Punchbowl Cake (The Chocolate Variety)

Here is the cake that has been a staple at our birthday parties for years. I almost always make things from scratch, but for this recipe, everything can come from a box! You need:

1 chocolate cake mix, baked as directed in a 9x13 inch pan, split in half vertically, then again horizontally

2 packages chocolate pudding (Regular, Instant, No fat, No Sugar.. doesn't matter)

made according to directions for pudding

a punchbowl

1 large carton of any variety of Cool Whip, defrosted 2 packages Heath chocolate covered toffee bits Here are the ingredients... OK... this cake obviously was not baked in a 9x13 pan...and was homemade. but anything works! OOPS how did those chopsticks get in there? These are definitely an option! Take 1/2 of everything and line the bowl with half of the cake, then top the cake with the following in order... pudding, Cool Whip, Heath bits. Repeat! (This recipe originally also called for Kahlua to be sprinkled onto the cake before the pudding!) YOU CAN NOT MESS THIS UP! Spoon it out with a big spoon onto dessert plates or even bowls! It serves a bundle of people and it is always a hit!!!! Of course you can make different varieties... white cake, vanilla pudding, Cool Whip, almonds, raspberries or pound cake, lemon pudding, Cool Whip, blueberries... Really any combo should be great!

Outside The Kitchen Window

Look what I found outside the kitchen window!

Here's a Little "Diddy" About Jack and Diane...

How'd I miss what was so obvious?

Blue Eyes ... Babies Got Blue Eyes

Sweet Baby Jack

There is something so sweet about a new baby ... and our Jack is the sweetest!

With Great Auntie Did...

With beautiful second cousin, Les...

Even made a crusty old Irishman melt into a softie!

Valentine's Day

The other day my First Grade class had a Valentine's Day party. Let me tell you --- By February, being in a room of 26 First Graders all day long for 5 days a week for six months can be a bit ...well a bit... um ... shall we say... challenging. By February, not only are the children learning terminology like "vertices" ... yes you may pause here to google the definition, if you need to.. but these sweet, innocent little human beings are feeling a bit more ... um .. um ... energetic, shall we say. So you can imagine that by the 109th day of our school year, just the words "Valentine's Day Party" can bring a veteran teacher to her knees. The excitement of the students on this day is almost too much to bear. For me, however, today turned out differently than I had expected. Yes, it was wearing. Yes, I had to turn off the light a few times to remind the children to settle down a bit. But it was also so very sweet. On a normal school day, I've got every minute of our day planned. If I'm not busy giving instruction, I'm grading papers or working with a student or checking e-mail, or dealing with some discipline problem or doing some paperwork or running off copies or getting together an art project or decorating the room or organizing student files or posting grades or calling parents. On the day of our party, however, I got to sit back and watch my students... and enjoy them. There honestly was a special feeling in the air. Easy-going polite conversations could be heard among all the students, with no regard for gender or race. There was a true sense of camaraderie. All were friends ... at least for that short period of time. By the end of the party I heard things like, "This was the best day ever!" and "I'm gonna miss our class next year, Mrs. Wallis." What a wonderful day it was! I'm going to miss it, too, my children. I'm going to miss it, too. Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day.

Look Through Any Window.. What Do You See?

Looking though my window.... Are these days so very far away?

Sitting on one of the benches in the yard with flowers growing and grandkids running around? Oh oh..Watch out for the dog doo doo ... OK ... Nothing is perfect, is it? Oh yeah ... by the way ... I almost forgot because both my DH and Gabby are sick in bed.. Happy Valentine's Day!!! (I can't believe that I wrote about dog poo on Valentine's Day!)

New Camera

We've been playing with the new camera... No flash...automatic... Yoy..Yoy...Yoy.. soooo much to learn!

Nostalgia

There are places I remember..... Why does that song always make me cry? My Life (Click here)

Brayden and Ella Spend the Night

Handsome Brayden Boy and Beautiful Ella Girl spent the night at Gran's not too long ago.

Here are some of the things they did.. Getting sleepy while watching The Polar Express and getting ready for bed... Ella is ready....she's twirling her hair...

