Pinterest Inspiration: Garden Sheds

I love the idea of having an adorable little garden shed in the backyard - and we have one, too, in MMM's backyard...........BUT I wouldn't exactly call it adorable.  More like utilitarian.  But it has possibilities!  With a little spit and polish, it could be in the range of adorable.  Maybe.  Well, I hope so, anyway.  With that in mind, I put together this lovely Pinterest collection of garden sheds to inspire me - and perhaps you, too!

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This one makes me want to sing:  There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile.......!

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Isn't this one so buttoned up and prim, with its tidy little petticoat of cedar shingles?

This is more along the lines of a greenhouse, but with the help of the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, I think it's a possibility - maybe a lean-to, next to my garden shed?

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A gypsy wagon!  (Although, frankly, I've seen the previews of TLC's new gypsy show, and that just makes me shudder.)

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A happy little corner of all pink and green?  And that potting bench, all ready for some new pots of flowers?  I think this one really does meet the adorable descriptor!

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I'm not so sure this one is even a garden shed - it may be a tiny house, but I love all that creeping ivy.  But that's just for my imagination.  I doubt sincerely that we could grow such a luscious mass of green vinery in this dry and windy climate.  But it's purty, ain't it?

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Look how beautifully organized this one is.  I'm afraid mine may look cutsie-pie on the outside (someday), but the inside will still have to be utilitarian.  This much sweetness and light is beyond me.  But a girl can dream, can't she? 

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While I won't be cutting windows in (or will I??), this one is sure cute!  And that cupola?  Lo-o-o-ve.

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I'm singing again:  In a cottage, in the woods, little old man by the window stood. 

Maybe this got your creative juices flowing the way mine are?  

Love,

Sass

Sass's Sunday Salvation Show

Welcome back for another Sunday Salvation Show. Interest has been a bit down, so I am debating whether or not to keep on keepin' on.  I love the links - they're always so creative, and I get so much out of looking at  them all - plus, I hate to be a quitter..... What do you think?

I have spent the day putting the final touches on my sister's on-month-late birthday gift.  Tomorrow, I shall photograph it, and show it to you on Tuesday.  Bet you just can't wait.  And I can't hint about it, because if there's one person who tries to occasionally read my blog, it's my sister.  Well, and my mom, too.  And my daughter.   Isn't it lovely to have relatives?  

My wildly favorite link from last week was from MuseBootsi (What am unusually fun name for a blog!) and the re-do of her fabulous little kitchen.  Believe me, it was anything but fabulous before, but over time, it became quite the showplace.  Go on over there and have a look for yourself, if you don't believe me.  But beware - your socks could get knocked off!

So, for MuseBootsi, my 'Featured' Button:

<center><a href="http://sassafrassalvation.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m616/kathylovesred/sassfeat-BUTTON-animated.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>"/></center>  
Time for this week's Salvation Show.  First, a few rules:
 

Share something you've done recently.  Take a moment to look at and comment on someone else's link - we're all in this together!  Please consider becoming a follower of Sassafras Salvation and take a Sunday Salvation Show button to remind yourself and others to come back again and again!

Sass Writes: Teacher Disappointment

I am writing today's post in response to one of Mama Kat's writing prompts:  

But teachers know everything!! Write about a time a teacher disappointed you.

When I was about fifteen, I had a best friend by the name of, well,  we'll call her Carrie.  Unfortunately, Carrie had a fatal flaw - she was desperate to be popular.  No doubt, I wanted to be popular, too, but had no idea how to get there.  Frankly, neither did Carrie, but she wasn't above trying all kinds of deviousness, unbenownst to me.  (Later, of course, it was obvious - I only had to become a fabulous athlete.  Ha-ha.)

I was a pretty good student - particularly in language-based subjects, like History and English.  And, like all high schools, I suppose, there are a good number of folks willing to cheat their way through.  I had dabbled in cheating in eighth grade, paid the price dearly, and was cured of it forever.  But one girl, Darla, so full of self-doubt, despite that she was perfectly intelligent, continually cheated off me in English.  And the teacher seemed oblivious.  I tried everything I could, short of calling her out in the middle of class, but she would devise ways to peer over my shoulder and copy, copy, copy.  It was driving me nuts.

