvelous… of a sort that causes or arouses wonder; amazing astonishing.”
When I say that my life is wonderful, I mean that it is actually filled FULL of WONDER.  Though it’s definition isn’t exclusive to positive feelings (and there are times when I find myself staring dumb-founded at one of my progeny who has managed to get their head stuck in a railing to no apparent purpose, or I marvel and my husband who is looking -with difficulty- for the bread that is 8” under his nose in plane sight) we do tend to associate with things of a pleasing nature, and don’t often use it in negative situations.  And it is in that way that I use it now.
I wonder at things that, like the word itself, we often take for granted.  My life, health and functionality, in a world where so many are born with disabilities, or aborted before they take their first breath.  I wonder at my citizenship.  As many criticisms as I can find with the government and policies, I was born in what I believe to be the greatest nation on earth.  What are the odds of that?  I wonder at my salvation in Christ, and all that He has done for me (that is a book of its own).  I wonder at my husbands love for me, and our story.  That he chose me to be with, at the intimacy and connection that we share, and that we make the perfect team.  And, more than anything else, I wonder at my beautiful daughters.  My four precious, intelligent, creative, forgiving, loving, independent, fire-y, daring, thoughtful, adorable, curious and inquiring girls.
When we were expecting my oldest I wondered at her growth, and the miracle of life inside of life.  When she was born I was amazed at her tiny little likenesses to myself and my husband.  As she grew and my others came into our lives I wondered (and still do) daily at the beauty and creative design that went into them.  At the potential that is before them.  And at the individuality that IS each of them.  I look at their little feet and wonder at the places they will travel.  I look at their little blue eyes and marvel over the things that they will see.  I look at their precious hands and try to imagine some of the things that they will do with them.  I cherish these moments.  And I and filled with wonder at them.
From the time I get up in the morning until I collapse onto my pillow at night there is never a dull  moment.  There is never a lack of fulfillment or purpose.   I am not entitled to anything that I have, and it could all be gone in a moment.  But it’s not.  By God’s blessing it is here around me, and within me, every day.  And, even at 30 years old, I feel like a kid when I think about it all. It’s rather exciting.  It’s real.  It’s joyful and painful and hopeful and rewarding.  It’s amazing.
My life is wonderful.  Every blessed moment of it.  In the truest sense of the word.  Wonderful

"Death by Chocolate" cupcakes

I made these for my sister-in-law's birthday, per her "chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate" request.  They filled the bill.  :)  My daughters really wanted to help with this (they wanted to make something special for Aunt Becky) so keep in mind that these could come out looking a lot "cleaner" with less kid-"help" :) then I had.  Here's how we did it:

I started with drawing out my cupcake toppers with a sharpie on plain white paper.  Then I placed the paper on a cookie sheet and covered it with a sheet of parchment paper.

Next you need a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3 squares of white chocolate.  I prepared a pair of decorating bags with couplers, and a small piece of cellophane on the end of each (to keep the melted chocolate from drizzling out before I was ready).

Divide the semi-sweet chocolate into 2 equal 6 oz. portions and melt half of them in the microwave, in 30 second bursts, until it was smooth.  Pour the melted chocolate into one of the prepared bags, and use a small round tip (Wilton tip 3 or 4) to pipe the toppers by tracing the ones you've drawn.

(This is so easy that my girls used up the rest of the melted chocolate making their own decorations).

Once you've finished piping them, toss them in the freezer while you whip up a batch of:

Moist Chocolate Cake (Amanda's modified recipe)
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups granulated white sugar
12 Tbsp (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 and 2 cupcake pans (total 24) with liners.  It's not a bad idea to lightly spray the top of the pans so that over-flow doesn't stick.  Beat all ingredients together until well mixed, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer.  Pour/scoop (this will be thick) batter into the liners to 2/3 full.  You should get 24 cupcakes from this.  Bake them approximately 16-20 minutes (depending on your oven) or until JUST set (cupcakes are VERY easy to over-bake, and they will be dry if you do.  A toothpick should come out mostly clean and dry.

