Praline Turtle Cake

Country Living Magazine - 2005

(photo from countryliving.com)

½ c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 c. chopped pecans

2 c. all purpose flour

¾ c. unsweetened cocoa

2 c. granulated sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

1½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 c. sour cream

½ c. canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. white vinegar

1 c. hot water

½ c. fudge topping

½ c. chocolate chips, melted

favorite chocolate frosting

1. Make the cake: Heat oven to 350ºF. Butter the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans and fit a circle of parchment paper large enough to cover 1 inch up the side of each cake pan. Heat the butter, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Divide the sugar mixture between the prepared pans. Sprinkle ¾ cup pecans over sugar mixture and set aside to cool.

2. Combine the flour, cocoa, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

Add the eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla, vinegar, and hot water and mix with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the cake pans (over sugar mixture) and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake center comes out clean – 35 to 45 minutes. Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn cakes out onto cooling rack. Remove the paper and cool completely.

3. Assemble the cake: Spread the fudge topping over the sugar mixture side of one cake layer. Place the second layer over the first and drizzle with the melted chocolate and the remaining ¼ c. pecans (I actually pat the pecans around the outside of the frosted cake – I don’t put them on top.) Frost the cake sides with your favorite chocolate icing.

Project # 51 Thousand 900 Ka-Trillion

No, this is not a picture of my actual quilt, but I did just start one like it with some friends yesterday. Go Shelby! :) We're going to add a border with a bunch of applique, which is what I am excited about (I need to get a little more comfortable in that area). I got 8 blocks done yesterday and the rest of the centers of the log cabin blocks done today. This quilt is called Watermelon Picnic by Black Mountain Quilts. I'm trying to have all 56 log cabin blocks done by next week. I'm crazy. I know.

On a serious note...

I usually try to keep things pretty light on my blog. I'm not one to get too personal up in here:). But, I've had a lot on my mind these last few days. My thoughts have really been focused on adversity and how we handle it. I feel like I have a great life. So many blessings. I can't complain about anything. When I look back at my growing up years, I recognize that I have only had just a couple of seriously trying times. Of course I had the usual problems that teenagers have, but seemed to miraculously get through that time in my life without any major regrets. But, I did make some bad choices and slowly started feeling unhappier and unhappier. I had a couple of events take place that prompted a lot of soul searching and looking within. Finally, I got to the point that I was fed up with feeling bad. I knew I felt bad because of choices I was making at the time. After a long time of being unhappy, I realized that I was just plain sick of feeling that way. I put my foot down. I knew what I needed to do and I did it. I changed. It was a hard and emotional time, but I did it. I guess that's why I'm such a big believer in the fact that so much of our happiness is dependent upon our choices. I believe that good choices bring freedom. Bad choices make us captive. I thank my parents for teaching me what is right and what is wrong. I have never gone wrong in doing the things they taught me were right. Never.

Now I've been married for almost 11 years (yay!) and life seems to constantly get better and better. Much of the heartache I've experienced the last 11 years of my life has been because of the pain that I see other family members going through. There seems to be so much adversity going on in the lives of siblings, parents, etc. Some of it is because of the uncontrollable like the economy, loss of jobs, etc. Some of it is because of choices. I pray for those who have control over their happiness that they will be able to be strong and have the clarity to do what is right, even if it is hard. While discussing some of the attitudes that one particular family member was having in regards to trials, a friend mentioned the following story. I found it online. It is from a catholic church devotional. It helped me understand a little better about why we have trials. Here it is:

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

[ Author unknown ]

I'm thinking ~ trials are opportunities. Opportunities to grow closer to God and become a little more like his Son. I feel like I wasn't one that welcomed trials before. But I'm thankful for this trial that Ryan and I have been going through as of late (him being out of work for 6 months). I've enjoyed the opportunity to show myself and those around me that I do have more faith than I realized.

Well, I've been rambling for a little while now. Sorry. Just had to get a few thoughts off of my chest. Goodnight.

Dang!

Aren't these beautiful? Peonies are my favorite.

Thanks Shelby! What a fun treat.

Well, we've just been doing a little of this...

and a little of that.

