Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving this year was quieter than normal. Josh and Anne, Istvan and Jessica and Jason could not make it this year. So, we had my Dad and his girlfriend, my brother, Joy and Tim and baby James for dinner. My husband and I spent all day on Thanksgiving making the dinner. The addition of baby James this year was wonderful. I love that baby and can't get enough of him.

Menu

• Green Beans
• Carrots
• Mashed potatoes and gravy
• My mom's stuffing
• Turkey
• Turnips au gratin
• Rolls
• Cranberry sauce
• Pickles and olives
• Pecan pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Apple pie

Following are some of the recipes that I use. The dressing is my mom's and I have had it ever since I was a little girl. The turnip au gratin is something I make for my husband cause he loves turnips. And everyone loves my husbands mashed potatoes. He has perfected this recipe so that everyone who tries them wants the recipe. My husband roasted the turkey in our huge roaster.  He injected the turkey with a marinade.

Memere's cornbread dressing

• 1 pk sweet Italian turkey sausage ( her recipe calls for jimmy dean's sage sausage)
• 5 saltines crushed
• 1 can chicken broth
• 2 boxes jiffy cornbread
• 1 celery diced  finely
• 1 onion finely diced
• Poultry seasoning

1. Bake cornbread according to package. 
2. Cool and crumble. Brown sausage until no longer pink.
3.  Add celery and onion until softened. 
4. Remove from heat and place in baking dish….add crumbled   cornbread, crackers, poultry seasoning and ½ can of chicken broth. 
5. Cover and place in oven at 350 for 45 minutes.

Turnip and Potato Au Gratin

• 1 garlic clove
• 1 large Spanish onion peeled and quartered
• 3 T butter
• 1 lag baking potato
• 2 small turnips
• ¾ c plus 1 T heavy cream
• 12 cup plus 2 T milk
• 1 t salt
• Nutmeg

Pepper

1. 325 degrees
2. Butter a 9 inch gratin dish.  Insert metal blade, turn on processor tand drop garlic in the bowl, remove the metal blade and  insert the slicing disc. Process the onion, using moderate pressure.
3. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, melt the butter over moderate heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook 5  minutes, until soft but not brown.
4. While the garlic and onions are cooking, use the slicing disc to process the potatoes and turnips. Plac in pan with garlic and onions. Add 1/2 cup  plus 2 T of th cream , the milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook over medium low  heat, stirring frequently for 25 mintues, until the vegetables are almost tender and the mixture is thick.
5. Transfer the contents of the saucepan to the gratin dish. Smooth the surface with a spatula.spoon the remaining 3 T of cream over the top. Bake for 20 minutes. Place the gratin dish under the broiler, 6 inches from the heat, and broil for 5 min or until the top is lightly browned

Ernies Mashed Potatoes

• 5 lb bag of potatoes
• salt
• pepper
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 8 oz sour cream
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 stick butter
• finely chopped onion (1/2 small)
• 1 pt milk
• 1 pt potato water
• 1 can of durkees

1. Scrub,wash and peel potatoes.
2. Chop potatoes into cubes 
3. Fill 4 qt pot 2/3 with water. 
4. Add 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil. 
5. Place potatoes in boiling water. Boil for 20 minutes or until tender. 
6. Drain potatoes saving  1 pint of potato water. 
7. Mash  potatoes with masher. 
8. Begin to add 8oz sour cream, 8oz of softened cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, the finely chopped onion, mixing (hand held mixer) and mashing each ingredient at a time. 
9. Add ½ tsp garlic powder and ½ tsp pepper. 
10. Heat  1pt of milk in microwave till warm. 
11. Begin to add equal amounts of potato water and warm milk.
12.  Mix with mixer. You may not use all the milk or potato water, but add till the consistency is a bit soupy.
13.  Add additional salt and pepper to taste. 
14. Put mashed potatoes in casserole dish and place durkee fried onions on top.
15. Cover with tin foil and place in oven for 45 min @ 350 degrees. 
16. Serve piping hot. Enjoy! 

Our 31rst Anniversary

We have been married 31 years. Wow. I can't believe we  have made it this and weathered the storm.
Here are some pictures that were taken on our wedding day in 1983. We went to Maggie Valley,North Carolina for our honeymoon. I really wanted to go home to Maine and see the leaves change but we couldn't afford it so we opted for the mountains. I was very surprised at how much the mountains had beautiful foilage color.We have been back several times on our anniversaries in October.

I first met my husband when I was 20 and he was 15. He played the organ for me at Midnight Mass while I sang Oh Holy Night. He played so well that I asked him if he would come over to my house and audition for me as an accompanist for me in my nightclub act. He came over and played for me. He did not want to play for me in the nightclub. He thought my lifestyle was too fast lane for  him...which it was. So that was the end of that.

