You May Not Want to Read This Post...

if you live in our neighborhood and were the recipient of some cookies today, because the following photographs may cause you unease.  (Mr. Brian, that means you.)

I think that the holiday season is hardly celebratory if there is not baking of some sort going on at some time.  This year, however, with things as they are, I have not baked a thing, and have barely even cooked anything worth writing about (or even eating, if we want to get really honest here).

I was feeling kind of down about that because I really do like to cook, bake and can, until I ran across a blog posting somewhere that said the following:

If it's going to make you yell don't do it!

I am sorry that I don't remember where I saw that so that I can give full credit where credit is due, but I will say that I took this lady's words to heart.

And I knew that trying to bake or cook or can would make me yell at someone somewhere, so I decided to let it all go and not even try and instead spend the tiny amount of energy and patience I had on other things.

And Christmas came and went and New Year's came and went and the kitchen saw no action, but there was also a sense of calm because I wasn't feeling pressured to produce tasty wonders in the kitchen.

But then, on my last trip to the grocery store, I saw those cookies that are in the boxes that all you have to do is open the box, put the cookies on the cookie sheet and pop them in the oven and I though that I could handle that, so I picked up a few boxes.

Today, we finally had the chance to actually break open the packages and cook them.

Everyone lent a hand...

...even Jesse, although he had a hard time understanding that you were supposed to line the cookies up on the pan and he kept grabbing them and trying to stack them like blocks.

And then the cookies went into the oven...

and in 10 minutes, we were done!

Now, it's not quite the same as mixing, rolling and cutting the cookies out and decorating them with care, but hey, there was no yelling going on except for from the kids who were absolutely enjoying themselves and probably didn't care or even really notice that the cookies weren't made from scratch!

Then, we bagged some of them up and passed them around to the neighbors (Miss Eva, you weren't home when we came by!)

And then...

it started to snow.  Big, fat flakes coming down and covering everything.

What could be better than a house smelling of cookies, kids feeling accomplished and happy for sharing the cookies they made,

and Hazel Grace here to share it all with us and to watch her first snowfall through the same window that her brothers and sisters watched theirs!

So, it may be late, but the heart's still there, and we are blessed, oh so very blessed!

Merry Christmas!

One a Month

In our family, we have a birthday every month from February-July.  Jesse was in February, and in March it was Gabriel's turn.  Then comes Elizabeth in April, Jimmy in May, me in June and Jo in July.  

Part of the 'resolutions' that I have made concerning our family is that we will be sure to celebrate everyone on their birthday.  Jimmy and I have been trying to reduce the 'gifty-ness' of Christmas, and so to compensate for that, we have decided to do more for each child's birthday.  We figure it means more that way anyway.  Each child can be specially recognized on their special day with a special day and their presents.

We can't always have a party on the actual day of the birthday, so in order to be sure that everyone can gather around and celebrate at least a bit on the actual day, we have started a new tradition of doing a special breakfast.  This worked even better for me since I had given up sweets for lent, and Gabriel's birthday falls right in that time frame.

Our weeks are often very busy, so we planned ahead and Elizabeth made a huge stack of pancakes on Tuesday.  She did a wonderful job on them!  They were perfectly formed and evenly sized with just the right amount of brown on them.  Beautiful!  We took those and wrapped them up with wax paper between them and put them in the fridge.  Then, Wednesday night, I whipped up a batch of whipping cream and put that in the fridge, too.

Thursday morning, I got up early and heated a stack of pancakes in the oven, leaving one cold to put on the top.  I cut a hole in the top one to put the number '3' candle in, and then stacked it on top of the warm pancakes, stuck the candle in and decorated the whole thing with the whipped cream.

Then everyone came downstairs and in their pj's we sang happy birthday, Gabriel blew out the candles and we had cake!  Pancakes, to be exact.  It was so much fun!

Next, we opened presents.  Well, actually, we opened present, singular because what I ordered for him online had not gotten here yet.

He was very particular about not ripping the paper, and finally he had to get some help from his big sister.

Yay!  A train puzzle!  He and Jo wasted no time in putting it together on the floor while I dropped Jimmy off at work.  It was a great start to a special day!

