It was 9pm, just two nights before my son’s tenth birthday when he said, “I’m so excited about my Revolutionary War cake!”

Pause the world. What was he talking about??? I had not plans for a Revolutionary War cake! But as he talked about it, I began to vaguely recall him mentioning wanting one. The thing is he seemed to want something different every two days, so I had not married myself to any one particular plan. I did not want this to be a total failure, though. He was already not having a party. I could not mess up his cake too!!

So I took to Pinterest. I found very little there. Apparently, this is not a popular cake to bake.

Fellow parents of history buffs, teachers of Revolutionary War, or whoever else may want an American Independence themed cake, allow me to present my creation.

I made this as easily as I could think to make it. And yes, I took several short-cuts, and I’m going to explain exactly how I did it.

Step 1: Bake any two layer round cake from a boxed cake mix.

I don’t even remember which one I used. He wanted chocolate, so I used whatever moist boxed cake mix was a good deal at the store that week.

Step 2: Cool your cake.

Step 3: Make buttercream frosting, or used canned frosting.

I actually covered the cake in chocolate ganache, per Daniel’s request, but that is not required. You can frost the cake in a layer of whichever kind of frosting you like because you are just going to cover it up with fondant anyway.

If you want to make chocolate ganache like I did, this is a delicious and easy recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction.

HOWEVER, you do have to have white icing also on hand for the decorating part. I made buttercream frosting from a family recipe. It is delicious. You will use it to make the stars and the white stripes and any writing you want to do on the cake.

Now y’all, I know people knock canned icing all the time, but it is also a huge time saver, and my family loves it too. Feel free to also use that shortcut.

Here’s my buttercream frosting recipe, courtesy of my aunt, Pat Smith:

Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 C butter 3 T Milk

1/2 C coconut oil 1 t vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt 1 box confectioner’s sugar

Cream butter and oil in mixer. Add vanilla and salt. Beat in 1 cup sugar at a time. Add milk and beat at high speed until light and fluffy. Makes 3 cups.

Pat Smith. (Original recipe uses Crisco instead of coconut oil.)

Step 4: Ice your cake with whatever you chose to make or buy.

Step 5: Prepare your fondant. I totally used boxed fondant. You need both red and blue.

This was my very FIRST time using fondant, but Daniel had requested it, so I decided to take the plunge.

No, I did not make my fondant from scratch. No way was I about to add that to this long process. Instead, I went to partycity.com, and I bought both red and blue fondants. Then I selected curbside pick-up and picked it up without ever having to get out of my car. This all took less than an hour. Our store was so quick, but give yourself more time than that, of course.

You can also order it on Amazon.

(I do collect advertising fees when you order through my Amazon links.)

Step 6: Knead your fondant, and then roll it out.

Basically, just follow the fondant box directions. If you have extra time and want to make your own, go for it.

I do not own a “fondant roller” like the box directions said, so I just used a good old fashioned roller.

Yeah, I made a mess. For the blue one, I used way too much powdered sugar, so my fondant was all blue/white by the time I was done. Thankfully, I realized by accident that if you rub tiny drops of water on it, the white comes off. I just used a slightly damp paper towel to remove white smudges that were too obvious, but be careful about it.

I did a much better job on the second try, with the red fondant.

Step 7: Ever so carefully, cover the cake in the blue fondant like a sheet.

You may want to watch a tutorial on how to do this. Roll the blue fondant over the rolling pin loosely. Have your cake like right next to where you’re working so you don’t have to go far. I made my fondant way bigger than my cake. That way I could just trim off the excess rather than be horrified by its not meeting the bottom of the cake. That worked well.

Step 8: Trim and Smooth the Blue Fondant

Yes, my fondant had a few wrinkles on the sides. It was my first time. I did smooth over it, but I let a few wrinkles be honestly. The boxed directions said to use some special fondant tool I don’t own, so I just rubbed the cake all over with a large spoon. Ha! Basically you want to make sure it’s all stuck to the icing good. It really did not require too much smoothing.

