Unexpected Surprises......

I love surprises. I'm usually the one who does the surprising, but this time around, the tables were turned on me and I had no inkling of what was going to happen.

As most of my family and friends know, I had the priviledge of helping in a small way for a recent wedding with making some cheesecakes, doing some sewing and helping in general where needed. I even made some new friends in the process who are caring and wonderful people.

After the wedding the family of the bride surprised me with a 90 minute massage. It was totally unexpected and I was a bit overwhelmed by their generosity. What a nice gesture!

Then today in the mail, I received another unexpected surprise. The mother of the groom sent me a cupcake cookbook. Little does this person know that I have a tendency to collect cookbooks and again I was overwhelmed by this person's generosity. She said she saw the cookbook and thought about me. This mother of the groom is awaiting the birth of her first grandchild and one would think that person would have nothing on their mind but the new baby. To think of me and make time to send the cookbook through the mail tells me I've made a friend for life.

So the recipe I'm sharing in this post comes from my new cupcake cookbook.

Almond cupcakes

1 3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 pound butter at room temperature

1/2 cup walnut or vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup almonds ground and toasted
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan

In a large bowl cream 1 cup of the sour cream, the butter and oil. In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture, one third at a time. Mix thoroughly after each addition.

In another bowl mix the eggs, the remaining 3/4 cup sour cream and the extracts. Add the egg mixture to the batter in thirds, beating for 1 minute on medium speed after each addition.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full with the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Taken from Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella, published in 2006, page 49.

Dream the impossible.....Cookies????

I swear, my mother didn't throw anything away. Honestly!! She kept empty boxes in the hopes she would use them again "some" day. My dad wasn't much better because when I was going through their personal papers, I noticed their original bill of sale for the farm they lived on for 50 years. I also saw receipts from their wedding back from the 1940's, the first furniture they owned with copies of the payments plus the receipts for mom's china and fostoria.

That wasn't the only thing my parents were good at. Dad loved to travel and his dream was that one day they would go to Europe Europe and possibly visit some of the places their ancestors lived. So my parents started a savings account right after they were married and put away $25 per month every month in the hopes of going to Europe. On their 25th wedding anniversary, their dream came true because they had enough money saved up to pay for their dream trip. I admire them both for sticking to their dream and never letting it die or even using the money for emergencies.

Well, I have a dream of going back to Hawaii for our 20th Anniversary. So I came up with the idea to make cookies for the gun club my husband runs each week, and the money I get from my cookies will be used and saved for our trip to Hawaii. I'm dreaming big! Once a week, I send a basket of cookies to the club with my husband and he comes home a few days later with money I've actually earned from my cookie sales. So yeah, its not much, but I remember how my parents saved money for their dream trip and because of that, I'm confident (even though it will take a few years to get enough money for the trip) my husband and I will get the opportunity to celebrate our 20th anniversary in Hawaii.

I have a basic cookie recipe I use, but the one that is requested most is the Ranger Cookies I've tweaked to the way I like them and I guess others like them as well. I hope you enjoy them too.

Ranger Cookies

1 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar (I use dark brown because it gives the cookies a better taste)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream the above ingredients together until soft and fluffy.

2 eggs

Add one egg at a time and beat until fluffy.

2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup coconut
1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups Corn Flakes

Add the flour and mix this in before adding the other ingredients. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Drop by spoon fulls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-13 minutes until the center is light golden brown. This recipe makes about 2 dozen, but since I make them for the club, I use a regular sized ice cream scoop and make giant cookies. This batch will make 12 large cookies. If you want to double the recipe like I do, you will get 24 cookies.

Enjoy.....

DAFFODILS!!!!!!!!

You wouldn't think it was spring with the snow we had in Salem yesterday morning or the fact that it was 33 degrees out this morning. What I did notice was the Daffodils in the yards as I was driving around yesterday.

One Sunday morning when the two of our girls were young, our family was on our way to church. It was one of those "Sunday mornings" when things at home didn't go quite as well as I wanted. When I saw the Daffodils at church, I piped up and said in a loud voice, "DAFFODILS!!!!!" The girls thought this was so funny the family cracked up laughing. Every Sunday thereafter when we got to church and saw the Daffodils, the family would go, "DAFFODILS" in that loud crazy voice I used when I said it the first time. Then to make matters even more funny, every year after in the spring when the girls or my husband saw Daffodils for the first time, they would all go "DAFFODILS" together to remind me of my craziness.

