While trying to sleep last night, (yes it was one of those insomnia nights), I tried to think of what to write for my next post. Listening to the rain I started thinking of growing up on the farm during one of the stormiest falls we ever had.

I can't remember how old I was, but I do remember the Columbus Day storm, October 12 because the school I was going to dismissed classes so children could go home and be safe with their parents. What the school didn't know is when I got home, I had chores to do outside in the barns feeding the younger calves milk, breaking bales of alfalfa feed into stalls and feeding grain to the older calves. The moto around our house was, "if you don't feed the stock, you don't eat."

The wind was howling and blowing and I could hardly walk the 150 or so yards to the barns. I jumped up into the grainery, got the feed and when I jumped down, a part of the barn roof flew by and hit the ground next to where I was standing. Talk about being scared! I never told my parents about my close call and hurried back to the house to eat supper.

When I got back home, the electricty had gone out, and my mother had the old Coleman camp stove out and was heating baked beans so that our family could have something to eat for supper. Its a good thing my mother had made something simple for supper and all she had to do was finish it up on the outdoor stove. My mother always made fresh homemade bread to go with baked beans and the rolls had been sitting out for their final rising before baking. That night we didn't get any fresh bread because the oven didn't work and I remember how disappointed I was because there's nothing better than fresh homemade bread with soup or baked beans.

I've made my mother's baked beans many times and have received compliments on how good they tasted and comments like, "What did you put in those beans?" So here's the most simple baked bean recipe there is. Any one can make these beans. All you have to do is add a bit of love and a store bought loaf of fresh artisan bread.

Momma's Baked Beans

1 bag baked beans (rinse the beans and let them stand in water to soak overnight)
3-6 hamhocks or you can use a ham bone with ham still on it
1 diced onion
1 carrot, diced

Drain the beans you have soaked overnight and place them in a large stockpot. Add the hamhocks, onion, carrot and 1 teaspoon of salt. Fill the stockpot up to half full. Cook this until the hamhocks start to break down. This will take anywhere from 2-3 hours.

Add a sauce of 1/3 cup molasses and 1/3 cup ketchup. Taste the beans to make sure they have enough flavor. You may need to adjust the sauce mix by adding a bit more molasses or ketchup, but the above recommendation should work.

Mix into the bean mixture. Continue to cook the beans until they are thickened and tender. If you have too much liquid, you can always take some of it out before adding the sauce. Once the mixture has thickened, you're ready to serve. (If the sauce doesn't thicken, you can always use a slurry. This is a mixture of 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/2 cup water. Mix the slurry and add it to the bean mixture a bit at a time until you get the thickness you want in the sauce.)Be sure to take the meat off the hamhock bones and add it back into the beans. Of course, beans taste best after they have been in the fridge for a day so if you can wait, you can put the finished beans in the fridge and reheat them the next day. These beans also freeze well.

You can also use a crock pot to make these beans and cook them all day. When you get home after work, your meal is ready. This recipe will feed a large family of 6 people. Enjoy and stay dry.

A tribute to my Mom....

I've seen several of my Facebook friends posting a photo of their mothers this week in honor of Mother's Day. So I also changed my profile picture to my mother. This picture was taken at the last family gathering we had before both my parents went to be with the Lord.

I wanted to share some of my fond memories of both my grandmothers and also my mother while I was growing up. During the 1950's and early 1960's, a girl growing up needed to know certain things such as cooking, sewing, and general homemaking. This knowledge was accepted back then because it was a woman's role to get married, take care of the house and have children. If a woman worked outside the house, it wasn't career orientated but to keep a woman occupied until she got married and had children. Back then, careers weren't an option in my family.

I remember my mother getting both myself and my sister involved in 4-H cooking and sewing clubs during our growing up years. I have to toot my own horn because I won several blue ribbons in cooking and sewing plus actually had a chance to go to the State Fair with both my cooking and sewing. By the time I was 12, I knew how to make bread, muffins, cookies and cakes. There were some mornings, I'd get up early and make muffins for breakfast so the family could have something fresh and hot. Our family also got into the habbit of making chocolate cake every Saturday along with the fresh Zwiebach. This helped to boost my confidence and the family came to expect me to bake on the weekends.

Both my grandmothers and mother helped me to learn along the way. Grandma Thiessen helped me with the housekeeping part, Grandma Reimer helped me with cooking and baking, and my mother was the rock that I leaned on when I made a mistake and didn't know how to correct the mistake. I got to the point where I could figure out how to fix things that normally would flop or go wrong. I used this philosophy in sharing with my children that even if you make a mistake, you can recover and make a positive. Even in food.

Back then, my grandmothers and mother had "special" drawers designated for flour, and sugar. So that when you went to use the ingredient, all you had to do was scoop out the ingredient from the drawer and use it.

Okay, so I have to admit since I'm now making cookies for the gun club, I've reverted back to what my grandmothers and mother used in the kitchen. Gone are the cannisters and I now have my flour and sugar in a drawer ready to use. This way, I can purchase large quantities of flour and sugar and not have to go to the store so often.

Now you might think all the older women in the family did was teach me how to cook, sew and clean. This statement is definitely wrong because they taught me so much more like how to solve problems, and their unconditional love was a lesson in itself. My talents in the kitchen are a great tribute to the women I grew up with, but the love they shared with me meant more than all the cooking, cleaning, and sewing in the world.

So how do I segway into a recipe? The recipe I'm sharing is one coming from one of my huge failures. I remember crying because my cake didn't come out of the pan like it should have and I wouldn't be able to frost it. My mom came to the rescue and helped me make a trifle. So next time you screw up on making something, make a trifle. You can make a trifle out of brownies, cookies, or anything that is baked. One of my favorite is Angle Food cake.

Who would have thought you can make something good out of a failure! Thanks Mom, Grandma Thiessen and Grandma Reimer for setting such great examples of loving Christian women.

Chocolate Trifle

1 chocolate cake or cake of any kind, already cooked
1 pint of whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 package of instant chocolate pudding or you can use vanilla pudding
2 cups cold milk
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped nuts (use your favorite nut, such as filberts, walnuts or almonds)
1 large clear glass bowl

Whip the cream until soft peaks and then add the powdered sugar, and vanilla. Set aside. Also beat the 2 cups of milk with the instant pudding and set aside to set up.

Break up the cake into large bitesize pieces and place on the bottom of the clear glass bowl. Add a shallow layer of the whipped cream, then a layer of the coconut, and nuts. Add the next layer of instant pudding. Repeat this layer two more times ending with the instant pudding. Sprinkle the top with any remaining coconut and nuts. Chill until firm. To serve, use a large spoon and place it in a bowl. This is so yummy. You can switch it up and do the layers in any order and up with the whipped cream if you wish. This isn't set in stone so put your own twist on the recipe.