Salisbury Steak and Carrot Cake....

  I know I'm feeling better when I want to get into my kitchen and cook.  Last week the "bug" bit me and I had to have some home baked wheat bread.  I love the smell of the house when it's baking and Cierra and I can't resist eating the heel while it's warm and putting butter and honey on it.  Mmmmm..... This week's bread rose so beautifully and was especially good.  Three loaves are already gone!  (I did share some of it.)
   Then we were going to have company Thursday and I was trying to decide what to fix.  I hadn't made Salisbury Steak with Onion Gravy in a while and we had eaten chicken the first two nights of the week, so everyone was in the mood for something different.  I got this recipe from a Campbells Soup recipe book my mom gave me years ago and we love it.  I double it and have tripled it.  It always turns out wonderful.  When company is coming I make it ahead of time and put it in the crock pot on low and it finishes cooking while I can work on something else!
  So here is the recipe:

Salisbury Steak with Onion Gravy
1 can (10 1/2) oz. condensed onion soup  *(I buy the dry onion soup and make it up for this because it's cheaper and makes plenty if you need to double the recipe.)
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (or ground venison, which is what I used this week)
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper
1 T. flour
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

  Read the recipe carefully you don't use all the ingredients at once!  In bowl, combine 1/3 cup soup with beef, crumbs, egg, salt, pepper.  Shape into 6 oval patties.  In skillet, brown patties; pour off fat.  Gradually blend remaining soup into flour until smooth.  Add to skillet with remaining ingredients; stir to loosen browned bits.  Cover; cook over low heat 20 min. or until done.  Stir now and then.

  I meant to take a picture of both of these but forgot!  Maybe next time.  It is delicious!

  Our church had a dinner this Sunday and for my dessert I made Carrot Cake.  I usually make it on Easter Sunday but we're going to be gone this year so I decided to make it for the dinner.  My mom gave me this recipe and it is the best I've tasted.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
1 1/4 cups salad oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 cup grated raw carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
  Bake at 300 degrees for one hour.  (That's all my mom had on the card.  I like to make this into layers and found out the hard way to use three round pans if you do that!  Adjust the time to what kind of cake you are making.  I will not take as long in the layers as a 9x13 pan.)

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar (4 cups)

  I use 5-6 cups of powdered sugar and mix the above and then add a tiny little bit of milk at a time until it is spreading consistency.  If you use this much powdered sugar you will have plenty for a 3 layer cake.  If it's a 9x13 you probably could get by with 4 cups of the sugar.
  I always associate this cake with the spring for some reason and especially with Easter Sunday.  I also make a torte with a crunchy layer on the bottom, then a cream cheese layer, then a pudding layer and then cool whip on top.  I make butterscotch in the fall, chocolate in the winter, pistachio at Christmas (with maraschino cherries decorating the top), and lemon in the spring and summer.  I think it's wonderful  how we come to associate certain foods we eat with seasons. 
  That's all the recipes for now.  We got cake mixes at our local UGO for 50 cents each and I don't like cake mix cakes, so I've been playing with recipes that doctor them up.  I made a torte with one that was very, very good--I'll post that recipe later.
  I hope everyone is enjoying the beauty of the spring like we are.  Dogwoods, redbuds, birds singing, and life popping up everywhere on trees and in our yards.   Our Designer knows how to make us rejoice in the spring season with all His color and life.  Enjoy!

Our John Robert...