The next morning, Ella Girl is up and waiting for Brayden Boy to wake up, too!!

Brayden is awake! Yippee!

Eating breakfast... Apples, bananas, scrambled eggs and toast.

Brushing teeth...

Daddy/Uncle C is reading a book before he takes Brayden home.

Ella loves to play grocery store.

Before she left, Ella went outside and walked up and down the cleared driveway about 20 times as snow lay all around! Fun times for Gran!!!!

Farm Fresh Milk

(CottageGirl apologizes to her 2 adoring fans, DMKS and JMDW for her lack of providing her usual sub-standard reading material in the form of this blog this past week. With fingers crossed, she promises to do better in the future!!) There aren't too many things in my life that have been as consistent throughout the years as Farm Fresh Milk (my wonderful DH and my weight fluctuations are the only other two exceptions that come to mind at this minute). Our Farm Fresh Milk store moved into an old hardware store in our neighborhood over 40 years ago and remains a well-frequented landmark to this day. Farm Fresh Milk is a small chain of milk stores throughout Southern Illinois that offers milk in returnable glass containers. (About 20 years ago they shocked the world by also offering milk in plastic containers, but the glass ones are pretty much all most people buy. The milk just tastes so much better... more wholesome and ...most importantly ..... so very much colder!)

In addition, there is also the true status symbol of the long time FF customer. It is a handy metal carrying basket that you can buy for 2 bottles...

or 4 ...

which proves to be quite a convenient invention when a milk run usually means buying four half gallon glass bottles of milk. (We ... meaning my DH and not me ... usually do milk runs twice a week! When our boys were still living here in our home, we usually went every other day, sometimes more!)

For years I took Farms Fresh for granted, thinking that everyone had something like it in their own neighborhoods, until one day I was talking with a cousin who lives about 25 minutes away across the river in another state. I found out that he loved Farm Fresh as much as I did! He told me that he would make a "milk run" twice a week not only for himself, but for his neighbors as well! He, however, took the FF experience to a whole new level by ... not only get the creamy white milk in the glass bottles, but ... he also was brave enough to buy the DECADENT thick, rich, luxurious CHOCOLATE MILK on a regular basis!!!!!! A foreigner taking the FF experience to a whole new level! I was SHOCKED!! Shocked! Personally, I will not even let myself go there in the FF Chocolate Milk World! After all these years, I have created a block, as it were, in my head to eliminate any inkling that Farm Fresh even makes chocolate milk!!!!!! If I ever let myself into the world of FF Chocolate Milk ...why...why... it would be the end of the world as I know it! (Although every once in a while, I believe that my DH sneaks a bottle into the house without my knowing it and stows it behind the soda and wine and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider in the extra fridge in the basement so that he can partake of the highly caloric, yet sooo very comforting nectar.) My DH has to do a milk run sometime today... I think I just need to have him get one little bottle of FF Chocolate milk so that I can do more research on this topic. Look out world!

Chocolate Loaf Cake

Ok. There are some things in life that one is forced to do. Jeff and Ashley were coming over with their 2 adorable children.

To be hospitable ... and ... and ...to make sure they would come back ... I had to make a cake ... not for me, mind you ... for them ... strictly for them. Since we are all trying to watch the calories around here, I thought I'd make a rather small cake. Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Loaf Cake yelled out to me. Simple cake, really...

Cream butter and sugar

Add dry ingredients.. Bake. Cool. Cut into 3 horizontal layers. Put melted jam in between layers. Top with melted chocolate mixed with sour cream. (Sorry no time for pics on that!)

Eat. Honestly not too rich at all. Very moist. Lovely, feathery sort of texture. This little piece is all that is left after ... breakfast this morning. (Regretfully, better the second day, J & A!)

Tsk, tsk, tsk ... Things one just has to do to get along in this world!!

Biscoti and Mom's Plate

A couple of weeks ago I made some lovely tender, flavorful biscoti that had toasted pecans. Mom would have loved it. I think they look pretty on one of her plates. Miss you, Mom.