Bright Sunshiny Day

Snickerdoodle Cake

For Leann!

((Elaine, don't read any further - that is if you still read my blog ;-p))

This recipe is from The Cake Mix Doctor Cookbook that my sweet friend Elaine gave me after she discovered that she (as well as her girls) needed to go gluten free.

Anyway - this is a simple, yet DELISH cake!

Grease and flour pans (I use Baker's Joy)

1 plain white cake mix (I am a Betty Crocker girl)

1 cup whole milk

1 ENTIRE stick of REAL (please, no subbies) butter melted.  (see why this cake was so yummy!  Whole milk and a whole stick of butter!  and we haven't even iced it yet)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use only Adams Extract, the others just don't taste as good)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cinnamon buttercream frosting

Preheat to 350.  Grease either two rounds (9inch) or your 9 x13.  I used my trusty 9x13

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Stop and scrape sides.  Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more.  The batter should look well combined.  (and exciting at this point!   The cake is almost done!  The cake is almost done!)

Bake until golden brown and spring back a bit with your finger.  Mine took about 30 minutes in the 9 x13.  If you do two pans, it won't take as long.

Now for the frosting

1 Stick of butter at room temp

3 3/4 cup of powdered sugar

3 to 4 T of milk

2 t of vanilla

1 t of ground cinnamon

Place butter in large mixing bowl, blending until fluffy.  Add sugar, milk and vanilla and cinnamon.  Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated. Increase speed to medium and blend until fluffy.  (when I make buttercream, I just throw it all in and mix, mix, mix.

Enjoy!

It's staring at me

I look around the house.

After five days of having Andy home on vacation, I am once again the only grown up in the house.  And it's staring at me.  Each time I open the door to get something we need, there it is.

One time I swear it waved at me.

Perhaps Emma could take care of it for me.  She gets the bugs when I "freak out" (her words).  No, too dangerous even for her.  Hang on.  I'm going to check and see if it's still there.

Yep.  Hasn't budged.

It's bigger than the two snakes that I have found in this house.  Bigger than Fluffy the mouse that once lived in this very room.  And bigger than the lizard that I trapped behind the dishwasher just last week.  I stuffed dish towels along the side so he couldn't come out until Andy got home.

ACK!  What to do?  Who can I call to come over?  It'd only take a minute to take care of it....I promise.

OK.  Holding my breath and going to suit up in my baggies to take care of the ginormous, full of nasty bacteria, bird flu germs and-who-knows-what-else chicken that has thawed out in my fridge.

Do not call me - I will be unable to pick up the phone until I have washed my hands 75 times.

*icky*

The Weekend at BSD

The best thing about weekends is that you get to do the same things over again each weekend.  It still is fun and special because weekends aren't regular days.

What does your weekend look like?

Here is a run down of what we do!

Friday night.

Must light the Johnson Victory Candle at dinner.  Daddy is home for the whole weekend!  We anticipate great things to come.  I can't remember what we had for dinner on Friday, but it seems like everyone ate it.  That's always good!

Saturday.

Mommy and Andrew start the day at his usual wake up time of 6:30-6:45.  The difference here is that I'm not up BEFORE him on Saturday.  As I am nursing him, I can hear Caroline rouse up in the girls room.  She thumps around and gets Teddy dressed for the day and in the process wakes up Emma.   They normally stay in their room  playing and giggling until they hear Andy making coffee or me summoning them with Kool and the Gang's Celebration on my IPOD player thingy.  If you've not woken up to Kool and the Gang, well, shame on you.    YOu should.  The girls think that is HI-LAIR-IOUS! 

Pancakes.  After we snug and play on the couch for a while Andy starts pancakes and I feed the baby his cereal.  This happens every single Saturday.  Family Day!  We even blew off a birthday party yesterday in honor of Family Day. 

Next we decide on a project, get dressed, start washing all the sheets, and then see what happens.  Yesterday we had to make a Williams Sonoma run and a Costco run.  While at Southlake Towne Center,  for the WS run, we enjoyed listening to a youth group who is passing through town on a mission trip.  Finished up at Costco and then Andy had to make his first Lowes run of the season.  We decided to put in a little veggie garden for the girls and I to play in this summer.

Spent the rest of the day at home in the backyard. E/C worked on monkey bars with and without Andy's help, I worked up the meal plan for next week, and then we grilled chicken and just hung out.  Oh, I also spent some time researching what we need for our garden that is in the works.  (see about for deciding on a project)

After bath and bed I decide what everyone is wearing in the morning.  Crucial.

