Bonnie Butter Cake

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Dawn

Bonnie Butter Cake with Easy Penuche Frosting

Dawn's cake 2005

Dawn's Cake 2005

Cake:
1 3/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. butter
2 eggs
1- 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
2- 3/4 c. all-purpose flour or 3 c. cake flour
2 -1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1-1/4 c. milk

Frosting:
1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. milk
2 c. powdered sugar

Cake:
Heat oven to 350^. Grease and flour 9 x 13-inch pan or 2 9-inch round layer pans, or 3 8-inch round layer pans. Mix sugar, margarine, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy. Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 5 minutes. Beat in flour, baking powder and salt, alternately with milk on low speed. Pour into pan(s). Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, oblong 45 to 50 minutes, layers 30 to 35 minutes; cool.

Frosting:
Heat margarine in saucepan until melted. Stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir over low heat 2 minutes. Stir in milk; heat to boiling. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Stir in powdered sugar gradually. Place in bowl of ice and water; beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency. If frosting becomes too stiff, heat slightly, stirring constantly. Fills and frosts 2 8 or 9-inch layers or frosts a 9 x 13-inch cake.

My ALL-TIME favorite cake!!!!!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold.”
Posted in Desserts, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Windy with a capital W.

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Dawn

So windy today – all day.  Still windy now. Will be windy tomorrow, too.  We have sustained winds that are 24-28mph and must gusts have been in the 40mph range, but there was one gust at 1pm that was 55mph.  Yikes.  There was a brief tornado in Racine county, but nothing like that here.  We did get some rain, but that was it.  The lake had crazy waves today.  I went down there twice today, to look.

Windy waves on Lake Michigan

Wind stirs up Lake Michigan on 10-26-10.

Emily and I made soup for supper, because with such blustery weather, what else would you be hungry for?

TURKEY VEGETABLE SOUP

1 1/4 pound ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
6 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes with juice – 14-16 ounces
1/3 cup white rice, uncooked
1/4 cup ketchup
1 T. instant bouillon – chicken or beef
1/2 T. dried basil
1/8 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf

Crumble ground turkey into a Dutch oven. Stir in onion, carrots and celery. Cook and stir over medium high heat about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Drain.

Return to kettle and add the water, tomatoes, rice, ketchup, bouillon, basil, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover and simmer 25 – 30 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

I don’t know where my mom found this recipe, but I’ve had it so many times as an adult, I finally asked for the recipe. Tonight we served it with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and salads we made at the grocery store salad bar.

I need to brave one more trip outside with the dog and then I can go to bed.

Oh yeah, diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday, October 21st, after coughing for 1-1/2 weeks. Finished my Z-pak yesterday. I’m still coughing. I’m hoping for improvement by the time the full 10 days is up, which will be October 30th. Everyone, including me, is sick of hearing me cough. Coughing for 2 weeks is not my idea of a good time!

My new blue sweater has been keeping me nice and toasty all evening! I’m so glad I have it!

Posted in Health, Knitting, Main Dish, My Life, Recipes, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My birthday sweater is done!

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Dawn

My mom wanted to knit me a sweater for my 50th birthday, which was back in March. She wanted me to have input into the pattern and the yarn, though, so she worked on it over spring and summer and it recently was finished. It took time, because she wanted to buy the yarn from Bahr Creek Llama and Fiber Studio down in Cedar Grove, about 15 miles away. Also, she started knitting one pattern, but didn’t like it, so she picked out a different one and made that one instead.

Carousel by Mags Kandis
Cascade 220 Heathers in 2447 Peacock – dark blue with hints of purple

Dawn's birthday sweater

Dawn's birthday sweater

I think it’s awesome and it fits beautifully. I think it’s a wonderful birthday present and worth waiting for. The thing is, it would have been too warm to wear during the summer anyway!

Also, at the ends of the triangular pieces on the bottom of the sweater, my mom put little gold beads in.  I think those are cool, too.  That was her own inspiration.

I wore it to my knit night last night and everyone thought it was pretty, there, too.

Posted in Finished Project, Knitting, My Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Proud to be a Girl with Glasses!

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Dawn

A little girl needs your help.  She is 5 and just found she needs glasses.  She needs to know that there are lot of girls out there who wear glasses and are proud of it!  I myself got my first pair of glasses when I was 5, too. I really don’t remember a time, when glasses weren’t part of my life.  I’m 50 now, so I’ve been wearing glasses for 45 years now!

Girls with Glasses blog post!/

My childhood family has 4 girls with glasses and my current family has 3 girls with glasses! (Plus my dad wears glasses and so does my husband!)

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More dishcloths and Emily’s graduation

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Dawn

A picture of our family and a picture of Vollrath Bowl, at graduation.  From left, Gary, Emily, Sarah, and Dawn, taken in our backyard.  At Vollrath, you can see Lake Michigan in the background.  South sits to the south, in red.  North sits on the other side, in blue. It’s so pretty.  The band (not visible) dresses in khaki and white, so they don’t detract from the grads.

June and July dishcloths: All fun to work on.  The contrasting yarn in the Peacock cloth made it more fun.  The Father’s Day cloth was knit sideways, so it was hard to tell what the picture would be!  The Flamingo was hard to see at first, because we started with the legs.  Eventually, you could tell it was a bird. I love doing cloths that you don’t know what they will be, before you start.

