Sew God's Grace

This recipe takes me back.  When I was growing up, it was a special day when Grandma would make chocolate waffles .  We would eat them with vanilla ice cream drizzled with this caramel sauce. Please note that this makes a very thin sauce.  If you want it thicker, double the cornstarch. Here's the recipe: 1/4 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup cold water 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Melt butter in heavy sauce pan.  Add brown sugar, then cornstarch and water mixture.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring often.  Remove from heat and add vanilla before serving.  Serve warm. I let mine cool a bit and then put it in a plastic container and stored in the refrigerator.  The butter will separate upon refrigerating.  Simply warm it up in the microwave before serving. Serve this over chocolate waffles and/or some homemade vanilla ice cream ! Looking for other ice cream toppings?  Check out this recipe for Super Simple Hot Fudge Sauce .

We were excited to be done with harvest and able to celebrate Maddie's tenth and Grant's second birthday on July sixth (Maddie's actual birthday!) I say this every year, but I can't believe how quickly time has flown and how much these two have grown!  With Maddie hitting double digits, I am starting to realize anew how important it is to enjoy every moment. Maddie is into horses, so I wanted to make her a horse-themed cake.  I really like cupcakes because they are easy to serve.  For instructions on how to make this cake, see this post. Grant loves Elmo (or "Mo-Mo," as he calls him), and I knew if would be easy to make Elmo cupcakes.  I simply used black decorator gel to make the mouths, then piped red stars on with a #16 Wilton tip to make the fur.  The nose is an orange pretzel M & M, and the eyes are candy eyes bought at Walmart . One note:  I made these ahead of time and froze them.  When they thawed, the black on the eyes bled a litt

My daughter Maddie just turned 10, and she really likes horses.  So, when I saw a picture of a cake like this on Pinterest, I knew that I wanted to make one for her birthday party.  I couldn't find any tutorials online for how much frosting to make, etc., so I thought I would post how I did it. It was a pretty easy cake.  Maddie and I baked the cupcakes and had it frosted in an afternoon! You will need: 26 cupcakes (see my recipe below or use your favorite!) 2 recipes  this chocolate frosting 1 recipe this buttercream frosting (you will have extra left over) Cake board (I use a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil) Wilton 1 M cupcake frosting tip Frosting bags (Use disposable--you will thank me later at clean up time!) Wilton size 3 tip or larger What to do: 1.  Bake your cupcakes.  I used this recipe from pinterest for modifying a white cake mix.  I used a Funfetti cake mix. To a white cake mix add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/3 cup water, 2 tablesp

Since my sister-in-law had a baby in December, she has cut out dairy from her diet because he seems to get fussy when she eats it.  This means--gasp!!--she can't have chocolate.  So, of course, I thought I should help her out by making her some homemade, dairy-free dark chocolate.  Homemade Dark Chocolate (Adapted from this recipe ) 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted 1/4 cup coconut butter, softened 1/2 cup cocoa Approximately 2 tablespoons honey 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Hefty shake cinnamon Melt your coconut oil over low heat in a small skillet while you assemble the rest of your ingredients.  Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl or pitcher.  I just eyeball the amount of honey.  Taste and add more honey if needed.  Don't freak out at the texture--it is much better when it sets up!  Pour into lined mini muffin cups or use a silicon tray.  I like this one from Amazon. Place in the refrigerator or freezer and allow to harden.  Pop out of the silicon

Since starting on a mostly-paleo diet almost two years ago, I must say that I sometimes miss the ease of popping a casserole in the oven.  This easy, one-dish meal has been a go-to recipe for me.  I make it at least twice a month!  I can have it ready and in the oven quite quickly.  Plus, it's healthy and delicious.  Here's the recipe. Super Easy Chicken and Broccoli Bake (Slightly adapted from this recipe ) 8 four ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces 1-2 heads broccoli 1/2 cup olive oil 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon oregano salt and pepper, to taste Place sweet potatoes in a microwave-safe bowl.  Add a small amount of water, cover, and cook on high for five to six minutes or until slightly tender.  Drain.  Place oil and spices in a large bowl and stir to combine.  Place chicken, sweet potatoes, and broccoli in bowl and stir well to coat.  Place chicken in large baking dish (mine is

Last year, the kids and I made this to give to their swim teacher after they completed their lessons.  Judging by the number of hits that post got, I thought others might be interested to see what we did for their swim teachers this year. Having just finished two weeks worth of lessons (three hours each morning since I had three in different levels!) we definitely felt like celebrating with some cupcakes.  Since we were finishing up on July 4th, we baked cupcakes in star-spangled cupcake liners.  (Local people, check out the cupcake liners at the General Store in Sharon Springs--I love them!) I put the cupcakes into clear plastic cups after frosting them with red frosting.  The kids were more than happy to help with 4th of July-themed sprinkles (The sprinkles were also from the General Store, just FYI.)  I wrapped the cups in cellophane because I was out of clear plastic treat bags.  I will be stocking up on those because the cellophane was much harder to work with than the ba