Here’s a video presentation of covering the cake with fondant for my fellow newbies.

Step 9: Cut and apply the red fondant trim.

Your buttercream frosting is your glue. Put it under all your fondant decorations and little Risk soldiers to hold them in place.

I just made long rectangles of the red fondant. Then I piped my buttercream frosting on top of the blue fondant in all the places I wanted to stick the red stripes. It was a lot like making a gingerbread house, where the white icing is your glue.

I did a long strip of red around the bottom of the cake. Then I cut another long strip that I tuck folded near the ends to lay on top of the cake like a ribbon. See the picture:

I put buttercream frosting under the strip on top of the cake too, to hold it in place.

Step 10: Trim cake in white buttercream frosting in a piping bag.

I did icing on the bottom and then a thick stripe of icing around the middle, to give it the red, white, and blue look.

Then I used that same icing to make the circle of stars on top of the cake and to write Daniel’s name.

I also used the white frosting to hold down all the Risk soldiers.

Step 11: Place on the little Risk soldiers.

I guess if you don’t already own a game of Risk, this would be the most expensive part. It just worked so perfectly because it is the right time period. Most toy soldiers have more of a World War II helmet/ green uniform vibe. These Risk soldiers come in different colors, are tinier, and have cannons and horses. They are just so perfect for the 1776 theme! Plus, red for the British and blue for the Americans! So perfect!

This cake might work well for a Hamilton fan as well, come to think of it….

The post How to Make a Revolutionary War Cake appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

So now that we have all been home for forty forevers, do you feel like every five minutes it is time to feed your family again?

I feel like every household struggles with this same issue. Every day that ask, “Mom, what are we having for dinner?”

And everyday, you’re left wondering, “What am I making for dinner tonight?” Or actually, in our house, we usually say “supper.” We are Southern.

I have tried about ten different ways to manage the dinner question. Weekly menus, last minute plans, keeping everything in the pantry because I had no plan, eating out, telling everyone to pick their own meal, we have done it all. The only consistency through the years is that I never stick to one method of planning for very long– until this year!

Like most moms I have about six or seven meals that are my favorite to make, and I have throughly run those into the ground. I do realize exactly what mine are: spaghetti, vegetable beef soup, chili, roast, spicy chicken, and sausage and peas.

With everyone home all the livelong day, every single day, this problem has been magnified for all of us, I think. Early on in the lockdown, I came up with this solution that is working brilliantly, so I thought I would share it with you in case any of you want to try it out for yourself!

This has been a “Mom, what’s for dinner?” life saver for me!

****The Monthly Menu List*****

All I do is write out about 26 meals I plan to make in a month.

This way I never make the same thing twice during that twenty-six days. They are numbered, but they don’t have to be made in that exact order. Because let’s face it, some days you have enough energy to roll out the dough for Chicken ‘n Dumplins, and other days you cannot do more than lay out the leftover buffet.

Why 26?

Well, you see, there are twenty-six lines exactly on standard wide-ruled notebook paper. Ha! My reasons are always highly scientific…

It is basically a giant brainstorming list, but it has solved so many problems for me.

When I face that inevitable question each day, I think, “Let me see what the list says we are having. Oh, ehhh it is too late to start the crockpot, so yes, soup, let’s do the that.”

I am going to give you my newest list, typed up all neatly here in a sec, but first let me show you what this actually looks like in what I call my “Mom notebook.” 2020 simply did not require a real calendar, so I am using a spiral notebook for planning this year. I have been doing this monthly menu method since April.

Each month, at the end of the month, I take the meals I did not ever get around to making and consider why. If it is because I never wanted to, I just scrap those. Sometimes it is just because we got take-out too much, so then those just go to the top of the next month’s list.

I have also scrapped a few dishes that everyone hated (crock pot chicken parmesan). Alan and I loved it, but every single boy hated it, so I am giving up on that one for a while.

