sewing with my girls :)

 

Abby & the Cattleman were gone for a week plus.  Tim & the Computer Geek left Wednesday to join them for a day and bring them home again.  So our school schedule this week became the unofficial first spring break.  {the real spring break is scheduled for Easter when Kate will be home with us}

So anyway, I had told the Popper that she should sew a pair of PJ culottes this week.  Since her sisters at home recently each sewed some from lovely flannel – and have been slightly ecstatic about their comfort.  :)

And besides, the Popper needs to learn to sew! 

We didn’t get started until late Thursday afternoon.  (I was sick earlier in the week :p)

 

 

Ta da!  We finished them Friday morning.

(Love this easy pattern! out of print Simplicity 7409)

The Cowgirl decided she needed a break from writing an exciting classification essay on cereal… :o  and joined the sewing frenzy for the day.

                                          Isn’t she goofy cute?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile I started on a pair of heavy denim culottes for the Popper, which she helped with too.

The Cowgirl thought she needed a pair from the denim also.

                       

 

While we’re at it.  Buried in the closet for how many years … Fabric I had given to the Popper after she received her sewing box.  For pillow cases.  Easy first project.   :D

  

    

(I hope you can see the fun dragon flies in the print)

They opted to keep them each one solid fabric instead of combining the pink and blue.  Faster, ya know?

 

 

The Cowgirl in her new denims, ready to work the cattle  :)

 

 

 

 

She said the Popper helped stitch the hems.  And together they’ve been working some scraps into new doll clothes…

        

flourless chocolate cake {pudding on a plate}

 

Yum.   

I should have a worthy photo or ten of our desserts from last week’s banquet, but I don’t…

so, here’s what we attempted to look like…

except we had to skip the fresh raspberries, and we had whipped cream not white chocolate mousse

{Photo credit:  Judy}

Pretty, yes?  Delicious, yes!

Pretty delicious.

The recipe I used actually came from food52.com  {Judy’s above has beans in it to replace the flour}, but I also took some hints from allrecipes, epicurious, and Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.  Hard work, this business.

Recipe contributor “TasteFood” says: This luscious chocolate cake is made without flour, resulting in a rich truffle-like torte. The key to its intensity and flavor lies in the quality of the few ingredients. Choose a high quality dark chocolate (I prefer Lindt 70%) and use a European-style butter, such as Plugra or Lurpak. The brightness and acidity of the raspberry coulis balances the richness of the cake, while cooling whipped cream smooths out the flavors, allowing you to come back for more.

 

Methods & Ingredients:

1 cup butter

2 cups (12 oz) Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

6 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter a 9” spring form pan.  Line bottom with buttered parchment paper.  Dust pan with Dutch process unsweetened cocoa powder (or other unsweetened cocoa powder).

Melt butter over low heat in small saucepan.  Turn off heat and add chocolate; stir to melt; return to very low heat if needed to melt chocolate.  (This method replaces the need for a double boiler  :)  so work it carefully.)

Whisk sugar and eggs together in large bowl (First sample cake I whisked ingredients by hand; the cakes for the banquet I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with whisk attachment).  Stir in vanilla.  Add lukewarm chocolate mixture and stir, combining well.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake until set and top begins to crack, about 45-50 minutes.  (Center will still be moist.  Cake will rise while baking, then fall as it cools.)  Cool pan on rack until easily handled to remove side.  Transfer cake to cooling rack until completely cool (remove bottom of pan and parchment paper).  Transfer to serving plate, or store tightly covered in the fridge for up to a week.

Serve with small amount of raspberry sauce and whipped cream.  Cake serves 12.

Sweetened, real whipped cream

Raspberry Sauce:  Heat 12 oz of frozen unsweetened raspberries on low to medium heat in saucepan; add 1/2 cup of sugar; heat gently and stir to dissolve sugar (and smoosh raspberries).  I use a stick blender to puree the sauce.

