aunt neva's strawberry cake

My Grandma (Ma) is one of 10 kids.  She's the only sibling living now.  One of her sisters, Neva, never married, and lived nearby Ma, and was like a second Grandma to me.  She passed away just a couple of days before I graduated from college.

If you've ever been to my home, lots of things you'll see were Aunt Neva's.  Our big tall bed that I have to use a stool to get into was hers (that was fun when I was pregnant).  I also have a couple of dish cabinets that were in her house.  But the thing I treasure the most, by FAR is her collection of cookbooks and recipes.  Aunt Neva and I shared a love of cooking.  We even had a similar cooking style - make a huge mess and get every dish in the kitchen dirty! 

I don't have all her cookbooks, but I have most of them, and they are jam packed with handwritten recipes that she wrote on scraps of paper.  Someday I'll organize all those....

I came upon probably my favorite recipe several years ago - Aunt Neva's Strawberry Cake!  Yummy!  She made this for my mom's birthday a lot, and sometimes on other occasions.

It is so easy and great! 

And super, super rich. 

As in, you have to brew a pot of coffee to go with this.

The baby bird and I made it to celebrate my Mom's birthday a few days ago.

I'll tell you right now I double the frosting recipe.  One just isn't enough!

Here's the recipe:

Aunt Neva's Strawberry Cake

For the cake:

1 pkg white cake mix

1 pkg strawberry gelatin

3 eggs

1/2 C water

1/2 C salad oil (I use canola)

1-10 oz pkg frozen strawberries, thawed and drained, but RESERVE the juice

preheat oven to 350

grease and flour 2 round cake pans (8 inch)

Mix together the cake mix and gelatin. 

Add water and oil and beat well with your mixer.  Beat in eggs.

Fold in strawberries.

Pour into your prepared pans and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Cool completely before icing.

I cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 10  min. and then invert them directly onto the racks to cool the rest of the way.

for the icing:

1 stick of margarine or butter, softened

1 box 16 oz powdered sugar

1/4 C juice drained from the strawberries

Cream the butter in your mixer.  Add sugar and juice alternately, ending with juice.

Frost your cake!

I double this frosting recipe.

The result is fabulous!  Let me know if you try it!

another shirt

I made this shirt a LONG time ago, but I kept forgetting to write a post about it, until now!  Similar to the purple ruffled shirt I made a while back, this one used 2 T-shirts of the same color.  I found mine at Wally World - my least favorite place to shop.  But, they were $4 each!  Can't beat that, right?  I followed a this tutorial but I made a couple of changes.  One big difference was that I made quite a few more of the flowers to go around the neck, to give it a fuller look.

Here's the shirt:

This was a super easy and fun project.  It literally took me just a few hours one evening.  The best part is that I saw a similar shirt from J Crew that cost something like $40!

WooHoo!

wordless wednesday

later, baby calves!

So, many of you know that I have been the proud mama of 2 baby calves since early April.  Our family raises a small herd of beef cattle, and due to some unfortunate circumstances, 2 calves, a male and a female, were left without mothers this year.  So, guess who got to bottle raise them?

I love baby animals, but let me tell you, calves are some trouble, man.

But, they are cute.

Moooo!

So, last week we decided they were FINALLY ready to be put back out with the rest of the herd!  Yay!  Not that I was ready to get rid of them or anything.  I mean, I LOVED feeding them twice a day in all types of weather, and I LOVED that their pens were starting to smell like the zoo.  And I really loved that Clyde (the male) would ram his head into me, causing me to step in cow poop every time I went in the pen with him.  Who wouldn't love all that?

Anyway.  

Josh released them to live with the rest of the cattle last week, and I imagined the scene would be reminiscent of the movie, Born Free.  The calves would tentatively step out of the trailer and look to Josh like, "what should we do, daddy?"  And Josh would say, "Be free little ones!  This is your home now!"  And they would slowly walk off to join the rest of the herd, all the while looking back at him.

