And a Good Time Was Had By All

Here is a hodge-podge of my week. I probably should break this post down into several, or just spare you the ramblings all-together, but I'm not going to. I did, however, spare you all from a cute, little song I learned while growing up about getting wet and being bad and drinking tea. Even though it would have been very appropriate right about now.

We went canoeing this week. The last time we went canoeing, I was six months pregnant, and we didn't know how to do much of anything but run into the bullrushes. This time we did much better about not running into the vegetation. That's only because there was no vegetation. Instead, we were in a group and kept running into other people's boats.

I am not sure how much I should say about this whole thing or not. The whole subject is a very volatile one. It has something to do with who is better at handling a canoe than someone else, but that someone else doesn't think that is the case, and the who doesn't want to hurt the someone else's feelings (although the who was quite adept at telling the someone else everything he/she was doing wrong). So we will just leave it at that.

Van said if we got out of it alive and with our marriage in tact, we were never going canoeing again.

I found a wonderful recipe for CHOCOLATE DESSERT that I can eat on my low iodine diet. I am so excited. This is a very fun cake to make, and it doesn't take any eggs or milk. The cocoa powder is okay to have because it isn't milk chocolate.

Wacky Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together flour,
sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt into an 8 x 8 inch baking
pan or dish. Mix thoroughly. Make 3 holes in the
dry ingredients. Place oil in first hole, vinegar in
second hole, and vanilla in third hole. Pour water
over all and mix well. Spread batter evenly in pan
and bake in the dish that batter was mixed in. Bake
30 minutes or until center is firm. Cool.

I made a frosting by getting Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips (they don't have dairy in them and are worth their weight in gold), about two tablespoons of non-dairy butter (I can't remember the name and I don't feel like getting up and looking in the fridge right now), and a little bit of coconut milk. I melted that concoction in the microwave and poured it over the cake...simply DIVINE!!!

I have had a lot of fun quilting with a friend this week. We went to a Minnesota Shop Hop a while back. It's where you get a "pass-port" with 85 quilt shops from all over Minnesota, and you try to hit them all and get a stamp. You can turn your passport in for all sorts of prizes that don't even come close to what you've spent in time and gas money. We ran into some real die-hard quilters. They had their R.V.s and were tooling all over Minnesota so they could fill their passports and get their prizes.

No, we did not go to all 85, you silly people! We only went to seven. Each shop gives you a different block pattern, a piece of Minnesota-themed material, and, if you spend $10.00, a charm for your bracelet. It's kind of silly, but I felt like I was on a treasure hunt. And if you're into quilting, it's so much fun to browse the shops. Quilts are actually magnificent pieces of art.

I am still working on the same quilt I've been working on for...ahem...two years now. It's a stack-and-whack. I've gotten all the blocks done; now, I'm just working on piecing everything together. I really wish I could work on it more because it is so relaxing and fun. Sometimes, while my machine is purring away, I think, "Wow. This is wonderful. Why don't I do this more often." Then, my life and my schedule smack me up-side the head, and I become ever so aware of why I don't do it more often. It's a shame, really.

Well, this is becoming very long-winded. My mother always said I had diarrhea of the mouth. So, I will just leave you with the link to the sermon I promised you a few weeks ago. It is one of my favorite sermons by my favorite preacher-man.