Blog

A lot of the time in my house, things that are far more pressing than work, relaxation, and even, perish the thought, knitting, transpire.  Yesterday afternoon I had one of those experiences.

I found Ollie, who is four and about to start Kindergarten, in the kitchen, mixing up a large bag of cherries in a big bowl of water, and getting ready to add some flour and sugar.

It was clear we were going to be cooking.

I tried to buy him off with brownies, but he wouldn’t agree.  After intense negotiation, he assented to substitute peaches for cherries, but he was pretty set on his original plan.  I added a couple of extra ingredients, and we made a cake, along with Ellie who wandered into the kitchen and graciously helped out with licking the bowl after the cake was in the pan.

Although I was a little bit worried that this haphazard method of putting ingredients together would make a pretty nasty slush, we ended up with a delicious cake, sort of a fruity pound cake, that would also be delicious as cupcakes.  I thought I would share the recipe with y’all, since I can’t show you a picture of the finished cake — it disappeared too quickly.

                                                            

Ollie’s Peach Cake

Preheat oven to 350`/ Set two sticks of butter out on counter

Dice up two fresh, organic peaches.  Allow small child with you to eat a couple of bites.

In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder and a dash of salt (amuse small child by letting him level the measurements)

Cream butter in mixer.  Add 1 cup sugar.  Mix well, scrapping down sides of bowl as necessary.

Add in four eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla (or cardamon) extract.

Mash peach dice in a small bowl – pressing against the side of the bowl to extract a little juice.  Put half of peaches in butter/sugar mixture and mix.  Then, add half  of flour mixture to butter/sugar and mix.  Repeat again, using up all of the peaches and flour mixtures.  Mix well to incorporate.

Grease or use cooking spray in a loaf pan.  Pour batter in pan.  Bake for 70 minutes at 350` (or until done).

Let cake rest 10 minutes, while mixing up a glaze from 3T sugar and 3T peach (or other) juice. Remove cake from pan.  Poke gentle holes in cake with a spike and pour glaze over cake.  Cool.  Devour.

You would not be able to guess from this photograph

that this was a very serious occasion.  Those are Ollie’s feet, disappearing beneath a pew, as he and his friend Issac scampered through the church after his baptism.  I would like to be able to tell you that scampering only occurred after the service was over, but that would not be true.  Ollie and Issac pretty much whooped it up through out and enjoyed themselves immensely, making it a very satisfying baptism for all of the adults involved.

Baptism is probably a touchier subject in most mixed-marriages than it is in ours, but I love the church Ollie was baptized in.  It has a very solid, secure feeling to it — the sort of place that helps you understand the magic in religion and feel like miracles really do happen, all the time in our daily lives, if we just take the time to notice them.

The one miracle that did not occur for me was the event know in our family as "the blessed taking of a photograph in which all four children are at least looking into the camera if not smiling."  Although I shot at least 20 frames (since they were all bathed and wearing clean, vaguely respectable clothing at the same time — a rare occurrence in our household), this was about the best I managed.

It’s a miracle to have four beautiful children, including two who like knitting and three who lay claim to some sort of artistic territory.  I’m constantly grateful for their presence in my life and the reminders that not all important occasions are meant to be serious ones.

If you haven’t discovered LOL Cats yet, you probably don’t live with a teenager or you aren’t a 20-something.  But for some strange reason, the juxtaposition of cute photos and bad grammar is strangely appealing.

My own kids are very taken with the lol cat who says "I made you a cookie.  But I eated it."  And they do seem to be cropping up everywhere.

So, with all due apologies, this is my own sweet little LOL Cat Harry, Protector of THE STASH.