Examples:

One month one of my boys was desperate to have less “yucky” meals on the menu and more of his favorites, so he made his own list, hoping I would stick to it:

I crossed off the ones I made so he could feel like I was listening to his requests. “VBS” is what he call vegetable beef soup, which I believe is his favorite food in the world. He eats like four bowls in a sitting. I make it in a humongous pot, and there isn’t much leftovers.

This Month’s List:

Now every mom (or sometimes dad) has their own go-to dishes, so I do not expect anyone to want to make my whole month of meals, but you may find a few good ideas here.

For added fun, each month I have at least one night where I write “new recipe”, and usually that ends up being something I saw on a blog or in my family recipe book. The best new recipe I have tried so far turned out to be my Maw-maw’s jambalia. Wow, that stuff is insane level good! I have GOT to do a blog post on that one.

We are going on vacation in August, so this list newest will probably last until September.

1. Hamburgers & french fries
2. Leftover Buffet — Some kids don’t even eat leftovers. They eat oatmeal, and I’m fine with it.
3. Salad with grilled chicken
4. French toast and bacon– because what’s the fun in eating healthy every single night???
5. Sausage, black eye peas, and biscuits
6. Chicken Noodle Soup
7. Salmon, rice, and broccoli
8. BBQ chicken with veggies & mashed potatoes
9. Leftovers
10. Spicy Crockpot Chicken
11. Pepper Steak (video down below)
12. –New Recipe– to be determined
13. Four Vegetable Night (corn on cob, butter beans, mashed potatoes, rolls)
14. Roast in the crock pot
15. Cheesy Tuna Helper and veggies
16. Lasagna
17. Leftovers
18. Chicken ‘n Dumplins
19. Baked Potato Soup
20. Jambalia
21. Leftovers
22. Hot Stuff Soup
23. Spaghetti
24. Ham and veggies and mashed potatoes
25. Vegetable Beef Soup
26. Tacos

The giveaway I mentioned on parenting tweens can be found here.

Always, if you have a particular meal you would like the recipe for, send me a comment, I will be happy to do a post on it. Also, if you have a family favorite that is nut-free and not on my lists, please share! I am always on the look out for new menu items.

I hope you will give this month-at-a-time concept a shot. Maybe it will help you as much as it helped me.

The post Never Wonder “What should I make for dinner?” Again appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I have tried several recipes in my quest to make delicious-melt-in-your-mouth rolls from scratch. They were all utter failures…..until this one! I found this gem in one of those church cookbooks, and even I was not able to mess it up. Hurray! Here is the recipe, and at the bottom of the recipe there is a printable version. Happy baking!

Best Yet Yeast Rolls

Original Recipe by Sara T. Drummond

Ingredients:

2 pks. Dry yeast               

½c warm water                     

2 lg. eggs                      

1 c. warm water                

½c. shortening (I used coconut oil.)

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. salt

4 ½ c. all-purpose flour

Soft butter

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in ½cup warm water. Let stand 10 minutes.

Beat eggs and add to the eggs the following: dissolved yeast, 1 cup warm water, shortening, sugar, and salt.

Beat until smooth on medium speed of mixer for about 2 minutes. With a wooden spoon, scrape down sides of the bowl.

Beat in ½of the flour to make a soft dough, using mixer. Add the rest of the flour with wooden spoon to make a soft dough.

Cover and let rise to double in volume, about 1 hour.

Punch down and cover.

Refrigerate overnight.

About 1 ½hours before baking, take out the desired amount. Knead on floured cloth or parchment paper for about 10 minutes, then roll ½inch thick and cut out rolls with cutter. 

Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise until double in size. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until brown.

I personally like to print the recipes, with no photos between, so click here for the printable recipe.

The post How to Bake Yummy Yeast Rolls appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I’m not promising this is a healthy dish, but it is filling and delicious. Shout out to my college roommate, Nikki, who taught me this one. I’m pretty sure it was the first chicken recipe I ever learned besides “put BBQ sauce on it.”

