Cooking Lessons with Mom

My Mom is the best cook! She can whip up anything and it always turns out. So when she comes to visit, I try and learn how from her. I hope I can have at least half her talent!


This year the menu consisted of:

Grandma Hodgen's Angel Food Cake
Nana's Moons
and Mom's Famous Lasagna

Grandma Hodgen's Angel Food Cake

Here is the Recipe for the Angle Food cake. This cookbook is a special Hodgen family cookbook. The recipes were compiled by the family and as you can see in the picture, even the handwritten originals from Grandma Hodgen were scanned it. Too special!


Forming the stiff peaks with the 13 egg whites~


The finished cake, we then placed it upside down on a wine bottle overnight to set.


The finished cake. To serve, we topped with fresh strawberries and blue berries.....Delicious!

Grandma Hodgen's Angle Food Cake Recipe:

2 cup egg whites (approx 13)
1 1/3 tsp cream tartar
5 tsp water (cold)
1 1/3 c cake flour

Sift flour and measure. Then sift with 2/3 c sugar. Set aside. Sift remaining 1 1/3 c. sugar separately. Set aside. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar. Beat until stiff. Add water. Gradually add the 1 1/3 sugar. Fold in, beat or stir slowly. Then add flour/sugar mixture and fold in slowly. Pour into angel food cake pan. Bake 1/2 hour at 250 degrees F. Increase heat to 325 degrees F for another 1/2 hour.


As for Nana's Moon's we attempted to bake them just right....However they are tricky, as the temperature needs to be just right! No humidity, fresh eggs, and a little not so specific instructions. But a great delicious treat to have.


And the brown paper bags are a must... Silly me, I didn't take a picture of the finished product. White cream filling to create the finished moon. They did turn out delicious, but not quite like Nana's!

Nana's Moons Recipe

Filling:
1 Box conf. sugar
1/2 or more small jar marshmallow
About 3/4 cup Crisco
Milk and small splash of vanilla

Add gradually until consistency to spread. Mix with mixer until sluffy.

Moons
Oven at 400 degrees F for 7 min
2 c flour (sifted)
1/2 c cocoa (Hershey's unsweetened)
1 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c milk (evaporated 1/2 with 1/2 water)
1 egg (fresh)

Sift together, dry ingrediants. Add Crisco, milk, egg, and vanilla. Mix by hand. Drop on cookie sheet with tsp. Cool on brown paper bag. No Crisco needed for cookie sheet. Makes 2 dozen moons.


Here is the recipe for the Lasagna....No pictures, but absolutely amazing:)

Mom’s Lasagna

Brown 1 ½ lb. Hamburger with 1 med diced onion. Drain off grease.

Add: ½ diced green pepper

2 cloves garlic or ¼ tsp. Garlic powder

1 – 16 oz. Can tomato sauce

2 – 6 oz. Italian tomato paste

1 can tomatoes (I use 1 pt. Stewed tomatoes)

1 sm stalk celery, diced

3 bay leaves

4 whole cloves

1 tsp. Oregano, 1 tsp. Salt, ½ tsp pepper

1 tbsp sugar

Cover and let simmer 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and cloves. Cook 1 pkg lasagna noodles and drain. Use ½ - ¾ lb. Grated Swiss cheese and ½ - ¾ lb grated mozz. Cheese. Layer noodles, sauce, cheese. Repeat. Bake covered @350 for 45 min – 1 hr. 9 x 13 greased pan. Let set for 10 min. before serving.

Updated Porch: A Fresh new look

It's amazing the motivation to clean/update your house that comes when company are visiting! My family will be visiting from Iowa next weekend, so my husband and I were hard at work this past weekend to clean, update, and organize. Our four seasons porch is probably our favorite room in the house. It's were we hang out, watch tv, play games, etc. The space is challenging as it is small, so finding the right furniture to create the max amount of seating for when guests arrive has been extremely difficult. I feel that we finally got it right.

