STRAWBERRIES AND RHUBARB

Friends are angels on earth! Have you ever noticed how they show up just when you need them and sometimes even when you didn't know you needed them? They are there in times of trouble and also in times of just because!

Just a hand full of juiciness! They are small, but mighty tasty!

Nancy DeBerg is one of those generous souls who showed up in my life. She shares her time, talents, and her plants! She shared a shovel full of her over-crowded strawberry plants with me one spring. We discovered 18 plants in that shovel full of dirt! My sweetheart JoPapa created a strawberry patch for us to plant them in and they have taken off and produced lots of deliciousness! Sometimes when I'm picking them, it difficult for me to get the berries past my mouth and into the house!

After sharing a photo of my joyful harvest, one of my cousins mentioned rather humorously, that he'd fight for some of my strawberry preserves! 
Why can't we all just get along?! 

:-D

I promise, I'll save up some strawberries and make enough preserves to share.

I also remember some of my family members love rhubarb jam.

Yes, I followed this recipe exactly!

Fortunately, one of my hobbies involves the kitchen and canning! So to keep the peace, I decided to get busy! Again, with the help of Nancy! But get this, she said my request for rhubarb was an answer to her problem of what to do with hers! We had a lovely stroll around her yard as we visited before we harvested rhubarb. And a few hours later...rhubarb jam to share!

How about some rhubarb jam on toast, biscuits, or ice cream?

Thank God for gardens, abundant harvests and friendships!

I love how God provides for us. 

Food for our bellies and food for our souls. 

Thank God for angels on earth!

THE POWER OF PRAYER

The answer to prayer

I have witnessed the transformative power power of prayer. Prayer doesn't change situations, it changes us!

She cried, "I can't do this!', "Make it stop!" "Mom!!!" "This is harder than I thought it would be."

How many times in life have we said this?

This is so hard!

And then she began to pray.
"Dear Lord give my body strength to deliver this baby." "Dear Lord give us a healthy baby."

To this day I have had the help that comes from God. Acts 26:22a

It was still difficult, I could see the pain on her face, but I also saw God's grace working in her and giving her the ability to do what she had prayed for - give birth to a baby!

Thank God for miracles!
Mother + Father + Baby = LOVE 

What joy, love, and peace filled the room and our hearts!

Have you ever witnessed the power of prayer and how it transforms a situation? If only we could remember that God is in control and allow him to guide and direct us. He never told us there would be no pain or suffering, but He did say He would be with us.

Dayna asked that I be present during her labor and delivery. What a blessing to be able to be there when Baby Fish was born! But what a difficult thing to witness my daughter suffering and in pain. What parent wants pain or suffering for their child? But we all know that suffering is a fact of life. 

Don't you think God finds it difficult to witness our pain and suffering?

And he had compassion on them. Matthew 14:14

Thank God that out of great suffering can also come great joy! This is so hard to remember when we are in the midst of suffering and great trials. That's why we pray without ceasing. 

That's why we pray for our loved ones, be they family or friends. We pray in every situation, we pray in the good times, we pray in the bad times, we pray when we can't imagine a good outcome, we pray!

Greater love has no one than this, that he should give his life for another. John 15:13

So now that Baby Fish is here, Dayna continues to sacrifice her time and energy. We know mothers have done this from the beginning of time, but it is still just a beautiful thing to see in action!

Baby Fish

So I pray:
Help us remember to allow God to take control, to give us comfort and strength to endure all things.
To God be the glory, great things he has done!
And He will continue to do if we allow Him.

Tell me your story. How have you witnessed the power of prayer in action.

THAT'S FOR THE BIRDS!

I hear you knocking, but you can't come in!
Finally, spring is here, birds are hungry and it's nesting time!

Golden Flicker...
...but I call it a woodpecker!

Those woodpeckers are active and noisy! They have been pecking on our gutters and even the chimney! Early in the morning, they peck and rattle the whole house!  I keep food for them in this covered feeder. The cover keeps the grackles/starlings out while allowing the woodpeckers access. Woodpeckers are acrobats and can cling to anything! But I wonder why they are pecking at non-wood and non-food places around my house?

A bluebird and woodpecker feeding together. Why can't we all just get along?

We used to hang a feeder out in the open and the blue birds would come eat at the same time as the woodpeckers! But, the grackles/starlings are an invasive species and we didn't want to encourage them to here.  

I dislike grackles/starlings. Someone many, many years ago, brought these birds to America because of the way they flock and fly together. Sadly, they cause problems for other birds and they also cause a disease called histoplasmosis.  This is an infection caused by the fungus found in the droppings of these birds.

Another invasive bird is the Eastern Sparrow.  It broke my heart to find a beheaded bluebird at the base of our pole beneath the bluebird nesting house in our backyard.  Yes, you read that correctly - beheaded! I did some research and discovered that sparrows compete with bluebirds for nesting space and will attack and kill bluebirds! 