Enjoy!

You can print the recipe here.

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 chicken breasts
1 stick butter
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
1+ sleeve of saltine (Or Ritz) crackers Poppyseeds (liberal sprinkling over the top)

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350.
Melt butter in 13 x 9 (standard) casserole dish in the oven while it’s preheating for 4 minutes.

Cut chicken into bite size chunks with kitchen shears. Add sour cream and the cans of soup into the casserole dish with the chicken and butter.
Stir it all together. Then spread it out neatly.

Crush the crackers over the top evenly as a topping. Sprinkle poppy seeds liberally over the top of the crackers.
Bake 40 minutes. Check to make sure chicken is cooked thoroughly. If chicken was still partly frozen, 50 mins.

Ritz crackers make it even richer.

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to ask in the comment section below! Enjoy!

Also, I want to send a sincere thank you to the folks over at blog.feedspot.com for including Stories of Our Boys in their Top 100 Military Wife Blogs list, at #37. Thank you so much!

The post PoppySeed Chicken Recipe: My Most Requested Dish appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We are so lucky in our family because we have all these delicious recipes handed down from generation to generation. Maybe it’s the French heritage in my mother’s side, or the fact that they were so gifted in the kitchen no one would ever let those recipes die, but food in our family is gooooood.

There’s only one problem.

Have you ever seen a recipe written by your grandmother? Unless you already basically know how to make a thing, their recipes won’t do ya much good. Why? Well, the thing is they include very few detailed instructions. It’s mostly a list of ingredients and a temperature to bake it at!

They leave you with a billion questions. 

“Wait. When do I remove this from heat?”

“How many cups is 2 pounds of confectioners sugar?”

“Do I do this in a mixer?”

I could go on and on.

So I used the family recipes as a guide, and I went online searching for full-direction recipes for the desserts we grew up loving. I was highly successful in finding perfect recipes for sour cream pound cake and for red velvet cake. I could not; however, find a very close fudge recipe. My Maw-Maw was FAMOUS for her fudge.  I had to do my best using her recipe for that one, and I’ll share that one with you next time because it turned out beautifully. The boys couldn’t get enough.

But for now, I’m going to do the easy thing. I’m going to give you LINKS to the most perfect red velvet cake recipe I have found, but see below for the cream cheese frosting. 

Let me know if you try them out and love them as much as we did! And don’t fall into the trap of trying a red velvet cake mix and canned cream cheese icing. That was terrible! I tried it.

OH!!! That reminds me. The red velvet recipe I’m sending you to does not have the yummy cream cheese icing, which is a big deal to me, so I’m including our family recipe for it.

Cream Cheese Frosting

(from my Grandma to you)

Ingredients:

1 stick margarine (I used butter.),  Milk (1 T if needed), 8 oz cream cheese, 1 t vanilla,  3.5 Cups Conf. sugar, 1 C nuts if desired

Directions:

Heat butter and cream cheese together until butter is melted and cream cheese is soft. Mix them together well. Add sugar and vanilla. If icing is too thick, add a little milk. Stir in pecans if desired.

And now for the pound cake…

I made these cakes for friends, and upon Alan’s request, I also made the pound cake for my family. He actually drove to the store at 7pm so I could make this cake for him before I went to bed. Hahaha!!! Of course, Alan and Daniel were the only ones who would try it because my other children are too picky to try pound cake. Oh well, at least they eat their broccoli. 

Merry Christmas, y’all!!!

 Recipes I’ve shared in the past:

Baked Potato Soup

My Award Winning Chili

Easy Roast Recipe

The post Our Favorite Red Velvet and Pound Cake Recipes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Lion around at the zoo

A few weeks ago, I was grocery shopping alone at the Commissary.

It’s funny. When I was pregnant, strangers in stores always talked to me.

“You’re so….big. Are you having twins?”