We didn't meet up again for another 4 years. By this time he was in college and I had come home briefly from a concert tour up in Maine. I was at a prayer meeting and the people there wanted to know what I needed to stay and not return to Maine. I said well, I would like a job, a boyfriend, and friends. They asked me what I wanted in a boyfriend. I told them I had made a very specific long list and had been praying over that list for awhile. I wanted a man with dark hair, blue eyes and 6 feet tall. I also had a long list of characteristics. They prayed for me and when it came time to pray for a boyfriend they prayed for a husband instead. I wanted to kick the person praying. I didn't want a husband, I wanted a boyfriend. They all laughed and thought I was funny.

So 2 weeks later I was asked to sing at a prayer meeting at the Catholic church that we both had attended for years. He didn't know that my life had changed dramatically. I was now singing in churches and no longer in nightclubs.. He listened to me sing and knew instantly that something had changed in me, that I had given my life to the Lord/Yeshua. We talked for a little bit after  and as I talked I looked up into his eyes and realized he had blue eyes. You see his eyebrows were very bushy and his eyes were deep set making his eyes appear dark, not blue. I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time. I remember saying to myself..you gotta be kidding Lord, not him..he's just a baby and 5 and 1/2 years younger than me.

He would come over every night after work and we would pray about different things. He would asked me to pray for his girlfriend,which I did, but really I had a beef about it. Really? God ..are you serious? Well, I prayed a sincere prayer and 2 weeks later she packed up and moved to New York never to be seen again. With her out of the picture, things began to move very swiftly. 8 months later we were married.

 A lot has happened in these 31 years. We have raised for 4 wonderful children, buried one child, and had 3 miscarriages.  My husband led worship at church for many years. I continued to sing throughout the years. We home schooled for awhile, and was involved with music and drama in church. After the loss of Jeremy, our 5th child, things fell apart very fast. Grief consumed our lives and led us down very different paths. I returned to the stage to do musical theater.. Marital problems ovetook our marraige. It was a horrible time. In all those trying times it was our Saviour that kept us together. It was His will that we stay together, and He alone is the one who took a very broken marriage and restored it to life.

My husband is a kind man with a heart of gold. He has been my best friend for many years. We've shared a thousand laughs together. He has listened to me, tried hard to please me and comforted me in sad and anxious times. We started our relationship being prayer partners and keeping the Lord in the center of our marriage. When things have gone awry between us it always is because we have not kept the Lord at the center of our marriage, which demands putting the other persons needs first.

Maggie Valley 2014

On our anniversary, Oct  2nd, we went to a new little cuban restaurant in Eustis that my husband stumbled on. There are only 5 tables in the restaurant. It is authentic looking and the food is fabulous. After we walked down to the lake and watched the sunset.  We went back to Maggie Valley in the  middle of October by ourselves. On our way up and back we stopped in Cummings Georgia to see our son Josh and his wife. They are expecting their first child in April. We  had a great time seeing them.

Coconut cakes for 3 weddings and a birthday party

Birthday Coconut cake for Anne's grandma 

On Friday night we were invited to go our daughter in laws mom's house for a dinner party. Our daughter in law, Anne and our son Josh, came  into town earlier in the week for the birth of our first grandchild from our first born daughter, Joy.

I was asked to make a coconut cake. Anne's grandma was having a birthday and word was out she was waiting for this cake every since Josh and Anne's wedding.You cannot see in the picture but there are tiny pink pearl candies all over the cake. Grandma ate her cake enthusiastically and gladly went home with the remainder of the cake.

Joy and Tim 2012

Joy's wedding cakes

I  have had my share of making coconut cakes for our kids weddings. First to get married was our oldest daughter, Joy, in 2012.  I made three, 3 layer 10 inch cakes and a huge sheet cake. I took 3 Wilton cake decorating classes at Joann Fabrics 2 months before the wedding. I was not very good at baking or decorating a cake. Taking these classes gave me the confidence I needed to make these cakes. I had a great teacher who really liked to explain things in detail. The class was small, so I got a chance to really learn. We had a to make a cake every week, so I quickly learned how to do everything. I spend a ton of money on supplies, but it was well worth the investment, because I  have continued to make cakes since then. My husbands side of the family is quite large, so there is always some kind of party almost every month.


