Baking results

We are having a ladies meeting tonight at a neighbors house.
The women from my village bring something sweet to eat and the other village's ladies bring something salty. I'm always glad to be in the sweet group, as the salty potluck foods intimidate me:) (sandwiches, enpanadas, chipa, sopa paraguaya and things like that.)

I decided to try and see if my favorite angel food cake recipe would work today, as the last few times I made it, it failed. I have so many eggs now, that I don't see it as a waste if I use 1 1/2 cups of egg whites on this wonderful dessert. I also needed a backup recipe, in case the angel food cake didn't turn out, so I picked a refreshing looking Key Lime Poke Cake from Betty Crocker. Instead of the boxed white cake mix, I used Betty's own recipe for Silver White cake. I also omitted the frosting on top, as I thought the filling was enough. Come and take a look at my results:

You can find the Chocolate Angel Cake here and the Key Lime Poke Cake here.

I hope you try one of these some day!

Here is the Pretzel Recipe from my last post, especially for Ellie! Or this one.

I'll see you all again soon, Brenda



It's me again:)

Ok, picture this: I'm home, all alone. Marv and the girls went to check on the cattle. They left me with peace and dirty dishes.  I've got an almost empty bag of nachos and a cup of cappuccino. Ahhhh..... no more excuses not to post something in my blog.:)

Sorry for leaving you readers for a while. I just didn't have the urge to post anything. But then some of my faithful friends started leaving me messages, asking if everything was ok. One of my bloggy friends even awarded me (I think she gave me the award to wake me up to start blogging again:), thanks Betty! (More on that later)

I started to post something a few times, but it would take forever to post pictures. But I'm here now, so this is what's been happening in my life now.

The cute calf in the first picture is my new project. Her mama stepped on her legs right after she was born and broke 2 of them. We put her front leg in a splint and the hind leg healed on its own. Her name is Toddy (a brand of chocolate milk down here) and she's doing great now. She's not usually in my flower bed, but the girls thought it would make a great photo shoot:)

Our next new pet is a cute little turtle. My mom found it on the road and gave it to Brianna. We started to call it "Chipa" because of it's shape and size, but Brianna renamed it and I forgot what it's name is now. It's so small I could fit two on them in the palm of my hand. This is the kind of turtle that gets to be about 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter.

We went to our parents ranch the other day. This is what the front gate looks like. Can you see the name of the ranch on the sign? Who can guess what it means?  (Sisters are not allowed to answer this:) Whoever has been reading my blog for awhile should be able to answer this.

This is what Brianna likes to do on the ranch.

This is what Cindy likes to do on the ranch.

And this is what Amy likes to do on the ranch.

 I love my girls, even if they drive me crazy sometimes.

 So I baked them their favorite snack last week. Big, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside pretzels:)

 I received a surprise last week, my friend Betty from A glimpse into midlife awarded me with this sunshine award! Thanks Betty!

Every award has it´s rules and this one is pretty easy.


Thank the person who awarded you and link back to them.
(Did that!)


Tell one thing about yourself.
(I collect more crafting magazines and ideas than I'll ever be able to make in 4 lifetimes! I just checked and I have over 5 GB of crafting magazines in my computer and a whole shelf in my bookcase full!)


Nominate 10 blogs for the award.
( I haven't been blogging for awhile and haven't been keeping up with other blogs either, so I won't do this today. Sorry:)

This is Brianna's cow saying:

"Thanks for dropping in on the Chacogirl, and moooove back here soooon!:)"

Easter in our part of the world

Even though Easter falls into our Fall season, we can still enjoy new flowers blooming. These are the first flowers from some bulbs I got from a friend. Everyone who knows me, also knows that I do not have a green thumb, so I really don't even know the name of these beauties:)

The girls are home for almost a week for Easter holidays, so we enjoyed some good Terere-times.
Tip: how you know you have a teenager in the house?
You have to look for your manicure supplies and your daughter's nails look more awesome than your own:)

I did some traditional baking before the holidays. I started with Easter Paska. It's a sweet bread loaf that just tastes like something my Mennonite Oma would make:) Find the recipe here.

 I also tried out Taste of Home's Orange Easter Bunny rolls. They turned out delish!

