Habits or The Case For The Traveling Pillowcase

I have noticed that I have a few habits that I picked up from my mom and dad. My dad always wrote down the mileage, gallons and what it cost every time we filled up with gas in the car. I remember doing it for him when I was sitting in the passenger seat. So when I got married and my husband had the same habit, it was no big deal to keep it up. When we lived in Singapore I mentioned to a friend of mine that it was strange to not do that when we filled up our car. (Or "topped it up" ) We didn't own the car and the company gave us some allowance money for the gas, so we didn't have the same reasons to record it.

Okay, so that may not sound so odd to of lot of you. I'm sure there are plenty who do the same thing.

But there is another habit that I recently wondered where it started and asked my mom.

When I was a kid we would camp every summer. On these trips we would all bring our own pillows. My mom had us put different pillowcases on than the ones we used at home. They were usually made out of old feedsack fabric. (Oh how I wish I had some of that fabric to make quilts out of!)

Flash forward to my adult life... I still do that. I still think I have to put a different pillowcase on my pillows when I go on a trip.

Recently, I was pondering this phenomenon. I asked my mom why she did that and she said it was because we had mostly white sheets back then and she didn't like how our pillows seemed to get dirty when we were camping. So the feedsack pillow cases were her solution to hiding the dirt.

The bigger question is why do I still do that? My kids haven' t done it for a long time, but I still have my husband and I do it. Maybe now it's because I made these adorable pillowcases for us. Well, mine is adorable. Pete's is..... manly. Can you guess which one is mine?


I took this picture on a bed in a hotel. My main reason now for traveling pillowcases is so they stand out from the white sheets on the hotel beds and we don't forget to bring them back home with us. (Yes, we have left our pillows in a hotel room. Or I should say I have left my pillow in a hotel room.)

Orange Swirl Cake

This cake is a favorite of our Small Group. The last time I made it, we only had 2 or 3 pieces left. One lady asked if she could take a piece home. She wanted some later with coffee at home. She wasn't sure it would last until morning. :)

1 package yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 package (4-serving size) orange Jello
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Chocolate Frosting

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan; lightly flour. (I used cooking spray with flour added -- Easy!)
2. Beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes scraping bowl occasionally
Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter and set aside. Pour remaining batter into pan. Stir dry Jello and orange extract into the 1 1/2 cups of batter.
Drop orange batter by heaping tablespoons randomly onto batter in pan. Swirl batter with knife.
3. Bake 33 to 38 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Frost with chocolate frosting. (I suppose you could use that nasty canned frosting if you really want. I cannot stand the stuff and always make my own. It's much better and I can make it as chocolaty as I want!)

Oh man that looks good! I think I am going to make some for our church potluck on Sunday!

19

I am a day late with this, but I need to acknowledge my girl's birthday. (We've been traveling back home and I haven't had internet access.)


We spent the weekend with her, hopefully making her birthday a little more special.



On Sunday we went to church and ate at a VERY good restaurant in downtown Lawrence.

After we finished our lunch, we found a corner of the restaurant that had couches and used that as the place for Megan to open her gifts. Then we headed across the street for ice cream. A required food in Megan's diet. ;)



I cannot begin to say how proud I am of this girl. Just look at how she has grown up physically. She is even more beautiful on the inside.

Happy Birthday sweet daughter of ours! Your dad and I are so PROUD of who you are!

Love you tons and tons and tons and tons!

Blow Out

My husband loves his shoes.

Yes, you read that right.

My Husband.

So you can imagine his sorrow when this happened to a pair of his shoes:

See how sad he looks?

This happened last month when we were in St. Cloud for a movie and dinner. Since they are hightops, he unlaced the top parts and wrapped the laces around the soles. It was really funny.

But I wouldn't think it should be totally a shock since they are at least 14 years old. I found pictures of him wearing them when we went to Switzerland in 1995. I remember (and Pete thinks I'm weird for remembering this) that our trip to Switzerland was the first time he wore them outside. Before that they were strictly inside basketball shoes. So who knows how long he has owned them?

The really crazy thing about the shoe blow-out is the same thing happened to a pair of his hiking shoes when we were in Iowa for Christmas. I didn't get a picture of that. (These pictures were actually Pete's idea. He said I should take some pictures for my blog! What a supportive husband!)

The Comments? They Are Funny

One of the things I love about keeping a blog is the interaction I get in the comments section from the people that read this. Last week I wrote about the dessert I made for our Small Group Bible Study.

You so have to click here and read the comments. (There are comments at the end of the post.)

I laughed so hard.... The Small Group Skipping Couple (Mike & Jen) have such a terrific sense of humor!

A Website Discovered

I discovered a new website I wanted to bring attention to. It's the website of a terrific restaurant that's too far away from us to visit very often. It's called Peppercorn Pantry in Aplington, Iowa. We've visited twice and had lunch there one time and dessert another time. Okay, we had dessert both visits...but the second time was only dessert. Highly recommended!

Here's the link to an article about the owner.

And here is the link to the restaurant.

Now I just need to figure out how to get one of those cookbooks. I love cookbooks.

I see on the event page that they are serving a Valentine's Day dinner. Phooey.

P.S. The owner is the mom of Megan's boyfriend Zach. :)

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

This week's dessert was a Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake. It's one of my favorites. And I found out it is a favorite of a couple in our Small Group. They called to say they couldn't make it tonight, but stopped by before they left town to have a piece of cake! That made me laugh.

It's a pretty easy recipe as it starts with a cake mix. The original recipe calls for a yellow cake mix, but I often use a lemon cake mix to up the yummy lemonyness.

I bought this bundt pan last year the day after Valentine's Day. Isn't it cute?


I think what really makes this cake is the use of fresh lemon juice and the lemon zest. I use two lemons for the 2 tablespoons called for. Oh and the long skinny thing in the picture? The best zester ever. But be careful, I have managed to zest my fingernails before.

Ready to bake:

The finished product with the yummy glaze. Notice the big missing chunk? This photo was taken after the Small Group Skipping Couple had stopped by.

1 box yellow cake mix
1 (8 oz.) package fat-free cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup water
2 large eggs
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3-4 teaspoons lemon juice

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan. (I use baking spray with flour and alway have good results)
• Beat on low speed cake mix, softened cream cheese, water, eggs, egg whites, lemon zest, lemon juice and poppy seeds until moistened, about 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed until well blended, about 2 minutes.

• Pour the batter into a greased 10" tube pan or bundt pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted come out clean. About 40 minutes.

• Cool in pan on rack for at least 20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

• Glaze: Combine ingredients until mixtures forms a smooth thick glaze. Spoon over top of the cooled cake, letting it drip down the sides.