  I always wanted and prayed for a large family.  At least seven children and I actually prayed for eight children.  I often tease my husband that one more will be coming along sooner or later since I prayed for eight!  "Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;" Zech. 9:12 was the verse I used to ask the Lord to give my husband and I double of the four biological children we had. 
  Each Mother's Day I would pray and tell the Lord I was available to mother more children for Him if He would give them to us.  On July 17, 1991 God gave us our first extra blessing--Asher Obadiah.  His name means "how blessed" and he has been just that to us.  A wonderful bonus blessing!
  Then in 1999 God granted us two more bonus blessings!  We were given Cierra Nichole (who was 3) and John Robert (who was 10 months) straight from the Lord to our arms and love. 
  Tomorrow is John's 12th birthday so I'm going to tell his story.  When we got him he hadn't been held much and he still was basically just on a bottle.  Each night I would put a blanket in the dryer and get it warm and then sit and hold him and rock him.  He hadn't had much physical love and he ate it up!  He would snuggle up to me and just let me hold him and rock him and sing to him.
  When John turned a year old he became very sick.  His health wasn't good when we got him and he seemed to pick up everything that went around.  He ended up in the hospital with rotavirus and e-coli on his very first birthday!  His aunt came to the hospital and offered to watch him so I could go home and take a shower and get a nap.  I snatched the opportunity and headed home.  I had showered and was just settling in for a nap when the phone rang.  The hospital wanted me to come back because he wouldn't quit crying and was very upset.  So I headed back to the hospital.  The minute I picked him up he snuggled into my arms and quit crying.  I can remember calling my husband and saying,  "I'm his mama now.  He knows I'm his mama." 
   John hadn't had much opportunity to move about and so we got him a walker.  He didn't walk in a walker, he ran in a walker!  I had to block doorways so he wouldn't hit the divider and send himself flying!   Once he got the idea of moving around he wasn't happy with holding still!
   After we'd had the children for about a year Gary and I decided to try a getaway for our anniversary with Brian and Niki watching John and Cierra.  On the last day of our getaway Niki called and said she didn't think John was going to make it another day he was so unhappy and fussy.  So we headed back home early.  When we walked in the door he latched on to Gary's leg and when Gary picked him up he kept loving on him.
  That night we decided to let him lay in the bed with us for a while.  As he laid between Gary and I he would take turns kissing Gary's face and then kissing my face.  I don't know who was enjoying it the most--John or us.
  Early on John had a sense of adventure and a love for learning.  He has a mechanical mind and he's a problem solver.  If I can't figure out how something works I hand it to John.  He talked early and would ask the most unusual questions like "Why do refrigerators have wheels under them?"  I mean, what two year old studies on that?
  He loved Batman so we bought him the mask and a little cape.  One day I looked out the kitchen window and he was on the top of the fort (Gary had built it for Asher when he was little) and I could see he was planning on jumping off of it.  I raced out the back door but it was too late.  He had dived off of the fort and was on the ground crying.  I picked him up and checked him out.  He was scratched up but nothing broken.  I said, "John, honey, why did you do that?"  His reply was, "Because I thought I would fly like Batman!"  That's just one of the many scares he's given me with his love for adventure! 
  When he was about five he asked the Lord to be His Savior.  What a joy to put a checkmark by his name in my Bible where I have my children and grandchildren's names claiming their salvation ahead of time.  It is my heart's desire that he will always yield to the Lord in his life and bring glory to God.  It is also my prayer.
  Each year I've watched him grow and seen his personality develop.  He is a natural leader.  He has a sense of humor that I absolutely love.  He is better than tv comedy when he gets in a certain mood!  He loves the Three Stooges and I like to stand back in my room and listen to him belly laugh as he watches them.  He loves Dick Van Dyke and since I love that too we watch it together.  He loves games.  He would play games every night if I would agree.  His favorite is Monopoly.  He loves to fish.  He loves to hunt.  He loves he and I planning something together and then doing it together.  He has always loved planning a little garden and so I gave him a little plot of his own.  This year he's planning on growing vegetables in containers!
   I often think how empty my life would be without Asher, Cierra and John.  What a wonderful blessing they have been to us.
  Twelve years ago his aunt and I sit in a nursery together and it was Easter Sunday.  She told me that her little sister had had a baby that day-a little boy.  I never dreamed that he was going to be my little boy.
  Tomorrow he has requested a lemon cake with filling between the layers that is like the filling in a lemon filled donut.  Then he wants lemon buttercream icing and lemon ice cream.  He made me a list of all his "wishes" for his birthday.  It was typical for a boy his age and some were reasonable and some weren't.  (like rent the skating rink for the entire evening so just our family could skate all evening!)
  He'll be happy with what he's getting.  He's chosen spaghetti with lettuce salad, corn and garlic bread for supper.  That surprised me--I expected homemade chicken nuggets or Chicken Parmagiana.
  So tonight I'm sittting here looking forward to tomorrow when my "baby" is turning twelve and feeling a little sad too.  Wondering how much longer I'll get 55 kisses like I did tonight, or we'll have to pack "Moosie and Rex" in his backpack to travel anywhere in the world, or he'll want to hold my hand in church, or...
  Yet I'm enjoying seeing the adolescent John who insists on helping me with heavy things or getting something down for me that requires a ladder.  The John who  takes off with his dad on a deer hunt (and he got one!), or goes to work with his dad like he did last Saturday and earns himself $28 because he worked like a little man.
  My mother once gave me a vinegar cruet with silk roses in it.  She said, "Tami, this is like life---some bitter and some sweet, but we need to take is all and find joy in it."  So that's how I'm feeling tonight as my son turns twelve--like this is a little bittersweet.  However, I'm finding joy in all of it and am so thankful for my precious son that God hand-picked for us and gave to us.  Happy birthday, to my John!

Love,
Mom

p.s.  I would have pictures on here of our John but had a computer crash last week and am still replacing files that were lost!