{Option: Press raspberry sauce through a fine-meshed sieve to separate seeds from coulis; discard seeds.} 

Freeze leftover sauce if not used within the week.  This makes enough sauce for 36-48 servings possibly (-?- I didn’t actually do the math on this.  And my brain is still slightly on overload…)

The raspberry sauce is very tasty with lemon pound cake too  :D

fyi, we noticed the texture of the chilled cake to be much more like a cheese cake.  {didn’t notice that when we served the first cake at home without chilling}

 

Special kudos and thanks to Angela for the loan of her T-fal springfrom pan (above on the right) –> very nice to use!  Interesting difference in appearance between the cakes from the diff pans too.  (our pan is a Norpro)

Artichoke & Spinach Dip {and why}

One of the reasons you haven't heard from me lately:  I indulged my whim to sort of "cater" a couples' banquet at church.  No, I don't know how my husband or family live with me either...It's been a crazy month of preparations.

 
Abby helped me stuff about 140 manicotti shells.  (Then we decided one shell was a good serving size instead of two...)

  (The cookies were for the kitchen and child care staff... who had no time to eat them!)

Yum, this French baguette recipe from Cooks Illustrated magazine  is soooo good!

 
The flourless 'decadent' chocolate cakes were delish!  After chilling, they have almost the consistency of cheesecake.  But it's just eggs, sugar, butter, and dark chocolate chips.  With raspberry sauce and whipped cream... oh my.

The final day!  Tim did all the chopping of spinach and artichokes for four batches of dip.  Yes, he is my hero!

The Cowgirl sniffed her way through an entire red onion for the salads.

And the really chaotic final hour... which wasn't quite enough time to steam frozen green beans... Tim managed the food warmers and the beans for me!

 Another one of my cheerful volunteers in the kitchen, ready to serve up some salad.  :)

 

We expected up to 33 couples to attend - and were blessed to have 54 adults for a fun evening in a beautifully transformed fellowship hall with some good food and a sweet couple delivering a great message together on love and kisses.

The appetizer served was the following Hot Artichoke-Spinach Dip with pita chips (or Almond-Thins for my gf friends).  So far it is the most-requested recipe from the evening.  If you choose to make this, beware not to overindulge!  :)  You have been warned.

Hot Artichoke-Spinach Dip

Combine in saucepan, heating just until butter is melted and spinach is wilted:

¼ cup butter, melted

1 clove garlic, pressed

5-6 oz fresh spinach, chopped

Combine thoroughly in mixing bowl with hand mixer (or use food processor):

8 oz cream cheese, softened

8 oz sour cream (cultured - Daisy Brand preferred)

Aprox ½ cup of shredded aged 4-cheese blend

(aged provolone, parmesan, asiago, romano – Shullsburg/Italia Brand)

¼ tsp salt, optional

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion powder

Drain, rinse, and finely chop one 14 oz can of artichoke hearts.  Combine with all of the above.

Spoon into buttered dish (6 -8 cup size) or dishes.  Top with shredded mozzarella (I use the 3-cheese blend by Stella available at Sam’s – mozzarella, provolone, cheddar).

Bake about 30 min at 350 F. 

Serve warm with pita chips, tortilla chips, crackers, or toasted Italian bread. 

Makes about 18 small servings.

Recipes for the chocolate cake, lemon pound cake, raspberry sauce, spinach-stuffed manicotti, and baguettes will be forthcoming... if or when I can...

just because

 

… its been such a long, long while since I’ve been able to post anything here!

The Cowgirl’s cow {Kitti} finally calved on December 11, so little Caspar’s fun b-day is 12-11-12  :)  Thankfully, the weather was beautiful for several days that week, and he got off to a great start.  He is so fun to watch now as he romps around the pasture!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Looking back even further, here are some pictures from November!

We were doing a bit of deep housecleaning.  And housecleaning is so much more fun if you can make a mess first… I guess.  The project was sorting through old school papers – and throwing most of them away.  But not until after they’d wadded most of them up and thrown them all over the school room.  {sigh}  And we have more of that to do with the boxes and boxes of papers that we’ve accumulated over the years.  Time to lighten the load!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim added a door to the closet by the front door.  Totally changed the look of that hallway.  In a very good way!