The last day of school was today. B was pretty excited. I am too.

Dang. I sure love these guys.

I've been slacking in the blog area. I've noticed a lot of other people have been M.I.A. too. It's a busy time of year. I'm going to try to be better though. Well for those of you that care, I did get my business license and am ready to get my first 2 patterns printed (I know. I know. I've been saying that for a while now. I gotta make sure they're just perfect though!) A third pattern is in the works. I wish I could just start showing you everything, but I feel like things aren't quite ready yet. I've got a blog, but it's nothing special. Maybe I'll send you the link real soon. I guess it'll be a work in progress, so don't expect too much. Did anyone ever read the book Millie's Got a Secret? It's a children's book about a little girl who tells her friends that she's got a secret. They keep asking her if today is the day she will tell them her secret. She keeps saying, "Not today!" Eventually the day arrives when she is ready to share her secret. She takes all of her friends to a clearing in the garden where her dog has a new batch of puppies. I feel like I'm about to have puppies, I mean patterns. Well, you know what I mean...

If I had a dime for every time Little Missy showed up in one of these costumes... Unfortunately the blue beaded necklace came off right before I took the picture, so you won't get the full effect, but you get the idea.

I think she has her mother's sense of fashion...Too bad.

Well, I feel like I've been M.I.A. for the last couple of weeks. I've been keeping very busy though with all good things of course! I'm happy to be welcoming my bro and his sweet family to my neck of the woods here in a few weeks. They stopped by for a few days to scope things out. I'm glad it met their approval :)

We also got to watch Blake's first T-ball game EVER.

I also took the kidlets on a little hike in our backyard (well, practically)

Up to this bench:

That over looks this:

In the winter, we can see this tree from our bedroom window all lit up at night. So the story goes, that when the man that owns the house below past away, he planted and lit this tree for his wife before he left. It lights up in big white lights every year around Christmas to remind his wife of him.


And last but not least, I would not be me, without staying busy with a little of this:

I just finished this quilt top today. The pattern is called Shortnin' Bread by Fresh Cut Quilts Pattern Co. The fabric is Sweet from Urban Chicks for Moda.

Just Found: Local Blogger

Just giving a quick shout out (do people still do that?) to a blogger I met the other day while at work at Just Sew. Her name is Calli and she has a great blog - all about making do with what you've got. Here's her address if you want to check it out: www.makeitdo.wordpress.com. She's got some great pictures & ideas of little girls skirts, aprons, table runners, garden & cleaning ideas just to name a few of the things she focus' on. I especially loved some of her suggestions to beginning sewers/quilters. Remember girls, you can't just whack away at your fabric (my words), you should measure twice and cut once (as Calli reminds us.) It's so important to be accurate and I just had to "second" that! Check out her blog to see more tips.

Also, I ended up whipping up a little wall hanging at the last minute the other day to count as completed project #6 for the Spring to Finish Challenge. Remember this stitchery from Wee Wonderfuls? Well, here is my version:


I had the stitchery done about a month ago, so I just decided to slap a couple borders on, do some basic quilting on my own machine (which I don't usually do since my machine is so basic!) and then bound it with the striped fabric on the bias.

The polka dots and stripes are from Sweet by Urban Chicks. I have to say that I was a little sick of binding by the end of that project. I had just finished doing the binding on the king size quilt (from the post below) that morning and then did this little wall hanging that same evening. I definitely need a break from that for a little while. But, the Challenge was great. I finished 6 projects and it feels great! I encourage any of you out there with some unfinished projects to see what you can get done in a month. Maybe I'll have to do my own giveaway for that, soon...

P.S. I am a little scared and a little excited right now. I got the "go ahead" from the hubby to get my 2 patterns printed. So I think I'm just about ready. I feel like there is a lot of other things I have to do though. Like get a domain name, a tax ID #, a new blog, just to name a few. I'm sure there are a million other things I should be doing, but my brain is swirling with too much information! This is just a little fantasy of mine, so I feel like I've gotta give it a go. Hopefully things will be happening with that soon! Wish me luck. I think I've got a little something I can giveaway at my "launch" party, so keep checking back for the link to my new blog!