              I have made coconut cakes from scratch, but for weddings I like to use Duncan Hines coconut cake mix. I bought 6 boxes of the cake  mix. My daughter, Joy, helped me mix and bake the cakes. I didn't have enough room in my  house to make and store all the cakes, so i transferred everything to my husbands parents house which was vacant at the time. We followed directions on the box. We put the batter in two 8 x 2 inch round cake pans. I coconut pudding in between the layers and stacked the cakes. I made wilton frosting from scratch using this recipe. I made a ton of frosting because I had so many cakes to decorate and frost. I made the white flowers out of royal icing a week before the wedding.The pink cake was decorated using the ruffle technique using tip number 103. It took a little bit to learn how to do this. I practiced on other surfaces before attempting on cake
                   So we baked all the cakes, cooled them, leveled them, crumb coated them and wrapped them up to put in the fridge 2 days before the wedding. I started decorating the cakes the day before the wedding going into the wee hours of the night after the rehearsal dinner. I continued to decorate the cakes the day of the wedding all the way up to the time of the wedding.  
               I packed up all the cakes in the truck and drove and prayed all the way that they wouldn't shift where they were. It was a 30 minute ride to the wedding site and i went slower than normal in case of hitting an unknown pothole. I go to the wedding site and set the cakes up, changed my clothes, and walked in time for the wedding. Wow!;.
             When it came time for the reception I went over to the cake table to check out the cakes and was horrified to find the back side of the ruffle cake had completely fallen and was hanging by a thread. My classes had taught me to come prepared with utensils in case of repair. I carefully lifted the entire section and stuck it back to the side of the cake. wow..that was close.
 Here is the link for a tutorial on how to do the ruffle technique

http://iambaker.net/christmas-tree-cake-tutorial/
   

Josh and Anne's cakes  Jan 2014

                  For Josh and Annes cakes I again used the coconut cake box mix.  My friend, Claudia baked the cakes for me at her house. Once they were cooled and ready to transport, I brought them to my  house the next day to begin frosting. We also made 2 lemon blueberry and raspberry cakes
           I crumb coated the cake using the wilton buttercream frosting recipe. I set that aside for a half hour to set and stiffen. My daughter in law requested that I use Publix frosting on the outer layer of the cake. So I bought 2 one pound tubs of frosting and began decorating the side. I put icing in a bag with a 12 tip and made a vertical line of dots. I then used an angled spatula and and pressed into each dot and pulled horizontally about an inch and lifted the spatula off the cake. My son Jason and daughter Jessica helped me with this so it would get done quicker. After a row was done I made another line of dots and repeated the same technique. Here is a link for a youtube video for petal technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WASVWn4nN6w
                  I used burlap ribbon which i backed with wax paper with a glue gun and then stuck the ribbon around the cake with piping gel and frosting. I bought wood chip flowers I found at Hobby Lobby as the main flowers. Other flowers were made of burlap and lace.
I used this 2 tutorials as a base for what I wanted to do.
http://plectrumbanjo.info/flower-wedding-cake-topper/handmade-rustic-burlap-flower-wedding-cake-topper-set/
http://graceleecottage.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-simple-burlap-flower-tutorial.html

Josh and Annie Jan 2014

Jessica and Istva, South Africa, March 2014

                Now for Jessicas wedding, I ran into several problems. I wanted to take my cake supplies with me to Capetown, but my husband said we would buy what we needed over there. The day after we arrived we went shopping for everything. We got mostly everything except crisco which they do not sell there. I finally ended up using a similar product but the equivalents weren't the same and it was a nightmare for me to change from to liters, grams, etc.. Luckily, Francois, Jessica's soon to be father in law is a chemist and brought his mathematical brilliance to the table and converted everything for me. We all thought that spring release pans would work just fine.. well, I guess if they worked it would have been ok..but when we poured the batter in the pans, every one of them leaked. I was fit to be tied, because we were baking the cakes late at night. You see, in Cape Town in March it is very hot and still very hot after the sun goes down. My daughter's mother in law, Ree, saved the day and called a friend of hers that let us borrow some 10 inch pans which  worked out remarkably well.
              After the cakes had cooled I leveled the cakes with a knife. Somehow, ever since the flight to Capetown my cake leveler got bent in my suitcase. When I tried to use it in Capetown it would not level straight. Jesss's father in law, Francois, got out his blocks and put them beside the cake at the height we needed to level the cake. He then took a long serated knife and held it on top and parallel to the blocks and leveled the cake for me. He was such a big help. He had an interest in knowing how to ice a cake smooth. So he watched me do it once and then did it himself. I was quite impressed. Not very often you meet a man who has an interest in learning how to ice a cake.