Then, when his other present FINALLY got here about 5 days late, he got to open that one, too!  I have a picture of it, but I can't upload it for some reason, but it's the cutest little guitar.  It's actually a musical instrument and not a toy, really.  It has metal strings and a very nice body that is white with different colored and sized polka dots all over it.  He absolutely LOVES it.  Elizabeth has a ukulele that we brought back with us from Hawaii, but that was more of a toy with the plastic strings that broke quickly and wouldn't stay in tune and he wore that one completely out, so we decided to go ahead and get him one of a little better quality.  He carries it everywhere and likes to take it in the car and strum it while he listens to and sings his favorite songs on the radio.  So cute!

So, we have not yet had an actual birthday party for him with a traditional cake and friends over and whatnot, but we did celebrate, and hopefully we can pull something together soon...before Elizabeth's birthday!

Cheer(ios!)

Jesse has finally discovered the joys of eating food other than what is fully pureed.  He loves Cheerios and will sometimes not eat anything but them!

We have this awesome counter in the kitchen that my brother made for us.  It has 2 shelves below it and the shelves are the perfect height to store the cereal boxes and other boxed pantry items.  When my brother was going to make it, I asked him if he could put doors on the shelves below, but to save space and weight, he decided not to.  He told me that we would not need them.

My brother does not have any children.  

To Nuke or Not to Nuke, That Is the Question

I have been going back and forth on this for a while.  I got this large powerful microwave from my brother about 14 years ago when we first bought the house, and it has been my friend ever since.  But I think that our time together is coming to an end.

I defended it loyally when my mother-in-law wanted to replace it because you could no longer see the numbers on the touch pad, and I wouldn't even let her put her shiny new red one in its dedicated space on the counter when the top started bowing up.  And it still cooks like a champ, and I can make my 30 minute chicken in just that...30 minutes with all the fixin's.

But we (I use that term loosely...it has really been just me) have been trying to move toward healthier, more natural alternatives in our food consumption and lifestyle.  First, we got rid of plastics in the kitchen, then we moved on to change our diets so that we eat more salads and less starchy foods, and now, I feel that the next step is to get rid of the microwave.  I know that there are conflicting feelings and opinions about the microwave, but since ours seems to be compromised, I can't believe that it's good to have it hanging around brain height of the little kids and belly height of the rest of us.

I expected to meet much more resistance, but Jimmy has been mentioning that he thinks that we should get a new one since the old one is getting a bit old and worn out, so it's not been as hard as I first thought.

But I couldn't expect everyone to just go cold turkey, so I've been taking it in steps.

First, I cleaned all around it and unplugged it, but it's still on the counter.  That way, everyone still feels 'safe' that there's still one there if we 'absolutely need' it.  But it turns out that with a few changes in the way we do things, we haven't really needed it, although Jimmy did confess last night that he plugged it in to heat up some milk and then unplugged it again.  But the remorse that he felt and timidity with which he confessed along with the incredulity that he saw in Elizabeth and me will probably keep him from doing it again.

The biggest thing that we miss it for is heating up leftovers and milk.  Jimmy likes to make hot chocolate or coffee in the morning, and he feels that it's wasteful to dirty up a whole pan just to heat one mug of milk, although why this would bother him since he leaves it in the sink is beyond me.  As far as the other things, we have been using the toaster oven that we have, and that has been working ok, but the oven has some kind of problem and doesn't always turn off when you think that you have turned it off, so I think that we need to replace it to be safer.

But the very best thing that we have that has been most useful is this great little hot water maker that I have had for a few years.  I love it and we all use it all the time.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that I would like it to have a larger capacity, and it would also like it if the space where you put the cup was taller so that larger mugs could fit under there.  But it works for us.  One of the things that I do like about it is that the water doesn't come out after it's heated.  You have to push a lever to get it to release.  That's good if you put water in it right after you heat some up because otherwise it would just flow out the bottom because it doesn't register that it is new cold water.  Of course, that is a bad feature in one way if you travel because it seems that the hotel water warmers are the flow through kind so that means that if you don't remember to put your mug under it right away to catch the flow, it flows all over the top of the microwave that it's sitting on and onto the table and the floor.  I mean, not that I know this from experience, of course...I'm just surmising...

