Marilyn's Oatmeal Cake - Birthday Post

My oldest boy turned 13 this week. I have to say the thing I love most about my boy is his simplicity. He loves simple things. He didn't ask for anything for his birthday. He got some money and wanted to go to the flea market to find some old treasures. He had a ball just looking at old junk and finding "the groovy" in it. When I pressed him for something he wanted he said that a jar of pickles all to himself would be about the coolest thing ever. (he has 4 younger siblings and the thought of possession of food only for himself was pretty tempting). So his sisters got him a jar of pickles and promises not to snitch them, and a jar of Nutella all to himself. He thought that was a real treat.
That is what I mean the boy loves the simple life. Nothing makes him happier that free time out in the woods in our backyard. We asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and all he said was that he wanted an apple pie. So his little sister made him one. We did get out of him that he does like the oatmeal cake recipe I got from my mom. So we made that. Here is the fabulous cake recipe. It has to date back to at least the 1950's if not before. It is pretty fabulous.

Marilyn's Oatmeal Cake


(You know when you find an old recipe that looks like this, you have found a real treasure. Recipes only look that beat up when they have been made about 1000 times.)


Pour 1 1/2 cup boiling water over
1 cup oatmeal
Let stand

Cream and add to cooled oatmeal
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs

Mix well.
Blend in:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Pour into a greased pan and bake at 375 deg. F for 35 minutes.

Frosting:
Mix:
6 Tbsp Butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canned milk (any milk will do, even cream)
1/2 tsp vanilla
Cook till thick (10 minutes) and add 1/2 cup coconut and 1/2 cup nuts. Beat until it can be spread.

(I followed those directions and it separated on me and the butter came out, so I added about 3/4 cup powdered sugar and it fluffed up into the yummiest frosting ever. )

(I also increased the amount of the nuts and coconut to 1 cup each)

Happy Birthday Bubba

My little bubba turned Three this weekend.


He had two requests for his birthday this year.

One -- he wanted a Choo Choo train cake.

Two -- he wanted a birthday card.

I love how innocent and uncomplicated he is!



Bryan got him a Thomas card which he loves. My mom saved the day an picked up a card that plays the chicken dance. He stopped opening his present when he saw the card and spent the next five minutes opening it and listening to the music over and over again. It was so funny to watch his face. Pure delight.




Of course it was all finished up with some loud singing of "Happy Birthday To You". All in all a very happy day!

Birthday Giveaway!

OK, I promised that I would post this. It is my birthday today. I am now 3 times as old as my oldest child. To celebrate I am giving away one of my new Jeans aprons. I stayed up late last night making one but didn't get a picture taken yet. I will get that as soon as I can today. It is FREEZING outside so it may be a little bit before the pictures get loaded.
So, until I get that done I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to post and get in on the drawing. What you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I will pick one of you at midnight tonight and post the winner. If your profile is one that won't let me e-mail you directly then you are going to have to come back here tomorrow morning and find out who won. If I can't contact that winner with-in a day, I will pick another one. :o)

Finally got a minute!

I used my one and only Amy Butler piece of fabric. I love the little bit of blue in it.

Here is the pocket detail.

The Littlest Pirate

I am afraid I didn't get many photos take of the Halloween happenings this year. I meant to but kept forgetting the camera and had 101 places I had to be that day. What a bummer. They were such cute little kids.
I did manage to get this shot of the Littlest Pirate.


November 1st is his birthday. I did happen to get a couple photos of that but not many either. I had a meeting I had to go to so I made is cookie, gave it to him, gave him his gift, watched him unwrap it and squeal with delight, and then ran out the door. :o( He turned the big 2 this year.


We opted for a Train Cookie rather than a traditional cake. JEB is train obsessed right now. He was so thrilled when he saw it. What wasn't to like; trains and candy, the best! His big sisters decorated it for him.

He kept blowing his candles out before we could get a shot. We did it 3 times and gave up. He and his daddy did have fun though.


When I did get home from my meeting, JEB greeted me at the door and let me know what he thought of his present.

"Love a train!"

More train madness.

The cookie recipe used is an adaptation of the traditional sugar cookie recipe I use. I tried subbing some more healthful ingredients. We all loved it.

Flaxseed "Sugar" Cookies

Mix and set aside:

2 cups white flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

In a mixing bowl cream:

1 cup butter

1 cup sucanant

1 egg

When this is fluffy, add

:1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Really mix this well and get it good and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate 2-3 hours.

*(a note on the addition of nutmeg, If you are going to bake these right away, the nutmeg flavor is a little strong so in that case I leave it out. However, if you can leave the dough in the fridge for a couple of days, the nutmeg mellows out and gives these cookies the most wonderful flavor.)

Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut as desired. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375*F for 10 - 12 minutes.

Personally I like these cookies a little brownish. I like them crispy. Just my own personal preference.

I did frost these with the thinest bit of buttercream frosting.

Peg Doll Party

My oldest daughter, Sarah, turned 10 this week. With the confusion of starting a new school year, we opted for a quiet birthday with a couple of good friends. We chose to have a peg doll party. What is that?? We took old cloths pegs and made dolls with them. It was great fun.
First we helped them by drawing faces.

Then the girls pained on hair with acrylic paints.

Then the girls chose fabrics from my scrap bag to make their dresses. We hot glued these in place.

Here are the creators.

Anne, Sarah, Caroline, Olivia, Hannah, and Natalie.
The creations.