              I was running out of time to decorate the cakes, so my daughter in law Anne, offered to help. That was so kind of you Anne.This was not her favorite thing to do and found it tedious to do, but willingly helped me. Thank you so much Anne. I would still be decorating the cakes if you hadn't helped.  Again, I used the petal technique on one cake and put fresh roses on top of the cake. The other cake we painstakingly put pearl candy beads all over the cake and topped the cake with a topper that has been passed down from my husbands mothers wedding. I had to help the bride out by making her a new skirt out of the same material Jessica's wedding dress was made out of. So that is the story of my coconut cakes.

the arrival of Baby James

Baby James, baby and mom, Rita and baby, Jessica and baby

Jason and baby, Dad and baby, baby James, Greg, baby, Tim

  My daughter, Joy, just had her first child on August 26th at 4:41 am. I thought perhaps she would deliver early, since all of mine were 2 weeks early. We began to prepare 3 weeks in advance in case this happened. As the weeks dragged by and we passed her due date, we began to wonder when he would be born.  8 days past her due date baby James arrived. Mother and baby are beautiful to behold. My daughter was a trooper and endured a long labor while her husband and dula stood by  her side.

All of our children arrived at different times to see baby James. Jessica, our youngest surprised me one week before the baby was born and flew in from Australia. Jason, flew in a couple of days before her due date and when no baby arrived he returned to work. He flew back in after the baby was born and stayed over labor day weekend. Our son Josh, and his new bride, Anne came in the day before Joy delivered and stayed a week. It was so nice to everyone here for this event. Yes, Rita's restaurant was once again open...but I secretly love it.

Now, on to the baby. It is so wonderful to hold this precious child.  Our last and 5th child, Jeremy, was only with us 5 days before he went to be with the Lord. It was a traumatic pregnancy, knowing full well that there was a problem with the development of Jeremy's brain. After his passing, I just could not hold another baby for a long time. It wasn't until 10 years had passed that I recieved healing for my wounded heart in this area. 23 years have now passed since we lost Jeremy and when I held baby James, another healing has begun to take place in my heart. It is a joy to hold him. I loved nursing my children.. that wonderful mommy drug that happens when you nurse puts you in such a peaceful bliss....holding baby james is much like that without having to nurse. I am at complete peace when i hold him in my arms and he is sleeping. Only our loving heavenly Father can orchestrate something like that.

Pauls Birthday and T shirt quilt

front and back side of Pauls quilt

                This past week I have been working on a quilt for my brother Paul. My brother loves the shows from the 70s especially the Monkees. I wanted to make him a quilt with some of his favorite shows. I was unable to get material that already had the logos printed on them. So I stewed on this for a couple of weeks. I came across several sites that made t shirt quilts. My brother has many t shirts of his favorite shows that he does not wear anymore.

            So, I managed to talk  him into giving them to me. I could not find enough t shirts to fill an entire queen size quilt, so I used a solid light grey block for every other block.I cut the tshirt blocks out one inch larger 15" and fused a lightweight interfacing to make the tshirt stable. I trimmed all those down to 14 inches. On the backside I used an assortment of blocks i put together from different cartoon materials i found at Joann's, Hobby Lobby, and  Walmart. I cut those blocks 14 ". I made  a 3 inch black sash on both sides of the quilt.

          Then I thought about quilting them both together and when I laid them out on top of one another they were off by one inch...so I would not be able to quilt them both together...that is, front, batting and back...so I thought and thought and decided to make a duvet cover. I took the one that was one inch bigger and cut it down all around. I bought a 72 inch zipper, placed it at the top and then sewed up all the seams much like a huge zippered pillowcase. I also added snap tape on all sides of the duvet on the inside seam line corners the duvet. I did the same for the comforter. Then i laid the duvet inside out..attached all the snaps of the duvet to the comforter and flipped the comforter inside and zipped it up..I didn't like it.

                      

         So back to the drawing board. I fiinally decided to take the duvet apart at the seams...I took the top part,which was the tshirts and quilted that to an old sheet with batting in between. So only the top was quilted. Then I took the top part and laid it on top of the back part (the cartoon blocks) and stitched all the way around. I then bound it with the same grey used in the t shirt top part.

Tiary Baby shower cake

Meridiths Baby Shower and Tiara Cake

 
             My friend Claudia's daughter, Meredith, is having a baby shower this weekend. Claudia has asked me to decorate the cake. We work well as a tag team.. She does really well with baking the cakes, and I do well with icing and decorating. This will be the second time we work together on a cake. She helped me in January with my sons wedding cakes. We made 4 cakes. 2 of them were coconut cakes and the grooms cake was a lemon raspberry and the brides cake was a lemon blueberry cake.. They did not even  touch the two lemon cakes. I wrapped them tight and froze them for 5 months and brought the cakes to them by car from Florida to Atlanta.

