Tres Leches Cake

Tres Leches Cake

15 servings

1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whole milk

2 cups (1 pint) whipping cream, divided

3 teaspoons powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan. Beat cake mix, water, oil, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 29 to 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking. Combine sweetened condensed milk, whole milk and 1 cup whipping cream. Carefully pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is absorbed into cake. Whip remaining whipping cream; mix in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread over cool cake. Store leftovers in refrigerator. Enjoy!

I've recently been trying to make a special dessert once a week for my family to enjoy after soccer practice. They usually eat double portions of dinner and are still hungry, so dessert works well on these nights. They all flipped over this tres leches cake! :-)

Linked to Gooseberry Patch Recipe Round Up

Ok! Let's get ready for Spring Cleaning at Heritage Schoolhouse! :-)

I'm a busy stay at home, homeschooling mom with lots of commitments, responsibilities, and wonderful activities as part of my life. I know you are busy, too, whether you also home school, or work full time, or have several children in public school, or are retired and busy with grandchildren, or maybe several of these things at the same time...a busy life is a fun life! But, it also means you realistically don't have a week or two at your disposal to completely spring clean your home top to bottom with no distractions. (If you do - you go girl! :-) Here at Heritage Schoolhouse we are going to spring clean a little bit each day, baby steps, one step at a time! :-) This is doable! I can do it! You can do it! :-)

If you would like to join in, each day we will be cleaning one item and organizing one item. Sometimes your cleaning and organizing item might be the same ~ for example the pantry that needs to be organized and the shelves wiped down. Or you might clean and organize separate items ~ launder all the curtains in one room and organize a drawer. Whatever you do, each day's work should take approximately one hour total and not much more.

Now, where is this extra hour miraculously going to come from?! ;-) You have to create this hour! And you can! The hour can come from getting up an hour earlier than your usual rising time. Or, if you're not a morning person, you can use the hour that you might usually be on the computer or maybe record your television programs, watch them over the weekend, and use that hour. The point is that we all rarely have hours at a time, but we can use a little time every day to reach our goals!

So, today, take a little time, go through your home and make two lists ~ one for things that need to be cleaned. For example ~ windows washed, curtains laundered, ceiling fans dusted, light fixtures cleaned (you can do all the ones in your entire home or just a particular room, depending on how many windows, curtains, etc. that you have.) Make another list of areas (small areas!) that need to be decluttered and/or organized. Examples ~ a specific drawer, a bookshelf, a cabinet. You can assign these items to a particular day or just leave your lists as is and tackle one item of your choice from each list each day.

Now we have a plan! So much of the success of getting things accomplished is in the planning part. Plan the work ~ work the plan! :-) We will only be working on weekdays, taking the weekends off for fun time (or catch up time if you need it!)

Who's in?? How many items do you have on each list? I don't have the technical savvy to have a Mister Linky ;-), but please feel welcome to share your progress in the comments each day or share a link to your blog in the comments, if you are blogging your progress. I will post a spring cleaning update each evening. Tomorrow, April 1st, will be Heritage Schoolhouse Spring Cleaning Day 1. What will you be working on tomorrow?! :-)

Working up a plan for Spring Cleaning ~

let's start April 1st! :-)

"He is the happiest, be he king or peasant,

who finds peace in his home."

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

illustration courtesy of www.allposters.com

"Spring" by Max Weber

Potato Ham Bake

Potato Ham Bake
12 servings

2 cans cream of chicken soup
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
1 bag (32 ounces) frozen cubed hash browns, thawed
for topping
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup breadcrumbs

In a large bowl combine first four ingredients; mix well. Stir in ham and potatoes. Spread in a greased 9x13" baking dish. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over casserole. Bake uncovered at 350° degrees for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.

This was quick, easy and good! It's great for a comforting supper, and it would be equally delicious for a holiday breakfast or brunch.

The recipe came from a friend of mine that has four little boys - so she knows what boys like. ;-) My guys loved it and my big guy (who was out of town over the weekend, and missing his home cooked meals) had three servings! A hit. :-)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Muffin Monday...

to bring you

~cinnamon bun scones~

My mother brought me this wonderful plate stand when she and my daddy came for a visit over the weekend. I love it! It looks so nice on the hutch, and it has just been begging to display some baked goods. ;-) This morning I thought I would give Kelli's cinnamon bun scones a try. They were delicious! You can find the recipe here! Thank you Kelli! :-)

Supper Menus
March 30th-April 4th

Monday
potato ham bake, lettuce and tomato salad, dinner rolls
Tuesday
mexican lasagna, guacamole, tortilla chips, tres leches cake
Wednesday
italian chicken breasts, creamy bow tie pasta, caesar salad, homemade bread
Thursday
bbq meatballs, creamy mashed potatoes, broccoli with cheese sauce, homemade bread
Friday
chicken and red potatoes, green peas, homemade bread
Saturday
french fried onion chicken breasts, caramelized green beans, baked potatoes

Pleases visit the Organizing Junkie at Menu Plan Monday to enjoy more menu plans.

