4th of July Flag Cake

This isn't your regular red velvet cake recipe.

This is the original red velvet cake recipe.

I've been making this flag cake for fifty years and it's worth the effort,

I promise!

Click here for the recipe and easy directions!

How to make a 4th of July flag cake.

Pie Night

Coconut Cream Pies

Yep. I made 'em—homemade pies by OMA.
I'm a little proud as you can see.
I've never thought of myself as a pie maker.

Grandma Bagley

Grandma Bagley was the pie maker. Dad stopped to check on her every night on the way home from work. There was always a banana cream, a lemon meringue, peach, apple, chocolate or custard pie. Dad was a dutiful son, but grandma employed a secret method to encourage devotion. When I worked for my dad during my teens I got in on the visit and my favorite was coconut cream.

My kids have a tradition called Pie Night. It happens the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a get together to celebrate the sweetness of family. With 7 kids, 7 in-law kids who all come from big families on every side, it's never been a goal to get us all together for Thanksgiving. Little groups meet up and have Thanksgiving—the eastern families met at an Amish cabin for a few years, a group made a trek to St. Louis last year. One of our families gets a condo in Sun Valley with the in-laws every other year. We Opis family hop—we've been to Boston, Pennsylvania, Denver, San Diego, and this year we're in Arizona for the big day.

I have a family of event planners. Any occasion deserves a name and a theme, a game or two and some spectacular food. A great joy of this phase of life is visiting our kid's homes as guests. We are treated royally. Today one grandkid is assigned to each of the four grandparents coming to dinner, as their slave. They will serve us our food, clear our plates, replenish our glasses and be our dinner companion. It's so fun to watch Luke make place cards, and Sam light candles. Emily helped me tear up bread for the stuffing while Jake went off to play (officially) in his first turkey bowl. I LOVE seeing Gabi and Brad on their own turf, totally in control of the whole day. It is a treat beyond anything . . . even beyond pie.

Which brings me to my perfect pie recipe:

Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

One can coconut milk, and enough half and half to make 3 cups liquid.

3 egg yolks

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 t salt

1 cup flaked, sweetened coconut

1 baked pie shell

1 cup sweetened, whipped cream

In a medium saucepan combine eggs, sugar, flour and salt. Slowly stir in coconut milk/cream mixture. Bring to a a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 cup coconut, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 T butter. Pour into pie shell and chill 2-4 hours.

Toast 1/4 coconut on ungreased pan in a 350 degree over 5-7 minutes until golden brown, stirring often. Cool. Sprinkle toasted coconut on top of pie. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Stand back and wait for compliments!!!

Gotta go and taste-test some rolls!

Happy Thanksgiving!

P. S. I'm thankful for you!

P. S. P. S. Kirby Puckernut wants you to visit his blog! Click here!

Scary Business

"What's cooking, Oma?"

I've got a Halloween party brewing, but some little ghouls can't come.

So I invited them over a few days early to spook up the place.

Martha's mice on the stairs. See how they run!

With silhouettes, stickies and squeals they created a rat house.

I'm no dummy!

Since a real pumpkin head was too heavy, this spook's a light-weight with a styrofoam noggin. The ghoulies crumpled newspapers to stuff his shirt, and pieced his squishy parts together with elastics and duct tape. In no time our house was haunted and party-ready.

Oma Superior

Thanks, ghouls!

Now, want to stir up something spooky?
Here's a recipe that haunts me:

Ghost Cake With Glowing Eyes

Bake a cake in an oblong pan.
When cool, dump out of the pan carefully onto a tray.

Now cut off two pieces to create a rounded ghost shape.
The two extra pieces will become arms.

Use white meringue type frosting from a box to glue the arms on the sides of the cake.
Frost the cake.
Use black licorice for the mouth.

Now the spooky part:
Break an egg, dump out the insides, and place each 1/2 eggshell (open side up) for eyes.
Soak two sugar cubes in lemon extract.
Place sugar cubes in egg shells, and light them with a match.
The eyes will glow.

Ghost Cake

Boo-ti-ful!

Perks of the Purge

(Linens I hadn't ironed in two years.)

In an effort to balance myself,
I had a purge.

(Extra stuff I never use.)

What was I saving this for?
The great bowl shortage?