Josh and Anne Wedding cakes      

             Meridith wants a Tiffany box cake with a tiara on top. I made 3 tiaras and a bow out of fondant ahead of time to make sure it would hold up. I got an oatmeal container and printed out a diagram of a tiara from here. I taped it to the oatmeal container. I stabilizer the container with gripper paper so it would not move. I then taped  wax paper on top of the  diagram. I smeared a little of crisco over the wax paper so the fondant would have something to stick to. I got out my fondant, rolled it out. When i tried to hand roll it, it didn't work for me. It kept tearing and breaking when i would put it on top of the design especially when i tried to make the curls. So i gave up on trying to do it by hand. I then tried the clay extruder. I couldn't believe how hard it was to push the fondant out. The smaller the die hole i used the harder it was to push it out. This was the only one I could find around here. Please do not get this one if you do not have strong hands. The  ropes that come out of the extruder were very symmetrical. I liked that. It still wasn't very flexible especially when curling it. I finally finished. I repeated it 2 more times on different size cans and different size diagrams. I waited 3 days for it to dry.

1. diagram of tiara 2. fondant 3. white chocolate 4. split cake 

             After 3 days I cut the wax paper from both ends and gently removed the tiara. It crumbled to pieces. Well, that didn't work. I went back to youtube and watched so more videos on tiara making. I somehow missed the part that it was suppose to made of gum paste. After purchasing gum paste I repeated the same process all over again. The clay extruder wasn't any easier, but the gum paste was a little easier to curl.
            I also tried to make the tiaras out of white chocolate. I melted down the chocolate in a double boiler with a little coconut oil. That was my mistake. I put the chocolate in a piping bag with a small tip and traced out the design. My hands are too shaky to do this. I again repeated it 2 more times in different sizes. It is suppose to harden withing a couple of hours. After 3 days it still would not harden. I removed them from the can. Replaced the wax paper and melted the chocolate this time in the microwave by itself. Put it in the piping bag with a small tip and traced it  out again. It seemed to be getting harder faster. The next day, I removed the wax paper and it crumbled. I gave up on the white chocolate. After 5 days the last batch of gumpaste tiaras were removed from the cans. I was so surprise to see that it held together. I was so excited and relieved. My strong suggestion to anyone who is doing this for the first time and doesn't have a whole lot of experiece with fondant or gumpaste is to start 2 weeks in advance just to get the hang of it. I started a week ahead of time and got lucky that one of the 9 tiaras i made held together.

            2 days before the shower I made the frosting and tinted it light pink. Very pretty. My friend Claudia baked the cakes and Friday I frosted and decorate the cake. I had great difficulty frosting this cake...It was a white box cake mix and for whatever reason it was too moist. She used  2 inch square cake pans, but it did not rise up to 2 inches. After leveling them each layer was only one inch thick...The cake split in  half when i tried to put the top layer on. I used frosting to fuse it back together. then I tried frosting it...The frosting kept picking up the cake and making it break off. I thought surely this will not work. After much diligence and praying I finally got the frosting to stick in the right places. It no longer would pass for a tiffany box as uneven as it was. So we winged it. We added the black and white polka dotted ribbon at the bottom  with the fondant bow and put the tiara on top. We used  pearl candies to try and hide some of the imperfections of the frosting.

              Below is the card I made for Meridith for the baby shower. 2nd picture is the inside of the card.

4th of July 2014

We are so blessed to live in the USA and I am proud to be an American.Our freedom would not be possible without our brave soldiers laying their lives down every single day for us.Thank you to all of our soldiers past and present who have unselfishly given their lives and served our country for us.
As a family we have shared many great gatherings at our house with plenty to eat, boating, skiing, tubing, and lots of laughter and fun. My husbands side of the family is quite large, so when they come to our house there is alot of people. It's always been wicked hot, and sometimes rain was inevitable. Sometimes it would quench the plans for fireworks. And other times there would be a rain, but then it would stop and rainbows would appear and the fireworks fun would begin on our beach. We could watch them go off not only all around our lake. Sometimes the mosquitoes would get viscous. I can just see the glee in the childrens eyes as they got to light a firecracker. Many years ago when we had our dog, Lady, she would chase the firecrackers. What a crazy dog.
I also thank the greatest soldier of them all, Jesus/Yeshua. He fought an unbelievable battle for us and went willingly to the cross and paid the death penalty for us and our sins so that the sting of death would no longer hold us in the grave and eternity is now available to those that who choose to accept his gift of salvation.


