Weekly Chronicle - Memorial Day Edition

We spent a good part of our three day weekend relaxing.  May has been crazy busy and we all needed a day or two to relax. 

Sunday we went to Mom and Mark's house for a little cookout.  The kids loved splashing in the little pool and "cooking" with all the bowls and measuring cups that Nana gave them to play with.

Hi Phinny.  He loves to sing to me but he's still nervous about getting up on my finger.

Yum! Mark grilled some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs.  Mom and I cooked some bacon to go along with them.   Charlotte picked out the perfect hotdog.

Jon loves a bbq.

Here's my burger.  Lots of mayo, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a touch of ketchup. YUM!

For dessert, I brought over pineapple that we grilled a bit and topped it with vanilla ice cream. I just had the pineapple. 

Before we left, we drove down the street to check out the progress on the dam repairs.  The pond across the street from Mom and Mark's house had to be drained temporarily to repair the dam and the road that tops the dam. 

Jon tries to look tough while talking man stuff with Mark.

Evan was in love with all the big equipment on the job site.  Nana helped them climb up onto this big machine.  Evan is still talking about it.


This next morning we got outside early (7:30am) to spread the dirt that we had dropped off to fill in our sink hole.

The kids loved the mountain.  Charlotte's pretending to throw dirt from the top. 

Jon shoveled and I spread with a metal rake.  The kids tromped down the dirt to settle it in.   Jon and I then moved the extra dirt to the kid's digging area... one tarp full at a time.  We really need to get a wheel barrow. 

Jon found a new way to pack down the dirt.

We had to even out a pretty large area in and around the sink hole.  We'll seed it and lay down straw this week.  I'm going to have to water it frequently to get grass to grow in this heat.  Our goal is to have this area looking great by the time we put the house on the market next spring.

Here's the digging area with it's new heap of dirt.  The kids had a great time playing on the dirt pile.

While Jon and I started putting up the shade sail, the kids got to work picking sugar snap peas.  They were the ones who planted them a few months ago.  Charlotte had a great attitude and picked 116 (according to her count).  Evan was tired and kinda whiny so his count was much less. 

We got 3 sides of the sail up but the 4th corner was really tough.  We pulled and pulled.  We looped ropes around to give us more leverage.  We were so close. Just a half an inch more!

We tied the rope to the post across from it so it wouldn't keep slipping back.  I then leaned on the rope to try to pull it close enough.  I finally sat on the rope in hopes that it would work.  Charlotte thought it was funny so she took a picture of me on the rope. 

Charlotte's self portrait.



After all that hard work, we enjoyed the rest of our day off.  I'm a huge fan of 3 day weekends. 

11 Pounds of Butter, 90 Eggs, 25 Pounds of Sugar....

Jon asked if I would be in charge of providing refreshments for his 3 end-of-the-year band concerts.  He suggested me buying cookies and chips.  Does he know me?  Why buy when I can make them and they'll taste a whole lot better!  So, I planned and planned and then shopped and shopped.  Luckily the band is reimbursing me for ingredients!

 The concert band.

I baked cookies, brownies, and sheet cakes.  I baked in the evenings, on weekends, and during the kid's nap times. 

 Peanut butter jumbos

 Here are all of the goodies for the second concert.  I was expecting about 200 people. 
2 Texas sheet cakes (I'll definitely make these again!! Easy and great for a crowd!!)
2 double batches of peanut butter jumbos
1 double batch of chocolate chip cookies
4 pans of brownies
2 jugs of ice tea concentrate (I brewed it super strong so I could dilute it into large coolers later)

And that was just for one concert!!!

 Wind Ensemble

 So, by far, the favorite were the brownies.  Teenagers will do just about anything for brownies.  I searched the pantry for ways to make the brownies special. (Recipe at the end of the post)

 These are my peanut butter cup brownies.

 M&M brownies

 Blondies - just in case there were any people who, gasp, didn't love chocolate.

 Rocky Road Brownies (before)

 Rocky Road Brownies (after)

So, after all 3 concerts, I added up the amounts of butter, eggs, and sugar I used.  Wow.  11 pounds of butter, 90 eggs, and 25 pounds of sugar.  One mom asked for my business card... she thought I was a baker by profession.  After the past 2 weeks, I started to feel like one too!


The concerts were amazing. My husband works really hard.  He teaches a great group of kids.  I was happy to be involved.  He asked me if I'd like to do this for every concert.  Am I crazy for saying yes?