And don't forget to stop back by throughout the week
for recipes posted each evening! :-)

Let's Spring Clean!

Come along with me next week...

and let's Spring Clean a little each day!

"Make a home; beautify and adorn it; cultivate all heavenly charms within it; sing sweet songs of love in it; bear your portion of toil, and pain, and sorrow in it; con daily lessons of strength and patience there; shine like a star on the face of the darkest night over it, and tenderly rear the children it shall give you in it. High on a pinnacle, above all earthly grandeur; all gaudy glitter, all fancied ambitions, set the home interest. Feed the mind in it; feed the soul in it; strengthen the love, and charity, and truth, and all holy and good things within it."

from The Royal Path of Life by Haines & Yaggy, 1879

as printed in

Treasury of Vintage Homekeeping Skills

~Collections of the Homekeeper~

written and compiled by Mrs. Martha Green, 2005

Sangria Punch

Sangria Punch

6 servings

maraschino cherries and juice

lemon slices

lime slices

orange slices

grape juice

ginger ale

Start by putting some maraschino cherries, juice,

lemon, lime and orange slices in a pitcher.

Fill pitcher with grape juice. This is your syrup,

let it chill in the fridge for a few hours.

To prepare punch,

pour equal amounts of syrup and ginger ale in each glass.

Serve over ice and enjoy.

We include this tasty drink often with Mexican food.

So fun! :-)

Linked to Gooseberry Patch Recipe Roundup.

“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come…”

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

illustration courtesy of www.allposters.com

"American Homestead Spring" by Currier and Ives

It's Hard Work Being This Beautiful ;-)

Going to the beauty shop really tires Miss Daisy out.

"I got another perfect report card Mommy ~
I think I'm the groomers favorite client!" :-)

Supper Menus
March 23rd-28th

Monday
angel hair pasta with marinara sauce, ceasar salad, rosemary bread
Tuesday
chicken with lemon sauce, new potatoes, fresh green beans, sliced tomatoes, dinner rolls
Wednesday
sub sandwiches, potato chips, pickles
Thursday
jalapeno chicken enchiladas, black beans, sangria punch
Friday
homemade pizza, tossed salad
Saturday
sloppy joes, baked beans, coleslaw, potato chips, veggies and dip

This time of year always makes me think of the narrator's voice at the very beginning of the movie "Charlotte's Web," when he talks about "a farm in springtime." :-)

illustration courtesy of www.allposters.com

"Spring Barn" by Michael Humphries

Happy First Day of Spring!

"I love spring anywhere,

but if I could choose

I would always greet it in a garden."

~Ruth Stout

A Tour of Nottoway Plantation

Our guide to the beautiful Nottoway Plantation

was the sweetest little elderly lady.

She spoke with a syrupy, southern accent as she told

the most fascinating stories of the mansion home.

We could have listened to her all day. :-)

"At the edge of the sugarcane field stands the majestic Nottoway. This historic and architectural jewel was completed in 1859 by a wealthy Virginia planter named John Hampden Randolph for his wife, Emily Jane, and their eleven children. Nottoway is the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the Southern United States and splendidly rests along Louisiana's Great River Road in White Castle, at the heart of Plantation Country."

Nottoway

A Walking Tour of Vermilionville

While in Louisiana I enjoyed a lovely morning tour of "Vermilionville".

Vermilionville is a living history museum, whose purpose is to preserve and interpret authentic elements of folk life and cultures of the Cajun and Creole heritage. The settlement of Vermilion is now know as Lafayette.

The park seeks to enlighten visitors about the history and culture of acadiana.

Beau Bassin house was built around 1840.

La Maison Mouton is a reconstruction of an 1810 house with a detached kitchen and forge.






La Maison Buller is a beautiful house built in 1803.

The Chapelle des Attakapas is a reproduction of a Catholic church.

La Maison Boucvalt was built in 1860.

The Amand Broussard House at Fausse Point, built in 1790, is the oldest and largest of the houses at Vermilionville.

L'Academie de Vermilionville is a reproduction of a typical 1890's schoolhouse.

A lovely nature trail of native plants runs alongside the houses.