 

Joy's 29th Birthday

Happy Birthday Joy!

the many faces of Joy Nicole

     Tonight is Shabbat and we are also celebrating Joy's 29th birthday. Joy requested corned beef and cabbage for her birthday dinner...are you jealous Jessica? Wish you were here. Joy also requested no cake.. but we did have coffee/chocolate ice cream with macadamia cookies...

Ingredients

• 5-6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 small onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cups of water
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP vinegar
• 8 oz beer
• 4 lbs corned beef brisket
• 1 (1 lb) bag of baby carrots
• 1 lb small red potatoes, quartered
• 1 head of green cabbage, cut into wedges
• —-seasoning packet ingredients—–
• {leave this out if you are using the packet that comes with the meat.}
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 2 bay leaves, crushed
• 8 Allspice berries
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper

Instructions

1. First place onion wedges and garlic at the bottom of your crockpot. This is going to act as a stand for your meat, so it doesn’t touch the bottom and dry out. Place beef on top of onions and garlic.
2. Next, mix together water, beer, sugar and vinegar.
3. Pour over beef and they sprinkle seasoning packet over meat. If you are using my homemade corned beef seasoning packet, simply mix together the mustard seeds, bay leaves, allspice berries, salt and pepper and sprinkle on top of beef.
4. Set crockpot, cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
5. After 4 hours of cooking, add in potatoes and carrots.Cover and continue cooking
6. When 1 hour remains, add cabbage to the crockpot. Cover and continue cooking for the remainder of the time.

To my Dad on Fathers Day

         The many faces of my Dad. What a great man he is. My Dad worked at Sears when I was small and every week, really it seemed like every night, he would come home with something for me and my brother from the toy section. My Dad worked hard all his life providing for us. I've never known him not to work. When he wasn't at work, he was  at his workbench making something exquisite or taking and developing pictures. Every time I turned around he was taking pictures of me. He can and could make something out of nothing. He is an incredibly intelligent, gifted and artistic guy. And the stories he would tell my kids at bedtime. The imagination my father has is unbelievable. He would come up with the wildest stories and my kids thrilled to hear him take off on a story adventure. He would have them laughing so hard...you know the belly kind of laugh that only a kid can do well.
                  I personally don't remember much of my childhood, but I got to see how my Dad rose like a champion to the call of grandpa. The toys he would make were of superior craftmanship and the games he would play with them were definitely beyond creative. I think my parents did Christmas exceptionally well for my kids. I know they miss that the most of all about their grandparents. My dad and mom would go all out for Christmas, pulling out all the stops with gifts, decorations, food and fun.
               Below are 2 songs I recorded last week. I can remember as a little girl, listening to my Dad play the guitar and singing you are my sunshine to me. He also liked to play Jamaica Farewell. So here's to you Dad.
           I love you Dad and appreciate everything you have done for me and my kids. Happy Fathers Day.

To my Heavenly Father on Fathers Day

To the great King of the Universe, my Heavenly Father, Abba,

How great you truly are. There are no words to explain the depths of my love and gratitude for you. Happy Fathers Day  to the greatest Father of them all. Without you I would not exist. Without your love I would not be able to make it through life. Thank you for bringing me into this world and into the family you placed me in. Thank you for my sweet mom and dad and my dear brother, Paul. I feel the weight of the coming responsibility of being his caretaker. I will guard him until i no longer have breath. 

Getting to know you, Abba, has been exhilarating. There are so many precious moments shared with you and special times in worship that are too numerous to mention. In those quiet times you  have spoken to me, healed and delivered me, chastened me, and poured out your tangible love on me. 

There have been times when you were so large I couldn't miss you and then there were other times where I really had to seek and find you. I think you really like to play hide and seek like a Dad does with his child. Sometimes, it has not been hard to find you at all and other times, oh my, you sure were hidden well. Ah, but when I would find you it was such a relief and joy.  

When I was searching everywhere for love and did not know you yet, you never let me stray too far away. It was you who would not allow me to do certain jobs, and shows, deliberately blocking my path and keeping me from total destruction. Even when bad relationships ended up in breaking my heart, you always sent someone with compassion. You were and are a protective, compassionate, Father.

 When I got tired of the ways of the world and began to seek you, you made yourself to be found.
It was if you were waving your hands and saying I'm over here. You  made sure that I couldn't miss you. When I asked for one falling star as a sign to whether I should give my life to you, you didn't just show one..you showed 17 over the span 10 days. I have only seen 2 more in the 30  years that have passed. How did you do that ? 17 falling stars! It was as if you were throwing them through the sky to me. It had to be timed so precisely to catch when i was looking.  Amazing!

