Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake {Summer Recipes}

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake Recipe

For the Cake:
3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
1 t. soda
2 T butter/margarine, softened
In large bowl, sift dry ingredients together. Add margarine, cut to fine crumbs.
In a separate bowl, mix together:
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 t. vanilla

Beat liquids together and add to dry ingredients. Spread 1/2 batter in greased 9 x 13″ pan or dish. Add filling then spoon remaining batter in small mounds atop filling.

For the Filling:

In saucepan combine 3 cups fresh or 1 – 13 oz. pkg. frozen unsweetened rhubarb (cut in 1/2 pieces, and 1 – 16 oz frozen sliced strawberries thawed, or 2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced.
On low heat, cook fruit covered about 5 min. Add 2 T lemon juice. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup cornstarch. Add to rhubarb mixture. Cook and stir 4 – 5 min. until thickened and bubbly. Cool before spreading on batter.

Spread cooled rhubarb filling over the bottom batter in pan.

For the Topping:

3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup margarine.
Combine sugar, flour; cut in margarine as before, to fine crumbs over batter in pan.
Sprinkle sugar crumbs topping over batter in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Cool slightly. Serve with scoop of vanilla ice cream and devour!

Rhubarb Chutney at Scratch: This is a British condiment that I love!  Used on meats and with cheese.  

Doggie Style {Crate/House training Basics}

I breed dogs.  The first thing that new puppy owners ask me is 'How do you do house training?'  There are different ways but the most successful and logically one I have found is crate training.

Here's how it is done.  A dog will not poop/pee where it sleeps.

1. Get a Crate/kennel that is the right size for your puppy/dog.  VERY IMPORTANT!  If you think that you will just be able to get one crate that will last them until adulthood you will find that the puppy will sleep in one end and poop in the other. Gross but true.

2. Get your puppy on a feeding schedule! NO MORE FREE FEEDING!  It is how ever that the puppy have access to fresh water whenever it is not in it's crate.  The reason for not free feeding is that a puppy will poop at certain times.  When it wakes up, after it has had a play session/or walk, and about 10-15 min after it eats.  So... if you are in control of when he/she has eaten...You get the picture...right?

3. If your puppy doesn't do anything outside, put him/her back in the crate and in 20 min take him/her out again. Repeat until successful.

4. IF YOUR PUPPY NEVER IS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE AN ACCIDENT IN THE HOUSE...THEY WILL NEVER KNOW THEY CAN!

5. If you have a specific place in your yard you want you dog to go on/in start at the beginning by taking the puppy there and not letting it do it's business anywhere else in your yard.  A hassle but at clean up time you will only have to go to one area to get the presents they have left for you. :)  We don't do this but people who have our puppies have had great success with it.

I used to eat chicken...then I met a Mutant Chicken

It's not unusual for Jake to Bookmark things that he thinks I would like to read.  This is how I found Antiquity Oaks Blog.  I browsed for about 2 hours!  I think I may have read most of their posts.  My kids were a bit pissed at me!
I came across a post on Cornish Cross Chickens early on in my browsage that definately kept me wanting more...it also evoked strong feelings.  Mostly of disgust.  You know that feeling when you just want to jump around waving your arms like a crazy person while chanting ew! ew! ew! ew!...Yep that was pretty much my reaction to my new found knowledge.   


I love how she has called the CC chicks 'mutant chicken'.  You know the old adage 'You are what you eat'... well these birds have many 'problems'. Well at least I think they are problems.  

"The mutant chicks are half naked because their feathers can't keep up with their body growth. They just sit and eat. They remind me of the stereotypical overweight American sitting in front of the television, mindlessly eating and drinking beer. One of them looks like his back end is going to explode. It's ascite, a common disease in these birds, which leads to heart failure. Basically, he has developed hypertension from all the eating. From what I've read, it sounds like he's going to die prematurely."

I just think that a bird that I eat should be healthy and happy when it dies!  I don't think that is so much to ask for...is it?!  I am going to get my own heritage breed chicken next spring and I can't wait!  How am I going to live without eating chicken until then!? (ew...shiver)
You have to go read this!  Although it may cause you to never eat chicken from the grocery store again!

My New House (If we win the lottery!)

 DH buys lottery tickets weekly.  This causes such a funny phenomenon that I would like to call ' spending-lottery-winnings-before-you-win' syndrome.  Jake has weird dreams and is constantly telling me what we are going to do/get when we win.  Well usually I don't indulge in such nonsense but today I think I am nesting or wanting a different new house.

I have been looking at house plans this morning and there is a tie between these two.

House 1

Main Floor

Upper Floor

Basement




OR 


House 2 (of course the den would become a craft room and the Workout room would become a dog room)

Main Floor

Basement


Just Dreamin'...until we win!

Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods:
Hot, blue skies, wisps of clouds around. Perfect day. ( 29C right now!)


Things that make me happy: 
sleeping in the shade with my Ez.


Book I'm reading:
haven't started a new one...too nice outside and too much to do!
What I'm enjoying on TV:
not much right now

On the menu for dinner:
Primavera Ravioli Casserole

On my To Do List:
Weekly Blessing Hour (Vacuum, mop, garbages, bathroom, quick tidy of house)
Soccer Practice for girls

New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:
Broccoli Slaw from Smitten Kitchen


In the craft basket:

little girl twirl skirts for summer.

Looking forward to this week:
Our 8 year anniversary!


Tips and Tricks:
If you put a cup of white vinegar in your laundry your darks won't run.

My favorite blog post this week: 
Blackberry Jam Cafe's post on a summer dinner party idea


Blog Hopping (a new discovered blog you would like to share with the readers):Big Red Kitchen and House of Smith's
No words needed (favorite photo or picture, yours or others you want to share):

Lesson learned the past few days:
That no matter how much I think that it's fine for me to leave things undone (dishes, laundry folding etc) It always makes me grumpy and sometimes comes back to bite me in the tooshie!


On my mind:
Money woes!  I would love to never have to think of money and bills ever again!


Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
"And upon the Handmaids in Those Day Will I Pour Out My Spirit" - Julie B Beck

Women of Wisdom -Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
 
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
 
I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn.
 
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
 
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
 
I want to be there with the children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
 
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
 
~Marjorie Pay Hinckley