Oh, how I loved those little chats…Then when the boys were babies, people still talked to us, but these days we’re just regular old people. I don’t get comments unless I take all 4 of them out together. Then of course, no one can believe they are all boys. (Ha! I can’t believe it either. It’s okay.)

So now when people talk to me in the grocery store, it’s usually a man who is grocery shopping but doesn’t know what he’s doing and wants help.

I was 80% of my way through the store, my cart was 70% full, and I had just turned down the bread aisle. Only there are apparently two bread aisles because regular sandwich bread wasn’t on this aisle at all, which left me lingering and searching for longer than usual because this is yet another side effect of moving all the time. You don’t know where anything is.

An airman in his mid-twenties (I’m guessing), started talking to me. He asked something like, “How’re you this fine day?”

This caught me off guard. It’s a little unusual, right? We just shop. We don’t shoot the breeze with random people standing by the hot dog buns.

By the way, when I’m nervous/uncomfortable, I tend to laugh. It’s an annoying habit that may sometimes send the wrong message, but I have very little control over it.

So I laughed a little and said, “I’m fine.”

But I’m standing there thinking, “Is this guy trying to talk to me?” Ha! Sometimes in my head I’m still 28 and cute…I forget that I actually look like a mother of four nearing 40…

He kept talking.

“So what’s a good thing to cook? I mean, I like to, but I don’t know what to make. I need ideas,” he pointed towards my cart full of vegetables, cheese, and breads and such, “and you seem to know.”

Oh!! This young man is actually wanting meal ideas from me?

He isn’t just trying to talk to me. I did a completely terrible job of thinking up cooking suggestions for him on the spot. See my mind was wiped clean as I realized that I am now the motherly lady you ask for kitchen tips…

I guess my bubble was burst, but hey. I’m going to redeem myself here. Would YOU like some cooking ideas? I have nothing earth shattering to offer, but here’s a sample of what has been cooking in my kitchen this summer.

How I actually serve lunch. That’s ham, fruit, and apple bread.

That is…this is my cooking plan aside from frozen pizza, hot dogs, sandwiches, and fruit trays because we have honestly mostly eaten exactly that.

Chicken Noodle Soup, like this recipe.

During our 2 years in Georgia, Joshua raved on and on about Mrs. Bowers’s (a local friend’s) chicken noodle soup, so I tried to make it as much like hers as I could!

I guess my cooking is still highly influenced by our time in Georgia because one of my other summer projects was this cake I saw by our Georgia friend, Julie. Hers was a little bigger, which I wasn’t quite ready for that level of baking, so I did a 4 layer version of the red, white, and blue cake for July 4th.

Yes, I photographed it while it was still in the freezer…which is why I will never be a food blogger. And don’t laugh at my melting blue rosettes. It was my first try, so I was pleased as punch.

Want to make a swirly cake like this? Well, you just need a TON, TON, TON, that’s 3 tons, of buttercream frosting, food dye, and some boxed cake mixes because oh yes, I definitely make my cakes from a boxed mix. I figure there’s no shame. That’s just pre-measured flour and sugar and directions, really.

Here’s a link to the YouTube video I watched to learn how to make the buttercream swirlies. Oh my bad, they call them rosettes:

Here’s my menu plan from last week:

I number my cookbooks, and this month I’m using book #16. Does that sound strange?

Ok. I know that looks like I’m planning to bake a lot of sweets, but in my defense, the kids are home all day and we do that for fun together. We will never actually bake 2 desserts in one week, but I dream big.

The apple bread was a huge hit with Alan and Daniel. The mug was a lovely gift from Jennings.

I couldn’t find another one online that was exactly like the one I made, so here’s the recipe for it.

Printable Apple Bread Recipe

Apple Bread

3 eggs, slightly beaten

2 Cups sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil (I used canola.)

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 Cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 Cups cored, peeled, and chopped apples

Topping:

2 Tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325, and chop up your apples. Set apples aside.

Stir together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla until ingredients are well mixed. Combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon and stir into liquid ingredients until just evenly mixed.