And he had some help to add a step inside the closet so that we can reach the items on the deep shelf easier… {No, it’s not quite finished yet b/c he needs another piece of wood, but it is very useable!  And one - or several - can even hide in the closet…}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cowgirl did an experiment to learn about sound traveling through water… the Popper tried it too.

 

We had some fun putting together turkeys made with Oreos for our Thanksgiving/Christmas gathering in mid-November.

                    

The leftover piece of Oreo makes a perfect base for a pilgrim hat.

    

 

Abby tried her hand at a somewhat complicated pie, which tasted quite delicious!  I think she will leave out the orange peel next time however to suit taste preference at our house.

We couldn’t find the recipe online, but here’s a video demonstration of the same caramel apple-cherry pie.  {recipe was in the November issue of BH&G}  I found her a bigger pie plate for next time, but I will have to look for leaf cookie cutters too.  She made do with the little turkey.

We had a good amount of the various pies leftover.  Yum, yum.

Decorating fun…

         

      

             

Tim set up his clay pigeon launcher for the afternoon… The wind was brisk, but overall it was a good day for outdoor fun too.  The indoor crew played Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride, I can’t remember which now.

 

Another day, the girls experimented with a new braid…

  

Oh, and this was a funny notion that I had to record the glow coming from our coat room…

Any ideas?

It was the sun shining on the brand new very orange vacuum…

that I had to buy when the motor blew up on the old one.

 

But while I was at K-mart buying the vacuum, I found a new rug for the kitchen.  Color me happy, even if the rug isn’t blue.

                            

 

More wood for the pile.

 

And yet another apple pie… for the soup/pie/praise fellowship at church.

But it was untouched!  hee hee  So we brought it home again to take along to Grandma’s house in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving Day.

More about that later!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Foersters ~ A quick view of our ’12 in 12…

1.      A lovely lever harp fulfilled a dream for Abby last Christmas, and lessons began in January.

2.      We used lots of laminate flooring to cover our bare floors in February.  Tim led the family-sized work crew.

3.      We found more family fun afar in March as we traveled 3300 miles in the Suburban to visit Pensacola, FL; Jekyll Island, GA; Charleston, SC; Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC; a blogger friend in Indianapolis; the Hoover Library in West Branch; and several points in between… and home again in nine days.  Whew.  J

4.      We celebrated milestone birthdays.  Molly enjoyed a party with several friends here for her 10^th birthday in March.  Dad H reached 80 years and Mom F 90 years, both in April with their parties in May.

5.      Landscaping around the house began with the early spring weather.  Including a windbreak of willows and spruce and a small orchard of fruit trees.

6.      Summer camps:  Leadership-Music-Speech Camp for Kate, Abby & Daniel {piano & voice} in Wisconsin; Junior Girls’ Camp for Molly at Clear Lake.  Daniel also attended a computer camp at Pensacola Christian College in July.

7.      Abby, Elisabeth, Thomas & Melanie helped with Vacation Bible School at church; Elisabeth traveled to St. Paul with the youth group to lead a VBS program there too.

8.      Abby & Tim took her senior trip to China! in July to visit old friends, meet new folks, and see some of the countryside.  In spite of the long plane ride, Abby would love to return.

9.      The drought, while not as bad here as some places, required hauling water for trees & shrubs – and eventually the cattle when the creek’s water disappeared.

10. Photo shoots:  Abby & Daniel both had senior pictures done this summer, and we had a quick family picture session too… the evening before we took Kate off to college!

11. Kate is now a freshman at Baptist College of Ministry in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.  We are all looking forward to having her home again for Christmas.

12. Thankful:  We’ve recently gathered with family in both Iowa and Wisconsin to celebrate God’s overwhelming goodness to each of us.   

  

Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous;

and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Psalm 97:12

Amidst the rush of our busy lives, 

we must purpose to take time to count our many blessings.

Family and friends.  Provision of a nice home and plenty to eat.   

And much more.

Best of all: God’s perfect gift of His Son Jesus Christ, 

Who paid the price of our sin

that we might trust in Him alone and know the blessing of eternal life.

~ Celebrating the only Prince of Peace ~

Tim & Melanie, Kate, Abby, Daniel, Elisabeth, Thomas & Molly