Sunday.

Same wake up time.  Perhaps a bit earlier and I do have to drag myself out of bed before the baby wakes up.  It's a church day, you know.  We get everyone ready and out the door, but instead of pancakes, it's cereal.   That's ok.  Get the baby's bag packed, snacks and double check epi-pens for the girls,  Bibles, etc. and we are on our  way!

Drop off girls at Sunday School and then off to our class.  Andrew still isn't going to the nursery.....too few workers, too many babies and TOO MANY GERMS.  Besides, he was asleep when we got to church.  So Andy stayed in the car and the gals and I went on in.

Enjoyed our class - we are working through the letters to the churches in Revelation.  Um.  Yes, SO RELEVANT to our current situation.   Phone rings as I am getting tickets for Dine by Design AND chatting with a friend about the prayer group that is meeting in her home for the gals in our Sunday School class.  Anyway.   Home again, for lunch......and other projects.

Today Andy and the girls are busy building the box that our little garden will go into.  I am working on dinner for a friend and catching up on laundry.  Normal stuff.

OH.  I remember now what we had for dinner - Laine's Easy Pinto Beans in the crock pot.  That was Friday.  Today I refried them and we had bean and cheese nachos after church.  Tomorrow we will have bean burritos.

The baby is working on his third nap of the day, E/C are outside eating PhillySwirls and Andy is yet again at Lowes.

And there you have our weekend.

You really won't care about this one...

However, it's my blog.

I downloaded some new software to my laptop.  I think it's called inspired cooking....or something...anyway it comes with fifty billion recipies and a gobzillion ways to store recipies you download or put in yourself.  You can also create meal plans and it will generate your shopping list for you.

ACK.  I feel so Elaine-ish. 'Cept I still have my gallblabber.....

I'll let you know if I still like it after the "new" wears off.  I asked Emma what she recipe she wanted me to put in it.  "Pancakes!"

And on that note....a kitchen meme that I swiped from Stephanie....

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? HOw many are in your family?

We eat about 19 meals at home.  All breakfast, most lunches - E and C eat at school on T/TH and I eat on the run on Th lunch.  We order pizza usually once over a weekend. There are five of us.

I2. How many cookbooks do you own? How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
At LEAST 30.  Maybe more.  The ones that I grab most often are a church cookbook, a cookbook of recipies that Kris collected, Sherman Service League, and Fannie Farmer. Southern Living Easy Weeknight Favorites - Just got that one from Melissa's party.  It looks like a good one!

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
I subscribe to the Menus for Moms e-newsletter and Taste of Home cooking magazine.  My new software also has recipes on it.

5. How do you store those recipes?

Well.  Stuffed in a notebook, box, and a falling apart cookbook that you add your own recipes to it.   BUT NO MORE.  They are all going to the computer

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?
Not really.  Is regular food an ethnic style?

8. What’s your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Hmmm.  Hunting down new recipes.  Buying new cookbooks....and then actually making them.  The grocery trip is for the birds, though.  Whoops.  Just answered number 9.

9. What’s your least favorite part? Grocery, clean up.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
I try to.  Most of the time I have a plan.  It makes life SO much easier!

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances? My coffee pot, my two ovens, and my dishwasher....(oh, and my crockpot, my flat range, and my fridge that holds the diet coke....)

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?New countertops~and a new sink...right now I have a double sink, but I covet my neighbors drop in sink...it's a *triple*!!! And, since money is no object why can't I have all new stuff? Pots, pans, cute serving stuff, crock pot, and tons of free food? Oh...and an island with a sink.  And it's own tiny fridge....with a cool iron pot rack hanging thing above it.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
*sigh*Food for my family.  Oh and a new large skillet.  Really needing one of those!

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Yes.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
Always with a kid....or two...or three.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
One or two. Pinto beans, rice and cornbread.  Scrambled eggs.  Breakfast for dinner is always a hit around here.  See above about Emma's request about the pancake recipe input in the new software.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it?
My kitchen and family room combine to make giant room.  Country french-ish.  Sage green, mustard yellow, red, and blue highlights.

18. What’s the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
Grilled Cheese.

19. How did you learn to cook?
Watching others.

20. Tag two other people to play.   Kris and Elaine!