Yeah, right.  Those calves jumped off the trailer and ran around like crazy for a good 20 minutes!  They were so happy and cute!

And I'm happy that they are happy.

And I'm happy I don't have to feed them anymore!

Catch ya later babies!

the farmers market

The Baby Bird and I took a little trip down to our local farmers market this morning.  It's something I try to do every Saturday we are in town.  We scored some great beets:

And here is the main reason I wanted to go this morning:

Are they not the most gorgeous eggs you have ever seen?  They were a splurge, but if you have ever had fresh, free range eggs, you know they are worth EVERY penny.  There is absolutely no comparison to the thin shelled, cheapies at the grocery.

If you've never been to your local Farmer's Market, I really encourage you to go.  You may spend a little more, or you may spend a little less, but there's nothing like fresh, locally grown produce at the peak of its season!  I love supporting the local farmers as well.  They are very appreciative of the business, and are usually happy to share recipes and gardening tips.

And here is a recipe to use all the yummy produce you'll buy.  I made it the other night after finding it on the Pioneer Woman blog.  It was SOOOO good!  Seriously.  It made a vat too, which was good, because between the three of us, we ate an absolute ton.  It's my new favorite salad.

Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients.  The beauty of this salad is that you can sub out veggies and use just what you have, or add some other stuff that sounds good.  Read the recipe and then I'll tell you what I used:

Asian Noodle Salad

salad ingredients:

1 package linguini noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled

1/2 head sliced napa cabbage (or more)

1/2 head sliced purple cabbage (or more)

several good handfuls baby spinach

1 whole red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 whole yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 whole orange pepper, thinly sliced

1 bag bean sprouts (also called mung bean sprouts)

chopped cilantro to taste

3 whole scallions, sliced

3 whole cucumbers peeled and sliced

1 can (10 oz) whole cashews

for the dressing:

1 whole lime, juiced

 8 Tbs. olive oil

8 Tbs. soy sauce

2 Tbs. (up to 3 Tbs.) sesame oil

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 Tbs. minced fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 or 2 jalapenos, chopped

chopped cilantro

Mix salad ingredients together in a LARGE bowl.  Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour over salad.  Mix with tongs or hands and serve.

I served this with grilled chicken briefly marinated in 1 Tbs. soy sauce, 1 Tbs. brown sugar, 1 Tbs. sesame oil and a little kosher salt.

Yummy.

For the salad, I left out the napa cabbage and the cashews.  For sure use the purple cabbage though, it is so pretty!  Carrots and zuchinni would be great things to add.  The sesame oil, cilantro and ginger really make the flavor, so don't try to sub those out.

Have a great weekend!!!

new nursing covers

I made a couple of nursing covers the other day.  One to give as a gift, and one that was an order.  I just wanted to show ya'll so you could see some of the fabric I have right now.

Here they are hanging together:

And here they are each separately:

Sorry I didn't model them for you this time.  I especially LOVE the floral fabric!  It's an Alexander Henry print called mocca, and could really work for a boy or girl nursing cover.  It's feminine, but not overly girly.

I've been a busy bee lately!  I'll post some other projects soon!

Happy Friday, ya'll! 

a day to myself!!

I have no pictures to post today, because there was no one here to take a picture of me.  The hubby took my child to his parents' house for the day and left me with an entire day to myself!  Wow!!

Here's what I did today:

LAUNDRY

I vacuumed

I mopped

more laundry

I cleaned out and organized closets

I baked banana bread

I washed dishes

I cleaned bathrooms

I dusted

I eliminated clutter

Did I mention laundry?

My plan for this evening, before the boys get back, is to do some sewing!  I have to feed the calves first.

PS - Our bull calf (aka Clyde or wooly bully) is now officially a steer calf.  If I need to explain how this happens, let me know.  It's a bit graphic for a blog post.