A Secret that Everyone Should Know!

My Papa, Mama's dad started this and it is amazing!!! When you have your spaghetti sauce, add three TBS. of mustard and three TBS. of brown sugar to every 6 cups of sauce. It is amazing! It makes it sort of sweet and tangy! I love it!!! I hope you do too!

God Bless,
Leah-Joy.

My Oatmeal Cookies

1 C. butter or margerine

2 C. Sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C. all purpose flour

1/2 C. self rising flour

3 C. oatmeal

1 tsp salt

Soften butter. Then cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and eggs. then gradually add remaining ingrediants. Place on a GREASED pan. Cook at 350 for 12 minutes.

Hope you like them!! Our family REALLY likes them. Daddy loves them with a cup raisins added. You can also add a cup of chocolate chips or what ever you want!!

Happy Cooking!

Joy. :)

Yellow Cake and Butter Cream Icing

Then stack and...

WA-LAA!

This was really a big hit with my family and it is SUPER EASY! Even though they liked it, the butter pecan cake is still the favorite! Hope if you make it, you love it!

Yellow Cake

2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
Sift together dry ingrediants. Mix, with electric mixer all other ingr. Then add dry ingr. and mix. Pour into greased 9x13 and bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes.

Butter Cream Icing

(for this cake I doubled this recipe but this is the original)

1/2 cup butter

2 C. powdered sugar

1-2 TBS. cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Soften the butter by creaming in the mixing bowl and add sugar gradually. Add enough cream to make the icing spread and add vanilla.

Hope you enjoy it!

Happt cooking!

Joy. :)

Yellow Cake with Butter Pecan Sauce

Butter Pecan Sauce

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup pecan pieces
• 1 cup browm sugar
• 1/3 cup ream or evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup corn syrup

In a heavy sauce pan melt butter. Add pecans and heat till lightly yoasted and butter lightly brown. Stir in remaining ingrediants. Cook gently until sugar is dissolved. Do not over cook. serve warm or cold.

Yellow Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup iol
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs

Sift together dry ingrediants. Mix, with electric mixer all other ingr. Then add dry ingr. and mix. Pour into greased 9x13 and bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes.

After the cake has cooled take a wooden spoon and with the handle, poke holes all over the cake and then pour the sauce over the cake! YUM (we all think that it tastes better after it has sat for a day so the sauce has had time to soak in!)!!!

There is a whole in it because before I took a picture of it I sent some to my aunt and uncle.

THIS WAS A HUGE HIT WITH US!!! And I do have to say so myself, it is really good if you are into pecans and carmel! I sure am!!!!

Happy cooking!

Joy.

Day1 for Mama in Ghana: They are just BEAUTIFUL!!!

Update from Mama who is in Ghana!

WOW! A long flight, no sleep, freezing cold plane, great company on the plane and nice conversations - it is all like a dream. The attendants were very kind. Maybe it was just me, but the whole world was happy!! We arrived in Ghana to 75 degree temp with a nice breeze. Our driver is Donny,and is just great. We got some bread and water, and then came straight to Eban House. We interrupted school. I held Jubilee first, and Uncle Bobby held Jesse. Then we held them both, took lots of pictures, said lots of "I love you" s and just tried to actually believe that we are here. In less than 5 minutes, Jesse had my sunglasses on his head and knew how to operate the camera. Jubilee never left my lap, and I could feel her little arm around my back. She seems lighter but taller than Jesse. Jesse has a twinkle in his eye that reminds me of Levi. He is smart and active, and loved the books, Hope. They all did. Jesse brought the books out one at a time to the wooden table to his friends. He really shares well. the driver had to take us to the Guest House to unload our bags, and then we walked back. When I walked through the living room area to go to the office to email home, I heard a little voice saying, "Mama...." and Jesse and Jubilee were walking towards me. Uncle Bobby smiled and said, "That was sweet!" And it was. There are so many things that are so different. Lots of markets out in the open. Lots of people walking around with baskets on their heads. The main thing is that I am with the babies. They are so beautiful. They are so sweet. We are very blessed to have these two precious ones in our lives. They keep looking at the pictures over and over. Jubilee likes the upstairs dormer windows. Muna showed Jesse the picture of Eben and Daddy, and Jesse pointed and said, "MY Daddy." Jubilee loves to be held. Jesse likes to be close, too, but he is a busy boy. This is a wonderful day. I'm in Africa. It is a beautiful place. The people are so sweet. Jesse has been sitting by my side while I use the office lap top. He told me he wants a biscuit - it's from seeing the cooking pictures. He is tired of waiting, so I'm going to go for now.

CookBook Quotes

The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful Mama who has homeschooled me. As part of my school I am making a cookbook. We have a lot of cookbooks and we don't use all of them, so, Mama has assigned me to go through them all and find recipes that our family would like. One of the cookbooks we have a is called The Basics and More Cookbook. It is great! It is kind of big, but, it has a lot practicale recipes in it. One thing that I really like about it is that, at the bottom of some of the pages there are quotes. As I was going through it today, I ran accross some and wanted to share some of my favorites with you all!

People may doubt what you say, but they will always beleive what you do.

A smooth sea never made a good sailor.

Plan as if Christ's return were years away, but live as if it were today.

A little leak may sink a great ship.

If you say nothing, nobody will repeat it.

Practice makes perfect, so be careful what you practice.

Parenting is the art of bringing up children without putting them down.

And I will end with this one,

Life is Gods gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to God.

I know that there is no way we could give God any kind of gift that would be sufficient for His love to us, but, the least we can do it try.

Special Breakfast Popovers!

These were a big hit! And they were good too! We had friends over this weekend, so we wanted things to be special! And these, with cheese and fruit for breakfast did the trick! Oh, and coffee, OF COURSE!

Popovers
(we doubled this recipe and got about twenty two, I think)

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

• Combine all ingredients; beat at low speed with an electric mixer just until smooth.
• Place a WELL greased muffin pan in a 425 oven for three-four minutes or until a drop of water sizzles when dropped in it. Remove from oven; half fill with batter.
• Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Turn oven off. Peirce (poke) each popover with a butter knife to let the steam out. Return popovers to oven for 5 minutes to crisp!

• YaY!!!!!!!!!!! All done!

And as you can tell in the photo, these is not just popovers! Well, I made them the night before and this morning we put them in the oven to warm a little. And, another little note, in the photo a lot of them are up-side-down because there was a whole in the bottom. So, after they had warmed up, I squirted whip cream in them ( note: the Whip Cream melted because they were warm, so, of you don't want your wc to melt, don't heat the po's up) and then we put confectioners sugar in a sifter and just beat the sifter over the popovers!

And whalla...

If you have any Q's I would love to try and answer them, but, I know probably you won't because anyone that looks at my blog has probably cooked WAY longer then I have!

Joyful Cooking and
God Bless,
Joy.