6 months later, on the night that i was filled with the Holy Spirit, you showed up in a new way. I  felt like I had just been plugged into a giant electrical socket when my pastor prayed with me to recieve the Holy Spirit. Going to sleep that night was not going to be easy with all that power going through my body. I remember that feeling of knowing that you were living inside me and when i went to sleep I had the most incredible experience. Waves and waves of your love came pouring over me like  an ex-ray machine (for lack of better words). I cannot tell you how beautiful that was that you did that for me. It was so healing. 

Thank you for my beautiful children and husband. They have been an incredible blessing to me. Thank you for all the times you stepped in and filled in the gaps where i was inadequate.

In my greatest sorrows and disappointments you were there with your sweet Holy Spirit. In losing my Mom and my baby son Jeremy you brought joy back into my life and new beginnings of teaching many kids how to sing and act. You taught me the meaning of your sovereignty and trusting in you. When you chose not to heal Jeremy, you revealed to me you were still greatly pleased with me that I believed you could. It was just not your will..You were sovereign. You were faithful to not let guilt rule my life. 

You carried me  through the horrible season of my husbands betrayal. I found it so hard to continue on every day. And yet you sent new people in my life to watch and care over me. A handful of former friends remained with us through that hard time, while other friends were removed from our lives. In those times when I could not trust my husband, you became my husband. Almost 20 years have passed and our marriage is restored because of your unfailing love.

After my mom, passed away, it was a difficult transition taking care of him. In that difficult time, I had to give up my newly found freedom with my friends. You were right there with me, making sure Paul was not being neglected. You knew all along  I would have to feed my Dad when he came to pick him up at the end of the day. You knew that as I fed my Dad, a long lost relationship with my Dad would be healed and re-established. During this dinner time, I would  sit with him and we would share about our day. I greatly miss those times. It felt like for the first time in my life, my Dad was on my side. I knew it was your hand behind all this, because no one else could  have so masterfully orchestrated that. Thank you.

My hearts desire has always been to sing. Even though it was not in your will for me to do it through the worlds way, you have given me a multitude of opportunities to sing on various platforms. Some of my greatest shared moments with you have been singing in nursing homes, hospitals and on deathbeds. Boy do you ever show up in a big way. Thank you so much for the chance to also do musical theatre. I think my favorite times with you have been in worship, recording at home, when its just me and you, soaking in your presence. It feels like  I am singing to an audience of one. It's as if you descend into my house and just sit awhile and listen. What an honor to sing for the creator of the universe.  Thank you for the all the times you  have healed my voice and brought it back when i thought it was gone. My desire is to always use it to praise and worship you.

Another fond memory is the night i was very ill and i couldn't go to sleep and a thought popped into my head to ask you to tell me a bedtime story and you did. What a beautiful story. It brought healing with it because the next day I was no longer ill. 

You have enabled me to do things I thought i would never be able to do. Some of these things I was dead set against doing and yet not only did I do them, I grew to love doing like teaching, cooking, sewing, playing  golf and tennis, being married and having children. It was only by your grace and prodding that i could do any of these things.


Thank you my Father, for loving and always being there for me, even in the times I was not aware of you. Happy Fathers Day. I love you so much.

Your daughter,
Rita / Segullah

Below are 2 songs that I recorded this week. You deserve the glory is a live recording that my  husband did 2 years ago when we were worshipping at home. It took all this time to record my voice to it. The second song, Lords Prayer, was first recorded  in 1981, but the recording has deteriated over the years, so I rerecorded it that last week with new vocals.

My week with Paul

This last week my Dad went to Colorado for a week. While he was gone my brother came to stay with us. Sometimes, it is a challenge to add a special needs man to a family. We had a great time with lots of laughter amidst the times of trying to explain things to my brother. You see he does not speak very clearly and i don't hear very well. So, sometimes that didn't make for a very good combination of communicating. While he was with us he went golfing with Ernest and my son Josh who came down with Anne for Joy's baby shower and Fathers Day.
We went to Daytona beach the next day and even though it rained while we were there, we still managed to have a good time. Joy and Time, Anne and Josh, Anne's mom, Enid and Rebecca and Brad Randall were also there. We ended up going out to eat. On Monday we took off for St. Pete. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and it was an adventure with the 3 of us in one room. We spent time in the pool and I was amazed how much my brother swam. I wish he would swim like that in my lake every day. It is hard to get him to exercise.

We tried to go golfing that evening but didn't want to risk the  chance with pending storms and lightning. So, we went to the movies instead and saw how to train your dragon 2. Now, this is not a movie that I really liked, but I did appreciate the advanced cinematograpy that they used in making the movie. When we came out of the movies I took a picture of him in front of the malificent poster. We ended up going golfing the next day after a big complimentary breakfast at the hotel. We ate twice at the cracker barrel and Paul really loved his huge plate of meatloaf, potatoes, 3 veggies etc.. He especially liked playing checkers on the porch with Ernest at Cracker Barrel. He ate like a horse the entire time he was with me and I was back to my routine of short order cook with him.

