4th of July cake

We are heading over to our Niece's house for a 4th of July get together.  I wanted to try something new and here's to hoping it turns our ok.

Strawberry Shortcake Flag cake

The idea is this -- Take some premade cake, some strawberries and blueberries and cool whip..  and WHAM!!  A cake.
Here's what you need.

Cake - I used pound cake. You could use the Standard Strawberry shortcake cake.. or angel food.  I used Sara Lee as it was handy.  1 cake worked.

Cut the cake up

Then layer it in the pan. You may need to get creative to cover the bottom like I did

Then make sure you have enough strawberries to make your flag.  I laid them out to make sure I grabbed enough.

Take the rest and smush them.  I used a quart.  I added some sugar to sweeten them up a bit.  They are not local Berries so wanted to make sure they sweet.

Now, pour them over the cake and then spread the Cool Whip on top.

Lay out the Strawberries to make the Red stripes on the flag

Now, use the blueberries to make the field of blue.  

Pretty huh?  Happy Fourth everyone!  

UPDATE:  It was good.  Not too sweet, just the right amount of strawberry.  Kids even liked it.  Its a keeper.

Chicken soup and Croup

We were planning on taking a sick day for Erin - she's got that croupy cough going on again. She's had this a few times in the past and its not as bad as you think. The first time is horrific. Now, she just sounds like a seal.

So the sick day was replaced with a snow day. Its 6 degrees with a -15 windchill. Yesterday night is was -1 degrees with a windchill of -23 there abouts.

In our early morning talks (typical of a 4 year old who can't sleep), I ask her if she wanted Chicken soup today. Silly me. Of course she does. The pot is on the stove and I'm just waiting for the chicken to boil before I throw some veggies in.

I love home made chicken soup. Especially on days like today.

Best Compliment

Due to the fact is so freaking cold out, I opted to TRY and make home made chicken soup. I started it early today and it was done about 1 pm. If it was bad, I didn't feel bad for throwing it out.

Brave that I am, I tried it. IT WAS GOOD!! Not bad for a first try. So knowing my daughter, I didn't force it on her. She saw the chicken and the noodles. The next thing I know she's asking for a bowl of soup.

We sit down and take a break from work/play and have a late lunch. She ate it all and said "Mom, that was the best soup ever".

Thanks kid - you made it all worth it today.