Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate - Birthday Party

Hard to believe my oldest grandson is 10 years old.  Check out the "10" on the jeep banner I made for him.

One of our birthday traditions is that you get to pick your birthday meal and your dessert on your special day.  Sometimes the same meal is picked year after year.  Mr. 2Wicked use to pick turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing (yup, the whole Thanksgiving meal) for years and years.  Then one year he decided to have Salisbury Steak.  The Future Mrs. 2Wicked has had a Seafood Boil for three years.  We're not cake eaters but we are all "dessert" eaters.  Some of our favorite birthday desserts are Strawberry Pizza, Chocolate Pie, Apple Dumplings and Heavenly Cake.


My grandson picked Pineapple Meatloaf, baked potatoes, salad - without tomatoes, garlic bread, and his great Grandma's cherry pie, and last but not least green beans.  He was very specific about the green beans; he wanted the canned, not fresh, short chubby ones - too funny.  That's a pretty sensible meal for a ten year old.  I'm just glad he didn't pick steak and shrimp, that would have been a spendy meal for 15 people.  As it was I made meatloaf using 5 pounds of ground beef - that's a lot of meat loaf.


This meatloaf recipe is the best ever.  A couple of things that make it special are pineapple, corn flakes and the way that it's cooked.  I like to cook mine on a rack or broiler pan so that it doesn't sit in the grease.  This gives it a delicious crust.  I've been making it this way for years and once you've had it this way you won't want to make it in a loaf pan anymore.

PINEAPPLE MEAT LOAF

3 lbs lean ground beef                2 tsp salt

½ c. chopped onions                  1 can crushed pineapple,

2 eggs, beaten                             drained (reserve juice)

1c. crushed corn flakes              2/3 c. ketchup

1 c. ketchup

Combine beef, onions, egg, corn flakes, and 1 c. ketchup and most of pineapple.  Shape into two loafs on rack over pan.  Sprinkle with remaining pineapple.  Combine 2/3 c. ketchup with enough reserved pineapple juice to form a sauce.  Pour over meat loaf.  Bake at 425⁰ for 45 minutes covered with foil.  Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

Note:  That's a large can of pineapple.  When making the sauce it should be thick enough to sit on the meat loaf and not slide off.  Most of the time I use more than 2/3 c. ketchup.  I think because I make it into two loafs and I like a nice covering of sauce.  If you don't have enough just mix up some more.


Enjoy!  I'm going to go enjoy the meatloaf and pie that I plated so that I could take a picture for all of you!


-Laurie

Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate > Happy Birthday Mama!

My Mama had her 81st birthday!

WOW!!!!  81 - there's a lot of wisdom in my Mama.  Some things she taught me:

• Work hard.  If my Mom did a job, there was no such thing as half-ass (ass was not in her vocabulary - no swearing was another lesson but that one didn't take.)
• Pray every day.  If something is not going right with someone and you tell her, her reply will be: "I'll put them on my prayer list."
• Never borrow money unless you can make your payment if you're unemployed.  This happened to my Mom and Dad.  When they first were married they borrowed money for a car and my Dad got laid off.  They had a hard time making the payments (they did make the payments, though.)
• Grow a garden.  She said many times that they ate well because they had a garden.  This is a legacy that she has passed down to her children and grandchildren.
• Stand up straight.  I sometimes see slouchers and I think that they look uncomfortable in their skin - like their trying to shrink and go unnoticed.  You look more confident standing tall with great posture - and also if you're over 50, like I am, and you're starting to shrink you still look tall.  Thanks Mom for that lesson.  
• Suck your stomach in.  This really goes with stand up straight because it is impossible to slouch when you're sucking in your stomach.  A multi-benefit wisdom: looking confident, takes inches off your waist, and makes your abs stronger (try it for a half hour.)  Also impossible to slouch in a chair.
• Exercise every day.  I'm still working on learning this lesson.  It seems to be hit or miss with me.
• Dance around the house.  My Mama would put an album on the hi-fi (for you young'uns, there used to be a turntable that played music, it wasn't just used by a DJ to scratch!) and dance around the house.  She just asked me the other day if I ever dance around the house.  Sometimes, but not enough.  After she asked me that I came home, danced around the house and felt amazingly good.  My Mama has a lot of wisdom.
• Put others first.  My Mama always asks about everyone - you, hubby, kids, grandkids, friends, etc.  She is genuinely interested in everyone's well-being.
• Make things, it's good for you, your brain, and your well-being.  Mama has made some amazing things over the years for her loved ones.  Now you know where Miss Angela and I get it!

