2015 Babies

With calving coming to a close, we have found ourselves with two bottle calves this year.  The boys handle the morning and night feedings, but Rachel and I deliver lunch to the hungry babies.

She likes the little one and does a great job hanging onto the bottle, too!

Aunt Michele's Grandma Grapes' Lemon Cake

Here's a new recipe to try as we ease into (at least thinking about) spring!

This is from Aunt Michele's Grandma Grapes.  I never met Grandma Grapes, but I am betting based on this cake alone that she was a good cook!

Lemon Cake

4 eggs, beat and add:

1 can lemon pie mix (I used a smaller sized can.)

1 box cake mix--lemon, white or yellow (I used lemon.)

Bake at 250 degrees, 35-40 minutes.

Frosting:

1 cup milk

1 small carton Cool Whip

1 pkg. lemon instant pudding

Mix and spread over cake.  Store in refrigerator.

Melius' Most-Read: Ramona Quimby

This week's book is actually a series, and one I loved to read as a child.

Landen discovered this series a few years ago and read them all.  It is an excellent series for beginning chapter book readers.  I bought a large print edition of Age 8, with the intention of reading it to my children, but Landen beat me to it by reading them all by himself.  :)

I have always loved Ramona, and if you haven't checked these out from your library yet, I think you will, too.  The first of the series were written many years ago, but the stories of growing up are timeless.  

When my sister and I were growing up, PBS had a weekly Ramona TV series, and we watched and re-watched the 1/2 hour shows so much, I'm sure we wore out the VHS tape!

Fat Tuesday

It's Fat Tuesday!

After having REAL King Cake last year, I decided that I couldn't let this year go by without having a variation of one.  There are lots of options, but I wanted to go super duper easy to the third power. I consulted some excellent cooks on Pinterest and this is what I found.

Ta-dah!

Flatten refrigerator cinnamon rolls, roll out a bit, and bring together into a ring shape.

Shape these rolls into an oval to signify Christ's crown.  Bake as directed.  Afterward, frost with the enclosed icing.  

Then decorate with green (for faith), gold (for power), and purple (for justice).  I couldn't find purple sugar today, so our purple is made out of Sixlets.

Traditional King Cake will have a plastic baby Jesus hidden inside (inserted after baking).  Those eating the cake are like the Three Magi in our search for Jesus.

We didn't have one of those (funny how we lost a tiny plastic baby in the past year--can you believe it??).  Teresa had the idea of using her Little People instead.

Genius!

But, it does make the "hunt" a little less challenging.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Melius' Most-Read: Things that are Most in the World

Every once in awhile, Cheerios will offer free paperback books on their cereal boxes.

Sometimes these books don't have much impact on my children, but sometimes they do!

Things that are Most in the World was loved so much as the free paperback that I ordered the full-size book for them way back in 2008.

They still love the fun words and illustrations on every page.

For example as seen on the cover, "The hottest thing in the world is a fire-breathing dragon eating a pepperoni pizza."

Our book has been ripped, taped, stepped on, and had water spilled on it.  In other words, it has been loved and continues to be!

My big three always love this last page the best.  (Rachel is still confused as to how that baby could possibly be her big sister.)

This photo (obviously loved as well) was taken on 2/14/08!

Valentine's Week

It's Valentine's Week!
And, those of us here on the Melius farm are . . .  not prepared!

I tried to be.  I purchased the kids' Valentines last week, so at least that is done.
I bought the treats and drinks for Nathan's class party last night in a mad dash around the grocery store.  Whew!
I tried to encourage my kids to make Valentine's boxes, but they were not interested.  Teresa did paint some hearts on a shoe box a few months ago that she is using.  (I guess I should count HER as prepared.)  But, my boys aren't interested at all.  It used to be a relief to me when they weren't interested because it meant fewer frantic February project nights for mom.  Now I think maybe it's kind of sad.  Nah . . . might as well stick with relief.
This morning I realized that those Valentines I bought last week haven't been done yet, and the party is TOMORROW.
With basketball practice after school and Religious Ed following that, it looks like our time in between will be spent on getting those Valentines ready!