While your cupcakes are baking, melt the 3 squares of white chocolate and transfer it to the bag, following the same procedure as with the semi-sweet.  Take your toppers out of the freezer and embellish them further with white chocolate (a very attractive affect, though optional) using a slightly smaller tip (Wilton 2).

Pop them back into the freezer.

While your cupcakes are cooling, whip up a batch of 100% chocolate butter-cream frosting (this doesn't need to hold like crusting butter-cream, so you can omit the shortening, use straight butter, and they's taste simply divine:

Chocolate Butter-cream Frosting
6 oz. melted chocolate (cooled)
11 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk (use a bit more or less to find the right consistency)
6 cups powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth, using additional sugar and milk to create the right texture.

Prepare a decorating bag with a very large round tip (Wilton 12 or 2A) and spoon in your frosting.  Once the cupcakes are fully cooled, you can gently push the decorating tip down into the center of the cupcake about 3/4" and squeeze carefully JUST until the cupcake starts to "puff" slightly.

Now you've filled your cupcake.  Once you've done this with all 24 of them, change the tip out for a cupcake swirl tip (such as a Wilton 2D or similar) and swirl on the remaining frosting.

Now you're ready to take your toppers out of the freezer and top your cupcakes.

NOTE:  The high butter-concentration and the delicacy of the melted/re-solidified chocolate will make these cupcakes high-risk in warmer weather!  I made these for an outdoor party in nearly 80 degree weather, and they did fine because I kept them in the fridge until about 2 1/2 hours before they were eaten.  Just take care around heat with these!  And keep a glass of milk nearby, because they're RICH and wonderful.  :)

Lemon "Brownies"

I hesitate to call these "brownies" with their dazzling yellow hue, but that is what the recipe dubbed them, and so I give you "Lemony Lemon Brownies" as seen in various Pinterest and facebook posts.  :)  I tried these out of curiosity, and  they're certainly no show-stopper.  However, they are a tasty little treat that are quickly whipped-up, and could be paired with other desserts (various ice creams come to mind) for an escape from the ordinary.

Lemon Brownies (with lemon glaze)

Brownies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup flour (all-purpose or cake)
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
3/4 cups granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Glaze:
4 Tbsp. lemon juice
8 tsp. lemon zest
1 cup icing sugar (powdered/confectioners sugar)

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Grease an 8"x8" pan.  Zest and juice 2 lemons.  Beat together the flour, sugar, salt and butter.  In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, zest, and lemon juice.  Add this to the flour mixture. Beat until creamy, pour into greased pan and bake 20-25 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown around the edges.  Cool completely before glazing.  (To make the glaze, simply whisk the three ingredients together until smooth.)

Berry Bounty Cake

This cake recipe was originally called a "Blueberry Bounty Cake" in a Country Woman magazine that I found laying around.  I used mixed berries in mine, so I adjusted the title of it here.  :)  I also used the Berry Best Cheesecake recipe (previous post) as the base-layer for this cake.  The lower tier was 1/2 cheesecake (baked without the crust) and 1/2 bounty cake.  The top tier was a 2-layer bounty cake.  I frosted it with plain-and-simple whipped cream (with a touch of vanilla and lightly sweetened with sugar).

Berry Bounty Cake

1-1/2 cups butter, softened
1-3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel (I used the zest of one lemon)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup lemonade (I simply juiced my lemon and added about 2 tsp. of sugar to the juice, then watered it down to one cup total liquid)
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen berries

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each.  Beat in the lemon peel and vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the flour mixture and the lemonade alternately to the sugar mixture and beat until well blended.  Fold in the berries.  Baking time will vary depending on the pan of choice.  For 2 10" rounds start checking your cakes at about 22 minutes.  You don't want to dry them out, but a toothpick inserted near-center should come out clean.  If you do choose to use the cheesecake along-with, and/or the whipped cream frosting, you WILL need to refrigerate this cake.