We have been using the water heater even more now that we have Baby B with us.  It works perfectly to heat up the water, put it in a cup and then float the milk that his mom leaves us, and I also found that one of my Pampered Chef Prep Bowls fits in my measuring cup perfectly, so I can float that with the frozen cubes of food that they send with him, too.  And everything comes out the perfect temperature!

So, our next step is to move the microwave out the door!  Yay!

And now, for today's dose of cuteness:

The weather was nice enough outside to pull out the bikes.  I was impressed that Jo and Gabriel did so well on them after having them packed away for so long!  

 Good morning, Baby B!

 Definitely double trouble both in her arms and at the table in the background!

Here, Izzy.  Let me help you with that Lit homework...

The Unintended Diet

I don't diet.  I mean, I eat pretty well, and my plan of attack has always just been to eat pretty well and get some exercise and that has pretty much worked for me.  I mean, I'd like to be slimmer or more in shape, but honestly, it's not something that I want enough that I am willing to stop doing something else that I am doing so that I can start doing more exercise.  You know how time works...in order to start doing something new in an already booked schedule, you have to stop doing something that you are already doing.

Anyway, I have been wanting to lose more of the weight that I put on with Jesse, but I just haven't gotten around to really putting the time into making that happen.  So, although I have lost a lot of the weight, I have hit a plateau that is a number (that I will not divulge here! :P ) and have pretty much just hovered around that mark for the last few months give or take a pound and a half or so.

This Christmas, I was talking to my mom who offhandedly mentioned that she was 'dieting' as in changing her diet to fit her lifestyle better.  Not dieting as in eating a regimented amount of food in order to lose weight.  She is in very good shape and walks miles a day as well as goes to the gym several times a week.  But she said that she had been hitting a slump every day in the afternoon where she just wore out and often ended up taking a nap, which would then disrupt her sleep in the night time.

So she said that she had cut out all carbs in the morning and afternoon only eating carbs in the evening with dinner.  But, she assured me, she made up for the lack of carbs in the day with her evening meal!  She said for breakfast she would eat yogurt with chocolate chips and/or fruit, ham and cheese or chicken or whatever in the afternoon for lunch and then a 'normal' dinner in the evening with my dad.

I, too, had been feeling that afternoon slump, and I was tired of trying to combat it with just plowing through irritably or downing some coffee to keep me going.  I knew that something wasn't right if I had to depend on a drug like caffeine to get me through the day.  I didn't want to get addicted so that I 'couldn't function' without it or I got headaches if I didn't get it.

So, I decided to try my mom's plan.  I am, after all, my mother's daughter, and so what works for her just may help me, too.

And it really does!  I still indulge in a coffee now and again, but it is more for fun than a necessity, and I completely avoid carbs all day til dinner.  Well, I guess I should say that I avoid breads and grains til dinner.  I know I still get some carbs in other food I eat.

But this has had an unintended side affect.  I have lost 1.5 pounds in 2 weeks, I don't get as ravenously hungry like I did before when I would eat cereal for breakfast and a sandwhich for lunch, and I find myself making healthier choices.  Now I know that instead of reaching for a slice of banana bread, I have to/can/will grab a yogurt or an apple or something else instead.  I shop differently now, too.  I plan ahead to be sure that I will have good food on hand like eggs to boil, lowfat yogurt, good cheeses, and lots and lots of veggies and fruits so that I have something yummy to look forward to.

And that has an unintended side effect, too.  Now there are even more fruits and veggies in the house so it can be the go-to snack for the kids and I can be sure to pack extra broccoli in Jimmy's lunchbox.  (This guy will not eat any fruits but bananas, and very few veggies, but he likes broccoli.  I''m not complaining, but go figure!  Who'da thunk?)

I think that the way that this works for me when other 'diets' didn't is that I know that I can eat my banana bread in the evening.  It is not that I am eliminating tasty snacks from my diet, just putting them in their place.

