Favorite Ingredients Friday for February 29

Here is a favorite chocolate dessert that goes over well at a potluck or when you have guests in.

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH FUDGE SAUCE

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) cook & serve chocolate pudding mix
2 cups milk
1 pkg. (18 1/4 oz.) chocolate cake mix

FUDGE SAUCE:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine pudding mix with milk in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cook, uncovered, for 6 to 8 minutes at 70% power, stirring at 2-minute intervals. (If you prefer, you may cook the pudding in a saucepan on the stovetop, but cooking it in a bowl in the microwave saves a step and a saucepan.)

Add the dry cake mix to the pudding and beat until well blended. Pour batter into a greased 13x9-inch baking pan and spread evenly. Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched and edges pull away from sides of pan. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack.

For sauce, in a heavy saucepan, melt butter and chocolate chips over low heat. Stir in evaporated milk and sugar until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 8 minutes or until sauce is thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.

Cut cake in squares; serve on dessert plates with warm sauce over cake. Ice cream or whipped cream are completely optional.

This came from a Country Woman magazine -- it was a prize-winner in one of their contests. This recipe is chocolate to the nth degree and is incredibly easy and delicious.

Photo from Taste of Home

To see what others have shared for Favorite Ingredients Friday, head on over to Overwhelmed with Joy and check out the links.

Sew Crafty Friday for February 29

Most of my projects this week are works in progress. First, here is the Country Baking cross-stitch sampler. I'm still working on the back-stitching. I don't work on this too often, but yesterday I got quite a bit done while my hubby was in the dentist's chair and I waited for him. The "book-like" area down near the bottom left is going to contain a list of the fruit of the Spirit.

Next is the scrap afghan (a UFO from many years ago). This afghan is worked in 2 pieces and then joined together. This is the first piece and is almost complete. I just have a few more rows to go which will include one more color -- maroon. Then I will need to make the second piece and join the two. It's a project I work on only at home at this point because it is so large and heavy.

And last, here is the completed framed cross-stitch of a little verse from Psalms -- also a UFO of many years' duration. I apologize for the blurry photo. I took one with the cross-stitch leaning upright, but that picture didn't show the frame as well, so I decided to use this one. I was going for a rustic look with the frame and think I succeeded pretty well. It was an ugly dark brown frame I found somewhere. I painted it with several coats of a linen color, then several coats of navy blue, before sanding and sealing it. I was pleased that when I sanded it lightly, not only the linen color, but also some of the original dark brown, showed through in places, which really helped to give it the worn old look I was aiming for.


That is about it for my crafting efforts this week. If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share. Happy Crafting!

Show & Tell Friday for February 29

For Show & Tell today, here are a few more items from my walls. These are on the wall at different places in our upstairs hallway.

This nifty old (stamped) cross-stitch of a little red schoolhouse was made by one of my great-aunts. We found it among her things and I decided to bring it home and give it a good home.

This plate was a gift from my sister many years ago. It is a painting of Bass Harbor Head Light in Maine. We had gone camping there together once and stayed at a campground within walking distance of this lighthouse. One evening we walked down there and were surprised to meet a deer in the misty evening light. My sister is in heaven now, so the plate is a lovely reminder of her and good times spent together.

And this crewel stitchery is one that I made for my grandmother many years ago. It was returned to me when she passed on. It depicts a little Hummel girl. My grandmother had a lovely collection of Hummel figurines, and I made this to complement them. It was a fun project to do. The little girl's face, arms and legs are not stitched but are made from peach-colored felt and the details embroidered on top of the felt.

And that's my Show & Tell for today!
To see what others have shared for Show & Tell this week, go visit visit There is No Place Like Home and check out the links. It’s so much fun to see what others have to share!

A birthday moment

Back in January, we celebrated my birthday at my daughter's home. Just after the candles were lit, as the family was singing "Happy Birthday", there was a moment which I tried to capture in a sort of poem. Here it is:

The candles
were an afterthought -- and so
just three of them adorn my birthday cake.
Their small bright flames
reflect the brightness of the children's eyes.
I gaze into their faces as they sing:
The six-year-old, whose eyes
seem somehow sad and wise beyond her years;
The mischief-loving boy who is so sweet;
The pretty curly-headed four-year-old;
The baby, still too young to know the birthday song
but smiling as the others laugh and sing.
They are so precious to me, God! You know
how much I love these little ones of Yours.
So as I blow the candles out, my wish
is not a wish at all, but just a prayer
that You would touch these tender little lives
and light each one a heart aglow for You.

Menu Plan Monday for February 25

Another Monday! It's a bright chilly winter day, so I have lots of comfort foods planned for this week. As usual, my plan for this week includes some repeat meals that didn't get used last week.