I know it is blurry but it was the best of the lot. No one could hold still.
The Cake

We tried to make mushrooms but got gooey blobs instead. The idea came from Martha Stewart, but I am SO NOT Martha!
I will share the frosting recipe though. It is like crack on just about anything. Holy cow! we were ready to lick our kids faces it tasted so good!
Butter Glaze
2 3/4 sticks butter (11 oz) (I always use salted, it tastes better)
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp milk
3 pounds powdered sugar (sift it!! ask me how I know!)
Melt the butter over medium heat until good and bubbly. I found that this cooks off any funky flavor in your butter (if you happen to have that). Stir in the milk.
2. Whisk in the sugar until the mixture is thickened but still pourable and so there are no more lumps. (about 4-5 minutes)
USE IMMEDIATELY!!

You can ladle this over cookies, cakes, whatever. Place them on a rack over wax paper to catch the drips.


Little mister JEB sat down on his Lard bucket to enjoy some tasty crunchings and munchings.

Welcome to Hogwarts

April 5th was my oldest son's 11th birthday. In honor of this special occasion we help a one night Hogwarts Trial for him and his friends.
We started off with official invitations written in green ink on preachment paper. Here is what they said:

Dear ,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to a one-night trial with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry staff in honor of Josephs 11th birthday. Hogwarts is temporarily unavailable do to repairs made necessary by the mischievous acts of certain red headed twins. As a result the Ministry of Magic has set up a safe location disguised as a muggle home at (our address). Please use ministry approve port keys or, to not attract attention, please employ a muggle to bring you by car. The trial will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Monday, April 9th, 2007. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary equipment for your trial.
Professor Albus Dumbledore

Please Bring
Muggle attire
A broomstick
A cauldron
One sock for Dobby the House Elf

When the kids arrived at our house we sorted them into houses. Because we were in such a muggle infested location we had to transform the sorting hat to disguise it. I think it really worked.

Here is Hannah being sorted. She ended up in Hufflepuff. I had printed off house badge stickers to put on their shirts.

Next the children had to go Olillvander's to get their wands. My nephew Angus was our Ollivander. The children had to try out their wands by swishing them and calling out an animal name. If the wand was the right one, then Ollivander would transform into that animal.

Here poor Owen is laying on the ground recovering from the attack he suffered when he transformed Ollivander into a Lion.

Now the kids were ready to go to their classes and see if they really were worthy to attend Hogwarts. First up was Potions class with professor Snape. Apparently the Slytherins thought it would be really funny to transform the drinks for the feast into water so the children had to try their hands at potion making to turn it back into pumpkin juice. This is very tricky to do.

The potion went as follows. First Snape poured rainbow water into the cups (vinegar) and the water turned a different color in each cup. (the spoons had dried food coloring on them) Then they added powdered unicorn hair (baking soda) and had to stir it properly. If not it would boil over. (well of course it bubbled over and Snape berated them all).

Next they added dried Hinkypunk hearts (pop rocks) and had to stir till it quit crackling.

Next they added Dragon milk mixed with Oil of Sunshine (2 cups white school glue mixed with 1 1/2 cup water and yellow food coloring). To this they added Essence of Boom slang (2/3 cup water with 2 tsp borax mixed in and food color for effect). Then followed a very complicated series of stirrings.

If they messed this step up they did not end up with delicious and refreshing pumpkin juice. Instead they got ....

Troll Boggies. We all gaged and choked.

Snape felt it necessary to show us how it was really done and whipped up some Sour Snape Grape Spirits for us.

(this was 2 bottles of lemon lime pop and 2 packages of grape Kool-aid mix and the left over pop rocks) It was pretty good.

The next class was Divination with Professor Trelawney.

My Niece Rebecca filled in for us. She had them put Dragon's blood (red food coloring) in a bowl of Troll milk (milk with dish soap added) and them read the fortunes they saw. We saw many basilisks. She then used her Crystal ball (round fish bowl) to read their fortunes.

There were many prophecies given such as , "you will eat cake tonight", and "I see treats in your near future" and such. They kids thought it was really fun and thought she sounded like Gollum.

The kids then went to Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Grubbly-Plank. (my Sister in Law, Miyuki)

She taught them the anatomy of woodland creatures and the showed what they learned by making Origami replicas of owls and bats. They had to touch them with their wand to make them fly (they looked a lot like paper air planes).

The last class was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Loopy (Lupin's sister).

I had the kids make Anti Dark Wizard Missiles. We took plastic eggs and added powdered asphodel (baking soda) and powdered boom slang skin (citric acid) to this we added essence of gillyweed (green water). We had to quickly shut the eggs and throw them.

If you were fast enough they would blow up.

Sammy worked really fast. His blew up as he threw it.

The children also leaned to do the Patronus Charm. They practiced on a Boggart we found. (Angus)

Our poor Boggart really got hit hard.

The kids then went out in the field and played quidditch. They were all looking for the snitch (a golden Easter egg).

We finally had a feast. We had Wesely Cheesy Weezy Pizza, Pumpkin pasties, our Snape Juice and a Madd Eye Moody Eye cake.

Everyone was really grossed out by the cake. It was great!! (it was baked in a Pampered Chef mixing bowl and we put a blue jell-o eye on top.

We sent everyone home with a bag of treats from Honeyduke's candy Shop.

We gave them Chocolate frogs, Fizzing whizbees, Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, Drooble's best blowing gum, Owl Droppings, lemon drops, Acid worms and a squirting frog. Joe also made each of his guests a wand for them to take home. He will be selling these in his own Etsy store soon. They looked really great!

This party was so much fun. We love to have fun at birthdays and celebrate our family this way. I couldn't have pulled this off without a lot of help from my friends and family. Thanks to Vea for giving up our craft play day and helping me pull this off. Thanks to Sam, Miyuki, Angus and Rebecca for filling in as faculty and Characters.

I hope you enjoyed sharing in our day.