Woohoo!

Ok, is it sad that I didn’t realize his 6th birthday party was on the 6th? Because it didn’t connect for me until just now.

But enough of the sadness! Because the party was all about gladness.

Back up a little to the day before: the boys and I had fun prepping the house. I baked the cake part of the cake. Thank you very much, Trader Joe’s, for the exceptionally good vanilla cake with vanilla bean bits and lots of yum. Two boxes: four layers. Yumx4.

Then, we started blowing up the balloons. In our home, we have at least two working ball pumps. They should work, right? It took me five minutes to inflate a balloon to a diameter of three inches. In less than two minutes, J manages to inflate one to capacity. Believe it or not, between us, the boys inflated about half the bag of balloons and it contained 72 12-inch balloons. With our own lungs. If you wondered about how much hot air I have in me, wonder no more!

We finished blowing them up on Saturday morning. You know what? 72 balloons didn’t cover our entire living room floor. But 72 balloons was just the right amount for fun.

Later that night, around when I should have been going to bed, I made some chocolate mousse. I’m not sure if I did it correctly because I managed to taste bits of gelatin in the piece of cake I had so it’s safe to say I could have left it out. I’ll show you what happened with that cake in a bit.

FF>> the day of the party. We had fun! J was very happy to see his friends and get to hang out with them. NM was bored but he played tennis outside and his friend R came over so they got to hang out. The kids all played hard and enjoyed the balloons while the adults hung around the food. I mean hung around each other but with food.

And there was cake, of course. Here it is:

Now let me try to remember how the mousse happened, because it was easy and it wasn’t bad, though I was concerned for a bit.

Chocolate Mousse
1 pint of whipped cream
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 c. cocoa (instead of melted chocolate, hence easy)
2 tsp-ish of vanilla
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Run the cream of tartar, sugar and cocoa through a sifter to remove lumps. Add salt, mix all thoroughly. Whip cream and cream of tartar until you get stiff peaks. Fold in sugar/cocoa mixture along with vanilla. I read you can put all the ingredients together and chill before you whip it so I might do that next time to avoid having to fold it all together.

I did have some Knox gelatin in there somewhere, but I wouldn’t bother.

So I eyed the mousse and figured out how to divide it three ways for each layer. Viola!

The frosting? That was a mish mash, also. That’s what happens after reading too many recipes.

Whipped Cream Frosting
1 pint of whipping cream
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 can of condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt

Whip the cream cheese. Add everyone else and whip them, too. To be honest, I think there was a bit too much cream but everyone seems to have liked it. It wasn’t too sweet at all, either. Hubby liked it and he isn’t a cake person.

J’s expression isn’t from the cake, it’s because the candles’ flames have colors to match the wax:

He was a little concerned about the wax melting onto the icing. Reasonable thing to worry about but we didn’t let that happen. He enjoyed it. And the lettering? Let me just share a tip: don’t put melted chocolate in a baggie and cut a teeeeeeny hole and try to pipe it unless you’re absolutely sure there’re no unmelted bits too big to go through said hole and insist on making them go through the hole only to cause the bag to sprew gobs of chocolate and eventually break open. The plus side is your mess is entirely edible should that happen.

Note to self: learn how to use flash with the camera.

The celebrant enjoyed his day. I had fun watching him open his gifts. I heard myself automatically say “Now say thank you, J, to the person who gave you your gift” when I realized that he had been SO polite and loudly said thank you for such-and-such gift to each person who gave it. No prompts needed. Such a thankful heart!

Afterwards, the kids went upstairs to watch a 3-2-1 Penguins DVD. J had been asking for one and I was so happy that he enjoyed it.

When all was said and done, I asked him if he had fun and without hesitation he said “yes” and “I’m so happy, I got everything I wanted!” It was a blessing to watch him enjoy the day and to see him express such a thankful attitude. God has certainly been working in his spirit.

Gal 5:22-23 NKJV – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Sedimentary rocks are formed when earth is eroded by water and wind. Bits and pieces flow down stream or river until they settle. With time and pressure, the bottom-most layers become rocks.

Here we go! First, we need our water to do some eroding. The part of water today will be played by 1/2 stick of melted butter.

