berry whip trifle

This weekend, my family and I took to the hills to go strawberry picking.  We drove through the woods, over Beaver Dam Creek, and out a winding road to Scott's Strawberry Farm, located in Moneta, VA.  The berries were ripe for pickin' and we had a wonderfully relaxing morning in the field.

 

Upon returning home, we all sat down at the kitchen table and capped the strawberries.  As we capped them, Katie shoveled the juicy fruit into her mouth as fast as she could.  By the end of the afternoon, she was covered in strawberry juice from her hairline to her belly-button.  

For the first time ever, I made strawberry freezer jam, using the directions in a box of sure-jell.  I would love to post pictures, but thrift got the best of me and I "canned" my freezer jam in gladware instead of the cute little Ball jelly jars.  If anyone wants to send me an i-love-you present, then a couple of sets of jars would be greatly appreciated.  

Last night, I also baked an angel food cake in preparation for my Mother's Day trifle.  Oh my wow... it was so delicious!  I first ate angel food cake as a preteen.  The cake was purchased from the nearby convenience store that everyone would hang around after school hours.  It was prepackaged, airy deliciousness.  I had never tasted it before and I longed for it many times thereafter.  

While angel food cake was widely available at the grocer, my mother would never purchase it.  She preferred those little spongy rounds that are sold near the strawberries every spring.  Shortcake in our home was nowhere near homemade.  

One year, she did try to make actual shortcakes using Bisquick, but it didn't turn out well and everyone refused to eat them.  I swear, one of those little cakes could have broken a window, had it been tossed in the right direction!  

Personally, I prefer the combination of angel food cake, sugar-coated strawberries, and redi-whip.  But, canned whipped cream wouldn't hold up to setting as a trifle, so I went the cool-whip route instead.  My trifle consists merely of cubed angel food cake, strawberries, and cool whip.  I left out the jello, pudding, cream cheese, and other concoctions that I found online because, to me, they weren't very classic.  The result was absolutely delicious.  

If you slow down and use room temperature whip, your version will look much nicer.  But, I was in a rush and I licked my fingers a lot.

Berry Whip Trifle
4 cups strawberries, capped and halved
1 angel food cake (see recipe below)
1 container cool-whip

Layer ingredients as desired, starting with the cake and ending with the cool whip.  Add whole decorative strawberries on top.  Refrigerate overnight.  Serve cold.

Angel Food Cake

12 eggs
1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

1. While eggs are cold, separate them.  Discard yolks or refrigerate for another use (not sure what.  I tried to make a yolk-heavy ham and cheese omelet for breakfast this morning and it was inedible.  Well, the kids ate it... but anyone with particularly developed taste buds would not have.  I promise you.)   Place the egg whites in a mixing bowl and let them stand at room temperature for about an hour, or until you remember you were going to bake a cake.
2. Meanwhile, mix together confectioner's sugar and flour together.  You could sift them if you're really special, but I just flopped a fork around in the bowl a few times and it was fine.  Maybe it could have been better, but honestly-- I don't see how.  
3. Add cream of tartar, extracts and salt to egg whites; beat a minute or so on high speed.  If you have a stand mixer, turn that baby all the way up and just let it fly.  Don't let it fly too high, though, or you won't have room for the sugar.   (It is best to use the flat whisk-y attachment, not the balloon whisk for this) Gradually add sugar, beating hard until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form.  Again, don't get distracted.  
4. Fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. 
5. Gently spoon into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  
6. Flip cake out of pan while still warm.  You may need to run a knife around the sides to loosen it, too.

You know what just occurred to me?  I bet it would be so yummy to serve this with that freezer jam on top.  Oooo-weee! Yum!

spring has sprung photo contest-- vote now!

Voting is now open for the Spring Has Sprung Photo Contest.  We have twelve great entries to choose from.  To vote, go to One Creative Housewife on Facebook and like the photograph of your choice.  Votes left as comments on this post will not count.  For complete rules and details, click here.

And, now, to introduce our contestants...

A.G.

B.P.

J.H.

M.K.

R.R.

W.M.

A & C H.

M & L K.

M.P.

EM and AGM

J.T.

N.A.

Please remember, to vote, visit One Creative Housewife on Facebook and like your favorite.

a windy sort of day

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite
Let's go fly a kite!

 

Every year,  the Richmond Air Force Kite Club comes to our area for a huge kite festival hosted by one of the local chambers of commerce.  This year, the festival was canceled due to severe weather. 