Yum!


(Insert picture here of a yummy spinach salad with a sliced egg and crumbled cheese on top.  I would insert it for you, but the computer won't read the camera card right now.)

Just Peachy!

I keep thinking that today is Friday.  But it's not.  It's only Wednesday (isn't it?  I don't know anymore.  I feel a little lost!)

Anyway, for some reason I woke up in the best mood this morning!  I was dancing in the sunrise!  Well, ok, not the sunrise, but not long after.  I was so full of energy and ready to get 'er done!

Sooooo....

Today, after I took Jimmy to work, I came back home and everyone was whining and crying about something.  Someone looked at someone wrong or someone wasn't sharing the blocks or Jesse knocked over someone's tower...on purpose!  But I was determined not to let that get me down and not to let that chase me out of the house like it usually does.

Usually if the kids are acting like that, I pile them all in the car of stroller and we go somewhere.  This house is so small, and in the summer it's so hot that after a while, we just get tired of being all on top of each other and at least in the car, they can't reach each other and if I turn the radio up loud enough it can kind of drown them out.

Plus, the AC in the Suburban is nice and cool.

Unlike in the house.

But no!  Not today!  No whinies were going to get me down!  So I told them get your shoes on, we're going outside.

But what are we going to DO outside!?!?!  

As if they don't play outside every day anyway.

I honestly don't care what you do outside, said I, just get your shoes on and out the door.  In fact, I said, I don't even care if you have shoes.  Just OUT!

And out we went.  (Jesse was sleeping, so it was do-able with the other 2.  Elizabeth was inside cleaning her room in anticipation of going on a long weekend get-away with Jordan)

So, I took Gabe and Jo, kicking and screaming all the way, out into the back yard where my mother-in-law and I proceeded to cut the brush off the fence on the driveway side of the house.  Then, I cut this ridiculous wire thing that has been rusting on the fence since we bought the house 14.5 years ago!  The mosquitoes were we were working were horrible, so Yolanda and I both had on pants, but Gabriel didn't, and, of course, he refused to listen to us tell him to play in the back with Jo on the swings, so his little legs got bitten so badly!  (But I know that he has no reaction to the bites, so I was not worried, and the little welts were gone by evening.)

Anyway, finally Jo and Gabriel started playing nicely together, so without warning I rewarded them with a Starburst that they had been wanting that for some reason had been hanging out in the fridge for quite some time now.  I am hoping that the praise and positive attention I gave them will help them be able to play better over time.  Hoping.  Against all hope, but still hoping.

Then, it was in the house to feed the baby and make lunch.

Then, Annie came over and I left the kids inside with Elizabeth and Annie while they finished lunch and Yolanda and I dug potatoes.  It was a sorry looking batch or taters we got out of our little plot this year.  Not nearly as many as last year.  I tried and different variety this year, so I will go back to the originals next year, for sure.

Then it was off to nap for Jo and Gabriel, and Jesse fell asleep, too.  Well, actually, Gabriel fell asleep, but Jo didn't and started screaming and crying that she was not tired and didn't want to sleep, so she woke everyone up again after about 10-15 minutes.

But, I was not to be deterred today!

I called a friend who has a pick-up and he came by and took some big toys out of the yard that I have been needing to donate for some time now.  Ok, for some years now.  Ok, like maybe 10 years or so.  But hey, they are those Little Tykes plastic toys, so they look the same as they did when someone gave them to me after their kids used them outside for 5 years or so.

Ahhh, but that's not it!

THEN, after dinner and assembly line bathing, the kids were playing with Jimmy and Elizabeth in the living room and Annie and Yolanda and I actually FINALLY got to can some peaches!

Here are the peaches, ready to be peeled.  They are so delicious!

(Here is Jesse.  He is delicious, too!)

Boiling water...and more water!  The one on the right is for processing, the back for sterilizing and the front  left for blanching.

I think that our peaches were not as ripe as they could have been.  They were really super sweet, but still a bit firm.  They didn't peel easily after blanching, so we had to actually cut the skin off.  Anyone have ideas on how to not have to do that again?

