A Day In The Snow

First things first... SNOWCREAM!

A teaspoon of vanilla, a can of sweetened condensed milk and 8 cups of snow!

We all LOVED it!  The girls have never had snowcream and I haven't had it since I was a little girl!

The front of our home.

Isn't this tree beautiful?!

The play set.  Remember Hannah and Cari's pictures back in the fall playing on this?

My two beautiful girls!

Check out this tree!  I love how the snow hangs on the evergreens.

Cari's snowman. 

(Thanks for the Snowman Making Kit, PawPaw & Vickie!)

Hannah's snowman.

Cari attempted to sled.  The snow is just too deep.

 See this hill of snow outside of our neighbor's house?  The snow plow pushed it up there.

We went to visit her and see if they wanted to come out to play.  She took a picture of us standing on that big hill of snow outside her window.

Our neighbors - they are from Jamacia - finally came out in the snow to play!

Cari rolled up this huge snowball. She loved sitting on her's.

Hannah had another idea..... 

Check out her HUGE snowman!!! 

She made this snowman all by herself!

(She wanted me to let you all know that.)

  The only thing that she had help on was picking up the body and head to put them on top.   

IT SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It finally snowed here!!!  It is beautiful!!!  All of these pictures are taken from my front porch this morning around 6:30.  It is still snowing like crazy here!  There is no telling how deep it will get!

Here are the steps.

Here the handrail and trash can.

Remember my three trees in the front yard?

Exactly one foot!

This was taken from inside of the roof.

A tree on the side of our home.  It was getting ready to dump the snow off of it's limb.

Michael was shoveling snow this morning.  He was glad to get his required 20 minutes of exercise in!

The snow plow came and scrapped up the snow.  Cari loved playing on the big pile of snow.

Believe it or not - Hannah is standing up in the snow!

'The best piece of cake I have ever eaten!'

As promised... here is the recipe:

Yellow Cake

3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

1.  Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
2. Grease and flour two 9" or 8" cake pans or one 9x13".
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Put all ingredients into bowl and mix with electric mixer on medium for 2 1/2 minutes.
5. Bake for 25 minutes (9") or 35 minutes (8" or 9x13").
6. Cool completely.

Fudge Frosting

(This recipe will cover a two layer cake - tops and sides.  If you cook a 9x13 - half the recipe.)

2 lbs. of powdered sugar
1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup butter (softened)
2/3 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla

1.  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. 
2.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium for 1 minute. 
3.  Cool for 20 minutes or until mixture reaches spreading consistency.  If frosting is too thick, add boiling water 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches spreading consistency.

Happenings at the Lilly Pad

Some pictures of things that have been happening around here.

I taught Hannah and Cari how to use the sewing machine. 

Stop holding your breath Mom, they are very careful.

Hannah's finished product.  She gave it to her Dad.  She said she made him a new tie to wear to school.  He wore it at home. 

This morning we made Blueberry Parfaits.  Everybody made their own - exactly how they wanted it.  I layered mine with frozen blueberries from Maine, french vanilla yogurt and french vanilla granola. Y.U.M.!

Cari made the same layers.  She LOVED it!!!  Here she is finishing it up.  I almost didn't get the camera in time.

Hannah doesn't care for blueberries.  So, she had a 'fruit dip'.  She used grapes and apples to dip in her yogurt.

For breakfast on Sunday, I made homemade biscuits from scratch, fried sausage and sausage gravy.  I know, this doesn't look like a picture of my beautiful biscuits.  We were too busy eating them and getting out the door for church, so I didn't get a picture.  Don't worry, another batch WILL be made.  They were WONDERFUL!

Now, to explain the picture.  I was in the process of making gravy and my whisk got stuck on the hot sausage grease and then flung hot grease all over my arm.  I got a few tiny burns and this one bigger burn.  The more I looked at it, I decided it looked like a snail.  Nobody else thought so until I drew it's shell.

Today, we had Chicken Filet Sandwiches.  I made the hamburger buns.  Aren't they pretty?  I just love making bread!  These were made out of the 'No Excuse Bread' recipe.

What kind of mom let's her kids get up out of the bed to come and taste her homemade icing?  Even after they had brushed their teeth!  I made them brush again.

On Wednesday, the Titus 2 ladies will be meeting again.  We are working on learning to decorate a cake.  We are suppose to bring a single layer of cake frozen.  I made my cakes today.  Of course, the recipe makes two cake layers.  The first one broke in half when I tried to get it out the pan.  (I thought greasing and flouring was suppose to prevent that!  I must put wax paper on my grocery list.)

The other layer came out good.  It is in the freezer.  The broken cake got homemade chocolate icing in the middle and on top.  We had it for dessert after supper tonight.  Michael said, "This is the best piece of cake I have ever eaten!"  This one is a keeper!  I will post the recipe tomorrow.

Featherlight Rolls

Do you remember me mentioning the

“OUT OF THIS WORLD GOOD” Featherlight Rolls?

Well, here they are!

The Featherlight Roll

Here is the recipe:

2 packages of yeast
½ cup of water at 110-115 degrees
1 Tablespoon + 1/3 cup of sugar (divided)
1 cup of milk at 110-115 degrees
1/3 cup of shortening
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon of salt
4-5 cups of all purpose flour

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water
• Stir in 1 Tablespoon of sugar
• Let stand for 5 minutes
• Add milk, shortening, eggs, salt, 3 cups of flour, and 1/3 cup of sugar
• Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes
• Stir in one cup of remaining flour to form a soft dough.
• (Do not worry – it will be sticky)
• Cover and refrigerate overnight
• Punch down
• Turn onto a floured surface
• Divide into 24 portions
• Shape (you basically tie them a knot - I couldn't take pictures because I had dough all over my hands.)
• Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1 ½ hours)
• Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes
• Smear butter on top… EAT!

This is what the dough looks like after it has been in the refrigerator overnight.

The recipe makes 24 rolls, so I invited some friends over. I taught these girls how to shape the dough. These are two of the other married students wives that live here in the campground. The girls had a blast. They love to cook almost as much as I do.

Now, to find a warm place around here, I have to make one. So, this is a trick that Beth told me about. (She is the lady who taught me how to make these rolls.)

Boil some water

Put the water in a pot in the bottom of your oven.

Cover the rolls and put them in there.

After an hour and a half, this is what they will look like.

Remove the water and preheat your oven.

This is what they look like after they have baked and you smear butter on top.
Daniel – turn your head.
Dad – I will make you some when I come home.

Smear some apple butter on them 

(Thank you Stephanie!)

 or whatever you like and ENJOY!