Noticing a trend?  Virginia has been having some strange storms lately!

However, I saw a Macaroni Kid post on the good ol' Facebook this morning.  The Kite Club was going to stick around today and hold an impromptu, unofficial kite festival today!  Hooray!  

 So, we threw together a bag, grabbed the kite, and hit the park.  Katie was so excited on the way.  She kept telling Daddy to go to the kite place.  Her excitement over today's activities was delightful.

Katie helped launch our kite many times, always shouting "Hooray!" as the kite flew into the air.

Alex, by this point, is a true kite-flying pro.  I think he'll be ready for a more advanced model next year.  He was practicing making our simple kite dip and dive over the open field.

guess where

Isn't this a neat photo?  Can you figure out where it was taken?  The first person to guess will win....

absolutely nothing.  Sorry, folks!  Unless, you want an invitation to dinner (no expenses paid).  Sorry, but that and a smile is about all I can offer!  But, still... try your hand at it, if only for the satisfaction of "winning."

you have not (quite) been abandoned

Yes, I know.  We all hate those blog posts about why we're not blogging.  But, sometimes life happens.

This will come to no surprise to many of you, but keeping up with two kids all day long is exhausting.  Absolutely exhausting.  You see, aside from summer time and brief school breaks, I have not had both of my children at home for any length of time.  And, of course, those aforementioned school breaks are so relaxed that it doesn't matter if they don't actually learn anything much.

But, now we're doing schoolwork on a regular basis.  Like, an everyday sort of regular basis.  And, yes... I know that I had not gotten little Katie dressed when I snapped this.  She did put on something decent not too long after.

We've also been doing other fun spring-like things, such as visiting the duck pond and the park.  More about these in subsequent posts.  Promise.  (You didn't see my fingers crossed behind my back, did you?)

 

And then, in the midst of it all, my little boy turned ten.  Where did the time go?

Flashback to the 80's with a Ghostbusters themed party.  It was a lot of fun.

So, I've been running myself ragged.  I'm going to try to get more sleep.  And blog more.  And maybe clean my house a little better.  In the meantime, enjoy the weather.  It's spring!

picnik time

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I took this photo of a display at SciWorks in Winston-Salem, NC a couple of years ago.  I think I was planning on blogging about the trip way back when, but never got around to it.  At any rate, it is a fabulous science museum to visit if you are in the area.  But, that's not what this post is about today.

Acquainted with picnik?  If not, then you should be.  Especially if you use a digital camera.  I found picnik about a year or two ago, I guess.  A friend of mine introduced us and we've been best web buddies ever since.  In case you haven't heard of it, picnik is a web-based mostly free photo editing service.  Like most other free sites, there is an option to register for $2 and change a month, but I have yet to do so.  Not that I wouldn't LOVE a subscription.  I just haven't been able to convince my husband that it is necessary.

With picnik, you can do simple things such as changing the configuration of your photograph (sideways?  fix it here.)  Need more light?  More contrast?  Of course, you can do that, too.  The user interface is super-friendly, so it has less of a learning curve than a program like photoshop or gimp.

However, my favorite things are under the "create" tab.  I love the orton effect, as well as the 1960's one.  I have so much fun playing with my photos, as you can certainly tell from the pictures on my blog.  Take a look at what I did with the above picture.  With all of these derivatives, I backed up to the original before applying any additional edits. 

Posterize

Heat Map

Neon

Pixelate

Crystallize

Smudge

Hypnotic

Isn't it amazing what you can do with just one photo?  This is why I love picnik so much.  What's even better is that all of these effects were free.  Just edit, save to your computer, and use in any capacity you desire.  I really like the last four and I'm thinking about having prints made of them for my home.  

the beauty is in the details

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I took this picture at Winterplacet Ski Resort yesterday.  Can you tell it is one of those "oopsie" pictures?  You know, the ones you take without realizing it?  I was standing along the main lodge deck, waiting for Alex to return from one of his many ski jaunts.  I'm guessing that my lens cap was off and I hit the button accidentally, obviously.  What strikes me about this picture is how the detail of the wood grain contrasts with the softness of the snow.  I think it is just so neat.  

