TheKitchenCookie

  Today we celebrate the wonderful Father of my children. We are thankful that God blessed us with this particular man in our lives! We love you!   He is: Patient Gentle Kind Calm Honest Trustworthy Works Hard Organized Makes time for us all ...and the list goes on :)   I've learned from him how not to worry (although I forget it sometimes but thankfully he is consistent in this and helps keep me on track :), how to simply take things as they come and keep going. Things I really needed to learn!   How I was fortunate enough to marry a man like the wonderful Father that I had at home tells me for sure that my Heavenly Father was watching out for me!   We felt blessed today to spend one more Father's Day with Lin's Dad as well. We spent time there this forenoon and over lunchtime and while he is very ill and in pain he is always happy to see us and the grandchildren and they/we enjoy being there...

  I'm loving this big beauty by my front porch. No fragrance, not much color, but impressive cone shaped blooms that keep stretching and filling out all the way to the tip with delightful little white flowers!     The last two years I trimmed it back hard thinking I'm going to move it somewhere else. But it's huge and the digging doesn't really appeal to me so I leave it where it is.   It must enjoy the harsh pruning(s) I've been giving it because it keeps getting enormous and there are more flowers on it than I've seen in the 7 years we live here. Not sure how old it is, my MIL planted it several years before we moved here.   The rains usually kind of flatten it but luckily this year they have not done it yet. Should I hold my breath? I'm hoping it gets to stand tall till the end of Summer.   I've been enjoying my time working outside catching up on some weeding, planting, deadheading, etc. But alas, tomorrow it's more st...

Busy, busy... that's what we've been! Tonight I'm enjoying my quiet house after a few days of having people around. It feels good to relax and listen to myself think. The men and Serena are at a ball game, one I would have enjoyed watching, but I've been buried in strawberries the last few days so I opted to stay home and finish them in hopes that I can do something different tomorrow.  I've been experimenting with different shortcakes and everyone seems to enjoy this one the best of the ones we have sampled. It's good by itself with the streusel topping that I added but with strawberries on top it is scrumptious! And because of the sugar overload I don't usually sweeten the strawberries unless I add a very small amount of Stevia. The original recipe used plain milk but I had some buttermilk that needed to be used which only makes it more moist and irresistible. Preheat oven to 350°. 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 eggs 1¾ cups sugar 2¾ cup...