I was a country kid, so I was rarely in town, but one night I planned a sleep-over with Carrie.  She and I went for a walk and happened to walk past the teacher's house.  Generally, I liked this teacher a lot and felt like we had a good rapport.  So, Carrie and I went to the door.  She invited us in.  I explained the problem.  She agreed to keep a closer eye on the girl.  I knew Darla would be suspicious if the teacher moved her, so I begged her not to do that.

Of course, the next day - the first thing the teacher did was ask Darla to change desks.  No one else was moved.  I was crushed.  I knew Darla would know something was up.  And that day swiftly took another tack.  I got a note, telling me that a group of girls would be waiting for me after school.  I was shaken and had no idea what to do.

At the time, I was working during one of my study halls in the superintendent's office.  He had given me a letter to type, and I was so shook up, I made several mistakes.  He took me aside to discuss the letter, and I burst into tears.  He was such a kind man, and was taken aback by my overreaction to his gentle criticism.  I explained what was actually going on in my pitiful adolescent life, and he immediately brought Darla into the office.  It was wonderful, being able to talk this out and explain to Darla that I liked her, but felt she was up to the task without any help from me.  And, bless her heart, she actually took it well.  I think about this now - how hard it was for her to be called into the office and confronted with this, but she was great.  

Then, Darla explained her side of that day: that Carrie had told everyone what I'd done, by going to the teacher.  It was Carrie's gambit to get an 'in' with the popular girls.  She, apparently, decided that betraying me was worth it.  Needless to say, our friendship was over.  Sadly, it wasn't the last time she did something devious and self-serving.  Unfortunately, her life seemed marked by such acts.

And, surprisingly enough, Darla and I became good friends.  She was even in my wedding, many years ago.  

While this seems little about that teacher, Mama Kat's prompt did prompt this old memory.  I actually have great admiration for most of my teachers, both at the time and in retrospect.  After college, I joined their ranks.

Love,

Sass

Trying Out a Little Something New

I recently joined All Recipes as a supporting member - I guess what that means is that I paid $22 for two years for full access to all of the site's features.  I think it's worth it.  I love that I can, almost without fail, find a really yummy recipe - fully tested, rated, and with recommended modifications, anytime I want.  I can base my selection on a general preference search; I can ask for specific ingredients; I can request recipes without unwanted ingredients - say sugar or flour.  I have long loved this site.  I enjoy cooking - mostly I enjoy pleasing other folks with good cooking, so this was a good decision for me.  

So, here's what I think is the best feature I now have access to:  I can select specific recipes to line up a menu for a full week, and as I do, a shopping list is automatically created.  I can print that list, check what I already have on hand, decide if I absolutely have to have it (for instance, do I really need dried cranberries for that salad?), and then go shopping without any doubt that I'll then have the requisite items for the coming week as I prepare the meals on the menu.  I just love that.  What a great feature!

Please know that I have not been paid anything to endorse All Recipes.  I just wanted to share.

Have you  ever given this site a try?

Love,

Sass

A Trip to the Prairie Sisters' Market!

Warning - this is going to be a picture-heavy post.  

About a month ago, MMM gave me a delightful Saturday.  We drove over to Missoula, enjoying the first real Spring weather, and took in the Prairie Sisters Market.  It was amazing.  But a picture tells a thousand words, as they say, so come along with me!

Here was our first sight on coming into the first building.  I tell you, my heart was melting!

Now I want to electrify an old ironing board into an industrial lamp.  Isn't this great?

Some wonderful upcycler took this great old school chair and added the sweetest nest!

I loved that this booth had this gigantic flower in it!

This wonderful old door was transformed into a great hall tree.

Would this not be the perfect chair for a nursery, if you were expecting a little girl?  I could curl up here!

Road trip, anyone?

Makes me want to learn to weld!  How about you?

 

 I love signs.  Pretty sure that this one's a reproduction, but I loved it nonetheless.

There's just nothing that speaks vintage to my heart like the color red!