Posted in 2010 Dishcloth Challenge, Emily's Graduation, Finished Project, My Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Summer Days

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Dawn

Wow, I have been such a horrible blogger and then as it went on and on and on, I knew it would be a big job, so I put it off even longer!  We are going from meals in the crockpot to meals on the grill.  Also, from winter jackets to shorts!  In June, my younger daughter Emily graduated from high school.  We had a fun family party and a beautiful day, for the most part.  Weather is a factor, since Sheboygan tries to hold their graduation outside!  We did get sprinkled on a little bit, but never for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time!  I’m so happy that both of my daughters got to graduate in the “bowl” by Lake Michigan!

I’ve been busy knitting, though, in the past 6 months!  All the pictures are in the gallery above.  Will still post pics of Emily’s graduation, too. Weather has been hot and rainy most of the summer.  It’s mid-July and the grass is still green and soft enough for barefeet!

Posted in 2010 Dishcloth Challenge, Finished Project, Knitting, My Life, ravelry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Crockpot Recipes

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Dawn

Slow-cooker Minestrone

3 cups water
1-1/2 pounds stewing meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
14-1/2 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp salt
10-oz package frozen mixed vegetables OR your choice of frozen vegetables
1 Tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup dried vermicelli (We couldn’t find vermicelli, so we used orzo instead.)
1 tsp dried oregano
Added 1 15-oz can cannellini beans, because minestrone should have beans in it
grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine all ingredients in slow-cooker. Stir well.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 10-12 hours or on High 4-5 hours

3. Top individual servings with Parmesan cheese

Also, we don’t add that much salt to our food.  We have sea salt in a grinder and I probably just added a couple turns of that.  I’m sure it wasn’t 2 teaspoons.

The 3 of us (Gary, Emily, and me) all loved it!  It was gone in a matter of days.

California Chicken

3-lb chicken, quartered
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup chili sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic salt
2 Tbsp chopped green peppers
3 medium oragnes, peeled and separated into sections  OR
1 13-1/2 oz can mandarin oranges

1. Arrange chicken in slow cooker.

2. In separate bowl, combine juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, molasses, dry mustard and garlic salt.  Pour over chicken.

3. Cover; cook on Low 8-9 hours

4. Stir in green peppers and oranges. Heat 30 minutes longer.

Variation:

Stir 1 tsp curry powder in with sauces and seasonings.

Stir 1 small can pineapple chunks and juice in with green peppers and oranges.

Plus, I made Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce in the crockpot, from Two Peas and Their Pod.

I love using my crockpot, because you can set it up with a minimum of work, then go about your day, and supper’s made when you come home at 5 or 6pm. I made the applesauce during the night, then transfered the applesauce to a container to go in the fridge, washed the crock, and got the California Chicken all set to go.  I’ve used it 3 times in the past two weeks.

Today, it’s been snowing all day!  There are probably 7-9 inches on the driveway and it was very much NOT done snowing yet.  The snow is almost up to Jasmine’s belly.  I need to measure from belly to end of legs, to find out how many inches that is.  Emily did not get a snow day and my clinic hours went on, as scheduled, so no slacking for us! I’m glad I had nowhere to go tonight!

Posted in Dog, Kids, Main Dish, My Life, Recipes, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The storm continues

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Dawn

I got to work, bright and early at 7:15am, like I was supposed to. Nothing on WTMJ or on the newspaper’s website about the clinic being closed. By the time I found out, Gary was long gone, with the car, and I had to slog through the snow in my shoes. Minutes after I get home, I get a phone call telling me that the clinic was closed until noon. An email, timestamped 7:21am, awaited me, when I logged into the company email. That was too late for me, though! So, I go through my morning, catching up on Tweets and Facebook. At 11:10, I get another phone call saying that the clinic will be closed all day. I was glad to find out, before I had to walk over there. At 7:15 am, it wasn’t snowing at all. Now it’s snowing quite hard and it’s windy to boot.

So, here are some pictures from a short while ago.

Jasmine in the snow

Jasmine in the snow


Looking down my street

Looking down my street


The backyard

The backyard


Bush next to the house

Bush next to the house


Across the street

Across the street


Neighbor's trees

Neighbor's trees

Posted in My Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Snowstorm Pictures

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Dawn

It’s been snowing a little bit harder, but I haven’t been upstairs to peek, in about an hour, so it might have all changed by now. LOL! I took these pictures earlier. The brighter one was taken by Gary. It took a while, for the snow to start accumulating because it was 33-34 F, outside.

Neighborhood at 5:30pm.

Neighborhood at 5:30pm.


Snowstorm kicking it up a little bit at about 9pm

Snowstorm kicking it up a little bit at about 9pm


Christmas Lights at 9:22pm

Christmas Lights at 9:22pm


Jasmine, around 9pm

Jasmine, around 9pm

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Blizzard warning now!

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Dawn

This afternoon they changed the Winter Storm Warning to a Blizzard Warning through midnight on Wednesday! It will be very windy, visibilities will be low, and of course, the possibility of 12+ inches of snow! Not currently precipitating, although, it snowed lightly during the day today. There are some ugly looking clouds, out inthe distance. I don’t think it’s too far away. Going out with the dog, should be interesting, tonight and tomorrow!

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