MONDAY: Ground Beef Stew, Rolls

TUESDAY: Pepper Jack Chicken (leftover from Sunday), Southwestern Rice Bake, Broccoli/Cauliflower Blend

WEDNESDAY: Ground Beef Stew (leftover from Monday), Butter Dip Breadsticks

THURSDAY: Meat Loaf, Scalloped Potatoes, Herbed Beans & Carrots

FRIDAY: Vegetable Chili, Cornbread

SATURDAY: Macaroni & Cheese, Mixed Vegetables, Coleslaw

SUNDAY: (Potluck at Church) Curried Chicken with Peaches, Brown Rice, Asparagus Stir-fry Vegetables, Caramel Chocolate Cake

If you would like to see menus which others have shared, head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie and check out the links. Usually well over 100 people share links to their weekly menus. You'll find some great ideas and often recipes too.

Favorite Ingredients Friday for February 22

Favorite Ingredients Friday today is focusing on Side Dishes. I don't know about others, but for me it is difficult to come up with easy side dishes that are interesting and yet use common ingredients. The recipe I'm sharing today meets that criteria and is super with any Asian-style entree.

CHINA LAKE FRIED RICE

1 cup raw rice
2 cups water
4 to 5 slices of bacon, diced
4 eggs, slightly beaten
4 to 5 green onions, sliced
Soy sauce
Any leftover meat in tiny pieces (optional)

Bring the rice and water to a boil in a heavy saucepan; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15-20 minutes or until rice is cooked. In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the green onions; cook until tender. Add the eggs to the skillet, stirring, and cook until eggs are scrambled. Add the cooked rice and the optional meat; mix well. Add the soy sauce until the fried rice is as brown as you like it. Cook all together over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Serve piping hot.
Yield: 4-6 servings.

I copied this recipe from a radio cooking show many years ago. The lady who shared the recipe was from China Lake, Maine. This fried rice is really delicious. For years, whenever we ordered Chinese takeout, I would whip this up while we waited for the food to arrive.

To see what others have shared for Favorite Ingredients Friday, head on over to Overwhelmed with Joy and check out the links.

Sew Crafty Friday for February 22

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I decided to do something a little different. I got very little crafting done this week. It has been a tough week for me emotionally and spiritually. I feel as if Satan is trying to render me ineffective. So as a result I have spent much more time in God's Word and in prayer this week. Crafting is important to me, but my spiritual condition is far more important.

So, for Sew Crafty Friday, I decided to share a craft I made quite some time ago. It's the tea towel wall hanging I posted here for Show & Tell last week. At the time I made this project, I also wrote up the directions and a little bit of why it was such a meaningful craft for me. So I'm going to share that here as well. Here's what I wrote:

"For me, one of the most comforting themes for decorating involves continuity. The two themes I find myself returning to again and again are seasonal decorating and decorating with family heirlooms or just 'old things' -- and both reflect continuity. "Decorating for the seasons is a reminder of the comforting Bible promise found in Genesis 8:22 -- 'While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' No matter what else may be happening in our lives, it's a comfort to remember that the seasons will go on just as they always do. As an old poem puts it, 'a day is always coming/when the birds go north again.' Seasonal decorating is a wonderful reminder of this.

"Using old family things to decorate my home is also very comforting. It gives me a real sense of continuity to see and use these things that belonged to previous generations. We have many old things, including diaries, old furniture, partial sets of dishes, etc. But probably the most inspiring in terms of decorating would be some things I inherited from my grandmother -- many of her kitchen utensils and the contents of her sewing basket.

"Recently I came up with a way to combine both of my favorite decorating themes into one craft project: a set of seasonal wall hangings. For each, I used half of a homespun dish towel, narrow-hemming the cut edge so that each finished hanging measured about 11x16 inches. Using fusible web, I ironed an 8x12-inch pieced of old sheet or white muslin to the center of the hanging. Then, with a fine-point permanent marker, I lettered a seasonal recipe onto each one. For winter, I used the recipe for Snow Ice Cream; for spring, a strawberry pie; for summer, Sunflower Cake; and for fall, a pumpkin dessert.

"Then the fun of decorating each hanging really began as I trimmed them with colorful fabric shapes ironed on with fusible web. I used snowflakes, fir trees, snowmen and hearts for winter, strawberries for spring, sunflowers for summer, pumpkins and maple leaves for fall. Then came the family-heirloom touch as I added buttons I'd saved for years, sewed on with beautiful vintage threads.

"Of course, the variations on this theme could be endless [and one of mine was published in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook!] depending on the recipes and fabric cutouts one chooses. For me, these wall hangings will be a wonderful reminder of the continuity of the changing seasons, and of family ties. And my grandmother -- who loved the seasons and faithfully decorated for each one -- would be proud."


How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!