This first picture is before we purchased the home in 2005...cute, but not quite our style.....
This is one of the many times I rearranged the furniture in the porch. I can drive my husband crazy by the amount of times I try to rearrange a space. I feel that I do it only when I'm frustrated and can't find it to work just right....As you can tell with this arrangement, we only had a small love seat, and chair...but was way over-crowded with a sewing machine, ottoman, games, dvd's etc.
Here is space empty....for the most part of course


And here is the new furniture/arrangement. After hours of research, measuring, etc. I feel that we finally got it right. We really wanted a sofa bed to add an extra spot for guests to sleep. We decided to go for the Beddinge at Ikea....Great price, comfortable and the perfect size. It also has a box underneath for awesome storage...we have our games, dvd's, blankets, and an extra cover for the couch....

We decided to go with a comfortable ottoman with a pillow instead of a chair. We wanted something that wouldn't take up too much space and that would visually not "crowd" the space. With this low profile, you can see out the windows and also tell that it really does make the space feel a lot bigger without loosing extra seating....And it still is comfortable to sit. Plus our dog, Brady, absolutely loves his new "raised dog bed!"

We love the way it has turned out! Enjoy:)

Quilting Update

Well I've finished 2 more squares! Only 4 more to go.... I am making progress and can't wait to start piecing the front together:) Hopefully next class I will be able to get the last 4 squares done:) Will keep you posted.

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

Sunday the 27th was my birthday. Unfortunately, I had to work a 12 hour shift, however my friends and husband made up for it before and after! Craig and Jenna hosted us over for a wonderful BBQ on Friday. It was perfect. We ended the evening with a campfire and of course wine:) But the best part was I received the Martha Stewart Cupcake recipe book from Craig and Jenna!!!! There have been sooooo many times I was at a bookstore and picked up the book, looked at it, and then put it back. :)


So on Tuesday, my lovely hubby made me homemade pizza and because I was soooo excited to use my new cupcake recipe book, I made myself birthday cupcakes.

We started the evening with chips and homemade salsa from my mom. It was a special occassion, and I absolutely LOVE my mom's salsa:) But because we have to ship it from Iowa, we try to savor it and save it for special occasions:)
Jon made the pizza dough with 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white flour. The pizza sauce was awesome with honey and brown sugar added. We topped the pizza with 1/3 fresh basil from our garden, 1/3 green pepper and onion, and 1/3 cheese. It was amazing!


Isn't he the cutest:)
The finished pie:
And now for the best Strawberry Cupcakes. Made from scratch with fresh strawberries. Yummy!
Topped with homemade whipped cream (never knew it could be so easy!)


Bon Appetit!

Quilting Update

Well I think I have found my new stress-relieving activity! This week I have finished 4 blocks for the sampler quilt that I'm making. So with the other 2 completed, I am halfway done! It is a wonderful feeling to see the blocks come together. Last night I worked till midnight, and since it was a busy night at the hospital, I had a hard time unwinding. So instead of tossing and turning I completed another block. That definitely helped and I was still in bed by 1:30. Here are the 4 that I completed:

Quilting Update

Last month our first quilting class was spent cutting all the blocks. It was a very organized class, thanks to my friend Joanna! We cut each fabric into strips and from there we cut our squares, triangles, and quarter triangles. As we cut each piece, we placed in piles that were numbered 1-12. Once all the fabric was cut, we numbered each plastic bag and put each block in a bag. It took a total of 3 hours of cutting, but will be a huge time saver as we piece together the quilt. Here are my blocks in yes, my cute pink bags!


Our second quilting class was today and it was so much fun! The sewing machines came out and we were put to work! Piecing them together is a lot easier than I thought as we are pretty much sewing straight lines. Here are blocks 1 & 2 place on what will be my binding fabric:



Block 1:



And Block 2:


I am so excited for my fabrics! I love how they are coming together! Thanks Joanna for all your help! To check out her finished quilt with this pattern, click here & here.

Sewing Project: Wine Bottle Koozie

Well, I've completed my first sewing project by myself! I decided that before I start my first quilt, I needed to get more familiar with my sewing machine. The Wine Bottle Koozie is definitely an easy project, and it is so cute and cozy! I want to make these to have on hand for a last minute hostess gift or even a Christmas gift. The pattern is from Design Sponge, check out their blog for complete directions on this project.

Here are my fabric choices:
The Finished Project, I learned to sew a button as well. This is a day of many firsts!


And the Koozie put in action. Too cute!