Anyway, here they are, sliced and heating up.

Filling the jars...

Processing...(I love the color refracting through the bubbling water.  Too cool.)

One finished product...

All of them together.  I hope they sealed well.  This is the first time  I have done peaches.
On the right is the peach juice that the peaches made when they were heating mixed with the left over hot apple juice that I used in the packing.  

Anyway, all together, I would say that it was a very productive day!

Getting Elizabeth's last school book in the mail today was just an added bonus!

She's not really leaving, but...

She's not really leaving us, thank goodness, but she is leaving her position in the children's ministry at the church, and we will sorely miss her. 

But we know that God has plans for her that are great and good, so we can only wish her well on her new endeavors.

And it is much easier to do that since we know that she's not really leaving us, just changing things up a bit.

In honor of all the years that she has been working with our itty bitties, there will be a potluck at church tonight. 

Elizabeth has decided to make a few things to take with us.  Although I am not allowed to tell what they are since the time has not yet come, I am allowed to share pictures of the bits and pieces of the unfinished products and then you can try to guess what it is that she is making.

Ready?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that our honored guest has dietary restrictions, so we have never cooked like this before. 

But it's going to taste great!

Not Today...

I fully intended to write today and share the pictures that I have been promising.

However, you will not find me here tonight.  I have one picture that I will share with you and you will understand:

This is a picture of the inside of our refrigerator.  And to make it worse, only the right side of the fridge is ours.  The entire left side and half of the door is my in-laws.

So yes, I will be at the grocery store tonight, not here sharing fun pictures of the kids and our gardens.

But can I extend my promise to next time?

Look What's Up!

My brother is a woodworker.  He can build anything and everything...with or without a plan.  He will see something he likes somewhere or on TV and then just draw it up and build it.

Like a lighted corner display with glass doors for my parents, or a wooden toy chest that looks like a pirate's chest for the kids, or a clock that looks like a grandfather style clock but has cat prints on it to liven it up for our house, or a computer desk with a slide out keyboard tray and a CPU cabinet and a file drawer.

Or a cupola for his house.  (Which, I must say, is very awesome.  It's got a built in bed and shelves and drawers but it's all really tiny and low and so cozy...)

Anyway, last Christmas, no, not this PAST one, but the one before that, I asked him if he could build us a hanging pot rack to fit in our kitchen.

Yes, it's a scary thing.  All of our pots and pans are all over the stove, counter, and sometimes dining table or floor when we really get to cooking on the stove.

Remember now, before you judge, that we are sharing our kitchen with my in-laws, so there are 5 cooks, counting Elizabeth, who use the kitchen daily.

It was out of control!

But, you see, as much as my brother loves to build things, he loves to build the things that he loves to build, not necessarily the things that we would love him to build.

So, the year passed, and nothing became of it.

Now, I know that you can get pot racks online or at Ikea or wherever, but the problem is that they are small, and expensive!  And we have a lot of pots.

So, now that I am officially 'nesting' seeing as the baby is due in 4 weeks, I really couldn't take it anymore.  I mean, how can I add another person into the house, knowing that every inch of the house is not being used to its fullest?

Yes, I am a space hog.  I love to manipulate things in order to get the most out of any space possible.  I have always loved puzzles, and as our house gets fuller, my brain works overtime to think of how we can reduce, reuse and manipulate into the space available.

So, and I know that many of you would have thought of this solution long ago, but I was still holding onto the idea that my brother would make something for us, this weekend, Jimmy and I headed off to Lowes.

Now, whereas I grew up around tools and wood and guys that built and fix things, so I know my way around a tool box, and Jimmy has many talents, and I would not trade any of the talents that he has for anything, Jimmy is not a fix-it man.  He is not a tool man, and he is not a build-it man.

But, since he knew that I had been waiting for so long for this, and because he was tired of the messy stove all the time, too, (and he was probably afraid that if he didn't do something soon, I would get up on the ladder and do it myself) he braved the home improvement store with me and we dug around a bit.

We came up with using a heavy duty shelf with S hooks.

I know, I know, not rocket science.