The grands sift through my odds and ends.

So, I had an Oma Giveaway.
Craft paper, purse mirrors, pill boxes and stickers . . .
The little kids scored mini-sized lotions, notepads and bags,
toys I don't like to clean up, games I don't like to play, books I don't like to read—
they cleaned house!

Amy discovers a gift she gave me.

The big kids were a bit more choosy.
But hey, who doesn't want a new Christmas cookie platter?
Fake fruit anyone?
After my customers left,
the remnants were packed up and hauled off to a thrift store.
(I'll probably buy the red pan again when I find it there!)
Perk of the purge:
Living with less lowers my stress.

My long-lost fondue pot!

Another perk of a purge is the discovery of forgotten treasures.
After the Oma Giveaway, Dee whipped up his specialty:

Swiss Cheese Fondue

• 1 lb. cubed Swiss cheese (we like half Gruyere and half Emmenthal)
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 1 clove fresh garlic
• 2 cups white wine (we use white grape juice)
• Nutmeg
• Pepper

Spray saucepan with Pam and rub with garlic. While heating wine on stove, toss cheese with cornstarch and add it by handfuls to the wine, stirring constantly until cheese is melted. Transfer to a fondue pot to keep it bubbling, and sprinkle with nutmeg and freshly ground pepper. Spear bread cubes, vegetables, sausage, apples, olives, pickles and dunk and swirl.

I love the simple life!

One Way to Make the World a Better Place

♥♥♥

I'm thinking kind thoughts about all my neighbors, all my friends, and everyone who bakes homemade bread. I found this loaf, wrapped in white paper, sitting on my doorstep, left by who knows who?

Want to make the world a better place? Do a good deed anonymously. It makes everybody look good! (And somebody feels special.)

Marty's Buttermilk Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe, although I never make it anymore. Now I rely on the kindness of strangers.

1 cup water
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp. to dissolve yeast
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
6 cups white flour

In small saucepan, heat 1 cup water and 3 tbsp butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool until warm.

In small bowl, add 1/2 cup warm water and the dry yeast. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar and let dissolve for a couple of minutes. Stir. Set bowl aside and continue with the next step.

In large bowl, mix buttermilk, honey, sugar, salt, and vinegar. When the butter water is warmish, pour into large bowl. Add yeast mixture.

Begin adding flour one cup at a time. When the dough is too stiff to mix with the wooden spoon, about 5 cups, turn out onto a floured board.

Knead in the remaining flour until the dough is firm and smooth. Put dough in a buttered bowl and flip dough so that the top of it is lightly buttered. Cover and let rise until double in size, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Punch down dough and turn out onto floured board. Knead bubbles out of dough. Divide dough into equal halves.

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Form dough into two loaves. Place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise until double in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the loaves are hollow sounding and pulled away from the sides of the pans. Remove from pans, and run a square of butter over each hot loaf. Let cool on a rack or dishtowel.

♥ Give away one loaf—anonymously! ♥

Recipe for Irish Porridge

Creamy Irish Oatmeal

Our mornings in Ireland started with unbelievably delicious oatmeal. It was like a dessert! The cook told me they use steel cut oats: whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut. They are nuttier and chewier than regular oatmeal, and as a result, they take a long time to cook. He starts making it the night before, pouring all the ingredients into a saucepan, which he covers and puts in the refrigerator so the milk can soften the shell of the oats.

Here's the secret recipe:

4 cups milk (not water)
1 cup steel cut oats
Dash of salt

In the morning, pull out saucepan, and heat up on the stove. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking on the bottom. Remove from heat, and let sit for a couple of minutes. Stir in another 1- 1/2 cups milk, and serve with toppings. (Another cook said he dumps everything in a crock-pot and slow-cooks it all night.)

There were a few versions on the menu: Sweetie (topped with bananas, honey and cream) Nutty (topped with walnuts, brown sugar and butter) Hawaiian (topped with pineapple, brown sugar and coconut) and the Warmer (topped with Bushmills Irish Whiskey.)

The Irish may have their Troubles, but breakfast isn't one of them!

Postcard: French Bread

You don't knead to go to Paris for French Bread.
Check out Heidi's recipe!
(That's my girl!)