Yum-O

Rene has always been a good cook. I think he finds it an interesting application of the science he uses everyday, it's relaxing and he gets to eat the results. When the kids were all little, he cooked pancakes for breakfast every Saturday. We still have pancakes most Saturdays, but I make them now. For 15 years, he cooked breakfast every day while I was at seminary and I definitely think the kids missed it when he changed jobs and I started cooking breakfast. He also is an expert candy maker, so I usually never bother with it.

Last week, he saw this recipe in something he was reading and thought it sounded good. So, he proceeded to make it. The results? Mmmm...yummy, very old-timey and homey. Unfortunately, we didn't have any cream to whip, so we had to eat it with vanilla ice cream, but we both thought cream would have been even better.

Mountain molasses stake cake

For the cake:

1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick) at room temperature

1 large egg

1/2 c. molasses

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 t. vanilla extract

1/4 t. nutmeg

2 c. all purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

For Filling:

2 c. finely chopped apples

1/2 c. water

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil and flour bottoms of two 8" round cake pans. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the brown sugar and butter until light. Slowly add the egg and molasses, then blend well. Beat in the buttermilk, vanilla and nutmeg. In a second bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Pour half of the batter into each pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until donw. Let the cakes cool in their pans.

While the cakes are cooking, combine the apples and water in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally until the apples are tender. Stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and is syrupy.

Place on the the cooled cake layers on a serving plate. Spread half of the filling on top. Top with second layer, then spread with remaining filling. Serves 8.

Blossoms of blue

One of the happier things about moving to Wisconsin was discovering that, in the spring, there are masses of lilacs everywhere. I think some of them got frozen in the snowstorm we had several weeks ago, but the blossoms are out in force now. I know these are not really blue, but it's about as close as we get to "armfuls of blossoms of blue."

I was also very, very happy to discover that we have a beautiful patch of wild phlox in our backyard. These also grew wild in Ohio and we would walk down to the "10" bridge and bring home bunches.

Our irises have been in bloom for awhile and of course, we always have johnny jump ups, also known as violas or wild pansies.

Last year, I saw an ad in a magazine for a variety of lilacs that blooms all summer. I told Rene about it and being the agronomist that he is, he got out his seed catalogs and found some and ordered them. Oops...they were pretty much bare rootstock. They'll probably bloom all summer about the time we either die or sell the house to the power plant!

Go Greens!

While we were in St. Paul last weekend, Ben J. gave us a tour of his law school, Hamline. As we were walking down the hall to leave the building and see the rest of the campus, a guy walked past us from behind. He turned around and said, "Is that a DC Everest t-shirt?" For those who may not know, DC Everest was the name of Janet's high school here in Wisconsin and their mascot was the Evergreen. Hence the Go Greens shirt.

This guy was a 1998 alumnus of Everest. Woohoo! Go Greens! I just hope there aren't lots of Lumberjacks around.

Love is in the Air

Yesterday, we went over to St. Paul to the wedding of my nephew, Ethan. Actually, we went on Friday afternoon to be with Ethan and Jessica as they went through the temple. Friday evening, we hung out with extended family and then returned to the temple on Saturday morning for the wedding. It is always uplifting and exhilarating for me to be with family and I'm always sad when it's over so quickly. Good thing we have more happy occasions like this coming up this summer!

I found this awesome pattern online to make a bowtie, so I made one for Logan for the weddings this summer. It turned out so darn cute! And it matches the little girls' dresses. Rene insists that Logan doesn't want to wear a bowtie, but we all know Logan won't even know. I think Rene is just projecting his dislike for things that are tight around his neck. Heck, Logan can take it off anytime he wants!The pattern has an adjustable band so it can fit necks of differing sizes. I even bought the special hardware to make it adjustable. But then it seemed too big and clunky for a little guy like Logan, so I just used Velcro. But I had to buy a 12 pack of hardware, so that means that I have plenty left. If any of you have a hankering for a bowtie, let me know!

My How Time Flies

Happy 29th Birthday, Benny!

Be Jealous...

Last week when I drove back from Minneapolis, I did something that I've always wanted to do and I bet that some of you have wanted to do it to.

I went to Poniatowski!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the significance of that, I'll explain. When you drive west on the highway to Minneapolis, there is a sign a ways out of town that says "Geographical Marker, 4 miles" with an arrow pointing north. Everytime we drive past, I think, we need to go there. But we're usually in a hurry, so we never do.

So last Friday, I did. What an adventure! For starters, it is NOT four miles straight north, which is what I envisioned. No, you wind around on little county roads. I would never have found it without the directional signs pointing out "Geographical marker→".

And here's what I found:

On the way, I drove through the hamlet of Poniatowski, unincorporated, where I saw this sign.

It reminded me of smiling because you are in Amarylis.

Unfortunately, on the way back to the highway, there are no directional signs. So I got lost, but figured that if I went west and south, I would eventually hit the highway. And I was right. But in the meantime, I got to enjoy scenic tours of the villages of Rib Falls, population 907, and Little Chicago, also unincorporated.

This past week, Macey stayed with us from Saturday to Wednesday while Ben and Shannon took off for a few days to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. Poor Macey was sick the day before she came, so the first couple of days, she was kind of miserable. All she wanted was for one of us to hold her. She did sleep well, though. I had forgotten how labor intensive and time-consuming little ones are. She is toddling around now, so she has to be watched every minute. It made me wonder how I used to do it with six little ones! Kudos to all you young moms out there!

On Thursday, I went over to Minneapolis to do some errands and to go to the temple. For most of the time we lived in Ohio, we were in the DC Temple district, which was an 8-hour drive away. Because we had small children, nursing babies, and really no one to leave them with, we didn't really get to the temple much. We were so thrilled when the Columbus Temple was announced and it was a joy to be able to go much more regularly and to only drive an hour. I was so sad when we moved to Wisconsin because the temple was farther away again. But it has worked out well and I have been able to go to the temple often. It's even more fun now, because I can usually sneak in a visit to kids and especially Lauren while I'm there.

When we are retired and ready to serve a mission, I would love a temple mission. Palmyra or Columbus would be great! I think Rene would rather go somewhere and teach people how to grow potatoes, but I don't really see a role for me in that. But that's quite aways down the road, anyway. Rene's schedule is very chaotic and unpredictable with tons of traveling, and sometimes, I get to go with him, so serving in the temple is not really feasible right now. I'm just saying....sometime!