Jazz Band

Becky's Best Brownies (aka: Hershey's Best Brownies)

*   1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper (letting it hang over the edges) if you'd like to be able to lift the brownies from the pan to cut them after they cool.
2. 2 Place butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 2 to 2-1/2 minutes or until melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with spoon after each addition. Add cocoa; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well.  Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. 3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Once cool, you can use the parchment paper to lift the brownies from the pan.  *Tip: If you put the brownies in the fridge for an hour or so, they cut so much easier and without too much mess.    About 24 brownies.

*Peanut Butter Cup Brownies -  Stir 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks into the batter before spreading it into the pan.  Using a ziploc bag, with the corner snipped, squeeze lines of slightly melted peanut butter onto the brownie batter before baking.  Pull a butter knife through the peanut butter and batter to create swirl designs.  Top with cut up peanut butter cups before baking.  Bake as usual.

*M&M Brownies - Stir 1 cup of M&M candies into the brownie batter before spreading it into the pan. Top with and additional 1/2 cup of M&M's. Bake as usual.  *Tip: The M&M's on top are important since the candies lose their color inside the brownie as it bakes. 

*Rocky Road Brownies - Before baking, top brownie batter with 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2-1 cup chopped nuts.  Bake until there is 5 minutes of baking time left.  Cover the top of the brownies with mini marshmallows (about 1/2 a regular sized bag).  Bake for the additional 5 minutes.  *Tip:  Make sure to cool them completely then put them in the fridge for an hour before cutting into them.  Spray a very sharp knife with cooking spray before each cut so the marshmallows won't stick to the knife.

Mason Jar Crazy

I have a lot of mason jars leftover from canning a lot of applesauce a few years ago.  I have to admit that canning isn't my favorite thing.  Freezing is so much faster!   So, I decided to put these empty mason jars to good use.... organizing my pantry and fridge!

 This might make me a huge dork but I had the best time doing this.  I kept looking for more things to put in jars.  Do I know how to have fun or what??

A Great Visit And A Tall Shortcake

Two weeks ago, Jon's parents and sister came to visit and to see the kid's ballet recital.  We had a great weekend. 

 Charlotte and Grammy played a crazy enthusiastic game of "race the car as fast as you can and try to get it to fly off the table before the other person catches it". 

 Me, waiting for the meatloaf and roasted smashed potatoes to finish cooking... and watching the table/car game. 

 Charlotte is an excellent fruit chopper.

  Evan stirs gelatin while Charlotte starts whipping the cream. 

 The tallest, prettiest thing I think I've ever created.   The cake is King Arthur's chiffon cake. 
I layered it with cut strawberries (that had been tossed with a little sugar and let sit for a while) and whipped cream that I whipped with some softened gelatin.  If I had used regular whipped cream, within an hour or so, it would have turned into a soft mess.  The gelatin helped it hold it's shape and support such a tall cake (I also used a few bamboo skewers).  Next time I won't use quite so much gelatin.  The whipped cream got a bit too firm. Here's the recipe I'll use next time. 


The following pictures were taken by Charlotte.

 Can I just say how awesome it is that my kids have grandmothers that are so much fun?  No stuffy, serious grandma's here!

 After the ballet recital, we came home to enjoy a celebratory feast.  Fried chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad (thanks, Mom!!), fruit salad, pasta salad, and asparagus.  YUM!

 I love feeding people.  It's one of my favorite things.

 Suzanne watches and is ready to help as I slice into this crazy cake.  Thanks to a sharp bread knife, I'm able to slice it without too much trouble.

 It was a fun and delicious weekend!

Weekly Chronicle

Since I seem to have trouble with timely blogging lately, I thought I'd start a weekly recap or chronicle giving a quick glance at what we've been up to instead of waiting until I have time to do a longer, separate post about everything.  This week I'll have to do 2 chronicles to get caught up.  This chronicle is from 2 weeks ago.

 This large snapping turtle was taking a nap on the warm road until a neighbor with a large bucket and shovel scooped him up to take him back to his pond.  He wasn't happy about it but I was glad he didn't get run over.

 Pretty rainbow. Too bad my camera can't capture how beautiful it was.

 While at my sister's a few weeks ago, I bought 2 crates of asparagus (at only $2/lb!!!).  I blanched and froze most of it to enjoy the rest of the year.

 Charlotte helping me cut fruit for a fruit salad while developing her knife skills.

 I had to teach the kids the fine art of making floor beds to make TV watching more comfy.  My sister and I were pros at building floor beds as kids.  Charlotte and Evan were watching Iron Chef with me. 

I knit this sweet little set for a friend who is due with a little boy any day now.  It's a cotton blend yarn that should be perfect for a summer baby.  If you're on Ravelry, I've started keeping track of my projects and my stash so you can find more info about this set.  My name on Ravelry is beckaboo.