 

This would be just perfect for my camper!  This booth featured all kinds of fun iron-on transfers for dishtowels.

I loved this little spray of flowers tied to these worn pickets.

All these aprons on a clothesline!  Doesn't that make you want to tie one on and bake a batch of cookies?

I loved this gate.  The painted section really sets off the rusted bits.

There were interesting architectural salvage pieces everywhere you looked!

This large booth was decorated with this really fun brown kraft paper garland - isn't it neat?

I loved this shelf built into the radiator surround of an old Ford pickup!

This creative little sign said "Open" when the shutter was turned one way, and "Closed - Come Again" when it was turned the opposite direction.

One of the nicest treats of the day was the chance to meet Becky of Beyond the Picket Fence.  She had a space so full of lovelies, it was hard to believe!  She was very busy, but incredibly sweet, and took a moment for a picture with me.  I know it's a bit blurry, but she still looks so cute here!  I was tickled to meet her!  Here's one of the pretty things she had for sale that day:

Oh, my goodness - we had such a lovely day!  I think I'd like to have a booth at Prairie Sisters someday.  Every vendor I spoke to said what a good day they'd had.  The crowd was a happy one, and everyone had a treasure in hand.  

Love,

Sass

Sass's Sunday Salvation Show

Well, I realize that my rate of posting for the month of May has actually been pretty pitiful.  The month has been very busy, and I've actually been out-of-state for two of the weeks thus far, making it pretty hard to keep up with any kind of goal.  When I was in Reno, the hotel's business center was 'pay by the hour', and when I was in Denver, it just wasn't easy to figure out what to post about while I was a guest at someone else's home.  

To add to all of this, I normally blog at home, on a PC. I have no laptop to pack up and take with me anywhere - although the advent of Wi-Fi would certainly make that easy enough.  But without a laptop, it's pointless.  So, at least for this month, the blog took a backseat to other interests.  I thought, by this time, I'd be well into a few furniture projects, but the weather has been far less than cooperative.  Right now, for instance, it's raining down a slushy kind of rain - a really uncooperative kind of rain, so furniture projects are really not happening.  And I have a shop full of lovely possibilities just waiting for me!  Later this summer, I promise.

Two weeks ago was the last time I posted the Salvation Show, and my favorite from that show came from Vanessa at Home Sweet Butterfly.   There's a personal reason I picked that post - Vanessa hit on a product I wanted to know more about - Rust-Oleum's Frosted Glass spray paint.  I have a window I want to frost up - I will be combining some Silhouette stencils with this spray paint - hopefully to good effect.  Vanessa must be psychic, because she hit this nail on the head.  She has a sweet site, too - you should go over there, check her out, and give her some bloggy love from me.  Do that, will you?

So, for Vanessa, my 'Featured' Button:

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Time for this week's Salvation Show.  First, a few rules:
 

Share something you've done recently.  Take a moment to look at and comment on someone else's link - we're all in this together!  Please consider becoming a follower of Sassafras Salvation and take a Sunday Salvation Show button to remind yourself and others to come back again and again!

The "Ga" is Silent

Well, I guess I was mistaken. Too much fun to be had in Denver for me to remember to put up a Salvation Show! I arrived just fine on Saturday...a quick flight on Frontier. They apparently cut a deal to do bring their business into Great Falls, and, consequently, I got a great price on a ticket. Can't beat that! I had a very nice chatty and intelligent girl as a seatmate, and the flight was uneventful. My daughter and grandkids met me at the airport.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely on Sunday. It was my daughter's birthday, and she and I went to the Broadway roadshow of Wicked at the Buell Theatre! Both Loriane (pronounced Laurie Ann) and I are diehard musical theatre fans, and she had purchased the tickets several months ago when the theatre schedule at the Denver Performing Arts series was announced. At the time, I hadn't known that I would be coming to Denver, so she had planned to go with her husband, but Bren, sweetheart that he is, said that he'd be willing to give up his ticket AND stay home with the kids so that Loriane and I could go, saying that she and I would have more fun. And did we have fun!

