Charlie's cookies, pestering siblings, and a crazy mom

During fall break this week, Ethan went to go volunteer at the  church.  They had run to Walmart for treats and snacks for the youth activities at church.  While they were there my son bought Pioneer Woman's Charlie cookie jar for my birthday present.  He mowed yards to pay for it himself.  He knows I am slowly changing my kitchen to Pioneer Woman stuff. You know what I like most about the Pioneer Woman's kitchen decor?  It goes so well with my vintage items like my Pyrex mixing bowls.  Since Charlie is a cookie jar Sophie and I decided to make cookies to "Fill Charlie's tummy".  You just have to love 7 year old innocence.  It is just too adorable.  Ethan helped out and got everything out for the recipe and Sophie washed her hands.

Then we started working on the chocolate chip cookies.  We made just the standard Toll House cookie recipe. (Just in case you want to make cookies)  For the first time I let her  crack the eggs.   It took a few tries of trying to knock it on the side of the bowl, but she managed it.  The best part, we didn't have to pick any shells out of the eggs.  She was so proud and happy.   We continued to add other ingredients to the cream bowl then I let Miss Sophie add the eggs to the mix.  Her face pouring the  eggs into the sugars for creaming was just priceless.

I even let her use the mixer for the first time.  She thought this was the bees knees.  She did great. I am so happy to say there are no ceiling splatters or splatters all over wall.  She did great.  I was so proud.  You know everybody remembers there first time cooking with mom.  Sophie did much better than I did.  My poor clean freak mom,  I believe I splattered the walls, ceiling, and both of us.  Sophie even got to scoop the batter out and put it on the trays.  She did most of the work herself and she is proud.  Sophie and I had fun.  Now that we are done she is off pestering her brother.

I have sweet kids but boy do they bug each other.  The middle one bugs the oldest, and the youngest bugs the middle one.  Well, for the most part it is my fault with an age spread like  we have (18, 14, 7)somebody is bound to get on somebody's nerves.  They yell and bluster and drive each other as well as mom and dad crazy but when it is all said and done.  They all love each other.

New meets old, recipes, memories, and windmills.

This past week my grandmother went home to heaven.  While it is sad for us and we will miss her, she lived a long life and deserves to rest and see other family including her husband that have passed on.  We went down to the funeral over the weekend.  I hated the reason for the visit but loved being there.  My grandmother was laid to rest in an tiny old cemetery in a tiny dying town in Texas, but the area feels like home.  We took the dirt roads back to town.  On one of the dirt roads not far from where my grand parents used to live, I pulled over and took this picture.  It struck me the new and the old windmills.  It struck me how many wind farms the ranchers in the area had gone too.  But with the recent droughts in Texas I can certainly understand the need to supplement income.  

I received box of things from my grandmother's apartment.  There were pictures and mementos, but one thing had struck me...a recipe full of recipes cut from newspapers, magazines, and product labels. 

 This last thing the folder of recipes struck me as very interesting.  I am constantly patrolling Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest for recipes then save them and print them.  Some recipes I use and some I just mean to use.  But sitting in the  dining room floor excitedly going through my grandmothers stash of recipes, something dawned on me.  I do the same thing my grandmother did, just with different media.  Where I go through Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest and saving recipes with good intentions is just the same as my grandmother going through newspapers, magazines, and product labels and clipping and saving recipes with the best of intentions.   Just like the picture of the windmills, you have the old and the new, they do basically the same things but in slightly different ways.  

I sat in my dining room floor with this treasure trove of recipes that my Grandmother thought were worth saving, I felt a connection with her that wasn't previously there.  It is odd we were always pretty close but this made me feel closer.  I held the few hand written ones, boy what treasures.  There were a couple in my Sister's hand writing.  Which is funny to me, it is no family secret that my sister couldn't cook for many years.  She can cook it just took her longer to come to it.  You know the old saying "You never trust a skinny cook"  my sister is the embodiment of that saying.  While she is better, she is still a skinny cook.  (Sis, if you read this I don't mean it to hurt your feelings. I love you.)  I did come across an very interesting recipe printed on bright yellow paper.  It was from a Girl Scout newsletter.  It is for Dump Cake.  It was a recipe I modified when I was a Junior Girl Scout or maybe a Cadette.  It got modified because I have always hated reading directions, it comes from dyslexia.  The original cake was supposed to be all dumped in at once and I layered it.  I also cooked it in a dutch oven over a fire instead of the oven.  The fact that she kept that recipe for this many years was very touching.  I think the recipes we keep are as much a scrapbook of our life as pictures are.  I mean after all we are what we eat right?  So the recipes tell our story right?

Gump (Dump) Cake 

• 2 Cans of  Blueberry or Cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 stick of butter
• coconut

In a dutch oven lined with foil, or regular cake pan (no size given but I think a 9x13 greased)

1st layer pie filling

2nd layer pineapple including the juice

3rd layer cake mix (dry)

4th layer butter cut into small pieces and spread  over the top

5th layer the coconut

Bake 350 for an hour or until top is golden brown

 I am going to have to make this soon just for the memories.  I don't think I have made this since It was printed.   Which was quite a while ago.