I love it that my family remembers those days of laughter and "reminds" me periodically of what I said, especially in the spring. Special family moments like these will be remembered for a long time.

Spring is also a time when we share new beginnings and Easter. God says that when one becomes a Christian, "old things are passed away and behold, all things are new". Even though the world has declared Easter a time of bunnies, eggs and newness in Springtime, I love the fact that to a Christian Easter means so much more. God made the ultimate sacrifice when He gave us His son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and rose again for me, His child. Thank you Jesus for Spring, Easter and new beginnings.

During the spring, I like to do the usual spring cleaning, but I also enjoy some spring cooking. Here is a family recipe that I developed and hope you enjoy as much as our family.

Sizzling Chicken Salad

Using chicken tenders, cook in a small amount of olive oil just until the chicken is 1/2 done. Remove from skillet.

In skillet add 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/3 cup brown sugar and the joice from 1 can pineapple. (Any size will do). Mix these ingrediants and put the chicken back into the skillet to complete the cooking process. Simmer everything together and just before serving, add the pineapple into the skillet heating through the pineapple.

Layer salad greens onto a plate and add the HOT chicken mix on top of the greens. Sprinkle with shredded carrots, shredded parmesean cheese and croutons. You can also add tomatoes and hard boiled cooked eggs. Top off with your favorite Ceasar salad dressing. Serve the salad right away.

The chicken wilts the salad greens a bit and the taste is wonderful.

Enjoy.

The language of Music

When I was a small child, my mother thought it would be a good idea for me to study piano. I began taking lessons every week until I was a sophmore in high school. Through this, I learned my language of love was music. I thought my teacher was too slow so I'd cheat and mark off pages that I could play and went through several books before my teacher found out. That's when I decided to stop lessons and play on my own because I knew I had enough "learning" to last a lifetime. I played piano for the high school choir, church, and even small groups. I loved my piano and even taught piano when I lived in the south.

I thought I knew everything there was about the piano, but when I started playing keyboard for a church's worship team, I was challenged to the "nth" degree and learned a whole lifetime of learning again. Being on the worship team blessed my socks off and I even met my husband while playing on the worship team. I played on this team every Sunday for about 7 years when my new husband and I decided we needed to make a change to another church. I gave up playing the keyboard for the worship team and always felt I wasn't serving up to my capacity at church. I'd often wonder what I could do to serve at church.

A new opportunity opened up for me to serve and low and behold, it was okay because I would still have a connection to the worship team at church. I know it was a long stretch, but I feel making breakfast for our worship and production teams at church is my way of being a part of the team. Music is still a big part of my language of love and whereas you will find my husband listening to "talk" radio, I have my radio tuned to a Christian station where I get music all the time. I'd much rather listen to music any day than listen to "talk" or other forms of radio.

Because I get to serve our Sunday morning groups, I get the opportunity to try some fun recipes and even make new ones that I personally develop. Here is one recipe I developed this last weekend that was a hit. I hope you enjoy it.

Cinnamon Struesel Raspberry Coffee Cake

3/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoon baking powder
Cream these ingredients together until soft and fluffy. Add
3 eggs
Continue to cream the mixture.

Dry ingredients
3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups milk - Add the flour alternately with the flour ending with the flour.

Pour batter into a 9 x 13 oblong pan.

Use 1 can of raspberry filling (or you can use a jar of Raspberry jam). Drop by spoon fulls onto the cake and then swirl the raspberry to make a marble effect.

Struesel topping

1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup cold butter

Cut the butter into the dry mixture and sprinkle on top of the cake and bake the cake at 350 degrees. It will take about 30-40 minutes. Let the cake cool. The raspberry filling and struesel mix and you'll find that it settles onto the bottom of the pan with a little struesel left on top. There won't be any leftovers if you take this treat to a get-together or even if you want to indulge and listen to your favorite music with a cup of cake and coffee by your side.

Enjoy