That's her with one of her three favorite people, her grandson (the other two faves are her other two grandsons)!

Happy 81st Birthday Mama!!!!!!  We had a party for her and for dessert we had "Heavenly Cake."  The perfect dessert for an "Angel." Here's the recipe for you to make for your "Angels."

HEAVENLY CAKE

1 white jiffy cake                        2 sm. pkgs instant vanilla
1 20 oz crushed pineapple,            pudding
  drained                                      2 c. milk
8 oz. pkg cream cheese               9 oz. cool whip
½ c. milk                                     chopped nuts, optional

Preheat oven 350^o.  Bake jiffy cake in 9X13 pan for 20 minutes.  Cool completely.  Spread drained pineapple over top.  In small bowl mix cream cheese & ½ c. milk.  In another bowl mix pudding with 2 c. milk.  Mix pudding and cheese together.  Pour over pineapple - spread evenly.  Spread cool whip on top.  Sprinkle with nuts or coconut or both.

I didn't use a  jiffy cake - I'm not even sure they make them anymore.  This is an old, old recipe.  I used half the batter of a cake mix and made cupcakes with the rest of the batter.

Happy 81st Birthday, Mama! 


-Laurie

Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate > Happy Birthday Miss Angela Glossy Flossy

Today is Angela's Birthday.  Her first birthday was a momentous day - not only did she just learn to walk a couple of days before but she had also just gotten her first teeth shortly before the day!  A big celebration for us because we weren't sure she would ever walk or have teeth!!  Check out her "sensible walking shoes."  In an effort to bling them up I tied them with blue curling ribbon.  This lack of true party shoes on her first birthday may be the cause of her shoe obsession today!!  Looking around for "party shoes" for girls  led me to these shoes. Really loving the pink polka dot ones!!

Mud Pie Baby Bow Booties

Mud Pie Baby Buds Ballet Slippers

Mud Pie Boathouse Baby Seersucker Flower

Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate > Ruffled Crepe Paper Streamers

I am in love with these ruffled crepe paper streamers.  In the last month I've used them several times and I'm pretty sure I'm not finished yet.  Can you say "OBSESSED!!"  I learned how to do this at MADE, and her tutorial is the fastest, easiest way to make ruffled crepe paper streamers, the woman is a genius.   
I've used the streamers to decorate, made party hats for Mikey's Birthday Party Banner and also used it for the Treats Banner.

HMMM - I'm thinking Halloween Streamers.  -Laurie

Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate > A True Labor Day

Meet my son Mike, AKA "2Wicked". 

Today is his birthday - so 25 years ago it truly was "labor day" for me.  In honor of his 25 years, I made a banner of Mikey through the years.  The biggest challenge is that Mike is the 3rd child, you know what that means, he raised himself  he was a little left out of the photos.  The first child you take 1000 photos the first year (I think I had 1000 the first month) and 500 each year after, the 2nd child gets 500 photos the first year and 350 each year after, the 3rd child gets - well lets just say it might look like we adopted him when he was three and then he didn't live with us from the ages of 13 through 16.  And then he lived with us but we had our first grandson and thank goodness that we took a thousand pics of the new grandbaby because Mike was in some of those.  So if you're reading this and about to have your 3rd child - take note because at some point that 3rd child will notice that you are a little thin on pics of them.  After finding a respectable number of pictures, scanning them (remember film - without a choice of a digital copy), resizing, printing, cutting out and putting on the party hat, this is what it looked like made into a banner and hung across the gazebo.  

It was fun for everyone to see him at different stages of his life and fun for the grandkids to see him when he was their age.

Happy Labor Day!   -Laurie