Sunday morning I hid some goodies and the girls and Marv had to look for them! (I hate looking for stuff, keys, lost library books, eggs, etc) So I'm glad that I'm the official hider, and my husband has to look for the baskets with the girls:)

I'm really not showing off with a quilt in the background, but Cindy's basket really was in the old washing machine on the porch and my quilt was hanging there to dry:)'

They all found their baskets and posed for the camera:)

We had a nice family gathering at my parents house in the afternoon.

Even though my family ganged up on me and tried to tell the grossest stories they knew so that I would gag, etc. But that's what families are for, right?

I hope you all had a great holiday and God bless you and your families!

Love, Brenda (a.k.a. theChacogirl)

Keeping busy

I'm trying to get back in the groove or blogging reguarly, but it's not easy. We're keeping busy with harvest and are very grateful for that.

I made my very first batch of relish last week. You can't buy it anywhere in Paraguay and I remembered it tasting very good from when I was a child in Canada:)

This picture looks kind of wierd:) This is actually a big bowl and not a pail. I grated the cucumbers and the onions (I borrowed Cindy's swim goggles for the onions) and cut up red and green peppers and cut up some frozen cauliflower. Then I cooked it with spices and stuff and canned it.

The jars on the right hand side are full of relish, the others are pickles. I got the recipe for the relish at Mennonite Girls can cook. I left out the mustard seeds and the curry powder as I don't like the taste of that. And I borrowed the Turmeric Powder from my Mom (you cna't get it here).

Here's another new recipe I tried. Everything Bread from Taste of Home. Brianna said it tasted better than cake.
With this recipe I omitted the onion powder. I wanted to be able to put jam on my sandwich!:)
I agree!

I'm sewing new curtains for our old house. We built the house we are in now about 7 years ago, and kept the old homestead house to use as a guesthouse. My husband's cousin is coming from Germany during Easter, so I'm deep-cleaning it and making new curtains and sheets for it.

Before:

I won't say "After" because I need to do some more to the room. So this is the "During" photo.

I also sewed a new cover for our blanket. I didn't really want to go with these colors, but I loved the mix of flowers and stripes. And Marv likes it too:)

So, keep checking out my blog for new updates on the B's B&B (Brenda's Bed and Breakfast) and I'll be showing some things I've been crafting and sewing soon.

Have a great weekend! Hugs, Brenda

 

Excuses not to blog

Hello all of my dear friends and family, or who ever is reading this blog. I would like to list some excuses reasons I have, why I haven't been blogging very regularly lately.

1. I had to go out for supper with Cindy and her friends for her birthday. The Hotel Florida serves the best pizzas, btw.

 2. I have to take cool pictures of my crazy cat.  Why would he want to sleep in a bowl? I don't know:)

 3. I have to watch things grow. We have been blessed this summer's end with good rainfall, and everything is growing at once.

 3 1/2. I have to watch these beautiful cucumbers grow as well.

4. I have 2 new bunnies to take care of. In the picture you can see the new female rabbit on this side of the pen. Skip-bo is looking over the middle part to see what's happening.

5. I have to help Brianna with her homework. She has a lot of trouble with her math, so that takes a good chunk of my afternoons. She's forth grade now.

  6. I have to can the cucumbers too. We're harvesting about 3 kg every second day.

7. I was sewing some things for a friend of mine. I didn't take any pictures of the clothes I made, because I didn't know how she thought of me posting it. There were two dark blue satin dresses for her little girls, one white/gray lacey top and a dark blue skirt with lace inserts for her. Her sister is getting married next week, and I think they will all look very spiffy, if I may say so myself. I'm just getting used to sewing that much again, and it has caused me some neck and back pain already. But I love sewing anyway!!!

So, there are some of the things going on in my life right now. What I want to do in the next few weeks is, get our guesthouse ready for my husband's cousin. He's coming here for Easter from Germany and always stays at our house. I'd like to sew new curtains for a few rooms, new sheets and maybe a simple quilt. Lets see how far I get.

Thanks for being patient with me, glad you could drop in and see me. If you need me, I'll be in my sewing room...

or chasing my cat with the camera:)