The show was incredible! I have seen a lot of shows...Aida in Denver, Rent in Minneapolis, The Lion King in Spokane, Billy Elliot in Chicago, Avenue Q in Billings, Peter Pan in Lubbock, Grease, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Gypsy, and Cats in New York. A lot of shows for someone from Montana, believe me. Whenever I travel to a major city, I check that city's theatre activity to see if there's a show playing. In this way, I have seen many great productions. My daughter has caught the bug, and is busy making a theatre aficionado out of my granddaughter, as well.

We got all dolled up for a quick twenty-minute drive into downtown (she actually lives in a Denver suburb), then stopped a a restaurant outside the Buell for a drink and an appetizer. While we sat there, by the window, we played the game of "fashion police", critiquing outfits that folks on the sidewalk in front of the theatre had selected for the evening. Now, I'm not convinced that everyone we saw was going to Wicked, but I have always loved people watching, and, as fashion is an interest of mine, I am constantly surprised at what folks find acceptable for going out of the house! At least one woman was out in a fluorescent pink fishnet dress and ridiculously high and equally fluorescent heels. The worst of it was that she appeared to be accompanied by two grown daughters, and the three of them were a trifecta of bad taste! We saw as many beautiful outfits as awful ones, but there were plenty of women in need of written citations. My daughters both could tell you, I never hesitated to tell them "Go back upstairs and try again!"

Loriane outdid herself...our tickets were third row, center! It's interesting-you would think there's nothing but good at that distance...and it was certainly perfect for seeing the actors' facial expressions, or the intricacy of the costuming, but there's some difficulty in seeing the broader picture during dance numbers. The sets were magnificent; the casting amazing - particularly the lead roles of Elphaba and Galinda. What surprised and impressed us most was the hysterically funny broad physical comedy of the sweet-voiced actress playing the part of Galinda/Glinda. We laughed LOT!



If you haven't seen the show or read the book on which it is based (Wicked by Gregory Maguire), the "Cliff Notes" version is this: it's the other-side-of-the-story of the Wicked Witch of the West, from the Wizard of Oz. Here's a little clip of one of the funniest of the songs: Popular. (Note...these are not the actresses who appeared in the show we saw, but I am of the opinion that our Glinda, played by Alli Mauzey, was far better than Kristen Chenoweth in the same role.) Our Elphaba, Nicole Parker, was also very talented and highly effective in her role. Loriane, thanks so much for taking me to Wicked! I realize it was your birthday, but I got such a treat, too! It hardly seems fair. It was wonderful, and I had a blast!!

Now, all of you, go see what's coming to your town...what's on your cultural horizon? Will you be seeing a show this summer?

Love,

Sass

Off to Denver for a Week!

I am on VACATION!! Yippee!  Seems like forever since I was away from work for any length of time.  I put my out of office note on my work email, and changed my voice mail message.  That makes it official! 

I am going to Denver to visit my elder daughter and her family, which includes two of my grandchildren.  I'm sure I'll get there and they'll have grown a mile!  Seems like they're so far away, and the visits are fewer and farther between these days - everyone is so busy!

But I'll be checking in, and probably posting about all the fun we'll be having - but no Sneak Peek today (sorry!).  But hey! the Salvation Show will be here tomorrow, right on time. 

Love,

Sass

Sass Writes - A Gradeschool Memory

I am writing in response to one of Mama Kat's writing prompts - and actually, her prompt was to write about a fourth grade memory.  I have few distinct memories from fourth grade.  I remember my teacher's husband died in a car crash on a bridge east of town, and she moved away with her three kids, and I got a new teacher.  There.  That's it.  So, this memory is actually from fifth grade. 

 

By the time I reached fifth grade, my parents had been divorced about a year.  My dad was footloose and a philanderer, so he made pretty poor husband material.  He wasn't a great dad, either.  I think fifth grade was about the time that light began to dawn.  Of course, by that time, he'd lived two states away for two years, and at age 10, I hadn't seen him in all that time.