On the way back last night  from St. Pete the alternator belt blew on us. But God was watching over us...we heard a strange sound when we were an hour away from the house, but the car gave no indication that something was wrong. When we got within 3  miles of our house we stopped for gas. When we got back on the road it was sputtering..we made it home and when my husband opened the hood the belt was hangingby a thread. God is so good.

Paul is now back at home with our Dad. I am still trying to unwind from the caregiver vigilant mode.

Joys Baby shower

Last Friday we had a baby shower for my daughter, Joy. She is having a boy and is due in August. This will be our first grandchild. I wanted to make a dedication gown for the baby, but didn't really want to make a gown for a boy. When I saw this pattern for a boy jumper, I thought this would be perfect. Hey Jessica, I used some of the remnants of your wedding dress for this little outfit. So, even though you were not here, a part of you will be. I did not use the silk duponi. I used the other material we got at Walmart.  The pattern I used was one by Mccalls: 6221. It was not hard to put together, just takes a little more time, because the pattern pieces are so small. Trying to set the sleeves in that tiny armhole took great patience.

Now, for the cake, this is what Joy asked for. I am not used to making a cake that is not frosted. She wanted it to look rustic. The recipe called for edible flowers,but I was a little leary about putting real flowers to eat on the cake.

The cake is an orange almond cake with an orange blossom buttercream frosting.. Below is the recipe I used. I made one error in judgement. Having taken the Wilton cake decorating class, I was taught to use baking strips around the cake to keep the sides from browning too fast. Well, when I looked at the picture the outside was browned and when I pulled the baking strips off and flipped the cake out of the cake pans, the sides were not brown, but blond color. So, next time if I make this cake again, I will not use the baking strips on the outside of the pans. 
Also, I had great difficulty finding orange blossom water..so  my daughter in law, Anne, ordered it for me. Thank you  Anne.
We had a great time at the party. It was very laid back and relaxing. Joy got a lot of great gifts for the baby. Thank you everybody involved. 

For the cake

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 and ¼ teaspoons salt
¾ cup butter, softened
2 and ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
2 egg whites 3 eggs
½ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 and ½ cups full fat plain yogurt
1 tablespoon powdered sugar, optional garnish
3 tablespoons sliced almonds, optional garnish
edible flowers, optional garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then lightly grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans. To begin preparing the cake, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and oil at medium low speed until the mixture is smooth, about 2-3 minutes of mixing. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract, orange zest, egg whites, and the eggs and mix until incorporated. Add the orange juice and mix until smooth. Add the flour mixture in three separate additions, alternating with the plain yogurt, until both have been added and the batter just becomes smooth.

Evenly distribute the cake batter between the three pans. Place the pans in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans and setting them on a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the Frosting: Orange Blossom Buttercream


1 cup butter
4 and ¼ cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon orange blossom water

To prepare the buttercream, beat together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth, then add the milk, vanilla extract, and orange blossom water and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Once the cake has cooled completely, spread the icing between the cake layers and then sprinkle the top of the cake with the sliced almonds and powdered sugar. Garnish with edible flowers and serve.

Here is the link for the recipe I used with beautiful pictures.

http://www.adventures-in-cooking.com/2014/05/orange-almond-cake-with-orange-blossom.html

About my Mom on Mothers Day

Lorraine Pomerleau Huard 1927-2008

My Mom in black and white

My mom, was the kindest person on earth. She was a great mom and a champion of encouragement.

 My Mom

My mom and her grand kids

My Mom and I

Here is a song I wrote after my Mom had her first heart attack in 1997. At the time I was working very hard teaching acting and singing at multiple locations across the county. My Mom went in for a triple bypass which the nurses told me was a pretty common procedure and that she would come through very easily. So, I was shocked when the doctor came out during a very long surgery and told me to prepare myself for my Mom's death. He was having a hard time getting her off the heart machine. I was so stunned that I couldn't pray...so I called my dear friends Bud and Naomi and Bud stepped up to the plate and prayed when I couldn't . I  have to say there have been very few times when I couldn't pray and that was one of them, but thank God for friends who will step in and run to God for you. My mom did come through the surgery and was with us another ten years.

 I don't know about you, but somehow I had the mentality that my mom would be around forever. How I miss her and wish I could be lavishing on her today as she did for me so many times.

 I wrote this song in one afternoon shortly after her surgery. This is a home recording with poor audio. I would to someday make a more professional recording of this