Then, you add to that 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs. Or in this case, Teddy grahams which the boys got tired of eating. Poor teddy grahams. Mix and toss the crumbs with the butter until well incorporated. If you notice, the smallest particles always end up at the bottom of a mixture.

Now, apply lots of pressure. Each layer of sedimentary rock gets the pressure treatment after all. Press it evenly on the bottom of the pan.

Add more fluids to wash down more sediment.

Pour it carefully over the graham cracker mixture:

Spread it across so you have an even layer:

Now, you will add the larger particles that are washed downstream. In this case, 1 1/2 c. of pecans, chopped and 2 c. of chocolate chips (we only had 1/2 c. of chips so we chopped up some semi-sweet chocolate to make up for the rest).

You could replace some of the pecans with coconut, if you like (we don’t). Mix both gently so that they’re spread around more or less evenly. That way the chocolate will do a better job of holding it all together.

Now you’re ready to apply pressure and heat. Put your pan in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 1/2 hour. Check at that point to see if the chocolate is melted and the condensed milk is absorbed. You may have to spread the chocolate around a little bit (we did).

Cut into pieces while still warm so that things are fair. If you want it to be more “real” you can try and break apart the pieces. The wise parent knows that this can sometimes cause unwanted issues. Hehe. Now, enjoy your rocks and observe the layers, reflecting on how they were made.

“Mommy, this isn’t a rock!”

“You mean we put pecans in this?” Don’t worry, dear reader, he did warm up to them very quickly after the first bite.

Yes, yes, yes, science is fun. But it can also be delicious!

6 oz. white chocolate, melted
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 tbs. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2-2 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Whip cream cheese and melted chocolate together.

With your mixer to the lowest setting, whip in powdered sugar, 4 tbs. at a time until you get the consistency you prefer. Add in about 2 tbs. cream, keep whipping. Add cream or powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want. Whip in vanilla. Use to top cooled cake.

Sooooo good you can eat it on its own!

Line muffin pan with foil liners.

Place one cookie in each liner. Mix cream cheese, vanilla and sugar on medium speed until well-blended. Add eggs. Mix well. Pour over wafers, filling 3/4 full. Bake 25 min. at 325 degrees F.

Remove from pan when cool. Chill. Top with fruit, preserves, nuts or chocolate.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Originally uploaded by Phisch

May I just say, strawberry and rhubarb make quite a lovely combo of fruit and veggie (?!) in a cobbler. I used the same recipe as last time only substituted the blueberries.

The fruit was frozen and I used 16 oz. bags. I let them thaw on the counter with some sugar, about 3/4 cup of brown because I thought I’d run out of refined.

Very yummy! J likes it, too. He didn’t like the blueberry kind.

1 Coffee mug
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour*
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 pinch kosher salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla extract

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

*Someone mentioned they substituted 3 tbs. brown rice flour and 1 tbs tapioca starch for the wheat flour and rice milk instead of regular milk to make this a gluten-free, casein-free recipe.

EDIT: I made a second batch, added a dash of cinnamon and left out the sugar by mistake but it was still good! The chips made it sweet so I think you can try cutting back on the sugar if it’s too much.

I came across a recipe for cobbler that claims to be from the Salt Lick here in Austin, TX which has great brisket and even better peach cobbler. I modified it for blueberries which we purchased at Costco. Here goes:

Batter:
1 stick melted butter (melt while oven is warming)
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 c. room temperature milk
1 room temperature egg, beaten well
(I’d add the zest of a large lemon next time I make it)

Filling
2 lbs. fresh blueberries
1 c. sugar (you can cut back a bit and it will be ok)
1 c. water

Alternatively, you can use this for filling:
1 (28 oz.) can peaches, drained
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Melt butter in 9″x13″ pan.
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Stir in milk and egg.
Pour evenly over melted butter.
Combine filling ingredients and spread over the batter. Do NOT stir.
Bake 35 – 45 minutes or until batter comes to the top and is golden brown and delicious.
Serve warm with ice cream.

o.0

My hubby made burgers for dinner (with Austin’s Own BBQ sauce) and then dished this bowl of cobbler for me. OH. MY. The recipe is spot on like the Salt Lick’s I think, only with the blueberries instead of peaches or blackberries. I glutted myself, no lie.