But for us (read:  Jimmy) this was really something.  I mean, this meant finding studs in the wall, screwing things in...you know all that kind of stuff.

And so, with the advice of:

If you don't use a  level, and it doesn't go up right and sturdy, it will have to be done again...

I left the room, except to sneak in and take some pictures.  NO, I wasn't checking up on him!  I would not do such a thing!

And here is the final product:

I can't believe it!   I actually have somewhere to put the pots and pans!

AND...Elizabeth can't say, when she is supposedly 'done' with the dishes:

Oh, I didn't know that pot was dirty...

There's no excuse!  If the pot is not hanging, it needs to be.  And in order to hang the pot...it has to be cleaned.

I can't tell you how excited I am!

I know it's a bit high, and we may put it a few levels lower, but the problem is that the alarm system on the door hits right at the height where the shelf should be, and any lower, I'm afraid I'll crack my head on it, but at the height it is, the shelf on top is not really that usable because I'm the only one who can reach it.  (My mother-in-law has to kind of stand on her toes to reach the dangling pots!)  But we keep a step ladder close by, anyway, so we'll just see how it goes.

Now...on to the next project...  :)

Why I Love It

People often ask me why I would want to sell Pampered Chef.  They say that they would never like to sell it, nor buy anything from the catalog nor host a show.  They say they 'can't cook' or that they 'hate to cook'.

And I say

You're missing the whole point!


The whole point, at least in my mind, to Pampered Chef is not just to give people who love to cook access to great quality reasonably priced cooking tools, but rather to get those of you who can't or don't like to cook into the kitchen and having fun!

Let me explain.

My husband, Jimmy, grew up in El Salvador.  His main diet was chicken and rice and tortillas and chicken with rice and tortillas.  Oh, and some eggs in there, too.

And when he and I started together, there was not much that he could really cook, or rather that he wanted to cook.  Me either, for that matter.  I mean I cooked, but it was boring stuff and the same stuff over and over again because I had no inspiration, and the tools I was trying to use were pretty ridiculous.

But then, when I got into Pampered Chef, I realized that if I stocked my kitchen with the right tools, it made it that much easier to cook, clean up and be inspired in the kitchen.

Jimmy, too.

So now, although our diet does consist of a lot of chicken and rice and beans and eggs, Jimmy has been known to just decide that he wants a treat and he will just get up and go to the kitchen, look through a cookbook and make what he wants.

(Which can be interesting actually.  He wants to do it all by himself, but let's just say that while I earned the decorated spoon in Home Ec in high school...well, he didn't.  But he doesn't ever want to show me the recipe that he wants to make.  He will just read out the ingredients

Butter?  yes
Eggs?  yes. But it says 3 and we only have 2.  That should work...
Flour? yes
Baking soda?  umm...no.  We don't have any.
Well, that's ok.  It only says to use a little.  I don't think I'll need it.

And it goes on like this until I am absolutely petrified to try the resulting product.)


But sometimes, actually most times, what he makes is a success and we all can't wait to try some!

Tonight was one of those times!

 Now, I must say that I usually don't want to be in the kitchen when things are happening because they can get a little scary...

Yes, that is a pencil that he is using to make the designs and cut outs on the cookies...

And things usually don't turn out the way that I would have made them...

Yes, that one on the top is Sponge Bob, and the one in the top left corner and the bottom right corner are 'angry birds' made for the benefit of Jo...

But the results were delicious and didn't last long! 

And so, Pampered Chef, my hat is off to you who gets my husband and daughter into the kitchen to produce wonderful tasting goodies!

In addition, of course to helping out with our every day recipes!

Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

I just realized that it has been more than a week since I have written on here.  Wow!  Time flies!  It has been pretty crazy around here with trying to keep up with school things for the kids, full time work for Jimmy and me, my mother-in-law in the hospital for 10 days (she's home, now, and resting to regain her strength and fully recover), and trying to get my Pampered Chef business off the ground...as well as juggling dentist appointments (Jimmy had another wisdom tooth pulled!) and prenatal visits...

Which, by the way, I wanted to let all of you know!!!!