Remember when you were a kid, and the school halls were always noisy and bustling, full of kids, ringing with sound?  Except when you asked permission to use the bathroom and found yourself in the quiet hallway and the only sounds were the echoes from your footsteps as you meandered to the lavatory and back.  When I was in fifth grade, the principal, Mr. Knudson, came to get me from the classroom.  He said that someone was there to see me.  He took me into the empty hallway and began to lead me toward the cafeteria.  If there was a ghostlier place in the school in the middle of a late fall afternoon, I don't know where it would be.  The lights were off and all was shadow and light. For me, this is a black-and-white memory, literally.  All of the hard surfaces were gleaming and every sound seemed like an interruption in the insistent silence.  He led me toward a man sitting at one of the long folding tables.  "Your dad is here to see you," he said, smiling at me.  I looked at this stranger sitting at the table.  I was a compliant kid.  I didn't know this man, but I sat at the table, and watched Mr. Knudson walk away.  

The man began to speak to me.  My dad was a radio announcer and had a very distinctive voice.  I understand that I have that particular quality, as well - though, of course, no one recognizes it in themselves.  But this man had the right voice.  He just looked all wrong.  When my dad had left two years before, he had weighed between 240 and 250 pounds.  He was 5' 10", so that made for a significant bit of extra weight for him.  And, in my memory, he'd always looked like that.  This man might have tipped the scale at 160.  It finally registered with me that this was my dad.  But I couldn't tell you a thing we talked about.  What I remember is the faint sense of unreality that my dad's voice was issuing forth from this stranger.

After a bit, I was returned to my classroom, walking the empty hallway alone.  As I walked, it suddenly occurred to me.  My dad was dying.  He'd come to see me because he was dying.  That was the obvious explanation.  

Of course, he wasn't dying.  He died much later, when I was nearly forty.  But his pattern was much the same throughout the rest of my childhood and on into adulthood.  Between that visit, on the cold hard bench in my elementary school cafeteria, until the day of his death, I actually saw him fewer than ten times.

When he died, I felt no real grief.  Mostly anger.  Anger that he had thrown away his opportunity to know me, and worse, anger that he'd thrown away his opportunity to know his grandchildren.  

Today, I have forgiven him.  He was broken, and he loved me in his broken way.  He gave what he had to give, and I can forgive that. 

Love,

Sass

Sass's Sunday Salvation Show

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  It's been a busy day - First, I went to Sunday School and church this morning.  It was really nice.  Our Sunday School lesson was out of Philippians, and one of the questions was "How would it impact your life if you really lived in the fact that you are a citizen of heaven?"  Wow - what a question.  And I love that it's in the present-tense.  

This afternoon, we worked on MMMom's apartment, painting a bit of trim and hanging a fan/light fixture.  We keep moving forward.    One of these days, we'll be ready for the big move!  Fun!

My favorite link from last week was from Artsy VaVa, who's been busy upcycling olive and pickle jars into elegant things of beauty.  She shares her secrets, so that you can do the same with your waiting-to-be-beautiful jars.  Go on over there, and say hello from me.  She always has such lovely stuff!

So, for Artsy Vava, my 'Featured' Button:

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Time for this week's Salvation Show.  First, a few rules:
 

Share something you've done recently.  Take a moment to look at and comment on someone else's link - we're all in this together!  Please consider becoming a follower of Sassafras Salvation and take a Sunday Salvation Show button to remind yourself and others to come back again and again!

Sneak Peek Saturday - Table Settings

 

MMM and I are now under four months and counting!  Our wedding day is September 1, 2012, and the days are melting away.  There's still so much to do, and I hope I have enough time and energy to get it all done!

As you may (or may not) know - I have committed to doing the entire wedding in either thrifted items or homemade.  Today's Sneaky little Peek was an easy call.  Because the wedding will be small - likely under forty folks - I wanted to serve them on nice dishes.  But finding a set to serve forty almost had me reverting to the notion of paper goods.  That's OK, and many people make that choice, but I really didn't want to.  

Then, one day in the thrift store, I hit on it!  Luncheon plates!  You recall these from fancy church teas and the like?  I can't remember when I didn't like them.  And they're all (usually) made of simple clear glass.  I really don't give a whit whether they actually matchy-match, just so they more or less go, without undoing the rest of the wedding pretties.  So luncheon plates it had to be.  I am still in the middle of collecting them.  And I recently found out that my mom can fill in from her church's collection if I come up short.  Whew! 