I also think it is amazing that, though I've been hinting to my dear husband that I would really like a DSLR, my good old super zoom-er does just fine.  I've had it a few years and it is still ticking.  The flash might not always work quite right, and the focus can sometimes be off, but my pictures still have potential.  You just have to look for the little details.  And, if after I post this and this photo is enlarged, you can tell that it is a bit too blurry, just ignore all this and send me funds for a new camera.  K?  Thanks.

little miss

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Little Miss Attitude combines a monkey costume with a pretty tutu.

apparition

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A friend of mine shared this picture on Facebook today.  This is M.  Isn't he a cutie?  He and Katie are the same age. 

Do you see anything abnormal in that photograph?  Anything at all?  Look closer.  Maybe let your eyes drift away from M.  Maybe take a look at the house window back there.  See that?  No?  Let me blow it up for you.

 

Now, do you see?  

Angel swears that it isn't her husband.  She and M were alone in the house that day.  There are blinds in the window, which were closed, and the TV faces a different direction.  

Though I believe in spirits, at first I tried believing it was just smudges on her car window, through which this was shot.  Then, some ladies mentioned that it looks like Angel's husband.  

But, he absolutely wasn't there.  And, it only slightly resembles him.  The dimensions of the face are off.  

What is your theory?  Smudge?  Mr. M?  Ghost?  Other?

I don't easily buy into these things, but personally, I think she has a spirit residing in her home.  I have had some brief encounters with spirits before and I'd rather forget about them.  Yet, this picture brought the reality of the spirit world crashing down for me.  I can't deny what I've seen and experienced, but I can blame it on my imagination.  However, when a trusted friend presents something like this, it is a little harder to deny, though I most certainly tried. 

beside myself

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Have you ever been so bored that you don't even want to do anything? Because you can't think of anything to do? You just want to do SOMETHING, but you don't want to put the effort into coming up with something to do? That's where I am right now.

The kids are causing a ruckus in the oldest one's bedroom, I hear a cap gun going off. The house could use a good cleaning, or even a modest one. The dogs are barking. Dinnertime is approaching. But, I want to DO something exciting and different. Or, just send everyone else out to do something, so I can have some quiet time and watch TV without being interrupted every five seconds.

Unrealistic? You betcha. A fantasy? Sure. Just rescue me already!

And, now a picture.  Just because she's cute.

welcome 2011

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So, it is a new year. Somehow, a new school year seems to have more excitement and significance to me than a new calendar year. Except, it is more acceptable to imbibe at midnight on December 31 than during the early morning hours of September 5 or whenever. But, besides that...

We had portraits taken last Thursday, a little after Christmas. Unlike most families, we weren't rushing to the studio in early November. Or, even early December. We don't do Christmas cards, so the timing didn't matter too much to us, as long as we got our yearly portraits taken in some fancy clothes. Hot dog! We did it.

Can I just say that I love Portrait Innovations? Because I do. This was the first time that we've gone there, but I'll never go to any other portrait studio. The kids had a blast, the photographer was invested in the session, and the pictures turned out great.


*I was not compensated in any way for this endorsement.

snow bunny

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snapshot

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baby kate

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In less than a week, my baby will be two years old. It seems just like yesterday that she was still this little.

picture day

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Today's picture day at my son's school and I actually did it: I sent him to class without his picture form and check. And, I did it on purpose. I can hear the audible gasp from parents everywhere. Why would I do something like that? Well, for several reasons.

First, we don't have all that many people to give the portraits to. The school picture package is great if you have a huge family with which to share portraits, but we don't. At least, we don't just randomly send them school pictures in the mail.

Second, the package that we normally purchase used to be $17 and we got a couple of 5x7s and maybe a couple of wallets. When I looked at the price list this year, it was going to be a minimum of $30 to purchase any package that contained anything of a frame-able size. Sorry, but that's too much.

That leads me to my third reason. Parents are required to pay for the portraits sight-unseen. We just send in a check and pray that the picture will turn out half-way decent. We can only hope that the photographer will take more than 30 seconds to plop each student in front of an ugly blue screen, point, and shoot.

Also, the past few years we've gone to a portrait studio for professional Christmas pictures. It might just be a mall studio, but the photographer actually takes the time to work with each client. I am much more pleased with the portraits that we purchase, though we obviously spend more than Lifetouch charges for sit-and-shoot school portraits.

Though I have all these great reasons as to why we shouldn't buy school portraits this time (not even to mention that now they take them in the fall and again in the spring), I feel a bit guilty for sending Alex in without his form. I don't want him to think that we don't love him enough to buy his portraits. Obviously, we do. We just don't want to be strong-armed into buying something of lesser quality.