Jimmy and I went in for a sonogram, and even though I didn't really want to know, I had promised Jimmy and Elizabeth that this time we would find out the sex of the baby and it's going to be another...

(drum roll, please!)

BOY!

Gabriel will now have a brother to bang around with, and Jo will now be outnumbered when Elizabeth is away at school!  Poor Jo!  She's getting tougher, though, and Gabriel just absolutely adores her, so I'm sure it will all work out.

Anyway, my life is kind of resembling the title of this post:

A pineapple upsidedown cake!  Everything baking up the way that it should be, but just feeling all mixed together and crazily upside down!

What made me think of that was yesterday when Peter came over and I threw him into the kitchen to bake a cake.

Yesterday was my Pampered Chef Open House, and everyone who came had so much fun cooking in the kitchen and they all wanted to try out all the new tools and toys, that we didn't get through all the recipes that I had planned.  Actually, I had quite a few recipes, and I let the ladies pick the ones that they wanted to make and so we made strawberry smoothies in the Manual Food Processor, and pizzas on the Stoneware (which a lot of is 20% off this month!) and potato chips using the Simple Slicer, to name a few, but we didn't get to the Pineapple Upside-down cake, which is what Jimmy was hoping for.  Since he was away all day helping a friend of ours move, I decided that I would make it for him anyway, but after being on my feet all day, then getting dinner together, I didn't really have the energy.

Elizabeth wasn't game for it, either, since she had been up since early in the morning babysitting 3 little boys and then home to help me, so when Peter arrived on our doorstep, he was enlisted to bake the cake.

He actually did quite well.  I was very impressed seeing as his only previous experience in the kitchen was to put little pizzas in the oven. 


He approached it much like a science experiment, which he is very good at doing, and which, in fact, is what cooking really is.

First he gathered all the ingredients with Gabriel and Jo's help:

 although most of what they gathered wasn't needed and ended up on the floor...

 at least the little tubs of spices didn't open!

This is what Peter gathered:

1/2 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1 can pineapple slices, undrained
5 maraschino cherries, drained and halved
1 package of yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 c vegetable oil

Then the oven got turned on to 350 degrees and the butter was melted in an oven proof 12 skillet

When that was melted, he stirred in the brown sugar until it was well blended.

After that, the pineapple was drained, and the juice set aside and the pineapple was arranged over the brown sugar mixture in the skillet, and the cherries were set in the center of each pineapple slice.  Ok, not each one because Jo came in and ate half of the cherries, so then there weren't enough to go around!

When that was done, and Jo was stopped from taking a cherry out of her mouth to replace in one of the pineapple slices, enough water was added to the pineapple juice to measure 1/3 c liquid and mixed with the cake mix, the eggs and the oil.  This was all whisked until it was smooth.

Next is always the question of where to put the whisk while you dump the cake mixture into the pan, but Jo and Gabriel took care of that problem.

When the cake mixture was dumped over the pineapples in the pan,

then whole thing was put into the oven for 35-40 minutes

(Yes, that is mud on his pants.  He was being chased around the yard and apparently tackled by Jo and Gabriel and ended up in the mud.)

until a wooden pick inserted into the center came out clean.

After that, it came out of the oven

 

 and left to sit for 5 minutes.  Doesn't it look beautiful!

Finally, it was time to turn it out onto its plate.  I said these specific words to Peter...

"Peter, it's going to still be really hot.  Use the hot mits.  Don't touch the pan or you will burn yourself.  Peter, it's hot."

He looked right at me, so I KNOW he heard, and he even said, 'ok' and looked at the pan and I said again, it's hot...

and can you guess what Peter did?

Yes, he did.  Grabbed the pan with his bare (bear!) hands. 

And I KNOW that he had heard me because he didn't say anything about that it burned him other than to let it go and grab the mits.  It wasn't until later that he showed me his hands, which were burned all the way across. 

Anyway...

The cake finally got turned out onto its plate

 (notice the hot mits?)

and it was beautiful! 

This is what was left after about 2 minutes:

And by the end of the evening, the plate was clean, washed and put away.

Great job, Peter!  It was delicious!