Photography Challenge Day 10

One o'clock

I was at Coffee Girls, painting one of the ornaments they made last week.

God Moments

Have you ever had a moment where you knew that it was a complete miracle or a huge blessing? One of my friends recently called it a God Moment.

Well I've had two God moments this week.

Several months ago we received a free oil change from the dealership that we've taken our vehicles to for body work. Jon always changes the oil, but you can't really pass up free. So I took the truck in on Tuesday. After a few moments the guy came back out and asked me to come into the work area with him. When they put the truck up on the pedestal it allowed them to see a piece of the axle beside the back wheel had been improperly welded together. He told me that I could have done something as simple as hit a small pot hole and the tire would have blown, the break lines possibly snap, and the truck would wreck. If I happened to be going very fast it would have been a major wreck. It was something that would never have been noticed if I hadn't taken the truck in for that free oil change. God knew that issue was there and had them give us that coupon.

Today I was at Coffee Girls for our usual Thursday get-together. Several of the kids were playing under the table and I squealed because one of the little girls had grabbed my toes. The girls laughed at me and a few minutes later the mom asked where her daughter was. I thought she was still at my feet, so when we noticed she wasn't, none of us really panicked. A few minutes later after searching the yard and entire house we were starting to panic. One of the neighbors happened to be out in her yard and heard us shouting. She told the mom to check out another neighbor's pool. The baby girl had gone four houses down and was in the pool. Thanks to the neighbor, friends, and a quick response from the emergency people, she is going to be fine. If the mom hadn't thought to check on her daughter right then or if the neighbor hadn't been in the yard and told the mom about the pool, today would have had a very different outcome. It was definitely a God moment that had us all responding so quickly and efficiently.

Photo Challenge Day 6

Every Day

Well this isn't really EVERY day. But every Thursday a bunch of girls meet after we drop our kids off at school. We'll sit and talk all day, until pick up time. I'm sure I've mentioned what a blessing the Coffee Girls are to me.

Yesterday was Pinterest day. We all brought a recipe we'd tried from Pinterest. It was interesting.

Pinterest fails

The other morning was epic in Pinterest fails. It was almost time for Coffee Girls and I had found a recipe for mini peach cobblers made in muffin tins. It sounded delicious and perfect.

It failed badly. And I mean really, really badly. The first time I followed the instructions perfectly. It overflowed the pan and dripped poured onto the oven below. The second time I changed up the recipe and it didn't overflow. But once it came out of the oven and had cooled I went to pull it out of the muffin tins and the top came out, but not the peaches and bottom. So I gave up, scooped everything into a bowl and presented it at Coffee Girls as peach cobbler. It tasted pretty good.

That evening I had a pottery party. Sadly I didn't get any pictures, but I do have another Pinterest fail. I had some fruit and thought I'd make a dip for it. Pulled up a recipe and whipped it up in the food processor. It was so runny with tons of tiny lumps. So I turned the processor on and went to put some things in the oven. Pretty soon I had a house filled with smoke and dip that hadn't changed a bit. I turned on the fans and gave up on the dip for a few minutes. 

When I returned it was to find a gelatinous mess that was not only gross looking, but pretty gross tasting as well. Another epic Pinterest fail.

On a good note - the party went great.

Strawberry Trifle

Strawberries are in season and I am always looking for new ways to use them. So far, I've made fruit pizza, strawberry shortcake, fruit salsa and strawberry syrup.

But it was Wednesday and I was wanting to take something homemade to Coffee Girls.

This is what I found on Pinterest. (link to recipe)

 The recipe is below. Let's just say that I came home with a clean bowl.

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Cooking Time:  10 minutes

Yield:  10-12 servings

Ingredients

1-1/2 store-bought angel food cake

2-3 fresh sliced strawberries for garnish

Strawberry Filling Ingredients:

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1-1/2 cup strawberry jam

1/2 cup water

2 cups fresh strawberries, cut in 1/2 then sliced

Cream Filling Ingredients:

1 package softened cream cheese, (8 ounces)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

1 container frozen whipped topping, thawed (16 ounces)

Directions

Break up angel food cake into large pieces.  Set aside.

Prepare the strawberry filling in a saucepan.  Add water, strawberries, and jam. Cook over medium heat until hot.  Stir occasionally.  Add corn starch to small bowl, add 2 tablespoons of water and mix well with spoon until smooth.  Add to saucepan; mix well until filling has thickened. Remove from heat, transfer to small bowl.  Allow to cool for 30 minutes before in refrigerator.

Prepare the cream filling in in a bowl. Add cream cheese, condensed milk, and whipped topping.  Mix well. Set aside.

Place 1/3 of the angel food cake to create the first (bottom) layer in a large trifle bowl.  Drizzle 1/3 of the strawberry filling over the angel food cake.  Top with a 1/3 of the cream filling mixture. Repeat process for another two layers (angel food cake, strawberry filling, cream filling).  Finish off by topping with the strawberry filling and sliced strawberries for garnish.

Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. 

I couldn't see making a trifle without fresh strawberries. So I capped and sliced about 3-4 cups of fresh strawberries and layered them on top of each strawberry filling layer. I was almost out of strawberries so my garnish isn't much, but I had intended to have a huge amount of strawberries on top. I think the fresh strawberries made the trifle.