If you have a nesting box in your backyard, please monitor it for sparrows.  They are very territorial and competitive. The sparrows don't give up easily and they are obviously killers!  If you know of a way to get rid of or discourage sparrows, I'm open to suggestions!

I'd prefer a flock of bluebirds in my neighborhood. They are beautiful, sing the loveliest song, and eat LOTS of mosquitoes and other bugs! (The correct term is insectivorous if you wanted to know.)

Sing along now:
"Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly!"
I just want them to come fly around here.

STUFFED SHELLS

"Ooooo! That smells so good! What are you making?"

There's something wonderful about filling the home with delicious smells! The fragrance fills the air, whets the appetite and the anticipation builds. Are you hungry yet?

How about now?

This recipe is a family favorite from a dear neighbor who not only shared the recipe, but she also shared delicious pans of this treat! Joni Rogers is a treasure! And friends are angles on Earth!

The path between friend's houses is never very long. And neither was the path between our hearts!

As you can see, this recipe has been used many times!

Here's a clearer version for you to use.

This recipe takes a little pre-planning and preparation. The spinach must be thawed and drained well, unless you chop up fresh spinach. Then it's just a matter of boiling the pasta shells according to the package directions,...

Italian sausage, hamburger and sauce

...cooking up the meat, and simmering with your favorite sauce,...

Spinach, ricotta, eggs, spices

...mixing together the spinach, cheese and egg mixture, then filling the shells.

I used fresh farm eggs from the Farm Wife's Table. I'm so thankful I can buy fresh eggs from Angie Viebrock!

Spooning sauce on top of stuffed shells 

Then, comes the fun part of taking a scoop of cheese and filling each cooked shell. Place them in pans (notice I made four (4) pans! There is plenty to share and/or freeze for future meals. Once all the shells are placed, cover with the meat sauce and bake or wrap the pans tightly to refrigerate or freeze. I've found that it takes longer to cook once the pans have been chilled, so the baking time is approximate.

If I were a tall dog...
 (sung to the tune from Fiddle on the Roof)

Special note: make sure you don't have a tall dog, or these may get tasted before you serve them! Tara was really hoping I'd spill some so she could clean it up for me!

Please let me know what you think if you try this recipe. I love to hear your thoughts!

P.S. If you see Joni, tell her that her recipes are famous! (I've lost track of her, but I think she's in Arizona). Another one of her recipes is for the salsa that I make every summer!

Enjoy!

CREAM FILLED CUPCAKES

One of Joel's requests for his birthday is almost always cream-filled cupcakes. I stumbled across this recipe years ago and have made them often.  It turns a yummy cupcake into something WOW!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I've always made chocolate cupcakes at Joel's request, but I imagine you can fill any of your favorite flavors. You might try substituting mint flavor for the vanilla in chocolate cupcakes. Or maybe some tongue-tempting lemon in lemon cupcakes...or? Let me know if  you try this recipe in some interesting combinations. I always love to hear what you think!

Cupcake cream filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup Crisco
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbl. Water
1 tsp. vanilla (or flavor of your choice)
2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Combine all but powdered sugar on low in mixer. Add powdered sugar gradually. Mix on high for 7 (seven) minutes. Using a decorator's tube, fill 24 cooled cupcakes squirting the filling from the top down. Frost with your choice of frosting.

YUMMY!

PEACH COBBLER

Hot, bubbling cobbler!

What can go wrong with a cobbler if you follow the recipe exactly? And you know how I always follow a recipe exactly - not! But I really tried this time. (And the results were amazing!)

Delicious home canned peaches! (But you can use store bought peaches if you don't have these.)

This summer, Dayna and I put up fresh peaches that we purchased from Angie Viebrock and The Farm Wife's Table. Let me tell you, they were worth canning and savoring, even though I wanted to eat the whole bushel at once. These peaches had such great flavor! 

Side story: Angie brought these to my house (special delivery) and I put the box on the stairs as Angie was leaving. I stepped outside to tell her goodbye and when I returned to my house, Tara was eating peaches right out of the box! I told you they were hard to resist! Of course we washed all the peaches and we peeled them as we canned them so there are no doggy germs in this cobbler. 

This was an easy recipe!

OK, back to the recipe! Step one was melting a stick of butter in a 9 x 13 pan in the oven at 350 degrees. As I melted that, I mixed up the other ingredients. I poured the flour mixture into the pan then dumped in my canned peaches with the syrup. 

This recipe seemed too easy and the concoction in the pan seemed a little bit soupy. But I had 40 minutes to wait, and time did tell!

The house was filled with the mouth-watering scent of peaces as it was baking!

And the resulting cobbler was beautiful! Yes, smell was an indicator of the level of deliciousness of this hot, bubbly, mouthwatering concoction!!

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a fork full of peaches is even better!

The real test came at dinner when we tasted it! Don't you wish you could have been here for this?