We'll put it all together in time, I'm sure.

With grocery sacks and Schwan's ice cream bucket Valentine "boxes," probably.

Cream Cheese Cupcakes

What a strange winter it has been!

It's been much too warm for Rachel and me to ice skate for over a month and, although we are promised temps in the 40's this afternoon, we are home bound this morning waiting for extremely icy roads to melt.

Winter, as you know, always puts me in a baking mood.  While I decide on what to bake this morning, I will share what Rachel and I cooked up last week!

Growing up, these cream cheese cupcakes were a special treat.  My mom's recipe took some planning, since the homemade cake contained Baker's chocolate, which I never seem to have (or the right amount of) on hand.

My aunt shared this recipe in her workplace's cookbook a few years ago, so I gave them a try.  I think the cupcakes are just as delicious with a boxed mix.

I hope you like them, too!

Easy Cream Cheese Cupcakes

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix + (water, oil, and eggs)
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Mix cake mix according to directions on box. Mix softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and 1 egg; beat until smooth. Hand-mix in chocolate chips. Fill lined cupcake tins 1/2 full with cake mix and add 1 tsp cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350 for 21-25 minutes. Test with toothpick.

Melius' Most-Read: A Day on the Farm

This is one of my favorites from MY childhood.  My mom read this many, many times to me.  Although I loved visiting my grandparents' farm, I didn't expect that I would one day be experiencing my own days on the farm!

Vintage copies of this book are still available online and in used bookstores if you are lucky enough to find one.

I actually own two copies of this book since my boys tore the cover off of my original copy when they were little.  I wanted an intact copy, so I went on eBay to get another one. I was surprised to find myself in a little bidding war for it!

Good night, Sally.  Good night, Sam.  Good night, Jip and Mittens.

Tomorrow is another busy day.

Twin Cities on my mind

I just returned yesterday afternoon from a fantastic weekend in the Twin Cities with my friend Deb.  Our primary focus was the Well-Read Mom Conference in St. Paul on Saturday, but we also stuffed as much food and fun as we could in between our arrival and departure.

I must share our food experiences:

The Local - an Irish bar restaurant with much architectural character and atmosphere.  This was suggested to us just as we were leaving, and it was a great, fun suggestion.
Hell's Kitchen - We were advised to make reservations for this underground restaurant even for brunch, which we did.  The only down side to this restaurant is that we only had reservations for one meal on our visit.  I will dream of the Lemon-Riccotta Hotcakes and plan what I will order on my next visit with their online menu!  The Angel Food bakery on the street level is also a feast for the eyes after one is stuffed with breakfast!
Cafe Latte -  I returned to St. Paul's restaurant/coffee shop Cafe Latte for my third time, but it had been--wow--probably 15 years.  It was also my first time actually experiencing a meal there, which was delicious.  If you plan to visit, arrive hungry and don't let the cafeteria-style line fool you.  The coffee, soups, salads, spreads and sandwich options go on forever and are anything but ordinary.  After that, take a left and check out the dessert counter.  The generous slices of cakes and cheesecakes of all kinds can be a meal in themselves, which of course, I would also be perfectly happy with!  It's about a 15 minute from downtown Minneapolis, and a little way into St. Paul, but it is well worth the drive.  I promise.

As for the conference, it was nice to finally make a campus visit to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul that I never made in high school.  Thanks to the conference, I also now feel better equipped to tackle Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in a few months.  It's just under 1000 pages . . . we'll see how that goes.

What fun to go to a place and hear and learn all about great literature for 4 hours.  Now I know how farmers feel at chemical meetings.

Something like that.

We were home in time for Super Bowl.  Whew!
It should come in no surprise that I wasn't very hungry for Super Bowl snacks this year!