I thought I'd share a couple of the pretty designs I've managed to collect.

 

Aren't they pretty?  It's a morning wedding, and we'll be serving breakfast afterwards.  I just think each table setting, with these lovely luncheon sets, will be simple, fresh, and elegant. 

Love,

Sass

Lessons from Mom

I am writing in response to one of Mama Kat's writing prompts:

My mom is a complex woman.  She grew up a good girl, in a conservative Baptist family.  Her folks were from the South, and relocated to Seattle shortly after my mother was born, in the early days of WWII.  Her childhood memories are only of Seattle.  Actually - had she been something other than a good girl - she was a teenager in Seattle at a time when she could have seen a young Jimi Hendrix playing downtown at the Spanish Fly.  But I digress - because she simply wouldn't have and didn't do that.  She was beautiful - with a killer figure.  Really.  She looked like Kate Winslet in Titanic, only more brunette.

Her mom was the quintessential homemaker.  Her home was always pretty and smelled of good cooking.  And she could sew.  In fact, she sewed costumes for showgirls, sitting late at night, hand-stitching sequins for extra money.  And she sewed clothes - pretty much all of them - for both her girls.  From Vogue patterns, no less.  And my mom's high school job was at a Seattle shoestore, so she was pretty much the most stylish thing around.

But here's what I learned from my mom - something she learned from her mom: Work hard.  Don't think you can't do it, particularly if you haven't even tried. 

My mom can knit, sew and quilt, crochet, run a computer, keep a beautifully clean house, write and present a sermon, shovel a driveway, do all kinds of needlework (tapestry, embroider, counted cross stitch, crewel), draw and paint, drive in a complicated city, cook,  ride a horse, fix a fence, make a child behave, do a mean breaststroke, run a ministry.  

She's planted rows and rows of trees to try to duplicate her Seattle home on the Montana plains.  She's given birth to four children, and grieved two miscarriages.  She made a loving home in her home for her mother, my grandma, after my grandpa passed away.  She looks out for her neighbors - at 72, she's about the youngest one of them these days.  When they were still ranching, she pulled many calves, assisting a straining cow to push her baby from the dark into the light of life.   Last year, she locked herself out of her house, and crawled in through an unlocked window.

I love my mom.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  I'm fortunate that our generations are fairly close.  I still had a grandmother well into my forties.  I hope my mom continues in good health for a good many years yet.  Not that she hasn't had a few struggles, but she keeps her chin up and keeps on going.


She's pretty amazing.  I'm pretty blessed.


Mother's Day is coming up.  No better time than now to say, "I love you, Mom."

Love,


Sass

Sass Can Cook - Creamy Coconut Poke Cake!

Today is my sister Deb's birthday.  She and I are just 14 months apart in age.  When I tell stories of my childhood, it inevitably includes a reference to her.  I say, "When we were five and six...", or "When we were in seventh and eighth grade...".  I was the little sister; Deb, the big.  I was the funny one.  She was athletic.  I was the homebody.  She was outdoorsy.  There were plenty of differences.  As children, we were very competitive - probably me more than her.  I often felt that I couldn't measure up to her.  We always shared a room.  She was compulsively neat - and my space was often messy.  But there were plenty of likenesses, as well.  We both loved to read.  In fact, she taught me to read by 'playing school' with her first grade materials.  I was reading by the time I finished kindergarten and she, first grade.  She was an awfully good teacher.  I could read at a fifth grade level by Christmas of my first grade year.  It isn't a stretch to describe our childhood relationship as 'best friends, worst enemies".  

In fact, when I decided to move to Helena, the town where she and her family were living, she dreaded my arrival.  She confessed that to me much later.  I suppose some of that early competitiveness and discord was to blame.  In addition, I had married someone that had spent a good deal of time driving a wedge between me and my family, and successfully so.  But he and I had divorced, so that was no longer an issue.  Deb and I surprised ourselves by erasing that 'worst enemies' label, and becoming best friends again.  Today, I absolutely know that I can count on the unconditional support of my sister.  She is my dearest and most trusted friend.  We talk regularly, get together as often as possible, and love each other fiercely. 