Stir in apples.

Divide between 2 greased loaf pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon for topping. Sprinkle over tops of loaves.

Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I like to set the timer for more like 1 hour, stick a fork in it to check for doneness. If fork comes out clean, your bread is done. If it comes out doughy, bake 10 minutes longer.

I got this recipe from a church recipe collection: Roanoke First Baptist Church Covered Dish, page 192. This recipe was from Virginia Yarbrough, and I altered it to omit pecans for our nut allergy kid.

******************

Maybe next week I will work on my food photography skills, but hungry boys get quite impatient, so I make no promises.

Happy summer!!

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The post What I’m Cooking This Summer (& Chatty Stories at the Supermarket) appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I love watching my boys play ball.

Having my kids home all day cracks me up. I mean literally, by 5:30, when my husband gets home, I’m a little cracked in the head.

But I love it. I do.

What do you do on the lazy days of Spring break? Well, for any parent who decides to stay home with the kiddos during their week off of school, these are definitely not lazy days. Duh, right?

But it’s still fun. I cooked 3 meals yesterday. Do you think anyone will notice if I only “cook” 2 today?

Daniel helped me make last night’s dinner. He even helped come up with a recipe.

“Mom, can we have a bowl of carrots for dinner?”

“Um, well…”

“And bwocowi! Bwocowi and carwats for supper. Nothing else.”

“Um, well…we do need to have some kind of meat. Chicken, maybe?”

“No. How about if you put the meat in with the bwocowi and the carwots, all in 1 big bowl?”

“Hmmm. Yes, that sounds good. How about this sausage?”

“Yes! Yes.”

helping me bake his cake….Actually, at this point he was lickin’ the bowl.

So Daniel and I made a delicious dinner that, believe it or not, was heartily consumed by all SIX residents of the House of Tiny Men.  Here’s the recipe. Alan made me write it down.

So I typed it out for you to print for yourself.

Just click on the link below to download and print the recipe.

Daniel’s Sort of Gazpacho

Okay, it may not be that pretty, but I promise it was yummy. Even my picky eaters did eat it, believe it or not.

——————————–

Daniel tries to hang out with the neighborhood boys, who are all 2 to 3 years older than he is. They are Caleb’s age, and as far as they are concerned, Daniel is just Caleb’s little brother. Daniel has been persona non grata to them.

I told Caleb he was going to have to tell them we can’t play if they can’t include Daniel.

Yesterday I sent them out to play, and I asked Caleb later how it went.

“Oh, I told ’em, ‘If you guys can’t accept the little guy, I’m going to turn you into rotten flesh.”

!!!!!??????

“Ew, Caleb! What does that even mean???”

“It’s from Minecraft.”

“What did they say?”

Caleb made a face that looked sort of like this          8 /

Nothing more was said. So no one said anything unwelcoming to Daniel. Raising boys is apparently not for the easily offended or overly refined….

__________________________

The leprechaun came to John David’s class. I asked him who the leprechaun was. He said, “Jesus!” I couldn’t help it. I busted out laughing before I tried to explain Jesus isn’t the leprechaun.

It’s been a fun week so far. Lots of driveway basketball, Lego Star Wars video games, and popcorn eating has taken place.

Caleb’s genius plan for spring break was announced on Day 1:

“Let’s make a rest schedule for this week.”

I laughed, but he appears to be sticking to it.

JD loves playing with the magnet letters he got from my friend Amy. Also, JD loves pajamas. He changes back into his pjs the moment he re-enters the house. Sometimes, when I’m going somewhere in the afternoon, I don’t even have time to change him for the 3rd time that day and he picks up his big bros in his pjs.

People probably think I never dress him. hehehe

Hope y’all had a great week too!

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The post Spring Break Part II: Funny Stuff They Said with Daniel’s Recipe Printable appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.