Deb and I have other siblings.  We have one younger sister, Darlene (who serendipitously came to us by virtue of the marriage of our mother and her father), and two brothers, Milo and Jack.  Jack and his wife Kelly, and their two little girls, happened to be coming to Helena just in time for a weekend birthday party.  Deb was making venison sloppy joes and coleslaw.  I made calico beans and a yummy coconut cake.  Normally, Deb eats a remarkably clean diet, but, once in a great while, can be tempted away by cake.  Really good cake, that is.  None of your yellow box mix with canned frosting.  I knew it had to be good.

Here's my trick for finding killer recipes.  I am a subscribing member at Allrecipes.com and I Just. Love. That. Site.  Unless I want something specific, I just enter the category in the search box; in this case - cake.  Just cake.  All Recipes will sort every cake recipe by the rating.  I didn't want to do chocolate - it's too obvious, and too heavy.  But in the top ten of all rated cake recipes, there appeared..........

Coconut Poke Cake 

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
• 1 (14 ounce) can cream of coconut
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (8 ounce) package flaked coconut

1. Prepare and bake white cake mix according to package directions. Remove cake from oven. While still hot, using a utility fork, poke holes all over the top of the cake.
2. (Here's where I put my own spin on this recipe:  Place the coconut in a nonstick frying pan and toast on medium high heat until the coconut turns golden brown.  However, if you prefer, you can skip this step, and use the flaked coconut straight from the package, as is.
3. Mix cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk together. Pour over the top of the still-hot cake. Let cake cool completely, then frost with the whipped topping and top with coconut. Keep cake refrigerated.

Photo by Tricia Jaeger

This cake was an immediate hit!  Beautifully creamy and luscious.  But easy as can be.  I recommend you give it a try.

And, by the way - Happy Birthday, Deb.  I love you.

Love,

Sass

Sass's Sunday Salvation Show

So, I was off in Reno from Wednesday through Saturday, for work.  Why I can't remember to pack my camera when I'm off on these trips, I can't for the life of me figure out!  Because it was essentially a casino hotel, the room was lovely, but there were few perks.  No free internet, for instance.  Instead, I think it was $3.50 for 30 minutes.  Instead, I decided that the blog would just have to sit quietly and wait until I got back home.  

Aside from the standard stuff about hotels and casinos and large servings of food and plenty of other silliness to be had, Reno had some very nice surprises.  I love cities constructed on a major river.  Most cities in Montana are that way:  Missoula has the Clark Fork, Bozeman - the Gallatin, Great Falls has the Missouri, and Billings - the Yellowstone.  In some ways, I think Helena could count the Missouri, but it's about 10-15 miles out of town, and dammed to create the Canyon Ferry Reservoir, so not quite.  

In any case, Reno has the Truckee River running right through town and the city planners in Reno have done their best to make the most of it. The banks along both sides are walkways and park lands.  There are fountains, sculptures, benches, and greenspaces.  The river itself has been re-engineered to create kayaking pools and class III whitewater features.  As you walk along, you can watch the kayakers cartwheel their kayaks, playing in the various features.  It's so innovative - the local sports community actually becomes part of the attraction.  They've installed tons of smooth-topped rocks along the river, and there is at least one concert amphitheatre, as well as play parks and picnic shelters.  It's really nice.

Source

So, anyway, that's what I've been doing.  What have you been up to?  Why don't you show me by linking up?  Time for the Salvation Show!

My favorite link from last week was this yummy broccoli slaw from Marissa at Rae Gun Ramblings.

I've seen similar recipes before, but I think the addition of Ramen noodles and slivered almonds just kick this one up a bit.  Give it a try, and while you're over there, give Marissa a little blog love!

So, for you, Marissa, my 'Featured' Button:

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Time for this week's Salvation Show.  First, a few rules:
 

Share something you've done recently.  Take a moment to look at and comment on someone else's link - we're all in this together!  Please consider becoming a follower of Sassafras Salvation and take a Sunday Salvation Show button to remind yourself and others to come back again and again!